City of Titans Interview: Project Lead Chris Hare and Lead of Composition William Strickland

MMO Anthropology interviews Chris Hare and William Strickland from City of Titans.

Many-a-City-of-Heroes-fan has been mourning the loss of our favorite game and it’s been quite a ride since NCSoft shut it down. Now, City of Titans promises to resurrect a spiritual successor worthy of that community.

Do not miss the Kickstarter (10 days left!) it has a lot of nice rewards for early participants and you’ll be part of something awesome-to-come.

And if you’re interested in a write-up of what was learned from the interview check out SiliconANGLE and GameOgre.

Exploring the DrunkenCraft Server in Minecraft

As you know by now, I am loving Minecraft; so I was overjoyed that there’s now an MMO Anthropology video looking over a server where users can get together and create interesting things—like trees within trees.

Link, via MMO Anthropology and YouTube.

Around Minecraft: A Reckoning

Earlier this week, I had a bout of illness and some severe headaches. With this, usually means that I have to take painkillers and that means opiates. It also means I get a bit loopy. However, I also bought Minecraft, and that meant I had something to distract me.

Needless to say, I spent a while leveling the land.

It’s difficult to give Minecraft justice with screenshots; but here’s some to give you a hint as to the tip of the iceberg of my adventure so far in just three days.

This is a visitor center.

Every time I move into a new area, find a mine shaft, or crevice to explore, I build one of these atop it. Most of them just contain a crafting table and an oven—some have a bed—but almost all of them have lower basement exits that go into the mine (with doors of course.)

They’re frugal, but cozy, and I expect them to tell the story of the mine shaft below after I’m done with them.

This is the Undermountain Pass. I dug it in a straight line through a mountainside in order to see where it would go. Worked out pretty well, actually. It even peeked out on one edge into a vast mountain valley lake.

There’s the lake—those are some odd floating island formations with hovertrees on them out there.

I haven’t explored those yet.

My newest addition: the swamp visitor’s center.

It’s even got double-tall windows for taking in the view. And, if you look just to the side, you might even see one of my giant mushrooms. I am thinking of building one of my next structures on top of one just because…

Maybe some other time.

And to say adieu, here’s the room with a view.

The Darkness II: Screenshots from the Demo

Since I’ve started this mini-trend of posting screenshots from the games that I’ve played, I figured that I’d bring some of the more interesting scenes from a new demo I found on Valve’s Steam service: The Darkness II.

Published by 2K Games and developed by Digital Extremes, the game does a fair job of forming a shooter/horror atmosphere. The voice acting is alright, although sometimes the skulls of the characters feel a bit…off. Although, I was shooting at their skulls more often than admiring them.

I didn’t have the joy of playing the first The Darkness, but from what I understand various critics didn’t like the game very much. So here’s hoping this next incarnation (read: sequel) will do better than the first.

This unfortunate fellow is the first thing I saw in the demo. He’s apparently an occultist who wants to take the Darkness from from Jackie—the MC of the game (whom I’m playing as.) Missing teeth, wrecked face, this fellow has suffered horribly and this may fuel his desire to take this magic power from me.

The Darkness manifests as a pair of very angry snake-headed tentacles that seem to hang out around my shoulders. They’re actually quite helpful—as you see above—and can grab guns from the ground, doors from cars to act as body shields, and even fling things (like doors and rebar) to ruin the day of whomever I threw them at.

Not to mention, I can also dual wield weapons (mostly handguns and Uzi’s in the demo with the odd shotgun.)

If I get too close to a light source the Darkness freaks out and recedes (and it reasonably stuns me and makes it difficult to fight back.)

As a result, when entering an area, I try to sight any lamps or pools of light and put them out. Fortunately, guns manage to be an excellent candle-quitter for stopping these problems (just target and fire.) It’s my understanding that in the previous The Darkness the tentacles themselves could kill lights and in this one they will not—must use ammo.

And then… Then there’s this little guy:

Okay, so the first screenshot it the imp getting his butt-electrocuted. I thought that was funny.

I believe this is called a darkling and he enters the battlefield time to time as a guide. He also leaps onto enemies and subdues them so that I can eat them.

And I do mean eat them.

Whilst it’s true that I can shoot them down with the guns—but it’s much more fun to whack them with the tentacles and then grab them. Once grabbed, I can execute them gruesomely with the tentacles to some effect. Often with some benefit such as health regen or additional ammo.

Gruesome indeed.

Finally, when a person is downed (without a special execute) it leaves their “heart” intact and I can “devour their hearts,” which gains skill points that can be spent on a variety of upgrades to the character.

Yeah, not happening.

In conclusion. The art style is a little bit cel-shaded making it feel just a wee bit comic-bookish; but it’s more photorealistic than it is cel-shading (a good comparison might be the game XIII). There’s the mobster with evil magic powers motif going on.

Intermittently I got an emotional introduction to his dead girlfrield (who sometimes appears in pools of light—symbolism here?) and that’s it for the demo.

Will it be a good game?

Perhaps.

The demo comes across okay, although a little bit crass. This is a gruesome horror/action shooter after all so I guess we should cut it some slack there.

Meanwhile, that’s it for today. Adieu.

Star Trek Online and the Social Implications of Becoming Free-to-Play

It’s time for a new MMO Anthropology about Star Trek Online, developed by Cryptic Studios and now published by Perfect World Entertainment—it is a game in transition from pay-to-play to free-to-play.

As an originally pay-to-play MMO, Star Trek Online contains a great deal of content and an amazing eye to detail. Although, it is still buggy as all hell and sometimes those bugs really interfere with gameplay.

In this article, a discussion is brought forward about how going free-to-play will effect change to the communities present especially as players who used to pay a subscription find themselves amid players who do not. With pay-to-play communities there is a sense of risk and sunk cost to playing whereas with free-to-play it’s all about who buys what.

Star Trek Online is trying to alleviate this by making it about level-of-service as well as having cash-only ships (although they can also be had by free-to-play players by using an exchange system that allows trading reward-currency for pay-currency.)

Just see the essay for more, or watch the video for the summary.

Link, via MMO Anthropology and YouTube.

Around Brawl Busters? The Last Day for Bubble Yum

Well, I’ve been going through my work for GameOgre and I’ve had the joy of engaging in Rock Hippo Production’s Brawl Busters game. The review won’t go up for another week or so--but I do have screen shots to share with everyone!

In the game, most of the classes are melee and run around in a third-person shooter.

Of course, then there’s this:

I don’t even know what happened there.

My favorite class so far is still the Firefighter (above is the Slugger and her bat—striking out.) She’s got some of the most amusing attacks and projects a barrier to stop incoming enemies.

See the “Beat the Bubble” thing? Well, it ends today—but it’s still a rolicking good time beating up on this guy and his giant bubblegum-covered rolling pin.

Of course, watch out because he’s actually quite vicious.

I’ll leave these final two screenshots to tell the story of our last encounter.

Adieu, have a great night everyone!

Star Wars Online: The Anthropological Effect of Bugs in Virtual Worlds

Recently, Star Wars Online had an experience where a bug arose that caused people to become invincible when they used the /getdown bug. The revelation of this created some discussion in the forums (and the removal of said topics) because BioWare wants to control information about the game and especially exploits.

I’ve seen others discuss how exploits are spread and why developers might want to suppress information about them, especially in what they consider to be the primary information source for their game. Although the blogs out there certainly represent a better news source than the forums, more people who play the game probably use the forums as their information and social source.

The use of exploits and bugs can be seen by the community in a game as a sort of cheat. Also, in the past entire games have failed due to the fears and expectations of incoming players who saw that they would not receive a fair shake. Although many were happy to entertain themselves with the tools and services provided by these MMO publishers they felt that their experience had been crimped by the presence of individuals who gained advantage using bugs in the game.

As a result, bugs like /getdown are seen as a blight on the game and developers like BioWare seek to suppress the knowledge of their existence as they fix them.

The supporting essay that outlines much of this information is currently published on MMO Anthropology and it explores the way BioWare acted and some of the community reaction. It’s still early in the life of Star Wars: The Old Republic but we might be starting to see the relationship they want to establish with their players already.

Link, via MMO Anthropology

Merry Christmas from the World of Warcraft

Christmas time is coming and the MMOs are getting fat! Enjoy this video about the winter holiday celebration in World of Warcraft the Feast of Winter’s Veil.

Have a sprightly Yule all!

Link, via MMO Anthropology.

A World of Tanks Video Review

My friend Nelson Williams from Vox Ex Machina recorded this review for GameOgre.com and his review has already exceeded over 5,000 views on YouTube. Way to go!

GameOgre: Black Prophecy First Impressions

I’ve recently had the benefit of reviewing the new free-to-play space sim MMO called Black Prophecy for GameOgre. It’s a pretty good game, as a connoisseur of space fighter simulations and a lover of science fiction.

The game is still in beta so my review is somewhat forgiving of some of the issues I discovered. Overall, the biggest problem is how short the story is. However, if you like space fighter simulations in solo mode – you’ll probably love what Gamingo did with Black Prophecy.

Here’s a taste of my review,

In the beginning there was Privateer and it was good; then came Descent, I, II, and III and Freespace, Tachyon: The Fringe, and the Independence War series; and then there was Microsoft’s Freelancer—the MMO world rejoiced when Jumpgate made a grand entrance and cried when it crashed and burned in the mountains of obscurity (never fear, we might see Jumpgate: Evolution!) Finally, there’s those who wanted to scratch their eyes out when Starwars Galaxies: The Jump to Lightspeed gave us a space fighter simulation MMO…

Up next to fill up the cold, dead vacuum of space fighter simulation MMOs is Black Prophecy and a beautiful vacuum filler it is indeed. Developed by Reakktor Media and published by Gamigo Games, this game looks like it could be contending for the an amazing space fighter simulation, with a strong graphics engine, an okay ship control system, and a spellbinding science fiction narrative.

Link, via GameOgre.

GameOgre: Wakfu First Impressions

Last week, I spent a while wandering around another closed-beta: Wakfu, a tactical combat MMO produced by Square-Enix. I took my experience and published a first-impressions article over at GameOgre.com of this free-to-play MMO.

While the game’s graphics don’t entirely play nice with my eyes—too small and doll-like even with the zoom feature—it still has a lot of cute effects going for it. From the turn-based tactical combat, the very cute animals (killing sheep called gobbals really) and also a socio-ecological feature set for its persistent universe.

Killing too much of the wrong thing makes it go away forever; of course, a portion of the game can be had by re-planting in the wake of destroyers. I believe that experience can also be gained doing that—although not the sort of experience that aids you in combat.

Link, via GameOgre.

GameOgre: Spiral Knights First Impressions

Just Monday, I got a chance to do a hands-on review of SEGA’s upcoming free-to-play MMO: Spiral Knights. And I had a blast. My article has been posted over at GameOgre and I invite everyone who reads this blog to go check it out. The game reminds me somewhat a of a Gauntlet-esque 3D game with a Castle Crashers style with some puzzle solving elements.

The MMO part isn’t bad either.

Even with the preview event being a closed beta (invite only) there were plenty of people to interact with. The community is extremely friendly and I had a great deal of fun. Looks like its shut down now in preparation for the final launch.

The actual game launches on April 4th.

See you there!

Link, via GameOgre.

GameOgre: Forsaken World First Impressions

Just got this published over at the new GameOgre video game review blog and I’d like everyone to check it out. Forsaken World by Perfect World Entertainment is a free-to-play MMO video game with a fantasy bent. I got into the game and ran around a little and came back out relatively unscathed.

If you happen to play, please give me a peep in the comments section; even if you don’t let me know what you think of the game from my review and if you’re interested in trying it out.

Link, via GameOgre.

My CrimeCraft review over at GameOgre.com

Getting to be a little bit more prime-time. My full review of CrimeCraft is now up on GameOgre on the front page!

I won’t spoil it here for you (as we’ve already put a commentary up about my review on Vox Ex Machina) but suffice it to say: I really liked the game. I am not one for FPS-style games; but this one really has taken some of what I’d love to see in an MMOFPSRPG to heart. Yes, it’s a Massively Multiplayer Game, a First-Person-Shooter, and a Role Playing Game.

I love the stories that it tells, and I’ve even fought in some PvP matches in order to finish some missions for the various crime families around the city.

Level progression is interesting and having jobs that run along the lines of ”shoot this many people with a rifle” to complete really make for an interesting job-on-the-side in a job where you’re already shooting people.

Be sure to read the full review.

Link, via GameOgre.

Green Dragon Inn: Archaeology in World of Warcraft

For anyone who happens to actually level their archaeology secondary trade skill in World of Warcraft may like this little reminiscence on how it’s being handled in game.

In abstract: it’s too OCD for me.

Now, when archaeology actually got released into the game it came to me as a little bit of a disappointment. I expected to see another glyph-like system based around it, so-called “Paths of the Titans” at the time which filled me which much glee. The chance to find other ways of tweaking my characters both after they’d reached their level 85 pinnacle or during their careers as rising stars really appealed to me. Then, when it finally came to fruition, I’d learned too late that Paths of the Titans had been scrapped and what I got in its stead is the old hitting rocks and…playing a game of hot-or-cold?

Link, via Green Dragon Inn.

CrimeCraft servers having issues…whilst I write a review

I am done with the review, as much as I can with the trouble I’ve had. It’s been kind enough to work properly for the last 3 days in a row just not now. I am putting the finishing touches on it. So when I am done, I’ll be able to direct people to read it, should they choose.

For those not in the know, CrimeCraft is a free-to-play FPS MMO published by Vogster. It’s mostly guns-and-mayhem style with a deeply immersive narrative written onto a post-apocalyptic United States like city after the world runs out of oil.

Diverting Attention, Wizard 101

Yes, I know. I’m postponing my in-depth message about WFG again because I’ve found myself late, late in the day, amidst a thunderstorm, and I’ve got nothing better to do than to talk about something else.

That something else happens to be a long-winded review of Wizard 101 that I am co-writing over at Vox Ex Machina.

Go check out the series, and play the game. If you want to find me, I’ll be on as Iridian Stormshard.