Going BYE!

But, it will not happen.

Lord of The Rings Online going free with RMT is the best move for an MMO in today's market. Especially an MMO that was considered AAA.
It shows the market can handle another option. DDO proved that. WoW's price setting schemes need not be the norm. Turbine can actually come out as a leader of a new way to price.

Turbine...I applaud you

Something that interests me in Warhammer Online is the multiple ways to level the character. You not only have a main "rank" (your level in most other MMO's), but you have the RR or Renown Rank, and Influence.
Influence is not too important to your character as it just tracks progress through the TIER system. In PvE, influence is gained by completing Chapters of stories in the Public Quest system. The RvR Influence is by completing Tiers in Open RvR (you gain no influence for Scenarios...or not enough to really care about).
You get some ok gear, but that is about all the Influence meter offers (that I know of...anyone want to enlighten me on this?)

So, my two focuses have been Renown and standard Rank.

Now, here is an example of how my character looks in the "rankings" system (on the Realm War system from Mythic, which allows you to track characters, not unlike the Armory for WoW).


The true definition of grind...THAT is Vile.

ORvR consists of several measures to gain Renown points (RR). You take Battle Objectives (BO) and Keeps. The keeps can garner the most points, as not only will you take the keep, but will be in combat with a lot of the opposite faction. You can also defend keeps, but only gain major points in either style of gameplay by winning.
Order was definitely on the short end of the stick the whole weekend. Destruction could field two or even three Warbands of 24 players each...while Order had...One.

Now, mind you, this is Tier 3. This tier has been known to bring grown men to tears, and as such, most players head to the Land of the Dead (LoTD) (this all has been discussed in my previous post) to quick level to Tier 4, where balance is somewhat restored. But, during this time, you gain no Renown, as LoTD is PvE, which goes towards standard Rank.

Another way I could gain this RR faster is through Scenarios. But, thanks to the new patch this weekend, it seems Scenarios were NOT going off. I was able to compete in TWO Scenarios the whole weekend.

And do not start me on population issues.

But, back to the difference between the Renown Rank and the standard Rank.
How competitive can a player be if that Renown rank has not increased when they enter Tier 4? And why is it that the main style of play that is the most enjoyable is so unforgivable to the player who wishes to PvP.

Isn't WAR a PVP GAME?

To play what I want though, I must endure hours of long, hard work to stay competitive, and that may be an issue going forward.
I have mentioned many a time that I am strictly a "Casual" player. But, WAR seems to need more than I can offer it. 18 hours is just a little to much, no matter how much fun I had. Definitely adds up to cause home issues, that I do not need.
When I saw my Xfire times (a good reason to use Xfire, so I can babysit myself), and had played as many hours as I work a full time job, I was dumbstruck.

Warhammer is extremely fun, but is turning into a job more than an enjoyment...and that may have consequences down the road.

This week, I plan to pull back that focus on the RR, and instead play some PvE with my wife, and maybe some scenarios if we can get them. The wife had already seen the effects of ORvR, and lost taste for it pretty fast. She loves the PvP, but the "siege" style system of takeovers and major battles were not for her. I understand, as for her to even like PvP to begin with is major, as she truly hates it in other MMO's. The fact she is willing to do some Scenarios is great.

Time is ticking, and I am unsure if I can reach max level (let alone crank up that RR), so, I may have to go back to "enjoying" WAR and not working a second job for the Empire.

I have been pretty quiet here as I have been playing like a loon in Warhammer Online. The game really has me captivated, and I enjoy the RvR. Being I am NOT a PvP'er, this has really become a major change of pace.

But, there comes a time in every game where you find out (especially being new to the game) that you made a bad decision.

That Decision? Choosing the wrong server.

Of course, at the time I started, the game was bustling. Numbers were up compared to previous months (even the last year). I had no issues getting into groups, and RvR was prevalent and meaningful.

Several things happened. Billing errors, down times and other concerns like websites being sued, etc. all bringing down populations.

Then I also hit Tier 3.

I am currently on the Iron Rock server. To get an idea of population there, head to Warhammer Census. Though not a perfect tool, it DOES show an alarming difference between Iron Rock and the other servers that are active. To be precise, the most active is Badlands. In the tier I am in, there is almost double the number of players on Badlands than on Iron Rock.
The Tier 3 Scenario's (SC) and Open RvR (ORvR) have been slim pickings for me. I can never get an SC to pop when I play in T3 (but, this is of course me not playing in Prime Time either). If I can play evenings, I join Warbands. But, they are never quite full. When that happens, Destruction comes through and steam rolls those teams when Order attempts to take over a keep.

This had been noted by many players of the game about the Tier 2 and 3 doldrums, but I did not think it would hit such a wall. They lured me in with the super fun PvP, and then finally took it away from me at that next to final tier. When I am playing, if I do not mix up PvE with RvR, then WAR becomes a major drag.  All PvE = snooze fest.

Now, it has been told to me through the forums that I should move on, grind PvE and get out of T3 as fast as possible through the last content update WAR had, Land of the Dead (LoTD). But, as I said, PvE could get boring. LoTD luckily is more fun than standard PvE due to so many areas to fight in, dangerous mobs to contend with and a neat looking zone to boot. But, this also leads to a gear discrepancy when I do hit T4. But, I can hide in RvR lakes, and hope I can muster some Renown levels to get my RvR score up and get the gear.

I am at a crossroads. I do not have much longer before I take a break from WAR and head to Age of Conan. Mythic offers no character transfers for new players...so I sit stuck on Iron Rock. I could start anew on Badlands...but that then puts me back to square one again.

Do I take it on the chin and just muddle through until time is up, or do I have another avenue I do not see here?

Cheers

Big ole title, for some big ole fun.

Recently released, Massively has the info on a poll by the NPD group. Basically the poll is a piece of a larger puzzle of MMO players and their likes (or dislikes). You can check the info here [SOURCE].

The poll is very specific and toward a certain group of players. As noted, the poll is called "What former World of Warcraft Players are Currently Playing". The sample size is rated at 19,000 players. This makes me wonder just how many were polled that were FORMER players (is that 1%, 10%, of actual size of former, etc.), and many other numbers come to mind. We at least know 68% were Male and the age group.

But, there is a lot that is not noted in the article, and I wish to help YOU, my informed readers know what the poll is REALLY telling us (than just what this select group is playing NOW).

• A Large group were once Final Fantasy XI players (thus the reasoning for the title being so high on the list, as most will go back to what they are familiar with)
• The noted need for something else to be either CHEAP or FREE (Runescape, Guild Wars, DDO, Toontown)
• A large number of boys like their Super Heroes (Both Champions Online and City of Heroes/Villains make showings on that list)
• EvE ranks lower on this list, and helps with the debate I constantly have that Sci-Fi just does not rank highly for MMO players, and Fantasy is king (SWG is at the bottom there...but that is more likely a case of a bad game)
• Why is Everquest 2 not on there at all? (either it is usually these players skew older (search Google for "average age of everquest 2 player"...you get 31+), or no one really likes the game like some want to believe)
• Maybe PvP does NOT sit well with MMO players, like many wish to believe? (Aion, WAR, EVE and DAoC ranking so low)
• Dangit people...upgrade your COMPUTERS already... Calculators and Toasters do not good PC's make (Runescape, GW, Second Life, Treasure Hunt, Toontown and more)
• These players are easily entertained with Cartoony Games (playing WoW, Disney Toontown, Champions, Pirates of the Caribbean, Treasure Hunt)
• A dedicated group of players want some naughtiness to their game (Second Life and AoC having high showings)

Wow. What a weekend. Major disturbances in the force of the charts really made me feel that we needed a post to discuss the latest movers and shakers on the Xfire charts.

I will be referencing an article I did at the end of March, thanks to a press release from Cryptic and their newest MMO, Star Trek Online - STO (SOURCE). The data was sound, and we had something to base some numbers off of. The Xfire charts hit a home run, and calculated almost precisely the number of subs STO had, compared to the statement by Cryptic.
As I make notes and do the calcs, just refer to the previous article if you have any questions in how it relates.

The reason I wanted to do the new numbers is that starting this week is, of course, the Age of Conan expansion launch; Rise of the Godslayer. I think this will have a major impact on a lot of MMO's. And as you will see, it really made some adjustments. This will also allow us to see how people are feeling about the new expansion, and how subs "could" be affected.
As well, several other news tidbits made some changes to sub counts. For example, STO had a free return for old subs and introduced a new free trial.
Warhammer Online had another blow struck against it as well, thanks to a set of court papers being filed by Games Workshop against the fan site Warhammer Alliance.GW really has nothing to do with Mythic and WAR, but it is the same IP. The issue is that so many think it DOES relate to WAR and EA/Mythic...and thus, we see what the outcome is of this latest wound. Watch them bleed...

Lets start with some OTHER surprises first.

Again, a sizable change. But, I also know that some numbers will be down. Why? HELLO, summer on the way, warm weather. We are bound to see these types of lower numbers. But, it is still interesting.

Lately I have come to the realization that two of the biggest failures of 2008 are now two of my all time favorite games.

Age of Conan and Warhammer Online.

But, a battle royale is coming next week between these two newer generation MMO's. Age of Conan will be releasing their new expansion, Rise of the Godslayer. May 11th to be precise. Why does this create a field of war, when these two games are not so much like each other?

Originally both games were heavily PvP oriented. But, Warhammer took a different approach by making it all about the large open Realm vs Realm combat. Age of Conan went for a guild based "siege" mechanic (I do not want to argue semantics here either. We all know WAR has sieging, but AoC definitely does not have factional PvP...yet.) and one on one dueling. WAR had scenarios and AoC had CTF style arena based 6vs6 style combat.

Age of Conan took a different direction eventually in late 2009, focusing more on a gear grind based PvE system, but still having PvP. Just, it seems to me that PvP really has no "purpose" when you kill for the sake of killing. WAR though has always focused on a "sides" based system. When a particular "faction" has won the day, rewards for all in that "faction" or realm was included. Age of Conan is the every man for himself or his guild fight. WAR is for Order or Destruction being in control.

Differences abound, but the similarities of these two games could not be more adequate.

These games were truly failures of their time.

Both games were hyped beyond compare from their respective game directors, and were not quite up to what was stated about them. Both games opened to acclaim by many and sold as man copies as to try and compete with that powerhouse known as WoW. Both though slowly degraded and were denigrated for many broken systems they had in place.

Eventually the mighty two toppled to where today they each struggle to keep themselves alive.

But, a sea change is on the horizon for one game. Age of Conan  has started to gain a larger following. Reviewers of games and many a blog have touted the games turn around. Sales of the expansion have been brisk. And as noted on Xfire, growth is hitting the game before the expansion launch.
Recent numbers show Age of Conan at roughly about 908 players on Xfire. In a previous post from last month, ( The Xfire Game ), AoC was at 677 players. This is important, as using the calc system I discuss in that post, Age of Conan is hitting around 110k players / subs per month. (As I must always note, these estimates are part of a game, using the Xfire tracking system, and are not 100% accurate, but do give a good glimpse of popularity).

WAR had made progress as well with the game, but continues to live with setbacks. Servers were closed overseas. A Large billing fiasco made Mythic the brunt of bad news. And finally a most recent newsletter makes mention of a mechanic that has not existed in the game since launch, having Order and Destruction characters on the same server...which has led to speculation of more server merges.
Using the same Xfire gaming system for sub counts, we also see what effect this news is having on Warhammer Online. The previous count (from March 29th) had WAR at roughly 621 players. This converts to about 75k subs. The game is now hitting 590 Xfire players, or around 70k subs. (Note, this number is interesting, as many a quote has suggested that roughly this many were affected by the billing fiasco...but, that is speculation. I may discuss that more on Twitter later).
Seeing I am playing WAR, I can also feel the difference from when I launched to now. Less Scenarios opening up, less full ORvR groups...basically a feeling of more emptiness.

My thoughts are that when Rise of the Godlsayer launches, that even though WAR and AoC have been neck and neck on Xfire...it will start a larger tumble for WAR. The number of players will fall, and unless something drastic happens soon, WAR could see an end to it's glorious rebound.

What are your thoughts? Leave me a comment. I will be opening wide the comment floodgates today as well, so feel free to "express yourself".

When the urge to write comes upon me, I just have to get it out...get it out of my head and onto the web.

As I am doing a writing project for work, I feel the need to intersperse those moments of thought with what has been happening in the household for the "Family who MMO's" (I think that is a permanent tagline now, and I had better trademark it!).

As well, it will give me a chance to talk about my two favorite MMO's and the latest news for them.

First up is Age of Conan.

We still have it on our schedule, so that when the expansion hits, we would get back into the game. News just arrived that it is finally on its way. Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer will launch on May 11th.

A great way to celebrate their anniversary as well for AoC, as it launched in May two years ago.

We plan to play it smart though. There will be no reason to jump right in, as we all know how Funcom is when it comes to launches. They have proven that they really cannot get anything off the ground without some major hiccups. I would prefer not to be a 30 day hater like I was two years ago. So, we will wait and see how this rolls. The bonus is thanks to the "endless trial" we can at least see how the game is performing and what discussions are taking place in Global about how others feel before buying.

Based on my Xfire watching though, I can see a bit of excitement for Age of Conan and the expansion as people are logging in more. This past Sundays performance shows an increase in players in the game using my calc systems. Close to 90k players actually.

Quite good for AoC.

There are quite a few deals, including a pre-order directly through Funcom and your account if active. You get a discount (the package is touted as $29.99, but 5 bucks off if purchased now). You also get a special pet and some other goodies. They also have various other packs including mounts, points to use in the game (token system) and more. Log in HERE to see information on these specials.

Next up; Warhammer Online.

I need to say this. I LOVE this game, and I am having a blast.

I was actually gone for several days and we missed some game time last week. As well, I missed the news that Mythic did a formal apology for the screw ups on billing.

For those who did not hear (all two of ya), Mythic had several problems where people were billed multiple times (some up to 20 times) for their sub.
Anyways, I will not go into the details, so here is the letter of apology. This basically explains what they will do for those affected by this error. The rewards are really incredible. And not just that, but for all players, they have a huge jump in XP for PvE and RvR renown. This really has helped, as we logged in this weekend and gained 3 LEVELS. We reached level 20 and bought our horses. Excellent.

Now, all news was not good. Warhammer servers are being shut down in Taiwan, Hong Kong and other locations in Asian countries. What does this mean? Hard to say. I have the theory still that a rough population of 65-75k players can keep a game running (look at EQ2 or Star Wars for examples of games still running with low pops). Will this affect WAR? Hard to say right now. Progress is being made on the next update which will enhance RvR, and will have quite a few changes which is almost a mini-expansion.

I will hold my thoughts on this for now. From the looks of it, the billing fiasco did not hurt WAR on Xfire (the calcs have put the game back where it was before the fiasco).

Now...playing WAR and why it works for the "Family who MMO's"?
We are just not an end game kind of group. We like the journey, pure and simple. Many complaints have been lodged at WAR on the end game becoming a huge grind for no particular reason. I.E: Like ALL MMO's.
For the Family, we just enjoy the variety of things we can do. We will cue up for Scenarios, go questing and doing the Public Quests for the rewards. It all adds up to doing something all the time. So far, we LOVE to login and play, and that is the key.

One of the nice things about WAR compared to most MMO's...less wildlife and more humanoid based mobs. I really felt this while playing this morning. As I moved from one zone to the next, I was always fighting something human like. As I am Order, it would be Chaos, Orcs, or even demons like the Blue Horrors, etc. If i had to kill boars ad nauseum (looks at LOTRO and sneers), I would kill myself.
Spawn rates is another nice feature...especially in some of the Public Quests. You have barely enough time to recoup, and the next spawn is in. Keeps you moving. And speaking of the recoup...management of health and action points works quite well. Combat is faster than say WoW or LOTRO or especially EQ2 (the last time the family went into EQ2, the slow combat REALLY ruined the game for us).

Will this fun continue? I think it will, as we all have a feeling that getting to 40 will be a goal. We want to do it, and it helps us feel like we have accomplished something. If I could count how many games disappoint before we finish or get to max, it makes me happy to then realize games like WAR or AoC exists.

We purchased another 60 days (time cards), and will see how we feel when that time is up. For now, the time in game has went over a 160 hours, and we keep racking it up.

There. Have I told ya enough now? Ok...better get back to work now. Cheers to ya and Game on!

Please read the fine print:

Riding a Sparkle Pony may cause lung cancer. As well, Sparkle Ponies may harm unborn fetuses.

But, most of all, Sparkle Ponies DEFINITELY impair better judgement.

You have been warned....

(DISCLAIMER: World of Warcraft and Activision have been know to cause nausea when taken literally. At times a rare ailment may occur, and people may actually continue to subscribe to said game if not taken properly.)

This is real simple today. Make today a day YOU donate to a worthy cause, and let Activision / Blizzard NOT get your $25.00 buckos.

All I ask is that if you feel the urge to take $25 bucks of your hard earned money and throw it away on a "Virtual" pet in World of Warcraft that is owned by another company that you will have zero claim to, but the company who DOES own it will allow you to ride on it, as long as you continue to pay them another $15 bucks a month of course...

Please instead, click on one of these links, and take that 25 bucks and put it to greater use.

American Cancer Society
Aids Healthcare Foundation
Muscular Dystrophy
Children International
Ford Foundation

Or any other foundation or cause that you feel deserves it.

The total charge for this horse being offered by Blizzard costs maybe a weeks worth of wages of one to two developers. The overall costs to Activision/Blizzard after it is launched...minimal. Yet, the amount of money being charged is over $10 more than a monthly fee to the game. The money they earn on this could feed one nation for a YEAR. And, as I have stated, ownership of that product is ZERO. You must pay to continue to own the product. If you stop paying, you have lost that $25 until you pay another $15 again to regain ownership.

Lets put our money to a better use shall we?

Thank you

So, the days are winding down on the huge financial debacle from Mythic/EA/Bioware this past weekend.
I personally was NOT affected. I also took action and did not let them get me. I cancelled the credit card on file and cancelled my sub.

I WILL use time cards though.

Thats right. I am NOT leaving.

And really. Would I have left if this happened? There is no doubt it is upsetting when something like this takes place. Many people were hurt by this (bouncing checks, late bills, true embarrassment, like one story of a Father who could not pay for his kids lunch at Pizza Hut on Friday thanks to this). But, for myself, I know it is an "error". Companies make them, and at the same time, they can rectify them.

How many were truly affected?

Mythic was quick to try and get this fixed. It was not perfect. The payments did not get charged back until after the weekend, leaving some stranded, etc. But, the company DID make every effort to help.
They personally faxed banks, made calls, and did what was possible, for what I assume is a small team.

But, should they be forgiven? I, for example, am out 16 bucks for an overnight of a new Credit Card through my bank. I am 100% ATM/Debit carded. I do not use checks. Luckily, I also have a backup account. Many others were not so lucky. The pain and suffering is insurmountable for some.

If anything, the lesson here is to avoid giving Mythic your info, and using Time Cards. Now, Mythic needs to make a decision on what to do. They have been quite silent since this started. Will there be some type of "lets kiss and make up" situation at hand? Free game time maybe?

Eventually someone has to fess up, and something needs to be done. If my meal is bad at a restaurant, they make sure it is fixed. If my cable bill is screwed up, they make amends. Mythic is no different. They NEED to make those arrangements.

The silence right now to many is deafening. Should Mythic or EA be talking yet?

The next two weeks will help me decide though.

Can I enjoy a game from a company who has not decided just how important it's customer is yet?

Currently I have been messing around with the various classes on the Order side of Warhammer Online. Since I am relatively new, I figured I needed to gain an understanding of what I like.

I have several solo characters who I will use to grind when the "Family who MMO's" is not playing. For the family though, I seem to be the one who gets put in a particular role. During this playtime, one thing became abundantly clear.

I was attempting to play as I normally played most MMO's.

In choosing the classes, which I have a good variety of to pick from, I followed my hearts desire, and what I was most familiar with. The healer classes.

If anything, the Archmage should have been my opportune class. All previous MMO's had me as the healer type, the one who always kept the "Family who MMO's" safe. But, I had to redirect my efforts this time.

Last nights game session proved to me that maybe I should not always be looking out for them, and instead try to make it an overall system of defense. Maybe it is the fact that in WAR the heals are not powerful enough to heal both yourself AND the group. You either focus on one or the other. As well, if you follow the Archmage path, then you must have a strong group around you who can keep you safe.

This was not the case in scenarios last night. Lets just say I have never been dead so much in any MMO.
Maybe this was a one time deal? Maybe I could learn to work around this? But, I really feel if I am not twinked out in armor and talismans, I will spend more time kissing dirt than kissing the sky with the healing love.

Now, keep in mind, we started new characters, as we wanted to try an alternate group, and I already have other characters I could play. But, so far, my wife enjoys being a tank class (Swordmaster) moreso than a DPS and my son loves his DPS (Witch Hunter) more than tanking.

So, where does this leave me? This morning I decided to solo level a character up, a Warrior Priest. Now, this class is still heals based, but with an advantage.

ARMOR.

I spent time doing quests and after reaching level 4 (quite quickly I might add), I queued up for scenarios solo. Now, again, was it the group? This time I do not think so.
I watched as I was being pummeled by a Choppa, and was able to keep myself healed, and doing damage...massive damage...at the same time.
I then noticed they stopped attacking me, and went after the Archmage in the group. Maybe they thought they were not making headway with me (they were not...hehe). I started to heal the Archmage while still attacking that same Choppa (I wish to also note, he was rated "Challenging").

The Archmage lived. I got the kill. And I was happy again.

I guess I can still be the one who "helps" others. But, maybe I need to be able to do some of my own damage as well. I just could not get to grips with the concept of the Archmage. But, for the Warrior Priest, I truly felt like I could contribute.

Sometimes we need to step out of our norms and try new things. We may be surprised.

Some games just deserve to get a second chance. Companies at first make a mistake, then try to rectify it.

Some have great results (I am quite content with Warhammer Online now).

But, some people are just too bull headed to know when to at least stop bickering and get to gaming.

So, we need your help. Age of Conan has made leaps and bounds in gameplay since it's initial launch, but there are those who let the launch continue to keep them away.

I went back after launch, and was quite happy. It is a good game now.

Well, those of you who also have went back, need to go tell Pitrelli at KillThatCheerleader. He has a poll up, and is looking to find out which game he should go back to try. Age of Conan is there and ready for your click.

Head there now, and let him know, it is ok to go back, as sometimes, yes, that girlfriend may have cheated on you before, but learned her lesson, and will cook for you EVERY DAY (while rubbing your feet, clipping your toenails and bringing you the beers).

Cheers

What do these images have in common?



What is the one thing I find in Warhammer Online that I really do not see much of in other MMO's?



Why are these images important to understanding why I am really enjoying this game?



A constant "Grouping" factor.

I have played in more "group" based Scenarios, PVP and PVE than any other MMO since I first started playing MMO's.

The dread of LFG all hours of the day got to be an annoyance in most MMO's I have played. Of course, Guilds are one way to avoid this, yet the commitment needed is beyond compare. Then hours of the day that we play can cause concern. Or lets say someone has outleveled you, etc.
So many ways that grouping just does not seem to work in most average MMO's WORKS in Warhammer.

Some people complain about the PvE being plain in WAR. Some people complain about balance in RvR in WAR, or PVP in general. These do not seem to concern the "Family who MMO's", because, we are actually having fun doing what we do.

Ok, now that is out of the way, I guess you may have figured out how we feel as a group in WAR. Basically the balance of what to do has really shined for us.
One minute we can be grinding a PQ (Public Quest) with others to raise our Influence bar. The next, we have entered a scenario to work on Renown. Or we may stray into the Open RVR and get a bit of fun fighting Destruction, or taking a Keep. And if none of this is going on, we can still do kill quests, a bit of crafting or gathering, and still be having fun.

There is not a total bed of roses here, as some concerns still are glaring to say the least.

The server we are on seems to have a very dedicated group on the Destruction side, who seem to work well together, while the Order side can be a bit lame. But, we are learning how to work through this.
Issues with the lag on the servers can cause some weird issues. Floating players, mobs who disappear and reappear across the field from where they were killed, and skills not firing off immediately, causes a bit of..WTF??
Yet, each night, these seem to not cause concern, as we all will look at the clock and say.."Wow, it is past bedtime."

Did we get our moneys worth? Sure did. Will it last? Hard to say...

For now, I am savoring the fun. I am enjoying the deep lore of the game (so much so, that I bought a new Warhammer novel). As long as I am entertained, it is worth the meager amount I have paid.

Well, it looks like there was quite a bit of discussion on my Xfire stats vs subs post the other day.

Tipa at West Karana took it up over on her blog about how the numbers may be "questionable" for certain games, like EQ, EQ2 and even WoW.
Example: When I did a calc for WoW, I noted that they have a new sub rate of over 6 million players. This is difficult to fathom, as most of the stats have been mainly for the "West" and does not include any Asian or Persian countries.

Could WoW really have 6 million in the US alone?

No. I do not believe this. Just like my EQ2 numbers may also be misinformed.

There does seem to be a commonality in all games that are older and numbers being skewed somehow. For example, I do not question the stats for STO, WAR or AoC...not even Aion. Yet, all of these games have launched recently. EQ2? WoW? At least 5 years old.

So, could age have some factor in numbers being skewed or even 100% wrong?

Could there be a recurring theme of actual data and recent launches compared to numbers and older titles?

Lets take another game we know about that is a recent launch and see how it jibes with the Xfire data.

Free Realms.

Hmm. 8 players on Xfire. Now, doesn't this add another conundrum to the stats issue. Could this be due to the fact it is mostly "younger" players whose computer has been set up by a parent, thus why would that parent load Xfire. As well, is the Free Realms player a "pro" at gaming or even understand or NEED Xfire? Or does it have something to do with the free part?

What I think we may need to note is there is going to be a select group of games that we can track this way, and that not ALL titles will work. Many factors will go into playing the Xfire game.
Take this example of how issues may affect our numbers here. Just look at STO. It was but a few days ago there was a drop in numbers, almost to the point of being zeroed out. Seems some outage on the server or with Xfire caused this problem. So, for those days, my numbers would have been wonky. But, as we can see, this week STO has normalized again.

If I continue to play with this, we may have to accept the fact that the game must be a "commercial" subs based game (which throws Free Realms, Runes of Magic, etc, out), must be less than 3-4 years old (I would say at least launched in 2007 or later, thus no more EQ2 or WoW for example) and the data has to be consistent for the week; No weird outages or buggy reporting by Xfire for the whole week. Finally, as a little fun, I will only report on some games if they decide to do an Xfire contest to see how many people are logging in due to prizes or giveaways. Funcom and Turbine have been notorious for this in the past, and it really makes the numbers wonky.

I really think this will be fun to watch for NEW launches. I would like to see how some games do when first opened. Final Fantasy XIV launches this year (according to most rumors...). How will they do here? Right now FFXI does about 30k subs according to the Xfire game. Yet, it does not meet our criteria, thus these numbers are most likely skewed.

So, for now, all we can see in the Xfire game is a bit of fun with some newer games that hopefully gives us a glimpse of how well they are doing.

Cheers

Last week, a small group of us had a Twitter-scussion over the validity of Xfire as a tool beyond the mere use as a glorified chat program.

Xfire has the capability to track players time in games of their choice. Though not perfect, it does give a glimpse of these players (people who load Xfire)  favorite games.
As far as MMO's are concerned, I feel it can be used to do more in respect to players and times.We can also track sub numbers for MMO's in a general capacity. This would be more in line of "paying" commercial based games, by either a large distributor or game developer.

So, a while back, I posted an article (2008) which took a noted news story about the current World of Warcraft population in the US and created a formula to help see how many players can be calculated in all other MMO's based on that formula. What happened is a pretty close and accurate picture of players in various MMO's, and since that time I still have been able to use that formula to this day. Check out the article to see a more in depth discussion of that calculation.

This really took flight when last week Cryptic noted just how many people were playing Star Trek Online. When I saw this, I thought it was time again to try the formula. What happened was a pretty scary comparison that was almost completely accurate to their posted numbers. Cryptic noted a 100k player base. I did my formula and got 96k almost 97k. This of course was based on a Wednesday reading. Sunday numbers are usually more accurate as this IS the busiest day for all MMO's. So, I thought, maybe we need to really do an in depth analysis using Sunday numbers.

Now, I never claimed that the numbers are 100%, accurate, They are a pretty close representation though of what has either been discussed by news pundits or forum goers for total subs of some MMO's. And if a company ever announces their numbers, as seen by the Cryptic count for STO, it can garner a pretty darn accurate calculation.
Since a lot of companies do not release this data, the "Xfire Game" has really become a good way to see just how well this works.

Today, I will do a run of the Sunday count for Xfire for several games being discussed lately. I pick these for the very reason we need a tool like Xfire and my calc. These companies have not, or do not release their numbers. If they do, it is rare.
As well, I will add Aion, as eventually we WILL get numbers (NCSoft does their numbers about once or twice a year), and of course STO, since we did get a report recently.

Lets see how they fare.

We will start here. As we KNOW how many are playing thanks to Cryptic's recent announcement of over 100k players, it will be a good jumping off point to see how our calc is working.



The calc rate is multiple the number of Xfire users x 120.05. Using the calc system we see - 980 x 120.05 = 117,649 subs. Over 100k. Interesting.

Next, I want to show a game that we know has a large population based on reports from NCSoft. Now, of course, most forum goers or blog gurus call this game a failure. I would beg to differ, and I believe Xfires data shows this.



Our calc system states...3864 x 120.05 = 463,873 subs. Basically almost as much as Lineage 2 had been stated to have at one point and time (over 600k in 2007). And as always since it's launch, in the top 10 on Xfire. Now, I am sorry, but this does NOT take into account how many of those subs are gold sellers...

Over and over it has been stated that LOTRO is a good "200k" sub game. I for one believe it, and Xfire really corroborates this.



Calc says? 1780 x 120.05 = 213,689 subs. Still a good sub rate and steady. Wish Turbine would just come out and tell us. For me, I think a company should be proud of that many players in todays MMO market. Since I have been doing these calcs, LOTRO has consistently done this number of players...except when they release an expansion, then there is a jump.

A lot of discussion has been traveling the blogosphere as well as the forums that AoC has progressed beyond the old days, and is a more stable game. Some servers look busy according to the forumites, and Funcom has been able to keep it afloat (though financials have said otherwise). How do the Xfire stats look?



677 x 120.05 = 81,274 subs.
If we read the report for Funcom in their financials, they state "stabilization". This Xfire data corroborates that. They continue to hold this area in the Xfire ratings AND have stabilized in subs if Xfire is to be trusted.

My new favorite. Recently Bioware has made comments about the Mythic division and how WAR is actually "profitable". How many subs does a profitable game need? What does Xfire say...



621 x 120.05 = 74,551 subs. Could it be possible that with 4 servers and 50k plus players, any MMO could be profitable? Seeing Age of Conan has held to this area and is still afloat, I may not doubt it now. Especially if we watch Age of Conan with the expansion and new financials report. How will these numbers increase? I will watch these two games closely. They are thought to be case studies of failures for their time. Yet, I also feel they are also the most improved games over time, unlike some others on this list.

This is a unique case, and I want it here to show how Xfire can still help us figure out what is considered a paying customer, compared to a freebie player. Recently Turbine has stated that they have "1 Meeelllion players" (note the pinky held next to my cheek as I say this..). In so many words; Turbine. The leader of misleading statements.
If we read further into the press release this came from, we also see these words..."paid subscriber base has more than doubled"....AHA. DDO at one point...before the "Free to Play" model, was noted as either having 25k or 50k players subbing. What does Xfire say they have now?



930 x 120.05 = 111,647 subs. So, 1 million players, yes, but I still say 100k plus subscribers paying a monthly fee. Now, this also does not take into account how many people pay for extras (and are not subbed). I still will say it. This hybrid model that DDO has is truly the way other games with low subs should go. We are guaranteed that Turbine is turning some very nice profits right now.

I always wish to throw this one in there. This game is hard to pigeon hole, because we hardly see or hear about this game, and I always wonder what SOE needs to keep a game afloat. I always want to include Vanguard also (to show what a real failure looks like)...but, for now, EQ2 is good, as we know they have a dedicated playerbase, but not a huge sub lot (at least based on what we know and see).



293 x 120.05 = 35,175 subs. Now, is this really profitable? Has the game been out long enough to make back it's money? I guess it does help that they force players to repurchase EVERY expansion every time they launch a new one (almost 40 bucks a box every 6-8 months). Maybe all along EQ2 has made it's money off of the two-boxers and those who purchase new expansions at launch. For now, low player rates, but dedicated players keep EQ2 afloat.

The argument I keep hearing is Xfire cannot be used as a valid tool for these numbers. I will continue to disagree, as these numbers clearly show a lot of matching data with what we know about these games. We can never be 100% sure, but if I need to know how well a game is doing, I can look at Xfire and get a rough guesstimate.
The Calc I have continues to show some interesting data to this day, and as long as we have this tool, I will continue to try and use it to help me see how well these games are doing.

If you are ever worried about if you should play a game depending on if there are enough players to group with, etc, then try Xfire and see if it is doing well there.

Cheers

Just a quick little post about the misadventure that was Aion.



As I blogged previously, my son got an itch, while we were playing Guild Wars, to get back into Aion. For some reason he remembered some fond memory of Aion, yet forgot about all the bad involved.
He has a habit of going back to games, even though he did not like them previously. Example was Fallout 3. He bought the game on launch and died over and over. Sold the game, and never looked back. Yet, all his friends were playing and several months later, decided to try again. Gamespot made a nice profit indeed, when that copy was returned for credit.

So, Aion. We made a pact. One, I would be able to make a character on his account. Two, the wife (who talked me into buying it for him, after I hemmed and hawed using the Fallout 3 story) would also have to play beyond a specific level (5) or else pay for it out of her allowance.

As of today, the game has been cancelled.

So, what did us in. Each of us ran into issues. What pulled us out (even before the PvP)...

Lets start with my son. This one is easy. Boredom. Slow combat, lots of running here and there, annoying questing. Oh, and ready for this one? Dying! (Over and Over and Over); That spawn rate is murder for solo players.

For my wife, a lot of the same. She noted something was off as she tried to play. The interface was not as intuitive as she would have liked. Also, the camera seemed choppy to her. Since she is a crafter at heart, gathering was slow and tedious for her as well. She hit that same window of Boredom.



For myself, relatively the same Boredom. But, as I fought mobs, I was annoyed by the cutesy critters I had to battle. The music started to get on my 3rd nerve. I ended up shutting off both music and the "spell words" sounds (Ka-here-nay? WTF?). Battle was slow (especially since we have fallen into being more actioney type players). The overall experience just kept me from logging in.

You have to imagine the difference of going between WAR, Guild Wars and Aion, as I was playing all three...and which game really was jarring in respect to how it "played". The odd man out was truly Aion.

Even though it has been discussed by many that the servers are empty, game time wise, Aion still charts quite high on Xfire. At one point NCSoft stated they had 1 millions subs in the US. SUBS, not players (ooo you Tricksies Turbine and the way you guys word your press releases..."1 Million players, doubled subs since going free to play"...). I did not see as many players in the starting areas as I have in Age of Conan or WAR...even GW. Could the endgame really be that good? All I know is 10 levels was torture.

For now, Aion goes back into the "been there, done that" pile, never to fly again.

Was it possible? Could the wife really enjoy killing others? Could the mobs that she wants to destroy actually be REAL people?

Yes, she could, they were and she did... kill a LOT.

Why would a game that offers PvP as the main gameplay sell the wife? A person who has played Lineage 2 and hated it, played Guild Wars PvP and had some fun, but got bored with it, and ever since has avoided ALL PvP aspects of MMO's.

Group PvP was the answer.

RvR as most of you know involves large groups of players in mass "lakes" (the term noted by most players), ebbing and flowing back and forth in battle.
Last night we entered combat for the first time within a Tier 1 RvR location (Festenplatz was our main objective). This was the make or break gameplay that would sell the game or not.
Confusion set in, as we entered a large battle (20+ players fighting like mad). The battle grew as we were accepted into a "Warband" and we had a full 24 players.
We took the main location, and the battle was furious, as we ran to different hotspots within the RvR region. The wife kept taking out various players and we were all yelling back and forth; "Look out for that Witch", "OMG, I am dead...gotta run back", "We are taking the main plaza".

As I looked at the clock, I saw it was already 15 minutes past my bed time (Old man's gotta get his sleep ya know). But, we did NOT want to quit out.

That was the secret.

Of course, other bits sold the wife though. Not just RvR.
The loot for completing RvR ranks was great to shop for. The items she was getting from drops are fun to figure out. Most of all, the combat itself has been notched up a bit. Skills fire off faster since my launch day trials, the quality of graphics have improved, and there is a lot to do gameplay wise, with things like RvR, Scenarios, PQ's and more.

So, I was asked to buy the game (actually found some cheap copies for 13.99 ea.) and we would stick it out for 30 days. What can it hurt?

Plus, with all the discussion out of Bioware about working on the game in respect to content and what not, I think this is a good time to inject our cash in anyways.

For all I know, this may not hold up. For now though, when we hear the wife asking us to login to play, the game must be doing something right.

Talk about a change of pace for the family.

It happened officially yesterday. The wife stepped into the WAR universe, and something interesting took place.

She had...FUN??

Now, I need to reiterate something here for the masses; We are NOT PvP'ers...PERIOD. We like to enjoy a challenge of a game without someone griefing our fun or making it so we cannot progress. We enjoy the little things. Killing AI mobs, playing in our small group and being anti-social unless we MUST progress with others, etc.



Now, a little history on the WAR front. Initially I started goofing off with the free trial (which I am still on, BTW) and had some problems at first. I had resolved these (though the client is not perfect, as we are finding WAR has the EQ2 client issue. Too much on the CPU and not enough on the GPU. This is causing a massive overheat on my OC'd CPU's). After solving the problem though, I focused on leveling up my main, a Witch Hunter.
I really do enjoy this class and the aesthetic as I previously mentioned. But, I also was interested in trying a heal class as well, and moved to War Priest.
WHAT a change. It felt more powerful, and seemed to really fit my style. I took it through RvR and felt what it was like to enjoy some massive PvP.

As to the RvR, I knew I had to try it, as it is what the game is built around. I did not realize how much of a blast this would be though. Now, whether it is the server I chose, or what expectations I had built up...I feel group based PvP really works compared to the FFA style, like in Age of Conan.  It also has proven that in both Age of Conan AND Warhammer Online, the prevalent gameplay that is the most enjoyable is grouping.



So, how did the family get involved in this? I initially set out in WAR to just goof off in the mornings or the downtime for family gaming to run around and play. But, my son, coming from a stint in Aion (yes, I will post on that soon...), logged in and started playing different characters. Next thing I knew, he was NOT playing Aion anymore and was strictly playing WAR.
I honestly think his background in playing Halo, Battlefield, and Call of Duty (as a few choices) lend itself well for him to be involved in mass pvp styled combat. He is use to the "team" perspective of fighting in arenas to get points and gain renown. It really shows here as well.



The next thing I knew, we were teamed up and away we went. This weekend we joined our first warband. A large group all with one goal...protecting the realm of order. This did not leave the wifes attention, as she seemed interested in how much we wanted to get involved. We played RvR for over 3 hours.
The final blow of gaming came late Saturday when the wife and I logged in to play Guild Wars. The son joined in...but, soon was not interested. He grew bored, and apologized and said he did not want to play GW anymore.
We were disappointed. I told the wife I still wish to play, but she also lost interest at that point.

Game families...ARGH! There is no doubt we have built a synergy between the 3 of us. When one goes down, the other two are sure to follow.

So, after a lovely Indian meal Sunday, we convinced the wife to log in and give it a college try. Luckily, there were some bonuses. The Elven women in WAR actually look good (compared to another title with Elves - *Cough* LOTRO *Cough*). She also liked the idea of the Shadow Warrior, which would be a unique class for the wife (she has played Casters and Melee mostly...never a Ranger except shortly in Guild Wars).

So, after this, we were off.

She noted the mobs at the beginning seemed slightly "stupid", which of course, they are meant to be. She blew past this, and that is good (wait until I discuss Aion and her trial there...lol). She moved on, and then made it to the first PQ "Ravenhost Vanguard". She got the first taste of "Open Groups" and mass murder in a setting where a ton of players were involved (when we entered, there were about 12 other bodies there including us 3). What amazed both myself AND my son is she finished 2nd overall in the end, in their ranking system for ability of the player in regards to contributions.

Impressive.

As she gained new skills, she enjoyed the class more and more. By the end of our play schedule (we had about an hour to goof off), she noted that she will play again. Always a good sign for my EXTRA picky wife.
I am shocked she took to the game, yet, I see a lot of potential in the overall gameplay lending itself well to our 3 person team. Time will tell. RvR is still on the horizon, and who knows how she may react to dying over and over.

I am actually enjoying Warhammer Online. They seemed to have ironed out a lot of bugs, increased combat speed, and visually enhanced the game. WAR, along with Age of Conan were both games with horrible launches that led to games that are looked down upon in the long run.  I find it pretty amazing that both of these games have made such turn around's...even without the revenue to back it up.



Now, is WAR good enough for us to BUY our copies? Time will tell.

I wanted to take a moment and discuss a personal story.

As many who read here may know, my son, who is 11, plays games with us (my wife and myself) on a regular basis. Mainly MMO's, but we have also played games like Baldurs Gate and Marvel Ultimate Alliance.
Today an article was posted here ( Babble.com), a site for Mom's. I read it through and found instead of it being a hate piece, it actually was informed and written by a person who was not so strict as to make Catholic School look like playland.

I wanted to share the story of my son, who sounds like this writers child. Since the whole family plays games together, his case proves to be an interesting outlook on gaming and kids.

My son started to be interested in games when he was about 8. We started on the Xbox, playing the games where we could all sit on the couch and control characters (like X-Men, Marvel Heroes based games and Baldurs Gate). He got an Xbox 360 for Christmas the next year, and started playing online.
Needless to say, the language started and the attacks began. He had a mic, and what was amusing was how many believed he was either a girl, or was gay.
We discussed these things with him when they happened, and realized that he took it well. He noted these were just words that people used to hurt someones feelings. The old "sticks and stones" adage certainly applied in his case. Swearing became commonplace of course online, but he refused to use these words. It was an interesting view of someone who could possibly take everything the wrong way, due to his age, but did not.

As he progressed, he showed interest in gaming with his parents. The wife and myself of course being avid MMO players for years (think we are going on 7 years now playing together), thought it would be great to have another on board, but would allow us to talk with him about the games more.

We let him start simple. He played World of Warcraft for example. But, he really took an interest in our last venture...Age of Conan.
Now, I can hear the screams of many an adult who would be like "WTF???". I kept thinking that he could pretty much see the same violence on TV or Movies, thus why would the game hurt.
Naked women? Heads flying off? How could we as responsible parents allow him to see these things?

I think it has to do with the fact that if WE are there, we are present for these things, that we as parents can explain these things to him.

As time progressed and we played together, the questions started. But, it is not what you think. He started discussing strategy. He broke out pencil and paper, and started taking notes. If a naked girl ran by, he covered his eyes....lol. YES, he was timid and realized he did not really want to see that.

We felt he became responsible.

He started 5th grade this year, and the work he is doing in school has me even doing double takes on how hard it is. But, his persistence in doing the work has already claimed him two rewards.
He is part of an advanced mathematics group who, due to passing grades in that class, is going to Space Camp in Alabama in April. As well, his regular teacher has been so impressed by his "maturity", that she elected him to be one of seven children who are "Young Scholars". Many a time my son has supposedly broken up fights, discussed issues about other children who talk hate (he has heard kids discuss things like how "Jews are evil" and "Obama is black and it is the only reason he won"...ah, gotta love the Bible Belt Southern States), that she felt he showed a maturity well beyond the usual childish antics of most kids his age.
Anyways, the "Young Scholars" is a special program where the child is in a special summer camp for a week at Wake Forest University in Winston Salem, NC. While there he will get to choose to be a Movie Director, Crime Scene Investigator or Architect. They will act out these parts as if they were adults and doing the work to solve a crime or build a new business.

So, could this be because we treated him with respect and helped him learn...all because of video games? We like to think so.

So, what does my son think of hate, violence and sex? He really is outspoken about equal rights, discusses racial profiling, talks about religion and of course talks about War. He also says he wants to meet the right person someday to marry...but girls are icky right now...(lol).
Basically he may have grown up sooner than most parents would like. Yet, yesterday, he was in the hallway, playing with his toy Halo Warthog and action figures, defeating The Flood...just like a kid.

Did we do the right thing? Can we be the parents that either say "Don't do that or you will go blind" or should we be the parents who discuss things with their child, especially as they grow older and are looking to other avenues of entertainment, like drugs and sex. I know I was rotten when I was a teen. But, I also had the sheltered life, that we are NOT doing with our son.

Every indication so far says we may be doing it right. Not only is he our child, but we can treat him with respect and maturity in the hopes that WE will be the ones he will talk to when it comes time for peer pressure.

So, to our gaming family, let us hope that as time goes on, he does not want to part from discussing these things with us, and will be in that next big MMO with us...or at least meeting a nice girl he can bring home.

Hey, we can only hope SHE is a gamer chick too!!

Well, some things?

Ok, ok. Let me talk about my adventure into Warhammer Online.  As part of my coverage of the games from the past year or more that were "WoW" killer wannabes, I step into the brink and enter the WAR.

The game has been out for over a year now. Having played in beta, I was not overly impressed with this MMO, and the game led to quite a few arguments on the web with certain "apologist" bloggers (*Cough* Keen, Heartless_, Bildo *Cough*) who believed WAR to be the next coming. Lets just say a Communist Bloc was formed in their names (especially thanks to Bildo ranting on my blog with personal attacks...hey, where is he anyways?), until one day my blog blew up thanks to being a "Casualty" of  WAR (had a COW...hahaha...in-joke for those in the know.)

Lets just say, I was not that impressed and finally put it away. WAR was bad (not as bad as LOTRO or Vanguard is to me), but not what I enjoyed. Anyways...

Lately, as most of you may know, WAR is officially free to play for the first 10 ranks (levels). This gives you a good chance to really feel out the questing, RvR and PQ system. I took the opportunity to finally load it up due to changes in graphics and balancing of the realms system to see how they have come along.

How has it progressed in that past year?

Thanks to the server list being compressed so much, there was no doubt that quite a few people were playing within the server I was on. That made for certain parts of the game being quite fun. The PQ's or Public Quests System is really quite a blast (at least at first and for the first 10 levels...I have heard rumors of them getting worse...). Basically zones on the map, when entered, become open to a quest to be finished within certain constraints. Getting items, killing big bosses, etc. None of these are soloable from what I have seen (unless you are uber level I guess), but proved to be quite busy, so they were fun to enter and do. Questing was bland but not horrible, especially thanks to so much going on around you to lift any grind tedium.

The visual quality has also improved. They have added post processing and bloom to the visual mix, which helps improve landscapes, trees, buildings, etc. Characters also seem acceptable. But, man, talk about some ugly females in this game. Why are they all so ugly? WAR is hard on a woman I guess.

So, overall, seems like a fun enough game. Especially if I can get the full game for cheap (13 bucks is all...).

But, here is a major note. A rather buggy client has caused havoc while playing the game. I will not play anymore....period. I have tried to find why it does this, but no matter what I do; every time I log out, the game locks certain features.

For example.

After logging out, then logging back in later, my characters would be doing a paperdoll. All stuck in this funny looking pose and not moving. To fix it, you would need to do a file check and repair, which would then proceed to download a 4 GIG file to fix the game. I spent more time fixing the game than playing it seemed.

A second issue is after one of these "logouts" and trying to play without the repair, sound would become mucked up, and animations would be wonky.

Check out this video for an idea of the problem. Please note, there is not an issue with the video recording or from it being uploaded. The latency of sound (or missing sounds, like the gun not firing) AND animation (like mobs dying, and instantly lying on the ground) issue is actually what I would see and hear when playing.



To me, a game that has been out this long should not have issues like this. Some things are forgivable, like people complain about shields sticking through heads or bodies, and that does not bother me...this mess does. I would have enjoyed trying to get further in the game, as I really love the Witch Hunter character as an aesthetic thing (Solomon Kane fan here...lol). But, I cannot repair my game every time I want to enjoy myself, and immersion dies thanks to such an issue as this.

Well, hey, I gave it my best shot, and maybe you may not have the same issue (for example, I have cutting edge gear in my PC, and who knows...maybe that is causing the problem?)

For now..WAR! What is it good for? Good for shelving next to my LOTRO, Vanguard and EQ2 boxes.

Stay tuned for more on the games that wanted it all, but just could not get there series as it continues.

Wow, is that a really bad way to segue into John Lennon's masterpiece...or what?

Well, as you can see, I have been the "strong" silent type for the last week as I have taken time to get to grips with several MMO's that had been on a back burner for me. How did this play time come about? As always, it boils down to my son's interests and helping him bloom in his fascination with MMO's.

About a little over a week ago he asked if I would buy Aion for him. Now, I try my best to help my son make good decisions about purchasing (my wife? not so much...as I look upon her Jimmy Choo's she just HAD to have, yet sit gathering dust).
I first remind him of a little fiasco a while back when Fallout 3 first came out. He played the game after buying it new (60 buckos) and about a couple of weeks after the learning curve, he started to die...a lot.
He wanted to sell it back to Gamestop. Hey, no issue. Find a better game buddy!
Several months passed. His friends kept talking about the game on Xbox live, and were still playing it themselves. He kept getting excited about it, and asked if he could buy it...

I did a double take.

I told him about what happened. He believed he had become a better gamer, and could do it.
He understood my thoughts, so, blew another 60 bucks again on Fallout. (Please note, all games my son buys, he has earned...through trash pickup, cleaning his room, good grades and Grandma's).

It was returned just less than a week after.

Same thing for Aion. While playing beta, he started to hit that "grind" wall after a while. He decided he did not want the game after all when it launched. Yet, here he is...asking to buy it now.

I guess I could rack it up to A.D.D? "Well, you will need to pay for it son." And he did. I also agreed on one condition. I would play as well. The final piece? The wife would also need to play it and see how she felt about the game. She would need to play for 5 levels, or SHE would pay for it.
(Please note: We are a VERY democratic household on all things gaming, food, TV...you name it. We also follow the "try it or pay out" rule...You must try all foods once, all games and all TV shows as well).
Here is something else to think about. Since we are a gamer family, if one gamer strays, it makes it difficult for the other two to play. So, we make these arrangements over the games to allow everyone something to do while the other plays another title.
The wife and I knew we would get less Guild Wars time while he played Aion, so we each took off to play other things while he played Aion.

So, my schedule has been mixed between - Guild Wars, Age of Conan (free trial), Warhammer Online and Aion.

So, how has this been going? Quite well actually. It gives me a chance to also blog a bit about these games. So, stay tuned, as several posts are being lined up to discuss my trials and tribulations of the supposed "Games losing subs" group.

Cheers

I made a few points on Twitter today about my thoughts of The Secret World.

First, I do honestly believe it could be the most unique and engaging MMO on the market (as long as it is NOT Funcom'd in any way, as we know they are notorious for doing). Second, as long as some conventions are put within a more modern world feel, like the game setting itself, I will truly feel like I am living in my present world...inhabited by creatures of legend and myth.

Some of my thoughts are:

Please make sure I have a first AND last name.
Please make sure I can get "regular" food and in normal ways. For example; Chips or Sodas...candy bars, out of vending machines.
Finally, PLEASE make sure money is in multiple denominations (Euro, Yen and US Dollar or something to that effect). Not some made up currency, or a singular style (well, I will slide if all money is in Yen ala Shadowrun style)

Now, why do I call this post "The Experiment"? Simple.

The Secret World will be the first MMO I will treat differently than most MMO titles of today. Here are my rules for The Secret World "Experiment" when it launches.

• I will not buy the game until at least a week has passed to get over hiccups. If I have to, I will wait a month.
• Try to avoid, at all costs, reading any in depth articles currently out and as well, no "reviews" of the game. This could make my first point "difficult" to say the least. I will also need to go on Twitter moratorium I think, as I believe some tweeters (Longasc!!!!) will really ruin it for me.
• When I play, I will totally treat the game like a normal purchase. Read the rule book, log in and really pay attention to story, detail, etc.
• NO BETA - PERIOD.

You can already check out that site, as I have my preliminary work there and layout for how I wish the game to be played from my perspective. Thats right folks, it is slightly RPG style.

Anyways, I could not resist discussing this, as I know news is coming from GDC that a NEW trailer with gameplay is to be shown by Funcom. I plan to watch that video, and then my moratorium will begin. No reading peoples thoughts on the video, no "previews"...NADA.

All of it will disappear not unlike the hidden secrets of the Templars.

There is something exhilarating that continues to evolve as our family plays Guild Wars.
What really shines is the system built into Guild Wars for combat. I call the system a Respond, React and Act type of combat.



Thanks to the limit that GW puts on your skill bar, you must, accordingly,  choose the proper skills for what you wish to accomplish. Eight skills is not a lot to work with, yet, thanks to how fast a lot of them work, and how you must react to what is happening, the game becomes more "Action" oriented than most slowbie combat MMO's (examples of massive slow is Vanguard, EQ2, LOTRO). There seems to be a metagame here on how you must line up skills, and of course gaining and capturing skills (another mini game in itself..read about the Signet of Capture here if you are not aware of this trick). But, that is another story...

So, lets see how a typical combat round can run for a group that is well kitted.

Respond - First "response" means that you use any skills that help you become efficient. Examples may be skills that make energy use cost less for skills, makes skills refresh quicker, enhance health, etc. There are a multitude of various tricks to play around with. I usually try and take one per skill bar.

REACT - "React" means to take care of detriments to you the player. Health drains, hexes, etc are all types of detriments a player may get (bleeding or poison is an example of a condition, and are a detriment to the players capabilities). You will then use skills that will remove these, or hope that if you do NOT have that capability, then another player is a Monk, Necromancer or other class who can remove these.

ACT - Acting upon enemies with attack skills, your own detriments to the mobs, etc. Or, if you are playing a healer, to use healing type skills.

Now, this is the system I have been using since I have been playing. As you grow with your character and class, you may find alternative methods to each of these.

Recently, which you can see in the image above, I decided to go Ritualist / Monk. The Ritualist class from Factions is unique in that it has a pet system that summons non-movable (unless you have a skill to do this) spirits that attack, heal, cause detriments, etc.

My system of Respond, React and Act followed this course..

Respond - Summon 2 spirits, one who steals health and the other who would attack and disrupt mobs.
React - Watch players in the group who would receive detriments and remove these. I carried both condition removal skills and hex removal skills (hexes are unique in usually causing a player to either drain health as they attack, or slow them down, etc.)
Act - Since I was a healer type, I would avoid attacking here. So, as a Monk, I would instead act by healing players who needed to have their health renewed. If not capable, or character dies, then Resurrect if possible.

Now that I have gained Heroes, a form of NPC that follows a player, like henchmen, I have moved away from the heal class. One particular Hero makes an excellent healer, so I am now attack based, with more spirits and damage attacks.
Each type of playstyle is difficult in it's own way. For example, being a Mesmer puts a player more into a class of causing detriments to mobs (or other players in PvP) and can be difficult to play (as my wife found out, who has decided to go back to her Elementalist caster now, and put the Mesmer on the backburner). TOn the other hand, he Elementalist is the true notion of DPS we see so often spoken of in the MMO realm.

Anyways, I just wanted to throw this out there. I truly admire the combat system in GW, and wish more games would look to this style of layout. The multibar systems of most MMO's gets tiresome and unwieldy in nature. The fast, sleek systems of Guild Wars make for a fun and exciting outing everytime I play.

Mastering it is truly the players battle. Using the R, R, A system I describe is just one method to get the most of of your playtime.

An announcement today made me think on the subject of Free To Play.

"Dungeons & Dragons Online Reaches One Million Players"


Since switching to the Free play model, DDO has had a major increase in the number of players who log in, and are playing. But, how many actually shell out cash for either a sub or the various pay items? According to this news...the money sounds good.

"Dungeons & Dragons Online Revenues Up 500 Percent"

Most of all though; does it matter?


Think on this. Each person logged in is a potential customer; is that not true? When advertisers choose to show a promo for a product on certain TV shows, are they not just basing their theory on getting the most eyes to see the product in the hopes to sell more?

Same here for DDO. More eyes in the game equals more potential customers.

Now, lets look at some of the failing games (or games with smaller sub rates than I assume the company would like to see...) and how would they look with this model?
How about Warhammer Online, Age of Conan.. Would they have more subs or at least players with a potential to sell more? What about Hellgate: London or Tabula Rasa. Would they have survived under this setup.

Overall, could certain games benefit from this model?

Funcom is no newb to this type of setup for an MMO with Anarchy Online being a free to play...but with adverts (a little more bizarre, but still in that realm). Look how long they have been running now? Age of Conan is draining the revenues and finances of Funcom like a sieve.  So, maybe for Funcom to succeed they may have to walk that fine line again and figure out a new way to make cash.

A lot of Free to play's are not looked upon very well. Games like Runes of Magic or Perfect World, etc, all have quality issues. The games are not as well made as the financial powerhouses like AoC or WAR. Thus, could these commercial flops pull away from those lower quality games by going free? Maybe even pull players from those games. Last I heard, a million people have logged in to Perfect World at some point.

Could you imagine one million eyes in Warhammer...and how that could change the overall structure of that game?

I think we need to see how other "commercial" style MMO's that are not doing well in the sub arena would fare under a Cash Shop model...no matter how much people hate it. I personally feel that if a game starts to flounder, then it is time to see how you can change your model to the free to play scheme, and see if you succeed.

Guild Wars 2 is set to be a buy once, free for life with special "purchases" later deal to pad costs. Even Star Wars The Old Republic has mentioned this method (though the audience is pushing for the monthly deal, which I still think is a detriment. SWToR poll on payment).

This much I can say. DDO has proven it can work, and quite well.