Gasp! (eq2) lifting some f2p restrictions !! (woohoo)

https://www.everquest2.com/news/article?month=032013&id=51587

haven’t read it yet. Just found out, oh I’m glad. The way it was marketed was daft - well done SOE on rethinking it.

(I have read it now). Well, there goes another one of those cosmic thingies, or rather two of them!

A short while ago, I remembered I had an SOE all access pass and since I’m mostly playing two SOE games and have been very tempted recently to sub, I checked it out. It’s still there. So I subbed. I only have Vanguard and EQ2 on it, which is fine because that’s what I play. I cannot add any other games without joining ProSiebenSat – oh well. Too bad. That devalues the all access pass somewhat, but I’m not doing that. Then, I played a bit as a now supposedly much wanted gold/full member on both games for a while. I hated it.

The full games are nice, but I don’t like being held to ransom for them. I also very much didn’t like not waking up in the morning with an open horizon for gaming time- “what shall I play? who shall I be?” No, instead I start the play session with “I payed for x, must play x.” That sense of “oh – no choice” dimishes the expectation hugely and made my days poorer. I didn’t look forward to the end of the day anywhere near as much. Subs make gaming dreary. (even when I’m actually enjoying the games!) …And SOE still throw lockboxes at you, and the SC allowance is nothing exciting. I just didn’t like it at all. So I unsubbed. About 3 days later. The thing will still run it’s month and I’ll use it more than I want to. Bleh. But after that I’m free again!

So then, cosmic cosmic – I find out ProSiebenSat7 was hacked, and boom SOE improve their f2p. I am cosmic Av! . I should maybe stay home under the bed for a week or two. (I also was going on about credit unions and people shifting their money to them two days before NatWest customers’ IT went down). Lot of coincidences lately. Or maybe the chat on the bus is even more current than I already know it is. Back to games…

One thing that I’m noticing is how uncomfortable the mainstream games make you feel. I can’t name one where I actually feel comfortable – it’s all nag, nag, nag either to spend or log in or join a guild or PvP or blabla.  The independent games I’m trying out make that even more apparent. It’s quite clear that the Indies step out to welcome you and draw you in. It’s just a whole different outlook and far more enjoyable.

SOE’s new f2p is actually a little more like that. A little more welcoming. Can try all the classes, will not struggle for bag space or have to delete quests. It’s good. Not totally there, but good. Maybe even good enough. I do think though that the 2 character limit is silly – people will just make extra accounts. There is also no doubt in my mind that the unlocks on the weapons are annoying, they feel wrong on about 100 levels. Even though you are f2p you earned that Ubersword of Ubernessby slaying something mighty, it doesn’t feel right to then need to pay to use it. Or… You already payed for subs, expansions, cash shop items, but log in after an absence and find your gear is now being held at ransom. Nah. It might just be a feely-weely thing, or it might (I suspect) just be one monetisation too far. Monetizing for the sake of it. The AA sliders – another one. Errr, they seem more a personal choice/customisation thing to me and naturally part of the base game. I think they could still adjust those 3 things because:

The money! Is to be gained from skins, mounts, houses! House items. I’m not as excited about housing in Vanguard, but nobody gets even close to EQ2 for great housing, and it’s so perfect for cash shop sales. I want drapes!!  They have a complete and functioning gold mine there, and that’s just the houses. Their cash shop is now even better with player-made items being added and if I was them that’s where I’d concentrate my efforts using all the stuff in the above paragraph to draw people in. They actually have a very nice cash shop. Prices still on the high side, but a pleasure to browse through and treat yourself now and again. Cash Shopin in EQ2, in fact, is a very enjoyable aspect of the game. Not many can say that!

But that’s maybe too simple a model for those clever marketeers eh EQNext is coming – some goodwill from a happy playerbase is also a very good move. Keep it coming SOE, right now, I’m very almost a happy customer.

All in all I’m glad they did this. I hope it works out for them and brings in lots of extra players and money - so that they’re encouraged to keep making people welcome in their game and less tempted to try and force sales by gimping the experience.

Small Frozen Fruit Salad wrapped in Fog (2013)(Vanguard, EQ2, Wurm)

Over here we saw some sun already this year but the trees are still asleep, their buds barely visible – they knew we were in for another cold spell. I’m supposed to be out and about today but happens I have a choice in the matter and I’m not stupid. So home I am, with work to do and warm, and sensible it is too plus good for the environment. Outiside is freezing fog. This won’t take long. The fallout from January continues, albeit at a slower rate and I’ve been busy with real things. I’ve played but 3 games plus Frog Fractions which I still haven’t finished even though it’s quite short.

Vanguard continues to fascinate, I’m delighted to say. It’s the game I played most. I now just about have one of everything and have managed to see Pankhor Zhi (it’s empty), and sent a Kurashasa homeward, but the Kurashasa zone is already shut off, so too late. Quite nice plinking around nearby though where there are the starter quests for another race to be had (I forget which). A little Raki made it all the way to the wood-elf starting zone, but the pics are on my zapped external hdd, and a lesser giant made it to Halgarad (hope I spelled it right). I really like the old starter zones. I don’t care about the gear, I like the variety. This is a fabulous game to solo in by the way. Nothing is too easy, which makes it all quite gripping. Slowly I’m meeting people too and it all feels very natural. I do have the secret weapon of course, I can always get a family member to group with me and tackle anything unsoloable, but so far haven’t needed to.

Phew

Everquest 2 yay, played this second most much and I neglect writing about it I know. So far it’s been a total voyage of discovery and I’ve now discovered too much to catch up on is the problem. I will make a new alt and write about all the bits as I come across them is probably the best way to tackle it. And I do want to because this is a massive game with a huge amount of good stuff in it. It’s also (oddly for an MMORPG) a game in which one of the alts has a “life” of her own (the big girl). The Big Girl is a story – mostly my alts have the (soon to be devalued) clothes they stand in and a few kills, very thin, but the Big Girl is more complex and more fun. I think she has her own take on the male gaze for one thing. Hahaha!

Poor old Wurm has made it to the household chores list, the real one. At the bottom. Well…  I log in, do chores, log out and not much to say really except it’s working. Nothing has crumbled to dust and my skills are going up. I also get to chat to friends if they’re around. I don’t have the time for this game. I’m wriggling and squirming to fit it in but it’s like trying to keep an octopus in a fish tank. I’ll do this ‘improve year’, review in June and most likely go dormant in December – with real regret. I’d like to keep playing, but there’s far too much maintenance. The whole point of a virtual world is that it should exist independent of me, and I’m afraid that bargain has to include my stuff has to exist independent of me because I don’t have the time to sustain it.  So, yeah, guess decay did for me in the end. I think the decision is made really. I can’t see “dormant” lasting long either since the trader would still be needing fed. Too many, way too many chores. Sill, I’m there for this year.

Footnote: If you want to see what’s left of the starting zones in Vanguard – I found this guide helpful:

http://vanguard.wikia.com/wiki/Old_Starter_Towns_Guide

Small Festive Fruit Salad – ((the best gifties) EQ2, GW1, Wurm, Wow) and some singleplayer games

Pressies thin out some as you get older, at least until you have grandchildren to make homemade ones, (hopefully), which I don’t have yet. So I spent Christmas play hours with the game that gave me the nicest gifts. So there.

The Big Girl looking unusually spiffy, (helm closed though (shy!))

It was Frostfell the first time I played Everquest II and I remember how impressed I was then. Nowadays the game runs much better and I’m still impressed. Every year more content is added. Gifts are given out daily (for quite a long time – right through early January) and accessible to f2p (and trial !!) players too. New items are added. Useful items, craftables, and decorative items. Yay! Thank you Everquest for that very seasonal and generous reminder that there can be, even in this old world, enough nice stuff for everyone if the effort is made. It does warm the heart. Hey, guess what I bought an expansion! Destiny of Velious (edit: no, sigh, I “misread”. DoV is not included. Dontcha just love advertising that makes you think something when something else is true) is now included with Age of Discovery, so it’s a very decent deal (not really so decent then) and I did want to treat myself to one game thing this year.  If it hadn’t been for their lovely Frostfell events, I wouldn’t have known that or decided to buy, so it payed off for them too. Now I can have a Mercenary – the Big Girl won’t be so lonely. You know, she’s a romantic at heart. Maybe that’s why she bought an outfit from the CS. Who knows perhaps …

Edit: So… in that case I think I’ll hold off trying out “gold”. I really don’t like sneaky stuff.

Much fun had in GW1 too. Err I never got near anything seasonal, because I got sucked into this quest about a Nornbear and then after that there was another interesting one,  and then I wanted to move my ranger out from pre-searing and so it went on. Great play, but no special gifties really. I think they go for cosmetic only, but I haven’t got anywhere near to find out.

Wurm is still settling after all the excitement of Wurm 1.0. . Here are some of the splendid (mostly hahaahaha!) things players are already making. http://forum.wurmonline.com/index.php?/topic/71682-multi-story-house-pics/ I think multistorey has already and will, bring in much revenue for Codeclub AB. The playerbase, which loyally supported the game through to release and in last months lost quite some silver(euros) through disappearing enchanted grass and horses walking through fences, was very polite about the cosmetic santa hat gift (premium players only). Wurm has a very nice playerbase. There is also some problem that makes the game begin to stutter after about an hours play (not only me)  which is a bit offputting, so I didn’t spend too much time there. Thank you for the hat.

I had a yen to visit WoW (my comfy old slipper), and thought I’d see what their free trial is like and I did see a Chrismas tree in Dolanaar. It’s the silliest free trial I ever saw. All social functions and the auction house and mail are disabled (to deter gold sellers and spammers) so you get a fast run through some tramelled, cut down and incredibly bland content on a character which has a few clunky skills. Frankly if I’d started with this trial I’d never have bothered playing it. I most certainly wasn’t going to go and read up where to go for Chrismas events, let alone trail along there – probably not available for trial players anyway. I didn’t care to find out. WoW also runs very badly now meaning a sub is forever out of the question. For my purposes, sadly for I’m fond of it, it’s pretty much become a hunka junk, and the loss of old content doesn’t help (compare to the stupendous amount there is to do in EQ2 even on the most basic account). The fund for a computer with a better graphics card has been started and is growing in tiny increments – and we’ll get there but you know what all these games you have to play on high enders also miss? Most households don’t have 4 high end machines. One good one and 3 older is much more likely, with members of the family wanting sometimes to play together. Silly game vendors. Use brain.

Must be said, once I hit Frostfell I stopped bothering about looking at other games for the presents and seasonal events. I checked Vanguard, but I’m too new in it to know where things are, and never got as far as Star Trek.

The first of the single player games were already downloaded (a pound/5 spent here and there over 2012) and fun is being had with those. FTL – wow, I really like that. It makes stories as you go – that’s a new one, not played much yet, but what I did play I very much enjoyed. Spacechem - at top of the list for everyone in family to be told about because of how it makes you think - in a way that’s going to be very useful for coding, o I am sneaky, yes. I found an infant modding Legend of Grimrock the other day. My methods do most certainly work. Dungeonkeeper II – delighted! found on Gog. Used to have this but it used to keep falling over on my old desktop, which I binned this year. Now it runs nicely and I’m looking forward to getting further than the tutorial. Gnomoria - had this for a whiley, go my gnomes… go…. build me an empire. (yes, I talk to them). NeoScavenger remains terribly addictive. I thought I was burned out on it then I played it again and woops, ahm…. yes. Only for when I have time because I can’t stop playing it at one game. Two roguelikes in that list there (FTL is the other one), and both near the top for enjoyment. I didn’t think I liked roguelikes. Now I know eh. Plants vs Zombies. Whats to say. Much loved . Ravenhearst – I like this game, you find objects in the clutter. It’s also good for me – my eyes are slowly getting not so good and all crises are greeted with the words “Where’s my specs!” I find it handy to practice spotting things in what is increasingly a difficult to visually decipher world.

On the upside all men are handsome now.

Think that’s about it… ahm downloaded but not yet played RealMyst, and barely started playing something called Tag – the single player games fit my life well, and I’ll be sticking with them mostly as things hot up. They are also very good value, most of them well under 5 euros. No subs this year apart from, much later, see if EQII gold is any good for a month, maybe 2. Although compared to other forms of entertainment, subs are cheap, it’s the commitment and pressure they bring I don’t need, and the lack of opportunity to play other games caused by a lockdown on budgetted funds and time. One sub game is already one too much. Playtime will be for play this year, not “I payed a sub so now so I should”…blah blah blah, no tx go away. Early conclusion…. single player games by Indies are far and away the best value just now (beginning of the year) and more diverse and creative than current multiplayer offerings.

Surprisingly Small Fruit Salad (GW1,EQ2, WoW, Wurm Online)

So with life being very whirly and disconnected just now, there is less time to play. Plus if you remember I decluttered my hard drive and gave the laptop a new lease of life by doing a destructive restore – and I’m not in a hurry to add too many odds and ends. They’ll accrue eventually.

GW1 – To the amusement of all mum finally got a character out of pre-searing and is (4 years late) completely hooked. There are an awful lot of reasons why I like playing this. We all do.

Here are some of the reasons we like it then (trying out this blog editor at same time, Iets see how bullets go) :

it runs well

• it runs well
• it runs well (ok enough of that)
• it looks good
• the combat is fun and direct and unfussy.
• it is immersive due to the very beautiful graphics and the music helps too
• the story provides some extra immersion without being clumsy or obtrusive
• I like the sense of being on a journey through strange new lands, fighting my way, that theme works!
• there is no sub – I don’t feel any pressure to log on lest I waste money
• there is no nagging at all in fact
• in all the time I have attempted to play it it has always felt fresh and properly supported, if pared down
• I am not a second class player, I am equal to all … (edit: this post is already threatening to get rather large, I’ll leave it there)

Soo what stopped me from getting more involved for four years? Believe it or not, baggage limitation. Nothing as immersion-breaking as having to stop and empty your inadequate bags too often. And no, I’m not going to pay to remove the irritant.

(Guild Wars 2 runs ok on the other machine but not well enough for anyone to want to spread. One copy will do but if it ever gets better, we will buy more. We have 3/4 copies of GW1)

And….

EQ2 – Surprise! Yes me too. I am surprised I went back to this. I can play it until the point where the in-your-face marketing gets me (alas not long before that happens).

They have only themselves to blame that I barely spent money here because this is a great game. I love the rhythm of going out and adventuring, then coming home to decorate or just mess about in my home(s) so by rights I should be playing more and spending more.

I even like browsing the cash shop and treating myself now and again but all the other constant “buy, buy, buy” stuff gets on my nerves big time so I hardly bother. (The items are really nice when I do look).

I am planning to play bronze (totally free) on one account and play Gold (full sub) on one account for a month or two (already have a silver account) in the interests of finding out if any of their payment plans are remotely coherent and/or comfortable. I doubt it. Plus, since they double-dip I will not be subbing for quite some time. The money thus saved will go to buying some not-all-that-new expansions. Only then will I do the Gold experiment. i.e. dont hold breath.

So…  their only recent sale is this:

I may rust though.

which is rather nice, I must say, though it cries out for more holes. The inside spaces are lovely shapes. But they need windows for max atmosphere! It would also, to me have been a no-brainer for this to be able to travel, but it’s pretty good as it is. It is a house by the way. I think the carnivorous plant suffers from sea-sickness but I do have a few other bits and bobs I can use to furnish it

In its favour, EQ2 now runs very well at medium-ish settings and is still playable if cranked up, so it looks like they have worked on that part. Still haven’t managed to see through my windows in New Halas though. Hardware? Setting I am missing? Anyone know?

Wurm Online – is too interesting not to play just now, but I very soon won’t have time for Wurmstyle time-hogging. It’s a real shame that it’s so life-unfriendly. I’m not quitting but have no idea how much or when I’ll be able to play and anyway at times I won’t have internet making the expense truly worthless. If all I’m paying for is to log on when I can and repair stuff because that’s all there is time for, some hard decisions might be made. I’ll keep going for now though and see how I feel as time passes. I still just like being there, so there is that.  Much as I love Wurm I have to note the contrast with EQ2 where after a few months complete absence I could simply walk back in to all my stuff, and all the things I had made, arranged and achieved – without loss. I realise that it’s a different style of game. But a barrier to re-entry is a barrier to re-entry and padding (high proportion of repetitive maintenance tasks) is padding.

WoW – I finally dropped my sub. It’s still my old slippers though and I’ll go back now and again. Again, I’m time limited, no point in paying if I can’t play.

April fruit salad (Wurm Online, Star Trek Online, Creatures 1, Guild Wars, Aion, Forsaken World, EQ2 …The Guardian)

I had completely forgotten about Creatures 1

You wouldn’t believe it from the wonderfully tranquil posts but in fact most of my belongings are in boxes and quotes are rolling in for work to be done to this house. Well, not rolling. Amazing how many people don’t want work. I’m still chasing for quotes. Anyway it’s a weird way to be living. Yet another situation with which a desktop could not cope. Of. The lappy moves happily from one work area to another, and even out of the house when needs must. I have no trouble blogging, gaming, working on …Thingie, checking Reuters or doing anything computery I normally would. When I tell people I haven’t watched tv since 2009 they get a strange blank look on their faces right enough, but the internet allows me access to Reuters which allows me to watch the markets’ reactions to news as well as see what’s going on, I’m fine for news and if I want to watch something entertaining I usually can do it on here. I think the tv still works, but who cares. The computer access is probably why I’m not a screaming madperson. Home improvements are such a trial.

Theres been a huge dejunk which I’ve enjoyed terrifically and I like having life reduced to basics. It reminds me of the old days. Various old days. I’ve had the peculiar joy of back to basics during several stages of my time, though a stint in the bush was the best by far. Would do that one again anytime! That was when I was at school – we really had a fabulous education.

I’m still de-junking. I think I’m addicted.

Having cohabited with various individuals at various stages, I’ve inherited some of the daftest things – which I suddenly realised I neither need nor want. I have found no less than six dead toasters all of which were kept to be fixed sometime. Less obvious examples abound too. Old diaries. Man, I doubt anyone is ever going to be interested and I have no intention of wading through them. I had the verbals badly when I was young and looking for lerve – and its all total rubbish hahaha! I mean who cares if X had a nice colour hair in my last year of high school which reminded me of the cap of a certain species of mushroom. All grey and gold sheened etc etc. Heh. Out. Anything I want to say about my life I’ll say now I think. I’ll keep the diaries from when I was sailing.

So there’s that going on. My Wurm begunner’s guide will have to wait it’s turn. I manage to game here and there, but nothing deep or sustained. It’s fruit salad gaming. Very nice, very light, bit here bit there.

So here’s what I’ve been up to.

Wurm still has the flickery ui thing, I kind of just cope with it now. I’ve not had time to test some things out for the devs – will do soon. Umm all the spawns are unicorns and my fishing rod keeps breaking. I still find farming my fields very soothing though, and just generally pottering about on my land. Last night spent some time making some leather armour – very satisfying. Should be good enough for hunting wild green dogs and when my fighting skills are up some, a unicorn may fall – the hunting alt is a wuss remember.

Star Trek online I play quite often. For some reason it always puts me in a really good mood. I’m only a Lieutenant I think, and a very inept one at that, but that doesn’t bother me any. I just have to commend a game where I can go and play a mission without doing homework and have a really good experience which leaves me smiling and happy. If it had housing I’d probably spend even more time there – I like the trekkiness, the graphics, the sounds. I want to own my own bit of it!

Creatures 1 – I had completely forgotten about Creatures until I was browsing GoG. Creatures 1 and 2 are downloaded and I’m once again spending 15 minutes here and there with the Norns which in Creatures 1 rather fatally don’t know how to eat. It’s a problem. I think I’ve managed to get the Encyclopedia Nornica working, but I suspect my Norns are doomed, doomed I tell you – What an amazing game though.  Will blog about sometime – if I ever manage to get them to eat something. Creatures is something like an ultimate tamagochi. Your little Norns do all the tamagochi stuff, but with a lot more independence. You can leave them to it and they will get on with exploring their very pretty world (at this stage with disastrous consequences) and eventually breed (maybe). Or you can intervene. And they are without doubt the cutest ever digital beasties – not in the sickly, referenced ”about something else” way anime is cute, but just plain cute. The real deal. Their toys are fun, their world is pretty – and the Creatures community is a long way from dead, I am pleased to say. Player-made tools are available to enhance your little Nornic world – not explored many of those yet, the Encyclopedia Nornica I already mentioned is my first COB I’ve ever imported. Except I managed to inject a christmas tree too, I seriously don’t remember how I did that. Age…

Guild Wars has mostly been played by other people in here – I’ve not spent much time with it. This is partly because I (with the purse strings) buy copies and make accounts for supervised play – and the account I reserve for myself gets kidnapped/begged for/given away… this time I have made a secret one and am bopping around pre-searing Ascalon with hope in my heart! Perhaps for once I’ll actually make it over the wall before someone realises there’s another account in the house. It really is very popular in here.

Aion I tried to download. And tried again. And tried again. And fiddled a bit and tried again… well, to be honest if they can’t even sort out their launcher there isn’t much hope for the rest of it. The game downloads ok, the launcher downloads ok – then it informs me it needs one patch and goes into a world of its own, hanging at various percents. ah who cares. It’s 2012. I want to download, install, see if it runs and see what I think. Four steps only. I don’t want to revert drivers, disable firewalls, open ports, edit inis, unistall p2p stuff that they “need” (they have apparently stopped using Pando Media Booster now, but I don’t care anymore.)  Might try again sometime if I’m bored. Which is unlikely.

Forsaken World – play most days before bed – nice graphics, nothing too demanding, can let my head unravel happily in pleasant surroundings and pheumonia-inducing beginner garb (modesty does improve somewhat as you earn more gear – but the armour is never armour).

That used to be the slot for EQ2 but I don’t find that so appealing nowadays. Looking at the box from the outside, yes Sony need cash (it turns out). Under current management I am not convinced that this lovely game even has a future – and that puts me off playing it. Its badly priced, communication with customers is abysmal and on top of all that Sony, like the Guardian seem to think console and hand-held gaming is the only real gaming and that’s where their efforts will be concentrated. On a side note the Guardian video games section should be called Console and Hand-Held Games – if you just read it and nothing else  you’d think the pc as a platform was nothing more than a blip. Hahahaha! Tell that to Warcraft. It’s from that hidebound era when the pc was srs b’ness toy on which mployees did not play! My laptop indeed looks like it should belong to some go-getter in a suit (until you spot the raid-ravaged keyboard), but it has a few tricks under its hood like 4g ram and for Intel a notbad graphics chip with still unexplored potential. I’m not sure if people are still modding drivers for the chip - last time I looked people were, but those are sites you don’t want to visit without bug spray and full armour. In other words don’t go unless you know what you are doing re malware, registers, assembly code and preferably sandbox the entire journey. My apologies to any legitimate operators out there, but even finding those is perilous.

And that’s about it – plootering with other games but most I’m still at the “learning the controls” stage, not much to report. Nor do most games lend themselves to story-telling. I’m sure I’ll find another one that does sometime, but mostly there isn’t a lot to say about one’s personal journey – you play through the quests/missions – maybe fight another player, perhaps defeat a boss – all the same as anyone else = its very “lite”.  It’s when you creatively interact that stories happen. EQ2 has some potetial via housing for that, but not a huge amount. Likewise Creatures has a little via the breeding and (mis)adventures of Norns, and possible the creation of COBs. It’s something I’m actively on the lookout for. Lietenant Dgirp of the USS Potato is happy on her rails though, as are my new Vampire in Forsaken World, and the tourist Warlock in WoW – they are just not very interesting in themselves, though they sometimes point me to general issues I’d like to write about or think about.

Eureka!

4 a.m. bolt upright in bed. This is it, I’m sure this is it. This makes sense! This is why!

It’s been bugging me a lot how such a lovely game is being sooo badly managed, I’ve been trying to come up with a plausible reason – if only to settle my own head. I have it, I’m sure I do! (hehe)

It’s being Zynganised!

hmmm? no I promise I didn’t eat the mouldy cheese again (wut anyway, I like mouldy cheese)…. transient customers instead of a playerbase, heavy cash shop presence, pop ups, communicating via forcebook, and tweeter instead of the forums, losing the herdcore, losing the vets and aristocrats, compressing levels to the speed of light to get everyone homogenised at the end for greater sales…

I know it’s just one of those 4 a.m. theories that looks silly in the light of day but kind of creepy how many things do fit, unsettling. Yeech. Don’t like.

Community ftw!

I see Blizzard is teasing about announcing the launch of Diablo 3 any day now. Interesting timing.

SOE remains silent in the face of all requests for information except – there’s that didactic article on Massively. About how community relations work http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/03/10/the-tattered-notebook-soes-brasse-talks-community-at-gdc/
of all the …!

It’s now 3 weeks since their players were promised “news on Monday”, the General Discussion forum thread on the Prosiebensat/Sony deal is at 211 – thats pages, not posts, and hasn’t left the front page. No word from SOE at all – so seeing one of the SOE staff doing a panel about community relations almost caused another tea snorting event.

The weekend’s activities on Guk show what the community is made of anyway, and it’s amazing stuff. Well done to everyone that did this lovely thing. In brief, people pooled together to create a digital wonderland for a very sick little boy - and you know what? It’s pretty much Sony’s loss if any of these people walk. What a very, very odd company. I see a few official Sony people appeared at the Guk event. But they weren’t responsible for it happening. The community organised this and pushed it through. Some of the tale as it unfolds here: http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=515820  and many EQ2 sites and blogs have posted pictures. The pictures say it all. An amazing effort. By Zam this:

A Scrapbook for Ribbitribbit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU-ektPtIZs&feature=player_embedded

not a dry eye this house

I’m just going out to…err buy a potato

don’t bother to cook dinner for me…

I don’t think I’ve ever ragequit a game – do people still do that? Seems a bit last year to me – from the era when you played one MMO and one only. Like a marriage it was. Or monogamy anyway. Maybe people still play that way, I kind of hope so – there’s something endearing about it, and trusting.

Anyhoo what I do usually when the purveyors/devs/publishers of a game get up my nose is go and do something else or play something else, taking my cash with me needless to say. I thought it was like, just saying goodbye to a friend for a while, but I suppose its more like going out to buy what used to be “a packet of cigarettes” and not returning. They need us you see. Players I mean. I wonder how many they need…. I love the idea of a server in a cupboard somewhere providing a world for a few die-hards at not much cost. No idea – will get to investigate all that sometime.

So, yes I know my thought processes are somewhat odd – it serves me well, so… they need us, we don’t need them (need as in cannot survive without) - bit like the man used to be in relationships, when they used to be breadearners ooooo way back when. I’m not a man, but my goodness it must have been tempting to go out to buy something and never return. Actually my thought processes are odder than usual today. I got to thinking about this relationship we end up with - they provide the game, we provide the dosh. The power would seem to lie with us the players, yet it rarely feels that way. How strange.

Brainwashing via Eula and TOS aside, it’s probably because they make up the rules as they go along. That feels a lot more like power than paying the bills does. I tend to look at my gaming relationship partner, the devs/purveyors/publishers, in a critical light. And it is sort of a relationship light. I was mildly irritated at Ghostcrawler patting himself and team on the head for all the things in Cataclysm I personally disliked – enough to snort up some of my cup of tea anyway. Can’t recommend doing that btw. If WoW (easier to just refer to an entity) really thinks that stuff is successful this relationship is going nowhere so to speak, I’m out of it! Ha, this gets easier as you go (not the tea-snorting).

Keeping cup of tea well away from nose I considered EQ2. Sooo attractive, but soo strange. Now, the silent treatment. Do I do silent treatments? Do I heck. Who wants any relationship with someone who doesn’t communicate? It’s potato time for sure.

Those two games … well don’t keep dinner warm, chances are I wont be home.

Oh dear I seem to be something of a flirt. There’s that bandit with the charming smile and flashy dark eyes, Startrek Online, Wurm of the suburban wastes and basic necessities whatta hunk,  featherheady Rift, Free Realms who might sell my grandma or sell me a grandma, whichever made the most cash, Guild Wars the steady – maybe consider something more long term with that one, Skyrim of the cramped interiors (nonono I don’t do nurse), Eden Eternal is really cute!, Forsaken World the plush – how did they get it so plush and runs well too?,  Fallen Earth the wild and mean and also…. alas a bit hicky to run on my machine (all that hard living I daresay), Anarchy Online the unexplored.

I think it was one of my earliest lessons in life that – when a voluntary relationship goes bad beit employer, spouse, friend, it’s time to look around and see what else there is to do. If it ever edges towards abusive it’s most definitely time to withdraw. Some of what goes on with games does remind me of abusive stuff – hey I’m old, I have many t-shirts. Denigration (solo players are antisocial), humiliation (non subscribers are second class), silence (PSS1 deal, still not a word on it 206pg thread now) - is it my imagination or do we players even sometimes feel punished (not paying a sub, not getting any good stuff !!!!)? Or we suspect there’s a mind-game going on (triple rng grind archaeology anyone) ? Classically, abusively, I would now be told I was nuts and all alone in my thinking. A blow would finally fall, there would be shock (on both sides), disbelief, then fine promises…I would keep thinking things might get better….

However. – errr doesn’t matter if I’m nuts or all alone in what I think - I’m off to go buy a potato. Or to be more specific the USS Potato heh. Star Trekking… Amg the skills, what is this thing! Nvm it looks good and runs well and, doesn’t annoy me.

It’s a pretty fun game to spend half an hour musing on relationships with MMO’s - but in the end the publishers/devs/purveyors are just making a poor business decision by being out of touch with their players to the point of losing them.  I’ll look in on the two unfavoured some time for sure, keep the lights sparkling you guys and don’t mess with the playerbase too much!

ProSiebensat1 and EQ2 – Ominous Silence.

Thursday dawns. It dawned a while ago here and is yet to dawn in the US. The thread on the EQ2 forums is now 192 pages long and “and rising” as they say in Hitchikers Guide. From Sony 3 or 4 very small pieces of fluff only in response – amounting to “hi guys” from someone that moved/joined … whatever… and “it will be ok, promise.”

At the same time Everquest Online Adventures is closing. I’m inclining more these days to the view that there’s some financial problem happening in thar somewhere, and SOE needs a rapid cash injection. Mind you I’m also inclining to the view that their hold on reality is dangerously tenuous. If they were my next door neighbours I’d be calling the white van and checking the trash for needles. A Station Cash sale that amounts to an extra 20% (One Day Only! Buy Buy Buy!) scaling to 40% seems to have nothing much to do with anything much either. Even if they were in everyone’s good books it wouldn’t be tempting.

The sad thing is, had they taken the trouble to be open, and built a reputation for fairness, their very loyal veteran playerbase would have been behind them and helping out.

Ducking, diving, weaving, wheeling, dealing and grabbing quick-cash-then-run requires mobility. MMO’s are soooo not mobile! Grab quick cash and still be there tomorrow doesn’t work – ooops.  It takes time to build a playerbase. MMOs do better by building good relations, doing right by people – being seen as FAIR. A sizeable section of humanity is only capable of short-termism however, and this is the fruits. If such people later need help, its not much use turning to the people that they have left feeling cheated, betrayed, left in the dark. Oh dear, oh dear.

Lastly – this sense of ownership. by Eula! by Tos! by the Gods of … MMO! we are bludgeoned to think we are only guests in these things. But a lot of people don’t feel that way – really they don’t. I object to SWG being lost to humanity as a whole (plus I never got to play it). Time and effort put into any game I play  makes it feel like I’m part of it. Being part of something runs near to feeling it’s part of me too.

It will be interesting if it ever occurs to anyone to formalise this (naughty! you’re just a guest!) sense we have that we do, in fact, in some sense, own some tiny part of the games we play. Share ownership by players?  That’d be a good way to raise cash, with the added bonus that the shareholders are likely to protect the game from all sorts of baaaaaad stuff. But if you’re too busy grabbing evrithing for meeeee, sharing just isn’t on the radar I guess – like fairness isn’t up there with the desirable stuff, or openness, or heck, even honesty. If you can get away with a lie it’s ok?

S’pose so…. so long Sony                                     … yeah I’ll drop by and say hello to EQ2…. um……sometime.

Some random thoughts about and around this ProSiebenSat1/EQ2 deal

As Monday dawns we are waiting to see how this … thing will fall out. Having played and enjoyed EQ2 since just before Christmas now, I’m interested, I’m more than interested, I’m much more than interested. From outside the corporate box there is little to be seen of what went on within  to occasion this nonsense, and speculation isn’t my thing, much. The recognisable signs (insisting on a sub model, making sell-deals) point to Sony having a need for money, which could be extrapolated to an unhealthy bottom line. But the signs could also be extrapolated to just plain milking the playerbase. Greed is so acceptable nowadays that that would not be a surprise either.

The lynchpin of the deal is who gets what money, when and how -  and I don’t know that part, heres my guess:  Sony seems to want money so presumably they get a financial injection. ProSiebenSat1 appears to wish to grow and diversify. On that in-my-head model it would all make commercial sense. The current value of the playerbase might not even factor in, since ProSiebenSat1 has its own cash generating methods which I am sure they will not hesitate to apply if the deal allows them to do so. It also has it’s own customers and means of gaining more. It sure as heck doesn’t have a game like EQ2 on its playlist - so I can see the attraction. Sony has a new game it wishes to expend it’s energies on so EQ2 is likely to be an unwanted burden more than anything at this time – apart from the money it still generates of course (bit like WoW really).

I’m not one of those tedious people who has to be right all the time – it must take so much effort ugh – but I think the shoddiness of what has been dealt isn’t fully known yet. As I understand it this deal runs out after some years, and there’s a glimmer of hope there. Presumably the parent company won’t be wanting a rundown mess returning to the fold. What they might not mind – and this is the danger, to my mind - is a playerbase shriven of any notions of entitlement, docile, accustomed to a more mendacious payment model. If it works in Europe, expect more EQ2 sell-offs.

Losing the vocal veterans might well be a desired outcome, leaving the field open to capitalise freely in the future – pay 2 win models etc. However I doubt anyone involved in the deal expected that to happen so soon and so dramatically. Time and income would have been required to build up a malleable and profitable new playerbase in Europe. If people have cancelled subs in large numbers now, that would be a spanner in the works right enough.

Also, the reaction to all this in the US is what is most likely to cause someone to get cold feet. European players are probably expected to be replaced and therefore pretty much discounted (though not expected to leave this fast)(that’s what I think). I do also think Sony expected US players to shrug and think “well it’s not going to affect me”. Gamers aren’t drooling delighted fools anymore though, we’ve learned stuff along the way. It’s occurred to just about everyone that raids, guilds and servers are going to be chewed by this.

I am sure outcomes are being weighed right at this moment – a depleted income from subs seems likely, will the increased income from a la carte purchases be enough to offset that? The publicity is bad (but hardly appalling, most of it is currently forum-bound with the media slow to pick up on the story, and reluctant to dig at it) - is the publicity bad enough to warrant an about turn or will a few morsels of comfort do the trick.

EQ2 still suffers somewhat from the captive audience syndrome – there isn’t a game like it out there. Not with housing. Maybe they are banking on that to keep income flowing. I have this funny vision of 100,000 angry EQ2 decorators descending on Wurm (mainly because I’m planning a Wurm post after this one)….. “what do you mean I can’t RESIZE this chair? hey where did my gold candelabra go… decay? decay????? How to make drapes, anyone?” – it would be very funny indeed and probably give poor Rolf a heart attack, but you get my point I’m sure. There’s… Vanguard, oh wait that’s Sony. There’s… Free Realms… (!) Istaria? Ryzom has some I think and I heard rumours of it in AO, Second Life anyone? Housing is still pretty rare, unfortunately, and housing as developed as EQs is hen’s teeth.

Hopefully this thing will crash and burn. The unlikely resistance of the US players maybe will cause that.

But I’ve noticed some worrying “bugs” when I try to run EQ2 (client insists on streaming, can’t buy certain transfer related items), Whatever’s going on with that I don’t want anything to do with it. I foresee multiple “technical issues”  very soon.

I’ve cancelled my All Access pass earlier than I intended to. We had put aside some money too for the next appropriate SC offer, but I think we’ll go and spend that somewhere else. I don’t fancy submitting my card details just now.