Global Chat: Blaugust triumphant
Last month, Tales of the Aggronaut issued a community-wide challenge for MMO bloggers to commit to posting (at least) once a day for all 31 days. This challenge was called Blaugust, and it caused a tidal wave of additional posts, top 10 lists, and random cat pictures as writers struggled to keep up with the rate of output.
While not everyone who signed up succeeded in sticking out the entire month, it certainly injected some life into summer doldrums and got people talking. The 2014 Blaugust Wrap-up does a great job giving an overview of the challenge and a list of all of the blogs involved. If you're looking for outspoken opinions put forth at a prodigious rate, I'd suggest checking these out.
Speaking of outspoken opinions, we've also got plenty of them in the form of the most interesting posts from the past two weeks! Global Chat... away!
1. Voo's Review: Elite: Dangerous, a journey
This guest post takes us back through the years as an Elite fan traces her memories through the franchise's lifespan. It's a great overview of the Elite series that leads up to first impressions of the upcoming online space sim. And what is the initial verdict there?
"As far as I'm concerned, this is going to be the best game there ever will be," guest author Lisa gushes. "I will see thousands of other people all playing the game the way they want to play it. Multiplayer Elite was something I could only dream about in the '90s and now it's real."
2. I Has PC: How to lose a gamer in 10 ways
I'll admit that I have a weak spot when it comes to lists (I'm statistically 47% more likely to read your post if it's in list form), but even so, this one was a thoughtful, well-written essay about bad decisions by studios that could push players away from games.
One particularly true remark? "Over-market, over-hype, under-deliver," Isey writes. "Warhammer Online comes to mind here the most. 'We have PVP! PVE! PQs! We have EVERYTHING!' –- and they did. Everything except an immersive, reliable, consistent, and balanced gaming experience. Too much hype. Less sizzle, more steak."
3. The Ancient Gaming Noob: The return of Project Gorgon
"There is groundwork for a serious game here," Wilhelm opines about Project Gorgon. While he has positive things to say about the game itself, especially that it's playable right now, he thinks that the lack of name recognition is going to doom the crowdfunding effort to failure.
"Because that is the only way this Kickstarter is going to is going to succeed," he said. "Without name recognition as a draw, Project Gorgon is just going to have to win people over, one at a time, with its demo."
4. In An Age: I miss Ghostcrawler
Azuriel did a fantastic job of compiling former Blizzard dev Ghostcrawler's comments about World of Warcraft's design from the League of Legends forums. That's a mouthful, so if your eyes glazed over, here's the important thing: It's a lot of frank talk about WoW's design from a guy who used to be in the thick of it.
In regard to the biggest obstacle for World of Warcraft, Ghostcrawler said, "Well *I* consider the biggest barrier being it's a 3-D WASD game with a movable camera. I agree. So does a lot of data."
5. Gaming Conjecture: What I liked about LotRO
If you're going to be critical of a game, why not take some time to praise it as well? That's the premise of this positive piece on Lord of the Rings Online, in which the author outlines four aspects of the game that he loved back in the day.
"Turbine's game felt like an amazing representation of Middle-earth," Gaming Conjecture notes. "To my mind this remains the games strongest selling point, and as Roger at Contains Moderate Peril often states, somewhat insulates the game from the wider MMO market, with LotRO having many players who do not play other MMOs or perhaps any other games at all. But instead, they treat it as an opportunity to enjoy the world of Middle-earth."
6. Gaming Conversations: ArcheAge first impressions: There's a lot to like
As ArcheAge's Western launch approaches, I've been avidly reading any and all impressions to see what others are making of this unique sandbox world. As the title of this particular article implies, Braxwolf was definitely won over by the game's strengths.
"If PvP and crafting don't completely ruin the experience, I can see myself spending a good amount of time in ArcheAge," Braxwolf says. "It seems to have a nice mix of newer and older MMO elements, and Trion has proven with RIFT that it knows how to do free-to-play the right way."
Awesome MMO blog opinions abound all over the internet -- and Justin "Syp" Olivetti reads them all (or skims really, really fast)! Global Chat seeks to round up the most interesting and zany posts from the MMORPG blogosphere. Who knows? You might discover a new favorite blog this week!
