Okay, first with the apologies part. I'm sorry I haven't posted since November, things have just been crazy. Plus I've been depressed with the news that my favorite MMORPG magazine won't be published anymore (at least for a long while). Ah, but at least they converted my subscription to their tablet magazine?
Anyways, on to Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR), the best thing since sliced bread. Well, almost. Is it a WoW-killer? No, I don't think anyone but Blizzard can kill World of Warcraft, and I think they will even have trouble doing it. But it is fun, once you get the graphics issues worked out if your not playing on a top-of-the-line gaming rig. You've got to turn shadows off pretty much, not just on low, for the game to be mostly playable.
After that, the game is pretty good, even for those that aren't hardcore Star Wars fans. The storylines are good and the cinematic quest acceptance and turn-in movies are a nice little perk to watch. If you don't feel like watching all that, you can press the "space bar" and it will skip to the next choice you have to make.
Speaking of choices, most of your choices within the game have some sort of affect within the game. They can affect your relationship with your companions, which can affect the speed of their crafting skills (yes, you send your companions to do all of your crafting and gathering for you [gathering costs credits, though], the choices can affect points towards the light side or dark side of your character, which can in turn affect what types of weapons or crystal modifications you can use, or they can affect how NPCs react to you in the cinematics. All of this makes for a pretty custom scenario every time you play the game. For example, you could create two bounty hunters and play one as a completely nice, light-side bounty hunter (kind of an oxymoron, though) and play the other as the evil, hateful, dark-side and have two different experiences.
One more thing and I'll conclude for now (I could probably write alot more, but I'll save you the pain of reading through a long blog post). In SWTOR, the quest and rewaerds don't end after you turn it in, especially with side quests. Depending on how you completed certain quests, you may find mail from NPCs that you helped in the quest, which contain credits or gear, which is kind of nice. Alright, that's it for now. I'll see you next time.
-Ashton
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
I'm sorry, I can't make the WoW Raid tonight. I'm busy playing Skyrim
Eh, no, not really. I'll be there, but it was really hard to pry myself away from the XBox 360 today. Oh, I have it on PC too, but I save that for work diversions. It has been a really long time since I've been this immersed in a game that I would buy both the 360 and the PC version and play both versions during the same week. I love being able to sneak up on enemies and shoot them from a great distance and when I hit them, they suffer significant damage and don't instantly dash to me and kill me. The game takes me more time when I'm stealthing, but I enjoy it and I get to see a lot more of the game when I'm not trying to run from the enemy or towards them and hack n' slash. The game lets you do that do if you want. You can use your sword (or swords if you dual wield) or other melee weapon to obliterate the enemy. You can also use magic as well if that's your style. You'll also learn some dragon shouts along the way that are basically beefed up magical powers that help you with your journey. There are puzzles along the way, but they aren't too complicated or "Myst-like" that you won't be able to figure them out. A lot revolve around reading notes that you find or using your dragon shouts.
The game is also amazingly beautiful, which is one of the reasons I like to sneak around and take my time. The entire scenery seems so real, I almost stopped to try and take a leak in the gushing waterfall, but alas I had a ladyfriend accompanying me on my journey so I decided against it (It was then, that I realized I really had to go in RL and the sounds of the waterfall were making it a lot worse). I'm going to add a disclaimer here: I haven't played the game in hard mode, I'm currently playing it in Easy. Once I complete the story, I'll go back and try it in medium and hard and see what the differences are and if I can complete the game in those modes; however, I'm more of a story guy and like to get the full story of the game, rather than worrying about getting my brains beat out of me at every single moment. Although I'm playing it on Easy, I have not used any cheat codes and the game makes it very easy to pick up at your last save, or auto-save, if you die, so cheats aren't really necessary at this point.
If you have enjoyed playing the previous Elder Scrolls installments, then you are almost certainly in for a treat with Skyrim. Even if you have shyed away from the game before, give Skyrim a try, you may find yourself enjoying the variety of ways that you can play and complete the game. The graphics are amazing, so if you are the type that the graphics make the game for you, then you also need to get your hands on this game. That's it for now, see ya next time (I know it's been a while since my last post, but I'll try to keep coming back as regularly as I can).
-Ashton
The game is also amazingly beautiful, which is one of the reasons I like to sneak around and take my time. The entire scenery seems so real, I almost stopped to try and take a leak in the gushing waterfall, but alas I had a ladyfriend accompanying me on my journey so I decided against it (It was then, that I realized I really had to go in RL and the sounds of the waterfall were making it a lot worse). I'm going to add a disclaimer here: I haven't played the game in hard mode, I'm currently playing it in Easy. Once I complete the story, I'll go back and try it in medium and hard and see what the differences are and if I can complete the game in those modes; however, I'm more of a story guy and like to get the full story of the game, rather than worrying about getting my brains beat out of me at every single moment. Although I'm playing it on Easy, I have not used any cheat codes and the game makes it very easy to pick up at your last save, or auto-save, if you die, so cheats aren't really necessary at this point.
If you have enjoyed playing the previous Elder Scrolls installments, then you are almost certainly in for a treat with Skyrim. Even if you have shyed away from the game before, give Skyrim a try, you may find yourself enjoying the variety of ways that you can play and complete the game. The graphics are amazing, so if you are the type that the graphics make the game for you, then you also need to get your hands on this game. That's it for now, see ya next time (I know it's been a while since my last post, but I'll try to keep coming back as regularly as I can).
-Ashton
Monday, September 12, 2011
How much is too much?
I know it's been awhile since I've posted anything, but I wanted to get an update in before I let too much time pass and no one read the blog anymore. Anyways, I started wondering today, do I have a problem? About a month-and-a-half ago, I had a job interview for a subtance abuse counselor position. One of the questions was "What do you think the most important part of the 12-step recovery program is?" Okay, so with my new B.A. degree in Psychology in hand, I absolutely blew the question. I couldn't remember the 12-step addiction recovery steps and fumbled my through with some jibberish. Needless to say, I didn't get the job; however, I went home and looked at the 12-step recovery program. The first step is the most important, of course, because it is "Admit to yourself that you have a problem." You can't begin to recover if you don't believe you have a problem. Anyway, so enough of the psycho-babble for now, I started to wonder today as I was counting my characters in World of Warcraft, and the numerous other games that I play, if I really do have a problem. The number of characters shown over at http://combatengineers.enjin.com/profile/828566/characters/index/page/1only shows you my guilded characters within World of Warcraft. I'm working on adding my Rift characters there (I think there's around 5 there) and also my City of Heroes characters (somewhere around 15 or 20 total characters there). My Everquest 2 (4 or 5), Vanguard (1), and DC Universe Online characters (2) are not listed either. And that's just the MMOs. I also play numerous XBOX 360 and Playstation 3 games and dabble around on a 3DS every now then. Granted most of my game playing time is devoted to World of Warcraft, EQ2, and NCAA Football 2012 but I do play the other games now and then. So, I may have a problem. But then again, I do not think it's a bad one either, and it's definitely not a mental illness (A mental illness has to cause a negative effect on my normal daily activities, and I am very capable of fulfilling my daily activities and do not neglect my children in favor of gametime ;-) ). Some studies have shown that games can improve brain function, and I can definitely use some improved brain function. Everyone has a hobby, and everyone has different ways of having fun. So my hobby is gaming and I just happen to have fun when I sit down at a computer (or a console), log into vent, and play games with people that I get along with very well. And if you've got a problem with that, I've got two words for you.....
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Regular RPGs just don't do it anymore (or am I a cheater?)
Okay, so I know it's been a little bit since my last post, but alas, I'm still here. I've been a bit down lately to post anything, as my Learn 2 Play WoW (weplaywow.com) experiment didn't turn out as well as I thought (apparently there are not many people out there that want to play World of Warcraft and just don't know how as I had originally thought, although I do have a good amount of fans on our Facebook page). The website is still up and we're still accepting purchases and giving classes if needed; however, no one has bit yet (Yes, I'm probably the only business owner to ever admit this, but I think that's one of my key traits: I'm able to admit when I don't succeed at something and either try harder and figure out what I did wrong or why something doesn't work).
Ah, enough of the self-pity and onto the real meat of this post. I realized something the other day as I was demoing D & D: Dragondale on the XBOX 360. I didn't get very far before I became bored. The same thing happened with Demon Souls on the PS3 (an interesting concept, but I was only able to play until I died, and then it became very irritating trying to resurrect...). I thought back to The Elder Scrolls series that I have played since Morrowind. I only made it through the stories of those games because I (scoff) cheated. Yes, I admit when things got frustrating (which on Oblivion set to Easy mode wasn't often, but hey it did happen), I either looked up the cheat codes for God mode or looked up the walkthrough to find the answer. Then I thought about something. I never cheated in City of Heroes to get to 50 (you couldn't or if you did, you got banned, etc, etc, etc). But it did get frustrating at times, but my friends in-game helped me, as well as my wife because she played as well. Then I thought to how I had become bored with City of Heroes and moved onto World of Warcraft, and sigh, I cheated. I use Dugi's guides... and before those I used Jame's tour guides... (note, not necessarily cheating, but walkthroughs essentially telling you how to do everything). Am I addicted to getting to the end as fast as I can or am I even cheating at WoW, or did CoH just become boring at the end when all of my friends, and my wife, had moved on pretty much. I admit, we have regular groups that run Dungeons in World of Warcraft and that is one of the reasons I stay. I'm now playing Rift occasionally, especially with their version of a dungeon finder implemented (okay, I love my Bard in these dungeon groups! Don't have to dedicate healing, and I play music to buff and deal damage!). Okay, geekfest over here. Let me know in the comment section here. Am I addicted to cheating or have the single-player RPGs just lost their flair compared to MMORPGs, or am I even cheating at all on World of Warcraft?
Ah, enough of the self-pity and onto the real meat of this post. I realized something the other day as I was demoing D & D: Dragondale on the XBOX 360. I didn't get very far before I became bored. The same thing happened with Demon Souls on the PS3 (an interesting concept, but I was only able to play until I died, and then it became very irritating trying to resurrect...). I thought back to The Elder Scrolls series that I have played since Morrowind. I only made it through the stories of those games because I (scoff) cheated. Yes, I admit when things got frustrating (which on Oblivion set to Easy mode wasn't often, but hey it did happen), I either looked up the cheat codes for God mode or looked up the walkthrough to find the answer. Then I thought about something. I never cheated in City of Heroes to get to 50 (you couldn't or if you did, you got banned, etc, etc, etc). But it did get frustrating at times, but my friends in-game helped me, as well as my wife because she played as well. Then I thought to how I had become bored with City of Heroes and moved onto World of Warcraft, and sigh, I cheated. I use Dugi's guides... and before those I used Jame's tour guides... (note, not necessarily cheating, but walkthroughs essentially telling you how to do everything). Am I addicted to getting to the end as fast as I can or am I even cheating at WoW, or did CoH just become boring at the end when all of my friends, and my wife, had moved on pretty much. I admit, we have regular groups that run Dungeons in World of Warcraft and that is one of the reasons I stay. I'm now playing Rift occasionally, especially with their version of a dungeon finder implemented (okay, I love my Bard in these dungeon groups! Don't have to dedicate healing, and I play music to buff and deal damage!). Okay, geekfest over here. Let me know in the comment section here. Am I addicted to cheating or have the single-player RPGs just lost their flair compared to MMORPGs, or am I even cheating at all on World of Warcraft?
Sunday, June 26, 2011
City of Heroes Going F2P?
So, my good friend, Steady over at Steady's Gaming Blog, let me know that City of Heroes was going Free to Play in the upcoming issue 21. City of Heroes was the first MMORPG that I had invested enough time to get a character to the level cap. Don't get my wrong, my first MMORPG that I played was Everquest Online Adventures on the Playstation 2, but I never got to the level cap there or any subsequent MMO (Star Wars Galaxies, Everquest, Everquest II, etc). until I found CoH. At around level 5, my wife and I found a home with the Moonbase Gamma supergroup, which eventually evolved into the Combat Engineers gaming community, that I'm still a part of today (yes, I know, those people are crazy for keeping me this long!).
Anyways, I later started playing World of Warcraft, got addicted, and moved more away from CoH, and devoted most of my game time towards World of Warcraft (yeah, like that's worked. I still try every game known to man, and I still keep coming back to WoW). So, to make a long story short, I may come back to City of Heroes, depending on what content is being offered for free. I don't think I'm willing to pay another monthly subscription (with Rift, WoW, and now Gods and Heroes [see next blog post, coming soon]), but if I can still play my level 50 and access new stuff, finish off certain badges, etc, and maybe level a new character as well, I may be coming back.
Now, as with Steady, I share his concerns. Will this new F2P model ruin the game with an influx of new people farming characters to the level cap, without learning to play their character, and then attempting to play the end-game and ruin PUG groups in the game completely (they're already dreadful enough as it is)? The game already has a problem with paying subscribers farming their toons to level cap and then attempting the end-game content without knowing how to play their character (hence the current state of most PUG groups). Don't twist my words here, I'm not against farming levels completely, and I've taken part in and benefitted from the practice as well. However, a person that farms a character from level 1 to the level cap without learning how to play said character should not then attempt to jump into any end game content. Learn to play the character. Run some of those missions you missed along the way, learn about the powers that you have and when you should use each one. Find out with enhancements work best with your character. Find some friends and run some task forces and once you feel like that character is your in-game persona that you know like the back of your hand, then maybe dabble in the end-game content. Hopefully, these new F2P players will grasp that concept, but if it's anything like some of the current subscribers, it's kind of doubtful. Granted, I can still play with my current Supergroup, but most of the people that used to play it actively, have moved on to another game as well (usually WoW).
-Ashton
Anyways, I later started playing World of Warcraft, got addicted, and moved more away from CoH, and devoted most of my game time towards World of Warcraft (yeah, like that's worked. I still try every game known to man, and I still keep coming back to WoW). So, to make a long story short, I may come back to City of Heroes, depending on what content is being offered for free. I don't think I'm willing to pay another monthly subscription (with Rift, WoW, and now Gods and Heroes [see next blog post, coming soon]), but if I can still play my level 50 and access new stuff, finish off certain badges, etc, and maybe level a new character as well, I may be coming back.
Now, as with Steady, I share his concerns. Will this new F2P model ruin the game with an influx of new people farming characters to the level cap, without learning to play their character, and then attempting to play the end-game and ruin PUG groups in the game completely (they're already dreadful enough as it is)? The game already has a problem with paying subscribers farming their toons to level cap and then attempting the end-game content without knowing how to play their character (hence the current state of most PUG groups). Don't twist my words here, I'm not against farming levels completely, and I've taken part in and benefitted from the practice as well. However, a person that farms a character from level 1 to the level cap without learning how to play said character should not then attempt to jump into any end game content. Learn to play the character. Run some of those missions you missed along the way, learn about the powers that you have and when you should use each one. Find out with enhancements work best with your character. Find some friends and run some task forces and once you feel like that character is your in-game persona that you know like the back of your hand, then maybe dabble in the end-game content. Hopefully, these new F2P players will grasp that concept, but if it's anything like some of the current subscribers, it's kind of doubtful. Granted, I can still play with my current Supergroup, but most of the people that used to play it actively, have moved on to another game as well (usually WoW).
-Ashton
Friday, June 17, 2011
It's Friday! Welcome to Weplaywow.com!
Okay, so in keeping with my promise to give you all the answer to the "something big" that was coming Friday, here it is. It's 12:41 am where I live, so it's Friday. Lately, I've been trying to recruit some of my friends and family into playing World of Warcraft with me (consider it a real-life recruiting for the in-game world type of thing). Yes, I know, I play games way too much, but I just want to spread the addic...ahem...joy.
Anyways, onto the point of this halibaloo. I would usually get my family members to play for maybe 5-10 minutes at the most before they would say that they didn't understand the game at all. I left it at that for a while until one family member said that they would like to play the game more, but they just didn't understand it and became easily frustrated. I asked around to the other people, and I kept getting the same response. The in-game WoW tutorial just wasn't cutting it for these people and they were becoming frustrated and giving up on the game very quickly, although they enjoyed the possibilities that the game could bring.
So, after several months of research, work, and monkeys (don't ask, there is just always monkeys involved in everything), We Play Wow was developed. It is the most in-depth beginner's guide (well, actually guides) and one-on-one help available. Actually, there isn't anything else like it. Trust me, I looked and looked and even the monkeys couldn't find anything.
"Wait", you ask, "You're asking us to pay you to teach us how to play World of Warcraft?" No, I'm not, actually. Here is what my program will provide you. All of the programs include the following: a beginner's guide to GameSpeak, a customized (yes, I personalize each one of these things) guide to World of Warcraft developed specifically for you (I e-mail you and you e-mail me letting me know what it is you are wanting to learn and I then create a guide specifically tailored to your needs every single time), bi-weekly to tri-weekly meetings (some would call these classes, but I would hardly call playing WoW school), and basically just about anything else that you could ask for this type of program. Trust me, if you e-mail me with a question, I will answer it (and no, I won't charge you extra money to answer your questions, all that's included).
This product isn't for everyone. Actually, it's not for people that already play World of Warcraft. It's for those people who want to play, but having a hard time understanding the game. I taught my own mother (who was one of the ones who could only play for 5 minutes before quitting) using this course and she is no longer a 5 minute wonder. I know there's going to be jerks out there saying "Everyone can play WoW. It's so easy." No, my friend, it's not. Not for people whose last video game was Pac-Man or Tetris (both very awesome classics in my opinion. And trust me, the in-game community for the most part, is less than stellar in their empathy and helping attitudes (spend 10 minutes in trade chat and you'll see what I mean).
I'm not charging you for doing stuff that World of Warcraft is already doing, the extremely low fees that I do have are for the time investment that I personally make for every individual person. You're not sitting with millions of people watching a recorded webinar. You're actually talking with a real, live person, one-on-one, and working together in-game as well. No, I'm not charging you to play the game with me (trust me, I'm not that desperate for a social life), again, the extremely low fees cover the cost that I incur for the services that I provide (the guides, creating accounts on World of Warcraft, the ventrilo voice-chat server, etc).
Again, this product is not for everyone. But if any of what I said applied to you and you want to get started playing World of Warcraft and actually enjoying it, head over to www.weplaywow.com and check out what we have available.
-Ashton
Anyways, onto the point of this halibaloo. I would usually get my family members to play for maybe 5-10 minutes at the most before they would say that they didn't understand the game at all. I left it at that for a while until one family member said that they would like to play the game more, but they just didn't understand it and became easily frustrated. I asked around to the other people, and I kept getting the same response. The in-game WoW tutorial just wasn't cutting it for these people and they were becoming frustrated and giving up on the game very quickly, although they enjoyed the possibilities that the game could bring.
So, after several months of research, work, and monkeys (don't ask, there is just always monkeys involved in everything), We Play Wow was developed. It is the most in-depth beginner's guide (well, actually guides) and one-on-one help available. Actually, there isn't anything else like it. Trust me, I looked and looked and even the monkeys couldn't find anything.
"Wait", you ask, "You're asking us to pay you to teach us how to play World of Warcraft?" No, I'm not, actually. Here is what my program will provide you. All of the programs include the following: a beginner's guide to GameSpeak, a customized (yes, I personalize each one of these things) guide to World of Warcraft developed specifically for you (I e-mail you and you e-mail me letting me know what it is you are wanting to learn and I then create a guide specifically tailored to your needs every single time), bi-weekly to tri-weekly meetings (some would call these classes, but I would hardly call playing WoW school), and basically just about anything else that you could ask for this type of program. Trust me, if you e-mail me with a question, I will answer it (and no, I won't charge you extra money to answer your questions, all that's included).
This product isn't for everyone. Actually, it's not for people that already play World of Warcraft. It's for those people who want to play, but having a hard time understanding the game. I taught my own mother (who was one of the ones who could only play for 5 minutes before quitting) using this course and she is no longer a 5 minute wonder. I know there's going to be jerks out there saying "Everyone can play WoW. It's so easy." No, my friend, it's not. Not for people whose last video game was Pac-Man or Tetris (both very awesome classics in my opinion. And trust me, the in-game community for the most part, is less than stellar in their empathy and helping attitudes (spend 10 minutes in trade chat and you'll see what I mean).
I'm not charging you for doing stuff that World of Warcraft is already doing, the extremely low fees that I do have are for the time investment that I personally make for every individual person. You're not sitting with millions of people watching a recorded webinar. You're actually talking with a real, live person, one-on-one, and working together in-game as well. No, I'm not charging you to play the game with me (trust me, I'm not that desperate for a social life), again, the extremely low fees cover the cost that I incur for the services that I provide (the guides, creating accounts on World of Warcraft, the ventrilo voice-chat server, etc).
Again, this product is not for everyone. But if any of what I said applied to you and you want to get started playing World of Warcraft and actually enjoying it, head over to www.weplaywow.com and check out what we have available.
-Ashton
Thursday, June 16, 2011
It's Here!
Okay, if you follow me on Twitter. You know I said I would reveal all about the "Something big" that's coming on Friday. I'm still going to reveal all on Friday; however, the something big is here now. If you want a sneak peak, head on over to the We Play WoW fanpage here and check it out. I'll give you a hint. It's for those of you that follow my blog, wish that you could play WoW but didn't have the time to learn the game mechanics or understand them at all (Mom, I'm talking to you ;-) )
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