Wanted: Suggestions for the Saturday Night Game May 13, 2011
Posted by Wilhelm Arcturus in entertainment, EverQuest II, Instance Group, Lord of the Rings Online, World of Warcraft.comments closed
The Saturday night instance group had committed itself to EverQuest II Extended a few weeks back.
And then came the great haxoring of Sony and the disappearance of all SOE games from the face of the internet.
Raptr shows total playtime for EQ2X in the last week as “two minutes,” and I am not sure how somebody got that much time to register. You generally have to get past the launcher for Raptr to start counting time, and you can’t really get by the launcher these days.
So the game of choice will not be available to us, a couple of us… well, Potshot and I, the usual suspects… are looking for something else for the group to play on Saturday night while we wait for SOE to return, and I am throwing it open for suggestions.
There are some parameters around what game will be acceptable.
- The game should seat at least five, and ideally, six players. Meclin might come along.
- Those five or six players should be able to play as a group. No repeat of our Battlefield Heroes experience where we were all playing, but not in the same match.
- The game should not use up a significant percentage of our 3 hour play budget installing or patching. This lets out most of the competing MMOs, so if you were going to chime in with Rift yet again, save it. We’d be installing and patching all evening.
- The game should be free or relatively inexpensive. I think we would all throw down $5-10 for something good, but beyond that it would have to really sell us.
With those parameters in mind, who has a choice idea?
The default answer for the group would be to head back to WoW. It has been the main game for the group for most of the last four years. I would guess that most of our accounts are still active.
However, as a group we live in the shadow of WoW and its smooth and responsive interface. One of the reasons I doubt we will ever go back to LOTRO as a group is that it does feel rough around the edges and somewhat awkward when you are used to WoW. LOTRO would be an option for us. We all have it installed. It is free to play. But WoW is forever the yardstick for us on these sorts of things, and LOTRO’s feel doesn’t measure up for part of the group.
I fear that the same thing would come to pass if we went back to WoW before we got ourselves invested as a group in EverQuest II. With the awkwardness we have faced running New Halas as a group, going back to WoW could kill Norrath as an option.
And, to be selfishly honest, I want to play EQII with a static group! I want to succeed or fail based on how we do outside of New Halas, not because the UI isn’t as silky smooth as Blizzard would make it.
Anyway, since it appears that SOE will be down again this weekend, we are looking for another destination and I am looking for one that won’t derail our Norrathian adventures and leave us back in Azeroth.
So who has a suggestion?
Potshot and I have been exploring the possibility of playing Risk online, so don’t think the game has to be anything hardcore. Simple fun would work.
SOE – Still Down, But “Make Good Plan” Details Released May 13, 2011
Posted by Wilhelm Arcturus in entertainment, EverQuest, EverQuest II, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Sony Online Entertainment, Vanguard SOH.Tags: PlayStation Network, Security
19 comments
No news on the “when will things be back up” front, but the “Make Good Plan” has been detailed here.
In addition, the details for the All Clear Identity Theft Protection plan have been posted here.
The announcement, for US customers, is quoted after the break for posterity.
Finding My Gaming Bearings May 12, 2011
Posted by Wilhelm Arcturus in entertainment, EverQuest, EverQuest II, Lord of the Rings Online, World of Warcraft.Tags: Forochel, Trollshaws
5 comments
Step 1 – Place All Eggs in One Basket
Step 2 – Lose basket
Part of my motivation to cover the Sony hacking disaster is that this year saw me invest heavily in Sony products and services. In the last two months:
- The instance group departed Azeroth for a run in EverQuest II Extended
- Potshot and I went off to explore old Norrath on the EverQuest Fippy Darkpaw progression server
- I purchased a PlayStation 3
- I was even starting to play one of SOE’s Facebook games, Dungeon Overlord
So you can understand if I seem a bit fixated on SOE’s ongoing “not today” posts on Facebook.
This SOE downtime has brought up two questions.
- Where should I spend my gaming time?
- What should the instance group play?
The second is for another post, as we’re still working on that. (Is it Thursday already?)
But as for the first… what to do?
The problem is that, when I am in the mood to play a particular game, it is tough to divert that to a different game. While at a high level it is easy to look at all of these MMORPGs and bemoan their sameness, when down in the game at the individual character level, I find that they often feel completely different to me.
And so Azeroth is no substitute when I want to play in Norrath.
I managed to prove that by logging into World of Warcraft on Friday night. My account has actually been cancelled, but since I chose the quarterly billing plan it has yet to lapse. I wonder if I count among the 600K subscription deficit WoW is facing post-Cataclysm?
I decided to log on and run the Children’s Week quests for my main, on whom I collect companion pets. While they changed up the quests a bit, I felt like I was going through the motions. Yay! I got a pet snail.
That done, I got out my level 74 druid. He is in the thick of WotLK content. But running quests were not cutting it. I ended up healing for a random Dungeon Finder group, but we got Violet Hold. Not a bad instance a guess. You get a random boss. But not very challenging as a healer. Nobody died. People leveled. The tank told me I did a good job. But I wasn’t feeling it.
Over the weekend I played World of Tanks. It is fun, but I cannot play more than a couple of matches before I have had my fill. That is both its strength and its weakness for me.
I also played a bit more Combat Mission: Shock Force. Some more warm up for Combat Mission: Beyond Normany. (The demo for which is now available I hear.)
But that doesn’t scratch the MMO itch.
Then I saw that Potshot was over in Lord of the Rings Online.
I thought perhaps we could find something to do. Or maybe I could at least get a little closer to Moria. I bought that expansion… what… two years ago now?
I got out my hunter, Silinus and entered Middle-earth.
It is always pretty here...
Nice landscape, but would the game hook me? I looked at my quest journal to see where I had last left off.
I was in the Trollshaws. I had some fish. I had to talk to an NPC about what to do with them.
While I had totally lost the thread of what was going on, the NPC was close by, so why not start with that.
Fish. He needed the fish as bait. But bait for what?
The Bait is Set
He was trying to catch someone or something that had been lurking around. Something stupid enough to wander up and take a pile of fish, and not very fresh fish at that (they’d been in my bag for the last six months), place next to a brightly-lit window next to a house with a couple of people standing out in front. (I know he told me to hide, but I just stood there gawking.)
What could we be looking for?
Could it be?
Yes, indeed, we were trying to trap Gollum.
Loves those fish
A particularly unwary, and thus out of character, Gollum, but Gollum none the less.
I cannot believe I stopped on this quest line one step away from seeing Gollum.
You don’t actually catch him. Instead you chase him around the country side at a brisk walk until he climbs up some rocks and cowers just out of your reach. Then you get mugged by an orc, at which point Gollum disappears.
And you even know the orc part is coming. Gollum mentions it during your stroll across the country side. And the orc does not so much mug you as stand there and wait for you to invite him to attack you.
All in all, a very silly quest indeed.
But also engaging enough to give me some momentum in the game. I ended up gaining two levels since I started out this past weekend, bringing my hunter up to level 43, just 7 levels shy of Moria.
That also pushed me to the point of being done with the Trollshaws, which was, frankly, one of the things holding me back in the game. Some of the sights are fun, but all in all it is not on the top of my list of favorite LOTRO zones.
Instead Silinus, my hunter, will be headed off to a new (for me) zone, Forochel.
Facebook Ad for a Pirate EverQuest Server May 12, 2011
Posted by Wilhelm Arcturus in entertainment, EverQuest, Sony Online Entertainment.Tags: Shards of Dalaya, Software Piracy
18 comments
Or private server, if you prefer.
I am not sure which is technically more correct, but when in doubt I always go with “pirate” in a headline when I have a choice.
There is, and has been for almost a decade, a private EverQuest server community out there based on an open source EverQuest server emulator called EQEmu.
I have no idea what SOE thinks of this.
Certainly, if this project were emulating World of Warcraft, lawyers would have been involved almost right away. And Sony itself is no stranger to litigation to protect its interests, real and perceived, so I find it interesting that these servers have been running for as long as they have been.
But I have to imagine that part of the implied truce between the emulator community and SOE, if such a thing can be said to exist, is that the private server community keep a low profile.
So I was a bit surprised to see this ad on Facebook.
Okay, it is just a Facebook ad and not, say, a billboard planted on the 805 at the Miramar Rd. exit.
No, not this at all
But it is an ad. And it is no doubt a targeted ad set to display to those who have “liked” EverQuest on Facebook.
Certainly the Shards of Dalaya picked an opportune time, and not on accident I am sure, because right about now anybody who likes EverQuest sure isn’t playing EverQuest… at least not with SOE.
And even Sony’s legal department is probably tied up with more pressing issues. There are a lot of government entities out there who are demanding answers from Sony right now. They will be busy for months to come.
So maybe this is a canny move by a private server to get a few more players.
But that assumes that my theory about a need to keep a low profile is true.
Does anybody know what SOE’s stance is towards these servers, the people who run them, and those who choose to play on them?
SOE – Still Not Up, Mentions “Make Good Plan” May 11, 2011
Posted by Wilhelm Arcturus in entertainment, EverQuest, EverQuest II, Facebook, Pirates of the Burning Sea, PlayStation 3, Sony Online Entertainment, Vanguard SOH.Tags: PlayStation Network, Security
2 comments
From the SOE Facebook page (and Twitter feeds)
All SOE games and sites are still offline as of May 11th and will not return today. Thank you again for your continued patience and support as we diligently work on these issues. More information on SOE’s “Make Good” plan to come!
That had better be a hell of a plan. [Plan Details Here]
Addendum; The team at EQ2 Wire has summed up where things stand and how short of real information we really are.
Oh, Hey, We Won in Lord of Ultima! May 11, 2011
Posted by Wilhelm Arcturus in entertainment.Tags: Lord of Ultima
6 comments
That is us, JuggernautWarmachine, on World 3 in Lord of Ultima, list on the front page of the game.
Winners List
It only took about a year to win, though they didn’t actually put in the way to win until a couple of months back.
I know, details.
Winning will likely take less time now that there is, you know, a way to win.
Technically, “we” won is a mis-statement. There were actually four alliances that worked in conjunction to win. I was in one of the support alliances, JuggornautWarmachine (note the slight spelling variation) and I was only part of that because I still appeared to be “on the books” of another alliance I had left and thus got an invite when they merged.
So there is no little “Lord of Ultima” crown next to my name. Not that I really deserve one.
I helped a little bit. I sent excess resources and a few troops to help out, but mostly I played a very long game of SimCity as I figured out how best to build up cities. I don’t think I altered the outcome in the slightest when it came down to it.
Still, I learned enough that I might actually know what I am doing should I decide to play again.
Not a bad game overall. Definitely a team sport.
Most Inapt Orwellian Reference of the Week May 11, 2011
Posted by Wilhelm Arcturus in Blizzard, entertainment, Humor, World of Warcraft.Tags: Big Brother, Orwell, Wolfshead
24 comments
Wolfshead’s anti-WoW and anti-Blizzard sentiments are well known… erm… well, they are known if you read his blog in any case. And if you read his blog, you might have notice a tendency over-state things or blow them out of proportion.
So of course, in his view, Blizzard isn’t moderating their forums, something most game companies do to do to keep them from becoming unreadable cesspits, they are attempting to “sanitize opinion.”
#Blizzard is rapidly deleting a significant number of posts on the #WoW forums in an effort to sanitize opinion. Big brother is watching you—
Wolfshead Online (@WolfsheadOnline) May 10, 2011
Not unexpected from somebody who feels the need to put the worst possible spin on all things Blizzard, though you might wonder WHY he cares about their forums in the first place. That seems like an unhealthy obsession.
But the killer is the sign off line, “Big Brother is watching you.”
Is he saying that Blizzard is actually reading posts in their own forums?
The mind boggles.
First, I am pretty sure that he has opined in the past that Blizzard pays no attention whatsoever to player feedback, so I suppose this is an inadvertent compliment from him.
Second, Big Brother in 1984 is the supreme dictator who keeps his society under constant surveillance. How does that compare to Blizzard paying attention to what people write in the forums they provide? Ruthless exploitative dictator versus video game company has to rank high on the bad analogy chart.
Or is this one of those bogus “freedom of speech” notions?
Question of the Day from My Daughter… May 11, 2011
Posted by Wilhelm Arcturus in entertainment, RPGs.Tags: Dungeons & Dragons, Tunnels & Trolls
16 comments
On the way to drop her off at school yesterday morning she asked, “What is Dungeons and Dragons?”
There is a step back in time from her last set of questions.
How do you cover that topic in the five minutes left before I drop her off?
The question came back over dinner, as my wife watched our local Sharks lose to Detroit in the NHL playoffs. (One more game to decide the series.)
I started explaining it with World of Warcraft as my initial reference point, but that wasn’t going very well, except as a minor history lesson in game design and how we cannot escape from what Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson wrought almost 40 years ago.
Then I got out my 1978 Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook, however that was not the best illustration either. “Not user friendly” doesn’t even enter into it. I’m not sure how we figured out how to play with those original books.
Actually, I recall a lot of improvising and “making it up as we went along.” And then a good chunk of rule book lawyering when “making it up” didn’t go the way somebody liked.
While she was pondering the book (after being admonished to “Be careful! It is more than 30 years old!”) I went looking for my dice. They are around here somewhere. I’ll find them.
So I then handed her a copy of David Hargrave‘s The Howling Tower dungeon module, just so she could see maps and room descriptions.
My copy looks just like this!
She wanted to play “tonight!”
She was on her computer and printing out 4th edition character sheets. Oy!
I can see patience is going to be an issue here. I remember gaming sessions going late into the night and never leaving the Inn where we started off… or never even getting started off, there being enough rolling up and accounting to be done to get started.
Eventually I got her to let things go to the weekend, but the original AD&D might be a bit too arcane… for even me at this point.
I might have to go pick up a copy of the 4th edition Player’s Handbook, which should be interesting. I hear the rules have been streamlined quite a bit. I still think of 2nd edition as being “That new stuff.” The whole d20 system came along nearly a decade after I last rolled my own saving throw.
Then again, maybe I should just get out my copy of Tunnels & Trolls. That was always a bit easier to get your head around, and I only need to find a pile of standard, six sided dice.
PSN Up By May31? We Didn’t Say That! May 10, 2011
Posted by Wilhelm Arcturus in entertainment, EverQuest, EverQuest II, Sony Online Entertainment, Vanguard SOH.Tags: PlayStation Network, Security
12 comments
Sony is responding to yesterdays quotes that it plans to have the PlayStation Network fully operation by May 31st by now saying that it has no specific time frame for when the service will be restored.
It could be sooner… but it will likely be later the way this train wreck is unfolding.
And, of course, there is no mention of SOE at all.
SOE is arguably suffering more damage to its image than the PlayStation side of the business. Sure, the PlayStation Network is down, but I can still stream Netflix, watch movies, and play (and even patch) my few PS3 games. I have a tangible piece of hardware that still does things.
But SOE is down so hard it might as well be dead, and we know nothing about what may come to pass or when or what it will mean in the longer term.
I appreciate that SOE doesn’t have much to say, or cannot go into great detail, or is restricted by the corporate lawyers from saying anything of substance, but the daily posting on their Facebook page, like this one from yesterday:
SOE services will remain offline today. We continue to work diligently to bring things back as quickly as possible and appreciate your continued patience.
essentially say nothing at this point. You can only rephrase “not today!” so many ways before people become restive or resort to parody.
There is literally nothing coming out of SOE but this Facebook drip. Even Karen at Massively is pulling from pre-attack interviews to keep up their regular EQII feature.
Is this all-but-silent treatment really the best plan?
Addendum:
A new informationless posting at the PlayStation Blog:
I know you all want to know exactly when the services will be restored. At this time, I can’t give you an exact date, as it will likely be at least a few more days. We’re terribly sorry for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience as we work through this process.
A few more days sounds good, but so does “soon” and we know how that word has been abused in the past.
Nothing further from SOE. I expect at some point this afternoon we’ll read on Facebook that SOE games won’t be up today. Check back tomorrow.
WoW Subscriptions Drop! Who is benefitting? May 10, 2011
Posted by Wilhelm Arcturus in entertainment, EverQuest, EverQuest II, Rift, Sony Online Entertainment, World of Warcraft.11 comments
According to Kotaku, World of Warcraft had 12 million subscribers in October of 2010. More that 12 million, actually.
Yesterday Mike Morhaime gave the subscription number for WoW as 11.4 million, a 5% drop.
With that small percentage, WoW has shed enough subscriptions since Cataclysm came out to populate two moderately successful or one very successful MMO, as measured by the scale that does not include WoW.
Of course, that drop might not be just in North America and The EU, but a good chunk no doubt are.
And if those players are off to play other MMOs such as Rift, it ought to be like a renaissance in the MMO market. That number of players looking for a game could make a game a success.
I am sure that Rift has soaked up a fair number of those departing WoW, but I wonder who else is feeling the benefit of this change?
And then there all of those SOE players looking for a game these days. That is another good chunk.
