Evan Sims » Gaming

I’ve Gone and Made a Mess

Evan — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 19:43:48 +0000

The gaming highlight of my week? My Warcraft guild finally brought down Deathbringer Saurfang. We’d been stuck on him for a few weeks now, unable to get our raid’s configuration just right to finish him off before the enrage timer wiped us. There was no magic bullet for it, really; it came down to a little luck and a lot of practice. Given that we’re far from a hardcore raiding guild, I couldn’t be more proud of us for this accomplishment. We even got the Gone and Made a Mess achievement for beating him before a 3rd mark.

I just hope Blizzard let’s us skip his soap opera speech with the next reset. /facepalm

I also finished the Glory of the Hero achievement and grabbed a snazzy Red Proto-Drake. Go me. :)

Review: Razer Naga MMOG Mouse

Evan — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:12:30 +0000

Razer Naga MMOG Mouse

I’m a PC gamer. I grew up on PC, and the platform will always be my first choice when it comes to picking up the latest and greatest titles. Don’t get me wrong; I love my consoles too, but if there’s a choice between a controller and a mouse and keyboard, you know which route I’ll go.

I don’t have to tell you PC gamers are hardware enthusiasts. Whether it’s that sweet quad core machine we just built or the glowing array of peripherals on our desks, we’re always looking for an upgrade to improve not only our games’ performance, but our performance in those games.

Being a fan of Massively Multiplayer games since the mid-90s, I was very excited to hear about Razer’s new “Naga” mouse. Although it isn’t the first mouse designed specifically for MMO gamers (the poorly received SteelSeries’ World of Warcraft mouse holds that award,) it is the first non-specific MMO mouse, and will work in any you throw at it.

I should note that although Razer has released drivers for the Mac, and the mouse works great under OS X, the configuration software has not been updated to match the macro recording functionality of it’s Windows counterpart. I expect they’ll be updating the OS X software to support this soon.

Features

Aside from the trademark Razer sensor and response time, the Naga features 17 buttons (12 of which are on the mouse’s “button grid” on the left side) which can be configured in a variety of ways using the driver software. Razer has worked with addon developers to provide customized hotbar layouts for World of Warcraft and Warhammer Online, though they are entirely optional. Since I’m a big fan of the Bartender addon in Warcraft, I opted to continue using that.

Although the Naga launched with somewhat limited customizability for the 12 grid buttons- which was a big complaint amongst MMO players- the latest driver firmware allows you to fully configure the buttons, including recording key-press macros.

Comfort

Although the Naga looks a bit intimidating and bulky at first glance, I was surprised to find it a tad smaller than the Logitech G5 I had been using for years. The mouse slants ever so slightly to the right to make the button grid friendlier on the thumb.

Size comparison: Logitech VX Nano, Razer Naga, Logitech G5, Logitech Performance MX

Razer includes training bumps (I’m not sure what else to call them) which can be attached to the grid buttons to train your thumb for placement. I attached mine to the “2″, “8″ and a smaller one to the “12″ buttons and was able to get fairly comfortable with the grid layout after about 4 hours of play. Once you become accustomed to the layout, they are easily removed.

The overall feel of the mouse is superb, rivaling even my beloved G5 in comfort.

Configuration

As I mentioned, each of the keys on the Naga can be configured however you like using the driver software. By default each of the grid buttons on the Naga are assigned to your 1-0, – and = keys, just as they appear at the top of your keyboard, and are listed from 1 through 12 on the mouse. This means, by default, your button grid will click the corresponding hot bar entry in your game.

This should work great for most players in most MMOs, but you can record macros to change this behavior.

Real World Use

UPS delivered the mouse to me last Friday, which game me the whole weekend to adjust and tweak it before my Warcraft guild’s raid on Tuesday and follow-up on Thursday.

I installed the driver software but opted not install Razer’s customized version of Dominos, as I’m a big Bartender fan. There is no additional functionality Razer’s addon provides; it just has a action bar layout that matches your Naga’s button grid. I ultimately customized my Bartender installation to provide a similar appearance.

On my Rogue, I found my thumb growing tired a few dungeon runs in. Being a melee class that pretty much constantly spams our attacks, the default grid layout didn’t work out very well. Sinister Strike, for example, ended up being the 2 key on my mouse. I dare you to try spamming that with your thumb on this mouse and liking it. Worse yet, in fights that required me to be more mobile, I found the “thumb spam” made it difficult for me to activate the right mouse button and move in a timely manner.

Certainly, I don’t think Razer’s intention for the Naga was to use the button grid in this manner.

Realizing this, I changed my Naga’s grid to use macros of CTRL+1, CTRL+2, CTRL+3 and so on; these are my buff buttons, and although they are used often most have a cool-down of between 30 and 120 seconds, so it works out perfectly for this kind of setup.

My Bartender Configuration

I kept all my spammy attacks on my keyboards 1-0 keys, which I was already used to using my other hand for, and all my buff keys to the grid on my Naga. This meant even as I was casting my melee attacks, I was able to remain mobile and pop cooldowns as they became available. Boom! There’s the efficiency boost I was looking for with this mouse.

By the time raid night rolled around I was well versed with my new configuration, and definitely saw an improvement in my overall performance. More importantly, I *felt* much more efficient and comfortable.

On my Priest, who is sadly still far below raiding level, I saw similar improvements. I kept my more frequently cast spells on my keyboard, and moved most of my Shadow and less frequent Holy spells to the mouse. Fortitude and Shield, for example, was great for moving to the Naga’s grid specifically for Battlegrounds, as you’re constantly popping those on your allies as they respawn or make a break with the flag for your base.

Final Thoughts

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

I’ve seen a definite improvement in my efficiency since I began using the Naga, and I expect this to grow as I become more comfortable with the mouse, and adjust my play style and what spells make the most sense on the grid.

Considering you can configure the buttons using macros, this mouse makes a lot of sense not only for MMO gamers, but PC gamers in general. I can’t wait to try out the upcoming Dragon Age mini-expansion with this mouse. Switching party members, popping potions, casting buffs, etc. should be a breeze with the Naga.

Likewise, I could imagine more than a few uses for those 12 extra keys in everyday applications, like Photoshop.

At $79.99 I can see no reason why every MMO player shouldn’t be using one of these. Whether you’re a casual player or a end game raider, you’ll notice a great boost to your efficiency in the game.

My singular complaint is that the Mac drivers have fallen behind in functionality, as I play Warcraft on my Mac quite a bit on the road; I suspect Razer will resolve this issue in the coming weeks, however. That issue aside, this serves as a fantastic Mac mouse as well. I’ve always had issues with my Logitech mice feeling a bit wonky in OS X, especially the scroll wheel performance, but the Naga works perfectly straight out of the box.

Security Tokens in MMOs

Evan — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 20:47:57 +0000

Battle.net Authenticator

Account security in massively multi-player games is a big concern. If you play World of Warcraft, you know how often accounts are compromised. In the last 6 months we’ve had our guild bank emptied twice when high-ranking members had their accounts compromised, and a handful of our lesser ranking members have had their hacked characters’ inventory and gear liquidated and traded to, presumably, gold resellers. Blizzard isn’t alone in this problem, of course. Even NCSoft’s Aion, a very recent MMO release, is having major issues with this. Simple truth of the matter is no MMO account is safe from being hacked, phished or brute forced and compromised when all we use is traditional username/password schemes.

However, there is a solution to this; authenticators. Blizzard and Square Enix both sell a hardware key fob solution to secure accounts (in the case of Blizzard, there is a free iPhone app that does the same thing.) Essentially, it adds a second, randomly generated password to your account that changes every ~30 seconds. So, you login with your traditional username/email and password, press the button on your key fob, and enter the code to login to the game or access your account management settings.

If you’re familiar with Paypal’s Security Key program, it’s essentially the same thing.

Obviously, there are great benefits towards using security tokens like these to secure online accounts. Someone could lift your username and password from a phishing scam, but they still couldn’t access any important element of your account without the random token. No two key fobs will generate the same code at the same time, so it’s nearly impossible to brute force. Even a keylogger installed on a player’s computer is rendered useless, unless the hacker is somehow watching your input in real time and enters your token as you do within that 30 second window (not likely.)

Blizzard and Square have tried to push players towards getting their accounts secured with authenticators by offering perks like vanity pets and increased storage space for your characters, but I’m still surprised at how many players are completely clueless that these devices exist. That might be changing in the case of Warcraft, where word on the street is Blizzard will be requiring the use of these security tokens with or perhaps even before the Cataclysm expansion is released. This means Blizzard will either be shipping these devices out for free, or will be bundling them in with the Cataclysm retail box.

Bizarrely, the community seems divided on the issues of whether this is a good thing or not. I don’t see the negative, outside of the minor inconvenience of having to remember where your device is, and the pain of getting your account reset if your device is lost (or, as was the case of a few friends of mine, when they upgraded their iPhone firmware and rendered their security tokens broken. [This issue should be fixed now, though.]) I love the idea of the security token mechanism, and I expect virtually every MMO going forward to begin supporting this kind of authentication, perhaps even mandatorily.

Until we get there, though, there are a few stop-gap solutions companies like Blizzard could put into place to help secure accounts without investing in new hardware.

Password Case Sensitivity — The most obvious flaw in Blizzard’s security system is the fact that their passwords are case-insensitive. So, if you’re a clever player, and you used a variety of capitalization in your password to help protect it from brute force attacks, those efforts are for not. Seriously, who thought this was a good idea? You dramatically cripple the effectiveness of your security system by not including this.

Login Strikes — It’s an obnoxious feature when you forget your password, but it’s a great way of combating brute force attacks. Banks use it all the time for online account access. Essentially, you have X attempts to login before logins are disabled for Y minutes. So, if someone is brute forcing your password, they only have a very narrow window of attempts before they’re locked out from trying for awhile. Hackers use automated scripts full of combinations of commonly used passwords, dictionary words, and frequent number combinations to throw at a authentication system like an MMO’s to try and guess what your password is.

My only guess as to why Blizzard in particular hasn’t included this particular function is that our accounts are getting slammed with brute force attempts far more often than we may realize. If this is the case, we could potentially be frequently locked out of our own accounts because of these anonymous attacks, causing an increased number of calls to these companies support centers. In this case, the only way these companies could combat this problem is by offering a means of changing your username, which can be difficult from a technical standpoint, introduces a level of complexity to the system, increases the odds of players forgetting their usernames (and thus, potentially increases support center calls.) In the case of Blizzard, username changing isn’t an option, as you now login with your email address instead of a username with the Battle.net system.

Still, this would be an option for many MMO developers, and an option worth serious consideration.

OpenID — Here’s an interesting thought that crossed my mind; why not allow players to use OpenID to identify themselves? Decentralize security from your database and put it in the hands of the more tech savvy players. Obviously, it wouldn’t be an option for most of the market’s player base, but it could be an interesting experiment and lead to some fascinating innovation by the community. Allow players to build their own authentication mechanisms and secure their accounts through their own means, whether it’s usernames and passwords, or image-based schemes, or riddles, or whatever. Crowd-source your security.

Finally, there are two other avenues we could investigate to improve the current security token scheme we’re seeing. These are USB-Based Security Tokens and a Standardized Token System. One complaint I hear against security key fobs is that they require you to keep track of them, and require you to go out of your way to input the code. Granted, this only adds a few seconds to the login process, but it is an obnoxious element. Instead, why not use a USB key approach? The player plugs their security token into a free USB port. The game detects the hardware key, and inputs their randomized token for them during the login process. This still requires you to know where your key is, but assuming you only play from your home, you can just leave it in a USB slot and not have to worry about it. This might be a complicated for web-based account management though, but using browser plugins (*shudder*) it would be possible to still take advantage of the token system.

Also, considering that more and more MMO developers will begin introducing and perhaps requiring security tokens, wouldn’t it make sense to have a standardized token system for all MMOs? Our key chains could potentially be full of these things (if you’re an MMO addict like I am!) in a few years to come. If a third party stepped up and said, hey, we’ll sell your company branded security token hardware for your games, offer a simple API to integrate it into your authentication process, and allow players to use a single key to access all their MMO accounts, this company would make a fortune. Seriously. Somebody out there needs to get off their asses and do this.

So, there’s some random food for thought on MMO security. What would you suggest developers do to secure player’s accounts? Do you like the security token approach? Why or why not?

Photo Credit

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dailylifeofmojo/ / CC BY 2.0

This Warhorse, She Does Not Fly

Evan — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:51:32 +0000

Patch 3.3– dubbed Fall of the Lich King– went live yesterday, much to the excitement of the bajillions of Warcraft gamers out there. It’s a pretty exciting patch, both from a content and lore standpoint.

As I recently started reading Arthas: Rise of the Lich King on my Kindle, the battle with Arthas is of particular interest to me. The back-story is still fresh in mind, and seeing his murdered Father speaking to him in the trailer brought chills to my spine. I can’t wait to beat the snot out of him.

Could not use HTML 5 or Flash for playback. You can download the file as MPEG4/H.264 or Ogg Theora file.

Of course, just because it’s live doesn’t mean it works. Patch day woes. To be expected, of course. Instance servers are borked, so the odds of you managing to zone in and see the new content, use the new cross-server dungeon group finder or even raid the pre-existing content is slim to none. But those issues will be resolved in the days to come. We all know how these things go.

Last night I decided to rebuild my raiding UI and do a little mining. You know, to buffer the wallet a bit for all those impending gear repairs I’m expecting. At one point a I’m flying along over Storm Peaks looking for nodes, the world server goes down. No big deal, I thought. It was the fifth or sixth time it had happened that evening. Well, I log back in and much to my horror I am no longer mounted on my Netherwing. Nay, I had magically been placed upon my Warhorse. I can only imagine she was as confused as I was as we plummeted thirty thousand feet to our death together.

I laughed for a good five minutes on that one.

Preparing for the fight with Lord Marrowgar

On the upside, my guild did manage to get Marrowgar down to 48% last night before our instance went all sideways. So, I can’t complain too much there. Now we just need the instances working so we can finish the fight towards Arthas.

Dragon Age: Origins (PC)

Evan — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:12:51 +0000

Dragon Age was one of those few games that launched completely off my radar. I had seen bits and pieces about it here and there, but never payed much attention. I had no idea it was an RPG, let alone one from BioWare. It’s weird, because I love BioWare and am a huge fan of their RPGs, ever since Neverwinter Nights. It wasn’t until my buddy Jim started speaking it’s praises that I rab it off Steam.

Anyway; I finished my first play through last night, coming in at just under 60 hours played. I completed more than 75% of the side quests in the game (according the achievement I got) as a City Elf Rogue, with Bard and Assassin specializations applied. I decided to give this go through the “good guy” treatment.

Dragon Age has a variety of companions you can befriend along the way

On the surface, Dragon Age’s theme feels fairly uninspired. An demonic force is trying to conqueror the land. The peoples (made up of humans, elves, dwarves, etc.) of the land are in turmoil and civil war, too distracted to prepare for the invading army. You are the unlikely hero who must bring these nations together and lead a campaign against the enemy. Nothing too shocking here if you have ever played an RPG before.

What makes Dragon Age compelling, though, is the detail BioWare has put into the world and it’s inhabitants. From the moment you become a Grey Warden you are thrust into an ugly world of political espionage, slavery and religious zealotry that makes for some very enticing storytelling. You have to make tough decisions that will have lasting consequences, for better or worse, and you are free to take the honorable route, which often ends up being much harder, or the morally ambiguous one and try to cash in on an opportunity.

Morality and Companions

Right and wrong isn't about a point system

I really enjoyed the fact that Dragon Age shed the ridiculous omnipotent karma meter that most RPGs follow. Your actions are not judged and calculated into a title of Chaotic Evil or Lawful Good, with points deducted for bad behavior. Rather, your actions are judged by your party members. You can earn or drop favor with your companions based on your decisions, and very often they will have competing views. Alistair, for example, is a good guy through and through. You do something bad, he’s going to frown upon it. Morrigan, though, has a much more opportunistic view of he world. She’s OK with getting her hands bloody if it means getting something useful out of it. Most of the companions do not have a black-and-white view of the world, but if you talk with them and learn about their back stories and personalities you’ll get a good idea of where they stand on things.

Your companions involvement with your cause isn’t set in stone, either. (Well, except for Shale. Har har.) If you make a decision they really disagree with or anger them too much over time, they’ll leave you. The game is flexible enough to change course and compensate for different team configurations, so losing members is no big loss to the story. In fact, if you drop central characters like Alistair you’ll encounter a very different end game. Likewise, you can become romantically involved with some of the companions, which opens an interesting relationship meta game. You can go on quests for some of the companions to learn more about their history, and in the process open up all sorts of interesting content to explore. Shale was a particularly entertaining companion in this regard.

Combat and Specializations

When you create your character, you’ll have access to few base classes. As you play through the game you’ll have opportunities to unlock new specializations, either by buying manuals for them, completing quests or by earning favor with companions who already have the specialization. Morrigan, for example, is a shapeshifter, and Alistair is a Templar. Some are easier to acquire than others, but they all bring something interesting to the table. As I said, I decided to specialize my Rogue as a Bard at level 7, and an Assassin at level 14. The Bard gave me access to party-wide buffs and a few crowd control abilities that came in handy. Assassin likewise gave me mostly personal advantages for opening weaknesses in my enemies defenses and increasing my damage.

Combat in Dragon Age functions much like an MMO

Disappointingly, unlocked specializations don’t transfer between play throughs. It would have been nice to be able to start a fresh character as a Ranger or Blood Mage, even if they started with a more generic origin story.

Combat in Dragon Age feels very MMO-ish, or Neverwinter Nights minus the dreadful cast-per-day cool downs. You have passive abilities, activated abilities, sustained abilities (like stances) and attacks and spells, and a power pool to draw from. As you level up you can assign your stat points and unlock access to new skills and abilities. As I mentioned further up, you’ll have an opportunity to specialize twice; once at level 7, and again at level 14. If you don’t have a specialization unlocked yet you can go back and assign it at any time. Companions level in the same manner, and you’re able to assign their stats and abilities in the same way.

Although you can choose to micromanage your companions on the battlefield and assign their attacks and buffs, Dragon Age really shines for it’s talent system. With it you’re able to design the behavior of your party by creating a prioritized list of conditions and actions. For example, I kept Morrigan as my only caster throughout my entire play through, so I ended up specializing her as a spirit healer. With the talent system, I told her to use a knockback if she is surrounded by two or more enemies, and heal herself or the rest of the party if we fall below 75% health. As we leveled up I gained access to more tactic slots, and was able to get more creative with their behaviors. By half way through the game I never needed to switch characters; I had my companions’ intelligent enough to operate on their own.

Questing

There's no shortage of quests to explore

No RPG is complete without a plethora of side quests to keep you distracted, and Dragon Age is no different in this regard. The vast majority of my time was spent exploring the world and completing the side quests I picked up along the way. There isn’t much all that ground breaking here, really; harvesting, killing, capturing or rescuing X of Y made up most of questing formulas, as you might expect. Still, the quests provide a lucrative source of income for purchasing potions, armor and weapons that will come in useful. Several times I ended up acquiring very powerful armor sets for Alistair and my Rogue that outdid anything the main story arch rewarded me with.

As I said, the main storyline feels fairly uninspired on the surface, but the combat mechanics, top notch level design and art direction really make up for this. The environments feel incredible and huge, even while most of them really aren’t. The bosses can be very challenging, and the characters you’ll come across will leave a lasting impression. If I can make one suggestion to you it’s this: push them. Ask questions and make use of the Persuade mechanic to learn more and uncover the secrets behind what they’re telling you. You’ll be happy you did.

Final Thoughts

Dragon Age is not without it’s problems. I’m not a big believer in “replay value,” but if you’re into that sort of thing I wouldn’t expect much in that regard. The DLC we’re seeing from BioWare right now is just tiny bits of content; a handful of new quests to complete and places to explore. That’s all well and good if you just bought the game and are doing you first play through, but who will want to start a fresh character after the fact just to play the latest $5 microexpansion? I’m doubtful I will be doing that.

Some might find replay value in the toolset, allowing people to create their own custom campaigns to play through. This was, after all, the strength of Neverwinter Nights and it’s sequel. Sadly, the lack of a multiplayer component to the game really hinders this- for me, anyway. As a game designer I’m looking forward to getting my hands dirty and building some fun content, don’t get me wrong; I just wish I was able to explore it with my friends.

Slaying the Chess Dragon

Of course, Dragon Age isn’t bug free, either. You’ll encounter crashes, an awful path finding system, and a few broken quest lines (namely, quests that become uncompletable due to storyline progression but don’t disappear from your journal.) Nothing terribly show stopping though, thanks to the auto-save system. Just be prepared for the occasional frustration.

By and large, however, I loved Dragon Age, and it’s earned it’s place as one of my top 5 favorite western RPGs. The game is truly epic and entertaining, and I hope BioWare continues to expand on what they’ve done here with some proper expansions (I want to see the Orlais!) and multiplayer support down the road (unlikely, I know; but I can dream.) If you’re looking for an RPG that doesn’t disappoint, I can’t recommend Dragon Age: Origins higher.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Getting the Dragon Age Toolset Running on Windows 7 x64

Evan — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:02:18 +0000

This took me the better part of the afternoon to figure out, so hopefully I can save someone else the time.

Install the Dragon Age Toolset, ensuring that you uncheck the “Install SQL Server 2005″ option.
Download the x64 versions of SQL Server 2005 Express Edition and SQL Server Management Studio Express.
Install Server and Management Studio with the default settings.
Open Management Studio Express and connect with the default settings.
Right click “Databases” and select “New Database.” Set the name to “dragonage_toolset” and press OK.
Select “dragonage_toolset” from the list on the left and click the “New Query” button in the toolbar.
Paste the contents of this file in the blank window, and click the “Execute” button in the toolbar. You may see some warnings, but that’s OK.
Repeat the process, this time pasting the contents of this file.
Close Management Studio Express.
Run “ConfigureToolset.exe” from your Toolset installation folder.
Click next on the first screen. On the “Content Database” dialog, uncheck “Use the default database” and paste the following into the Database field:
Provider=SQLNCLI.1;Integrated Security=SSPI;Persist Security Info=False;Initial Catalog=dragonage_toolset;Data Source=MACHINE-NAME\SQLEXPRESS
You will want to change “MACHINE-NAME” to match the name of your PC in all capital lettering.
Press Next, and then press Finish. Start the Toolset and you should be good to go.

Hope this helps!

Of Blizzards and Micropayments

Evan — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:48:56 +0000

So Blizzard introduced premium vanity pets for World of Warcraft yesterday; a miniature Kel’Thuzad and a Pandaren Monk. They do fun little things like freezing nearby critters and returning /bows from players. They cost $10 each, and in the case of the Panda, 50% of that goes to the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

I’m cool with it, but it turns out a lot of people aren’t.

Ctrl+Alt+Del: Vanity Pets

They’re tweeting and blogging and shouting from the roof tops about how this is an evil move, and that the Make-a-Wish donation is nothing more than a “trick.” I’m shocked that so many people are angry over such a stupid thing as vanity pets when they’re happy to drop a considerably larger chunk of cash to recustomize or rename their characters, or change races or factions. Seriously, the consumers decide whether these sorts of “microtransactions” (I use that term loosely, as $10 does not seem terribly micro to me) will be successful or not, and I can tell you; I saw way more tiny little kung-fu pandas running around Orgimmar last night than I care to remember.

Until these sorts of transactions begin giving players a tangible upper hand of some kind, I don’t see the harm in it. If you’re willing to forgo a couple lattes to get a virtual pet, by all means go for it. On the other hand, if you think Blizzard is being evil by donating only 50% of the cash, donate to Make-a-Wish directly, deduct it from your taxes, and move on with your life.

Looking Back at Warcraft: Eighty Levels Later

Evan — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 05:13:04 +0000

One of my long-standing gaming goals has always been to get a character in Warcraft to level 80. That probably sounds stupid to many of you that aren’t into MMORPGs, or games for that matter, and those of you that are probably look at that sentence and chuckle. “It only took you 5 years to get to end game? Impressive,” I hear you say. Fair enough, but back when WoW launched back in 2004, I didn’t have much interest in it. FFXI still had me wrapped strongly around it’s finger at this point, and wouldn’t be letting go for another year. Outside of casual Starcraft and (classic) Warcraft runs, I didn’t follow Blizzard or it’s games all that strongly. So it came as a huge surprise to me when Warcraft launched with the critical acclaim and popularity that it did. Then again, I suppose it surprised just about everyone, Blizzard included (considering how grossly they underestimated their launch infrastructure.)

Eventually I did pick up the game though, and rolled my first character: a troll priest. I found the game a welcome relief from the no-nonsense grind of FFXI, but something about it didn’t hold my attention. Most likely it was the “crayola” art style, as I’ve heard many of my friends similarly discuss. I gave up after reaching the Barrens. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. Looking back now, I realize that my experience in MMO grinds up until that point had been rather basic. Though I enjoyed countless hours in FFXI, I never got past level 50. I spent most of my time crafting, and exploring. That’s what I loved to do, so I did. I was still in the sandbox mindset of Star Wars Galaxies and Ultima Online, the MMOs that in many ways shaped me as an online gamer.

It didn't take me long to fall in love with the Rogue

Over the years I’d pick the game up every so often, each time making a little more progress than the last, but always rolling a new character. In time I came to roll with some of the good friends I made with FFXI, and fell in love with the Rogue class. Alas, I still found the game’s PvE content difficult to swallow. Even the incentive of leveling alongside my friends wasn’t enough to keep me interested, as much as I enjoyed it. It was not until I reached end game in EverQuest 2 and had my first real taste of raiding that I started to rethink how I looked at MMOs. Suddenly I had an interest in seeing the dangers that laid at the farthest reaches of these worlds.

Of course, wanting to see end game and getting there are two different matters. I had the interest, but did I have the drive? As I said, I did it in EverQuest 2, but EQ2 had me hooked because of the people I played with, not the game. Getting to end game was, frankly, just a nice bonus. [Note: And that's the way it should be!] I still had a bad taste in my mouth from my experiences in the Barrens, and a bitter and frankly misguided opinion of Warcraft at this point, so I decided to dive into Warhammer Online along with the rest of my guild. After all, all the blogs were heralding it as the WoW killer. Why not get on board at the ground floor?

My friends and I in the early days

Needless to say, Warhammer did not turn out to be everything Mythic or it’s fans had dreamed. The churn rate of subscriptions was agonizing, and the game was plagued with issues. Still, I really loved the game, and more importantly held a very loyal mentality to my guild’s presence there. So, I stuck it out. I took my Shadow Warrior all the way to 40, and from there all the way to renown rank 55- which is no small task, let me assure you. In a bizarre turn of events from my previous MMO experiences, I fell in love with the ~~PvP~~ RvR experience. Granted, the end game PvE content is horrible so I didn’t have much of a choice, but that doesn’t change the fact that I really enjoyed the epic keep sieges and battlefield skirmishes. I ended up rather nicely geared, too. I am still proud of the progress I made in that game.

Alas, as is the case with all MMO games, I ultimately grew tired of Warhammer and decided to move on. The question was, move on to what? There was nothing that interested me available, or even on the immediate horizon. I decided to give Warcraft one more try. With the progress I made in Warhammer to boost my confidence, and the long standing interest in seeing Warcraft’s raid content, I rolled a fresh Blood Elf Rogue on my friends’ server and began the trek to 80.

Outlands at Last

I leveled quickly, thanks in no small part to the tweaked leveling curve since the last time I had played, but I think largely because of the improved newbie experienced of the Blood Elves over the “vanilla” races I had sampled in the past. I found the questing addictive, and it felt like in no time I was taking my first step on Outland’s otherworldly soil. While I had enjoyed much of my questing in the old world, the design and art style seemed very dated outside of Silvermoon. Finally getting to see updated content was very refreshing, and rekindled my drive to level.

I can’t recall how long it took me to get to 68 and graduating from Shadowmoon Valley, but I recall it taking just a matter of a week or two at most. I was a levelin’ machine… relative to my past experiences, of course. I’m sure many of you reading this have a dozen level 80 characters at this point, but don’t pee on my cornflakes here.

Northrend is Calling

As excited as I was to be so close to 80, I relapsed. At level 70 I hit that ugly leveling hump that many of you know- that bizarrely long gap between 70 and 71 that seems to take forever. For me it took months, as I returned to Warhammer to experience the new “live expansion” content they had released, and look after what remained of our guild’s numbers there. Eventually I did come back, though, and made it past that ugly grind. 72 onward was a pretty smooth journey, after I left Borean Tundra and began to experience the epic questing out there, and especially the phasing system. I think experiencing the The Battle for Undercity scenario at 73 is what really forged this game into my soul; I dare you to think of a more epic MMO questing experience than that.

Long story short, I hit 80 and loved every moment of it. More so, I’ve loved every moment of the game since level 80. Finally getting to experience the raid content and gaming with my friends (the same friends I tried to roll with so long ago) on their level and see all these incredible dungeons and boss fights that they had spoken so often to me about… It’s done my MMO gamer’s heart good. As silly as it sounds, I feel complete. I’ve finally found an MMO that I enjoy through and through, and can’t wait till the next opportunity I get to login.

Will it last? Who can say. I see nothing to stop it now, and the recent announcement of Cataclysm and the redesign of all the original world content just makes me want to go back and re-experience it all the more. [Note: Heck, I did; I acquired the Loremaster achievement for going back and completing nearly all the quests in the game.] What matters, though, is that I’m having fun right now, and I can’t wait to see what Blizzard has in store for me next.

Someone please just freeze me Cartman-style till 2010

Evan — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 19:59:38 +0000

No Arthas, that's my pot pie

God damn you, Blizzard. Here I am eagerly anticipating Aion next month and Final Fantasy XIV on the horizon and you have to pull CATACLYSM out of your asses. You just ruined me for all other MMOs for the next year.

You answered every WoW gamer’s wishes with flying in Azeroth. You teased us and said it couldn’t be done… but you found a way! You blew our minds by announcing that you’re pretty much wiping the slate clean and rebuilding the old world anew. Deathwing? In full effect. Onyxia and Ragnaros are returning. 7 new zones (5 of which are end game focused) with a plethora of huge new dungeons to explore. Heroic Shadowfang Keep. 2 new races. A new character advancement system with an attached secondary profession. Getting rid of most of the old school, useless stat types and replacing them with useful alternatives. Boosting everyone’s HP. Cross-realm dungeoneering.

You guys rock. Seriously. I can’t freaking wait to get my hands on this expansion.

Can we just freeze ourselves Cartman style till 2010?

Demigod

Evan — Sun, 31 May 2009 20:31:53 +0000

Developed by Gas Powered Games (Dungeon Siege, Supreme Commander) and published by Stardock (The Political Machine, Galactic Civilizations), Demigod is a unique RPG and RTS hybrid that puts you in control of a powerful, God-like being bent on the destruction of the opposing Demigods. By capturing flag points which give buffs, portals that spawn automated minions and upgrading your base and Demigod, your goal is to work your way past the enemy force’s defenses and destroy their base.

You can pick one of 8 Demigods to play as. 4 of these choices are Generals, and the others are Assassins. The Generals are primarily support-type Demigods and buff up their allies, and rely primarily on their minions and allied Demigods to do the damage for them. The assassins are all about direct damage and getting out on the front lines. In either case, as you capture objectives and kill enemies you earn XP and level, and can then spend points in a talent tree to beef your Demigod up with boosted health, increased hitpoints and powerful abilities.

For example; Oak, my Demigod of choice, is a General that isn’t all that impressive when you start a match. However, after leveling and spending your talent points appropriately, he has the ability to capture the souls of nearby defeated enemies and turn them into ghostly, flying units at your command. He can heal all the allies around him when he kills an enemy. He can even become an invincible killing machine for a short time if he’s defeated, giving you a few extra seconds to beat the shit our of that player you were just chasing down.

The maps are straightforward, but beautifully designed and offer ample room for strategy. You always have at least a few routes into the enemy’s base so if a choke point starts to form you can reroute and try to sneak in from a different angle while the enemy is busy. There are also two portals equally spaced between the opposing factions, which frequently become a point of heated conflict as the sides fight over those spawn points for their minions.

Hell hath no fury like a Demigod scorned

The single player and multiplayer experiences are virtually identical, with the exception that the Demigod-based achievements and trinkets you buy don’t carry over between the two. Although there was negative press about the multiplayer experience at launch, I glad to say that I haven’t encountered any issues and am in fact very pleased with the performance in both the networking and engine. Likewise, I’m very impressed with the visual quality and polish to the mechanics of the game.

The only thing I can honestly nitpick about is the limited selection of maps. Will Gas Powered be offering us more for free, or with an expansion? It seems logical that they would, perhaps along with the rumored 2 additional Demigods in development. I’d love to see them release a map editor so the community could develop new offerings, too.

If you’re looking for a fun departure from the everyday RTS and enjoy RPGs, you’ll love Demigod. It’s a brilliantly designed game with a lot of replay value. The digital download is $39.95, so you can’t beat the price either.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars