And so before long the time came to move across and start playing Eve. And it was good, very good. It was the game that Earth and Beyond should have been. Where these 2 differ is that Eve is still going from strength to strength, Earth and Beyond is a distant memory. But again, before too long, I wanted something more, something different. And so I moved on again.

Fast forward to 2009 and here I am again. In those intervening years I’ve played (and left) Guild Wars, Horizons, Everquest 2, Star Wars Galaxies, Conan, Lineage 2, Dark Age of Camelot, City of Heroes, D&D Online, Lord of the Rings Online, World of Warcraft and The Matrix Online. For at least half of these, I was also involved in the beta and so saw the game before it was “polished”. But each one of these, in turn, has killed my enthusiasm, and therefore lost my subscription.

And so I look at where I am now. I currently subscribe to both Warhammer Online and Champions Online, both on long term plans. I’ve been with both since day 1, and was a beta tester on both. Warhammer was superb. The idea of Public Quests was a great new thing, the combat was good, the changes introduced made the game better, and it was one of the most polished games at launch that I’ve ever played. Scratch that. It was the most polished game at launch that I’ve ever played. It’s the game where I’ve discovered my hunger for good PvP, and I keep going back to that. You’re immersed in the feeling of being involved in a conflict from Level 1. I got in with a good guild from early on and have been with them ever since. I’ve been with WAR now for over a year, and that’s a long time for me!

Champions is still new. It’s great as it’s like City of Heroes but better. Lots of fun, and allows that child inside who always wanted to be a superhero to come out! I’m still getting used to it but it seems like it’s going to be a lot of fun.

But already I’m yearning for the next thing to come along. Now I can guarantee that I’ll sink a lot of hours into Star Wars The Old Republic. And I quite like the look of both Star Trek Universe, and Stargate. My reason for already looking to the future? Warhammer is becoming a bit samey. WAR is the game that I’ve come closest to the level cap in any game I’ve played (my main is a 39 with a level cap of 40), but progress is now desperately slow. I appreciate that this is due to the kind of things I spend my time doing now (zone captures mainly) and I can accept that. What I can’t accept is the fact that the imbalance that has been in the game since day 1 is still there. If you play for one of the sides, you can build a group of 6 players that is pretty much indestructible due to the combination of skills. That’s all well and good if you can do that on both sides, but you can’t. It’s just not possible. And it’s a game breaker.

My guild in WAR has gone from over 100 members to less than 50 in less than a fortnight. People are flocking away from the game. I’m still with it, but will I renew at the end of my current 3 month subscription? At the moment, I’d say probably not.

So where does that leave me? Perhaps a return to WoW? Perhaps a move to something new (Aion has peaked my interest but I don’t think it’s a long term game for me). Perhaps a move to a different genre (I played the beta of Fallen Earth and didn’t get on with it but I’ve heard so many good things I might have to try it). Maybe I’ll find something else that I’ve not discovered yet that might just tide me over until SWTOR arrives. Who knows. 1 thing I do know is that I’ll find a home somewhere, and when SWTOR arrives, I’ll be packing up wherever I am and moving my MMO time to that…

As a former player (and corporation director) of Eve, I have to say I’m not surprised this is happening. As in real life, it’s very easy to become disgruntled in an online game, especially when part of a player-run organisation such as a corporation. Again, as in real-life, there are then a number of things you can do. The most of extreme of which is to run off with everything you can get your hands on. To my mind it just adds to the realism that CCP (the company that runs the game) has tried to build their universe around. With this in mind, I can’t blame them for not stepping in to resolve things either. Yes a “crime” has been committed, but then let the law enforcers of the universe deal with it, not the “masters” of the universe (no He-Man gags please!).

But who are the law enforcers in the game? Well for crimes like this it has to be the players themselves. But who is going to take on the amassed wealth and power of this corporation to get to the man who stole everything in the first place? You’d need a massive amount of firepower to try and take them down. The kind of firepower that can only be gained by putting in the hours and hours of work needed to build a corporation up to such a level. The kind of firepower that might convince someone else to go and do exactly the same thing.

Moral of the story? Keep your friends close, and your disgruntled ex-employees even closer!

So before we look at the arguments and points being raised, let me just say one thing. We’re not talking about the release of new game mechanics or additional content here, we’re purely talking about fixing problems and removal of bugs. So essentially we’re looking at game developers discovering problems and applying fixes to them. So lets take a look at some of the arguments here:

Impact on non-online players?
As things stand at the moment, all of these new features are being rolled out via some form of online service. Which is all well and good if, like me, your games console (an XBox 360 in my case) is always connected to the internet. However, what happens if you can’t, or chose not to, connect your console to the internet? Then you’re stuck with a game that, potentially, has game-crippling bugs and problems. Imagine the frustration of having played for 20-30 hours in a game and then finding you can’t complete the game because of a bug. Very frustrating, and probably very costly for the developers (lets face it how many people would buy a sequel to a game if they had hit this problem in the original?). So the impact on non-online players needs to be considered here.

MMOs have always had patching
As I mentioned in my introduction, I have played Massively Multiplayer Online games for a number of years. When you buy an MMO, the developer knows that you have an online connection, and therefore knows that any updates that they want to apply can be easily distributed to you. For those not familiar with MMOs, you tend to have a “launchpad” application to start the game. Before you can enter the game world this launchpad will check the versions of the game files that are in use, and if there are any newer files you have to download them. Refuse to download them and you can’t enter the game world, simple as that. This is where things are different with the console world too. Sure, you can stop someone from playing in an online multiplayer game if they don’t download patches, but you can’t stop them playing through a “campaign” style game by themselves just because they won’t apply fixes. With MMOs, patching is a way of life. It’s easy to fix problems and easy to roll-out these fixes due to the nature of the customer base and the product itself. Not so with a console.

Would Windows users complain?
It’s odd as I can’t imagine any other group of users (Microsoft Windows users for example) complaining about having free fixes applied to the piece of software that they use. However, with gamers it seems that they feel differently (I’m not going to get into a discussion about the merits of the relevant License Agreements at this point and who actually “owns” the product). It seems that gamers feel like they have been “conned” if they have bought a particular game, and then the developer admits that there is a problem and supplies a fix to it. I’ve never bought into that mentality myself but I do know that it exists. For me, I’d rather have a game that functions as well as possible, even if this means downloading a small fix to a problem.

Is the game finished when it goes gold?
So this is what the crux of the discussion seems to be for some people. When a game goes gold, it is deemed to be ready for retail, and that the majority of the bugs have been worked out of the product. And there’s a key word in that sentence. The “majority” of bugs have been worked out. I can’t imagine any game developers (or software developer for that matter) ever putting their hands up and saying that their software is 100% bug-free. It just never happens. What some gamers seem to think though is that they have paid for a product and therefore it should be perfect. How could developers ever consider rolling something out that has bugs (some people even now have the opinion that the game isn’t finished if it has bugs in it – these could be the same people who say that development cycles are currently too long!)? And do they really believe that a lot of other consumer products are rolled out with absolutely zero problems?

So is it good or bad?
Well I guess it depends on your point of view. For me I’d say it’s absolutely a good thing. I’d much rather have a steady stream of games appearing, and allow the developers to apply fixes as they need to, than wait for months between game releases. And lets face it, it’s not every game that falls foul of this. For me it comes down to a matter of expectations. I expect a game that I buy to be at a certain quality level, and I accept that there may be some problems that need fixing. However, others want the utopia of having perfect games available, when they want them, at a price that they want to pay. Obviously these people have never worked in software development!

I’d read a few previews and interviews with Turbine software, and was quite excited by the prospect of play D&D again. It’s quite a few years now since I sat around a table with friends and played the pen and paper version of the game, but I still have very fond memories of those gaming evenings. Undoubtedly Turbine and Wizards of the Coast have taken on one of the most difficult tasks in trying to produce this game. That task being to recreate the atmosphere of a table top session, and replacing the mental images that each gamer had in their head of their surroundings with a believeable on-screen world. So how have they done?

Well I have to say I’m pretty impressed. As anyone who comes here often will know, PC MMORPG’s have been abandoned by me recently in favour of my XBox 360. My Everquest 2 subscription has now expired and I can’t say I’m really missing it. So it was from an unbiased standpoint that I approached DDO. I didn’t need to enjoy the experience as I’m not short of games to play at the moment. But enjoy it I did. The graphics build into a very believeable world and it looks good. It even reflects some of the elements that I had in my head from my table-top D&D days.

The game starts with you just landing in a training area and proceeds to give you a quick walkthrough of the controls, and how to interact with objects. A couple of interactions with NPC’s later and you are in an instanced training area. At this point the game changes slightly and you have a new window on-screen – the Quest window. This shows you what the next objective is and ticks off any that you have already achieved. Another tab on here is the XP window which then shows how much XP you can expect to receive from this quest. It’s worth checking back here often as bonuses are applied as you get further in. Perhaps one of the best touches in recreating the table-top sessions is the games use of narrative in an area. On approaching one door I was informed by the “GM” that I “can hear scrabbling and scratching on the other side of the door”. Sure enough on opening the door the GM tells me that I am “being rushed by a conjured spider”. A swift kicking ensued and that was that. But the atmosphere and suspense is there by the power of suggestion of the GM.
My first quest was to find 5 objects in the cellar of the inn, and this built upon the initial “tutorial” area by adding some combat and interaction with things such as levers and the like. The area was quite atmospheric, looked good (the large mirror in the first room looks fantastic), and is paced about right for a starting area.

So through this area, a quick bit of advanced training and you’re ready to head off to Stormreach, the main town in the game. And that’s as far as I got. So will I be buying DDO when it comes out? Well if the game continues as it has started then I could be very very tempted. It looks good, it plays well and, for me, it recreates those long-lost table-top sessions with friends that I have enjoyed so much in the past.

The title refers to the something that happened yesterday. Something that came as a bit of a shock to be honest. The shock was caused not by the fact that I actually did what I did (I knew it would happen eventually), but that it was yesterday when I did it. I’ve finally cut my ties with PC-based MMORPG’s. I’ve cancelled my Everquest 2 account, and even cancelled the pre-order for Auto Assault that I had placed a few months ago! The thing that has made me take this drastic step? My XBox 360 of course!!!

It’s funny as I felt a real affinity with Everquest 2. I had spent the last 14 months raising my character to the heady heights of level 46. If you include my crafting levels I had played through 72 of the 120 levels available in the game. This was somewhat of a record for me, as was sticking with one game for 14 months! But with the arrival of my 360, came a new approach to gaming, and one which Microsoft have obviously put a lot of thought into (I can’t believe it’s a fluke). The way it works (in my eyes) is something like this:

Pre-360
I have half an hour to spare. I can go and whack some things on EQ2.
I have an hour to spare. I can go and finish a few quests.
I have an evening to spare. I can go and do a few quests and whack a few things to boot.

Post-360
I have half an hour to spare. Which XBox 360 game shall I play?
I have an hour to spare. Which XBox 360 game shall I play? And how many achievements can I try to get in an hour?
I have an evening to spare. Which XBox 360 games shall I play after I’ve had another go on Zuma/Hexic? And what’s the name of that MMORPG I used to play?

And that’s pretty much how it goes. I haven’t missed Everquest 2 in the time that I haven’t played it. I can’t deny that I’ve enjoyed my time there, even after all the big combat changes that meant I had to re-learn how to play my character. But I put that down to the game being made better (even if it was frustrating at times!). And the group of people that I shared my online time with, whether actual friends or Guildmates from the game, were a good bunch one and all. But I just don’t have the time anymore. And that’s basically what it comes down to. When I win the lottery (and hence don’t have to go to work anymore) I’m sure that I’ll have the time to play again. Then, the inhabitants of the land of Norrath will once again know the fear of me approaching with a Great Hammer in hand! Until then, they can sleep soundly knowing that they are safe from my wrath…

And so what now? Well I think the lands of the Ferrott has many secrets that I am yet to learn, and so my quest continues there. Perhaps the odd foray into Lavastorm or Everfrost, but I am now edging ever nearer to the magical level 45 when I can switch hunting grounds completely and go and explore the Desert of Flames.

For anyone that has never played EQ2 let me explain where the grind comes from. Each island (or zone) within the game is set up for a specific range of levels. Zek, The Orcish Wastes (where I am at the moment) is really set up for levels 30-45, but there is a definite grouping within Zek. Level 30-35 is a doddle as there are groups that you can take solo which will progress you through this level range quite quickly. Once you hit level 35 you can start to explore slightly further afield, and providing you pick your fights carefully, you can get to 38 without too much hassle. But then things start to slow down a little. The next set of groups are level 39s and come in groups of 3 or 4, or to put them another way, would hand you your ass on a plate if you try to take them on. And this is where the problem starts as you can’t take on the lower level mobs (well you could but it’s not a very efficient way of making up the level), and you can’t progress to the next island (either Everfrost or Lavastorm) as you will be involved in another ass-plate scenario. And so the grind begins. The way I look at it though is that the extended time and number of critters you have to kill means extended amounts of loot and general richness heading my way!! Which can only be a good thing!

As my travels take me further I will recount more tales…

So where else does my gaming time take me?? Well at the moment pretty much onto the Everybody’s Golf course on my PSP. I love my PSP. It is by far my best purchase for a long time (although I think come December 2nd my shiny new XBOX360 will take on this title). Everybody’s Golf is so easy to pick up and play a few holes and then put back down again. I’ve even played it against my brother over Wi-fi, and it was a blast (even if I did get hammered). If Everybody’s Golf leaves my PSP it tends to get replaced with Lumines which is a thing of wonder. Imagine the first time you ever played Tetris. Remember that?? Remember the wonder of “How will I ever get better at this??”. Remember the first time you got a 4 line combo on Tetris?? Now bring that feeling with you into a slightly different game. In this you have to make blocks of 2×2 of the same colour/pattern. And you only have 2 different colours/patterns to play with so it must be really easy right?? Dead wrong. If you haven’t played it you don’t know what you’re missing out on. It’s the reason to buy a PSP in my opinion. It’s scarily addictive and far too easy to kill a whole evening with.

I will post more about games. I will post lots more about games. For now, suffice to say that I’ve already got the rest of my progression to level 41 in EQ2 planned out in my head, and then we’ll see where my adventures take me.