Woot!

This.

It doesn’t make up for their ninja-edit of their original postabout the original deal, trying to show that they did mention the quantity from the get-go. That is just hands-down, flat-out, inexcusable practices. I have no trust in a company to ever do the ethical thing toward it’s player base, if this is the type of practices it follows. I’m still going to get the 6 month sub, and still play the game, but in no way am I going to speak well of the company itself until it has proven to have earned that trust.

Scotchy, scotch, scotch

Syncaine made a very tongue-in-cheek post the other day on posting habits, and the quick way to internet blogger fame. I’m pretty sure it was directed at one particular blogger, but I have no hard evidence to say for sure. But my sentiment towards this blog is probably similar to Syncaine’s. I have the blog on my roll, but mostly for the lolz. Anyway, the main point that Syn seemed to be making was more that, we as bloggers, do this for a hobby. We enjoy what we do, but it’s still good to get feedback, and communication. Most of us that do this, want to be a part of the community. It’s the internet, so obviously it’s nothing super personal, but it’s still great to have a group of people with similar interests to chew the cud with.

However, what our readers sometimes decide to comment on baffles Syn, myself, and others it seems. When looking at our various posts, why does one entry get a lot of views, and another get so few? Why are people more apt to comment on a 250 word paragraph than they are on a 1,000 word essay? Is it the degradation of our societies attention spans and reading skills that ends with the internets TL:DR phenomenon? I can’t believe that is it. Chances are, if you’re visiting a blog, you are seeking information and discussion as well, and I can’t believe that audience is skipping by on the posts that might interest them.

So, are the posts that  are heavy on the theorizing and analyzing of the genre just boring? I can see that being possible. Most people like hearing about new shinies, which is probably why I had a lot of views when talking about the Champions Beta. People also like advanced information, hence my highest viewed post being the leak I did a few weeks back on WARs 1.3.1. They also like raging. I’ve done that a few times myself. If you look at Syn’s page, you would presume that people also enjoy scathing analysis of some of the genres many flaws, particularly areas where WoW went, terribly, terribly wrong (not that he exclusively discusses that, but it does come up frequently).

Anyway, I’m getting a tad rambly. I was just thinking about what actually drives the audience to view different posts, and then to go a step further and actual talk about it. From the get-go, I said I wanted this page to be a place for anyone who wants to talk about gaming to kick up their shoes, poor a glass of Glenfidich, and talk about our hobby. I’m happy to have developed a nice little community of readers, and people seem, so-far, to feel like they can comment. So, to those of you here, thank you. Without you guys, I doubt I would still be doing this. Despite what you may think, doing this becomes much harder when there’s no one to share it with.

Two Cool and one Crappy

Champions Online website integrates your in-game friend’s list and in-game mail so you can see which of your friends are playing, and reading any mail you might have.

One major steaming pile of dog-scrap though: special subscription offers have “run out”. This was posted last night. The first that anyone had heard of a limited quantity to these things. Now we see this. Someone please explain how “Until September 1st” turns into, “Time runs out when we run out of a virtual item that isn’t really manufactured.”

I understand WHY they limited the quantity of these subscription packages, however, since they didn’t make that fact clear ahead of time, it really ticks me off (and a lot of others looking at the forums). It’s not illegal per-se, but it is incredibly misleading and ethically dubious. It makes me sad, because I had high hopes for the this companies integrity. It really does seem more and more like the only MMO company who is really trying to be decent, and cares about it’s players is Mythic. Despite what you may think of that game, as a company, Mythic has done the best job I have ever seen of keeping clear, open, and honest lines of communication going with their subscribers.

Bah, I hate being let down. I’ll still be playing the game, but this has tainted my view of the whole quite a bit.

Real Ultimate Power

No, not what you’re thinking (old internet memes ftw).

Last night was the last night of the open beta for Champions Online, and they decided to give us all a taste of what capped level characters felt like, and the taste was powerful. To get this supreme power, they placed an NPC that auto-leveled you up once you talked to them in Millennium City. Of course, all this new-found power couldn’t go to waste, so they let us cut our teeth on some powerful villains.

Destroids had invaded the city. Every where you looked, 4 story tall robots that reminded me of sentinels constructed by a drunk Master Mold, roamed the streets. Cosmic was their challenge ratings, and everyone threw all they had against them. A good twenty people in one small area using every beautiful power they had, all at the same time, and I finally felt a bit of lag. Well, more than a little bit, it was a bit rough, but I kind of expected that. The powers in this game are graphically intense. Shell casings and tracer rounds show up, visual distortions in the air, like heat waves, when some TK powers are used, and a host of other tiny details really eat up system resources. It’s kind of nice to realize my computer handled it well, but it was the server that seemed to be lagging more than anything else from so many people doing so many things in one spot, at once.

It was pretty fun, and I’m definitely going to be buying the 6 month subscription, and look forward to getting to play the game once the world is birthed.

Moron Champion

It’s amazing how many different variations the character creator in this game has. More amazing are the results that this beast of an interface can spew out behind capable, and not so capable hands. I’ve seen amazing outfits that range from sinewy demons, incredibly armored mecha (anime style), Anubis, and a fully realized Alien (of movie fame). Every time I think I have a good costume for a character, I see someone who has done a costume with a better concept, more original useage of items, and just a stronger design on the whole.

Quick Video

I wanted to show a quick video of some gameplay of Champions Online. The first minute or so shows me fighting some grondlings in the desert. I just wanted to show how smooth the gameplay is for the most part. It’s a bit laggy in there, but that’s only because I was frapsing it at the same time. Otherwise, you can see how fights move quickly and the animations smoothly flow from one to the other. The last two and a half minutes are just me flying around the city, I wanted to give you an idea of how big some of the zones are. It’s pretty impressive.

Initial Review

I recently made a response on one of Keen’sposts, that made me realize that I think I can speak with enough specifics and authority on the subject matter, that a “first impressions” review of Champions Online would be merited, and not just me gushing with new shiny, fanboi love. I think I’ve experienced enough different aspects of the game, and been exposed to a good amount of systems for me to be able to see how the game is going to preform as I make my way through it. For those that want just the bare-bones opinion, or a TLDR version if you will: I like the game, there is a whole lot going for it, but I still don’t think it will be a giant success. 

Some Sceenshots

Wanted to give you guys some looks at the actual in-game appearances of stuff, so sit back, and enjoy.

Enjoy them.

Non-sequitor

Going to slap you in the face with a whole lot of random gaming news that I have heard here and there, but don’t really feel like talking overly about. Tonight or Tomorrow I will be throwing up pictures and (hopefully) a video of gameplay from CO. Just thinking about that makes me giddy, the game is a lot of fun.

• It’s official: Sith Warriors (Rivs, go change your pants)
• EvE developer CCP announces an FPS
• Everquest 3 is in the works? No, really.
• The pro’s think the Guild Wars 2 reveal is coming from all the chatter out there.
• Fallen Earth (which is barely even a blip on my radar despite my love of post-apocalypse genre), lifted it’s NDA  AND started it’s open beta on the 17th (gee, why did I miss that I wonder)
• PS3 is sliming down. Figures, just months after I buy mine. Bastards.
• Fable 3? Yes please.
• DDO:Eberron Unlimited release got pushed backto September 9th.

1.3.1 Arrives

In case you’ve completely started ignoring WAR, or thought I was going to be only talking about Champions, SURPRISE. I’ve got a blurb.

1.3.1 has gone live today. They’ve had a few problemsit seems, but appear to be working diligently to keep the impact minimum, and the game going strong. Of course, now I have a dilemma when I get home, which new shiny do I play after work? New shiny RvR, or new-shiny Super Hero game.

The capes are going to win, but it still made me pause.