Grinding: all massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) have it. Some more than others, but it is always there. Go forth and slay 50 rats. Collect 10 copper pieces, 32 rat pelts, 19 rat tails. Turn in same. Repeat 245 times. Graduate to killing skeletons. Repeat 895 times. Ding! You leveled! Now go forth and slay 2,655 ghouls…. It is like factory work, but without the pay cheque. In fact, we actually pay someone else for the privilege of doing this, and call it “entertainment”.

You’d think we’d hate it, that these types of games would never catch on, yet tens of millions of players log in every day, strap on their virtual swords, and head out to slay another few thousand denizens of the countryside in pursuit of the elusive level. Every new massively multiplayer online game that comes out perpetuates the grinding “feature”. It is weird, doubly so because I seem to be afflicted by the same behavioral quirk as all the millions of people playing MMOGs. There has to be some reason why…

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been playing massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) more or less since the genre got its name: about 1996. In that time I’ve played at least ten different games of this type: I’ve seen the good, the bad, and the horrendous. And I’m aware that MMOGs face a tremendous challenge beyond just the initial appeal of the first few weeks of play: they have to somehow capture and hold the players attention for years. And when those years have passed, it is nearly invariable that even the best game will end up being remembered by its flaws and disappointments rather than its strengths.

Thus it is that any review of a MMOG is purely a “point in time” perspective. And at this point in time, after about two weeks of play, I can say that Age of Conan is a brilliant game. I can not remember a MMOG that, from day one of its launch, performed so well or impressed me so much.

Read the rest of this entry »

I recently mentioned to my nephew, more or less in passing, that the Age of Conan massively multiplayer game was about to ship. I expected this to result in a “ho hum” sort of response: both he and I have become somewhat jaded over the years from consuming a half score or so different online roleplaying games in the last decade. We play EQ2, there are other decent games, but nothing worth getting excited about.

For reasons unexplained, my nephew ran out and bought two copies of AoC, one for his wife and one for himself. Suddenly the clock was ticking: he was playing the game and enjoying it… using up all those gaming enjoyment quanta, leaving less for me! Thus began my quest to acquire a copy of the game (which I will likely give some sort of review to in the next few days).

1. Off I go to Best Buy: not my favorite store, but they are big, and often have stuff I want. And it was at Best Buy’s subsidiary, Future Shop, that my nephew acquired his copy- the Chilliwack Future Shop, to be precise. Since I live closer to Vancouver, in the Langley area, I went to the Langley Best Buy. A scan of the lengthy shelves there revealed… no Age of Conan. A second and third scan did not change this fact: the program did not suddenly leap out and present itself to me. I hailed a Sales Associate (shudder) and asked “whither is Age of Conan?”, to which she responded “Huh? Oh, well, no, that isn’t out yet. May 22nd is the ship date. Sorry.” I replied “Your knowledge is faulty- it is available, so says the Age of Conan website, several games sites, and the Future Shop in Chilliwack”. My sales associate replied “No, they are wrong- see, it says here, in our weekly flyer- not available until May 22nd. Sorry.” I walked away, muttering curses upon the sales associate, and choosing my next possible source…
2. Across the road to London Drugs: London Drugs has a small games section, but periodically I’ve found they have games on the shelf that no one else has in stock, probably because most people don’t think to look there. The sales person there had no idea what Age of Conan was, but at least she didn’t try to convince me that the world is flat purely because the sales flyer says so- instead she shuffled through several boxes of new inventory on my behalf, but also came up empty. Steeled by a new sense of resolve, I moved on to…
3. Electronics Boutique #1: This particular EB Games store resides in a strip mall sort of midway between Best Buy and London Drugs. They specialize in console games, so I was unsurprised when they had no idea what I was talking about and had no copies upon the shelf. My destiny lay further beyond, perhaps in the realm of…
4. Electronics Boutique #2: Ah, the “EB Games in the mall”. A much more PC-friendly EB store, the one in the mall almost always has pleased me by having new games on day one of release. And lo, I was not disappointed: yes, they did have Age of Conan on day one of release… which was the day before I got there. When I arrived, they were completely sold out. By Crom! Truly the dark Gods conspire against my quest. There is only one course left open to me…
5. Future Shop, Langley: where I dislike Best Buy, I generally despise Future Shop. I have often received some of the most pathetic and uncalled for “advice” from their sales trolls, which has led to my patented “I know exactly what I want get out of my way or I’ll run you down and stomp your twitching corpse into the linoleum” shopping method. I strode across the floor, my steely-eyed gaze and unpleasant grimace driving away wave after wave of sales trolls before they could venture within my personal “space”. At last, I stood before the game shelf, scanned its length and… upon it lay my prize, a singular copy of Age of Conan. As my hand closed upon it, I swear I heard the peal of holy trumpets, and felt the touch of the Gods upon my credit card as I strode back with my prize to the checkout counter

And there you have it: my personal quest to acquire a copy of Age of Conan is complete. The game itself now resides upon my hard drive, calling to me as I sit here typing this post…

I’ve been playing less and less of EQ2 during the past year or so. Other than logging in for our regular Saturday session with my Sister Judy and her husband Bryan, my Nephew Shane and his wife Monique, and of course my wife Irene, I really haven’t been playing at all.

I’ve been playing massively multiplayer RPGs for over a decade now: I have a collectors edition version of Ultima Online So I could easily chalk it up to just being “bored” or tired of such games in general, and that’s what I did. I even tried a couple of other games. Vanguard was one, but it didn’t appeal, and ultimately the game itself sort of “died out”. More recently I re-activated my World of Warcraft account- that was fun, but more importantly I started to figure out myself and my disinterest a bit more.

Then my Nephew called up and suggested I get out of that WoW crap and create a new character in EQ2- that might be just the thing. Once I started playing that “new” character (actually one I created a year or so ago- a Kerran Paladin), the final piece explaining my ennui fell into place. I’m back to playing a couple of hours several days each week in addition to our Saturday session. And I’ll likely cancel my WoW account again shortly.

Read the rest of this entry »

I played World of Warcraft a couple of years ago when my Nephew and family decided to check it out. I didn’t mind it, but was just starting to get into EQ2 when we moved and so it was a bit frustrating in that regard. Within a month or two we moved back to EQ2 and have stayed there since.

I’m still playing EQ2 each weekend with my family, and having a lot of fun. But every once in a while I think back to World of Warcraft fondly and imagine that it might be fun to try it out again. Interestingly, WoW is pretty much the only MMOG available for the Macintosh, and so it seemed like a logical progression that one day I would install it on my MacBook.

Of course, I don’t want to go to the store and buy it, and I decided to try out the demo download. It often makes me chuckle when I realize that I’m using an Internet connection dozens of times faster than my modem of yesteryear… and yet the size of the things I download has more than kept pace with the increased bandwidth available:

Ah, a mere 11 hours… well, almost time to read a good book

I have been spending some time playing Sigil’s Vanguard lately. It is important to note that I’ve only played my character to about 15th level (and three characters during final beta to about 10th level). A well-rounded review of the game would, in my opinion, require playing at least two or three different classes to mid-levels, and at least one character to nearly maximum level. Since I will likely never do either of these things, I am not going to give an in-depth review here. Instead, these are just some preliminary opinions based on a couple dozen hours of play time.

Read the rest of this entry »