We Fly Spitfires – MMORPG Blog

There's nothing better than adventuring with friends. Even if they are noobs.

I’m not addicted to MMOs. Honestly, I’m not. I do however think of them as some sort of comfort blanket. They’re something that I can always rely on to occupy my ferocious mind (I consider my brain to be akin to a thousand exploding suns exploding within an exploding volcano) and soothe my thoughts when I’m unhappy, stressed or otherwise disillusioned. They’re the constant in my life that I know I can reach for at any time to stop me feeling bored or lonely, keeping me company through my bachelor years and now testing the patience of my wife. They are part of me as no other hobby I could imagine. And I feel utterly lost without one.

Read more →

Aside from the fact that this concept art makes Copernicus look like a Disney game, I'm still excited about it

Now that the awesomeness of Cataclysm is wearing off and MMO life is returning to normal for everyone, I’m starting to think about what new MMOs are lurking around the corner to tickle my fancy like some dirty old man in a trench coat. Some of these games are just on the horizon and we’ll (hopefully) get a chance to play them in 2011 while a couple of others are likely a few years away yet. Still, it’s exciting time for the industry and a great time to be a MMO gamer.

Read more →

Kids MMOs. Harmless fun or potentially dangerous?

Unless, God forbid, I have some sort of unfortunate accident in the groinal area within the next couple of years, having children is most definitely on the cards for my wife and I. Now I’ve debated before the merits of having kids and whether or not it’s worth giving up one’s MMO “career” for them but, until recently I’ve never considered if (assuming I do have them at some stage) I’d actually want them following in their ol’ Dad’s footsteps and become MMO gamers just like him. I’m just not sure if it’s healthy.

Read more →

500. 2.5 x my height in cm, 16.6 x my shoe size in inches and one day my weight in lbs.

I had a pleasant little surprise today when I logged into my blog and discovered that I’ve now made 500 blog posts (making this the 501st). Now I’m not one to let inconsequential milestones slip me by so I figured it was worth announcing and celebrating. Huzzah to me!!

Read more →

You'd be surprised at how hard it is to find a screenshot of a group with 6 players in it...

One of the biggest difficulities I had in adapting to WoW after playing games like Everquest and Everquest 2 for so long as the size of party it offered. WoW is 5 players; everything else (pretty much) is 6. Oh Blizzard, why did you have to go and try and be special? There’s a reason for the magic number 6, y’know.

Read more →

I thought it best to censor this screenshot, especially since I just realised that the player is a member of my new guild...

I finally figured out why WoWs community sucks – it full of kids. Sometimes even foreign kids (the worst kind of kids). Tweenagers more precisely. Y’know, those boys and girls that fall between that horrible age bracket when they’ve left behind the innocence of childhood and the respect of adults yet haven’t quite learnt the harsh lessons of life and all of the responsibilities that come with growing up. How do I know this? ‘Cause I joined a new guild on Friday and everyone in it was 12 to 14 years old. And I felt like a pervert.

Read more →

My, what a big sword you've got...

For those of you who don’t know, Archaeology is a new profession in World of Warcraft introduced with the Cataclysm expansion that sees players fly (don’t even try it before then) around the world and “discover” ancient artifacts (which every unemployed hardcore player and their dog has already found). This, of course, translates into the simple mechanic of going to a designated spot on your map (sometimes a vast distance away from the previous one), clicking an icon on your task bar several times until you reveal an artifact fragment, collecting several dozen of them and then “solving” them to generate a useless piece of loot that 99.9% of the time serves no purpose whilst generating a handful of skill points in the process. And my wife utterly detests it.

Read more →