Archive for November, 2009
Posted by Stropp on
November 7, 2009
For the last couple of years I’ve intended to get involved in the NaNoWriMo event and spend November writing 50 to 60 thousand words on a subject of my choice — fictional of course, and probably SciFi or Fantasy.
Every year something has come up to thwart that intention. And this year ain’t no different. The contract I’m working was extended yet again at the end of September, not for one month as I expected, but for two. I was kinda hoping it was going to finish at October’s end to give me a chance to get involved in NaNoWriMo.
I did consider attempting a story in any case, but there’s always only so much one can do at the end of a day. It’s hard enough sometimes to unscramble my brain long enough to write a 400 – 600 word blog post for Stropp’s World, let alone 1600 – 2000 words. Some nights I’m not even focussed enough to play a game. I was attempting some crafting the other night in EQ2 and found myself nodding off.
What I might do, if I can come up with a idea for a plot, is to write a short story, something that won’t take quite as much effort. Perhaps some fanfic related to a game, we’ll see.
In the meantime, Syp, Ysharros, Stargrace, Scarybooster (who is attempting the task using an iPhone) and a bunch of others are attempting this epic feat. They’re definitely worth watching. No pressure guys!
Good luck to everyone!
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Posted by Stropp on
November 6, 2009
After going through the preload decrypting and installation process on Thursday evening my time (which took longer than I’d hoped unfortunately) I fired up Dragon Age: Origins, created my first character and started playing.
I didn’t create a Bioware social network account yet, nor have I registered the game. I really just wanted to hop in and get playing. That was probably a good move since I’ve since heard that Bioware experienced the release day blues with their site, and players have had a tough time getting it all to work properly.
I’ll probably do that tonight, especially since I need to register to get the downloadable content and rewards from buying the digital deluxe edition on Steam.
Since this isn’t a review, more a first impressions, I won’t rate the various parts of the game like the graphics (which are excellent and smooth by the way.) Instead, I want to rave about the story.
Dragon Age Origins provides six character origins to choose from. Each of these relates to race and class.
Humans can be warriors, mages, or rogues, and have a single noble origin.
Elves have the same class choices, and have the city elf, or country elf origins.
Dwarves can only be warriors or rogues, and have a choice of noble or commoner origin.
Mages only have one origin as they are effectively imprisoned, a gilded cage of sorts.
Each origin provides a different story, and so far I have played four characters, a human noble warrior, human mage, city elf warrior, and a dwarf noble. Each of these stories has been told excellently, which is one of the reasons I’ve done all four to date.
Each of the characters, except for the first; the human noble, has taken me a little over an hour to complete. At that point you are taken into the main storyline, which is the same for all character types. However, there are apparently still differences here, and your race and origin affect how NPCs treat you. I’m also wondering if those choices affect how the game progresses.
So far my favorite is the Dwarf noble warrior. I really enjoyed the quests leading up to… hmmm, perhaps I should say any more, eh?
Hopefully I’m not speaking too soon, but I think once again Bioware has shown themselves to be masters of storytelling in games. They’ve drawn me into their plotlines to the point where I’ve felt some pretty strong emotions in some scenes, and towards some characters.
And that King I met. I’m really not too sure what to make of him yet. I’ll have to watch him closely…
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Posted by Stropp on
November 4, 2009
There’s something that the big AAA MMORPG developers seem to be missing in their search for the Holy Grail of that World of Warcraft Killer.
The bar has been raised.
It doesn’t matter if World of Warcraft started life with more than a few bugs and far less content than it has now. Your game has to have at least as much content as WoW does now. And it has to be at least as stable.
It doesn’t matter if World of Warcraft wasn’t as polished upon release as it is now. Your game has to have at least as much polish as WoW. (That means no graphical glitches, spelling mistakes, or placeholders in the quest text.)
Your new game has to have at least as many quests as World of Warcraft after two expansions. And they must work cleanly.
That new MMORPG doesn’t just need the best release of all time, it needs to operate as smoothly as WoW does now, from the first day (or at least before the end of the free month.)
In short, if you are developing a WoW Clone, and want people to not only buy the box, but stay after the first month, then your game must be better than WoW in every way.
It occurs to me that perhaps the reason that no-one has created a World of Warcraft killer yet, isn’t because Blizzard pleased The Fates with the correct sacrifices, or that they were in the right place at the right time. Perhaps the reason is that they really do have a superior product. Could that be all it takes for someone else to make the much sought after WoW Killer?
It may even be possible that a World of Warcraft clone with simply more content and the same level of polish, and at least the dedication to marketing that the WoW marketing team has shown, would be a World of Warcraft killer.
The thing is, no-one has done that yet.
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Posted by Stropp on
November 4, 2009
Blizzard is certainly having a rough time lately with the operation of World of Warcraft in China.
The transfer of the licence to a new operator didn’t go smoothly at all. The transfer of what must have been many terabytes of data kept Chinese players from the game for a long time. It must have seemed like an eternity for dedicated World of Warcraft players.
The servers haven’t really been back in operation for long, and there is another problem. A bunfight between the Ministry of Culture and the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) has broken out and World of Warcraft is caught in the middle like Kurt Russell. It seems that the MoC has recently taken over responsibility for the administration of all things foreign MMORPG related in China from the GAPP, and the GAPP is more than a little pissed off. So while the Ministry of Culture is treading lightly and has given the all clear for World of Warcraft to go ahead, the GAPP has tightened the rules and has demanded the WoW severs to go dark.
It does make me wonder who is actually overseeing these two Chinese government departments. Surely, there is the equivalent of a Congress or Cabinet (or even the Chinese Premier himself) who could tell one or the other to pull their heads in.
It does seem a little anarchic for such a tightly controlled governance system.
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Posted by Stropp on
November 4, 2009
I don’t usually make a habit of posting release or patch notes for the games I play. For the most part these tend to be fairly widely reported if the game is popular. But on this occasion I think there’s merit in reporting the release notes for the tenth anniversary of Asheron’s Call.
It’s worth noting that the monthly events are one of the things that are unique to Asheron’s Call. No other MMORPG releases new content along with updates to the storyline each and every month. Sure a lot of games patch monthly, or even weekly in some cases, but new content? That is the strength of Asheron’s Call, and probably the major reason the game has survived to this day in a world of new shiny.
Without further ado, here are the release notes for the tenth anniversary event.
Happy 10 Years Dereth!
Greetings and welcome to the Release Notes for the 10th Anniversary of Asheron’s Call! It has been an incredible journey so far, one which we hope continues for a long time. As our way of celebrating this occasion, we have made some really exciting additions to the game. We are really excited about these changes and what we have in store going forward. Most importantly we want to thank all of our players. Without you, none of us would be here working on the game we love. Thank you!
So without further delay, lets see what is new and exciting this month in Asheron’s Call!
Two Handed Weapons
The Viamontian masters have agreed to offer training in the art of Two Handed Combat to the peoples of Dereth. Due to the expanded use of Two Handed weapons they have become more readily available and will be available in all tiers of loot.
This new skill can either be used as a new player, or can be trained via the training temples already in-game.
Gearcrafting
With the return of the Gear Knights to Dereth also comes Gearcrafting. This skill is used by the Gear Knights to augment their abilities through a variety of implements and trinkets. The clever peoples of Dereth have quickly learned and adapted Gearcrafting.
Implements have been crafted to Expose Weaknesses of creatures through Creature Assessment, so that Leaders can increase the moral of their fellowship and with it their Health, to enhance both the Stamina and Mana of a party through tokens of Loyalty and in combination with Virindi magic using Deception to enhance understanding of Arcane Lore.
Gear Knights bring a variety of technological trinkets to Dereth. These trinkets may be imbued through the use of Gearcrafting to unlock latent magic. These magics enhance Health, Stamina, Mana, XP Gain, Damage and Damage Reduction.
You can read more about Gearcrafting here.
Quest Journal
Players can now keep track of all their quests in the game via an editable in-game quest journal. You can read more on the Quest Journal here.
Augmentations
Eleven New Augmentations have been introduced with this Update! These Augmentations include:
- Foci Free Casting for War, Creature, Item, and Life magic.
- Weapon Master Augments that will increase all Magic, Missile, or Melee skills by 10 points.
- Damage Boosting and Reducing Augmentations that can enhance players Damage Rating.
- Augmentations that will increase players Critical hit Frequency and Critical hit Multiplier.
Gear Knights
Gear Knights have returned to Dereth! Originally encountered by the Empyreans before the Olthoi Invasion, this race of mechanical beings has reopened their Portals to Dereth, seeking lost compatriots and vengeance against those who endangered them. Will you seek to do battle with this new threat to the peoples of Ispar?
New Quest Hubs
Players can now explore low and high level versions of the new Gear Knights, via quest hubs.
Quest XP
Quest XP will now pass up from Vassals to Patrons to Monarchs. This will help encourage more questing.
10th Anniversary rewards
For those with existing characters on actively subscribed accounts when the 10th Anniversary goes live, you may find yourselves with a new companion on your adventures through Dereth.
Special Live Events to celebrate 10 years of Asheron’s Call
On November 2nd, special Live Events will take place all day long. Asheron has discovered that the portals of Dereth have become unstable after being open for 10 years. This is causing portals from the past to open in the present. Creatures from the past 10years are suddenly going to appear all over Dereth. Asheron, Elysa, Borelean and others will need players help to contain this “invasion” from the past.
Miscellaneous Changes/fixes
Throne of Destiny
With this update, every player will now have access to all Throne of Destiny Content. Please be aware that the migration of accounts will still be a Premium Service.
Nvidia/Sky Flickering
Good News! After many, many long hours of work, this issue should now be resolved!
Chat
For some time now, we have been trying to discover the cause of some players having trouble entering chat when logging into the game. While we were unable to determine the root cause, the team has added a retry on entering chat when players are logging into the game. If a player does not enter chat when they first log in, the game will see this and retry up to three times for them. This should help resolve the issue.
So there are just some of the things we have in store for Asheron’s Call in October. Please remember that along with everything listed here, there are several new quests and exciting things going into the game for the October Event.
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Posted by Stropp on
November 4, 2009
There’s nothing better. Getting up in the morning and checking under the tree for a prezzie or three.
Well this morning it’s a bit like that.
Of course the tree is the Steam client, and the prezzie is Dragon Age: Origins, but you get the idea.
Now I have to head off to work in a few minutes. Bummer.
Why can’t the government declare today a public holiday?
Dragon Age Day.
Has a nice ring to it.
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Posted by Stropp on
November 3, 2009
Sometimes it’s hard to fathom how fast time seems to pass by.
It doesn’t seem all that long ago when I played my first FPS, System Shock I on my new 486 laptop (DX2 66 FTW!) It also doesn’t seem that long ago that I installed my first MMORPG on my PC.
That MMORPG happened to be Asheron’s Call, and it was only chance that it was AC being installed and not Everquest.
You see, I was in a bit of a gaming funk one evening around May or June of 2000 and finally decided to try out one of these MMORPG thing that I’d been hearing about. I’d previously dismissed the idea of a game (UO) where you had lots of players socializing along with playing. And the idea of a monthly subscription was ludicrous. It took a couple of years for me to come around to the idea. So when I finally got the urge to try a MMORPG, the only name I knew (aside from UO) was Everquest. I did a little research on the Internet, and headed out into the Autumn weather to a computer store.
When I got there, there was no Everquest on the shelf. Instead there was this box with a brownish artwork. It wasn’t Everquest, and to be honest that artwork wasn’t really that great. I was a bit dubious, so I studied the blurb on the box to make sure I was getting what I wanted, headed to the counter and bought the game and headed home to install it.
Of course, the best laid plans and all that. After I installed Asheron’s Call, I couldn’t log into the game. I’m taxing the old memory here, and can’t remember the exact reason (I suspect it was something to do with the Microsoft passport system), but I spent a while looking though the online FAQs and finally, disgusted, I logged a support ticket.
I was so disgusted in fact that I almost decided to write the whole thing off as a bad joke. However, a day or two later, support resolved the issue and I logged in to Dereth for the first time.
It really didn’t take very long to hook me.
It was incredible to have the freedom to run around and do whatever I wanted to do, which was die a lot early on. I spent the next few months happily playing my completely gimped jack of all trades, Axis, before I realized that it was important to properly choose my stats and skills early on and rerolling, and rerolling again. Hmmm. Maybe AC is to blame for my altitis? Nah.
And like a gateway drug, I have since gone from one MMORPG to the next. Sometimes spending a lot of time in the game, WoW had me for four years on or off, EQ2 probably the next longest stint.
Oh, and I did eventually get Everquest. It didn’t last as long as AC though. There’s something about a first game that imprints a set of expectations of game play that no other game can really ever wash away.
So yeah, all that seems like it didn’t happen all that long ago.
The 2nd of November, 2009 marks the tenth year that players have been tooling around Dereth, called by Asheron to help clean up his mess.
It’s been a good run, and I for one would be happy to see Asheron’s Call around for a few more years.
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