Sunday, May 30, 2010

Back to my MMO roots

So, it seems that the majority of the good gear in Warhammer comes from RVR and Influence, and require renown to equip. What does this mean? To me it means this... While leveling up to 40 (the max level) if you want to use the better gear from medallions or more so from Influence rewards then expect to spend virtually all of your time in open RvR. Open RvR is fun but after20 or 30 levels it starts to get tedious. It doesn't make sense to do PvE public quests to break up the monotony because your normal experience will become higher than your renown and you will have to wait longer to wear your gear. As far as I know Scenarios don't give area specific influence but I'm not quite sure on that. I didn't get a chance to try the new city sieges but that's end game and frankly, since I like to play alts as well as my main, the end game is not my focus. So... it was fun for a while but I need more variety to keep me interested.
The first 3D MMORPG I ever played was Everquest which I played for 4 years. I became frustrated with bugs at that time plus the constant expansions and decided to leave. In recent years they have slowed down the frequency at which expansions were released. I decided to go back just last week to see if I could get back into it and to see if there were any improvements. I haven't experienced any bugs and some of the new improvements in the game are quite appealing. Mercenaries allow you to have a tank or healer when they are otherwise scarce which is quite nice.
One thing I remember from my previous EQ days was constantly learning new things even at higher levels. In my opinion Everquest is one of the most complex and more difficult to play games of all the games I have played. It's possible that the simpler game play of games like WoW or even EQ 2 is the reason for my losing interest in those games plus all the others I've tried. I also believe that for the same reason other MMO's have much younger players. The core of players on EQ seem to be adults, at least in my guild, which my main surprisingly was still a member of. Speaking of which a lot of my friends were still there too, and what a reception I got, they made me feel right at home as soon as I returned, just like family. I'm hoping that my first MMORPG will also be my last. I will still try new games, everyone needs a change once in a while regardless of how good it is. For anyone interested in trying EQ, if you have a need for excellent graphics you might be disappointed but if if you want a game that's a little more challenging to learn and master then EQ may be for you. Note: I am referring to the original Everquest and not Everquest 2.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Is Warhammer the only fantasy MMORPG that is different ?

I started gaming decades ago with Intellivision games, then when I finally got a computer I started playing Tomb Raider. In the early 2000's I had heard about Everquest and decided to try it. It was one of very few MMORPG games with 3D graphics that existed at that time, one of the first, if not the first. I played EQ for 4 years and met my girlfriend on there. The problem with EQ however was this... quests gave no XP, named mobs were always camped and KSers were not uncommon. Tradeskilling was also frustrating in EQ, but considering EQ was a pioneer in gaming, all that was understandable. My girlfriend introduced me to World of Warcraft and we played that for a couple of years but that became tedious and annoying as well. Needing to raid in order to get geared and needing to have gear in order to raid. Think about that... conflicting opinions is what WoW is all about. The attitudes of WoW players is in many cases pathetic. It looks like Blizzard is targeting young kids to play WoW and in my opinion they can have it. It was enjoyable for a while but not any more. It was better designed than EQ but at least they had EQ as a role model to follow. After WoW came EQ2 which was pretty good but pretty much the same game play as any other of the MMORPGs. This is when I started to realize it, that most of the fantasy MMORPGs out there now are just copies of each other with a few minor differences... Boring!!! Oh, I forgot to mention Warhammer, which I played for a couple months before EQ2. Now, that was different, public quests and RvR, PvP that's actually enjoyable even for those who generally don't like PvP. Gear is not an issue here, people don't check your gear before accepting you in a raid, in fact they have open parties and warbands that you just join, you don't have to look for them. Unfortunately back then I had too much lag for me to handle and I left. Now I'm glad I returned, the lag is not nearly as bad as it was and it is truly, in my opinion, the only fantasy MMORPG out there that is different and actually fun to play, with no one criticizing your gear and very little tension otherwise. Until something truly different comes along, it looks like I'll be playing Warhammer for a while.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Inheritance Series, Book 4 teaser

Included in the paperback release of Brisingr is chapter 4 of the 4th upcoming book of the series. For more information and questions raised from this chapter take a look HERE

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Warhammer revisited

Well, I'm still looking for something different without any luck so far, so... I decided to go back to Warhammer for a second look. I played Warhammer for a little while about a year ago or so, but when I played then the lag at some points was very irritating, so I stopped playing. It seems, however that they have made much progress in improving this issue. In Warhammer the RvR and Public quests in my opinion make this game unique when compared to other MMO's that I've seen. Yes I know it's not a new game, but it's still different. Many games have PvP but this game's Realm vs. Realm has a different feel to it without any 'Twink' factor, or minimal at least. Lots of fun.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Tales of Fantasy

This game may be worth looking at, apparently it is still in Beta testing but I was able to register and download it without a key. It is downloading as I'm typing this. For more info click HERE