Grouchy Gamer

NEW BLOG SPACE! Please change your bookmarks

2007-10-31T14:32:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone,

I've decided to go ahead and host my own blog instead of using the Blogger deal. It's much more flexible and it will be a better solution going forward for me and hopefully you all will like it too.

You can find me at www.thegrouchygamer.com. Please head over there and have a look. I would really appreciate it if you would register, too. I'd like to get an idea of how many of you are reading.

Looking forward to seeing you in the new place. This space is free, so I'll keep it here indefinitely for you to reference should you want to.

Take care, see you on the new site!

EA to "Align Costs With Revenue", Heads Sure to Roll

2007-10-26T11:02:00.000-05:00

In an article today on the Destructoid Blog, it was reported that EA has asked all business units, specifically including EA Mythic and their Redwood Shores Studio to "Align costs with revenue". It's been reported that some of the remaining UO staffers have already been let go, effective Thursday. More cuts are expected through attrition, "performance management," and layoffs according to the article.

This is a major problem when a big company like EA purchases smaller studios which then become business units. If the whole of the business is suffering, then the smaller business units have to bear some of the pain, whether the shortfalls are theirs or not. Ironic that this comes on the heels of the suspension of the Warhammer beta until December and the announcement from the head of Mythic that (paraphrased) "EA has been a great partner, and hasn't meddled in our business." Hope you got the new memo, man. The rules have changed. Again.

This is becoming more and more of a pattern, as major publishing houses get their camel's noses under the tent, and before you know it, the whole damn camel is inside there with you. I'm predicting that the "publishing" relationship that SOE has for the upcoming Pirates MMO is a precursor to SOE eventually owning the IP. You read it here first. Well maybe not first, but most recently.

Is there any chance that a major MMO can come to market any more without the involvement of SOE (customer? fuck you.), MS (It's over budget, cancel it), NCSoft (Auto Assault and Tabula Rasa; are you fucking kidding me?), Blizzard (Sorry, we're too busy printing money to make any more MMO at the moment. Maybe after Starcraft II is entrenched we can think about it), or EA (Hmm, can we make John Madden into an MMO?)? There have to be more ways than these to get a salable product to market.

I sure as hell hope so. And to those displaced by this most recent display of poor business acumen in the MMO business, my heart goes out to you. You guys are some of the best people I have ever met and you deserve better. Maybe some day you will get treated correctly and have the stability and creative influence you deserve.

Best to all of you.

WoW is Still THE Fun MMO Out There

2007-10-25T11:20:00.000-05:00

I blogged a few weeks ago about how I was trying some new things and some old things in the MMO world. After trying out a lot of different games, I've come to the conclusion that for replayability, content, gameplay, and plain old FUN, World Of Warcraft continues to be the best option out there.

I resubbed to WoW a month or so ago, and I've been leveling a Warlock. The lock himself isn't as nuanced or complex as say, an EQ Necromancer, but he's still got that same vibe to him and he's a ton of fun to play. I haven't really played him in PVP yet, but I'm looking forward to that. I think that's based on the frustration that Locks created for me when I was playing my Shaman a lot. The cool thing is that when I go back to instances now, I have had to learn and adapt to a completely different playstyle then I had been used to before. For reference, most of my playtime is spent in a Duo with my wife and her Fire Mage. The two make a surprisingly effective duo. We don't have much healing (health stones) but we can burn stuff down, my VW can tank, and we have CC in a couple of different forms.

Our trip back to EQ was ruined for me when we got through with the noob stuff and at around level 20, all the sudden it was duo or nothing. We rarely saw others around in the areas we would hunt, and I suspect that most of the people still playing are either max level or their twinks. Not conducive for reinsertion into the world.

LOTRO just failed to hold my attention. It was like WoW with a different art style. I did like a few things about the game, but overall I hold to my contention that if you want to be like WoW, you had damn well better BE WoW.

I have been testing Warhammer Online, and I can't really comment on that at this time. I can tell you that I like it and it's different from the other games out there, but you already know that or have figured that out for yourself. I can't play that at the moment because of what is reported here at Slashdot.

CoX games feel like a grind for the grind's sake. Lineage ][ is awesome, as long as you don't mind competing with gold farmers for every spawn and being practically compelled to buy Adena (Gold.) EQ II always made me feel claustrophobic, and the population that was never what I had hoped it would become. Branyanu and I were talking last night about how much we missed the old SWG, warts and all. Sure it shipped incomplete, and sure there were some content problems, but it was a world, and you could do almost whatever you wanted to in there.

One of these days I would love to talk with you guys about which (oversimplified) side of the design argument you come down on; Sandbox or Amusement Park. I find myself enjoying the Amusement Park (WoW) a lot right now and longing for a Sandbox like Star Wars: Galaxies of old.

I'm not sure how much longer WoW will hold sway over me, but just in the last few weeks we've had Brewfest and Hallow's End and their attendant quests. No one else has done as good a job as Blizzard in keeping things changing in the world on a week-to-week basis. When my Lock gets to raiding levels and we start into that world again, I will be interested to see if it continues to hold my interest. For now, I'd challenge you guys to convince me that there is something out there that is more FUN to play right now than WoW.

Warhammer Surpasses 400,000 Beta Applicants

2007-09-07T16:35:00.000-05:00

Over at WarhammerOnline.com, they have a little ticker that shows how many beta applicants they have for Warhammer:Age of Reckoning. As of this writing, the number actually shows 416,853.

I find this interesting, as I am not aware of having this kind of beta interest since World of Warcraft. Now, I'm not saying that this is going to be another WoW. Far from it. I don't think it will ever get close to that kind of subscription number (currently over 8 million players worldwide, according to Blizzard.) I do think it's an indication that people are looking for something, anything to hitch their wagon to.

At the Austin Game Developer's Conference this week, Gordon Walton of Bioware gave a speech about the 12 lessons on making MMO's in the "post-World of Warcraft" era. In an article on Gamasutra, these 12 lessons are summarized.

I'm of two minds regarding his assertions. I do believe that his pragmatic view of the current climate is mostly right-on. I think he misses the point on a couple of his points. First, in "Lesson 4," he asserts that people will only play MMO's until the solo content runs out. While that may be true in the beginning to middle of the game, I'm yet to see an end-game that effectively supports solo play. So his point is not exactly correct, as if it were there would be a lot fewer subscribers still playing WoW than there still are. Second, in "Lesson 9," he says that characters on canceled accounts should be deleted to make more "name space" for new players. Sure, if you never want people to resubscribe. I just resubbed to EQ, of all things. Had my 3 or 4-year-old characters not been there I would have turned around and immediately canceled. I don't think this is a good idea.

The reason I brought up these subjects together is because I believe that to have 8 million subs, you have to have a perfect storm of the game, the community, and the brand. No one else has all the ingredients to do that. The only ones close are SOE, and they lack the reputation and community support.

WAR has a chance to be a great MMO, although I don't think this means anything like 8 million subs. I'm encouraged to see some excitement for the upcoming MMO titles. I don't see any of them unseating WoW or becoming the legendary "WoW-Killer." From what I am reading about WAR, I think it has a chance to become a strong contender for market share.

For now, WoW is safe. I don't believe that the "WoW-Killer" is in the pipeline.

MMO Development Reaches it's Stale Phase

2007-08-29T15:28:00.000-05:00

One month.

That's how long it's been (to the day) since I felt moved to write here. That's a long time. Now, I have been busy with work, so that means travel. Travel takes it out of you once you have done it for a while, but I digress.

The reason that I haven't been writing is that I haven't found much to be writing about. Sure I could do all kinds of theoretical babbling about games and what people want in game design. I'm probably not qualified to do that and so I'll leave that to the Ryan Schwaders (it's not babbling when he does it) of the world (Nerfbat.) I can speak with authority from the user's viewpoint. That is where the wicket gets sticky.

Here is where I am right now, and I have to believe that some of you are here with me. I currently have 4 MMO's installed on my gaming rig. Five if you include a particular beta which I can't talk about so for the sake of this discussion doesn't exist. The other 4 are EQ (yeah, yeah, I know,) WoW, LOTRO, and Vanguard. I have let my EQ2 sub lapse, but it's still installed.

Branyanu has been missing EQ so we reinstalled it and started playing it again. We quit not too long after the level cap was raised above 60, so I had a barely 61 Druid (Genda) and she has her 58 'chanter. After an evening wrestling with the damn game to get it to run without CTD on her system, we sat down to play. Our 2 hours resulted in a level change. Genda is now 60. It was also a stark reminder for me that you can't go home again. As much as we loved EQ at the time, everywhere we could hunt at that level was a ghost town, and there isn't much going on that we could see.

I'd probably enjoy getting going with WoW again. Once again, we had quit soon after the level cap was raised, so my 60 Orc Resto Shaman (Akhan) and her 60 Troll Hunter (Tarkheena) are behind the times. She's had enough of WoW, and I've learned not to press my duo partner too hard, lest I not have one. It's still just another fantasy MMO, although I do appreciate the "amusement park" style of design.

Vanguard. It's problems are well-documented. Programming-wise, it's still a mess. Maybe the server merges (from 13 servers down to 4) will help spur the community there and make it easier to find a group.

LOTRO. See WoW.

I've seen a little on the upcoming games in the pipeline, and there isn't anything revolutionary out there. Tabula Rasa looks like Guild Wars or DDO. AOC looks like a refined version of Lineage ][. WAR is like a cross between WoW (questing) and DAOC RvR.)

I am starting to think that the genre is at a standstill, and really has been since WoW. As a matter of fact, I am starting to believe that WoW killed PC gaming. Just go have a look at the PC games out there on the shelves, and tell me 10 good titles that have shipped since WoW that aren't ports to or from consoles. I rest my case.

I'm hoping that we see some new developments soon, although with what it costs to fund and develop one of these monsters, the irony may be that no one is willing to take a risk that big. And by not taking a risk, we aren't getting the benefit as gamers.

Hmm, I hear that UO just got a graphical face lift.

Naaaaa.

38 Studios Enumerates Their Vision

2007-07-29T12:14:00.000-05:00

Over at Ten Ton Hammer, they have a set of videos from the guys over at 38 Studios. I'd encourage you to head over and have a look.

There are a few things that struck me about the videos and the "Vision."

First of all, this vision is a lot different than the infamous Sigil "Vision (tm)." These guys remind me a lot of some of my friends that have been professional athletes. Supremely confident, focusing on the positive, and focused as hell.

This attitude, which is very evident in the videos, is indicative of one or many of these things.

1. Incredible hubris. These guys haven't done anything in the gaming industry, other than Brett Close, and he doesn't have any hands-on MMO credentials. Now, their rank-and-file development team is shaping up to have a lot of experience, but the leads don't.

2. Confidence in their ideas. I can see why this is, as they have ALL been incredibly successful in their chosen fields. Curt Schilling has had an amazing MLB career, R.A. Salvatore has been one of the most visible and read fantasy authors of our generation, and Todd McFarlane has made an empire of comics, figures, and custom illustration. Even though I am not personally a big comic reader I have been aware of Todd's work for some time. I've been collecting his Dragons figures for a while now. It's easy to see why they are confident that they can contribute to a really amazing new IP.

3. Confidence in their ability to execute their plan. Lots of other have been down this road. It remains to be seen if this part of their plan can be pulled off. A lot of people with more industry experience have churned out mediocre projects, or even projects that never got shipped. I think there are a lot of land mines on this road. I like their chances based on the collectives' refusal to accept anything but the best. I think this may possibly be the tie-breaker in their ability to do this, although it's SO easy to find yourself 3 years down the road and over budget and behind schedule.

I'd be interested to hear when you readers think about this. What do you like about 38's team? Their chances to do what they are saying they are going to do? Are they going to achieve "World Domination Through Gaming?"

Head over to TTH and see the videos. It's our first real taste of what these guys have in store.

SOE Continues to Not Get It

2007-07-18T19:25:00.000-05:00

So this is probably just a minor thing, but I wanted to share with you all why I want to continue to distance myself from SOE and it's products.

The links on VGPlayers to my forums have been broken for months. I had requested quite a while ago that they get fixed, and they didn't. It's understandable, as Sigil was in the process of imploding. Today, when Michelle Butler, the "community manager" for SOE/Sigil had requested on the fansite forum that we update our links, I again requested that the links get repaired. Here is the reply;

"I am told the links are difficult to modify and so they are staying like they are."

OK

1. If this is so, why did you ask us to check them?
2. What's so fucking hard about updating a link in your Dreamweaver page?

This is just another example of how SOE keeps it's "community" at arm's length, and has done NOTHING to repair the rift that was created by their dismissive dismissal (yes, I did that on purpose) of the Affiliate Program at the time of their takeover. There has been no communication from SOE to us other than requests for us to do tasks for them. No offers of help, no offers of support, no offers of content or anything of the like.

That's all fine. They aren't beholden to us. They are missing an opportunity for the community to help them repair their damaged reputation, and instead once again they go the opposite way.

We've all spent lots of time supporting their lousy game, and they can't even be bothered to fix a link page.

This is why SOE will never be World Class.

Change of Direction Here

2007-05-26T19:04:00.001-05:00

As I've started to blog, I've noticed that in the blogosphere, the blogs I enjoy most are the ones that are written from the perspective of the industry in general, then specifics within the industry, then about specific games. In that order.

So what I've decided to do is to follow my interests a little more broadly, and make sure that this blog isn't just going to be about Sigil, SOE, and Vanguard. I'd like for the blog to be read, although that isn't the only reason I write here. The process is cathartic for me as well.

Going forward, I'm hoping to comment on the industry in general, community relations, community management, and the "next generation" of games in the pipeline. I'm most interested to see what becomes of Warhammer Online, Age of Conan, and whatever the guys over at 38 Studios (formerly Green Monster Games) are up to.

Thanks to all of you who have put this extremely humble blog on the map, even if it's only a pin-sized mark so far. I hope to earn your interest and participation as we go along.

As an aside, I have had the opportunity to visit London this week on a business trip, and I had a little slack time to enjoy the city. If you haven't visited the UK, or London in particular, I can't recommend it highly enough. It's expensive (it makes Manhattan and Disney World seem like a bargain) but it's an amazing and vibrant city. Of the cities in the world that I have visited, it's horned it's way closest to my heart and I can't wait until my next visit.

Here is a picture I took today, just one of many but I thought this was beautiful. It's a crest that is on the gate at Buckingham Palace, the Queen's London residence. The city is full of amazing history and art. I'm starting to ramble, but if you ever get the chance, visit London and the UK.

It's Deja Vu All Over Again

2007-05-19T10:19:00.000-05:00

With all the crap hitting the fan over at SOEigil the other day a lot of old laundry is being dredged up. In light of some of the things I have heard from former Sigil employees (when they were still Sigil employees) some of the things that I had heard about in the past but dismissed now seem to be given added credence if not corroboration.

In this post from The Safehouse in 2001, some of the same or similar types of observations were made about Brad McQuaid's management "style" as are being made today. In particular, this quote caught my eye;

Things weren't coming up roses at 989/redeye/verant. Brad himself had basically done no work whatsoever since Everquest's release, and many (including Kelly Flock) think he didn't do anything *before* its release. Brad thought of himself as infallible, and Everquest's incredible success, his millions, and his ferrari were all proof of his greatness. Being crowned a "Game @#%$" by PC Gamer didn't help either. His self-aggrandizement cannibalized Verant's customer relations for its entire existance. He insisted on being the sole point of contact with the public to promote his own name, and he did a miserable job.

Overall, it's an interesting post-mortem about how Brad allegedly left Verant/989/SOE back in 2001. If you look at that and also look at the recent posts to f13 and here, I think you'll see some staggering similarities. Where I come from, if something happens once, it's a happening. If it happens more than once, it's a pattern.

I'll let you draw your own conclusions on this one but to me it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck.

Brad McQuaid "Clears the air"

2007-05-17T17:13:00.001-05:00

In this interview with f13, Brad McQuaid tap-dances around the reasons for his specacular failure, Sigil Games Online. He seems to lay a large part of the blame on Microsoft and it's "Zoo Tychoon" management team. Classic. Here is a little snippet where Brad justifies his decision-making on the story we broke here the other day;

f13.net: Right after the split and before the tragedy the other day, that's when people claim you started to be in the office... not quite as much. Can you explain why?

Brad McQuaid:: We need to back up a little bit. After we split from Microsoft - because obviously we couldn't ship the game in an unready state - we had to go out and do something. Find money to make the game that we could and all dreamed about. We cut a deal pretty quickly so that we could get into SOE's E3 kiosk. We ended up having to meet payroll and to pay the bills. We needed to raise money. We went out and found some people who specialized in venture capital and I worked with those people immediately following the deal coming together. I started working with them on putting a deal together to fund the game to completion and fund the company post-completion and to possibly start a second title. It was basically "get money that we needed." So I started working with these people, it was a learning experience - I'd never really been in the private investor/VC world - and we started that process. I was in and out of the office quite a bit. Demoing the game, showing it to potential investors and putting together the documentation. All sorts of stuff you have to do for that kind of money.

f13.net: So that time being out of the office was business?

Brad McQuaid: It was a bummer. Even going back to SOE, I want to make games. The executive producer side of things is more fun than the CEO business side of things. But it had to be done, right? So it was a bummer leaving a lot of that behind and it simply had to be done.

So I guess the only other thing I have to ask Brad is; When did it stop being you out of the office drumming up non-existent financing and start to become "a bummer?"

I guess my personal feelings about this whole thing are getting the better of me, but my bullshit detector was going off all through that story. What do you guys think?

read more | digg story

The Other Shoe Drops at Sigil

2007-05-15T22:14:00.000-05:00

Today the other shoe dropped at Sigil. According to John Smedley,

"Today I would like to formally announce that SOE has acquired the assets of Sigil Games Online, including Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. As a part of this acquisition, we are bringing on approx 50 people from Sigil in order to insure [sic] that Vanguard continues to grow. SOE is dedicated to making sure that Vanguard is well taken care of and that we provide the same level of service we do for our other titles. In the near future we will come out with a publishing plan that will largely be driven by the strong player community that Vanguard has already built up. We plan on supporting Vanguard for many years to come, and you can expect many content updates as part of your subscription. Down the line we will of course be coming out with new expansion packs, but right now the focus is on making sure Vanguard is running the way it should be.

"We are also officially opening up forums. In the past, our deal with Sigil didn't allow for this, but as with our other games we feel this is an important part of communicating with the playerbase. You can expect a strong presence from our community team as well as the development team members. While we realize that Sigil had said they wouldn't open up general forums, at SOE we feel this hampers our efforts to communicate effectively with the players. We will continue to support the fansites in a big way, and will be contacting many of them directly to discuss what this change means. By no means do we want to lose the strong fansite support by making this change, but we do think it's important to have a forum for players to communicate directly with SOE.

"A few other items I wanted to mention:

1. Brad McQuaid will be consultant to SOE as a creative advisor for Vanguard. Dave Gilbertson will be the person directly responsible for the day-to-day management of both the Sigil Carlsbad office as well as Vanguard.

2. We do not plan on making any major changes to Vanguard. Any changes are going to come from the team itself. We aren't mandating any big changes to the game. We've learned a thing or two with our experiences with the NGE and don't plan on repeating mistakes from the past and not listening to the players.

3. We do plan on spending a lot of time cleaning up legacy issues with Vanguard and making sure the game's performance improves.

"By way of comparison, this team is approx. the same size as the EQ2 team and I feel like that team has done an amazing job improving EQ2 since its launch. We intend to do the same thing for Vanguard and it is our hope that the players feel like we're doing right by them."

Just for clarity, the Sigil team was near 100 before these actions were taken.

As far as the central forums are concerned, let them have them. They are already a festering sewer, and will only get worse. The funniest things I've seen through all this was one of the SOE forum slaves over there proclaiming "This is the place to come for answers!"

Yeah, good luck with that.

I have some seriously mixed emotions about this. First of all, some people that I know and care about lost their jobs. Some good people stayed. As the site admin for Vanguard Crafters, I can tell you that the crafting team was in a no-win position. They were going to cut the team in half, and there was no easy choice I'm sure as the crafting team was strong, in my opinion. Salim Grant and Justin Deebs ended up staying, and they are both exceptional in what they do. Losing Kurt Wagner and Daniel "Steve" Newman hurts though, as both of those guys had some skills that won't easily be replaced.

According to my sources at Sigil, some of the people who originally acted as boat anchors to the project remain, and they have less optimism about the ability of Vanguard to recover quickly as they would have had if some of the "disruptive forces" would have been removed at this opportunity. SOE is bound to make some mistakes as they sort out who they should have on the team and who should go.

Overall, I think the businesslike approach that Sony is going to bring, and the needed structure will help get the Sigil team back on track. As I have alluded to before, I don't think it's the working people at Sigil that got Vanguard all balled up, but the leadership or lack thereof. SOE's leadership should help the new smaller team get some things done.

This should be the extent of the drama for now. As the new smaller team gets settled in and the community gets it's feet back under it, we'll see what happens next. For now, we've lost some friends at Sigil. Here's to hoping that they find something better soon.

Brad McQuaid Abandoned Vanguard, Sigil

2007-05-14T23:54:00.000-05:00

This is the blog post that I hoped I would never write. I recently became aware of some "things" about the internal goings-on at Sigil, but for the sake of the people that I know that work there I've kept them to myself. Or should I say "worked" there. According to f13.net, "at approximately 4:30PM today, Sigil employees were told to meet outside. At which point they were terminated. On the spot." You can see the article at www.f13.net.

I was able to get confirmation on this tonight from a couple of very reliable sources. So the company has now officially been driven into the ground. Here is what most people don't know, outside of Sigil.

Brad McQuaid has been an absentee manager at Sigil for months. Not only has there been a leadership vacuum at Sigil, with the employees there left twisting in the wind, but I have been able to confirm that Brad hasn't even bothered to be at the office.

Since last year.

Reliable sources confirmed to me that Brad hasn't been at the Sigil offices save a couple of brief visits since December of last year. Whether or not he was supposed to be the creative force behind the game as we were lead to believe, he was the leader of Sigil and at a time when the game was under a deadline and his people (many of whom left promising or lucrative positions elsewhere to hitch their wagons to his star) were left to fend for themselves. That's right. When the shit was hitting the fan, and the game was under crunch, Brad went all Brian Wilson on his people. I'm not sure what the psychology of that was, or whether the producers there didn't want him around. Whatever the case, he wasn't able to show the leadership to rally the troops, or even to keep them up out of the dirt. To their credit, the people working at Sigil remained professional even in the face of the lack of professionalism from the top.

As a fansite operator, I can testify that Brad wasn't around for us either. As a matter of fact, Brad never showed support for the affiliate program. Whether you believe that the Affiliate Program was a good idea or not, the CEO of the company should probably support it. When we challenged Brad on his record of (lack of) support for the program, he let us know that he thought it was better spending his time posting on sites like FOH and MMORPG.COM, to evangelize the program. Evidently that took a lot of time, or it just wasn't possible to cut into his Hero-Clix schedule.

It would be amusing how fast the denizens of FOH are throwing dirt on Sigil's grave were it not so tragic for the lives and careers he's irreparably harmed. Irony at it's finest.

The bottom line for me is this;

I can't believe that the CEO of the company can't make an appearance at his own company for 4 or 5 months if to do nothing more than lend moral support. I have heard that Brad is worthless for anything important, and a lot of people probably found him an irritant. I know that most of my later interaction with Brad wasn't positive. His fansite presentation at E3 2006 left me cold. Jeff Butler had a ton of energy and told us a lot about his vision for the game, but Brad couldn't have looked less interested in being there. On one of my visits to Sigil, Brad was overheard telling someone in a customer/community position not to give an answer to a question, and if someone asked why, just to "tell them I'm eccentric." The best he had to contribute was dismissive. So Mr. Eccentric, how does it feel to have a mud-hole stomped in you by effing Turbine?

In the interest of full disclosure, I should tell you that I'm pissed that I wasted 2 years on developing a community at my site for a game that is nothing more than a steaming pile of shit. I'm pissed that the good people (and good developers) that I care about at Sigil are now in the street, and Brad still has millions and Jeff Butler a job. I'm also pissed that the game was so badly mismanaged and allowed to get to this point. I'm also pissed that the good people at my site have dedicated so much time to help each other only to see this happen.

I truly hope that all my friends at Sigil will land on their feet. I also sincerely hope that no one ever gives Brad another cent to make a game or to start a company and put other's livelihoods at risk. It's evident that Brad lacks the skills, dedication, or maturity to handle that situation.

In the end, this game may someday be good. Tomorrow, when this news is announced a lot of the SOE haters will just jump ship, whether SOE had anything to do with this game failing or not. Fact is, it has (failed.) And fact is, it's not SOE's fault. The blame for this one falls squarely at the desk where the buck should stop. The CEO's office. The empty one in the corner.

I Hate Being Wrong

2007-04-17T00:40:00.000-05:00

But I've been wrong again.

According to Aggro Me, SOE has hired a former IGE exec as their VP for Asian Market Development. While talking to some people close to the situation, I was told that the situation is "just business."

I think it's bad business and here is why...

SOE has a public relations problem with it's loyal fan base. Yes, I know that we as a fan base can be a bunch of asshats, but still they keep doing things that alienate us more and more. The SWG debacle, RMT for fun and profit in EQ2, the snuggling up and now the hiring of IGE management. I see it as a big flying fickle finger of fate to all the people that have for years decried the existence of RMT in SOE's products, who have had to endure the ineffective counter-measures taken by SOE to rid the games of the cash influence, and now the tacit admission from SOE that they don't give a flying fuck at the moon about what we think. They have a number to hit, and dammit they are going to hit it.

It's our fault really. We've been loyal and faithful and continued to play and purchase their games. I guess they thought that was our way of saying we approved, or just telling them we are stupid. You can hardly fault them for drawing those conclusions, but I'm going to. Here's why.

While we can be a monumental pain in the ass, and we've done so much posturing and gesturing as a community we're really a bunch of pussies. And until we give SOE the FFFOF and tell them with our dollars, or lack thereof, that we are sick and tired and we aren't going to take it any more we can expect nothing but more of the same.

I've been railing against RMT for years. I'm just a lone voice in the wilderness. I know I don't influence anyone when it comes to this crap. I just wish there was ONE game where players could go and be insulated from that shit once and for all. Even if the game were only average, it would be nice to have a vacation from it. If people want to play games like that it's their business. I don't play EQ2 in part because it has Station Exchange. That's my insignificant way to take a stand. I don't play any other game developed by Sony either.

Brad promised us a continued stand in Vanguard against RMT, and they have been making a good show of it on the game. But Brad's good buddy Smedley has to have been the impetus behind this hire. Presidents hire the VP's right?

Well this is all bad, customer relations-wise. I can't imagine anyone seeing this as a positive for SOE and it's PR. I keep hearing that one of the strengths of SOE is it's PR machine, but seriously it's just the emporer's new clothes.

Here's to hoping that this isn't the camel's nose a little further under the tent. IGE is a corrupt organization that operates mostly off shore and isn't afraid to shake things up if it's in their best interest. They have some of the best spin doctors in the business.

I'm starting to think I was wrong. Maybe I'm on the wrong side.

Brad McQuaid Thinks you Screwed Up Vanguard

2007-03-09T18:15:00.000-06:00

I was cruising through Fire of Heaven's web site today, and much to my surprise I came across this little gem from Aradune, AKA Brad McQuaid, regarding people's expectations and how much like EQ1 Vanguard might be...

Like I said, that message resonated with a lot of people in a positive way, but it also did harm in that those people who don't want another EQ 1 were turned off when they heard about Vanguard but not all of the details behind the game. There were and are also a lot of 'Vanbois' who spread the word that this game was not for WoW players and that people who like a more casual game like WoW were not welcome in Vanguard. In that sense, the messaging backfired and many people aren't even giving the game a chance.

So THAT is the problem with Vanguard. All the negative press and all the dunning that they are getting about the half-baked game they shipped is actually the fault of all the people who have been supporting him over the last few years, the "Vanbois."

I'm having a hard time deciding if this is Brad kissing FOH's ass or if it's just him being an ass. Either way, my opinion of Brad as a person, manager, and steward of this game just went down another notch.

Brad, first of all, if you feel like that, come to the community and post it. And no, FOH is NOT the community. FOH is the retard rickshaw and a place for pricks to stand around and flaunt their e-peens. The community is the people who actually bought your half-finished pile of steaming shit and are trying to play it, and the Affiliate community that is trying to help keep the group focused on the positive, but you don't have the time of day for. You have officially lost touch with your community.

Yes, I'm pissed. Brad, I think you owe the community an apology. If you wanted to start at vanguard crafters, that would be ok with me. Sense of entitlement? Fuck yeah. I've been paying for and operating a fan site for your game for 2 years, and I think we're entitled to at least as much love as you give those catasses over at FOH.

Sigil and Shipping Early

2007-02-27T17:46:00.000-06:00

There's a lot of howling out in the Blogoshpere about how we are being forced to play a beta of Vanguard. The basic premise of that is nonsense, since this is a game, and no one is making you play it. That aside, there are some reasonably cogent points that are being made that I would like to counterpoint.

The foremost among those is the one that asserts that we are de facto financiers for Sigil, since they have said that basically they would have preferred to ship the game later but lacked that option due to some financial realities. So let's review a few things;

1. Everyone loves to hate on Sony, and for some good reasons. I've opined on these pages that there are much worse options than Sony out there to help you with a game. On the other hand, let's just say I don't own any Sony stock, either. That aside all the "$OE" hatebois out there instantly ascribed all sorts of sinister motives from Sony for "forcing" Sigil to ship early. I'm not privy to all the financial inner workings of the Microsoft/Sony/Sigil deal. I do know a couple of things more than most. I'll get to that in a minute. Suffice to say that I don't believe Sony pushed this out the door, at least not for selfish reasons.

2. We all want deep, detailed, developed and polished games to play. We don't seem to want anyone to pay to make them though. Here's the reality of the situation; It takes 10's to 100's of millions of dollars to make a first class MMO. If it's your first one, even more. I'm not sure if or how much personal money Brad McQuaid has at risk here, but assuming it's a (relatively) modest amount someone needs to be financing this. As a community, there are a certain number of us who don't want to pay for anything other than exactly what we want. That leaves it to the Sony's and the Microsoft's of the world to capitalize these studios and get them up and running. When these companies try to recover their investments, we often characterize them as "greedy" or "only in it for the money." I don't know about you guys. I like my job, but if there isn't any money in it' I'm not going in tomorrow.

Problem is, MMO's always cost more to make and take longer than the investors are told. This may or may not be on purpose. The point is, Microsoft lost it's corporate patience, and when Sigil said they couldn't ship July 2006, Microsoft started looking for ways to divest itself. It found that way in early May.

Here's the deal... Name an MMO with a chance to ship completely developed and with a chance to survive, and one of a handful of very well heeled companies is behind them. Warhammer? EA. Conan? Microsoft. Tabula Rasa? NCSoft. I could go on, but you get the point. And who is the ownership behind Sigil and Vanguard? Sigil is. I believe they found some "Angel" venture financing for the deal (outside of one of these major companies,) allowing them to keep ownership and only having to contract with Sony for the parts that they lacked core competency to handle. It's a deal that makes sense, and the crux of it is that they are now in the position of needing to generate cash flow. If all that requires is the game shipping early, I think it's a relatively good price to pay. At least now, they don't have one of the 800 pound gorillas in the room. Granted, there is one in the next room, but all in all I think it was a good trade.

I Heard You Missed Me, I'm Baaaack

2006-10-27T13:39:00.000-05:00

OK summer is over, my insane travel schedule is over for the year, my guild in WoW has hit a wall that the leadership seems too dense to get over (and I sure as hell don't need another responsibility right now, so I'm not volunteering to help,) and the lion's share of my background work is done for setting up some of the web stuff for my Vanguard Site and my other, unannounced, MMO site.

So what, you say? Well I'll be back here starting to write again, and I'll be working on the Vanguard site pretty diligently. I'm also going to start a podcast. Evidently, I don't have enough responsibilities to ignore at the moment.

Please stay tuned in the coming weeks and months. My writers block feels like it's gone, the site is ready to be built upon, and I have a lot of things to talk about.

Thanks for visiting here, and I hope to see you around a lot in the future.

Thanks!
Genda

I AM Brain-Damaged.. SOE is OK?

2006-05-19T07:56:00.000-05:00

I must be losing my mind.  You all have seen my posts here and you can tell that I am obviously no fan of Sony.  I own a lot of their products, true, and have subscribed to some of their services and will again.  As most of you know, SOE, the mutant child of Sony will be co-publishing my beloved Vanguard: Saga of Heroes when it ships.  Here is the weird part.  I’m OK with it.

Here’s why;  All of my problems with SOE as a company are related to game design issues.  While I have heard the hue and cry of others in the community that decry SOE’s “horrible customer service,” I have never experienced that myself.  What I have experienced are wholesale changes in game play, multiple times, to the same game.  Since it’s the most glaring example lets look at SWG.

Branyanu and I started SWG pretty much at launch.  We’d messed with it a little during beta, and there were a lot of things that we liked.  Let me start off by saying that the game was obviously broken at launch.  We didn’t start out doing a lot of adventuring but instead took to crafting at the outset.  The first time we went adventuring with our friends I could see that something was, to use a Texas phrase, bad wrong with the game.  Our friend had a character that was low-level.  In a level-based game he would have been the equivalent of a level 9 or so character.  He was a Creature Handler (CH) and when we went hunting, he ripped out his 2 or 3 (I don’t remember the details) Rancor pets.  These things were as big as my house and bad-ass.. and we tore through content with them.  Of course, SOE nerfed the CH.  This brought an outcry from the community (“I thought this game was supposed to be solo and casual friendly!” ”How can I survive without all my uber-pets?”)  I thought the complaining was ridiculous since it was the most obviously broken class I had ever seen in any game.  So good job, SOE, right?  Well not so fast.

SOE followed up the needed nerfage with unneeded meddling with the game.  Maybe the game was underachieving and they felt that they needed to do something.  I would have suggested adding content and new ways to interact with the existing world.  I would have suggested fixing bugs.  I would have suggested more aggressive marketing.  SOE gave us the combat “upgrade” (CU.)

After the CU, I logged in one day to find my beloved Wookie being owned by a very low level bug in the grass. I tried to shoot him, but my weapon was not equipped.  When I tried to equip my pistol, which by the way was customized and had my name on it thanks to my favorite weapon smith, I was unceremoniously informed that I lacked the skill to wield that weapon.  Turns out everything I knew, combat-wise, was in the toilet.  OK, I always have my crafting to fall back on.  Now for a long time I was a Master Architect.  I made harvesters which required a massive amount of resources to build.  These were used, in turn, to gather more resources.  I spent tons of time and I forget how many credits getting them all built.  At the time I made them, there was no way that you could influence the quality of the harvesters so I made them with whatever resources were available.  SOE changed the rules and made quality of construction count on harvesters, rendering mine inferior and basically forcing me to start that part of my career over if I wanted to stay competitive.  This was a design decision that could have been foreseen and should have been made, in my opinion, pre-launch.  Worse, in my opinion, they made it so you could grind your way to Jedi status.  This broke the game further by breaking it into 2 classes; Jedi and non-Jedi.  The differences were glaring and if you didn’t want to do the “Jedi grind,” as it came to be known, you were further devalued in the game.  Regardless, I took advantage of my opportunity to respect my character and made a non-crafting Wookie out of him.  Then came the New Game Experience (NGE.)

The NGE was purported to make the game more attractive to new players.  Evidently, the game had continued to under-perform, in spite of SOE’s “adjustments.” This made more changes necessary.  This time, all the classes in SWG were reduced to a few, and all of the “support” classes were eliminated.  This disenfranchised thousands of crafters and dancers and other classes that had enjoyed the game at a different level.  Tens of thousands reportedly left the game.

At any rate, I’ve begun to ramble but the point is that SOE as a game design company has demonstrated that they don’t “get”  MMO gamers.  We pour tons of hours and care into our characters and that has value to us. To rip those from us in the name of gaining new subscribers only alienates us, the people that HAVE been paying to play.  New players often come and go, and are more transitory in nature.  Now SOE has eroded their core base and subjected themselves to the whims of a much more transitory “twitch” gamer, who notoriously moves from game to game just looking for something new and hot.  I guess they forgot about how MMO gamers stick with games for years at a chunk instead of weeks.

So how does this relate to my being OK with SOE hosting the Vanguard servers?  Well, Brad has always been very honest with us, and he looked me in the eye and told me “never” when I asked him when SOE might have control over game play.  That is good enough for me.  Brad has occasionally stubbornly stuck to his guns when he needed to make a concession, but he has never lied or intentionally misdirected the community that I have ever seen.

So as much as it will pain me to see that SOE logo on the Vanguard box, you can bet that I will be there when the doors open at Fry’s and I’ll be among the first to be on Vanguard Live.  Sometimes the devil is entertaining when you put him in a little box, anyway.  If nothing else, this should make for some interesting observation over the next few years.

Sony, what's that flushing sound?

2006-03-30T22:39:00.000-06:00

Sony is sick, and the heads aren’t done rolling over at SOE. Maybe Sony should change the name of the company to Woe. It seems it would be more in keeping with the way things are going for the Japanese electronics giant. This week, a source with connections deep within SOE told me that preparations are being made for the departure of John Smedley. I know that is breaking a lot of you up. Choke back the tears for a second. Smed has been at SOE for a long time. And you can’t say he hasn’t accomplished something. Clearly we can’t lay all of Sony’s woes at Smed’s feet, but let’s do a little inventory of how things have been going for Sony.

It’s the early 90’s and Sony is all but ubiquitous. They are a market leader in stereo components, VCR, video cameras, and several other consumer electronic devices. Sony’s Walkman and Discman portable tape and CD players are dominant in the market they created. They probably made a bunch of cool shit I can’t even remember.

Late 90’s, and the PlayStation is HOT. It’s the must-have console for the home gamer. Sony owns the licensing for the games, and so has a continuous revenue stream for it’s intellectual properties. Discman is now IT for portable music players. Sony’s Vega televisions are the top rated sets on the mass market. Sony is beginning to have a real presence in media, with motion picture, gaming, and record label properties. Verant Interactive finds a golden vein in continuing subscription revenue with Everquest.

From the very beginning of this decade, the Sony façade starts to crumble. Competing products are challenging Sony’s dominance in almost every one of their traditional markets. Some highlights;

Apple computer not only takes Sony’s lunch money by taking their leadership in a market Sony made, portable media, but stomps a big-ass mud hole in them.

SOE starts to bleed customers from EQ for, of all things, DAoC. This might be the first indication that their subscribers are sick and tired, and they aren’t going to take it any more. Sony seems to believe that the MMO market is a niche that has capped out at around 250-400 k subscribers. OK, then. By the end of 2006, world-wide subscriptions for MMO will probably be at around 10 million. This is including the Chinese subscriptions, which are done on a day-to-day basis, and are much easier to cancel. By my reckoning (as we say in Texas,) Sony has a whopping 4% share of that. That's down from their 50-plus share they held at one time. Hell, Blizzard has 10x the base that Sony ever had in a game.

SOE so royally screws up Star Wars: Galaxies that the ungodly loyal user base there that has stuck with them through think and thin for a couple of years finally tells them where that Wookie can shove that light saber.

Sony publishes CD’s with a root kit on them, and forgets to tell us how to remove them. Because you can’t. And they hope you didn’t need that CD drive for anything else now, did you?

Sony announces that they have delayed their new console until after the first of they year on 2007. Xbox is kicking Sony’s arse. I’m willing to bet that within a couple months after launch, Microsoft will announce that they now have more people subscribed to Xbox live than Sony has sold PS-3’s.

Sony announces that Blu-Ray isn’t quite ready juuuust yet.

Sony stops making the PS-1.

And today, it was announced that the movie industry is going to discontinue publishing movies on the UMD format, which is the only thing that ever sold any PSP’s. That one had to be hard to screw up that bad.

What happened to Sony? It’s my opinion that they just got too damn big, and started to think that they were somebody. They should have remembered that people came to love them for being innovative, smart, and fast to market. That was the old Sony. Today’s Sony is big, fat, and stupid. Except for the stupid part, is just like me. And I won’t be dominating the world any time soon.

Bye Sony, we hardly knew ye.

The Defacation is Impacting the Thermantidote at Sony

2006-03-24T23:38:00.000-06:00

Well the rumors continue to fly about what is going on over at SOE.  Only one thing is for sure, and that is that Raph Koster is out over there.  Other rumors regarding the company include that Raph’s heir apparent, Cindy Armstrong, is also off to greener pastures.  Also, word on the street has Lucas Arts wanting to revoke SOE’s SWG license.  This seems unlikely, since there aren’t a lot of people out there that can really handle a property that large and unwieldy.  Reading the media on the subject it appears that those last two are still very much in the rumor stage.

Whatever turns out to be true something is hitting the fan over there at SOE.  Raph IS gone. Armstrong may or may not follow.  And keep the license or lose it, it’s doubtful that SWG is a winning proposition for Sony at this point.

Overall, it hasn’t been a good week or two for Sony.  The PS3 is still vaporware, BluRay is too, and now this.  And that is just March.  The odd thing is that the bleeding seems to have stopped over at EQ, and EQ2 is even in a sort of a comeback stage.  They are making some good decisions for the health of EQ2, almost as good as the SWG decisions are bad.

If I had Sony in my portfolio, I’d be selling.  It’s difficult to comprehend how far this once-proud brand has fallen.

Stay tuned.

Is Character Customization Worth the Overhead?

2006-03-24T00:29:00.000-06:00

I’m noticing more and more that people have different words for things in MMO’s.  For example, people call client side low frame rates “lag,” even thought that is not what it is.  Lag does occur in MMO, and if you played WoW during the first months that is was out, you know very well what that is.  Another thing that I hear a lot of people talking about is character customization.

Now, before I go into a Genda-tangent, let me give you a little background.  When I was playing EQ, Genda’s nickname was “GQ,” because he always had to look cool in his gear.  If I got a piece of gear that wasn’t as good but looked great I would definitely wear it.  I killed to get my epic so I wouldn’t have to carry around a blunt weapon any more.  If you knew me in real life you would know that I’m anything but GQ.  Picture a 6’7” offensive tackle from a football team, but without the difficult-to-obtain body and muscle tone.  I used to care a lot about how I dressed, but I’ve developed what I like to call a casual style.  At work, I don’t have to wear a coat or tie, so I’m usually in loafers, khakis, and a white company oxford.  Classic, if not fashion-conscious. When I’m not working you can usually find me in a t-shirt or polo and jeans or shorts. Basic.

I’ve thought about what made me so particular about the character’s appearance in MMO. What I’ve come to realize is that there is nothing that drives me more toward accomplishment in a game than how cool my character will look once I get there.  I’ve rarely played pure casters in the games, and I think I have just realized why.  I don’t like how casters look in robes.  They just aren’t as cool as armor.

OK, back on track.  One thing that I’ve noticed is that once you have started playing a game for a while, you don’t notice the finer differences in a character’s appearance.  In SWG, you would notice if someone was a blue Twi’lek or a red one.  You would notice the fur pattern or color on a Wookie, but you don’t notice if their nose is narrower or wider.  All of those little details are taking proc cycles, though.

One of the more visually stunning games I’ve seen to date is Lineage ][.  All the characters look pretty much the same.  Depending on your aesthetic, you could argue that all of them are beautiful.  You cold tell people apart by their armor and weapons.  And it ran a lot better than most of the current MMO at the time.  Getting back to the SWG example, that game STILL doesn’t run well on my system.  I’ve got a system that is way beyond what was available at the time that the game shipped.  If I turn on most of the options, it’s an effing slide show.  Wow didn’t allow major customizations and it runs like a champ.

What I’m getting at is this.  Where is the line for trade-off worth it?  At what point is that extra detail on your character’s face worth 4-5 FPS (Frames Per Second?)  I’m getting to the point where I say that you should make your models look as good as they can, make them scalable for size, and let the character get his “GQ” from how he is dressed.  I LOVE how smooth WoW scrolls on my box, even with all the options on.

I’ll take that.

I'm the second best gamer in my marriage

2006-03-04T17:20:00.000-06:00

It’s official.  My wife is now the best gamer in the house.  I don’t know when it happened, or if I even ever was the best gamer here, although she would have me believe that I was.  She’s about the perfect companion.  She’s tall, over 6’, likes gaming, is fun to be around, and is my best friend.  I was playing Guitar Hero with her last night, and it was really no contest.  As I sat on the couch, watching her shred my scores and my dignity, I realized that even as we play MMO games, she is better at them than I am.

Now, I will frequently have more knowledge about the game.  That evidently does not translate into effectiveness.  I gather that gaming parallels real life in this manner.  Now, I do have my advantages.  I’m hopelessly stubborn.  This actually helps in some difficult gaming situations.  She tends to be a little more easily bored, so she won’t stick to stuff as long as I will.  This is often to her benefit.

The cool thing is, well the cool things are; I have a cool gamer as a best friend who looks good in her clothes and I get benefits, I’m OK with her being better at the games than me, and I have a duo partner in MMO just about whenever I want one.

I hope one day all of you end up with someone as cool as Bran, although I doubt that is possible.  Most of all though, I hope that some day, if you figure out she’s better at gaming than you, you will be old enough to not only tolerate it, but appreciate it.

Keep your stick on the ice!

Vanguard Gameplay Video and TV Ad

2006-02-14T22:44:00.000-06:00

Wow, didn't think I'd find this while I was surfing Google Video tonight... but here it is....

Wow, just wow.

Sorry for the ad content....

2006-02-13T23:14:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone,

I’m aware of the gold/farmer ads on the blog, and I’m working to get them off the site for good, but you have to delete each one from Google adsense individually, and they take up to 24 hours each. Over the next few weeks, hopefully we’ll get them all off and have something else to click over to that is more interesting.

Thanks for your understanding,
Genda

Thanks friends,

2006-02-13T22:34:00.000-06:00

I just wanted to post a note to say that even though it’s been very difficult for me to participate on the forums lately (both VC and VSoH) I have been very encouraged by how supportive most of the folks have been.

I’ve been going through a demanding time in my personal life, mostly demands of a very demanding job, and my desire to make sure that job doesn’t blow up the wonderful relationship I have with my wife.

Still, my faith in human nature and my feeling about the Vanguard community in particular is restored.  A bit of background;

Last year, I took a new job that took me away from home. I was traveling pretty much non-stop on business from May to December.  This put a huge stress on the people that care about me, and on my health.  If you haven’t traveled like that, it’s hard to explain how it takes it’s toll, but suffice to say that the term “bone-weary” came home to roost.  By the time the holidays came around, I had successfully made it through the months of pent-up demand for my services, and was ready to spend some time at home for the holidays and with my family.  During that time I had at home, I managed to get stomach flu, some other kind of flu, and then I had a bad allergy attack.  Now I’m not one to complain about my health.  I hate it when people do.  I just wanted to let you know why I didn’t take that time to seize on my online duties.  I guess when you pretty much go all year traveling without being sick, your body wants to cash that check.  Especially at my age.  Once I got back to work, I started training the new guy and traveling again.  That brings me to now.

I want to apologize to anyone who has felt abandoned or cheated by my absence, and ask for those who have not already expressed their support to me to please stick with the site, and let’s keep up the great thing we have going.

And thanks again to all who have been so supportive.  You have no idea how much it means to me.

Thanks….

Are you discouraged?

2006-01-19T21:57:00.000-06:00

I’m discouraged.

Well, that isn’t that unusual by and of itself.  I’ve vacillated between discouraged and disappointed most of my life.  I’ve been disappointed in myself, my ex wife, the other people around me, and many, many other things.  Oh, and I forgot disillusioned.  Yeah, I’ve been disillusioned too.  Quite often disillusioned.  Pretty sure I’m a disappointment to the family too.

What’s different this time is that I’m discouraged by what I see coming down the pike from many game developers.  Seems like the marketing department has taken over at a few places, and the purse strings seem to be managing the creative process at others.  You all know that I’m pretty excited about Vanguard.  I also recently got the opportunity to beta a different “MMO” that just had it’s NDA lifted (you can figure it out.)  I couldn’t get myself interested in it, in spite of numerous attempts.

When it comes to single-player games, I’m pretty much a lamer.  I don’t have a problem with that, as long as I can enjoy the game, I don’t care if I’m exhilarated or if I’m just entertained.  I’ve tried some single player games in my travels, and when even I can finish them in a day, that pretty much tells you that they don’t have a lot of meat to them.

Branyanu and I have also tried myriad MMO’s looking for something entertaining.  Over the last couple of years, we’ve burned through SWG (had potential, but was and continues to be bungled badly,) L2 (would have been good, had they gotten the farming under control early on.  It’s beautiful to look at and challenging.  Was fun, but discouraging,)  City of Heroes (Fun for a little bit but lacks depth.  Lacks breadth too, now that I think of it,) City of Villains (CoH with different costumes,) and we even dabbled in the EQ2 beta (coma-inducing) and tried our hand with a couple lesser-known titles.  We have actually been playing WoW again lately.

Here’s where I don’t quite feel right.  None of those quite feel right.  What did feel like a great game? You guessed it, Everquest.  Still, we haven’t played EQ in over 2 years.  We tried to go back a while ago and the noob experience is a little, well, diluted.  The next closest thing is WoW, which while lacking depth, has wonderful breadth and an unbelievable sense of humor.  We are pretty much all-horde and play on a PVE server, one of the more popular and populated.  While the community there is non-existent, and the occasional jackass does pop up to just grief or spam the channels, overall it doesn’t deserve the reputation it has as a home for nothing but b-net kiddies.  That element is there, certainly, but as the higher level dungeons devolve into farms, the tactics of the groups and guilds there are finally becoming highly developed, much like they were in EQ.  It’s not a 5-year MMO, unless they get the depth issues worked out, but the content is handcrafted in a lot of cases, there are plenty of dungeons with different tactics, and the characters are interesting and fun to play.

So what’s next?  Other than Vanguard, which there is a dearth of information on currently because of beta and NDA’s and a news blackout, What ARE the exciting prospects coming up?  Certainly none that I can imagine.  There are some promising single and multiplayer games on the horizon, but nothing that will hold my interest for long, and I’m guessing that if you are reading this you will feel the same.

So I’m back to being disillusioned, disappointed, and discouraged.  I guess that is my own version of 3D.  Maybe one of these titles will snap me out of my funk, but unless Vanguard is all it can be, I guess I’ll be a WoW player for a while.  Heck, I almost have my shaman to max level (finally,) and he’s mastering his crafting and cooking skills, and with some luck and skill in the AH, he’s managed to put away a few gold, and fund the family’s needs.  Too many more Horizons or L2’s showing up on the gaming landscape and I’ll be thinking more and more about console gaming, and that can’t be a good thing.

Happy Family Times

2005-12-29T09:07:00.000-06:00

Some of you may know I'm divorced, and as a byproduct of that, I have children that live out of state.  One of my ex wives (OK no one said I was perfect) chooses to live in the middle of a remote area, so no matter what, I have kids that I can't see all the time.  Here's the rub;

I get to visit my kids (or more accurately, they get to visit me) three times a year; Spring Break, Summer Vacation, and Christmas.  This year, the world's germ population has decided to fuck with my kids and family's enjoyment of the season.

A quick recap;

I pick my kids up Wednesday night, drive until late, get a hotel room.  Thursday, up early, drive most of the day to get back to where I live.  I own a small car, so I rent a decent sized car for their visit, which costs about $500 for the 2 weeks, all things considered.  Well worth it, but just an aside.  We arrive home in the comfortable car on Thursday, and my youngest is sick.  He's got a persistent cough, and it doesn't seem to be getting better.  We give him some robitussin before bed and hope for the best.

Friday, my oldest wakes up feeling bad.  He's coughing and sneezing, and just feeling pretty much under the weather.  In other words, flu symptoms.  He spends the day feeling miserable and sleeps part of it away.

Saturday, and it's our first full day together as a family, as Branyanu doesn’t have to work that day.  The oldest and the youngest are both still presenting symptoms.  My middle child, the only daughter, is starting to have some symptoms too.  We decide to lay low and not strike out too far.  It's Christmas eve so we quietly enjoy some time together.

Christmas, we open presents and head up to the grandparent's for a family celebration.  All three kids have symptoms by now, so even at the event, we try to keep it mellow.  We have a good time, but by the end of the nights celebration, we're all tired and the kids are not 100% by far. About 1AM, I start feeling like I may want to toss my cookies.

I debate it with myself until about 6AM, when the "no" side loses, and the "yes" side takes over.  I'm sick for about two hours, then I go to sleep.  Monday is a total loss to me, and poor Branyanu has to play Florence Nightingale for the day as we are all in full-blown symptoms now.

Tuesday and Wednesday consist of us trying to get better, taking various meds and drinking tons of juices and fluids.  Finally, we're hoping that Thursday is going to be the day we can go to the mall, get the family photo done, and enjoy each other's company without being sick.  As I wake up this morning, Branyanu is trying to stealthily sneak out of bed to be sick.

I hate this flu.

Maybe tomorrow we will all be able to get out and about.  :/

Don't Be That Guy (Reposted by Request)

2005-12-09T10:53:00.000-06:00

I don't want to go off on a rant here, but...

Don't be that guy.

What do I mean by that? Well in this case, I mean don't be that guy on an airplane.

Still, "Paul," you say, "what are you trying to say to us?" Well here it is; I fly. A lot. Did you go to work today? Then I probably had a flight. I fly an average of 6 segments a week. A segment (also called a "leg" or a "cycle") is a take off and a successful landing. Just to add a little more explanation, many pilots define a successful landing as "any landing that you walk away from." A high standard, indeed. The fewest segments I have flown in any week recently was 3. I'm seriously considering asking my company to give me what they spend on airfare as a salary, and I'll find a way to fly on what they pay me. See? Always looking for the win/win.

Flying as much as I do, a person tends to develop some pet peeves. OK, so you know me and you know that I am a waking ball of pet peeves. Live with it. People who can't deal with it peeve me.

On every flight, the airline will budget about 20-30 minutes to clean, stock, and fuel the plane, 20-30 minutes to board, and about 10-15 minutes do debark at the destination. This is all dead time. Non-revenue time. Airlines hate this. I don't blame them. If I paid $127 jillion dollars for a piece of equipment, I'd want to keep it busy too. Hell, the digital photo mini labs that many of our customers use cost less than a quarter of a million dollars, and I want to beat the holy hell out of folks that use it as an expensive spare desk. But I digress...

Let's go over the life cycle of an airline flight and let me teach you how not to be that guy. That guy who annoys the living stuff out of me.

The plane that will be used for our flight lands and begins to taxi to the gate. Once it arrives, the passengers on there need to get out, the cleaning crew needs to get on, along with the new crew, the plane has to be fueled and baggage has to be offloaded and the new bags stowed. Those procedures are all staggered over a period of less than an hour, as long as stuff doesn't go wrong. I won't even go into what will happen any more if it freaking rains or if there is a mechanical delay (which, btw, is almost always blamed on the lavatory. Either those things are notoriously undependable, or I call bullshit. They just don't want to tell you that one of the engine bolts fell off, because they are afraid you will cash in your ticket and let Greyhound "leave the driving to us," along with several of your new odiferous friends. But again I digress.) For the passengers, their role in all of this is painfully simple. In a perfect world, it might be described as follows;

* Check in
* Check your baggage unless it is considerably smaller than a German Shepherd. You are limited to 2 carry-on items, one must fit under the seat in front of you.
* Put all your metal things in a bucket, take off your shoes and go through security.
* Collect all your metal things.
* Proceed to your gate well before scheduled departure.
* Sit until your boarding group is called (if you haven't flown in a while, the airlines board in groups, windows in the back to aisle in the front. Actually, this makes a lot of sense. It really cuts down on climbing over people.
* When called, get up, get in line, have your ticket ready, give it to the agent, and proceed to the plane.
* Find your seat, stow your baggage, and get out of the aisle, so that others may pass. Hint: The big numbers are at the back of the shiny tube. The small numbers are on the seats you can't afford.
* When they ask you to stow your tray table, turn off your cell phone, and return your seat back to it's upright position, just freaking do it. You aren't any more important than the rest of us. I've never heard anyone on their cell perform a successful brain transplant over the phone. If you aren't doing that, you don't need to be on the phone after we push back.

Not that hard, right? And I even put a couple extra rules in there. Here's where the system breaks down;

If you are in boarding group 7, you don't need to be standing in front of the gate while they call group 1 to board. We're all getting there at relatively the same time, at least we can do it on schedule if your bon-bon eating butt isn't blocking not only the gate, but the walkway in the terminal. We're all going to get there at the same time. Help me make my connecting flight and make sure that time is on schedule.

You don't need to bring any of the following on the plane with you; Your backpack if it's the size of a VW bus. You don't need any baggage that is that big either. You don't need to bring anything that you can't easily carry. If you have to sling it over your shoulder, you either need to put your baggage on a diet or look into the Charles Atlas thing from the bubble gum. Seriously, what is it, like 100 feet? It's not an dang 3 day hike across the Yosemite high meadows. When you carry your bag that way, you bounce it off every person's melon that you pass. This is especially true of the backpack. The next person that does this to me is going to look like a Mr. Backpack (picture Mr. Potato Head and you have the right idea.) I'm 6'7, so part of the problem I acknowledge is how high I stick up above the seat. In my mind, this makes me infinitely easier to spot. Still, some numbskull with a backpack will inevitably turn around to talk to his/her girlfriend about what band they want to see at the Austin City Limits Music Festival and smack me straight in the grille with whatever dang rock collection they have in there. Be forewarned. This will no longer be tolerated.

If you are in the 4th row, and you were wearing a jacket (which is another subject. Nancy, you don't need a coat when it gets below 70. I don't even pack a coat unless the high is going to be less than 40. Get over it. If we are gonna have this global warming ice age they keep promising us, I guess at least I can take solace in knowing it's going to kill you,) let everyone else by you BEFORE you neatly fold your coat and place it in the overhead. First, that real estate up there is freaking gold. If you are going to put it up there, make sure it's on top of your bag. Second, you don't need to do it while the other 127 people in the aisle and on the jetway wait. Hold it in your lap, and when everyone is on, stand up and put it in the overhead. See? That didn't delay departure. Cool, huh? Don't be that guy.

Repeatedly trying to fit your bag in the overhead when it is clearly too large is a cry for help. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result every time is one clinical definition of insanity. And not the cool rock-star kind, either.

If you drag your wheeled case onto the plane, and it catches on every set as you go by, see the rule above.

Like I said earlier, for those of you that haven't met me, I'm really tall. Freakishly so. Airplanes were not made for me. There are three exceptions to this rule. Sadly, exception #1 is out of my price range. First Class provides ample legroom for my long legs, as well as a good amount of seat for my ample beam (if you don't know what beam is, look it up. It's nautical.) The second exception is not my favorite. The bulkhead seat. No seat in front of you is nice. Not having a seat in front of you to put your computer under is not nice. Option #3 is what I call poor man's first class. It's the exit rows over the wings. They are not too far back in the tube (it's noisy back there, and it's annoying. I'll get to that in a minute.) Here's where I get annoyed; If you can cross your legs comfortably, have been a swimsuit model, are so skinny that you could have shared a seat, or so short that you think Glip is a giant, then you need to stay out of my effing exit row! For crissake, you just don't need the space. I don't trust you to get the 50-lb. door off in case of emergency, either. God help you if you come between me and my exit in that event.

If the seatbelt sign is on, and the flight crew asks you to stay In your seat, then do it. I don't need us hitting a wind shear or getting in the vortex of a larger plane up ahead and having your bony ass fly through the cabin and injure me. Once again, God help you... Besides, I told you to go before we left.

I'm a large guy. I carry a bunch of heavy stuff. If I can get through the aisle without rubbing my ass on you, you can do the same for me. 'nuf said.

If the Flight Attendants are in the row doing the beverage service, please wait patiently until they are done for your potty break. I don't need them smacking me in the elbow with that damn thing again.

OK, I know I'm wide. Please give me half the armrest. I don't want to put my arm on it, I just don't want to hold my arm in front of me through the whole flight so that you can use both of the armrests to read the paper, cross your legs, and to act indignant should I accidentally touch you. Please, get over yourself. This goes double if you are a guy and you are reading Us, People, or any of that other celebrity drivel. Read Popular Science or PC magazine or something and I may let you live, otherwise, you deserve to die.

Leave your damn shoes on. Seriously. WTF?

If you are smaller than me (and if you are reading this, you almost certainly are,) and you are sitting in the row in front of me, for the love of all that is holy, please don't recline. If you do, and your recliner doesn't seem to work, that is because I'm not in an exit row and when I sat down, my legs were wedged against the back of your seat. Repeatedly throwing your weight back against the seat back after I have yelped OW! will not lead to your seat reclining. You may get the sensation of an ejection seat however. If you are sitting in your seat cross-legged, and you still try to recline, I can't be held accountable for my actions.

Unless it is a service animal, leave your dog at home.

Don't ring the flight attendant call button during takeoff to ask for a pillow.

If your seat is in the rear of the plane, don't use the overhead in the front. See, that makes me use the overhead in the back for mine, and makes you an asshat. Self-importance rankles me.

And finally, one for the FAA. If someone doesn't know how to fasten the seatbelt, or to lift up on the metal buckle to release it, it's time for a Darwin Award for them anyway. Seriously, let the family tree branch end there.

Some of this is clearly the airlines fault, since they let people get away with larger and larger bags. They are loathe to correct people though, as the easily insulted may take their valuable business elsewhere.

On a positive note, I went Platinum on American today. Double miles for me! Free Upgrades! Now if there was only a way to choose your seatmates, then I would be a happy guy. At least until the next rant.

Of course, that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

Welcome to Grouchy Gamer

2005-12-08T13:51:00.000-06:00

I need an outlet. You see, I could post on my usual spots, like the Official Vanguard Forum, or I could post on my fan site, VanguardCrafters.com. Of course, since the fansite is an affiliate site, I need to be on my official behavior. Well, most of the time. Still, I find myself wanting to rant, or to make a point where it might not be acceptable to post on one of the more "official" sites.

Enter Blogger.

I've resisted the whole blog phenomenon so far, mostly because I thought "who the hell would be interested in what I have to say, and what makes these egomaniacs thing anyone is intersted in what they are saying?" More and more, I'm finding myself surfing and perusing blogs though, as a way of getting real, instead of "official," information. Some of it is horse shit, of course. Some of the blogs have some really thoughtful and insightful content.

I can't promise you that mine will. I can promise you that if you read this, I'll be straight with you. If I can. I'm still, as a fan site operator, bound by NDA, and I can't spill beans here that I can't spill elsewhere. What I can do is give you opinions and pass along interesting rumors and things I've heard.

I hope you find it useful.

Ouch! My Community Hurts

2005-12-08T12:01:00.000-06:00

I'll start with a disclaimer. The author of this article is not young. As a matter of fact, I'm old. I'm one of the 5 or 6 oldest gamers I've met. If you have ever been in the gaming store, and there is a soccer mom there with her little rugrat buying a game, and she asks you; "You getting these for your kids?" Then you feel me. No, I'm getting these for me. Thanks for playing, now move along. Sorry it's been since childhood that YOU have done anything fun or intellectually stimulating. Now, don't you have some oranges to cut into little slices?

That aside...

I'm noticing that more and more of the posts one community boards are just garbage. No one is talking about what game is great or how to get to this encounter. No one seems to care which guild is full of assholes or where the best place to get more information.

Instead, here are some of the subjects that have been broached; Bush is an idiot (Bush went to an Ivy League School. He may not be inspired or a great communicator but he's no idiot.), homosexuality, drugs, hate for the middle class, hate for the upper class, hate for the lower class, suicide, race, and a few others I'd rather not revisit. These aren't high-level intellectual discussions, but flame-fests and baiting of people with sensibilities.

It's one thing when it happens on the forums. Everyone who has been around the internet any period of time understands that a certain portion of the of the population exists only to make themselves feel superior by "cleverly" berating or cutting down everything that they can't understand or that they irrationally hate. This element has always existed on the FPS boards, and trolling the MMO boards on the fringes. With the second generation of MMOs started to ship, some of this element started to migrate to them.

Jump forward, and it's 2003. Sigil is announcing their new MMO. Hundreds of eager fans are waiting for what's next from the old EQ creative team. The Official Vanguard Forums (OVF) are filled with people discussing what they like and didn't like about different games, playing "wouldn't it be cool if...", and suggesting features or ideas for the upcoming MMO. It seemed so far off, and yet so tangible. The creative team regularly engages the public. This went on for quite a while. Like anything else, over time the forums have changed. Talk to most of the fansite operators or long-time posters and they will tell you that they don't spend much time on the OVF any more.

I guess what I'm asking is why does it have to be this way? Why do the boards start off with the fans and end up with the bans? Why do they start off constructive or excited, and end up like the SWG forums did after launch or the World of Warcraft forums? Why does a community seem to degenerate the larger it gets? Why is it that any person who represents the company eventually gets crucified as a schill for the company (they were doing their job) or lionized as a champion of the people (they weren't.)

As a developer, I'd stop chasing the community about 6 months before launch. When I say chasing, I don't mean trying to attract, but trying to satisfy and answer every question. Just from a cost standpoint, it's ridiculous to put an ever-increasing number of moderators after the task of keeping the noise down so you can recognize the needles in the haystacks.

One of the things that I have noticed is that a lot of the people are there just for the sport of it. I won't name names, because I won't give them that one thing they seem to crave; recognition. Some are malcontents who can't be satisfied. More and more of them are people who come to the boards with a sense of entitlement. They deserve to be catered to because they spent X dollars a month, dammit, and they are gonna bitch and bellyache and wail until they get it.

But I miss the old community. I miss the fun, constructive, interesting conversations with the whole community involved. Sure, I still get that on vanguardcrafters.com, but that is a much smaller group. It's obviously by design that Sigil has decided to basically shut down the OVF for comments after the launch of the game. They don't want to have to deal with the nonsense, and the diminishing returns for trying to filter the good from the noise.

I'm thankful for the time we had as a new community. I'm hopeful for the community of Vanguard post-launch. For now, I'm disappointed that there can't be a decent level of discourse overall.