We Fly Spitfires – MMORPG Blog

So I was cruising around Flickr when I happened upon some quite amazing photos of Blizzcon ‘09 by a chap called Brian J. Matis. They are utterly stunning and I was immediately transfixed going through them all. Brian, apart from being a geek like you and I, is obviously very talented with a camera lens. I loved his photos so much, I wanted to post a few on my site for everyone to see and thankfully Brian consented with his permission. Of course, I was attracted to the all of the beautiful images of female cosplayers (he happens to have taken a lot of them) and thus this article was born. Sorry Brian if this isn’t post isn’t as highbrow as you may have hoped

You can check out Brian’s original Blizzcon ‘09 photostream on Flickr here plus you’ll find loads of other shots he’s taken. Amazing aren’t they?

Stunning. And the photo's good too. Ba-da-boom.

Something tells me this lady doesn't need a hand with anything. OK, I'll stop it with the bad puns now.

Love the eyes. An amazing photo.

Absolutely terrifying, yet mesmerizing.

It takes a brave woman to enter a room full of rabid geeks whilst not wearing any underpants.

So hot, it's almost volcanic.

Well, I’d better stop beforeI kill everyone’s bandwidth. Brian has plenty more photos and the Blizzcon ‘08 ones are great too.

Josh over at the World’s Strongest Librarian was kind enough to let me publish a guest post book review of Strom Front: The Dresden Files, Book 1 by Jim Butcher. If you guys can recall, it was one of the books that came highly recommended to me for my holiday reading list and I have to say that I enjoyed it quite a lot. It wasn’t necessarily amazing, but it was good nonetheless and I heard the other novels in the series get a lot better. I’m back to reading Stephen King’s Dark Tower saga at the moment but I’ve already got the second Dresden Files book to start after that.

World’s Strongest Librarian is a blog I’ve been reading for a few months now and would strongly urge everyone to check it out. It’s totally unrelated to MMORPGs (I think I’ve managed to baffle Josh with the topic ) which makes it a nice refreshing change and instead is about a librarian who’s also incredibly strong. Well, OK, it’s about a lot more than that but I’ll leave you to discover that for yourselves. I’ll finish by saying Josh is an excellent writer and his blogging style is witty, intelligent and a ton of fun. And no, he’s not my boyfriend.

If you want to read my attempt at a book review (please be gentle, it’s my first time), check out “Book Review: Strom Front – Guest Review by Gordon” here.

Something that people don’t know about me is that I’m kinda like the James Bond of the MMORPG world. I’m smart, sexy, look good in a tuxedo and know how to kill a man with a toothpick. However, instead of sleeping with lots of different women, I sleep with MMOs… and some of them have been so top secret, so well covered up, that you’ve most likely never even heard of them. But that’s all about to change. Behold, a rundown of some top secret MMOs that were never released.

The A-Team

The A-Team MMO was built by the original cast of the A-Team TV show in a matter of hours from odd bits of spare code after they were accidentally locked in the building of a software development company one afternoon. Although a little buggy, this MMORPG saw every player reinact the A-Team experience by becoming a maverick renegade on the run from the law. Classes included “Vietnam Veteran”, “Tough Black Guy With A Single Phobia” and “Utterly Insane Person”. In an ironic twist, the A-Team MMORPG was shut down by the US government before it entered closed beta.

My Little Pony vs Carebears

A brutal and bloody PvP centred MMO, My Little Pony vs Carebears was actually the first MMORPG to feature fatalities, fully voiced swearing and nudity. Classes included “Destroyer Of Life”, “Unicorn of Death”, “Killer Grizzly Bear” and “Mr Cuddles”. Described by one tester as “the sickest, most brutal and disgusting game I’ve ever played – I love it”, My Little Pony vs Carebears was eventually banned in every country in the world due to it’s graphic nature. The developers are rumoured to have later created the Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt games.

The Wire

Heralded as the first ever “hyper-reality” MMORPG, The Wire took the term sandbox to a whole new level. Based on the popular US TV show of the same name, everything within the game happened in real time and all actions has consequences. Players were required to participate in stakeouts, happening in real time, and lasting anywhere between 12 and 36 hours – logging off at any point could result in the perp going free and the mission failing. Continual failures would ultimate lead to losing your job and been forced to continue playing the game as a Rent-A-Cop. Combat was also a rarity and any time a player shot someone, they would suspended from the force until a full inquiry could be carried out, usually lasting several months. One closed beta player described the game as “boring as hell and utterly shit”.

Arnold Schwarzenegger – The MMORPG

The concept behind Arnold Schwarzenegger – The MMORPG was so radical when it was first conceived that very few people believed it could ever be a success. The game was an amalgamation of every Arnie film ever made and saw all users play as Arnold Schwarzeneggers (customisation options were limited as a result). Class included “The Terminator”, “The Predator”, “The Commando” and the “Pregnant Man” and the game featured the first ever verbal emote system allowing player characters to activate quick one-liners such as “you’re luggage” and “stick around” after killing an enemy. Unfortunately the entire code base for the game was wiped out in a malicious hacking attack just before it was due to enter closed beta. Blizzard, who once described the game as “perfection wrapped in awesomeness and served on the Internet” and a “serious threat to their MMO monopoly” denied any involvement in the attack. CEO, Senior Designer and Chief Programmer, Arnold Schwarzenegger stated that the loss of the game was a huge blow to the future of humanity.

This blog post will now self-destruct in 30 seconds. Thanks for reading.

One of the reasons that I utterly adored Everquest 2 was because of my guild. Even though I was an experienced MMO gamer by the time I hit EQ2, I had never been in what I would call a truly amazing guild and it wasn’t until about a year into playing EQ2 that I found my first one. Maybe it was the fact that I was playing on PvP servers (original Darathar and then Nagafen) but something just clicked and my guild experiences went from strength to strength.

My first great guild, on Darathar, introduced me to the delights of reliable and consistent grouping and also helped me overcome my voice chat shyness. Then my second great guild (and certainly the best I’ve ever had the privilege to be in), on Nagafen, showed me how it was possible to build long term, real friendships with other players. It was an amazing experience, not just because I had a lot of fun playing with everyone but also because I felt a genuine connection with them as people. I still keep in contact with several of the members now via Facebook and email and I’ve even had some drunken phone calls form one particular horny Austrian (you know who you are!).

I haven’t played the same MMO with many of my old guildies since Warhamer Online last year and I’m now thrilled at the prospect of reuniting with some of them in Aion when it releases in September. This really got me thinking about the importance of guilds in MMORPGs.

Although I’ve played WoW for several months now, I’ve never been able to recapture my guild experience there. Perhaps I’ve just been unlucky or perhaps the game doesn’t lend itself to strong social guilds as much as other games but I for one found that it certainly diminished my gaming experience. Not having any players to group with, quest with, or even just shoot the breeze with has been my major gripe with the game from day one.

The Cataclysm expansion has received a lot of attention for it’s content revamp and new classes but it also introduces some rather big changes to the social structure of WoW. For instance, Blizzard intend to give an experience bonus for just being in a guild. Now that’s a huge draw to giving up your nomad lifestyle and it obviously shows the intention of Blizzard to encourage social guild and group play.

I’m probably a pretty social player and I enjoy MMORPGs due to the feeling of existing in a virtual world and being able to interact with other players. Of course, plenty of people don’t see it that way though. I’ve enjoyed the friendships I’ve made in my guilds but in the case of WoW for instance, I found that being in or out of a guild had very little impact on my actually gameplay – I just always ended up soloing anyway.

So what do you think – are guilds an important integral part of the MMORPG experience or are the just social fluff to make the games less lonely?

Much like Tobold I’ve been lured back to World of Warcraft by all the hype surrounding the Cataclysm expansion and, again much like him, I’m torn between deciding on what class to play. My current thoughts are to start up either a new Shaman or Hunter, both Draenei of course.

Even though I’ve remained subscribed to WoW, I haven’t played much in the last couple of months mainly due to the fact I’ve been checking out betas like Aion and Champions Online and playing EVE Online. It’s no secret that I’m pretty giddy about the prospect of the content revamp that comes with Cataclysm though and, for some reason, it’s just gotten me back in the mood for WoW. I’m not sure how long it will last but right now it would certainly tied me over until Aion comes out. I just feel like playing something fun and casual (plus it has the added bonus that it will run on my laptop seeing as my desktop is acting dodgy – low system requirements FTW).

I can’t quite face going back to my Warrior even though I feel like I should get him up to level 80. I’ve kind of grown a bit bored of him and I think a new alt would be quite refreshing and I’ve narrowed my selection down to either a Shaman or Hunter. Although I’ve played a Shaman before, I stopped around level 22 because I found all the totems too much of a headache to manage. They cluttered up my toolbars and it really did my head in (I’m a super-organised, control freak kinda guy). However, with the new totem bar that came out in patch 3.2 I think could deal with the totems quite easily. Otherwise my main attraction to the Shaman is being able to play a melee class that can also heal or nuke and that just plain sounds like fun.

The Hunter is my other prospective class. Although I’m tempted to hold off and wait and roll a Worgen Hunter, I really like the idea of trying them out as they are completely unlike any other class I’ve played before (essentially tanks or healers). Plus Cataclysm may be a long way off so I don’t feel like I should hold my breath just waiting for Worgens. I don’t really know much about Hunters though aside from the fact they can shoot guns and use pets. I’ve seen a few using melee weapons like polearms or dual wielding but I heard that was a pretty rubbish way to play. Any Hunter pros care to comment?

So I’m currently browsing the talent calculators and official WoW forums along with Google Images for some inspiration to help me make up my mind. Shaman or Hunter? My mind says Shaman but my heart says Hunter. What do you think? Anyone got any tips or advice?

One of my biggest (and one of my few) gripes with World of Warcraft is that most of the character models look utterly terrible. Bad posture, chunky polygons, low detail, they are starting to look very dated and even their cartoony design can’t save them from looking their age. Considering Blizzard are going to be revamping all of the original content, something I’d absolutely love for them to do would be revamp the original character models whilst their at it.

I’m not talking about a huge change in the design direction of WoW or anything like that, all I’m asking is that they update the original character models to bring them in line with the newer races like Draenei, Blood Elves and the forthcoming Worgen and Goblins. Now, you may not think there’s a huge difference between them all, but next time you see a Draenei or Blood Elf in game, check out how much more detailed they are than the other races. Their polygon count is also a lot higher and their faces sharper. Plus they have decent posture. I’m really starting to wonder if rickets was a disease commonly found in Warcraft lore.

Revamping the character models wouldn’t be as unprecedented as Blizzard’s content revamp – it’s been done before. Everquest revamped all of it’s character models with the Shadows of Luclin expansion back in 2001, only two years after it’s release. I was hugely into EQ at the time and I remember being blown away by the change and exceedingly happy. MMORPGs are an evolving experience that last for years and don’t see why we can’t keep them updated to reflect changes in technology.

Miscellaneous superheros vs Batman, who would win? For me… Batman. Yup, this means I’ve officially cancelled my Champions Online pre-order and decided to buy Batman: Arkham Asylum for my PS3 instead.

My decision wasn’t really based on anything negative towards Champions Online (I’ve no doubt that I’ll probably pick it up one day) and, as I as said yesterday, I don’t have a problem buying a MMORPG even to only play it for a month. I still feel like that’s decent value for money and I don’t necessarily need to expect them to last me for several months or years (ironically, I bet I’ll complete Arkham Asylum and be finished with it within two weeks).

Ultimately my decision was based on time and finances. Take a handful of MMO subscriptions (EVE Online, WoW and EQ2), add a dash of upcoming games that I’m definitely going to purchase (Aion and Marvel Alliance 2), stir in the fact that I’ll be moving apartment soon and sprinkle on the intensive sexual demands of my lovely wife and you’ve got a recipe for an expensive busy beaver cake. At the end of the day, Champions Online just didn’t excite me enough to cut it as one of the ingredients.

Don’t take this to necessarily mean that I think Champions Online is bad – I really haven’t played it enough to comment – but just take it to mean that it’s not got me pumped up enough to choose it over everything else. Had it not been competing with Aion and a couple of PS3 games in September, I most likely would’ve bought it. Goes to show that timing is so very important when it comes to release date of a video game. Plus, Arkham Asylum looks absolutely shit hot.