Bookahneer’s Geekwatch (January 5, 2014)

Welcome to today’s Bookahneer’s Geekwatch and the first Geekwatch in 2014! The place about miscellaneous interesting news related to Guild Wars 2 – and on occasion, other games.

We have been relatively quiet for some time, as we had visited bookahnerk’s family over New Year’s. My plan had been to use the time away from my main PC to play around with Folk Tale and its Location Editor Preview on my laptop. Unfortunately, my laptop – which isn’t a gaming laptop – can’t handle the game. I shouldn’t have been surprised about that, I guess. ;) On the other hand, that left me with more time to play board games with the family which isn’t a bad thing either (and I got to play all the expansions we have for Talisman now).

So, as I just mentioned, Folk Tale got another update. Yes, updates are very slow with Folk Tale and if you have bought into their Early Access, you’ve got to be patient. But they do update us regularly on their blog about the progress behind the scenes and I was very pleased to see they kept their word and rolled out the Location Editor Preview before Christmas. What it does is basically let you build maps. I decided to start slow and spread out over the map later. What you can see in the picture below is just a very tiny area of the space that I could fill theoretically. But even this tiny space took me about an hour or two. I need to get used to the controls first and need to get to know all the different pieces I can add. But it’s a lot of fun! I still do not regret having spent money on that game. True, it’ll take forever to get my hands on the game, but it still looks like it’ll be a great one for me. And in the meantime, I have this thing to play around with. I’ll build my perfect like Paerokaville. ;)

Folk Tale Location Editor Preview

If you’ve been away over the holidays like we have, you may have missed the winter events. Guild Wars 2′s Wintersday is running till January 21 (the next patch will be on that day, so depending on when the patch lands, which time zone you’re in, etc. make sure you’re done with everything on January 20!). Rift’s Fae Yule Celebration will be available until January 9, while Lotro’s Yule Festival will end on January 14. So, no matter which of these three games you’re playing, you still have some time left to finish everything.

Of course, even gaming companies, or rather their employees, take some time off during the holidays. This means there weren’t any live streams from the developers. The first 2014 twitch live stream from TrionWorlds will be next Friday, January 10, 2014. It has become part of our weekly routine to have the live stream open on Friday evenings, so it was a tad bit disappointing that there were no such entertainment this Friday. ;) Guild Wars 2 did not have any live streams either. They are concentrating on finishing/making the next four living story releases. Hopefully, after that, I will never have to see Scarlet again. I suspect ArenaNet will have another live stream soonish for the next patch. With the patch coming on January 21, I doubt the live stream will be this Friday, though. Oddly enough, Turbine – or their community manager Sapience, at least, is joining the ranks of using twitch live streams. Sapience wants to start streaming regularly. Nice to see them getting closer to the community. Or, we’ll see, at least.

And last but not least, I am proud to mention that Tilion from Dragon Season launched a News Section on their website! This works by him and certain partners using the twitter hashtags you can see on the left when they are making tweets on Twitter. Bookmark this site if you don’t want to keep checking the Twitter website for news about Guild Wars 2.

Bookahneer’s Geekwatch (September 6, 2013)

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

Pink Day in LA will take place on October 19th. You can find more information in the forum thread on the official GW2 forum, but also on the linked website, via twitter, etc.

Dragon Season will be hosting the event on EU Aurora Glade and we’re currently looking for volunteers to help. Get in touch with me or Tilion if you’re interested. Of course, you’re also welcome to help if you’re from another server. :)

You may also remember my post about Mini Mr Sparkles. Currently, there aren’t many codes around, so it’s still a rare mini. But I know of two giveaways that are currently running. Moosefaces is running a competition until September 14: Either show your mooseface or draw a picture related to Guild Wars 2. Have a look at the post for the complete rules! 4 codes are available over there.

There is another contest for 1 Mini Mr Sparkles held by Dragon Season. I’ll copy and paste the competition rules that were announced on Twitter. Here is the link to the first tweet.

The rules are simple. It’s Autumn, right? That means that we need a new banner for our front page over at http://DragonSeason.com. Design a background image (853 x 157 px) that is related to Autumn. The best design wins. Get creative people! You can email your entries at tilion.dragonseason@gmail.com. The contest ends in one week from now (Friday 13/9 – 3pm UK). You just need to design the background. Pro tip for the contest: Our Dragon logo is an autumn leaf. ;)

Bookahneer’s Geekwatch (August 1, 2013)

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

It’d been relatively quiet about Folk Tale after Games Foundry had released their Early Access Sandbox Vision video. Getting an update two days ago was really great. So far, I still haven’t regretted getting early access, even though I still haven’t done anything but played through the tutorial. ;) Hearing that we’ll get to play with something new soonish is great.

Earlier today, I had a newsletter in my inbox from Nomad Games about the upcoming beta test of Talisman DE (DE = Digital Edition). They have already released Talisman Prologue. I own this game and it’s working flawlessly, but sadly, it’s single-player only. So the Digital Edition is great, because that one will be multiplayer and Talisman just isn’t really Talisman without other players. ;) We’ve had hours of fun playing with friends or with bookahnerk’s sister.

Anyway, here is the first part of their newsletter:

Hello everyone!

We are now taking applications to join the Beta test programme! If you would like to get early access to Talisman Digital Edition and want to help us make it the best game it can be, fill out the form after clicking this link. (…) The Beta test will start in the next few weeks, so we’ll be selecting testers from all applicants in the next week.

Two blog posts out of the Guild Wars 2 community caught my interest last week. I think both have some valid points and I’m curious where Guild Wars 2 will go (especially with the “more permanent content” route). Tasha commented on the part of the living story being like a TV show. Syp wrote about what it feels like not getting to be there for all the content of the living story. My favourite part is the following sentence (I agree wholeheartedly here):

“I miss concentrating on what Guild Wars 2 does best, which is provide cool zones to explore and plunder while getting swept up in dynamic events.”- Syp

For a game that was all about walking around and seeing what happens in the open world, running towards where you see the centaurs attacking, Guild Wars 2 has changed quite a lot and concentrates on those achievements that you’re doing one after the other just like quests in other MMOs.

From the latest interviews and ArenaNet saying they want to concentrate on more permanent content, I assume that we’ll see changes in the releases. I certainly hope so, at least. It’s just sad that if a friend asks what new content they’ve added, you can only reply with “not much”. If you’re now wondering what permanent new things/changes have been added, thankfully, the GW2 wiki has a list.

Edit: Just one day later, Massively also dedicates one of their columns to Guild Wars 2 and their living story.

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.