2010 Predictions
by RJO on Dec.31, 2009, under Industry Musings
Since everyone is doing it I figured I’d throw my 2010 predictions out there… Let’s start with my biggest hope for 2010:
Final Fantasy 14: The game will release in late summer (September) and will be a surprising success in terms of first month sales. Cataclysm will hit in November causing a tourist exit from FF14 but when the dust settles FF14 will be the first post WoW MMO to have >500k stable subscriptions six months after launch. 2010 will see much written about the impending death of FF11 but that we will have to wait until 2011 to see. What prolongs the life of FF11 is a hard core player’s rebuke of FF14’s more casual feature set.
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will hit in November. The sales will break previous records held by blizzard but this will be the last WoW expansion to see record breaking success. The churn cycle behind the expansion will be faster then usual for two reasons:
1) The dungeon finder and frost badge gear reset will have pushed a gear cycle too quickly (and for the third time within a single expansion) … this will cause the predictable “same old, same old” criticism of the expansion to gain traction with more people as they realize they are back on the gear treadmill again with a smaller amount of content to consume rehitting level cap (most folks will quickly point that there is new content in the form of the new races but I think wow’s “Core gamer” crowd (those players just short of hard core due to life style, time available to play, etc) will be less interested in this content once they get out of the starting areas)
2) Viable alternatives will exist with FF14 and more importantly with SW:TOR releasing Q1 of 2011
Star Wars: TOR: The game will not see the light of day in 2010. EA will do the math, reflect on what happened to WAR when it went up against a WoW Expansion and quickly make a strategic decision to launch post WoW:CAT.
Richard Garriot: The spiritual successor to Ultima Online will be announced with very little detail attached in 2010. Richard Garriot will be at the helm and some familiar faces will return (Koster, Vogel?, Long, etc). My long shot guess with this one is that EA will be involved and this will be Paul Burnet’s next project.
Blizzard’s Next MMO: A maybe for the next Blizzcon. I give this low odds of being announced in 2010.
Everquest Next: A maybe for the next Fan Faire. I think we might start seeing details this year…
Closures: 2010 will not be as brutal as 2009 for MMO closures however some will fall. Lineage 2 will be the largest closure. SWG, to everyone’s surprise, will survive to see 2011. 2010 will be more about closure speculation within communities which will set the stage for self fulfilling prophecies in 2011: Warhammer Online, City of Heroes, Dark Age of Camelot, Vanguard, and Pirates of the Burning Sea will all have rough years in this regard. (If I have one long shot prediction here it is that Vanguard closes this year after the community more or less implodes in Q2 after their dev support almost completely dries up)
There it is… what are your thoughts?
The month without gaming and Steam Sale!
by RJO on Nov.29, 2009, under Other Gaming, Site News
November has been a slow gaming month for me. Right after I hit 80 in World of Warcraft and really got in to a raiding groove my monitor decided that I was having too much fun and one day just wouldn’t power up (the death was much more slow and painful than that but there you go). As a result I’ve been spending near 0 time on the PC and as my xfire stats over the last few weeks will attest absolutely ZERO PC gaming.
To get my gaming fix I’ve been relying on NHL 2010, BF1943 and FIFA 09 on the xbox 360 (I’m actually down an HDMI cable at the moment so on top of no PC I’m PS3-less as well!).
NHL2010 feels a little flat. NHL 2009 last year was without question the best sports game of the year (and they have the awards to prove it) but this year’s installment feels a little “un-fun”. They added pretty sophisticated methods of controlling the gameplay and difficulty this year, which is great BUT they didn’t spend nearly enough time and energy fine tuning the default settings so your only hope of getting the game right-for-you is browsing around the internet and that is if you even really know what you want the game play to be relative to the available options.
The good news is today I picked myself up a Samsung 2333 monitor (23 inches) and I’m ready to get back in to the PC gaming groove. Getting back in to that groove has been made much more difficult thanks to the Steam’s Early Holiday sale. How does that make it difficult you ask? I have lots of new shiney to play with!
My Steam loot list so far (we still have tomorrow to go!):
- Left 4 Dead 2 (Thanks to Jim – he bought this for the guys!)
- Battlefield 2 Complete Edition (figured seeing the expansions for 14.99 would be worth it!)
- Champions Online (again – for 20 bucks I couldn’t pass up the chance to play this – the game is quite fun – but super heroes really aren’t my bag… we shall see!)
- Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (I might the only person who has never played this game)
- World of Goo (Indie devs need love too)
WoW. Level 80. Wait what…
by RJO on Sep.26, 2009, under Everquest 2, World of Warcraft, mmo
Sometime about a year ago I decided to take a serious shot at getting to level 80 in World of Warcraft. I had been playing Warhammer Online and the lack of depth PvE in the game was killing me and I really wanted to sink my teeth in to something deeper.
For a time I stuck with my goal of getting up there in WoW – I made it to around level 35-40 but the new Everquest 2 expansion was calling with lots of new dungeon content to try out. Group play, particularly in focused PvE situations (Dungeons and raiding in particular) are really what make me tick with MMOs and the EQ2 expansion was focused almost exclusively around that – so it was a bit of a dream come true so WoW lost out in the end and I went off to play EQ2.
For various reasons after about a month and a half I just couldn’t stomach playing EQ2 any longer (I think I’ve hit that.point with EQ2). For a few months I drifted and even took a full break from MMOs at one point. All of this until around June/July when I decided once and for all I was going to suck it up and get the Level 80 in WoW MMO-goal checked off of my list.
I’m happy to say I’ve finally done it – it took quite a bit of effort (I did the last 20 levels in a pretty hardcore amount of time – I was pure heads down focused on leveling) but in the end it was totally worth it.
I also have to give Blizzard a lot of credit – both the Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King expansions were huge evolutionary steps for the game. Even after climbing this mountain I’m not convinced I would have enjoyed vanilla WoW if I would have done the drive to 60 back five years ago – I still think the game was too generic-MMO but with the two expansions, especially with Wrath you could tell Blizzard was finally figuring out how to tell a story and drive some really compelling content in an MMO.
I have a post that’ll be coming soon(TM) comparing raiding in EQ2 and WoW. We’ll find out if the journey was worth it…
The Return of Old Shool Adventure Gaming?
by RJO on Jul.27, 2009, under Other Gaming
Some of my best gaming memories revolve around playing adventure games back in the early 90s. Every day after school I would go upstairs at my grandparents place and fire up the Amiga 500 to get some gaming in. For hours I would play Police Quest, Quest for Glory or any number of other titles.
So when in the spring it was announced that Monkey Island would be rereleased with upgraded graphics, voice overs and a new musical score for the PC and XBOX360 I was ecstatic that I would be able to return to one of those childhood fantasy worlds I had loved so much.
I won’t review the Monkey Island re-release much beyond these short words – IT ROCKS. An old school gamer or not – you should get this game and enjoy an awesome piece of gaming history and one of the most humorous stories ever told in any medium.
I went with the XBOX 360 version (my Sumosac was calling me – its getting harder and harder to feel inspired to sit at my computer and play with that thing looming behind me 
) and the controls and whole experience on the console was just awesome!
My hope is that this re-release will do well and will encourage other studios who own the rights to these old games to get them re-released. Early evidence suggests that Monkey Island: Special Edition has been a success – on Steam the game has been a bestseller since its release several weeks ago.
During this economy where budgets are shrinking and projects are harder to get green lit this seems like a no brainer strategy to me. The teams required are small to update graphics and build the fairly simple engines that these adventure games run on. There is no story work required and even sound is fairly simple if at all required.
You are guaranteed a built in audience as these games come with a low price point and a strong nostalgic pull.
When I first started this blog post I was going to end with a call to Activision-Blizzard to get to work on getting the Sierra catalogue online in this manner but they’ve already put out their answer to Monkey Island’s success and I couldn’t be more disappointed.
Their answer was to put their existing compilation packs up on Steam. These compilation packs are the old games in their original forms that hardly run (if at all) on modern hardware. No imagination and no real desire to unleash the full potential that sits with these classic titles.
Sierra (now owned by Activision-Blizzard) was once king of the hill and their fall from grace was well documented. With just a little investment and a willingness to take a chance the Sierra brand could once again be reignited with these remakes. The Sierra back catalogue is so deep they could be remaking these games for years to come, and making out like bandits with minimal investment.
For me, as a fan of a genre and a brand now long since dead this is just another in a long series of heartbreaks. The management behind Sierra hasn’t had a good idea since the mid 90s and I guess I was just setting myself up to be let down.
Kudos to LucasArts for doing right by the Monkey Island IP and you can be sure that if you continue to remaster your back catalogue I will be first in line to buy your products – I just wish some of the former giants of gaming would have the foresight you guys did.
I miss you adventure gaming, but I’m glad at least in some small way you are back.
My Dungeons and Dragons Confession
by RJO on Jul.01, 2009, under Other Gaming
So my gaming world has been a little (read – a lot) stale lately. The lack of gaming in my life has led to an even greater lack of posting on this blog (as evidenced by the fact it’s been almost two months since my last post?).
So with no MMO consuming me that has left me with a lot of time. Now to be fair I started a new job back in April and that has been consuming an extra 10 or so hours a week BUT STILL there is quite a bit of time I’d usually be sinking in to MMOs that is just left wide open.
So what have I been doing with that time? Mostly Team Fortress 2 but I’ve also started putting more time in to console games; mostly of the sports variety.
Now I am not alone here – I suspect MMO players around the world are currently in a bit of a slump (it happens every summer, just part of the cycle). I can however say for sure that my usual gaming group (Chris, Evan, Jim (who doesn’t actually play games despite being a games developer)) is right there in the slump with me.
So when Jim approached us and said “hey, you guys should play Dungeons and Dragons with me” instead of doing the sensible thing and running for our lives we grudginly agreed. Now I’m not talking Dungeons and Dragons Online, or an online game involving both dungeons and dragons… No. I am talking, travel to nerdsville, do not pass go, die a virgin, Pen and Paper Dungeons and Dragons.
Yes MMO industry – this is what you have driven us to.
But here is my confession: It is probably the most fun I’ve had in A Really Long Time(TM).
Our setup is pretty simple: Everyone gets on Skype for voice chat, a few of us get on TinyCHAT for web cams (which has resulted in some hilarity) and we use RP Tool’s MapTool to play the actual game. Jim is our Dungeon Master, Evan is playing a Warlock, Chris a Warlord, Steph a Cleric ERR THAT CHARACTER HAS SOMEHOW ALREADY DIED err Steph is playing some crazy thing involving swords and I am playing a Paladin.
We’ve done 3 sessions so far and we’ve been having a real fun time of it. More than anything I think it is a social experience for us. D&D seems to force you in to putting a bit of yourself in to it and it makes it a much more connected experience when compared to your typical MMO session. Really in the end it’s given a group of friends an excuse to hang out and talk.
Jim has lots of crazy ideas – this one has really paid off 
And that my friends, is in the lore.
MMO Firsts
by RJO on Apr.28, 2009, under mmo
So Syp from Bio Break is back from his blogging break (resulting from his having a baby – Congrats Syp!) and decided to get started slowly – by introducing an internet meme (it’s good to be realistic in your goals kids)
So here goes – the MMO firsts MEMEMEMEMEME – pass it on
First MMO Played?
The Realm
First Character Class/Role Played?
Adventurer
First MMO Subscribed For More Than A Consecutive Year?
Ultima Online
First MMO You Fell In Love With?
Ultima Online
First Guild You Really Felt Attached To?
Order of the Gold Dragon on Great Lakes. Some great memories creating one of the first player cities in UO.
First Character/Game You Leveled To End Cap?
Everquest 2 – My Troubador
First “Wow” Moment In A MMO?
Oh boy… probably the first time I hit the brit bank after UO’s retail release. I saw the trade and the socialization going on and thought to myself – THIS is the future of entertainment & communication.
First MMO You Burned Out On?
Ho boy. I think I’ll have to go with Everquest 2. I think it is the first MMO I’ve truly burned out on. UO I could go back to, EQ2 I load it up now days and I just feel so blah.
First MMO You Followed Avidly Prior To Launch?
Ultima Online. I spent a good year kissing the right ass to get in to pre-beta
First Time You Felt Truly Noobish In A MMO?
I can’t say I can trace it back to any one moment. Probably when I was being corpse camped in Deceit in UO
First MMO You Went Alt-Crazy In?
World of Warcraft. I’m not much of an alt person but WoW really brings it out of me. I have level 40+ characters on 4 servers in WoW. I would have probably two raid ready characters in WoW if I would have focused
WoW Update – Level 35, and Warming to the PvP Ruleset
by RJO on Apr.26, 2009, under Weekly Update, World of Warcraft
I’ve been back in World of Warcraft now for about two weeks and I’ve put around 20 hours in during that time. At first I have to admit I was having a little trouble getting in to it but at some point between reading up on end game, talking to Chris about end game and genuinely having fun ploughing through some quests it started to click.
I’ve done level 28 to 35 (I think I might get 36 done tonight if I can avoid too much blogging/greader/twitter/interwebdistractions) and I feel the casual time I’ve put in to the game has given me entertainment in return. One of the key indicators that I am starting to get back in to the game came today when I spent almost two hours just pursuing some meta game – got enchanting to 225, have made around 300-400 gold working the AH and mining as I level and at one point… wait for it… I even was chatting with some people at the Orgimmar Bank… IN WORLD OF WARCRAFT! TALKING… TO PEOPLE…
Daggerspine (the server Jim is blamed for landing us on and Chris for keeping us on ) seems to be a little quiet (compared to my Alliance server Medivh) but Orgimmar is pretty hopping during prime time. The community disappoints me a little (I don’t think there is a server community in WoW that would please me) sometimes when it degrades to pure fuck-tard-ery but all and all they seem to be a good bunch most of the time.
One of my biggest hesitations of playing WoW with the guys in the past was the fact that Daggerspine is a PvP server. I’ve heard too many horror stories of being ganked and corpse camped for hours to be able to get too excited about a PvP server but I must admit I am starting to warm to the idea of a PvP server. I don’t think I would go out of my way to play on one in any game but I’m starting to feel comfortable with Daggerspine as a PvP server as my home.
The biggest reason for this comes from an experience I had the other night. I was in Stranglethorn Vale for the first time (anyone who has ever played on a PvP server go ahead and take a moment to grumble and moan – I’ll wait) and within 30 seconds I was ganked. Fuck this. I hate PvP. I’m quiting. Another 30-60 seconds after that the calvary came running in and a handful of level 80s put the ganker out of his fuck-tard misery. I grumble, piss and moan but eventually realize I need to realize this is the cost of playing with my friends so I headed off to the north end of SVT where you start questing.
I start doing the animal master quests and within a few minutes I’m seeing high levels of both factions running around in mounts. I got the distinct impression I was about to be caught in the middle of a warzone and my only option for contributing to this war as a newb was to bend over and end up a corpse. Luckily the tension between the 80s in the area never spilled over and we all sort of watch each other with a bit of unease. It was once the dust had settled I realized the tension was very engaging from a gameplay point of view.
So I carried on and about five minutes later I ran in to a level 38 alliance hunter questing and I thought, shit here we go again. I /bow’d in a lame attempt to not get two shotted and I don’t know if it was that or the guy just wasn’t up for a fight but we ended up questing side by side for quite a bit and aside from one of his multi shots going wild and hitting me (man we stared each other down for like 5 minutes after that I thought for sure he’d get a preemptive jump on me).
Another thing I noticed was that other people questing in the area tended to hang close together. It felt like everyone was sort of watching each other’s back and it was a really neat sense of community I’ve rarely experienced outside of guilds in World of Warcraft.
So there we go – I still wouldn’t go out of my way to play PvP but I think I’m learning to live with it.
All and all this has been a successful return to WoW so far. Onward to 40 and beyond!
Screenshot Updates
by RJO on Apr.26, 2009, under Everquest 2, World of Warcraft, mmo, warhammer online
These days I do most of my screenshot uploading via the auto uploader in XFire which ends up putting the screenshots on my xfire profile / screenshot area. The problem with this of course is that the worst possible place to keep screenshots you want your friends to actually see is an xfire profile!
So periodically I’ll go through my xfire folder and upload some updated shots to Flickr so people actually see my screenies. Today I added the following:
World of Warcraft – Mostly shots from my recent return.
Warhammer Online – Assortment of guild event shots.
Everquest 2 - Some old-ish raid shots from when I was playing 2-3 months ago.
Again – if you want to follow my screenshots the best place to do it is in my XFire screenshots page.
A Slow Return Via World of Warcraft
by RJO on Apr.12, 2009, under World of Warcraft, mmo
I’ve decided I’ve cleared my head enough and reprioritized to slowly introduce a little MMO action back in to the mix. I’ve decided that because from here on out I plan on playing extremely casually (no event scheduling if I can avoid it – I run the MMO schedule not the MMO runs my schedule) that I would give World of Warcraft a go for my return.
If you are looking for casual it doesn’t get much more casual that World of Warcraft. I’ve set a few ground rules for myself on this return to ensure I stay casual:
- One MMO at a time – period. the end.
- No scheduling / signing up for events. If/when I hit end game this might change to one scheduled event a week kind of deal – but for now I come and go as I please.
- No playing until the baby is in bed for the night including weekends. Usually I’d play on the weekends while the baby napped – I found this was prime productive time for other tasks I was pissing away.
I have a few challenges going forward the primary of which is that WoW is not exactly my favorite MMO. My friends play Horde (which I seriously dislike) on a PvP server (double gah) so from the get go there are a few things playing against WoW but we’ll see if I can get by them.
If World of Warcraft doesn’t work out for me I’m not sure what I’ll do. But we shall see… For now I’m a Blood Elf Paladin on Daggerspine.
