April In Review

The Site

Another month has gone by and I am still here.

I did manage to make it through a full six months posting something new every single day.  I was going to start taking weekends off after I hit that point, but then I ended up with a log jam of topics I suddenly wanted to write about.  In fact, I got far enough ahead that I started posting comments on other sites that I normally would have turned into blog posts. (A number of my posts, usually the ones that start off referencing a post on another site, began their lives as comments that grew in the typing.)

Now that I have worked off a bit of the backlog, I will probably start posting only on week days.

And why only weekdays?  My informal study of traffic on the site indicates that people are less likely to read MMO gaming blogs on the weekend.  We all prefer to do that at work I imagine.  I know I do.  Anyway, look at my data.  The chart below shows the last 30 days of page views for The Ancient Gaming Noob.  The bottom of every valley?  Almost always a weekend.  I guess we do have lives.

I also added a minor new feature.  Along with the links on the right side of the page, there is the option now to bring up a random blog post from the site.  I am sure this is something you have all been waiting for.

New Linking Sites

• Dwarven Runes
• Melmoth’s Inferno
• No Signal Input
• The Ramblings of a Bildo
• Veni, Vidi, Bloggi
• White Kitten

Most Viewed Posts In April

1. EverQuest II Gets A Big Head
2. Rise of Kunark?
3. An Evening With Emperor Fyst
4. Aradune Mea Culpa
5. The Next EverQuest II Expansion?
6. LOTRO – Frist Impression
7. The Failure of Vision
8. No Sash, But A Dirk!
9. The Downloading of the LOTRO Beta
10. The Demise of TelonCast 

Best Search Terms of the Month

burning crusade collector’s edition hair

(Does it come with hair, or does it do something to your own?)

find out if you are of Elven descent

(A disappointed nerd out there somewhere)

Deleted Comment of the Month

Several, from strangers, asking me for my LOTRO buddy key.

EverQuest II

I did not do much when it came to levels, only getting up to 53, but I am now the master of Nektropos Castle.  I have now done 11 heritage quests and have nothing yet on which to spend my status points.

With the expiration of my Station Access account, I am on a bit of a hiatus from EQ2.  I am sure I will be back to it some time soon.  There is still so much of Norrath to see and experience.

Lord of the Rings Online

The new game.  I successfully avoided playing the beta enough that Middle Earth is still new to me.  And big.  At least it feels big.  In exploring the world it does seem like a sizable place, but that may also be a result of its newness.  I remember Antonica feeling immense in the first month of EQ2.

Our weekly WoW instance group has moved to LOTRO for the time being, as Potshot has detailed.  We are learning the land, learning our skills, and learning how to work as a group again.  With all of this newness comes enthusiasm.  I’m having fun just exploring the world.

World of WarCraft

With the rise in time spent playing LOTRO, other games are declining in play time.  While my paladin has managed to get up to level 48, he will be probably sitting there for some time to come.

Vanguard

I own a copy of it now.  It was $29.99.  I think if I held out for a while longer I could have paid less.  I bought it too late to get a “founders” title in game however.  Too bad.  The game itself is still in the shrink wrap on my desk, but I will us the fact that I own the to pretend I have a vested interest, thus giving me free reign to comment on the ongoing “Saga of Sigil.”

Wii

I have been playing some, though my daughter gets far more time on the Wii than I do.  She only plays when I am around, but when I turn the game on, she hogs the controller.  I have to get some two player games.

Coming Up

No doubt I will have more to say about LOTRO.  Also, I actually have a small backlog of things about EQ2 to write, so it will be as if I am actually playing the game still.  I am also wondering if there is something more, something beyond the ordinary I can do with Brad’s latest post.

SOE & Sigil – No News is No News

Reading Brad’s update on the future of Vanguard and SOE “getting more involved with Sigil and Vanguard” reminded me, at first, of an old Spike Jones routine.  During a song, the phone would ring, the music would stop, and the singer would answer the phone:

singer: Hello?

singer: You don’t say.

singer: You don’t say!

singer: You don’t say!!!

Hangs up

band: Who was it?

singer: He didn’t say!

So we get a lead-in from Brad that goes like this:

Does this mean an acquisition? I can’t say at this point.

Does this mean more or less people at Sigil?  I can’t say at this point.

Does this mean management changes at Sigil?  I can’t say at this point.

All he can say is that SOE and Sigil are talking and that it seems that the relationship between the two companies will be closer in the future.

And then there are seven more paragraphs of classic Aradune.  Literally a week of material for any blogger worth his or her salt.   There are items in there I do want to dig into later, but for now I want to concentrate on the big picture. 

What did we learn about the rumored SOE acquisition of Sigil?

I think this line in the last paragraph is key.

To pull it off however, requires a funded and supported Sigil and a well marketed Vanguard….

What can we infer from it?

Sigil is running out of money (again). Yes, he says early on that Vanguard is doing “decently,” but if that were really the case, Sigil wouldn’t be looking for more funding. (One of the options I laid out the other day.)

SOE is their first choice to help them out.  Natural enough, as they are already partners for hosting, Brad knows people there, and Sigil is unlikely to find another company as receptive as SOE.

Sigil’s current negotiating stance is “Just give us the money and we’ll make it all good.”  A funded and supported Sigil is an independent Sigil, not just another department in SOE.  Brad is not yet ready to give up control or, if you read the rest, some form of the vision.

Of course, the fact that he cannot say what is going to happen at this point seems to indicate that SOE is watching out for its own interests.  Good for SOE.  I’d rather see Sigil go elsewhere than see SOE commit to a deal that might harm any of its other titles.

And what does SOE have to say on the subject so far?  Well, Smed doesn’t get out there and bare his soul for us like Brad.  All they have is:

SOE is in discussions with Sigil regarding the future of Vanguard and Sigil Games in Carlsbad.  Talks are going well and first and foremost, our primary concern right now is what’s best for Vanguard and its community.  We want to ensure that this game and its community have a healthy future.  The specifics that we work out over the coming days will all be with that single goal in mind.

Which is marketing for, “Yes, we’re talking.  Yes, we have the upper hand.  Yes, we want to look magnanimous.  Yes, we will pwn you if the price is right.”