Bloggers

May 12, 2008

03:22
Happy Mother’s Day! I hope your kids were nice to you. If not, post here and we’ll see that they’re taught a lesson. I love you, Mom!
Categories: Bloggers
01:41
Maybe someday the Polliwog will grow up to be a frog prince, but for now it’s still mostly a jam. This version is, I think, less of a trainwreck than the last one. The piano’s gone, but it’s all still at 200bpm! Download audio file (PolliwogSansWarts.mp3)
Categories: Bloggers

May 11, 2008

21:22
April was a strong month for Dark Favor. We started to get one shots on Gurtogg Bloodboil, we defeated the Reliquary of Souls on our first night of attempts, and the same for Mother Shahraz. We still aren’t able to kill Archimonde, but we are making solid progress into the Black Temple. On the flip side, [...]
Categories: Bloggers
19:42
In every project, there are issues that that frighten the bejesus out of the team. They are so frightening that no one wants to talk about them publicly. The schedule might be impossible. There might... [...]
Categories: Bloggers
18:50
I'm reading about Warhammer Online, and stumbled upon one interesting fact: even when doing PvE quests, you contribute to the points for the RvR conflict. Which means that even players who don't want...
Source: Tobold
Categories: Bloggers
09:59
Age of Conan's open beta is grounding to a halt tomorrow, May 11th. As I mentioned a few times before, today (May 10th) the characters were were bumped from level 13 to 20, the level cap was...
Source: Geldon
Categories: Bloggers

May 10, 2008

19:58
My dream MMO is what I think of as “an epic”. But let me clarify that word so as not to begin this post by throwing you off track. dictionary.com Unabridged noting or pertaining to a... [...]
Categories: Bloggers
07:06
Again thanks to all the readers who sent me links. Blizzard went on a publicity spree and distributed new information about Wrath of the Lich King to every major gaming site: IGN Gamespy,...
Source: Tobold
Categories: Bloggers
06:50
The goblin spawner got stopped up. That’s the only explanation why we were sitting in the King room in Sol A, mindin our own business, when suddenly seven, eight, ten goblins were dancing on our lower intestines. Between sudden goblin drop ships landing troops wherever we happened to be, having to keep apart from the [...]
Categories: Bloggers
04:46
Because, really, it does make everything better.
Categories: Bloggers

May 9, 2008

21:49
At work, our biz dev guy forwarded around this highly interesting article about the future of paid video content on the Net: The Ala Carting of Video on the Net - Will it lead to disaster? He commented that this had relevance for games — something about which I agree completely. I strongly suggest reading the [...]
Categories: Bloggers
20:18
Jesus God…Why doesn’t someone want to talk about it!…Is it because we’re having so much fun at home we’ve forgotten the world? Is it because we’re so rich and the rest of the world’s so poor and we don’t care if they are? I’ve heard rumors; the world is starving, but we’re well-fed. Is it [...]
Categories: Bloggers
19:09
Some great news surfaced today about the next WoW expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. All raid dungeons will have both 10-man and 25-man versions mebeliThe 10 and 25-man progressions will not depend on each other There will be no attunements or keys necessary for any raid The 25-man loot will be a tier higher than the 10-man loot The [...]
Source: Cuppycake
Categories: Bloggers
17:52
MMO Week: Industry has been irresponsible with kids // News // GamesIndustry.biz Merrifield also thinks that there is an over-reliance on technology that ignores the human element, which is why they’ve decided to devote two-thirds of the company’s staff to positions such as safety moderators and customer service. “We know the limits of technology, even though I [...]
Categories: Bloggers
17:10
You may have heard about the growing trend of having a "life coach." Yes, life coaching can truly help you become a better person, advance at your job or even have a more fulfilling personal life. A... [...]
Source: Aggro Me
Categories: Bloggers
16:47
Edit: In North America! NPD has a new report out, where they are starting to track subscriptions. As part of it, they list these as the top five subscription worlds: 1.) World of Warcraft 2.) RuneScape 3.) Lord of the Rings Online 4.) Final Fantasy XI 5.) City of Heroes I think the thing that sticks out most here is how much [...]
Categories: Bloggers
13:29
Thanks to all of you who wrote to tell me that Blizzard has released a bunch of information about Wrath of the Lich King: Deathknight details, including the fact that all races can play one, yay...
Source: Tobold
Categories: Bloggers
10:14
I recently came across a wonderful article on "Intuitive Interfaces". (http://www.asktog.com/papers/raskinintuit.html) Executive summary: people don't really mean "intuitive" when they use that word to refer to interfaces. They don't mean it when they talk about games, either.
Source: Psychochild
Categories: Bloggers
09:17
Looking a bit beyond the horizon of MMORPGs, I find that there are two games coming out this summer that I would like to play and which aren't online roleplaying games, at least not in the...
Source: Tobold
Categories: Bloggers
07:37
A Few Thoughts About eBay's Decline | Paul Allen 1. Greed. I wonder if eBay has gotten a little greedy and strayed from its founders original intent. Virtually everyone I know who sells on eBay has... [...]
Categories: Bloggers
03:12
I was browsing the creative content tag here today, and I realized that the things I was production weren't as bad as I thought. Perhaps when I was planning on turning this Blog into a repository of...
Source: Geldon
Categories: Bloggers
00:05
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Categories: Bloggers

May 8, 2008

22:54
Next week I will be in Seattle for Ion (formerly OGDC) to sit on a panel pontificating on what’s up with online games in 5 years. (I’ve already done a powerpoint!) If you’re going to be in the area, feel free to yell at me.
Categories: Bloggers
22:16
Just a reminder that next week I’ll be moderating a panel at the ION Game Conference in Seattle called “Taking Your Community from Pre-Launch to Live.” The session is on Thursday, May 15, at 2pm, so swing by and say hello if you happen to be there. I’ll also be on Jason Roberts’ panel called [...]
Categories: Bloggers
19:05
WoW is still going well.  Pawtopsy is halfway through level 62, and I’ve done Ramparts, Blood Furnace, Slave Pens, and Underbog so far.  Last night she got a shiny new mace and a cloth robe that she cannot wear quite yet.  I did end up respeccing Resto and I really like it so far.  Even [...]
Source: Cuppycake
Categories: Bloggers
19:00
Oops. Chinese Gold Farmer Accidentally Turns Himself and Partner In To Police | Virtually Blind | Virtual Law Chinese police arrested the pair after one partner reported the other for unfair revenue distribution. In business since last August, the gold farming operation had 20 employees and generated nearly RMB 1.6 million (US $228,915) in only nine [...]
Categories: Bloggers
18:30
"My team has collaborated on an overarching epic storyline..." "Essentially, new [players] enter [blank] Universe with nothing: no money...no stuff. Then they go through the world completing... [...]
Source: Aggro Me
Categories: Bloggers
15:42
German EQ player Mohanos is looking for people with whom to start a European-time progression group on the Luclin server. Those people who want to see EQ from the beginning once again (or perhaps for the first time), but couldn’t make North American times… might want to check this out :)
Categories: Bloggers
15:08
for Europeans. Funcom announced their price structure, and Europe gets raided by barbarians: While AoC costs $14.99 per month in the US, it costs €14.94 per month in Europe, which at today's exchange...
Source: Tobold
Categories: Bloggers
15:01
I can’t wait to watch both movies in simultaneous split-screen on YouTube, too. Jeff Freeman | Permalink | One comment [...]
Categories: Bloggers
11:11
Like any minor torture, one becomes desensitized to the pain inflicted by the various bugs in game being rushed to market. So it is that I, like many established Age of Conan players, found myself...
Source: Geldon
Categories: Bloggers
09:36
Short version: I got to spend an hour playing an unreleased game for the Nintendo Wii developed by a small startup studio in Austin, for the purpose of late-stage fine-tuning. And anyone in the Austin area with an interest and ability to not be a total jerk can, too. Read on for more. The shop is [...]
Categories: Bloggers
09:13
The latest Warhammer Online newsletter contained information about the "living guilds" system of WAR, and that prompted people to rethink guild functionality in MMORPGs. Michael from MMOG Nation has...
Source: Tobold
Categories: Bloggers
07:34
Before the Fileplanet beta, Age of Conan had a PvP weekend, which included leveling up to level 6. From that event I had several reports of some classes being overpowered, for example the Tempest of...
Source: Tobold
Categories: Bloggers
06:36
If you haven’t yet, make sure to check out the Warhammer Online video about Living Guilds; this is the kind of thing I’m talking about when I mention how pumped I am about WAR’s potential. That said, I think every game has hurdles to overcome in the area of player groupings. Witness, if you will, a [...]
Categories: Bloggers
05:21
The leader of the Tuesday group said we should finish our racial armor quests before next week; I figured I’d get them out of the way today. A variety of wolf furs, various yellowjacket drops, and some iron bricks from goblins. I started at around 6, finished at 11:30. OUCH. Okay, I thought that would go [...]
Categories: Bloggers
04:34
Granted, my knowledge of flash games isn’t exactly encyclopedic, but it’s still rare to find a new one that isn’t a rehash of many, many older games. Same as with anything, I... [...]
Categories: Bloggers

May 7, 2008

21:07
Rep. Mark Kirk (R., Ill.) blasts Second Life as a haven for child predators and a “new, scary, uncharted territory”. The dark side of the Internet site quickly became evident when one of his aides created an account last week, Kirk said. Within half an hour, the aide said, she was perusing pornography and roaming in “virtual [...]
Categories: Bloggers
19:50
Jeff Freeman | Permalink | One comment [...]
Categories: Bloggers
19:48
I received an email from the peeps at Planetside yesterday. They are merging the two remaining North American servers into a single server named Gemini on May 20, 2008. As a past player, they also... [...]
Source: Aggro Me
Categories: Bloggers
16:26
15:26
Jeff Freeman | Permalink | 2 comments [...]
Categories: Bloggers
13:13
The Friday progression group is pretty hot stuff, but leveling in EverQuest is so fast now that we quickly leveled past a lot of low level content that we really wanted to see. The only cure? More cowbell. Another progression group! Hakiko couldn’t make the Friday progression group, so he went ahead and made another [...]
Categories: Bloggers
12:58
Not mine, fortunately, but our guild master's account in World of Warcraft got hacked, and the hacker then proceeded to empty our guild bank of 10K+ of gold and all items. Ouch! The matter is under...
Source: Tobold
Categories: Bloggers
08:42
I am not going to post a full review of Age of Conan before I have played the release version for a while, as apparently the open beta version doesn't have all the latest improvements. But I'll post...
Source: Tobold
Categories: Bloggers
05:54
A few months ago there was a great post over on Massively about the Visual History of MMORPGs. (http://www.massively.com/2008/03/31/massivelys-visual-history-of-mmorpgs-part-i/) You may be surprised to learn that Meridian 59 wasn't the first MMORPG ever!
Source: Psychochild
Categories: Bloggers
05:52
Fabulous news: I finished Darkstar One. Why is that so fabulous? Because games rarely hold me long enough to finish them. Well done, Ascaron, you've produced a game capable of dragging this...
Source: Geldon
Categories: Bloggers
00:12
For those who don’t read the official Metaplace blog (and you should!), I posted a blog yesterday about my early learning experience with Metaplace. Written to be slightly entertaining, it’s a more lighthearted post than the ones I normally put up there. Source: So there I was, the freshly hired Community Manager for Metaplace. It [...]
Source: Cuppycake
Categories: Bloggers

May 6, 2008

20:45
After finding out how to change the music of WoW, I still needed to find what song I actually wanted to have on my World of Warcraft login screen. I tried various songs I had on CD, but found that...
Source: Tobold
Categories: Bloggers
19:24
Ah, yes. To give the full title: Barkley: Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden: Chapter 1 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa. If you haven't played this hilarious game yet, please check it out. Barkley is simply one of... [...]
Source: Aggro Me
Categories: Bloggers