Do you trust your game developers? Do you feel that the game they are pitching to you is as good as they say? With a games goes from concept to alpha then beta and if we are lucky enough to release are you satisfied with the game that they made for you?

I am an MMO player. I started with World of Warcraft since the original level 60 cap. I followed Star Wars since the idea and the concept art shown at a convention. With anticipation I saw the rise and fall of 38 Studios. Then I found some games that are great in their form that do not get a lot of attention. I recently found DC Universe Online and that game is amazing. I literally bought into the hype of The Secret Word and since launch I haven’t even played one minute of the game. The Beta killed it for me. Then I found Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO) by accident. It is made by Turbine and I think this games concept is amazing and fun to play but it is slightly outdated and because it is Turbine Lord of the Rings Online is because of this game. Give me a hobbit and DDO and we have two games that are ok.

This is just the surface of MMO’s I know that. But when you get all hyped up and the game you are sitting in front of dose not play to the buildup do you feel cheated in anyway. I think the future of MMO’s is free to play. That model is working very well. Starwars is moving there and that leads me to ask “Why was it not free to play since launch?” I felt very taken with Starwars. I did not play beta much. I wanted the game to be fresh but at level 28 I felt the nails of the grind. I know that is a concept of an MMO but why can developers nail it and other fall so short? Blizzard for the most part has changed the game style of their game and the current expansion Cataclysm (until the 25th) changed everything that was of the grind play style. The WOW player base is huge and with that I feel Blizzard can gauge their game and develop in a way that no one else can. This is all a guess but if the entire MMO player base is 15 million and Blizzard has 10 of those that leaves a 5 million player base to be divided up. I do not feel that games can have proper feedback unless you make every game a spin off WOW. My numbers might be off but it makes since. So when you have developers pitching and pitching ideas to the same player base how do you not get numb as a player? How do you believe and share that vision that this MMO will blow your mind and be everything you want an MMO to be.

These are my thoughts, what do you think? I think MMO’s might be going out of style fast unless they bring a new concept to the table. Can they?

The thought of a new MMO to any MMO player takes a lot of work. You vest time into a game and starting over can be tough. Since the original World of Warcraft game I have been investing my time. I have killed limitless mobs and bosses. I have laid siege to The Undercity and helped Thrall prevent a Cataclysm to end all. This game has been a part of me as much as I have been a part of it. Ask someone why they play and MMO and you will get a verity of answers. With that said the new prospects of any new MMO you do your research. One that caught my interest is the new MMO by Bioware and Lucas Arts, Start Wars: The Old Republic.

For years I had read about its development. I watched the screen shots, videos, interviews and playable demos at the Con’s. I was impressed and with great excitement read almost every review. Was this going to be a game that replaced WoW for me? I wasn’t sure but from what I saw this game had everything and more.

The build up to launch in 2011 was massive. I was looking forward to each Con with great eagerness to see the new aspects of the game that no one had see. There was an NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement) with the beta but I trolled YouTube often to see if someone was brave enough to post anything new. I was ready. I purchased the Digital Collectors Edition. The in game items I have used in the past with other MMOs were fun to have. Not everyone had them and they were just plain cool to any geek. With this purchase was the registration for Beta Access. I checked my email every time I heard beta invite emails were sent.

A few month before launch Bioware setup Beta weekends, dropped the NDA and for those who PreOrdered everyone was invited. 5:AM the morning of the first round of beta weekend invites I was up and ready to go. Then it happened. I was in. I knew I was going to play a Trooper for the Republic so I played a Bounty Hunter to not ruin what I wanted to play. The game was not perfect and some things were broken but it played like any other MMO I had tried before. I was sold. This was great. By the time the weekend was over I had a level 18 Bounty Hunter that I wanted to keep playing. I could not wait until the next Beta Weekend. The next weekend came and went so did the 3rd and 4th. I cut off my play time so I did not ruin the experience when the game launched.

Yes I did the unthinkable to most people. For launch I took three days off work. Why you ask. Well unless you play games I do not think I can explain it to you. The game launched and I was off to the races. Part of the PRE-Launch Bioware offered was to build your guild with people you know. Attach yourself to that guild and on release you will be on a server with all of your friends. We all were in and we all were republic. I started my trooper and was having a blast. I was questing in and out of hubs. Running flash points with guild mates, we were having a great time. Then the servers began to fill. People could not login at the same time. Server lag was terrible. The Launch was upon us and it was hard to enjoy the game.

So I was playing when I could. I logged when the servers we online and put my time in. One thing Bioware does well is RPG games and it started to feel that way. After awhile and into several planets I started to feel the grindy-ness of the game. I was not having fun. The passive talents were not working for me. I wanted to feel a reason to level. Not a 1% increase to a stat. I leveled the Trooper to level 30. Then one day more of my WoW buddies showed up. These people I have played with for a long time. However they wanted to play Empire. Not something I did not want to do but I had already invested my time into this Trooper. Yes I decided. It was getting grindy so I changed factions and servers with hopes to get out of the grind.

We choose a lower population server to avoid ques. I created the guild and invited everyone and we were going for it. The newness of the MMO was recaptured for me. The main reason for any MMO is to play with friends. Around the mid 20’s the World Boss on Droman Kass was up and we got the guild and took him down a level. This was a great accomplishment for us. We were proud of ourselves. However over the next month people started to loose interest. Dragon Soul in WoW, the final chapter to the expansion was out. They were making progress and it was hard to justify the time spent in SWTOR for most of them.

I was on Hoth and I hit level 40 on my Bounty Hunter. Two other people in the guild hit 50 and I was just not feeling it. “Oh Help Us”, “Only You” “You are the Best”, “We Cant Do It” were the constant drolling themes to the planet quests. Each quest hub was the same. I know it is questing and what more can you do. But I am sorry the underlying story in each zone in WoW is not this grindy and the same style. So I put down my Blaster and traded it for a Lightsaber and started playing a Sith Inquisitor Assassin.

I was taken by the class mele with minor range abilities. So I started over again. I knew the planet quests were the same so I “spacebar’d” over the quest talking and just paid attention to my class storyline. It was good, had its good and bad parts. Then around 35 I was noticing I was completing planets 1-2 levels behind. I was not sure what was going on. I level the Bounty Hunter the same way running Planets and Flashpoints. Going to a planet 1-2 levels before you should be there can be tough. Mobs hit harder and take longer to die. So I went to my ship and flew space quests and caught up. I went to my next planet at level and when I left again I was 2 levels behind. What was going on? So I logged onto my Bounty Hunter and played him the same places and I was 1 level higher this made no since to me. I was starting to feel pull back from myself to want to play.

BREAK: I will post the rest of this later. Don’t want to make it too long.

Enjoy reading
-Ben

A View Point of the Diablo Noob

Being a seasoned MMO player and new to the Diablo style of Action RPG I was not sure how I would like this game. From a player who has enjoyed many MMO’s and with limited amount of time to invest each week to play each week I am very selective on what games I play. I grew up knowing of the Diablo franchise but because of rules I was not able to play that game.

The avid WoW player that I am I signed up for the World of Warcraft Annual Pass. I mainly got it because there was a mount and a guaranteed Mist of Panderia beta access. Also this game Diablo 3 came with it. That was nice, I wasn’t sure if I would even play it. I was still investing time into WoW and the new MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic. The Secret World was on the horizon of beta soon so my time was filling up.

Since I received the annual pass several things have happened. WoW content is continuing to be nerf’d and my guild is in “Let See Who Shows” mode. SW:TOR isn’t holding for me. It is becoming very stale and I am not going to re-subscribe to it. So with the two games I am playing falling off for me I gave this “Open Beta Weekend for Diablo 3” a try.

I downloaded and installed the game. It did so in typical Blizzard fashion. First I have to say I was blown away by the graphics. I did not know a game could look so clean. Then it came to character selection. When I play MMO’s I am a mele player by heart. I love charging in and beating the crap out of anything. My first character in WoW was a warrior and I still play him from time to time. But I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy the game as a Barbarian. I did see a video of the Monk class and the abilities he had I was very curious.

So I made a Monk and started playing. First off I am a W,A,S,D player. MMO’s have gotten my use to that. So the whole point and click movement was defiantly different for me. Then my main ability is tied to my click button and it took me some reading to find out about holding the “Shift” key. My second ability it tied to my right click and then more are tied to the 1-4 keys. Odd but I wanted to see this game that looked amazing. So I ran off down the road killing as I went.

I noticed a yellow ! above a guys head. Immediately I knew what it was. “OK, they have quests” I thought. So he asked me to kill a few things but I noticed I could still move as I was auto accepting the quest. I did not have to read unless I wanted to and the voices could be heard and I was in my quest and obtaining the objectives before the dialogue was complete. This was great! The guys who make WoW should take notes…………Wait………Oh Yeah.

So I was off questing and killing the dead and finding I was getting pulled into a story that was very deep. It was simple to understand and you did not have to know about the other two titles to follow along.

BREAK and NOTE: I am going to keep this up. I don’t want to write a book yet. One page as I write in Word is enough. I will post more over the next several days. If you have any questions please post back.

Thanks for reading

-Ben
BattleTag: Brutaliz#1333

Now that the Diablo 3 beta weekend is over what did you like or dislike? Will you buy the game before launch on May 15th?

For me this was the first time I have ever played the Diablo franchise. I have to say for people new to the game but love any of the Blizzard IPs this is something that is very simple to pickup and can be played by anyone. I am looking forward to the harder modes and playing with friends. I like the Battle.net integration. I have many friends in WoW and going to be able to chat and play with them is going to be great. Only down side I have heard about is that if your computer that can play WoW it might not play D3. I have heard of this from several people in my guild. I guess that will make the graphic card manufactures happy.

I can’t wait. This is going to be a fun game to play through. I am a big lore nut and the story was very interesting to me. Great job Blizz, counting the days.

Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope

I just watched this movie on onDemand today. I have to say that the Geek/Nerd in me was brought out in full force the entire time I watched it. Morgan Spurlock the creator of great documentaries such as "Supersize Me" completly encapsulated the essence of the con and what it means to a lot of people. I have been to several other conventions but this is somthing I would like to attend once in my life.

I highly sugest a view to anyone who is a "Geek" or "Nerd" of anything

Movie website http://comicconmovie.com/

Yes it is on the list. And now it can be talked about. This game has taken me away from WoW in a very positive way. I like the Bioware spin too an MMO. They stated in the beginning that they were not going to reinvent the wheel but give their take on what an MMO should be. This gave people the impression of another Rift style WoW clone. But they have taken the game to a unique level and I am having a great time in TOR. They are always improving the game and sometimes those changes cut into peak game time but I am finding it well worth it.