We Fly Spitfires – MMORPG Blog

I wonder how many kids can't eat pumpkin pie due to suppressed Halloween related childhood traumas

Halloween happens to be a particularly uninteresting holiday here in the UK and passes by mainly unnoticed except for all of the Simpson Halloween specials that get aired on TV and a few laughs to be had at the expense of crazy drunk people in bizarre costumes. Trick-or-treating is non-existent as I suspect, just like I do, most people hide from any trick-or-treaters that happen by and won’t answer the door to them. It’s all very odd considering Wikipedia describes Halloween as annual holiday specifically observed in Scotland. Uh huh. Fact: The one and only time I ever had trick-or-treaters the kids asked for money instead of sweets. Little bastards.

Anyway, if that intro paragraph hasn’t completely killed your holiday spirit, happy Halloween everyone!

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Nothing says Lord of the Rings quite like a Hobbit dancing with a shrew

This is not a hoax. This is not a dream. This is fact. Hot on the heals of this week’s preview event, Codemasters have finally announced that Lord of the Rings Online will go Free-2-Play in Europe on Tuesday, 2nd November (2010 in case anyone is suffering from cynical doubt). Finally. Us Europeans may not be the fastest with gaming distribution or have the best games web sites or, heck, even have polite customer service but we do eventually get their in the end.

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Captain Glowy Hand was very popular during power cuts

What do you get when you cross a one year old game, a dwindling player population and a current trend to reinvigorate revenue through an alternative payment model? A Free-2-Play MMO! Yes, that rather catty but nonetheless accurate statement (oh I’m such a bitch aren’t I?) was brought to you by the news that Champions Online is following the recent paths of DDO, LOTRO and EQ2 and going F2P.

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"There be a storm approaching, folks."

It’s a bit of a funny time for the MMOs I’m interested in right now. Lord of the Rings Online is on ice for me until the F2P version launches in Europe, EVE is always tempting but I’m kinda holding out for a new face as promised with Incursion and, of course, WoW has Cataclysm looming over it. It feels like I’m caught up in the lull before the storm, a moment of peaceful calm before all hell (or rather excitement) breaks loose again. Or to put it another way, it almost feels like there’s no point in playing any of these games right now.

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"Participate or the sign gets it!"

I consider myself a pretty smart guy. I’ve got a top University degree, I spend all day working with things called variables and trying to come up with hilarious innuendo function names (seriously, any computer system that has a “back end” and “members” functionality is just asking for it), and I occasionally write using the word “one” instead of “you” just like the Queen does. I’m also rather modest but that’s besides the point. But honest to God I have no idea how the European distribution of MMOs works sometimes.

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I said habit not hobbit

It’s been my personal experience that MMOs are hugely habitual things. They provide us with a constant activity and unending goals all of which combine perfectly with our innate human desire to form routines. In many ways they’re like a giant comfort blanket and throughout all of my years of playing MMORPGs I’ve found that I easily (and totally subconsciously) create a routine around my chosen game. Whether that was my core games like Everquest in my hugely free student years, Everquest 2 in my early working years or now games like WoW and EVE in my more busy family man years, I always end up with some sort of scheduled game time that I stick to like clockwork or suffer the consequence of ultimate nerd shame. I am obviously a man of habit but how much of my gaming is actually motivated by fun rather than simply routine?

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+5 points to anyone who gets the correlation between the image and the article title

Maybe it’s just my imagination but the MMO industry seems to be quite brutal these days. Harsh words are spoken on a consistent basis by both amateurs and professionals, whether that be bloggers, podcasters, reviewers or the guys and gals who actually work in the industry and there’s almost no room for error on any front. The smallest mistake, the slightest dent in quality, the least amount of inconvenient downtime are all slammed by critics and met with unsympathetic battle cries. It’s a tough genre to crack and MMOs, in almost all cases, live or die by their initial reception.

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