MMO Gaming

Like most times when I say I won’t post about something, what I actually mean is I won’t post about it the very second I read it. Now I’m going to though.

A lot has already been said on the subject from Cuppy to Darren and the original topic from Cuppy’s old post at Virgin Worlds. Here’s my favorite though, the post from Cameron on the matter.

I have only one problem with what Cameron says in his post. I’ll quote the section below.

I apologize

Nonsense. Don’t apologize for calling an idiot an idiot. Feminism is completely ridiculous and all feminists are idiots. Anyone who thinks feminism isn’t ridiculous is also an idiot. It’s not men who are to blame for making things the way they are, it’s women. Women who manage to screw things up constantly with their bitching and moaning about every little thing.

Don’t want to be treated differently? Don’t bitch to me about your period.

Want to be treated just like a guy? Don’t cry to the boss when someone tells a dirty joke.

Think men should stop treating women differently? Don’t be shocked when you get punched in the face for cheating.

Anyone else see the problem with what I’ve posted above? Anyone? Oh that’s right…it’s a horrid mass generalization of all women when really very few are actually anything at all like what I’ve described. Most men, and as it turns out, women too, are just, you know, normal people. Don’t blame all your perceived ills and problems on a different group, that doesn’t help to show the other side the error of their ways, it just further highlights the differences between the two groups.

If you don’t think there should be a difference in treatment between the two, then why are we bringing out the difference? Why does it have to be “all those guys are messing it up for us girl gamers.”? When you introduce yourself do you bring out the fact that you are female (unless it isn’t obvious, in which case…you know what, I’ll leave that alone)? Why do you feel the need to do so online? Do you introduce your friends similarly?

“Hi guys, this is my black friend Joe and my other friend Ken, he’s Asian, and this is a Mexican friend of mine named Jose.”

You know what would happen if you did that? You’d probably get your ass kicked by someone.

Mass generalizations are stupid, and if you are just going to further that stupidity by pointing out differences than you can not complain when others bring them up. Now let’s just shut up and play some games.

girl gamers, mmog, discrimination, mmorpg, virtual self, mmo gaming

Topics like this are always funny to me. The entire premise behind them. Now, Cuppy isn’t the only one commenting on this issue (or is it non-issue?) but she happened to post it today and I like to keep things fresh. Anyway, feel free to weigh in at some point, but the whole thing is just so…beyond foolish…that I’m tempted not to say anything. That temptation won’t win out, I’m sure, but it’s there.

We’ll see how things go later tonight into tomorrow…I may be forced to post some thoughts.

So Awesome. So awesome, in fact, that I’m not going to talk about it yet…but holy crap is it ever going to be cool. I have so many ideas, so many great things I can do…but I won’t talk about it yet…but it’s coming. What is it? You’ll find out soon.

Much like the Logos in Tabula Rasa, I’m being cryptic (and you thought I couldn’t get it in there.)

So, I got time yesterday to listen to the first Episode of Darren and Cuppy’s new podcast “Shut up. We’re Talking”. If you have the time (and by that I mean a spare hour) it is well worth a listen. Very nicely done and fun to listen to.

Cuppy sounds almost exactly like one of the former hosts of the morning radio show at a local station, eerily so actually. At any rate, I will throw out a few comments I had about it.

It was a great show and an awesome first episode definitely, had it not said “Episode 1″ I could have easily believed that they had both been doing it for a while already. It was really well put together and they seemed to be able to converse without it seeming forced, which I’ve heard plenty of in other shows. It is a bit long though. Over an hour, as I mentioned. I’m not saying it would be better shorter, only that it would work better for me in smaller chunks, like 30ish minutes. Most times I won’t have an hour to spend listening to a show (I only did this weekend because of Memorial Day) so a long show is going to be hard to find time for. Given what they are talking about this may simply not be possible to really cover the things they want to, but it is just a personal preference for me.

All in all, I look forward to the next one and seeing where it goes. (They didn’t, however, talk about Tabula Rasa…yeah, I got it in there.)

podcast, mmog, mmo gaming, mmorpg, cuppycake, common sense gamer

There is definitely something to be said for not knowing what is going on when you first start a game. For instance I don’t know what the hell I’m doing in LOTRO or EQ2 for that matter. I’m enjoying moving slowly between places and taking the time to explore areas. Sometimes it can be frustrating, obviously. Such as when the directions say to head “north-west” and you find out it is more like directly north and a step to the right, but overall it is fun to explore the world (even more so when the world looks nice.)

Of course, what I don’t like, and never will, is the annoying grinding of early levels when you want to change character class or anything like that. Which is why I’m really interested in Tabula Rasa (by the way, I’m thinking of instituting a new policy in which I must mention Tabula Rasa in every post I write until it is released, any thoughts?). The fact that I can clone myself and avoid having to grind through the same stuff over and over could prove to be, and hopefully will be, a system that all games start to adopt. I’ll have to wait and see how that goes though…

Tabula Rasa, richard garriott, ncsoft, lotro, lord of the rings, everquest, everquest 2, grind

Contrary to what a certain comment on my original thread several months ago on Dungeon Runners would have you believe, I did send out many invites. But now, I no longer have to. Dungeon Runners is now open for everyone.

Now though, I would like to take a moment to all those who I didn’t get to send an invite out too (like my oh so rude commenter who seems to think I screwed him over). I sent out over 50 invites to people. I could only send out 4 at a time so this was quite a task, and considering each one had a two week expiration, I did the best I could. Some people I’m sure I missed, some people I couldn’t get to in a reasonable time and many of those I didn’t ever contact (some I did, but it was a lot). I was asked for well over 100 invites, much more than I ever expected to get. My fault, I doubted people’s desire to have free stuff given to them.

In the future I will try to do a better job of contacting people in a timely manner so that e-mails are not misplaced or comments forgotten, but quite frankly I didn’t expect the large turn-out for people wanting an invite.

Thanks to all those who stopped by the site and asked for an invite, hopefully you all keep coming back, and maybe soon I’ll be able to give something else away to my readers.

For now, go download Dungeon Runners and enjoy the MMO-lite experience.

Tonight will be the first night I really get a chance to try gaming on this new computer, but I do have a couple of thoughts on it so far.

First…being able to put graphics settings to the highest point makes a huge difference in enjoyment of the game. I’m not even one of those people who cares a ton for graphics (I’ll take good gameplay over graphics any day) but I’ll be damned if EQ2 and LOTRO aren’t beautiful cranked all the way up.

Second…I love being able to put my settings that high and not experience any slowdown in game. That’s awesome.

I’m also enjoying the Logitech G15 keyboard I got. The LCD screen is nice (I use it to check up on my CPU usage and the like.) I’ll have to see what is available for other games that I have (I think Rise of Legends uses it in some way) and it will be interesting to see how it works more.

I’ll probably be writing up a review of the keyboard and the G5 mouse at some point, but for the moment both seem to be performing incredibly well.

I’ll try to get some shots of in-game playing a bit later. For now, I’m off to see what I can do with this thing.

Well, I got my new computer yesterday, and, after a bit of fiddling around with it I was able to set everything up. Of course, in that time, I wasn’t actually able to play any games since I had to download, well…everything. I’ll post some more thoughts later, but so far I am happy with it. I can’t wait to see how some games will look using it, but that probably won’t be until Wednesday when I can get around to that.

I’ll post a bit more later.

I’ve been spending most of my time trying to gauge the reactions of people over Brad’s interview. The general consensus seems to be that he should just shut up and stop screwing himself over by talking. I half agree.

It is sad though, I can see where he is coming from with the things he says. About not wanting to be there to watch as his company crashed and burned, and eventually had to let go of tons of good people. That’s gotta hurt. That isn’t to say I agree with him not being there when it went down but I appreciate what he is trying to say. It’s not malicious, it’s not because he is stupid, it’s just a crappy situation that he wasn’t equipped to handle. Should he have been there? Yes, in fact, I don’t think things should have gone this way at all, but I’m not going to hound him and tell point out all the problems with what he is saying. At this point he’s limping along somewhere trying to find a place to die (um…metaphorically speaking of course) so I won’t beat him any further.

I will say though, there seems to be some confusion between the interview with Brad and the one with the ex-employee, and I would tend to take the fired employees words with more than a grain of salt. The things he may be saying in anger/frustration may be clouding reality more than we know.

Anyway…I have some things to do (oh yes, things!)

So, as promised, here’s my new computer’s specs (or at least the important ones):

• Power Supply: 750 Watt — Thermaltake Toughpower W0117RU Power Supply
• Processor: AMD AthlonT64 X2 5600+ Dual-Core CPU (2.8 GHz)
• Memory: 2048MB [1024MB X2] DDR2-800 PC6400
• Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8800GTX 768MB (I can’t wait to see how this thing runs)
• Hard Drive 1&2: 200 GB 7200 RPM
• Monitor: LCD Monitor ViewSonic 19″ Wide (could have gone bigger but I don’t see much need. I take a very minimalist approach to the UI’s I use in game so having a ton of screen space isn’t a necessity (not that 19″ isn’t a good amount anyway))
• Keyboard: Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard (I was really stuck on this option. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to get here as I don’t really need macro keys/gaming keys but this keyboard got the best reviews consistently so I decided to go with it anyway, even though it cost me a few extra dollars)
• Mouse: Logitech G5 Laser Gaming Mouse (obviously)
• Operating System: MS Windows XP Media Center 2005 Edition (eventually I will upgrade to Vista, but I see no reason to start off using it when there are simply too many problems with it still.)
• Random Extras: 12-In-1 Internal Flash Media Card Reader/Writer Black
  Wireless 802.11g 54Mbps PCI Adapter
  Free Games - [Age of Empires III] and [Rise Of Nations: Rise Of Legend] (who doesn’t love some free games)

So, there you have it. If you are interested in any other components I chose let me know and I’ll put them up. You may be noticing I didn’t put a sound card up. That’s because I went with the onboard sound since I can get the card I want cheaper at NewEgg than I can buying it with the computer. Since installation is so simple I’ll take the time and do it myself.

pc components, computers, new computer, system specs, gaming computer

I just got my mouse and tried it out for a few minutes (I won’t be using it a ton until I get my new computer to put it into. Anyway, I’m liking it a lot so far. I took some time and added some extra DPI pre-sets. The 2000 I’m sure will be nice for (some) games but for general browsing it is a bit too sensitive. I’ve found that I prefer between 1000 and 1600 DPI for everyday use.

The 800 DPI setting that a lot of reviewers mentioned as good for “everyday” use I found to feel very slow, the 400 is especially slow (obviously) but could be great for some applications (Photoshop for one.) I also love the cord on it and the weights. I’ll talk about those after I’ve spent more time with it though. Oh yeah, and the “back” button on the side is a great touch.

laser mouse, gaming mouse, g5, logitech g5

Leslie, from fellow 451 site Apple Reporter is the inspiration for this article.

It boils down to this, Leslie has a Mac (obviously) and wants to know what games she can run on it with the GMA 950 card that it came with. So, with that in mind, I set out to explore the depths of Apple gaming and find out exactly what games she could occupy her time with.

Well…I’d love to say it was a successful journey and I learned a lot but that simply isn’t the case. Scouring every resource I could find there was still no reassuring answer. Everywhere I went I was told, in essence “you need a dedicated graphics card.” In fact, at the Apple Support center I read several people say that there is no good way to game on a Macbook at all, it was either Pro, if you had to have the portability of the notebook, or go with a desktop to get anywhere at all with gaming on a Mac.

That’s unfortunate.

Now, there are, of course, some games that can be run, but it seems that any of the newer games are going to require a dedicated card to play them, or at least play them at a performance level approaching reasonable.

So sorry all you Apple fans and Mac lovers, but I couldn’t do anything with what Mac was offering (for a premium price) when it comes to gaming. Maybe Apple should think about working with AMD a bit, since they own ATI now cost of production for a processor and video card could be significantly reduced (compared to the already overpriced Intel processors and the markup that Apple puts on their products).

mac, apple, gaming, mmo games, ati, amd, intel, gaming on a mac

Soon I’ll be getting a new computer. Today though, I ordered a brand new mouse. The Logitech G5 to be precise. I could have gone with the newer G7 model but, quite frankly, the cord doesn’t bother me in the least. Originally I was going to wait and just get the mouse with my computer. Then I saw that I could actually get it cheaper (by about $15) if I bought it off Amazon separately. Now, I’ll be honest, this isn’t a ton of money that I saved but what’s important is that I saved money at all. Why spend more than I have to, right?

Anyway, I’ll be updating at a later date after I’ve gotten it and had plenty of time to test it out with different games. I’ll write up a full review then.

If I don’t like it (which I don’t think will be the case) then I may check out some other offerings from the gaming mouse set. I’ll post my final new computer specs after I make the purchase too.

logitech, gaming gear, gaming mouse, logitech g5, logitech g5 laser gaming mouse

I’ve never played on a roleplaying server before. It isn’t because I don’t like to RP (quite the opposite) but I’m always afraid of what the reaction will be if I do. Will someone jump down my throat if I do something against lore? Are they all jerks on RP servers?

I know the story of most of the games I play. I know the lore behind most of them. But…let’s take, for instance, Lord of the Rings. I’ve read the books, though that was some time ago and I found them great for a lesson in world design and somewhat lacking elsewhere. My question is, if I pick up LOTRO and start playing on an RP server am I going to get hounded because of this? What if I don’t write with an “accent” (and that is because of a mixture of the extra time it takes to type out all those ’s and whatever else and because of a lack of exactly when to do so).

So, anyone with some experience on an RP server in any game got anything to share? Am I assuming that people are a whole lot worse than they actually are about this whole thing?

roleplaying, rp server, lord of the rings online, lord of the rings

Well, time for a quick wrap-up of my goings on in EQ2 this week.

I’m currently sitting at level 9 on my Guardian and level 8 on my Wizard. Not sure which one I want to go with for sure yet. To be honest, I’m really enjoying my Guardian, but I know from other games that the “tank” class can quickly feel like a chore so I’m holding off on declaring a “main” for the moment.

I like a lot of things about EQ2, several things I think it far surpasses WoW on. This wasn’t true at launch, but SOE seems to have tried harder to make sure they keep a quality game on the market. Maybe it is partially burnout, but WoW has been showing less and less creativity and polish in design and instead throwing the old “put it in now, fix/balance later” approach with a lot of their content. I don’t enjoy it and seeing a game that is (at least at low levels) as polished as WoW was at low levels is nice. If it keeps that same level of quality all the way through I will be very happy.

Anyway, I’ll post some more thoughts later, but that’s what I’ve got so far.