o/

Hello fellow piloteers,

This has been a banner month for CCP’s award winning mmorpg sci-fi title EVE Online. You might have noticed that this past weekend marked the start of the eighth annual alliance tournament. This event brought a record breaking 60,000 pilots online this weekend that shows excitement and support for the game. Also take into account the 20,000 viewers that logged into the EVE Online HD stream of the tournament action. This has been a busy weekend in New Eden, if you happened to miss out on some of the action then make sure you catch up through watching the videos posted on youtube by the EVE Online community members.

Continued…

o/

Today the first qualifying round for CCP Games eighth annual alliance tournament started and 64 teams representing alliances from all over theEVE universe battle in elimination style rounds to see who has got the right stuff in team based pvp.

In the spirit of the ancient roman gladiator style matches CCP has opened a high-definition website where fans and armchair pilots from all over the world can tune in to watch their favorite players duke it out. If you missed out on today action then make sure you tune in tomorrow at 15:00 GMT to catch all the action of the second day of 1st round qualifiers. There is also a youtube page where you can watch all of today matches; according to the forums Team “Death from Above” won first round.

“Wait a second! I don’t play EVE and what the huurrrr is an alliance?”

Long story, short version: A group of corporations (guilds, clans, gangs) created by players create a mutual conglomerate with other corporations to form an alliance. This is important when players  delve into the lawless space of o.o (it like teh wild, wild west except in space) to be able to claim solar systems or “land” for their corporations. The old system of sovereignty has since been changed in the Dominion expansion and I’ll explain this later.

If you haven’t been following the tournament so far then catch up on the rules, the tourney’s format and the incredible prizes that CCP is giving away to first, second and third prize winners. First and second place winners will walk away with awesome limited editions ships and even fourth place winners will win 10 billion ISK.

This is the type of events that all mmorpg’s should run for their players and makes EVE Online stand out head and shoulders above the rest. Make sure you tune in tomorrow and while your orbiting the EVE Online website make sure you dock at MMOCRUNCH.com for your daily dose of MMORPG News.

Until then…

Play safe,

Inktomi

o/

Hello fellow capsuleers, miners, gate-campers and pirates!

It’s been awhile since I have been on MMOCRUNCH.com but at last the summer is here and time to get my gaming in gear. I played EVE Online for a better part of a year until I decided to park my battleship and take up some terra firma in some other mmorpg’s. I had been playing some fantasy MMO’s and quite frankly, I’m all fantasied out.

I have made a pact with some gaming buddies that I could just dedicate my gaming habit to all what I feel is the unsung hero of video games, the science fiction genre. What better than start it off with the best space opera and multiple award winning masterpiece, but CCP’s EVE Online. Since my last login to EVE Online much has changed, CCP has released the new expansion for EVE Onlione: Tyrannis.

Tyrannis is EVE Onlines 13th free expansion that will finally enable players to colonize and cultivate over 65,000 planets located across the sprawling EVE universe. As some players might say that these planets are still not available for cultivation yet, CCP plans to take of the shackles and release the hounds into the whole of the EVE-verse for aggressive industrialists can snatch up some property and make EVEn moar mmo’ money.

Also, EVE Gate, the new social networking tool bundled in with the expansion will give players a better interface to network, politic and talk some serious smack.

CCP has a big weekend planned for pvp’ers with the upcoming Alliance Tournament VIII that will be going down throughout the month of June. There are going to be some great prizes to be had along with loads of spaceship popping fun. I will admit, its cool to hear someones ship go ‘pop’…unless it is your own.

There is much news and dev notes to dig through, please bear with me on this short blurb, I’ve got some catching up to do.  Please stay tuned to MMOCRUNCH as I will be updating with posts on the ins and out of all things EVE throughout this weekend and the entire summer.

If your not an EVE player or have tried it and maybe found that the learning curve was too steep, then no worries. I am going to be adding hints and tips for new players and old timers are welcome to lend some advice or school us a thing or two; all feedback is welcome.

Its going to be a great summer for gaming.

Play safe,

Inktomi

This is my least favorite type of blog to write. But as my title says, I must remain true to my cause.

I noticed from an article posted past thursday and followed it to the official Cheyenne Mountain website. Where I read an open letter to shareholders the details of the Cheyenne Mountain bankruptcy. They have gone into “recievership”, which is -

“A Receiver is a court appointed person responsible for custodial control over the property of others which can include tangible and intangible assets and rights. In this particular instance, the Receiver, who is an officer of the court, has been appointed (as quoted from the court order) “as “receiver to take over the assets, affairs, management, operation and control of CMG and CME?”

This basically means that all assets of CMG and CME will or have been sold off and proceeds will be given to the reciever who will give it to whoever is contracted as an investor in CMG that needs to be reimbursed.

This contains the shooter they recently released, Stargate Resistance, will be owned and operated by a group of investors called “Fresh Start Studios.” When a company goes ‘rupt, as we call it down at WS they sell everything down to chairs, desks and paperclips. Don’t believe me? Well someone bought the Enron ‘E’ from an auction for $44,000.00

Do I know what happened internally? No, nor do I want to comment. Some businesses fail because of internal conflict, lack of support, faulty product…etc. etc. The list goes on. But I will tell you that some of the rumors about the employees not getting paid ring true. Check this out:

• Cash funds on deposit in known bank accounts controlled by the company are less than $10,000.
• Unpaid past due general creditor obligations of approximately $2.0 million may exist. There could be more.
• CME or CMG is named in 5 complaints with estimated potential liability of approximately $10.1 million which includes a disputed landlord claim on space that was never occupied or utilized.
• Payroll wages of over $1.1 million dating back to March of 2009 remain unpaid.
• Federal and State payroll tax obligations of $3.0 million have not been paid.
• An Arizona state tax credit for 2009 that may net $3 million in funds to CMG has been applied for which could be used to cover some or all of the unpaid payroll tax obligations. It has been represented by the CPA firm handling this matter that it could take up to 60 days to realize that credit.

For now, understand that the Stargate World MMO is finished. What will survive is the Stargate Resistance  FPS for as long as Fresh Start Studios can keep it running.

I was excited about this game and the possibility of a fresh new MMO coming to market with a strong IP. The Stargate IP had a lot of followers and would have had a good turnout.The company had continued to be hit with setbacks that it couldn’t recover from, it happens in the corporate world sometimes. From running low on oil and Dan Ellgren leaving not before telling the interwebs through his blog, CMG has had it rough.Cheyenne Mountain, I tip my hat to you as you go. Good luck to all involved.Play safe,Inktomi

My friends Ivan and Shamrokk over at The Big Freaking Podcast had a chance to sit down with Jack Emmert, Chief Operating Officer of Cryptic Studios. Cryptic has released two big AAA titles within 6 months of each other: Champions Online and Star Trek Online. He is proud to say that Cryptic is the only developer to release four MMORPG’s in its game developing lifetime. Counting City of Heroes, City of Villains’, Champions Online and most recently Star Trek Online, not many studios come close.

Jack Emmert, an avid comic book fan who reads over 90 titles monthly, says his favorites are The Green Lantern and The Hulk. He holds multiple academic degrees and was approached to do City of Heroes while he was working on his dissertation about animal sacrifices. He left a possible career of being a professor of Greek and Latin to create Cryptic Studios with Rick Dakin in 2000. While he reminiscing about the lean years during the parting of ways from NCSoft he says, “He never got misty eyed” over selling The City of Heroes/Villians franchise but thought they would be working on for the next decade. He claims that Cryptic and NCSoft had “divergent interests” and after rescuing the company from the brink of financial apocalypse they acquire the Star Trek IP along with the Champions IP (Intellectual Property, the right to an idea.)

It sounds like Jack Emmert has been through hell and back with Cryptic. He’s passionate about his products and like everyone who creates a product for a particular market he has to deal with the critics. The mention of the different ratings systems and the mediocre scores would seem to have an impact on future customers for both games. But as Jack Emmert explains how the ratings system itself is quite imbalanced. When websites like Metacritic, Massively and Gamespot reviewed Warhammer Online and Age of Conan they didn’t expect the player sudden player drop off. Leaving many of the reviewers burned [sic] by loss of credibility.

Jack Emmert says it isn’t the reviewers or the fans that are ruining the MMORPG industry, “Wow has almost destroyed the MMO genre” he says. “Not in a bad way”, he follows, it’s because (wow) epitomizes everything that an MMO is, leaving all the others to be compared to it. This is why many reviewers judge a game on what it is NOW instead of what it COULD BE. But he also feels that it will take a lot of money and a strong IP to rival the World of Warcraft. After spending over 100 million dollars he feels that Bioware’s upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic could be the game to rival WoW.

The future plan for Cryptic Studios looks very promising. Jack Emmert seemed very positive about the new upcoming updates for both games, Star Trek Online’s Season 2 and Revelations for Champions Online. An entire survey of the taken by the Star Trek Online community is going to be created into the next expansion called Season 2. “What the players want is exactly what we’re going to give them”, Jack says with authority. When posted a question of a death penalty or lack thereof, he admits that the community has strongly requested it and it will be in an upcoming patch. “What is fun about a death penalty” he jokes but then tells us a deep, dark developer secret that the only reason why a death penalty is incorporated into a game is to get the player to play longer.

There is one thing to be wrong, but not to stay wrong. At certain  times during the interview Mr. Emmert admits to certain points where bothChampions Online and Star Trek Online they could be improved. He is looking to improve the company overall and make better product for the public. But the problem is a logistical issue of manpower, he doesn’t want to be detract from the developer team that is making new content to go back and fix certain issues. Problems ranging typos to quests that don’t tell the player where to go and ultimately description of powers and items that don’t make any sense, it will take manpower to make these changes.

Their latest campaign is to actively reach out to the community and the press to find their place amongst this universe of games. One of the many steps they are taking is something they practiced during their days as developers of City of Heroes/Villains’, they did this from taking a page from Richard Garriot’s book. By creating characters and actively getting involved with the players firsthand they get to see the game through the gamer’s eyes instead of a developer. In doing this they are looking to bridge the gap between gamer and developer.

Enter Bill Roper, the good cop to Jacks bad cop. As Shannon Posniewski ascends from the position of a software engineer to an executive role, this frees up Bill Roper to be the one who is going to oversee all games. One of Bill Ropers new roles as troubleshooter is going to be “making sure he play tests all of the taskforces in Star Trek.” Jack abruptly ends this subject with, “there is a little bit more going on than everybody knows yet.” Hmm, could there be a big surprise coming from Cryptic this year at E3!

Could it be Jack Emmert’s dream project of making a Godzilla MMO? Nah, never happen and I’m not one to speculate but one thing is confirmed that it will not be made for any consoles. “Consoles are not a current focus” he confides to the surprise of both Ivan and Shamrokk, he says he’s looking to “make the best PC products they possibly can.”

I will stop here; I don’t want to give everything away, but this was one of the most in-depth, personal and honest interviews I have ever had to chance to hear. This is a man that has made some tough decisions, choosing on becoming a video game developer than a college professor. During many sleepless nights he held up this company with the help of his staff. His employees look to him and put their trust in him not just as their boss, but as a leader.

Jack Emmert and Cryptic Studios seems resilient, they have bounced back from numerous setbacks. The selling of a successful MMO franchise to release other successful MMO’s and in dealing with bad press they learn from their mistakes and keep the future in focus. According to Jack, 100,000 subscriptions is a success and their mission is to keep that level of quality. This builds confidence in their customer base and opens the door for future business.

But his main focus is on his employees that depend on him and his customers that look to Cryptic Studios to have fun by playing their games. That is the bottom line over at Cryptic Studios; they are just looking to make fun games, at the end of the day Cryptic is just a bunch of gamers. To hear the rest of the interview and catch up on past shows head on over to The Big Freaking Podcast, download and enjoy!

Until then…

Play safe,

Frank Inktomi

I know that it is not possible to travel backwards or even forwards in time. We are not going to have a metaphysical conversation here. What I feel would be good customer service and would heal relationships between NCSoft and its customers is by taking care of the victims of the latest hacking spree going on in Aion Online.

Backstory.

In recent posts I gave a good friends story of how her account was hacked and how badly she was treated by customer service. The first thing I asked her was, “Did you get your gear back?” and the second after she told me no I asked, “How long will it take you to earn it back?” Her answer was “Weeks.”

As an MMORPG gamer and veteran I know how long it takes to get endgame gear in the first place. Now to have to regrind all that back is annoying to say the least and time consuming. She told me that a few of the dungeons are at least 3, 6 to 9 hours to complete! There are no insurance policies for virtual goods.

You are not alone.

Is what I said to comfort her. I simply googled ‘aion accounts hacked’ and got a slew of forum complaints from other victims of their Aion accounts hacked. Here are the links if you want to read some of the other horror stories I found.

Account hacked! What will NCSOFT do?

My wifes account was hacked today.

Account hacked second day in a row.

NCSecurity: Phantom Hacker Steals Aion Account

Account hacked, what do I do?

Husbands account hacked…

Can you see a trend here? It seems that the same cause and effect is happening while the company does nothing to help the customer other than restore their accounts. And in some cases even slow to do that.

A worst case scenario.

Imagine you come home to your house/apartment to find your front lock is changed and your key does not work. After finally breaking the door down you walk it to a ransacked apartment. Your electronics are gone, so are your jewelry and even your old microwave.

It has to be one of the worst feelings in the world to find out you are robbed. You may be lucky to have insurance on your stuff; you call the police, fill out a report and hope for the best. It still doesn’t remove that gross feeling of being invaded and you cannot even begin to calculate how much you lost monetarily.

The bottom line is you could have protected yourself as best as possible, if someone is determined to rob you, they will. And it’s not your fault you were robbed. The best you could do cut your losses and move forward. But what did you really lose?

You lost your time. When it comes down to money, you have to look at the time it took to make the money to buy that DVD player and Xbox you lost. The jewelry might even be heirlooms that are irreplaceable. It will still take a long time to build it all back. I think your first investment would be of course new ways to secure your home so it never happens again. At that point any help is a relief.

My proposal.

I’m willing to fight for you. My dedication to the honest paying game player like myself, is why I write mMO MONEY.

In my opinion I feel NCSoft should give at least 2-3 free months of gametime subscription to anyone who had their account compromised. As well as Aion customers they can also be held accountable for customers of Lineage and Lineage II,City of Heroes/Villians and Guild Wars as well. If their security is bad for Aion, it has to be for their other games too.

I think it’s also very important to improve their security too. They removed their gameguard before going live and maybe it wasn’t a good idea to do so. I also know that it created many technical issues, but I would rather have that than lose weeks or months worth of my efforts because of faulty security.

Here’s my strategy.

There is a website that offers a free online petition service: http://www.petitiononline.com if you, the MMO community would be kind to collaborate with me for this cause, or are a victim of NCSofts’ faulty security and would like some retribution. Then give me some feedback and your support, please. In the meantime I am going to write a thesis on WHY they should be giving their customers the time to replace some of the equipment they were robbed of from these terrible hackers. I think they least they could do are to give 2-3 free months of subscriptions to their customers. Don’t you agree?

I’ll post it and I will start a largescale petition to rally the community to stand up for themselves against NCSofts weak response to this problem. What do you think? Any and all feedback is welcome. This is not the first time an online game account was hacked so this is  going to send a message to NCSoft but hopefully change the way that all MMO distributors will approach their games security and most important how they treat you, loyal customer.

It’s you loyal customer, who pays his $14.99 a month not matter what, and who is the most important person at the end of the day. Don’t you think it’s time these game companies started treating you like one?

I am starting a forum post here for your feedback. Thanks in advance =)

Play safe,

Frank Inktomi

Yes folks, back by popular demand is Hulkageddon II! The properly named EVE Online contest sponsored by renowned pirate Helicity Boson of the Python Cartel has begun January 7th, 2010 and is running until January 14th, 2010.

The rules are simple: Kill any and all mining ships on sight, podkill the owners, rinse twice and repeat. The rinsing is optional. Are you competing? Then you can track your progress here.

Prizes are worth well over several billion ISK and there will be 2nd and 3rd prizes to the most pirates killing exumers and mining barges. There are also achievements to be awarded such as “Nobody Expects the Inquisition” - Most kills in Amarr Empire space.  And my favorite, “In W-Space no one can hear you scream” – For the most kills of mining and mining related vessels and their pods in wormhole space. And that’s where I live, great.

The first Hulkageddon that ran in 2009 yielded carnage of over 66 Exhumers, 22 mining barges and 27 pods. Already 2010 numbers are overwhelming last years contest with a death tally at 982 Exhumers, 238 Mining Barges and 199 capsules!

You might ask, “Doesn’t an attack in High Security space bring the wrath of concord?” The answer is yes, but the trick that worked so brilliantly in Hulkageddon 2009 was to fit a small fleet of catalysts with 8 smartbombs and blast away. If they lose a catalyst, big deal, they get it back in insurance and loot.  All for the greater good!

The short term effect: the price of Hulks, being the best mining exhumer in the game, has quadrupled. The price of ore and minerals has gone up, as expected since the amount of quantity supplied has tapered off a small bit. And it has become generally unsafe to mine, ANYWHERE, Muhahahaaa.

The long term effects: In my opinion this isn’t the last we are going to see of Helicity’s  Hulkageddon. There might be a III or IV even a Hulkageddon V in your future. Much like the SAW series of movies, some people get their kicks off of watching someone die.

This is going to turn mining into a contact sport and raise the prices of mining ships, blueprints and eventually send the price of minerals through the roof.

The good thing is that EVE Online is the only, THE ONLY game that can support this type of creativity and PvP element in an MMO. I can recall reading a post where the author said that EVE was not a PvP game … now where did I put that link…

Hello,

In recent blog posts from Tobold and an MMOCRUNCH writer the subject of story has come up. My thoughts about story from any traditional RPG standpoint would be comparable to a terrific book that the player just started reading. These are details that we must plod through as our characters get fleshed out as we level ‘through’ the story.

However, in MMORPG’s I always felt as if storyline was an understatement. Or a backdrop if you will to my own set of experiences built from playing. Whether it be on a group, solo or raid level, I am interacting with others. My interpersonal experiences make much better memories than the what the game company could write for me.

As in EVE, the backstory of the game is an afterthought. “Oh, I can’t do any more caldari missions because it’ll ruin my Gallente standing”, would be the extent of the storyline impact on my character. If you read back some of the past announcements I spoke about on the show, you find far more interesting ‘dirt’ so to speak.

One thing I might add, even though Dragon Age:Origins has a converging main storyline, it has many choices of inter-character interaction. Each one of those multiple choice questions you answer has an impact on your story. Akin to TES:Oblivion as you have a main storyline and many offshoots or side quests as we call it, much like MMORPG’s. Although your choices rarely affected the fact that the Emporer (left) would die in the first few minutes of the game, and his son at the end of the main storyline. Those sidequests were great distractions and added plenty of replayability to the game.

Now heres a thought, what if we added that aspect to an MMORPG. Multiple choices in a common storyline for different outcomes and rewards. Add a possible PVP element and you might have more people paying attention to your choices other than “accept quest”, “finish quest” and “quit”. It’s just a thought.

I realize that Dragon Age: Origins has no place here other than it is built and plays exactly like an MMORPG. The elements of the game: Stats, gear, combat and even the story has been giving me the “I wish this was  online” feeling. I got that feeling from Fallout 3, another story driven game from Bethesda, the same company that made TES:Oblivion.

The truth on my experience with Fallout 3. I was into it for one week and grew extremely bored and stopped playing it. Oh, the storyline was great, as I heard from buddies that junked out of the game for weeks on end. However, it lacked one fundamental aspect: That interpersonal interaction that I was used to from playing MMORPG’s. I was spoiled.

Soon after that I was invited to the Fallen Earth beta. I thought that this was going to be answer to my prayers. Unfortunately, there is exactly zero story to Fallen Earth but the chat window provided enough drama to keep me interested.

One of the main draws of gaming is having people make interesting choices. If I am not immersed somewhat in my environment then the people become the catalysts to make those choices. If I do not have that then the game has a chance to enter what I call “Game Limbo”. Which is located on a shelf directly over my computer monitor.

For now neither Dragon Age: Origins and EVE have suffered that fate. EVE gives me 100% interpersonal connection, I am in a corp of great people and we are having a great time playing together.  DA:O, on the other hand, is giving me one hell of a story so far. I am enjoying both, but if it was the other way around I wouldn’t play them.

Why? Because I am so done with the traditional sword and sorcery online game and it’s scary to be in outer space all alone; In space no one can hear you scream.

Play safe, Frank

PS: Callan, stats are not story, experiences make stories. The stats on that gear that you got is just a trophy but the 2 hour long fight to down the boss is the story. But I’m sure that most people couldn’t tell me why they were fighting that boss in the first place.

“Does anyone have a spare 10 million Isk I could borrow?” – random blurb seen in EVE Online rookie chat.

I’m sure along the lines of your mMO’ career you have run into the occasion where you are short a couple of gold, Isk or gil for something; it happens to us all. But if you’re like me you will be damned before you are going to ask for 1 red cent in local or regional chat, regardless of how bad you need it. This problem is usually solved by rummaging around our bags or banks for something to sell to an npc for the small bit we need. If that isn’t possible we might possibly lower ourselves to ask our guild or a close friend (in private chat).

Some people make a career out of begging. In real life and in virtual, some aren’t as fortunate as others and I am a sucker for someone who is in a bad position. An old friend of mine would de-brief me whenever we went out to the city. “And NO money to bums!” she would say with a furrowed set of eyebrows. Usually by the end of the night I would find my way to some homeless man or woman and put some money in their hands as she would roll her eyes. Call me a sucker or a bleeding heart.

Although when it comes to virtuality I am one of those folks who read someone’s plead in chat, “Just 5 gold preeeeeze!” only to find myself typing “Go farm!” or “Grind!” I guess that is where my soft-heartedness ends. That is nothing compared to the tirades of abuse that other players give a person who begs in public chat. Heavens forbid that YOU BEGGED IN PUBLIC CHAAAT!!! @.@ !!!

“Slit your wrists!” or “Go die in a fire noob!” were the typical responses and these are the more politically correct ones I choose to enter here. Have we no mercy? No kindness for our fellow man or woman in need?

Nahhh. We farm like everyone else does! Money always comes easy to some of us; we get online sometimes specifically to run our route of dailies or crafting to make ends meet. Or we might be virtual entrepreneurs and find an unexploited fresh market to expand our wallets quickly. Tobold has a rune business, I have a missile business and I’m sure you have your own type of revenue stream. Whatever it is we find ways and means to make enough money to sustain ourselves. We look at our accounts and feel confident only to end up looking down on someone just because YOU BEGGED IN PUBLIC CHAAATT! @.@!!!

Granted some can be very annoying and sometimes downright offensive. I remember one of the ploys in Ogrimmar was someone opening trade to you and saying, “gold plz.” Eww…no…stopbeggin’ and have a fresh /ignore while you’re at it. Still here!?!?! Be gone, go away, shoo! How lazy can someone be? Well maybe they are role-playing a beggar (yeah ok sure). So how does the compassion I feel in real life differ from my virtual life?

Virtuality is set up so you can make money instantly. Sign on to new game: Level 1. Go outside, bop something on the head with your level 1 sword and sell whatever it drops for you when it dies. Take that back to Joe Blow NPC and sell it for whatever “The Code Gods” deem it is worth and walk away with more money as you started. Rinse twice and repeat. MMORPG’s have built in jobs and usually the economies are a joke, such as the economy in Warhammer. Economies are the glue that bond some online communities together and if they aren’t fully developed can break a game. :::cough:::War:::cough:::Hammer:::cough:::

I don’t understand how someone can have the finances to own the pc or console to play a mmorpg. Have the money to buy the game (considering you are not playing a free-to-play) and afford the monthly fee if there is one and not have the sense to JUST GO KILL SOMETHING! Virtual economics couldn’t be easier to get ahead. It’s not like you have to work to keep a roof over your head or feed a family of four, we just need enough to buy the next (insert paper doll slot here). If we don’t have the money then oh well; go out with our level 60 sword and bop something on the head until it dies … blah, blah, blah. You get the idea – rinse twice and repeat.

In virtual economies many of the same real-space rules of finance apply. Words like: Saving, supply, demand, sell, buy and labor all have a place in our vocabularies. If you want something then work for it by saving your money and (labor) grind out the gold the old fashioned way. I am an IGF: Italian Gold Farmer. If I want something bad enough I will sit there and kill whatever I can make the most on until I get what I want. Good old fashioned hard work, determination and stick-to-it-ness never hurt anybody. That is why when someone asks for money in public chat the roof caves in on them. Because each and every person on that server has at one time or another had to work for something and no one feels that they deserve anything given to them.

My advice for someone even remotely thinking about asking for money in public chat: Just don’t do it. If you are really short a few bits then go do a quick quest or sell something. If only it was that easy in real life, I would be out in the field right now whackin’ away at something and it would probably solve the world’s economic crisis. However, if I went out and killed some wolves in the wild I would end up getting arrested for trespassing on someone’s land. “I’m telling you, Your Honor I was on a quest and the farmer told me to kill five wolves and come back!” Times have changed and we don’t need to kill animals for their fur to survive anymore, instead it goes on rich women’s backs. That is another tirade entirely.

For the rich enchanter or the billionaire ship captain: it doesn’t hurt to pay it forward a little bit now and then. I am sure that someone has helped you out with something in your history that your readily couldn’t afford. Something that had changed your game experience just a tiny bit – think back and pay it forward.

Until then…

Play safe,

Frank

I was perusing the shelves at my favorite game store and had decided I was going to finally buy a game for my Nintendo DS Lite. After much deliberation and some help from the patient staff at MicroCenter I found Chrono Trigger on sale for 19.99. I bought that and a Nerf case for it because I have big clumsy hands, I have dropped my iPod at least 5 times and I don’t think the DS can take that kind of abuse.

I played Chrono Trigger on the Super Nintendo many, many moons ago and I read good things about the handheld port of this console classic. It brought back fond memories and I feel that Chrono Trigger can stand alongside some of the most recent RPG releases. Chrono is a fun game that simplifies the Japanese RPG without giving up depth or breadth of the storyline. It might not have snazzy graphics but it has enough content to keep even the hardcore RPG player busy. After an hour or so of playing I was content with my purchase and thoutht to myself, “why I didn’t buy it sooner?” One reason is that I often get caught up in the Hype-O-Rama of the new game on the block syndrome that some of you can identify with. It is very easy to get caught up in the “new release” hysteria as you can see from some recent stories surrounding Aion and Champions Online.

There was a Time Machine hiding my storage facility.

Last week I had to stop in storage in search for some old paperwork. After thirty minutes of searching I opened some random box in desperation only two find not one but two Playstation 2’s inside. I was ecstatic because I thought I had sold them to Funcoland (life before gamestop) for new games. After further rummaging I discovered some games that were the most popular titles for that period; Socom 2 and 3, Final Fantasy 7, X, Final Fantasy XI and the original Grand Theft Auto III. They are not worth much selling on Ebay or back to G-stop and that is when it struck me, “If these are cheap then so are a lot of older PS2 titles!” This opened up a whole new avenue of gaming to me, for years I have been strictly MMORPG and PC game only; totally ignoring the console market has saved me from the red ring of death but I have also missed out on many good games. You can say I am trying to catch up with lost time.

Lease or own?

After spending a few hours on Final Fantasy X I found myself exhibiting the same habits as I would play an MMORPG. It was like soloing just without the chat box in the corner; I was micro managing equipment, looking up quest hints and even some grinding for exp. It was then that I was convinced it was time to stop looking forward to the next new, NEW thing that all the game studios are trying to cram down our throat. Instead I am looking for deals, classics and pure enjoyment all while keeping my gaming budget under control. I am still a poor college student that feels it makes better economics to own versus rent. For the same $15.00 that I pay for one month of “renting” time on a game, I can pay the same amount and OWN IT forever.

Doing some simple math, it would take 5 hours a day 7 days a week to finish Final Fantasy X in one month. In MMO terms that are usually deemed as “casual” playing, while “hardcore” players can rack up at least 40 hours or more in one week. I have read reports that FFX has over 100 hours of playtime built in without trying to get all the party members ultimate weapons. Now what dedicated MMO player would not try to get the best of the best equipment in the game? World of Warcraft was built on these standards. Yet I won’t be able to strut around the main city in my gear but there is still a challenge and the feeling of accomplishment that goes with it. That’s why we play MMORPG’s am I right? Don’t all agree at once.

I do miss the social aspect though. But I could always make a phone call.

Strut your stuff.

Second hand games is what made Gamestop what is today, building an empire on the phrase, “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” Games like Gran Turismo are a joke at $3.00 but that is still a lot less than you will pay for a new title. I’ve got my eye on a copy of Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES, I have been meaning to test the Free to play MMO and Persona is one of a long line of JRPG games that was the predecessors of the online MMORPG.

I spoke to some of my scattered gaming group and the attitude was split, “why do I want to play old games when I can play something state of the art.” Some just want to play the new stuff like Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 and some don’t mind hopping on the time machine to revisit some old favorites. I’ve grown tired of all the bashing, gnashing and trashing of newly released games. I am tired of being someone’s guinea pig, it is time to look towards something tried and tested, time to try out something old yet new.

What might be old to one person is still new to someone that has yet to experience the content. Take into consideration the latest announcement of Ultima Online’s new campaign: “Return to Brittania” as free to play until October 16th for returning members. I was just thinking about playing an older online game; Dark Age of Camelot came to mind but Ultima Online is the grandfather of MMORPG’s. This is a great time to give UO a try, there is a chance many of the old players will return which will mean a spike in server population. Empty servers is what has been holding me back from going back to my roots in Final Fantasy Online.

No, this doesn’t mean I am going to leave EVE, which has also been labeled an “old” game by some. I decided to try EVE because it has a long history, ambitious developers  and a dedicated fan base. This is what most mmo players really look for but are afraid to admit it.

Would anyone else like to join me?

Play safe,

Frank