Amanda Rivera
Articles by Amanda Rivera
City of Civilians and City of Aliens?
Ten Ton Hammer is reporting today on the rumor that NCsoft is adding a new "City of" title to the IP of their newly acquired CoX franchise. Well of course they are, they've been listening in on my conversations. I literally had this discussion with a friend of mine just a couple of days ago. The way I see it, you have heroes and villains duking it out in the city, but the citizens go along their humdrum lives without personality or purpose. So I am thinking, why not a Sims in Paragon City? The other idea I had as I was slicing up Rikti the other day was playing as the alien invading race. Sure they're trying to destroy mankind, but that's what makes good entertainment, no? I really think I have something here. With the civilians concept you could bring in a whole crowd of MMO lovers that want get a chance to build a virtual life within Paragon, and with the aliens you could start out on an invading vessel and port in to do damage and cause chaos. You heard it here first people. I so should be working for these guys.
Using games for rehabilitation
One of the few things I recall from my Psych 101 class back in college was the tale of Pavlov and his dogs. As it turns out you can teach yourself to associate sounds with actions. A new virtual reality therapy is doing just that, helping those with addictions connect things they hear in game with the will to resist temptation.The game, created at Duke University by Professor Zach Rosenthal, works with rehabilitation patients to try to control their cravings when they are not in therapy. Because the patient is immersed in an environment similar to that they would find in the outside world, the temptations are fairly convincing. Rosenthal explains that cravings are a learned mental behavior, and if you can associate something, say a particular tone (like Pavlov's bell) with resisting that craving, you create a new learned behavior, this time a positive one. I love it when I see positive uses for video games. It proves that we as a society can learn so much from the games we play.
Looking back at a CoX Halloween
Halloween has come to an end in CoX, and many of us are looking back at the event with fond memories. Van Hemlock this week talked about the run in he had with Echoias, the massively tall pumpkin-headed monster that was terrorizing Paragon City. I didn't get a chance to track him down myself, but Van Hemlock got the Hallowed Spirit badge for his troubles, a nice memento of the holiday.My personal triumph this holiday was collecting some 30 odd costumes, so now I'm "Fashionable," or so says the badge. Yeah, I went a little crazy with the trick-or-treating thing, but it was an excellent way to level, and I got myself a system during the last days of the holiday. I figured out the doors were timed, so I would find one that had a group of baddies near it, and would cycle between slaughtering the Clockwork and knocking on doors. In the end, I got two sets of costume pieces, which allowed me to not only get an extra costume slot for my main, but also to give one to my friend. Not bad for what at its core was level grinding. And the costumes have stuck with me even after the holiday, so if I feel the need to hit the streets as a ninja or a PPD cop, I can. What was your favorite part of the holiday?
Where all the MMOs at?
Potshot (and yes, I realize he spells his name with weird symbols, but I'm just not leet enough to find them on my keyboard) is talking about the MMO industry. He's worried that the definition of success in the MMO market is based solely off the "WoW-killer" goal, and according to him this is the reason why virtually every MMO out there has been pushed back or even canceled. We've only had two (maybe three if you count Tabula Rasa, which he doesn't) actual MMO releases this year, Vanguard and LotRO. Sure there are the popcorn games as he calls them, Mythos and Dungeon Runners being prime examples. But are developers shying away from creating a solid MMO world even if it doesn't knock the king from the mountain? Surely there's enough room in the player's hearts for more than one game. If there wasn't, why would we have this website?
Weapons scaling in CoX Issue 11
Amongst all the other cool things we're seeing in Ish 11, Cryptic is adding weapons scaling to the customizable weapons toolkit. Weapons when you choose them will now scale according to how big and beefy or slim and tiny your character happens to be. Dave on Blog of Heroes says this will help a lot of characters, but says females still have the trouble of tiny, tiny hands.Scaling the weapons is great, and something that players have been clamoring for. But the female model's hands are so small that any amount of weapons scaling won't help. What we need, Dave suggests, is a slider for female hands, since male hands are already oversized for the scale of the models. I know I have a female tanker, and her hands look too dainty to do the amount of punching and bashing she is capable of. It ruins the feel of the character. So on this one I'll have to agree with Dave, but what do you think? Will the weapons scaling solve the problem of the infamously slender hands? Related Story
First semi-final event for the CoX costume contest tonight
Guardian's Best Dressed Costume Contest has been running for a couple days now, and today is the last day to enter. If you consider yourself the master of character creation, then you'll want to hop on over to the Pocket D dance floor Tonight at 7pm EST for the judging. You know, I might do it myself just to see all the awesome costumes that will be out there.A few specifics about the contest. There are seven categories, and the prizes range from 1 to 10 million influence and a title for your winning character. The final event will be held on November 27th at 8pm EST in Pocket D. In order to qualify for the finals you have to win a semi finals round, which will be held on the 6th, the 11th, the 13th, the 20th and the 25th. Even the semi-finalists will receive influential gifts, or infamous gifts, depending on what side of the game you play on. Personally, I would love to get third prize, since that's an Invention Origin Costume Piece of Choice, and my controller really needs her a pair of fairy wings.
A stitch in beta time
If any of you are as excited about Issue 11 as I am, then I have good news my friend. The beta for Issue 11: A Stitch in Time has opened up on the Training Room server, letting players have a whack at Oroboros missions and customizing their weapons. The current beta patch notes are available, and it looks like things are running fairly smoothly. I don't know about you, but I can't wait to see my Stalker waiving around twin katanas. I feel some new character creation coming on! Grab yourself a spot in the Issue 11 beta today.
Heads of Cerberus and strike force number 1
I love in-character tales. There is just something about reading the exploits of a CoX group from the perspective of the characters that just makes my day all shiny and happy, REM style. For that reason, I dove right in when I stumbled on Van Hemlock's recounting of the trials, tribulations and triumphs of The Heads of Cerberus, his CoV supergroup. His most recent story has to do with the first Strike Force mission the little level 15 supergroup encountered, taking them deep into Cap Au Diable. I don't want to spoil the read for you, but suffice it to say, they had some tough times, and kicked much do-gooder butt.
Remembering a Norrath gone by
Adele Caelia of MMORPG.com recently began a new feature, focusing on the reminiscing done about the older content in EQII. She listed off some of her favorite memories from playing the game, and then went around the game to interview players and what they remembered best about their early days in Norrath.A lot of players remembered game elements and how they first wowed them, the first ride on a flying carpet, their first time conquering The Icy Dig. Others connected with the social aspects of the game, the first time they joined a guild, and in many cases, that is the guild they are in down to this day. Most of my fond memories of EQII are of a crafting basement and the injuries I sustained creating suits of armor. Ah, those were good times.
Charting the history of MMO subscriptions
The world of MMOs has been around a lot longer than even I realized, and thanks to Tobold's pointing out MMOData, I was able to look at the history of MMOs, at least as far as their subscriptions were concerned. The data on the site is not exactly up-to-date, but what it gives us is a general idea of the flow of popularity of each of the MMOs. But as a commenter pointed out on Tobold's article on the subject, counting accounts is not really the most accurate determinate of how popular a game is, particularly when you toss free MMOs into the mix. Rather, the data that would better tell us how popular a game is would be the active players information. If you know exactly how many people are playing each of the games during, say, a given week, you would then have a better understanding of how to compare their popularity. Hop on over to MMOData and play with the charts yourself. If nothing else, it's fun to mess with interactive data analysis, even if it's not entirely accurate.
30 free MMOs
Do you love you the MMOs but don't have the cash for the subscriptions? Can't even afford to purchase the games themselves? Well, you're in luck, because Mashable just posted about 30 MMOs that won't cost you a dime, unless of course you count the electricity it costs to run your computer in order to play the games. Oh, is nothing free anymore?Most of these games I've heard of, a handful of them I even have accounts to, and one in particular is demanding more and more of my time. But there are a couple on this list I haven't encountered as of yet, so I might take some time over the next few weeks and see if I can introduce myself to them. Hello, how are you, will you be the next game to take over my life?
Trick or treating in CoX
I have been having an unhealthy amount of fun Trick-or-Treating in CoX these days. Admittedly, this might be because it's the first time I actually have every participated in this Halloween ritual. In any case I spent several hours the other day knocking on doors and awaiting my fate. I got a treat about one fifth of the time, so the ratio is pretty high. I currently have seven different temporary costumes, ranging from the Goldbricker to my favorite the Freak Zapper. These last a few minutes, and enable me to get a taste of what it must be like to play a hoodlum. I also got two costume salvage rewards, but when I went to Croatoa to turn them in, not only was I not able to find Annah, the place was infested with armies of Streng so I thought better of my attempt and figured I might just keep them in my inventory as mementos of all the fun I had.
Tabula Rasa goes on the patch
Noisyparker on LJ recently posted the latest patch notes for Tabula Rasa. Amongst the bug fixes and tweaks we find that the friends list has now been boosted to 200 slots and the ignore list to 50. Seeing as how this is the last set of patch notes before the close of beta, I don't see any major changes happening after this for a while at least. But hey, I've been wrong before, at least once, I think. Personally, my favorite of the notes is "mires should be less lagtastic." Someone on the dev team is enjoying themselves, at least. Read the whole list of patch notes after the jump.
TR testers get emotional
For those of you that participated in the Tabula Rasa beta testing, the game developers want to give you more than the memories of your experiences. Beta testers will be receiving an excluslve emote within the game when it goes live. There's a catch, though (isn't there always?): you had to play the beta between October 25th and October 26th, the last two days of the beta. Of course, if you were in the beta at all, chances are you at least logged on yesterday to enjoy the end-of-beta event. If you did, then you will receive the coveted /throat emote. Taunt your friends! Amuse your enemies! Does this sound a little off to anyone else out there?
Gods & Heroes slain, refunds announced
As we say goodbye to our dreams of being inducted into the Greek pantheon, the developers of Gods & Heroes are kind enough to let us know where we can get our money back on our pre-orders. As it turns out, simply return with your receipt to the retailer where you bought the pre-order, and you will get a full refund. Well duh, actually. In their final announcement to the gaming community, the devs let us know it was a tough decision to kill the immortal game once and for all: The Perpetual team is faced with a unique challenge of simultaneously developing both Gods & Heroes and Star Trek Online in addition to growing our Online Game Platform business. After assessing all of Perpetual's opportunities, we have made the decision to put the development of Gods & Heroes on indefinite hold. Well, I for one am sad to see the project go, but it's also nice to see a company that knows when they bit off more than they can chew.
Let's talk about Goa'Uld baby
When MMORPG.com sat down with Kevin Ballentine, Marketing Manager for Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, to discuss the making of Stargate Worlds, they were determined to string us along a little before they gave us the real skinny on the game. Luckily we only had to wait a week before the bulk of information began to pour through. And by bulk of information, I mean Kevin shed some serious light on the race we know as the Goa'Uld. In SGW we can expect a reformed Goa'Uld, a people who had dropped the goody-two-shoes act and have tipped their hand, as it were. It doesn't mean that they aren't up to the same old tricks, it simply means that these baddies are just plain behaving badly. Refreshing, isn't it? Where they used to sit on high issuing orders from overly ornate Egyptian thrones, in the MMO you will see that they are not above getting their hands dirty, so the Goa'Uld will definitely be more participatory in their own maniacal schemes. Sounds like good times will be had by none, unless some heroes step up to defend what's right in the universe.
It's alive!
Fury has gone live, both in the US and as of today Europe as well, and players are eating up their free month of Immortal status like candy. Recently Ten Ton Hammer posted their first impressions of the game, which includes a rather innovative pay structure. It seems that everyone gets their free Immortal month -- yes, the first taste is free -- and after that in order to keep all the benefits of such ungodly rank you have to subscribe at $9.99 a month. Those that don't can still play the game, it's just with a few key features missing, like in-game VoIP. But that's not all players pay for.You can also buy abilities for your characters, starting a $5 bucks a pop. They call it the "Unlock All Abilities" feature, and it basically allows those people with money to burn and only a few hours to play to get access to all the abilities others would earn through gameplay. It's a risky move, in my opinion, but on the other hand, there is so much sale of virtual currency going on today, why not start out by selling your own stuff?
Conan and postcards from the edge
We all love to receive a postcard from a distant, exotic land. Well, at least I do, and what's twisted your soul so badly that you can't enjoy a cardboard piece of love from a friend? Huh? Anyway, this week's Friday Update from Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures is all about showing off screenshots to those not lucky enough to be living within the beta. One thing intrigues me about what he says regarding the game. Players are immediately immersed head-first in the game, being shipwrecked on an island, and the scavenging for survival element can be truly visible in the haphazard way the players dress. They grab armor not from a prim little shop in a village somewhere, but from the corpses of their dead enemies. Well, for a game like AoC this makes sense I suppose. Again, the more I read about this game, the more I itch to play it. Can my next postcard from the beta include a beta key? Please?
An in-depth look at Issue 11 power sets in CoX
Floyd "Castle" Grubb sat down recently and recorded a video explanation of the upcoming power sets available in Issue 11: A Stitch in Time for City of Heroes/City of Villains. Since the video is only available as a download, we'll give you the complete rundown here on Massively of what we can expect from the two new power sets being added into the game. The first thing Castle mentioned was the fact that these power sets were added to the game because they were what the players asked for most. When asked, the players most requested Willpower for a defensive power set, and dual blades for an offensive set.
Do you enjoy the game?
It's a tough thing to say, but a lot of times people simply don't enjoy playing their particular MMO of choice. How this starts is anyone's guess, but Fate at Apathy Inc. has some thoughts on the subject. He begins by asking a few pointed questions: is there any aspect of your MMO that you enjoy completely, without reservation? If the answer is no, why are you still playing? That is the question that really intrigues me. If you don't enjoy a game, if you are frustrated with the players, angry at the developers for nerfing the kills of your particular class, then why play the game at all? We as an MMO community love to retain players. Much like a corporation, we get a sick sense of pride at pronouncing we have 9 million people playing the game. When our friends say they aren't enjoying the game, many times we talk them into continuing to play. But why? Over and over we have to remind ourselves that this isn't a job, this isn't even a club, it's a game. If you don't enjoy it, move on to something else.