Wow…been a long while since I’ve posted anything on the ol blog here.  But I did want wish everyone a very happy Easter.  It’s a very meaningful time of year for me personally and my family, and I hope you all have a wonderful day with family or wherever you may be.

What have I been up to?  Well, I’ve been in a certain MMO beta which has been a lot of fun.  I’ve also been playing a fair amount of Heroscape, watching LOST week to week, and working my tail off at my job!  One of these days I’ll get back in the saddle here and start writing some things again.  For now I lurk and read other sites and listen to the regular roundup of podcasts over at VW. 

Hope everyone is doing well out in the blogging community.  Can’t wait to see how 2008 shapes up once AoC and WAR hit.  And by the way, the most recent videos on AoC have gotten me really interested in that game.  It wasn’t even on my radar before, but everything I’ve seen and read about it during the last month or so had gotten me fairly excited about it.  Combined with Troy and Brent’s report from GDC, I suspect I’ll be buying this game in May.

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From the folks over at Rotten Tomatoes:

After the past few weeks’ spate of bad news (and weather), have we got some silver lining for you: our preciousss is in motion to return to the big screen. Now that Peter Jackson has kissed and made up with the studios, New Line and MGM are in talks with Guillermo del Toro to direct two, simultaneously shot installments of The Hobbit!

A quick recap for those just joining us: Jackson was originally interested in adapting The Hobbit, but a very loud, very public squabble over profits between Jackson and New Line Studios for the Lord of the Rings trilogy put the kibosh on that project. The two parties reconciled their differences last December and Jackson, busy with The Lovely Bones and Tintin, joined The Hobbit as executive producer with creative control.

And now del Toro is in talks to direct the back-to-back Hobbit movies, each budgeted at $150 million (substantially higher than any of the Lord of the Rings movies). Filming will begin in 2009, with release dates currently set for 2010 and 2011. Currently, del Toro is putting the final touches on Hellboy II: The Golden Army. He was previously announced to begin work on 3993, a dramatic horror movie written by The Orphanage scribe Sergio G. Sanchez, and it’s unknown how The Hobbit will affect that movie’s production.

I’m glad to see that the momentum on the Hobbit movies is rolling along nicely.  If the first one is set to release in 2010, that means they’ll be getting to work at least later this year.  Good news indeed.  Now to see if they will bring back Ian McKellan as Gandalf which he has stated he’d like to do.

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I’ve been depressed about the fact that my GenCon beta key has sat unused for lo these many long months.  But today I finally found a flicker of hope from community coordinator James Nichols:

Hey folks,

I’ve actually have a Beta FAQ on my schedule of things to do, answering many questions.

However, in response to gamesday and other convention/contest winners:

You are still a priority! It has been several months since we have sent out invites, we’re getting ready to ramp things up but we can only invite as many people as we need. With that in mind I thank you for your continued patience, and assure you that all eligible contest winners/event attendees will be invited as soon as possible based on the current demands of the beta program.

Thank you

__________________
James Nichols
Community Coordinator
Warhammer: Age of Reckoning

Now I’ve just got to hope they need us sooner rather than later.  But at least it’s good to finally hear something on the subject. 

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Well, it doesn’t appear I’ll have a whole lot to post before tomorrow, and after today, I’ll be MIA for several days on vacation.  I just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  I hope everyone is enjoying it with friends and family.  I know I am!  It’s a much needed break.  I look forward to 2008 and what MMO goodness is coming our way.  I’ll see you folks in the New Year, and here’s wishing that you all get new shiney epicz under the tree tomorrow.

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Wow…I don’t know about anyone else, but work has been absolutely brutal for the last month, and especially the last couple of weeks.  I’ve got three more days until my 10 day Christmas vacation, and it cannot come fast enough at this point.  So my apologies for not posting a whole lot lately - been a lot of burning the candle at both ends!

Anyhow, in the midst of crazy schedules, deadlines and good old fashioned stress, I did see this one bright spot today that made me smile:

Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema have reached agreement to make J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit,” a planned prequel to the blockbuster trilogy “The Lord of the Rings.”

 Jackson, who directed the “Rings” trilogy, will serve as executive producer for “The Hobbit.” A director for the prequel films has yet to be named.

Relations between Jackson and New Line had soured after “Rings,” despite a collective worldwide box office gross of nearly $3 billion — an enormous success. The two sides nevertheless were able to reconcile, with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM) splitting “The Hobbit” 50/50, spokemen for both studios said Tuesday.

“I’m very pleased that we’ve been able to put our differences behind us, so that we may begin a new chapter with our old friends at New Line,” Jackson said in a statement. “We are delighted to continue our journey through Middle Earth.”

Two “Hobbit” films are scheduled to be shot simultaneously, similar to how the three “Lord of the Rings” films were made. Production is set to begin in 2009 with a released planned for 2010, with the sequel scheduled for a 2011 release.

Awesome.  That’s about all I can say - it’s about friggin time!  I love the fact that they’ve given him two movies to do it, and I sincerely hope that he can find a director that will put in even half the time he put in on LoTR.  I can’t imagine that P.J. will be very far from things however.  And who knows, maybe he’ll actually direct it at the end of the day.  We’ll see, but I’m just glad that we’ll be able to return to Middle Earth.

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One of the things I’d been pondering lately is what MMOs we haven’t heard a lot about lately.  Games like WoW, EQ2, Vanguard, PoTBs, Warhammer, TR and AoC are always in the press.  One of the games I’m interested in that I have not heard about anytime recently is Fallen Earth, the post-apocalyptic game from Icarus Studios.  Well, earlier this week there was an update on their forums by Moonshadow, the Community Manager.  The update goes over, at a high level, what the state of Fallen Earth is at the moment and answers a few community questions:

To give y’all an idea of where things stand in terms of progress on Fallen Earth: currently there are around seventy towns or major encounter areas that have been laid out with around fifty that are functionally complete in terms of content (not polished, mind you, just functional); there are currently almost three thousand missions implemented; and our database has around seventy-five hundred items. We’ve gotten a lot done, but we still have a lot left to do. This is a deadline week for us, so things are bit more hectic than normal. This week we’re working on New Flagstaff, Thorne’s Bluff, Last Stop, Dieseltown, Docuer’s Court, and Aesterly

That seems like it could be really cool - finally a stealth skill that can have real impact on how your character is perceived (or not, as the case may be).  I loved the Fallout series and Wasteland back in the day, so I have high hopes that Fallen Earth can bring back some of that radiation-soaked goodness.  I was just so glad to see any kind of update on the game as it had been quite awhile since I’d heard or seen anything of substance.  Hopefully information about the game will ramp up a bit more in the first half of 2008. 

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Mark Jacobs weighed in a little bit on the subject of mounted combat in Warhammer Online yesterday on the Warhammer Alliance forums:

Folks,

Just remember what I always say, nothing is in any game until you see it actually in the game and the game is LIVE. We’ve all seen too many promises/hopes/plans from all game developers, including Mythic, about what will be in a game at launch and well, many times those promises are unfulfilled. So, don’t get too worked up about a feature(s) in another game until we all see it when the game is launched.

There are some substantial technical issues surrounding mounted combat, especially in an RvR game that hopes to have lots and lots of people actually fighting against each other. Throw collision detection into the mix and that makes it even more *interesting* for the developers. Anyone who thinks it is easy has simply never looked at the problem long enough.

Mark

I actually haven’t been expecting WAR to have mounted combat at release, or even ever.  I’ll be interested to see if AoC actually has this feature and if so, how it actually work.  I still think we’re a ways off from mounted combat in an MMO.  It was just a few years ago that everyone thought it was awesome to be able to pay some silver and ride a horse-on-a-track in DAoC.  EQ2 came along with free range mounts and flying-on-a-rail griffons.  Then in WoW we had free range mounts and then flying mounts.  Then Vanguard (finally!) got mounts right by allowing you to customize things with horseshoes, tack, saddlebags, etc. 

But full blown mounted combat is another thing altogether.  I hope we get there in the next several years.  I would love to have my mount be like my second character with stats, equipment, health, battle abilities, etc.  We’ve come a long way with mounts in the last few years, so here’s hoping that AoC and/or WAR will try to innovate in this area as well to move things along a bit further.

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The Commodore 64 was my first computer.  My dad brought it home in 1982 if memory serves, and from there I was hooked.  It was clunky, slow and the disk drive was loud, but it was awesome.  It allowed me a gateway into what has become one of my favorite hobbies - computer gaming. 

There was a great story about the C64 over at CNN today which highlighted that many of us “30 somethings” are still caught up in the nostalgia for this loveable system.  And what a better time to wax nostalgic than the C64’s 25th Anniversary:

On Monday, the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, will celebrate the C64’s 25th anniversary. Computer pioneers will reflect on the C64’s achievements and contribution to the industry. Jack Tramiel, the founder and CEO of Commodore, will attend, along with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and William C. Lowe, father of the IBM PC.

“It was the right machine for the time,” said McCracken. “The Commodore 64 did a lot to popularize computers.” Sold in shopping malls and discount stores and not just small computer stores — the norm for the time — the C64 became many people’s gateway into the world of computers, said Brian Bagnall, author of “On the edge: The spectacular rise and fall of Commodore.”

If you ever owned a C64 and gamed on it, I’d encourage you to buy that book by Brian Bagnall.  I bought it last year and it’s a great read on the inside history of how Commodore rose to prominence and subsequently, how it went down in flames (Jack Tramiel ftw…).

At the end of the article I found the following statement pretty interesting (bold mine):

By 2007 computing standards, the Commodore 64 is a dinosaur. A relic of the past, long made obsolete by the march of time. But the C64 isn’t dead. It’s very much alive — on gaming Web sites, through music and in the memories of millions who owned and loved them.

“Computer nostalgia is something that runs pretty deep these days. The memories that people have of this machine are incredible,” McCracken said.

Twenty-five years ago computers were an individual experience; today they are just a commodity, he said.

“I don’t think there are many computers today that we use that people will be talking about fondly 25 years from now.”

And you know, I think he’s dead on right.  I will probably recall which computers I had when, but not with any of the nostalgia, love and just great memories I have of the C64.  There was just something special about that time in computing when everything was new and fresh.  We hadn’t been bombarded by computer and console gaming for over 20 years at that point.  It wasn’t old hat.  At times I wish I could go back to some of that unadulterated fun and simplicity that I enjoyed playing games like The Bard’s Tale, Defender of the Crown, Beachhead, and Might and Magic. 

Love the C64?  Count me in.  It will always hold a soft spot in my gaming heart. 

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Hey I love action figures as much as the next person.  I’ve got boxes full of various action figures from my favorite comics, cartoons, etc.  I’ve also have fantasy miniatures of both the metal and plastic variety, so I get it.  But I was still a bit taken aback to see this latest WoW related idea pop up on the net.

Apparently this company will take a screenshot of your character (or video possibly) in any gear you want to put them in (so pull out all those cool epics and legendary items sitting in your bank that suck for stats but look cool).  They will then use sophisticated ninja magic to render the character and ultimately make a miniature of your figure.  It then lands on your doorstep in a glass dome a week or two later.

Is the figure plastic?  Metal?  How large?  What’s the cost?  Great questions gang - but you can’t know until December 11, the magic date when the site officially goes live for business.  I’ll have to admit it sounds intriguing and I’ll probably look at further information once it’s available.  I definitely wouldn’t mind having my Tauren Shaman, Khardamon, as a nice figurine in my collection.  And if they do quality work, I could see that potentially being huge as people want a keepsake from their WoW days, and of their favorite characters, in a more tangible form.

Of course it could also be a total disaster and completely bomb.  Only time will tell.  Now I’m off to make sure my hermetically sealed action figures are all safety tucked away.

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As the series rolls along, issue 5 is now out and has hit the Herald.  And for the first time, I didn’t really read anything that I didn’t already seem to know (or at least assumed would be the case).  So I’m a bit disappointed, but I know the team must be focused much more on re-opening the beta than providing lots of nuggets via these updates at the moment.  And I know there are a lot of details they don’t want to reveal until later, so by the fifth one of these, they might be hurting for material.

Here’s the basic nutshell:

*  Very brief blurb on and two art shots of cities

*   UI Team - Character creation is finally in the game - people will have choices - looking unique is good

*  RvR - People had questions on our beta boards about keeps - essentially like DAoC keeps (from what they are willing to tell you in this update)

*  Career Mastery - People had (more) questions on our beta boards about this - and you basically learn nothing you didn’t already know.

So despite the fact that this was probably the most “ho hum” beta update released to date, there were at least a couple of things that caught my eye when I read through it.

Before I dive into that, there is one other change to RvR. We have changed the Renown splitting from its old contribution based system. Renown for killing players is now awarded to each member of a group if one or more members participated in the kill. The amount of renown given to the group is a percentage based on participation in the kill.

I don’t really have the proper context to understand this statement or what this type of changes means, having never been in beta to observe the old system.  When they say “contribution” based, I’m assuming that means that if I did 50% of the damage to an enemy that died, I got 50% of the renown value of that enemy.  So it sounds like it was a very individual accomplishment.  The new system sounds like, regardless of whether you damage the enemy or not, as long as someone in your group does, you will get some % of the renown for the kill.  This could potentially be a HUGE change depending on how these systems work, and could certainly influence a person’s choice of career.  If your renown gain is based on how much you personally do to an enemy, that might slant you a certain direction.  If you can gain renown in a group, regardless of how much you personally do (but rather, as an entire group), this might slant you in other directions.  So although I can’t say that I understand this statement as written, I would certainly like to see more information on this particular subject in the next update as it will determine how people RvR and progress up through the ranks.

 The C&C team is actually making strong efforts to avoid “CC Mastery”. Crowd control is a powerful, necessary, and key part of gameplay, but it’s also very delicate - if you’re unable to control your character for an entire fight, that’s horribly frustrating and simply not fun.

We already knew this and I’ve quoted WAR devs a couple of other times making similar statements, but I just can’t help but highlight this every time I see it.  A no brainer really, but good to see them reiterate it just the same.

And that’s really it, much to my dismay.  I was excited to see another update and then as I read through there wasn’t a lot “new” to really sink my teeth into.  Mainly clarifications to people based on information they’ve released the last few weeks.  Oh well - here’s to update 6 being better!

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