May 2008 in Review

The Site

Another month goes by and once again the statistics bear out that the less I write in a post, the more popular it is likely to be, with the most popular posts being things I copy from other people completely. There is a message in that, I am sure.

If you look at the “Most Popular Posts” section below, you will see that the WoW Guild Name Generator post continues its reign at the top of the chart. Somehow I am ranked very high on Google when searching for guild name generator.

Still, some items that I spent time on made the list. The 2008 MMORPG Progdictionations piece is on there, though it seems to primarily attract people lacking a sense of humor.

This month’s page view activity graph is brought to you by Batman.

Batman’s right ear is where I put up a cranky post about Age of Conan for the first time in months here, and the left ear represents Tobold pointing at my cranky post. (And congratulations to Tobold on hitting the 2,000 post mark.) The right ear represents the most page views ever in a day for this site.

And then there was a contest that three people entered. They all won.

One Year Ago

I was babbling on about the “Missing Ingredient” that WoW’s competitors lacked which helped make WoW the success it is today. Still, that did not stop some from speculating wildly about which MMOs might be able to compete with WoW. Age of Conan was on the list… but so was Star Wars Galaxies.

I spotted my first level 50 character in LOTRO and was carping about some minor issues.

The trials of Sigil Games Online came to a close with this note from John Smedley. As the recriminations began anew, Genda at the Grouchy Gamer had some insight at the time and recently posted a three part series reviewing the events. Meanwhile, parodies of the Sigil troubles ceased because things stop being funny when people start losing their jobs.

Blizzard teased us about an upcoming announcement, then finally sent out the news many had been waiting for. Hell, it was about time.

After raising the price of Station Access, SOE gave us a new race and home town in EverQuest II. My proposed model for the new race was rejected.

There was a bit of speculation on my part about how many more EverQuest expansions we might see.

And, finally, I made an attempt to get people to go back and listen to some older podcast episodes. I picked out five, and a year later I stand by them.

New Linking Sites

A big thank you to these sites who link to TAGN. I encourage you to give them a visit in return.

• Bewitched, Bothered, Bewildered
• Gaming Dead
• One Casual Gamer
• The Many Realms of Relmstein

Most Viewed Posts in May

1. Play On: Guild Name Generator
2. How To Find An Agent in EVE Online
3. Age of Conan: Hystarian Adventures
4. EVE Online Smacktalk: A Primer on How To Do It
5. 2008 MMORPG Progdictionations
6. Views on the G15 LCD
7. Apotheosis Now!
8. Is There Hope for a Science Fiction MMORPG
9. My Kind of EVE Mission
10. My LOTRO Video Crash
11. Reader Mail – Which MMO?
12. What to do with $40 Million?

Best Search Terms

bear curious
[That is a little more than I want to know about your desires]

“eve online” what can i invent
[If you’re not careful, a way to burn through a lot of ISK]

german plate armor
[Like in Alexander Nevsky? Trust me, you should see the German armor in that film]

Age of Conan

I have not purchased, nor do I plan to purchase, Age of Conan. I did not play in the beta, open or closed. Any statements I make regarding the game are made from a position of hearsay and ignorance and should, thus, be suspect.

EVE Online

EVE Online is probably where I spent the most time, at least when it comes to MMOs, over the last month. EVE does have the advantage in that there is a lot you can do while you are doing something else. Plus a co-worker of mine is back playing and we decided to try to do some level 4 missions together. While we have only done one such mission as a team, all that at least set me on the path to finally getting a battleship.

Lord of the Rings Online

I wanted to play LOTRO this month, but never quite found the time. Gaff came back to the game, played for a few weeks, then went back to EverQuest II. Out of that time, I managed to find and group with him once. Now he is trying to get me to come back to Norrath.

World of Warcraft

The instance group is moving along. It looks like we’ll all hit level cap before Wrath of the Lich King ships, though we might still be working on the Mana Tombs at that point.

DS

Pokemon. We’ve been all about Pokemon on the weekends in May. My daughter, spoiled as she is, has her own NetFlix queue that feeds her a diet of Pokemon episodes, then daddy gets home from work and we talk about Pokemon and play it together on the DS.

I did play a little Mario Kart DS, and my daughter played a bit of the pet hamsters game she had, but mostly we’re about Pokemon when it comes to the DS.

Wii

I have been thinking about picking up Mario Kart for the Wii. It looks, and sounds, like a lot of fun. But frankly my daughter and I seem fully occupied with the DS and Pokemon most days and I am making a small effort to try not to spread myself too thin on games. I want to be able to get into a game deeply, which leaves me room for EVE and Pokemon and some WoW on Saturday nights.

Coming Up

June will be very busy at work and at home. We have a major release on one of the product lines for which I am responsible and more than the usual “bottom of the Marianas Trench” level of pressure to see that it ships on time. Our new company president, who looks just like Mo Rocca with grey hair, wants dates made at all cost, and one of the costs is likely to be writing time.

And then I will be on vacation at the end of the month… provided we ship on time. (Just a little bit of additional pressure there on top of the rest.)

So I am just going to plan in advance for June being a very light posting month.