We Fly Spitfires – MMORPG Blog

Dead Cat On Hip. New accessory by Armani.

Although I haven’t played Warhammer Online for a while I still follow news about it and have a second account setup for their endless trial (although I did receive a curious email not so long ago saying that my trial had expired meaning it wasn’t quite so endless after all… not quite sure what that was about). It’s a game that I remember being very, very excited about before it came out but then, after a flurry of passion, lost interest with it pretty quickly. Much like Age of Conan, a peer of its time, I always assumed an expansion with some juicy new races or classes would entice be back but so far there’s been nothing of the sort. Until kinda now there is.

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Kindred: The Embraced. Way better than Forever Knight.

I don’t know a huge amount about vampires. I didn’t bother to watch the last few seasons of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, I’ve avoided the Twilight saga like it’s a rabid wildebeest, I haven’t read any Anne Rice novels and only watch True Blood for it’s delightful soft core porn properties. Still, just because I don’t know much about them bloodsuckers doesn’t mean I don’t see the appeal of their dark and broody world and, in fact, I think a mature nosferatu environment could be quite perfect for MMOification.

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Y'know, I've never noticed just how dull the European flag actually is.

As I hinted at a couple of weeks ago, I’m trying out a new format with my weekly article round-ups. It’s nothing really drastic or spectacular, just a minor tweak. I’m going to try highlighting slightly fewer articles but spend a bit of time describing what it is about each of them that I enjoyed. Remember that it’s a completely subjective list based on my personal opinion, bias and how much the author has recently flattered me or otherwise appealed to my vanity. I’m just a shallow but incredibly handsome excuse for a man after all. And if you don’t make it onto the list, feel free to poke needles into voodoo dolls of me or carve my name into your arm whilst muttering demonic incantations. I heard chicks dig that sort of thing.

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Aion running on a laptop? Probably just a screensaver.

It’s that time of life again when hardware starts to die, make strange noises and overheats enough to fry the treasured contents of the lap on which it sits atop. Yep, my notebook is on it’s last legs and it’s about time I got a new one, a matter that I need a bit of help and advice with.

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One of my favourite screenshots. It also happens to have hearts in it.

Most gamers would agree that it’s a pretty slow time for MMOs at the moment. Everything seems to be getting by on a gentle simmer, tentatively waiting for the next explosion of expansions and new games to come. Without a doubt the next year is going to be an exciting place for MMORPGs with plenty of new stuff coming out to tickle our fancies and churn our butter but right now we’re just waiting with nothing to do but anticipate the future. My MMO time has been pretty relaxed recently as a result but the odd quiet period suits me fine as it gives me time to catch up on other things and rest before the next gaming frenzy enraptures me.

However, even though I’ve not being playing a huge amount of MMOs for the past couple of weeks, I’ve still been thinking about them a lot. Much like a crack addict or a nymphomaniac, I’m hooked and love every minute of it. Still, I think I can be a little harsh or critical about the industry and whilst I make absolutely no apologies about that fact (c’mon, you love it), I thought it was about time that I reaffirm my affection for the genre and tell you all a few reasons why I just love the genre so damn much.

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My name is Gordon and I'm still alive.

It’s been a strange week. Strange in the sense that I’ve spent most of it recovering from an illness that has come to be known by many in my household (well, just me actually) as The Deadliest Plague In The World. As the name suggests, it’s a illness so deadly that it’s already claimed the lives of thousands along the South Asian Subcontinent and would have inevitably felled any lesser man than myself (or so I’ve been telling my wife repeatedly). In fact, I should also probably make it clear that my constant and consistent high pitched childlike moaning to her was a necessary side effect of my superior body expelling this extreme toxin of death. Fortunately I’m a hard man to put down and, suffice to say, Gordon’s alive.

Although nothing good came from my sickness, I did have plenty of time to consider reality, existence, the meaning of life and, more importantly, MMORPGs and one day,whilst quivering in a feverish pool of man mess, I pondered the affect of blogs on the MMO industry and whether or not they were actually any bloody good for it.

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Everquest had a very innovative feature called 'group chat'. Sometimes even complete strangers used it.

I enjoyed Tobold’s post today in which he comforts Larisa who is depressed by the gap between veteran MMO gamers and new players but, even though he makes a huge number of salient points, I find myself disagreeing with him when he rather matter-of-factly states that games are better now then they used to be.

No doubt if one systematically and mathematically broke down the features of new MMORPGs and compared them to old games the overall score would be in favor of the modern products. New games have better graphics? Check. New games have larger worlds? Check. New games have more item variety? Check. The problem with this approach though is that it makes the assumption that the sum of all of the parts is more important than individual aspects (such as community) and that the magical and indescribable feel of the game can be attributed to nothing more than a list of features.
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