I was working on an interview for the upcoming issue of Beckett Massive Online Gamer – but due to the fact that there are so many expansions all releasing at around the same time, there wasn’t any room for the article (No worries, there are still two articles for EQ2 in the issue). Not wanting to waste the interview nor the time spent with the designers, BeckettMOG posted it online for readers.
Enjoy!
I’ve said this a few times in the past, that I haven’t really been a ‘gamer’ all my life. My brief adventures with The Sims hardly counts as having a finesse for games. I’m quite particular about what I like to play. Starting off with MUDS (I played a local one called Redemption for a number of years) before breaking off for EverQuest, then breaking off that for EverQuestII. When I gave Wizard 101 a try I was astounded at how much fun it was. Of course it’s exceptionally unique compared to all other games I’ve played, with turn based card game combat rather then a button mashing experience. I’m fairly certain I’ll go with the life time subscription as soon as I can (not for a few months yet, but it’s in the works). It’s one of those great games you can just lose yourself in for hours, and don’t let the bright colours and funky text throw you off, it may LOOK like a game for 10 year old children, but creating your deck and defeating encounters is hard.
Along those same lines I decided to try out two more ‘free’ to play games. One of them was ‘Shaiya‘ by Aeria games. Like your typical ‘free’ game in order to get the really cool stuff you’re going to want to subscribe. Character creation is limited between two races on either a good or evil side. I made a human priest and was dumped in a world that reminded me VERY much of guild wars except not quite. The very first things you do is go grab a number of quests that follow the straight and narrow ‘kill X number of Y’ creatures. In this case it was thief monkeys and a few foxes. To loot items that dropped on the ground it was exactly like guild wars as well.
I ran around and picked up four quests including a time one, and then thought to myself why would I want to play this when I already have a game that’s almost exactly like it and actually looks a lot better. Logged off and uninstalled it. You remember those group of spammers who sit in the middle of the community areas in GW and spam about their sales over and over? Well those same people hang out in Shaiya in the common area, spamming their wears too. The game may change, but the people and conversations do not.
After giving that game a very brief try I decided to play Mabinogi, which is a cute anime style game by Nexon. The only problem right from the outset with this game is that even though it claims to be ‘free’ you have pretty much 0 control over anything at the outset without paying for a subscription. Want to customize your character to something other then the very base default character? Well you’ll have to subscribe. Faces, eyes, hair, mouth, outfit, everything was based on having a subscription. Want pets? Need a subscription. Want better spells and access to unique quests? Again, need a subscription. The game was also completely filled (at least from the start) with a LOT of intro movies. Every 10 seconds I’d have to watch another 5-10 minute movie about the world, I spent a lot more time doing that then anything else.
I also have a quirk with ‘click to move’ type games. I hate having to click my mouse for anything at all. At least the previous game let me use my wasd keys, this one was mouse controlled only from what I could tell. W101 is by far the ultimate winner letting me use my arrow keys. You’re dropped off in a little community and have to wander around learning how to do various things. I made my first encounter with a group of bots. Ok, it was more like 10 groups of bots. One of the very first quests sends you to discover your ‘smash’ skill and learn basic combat. Go kill a few foxes that are over the way. Immediately as soon as a single fox would spawn, a train of 10 people following one another would rush past me and demolish the mob. It was funny to watch them all run after one another.
I hear that the game is quite popular, but for me it just didn’t do anything. Needing a subscription to customize anything at all, not to mention the very clunky UI and all the bots just made me realize what an amazing game Wizard101 is for being a ‘free’ one that actually delivers. I had fun stepping out of my box and giving a few other games a try, I imagine I’ll continue as I hear about other games. This is completely new to me, I typically settle into the ‘popular’ MMO’s and stick there without giving anything else a try. Actually, playing all these other games makes me appreciate what I do play so much more.
Hope everyone else had an amazing gaming weekend!
Now sitting at 17,029 words. I’m right on schedule for where I want to be. The story is going fairly smooth, but it’s not even at the half way mark yet. I have never written a continuous story for more then a few pages, let alone 50,000 words. I’m up to page 26. It has been an amazing experience so far, and I’m excited to see if the enthusiasm stays throughout the rest of the month.
Oh, and that widget up there – light green days are when I was slightly above the daily goal. Light red is slightly below. Bright red is well below the daily goal and bright green is well above. The one bright red day I have there is not because I didn’t write, I did. I went from 13,518 on Friday to 15,098 on Saturday and then my current 17,029. I didn’t log into NaNo and update it though, so it shows up as a bright red day. Ah well.
The adventure I’m currently on posted above, again I just have to say that these little D&D mini adventures are a whole lot of fun to read (even if I suck and end up mashing my fingers). In one of the events not shown here the text is that I have to dodge some boulders falling from overhead (and I failed the roll) it says in bold text “doge stargrace, dodge!”
Good times.
It’s been a long time since I dug up those D&D books that an old boyfriend gave me as a gift (pictured above). I think he actually got them 2nd hand from his older brother. I remember looking at them fondly when I first saw them, and then as the newer editions made their way slowly into my friends possessions I remembered being very jealous that I couldn’t afford the fancy books. I used to love gathering with friends (and a lot of snacks) and seeing what adventures we would be getting into. I had the utmost respect for the Dungeon Master, who made us his play-things every weekend in gorey battles for honour. I miss days like that. I never actually used my own books to play, since by the time I started an edition or two had already come out, but I did keep those books tucked away. I still ogle the new hardcover versions at the book store. They remind me of simpler days, even if they weren’t actually so simple. Memories are great things.
There is a facebook application that I’ve been having a lot of fun getting into, and while I realize that not everyone enjoys using it, this little mini game is amazing.
It’s called tiny adventures. You create a D&D character, and send them off to roleplay fun. You make dice rolls, get gear, and each ‘stage’ of an adventure takes a bit of time ranging from a few seconds to half an hour or more. You can either leave the application running and the timer will count down until you hit the ‘next stage’ button, or you can leave the application and go do other things, the adventure will play out without you there.
Adventures consist of anywhere from 5-15+ encounters, with a dice roll deciding each encounter for you as you move along the story. Your class will also dictate whether or not you have a higher or lower chance at winning, some are tailored for clerics using wisdom checks while others are made for other classes, using strength checks or dexterity.
The stories themselves are very well written, and as you read through each journey it can become slightly addicting.
You can also look at your friends and their encounters. If they are currently in an encounter when you happen to be on the page and they’re low on health, you can help them by tossing them a heal potion. It’s not really a game per say, but it’s almost as addictive as one especially if you have the longing for good ‘ol roleplay sessions. Not all exciting games are about constant button mashing and wild sounds with action scenes every 10 seconds.
stargrace