1.  Age of Conan:  Did anyone not try this game, at least a little bit?  I’m sure there were some, but I got sucked into playing it and decided with a buddy of mine to do a little experiment.  For the first time we decided to app with a “hardcore” guild.  Insanity!  We actually did get into the guild pre-launch and boy, I have to say they were the most organized guild I have ever been a part of.  Let me just say that an almost fully populated guild wiki was up and running by launch day.  Phenomenal stuff.  Played AoC for about a month – absolutely loved the look and feel of the game.  The bad part was that when we hit 80 at the end of our fourth week, there was really nothing to do.  The raids, such as they were, were already packed with a waiting list.  Besides harvesting to finish off our tier 3 city and battlekeep, there really wasn’t anything to do.  It was sad really, but we hung up our hats and retired.  Maybe in a year I could see popping back in and seeing what it’s like.

2.  Warhammer Beta:  I got into this beta early this spring, much to my delight.  I had been waiting to get in since GenCon 2007 when I won my beta code.  I played the beta pretty hot and heavy up until AoC launched.  Obviously at this point tons of people have seen the game, the NDA is down, etc., so there’s no point in recounting what the state of the game was back in March.  But I can say that even back then it was fun, smooth, and a lot of things were different than they appear today (and I have the old screenshots to prove it!). 

3.  EQ2 (yet again!):  Yes, I returned yet again to EQ2, along with Darren and some of my buddies.  This marked our third return to EQ2 since we originally played the game back at launch (my most recent venture back being fall of 2007 when Kunark hit).  This time around we went back to our old stomping grounds, Guk.  We joined up with a guild called Revelry and Honor, and they are a fantastic bunch of folks.  We spent several weeks leveling up new characters there and currently sit in the low 60s.  We are on hiatus from EQ2 (yet again!) as we prepare to dive into Warhammer in a couple of weeks.

4.  GenCon 2008:  I defintely enjoyed going back to GenCon this year for the third year in a row.  I think we’ve committed to making this an annual trip for as long as jobs/families allow, and it’s really a lot of fun.  A weekend of hanging out with good friends and playing your favorite games, all the while having access to the biggest gaming store in North America?  Priceless.  I did pick up a few new games this year from my favorite studio, Fantasy Flight games.  I bought the new World of Warcaft Adventure game, the new Battlestar Galactica game, the new Game of Thrones “living” card game, and another game called Conquest of the Empires.  I also got to play in a couple of Heroscape events and snagged my GenCon exclusive figure for that.  All in all it was a great con and I’m looking forward to 2009.

5.  Wizard 101:  Yes, I did download the client for this game and played for a few nights last week.  I got a character up to level 8 or so and it was pretty fun.  I can see how kids would love it.

6.  Warhammer Online:  Just got finished playing the preview weekend which finished off the closed beta for Warhammer Online.  Open beta begins in about a week with the game going live soon after.  Definitely plan on having a lot of fun in this game, so I’m sure I’ll have more stories to post in the weeks ahead (if I can get back into a regular writing schedule!).

So that’s it folks.  I’m still alive and kicking, and I hope all of your gaming adventures are going well.  I’ve got a Labor Day weekend of gaming lined up, so I plan to enjoy that thoroughly. 

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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. 

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.

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.