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The Daily Grind: If you could erase your memories of a game for a fresh experience, would you?
No matter how we attempt to come at our favorite MMO at a new angle, the truth is that it's impossible to fully recapture the wonder, the enormity, and the uncertainty that came with your first few days in the game. There was something special about all of that unknown, wasn't there? It's easy to fondly recall a time when you didn't know all of the mechanics like the back of your hand, but had to figure everything out one step at a time. I've seen a lot of people try to emulate the giddy high of those first days in a number of ways, which makes me wonder if a memory-wiping service would be embraced by some. It's kind of tempting to think about: completely erasing any of your experiences from a game, allowing you to try it for the first time a second time. So if this hypothetical service was a real thing, would you take advantage of rebooting your memories for a fresh take at your favorite MMO? 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!
The Road to Mordor: A fresh start
I don't know about you, but sometimes I fall into the trap of forcing myself to do something in a game because I feel internally obliged to do it. Somewhere along the line, "setting a goal" became a Bataan Death March that absolutely had to be accomplished before I'd allow myself to do what I truly wanted. In my case, it was the stubborn determination to get through the remainder of Rise of Isengard's content even though I had slowed to slogging through it, feeling burned out on my Lore-master after well over a year of constant play on the character. So I sat back and re-evaluated. My reasoning for finishing Isengard was to make sure I was at the top of the game and could evaluate any new high-level content that came along for you guys, which was a noble reason. But the truth was that in so doing, I was playing something that was leeched of enjoyment for the time being and really needed to be put aside. Once I realized that, the solution was obvious. A fresh start. That's what I wanted: a completely fresh start to the game. Hey, it's still (sort of) a new year, so why not? And once I gave myself permission to do that, my adventures in Lord of the Rings Online brightened up considerably. I might be weird in this, but I absolutely love starting over from scratch in long-term games from time to time, even though it means scrapping (or putting aside) a whole heap of achievements and the effort spent acquiring them. This week I'm going to look at my fresh start with LotRO and why it has me buzzed to log in for the first time this year.
Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment sells off Stargate assets
It's a troubling day for an already-troubled studio, as Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment has sold off Stargate Resistance -- the third-person shooter title that was made to help keep the company afloat and fund further development of Stargate Worlds -- to a startup company called Fresh Start. Fresh Start is comprised of former Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment employees, which means that the title is still in the hands of its makers. Gamer/Law breaks down the recent events, and notes the salient details: that Fresh Start is in a joint venture agreement with CME to receive and run all of CME's assets (including Stargate Resistance), CME has the option to buy back these assets in the future, and there is no official word on Stargate Worlds. Gamer/Law speculates that there is either "some unpublicised arrangement has been entered into, or Cheyenne's Stargate MMO rights are an asset to be sold to satisfy creditors, or (possibly) Cheyenne has lost those rights following its entry into bankruptcy." If you haven't been following the long, painful saga of CME and Stargate Worlds, suffice to say that this promising MMO suffered from lack of employee pay, devs jumping ship, extensive layoffs, lawsuits, Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a vague suit brought against former CEO Gary Whiting, and the sudden shift from developing SGW to getting Stargate Resistance out the door. However, whether this latest development will be a positive one to offer hope for a SGW resurrection or the death knell for the game has yet to be seen.
Breakfast Topic: Why reroll?
I probably should've mentioned this in my Breakfast Topic yesterday, which asked about your favorite noob moments, but my brother-in-law had a major one with his very first character. Playing a Druid, he eventually found himself in Moonglade. Not the best person with directions, he actually got lost in Nighthaven, unable to find his way out. He even tried to kill his Tauren by drowning in a Moonwell. Didn't work. In frustration, he deleted his toon and rerolled another Druid. My cousin had a similar experience when, at Level 12, we pointed out that his horns were white while the rest of his Tauren was black. He immediately logged off, and met up with us an hour later with an all-black Tauren with the same name. Speaking of names, my wife leveled a Priest but decided at some point that she didn't like the name and rerolled. These were the days before paid character customization, of course. I suppose we all have different reasons to reroll. Before the days of PvE-to-PvP transfers, a bunch of us decided to start from scratch and reroll on a PvP server because we couldn't progress on our original one. As painful as that was at the time (we all had a couple of Level 60 toons already), it turned out to be a great decision as we ended up being able to experience the endgame. Have you ever felt the need to reroll, or start from scratch? Not quite the same as leveling an alt, but to start fresh entirely. With paid server transfers and character customization, I'm certain the need is less urgent, but for those of you who started anew, what were your reasons?
Sony is giving "Fresh Start" a fresh start, losing the $50 fee
After a minor outcry at Sony's new "Fresh Start" option to skip the crapware on TZ laptops for a hefty $50 charge, the company has seen the error of its ways and is going to start offering the option for free as of tomorrow. Sure, it would've been nice to have it like that from the start, and there's no word yet if there will be refunds for those who did fork over the $50, but we got the impression from the Sony spokesperson who spoke to us that Sony Japan was just as surprised as we about the charge, and quickly asked for it to be removed. We're still waiting for word as to whether this option will hit other VAIOs, but we're cautiously optimistic.
Sony hates you, offers $50 "Fresh Start" option to build your laptop crapware-free
Sony has quite the history of crippling excellent, beautiful hardware with horrible, useless software. The company's UX UMPC bluescreened on us the first time we turned it on, and crashed the first time we tried to shut it down thanks to all the bloatware on it, while a Laptop Mag review says their Vaio TZ ran "as if it were broken" before they managed to wipe it clean. Lucky for us, it appears Sony is finally seeing the error of its ways, but instead of removing the crapware altogether, Sony has the nerve to offer a $50 "Fresh Start" option, which "scrubs" the machine clean before shipping it your way. At the moment you can only configure the TZ2000 crapware-free, but hopefully Sony will be rolling out the choice to the rest of its laptops soon. Or here's an idea, Sony: stop trying to milk profits and start giving consumers laptops that actually work out of the box.[Thanks, Camron T]Update: In case you missed it, it looks like Sony had a change of heart about Fresh Start. (What, already?)
