Rants/Raves
Approximately 12 hours after the monthly update to Asheron's Call, the servers were taken down due to a bug in said update. It wasn't until perhaps six hours after the servers came up that players were warned that the world was unstable and they should be careful. Thanks for the warning! But the worst was yet to come...
Just about every gamer board in the world had lit up recently concerning the news about Verant's banning of a player from Everquest. Almost without exception, every post is against Verant. While I don't necessarily support the way they went about it, I understand their decision... and hesitantly support the outcome. Here's why.
It's been almost 5 years since I've purchased a D&D rulebook, so it was a big deal for me to finally buy a copy of the new Player's Handbook. My reaction upon diving into it for the first time was a mixture of excitement and disappointment...
And no, I'm not talking about the "rabbit out of a hat" magic, or the inspirational feeling that washes over you when you see a sunset for the first time. No. I'm talking about unadulterated, "rip up that Chaos Orb and shove it up your ass" Magic.
Is there a "chain-mail" link between fantasy Role-Playing Games and fantasy films? I certainly think so - at least in one noteworthy case. And that link becomes obvious when you take a closer look at the 1980s, a decade of Reaganomics, Rubix Cubes, Role-Playing and Really good fantasy flicks...
What's wrong with Online gaming? Online gaming seems to have less of a role playing element when the creation of the game concentrated too much on user interface and realism. I've had the opportunity to play Everquest some more to back up this point. While the system itself and the world created are nicely done, the lack of roleplaying and character depth is evident.
It's about 90% of the reason I have the internet, Online Role playing games. It's like pulling teeth trying to gather a group together for a game very often, so here's where I turn. It's a shame to have been disappointed by so many MMRPGS, so what do I look for in a game?
Change can be a good thing. Without change, several of history's momentous events would never have come about. We would be currently living a life so much dissimilar to what we know it would hardly be recognizable. Change is not always good, though. Some things are better left the way they were. I'm not sure what Wizards of the Coast was thinking when they started this grand venture, but I'm hoping they missed the mark and are just too embarassed to admit it.
Most Internet game play is divided into three categories: true browser based, browser plugin based, and client based. Client based is the most predominant, plugin based comes next with Java and Shockwave creations, and true browser based is sadly last. WHY THE HELL IS IT LAST, DAMMIT!
