Jose the Monk

Fan Faire 2010

2010-08-16T10:25:00.000-07:00

This year I had the luxury of attending the SOE Fan Faire along with a number of friends from my guild Revelry and Honor (Guk). If you haven't been to a Fan Faire before, I highly recommend it. It's a great opportunity to get out and meet your 'friends', rub shoulders with the developers, and just generally get involved in the community. By far the biggest hoot of the weekend was hanging out with my guildmates. They were all really funny, high quality peeps. It was a blast getting to know them a bit out of game.

Our guild leader, Karen, from Journeys with Jaye, was one of the winners of the SOE Backstage Bloggers contest and was doing a bunch of work with the community members over the weekend. I tagged along a bit and it seemed like every time I turned around I was shaking hands with another dev or community fixture... Calthine, Amnerys, Kiara, Frizznik, Feldon (EQ2Wire), Adam (Epic Slant) and yeah... Smedley. Well at least we think that was him chilling at the bar while we did our 8 am shots of Patron.

'Jace' Hall was the MC for the event. You may know him from his work on the web based Jace Hall Show or the television series 'V'. I'm going to say that although 'Jace' may aspire to be a gamer, he was a bit out of his element hosting Fan Faire. I'm not sure he ever garnered the respect of the audience. Perhaps that was just part of the shtick. Linda Carlson AKA 'Brasse' really stole the show up on stage. She was great! SOE, next year skip the fancy shmacy MC and just have Brasse do the whole thing!

I participated in the EQ2 contest which involved running a group through Zraxth's Unseen Arcanum. This zone will be released in one of the future expansions and it was challenging for us. The group had 30 minutes to go as far as we could and received points for each named kill among other things. We had a great time doing this, but network problems kept this event from going off as smoothly as it should have. One suggestion SOE for next year... Put up a leaderboard where all teams can monitor results. Use a large LCD panel and let everyone see how they scored compared to the other participants. There were a lot of people clogging up the contest area, trying to figure out how they did. It would also be cool to see who was in each group (i.e. class and/or guild). Roll this up into a web app that references player profiles fromo EQ2Players! Better yet, give us devs more access to XML from EQ2Players and the EQ2 environment and I'll do it for ya =)

I attended a couple of the EQ2 panels including EQNext and thre Class Mechanics panel. While EQNext looks interesting I wasn't really impressed with how SOE presented this over the weekend. I really got the impression that there wasn't a lot of vision or innovation going on. Smed and the devs spent about 10 minutes talking about the game at the beginning of the panel and then just opened it up for questions and comments. This really made the whole thing feel like a phishing session. 'We really don't have much yet and were hoping you could give us some ideas'. It felt like a 'design-by committee' approach. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it just seemed like it lacked mojo. Some things I didn't like hearing about... classes, raid sizes, instances.. Again, not a lot of apparent innovation from the outset. Do something... I don't know... different. Everyone else has raids, but you have: 'fill in this space with your really cool new features' The screenshots did look nice and I have my fingers crossed but there certainly will be a lot of competition for this game when it finally appears (Guild Wars 2, Rift, and new Blizzard mmo).

The Class Mechanics panel clearly illustrated three things for me. First the players are still really passionate about this game. They know their stuff. Second, if you ask a silly question during this panel in front of 500 people, they will reinforce my first observation with you. (i.e. 'You suck!' or 'Learn to play your class!') Third, the development team is really loaded with stuff to do. I sympathize with what they are up against. Ouch. Hopefully they are able to get through with their reduced workload after the layoffs this spring.

I'll try to get some more of my notes from the EQNext and Class Mechanics panels up later this week.

For now, I'm out!

Jose

"Back when I was your age..."

2010-04-24T08:44:00.000-07:00

...I used to walk backward, barefoot, and uphill both ways to school. Uh... Right.

It's that whole older generation telling the new generation just how much easier they have it. Sure, I'll admit that when it comes to gaming, this current generation has it pretty good. But when I read this I shed a tear. It's not that I'm against being environmentally friendly. Far from it. I'm just against the concept of breaking up the traditional packaging format for PC games. It's the whole iTunes revolution all over again, but I'll get to that in a bit.

The days of driving to the store to pick up that boxed game product are rapidly coming to an end. Ubisoft's move is another sign of the things to come in the future. And while I can appreciate the total convenience of electronic distribrution (Yeah! I'm pointing at you Steam!), part of me is going to miss getting my grubby mitts on the boxed deliverables.

For me, half of the experience with new games is thumbing through a thick manual full of stats, spells, class information, lore, etc, etc. In recent years many publishers have cut way back on this content, but it was still something I liked about picking up the boxed product. Nothing beat the smell of freshly printed color manuals... Ahhh printing chemicals! And honestly, an RPG manual with a phat section of spells... Heaven!

Let's get back to the iTunes thread... When is the last time you actually bought an album and LOOKED at the art and liner notes that the artist put together. This used to be a big deal for me. With the convenience of digitally distributed music, I rarely buy entire albums from the store. In fact, I can't remember the last time that I did. But I definitely have less connection to the artists these days. I know the songs that I hear but that's about it. This really 'depersonalizes' the relationship consumers have with their products.

So while I think we've gained a bit in terms of the convenience, we're losing touch of that tangible relationship we used to build with our music and our games. I expect in the not too distant future some writer somewhere will lament the loss of that quirky little thing called the US Postal service.. After all, who needs paper based mail delivery when you have email??

Back when I was your age, I had to DRIVE to the store, buy the game, and then read through the manual 4 times before playing. Boy times are changin; fast.

Jose

Props to my guildie!

2010-04-13T06:01:00.000-07:00

My guildmate Garen has a really nice EQ2 themed blog over here

He's also just posted a very cool looking EQ2/Guild themed web comic. Kudos Garen!

Jose

Life Imitating Art, Imitating Life

2010-04-10T08:11:00.000-07:00

Had to chuckle over this one... The HR department at the company I work for just announced a revamped promotion plan. The previous promotion plan had only six levels for employees to progress through. This was described as too flat. So... The logical thing to do was to increase the level cap and now there are seventeen levels for us to grind through on our way to unlocking the CIO achievement =). Yay! Have to wonder when they are going to offer bonus XP week next.

In all seriousness, most of my colleagues seemed to like the fact that they had a clearer career path progression; even if those promotions were tied to smaller pay/title increases. In the end I think it really speaks to the need for people to feel like they have a goal to work towards, whether in game or in their careers.

Somewhat connected to the topic of games and work... I came across this post at the Are We New At This Blog.

The Guild Leaders Handbook

An excerpt from the Amazon listing:

Plan successful raids, player vs. player battles, roleplaying sessions, and contests
Deal with problem players and keep a lid on guild-fracturing drama
Solve loot issues and choose the best loot system for your guild
Boost your guild’s morale, reputation, and server presence
Promote and motivate an effective officer corps
Organize fun and safe real-world guild meetings and events

Run this through the corporate speak blender for a quality mash-up:

Plan successful hostile takeovers, employee vs. employee conflict resolution, dealing with weirdos in the workplace, and how to run an NCAA pool from you cubicle
Deal with problem employees and keep a lid on team breaking drama
Solve pay issues and choose the best compensation system for your corporation
Boost your teams morale, e-peen, and breaking into the S&P 500
Promote and motivate an effective leadership
Out of office socializing best avoided for most workplaces. See any episode of 'The Office'

I think it fits. With a quick find-and-replace, and some very minor editing, this book could be the next 'One Minute Manager' for the up and coming generation of gamers about to launch into careers.

So yeah... I do see a lot of Life Imitating Art, Imitating Life here. Lots of the same topics, some silly, some serious. All connected by the people who drive them.

Jose

Hibernating with Games

2009-11-17T10:35:00.000-08:00

Been a while since I last wrote... Yeah life just seems to get in the way sometimes. Summer is over which means I am done working in the garden and on the house for the most part. It also means that I have had a bit more time to play games. And thank god for that because there has been no shortage of good titles lately..

EQ2 continues to be my main squeeze. The guild has been working through some of the TSO raid instances. We are farming the first 3 named encounters in ToMC, first named in Palace and the first named in Ykesha's. We also had our first clear of Ward of Elements last night. Yay! Go RnH! Also new in EQ2, I was promoted to an officer within our guild. This was flattering as there are a lot of really good people in the guild. I am still a little intimidated by the whole thing, but I am having fun helping people out and moving the group forward.

Next up, I had a brief fling with Torchlight. It's fun brain candy that's good for a short session when I have a little down time. I do like the cartoonish graphics. Reminds me of some of the models and style from Full Throttle. Hmmm.. Bet this game would port to an iPhone real well. The graphics aren't all that sophisticated and the UI is just a lot of tapping.. err I mean clicking.

Dragon Age - Yep it's great. I keep hearing RPG of the decade thrown around. Suppose that means that title gets handed back by Bethesda for Oblivion or Fallout 3. My how game reviewers have such short memories. They remind me of Hammy from over the Hedge. I do think the game succeeds in delivering a great story that immerses the player though. I have, at times, felt like there hasn't been enough action. That may be due to how much I actually enjoy the combat system. It's rich and rewards smart tactics. Almost like an RTS within an RPG. Good stuff!

Uncharted 2 for the PS3.. Working through it slowly. It's the one game my wife will sit and watch me play. Also a great story and fun action game. A must have for the PS3

Demons Souls - Jury still out. Needs more play time.

Plus this week MW2 is released.. I promised a colleague I would hop onto their TS server to play with them to try it out. I'm gonna get schooled!

Last I keep hearing great things about Assassins Creed 2. I haven't even seen the first game, but I am interested in seeing what the hubbub is all about. I will probably check this out in the very near future.

Thank god fall and winter are here!

Reflecting back...

2009-07-31T12:17:00.001-07:00

It's summer time where I live which means I am riding my bike to work about 3 days a week. This allows me to kill two birds with one stone; I get exercise AND I get to work. Score!

The other bonus is that cycling in takes just a few minutes longer then a drive would, which allows me a to listen to a podcast or just think about whatever is on my mind.

On the ride in the other day, I found myself thinking about how I got started with computer games. This turned into a journey down the 'memory lane' of lost but not forgotten titles... I always smile when I think back on my time working through these games. Back then, PC gaming was so very new and fresh that you could consider each game to be revolutionary in some way.

Chronologically my timeline went something like this:
Zork I - 1980:
This was a Christmas or birthday gift from my parents I have pictures showing the box standing up next to a pile of wrapping paper. I spent hours playing this game with my dad. I was too young to be able to get through it all myself but with his help and a pad full of graph paper we would do a little 'Zorking' a few nights a week before I had to go to bed. I'll always remember that.

Wizardry I - 1981
There was a drugstore on the corner down the street from my house. My dad used to help the family with their Apple computer. In return, they gave us a copy of Wizardy I on some 5 1/2 inch disks along with a photo copy of the game manual.... I would be lying if I said I didn't take that manual to school with me every day for 3 months straight. I used to read the spell names and descriptions. I'd study class and race stats religiously. I loved that game. My dad and I would sit for hours playing. One of us would man the graph paper and the other would drive at the keyboard. Every move down the hall or into a new room was a coordinated effort between the driver and the mapper. Forward, Forward, Kick... An encounter!!!

Ultima - 1981
My wife has this game and Wizardry to thank for my computer RPG fetish. We used to play this in the computer lab (Apple II) back in school. Not sure how we pulled that one off, but hey... I still got into 'Collej'. I remember roaming big open continents in an Isometric perspective.. Quite cutting edge for the time.

Escape from Rungistan - 1982
This was another handed down copy from our friends at the drugstore. One of my first graphic adventure games. I loved some of the puzzles in this game and I can remember trying to dodge trees while skiing down the hill over and over and over... Take Candybar.... Give Candybar...

AutoDuel - 1985
I was into CarWars for a little while and this game was based on that IP... We didn't have a joystick for our computer and I remember playing this using a Koala Pad as an input device... I know, I know... Ghetto to be sure. I remember running missions in this game to advance the story and gear up my vehicle... I also remember lasers being way too overpowered and the fear I had of getting lost on the roads outside of town.

Bard's Tale - 1985
I loved this game... I liked the packaging, the town of Skara Brae, the music, the dungeons... It was great! I would come home from school and plunk down in front of the PC for a bit each afternoon to see what I could discover in the world. You can still find ports of Bard's Tale and Wizardry for today's PCs. Ahh the nostalgia. I was soooo disappointed at the crappy reuse of the Bard's Tale IP on the console generation. fail.

Sentinel Worlds I - Future Magic - 1989
A great Sci-Fi rpg. This one also had great music and good graphics for the time as well if memory serves correctly. I played this through to the end and enjoyed the whole thing. Nice balance between ship combat and party based combat. This was my Eve minus the whole online persistent world thing...

...and I'm rolling through the gate at work. Another nice ride and some good memories. I wonder what I'll be playing with my son when he is old enough... I only hope he doesn't roll his eyes and tell me 'That's for old people' if I show up with graph paper.

Jose

The Anti-Climactic Epic

2009-07-23T12:53:00.001-07:00

Last Sunday we headed back to Veeshan's Peak for another shot at Silverwing to get our MT his mythical. The poor guy has had to hold aggro against an increasingly mythed out raid force... Ouch.

Without going into a ton of detail, this fight is another heavily scripted event that requires some good coordination of raid resources. It doesn't have nearly the bad luck = wipe factor that a Venril Sathir fight has, but it is still a technical encounter.

To be succesful, you have to coordinate tanking the main mob, burning and mezzing adds, jousting a nasty AE, work through a seemingly random charm effect, and clicking statues when called to. Lots to manage.

I was also assigned Main Assist duties, flinging the raid dps onto targets for the Off Tank and then back onto Silverwing after the adds had been killed.

This fight had adrenaline written all over it.

The call for the pull went out and the action started.

People in the raid are jousting like champs! Things going well. Heartrate is up!
Clicky classes getting called out and doing their jobs... Pulse rate rising rapidly!
Mobs health down to 60%... Here come the adds... I start slinging dps.. Pulse up, perspiration incoming!
Adds burning fast and dps back onto Silverwing.. awesome! Knuckles on mouse hand whitening visibly!!!
Silverwing's health continues to drop... Looking good people!
Oh MY GOD! I'm charmed and getting crushed! Heal me please!
Awesome! Healers came through... Back to burning adds. Off tank needs a quick Monk heal from me... Feet dancing nervously on the floor!!!!
Silverwing is at 9%... GO! GO! GO!
Mezzing rest of adds and all dps on Mob for final burn!!!!!!!!!
Silverwing Down!!!! Heart rate has to be about 200 beats per minute.

Awesome fight! Great job by everyone!

I am super pumped that we just pulled that off. The fight was a total blast and we have a good time hooting and hollering in voice chat... This was Epic!

Next our guild leader announces that we are going to take a shot at Shade of Khalan Dar and Phara Dar. I need Shade for my Monk epic... Cool!

We pull both mobs and proceed to burn Shade down for the kill..... Phara gets away from us but it is late and we need to break for the evening.

So yeah, I got my epic... But in all honesty, it was anti-climactic compared to the fight with Silverwing. For me, the best part of the evening was seeing my guild click like a machine on a very tricky encounter.

Gratz on the kill, Revelry and Honor! Well Done!

Java is Down...

2009-06-22T07:09:00.001-07:00

My wife and I both work in IT oriented fields... We tend to field many 'help' calls from our customers and co-workers. It amazes me how much people have come to rely on internet technology and how much we have learned as a culture about IT tech and lingo.

Case in point: My wife calls and asks for some help drafting an email response to a question she has received from someone. The person asking for help claims that they can't connect to 'Java' and wants to know if 'Java' is down?

At first we both chuckled at this.. But the more I thought of it, the more it occurred to me that the person asking the question was pretty savvy for a non-techie. They knew their browser was looking for a 'Java' resource but couldn't find/load it. Since everything tends to be 'connected' to the internet these days, their first step in diagnosing their problem was to determine if the resource on the internet was down...

Humorous, yes. But at least they were tryin'. That's not too bad in my opinion.

Venril Sathir must Die

2009-06-15T08:19:00.000-07:00

Ok... My guild has been working VS now for a few weeks and the general consensus is that this fight just plain sucks. If you haven't done VS yet, I won't spoil it for you, but it is a real treat. Forget most things you know about named fights or raids in EQ2. This one is an exercise in micro management (power, curing, and healing) with a little bit of luck tossed in for extra flavor.

The message I have tried to deliver to my guildmates is that this takes a very well practiced and finely polished team to pull off successfully.... and yes, I know there are some uber myth'd out pickups that have pulled this off without having worked together as a team before... But chances are, if they have their mythicals, then they have been through fights like this before and know their business well.

So despite a good turn out last night and everyone in an optimistic 'go-get-em' mood, VS still spanked us. Repeatedly.

I tend to be more of a 'listener' on voice chat. I try and pickup player tones and moods to understand how things are going. Last night was a good example of this... You could quickly hear the tone of the raid change from 'we're gonna get him' to 'omg do we HAVE to pull this SOB again!?' This to me was clear indication that people were not having fun and frustatrion was setting in.

There are several problems with this raid. First and foremost, the fun factor in here is a big fat 0. The fight is just a stressing, taxing encounter that can very quickly take it's toll mentally on you. The other big problem here is that the zone is completely devoid of anything else to do. If you are doing a VS raid, you will zone in, take out 4 trash mobs and then get spanked until you figure the fight out and get it right. There is nothing else to do in the zone. No chances for drops, or updates.. nada. You just zone in and flail for as long as you can take it.

Contrast this with the Leviathan fight which I found to be fairly entertaining and fun. That fight is typicall spread acros two raid events. The first is a farming run to gather fluids to use on Levi. A second raid is then run to actually finish Levi off using the fluids gathered in the first run. The mechanics of this fight are unique and can make for a good time. The raid stays occupied, challenged, and interest level is maintained. Leviathan also has a fun factor associated with it. There are milestones in here that give the players a sense of accomplishment.

Trash cleared... check
Rotate players through for fluid farming...check
Clickies clicked...check
Levi killed...check

All in all - there is stuff to do that that rewards players along the way. It isn't a frustrating luck ridden encounter.

I like challenges just as much as the next person but when the challenge involves micro managing stats, or hoping that luck is on your side and then dying repeatedly when one of a hundred little things goes wrong... That is not fun...

Venril Satir, you must die.. And you will very soon. The sad truth is, it won't be fun for any of us.

Level 1 Dad

2008-11-21T07:38:00.000-08:00

Long time no write. A couple of major events have happened for me and I thought it would be a good time to stretch my writing muscles again.

I'm very happen to have found an EQ2 guild 'family' again in Revelry and Honor. It's been a renaissance period for me and I find that I have enjoyed the game now almost as much as I did back at launch. Almost entirely due to the good group of people playing in RnH.

Jose dinged 80 (first time ever to cap in EQ2) and got his fabled epic. Yay!

It was all good times and I quickly developed a routine of logging on later in the evening and getting a group or joining one of the scheduled raids. I was collecting some great legendary gear. Things were rosie in game land.

That is when I dinged Level 1 dad.

Things changed quickly and drastically. My focus shifted from gaming, to wondering if me and my wife were ever going to sleep again, and finally settled on trying to decipher the various noises that erupt out of our little guy. For example, grunting happens frequently and could indicate a need for a diaper change, uncomfortable position, gas, going poops, gas, or just generally being pissed off. Oh yeah, it might also indicate gas.

Being a dad has been awesome! I have laughed so hard at some of the silliest things. The expressions on my son's face are priceless. He seems to switch emotions from amazement, to bewilderment, to a scrunched up grunting face, to yawning sleepily. All in the course of 10 seconds. I also have someone else to blame the gas on now besides the dog. He has been a willing side kick all the way. We have gone on adventures to the Farmer's Market, gone Christmas tree shopping, but he seems to enjoy playing 'how-much-can-I-pee-on-dad-before-he-gets-angry-with-me' the most. I have experienced some of the richest moments of my life with him and he is only a few months old.

So after a couple of weeks of very little game time I began to get worried that I was going to fall behind my friends and guildmates. I was concerned that I would be left in the dust again and would have difficulty grouping when time did become available. I have found a couple of things that have helped me get in some game time while avoiding wife/baby aggro. Here they are:

1) Family First. Turn of that game and take care of your kids. Your wife needs you, your husband needs you and most importantly your baby needs you. If your guildies and online friends really care about you, they will understand your need to step away for a few hours, weeks or months. When the time is right...and you will know when that is, you can indulge in some gaming. But reinforce what you should have already established.... Family is numero uno!

2) Establish a routine in your household. It is key to working in some play time and will pay big dividends moving forward. Babies appreciate schedules. You might not thinks so, but they can sense when feeding, bath and nap time happen. The regular routine will help them settle faster. Ours works something like this:

7 pm - Walk the dog with mom and baby. Mom and dad can talk. Baby gets some fresh air. Dog is just happy to be outside and sniffing signposts.
7:45 pm - Bathtime. Work as a team for fast bathing. Mom/dad will appreciate the help and your kids will too!
8:00 pm - PJ time and feeding. Don't forget to burp to avoid aforementioned gas.
8:30 pm - Crib Time. Keep your fingers crossed they fall asleep for an hour.

If the little guy goes down well I find that I can now enjoy some play time from 8:30 or 8:45 to 10:30 or 11 when he eats next.

Additionally, my wife and I have worked a deal where on Sundays and Tuesdays (raid nights) she covers long enough for me to be in raid. This means that if there is some fussing or crying she is on call for it. The rest of the week, I am there with her trying to calm the little guy down. In turn, she leaves the baby with me in the house on Saturday so she can shop, go see a movie or hang with her sisters. this gives us both some free time away from the baby to recharge our batteries.

3) Adjust your play style to avoid LONG blocks of play time. You will most likely be interrupted. Repeatedly. Don't plan on jumping into a pickup group for a long run through Najeena's or Chardok. Now is the time to crack open that quest journal and finish up long forgotten solo quests. Go finish up some Lore and Legend, bang out that level 50 Heritage Quest you forgot about. Do things that are solo oriented and not large time commitments for the first few weeks. This is a compromise. You can still play, but you will not be able to put in long hours like you used to. Eventually, the baby sleeps for longer periods which will allow you longer play sessions if you desire. You should still be prepared for interruptions though.

4) Take advantage of naps and sleep time to do things you want to do. Game, clean the house, watch tv etc. One of the most valuable commodities you will have is the time when the baby is sleeping. Be sure to ask your spouse if there is anything that needs to be done before you burn all your free time playing.

5) Invest in a Baby Bjorn. The little guy can nap with you while you play or do other stuff around the house.

5) Never forget that your duty as a parent comes first and foremost. Communicate with your partner and help them as much as possible and you my find they will be happy to let you 'sneak' in a few hours gaming when time is available.

Now, this all sounds good on paper and here is where I will let you in on the biggest secret. Babies are extremely unpredictable. Just because you have a plan doesn't mean that they are on the same page with you. The biggest adjustment you will have to make is the lack of control over anything. Your baby might sleep great for 10 nights straight. The minute you plan on doing something during that time something unexpected will happen. Be flexible and go with the flow and you will find that you can still fit in some playtime here and there and be a successful parent.

I'm hoping to make it to level 2 this week after a solid session of grinding diapers...

Jose

Musings on RoK

2007-11-30T13:17:00.000-08:00

Wow... I can actually find people to group with again. I actually see people in the same zone as me from time to time. What's going on here!? Have I survived a server consolidation I was not aware of?

Oh! Of course! Rise of Kunark released. And with that, the throngs of game hopping MMO players return back to EQ2 to see what is new and brush off the dust from their neglected alter egos. For me personally, it is always refreshing to see a healthy crowd back in the game. It means grouping, a rejuvenated economy and hooking up with friends long absent from guild and server. Overall, my RoK experience has been great! I rolled a Sarnak Necro, currently level 12 and have enjoyed the opening content in Timorous Deep. The quests have been fun and varied enough to hold my interest. Sure there are still the token kill and collect quests, but the devs seem to have come up with clever ways of injecting just enough uiqeness to make these interesting enough to wade through.

My main, Jose has been exploring Kylong Plains, Karnor's and the Fens as much as possible. With luck, I'll ding 71 this weekend. Hurray! Finally I should be able to make up some seriously lost ground on the other Monks playing on the Guk server... I was in the top 25 back when the game launched and have slipped pitifully down into the *ugh* 200s!? Anyhow, the high level content has also been fun. The content does appear to be tipped slightly towards soloers. This is a huge plus in my book as I had a tough time wading through the high 60's in KoS by myself. I have also had an easy enough time getting into groups from time to time with the increase in players on the server.

Overall, the expansion has been great. I am seeing renewed levels of interest and enthusiasm in the game not seen since a few months after it initially launched... This has been the most rewarding aspect of the expansion over all.

Looking forward to many more months of EQ2 in the future!

Future of MMO Subscription Models

2007-05-25T08:38:00.001-07:00

I'd like to throw an idea out into the ether to see if I get any bites on this. First, I have been playing EQ2 nearly since launch and have dabbled in WoW, EVE and more recently LOTRO and Vanguard. Now for the sake of keeping things simple, let's just ring up a hypothetical monthly bill for this activity.

Station Access (EQ2 and Vanguard): $30/month

WoW: $15/month

EVE: $15/month

LOTRO: $15/month

Annual: $900

I consider myself a 'casual' player. I log maybe 4-8 hours per week of game time.... and yes that is exactly the reason my one and only Everquest 2 character has yet to reach level 70. However, when you consider the price tag of almost $1000 per year for gaming (without taking into account the non-mmo's that I Will buy), I feel it looks less casual and more hardcore. I'm in my games often enough that opening and closing an account is more trouble then it is worth. I'd rather just leave my accounts open in these games for quick and convenient access to them when I want to play.

So now comes the idea... Isn't there an opportunity for an entertainment provider to step in, strike an agreement with game publishers and offer players a bundled or a la carte game subscription?

I'm thinking something like a Boston Market meal where I can buy the turkey with one, two or three sides. I'll have the EQ2 with a side of LOTRO and EVE please. I'd feel comfortable paying $30 for this. Someone might be willing to get the all you can eat buffet for some higher price that allows them access to all games. Sony is close with Station Access, but needs to open it up to more non-SOE published games. This is not much different from what a cable company does, is it? I mean, I buy my cable on a monthly basis. I get 90000 channels. I watch maybe 10 of them. The value here is that I'm not paying $15.95 a month for HBO and $15.95 a month for Discovery and $15.95.... Well you get the idea. Someone in the cable sales and marketing departments has figured out that no one person can watch every show on TV all the time. So they offer bundles with choices.

I really think this is the future direction of the MMO subscription model. The current subscription model requires near exclusivity in terms of what game you play from both a time and financial standpoint. This new model would help ease the financial burden in players and I feel it would help an MMO's population staying power. Players would be less inclined to 'cycle' through games as each new thing popped up. At the very least they would not cancel accounts the minute that the 'World of Fuzzlecraft 3000' was released. Game publishers win out by not having to worry about supporting infrastructure, bandwidth etc. This all comes with their agreement with the 'entertainment service provider'.

We continue see an unending supply of new and shiny MMO's which compete with our existing MMO subscriptions. Rather then constantly battling for overlapping player pools, why don't game publishers simply recognize that people would like to play more then one game and work towards a solution that allows players to do so.

This definitely represents a possible threat to the money a direct monthly subscription would bring to a publisher. This model represents more of an invested approach to a player base rather then a quick and easy sale. Sure, going direct nets a nice wad of cash each moth from each player. Is it worth more to the game developer to have lots of $15 cash wads for a year or two or three? Or is it worth more for them to see smaller continuous revenue from millions of subscribers over the course of a much longer time span? Sure, there would have to be a governing authority to decide when a game has reached the end and needs to be bumped out of the prime cable space. But that's what public television is for =).

MMO Virtualization

2007-05-24T08:58:00.001-07:00

One of the things I wish I saw more of in MMOs was the concept of environmental reality. I see a few games taking very subtle stabs at this through some weak dynamic weather patterns and day/night cycles...But I'm interested in a bit more realism. I'd love to see a world with changing seasons. I'm not talking about the proverbial zone in a winter setting, or a dessert setting etc. I'm talking about one zone that moves through a seasonal cycle. One of my very first criticisms of EQ2 was that the world weather was static. Every day in WillowWood was bright and sunny. (Note - The rain in EQ2 and LOTRO is a start, but where are the clouds it is falling from?) We do get some seasonal scenery during Frostfell, but what about leaves on trees changing colors during fall. Snow accumulations? Might be neat to have certain quests only available during special weather events etc. I recognize that this would require some good design to prevent virtual environmental disasters from preventing people questing for days or weeks at a time. If you are stuck inside due to the weather, the last thing you want is your MMO of choice to prevent you from finishing your quest due to 6 foot snowdrifts. I guess I'm looking for something to make the world a bit more immersive while avoiding the pitfall of trying to do too much (i.e. virtual reality or a life simulator). How about wear patterns in terrain when players continually traverse through an area (user created paths). These areas would self heal as the players moved on to other locations in search of new quests. Just some thoughts...

Welcome

2007-05-24T08:56:00.000-07:00

Ok. My first blog post. What's this blog all about you ask? Well, first and foremost I need a place to empty my mind at the end of the day. So everything is fair game. However, I do have a passion for computer games, namely MMORPGs.

Some Background info about me.

Some of the very first omputer games I played:
Zork, Escape from Rungistan, Wizardy I, Bard's Tale

I'll let you make an educated guess about my age based on the games above. *Hint, I'm older then most console addicted adolescents.

I tend to play Everquest 2 as time permits. It was the first MMORPG I played. I have such fond memories of rollicking around Antonica and the Thundering Steppes. It was this game that first intorduced me to the concept of the 'all nighter' with work the next day. Ouch. I still play the first character I rolled. A monk named Jose... At the time, the name popped into my hed as somewhat counterculture to the endless cliches out there... Like 'Goldenhawk Dragonslayer' or 'Durgsten the Strong'. I just liked the sound of plain old 'Jose'.

I also dabble in Eve and have played Vanugard, WoW, LotRO among others.

We'll see how this works out. Will be nice to hear some comments back from people other then the voices in my head =)