VirginWorlds MMORPG News Host: Brent VirginWorlds is a weekly news podcast covering Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) such as World of Warcraft, EverQuest, Guild Wars, City of Heroes, Eve Online, Vanguard, Lord of the Rings Online and many many more. The VirginWorlds MMORPG Podcast is the flagship podcast of the VirginWorlds MMO Podcast Collective found at http://www.virginworlds.com
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VirginWorlds Podcast #97Sat, 29 Dec 2007 00:35:00 GMT [download/play]
Finally, the podcast that struggled through the holiday week has been completed, and it is a big one. Darren from Common Sense Gamer and Shut Up We're Talking joins Brent for a lengthy rundown of the MMO news over the past couple of weeks.
Topics include: - Blizzard's new MMO project - Cryptic Studios - Darkeden - Sony Online Entertainment news - Linden Labs - MMORPG.com's Reader's Choice Awards - MMOG Data - Might and Magic MMO - Warhammer Online - The Word of the Year - The Gnomies - Listener Mail - What We're Playing
New Equipment Sponsor: Johnedw2
New Elite Members: - Saylah from Mystic Worlds - LadyBhaal - Blue15
'Great Show' by Shalimar616 Submitted on 2007-12-29 08:17:51 CST Kudos to you both for an excellent show. Brent always does a excellent show, and how can it get any better than to invite the great Darren from Shut Up We're Talking?!?
I look forward to this coming year and working with you two; and also spending some time with you both at SFGDC.
My prediction on Scotts Hartsman is moving into the motion picture industry and will be a producer for an upcoming new Major Motion Picture. I say this only from what the little monkey has whispered into my ear.
Its sad that both of the Best MMO Game of the year I haven't even played -- haven't even demoed! I must say that I agree with you two that Vanguard had so much potential, but could not be included in this category. I wonder even if it could have been included if there was no other game that came out.
I also must agree with Darren that within the next few updates, Vanguard will really begin to shine. Look at Everquest 2 in its infancy -- they too had a rocky start but is really going strong.
Troy
'A fine offerring' by Token Submitted on 2007-12-29 13:37:29 CST I really enjoyed this show, partly because of Darren's wisdom and partly because it made 2 hours of work feel a lot less painful. Two thoughts :
-The new MMO is Starcraft. Blizzard will relish the challenge of launching a Sci-fi MMO Mega-hit. I think they cancelled Ghost because they had a better idea.
-Starcraft the MMO will not be launched in Korea and imported to the west by Codemasters.
'Blizzards new MMO' by twistah Submitted on 2007-12-29 14:49:27 CST Gaming Steve had some inside info on this topic on his podcast ep. 66.
Or read this: http://www.gamingsteve.com/archives/2007/12/blizzard-confirms-new-mmorpg-and-i-have-details.php
...a bit disapointing.
'nt' by Token Submitted on 2007-12-30 09:26:00 CST You mean the late start date of the project is disappointing ? When I saw the picture he chose for the article I was afraid he was going to announce they were working on a browser based social community, you got me worried :D
'long one' by Sente Submitted on 2007-12-30 13:31:38 CST That was a long podcast, had some good stuff in there. A number of things I'd like to comment about, if I remember all of it..
Blizzard new MMOG: I haven't played Diablo nor StarCraft, so I cannot comment on the viability of the lore for a perpetual, vast gaming environment. I think they will be going for some area they find interesting and a setting with some reasonably good technical expertise for the type of experience they are looking into. Looking at non-fantasy MMOGs released up to know, I think a game with some SciFi-theme is a more likely candidate. I do not think they will venture into some area which there are too many uncertainties in at least.
Picking people for the new project may come from outside or inside - I am sure whatever public job positions there are, exisiting Blizzard employees may also go for that if they want. The best persons for the job may not be within Blizzard - just because someone has worked on WoW does not mean they have the most appropriate experience.
I don't agree with the food analogy in regards to EQ2 and that it is the "best" MMOG. In my view, EQ2 is more like a buffet - lots of different things to pick from, not all good and may not necessarily fit all thet well together even though you can put it all on the same plate. If you go for an all-you-can-eat approach it may be ok, but just because there are lots of stuff there does not make it better than a more streamlined meal with a bit less.
SOE: If people get upset about the "faster" leveling the guys on the test server had, is there not a problem with the game design then? Why would a shorter leveling time be considered an unfair advantage? Would everyone be happier about playing the game if leveling time was cut to half for everyone? And this transfer does not really affect other players play experience negatively, so why should people care?
I agree with the MMOG Data comments - they really need to put more info on how they derived to certain numbers what they intend to show and also think about if they should present any data at all in a category if they do not have good source material for it. The old statistics site was more limited in what it showed, but allso had a bit better info on what they presented.
'w00t! to you both' by fl1pper Submitted on 2007-12-30 16:05:09 CST Great show as usual guys. However you are both incorrect about rthe origins of "w00t!". It comes from hacker culture and is derived from "root" (the Unix equivalent of the Windows' administrator account) i.e. w00t! == Yay I got root!!
'Great Show, but you're both EVE Noobs.' by Geirr Submitted on 2007-12-31 21:20:19 CST Brent, I've been listening now for over a year, and the shows just keep getting better. Regarding EVE - I have to agree on the learning curve; it's very steep. There are also multiple ways a new player can get involved in the game beyond the old saw of "Tackler". For new players who aren't interested in getting countless ships blown out from under them, there is hauling for larger groups, mining (even a few days training is profitable), and with proper tutelage the markets can be profitable.
IMHO The biggest challenge people face is that the game is so open-ended that people used to more guided content feel a bit lost. To that end, finding a good (ie, helpful) corporation is critical to getting the most out of the game.
Ok, so you're not really noobs, but you're a bit rusty - the terms you were looking for were warp jammer and webifier.
Cheers (and Happy New Year),
Geirr
'noob sauce' by Brent Submitted on 2007-12-31 21:31:33 CST Oh, we know - we're far from experienced EVE players. :) We leave that mastery to Urban and Blinky. Thanks for the thoughts!
'Great Show A Little Disappointed' by jefferylgreen Submitted on 2008-01-01 14:07:38 CST Greetings Brent,
Normally I really get behind your news and believe that you have sound advice, however in this one episode, I found my self slightly disappointed at one small comment made which I will get to soon.
Your statement to a person who wrote in asking if it was even worth while to enter the game at this late date was good and well defined. A few points missed were if your not one to jump into combat at the beginning there is market transaction, industry, and mining that all can quickly gain ISK for a new player as they search for a corp that will allow them to learn more of the game. EVE University is a great corp that teaches new players all aspects of EVE.
If you are into combat with other players a good point to keep in mind are that in the beginning the learning skills were not available, they were added in to help new players catch up to older players, then the second tier learning were added a little later. Also when people started back some time ago no one knew what was to be trained to obtain a certain type of character, and so a lot of people have trained science, industry, and corp related skills that normally would not have been trained for a simple combat related character.
I was a little disappointed in your personal comment that you made so generically about EVE, you stated that you will have more fun in the first few min of WoW then EVE, for some this might be true, but your statement made it sound like fact instead of a personal opinion, as a unfortunate person who played WoW (level 50 Hunter, Level 50 Rogue, Level 50 Warlock, level 40 Druid, Level 40 Pali) I found the whole game personally a chore, and tried several different classes to make sure it wasn't a clash of play style. In EVE, if I take a week off, i have not been left behind all my peers and friends because of it.
To wrap this up, you produce a AAA podcast and continue to love it. This episode was amazing and look forward to another great year. Keep up the great work.
'nice' by Token Submitted on 2009-05-13 14:57:11 CST Brent called it here, it was a new IP
'Great Show' by Shalimar616
Submitted on 2007-12-29 08:17:51 CST
Kudos to you both for an excellent show. Brent always does a excellent show, and how can it get any better than to invite the great Darren from Shut Up We're Talking?!?
I look forward to this coming year and working with you two; and also spending some time with you both at SFGDC.
My prediction on Scotts Hartsman is moving into the motion picture industry and will be a producer for an upcoming new Major Motion Picture. I say this only from what the little monkey has whispered into my ear.
Its sad that both of the Best MMO Game of the year I haven't even played -- haven't even demoed! I must say that I agree with you two that Vanguard had so much potential, but could not be included in this category. I wonder even if it could have been included if there was no other game that came out.
I also must agree with Darren that within the next few updates, Vanguard will really begin to shine. Look at Everquest 2 in its infancy -- they too had a rocky start but is really going strong.
Troy
'A fine offerring' by Token
Submitted on 2007-12-29 13:37:29 CST
I really enjoyed this show, partly because of Darren's wisdom and partly because it made 2 hours of work feel a lot less painful. Two thoughts :
-The new MMO is Starcraft. Blizzard will relish the challenge of launching a Sci-fi MMO Mega-hit. I think they cancelled Ghost because they had a better idea.
-Starcraft the MMO will not be launched in Korea and imported to the west by Codemasters.
'Blizzards new MMO' by twistah
Submitted on 2007-12-29 14:49:27 CST
Gaming Steve had some inside info on this topic on his podcast ep. 66.
Or read this: http://www.gamingsteve.com/archives/2007/12/blizzard-confirms-new-mmorpg-and-i-have-details.php
...a bit disapointing.
'nt' by Token
Submitted on 2007-12-30 09:26:00 CST
You mean the late start date of the project is disappointing ? When I saw the picture he chose for the article I was afraid he was going to announce they were working on a browser based social community, you got me worried :D
'long one' by Sente
Submitted on 2007-12-30 13:31:38 CST
That was a long podcast, had some good stuff in there. A number of things I'd like to comment about, if I remember all of it..
Blizzard new MMOG: I haven't played Diablo nor StarCraft, so I cannot comment on the viability of the lore for a perpetual, vast gaming environment. I think they will be going for some area they find interesting and a setting with some reasonably good technical expertise for the type of experience they are looking into. Looking at non-fantasy MMOGs released up to know, I think a game with some SciFi-theme is a more likely candidate. I do not think they will venture into some area which there are too many uncertainties in at least.
Picking people for the new project may come from outside or inside - I am sure whatever public job positions there are, exisiting Blizzard employees may also go for that if they want. The best persons for the job may not be within Blizzard - just because someone has worked on WoW does not mean they have the most appropriate experience.
I don't agree with the food analogy in regards to EQ2 and that it is the "best" MMOG. In my view, EQ2 is more like a buffet - lots of different things to pick from, not all good and may not necessarily fit all thet well together even though you can put it all on the same plate. If you go for an all-you-can-eat approach it may be ok, but just because there are lots of stuff there does not make it better than a more streamlined meal with a bit less.
SOE: If people get upset about the "faster" leveling the guys on the test server had, is there not a problem with the game design then? Why would a shorter leveling time be considered an unfair advantage? Would everyone be happier about playing the game if leveling time was cut to half for everyone? And this transfer does not really affect other players play experience negatively, so why should people care?
I agree with the MMOG Data comments - they really need to put more info on how they derived to certain numbers what they intend to show and also think about if they should present any data at all in a category if they do not have good source material for it. The old statistics site was more limited in what it showed, but allso had a bit better info on what they presented.
'w00t! to you both' by fl1pper
Submitted on 2007-12-30 16:05:09 CST
Great show as usual guys. However you are both incorrect about rthe origins of "w00t!". It comes from hacker culture and is derived from "root" (the Unix equivalent of the Windows' administrator account) i.e. w00t! == Yay I got root!!
'Great Show, but you're both EVE Noobs.' by Geirr
Submitted on 2007-12-31 21:20:19 CST
Brent, I've been listening now for over a year, and the shows just keep getting better. Regarding EVE - I have to agree on the learning curve; it's very steep. There are also multiple ways a new player can get involved in the game beyond the old saw of "Tackler". For new players who aren't interested in getting countless ships blown out from under them, there is hauling for larger groups, mining (even a few days training is profitable), and with proper tutelage the markets can be profitable.
IMHO The biggest challenge people face is that the game is so open-ended that people used to more guided content feel a bit lost. To that end, finding a good (ie, helpful) corporation is critical to getting the most out of the game.
Ok, so you're not really noobs, but you're a bit rusty - the terms you were looking for were warp jammer and webifier.
Cheers (and Happy New Year),
Geirr
'noob sauce' by Brent
Submitted on 2007-12-31 21:31:33 CST
Oh, we know - we're far from experienced EVE players. :) We leave that mastery to Urban and Blinky. Thanks for the thoughts!
'Great Show A Little Disappointed' by jefferylgreen
Submitted on 2008-01-01 14:07:38 CST
Greetings Brent,
Normally I really get behind your news and believe that you have sound advice, however in this one episode, I found my self slightly disappointed at one small comment made which I will get to soon.
Your statement to a person who wrote in asking if it was even worth while to enter the game at this late date was good and well defined. A few points missed were if your not one to jump into combat at the beginning there is market transaction, industry, and mining that all can quickly gain ISK for a new player as they search for a corp that will allow them to learn more of the game. EVE University is a great corp that teaches new players all aspects of EVE.
If you are into combat with other players a good point to keep in mind are that in the beginning the learning skills were not available, they were added in to help new players catch up to older players, then the second tier learning were added a little later. Also when people started back some time ago no one knew what was to be trained to obtain a certain type of character, and so a lot of people have trained science, industry, and corp related skills that normally would not have been trained for a simple combat related character.
I was a little disappointed in your personal comment that you made so generically about EVE, you stated that you will have more fun in the first few min of WoW then EVE, for some this might be true, but your statement made it sound like fact instead of a personal opinion, as a unfortunate person who played WoW (level 50 Hunter, Level 50 Rogue, Level 50 Warlock, level 40 Druid, Level 40 Pali) I found the whole game personally a chore, and tried several different classes to make sure it wasn't a clash of play style. In EVE, if I take a week off, i have not been left behind all my peers and friends because of it.
To wrap this up, you produce a AAA podcast and continue to love it. This episode was amazing and look forward to another great year. Keep up the great work.
'nice' by Token
Submitted on 2009-05-13 14:57:11 CST
Brent called it here, it was a new IP