Bookahneer’s Geekwatch (March 21, 2013)

Welcome to today’s Bookahneer’s Geekwatch! The place about miscellaneous interesting news related to Guild Wars 2 – and on occasion, other games.

Today is more about other games than about Guild Wars 2. ;)

So far, only games that were “released” could be sold on Steam. There has been controversy about at least one game recently that got released while not being ready in the opinion of quite a lot of customers. Valve has now started Early Access Games which lets customers buy and then play pre-release versions of games – if the developers put their game on early access. If the game is free to play, there is no entry restriction. It sounds like a good compromise and much better than just the pre-sales that we’ve been seeing more and more often where you also paid the full amount but didn’t get the game for months. I understand that developing a game takes a lot of time and especially for indie developers, it’s nice that they can get some money before the game is released while the customer can get their hands on the game without having to wait for its release. I just hope that those customers know what they buy access to at that point and don’t give bad ratings because the game isn’t polished yet.

Speaking of Steam, I’ve been following one game quite closely when they started Steam Greenlight: Folk Tale. It reminds me a bit of Cultures. They’re getting closer to their kickstarter campaign and a playable demo. Imagine that, a demo! ;) You can read more about the development on their blog. I quite like strategy games combined with building villages, especially when the villagers have something of a personality. In Cultures, you could give the Vikings names and you chose who got which profession. You could also tell them whom to marry. If you didn’t, then they occasionally asked you if they could marry person X from their village. It makes it just a little bit livelier.

Star Trek Online is getting its first expansion on May 21: Legacy of Romulus. It’s also going to be free which is always great. ;) I’m not playing the game anymore as it wasn’t enough “world” for me (Star Trek needs to be about exploration and diplomacy more than just fighting if you ask me), but I’m still happy to see that there’s development and new content coming.

Last but not least, have a look at Syp’s 10/10 Project. The short explanation is: Take 10 evenings (not necessarily consecutive) and play 10 MMOs that you haven’t played before. It sounds like a fun project, so I’m going to do it as well. The problem for me is that I’ve at least tried so many of the MMOs out there, that my choices are limited. I still have 28 on my list (some that I have never heard of) and I’ll go through them to decide for my final 10. Recommendations are still welcome, of course. ;) My plan is to have at least some variety in the games I choose. Try out something that I wouldn’t play otherwise.

Bookahneer’s Geekwatch (January 17, 2013)

Welcome to today’s Bookahneer’s Geekwatch! The place about miscellaneous interesting news related to Guild Wars 2 – and on occasion, other games.

This is our first post this year. I hadn’t even realized that I had taken such a long break. Although it’s only a break for you as readers because I actually do have several drafts that I may finish within the next few weeks. ;)

As you have probably already seen, ArenaNet told us about their future plans for Guild Wars 2. There’s some interesting stuff in there. Guesting finally arrives! The good news was that it’s coming on January 28. I, personally, am very happy about that because it means that I’ll finally get to play with my German guild with whom I’d already played Warhammer Online. So in about 2 weeks, you’ll see Flummi bouncing around between Aurora Glade and Drakkar Lake. I am fortunate that both my gaming communities are settled on European servers as you will not be able to guest between EU and US servers.

There’s a more detailed explanation why we cannot guest between regions on the official forums. To me, it sounds as if they’re not planning to give us global guesting at all. With the emphasis they put on “community”, I find it very disappointing to not have this feature. But as I said, I was mainly waiting to guest on Drakkar Lake, so in the end, it works out for me. Still, I understand that others are upset and disappointed. Still, it sounds like ArenaNet has great plans for the game and I’m curious to see what we will get next.

Additionally, there are some more songs uploaded to their SoundCloud account. One of our favourite songs is “The Great Toymaker”. Oh, and check out the German and French versions of “The Tale of the Mad King Thorn”. I don’t always understand his German, but it’s still very fun to listen to!

But that’s not all that happened in the gaming world. Path of Exile is getting closer to its open beta launch (on January 23, 2013!). If you love Diablo 2 for its atmosphere and love games like the Diablo franchise in general or Torchlight, then Path of Exile is definitely worth checking out! It is free to play with a cash shop that lets you buy cosmetic/fluff items and character slots. I played during closed beta. Not much, but enough to recommend it to a friend and I will certainly play it again after launch. The atmosphere alone is very much worth it. The classes are fun and the passive skill tree is definitely something special. It lets you customize according to your playstyle and that’s what I really enjoyed.

Vanguard is a game that I’d only tried for a short time when I was looking for an MMO to call my home. It did not make it back then for one reason only: It didn’t seem to have any developers left and I didn’t feel like investing money into a game with no further support as that usually means that it’s bleeding players until only the “hardcore base” is left. Now it’s gone free to play and apparently, they – or the players – found their f2p offering too restrictive. The producer’s letter came with the announcement that all races, classes, levels AND housing are unlocked for non-subbed players!

I am currently playing Guild Wars 2 (no surprise here, right? ^^), World of Warcraft (yeah… nostalgia got me and I bought a gametime card to check back into the game. Once that time runs out, I won’t renew) and The Secret World. With those changes above, I will add Vanguard to the list. World of Warcraft’s game time will expire in about two weeks anyway and three games are all I can handle with the way I play. But eh, all three “future” games are without a sub, so that’s okay. ;)

Last but not least, another trip to nostalgia lane: GoG.com now offers Cultures 1 & 2! I squealed when I saw that. I own Cultures 1 (incl. addon), Cultures 2 and all the other games in the Cultures 2 universe (same characters/game but different settings/stories). Cultures 1 was the first game I ever played through till the end. It also accompanied me through the first half of university as some of the game is so slow that you can read while playing. This may sound bad for some people, but for me it was perfect. I don’t like strategy games where you need to react fast and Cultures just has a much slower pace. It’s also micro-management in the way that you can direct each Viking. You choose a profession for each of them, train them, etc. I like the graphics of the first Cultures game more than the one from the second game. But all in all, I still think it’s not bad to look at. I am considering buying it but in order to take this screenshot, I just installed Cultures 1 again and it’s still working on Windows 7. Soooo… probably not necessary? Not yet, at least. ;) I’ll have to test Cultures 2, of course. And it’s a bit sad that they’re not offering “Cultures – Northland” or “8th Wonder of the World”, but maybe it’s in the works. If you know German, the Wiki entry gives you more information about the games. There is also Cultures Online, a browser game that uses the graphics of Cultures 1. But I actually can’t really recommend it as it’s pushing you too much to the cash shop for my taste.

Bookahneer’s Geekwatch (12.12.12)

Welcome to today’s Bookahneer’s Geekwatch! The place about miscellaneous interesting news related to Guild Wars 2 – and on occasion, other games.

This is too good a date to not have a Bookahneer’s Geekwatch, don’t you think? :)

I’m going to start this column with an unusual request. We were approached by researchers from a psychology project at Charles Darwin University who asked if we could tell our readers about their study. It’s titled “You and your avatar”. Being a fellow psychologist and researcher, I have no problem with promoting something like this. :) You can find the questionnaire here but please read through the text carefully, especially the “risk” section as the questionnaire includes items that could be bad for you if you’re dealing with e.g., depression.

Here’s part of the email we got which explains a bit better what this is all about:

“We are conducting an Internet based psychological study at Charles Darwin University and are seeking male and female participants who are over 18 years of age, are able to read and write in English fluently and who use avatars. The study will examine participants’ identification with their avatars as well as explore why people may use, or not use an avatar of the opposite sex. The study will examine psychosocial functioning in the real world, personality factors as well as sex role identification of the participants’ and their avatars. Please go to http://cduhes.asia.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_brQ0uYKeagINqo4 for more details. You are not required to provide any identifying information in order to participate. All information given will be anonymous and protected. Ethics approval has been obtained for the conduct of this study. Thank you.”

Now on to actual gaming news. I wasn’t actually surprised when I read the news that The Secret World is getting away from subscriptions. I was surprised, however, that they have already changed their system. That was quite fast! If you’re interested, I did write a first impressions piece about the game. Of course, half the information in there could already be outdated. ;) As you can see, I liked aspects of the game and disliked others. The sub with an added cash shop was the biggest reason for me not getting the game. Now that the sub is gone, I can live with the cash shop. The Secret World is not “free to play”, however. It went “buy to play” just like Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 are. You buy the game and then don’t need to pay for a sub. But they do have a cash shop. Additionally, The Secret World also still lets you pay for a sub. What exactly this gives you other than faster XP gains and coins for their cash shop, I haven’t figured out yet. Either way, this is a game that will probably soon find its way into my gaming shelf.

Last but not least, because Guild Wars 2 hasn’t gotten rid me of yet, I am excited about Wintersday. They have released the schedule. It looks like each city will have all attention on it for a whole day. If you ask me, it’s about time! Who even spends time in cities other than Lion’s Arch? Well, I do sometimes, because I like that Rata Sum has its bank and trading post right next to each other with the crafting facilities relatively close-by. Still, those cities are usually empty and they really need more attention.

And hey, in case you haven’t seen it yet, we’re still running our Advent Calendar giveaways! You can find the schedule here. One giveaway is currently open and two more are coming soon!

Bookahneer’s Geekwatch: Joining Talk Tyria and GuildMag

Welcome to today’s Bookahneer’s Geekwatch! The place about miscellaneous interesting news related to Guild Wars 2 – and on occasion, other games.

As some of you may know, I am occasionally writing for Talk Tyria and GuildMag as well. This Geekwatch isn’t about Guild Wars 2 per se, but about those two fan sites that are both looking for new members to fill various positions.

If you’re interested in joining Talk Tyria, head over to this post for more information. I, myself, am a “contributing writer” there and I’m trying to write a post every other month (from now on, mostly about asura if they let me ^^). Next to my job and my own blog and my hobbies, it’s not always possible to write that many other posts and Talk Tyria gives me this flexibility. Guest posts for Talk Tyria are possible as well, by the way!

GuildMag is also looking for writers, but primarily, we’d need somebody who can do design work. Check out the post if you’re interested in that or look for which other positions are open.

What had kept me from applying there at first were the requirements (the English skill being close to a native level was one, for example). In the end, the GuildMag bunch is great and I feel very comfortable there. I think what’s more important than fitting all those requirements 100% is if you’re a reliable person who loves the game and who loves writing/designing, etc. A person that knows what they’re getting into and that does’t just leave a month later again. ;)

That’s the good thing – and the bad thing – of having your own blog: You can just decide to not do anything for a while if you feel too lazy/are too busy. But getting into such a project like Talk Tyria or GuildMag means that there are other people waiting for you to do your part and you can’t just leave for a month without telling anybody. On the other hand, it’s a great motivator to have other people around and I really love that there’s always somebody willing to give me feedback for an idea.

Bookahneer’s Geekwatch: Arrrr thar other games?

Welcome t’ today’s Bookahneer’s Geekwatch! Th’ place about miscellaneous interestin’ news related t’ Guild Wars 2 – an’ on occasion, other games.

This time, we be havin’ a slightly different Bookahneer’s Geekwatch. ‘t does, fer once, nay focus on Guild Wars 2.

I have to admit that I have not been paying too much attention to the gaming world outside of Guild Wars 2 in the last few weeks as I usually do, but a few things did catch my attention and I did look at those games more closely. As much as I would love to be a one-game-woman, I am not. ;) I like getting into other games every now and then for a change of scenery. Right now, I am very much looking forward to Torchlight 2. It releases tomorrow! According to a forum post, they are aiming for a release at around 7pm CEST (Paris, Berlin time. 1pm East Coast USA). That fits perfectly to my schedule as I should be home 1 1/2 hours before that and then still need to do some exercise before I can sit down and play a game.

But this is not all that Runic Games has for us. They are giving us the soundtrack for free! You do not even need to have bought the game if you want to download the soundtrack. But, of course, it would be nice to give them something in return. ;) You may be interested in the current Humble Indie Bundle offer which gives you Torchlight 1, among other games. You set the price and support charity at the same time. This is quite a nice deal! Oh yeah, and Torchlight 1 will be playable on a PC and on Linux! Oh, and on a Mac as well. Speaking of which, so is Guild Wars 2 (I’m referring to the Mac, not Linux, unfortunately ^^).

Aventurine has finally announced Darkfall Unholy Wars. I did know that they are kind of, maybe, reworking Darkfall Online and that something will happen and players may have to start all over again because all data will be wiped… maybe. As you can tell, Darkfall Online is not my kind of game, so I haven’t been following it too closely. I like PvP, but I prefer other PvP modes than “open world everybody vs. everybody” like team-based PvP matches. I did recommend the game to bookahnerk’s cousin, though, because this really is the kind of game that he loves playing.

So why is this game even mentioned here then? Because I think they’re doing something very bold and that’s worth mentioning! They are not just upgrading their current game or redesigning things here and there. They apparently developed a new game. I am curious how far they took it and how different this new game will be. The game will be released on November 20, 2012. They have written a blog post with some more information if you’re interested, although I don’t think it has enough information in it. The game’s website seems to have a bit more information, at least.

It’s been postponed but the new date for the next Lord of the Rings Online expansion, Riders of Rohan, is getting closer: October 15. That’s four weeks from now. Lotro is one of those games that will see me again sooner or later. My main character, a hobbit warden, never saw the max level that got introduced with Rise of Isengard, but even though I don’t like playing that class too much anymore, I really don’t want to level another character. Lotro is the only game so far where I never liked playing alts too much. I am not a big fan of how the characters look (link to previous entry – aesthetics!) and I do not like the combat feeling too much either. The world design, on the other hand, is still gorgeous and I do hope to get around to seeing the new parts of the world one day.

And, of course, there is World of Warcraft. The infamous panda expansion is really close now. The expansion will come out next week (September 25 – look here for exact launch times) and I am really curious how many people will still be complaining about pandas afterwards. To be honest, I still don’t get why people are upset at Blizzard for including them. Why are two-legged cows with humanoid breasts okay, but pandas aren’t? I know that the space goats weren’t taken too seriously, but people didn’t complain about them that much either. And it can’t be because of the film “Kung Fu Panda”, because Blizzard’s pandaren are much older than that. But maybe it’s because people are scared that their favourite MMO will now be called “a game for kids” even more often than it already is. To this I say: Who cares? Play what you want to play because you like it.

Oh well, my time in World of Warcraft is definitely over. I like reading up on what’s been happening in the game, what’s being added or changed, etc. but nothing makes me want to renew my subscription and log on again. I am curious how the expansion will effect Guild Wars 2 and its servers. Will we notice a drop in active players?