Amirah tells the guild, “Who here is a fan of Erika!” (That’s the name of my EQ2 toon)
My ears perk up and I’m on the edge of my seat, anticipating the wave of spam from everyone online.
There are a few polite replies here and there, trying to help mitigate the sound of crickets. And then…
Amirah tells the guild, “Oops, sorry, that was a typo, I meant Eureka.”
son.of.a.b
Posted by jayernh under Archive | Comments (2)
I’m probably the only person on the planet who hasn’t seen The Dark Knight. Instead, I spent my Saturday night podcasting with Darren, Scott, and John. The two topics were fun – one was about Warhammer’s cuts with a focus on project management, and the other was about WoW, and whether it’s long in the tooth. Thinking about both topics later, it’s interesting how they fit well together. One thing that stands out between WoW and Warhammer is the stark difference in hype. WoW tends to play it a lot closer to the vest than Warhammer when it comes to specifics, so they haven’t had to do the spin job that Warhammer has of late. Maybe that has helped WoW age so gracefully.
Also, regarding Warhammer’s city cuts, I meant to cite Michael Zenke’s article from over a month ago that expressed concern over the less-than-completeness of four out of six cities. If he noticed it a month ago, you’d have to think it’s been on Mythic’s mind for quite some time. That brings up the issue of whether the cuts should have been made sooner, to focus the resources on the stuff that is fairly complete.
Anyway, the show was fun, and a little more lighthearted than some recent episodes. (Seriously, what *is* the deal with Dr. Horrible?!) Hopefully the comments will stay civil!
Speaking of lighthearted, earlier in the week I did a podcast with Troy for EQual Perspectives, and we invited my old gaming friend Shawn (Orko) to join us on the show. Shawn has a nice way of summing up the big picture, and he knows his gaming. “Back in the day,” I used to lean heavily on him in EQ for raid ideas, and he never failed to deliver. On EQual Perspectives, he gave a great rundown of the inquisitor and templar classes, and also talked about the betrayal system. But most notable was his marketing idea for EQ2 – during a “free play” period like the current Living Legacy promo, why not offer up a new race to play, but make it a temporary offer. So you can create characters of that particular race only during the promotion. New and old players alike will be excited to make a limited time race, and chances are they’ll be more likely to stick with it, since it’s something special that allows them to stand out. There are lots of “one time” game events and item rewards that get removed from game after a certain time, so why not a race? It’s a very interesting idea.
On a total side note, I’m irritated with my lack of EQ2 screenshots. When I played Vanguard, I took thousands of shots, and I sorta got hooked on getting just the right lighting, framing, and subject matter. I certainly am no professional photographer or artist (my brother got all the artistic talent), but I really did enjoy looking over my in game snippets after a night of gaming. Whether it was a panoramic view or combat deep in a dungeon, there were tons of moments where I thought “that would make a great picture.”
I don’t feel that way about EQ2. Part of it is that claustrophobic feel of the zones and dungeons, but a big part of it is the lighting. More often than not, my screenshots look way too dark, and even though I’m using max torches and shadows, it doesn’t seem like it from the pictures I’m taking. Any tips are greatly appreciated, because I am tired of looking over recent screenshots and not being able to use any.
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With all the recent discussion about smart project management, it’s very interesting to see how 38 Studios is coming along. A while back, they licensed BigWorld Technology and the Unreal Engine 3, and yesterday, they announced that they had licensed Morpheme, from NaturalMotion. The demo video of Pure, one of the games using the technology, looked pretty neat.
38 Studios seems to be focused on taking advantage of any service or tool that will allow them to save time and focus their resources on all the other tasks that are needed to make an MMO. I just hope, hope, hope that whatever tools they use, whether in house or not, we don’t have to read about how this game is unplayable on anything but the top notch computers that are out when it launches.
Posted by jayernh under Archive,Gaming Commentary | Comments (3)