Lounge L33ts Episode 12: The Crater

Northern Gun meets up at The Crater, the best bar in town! Well, the ONLY bar in town, thanks to the apocalypse. Ed, aka "Drenivian" joins us, as well talk about our experiences so far with Defiance from Trion Worlds. The conversation soon turns to other topics such as MMO budgets, insider trading, and games that remind us fondly of other games.

State of Blog 4/29/2013

     Hello all! I just wanted to let everyone know what was going on and the plans for the future of the blog.
     Some bad stuff went down this past winter for both my self and my friend, Randy, with whom I do the Lounge L33ts podcast. Around the end of January, my mom suffered a severe heart attack. She thought she only had the flu, even though my dad felt there was more to her symptoms. She wound up waiting three days to go to the Emergency Room (it's commonly recommended to seek aid within ninety minutes), thus more damage was done to her heart. She was in Bay Area Aurora for a few weeks, and had a triple bypass surgery that turned into a double bypass. Then she was transferred down to St. Luke's in Milwaukee and stayed there for another couple of weeks. Before all was done, her heart had gotten down to ten percent strength and there was talk of a possible transplant. However, with help from a pacemaker/defibrillator she has gotten stronger and is at home now. In fact, she has recovered so quickly that the doctors don't think she'll need a transplant anymore.
     During all this, I dropped everything thing and was planning on moving back home, but my friends and my aunt helped convince me otherwise. Madison is decent city with a lot of culture, and I have built up a support network of friends and co-workers. I have a life down here that I'm not quite so willing to give up. While I'm a little apprehensive when it comes to affording this life, I at least have steady income from a reliable job. I just need to budget better.
     And here we get to Randy's troubles. I won't go into too much detail, but Randy lost the roof over his head and has had to move in with my friend Bob and Bob's parents. He is trying to get on Social Security while at the same time working on his resume and, hopefully, job hunting.
     I have posted a brief video on the situation with the Lounge L33ts podcast here:

http://blip.tv/LoungeL33ts

We have the episode filmed, and I am currently editing it. In addition I have set up a Lounge L33ts email and Youtube account which will soon be seeing activity. I'm planning on uploading the latest episode, then going back and posting the first season episodes in between to help people get caught up. We're going to try something a little bit different: roleplaying sessions. It won't be every episode, but every now and then, we will hop on as our characters and give their point of view on what's happening within their world. There will still be regular episodes where we talk as our selves, but this will help provide a little variety.
     I'm still working on the final part for "The Way to Kumas." I was planning to have it finished quite sometime ago, but then my mom had her emergency. I want to have an ending that wraps up the situation for the characters but allows for further stories to develop off of it. My aunt has told me it's "like Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, except much better." I have yet to see the newer movie, but there does seem to be some similarities. I'm planning on being able to write my next short story within a month.
     And so that's what has been going on lately. Between my mom's heart attack, possibly moving back home, and helping Randy move, the blog has been a bit empty. It's time to get back to work.

Lounge L33ts Episode 1: The Grind (Pilot)

Well, here we go! The very first episode of Lounge L33ts. There was a bit of trouble with recording for this episode. Like I said in the inroduction, this was an episode of firsts. If FRAPS shows numbers in a magenta/pinkish-puple hue, it may not be recording properly. When we finished, I opened the file to find that only the last three minutes had been recorded. Then Matt let me know FRAPS should be loaded (although not necessarily recording) before the game is loaded. In order to get the backup footage to me through the dropbox folder (restricted to 2GB in the free version), Matt converted the file to an flv file. Unfortunately, Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD doesn't read flv's and I had to use Total Video Converter to convert the file into a wmv, a file type I knew the editing software would recognize. After editing, it was rendered into one of the "Internet HD" file types offered and sent through Total Video Converter to become an flv file again. At 1.9 GB, it was too big to post on Bliptv. So I went back into Sony Vegas and rendered the edit into an "Internet SD" file, which was small not to have to be converted in TVC. It was a bit of work, and hopefully the next episode will go more smoothly. Anyway, in this episode Matt Winchell, Ran-san, and I meet up in Anarchy Online's The Grind where we discuss  how we all got caught up in MMO's, the news on Game Director Fia "Lindelu" Tjernberg's departure, and the prospects on the future of the game:

Lounge L33ts Introduction

     So why am I doing this? Well, I've been sitting on the sidelines for a while, enjoying other people's webseries and podcasts, always with an itch to try something of my own. I have always wanted to do a Let's Play series, however I don't feel that I could bring anything new to this over saturated field. At least not just yet. Video games are my latest interest, but I wanted to do something I felt hadn't been overdone. I don't know of any webseries that focus exclusively on recording  podcasts/vlogs from within taverns and bars in MMO's. I'm sure they exist. I know some shows will do a live streaming broadcast of at least one episode from within an MMO or other web based game. But when compared to the glut of Let's Plays, Playthroughs, and Walkthroughs out there, it still feels like a novel idea. At least to me, anyway.
     When I have a question about a game, "Mad" Matt Winchell and Randy "Ran-san" McCullick are usually the people I go to along with Robert "bob" Laib and "Drenivian." So I naturally turned to Matt and Ran-san as guests for the first episode which took place in Anarchy Online's The Grind bar, Atlantean server. For now, the series will probably just focus on me and my friends sitting around in various bars and taverns in our favorite MMO's. I have no idea how people will react, though. So far, I'm assuming people with either like it, or think it's boring and move on to something else.
     There are quite a few bugs to work through still. The pilot episode was the first time I uploaded a video to Bliptv (I've only ever uploaded one video to Youtube before this). It was the first time I tried to record video game footage with FRAPS (it failed and I wound up having to rely on Matt's backup footage). It was also the first time I'd used Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD (or other video editing software) to edit a video, and the first time I used Total Video Converter (rather than TsunamiEnc, which I used in 2006 to make my own DVD's). Bliptv also wanted me to come up with promotional materials, which I was kind of expecting. However, screencaps of the episode, while they worked well for filler on the Facebook page, would not do for the actual show's webpage. Fortunately I came up with the basic idea of the beer and martini glasses lit up in neon under the "Lounge L33ts" title. We'll see how this goes.
     Monday (10/1/2012) Tuesday (10/2/2012), I plan on doing the show again with Ran-san and Matt, and maybe a couple other people. We'll be in City of Heroes, Pocket D, Virtue server to discuss last month's shocking reveal of that game's shut down at the end of November. You can tune in to new episodes on Bliptv:
http://blip.tv/romeomoon

I also have a Facebook group set up here: http://www.facebook.com/LoungeL33ts

"The lounge is open 24 hours with no age limit."

Fight for City of Heroes!

     If you had asked me which game, City of Heroes or Anarchy online, was most likely to shut down first, I would not have guessed City of Heroes. And yet here I am, writing about something I never figured I'd be writing about. I was on Skype when my friend “Namiru” messaged me: “GW2?” which was the status on my profile. I told him that I had picked up the game at the behest of one of my coworkers, despite also playing both The Secret World and World of Warcraft. I was interested in the fact that GW2 had an open world system in place, rather than the persistence based world from GW1. To which Nam responded: “I'm not TOUCHING anything NCSoft made after what they pulled today.” That's when I found out they were shutting down City of Heroes/Villains/Rogues in November. You can read the official notice here:

http://na.cityofheroes.com/en/news/news_archive/thank_you.php

      I was totally shocked, as were many other devoted players. I did notice a decrease in population between when I joined on May 19, 2008, and when the Dual Pistols power debuted (for those who pre-purchased the Going Rogue expansion) around March 2, 2010. After that, the population seemed to spike and fall again until Going Rogue finally hit. I noticed yet another spike ending in a plateau in November 2011, when the game went Free-to-Play/Freemium. At first, nearly all the servers were in the red, but by the time I came back to game they had returned to either green (low) or yellow (medium). Occasionally on the weekends, Freedom and Virtue would reach red or be grayed out as full. Still, after the conversion to the f2p model, the population on Virtue seemed to remain substantial and never dip as low as it was in mid-2009.

      Once the rage around the fact that I had just spent $143 for a 1 year sub, only to get about 7 months of game play out of it had subsided, the questions started surfacing. What was going to happen to all the proposed content? Hadn't the team at Paragon Studios just added the new Staff Fighting, Water Blast, and Plant Affinity power sets? Weren't they working on new content for Praetoria? Might there actually be a City of Heroes 2 planned that would make them do this? And most of all: “Why?”

      Most people I've talked to suggest that it's financial. I find that hard to believe, though. As stated before, several new and intriguing power sets had been introduced, along with new enhancements, inspirations, travel powers, emotes, and some very detailed costume sets. There was also the Blockbuster Summer event where the players participated either in gladiatorial combat in an arena, or in a casino heist. LOTRO has done a similar thing during their Yule Festival at the theater in Frostbluff. I saw many players partaking in these activities with cash shop products. Why keep developing an unsuccessful game for nearly a year instead of simply axing it and cutting losses?

      I think the most likely reason (cited by ChaosD1 on MMO Grinder:

http://mmogrinder.net/2012/09/02/r-i-p-city-of-heroes/#comments ) is to try to push players off of an old acquired IP on to Aion, a title more inline with the company's Korean “grindfest” themed MMO's.. Some people are suggesting in the comments of the above post, that Nexon may somehow be responsible. This theory is based on their buying up a significant amount of NCSoft's stock, effectively making them the biggest holder:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-08/nexon-buys-685-million-stake-in-ncsoft-becomes-biggest-holder.html

http://gamepolitics.com/2012/06/08/nexon-buys-nearly-15-percent-stake-ncsoft

      For NCSoft's financial earnings, check here. I've not been patient enough to really sift through this information:

http://global.ncsoft.com/global/ir/quarterly.aspx

     I was on the Massively website looking up articles on this closing, and came upon one that asked what the reader's favorite memories of the game were. One of mine was when I first started playing and was running around a park to the North of Kings Row. Spotting a purple named enemy below me, I made a quick escape. Then out of curiosity, and the fact that it wasn't following me, I returned to carefully observe what I'd stumbled upon: the Clockwork “Paladin.” Over the years, I would catch a glimpse of someone fighting this Giant Monster, or see alerts of it's impending assembly. Once I even saw a solo level 50 controller take it down with pets.

     Kings Row was one of my favorite areas, although even Galaxy City had some fun nooks and crannies before the rock slammed into it. Gemini Park was where I first encountered my dreaded enemy, the Vahzilok Eidolan. At least in the lower levels. Valor Bridge in Independence Port was another favorite hangout, especially when you Super Jumped off the top down into the bay. Another fun place was Croatoa, the monsters there having also been used in the Halloween Event. They would jump out of the door every time you got a “trick,” whereas a “treat” earned you temporary costumes, inspirations, special salvage, etc. I'll also miss the Ski Chalet and trying to earn the special badge from the ski jump ramp. It was fun slipping and sliding all over the place! And the lodge at the top was great for sitting around and chatting with friends.

      Then there are all the things I never got to do, such as get a character to level 50, explore the Incarnate abilities, do a Task Force or Trial, not to mention fully explore the new Dark Astoria or Praetoria. Hell, my Praetorian is only level 15. There were ideas for future characters and rerolls of current heroes and villains, too. I was also working on a few CoH themed projects for the blog here such as a “Grand Tour” themed series where I explore various parts of Paragon City that might fly under people's radar, probably linking to Paragon Wiki for people looking to collect the exploration badges. Hopefully I can get a few screen caps of the House of the Wayward Soul super group base. I was also working on several character profiles such as the Vellum one posted.

      It seems most of the Legendary super group and my friends are giving Champions Online another try. Namiru says it's a bit better than when he last tried it. I have only just fired it up on the new gaming desktop, and am out of the tutorial zone with a CO version of archer extraordinaire, Elsie Dracona. I'm also going forward with the “Grand Tour” series, only it'll probably focus on LOTRO now, with maybe whatever I can get of CoH before it shuts down. I'll be taking screen shots of all the CoH characters I can unlock and putting up profiles of them.

      A lot of people also seem to be holding out for a last minute save for CoH from someone willing to buy the rights to the IP, the characters, and the engine. There is also talk of a fan run server. Author Mercedes Lackey, apparently a long time player, has thrown her support behind the campaign to keep the game going and there has recently been a large protest staged by players across 30+ instances of the Virtue server. TonyV has organized a special message board found here:

http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php/board,134.0.html

      A writing campaign has been organized on the Titan Network forums. The etiquette guidelines and addresses for CEO Mr. Taek Jin Kim can be found here:

http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php/topic,4879.0.html

     The heroes of Paragon City have always been there me. It's high time I be there for them.

Geek.Kon 2012 Links of Interest!

     Well, the time has come to start pimping out the annual Geek.Kon convention! Geek.Kon is an anime, scieince fiction, fantasy, tabletop gaming, and video gaming convention based out of Madison, WI. This year we will be on September 7-9th at the Madison Marriott West. Also, this year's theme is "Geekdom is Magic!"

     To register for day passes, go here:
    Registration Form
     To sign up to run a tabletop game (must register for day passes first):
    Tabletop Game Registration
     To register to run a panel, go here (must register for day passes first):
    Panel Registration

     We've got a few great Guests lined up as well, plus a great event known as Kon.Quest! We can't forget the contests, either:

     Fanfiction Contest

      What better way to fly the flag of your favorite fandom, than by participating in our Fanfiction contest? (Also, how's THAT for alliteration?)

Fanart Contest

     But perhaps you're  more of the visually oriented person. If so, enter our Fanart Contest!

     Other Events soon to come are the Geek.Show talent show, the AMV Contest, Karaoke, Mixer, and, of course, Rocky Horror Picture Show! I hope to see you all at the con!

The Maw of the Beast

About a couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine asked if I would kitty sit for her. It seemed like a fairly easy task of feeding, cleaning, and playing with kitty until she returned from her trip to Germany. It's been going fairly well, except that kitty, named Miu Miu, likes to give love bites when he feels he's not getting enough attention. They would be nothing, really, except for the size of this cat. One moment I'm brushing, the next I'm wondering where my knee cap has gone. Oh, that's right...It's in the gaping maw of Catzilla here. It's not enough to draw blood (he usually grabs for sleeves or pant legs). He weighs about 25 pounds, maybe 22, and when he sits up the fat tumbles down his back to spill over the tops of his knees. I've been trying not to feed him too much, and have introduced him to the concept of a laser light...and exercise.  Here he is for your viewing pleasure:

Lying in wait..Like a fuzzy alligator.

The beast stalks its next prey.

"Feed me....."

"I could almost be mistaken for a foot stool."

"I hear your knee caps taste divine!"

Odyssey Con 12 Video by "Mad" Matt Reviews

    Hey everyone! "Mad" Matt Winchell has finished putting together a music video of footage taken at Oddcon this year:

Great Expectations: The News So Far...

     If you haven't seen it yet, the monthly update posted by Game Director Lindelu on Anarchy Online's forums was a big one:
http://forums.anarchy-online.com/showthread.php?t=598287

     I'll be sad to see the Org cities disappear from the landscape, as they were some of the most familiar landmarks to make for if you were under attack and needed a quick escape. While they were fairly uniform in structure, they still had to be set up by the org owner. This lent to a feeling of player ownership and the idea that players could control, in a limited way, the landscape around them. That being said, I am interested to see what the devs come up with to replace them. The fact that they are willing to make such drastic changes to the game, changes that every player will notice no matter what their level is, points to the fact that the devs very much want to improve this game and keep it going for years to come.
     A change I'm really looking forward to is the possibility of a new GUI. I've always had some problem or other with the current GUI, mostly accidentally dragging a portion so that it detaches and won't click back into place. I usually eventually get it to work, but not after spending a bit of time trying to remember what to do. Friending people is another area that could use improvement. Pretty much now you type in the tag: /cc addbuddy PLAYERNAME. It works, but then I'm spoiled by the City of Heroes option of right clicking on someone, or their name, and sending a request to either their specific toon, or their global name.
     The new GMS will be quite helpful to use on my paid account, which I re-upped for about a month. I like the idea that they are at least letting fr00b account players look at the what's for sale in the shops.
     Also, am I the only one who doesn't think a server merge is the death of a game? The devs have assured the players that they are looking to keep the game going and in order to do so, it would be better to move everything onto a newer machine.
     This is especially true when/if the new graphics engine hits. Speaking of which, a new teaser trailer was released for the graphics update (WARNING! This trailer involves strobing lights which may cause seizures or blackouts. Proceed with caution):
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/10/feature/6234/Anarchy-Online-Fia-Tjernberg-Interview-New-Engine-Video.html


     From what I could glean from the trailer, everything looks good. While I agree that the current graphics are very old looking, I still like the cyber punk feeling the overall art design presents. This is a game that thoroughly embraces ugliness as well as beauty, which I find refreshing.
     Lately, I've been playing some City of Heroes. I've mostly been working with Matt on getting the Midnighter missions out of the way for some of my characters. In fact, I've always wanted to post some of my character bios from that game. Hopefully something to make note of for the future.

MMO Grinder....is awesome!

     I'm a pretty busy person. When I'm not working 40+ hours a week at the local upscale grocery store, I'm doing artwork for Mad Matt Reviews, writing, reading, watching TV, and playing either single player games, or MMO's.
     I've been interested in MMO's since I started playing City of Heroes back in 2008. Strapped for cash, I began asking around for sites where I could find free-to-play MMO's. Someone on the Gaia Online forums pointed me toward onrpg.com. That's when my eyes were opened to the wide world of free-to-play MMO's. I had been on Gaia's zOMG beta, and it was okay, but this site offered real 3D games. Shooters, RPG's, Strategy, pretty much topped the list for me. Unfortunately, my ancient laptop couldn't play them. I had to settle for scrolling through the pages of games, watching video clips of game play and trailers, until my roommate moved and gave me her old Dell Dimension 4700 desktop.
     This was about that time that Bob and "Namiru" introduced me to Anarchy Online. By late 2009-2010, I had the second-hand desktop up and running and  a new netbook to chat over Skype with. Along with "Mad" Matt Winchell, I learned the ropes of AO from twinking in Backyard 5 to raiding in Temple of the Three Winds and Biomare. I joined The Independent Rubikans and now have about 8 toons spread out over a paid account and a fr00b account. I've even reupped my paid account for the month thanks to a game time card.
     I still visit onrpg.com, though, pining for what might have been. What if I had chosen the salad instead of the soup? Every time I visit, I see a new free-to-play MMO going into alpha or beta testing. I would love to try a few more games, but there just isn't time for them all!
     That's when I came upon MMO Grinder. Internet based review shows have become very popular in the past three years, or so. MMO Grinder seeks to inform people on many free-to-play MMO's such as Pangya, LUNA, and Lord of the Rings Online. Games are reviewed based on Graphics & Art Design, Music & Sound, Gameplay, Community, and Cash Shop. Other criteria are reasons to Play the game, reasons to Pay or use the cash shop, and why a player may want to Pass on a game. Each episode seems to be about half an hour long, and a lot of attention to detail is incorporated into the show. If you don't have time to actually play a lot of the free-to-play MMO's floating around out there, head on over to the show and see if ChaosD1 has reviewed one you're interested in.

Of Anarchy Online and The Future

        As many of you may already know Colin “Means” Cragg recently stepped down as Game Director for Anarchy Online and has passed the torch to Fia "Lindelu" Tjernberg. Sometime this month, Lindelu will make her first post updating players on the what to expect from here on out for the game.

        Some people seem to think this signals the end of Anarchy Online; that Means was leaving a sinking ship. Other more optimistic folks, such as myself, feel this could make for a breath of fresh air and will allow new ideas to germinate. I know I only post to this and others blogs once in a blue moon, but I found myself so excited by this news I had to write something up. My head has been swimming lately with the possibilities a new Game Director brings.

         Now that 's not to say I don't appreciate what Means has done. I started playing AO in 2009 and Means is pretty much the only GD I've known. According to his farewell post, he worked on the Alien Invasion and Legacy of the Xan expansions, as well as play testing the Crypt of Home static dungeon. For the past 8 years, he has tried his best to please the player base, while playing a dual role as Game Director and Producer.

         But there have been some less than spectacular content updates as well. One that comes to mind in particular is 10th Anniversary event, or what my friends call the “Failaversary” event. You and a host of other players were tasked with hunting down a mob called Desert Nomads which dropped certain “no drop” (nontradeable, nonsellable) items that were then to be given to a special NPC called the “The Tinker” at Stolts Trading Post in Newland Desert. Once that NPC had collected 5,000 of the items, a level 220 boss known as The Desert Rider would spawn. Killing him required a large number of level 200+ characters to gather and work together. However, once he was taken down, there was no crowd control to make sure by-standers couldn't loot the corpse. Thus, you had a crowd of 50-100 players of all levels sitting on the corpse, clicking it like mad and coming up empty handed. The loot included 6 Clio Yalms (a small speeder like ship; the Clio comically resembled a Prius) and 6 sets of quality level 300 Nomad armor which requires all of your base abilities to be 750+ in order to even equip it. In other words, this event seemed more geared toward high level players.

         I talked to my friends in The Independent Rubikans, one of the first Orgs (guilds/clans) founded in game. “Namiru,” who has been playing AO off and on for the past 10 years, had a problem with a lot of the new content being tagged for end game, rather than creating content to bring in new players. As a consequence, he and the others felt the game's population was falling, and they blamed Means and some of the other developers for it. I try my best to see things from both sides. I understand that the game can't run on good will alone and that Funcom relies on both in-game ad revenue and subscriptions to keep things running. And to keep people who've maxed out their toons subscribed, one of the few things I can think of is adding end game content along with bolstering the PvP experience.

         On the other hand as someone playing for free (“fr00b”) with a toon that has reached level 90, I feel like I'm running out of options for gameplay. There are daily missions, epic daily missions, and the regular mission terminals, and there are still bosses in the Biomare static dungeon to take out. However, when I and my mostly fr00b team first got to Biomare, Namiru turned to us and said that this was pretty much the end of the fun when it came to being a fr00b. I mentioned some of the other static dungeons such as Crypt of Home, Steppes of Madness, the Inner Sanctum, and Camelot. He shot down most of them stating that these where simply meat grinders and that you usually only went into them with the idea of obtaining certain No Drop items. He felt that Camelot in particular would be a better dungeon if the devs made it strictly PvE, instead of a mix of PvP and PvE. Not only do you have to fight the monsters there, but also the other teams camping the big boss at the end.

        Now I'm a casual player who's highest level toon is at 92. I've only just barely gotten Namiru and another fr00b friend, Matt Winchell (host of Mad Matt Reviews), to try running through Crypt of Home with me. I'm not a dev and I have no idea how much work goes into maintaining an MMO of this age, let alone refreshing the experience for those who feel they've done everything here. I guess, though if I were to improve the game, I'd try to:

1. Give fr00bs access to at least the buying portion of the auction house (this is was initially a suggestion made by Namiru).
2. Another idea that has been brought up to Means on the forums is to add a coherent story/quest line to the open world experience. If well written, this quest line could really enhance the sci-fi aspects of the game and further acquaint the player with the three factions we first met on n00b island.
3. The devs could even offer more unique items encouraging players to experiment with different builds. AO is a fully customizable game when it comes to the 14 classes available, the only limit being how many Improvement Points you're willing to invest in nontraditional skills for your class. Some players feel it is throwing away IP to make an Adventurer class run around with a shot gun, or a two handed sword, etc. instead of the typical pistols, but the fact that the game takes such customizability into account is unique and worth reenforcing. I admit, that last suggestion was based on the fact that I have a dual wielding one handed blunt Enforcer.
4. Or perhaps streamlining some items would be better. There are several types of equipable lighting items which could be combined into one. Perhaps more isn't better.
5. Yet another idea is cheaper, easier to access to vehicles. Even with the fast travel provided by the Wampa Network and the even faster Grid, you still will have to run quite a distance to get to mission doors. I was able to purchase a Yalm at 2 million credits only because I found a ring Namiru bought from me for $20 million credits. I also had to wait to be able to equip it once my navigation flight skill got up there. An idea would be to keep the jetpack available, if not for free, then perhaps as a quest reward or shop item.
6. Maybe someone could write a better guided? Or maybe fill out the AO wiki (I think there's a couple out there)? Then again there are quite a few guides already put out by such fine sites like AO Universe, really a site everyone should read when they first start out. I think that if I had taken the time to read it more thoroughly, I could have saved my friends a lot of time. There's so much info associated with this game that I'm surprised anything coherent exists.
7. Maybe adding more map variety to the missions might help boost interest in them and boost the variety of game play. In fact, varying the writing for the missions themselves would help. Every other mission seems to be find this person, kill that person, find this object, etc. with of the dialogue in the transmissions being cloned in the same 4 or 5 selected missions.
8. More variety in mobs might also boost interest. There certainly is a lot of unique looking creatures, but there's others such as some of the mutants in Biomare and the SoM that Namiru describes as “place holder monsters.”
9. How about more social garb? I loved the Halloween costume pieces for 2011. Also, something that allows you to try on clothing without having to buy it first would be much appreciated. Many times, I thought a pair of boots would fit my ensemble only to find they don't work at all with any of my toon's outfits.
10. How about improving and adding to the furniture in apartments? I like sitting on my couches rather than in them. More furniture of different varieties could be gained either through shops, crafting, or questing. Another idea would be to give each profession a way of taking basic furniture, and crafting it into something that matches that profession’s aesthetics.
11. I keep reading about a balance problem. Namiru is always telling me how he thinks Agents are over powered and Fixers (the computer hacker class) are neglected. Being a casual gamer, I've really only experienced a few classes, the Martial Artist and Enforcer being my main paid and fr00b classes.
12. Another topic people keep mentioning on the forums is the weak PvP. Now I don't usually do PvP except for dueling with friends, usually with a veteran player looking on to see if there is something awry with my character build. From what they are saying, the Battlestations where people can enter PvP instances according to their levels, are very empty thanks to the new daily PvP missions. I don't know much about it, but maybe there are ways to offer trophies for one on one, team, and even org PvP battles. I know Namiru gains Victory points for defeating foes in the Battlestations, but maybe unique or rare items could be handed out to the victors as well.
13. Okay, one last thing I can think of for now. I would love to see more books, soundtracks, and other merchandising for AO. In fact, I was a bit disappointed to see there was only one book written for the game's mythology. I have no idea how Shadowlands or the Alien Invasion could be written into a coherent storyline, though it would be interesting to see someone try it.

        To reiterate, these are just suggests, many or all of which may never even come to pass, or they do exist and I just haven't come across them yet. I understand the devs are not some magical little fairies that, with the wave of a wand, can change the game at will. And again, I have no game development experience, whatsoever. Consider this a wish list for AO, a recording of my hopes and dreams for the future of the game. If anything, the rumor mill is still churning out gossip pertaining to a possible Anarchy Online 2 (reported canceled a while back) in the works after The Secret World wraps up.

         The Secret World is another beast altogether, and I might write about it depth some other time, nce it's been released and once I have a computer that can handle it. From what I've heard, it doesn't implement a level or class system. Rather, the selected skills are grouped together into 7 active and 7 passive, many of which can be used across the board for either ranged, melee, or miscellaneous. It's kind of similar to AO, in that varying amounts of IP can be invested into any skills you wish on your toon. However with Secret World, you might not be gimped so much in return for your creative character building.

         So there's the news, and then some if you haven't checked out AO in a while. It's showing it's age graphics wise, but gameplay is quite fun. That is, when you have the people to buff/twink you into your armor, weapons, and cybernetic implants. But I might get into more about the actual gameplay and socializing in another post sometime. For now, I'll wait with baited breath for Lindelu to post her update, and go forward into 2012 with high hopes for Anarchy Online.

MMO's All Around!

I've gotten into playing Anarchy Online again along with Hellsgate: Global. I've downloaded and installed Age of Conan, but I haven't gotten around to creating a character. All this is in preparation for my MMO Worlds panel for Geek.Kon. I plan on discussing, well. a lot of stuff. We'll introduce the panelists and the games they have played, a short history of MMO's, and probably some quick discussions on games that have been popular like World of Warcraft (once I find a person who still plays it regularly), City of Heroes, Perfect World, Lord of the Rings Online, etc.

Speaking of LOTRO, I've been rereading Lord of the Rings and logged on for the first time in about a month to check out the Shire and follow the path that Frodo is taking. I never realized how large the Shire was! I ran all the way up Evendim, which is level 30 minimum. I was a little disappointed that I couldn't enter Brandy Hall, but that is made up for by being able to wander around inside Great Smials. That's what I like in the game. With CoH, I'm stuck wondering what is inside the skyscrapers that tower over Paragon City, unable to randomly explore most of them except Police Stations, City Hall, Vanguard Headquarters, etc. In LOTRO there are far more landmark buildings that you can actually enter, many of which contain several quest NPC's. Pretty any major building from a the Prancing Pony, to the Foresaken Inn, and even a Cat-Lady house in Bree have multiple rooms to explore with dinning setups and random NPC's sitting around chatting. I need to play the game more.