We Fly Spitfires - MMORPG Blog

Today is international Whiny Post Day. It’s also St. Patrick’s Day but considering I’m neither Irish nor American I don’t celebrate it (on a completely unrelated note, does anyone else always think about that chase scene through the New York parade from The Fugitive everytime someone mentions St. Patrick’s Day?). Anyway, since I love silly holidays (only six months until International Talk Like A Pirate Day!) I figured I’d uphold the spirit of this ancient tradition and bore you all to death with some annoying, whiny post.

Except I’ve got nothing to whine about. I mean, I’ve got plenty of genuine, bonafide complaints but they’re all about real problems in the real world that are really hard to fix. Y’know, stupid stuff like recessions and house prices and all that guff. But small niggly things I want to whine about? Not so much. I’d love to say it’s because I’m filled with a deep compassion that oozes out of me and infects all who I come in to contact with with a beautiful and gentle karma but I cant. Honestly, I think it’s just because I don’t care. Sure, there are times where I write blog posts that I worry are going to upset people or things happen in a MMORPG that tick me off but usually theses concerns melt away as I switch off my PC and settle down to watch the awesome Don Draper in Mad Men with the wife. Perspective is a wonderful thing.

Still (and I’m really stretching it here), I may have something I can whine about. Time. I just don’t have enough of the bloody thing. There’s so many things I want to do that I just can’t fit them all in. Write. Read. Blog. Game. Love. Work. Sleep. There just aren’t enough hours in the day and I find myself trying to wring every minute out of the clock like a four year old replicant from Blade Runner.

How do other people manage it? How do they manage to juggle work, families, gaming, blogging, ranting, tweeting, buzzing and everything else that tickles my geeky fancy into a single full rotation of the Earth? I try little tricks like reading in the bath, writing mental blog posts in the showing and even not washing at all but it never works and something always gives. Unfortunately right now that thing tends to be sleep but, sod it, as Bon Jovi once sang “I’ll sleep when I’m dead”. Cause I’m that hardcore.

So there you have it, my half-arsed attempt at a whiny post.

Do you have anything you want to whine about?

In fact, don’t tell me. I don’t care.

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With all of the talk lately about buying gold, I thought it would be interesting to examine all of the different ways to potentially ‘cheat’ at World of Warcraft. Some are obvious, some less so, but all to a certain degree, to quote Wikipedia’s definition of cheating,  are “employed to create an unfair advantage, usually in one’s own interest, and often at the expense of others”.

Note that cheating and breaking Blizzard’s Terms of Use for WoW are not always the same thing.

Ways To Cheat

• Buying gold from websites on the Internet. This is the probably the most obvious form of cheating and is allegedly linked to account hacking (I say ‘allegedly ‘ because I don’t know what the actual facts are although it does seem to be the logical conclusion). Buying gold also has social consequences too and it may cause you to be ostracized by your friends and family.
• Purchasing characters from eBay. Another classic example of what most would consider cheating. It’s explicitly prohibited in WoW’s Terms and Conditions.
• Buying gold from your real life friends. It doesn’t matter if you pay for it on the Internet or buy your mate a pint down in the local pub in exchange for giving you 1,000g, it’s still cheating.
• Allowing your guild mates to give you gold. If you didn’t earn with your own character in-game, it’s technically a form of cheating, right?
• Buying WoW TCG loot cards. I find this one particularly interesting as it’s against the T&Cs yet I honestly don’t know if it’s enforced or not.
• Paying someone to level up your character. Not against the Terms of Use and completely legit yet still most of us would consider it cheating.
• Being power leveled through dungeons. Not much different from paying someone else to level up your character for you and you’re skipping through content you’re not meant to.
• Using heirloom items. Twinking is a form of cheating and interestingly enough it meets Wikipedia’s definition of it to a T. I can’t think of a better example of exploiting an unfair advantage to benefit against others, especially in PvP.

Just to be clear, I don’t condone cheating in any form and only point out these forms of cheating in WoW in hopes that you will not only do your best to avoid them but also report those your find engaging in them.

Where’s The Line?

Obviously the above list isn’t completely serious and a little tongue-in-cheek but hopefully it has made you question where the lines between cheating starts and stops. It’s seems to be a very relative subject with no clear line in the sand, making it very difficult for players to know where they stand. Hacking repercussions to one side, is it any more a form of cheating to buy gold than it is if one of your friends gave you some money to help you get started? Technically speaking, both acts are just as bad as each other but if Suzina had confessed to a friend of hers giving her 1,000g in exchange for a nice home cooked dinner or a few cans of beer, would anyone have even cared?

All in all, some food for thought. When exactly does getting a “helping hand” become cheating? And if buying gold wasn’t linked to account hacking (as it never was until quite recently) would gamers still hate it so much?

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It was looking like a pretty drab week in the ol’ MMORPG blogosphere these past seven days until a couple of events reignited the whole “gold buying/account hacking” debate on Friday. And I use the term debate in it’s loosest sense as really it’s more a case of some bloggers grabbing their pitchforks and embarking on a mob mentality Witch hunt. The trial has concluded, the verdict is in, if you buy gold you are evil and deserve to burn in Hell. Strangely enough, the actual account hackers themselves seem to be getting sympathy rather than retribution. I suppose the whole thing is a lot like blaming smokers, stoners and crack-heads for all of the problems the manufacturing of their drug does. Which makes perfect sense as actually dealing with the root cause would require effort.

• Suzina of Kill Ten Rats confesses to buying 1,000 gold in World of Warcraft in order purchase the dual spec mechanic (am I the only one who questions why Blizzard put such a high price tag on a low-medium level ability?). I was actually more surprised by the fact she could squeeze in 120 hours of playtime in less than 14 days.
• Syncaine takes the moral high-ground and calls Suzina a “bad person”. Ironic considering he spends most of his posts trying to insult Tobold.
• Speaking of Tobold, he adds his level-headed persective to the situation.
• Spinks votes for a gambling license which seems like a sensible idea and could solve a lot of these problems.
• In an unfortunate coincidence, Gnomeaggedon had his account hacked and places the blame squarely on the shoulders of the gold buyers. Personally, I’d blame the hackers instead.
• Aptly enough, Problogger offers some tips on how to keep your blog secure.
• The wonderful Stargrace points out a hacking scam in Aion and discusses the different types of exploits.
• And on a completely unrelated point, Josh, the World’s Strongest Librarian, announces his first novel will be published and available for purchase on the 1st of April. I’m very much looking forward to reading it and am tremendously excited for him.

P.S. I don’t condone buying gold. I don’t condone account hacking. All I do know is that if hackers are truly targetting accounts for the sole purpose of stripping them bare and re-selling their cash, Gevlon must be shitting his pants.

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A few days ago the news broke that Bigpoint, a German developer, will be launching a Battlestar Galactica MMO later on in the year. My immediate thoughts were that they were talking about a full blown sci-fi MMO like EVE or Jumpgate Evolution but it turns out it’s just a free-2-player browser based game.

Nothing I can say can be as funny as this photo

I say just as if I’m sneering and, well, I probably am (I’m a MMORPG snob after all) because honestly I was expecting the usual Triple-A endorsement followed by months of hype, months of delays and then months of players realising the game hasn’t held up to their expectations and that it was actually rushed out the door like a pig in a tarted up prom dress. Yeah, I have no idea what that means either but I’m sure the imagery gives you the gist of my sentiments.

Upon further reflection though I think a browser based BSG game might actually be for the best. Let’s not forget Quake Live is browser based and it’s pure excellence in a Java app so there’s really no reason to dismiss this one before we’re played it. Plus, as much as I like the TV show, I’m not sure the Battlestar Galactica IP really has enough depth to stand up as a proper MMORPG. The story is pretty limited, there isn’t much room for exploration and most of the drama comes from tension rather than action.

I am skeptical about the whole “MMO” claims though and I imagine the game will turn out to be a fun little browser shooter that lets you compete in tournaments against a few other folk at the same time. No doubt Bigpoint are yielding the MMO acronym in its broadest sense and I’ll be utterly flabberghasted if we end up seeing a game that lets player compete and interact with thousands of other players in the same environment. In fact, if I had a hat, I’d promise to eat it.

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Playing EVE Online again has made me feel something I haven’t felt in quite some time. Fear. It’s a strange emotion to feel when playing a computer game but it’s also quite a welcome one. I’m by no means a masochist who enjoys punishing myself but I do like feeling emotionally connected and immersed in the online worlds that I inhabit and when I take my ship out for a spin in EVE and embark on a tough mission or venture into low sec space, the hairs on the back of my neck stir ever so slightly. Will this be the time when the Grim Reaper comes calling? Am I prepared to meet my maker? Will I punch my monitor if my prized ship explodes into a million tiny pieces?

Death in EVE isn’t the end of the game but it does comes with a nasty sting, accompanied by a rollercoaster feast of the senses. Fear and trepidation are your appetizers, shock and awe are your entrées and desert is a healthy portion of regret and anger. You certainly don’t want to die in the world of New Eden and that’s exactly the point. We should be scared of death, after all it’s the most terrifying concept human beings can deal with.

I felt these emotions back when I played the original Everquest. Death in that game was not something to be taken lightly and players and groups would avoid it at all costs. Which, kinda obviously, is exactly how it should be. It wasn’t just about losing experience and the resulting time you’d put into it though, it was also the fear of losing your body, your items and everything that you’d work so hard to achieve and make yourself unique. It was a game mechanic designed to invoke emotion and bond you with your character and, certainly for me, the thought of my corpse being stranded at the bottom of some treacherous dungeon made me wince.

I can remember every time I’ve died in EVE and I can recount fantastic stories of comradery based around death, the fear of it and overcoming it, in Everquest. Death mechanics in these games are an integral part of the design and the fear of it is used to leverage our emotions. Would players have the same stories to tell in EVE if they never had anything to lose? Would the Universe even be worth fighting over if pain could never be inflicted upon the enemy?

Death in newer MMORPGs is almost, if not completely, meaningless. Why does it even exist as a mechanic in WoW or EQ2 or AoC or WAR? There is no emotional response, no fear or anger, and no resulting immersion so what purpose does it serve other than to set us back a few seconds in our gameplay? The death mechanic here could simply be replaced with a 30 second countdown followed by the avatar resurrecting automatically in the same spot they died in. At least that way there wouldn’t be a redundant illusion of mortality.

The meaning behind death penalities has been lost in many MMORPGs and replaced with a false sense of accessibility. There’s the misguided idea that taking the sting out of death makes the game more suitable to the casual or new player. Accessibility and a healthy fear of death are not mutually exclusive though and, I believe, the two can co-exist in the same game if there’s impetuous to design it that way.

We need harsh death penalties in MMORPGs because they give us risk and emotions. Without risk we cannot possibly appreciate the fruits of our labours and without emotion we cannot bond with the environment and other players. WoW is infamous for it’s antisocialness and I have absolutely no doubt that if players were scared to die, if they were forced to work together to keep each other alive, to truly help each other avoid the sting of death, it would be a game over-brimming with conversation and comradery. Instead, we’re left existing in a hollow shell of an online world in which one cares if they live or die.

Just like in real life, we need to  feel the exhilaration of accomplishment in our games and that cannot happen as long as there is nothing to risk and nothing to lose. Death needs to matter, it needs to hurt, because without it we’re nothing more than bored, spoilt immortals living in emotionless worlds.

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As part of the on-going process to keep impoving We Fly Spitfires, my fantastic team of Norwegian android designers (they’re more Photoshop than man now) recently came up with a new and improved design for the blog. I thought it would be fun to let y’all have a sneak peak and take a look so you can leave any comments or feedback you might have about it.

New design sneak peak

The design incorporates both small tweaks and large changes. For instance, the banner has changed from green to blue and the nav bar from blue to red yet the right hand side is quite a bit different and footer is entirely new (I love big chunky footers on websites). We’re also trying to change the main content area too to make it bit more user friendly than just being one gigantic list of all the posts from the past seven days.

This design isn’t the end of the road though and we’ve got ideas for move improvements after I get this built (it likely won’t go live until mid April). The next step, design wise, is probably to make more use of icons and content description. For instance, I want to rework my tags and actually make them mean something and properly describe the content of the post. If I write something that’s going to piss you off or make you laugh, I’d like you to know that it was my intention.

So what do you think? Speak now or forever hold your peace.

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After being away for several months, I resubscribed to EVE Online yesterday to a glorious feeling. It’s hard to describe but after cutting down all of my subscriptions to only include World of Warcraft, hitting the reactivate button on the account website was akin to cracking open an icy cold beer, smoking a cigarette after a long day of work or driving through the Red Light District of Amsterdam and knowing that it’s OK to look. Especially after playing WoW, EVE feels like a proper game for adults with no holds barred.

I'm loving EVE on a widescreen monitor

Two things struck me immediately after logging in again though. Firstly, that I’d completely forgotten how to play the bloody game and secondly that I have no clue what I want to do in it.

Unlike most of the MMORPGs I play, EVE’s UI takes no prisoners and I’m finding I have to relearn it all again. It’s the interface equivalent of Clint Eastwood: tough and complicated, old school yet exciting, and with a deep intelligence and melancholy behind it all. I spent the first 30 minutes just figuring out what the heck every button does again, where my items and ships are stored, what I’m doing and how to do it. I still haven’t even begun to get my head around all of my skills again and what ones I should be learning. But I’m not in a rush this time round because EVE isn’t going anywhere and neither am I.

The second strange concept was figuring out exactly I want to do with my time. After mainly playing WoW and other themepark MMOs a lot recently it’s a real shock to the system to be faced with the prospect of both nothing and everything to do. I’m not being prodded in the direction of leveling upwards or being forced to follow linear quest lines which take me through progressive areas, instead I’m just left to my own devices to do whatever the hell I want. It’s both terrifying and exhilarating at the same time.

My original goals from July last year still stand and I think they’re a good place to pick up again. Working up the skills and ISK to buy the ships I desire until eventually hitting my prize, the Megathron, will keep me going for now. Short term goals are always a good thing and have given me an immediate sense of purpose. Long term ones are a little harder to come up with though. I still want to take over the entire Universe but (obviously) that’s going to take a little planning and a reasonable investment of time. It’s still on my to do list but I reckon I need to plan out my steps a carefully. Rome wasn’t build in a day after all so I can’t except the world of EVE to bend to my will overnight. That will take a few weeks at least.

I probably won’t be pumping hardcore hours into EVE (he says now) and my approach is to take it a slowly and just enjoy it. I want to catch up on my skills and goals, do a little mining and some missions to build up my capital, and get thoroughly stuck into PvP. I have a blood thirsty reputation to acquire, after all.

The first course of action is getting myself into a Corporation. Anyone got any recommendations? I’m a Caldari called Mantooth Jones, feel free to look me up.

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It’s been another fiery week in the vivacious world of MMORPG blogging. From Allods Online to guild dramas to Activison embracing Nazism (Godwin’s Law, strike one), there’s been plenty of interesting banter for those such inclined to read.

• Keen monitors the price drops in the Allods Online cash shop. Seems like a step in the right direction although the consensus is that there’s still room for improvement.
• Scott Jennings takes on Activision in a hot (I don’t mean that in the sexy kind of way) story about how they apparently mistreated the two studio heads of Infinity Ward. Spinks has her say too and ponders where it leaves poor old Blizzard. Still counting their huge piles of cash after selling out would be my answer to that.
• Did Blizzard rip of Robert E. Howard with their idea for the Cataclysm expansion? MMO blogger extrodonaire, Wolfshead, discusses.
• Scrusi over at Procrastination Amplified takes us down memory lane and revists the original Starcraft.
• Larísa discusses the fallout of blogging about guild drama whilst Matticus offers tips on how to avoid it. My thoughts? If you rant about people - in any medium or walk of life - prepare for repercussions.
• IRGRL writes an excellent article, summing up my thoughts entirely, about The Cheating Of Mr Tiger Woods.
• CrazyKinux looks beyond the realm of fantasy and sci-fi MMORPGs and offers us the Ice Age MMO. Brilliant.
• Need help leveling a Warlock in WoW? Psynister has the guide for levels 1 - 29.
• Ever wondered what sort of EVE Online personality you had? Now you can find out with this post from Stabs (he got ‘Gunslinger’… I got something with the word ‘fag’ in it. Go figure).
• And finally, Pete from Dragonchasters shares his thoughts on Heavy Rain. I know it’s a good game, I know people love it, but I’m still recovering from the snooze fest that was Shenmue to even consider playing another interactive movie right now. I’ll stick to kicking stuff in the face.

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I’ve been banging my head against a wall for the past week now with macros and addons in World of Warcraft. I’ve been programming for 10 years, hold a first class degree in Computer Science, and used to build levels for Doom using DCK, a DOS-based sector editor that required a degree in Astrophysics to master (I was widely considered a child prodiogy after I developed my third level) yet somehow, for the love of Tim Berners-Lee, I can’t get my bloody macros to work.

I loved the DCK book when I was 12. In fact, I got caught loving it once and was asked to leave the library.

I keep flipping between the thought that I’m either trying to be too smart and perform actions and just aren’t possible with the macro system or that I’m a complete retard who can’t fathom the most basic of commands that even spotty 14 year olds employ to annihilate me in Battlegrounds. Is there some secret cult of Macro Magicians out there that I don’t know about who lurk in the shadows, teaching those able to find them the unholy secrets for knocking 1.2 seconds off their response time, granting them the winning edge in an already unbalanced PvP system? If so, I hope to God I can find them.

Macros in WoW are a truly silly affair. They don’t offer anything substantial and just tease us with the prospect of being able to power ourselves up and cut down the inane amount of hot keys we already have. Macros are the programming language equivalent of a lap dance - offering just enough to get us worked up but not complete enough to give us what we really want. After battling with them for a few hours I find I need to go bury myself in some real code in order to satisfy that (slightly worrying) itch.

Then, of course, on the other side of the coin come the addons. Third party scripts and bits of software designed to simplify the game to utter redundancy and ineptitude. No wonder people complain World of Warcraft is too easy. Install Tauntmaster and it will render all of your skill at tanking obsolete, turning the entire thing into a game of “click the shiny button when it turns red”. My Grandma could do that and she doesn’t even know what a shiny button is.

What happened to the purity of our games? Why can’t we just leave them be and play them as they come? I’ll tell you why (not that you were asking): auto-condimentation. We’re so used to piling on the salt and extra cheese that we forget to taste our food before we do it. And let’s not forget the concept that maybe the Chef served us the meal exactly how he wanted us to enjoy it. Macros are salt, addons are tomato ketchup and they’re ruining the fine dining of our games. And yes, I just equated World of Warcraft to fine dining, feel free to crucify me for it, I offer no excuses.

I don’t care if a macro can allow me to use a single button to switch between stances or cast the stance appropriate spell. I don’t care that addons let me see everyones threat per second or their gear score or what underwear they’re wearing. I hate them all.

P.S. Apart from QuestHelper. That one rocks.

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Welcome back weeks are always a great way to tempt old players back to long forgotten MMORPGs and yesterday I received an email from Codemasters offering me a free 7 days of Lord of the Rings Online starting Monday 8th March. Top it off, they’re also advertising a discounted 3 month subscription for only £17.97/€25.38 which isn’t a bad deal at all (although I can’t help but wonder why the Euro rate is the equivalent of £22.50 - Codemasters must be trying to exploit Jimmy Foreigner). As far as I’m aware, this offer is for the European LotRO only.

My mild mannered middle aged avatars always scare the crap out of enemies

I was kinda tempted. For a moment. But I’ve decided again it and I don’t think I’ll be embarking to the land of Middle Earth any time soon. It’s a shame, I know. My big problem is time and I just never seem to have enough of it these days to squeeze in all of the gaming, blogging and wife-lovin’ that is required. Right now, I’m happy enough patronising my brother in World of Warcraft and fantasizing about returning to EVE Online. Plus, no matter how much I try, no matter how much I know that it’s a good game, I can’t help but find LotRO quite, well, dull.

That’s the problem with games based around strong IPs. It’s great for getting you hyped about a game and it’s great for providing you with a familiar setting but ultimately there’s only so many movies, books, comics, video games, action figures and decorated underwear that you can consume before you eventually become sick of the entire thing. If anything, I think that’s going to be LotRO Achilles’ heel.

So don’t expect to see Cromwell the Wonderful romping around Gondor anytime soon.

P.S. Dark Age of Camelot Europe is also offering a free trial until the 25th March to celebrate the game’s liberation from the evil hands of GOA. The game is now operated by EA-Mythic themselves meaning we should see up-to-date patches and proper customer support. Not that I ever had anything against GOA and their astounding incompetence.

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