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The forgotten MMO: Dungeons and Dragons Online
You always hear about the good MMOs and the bad MMOs, but there are certainly some MMOs that just seem to hang in the background. They're always there and omnipresent, they never do exquisitely bad, but somehow they're just forgotten amongst the sea of hyped games and broken promises.That's really the case for Dungeons and Dragons Online, one of the few MMOs to really fly in the face of the traditional MMO model. ZAM.com recently went back and took another look at DDO, giving it the attention that it rightfully deserves regarding its different playstyle and game mechanics.The article points out the game's major triumphs -- such as the unique atmosphere in every dungeon you dive into, the use of puzzles and traps to keep the player on their toes, and the use of the infamous dungeon master that narrates each of the game's quests to keep in like with its tabletop roots. However, the article also points out some of the game's largest issues, such as grouping and population concerns amongst the servers.Overall, it's a nice look at a game that really doesn't jump to the forefront of the MMO market, but stays quietly in the background, chugging away with a loyal fanbase and consistent content updates. (All hail the upcoming module 9 and the new ability to finally hit the D&D cap of 20!) For the full feature article, check it out on ZAM.com.
A Lawyer's take on the new UI policy
The intertubes are abuzz with the new UI policy enacted by Blizzard a couple weeks ago. Not being able to charge for add-ons or solicit donations has caused quite a stir amongst some folks. Certain add-on authors are even going as far as to boycott their projects until Blizzard changes their policy.ZAM networks, who runs the WoW information site Allakhazam, got a chance to sit down and talk with Connie Mableson, a lawyer specializing in Intellectual Property Law and Computer and Internet Law. You can read the full interview over at their site.One of the highlights of the interview is that Connie thinks Blizzard will begin monetizing the UI. "Based on all the changes Blizzard is making, I believe the Blizzard business model is to "Monetize" UI Mods/add-ons by developing them in house and offering them for sale to players "Now I don't necessarily agree with the end analysis, but her arguments are compelling and make sense. It will be interesting in another year or so to see where this UI policy change lands us. We'll have to wait and see!
Marv Wolfman talks writing for DCUO
Last month, we brought news that famed comic book writer Marv Wolfman had joined the team at SOE's DC Universe Online. This in addition to the already impressive team that includes such legends as Jim Lee and Geoff Johns. So when Allakhazam got a chance to sit down with Mr. Wolfman for an interview during NYCC, they got some great insight on what it's like to write for a game like DCUO."An MMO is exploration," Wolfman says. "It's about you finding out the information, and it's about continuous movement. I write a still picture, I can put five thousand words in that panel if I could fit in and have a stupid enough letterer who would actually do that. But here you can't spend the time with a lot of words on screen anymore. Those are the old days. You know, Zelda, the old days. 'I enter cave.' But what's done today is, we get you moving, but the story is there and you come into the story in a completely different way, and you have to think about it in a completely different way."
Bill Roper of Cryptic Studios discusses Champions Online
MMO-centric website Allakhazam is running an interesting piece on Champions Online. Tamat, the site's Editor-in-Chief, caught up with Bill Roper, the Design Director for Champions Online at Cryptic Studios. The interview ranges from what Roper does at Cryptic to some of mistakes learned along the way -- particularly in the wake of what happened with Flagship Studios and Hellgate: London.The interview covers a good range of topics, discussing Roper's transition from the business side of an MMO developer to focusing on creating a game, and how trying to compete with WoW isn't a concern for Cryptic with Champions Online. Roper also discusses the idea of bringing some of the original pen and paper Champions Online system to the MMO. He says, "We're including the core concepts of talents, perks, and even exposing the stats system to a degree. We've streamlined some of the concepts of the game to make it more accessible to a broader range of players, but without losing the beauty of what makes Champions the great game and IP it is." Have a look at the full interview with Cryptic's Bill Roper over at Allakhazam for more on the directions Champions Online will be taking.
Mia Rose interview with Allakhazam
Mia Rose chatted it up with Andrew Beegle, aka Tamat, from Allakhazam at the recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES).Mia is known around the World of Warcraft community for her work in WoW related adult entertainment. However she also is a known Warlock with a penchant for raiding. Mia talked about her opinions on Wrath and how excited she was to get it initially, but is now kind of so-so about it. In the interview Mia laments about how easy the current raiding content is, especially compared to how hard you had to work to get into the Black Temple back in Burning Crusade raiding.Head over to Allakhazam and take a watch. This video is completely safe for work, as well.
Fatal1ty talks WoW at CES
Say what you want about Fatal1ty and his endless selling out (we know you will), but the guy is a recognizable face, something that's a little hard to find in the world of professional gaming. Allakazham caught up with him at CES last week, and in between talking about how awesome he and his products were (sigh), they did get some good Warcraft talk out of him.He's been taking advantage of Recruit a Friend, so he's got a Warrior, Rogue, and a Death Knight all to level 60 (unfortunately, I didn't hear him say which faction he plays). His Death Knight's "get over here" "grappling hook" have captured his imagination -- hopefully he'll stick with playing with his brother and get up to level 80 so he can see some of the endgame PvP. Unfortunately, he says he's not into PvE at all, which explains why he's going slow, but if he can push the last 20 levels, there's some fun stuff to be found..And then it's back to the selling -- he says he's looking forward to sponsoring some players under his brand later this year (though he has no plans to play WoW professionally), and he pimps some equipment, too. It's not exactly a hard-hitting interview, but it is interesting to hear one of professional gaming's biggest names talk about his time in Azeroth.
Vanguard hopes for a second chance
When Vanguard launched, hopes were high that the game would be a breath of fresh air in the MMO market. Unfortunately, the game didn't meet the expectations of many gamers, who lamented its unfinished state and subsequently left. Sony Online Entertainment hasn't given up on Vanguard though, and they're now offering an incentive for players to return.The offer applies to subscribers whose accounts have been inactive for 60 days or more. The reactivation promotion lasts from September 18 to October 18 and entails creating a new character, which allows you to play through the new Isle of Dawn and check out the game's updated content. That is, until hitting level 10. Thereafter, that character can continue on into Telon, but only by re-subscribing to Vanguard. Players moving up to a paid account are given a pair of Gnomish Rocket Boots as a reward, which impart great bursts of speed. [Via Allakhazam]
Warhammer Online CE head start launches, revs up the buzz
The first day of the Warhammer Online head start is over and several servers are already full of players picking sides and clashing foreheads. Another thing that's already started is the reaction around the wider web. The buzz is strong with this one. Here's a round-up of news bits relating to Mythic's newest MMO that you may find a bit surprising: Something Awful's Goon Squad takes to Warhammer Online like Chaos flies to a smoldering pile of Orc poo. Is this a good or a bad sign? For the extreme completionists out there that need to know how to unlock everything in the Tome of Knowledge, you may want to check out the newest Allakhazam site. It should be interesting to see how/if Mythic evolves the ToK to compete with websites like these. If you bought the Collector's Edition and gotten your head start code, then you were part of the group who got in today. Wondering where that special racial head for your character is at and how you can get it? Mythic would like to tell you. The ever-vigilant Mythic community reps have posted a bit more information on the how and where of getting your CE quests, which come with special titles and other rewards. GOA sort of makes up for earlier slip-ups by getting EU players into their CE head start nice and smoothly. Let's hope this is the start of a pattern for the EU WAR service. Mark Jacobs writes letter of thanks and excitement to everyone involved in the official beginnings of WAR.
Top 10 questions from WoW players on the EQ2 forums
We get the distinct impression that EverQuest 2 players might not appreciate it when World of Warcraft players come to their forums. Call it a territorial thing, call it something else, but the beauty of this interaction is when we get a gem of an article like the one posted by SpyderBite over at Allakhazam. The topic pretty much says it all, but we'll let you read through these yourself, nodding your head in agreement (if you're an EQ2 player) or getting frustrated and ready to flame this post in the comments (if you're a WoW player). Enjoy!10. Where's the auction? How do you people trade with each other?9. My mods aren't working. Can somebody help me get them to work in this game?8. Where's the Battlegrounds? I tried a PvP server but people kept killing me.
15 Minutes of Fame: WoW's new wave of new gamers
15 Minutes of Fame is our look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes – from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about at 15minutesoffame (at) wowinsider (dot) com.When I received a news tip from from Rainnajax of US Uldaman-H about being an "older female gamer," I admit that I rolled my eyes. Please, not another one who thinks having two X chromosomes makes her the most special snowflake ... Not another one who thinks being over 30 years old qualifies her as one of the Ancients ... When I read her entire email, though, I realized Rainnajax's experience was actually intriguing – but not for the reasons she thought.While Rainnajax may perceive herself as something still a little unusual among WoW players, I see her as the type of player who's becoming the new norm. She's less remarkable for being female or "older" – or even for belonging to a well known gay and bi-friendly guild -- than she is for being among the new wave of players who'd never imagined themselves playing a video game ... until they tried WoW. MMORPGs are no longer the province of a single type of player anymore. Rainnajax is here as an example of today's new-to-gaming, non-gender- or age-specific player.
DAoC Grab Bag Q&A regarding patch 1.94
In this week's Grab Bag for Dark Age of Camelot, we're treated to yet another of what we'd expect from this aptly-named Q&A session from the Herald. The Bearded Wonder and the Balancinator answer eleven questions this time, each with their own focus on what the game has to offer with the upcoming patch 1.94.One interesting question centers around rest XP, and how certain locations give more rest XP for players. This question brings up a great point about how the rest XP should be higher in the housing zones, as opposed to the capital city zones, which would make perfect sense. Another question asks about expanded vault space, for which the Bearded Wonder responds, "We are working on some adjustments to housing that will assist this issue indirectly. Some of these changes can be seen in 1.94 that is coming up." It looks like this new patch will be full of goodies for us all!
WOWDB introduces Simplified Chinese language option, promises more upgrades
In more international WoW news, Curse's foray into the realm of WoW database sites, WOWDB, is now available in Simplified Chinese, joining Allakhazam among the major database sites that offer the language. In addition, Curse's announcement post also hints at additional features coming to WOWDB "soon," which seems like it may be a direct answer to Wowhead's recent extensive features upgrade. WOWDB has already been accused of copying Wowhead in the past (and, to be fair, opposite accusations have been made). Of course, Wowhead doesn't yet have a Simplified Chinese language option, so in this case, it seems WoWDB has come out ahead. We'll be eager to see if these new options coming to WOWDB make it stand out from the pack.
Allakhazam gets a refresh
Well, this was certainly unexpected. Allakhazam, one of the WoW database sites that has been around the longest, has undergone a complete revamp. There are all sorts of new features, including: User-editable pages Tagging Profiles, with 3D model viewer and upgrade searching Not to mention a re-skin which makes it look much more up-to-date. That's not all – they're currently running a contest, wherein every contribution to their wiki, forum, or comments, for the entire month of June, has a chance to win one of the following: One of 72 60-day game cards One of three Wii Galaxy bundles Grand prize: a gamer-friendly laptop So go forth, and make Allakhazam a more complete site. Overall, I like the redesign; it makes Allakhazam feel much more relevant, and helps answer the quest of what's going to differentiate it from sister sites Wowhead and Thottbot. I'll still probably go to Wowhead most of the time, but that's just me.
Wowhead and other sites are having trouble with ad banner trojans
You'll want to be a bit more cautious when looking up information on the game today. World of Raids reports that an unknown ad banner appearing on Wowhead, Thottbot, and Allakhazam has an embedded keylogger trojan. You don't even need to click on the banner, apparently, simply mousing over it will be enough. Wowhead says that all they know for sure is that it originates from "ad.yieldmanager.com", and will produce a redirect to "xpantivirus.com." They're working at isolating it. The issue is known, and all parties involved are tracking it down, so it should hopefully be resolved soon. In the meantime, if you're looking for a quick way to protect yourself, I would follow the recommendation of World of Raids, and try out the Firefox web browser and the No Script extension. As long as you keep the scripts blocked, it should prevent the banner in question from forcing itself on you. This should also provide you with some protection if you accidentally click on the wrong link elsewhere, such as on the WoW general forums. Edit: Apparently, the virus in question is not an actual keylogger, but it still does a number on your system, which is reason enough to try to avoid it.
Lord of the Rings Online developer chat tonight
If you're a Lord of the Rings Online player, then be sure to check this one out if you've got the free time. Later today at 5pm Pacific (8pm Eastern) Allakhazam will be holding a developer chat with the LotRO team (in the #lotro channel) on their own IRC. The discussion will be focused on general topics, so we're not really sure what you can expect to get out of the dev-chat this time around. If you can't make it to the chat, there is bound to be a chat log released sometime afterwards. You can find more details on how to connect at the Allakhazam post over on their site.
EQII developer chat coming this Thursday
The next EverQuest II developer chat has been scheduled for Thursday, 28th of February at 4:30PM PST, and will give players a chance to have their questions answered by members of the Developer and Community teams that work with EQII. The session is being hosted by Allakhazam in their IRC channel, and details on joining the channel can be found here. There are two ways of getting your questions answered by the EQII team. The first is to join the IRC channel at the specified time and have your questions ready to ask personally. The other way is to send a private message to an EQII Allakhazam Administrator (as per this thread), and they will be able to bring the questions to the chat. We'll report back when the chat is over with any juicy details that the team feel like feeding us.
When the MMO love affair wanes
Did you ever find yourself suddenly disenfranchised with the current state of games? What was once a beloved personal hobby and cornerstone of your social life suddenly seems shallow and empty. Tovin over at Allakhazam paused to reflect on her own MMO anomie. For her, the problem is that none of the games released in the last year or that being released in the next couple months really light that fire. She muses on the fact that players relegated to casual schedules still have to slap down that same monthly fee, whether they use the time or not. And when she does actually get a moment to dive into a virtual world, their design seems to discourage casual social interaction. What's a gamer to do?For my part, I think Tovin is just suffering from a gaming slump. I think we've all gone through it at some point; you look around you and just don't find anything of worth in the hobby that has engaged you for so long. Of course, in my experience, this is usually a reflection of one's own personal state of mind, and not the state of the industry. But in this case, I think Tovin might be onto something. It's rare these days to play a game that really encourages the social aspects of MMOs in gamers who can't go raiding or PvPing every night. Rare, but not impossible to find. Methinks Tovin would do well to look into Pirates of the Burning Sea, as it's the most social game I've seen in recent memory. Also, Pirates! Yarr!
WoW's Spectral Safari grants chance to win a Spectral Tiger mount
The stalwart worthies at Allakhazam drop news of a one-day-only WoW Trading Card Game tournament to be held in hobbyist stores all over the world on March 1st. The winner of each tournament will walk away with an extremely rare card that redeems for an in-game Spectral Tiger mount. The full details of the tournament can be found here, including entrance fee, deck details, and extra prizes, including an 'extended art' Wyneth Harridan card, and a Robotic Homing Chicken loot card, also redeemable in-game. It's nice to see folks playing together face-to-face; makes me miss my Vampire: The Masquerade days. If you think you can take on this challenge, hie thee to the nearest tournament location! Oh, and if you win, please send us a shot of your lovely new mount! Heck, send us one of your Chicken!
Legal files reveal IGE and Affinity connection once and for all
You may remember that earlier this summer, when Affinity Media purchased Wowhead (to add to their acquisitions of Thottbot and Allakhazam), we were able to interview Affinity Media CEO John Maffei, and he told us, in a very roundabout way, that Affinity and IGE had supposedly parted ways-- Affinity and its content sites were, he said, no longer associated with the company that sold gold in World of Warcraft. However, if you read the comments on that interview, you may have doubted what Maffei told us, and now, thanks to legal documents surfacing because of a legal action against IGE, it appears you were exactly right: Affinity and IGE are (or were, according to Affinity Media) still two peas in the same pod (see Update).I know for certain right now that some of you commenters are preparing the "aww geez, not this again" (NSFW) macro to post, and I don't blame you. You're exactly right; this is boring business stuff, not new news about the Sunwell, and anyone paying attention back during the Wowhead acquisition knew that the two companies were still connected anyway. If this isn't news you to, fine-- I don't mean to reopen Pandora's Box, we just want to make sure we do due diligence in covering this issue.
Allakhazam grills Curt Schilling on game habits, new MMO studio
A lot of the time, when you read about celebrities playing games or see them with a controller at some glitzy press event hosted by EA or Microsoft, it's hard to take them seriously. Most look completely out of place playing or talking about games, and more often then not, they have a look of barely restrained condescension on their faces. That's why it's always refreshing to see an interview like the one Allakhazam posted recently with Curt Schilling, the veteran ace pitcher from the World Series champion Boston Red Sox.The interview is light-hearted and jovial, but it fairly well establishes Schilling's gamer cred. This is no fair-weather fan here, Schilling talks in some depth about days long past in EQ doing late night corpse runs with guildmates, why he took so strongly to EQ2, and his approach to balancing games and real life. Perhaps most exciting of all is when he talks about 38 Studios, the MMO development house that he started up with Todd McFarlane and R.A. Salvatore. He doesn't slip us any specifics about the game they have in the works, but he does go into detail about their development philosophy (it's done when it's done), and the advantages of being independently owned. Even if you're not a baseball fan (or if you are and hate the Red Sox), you'll probably find something to like in the interview. Definitely check it out.
