YES, this is what grinds my gears. Do you have any idea how many videos are out there this very minute displaying broke americans making fun of F2P games because they CAN? Worst thing is, it is not even Dedicated F2P games, it is games that used to be P2P. If you are not familiar with the terminology (which is OK, by the way) F2P means Free to Play and P2P means Pay to Play.
Age of Conan is the creme de la freaking creme for these people, and they are so undereducated, you can smell it through the video. It is not like I don't tolerate new players, in fact I LOVE new players, but beating on an enemy where it's shields are and consequently dying because of it, followed by a "THIS GAME SUCKS" even though you played a CASTER, is ludicrous!!! LUDICROUS I TELLZ YA.
I know what you are thinking, "oh dear, another rant :(", well you are right! However, I don't like rants myself, so I'll stop at the peak of my burst of anger/childishness (LUDICROUS I TELLZ YA will surely bolster people's belief that I am a professional blogger... surely).
The true point of this post (Point of the Post, I quite like the sound of that), is to point out how strange this gaming community is. I hear a lot of talk saying Free to Play will truly become the ultimate model for any and all Multiplayer games. Games will just have to adapt, or perish.
They say this with such extreme confidence, and these are people who do indeed value their opinion (Quick example: Totalbiscuit, youtube commentator). However, I cannot see myself fully agreeing just yet. Simply because after all these countless videos mocking the transition, it is clear that people are not embracing it.
Clearly, there is a split community here, and it is affecting Age of Conan! Funcom, I feel, is a company ready to adapt and will happily accept the model if need be, especially with EA poking them every now and then. However, I think we all know how internet trolls feel about Funcom. Age of Conan was arguably the first BIG pay to play MMO to come out since World of Warcraft, and nobody knew how the genre would develop. Some just believed since World of Warcraft was good, Age of Conan would just be better since it is newer. In addition to that, not everyone knew that playing MMOs can make you very attached to it.
I wish I could conclude this whole discussion here and now, but there is a reason why people are arguing. Only time will tell, and until a general consensus can be reached, people will make bad F2P Reviews of Age of Conan.
I guess I can leave you with this nice little quote though, maybe you can hold me to it two years from now!
Coming out as a F2P game on the internet, is like coming out of the closet to a bunch of Frat Boys at your local High School.
P.S: Kudos to this guy: http://www.youtube.com/user/jaedrian for being the only one to make a decent F2P Review/Let's Play of Age of Conan so far.
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Summer 2.0
Hello again!
Impressively enough, my summer started very late this year (for me, I know in some countries July is "where it's at, yo"), but that does not mean I can't make something out of it anyway. Some may know that this blog started last summer with the goal of combating the coming boredom of living on the country side with a less-than-ideal laptop (which I am now using once again...) and a somewhat unstable internet connection!
Along with that, I am also not a fan of writing about myself - my thoughts/opinions are fine, but in no way am I interesting enough to hold gamer people's attention long enough to make them follow what would be my "personal" blog. I HAD a saying about it once, but it more or less goes like this; "IF you want a successful blog, write about a topic of interest instead of your day-to-day life. Because unless you're a Hollywood celebrity I am pretty sure nobody cares about it". CYNICAL, I know, and perhaps a bit mean to all the people who do just that, but it is true. I can go into detail another time (don't get your hopes up, I still have a long list of things not yet talked about and I have no problem adding to that list haha).
So, to stay true to just that, the topic of this particular blog is Hyboria, and the game Age of Conan neatly falls into that category. As of July 2012 it is still the best game to play if you love Hyboria and the original Robert E. Howard stories. There are of course times I go off-topic or simply touch on my personal life in relation to this blog, but you will typically not hear about what I had for lunch! In this case, I will also throw in a second post about something Hyboria-related just to make up for it.
I know it is not that big of a deal, but since this is a summary/update post, I might as well remind y'all of the only real rule/principle of this blog: No typical day-to-day talk!
I might as well also stress that I am taking advantage of (well, more like exploiting) the liberty of not actually needing to talk about my adventures ingame. You will always find something Hyborian, but I really do enjoy talking about what grinds my gears in terms of Community - and my true speciality is finding out everything there is to know about the Hyborian Community. Lately, I have been looking at a blog (http://cynarablog.wordpress.com/) that is doing what I should be doing. It is everything I am not, funny AND intellectual. My jokes merely consist of self-deprecation and the occasional fart joke for good measure.
There is no way I have the time to commit to all that blogger has done (aka, being good), but I still have my uses mind you, and we might as well continue on to my second post, which will appear above you. Which probably means you read that first, which means I am in essence means I am making a fool of myself as I am typing this right now. NO MATTER, all in a day's work anywho.
Impressively enough, my summer started very late this year (for me, I know in some countries July is "where it's at, yo"), but that does not mean I can't make something out of it anyway. Some may know that this blog started last summer with the goal of combating the coming boredom of living on the country side with a less-than-ideal laptop (which I am now using once again...) and a somewhat unstable internet connection!
Along with that, I am also not a fan of writing about myself - my thoughts/opinions are fine, but in no way am I interesting enough to hold gamer people's attention long enough to make them follow what would be my "personal" blog. I HAD a saying about it once, but it more or less goes like this; "IF you want a successful blog, write about a topic of interest instead of your day-to-day life. Because unless you're a Hollywood celebrity I am pretty sure nobody cares about it". CYNICAL, I know, and perhaps a bit mean to all the people who do just that, but it is true. I can go into detail another time (don't get your hopes up, I still have a long list of things not yet talked about and I have no problem adding to that list haha).
So, to stay true to just that, the topic of this particular blog is Hyboria, and the game Age of Conan neatly falls into that category. As of July 2012 it is still the best game to play if you love Hyboria and the original Robert E. Howard stories. There are of course times I go off-topic or simply touch on my personal life in relation to this blog, but you will typically not hear about what I had for lunch! In this case, I will also throw in a second post about something Hyboria-related just to make up for it.
I know it is not that big of a deal, but since this is a summary/update post, I might as well remind y'all of the only real rule/principle of this blog: No typical day-to-day talk!
I might as well also stress that I am taking advantage of (well, more like exploiting) the liberty of not actually needing to talk about my adventures ingame. You will always find something Hyborian, but I really do enjoy talking about what grinds my gears in terms of Community - and my true speciality is finding out everything there is to know about the Hyborian Community. Lately, I have been looking at a blog (http://cynarablog.wordpress.com/) that is doing what I should be doing. It is everything I am not, funny AND intellectual. My jokes merely consist of self-deprecation and the occasional fart joke for good measure.
There is no way I have the time to commit to all that blogger has done (aka, being good), but I still have my uses mind you, and we might as well continue on to my second post, which will appear above you. Which probably means you read that first, which means I am in essence means I am making a fool of myself as I am typing this right now. NO MATTER, all in a day's work anywho.
Saturday, April 28, 2012
The Great MMO War: April 2012 Trailer
Meanwhile, in King Conan's Castle, a young Messenger is trying to get an audience with the King himself. However, the guards are proving to be quite... vigilant.
"I am going to see this one more time... LET. ME. IN!"
The guards remain adamant, "And again fool, you do not simply walk into mordor King Conan's Throne Room!"
As they are about to drag him out, the doors open and you hear Conan's powerful voice echo; "Let him in"
"Sire,
The news from the Real World... It is not good!
Hyped MMOs are approaching the Retailer... and our Fanbase is spread thin!
QQ is flooding the Forums!
WoW's MoP has the biggest army, but also a lot of deserters/traitors and overall moral is low.
SWTOR has not had sufficient time to prepare itself, and is already battling for it's survival - their chances for survival will depend heavily on the actions of the Generals and other commanding officers.
GW2 will suck in a lot of attention, and will rally a lot of people from a lot of different places - bolstering their numbers as each day passes. However, their philosophy of war and unorthodox strategies will eventually be the deciding factor.
The rest does not pose a threat respectively, but will collectively have the power to turn the tide. In the aftermath, they will also enjoy the liberty of picking up the pieces and strenghtening themselves!"
Conan smiles... "Messenger... tonight, we dine... IN HELL"
well, okay, I made up the last part, but hey, all work and no play makes Cray C a dull boy!
Anyway, the reason I made this post the way I did was because of the fact that this Blog is called Everything "HYBORIA", and my posts will always be somewhat relevant to AoC or at least Hyboria! Not because there is a gun to my head right now, but because it is a matter of dignity and that this Blog is probably the one proper thing I do, and I feel good doing it!
Oh, and one of these days I'll pick up on that chain-of-thought thing!
Thursday, March 22, 2012
How "livestreaming" is my salvation! Part 2 aka, I AM PLEASED
FunCrom, I do not ask for much, I do not have the tongue for it, but... Grant Me Livestreams!
(At this point I'm not gonna bother looking up the exact quote, but hey - close enough!)
Ask and you shall receive, yesterday Craig (Game Director) was part of not only one but TWO livestream session where he explained the where's, why's, who's, how's, but's and and's (You get the point, right?)
(At this point I'm not gonna bother looking up the exact quote, but hey - close enough!)
Ask and you shall receive, yesterday Craig (Game Director) was part of not only one but TWO livestream session where he explained the where's, why's, who's, how's, but's and and's (You get the point, right?)
What else is there to say? "STEPHEN, ROLL THE CLIP - Stephen?"
Monday, March 5, 2012
WotLK and GW2 climbin' through yo windows
Two-in-one comin' at ya today - because I'm glad I finally got some time to spare! (Even though I really don't, I just got up earlier than usual so I could do this and a few other things). Anyway, I've always said that Blizzard took the Cimmeria theme and said "hey, hey - watch us do it better!" and introduced their own sieging, their own mammoths, their own vikings and their mini-Canada to sweeten the deal. Now, I'm pretty much gonna call GW2 out on doing the same thing here. NO, sieging is not something introduced in AoC - infact it's mostly known for being one of the major selling points of DaoC, I believe?
However, as far as I'm aware - DaoC and AoC are the only MMOs out there who's had a proper crack at it (Warhammer Online can go to hell ^^) and now GW2's gonna try to accomplish what AoC arguably could not.
That in itself isn't enough to call BS on GW2's part, but I also want you to look at the Guardian Class and tell me that's not the Conqueror!
I consider myself fairly up-to-date on the state of Upcoming MMOs but I'll have to take a further look at this - GW2 is so much more than this of course and I commend the devs originality and drastic new look at things, but I'm just saying it's crazy how many good ideas have been implemented and represented in AoC, and now it's pretty much up for grabs by anyone who's looking for a little inspiration.
A busy bee, and also - Crafting?
Here I peek my head through the door to say I'm alive and Skyrim, SW:TOR, KoA: Reckoning and SSX (cus I'm a hipster... plain and simple) dares to come here and take that life away for months. I'm a follower of the Troopers on YouTube that actually manages to make a living off playing Video Games, and many of them say they're having some money troubles because there isn't anything new and exciting (big blockbusters) out there nowadays - Are you kidding me? Look at the previously mentioned list of long RPGs, not to mention the over-hyped-monster-whose-name-shall-not-be-mentioned-but-whose-release-date-is-March 9.
Enough of this senseless rambling about Gaming Controversies though, let's talk about Conan, because why in the nine hells not? Besides the Patch of Herp and Derp (3.2.3) there's now plans for a whole new crafting system - and we're talking about a 110% change here. It's not a giant surprise, it's been mentioned before when Sil laid out his defensive strategy for 2012 (it's gonna be a bumpy ride) but it's nice to see more details on it.
Basically, instead of picking up all the Gathering Skills and two Crafting Skills you pick up two Gathering Skills and one Crafting Skill. Instead of completing Quests to unlock the next Tier, you just level up the skill. Instead of having the nodes the way they are (with the ********** random encounters) you DON'T have that (I don't know the full story on that though). Most importantly, however, is probably the removal of the traditional Recipe Grind and the replacement which is surprisingly similar to KoA's System where you "Experiment". You pick up the necessary ingredients, you get a preview showing the minimum result (so you don't get screwed over) and you craft ahead. Apparently, there's a chance for all sorts of magical stuff to occur and Funcom's promising some very interesting things here overall.
Tell ya what, since I'm such a tech-head I'll go ahead and give a fancy-pancy link to the Monthly Letter.
Oh yeah, and one of these days I will finish my chain-of-thought!
Enough of this senseless rambling about Gaming Controversies though, let's talk about Conan, because why in the nine hells not? Besides the Patch of Herp and Derp (3.2.3) there's now plans for a whole new crafting system - and we're talking about a 110% change here. It's not a giant surprise, it's been mentioned before when Sil laid out his defensive strategy for 2012 (it's gonna be a bumpy ride) but it's nice to see more details on it.
Basically, instead of picking up all the Gathering Skills and two Crafting Skills you pick up two Gathering Skills and one Crafting Skill. Instead of completing Quests to unlock the next Tier, you just level up the skill. Instead of having the nodes the way they are (with the ********** random encounters) you DON'T have that (I don't know the full story on that though). Most importantly, however, is probably the removal of the traditional Recipe Grind and the replacement which is surprisingly similar to KoA's System where you "Experiment". You pick up the necessary ingredients, you get a preview showing the minimum result (so you don't get screwed over) and you craft ahead. Apparently, there's a chance for all sorts of magical stuff to occur and Funcom's promising some very interesting things here overall.
Tell ya what, since I'm such a tech-head I'll go ahead and give a fancy-pancy link to the Monthly Letter.
Oh yeah, and one of these days I will finish my chain-of-thought!
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