stereo typing, Drama + 2, Truth - 6

Last night I watched a documentary called Dungeon Masters made back in 2008, chronicled a few months in the life of a handful on serious pen and paper role players. It was in short terrible. Like many of these documentaries it made the mistake of making these people appear to be deeply unhappy and obsessed with escapism. There was a documentary about WoW players a few years ago that did the same thing. Strangely the only people who would be interested in this type of film are the exact same types of people that it disparaged.

A long time ago I was a pretty serious pen and paper role player myself (White Wolf World of Darkness games such as Vampire the Masquerade, Mage the Ascension and others) the inability to find a regular group was the thing that killed my love of the games in the end (still have all the books, they are awesome). As I became more of an MMO gamer I took some of these skills with me.

Just last night I was taking on the role of ‘Gabrielleah’ Guarding of Bree while playing LotRO, I play on a Role-play server and some times like to stay in character while playing in the world. In real life I am married, I have a beautiful daughter, a Job, friends (well one or two anyway) and am generally happy in life, so are many of the more serious role players I know. So why do these films make us all out to be crazy?

Even some of the hard core character obsessed players I know are happy people who know the difference between reality and fiction. Role playing is a chance to exorcise your imaginative muscle, it is a creative act no different to writers crafting stories or actors practicing emotion.

How many of us know deeply troubled and unhappy people who use role play in games as escapism? Not very many I bet, I personally know more people with drink problems that are much more destructive than role players getting a little serious.

All these years after the popularisation of role pay from Dungeons & Dragons and the social phenomenon that World of Warcraft role playing is still considered a hard-core geek pass time for the particularly strange and socially inept.

I even created a short You-tube video a while back to see if I could get some feedback on public opinion.

People at work think its strange that I write about video games and record podcasts without getting paid, I tell them its an experience that I find rewarding, would they think I was insane if I told them I like to get inside my character mind while I run around in high fantasy worlds? Yeah, Probably. Are they right in their opinion? No, I don’t think so. I think it’s better than any other interest or vice I could have.

So what if people think it’s strange that I know what THAC0 means and own a bag of dice. I don’t drink and have strong morale fortitude and a love for life, does that matter?

I do however think that the morons who create these documentaries and new articles work against us by melding public opinion in a negative way. Why is there never a good looking well rounded person who also role plays on these films? – Because people love a stereo type.

Am I the only one who thinks its about time things changed?

The One True Cast – Bree Cast?

Its True, your not going insane, that logo above does signify the epic return of the Bad Panda HexDSL Tag team of pod-win. The One True Cast is Back!

This Episode is the return to form for the One True cast with the new pricing model explained really slow for the tem billion people on the forums who don’t ‘get it’ as well as a chat about the item shop, the future of the game, our static group and all sorts of other wonderful things LotRO related.

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To Alt is human.

MMO’s are great aren't they? we get to take on the role of a new character in a new world and explore, adventure and change the face of the world. This is great and usually I do this by playing one character until i feel like I have experienced it all, i have never been an end game junkie but have always been a slow leveller so it has never mattered.

I have developed a new play style recently though, recently i have loved to play those Alts (alternative character's, as in, not my main) i have done this in both Guild Wars where i have created a new elementals to play from the start and in Lord of the Rings Online where i have created a Guardian and a Hunter.

for the last few years of MMOing i have not seen the appear of Alting as i have always felt that my focus would be best spent making a single character ‘legendary’ but now i am older and more jaded i can see the light. with a new character it can be like a new game, new UI components to look at and play with, new ways of doing things, and a whole experience that is new.

In many ways i think of its as ‘different flavour crisps’ they are all potato snacks but some taste like chicken while others taste like onions. different but the same, not better or worse just different.

I one problem with Alting is that it gets expensive as i am splitting my time between characters i never have chance to craft or farm or generally make money the way i did when i had just the one character. maybe different classes are actually there to add content in this way on purpose.

I wonder if a new character would rekindle my love of Global agenda (now its soul has been patched out of it)

how many times have you played and MMO and not liked it after just one character? maybe a different class would have changed your mind totally.

anyway im going to enjoy an Alt now, maybe one day one of these will be my new main after all is the main the one you play the most or the one you like the best?

Quest Hard #6 'Legend of the Horse Cannon'

 

No horses were harmed in the making of this episode. we talk in great depth about Age of Empire the MMO-ish version, Bilzzard’s epic lawsuit we also discuss the possible closure of Earth Eternal and how Hex does not care about Duke Nukem forever, there is also yet another tear shed for Spellborn.

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Guild Wars 2, Some questions.

With the launch of Guild Wars 2 on the very real horizon now there has been a good many posts all cross the internet speculating about the mechanics and story of the new game. With all this buzz and interest I have waited to write my thoughts on the whole topic. So, I have prepared the following ramblings that really is designed to raise questions about they day to day experience…

There are going to be many changes to the Guild Wars game play, this includes everything from the skill bar selection method to the lack of healers and tanks to the new death penalties and all the undisclosed stuff in-between.

I am sure that the game will be a great improvement upon the first, I mean no disrespect to the first game as it was one of the best gaming experiences I have ever had but its getting a little old now and most of us serious players have finished all of the content at least once and there are some things missing from the game that are standard in newer games.

However with all this said there are specific nuggets of information that I am interested in that have not yet been disclosed.

Servers
Even though ArenaNet have spoken in some detail about persistence and such like, they have not addressed the method they are using to accomplish this, will the outposts and cities still be separate zones/instances or will the be in the centre of the instance? Sounds like a small question I know but the dynamics of this effect a great deal how the day to day travel and socialising will work.

Will I be able to ‘map’ somewhere in the same way I can with with the first game or will I be relying on mounts like in other games? If I am going to need a mount or something similar will there also be fast travel routes?

Will I be able to switch instance like I can now to play with a friend or is my server choice going to be more restrictive than that? In a lot of new games like Champions online there is a limit to about 100 people in a single instance will this be the same with Guild Wars 2?

Will there still be hard mode, will this be a hard mode instance/server that I have to switch to or will I be able to make the choice when out in the wilderness?

Will there still be a structure like the hall of Monuments that is a personal instance or will this be expanded to player housing?

Social
I have already mentioned my concern about server choices restricting who you can play with but will this new game have a buddy system that lets me play with anyone I like or will the new levelling system already account for this in some way that we have not yet thought of?

Will the game have social tools like Twitter or Face book integration of any kind, I know it may not ‘fit’ a fantasy MMO but if LotRO can have a player blog system (my.LotRO) then I think the options are a little wider than they used to be. I for one would like to be able to see a twitter feed in every game I play.

Will your characters ‘stats’ be available on a website like the WoW Armoury system? Even if not at launch is this planned at some point?

Will the friends list offer more information than online and offline, will I be able to see character details and titles for people who are offline?

Price
I know that they have used the phrase ‘Guild Wars pricing model’ but what exactly does that mean? At the moment we can buy unlocks, costumes and character slots in the store and campaigns come in massive chunks in the future however will we be buying campaigns or area’s. Will the campaigns come with new slots and races or classes or are all these things going to be separate?

As you can see I have some pretty specific questions about the game that so far have not been directly addressed. So, I am letting the more skilled news outlets tell us about classes and lore while I wait for the quality of life stuff to surface.

I am sure that ArenaNet will make the sequel that we all desire so badly, I’m even sure that it will live up to expectations. I just hope that the tools to build a community will be there.

Guild Wars 2 Hype machine - Warrior

Once again the GW 2 Hype machine has had a mighty blast of awesome released with the confirmation and video of the Warrior Class.

Sure we all knew it was coming but now its official. the Warrior is officially announced as a Guild Wars 2 profession. there is even a video to prove that they didn’t just throw this in at the last minuet.

If your want more news about Guild Wars 2 then check out GuildCast podcast (its really the best one out there) or the games official  home page over at www.guildwars2.com

write on

On thing that has always fascinated me is people ability to write. I real allot and as I read I am always mesmerised by the concept that a single person crafted the novel in my hands. Even a bad book is a feat of dedication and imagination. I don't get the same impressions when watching a movie however, I'm never struck by the skill of the writer, I am fairly sure its the delivers, you watch a film and your not constantly reminded that the words are written, the actors do their job's and everything looks natural, like its really happening.

What about games then? How often do we give thought to the writers in the games we love? I think it maybe about time that these writers got more public about who they are. For instance Guild Wars is a game that has strong cut scene dialogue as well as many interlocking quest based story's. Who writes this stuff? Do the writers have a history as novelists or are they just people off the street who say “I work cheap”

According to the Guild Wars Wiki the head of the writing team is called Bobby Stein who graduated university with a degree in film. What strikes me as strange is that I had to look that up. I think games should showcase these people after all how are the writers of guild wars any less important that the writers of the books we love.

Maybe with the fully acted dialogue in Dragon age and the up coming Old Republic we will see greater appreciation for writers and voice actors.