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Breakfast Topic: What achievements have you finished?
The one positive thing about an ongoing lack of new content is the opportunity it provides to finish up any old projects that you might have lying around gathering virtual dust. At least, this is what I tell myself as my guild dwindles and I sigh longingly at screenshots of Shadowmoon Valley. The truth is, I've got a swath of old, half-finished achievements that I now have all the time in the world to tackle, so I've been using all my free time in WoW to do just that. So far I've knocked off 60 exalted reputations for my "the Beloved" title, and I've been running Magister's Terrace daily in the hope of finally snagging Kael'thas's white chocobo. I'm three mobs away from "Glorious!" and I'm finally settling into the hard part of "Insane in the Membrane." We'll see how far I actually get in that. In addition, I've been working with a few guildmates to round out some guild-level achievements we've been lacking. Nobody had done a guild run of Dire Maul, Maraudon, Sunken Temple, or Stratholme, so we blitzed through those the other day for a guild achievement. I'm also leveling a pandaren priest because we're missing that race/class combo. It's a good way to keep myself occupied while new content seems forever just over the horizon. How about you all? What accomplishments have you checked off your list while you wait?
The Daily Grind: Do you think there's too much group mentality in MMO discussion?
When it comes to MMO design, people tend toward certain viewpoints. Some players think that immersion requires an open world, open PvP, and open targets; others think it just requires an interesting story and a player willing to invest. There are people who think that cash shops are a short step toward buying your way through content, and there are those who think cash shops are a great way to get some more gumballs for a game you like. In the broadest terms, there's a sense of an old guard and a new guard, but there's a lot of overlap and a lot that depends on personal viewpoints. In some ways, this can be helpful for discussion -- knowing that someone really prefers old sandbox games like Ultima Online means that you know right off said person won't enjoy DC Universe Online, for instance. But it also means that we're far more likely to ignore the opinions of others because they dislike certain mechanics, even if they raise valid points. So do you think there's too much of a focus on "old guard" vs. "new guard" when talking about design? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
EVE 'Blog Banter' discusses Walking in Stations expansion
While the official EVE Online forums have always been very active, there are other options out there. For those who like how busy the official forums are, but not the rules that govern it, there's Scrapheap Challenge. SH-C is a forum which is chiefly dedicated to discussing EVE Online, but not moderated by CCP Games themselves. Recent months, however, have seen a large number of EVE players striking out on their own, with their own blogs that focus on a particular aspect of the game linked to that blogger's playstyle. Industry, finance, piracy, 0.0 alliance warfare, and now even boosters (drugs) are being written about on a daily basis.While over 100 of these blogs are out there, the more prolific among them have joined under the banner of CrazyKinux's Blog Pack. By all accounts, it's been a successful community effort by EVE players, and now CrazyKinux is adding another dimension to the Blog Pack: conversation topics that are collectively tackled by the various bloggers, called "Blog Banter." The first Blog Banter got underway this past week, and the first issue up for discussion has been a timely one: EVE's Walking in Stations expansion, formerly known as Ambulation, which Fanfest attendees will get to try out firsthand in just a few more days. The question itself was proposed by PsycheDiver, who asked, "Ambulation: What are your hopes for your avatar and new functionality of stations?"
