Sunday, July 29, 2007
Saturday, July 28, 2007
World of Warcraft - The testing ends, the game begins
So I actually played WoW for a while more. I must say I really liked it in the end, but how one could get addicted to the game is beyond me. After a few hours of hacking, getting better items and - with or without help - solving some quests...
After a few other chats and a swim in the lake with a druid lady...
I don't think I'll become a regular. There's so many other Hypes out there to see!
The graphics are great, especially those of the BIG monsters and protectors.
The music I just loved. I think if I feel like it, I'll buy a pre-paid card and do some more sight-seeing. I do not think I would feel like playing every day. It's a shame you cannot pay for the time you actually spend there.
In the end I like games better that allow you to choose whom you play with, so you can focus on whatever you want to focus on.
But thumbs up, Blizzard, I think every fantasy gaming geek should at least have a look at WoW.
After a few other chats and a swim in the lake with a druid lady...
I don't think I'll become a regular. There's so many other Hypes out there to see!
The graphics are great, especially those of the BIG monsters and protectors.
The music I just loved. I think if I feel like it, I'll buy a pre-paid card and do some more sight-seeing. I do not think I would feel like playing every day. It's a shame you cannot pay for the time you actually spend there.
In the end I like games better that allow you to choose whom you play with, so you can focus on whatever you want to focus on.
But thumbs up, Blizzard, I think every fantasy gaming geek should at least have a look at WoW.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
World of Warcraft, my Second Session
"Kill X of monster Y and bring me back Z items from it's corpse..."
80% of the quests I encountered so far follow above recipe. The few remaining quests, I had to find somebody and help him (usually involves lots of monsters, too.) or fill some vial with a bit of water from the different elven village ponds.
After a few more levels this quickly tired me, especially since - although there are tons of other players - , there seems to be next to no conversation going on. Perhaps I should suggest a new type of quest to Blizzard?
"Tie up five Players and don't have them leave until they had a decent talk with each other."
I met one guy whom I chatted with for a while, out of character that is. He had been playing WoW for a while, but said he had never found a Server dedicated to Roleplay. Some few individuals seem to enjoy it, but it's like a needle in a haystack.
When someone made a remark on the channel open to all players that "You Roleplaying geeks are seriously nuts...", I finally gave up.
Hell, here is a neat looking game with some great game mechanics (learned to cook, find herbs, some alchemy) - and all it's used for is stupid monster bashing?
To recuperate I took a long walk with my girl friend, then went back to my good ole NWN server, met with a few others and we talked about and investigated the attempted assassination of a druid friend. We did kill exactly one "monster" in a few hours, which was more or less by accident. And still we had a great time and a sophisticated plot going on. Ending the night at a campfire, talking about politics within our different communities.
Still, it would be unfair to judge WoW after only two sessions, I guess, so I will force myself to re-enter the game and give it another try. Maybe I should view it more like a solo type of game? Like Diablo or Dungeon Siege II. But what is the use of a Multiuser game, when you end up solo or only group up to slay something you can't slay alone?
80% of the quests I encountered so far follow above recipe. The few remaining quests, I had to find somebody and help him (usually involves lots of monsters, too.) or fill some vial with a bit of water from the different elven village ponds.
After a few more levels this quickly tired me, especially since - although there are tons of other players - , there seems to be next to no conversation going on. Perhaps I should suggest a new type of quest to Blizzard?
"Tie up five Players and don't have them leave until they had a decent talk with each other."
I met one guy whom I chatted with for a while, out of character that is. He had been playing WoW for a while, but said he had never found a Server dedicated to Roleplay. Some few individuals seem to enjoy it, but it's like a needle in a haystack.
When someone made a remark on the channel open to all players that "You Roleplaying geeks are seriously nuts...", I finally gave up.
Hell, here is a neat looking game with some great game mechanics (learned to cook, find herbs, some alchemy) - and all it's used for is stupid monster bashing?
To recuperate I took a long walk with my girl friend, then went back to my good ole NWN server, met with a few others and we talked about and investigated the attempted assassination of a druid friend. We did kill exactly one "monster" in a few hours, which was more or less by accident. And still we had a great time and a sophisticated plot going on. Ending the night at a campfire, talking about politics within our different communities.
Still, it would be unfair to judge WoW after only two sessions, I guess, so I will force myself to re-enter the game and give it another try. Maybe I should view it more like a solo type of game? Like Diablo or Dungeon Siege II. But what is the use of a Multiuser game, when you end up solo or only group up to slay something you can't slay alone?
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
World of Warcraft: Character Creation & First Impressions
I started the WoW Client and hoped that there wasn't any new update due to download.
I made the same choices as last time (Roleplaying Server please!), the same German server was suggested... and I started character creation.
I chose a Nightelf as character race and druid as his class. The choices as to hair color, body, hair-style, etc, are... well, sufficient. If you expect the detail of character creation you can have in Oblivion or even NWN2, you will be disappointed. But a multi-user fantasy game of this seize likely has it's limitations.
There was no text-field for a full-description of the character or for his background story.
The in-game graphics are good, though a bit too manga-esque for my personal tastes. Still liked them, except that I associate elves with "fast, nimble" not "Iron Man League bodybuilder". Seriously, that elf of mine has some biceps to show. In other worlds they'd ask for a DNA test, before allowing him into an Elf community.
So, after character creation, I stranded in a real impressive starting zone for elves. Surrounded by a lot of pigs and small sabre-tooth tigers. I started towards the first character with a "!" floating above his head - quest giver.
Sure enough he realized I'm a druid and bid me to re-establish the natural harmony. Birth rates of pigs and sabre-tooth tigers had been too high this year ("You don't say?"), time to slaughter some of them. Actually, in the distance, I could see other would-be hunters already hard at work.
The first nice surprise came, when suddenly the local druid leader approached me and greeted me. We talked a little while - it actually felt like Roleplay!
After she left I accomplished my first few quests, which all consisted of killing a lot of beasts of different kinds and were so easy I was level 5 in absolutely no time. There's always another quest ahead it seems... And with (almost) each quest one does get better equipment, so I had to get rid of my "Novice Robe" and "Novice Pants" pretty quickly.
Which in a way is a shame. By comparison: My character on the NWN1 server has at least four different sets of clothing, just to dress correctly for different social occasions.
Another thing that struck me odd is that for a server dedicated to Roleplay, everybody seemed to be too busy for communication (except for the nice druid lady...). Hell, yeah, as I said, there's always another quest to do.
Looking at the names of some of my fellow elves, I honestly didn't much want to talk to many of them myself. Mis-spelled Native Indian Style nicknames... Lots of Drizzt variants or direct copies from Lord of the Rings characters (in some cases: names of Buildings...).
Busy bees those elves, which is no wonder, since monsters re-spawn at breath-taking speed.
So, did I enjoy my first stay? I'd say, yes. I did.
I so far am not convinced that WoW is a good system for Roleplaying.
But it has enough of a nice fantasy-manga world going on, so I will continue my experiment.
I made the same choices as last time (Roleplaying Server please!), the same German server was suggested... and I started character creation.
I chose a Nightelf as character race and druid as his class. The choices as to hair color, body, hair-style, etc, are... well, sufficient. If you expect the detail of character creation you can have in Oblivion or even NWN2, you will be disappointed. But a multi-user fantasy game of this seize likely has it's limitations.
There was no text-field for a full-description of the character or for his background story.
The in-game graphics are good, though a bit too manga-esque for my personal tastes. Still liked them, except that I associate elves with "fast, nimble" not "Iron Man League bodybuilder". Seriously, that elf of mine has some biceps to show. In other worlds they'd ask for a DNA test, before allowing him into an Elf community.
So, after character creation, I stranded in a real impressive starting zone for elves. Surrounded by a lot of pigs and small sabre-tooth tigers. I started towards the first character with a "!" floating above his head - quest giver.
Sure enough he realized I'm a druid and bid me to re-establish the natural harmony. Birth rates of pigs and sabre-tooth tigers had been too high this year ("You don't say?"), time to slaughter some of them. Actually, in the distance, I could see other would-be hunters already hard at work.
The first nice surprise came, when suddenly the local druid leader approached me and greeted me. We talked a little while - it actually felt like Roleplay!
After she left I accomplished my first few quests, which all consisted of killing a lot of beasts of different kinds and were so easy I was level 5 in absolutely no time. There's always another quest ahead it seems... And with (almost) each quest one does get better equipment, so I had to get rid of my "Novice Robe" and "Novice Pants" pretty quickly.
Which in a way is a shame. By comparison: My character on the NWN1 server has at least four different sets of clothing, just to dress correctly for different social occasions.
Another thing that struck me odd is that for a server dedicated to Roleplay, everybody seemed to be too busy for communication (except for the nice druid lady...). Hell, yeah, as I said, there's always another quest to do.
Looking at the names of some of my fellow elves, I honestly didn't much want to talk to many of them myself. Mis-spelled Native Indian Style nicknames... Lots of Drizzt variants or direct copies from Lord of the Rings characters (in some cases: names of Buildings...).
Busy bees those elves, which is no wonder, since monsters re-spawn at breath-taking speed.
So, did I enjoy my first stay? I'd say, yes. I did.
I so far am not convinced that WoW is a good system for Roleplaying.
But it has enough of a nice fantasy-manga world going on, so I will continue my experiment.
World of Warcraft I: Download
So full of energy I began my experiment with World of Warcraft yesterday.
First I went to the European WoW Website (http://www.wow-europe.com), where I promptly found a link to a Teaser trial version, promising ten freebie days with a limited account.
To start I first had to create a new WoW Account. Since I'm a little paranoid, I actually read through all of their numerous terms of business.
So after agreeing to join the good fight against cheaters by allowing Blizzard to spy on my hardware, software and probably the good lineage of my ancestors, I finally had an account created.
So I waited for something more to happen, like the promised download of the WoW Client to start. I checked and double-checked everywhere on their trial site for the promised download link. There simply is none. (There is a functional link on the less fancy US trial site).
With the help of all-knowing Google, I finally found the link on an external Fansite. And the download orgy began. Three (!) whole Gigs, and then seemingly endless patches from a rather tired Server.
So my first advice to anyone interested in WoW would be: Hunt for that 2 bucks Demo CD they promise. Check your local store or gaming mags. Since I wanted a German version but no longer live in Germany, that option wasn't open to me.
At around midnight the downloads were finally finished and I could start the client.
I was asked what kind of server I would like to play on (Player versus Player, Player vs Environment, with or without contested area, Roleplay or ... Hack 'n Slay I guess). As a hardcore Roleplaying geek, I settled for a Roleplaying server with limited PvP and Blizzard auto-assigned me to one.
I had a quick look at the character creation system then, but even though I already knew what I wanted to play (I read through the whole 131 pages of the manual while waiting for the downloads), I thought it a wiser choice to call it a day and go to bed.
So today I will start out on my voyage to Azeroth. My expectations are mixed: On the one hand I have heard so much about this game, read through all the articles on Wikipedia, watched movies on YouTube... read articles in magazines and even visited a "Widows of Warcraft" forum, where neglected wifes and the occasional husband were discussing their experiences of losing their loved ones to a computer game.
In the past, cool graphics alone could never convince me. I'm still a happy member of a Neverwinter Nights community and all in all I am most fascinated by scripting and building for my own worlds, instead of consuming the world of others.
And with NWN I know most of the people I'm playing with, the server is a true Roleplaying/Persistent World server with no Hack'n'Slay at all.
I am also not a total newbie to Warcraft, I played Warcraft I, II and III. I enjoyed it all of them, but graphic-wise, sometimes they were a bit too much on the comic side for my tastes.
Also, this game costs about 15 Euros a month...
Well, enough said... Let's venture off. See you all later unless I'm eaten by a troll.
First I went to the European WoW Website (http://www.wow-europe.com), where I promptly found a link to a Teaser trial version, promising ten freebie days with a limited account.
To start I first had to create a new WoW Account. Since I'm a little paranoid, I actually read through all of their numerous terms of business.
So after agreeing to join the good fight against cheaters by allowing Blizzard to spy on my hardware, software and probably the good lineage of my ancestors, I finally had an account created.
So I waited for something more to happen, like the promised download of the WoW Client to start. I checked and double-checked everywhere on their trial site for the promised download link. There simply is none. (There is a functional link on the less fancy US trial site).
With the help of all-knowing Google, I finally found the link on an external Fansite. And the download orgy began. Three (!) whole Gigs, and then seemingly endless patches from a rather tired Server.
So my first advice to anyone interested in WoW would be: Hunt for that 2 bucks Demo CD they promise. Check your local store or gaming mags. Since I wanted a German version but no longer live in Germany, that option wasn't open to me.
At around midnight the downloads were finally finished and I could start the client.
I was asked what kind of server I would like to play on (Player versus Player, Player vs Environment, with or without contested area, Roleplay or ... Hack 'n Slay I guess). As a hardcore Roleplaying geek, I settled for a Roleplaying server with limited PvP and Blizzard auto-assigned me to one.
I had a quick look at the character creation system then, but even though I already knew what I wanted to play (I read through the whole 131 pages of the manual while waiting for the downloads), I thought it a wiser choice to call it a day and go to bed.
So today I will start out on my voyage to Azeroth. My expectations are mixed: On the one hand I have heard so much about this game, read through all the articles on Wikipedia, watched movies on YouTube... read articles in magazines and even visited a "Widows of Warcraft" forum, where neglected wifes and the occasional husband were discussing their experiences of losing their loved ones to a computer game.
In the past, cool graphics alone could never convince me. I'm still a happy member of a Neverwinter Nights community and all in all I am most fascinated by scripting and building for my own worlds, instead of consuming the world of others.
And with NWN I know most of the people I'm playing with, the server is a true Roleplaying/Persistent World server with no Hack'n'Slay at all.
I am also not a total newbie to Warcraft, I played Warcraft I, II and III. I enjoyed it all of them, but graphic-wise, sometimes they were a bit too much on the comic side for my tastes.
Also, this game costs about 15 Euros a month...
Well, enough said... Let's venture off. See you all later unless I'm eaten by a troll.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Web Hypes launched...
Web Hypes is meant to be both my private Web Diary as well as a way to track, test and remember Hypes on the Internet.
I have been on and with the Internet since it's very creation as a public network. I have seen great sites come, go (or be bought up by Google)...
Do you remember your most favorite Online game that started as a free community and then suddenly warped itself into a commercial giant - before vanishing into oblivion... Now all that is left is some obscure gaming groups playing their own hacked versions on some hidden LAN.
Or that great free service you enjoyed for months, before suddenly the provider ran out of money and you lost your famous journal, forum or whatever to anyone except Archive.Org?
This will not be the most active of Blogs. I make it purely for my own... and enjoy my real life as much as my net life. But you - stranger - are free to have a look at any time and leave your comments.
Which then I must scrutinize and read carefully before posting, just for the kicks of our local government(s). Which will be one of the first topics, amongst my testings of WoW, Second Life, Blogger Scene and WEB 2.0.
Perhaps you will find a PERL of wisdom from time to time. Anyway, no-one will force you to read through my rambles.
Have fun!
I have been on and with the Internet since it's very creation as a public network. I have seen great sites come, go (or be bought up by Google)...
Do you remember your most favorite Online game that started as a free community and then suddenly warped itself into a commercial giant - before vanishing into oblivion... Now all that is left is some obscure gaming groups playing their own hacked versions on some hidden LAN.
Or that great free service you enjoyed for months, before suddenly the provider ran out of money and you lost your famous journal, forum or whatever to anyone except Archive.Org?
This will not be the most active of Blogs. I make it purely for my own... and enjoy my real life as much as my net life. But you - stranger - are free to have a look at any time and leave your comments.
Which then I must scrutinize and read carefully before posting, just for the kicks of our local government(s). Which will be one of the first topics, amongst my testings of WoW, Second Life, Blogger Scene and WEB 2.0.
Perhaps you will find a PERL of wisdom from time to time. Anyway, no-one will force you to read through my rambles.
Have fun!
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