side-activities
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Wizard101 introduces Fishing
Fishing is the eternal side activity of MMOs, the reason for players to sit about and cast their line over and over in the hopes of receiving something worthwhile. Wizard101 joins the lineup of fantasy games offering a fishing option today with a new patch, although you will be fishing in an appropriately magical fashion. Rather than a mundane line and sinker, players summon magical orbs to help snare fish; the ones they catch can be sold, used for crafts, or displayed as trophies around your house. If this is the one thing you've been waiting for before you get into the game, you can also take advantage of the new promotional bundle on sale at Target. The Spiral Cup Gauntlet Bundle includes a new housing item, a new pet, new clothes, and a new mount for players, along with either a month's subscription or 5000 crowns. You can pick it up for $39 and then jump right back into casting orbs and looking for fish. Or doing other things, presumably. [Source: Kingsisle Entertainment press release]
The Daily Grind: What else do you do while you play MMOs?
I like gathering in Final Fantasy XIV, but I have plenty of time to do other things while slowly accumulating piles of ore, lumber, and future cloth. One of those things is play Pokémon Y. There's nothing like readying the axe and then slowly wandering around with cute critters whilst I harvest in the background. You might argue that if I'm playing a second game during part of the first game, I'm not really enjoying myself, but it's something I like to do. I made my way through many books playing Final Fantasy XI, I've watched movies while farming in World of Warcraft, and playing City of Heroes gave me plenty of reason to read through old comics. There's nothing wrong with splitting your attention a little. I suspect most of us do it to some degree. Do you listen to Pandora while the game is on? Chat with people on Steam? Browse the web? What else do you do while you play? 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!
Storyboard: RP-Beta
So there's a beta going on right now that is really relevant to my interests. Yes, that does mean that there is an unofficial beta roleplaying server, also relevant to my interests. Long-time readers will know both what I'm talking about and why I don't have a whole lot of other things on my mind right now. This actually dovetails nicely with an obvious topic, however: roleplaying in the beta for any given game. If you plan to roleplay when the game goes live, beta is a great time to get started, possibly building up character relationships and dynamics before the game has even launched. That's all good stuff. The problem is that beta is not, in fact, a prequel to the live game. It's a test version of the real game. And even beside the obvious repercussions of rollbacks and the like, there are reasons why roleplaying in beta might not be a great idea.
