Since my last report from the field, I have been exploring Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues, a game developed by Portalarium, described as a “spiritual successor” to my very first MMORPG, Ultima Online. It isn’t exactly an obscure game, but it certainly is a smaller game that’s a little off the trail blazed by the big games. It is free-to-play (with cash shop, of course) and available on Steam, so getting the game is easy and painless. You begin in the world as a translucent ghost. Welcome to the Isle of Storms, aka the tutorial area. There’s an NPC to talk to who will tell you to go down the path to the mirror. This is where you get to choose your body for the new world. Choose wisely. There is only one character slot for the online game. The character customization is… adequate. There are skin and hair color choices, a selection of sliders. In fact, “adequate” also describes the graphics throughout the entire game. Some … [Read more...] about MMO Cartographer: Exploring Richard Garriott’s Shroud of the Avatar
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Wukong is super annoying
Yesterday more than mildly sucked. While I was blogging in the morning, just after posting it… I managed to stub my toe hard enough on something sharp under my desk… that it caused a chunk of my toenail to chip off and a little bout of excessive bleeding. After that my stomach pretty much bothered me all day long, and I tagged out of work around noon. I worked remotely the rest of the day trying to catch up and prepare for big releases on Thursday and Saturday. Escapist Thwarted All of this, combined with trying to come up with a new way to circumvent my ninja ferret caused me to get a later than normal start on evening relaxation time. On the ferret note, our current solution seems to be working… and I am breathing at least a minor sigh of relief. We have a drop ceiling in our kitchen, circa 1980, with those massive semi-opaque sheets of plastic covering fluorescent lighting. Over the years the 1980s plastic has fallen apart, and … [Read more...] about Wukong is super annoying
The Game Archaeologist: What Star Wars Galaxies life was like before the NGE
A decade after Star Wars Galaxies’ “New Game Enhancements” hit the game, controversy, grumbling, and revelations still pop up about the notorious decision to overhaul the entire game. Some maintain that it ruined the game, while others acknowledge that what came after actually ended up being better. As the 2003 to 2005 pre-NGE era is quickly vanishing into the distant past, I wanted to preserve some of the history of what the game was like before that fateful patch day. To aid in this project, I asked six Star Wars Galaxies veterans to share some of their memories and stories from that time. Here’s what they had to say about what in-game life was like in those first few years. 1. It was a true sandbox Joshua M.: “I think the big thing back in the pre-NGE era was that the content was what you made it; it was a true sandbox. There were no concept of levels, just the skills you’ve learned and the weapons you were certified to use. You could spend the … [Read more...] about The Game Archaeologist: What Star Wars Galaxies life was like before the NGE