I have an opinion on Non-Player Characters. It emerged in the days of the first escort quest I attempted, when the computer-controlled NPC I’d be chaperoning would sprint ahead to certain death at the hands of hungry skeletons. If they weren’t sprinting ahead they’d probably stopped to admire a particularly intricate pebble and forgotten all…
Month: January 2012
Getting Started with MMO Blogging
In the time since I started blogging about MMOs, I’ve learned a huge amount about writing, sharing and being part of a staggeringly huge community. In many respects though I’m still a noob, bumbling around and making mistakes. Things like the blog going offline due to setup or configuration errors because I’m too stubborn to…
My Struggle with Sandboxes
I’ve been having a bit of a Minecraft kick lately, after finally getting enough time to enjoy the recent(ish) updates. The world generator now spawns features like abandoned mines, subterranean strongholds and populated villages as part of an Adventure Mode overlay. The great thing about this Adventure mode is that it’s entirely optional. You can…
LFD: No Simple Answers
Looking around the blogsphere today reminds me of battle re-enactment. I can see the same people pulling on the same uniform and dusting off the same weapons to have the same good-natured scrap over something. The sheep-skin drums are beating, the blue and red overcoats are being pulled on. The beer tent is filling up…
How SWTOR Will Make A Profit
There’s been a lot of talk recently about how Star Wars: The Old Republic was going to be BioWare’s most expensive mistake, ending up consigned in the footnotes of history as a video gaming failure. It’s easy to see where this comes from – at a $200 million price tag this is one of the…
Utterly Gobsmacked
This is how I feel at the moment. The last three weeks have left me in a bit of a daze, as I still can’t work out what’s going on. I’m still writing and still producing my fun (I refuse to call what I create ‘my work’ on principle), but there’s been a couple of…
SWTOR: The Retention Rate Question
Earlier today I was listening to Talk of the Galaxy over on Galactic Public Radio, when they reminded me that the month of game time bundled with the full version of the game was about to expire and that subscriptions were just about to kick in. There was a little bit of debate about how…
Access Denied?
During the SOPA and PIPA protests of January 18th 2012 this site was blacked out. All content was removed and replaced with the message below. Although the protest is now over (in the UK at least) and signs indicate that voices globally have been heard, your continued support is vital. Thankyou for your understanding. Get…
SWTOR: So Now What?
Last weekend I finally managed to hit the level cap on my Sith Smuggler (edit: Sorcerer) in SWTOR and complete the class quest chain. Darth Gazimoff is now pottering around Illum and doing the occasional bit of space combat, but I’m realising it’s not enough to keep me interested for more than a few weeks. Once the…
The Best Raids: Past, Present Or Future?
Last week a subject cropped up in one of the article discussions: is Warcraft raiding getting steadily better all the time, or has it reached a peak and is in decline. Answering this by itself can go either way – more people than ever are able to experience tier 13 due to the predicted arrival…