MMO Gaming

I’ve been playing the Tabula Rasa beta for some time. Longer than some who have given their impressions, but not quite as long as others. Tobold and Darren, I think, have the most balanced views of the game from the ones I’ve read. Now it’s my turn to try and top them.

I’ll try and work this review from the beginning to the end of the game experience. That is, from when you first load up the game and create a character all the way through the content of the game as you progress in levels. So then, on with it.

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aMusic from AFK Magazine was kind enough to send me an e-mail to let me know that issue 2 had been released and that they had worked, and continue to work on some of the suggestions myself, and others made.

So, because the guys over there seem pretty cool and I would continue to read either way, I decided to give my “re-review” of the magazine for issue 2.

I immediately headed over to the site and found out that…I couldn’t connect. I take nothing away from them for this, perhaps it was my connection, or perhaps it was sheer volume of readers flocking to the site that caused this temporary downtime, but this could be looked at in a positive light so I’ll give them that (and it appears it wasn’t down for more than an hour, so good job either way).

After a bit of waiting around I manage to access the site and head straight into the magazine browser (really, the most important part). Immediately I am greeted with options for Quality and Sound (high or low, on or off). Two thumbs up for this, this is friendly design at it’s best. Now I immediately know what I am getting myself into with my choices, and I can still turn things on/off or up/down as needed from within the magazine browser. I chose High quality (my internet connection is pretty good and my computer, while not incredible, isn’t awful either and I wanted to see how it performed anyway. I also chose to keep music on.

The second choice may seem odd to those who read my first review of the magazine, I hated the music, I hated the idea of music, and now, here I am, choosing to listen to it again. Here’s the difference, as mentioned above; I know what I’m getting myself into, because I had a choice upfront. I chose to hear music, so now I don’t find my eardrums offended by the fact that this odd sound is emitting from my speakers.

A side-step here to talk about the music, I love it. It feels very “Metroid meets Megaman” to me and I love both (Metroid is perhaps the greatest series of games ever made, but that’s another topic entirely.) So, while my comment still stands from last time, that it may not suit everyone who views it, there is an option upfront and you know what is going on when you choose, so I have nothing against the magazine so far.

Now, at the magazine browser there is one thing that I am a bit interested in seeing. Right now the option to “turn” pages is at the bottom, and is fairly small. I wouldn’t mind seeing an option to the left/right of the magazine display with a –> and a <– arrow to move through pages, and maybe even a way to jump to page “x” after viewing the Table of Contents (yes, I know there is the contents list that does a similar thing with page jumping but I’d like to see my commonly used features all right next to where I am reading). This is a minor thing, and not something that necessarily deters from the experience, I think it would just “enhance” the experience a bit.

Once again, as before, I won’t comment on the content of the magazine, this time partially because I haven’t had a chance to go through everything, and partially because the writers for the mag are perfectly capable of doing what they need to do (though that Vanguard review; really?!)

So, overall, this issue is a huge improvement over the first in a lot of ways and I look forward to seeing what additional changes they will make as the magazine starts to hit its stride. Congratulations to the AFK Mag team!

I’ve had it for a while and I think it’s now safe to put up a full review of the Belkin Nostromo Speedpad n52.

Let’s start off by assuming you haven’t already gone out and bought one. If that’s the case, stop reading at this point and head on over to Amazon.com to buy it.

I mean it. If you feel like spending an extra fourty dollars pick yourself up the Logitech G15 gaming Keyboard. Or, if you prefer, light your money on fire and use it to burn down your house.

I’m not saying the G15 isn’t a good product, from everything I’ve heard it’s excellent. I just see no reason to buy it, especially for MMOs. I own a keyboard. It’s probably safe to say everyone who has a computer already owns a keyboard. I don’t need another one for my gaming. What I need is something compact to make me not have to stretch my hands out all over and switch back and forth between keyboard and mouse. That’s what the n52 does, and it does it well.

I can’t even imagine PvPing without having it. From the first time I used it I noticed how much easier it was to get to everything, and it only required one hand, leaving my other hand always free for the mouse. This makes a big difference in speed (thus why it’s called the Speedpad, eh?)

It comes with some software to install that is used to configure the keys on it. The software is fairly easy to use for basic settings (which is mostly what is needed for playing an MMO) but is still powerful enough to give the option of setting up some really cool stuff. It took me maybe 30-45 minutes to set everything up and test it out a bit until I got it perfect to how I wanted it.

Of course, the important part isn’t so much the software as the hardware, and I must say, it’s a steal on Amazon at approximately $30. It’s small, which is nice, especially if, like me, you don’t have a huge amount of desk space. It’s also pretty solid and holds in place well, even during some of the more frantically paced moments of the games I played.

It’s also incredibly ergonomic. It fits the hand nicely, allowing everything to be within one fingers reach without much stretching at all (the “1″ key and the “5″ key are the longest distance you will have to move any of your fingers, and that is hardly a stretch).

I will admit, it’s not quite perfect, but it is close, and if there is one complaint to make, and it is small, it is that the keys sometimes are a bit tough. That’s not all bad, as it means it is built for some decent amount of wear and tear, but at times I will have to repress a key because I didn’t quite hit it hard enough the first time, this happens pretty rarely, but it can be an annoyance when it does.

Overall there should be no reason that you don’t already have this, it’s well worth the money you’ll put into it and more and will probably increase your action and reaction time in any game.

A few days ago I did something stupid. Rather than wallow in my own idiocy i decided to use this as a chance to test out just how good or bad the NCSoft support staff really is. Here’s the breakdown of what happened.

• At 2:26 on the 21st I sent an e-mail to the support address detailing my problem. Within that minute I got an automatic response back with a bunch of links to various answers that they believed might help me. None of them could as I required talking to an actual person, but it was a nice gesture and the selection actually seemed to be at least decently relevant to the question I had asked which was a plus.
• At 2:56, 30 minutes later, I got a response from a GM. He notified me that it wasn’t within his power to help me, but he would forward the request on to the Account Support team. I thought that this response time was pretty good but, given that I had already picked the Account support department when I was filling out the form to e-mail them I felt this was more like an extra layer of filtering rather than a necessity. I’m not going to really complain to much about it though, as I can understand the need to direct questions to the proper place since not all people will know what to do. All in all, a fast response which made me happy.
• At 5:28 that same day (two and a half hours later) I got a response from a member of the Account Support team who requested that I send along some additional information so he could help. Once again I thought this was a good response time and the response clearly outlined what I needed to do, no real confusion so they are definitely doing things good so far.
• I responded to that message at 8:12 of the same day (the 21st) with the information they had requested. That ended the first day of my support issue, but, given that I had only contacted them with what they needed after business hours I can’t really hold that against them.
• On the 22nd at 11:34 AM I got a response back letting me know that they could do this for me as a one-time thing (my understanding is that this is the normal one-time grace they will allow any account, as doing it more than once is just because the account holder isn’t listening/doesn’t care). Once again the response was within a good time and I responded to that message at 11:36 AM accepting their offer.
• At 1:35 PM I got another response back which said I was being redirected once again to a different department which could actually process what was needed. I was told, due to the high volume of requests I should expect a response within two to three business days. At this point I was a bit unhappy as I really didn’t feel like waiting around for two or three days but there wasn’t really anything I could do so I just went ahead and started doing other things.
• That night, at 6:48 PM I got a response from the new team giving me all the necessary information I needed to set up the account as I had wanted to. I was fairly impressed by this as it really didn’t take them very long at all to get back to me. In total, it took them just over 24 hours to complete the support process, very good considering they obviously aren’t working 24 hours a day.

So, all told the NCSoft support staff, in particular the Guild Wars support team, did an excellent job. A little bit of hopping around from department to department so I was never left dealing with any given person for very long but every person I dealt with was pleasant enough and very fast to respond.

Final Score for NCSoft’s Customer Support: 8/10

So I finished off my free 7 day trial of ROSE Online, leveled up a bit playing, did what I could and now I’ve been having trouble deciding what to say. Normally it isn’t really that difficult to say a game is good or isn’t, but I’ve been having trouble here because, well, the game is good, but it also isn’t. Yes, that’s a contradiction and I apologize, but I’ll try to explain it a bit.

First of all, it’s very similar in presentation to Fly for Fun from Gala-Net. That being said, it may, graphically speaking, be even a little smoother looking, but the general style is the same. Now, given, the translation (or the fact that it isn’t I suppose) makes the English text for quests/NPC’s etc. much more natural, where as Fly for Fun has some…odd sentence structure.

I’m really not overly fond of comparing the two games so closely, but when it comes down to it, they are very similar so I really can’t think of a better way to explain things. Now, for the thing that I really hate to say..I can’t recommend paying for this game. Given that it has a monthly subscription fee, and Fly for Fun doesn’t, I think Fly for Fun is the better deal. It’s (at least) as good a game as ROSE Online (possibly better) and it’s free to play so when it comes down to it, the investment you make into FlyFF only needs to be time, and ROSE Online requires time and money.

ROSE Online, Gravity Interactive

I just got finished playing through the tutorial and a little bit of time spent in the actual game and I must say that I am in love with it. There is only one thing that could make this game better, a joystick. If I could use a joystick this game would be unmatched in sheer awesomeness.

First off, the training stages, which teach the basics of flight, are definitely a necessity if you are just starting out. Unlike other games with “tutorial” sections I wouldn’t recommend skipping this, you’ll need it.

If you are wondering about graphics think Phantasy Star Online-esque. At least that’s the impression I got from my play time. To put it simply the graphics look pretty great (and the ship models are pretty cool looking as well).

The control is a bit loose at times (which is why I would love a joystick) so targeting and actually hitting enemies is a challenge, but it definitely gives the feel of an actual dogfight, the combat is fast-paced and I have, more than once, flew by my opponent and had to quickly turn around.

I haven’t leveled up quite enough to talk to much about those systems (only a few times) but it seems fairly simple and straightforward. The character models are a bit scarce (less than a dozen I think) so there isn’t a great deal of customization in that part, and their are only a few different gear models (ships) but they can be upgraded and changed a bit, so that’s not such a big deal.

All in all the game is great, in areas that it lacks it makes up for simply based on how much fun you are going to have when playing it.

After you go and download this game (which you should) look me up. I’m on the Hovernmus server, character “Sychie”.

Space Cowboy Online, Gala-Net, GPotato

I’ve been playing the game for a coupe of days now, picking up on things here and there, and I have to say, it is quite fun. I’m not going to lie, and say it’s the best MMO I’ve ever played, but it is a lot of fun and well worth the time it takes to download.

The graphics are certainly nothing special, they aren’t bad by any means (they remind me of Rose Online, for those who’ve played that) they just aren’t top of the line, jaw-dropping graphics. They do have a certain simple charm though, and, animations and spell effects may not be breathtaking, but they are effective and run nicely even without a high-end video card.

The combat is fairly simple, double click to attack, use some of the abilities/skills you’ve gained, and monsters fall fairly easily. I haven’t yet gotten high enough to gain many abilities, nor have I leveled up enough to change classes from what you start as, so I can’t comment on how that works (though it does seem interesting and I’m eager to find out how it works.)

One thing that I have found to be a bit annoying is the control, which is a bit to loose at some points and to tight at others, it doesn’t hurt anything badly per se, but it does cause some aggravation at times.

Overall, I’m happy with what I’ve seen so far, and will definitely continue playing.

Next up is Space Cowboy Online, which I just got a chance to install last night. Hopefully I’ll get to playing that, and posting my comments, soon.

Fly for Fun, Gpotato, Gala-Net

So the next WoW this is not, but it’s still a fun and interesting diversion from time to time. What am I referring to? Maple Story. It’s an interesting game, 2D, side scrolling and, best of all, completely free to play. Head over to the site for the sign-up and download (make sure to use Internet Explorer only at the moment). The system is nothing to incredible, fight monsters, do some quests, level up and increase stats/abilities. Choose a job class (warrior, bowman, thief and magician) and get new skills based on that.

Your game of choice down for maintenance for a bit? Give Maple Story a try in the downtime, if nothing else you’ll watch an hour or so go by as you mess around in the game world.

The game looks really good as well. Obviously its 2D and you won’t see any eye-popping graphics, but the art is well done and the animations for the characters and others work. The music isn’t exactly Beethoven but it isn’t to horribly annoying if you aren’t listening to something else anyway.

The quests and such are pretty much standard RPG fare, kill this monster, gather this item, take this item to this person, etc. but it’s amusing enough that, though repetitive, it’s still fun.

If you’ve got some time to kill, go ahead and download it, it’s well worth the couple MB space it will take up.