Pacabol Fortuente

OH NOES!

November 6th, 2008

I renewed my WoW subscription.

I to had look at some of the shiny new changes they made. I really like the idea of achievements and having a separate container for pets and mounts is a much-welcome change. But it kinda feels like they should have been in place a year ago.  I know, I’m a complainer.

I did get in a quick four-man of Zul Gurub - that was tons of fun. We did pretty well also, making it all the way to  the Edge of Madness. Our group consisted of a Druid for tank, a Shaman for heals, and a Mage and a Rogue for dps. Sadly to take down High Priest Thekal we needed just a bit more dps - the timing in getting all three mobs down before they resurrect each other was too much for us without the additional damage. That and I had to set up my keys on the fly, was struggling to stay asleep and haven’t played in a month. Suffice it to say, my equipment was solid red by the time I ported out.

And the best thing about getting all wrapped up in WoW again for a few hours? I got a totally brilliant idea for the next expansion (before this one is even released … even before I have sufficiently immasculated myself enough to actually purchase the abomination).

OK, so the idea: repurpose all the level-duplicate zones into new high-level content zones. If leveling from 1-60 is a zip-bang affair, why not do away with redundant zones? For instance, Stranglethorn Vale, Arathi Highlands and Swamp of Sorrows all have pretty similar level ranges. Once you reach your 20s and beyond why should you have so many quests in different zones?

In the beginning, I think, this was a good design decision. It gave the world a big, open feel and players had numerous options on how to level their characters. It helped separate Horde and Alliance a bit. Of course a lot of people power-leveled their characters from the beginning and that is now fully endorsed as a play-style by Blizzard in the form of end-game development and the more recent leveling-speed boosts.

So now we have this big, empty world.

Why not pull a Warhammer on Azeroth and create a seamless two-continent leveling path with the disused zones being redeveloped into level 80 (or 80-90 more likely) zones? You could have players leveling 30-40 in refined Arathi Highlands and make Strangelthorn Vale a level 80 zone.

DDO gets right into the Dragons

I’ve been playing DDO off and on as well mainly to experience the new introduction areas - this game has come a long way in the past couple years. To be honest with you, I’ve come to look at DDO as one of the better MMOs available right now in terms of originality.

I also have something of a fetish for it’s weird, synthesizer music soundtrack. It reminds me of music that seemed to grace a lot of the weird and cheesy sci fi and fantasy movies in the late 70s. I can’t get enough.

But the new storyline is great, and the type of thing I love to see in an MMO type setting. The addition of hirelings is also welcome. The seemless integration of the hireling mechanic into the very beginning of the story was also delightful. For a better breakdown (with screenshots) of the new player experience, Syncaine of Pumping Irony has made several informative posts.

I don’t think too much of the new character creation system, but as I’ve mentioned before I’m the type who always hits “customize” in every game that lets me. I can see how the new system would be even easier than the old system for a total D&D newb.

But sadly, I may wind up allowing both my DDO and WoW subscription lapse, as I have finally gone and bought Fallout 3. That’s right, it is downloading over Steam as we speak. I was going to pass it up and focus on other games in the hope it will eventually come down to $30 (I’m not a big fan of buying games that cost more than $40), but what the hell? This is a quality title.

And while I’m certain FO3 will hold my interest in the long term, in the short I may set it on the back-burner and focus on LOTRO or continue to scratch my Colonization and Team Fortress 2 itches. I am, however, confident that Left4Dead will be holding my attention like all it’s Source-based counterparts I’ve played and that release is but a mere few weeks away.

But I’m almost certain at this point I won’t be bothering with WotLK until next year, if at all. Decisions, decisions - what is the deal with fall and all the new titles, lol?

Site Redesign and stuff

November 2nd, 2008

I have been staying pretty busy over the past week, but sadly not much of it has involved gaming. Well, not directly.

I made the new site design for fortuente.com live yesterday. Originally it had a CSS-based dropdown menu system, but it didn’t work in Internet Explorer so I just shoved the sidebar to the bottom of the page and relased it in a pique. I’ll be refining the site little by little, I will probably end up using a Javascript menu or switch to a regular two-column layout.

It did prompt me to be frustrated enough with IE to include a “Get Firefox” button at the bottom of the page. I should probably be fair and have an Opera button as well. Lol.

The past week the only two games I have managed to log any time into are Colonization and Team Fortress 2. I think I am beginning to understand my Team Fortress 2 fascination: I seem to really get into TF2 mode when I am working on something like designing or developing a web site. I mean, after staring at numbered lines of colored letters on a white screen for six hours what is really better than sparking up a fatty, putting some Prince Jammy on foobar and blowing people up?

Colonization, however, is what gets me pumped up to tackle the projects. I have to say, however, some of it’s imperfections have been showing. But it matters not, it’s still a really interesting take on Civilization 4 - in fact it has me pining for a mod that plays like Civ4, but includes the economics and logistics of Colonization. “Civilization Ultimate” or some such thing.

I plan on starting a new Colonization game tonight or tomorrow, and hopefully this time I will beat it. In fact, I think I’ll post my save games for anyone who would like to see in-game what I’m writing about.

I haven’t even got around to buying Fallout 3 yet, there is so much to do. As much as I have been looking forward to this game, I’ve decided to put it on the backburner for now. I really want to get my LOTRO Champion (still 37) to 50 before Mines of Moria comes out.

I fear that will never happen, though. Which brings me to a predicament I have been having lately: swearing off MMOs for good. As in all MMO-type games. The reason, I think is that I am simply not a social person. I have had a great amount of fun playing with other people in non-MMO environments - Neverwinter Nights 1 and Team Fortress are two good examples - but those experiences are less about chatting and more about playing the game.

I enjoy exploring, which is probably what attracted me most to these games in the first place, but the perpetual grinds they seem to be comprised of has really worn on me. I suppose I lack the time and people skills to really fill in the blanks. But I will keep plugging along - why not?

Which leads me to Wrath of the Lich King. Will I buy it? Will I resub to that pit of insanity known as WoW?

The sad, sad truth is that I will. I had my finger on the renew subscription button just an hour ago, but fortunately I gave the girlfriend my plastic. Gives me even more time to think, lol.