4 posts tagged “mmorpg”

World of Warcraft's private test realm is now open for pregenerated level 70 transfers again. Anyone interested in trying out an arena team? You are allowed 4 premades in addition to the regular 4 character transfers. Will probably try some non-standard builds just to see if any are viable. By the way, there is appx. a 3-5 day wait for the transfers to occur. At present, the transfers are giving me errors, but thats business as usual on the PTR's.

June 2007's edition of the Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning newsletter is out. After spending many months bubbling in anticipation, soldiering delays, and waiting for a precious beta invite, I have to say my fever is waning. As great of a viewing as Paul Barnett gives, his hype of public quests don't seem to live up to released footage of the events he described. Graphically the encounters seem little better than scripted events in WoW, the combat footage seems as uninspiring, and the main battles of RvR combat being instanced leave me feeling anything but dubious that this game can aspire to be anything WoW isn't let alone knock it from its perch.

Although I've probably just pissed my chances for a beta invite away :(  I can't help but to feel a slight breeze of disappointment in the air. Guess it may be time to return to WoW soon as I can find a compelling reason to.

Well, I've finally kicked the WoW habit, thanks to Jenny. She had the preternatural good luck to run into two beta invites for Lord of the Rings Online. I must admit, I feel some shame when playing it.  Many over on the LoTRO beta forums have not received similar affection, despite their contributions to the forums and the game. Indeed, I should be excluded on the basis of having never read the trilogy beyond the first fifty pages or so of The Fellowship.

The game itself is very polished for a beta and feels nearly complete. Monster play (the PvP component) is fantastic and dynamic and the game on the whole feels very casual friendly. Open beta with begins March 30th if you pre-order, and taking advantage of same will allow your beta characters to transfer to Live when the game goes retail. Otherwise, be there on April 8th (?) to test the waters before committing to a purchase.

What then to do with all this spare downtime? Well, I figure its time to try photography again. Any recommendations for a decent SLR digital cam? I'm going to do some photojournalling in the near future, with the intent to work towards doing some stock photography. Jenny and I have a few other projects in skunkworks at the moment, updates arriving here the moment our collective procrastination is breeched :)

I don't play Second Life, err live in or visit; or whatever it is you do in there. However many people love the game (?) if the stats on the front page of their site is credible. Real world corporations have set up virtual counterparts in game. Intriguingly, Sweden is establishing a consulate there as well, in official capacity. It will serve as an information hub regarding Sweden, including links and information for accessing official documents in the real world.

Unsure how successful this will be, but with just shy of three million users in Second Life alone, you can be sure more creative outreaching between the real and virtual worlds will continue unabated. How this translates to traditional MMO worlds like Everquest or World of Warcraft is yet unexplored, you can bet the pressure must be mounting to incorporate more commercial ventures into their online models. While Second Life may flourish under monetization and incorporation of real-world institutions, fantasy-based realms seem a little trickier to access.