I Am A Student Again

For many,  starting school  in a couple of months is just back to the old grind, but for me it is an experience that I have not had in more than twenty years.

I did take one class in 1999, but before that it was all the way back in “ancient-history” to 1989 that I had my full load of college courses.  The last time I walked the halls of GVSU, the first satellites of GPS were being launched; Pete Rose was reported to have a gambling problem; the Iran-Contra affair was in the news, the Tienanmen Square protests were occurring; and Daniel Radcliffe, of Harry Potter’s fame, was just born. In 1989 the 486DX was king coming in at a hefty 25 mhz — and I remember dreaming of owning a Macintosh IIx (churning away at 16 mhz)!  Even more stunning, is that when I lasted attended GVSU it was not a university, but only a mere college — alas so much has changed!

Back then  I was young, naive, and still very impressionable.  Now I am a older than some professors,  knowing less than the freshmen, and jaded and conceited to the world.  I just  hope it is like riding a bike, because I am a full of trepidation about going back to school, studying for tests, and getting graded once again!?!

I am utterly stunned at how university life has changed in the last 20 years — when last I went, there  wasn’t cell phones, laptops, or even the internet. Sure they were around, but the size and bulk of the technology was beyond most student’s affordability and even strength.

I will return to a classroom full of students, who most were not even born when I was a student. I will be the one gray spot in the sea of youth.  Maybe the youth will rejuvenate me again?

For the kids returning to school, there will be the moans of getting back to studying, but for me I am excited to once again step on the road to academic fulfillment. I am thrilled and can hardly wait to get out to school and see the hustle and bustle of campus life.

I am switching majors in the fall. I am no longer pursuing a life of Film and Video (do they even have Film anymore?) and looking towards History. I understand that there is not as much possibility for jobs as a History major, but I must seek out a degree that I am enthused about. Perhaps I will go into teaching, or maybe work for a library or museum, or a computer/multimedia company specializing in historical products. I am not sure where this degree will lead me, nor where my journey will end.

Villains & Vigilantes Return

Hey everyone I implore you to check out this new site: http://www.monkeyhousegames.com/

My good friends Jack Hermann and Jeff Dee have finally wrestled control of the quintessential super hero RPG back and now plan on re-releasing a new game manual and some or all of the original content.

I am excited because I wrote three adventure manuals for the game back in the early to mid 80’s. I look forward to the re-release of The Devil’s Domain, Return to the Devil’s Domain, and Most Wanted III.

APB Looks Stunning

APB is the greatest looking MMO I have ever seen. All I can say is Wow — and not as in World of Warcraft. All Point Bulletin is the newest game from Realtime Worlds and Electronic Arts.

The game takes place an imaginary city of San Padro, where the players become an “Enforcer” [good guy] or a “Criminal” [bad guy] but I must admit I tried an enforcer and seemed just as bad as the criminals most of the time.

The tension in the game comes into view when opposing forces do missions against each other — it is like a quest but with the twist that there are players working against you.

To stop the unwanted bloodshed in the game, the developers limited who you can shoot to just the people against you for that quest. At first I didn’t think that idea would work, but now I am convinced that it does.

The other really fun aspect of the game is that while me and my comrades (and the criminals) are doing a quest, so are several other groups doing the same. And we all interact with each other — gun battles rage around me, screeching tires and cars smashing into each other, total mayhem in the city of San Padro.

I found so much of the world is destructible from windows, signs, fire hydrants, plants, statues, and a whole list of other objects in the world. Of course, not every object can be damaged but the world seems so much more vibrant than most games today. I would like them to go a step farther and allow me to enter all the buildings and better sit down at chairs and interact with mundane objects in the world (maybe later 🙂 ).

The missions in the game (ala quests) aren’t all that original, with most is just go here and secure that, then bring here sort of thing. It is the opposing team’s mission of course to thwart you on it that makes for the fun. The pull and tug of objectives, all the while in a team vs. team environment is what makes the game exciting. I found that they also stretched the mission points across the map, so one has to use vehicles very exciting too — I am constantly “commandeering” a citizen’s car to zoom off to the next fighting spot.

I haven’t played enough to truly realize the penalty of death — right now it seems to be a 7 second delay in the game but I am sure that will change. Rewards come in ingame objects, money, and what appears to be “real world money” that you can swap out for exactly that — real money. I would be amazed if this part of the game stays in, and if it would be possible to actually acrue enough real world money to make it possible to spend it (other than on penny candy and gum).

The physics seem very convincing — too many games I have seen ragdoll physics that are over the top and just plain dumb. Fallen Earth, for example, is like that. Decent little game but the physics in the game are stupid and a pure joke. APB are all within relative norms — If I “accidently” hit a person they go bouncing off the car and roll a good distance down the road, but not crazy nor unbelievable.

Firefights and battle also seem very well balanced. I am not a very good PvP player but I did get some hits and kills on others, though I died probably more than I killed. The weapons seem very realistic and plentiful — as a matter of fact, there seems to be allot of different objects to own and use in the game. I had some troubles initially equipping items, mostly clothing items and I am still a bit vague on how to do this. Perhaps they need a better tutorial on that.

I am still learning the game but sadly I am almost out of time to play — I must only have a few hours demo of it (which sucks) but I guess I have made my determination if I will try it or not (perhaps what the developers wanted). If the game is not too expensive, I may give it a go for a couple of months.

Bottom Line: If you can get a free access key, you MUST play it. If you have to buy the game, I give it two thumbs up. I have not played a smoother, richer, more intriguing game in years.

Troy

The Summer Blues

I wonder why I have been in such a state of the Summer blues? I keep a journal of my work on MMOs, role-playing games, and posts to other sites and I have noticed over the last month the number of entries has dropped significantly. In late Winter and early Spring my daily count of ideas and posts were significant. For whatever reason I am once again in a doll drum.

In the early spring I was playing Everquest II fervently but wanted to move away from the game. My thoughts was that if I didn’t play so much of the game, I would have more time to develop my own games and post more on other blog sites. I am unsure if the two are linked in some way, but now I have plenty of opportunity and have no drive to do so.

I remember how good I felt that day I finally said, “enough was enough” and broke the chains of my MMO compulsion. I look back to early February when I dared blowing winds and icy snow to go to a local game shop to play my game — now it is perfect weather and I have no desire to go down there. Back in the Winter I was writing ten pages a day on my new game Bloodbath II, but now can’t hardly even look at the text! Podcasting was back in the forefront of my mind and I looked forward to banging out episodes with my friend Karen — for the last six weeks I have not even listened to a podcast.

I wonder when this will end? I have been thinking that if I got back in MMOs perhaps my creativity would return, although last week I tried a couple of games (WoW and Everquest II) and not much happened. Although, I have posted twice on my blog and have actually started looking at my Bloodbath text again, so perhaps there is hope?!?

I just hope I don’t waste the summer doing nothing, and getting nothing accomplished.

I seem to be in a funk again, with great ideas bubbling in the brain but not the gears to set it in motion.

WoW vs. Everquest 2; Returning Player Perspective

Last week I had the opportunity to try 10 days of WoW and also three days of Everquest 2. I played both games, familiarizing myself with the world and controls, then sat back and waited to see what game would draw me back.

I was really impressed with both the gameplay and styles of play that both had. Everquest 2 had so much going for it since I was only just recently unplugged from the daily regiment of playing the game. WoW was fresh and offered so much to explore since all of my characters were in the low 30s, 40s, and 50s.

I played each trying to decide on which game I should return.

In the end, I decided that both games were fun, but not fun enough to resubscribe. Even though I chided Sony for its silly subscription model of 3 days for five bucks, I guess I will take that over the 15 dollars a month that Wow or a traditional Everquest 2 subscription offers.

With two accounts with Sony, I can alternate (if I so desire) every couple of weeks and play a different set of guys. Also with some of the new rule changes (e.g. every character can now use the Research Assistants) it makes it fun to return every couple of week to pick up my masters.

So in the end, both games lose out but with a caveat that Sony will at least get 5 or 10 dollars a month from me.

WoW is really cool, but I found I was too far removed from the game to try and get back into it — seemed like the entire population was on the high level end and no one was there to start over.

Why Blizzard Succeeds

For a prologue to this story, I ask you to read the article below concerning Sony and their inability to offer service.  In Blizzard’s case I stumbled across a disk buried deep in an old file cabinet; I had not played World of Warcraft for more than 2 years but with nothing more than my credentials I loaded the game and was in the world within a couple of hours.

Sony on the other hand knows how to take my money but hasn’t figured out how to provide me with me any service.  Calling up Sony I get this ridiculous message of a guy stammering and hiccuping over the fact that they know of a problem but can’t figure out how to solve it.   I wonder if my three day pass will start from the moment I purchased the plan, or the time when I first log in (which hasn’t happened yet).

Blizzard just has the capabilities to offer a service and deliver.  Their presentation of their product is completely professional and very vibrant.  Sony seems to suffer from the “two man show” syndrome — the one guy never knows what the other guy is doing.

My return to WoW has been interesting, but I have not enjoyed it as much as I had hope.  I have many characters but it is hard to get back in the groove, although I admit I have spent less than a couple of hours playing the game.

This weekend will determine where my next year will be spent — in Everquest II or in World of Warcraft.

Judgments to come on Monday!

Everquest II’s 3-Day Pass

OK, everyone knows I am at heart a Sony fan, though I admit I get angry at them on a regular basis.  I had been on a high over the last several months railing them for a horrible expansion and lackluster quests.  I thought I was finally over my anger and the itch to play the game was returning.

I have not played since really early April, though my account did continue until May.  I told myself I was going to take a break for awhile and let my Everquest battteries recharge.

In the past I had received an email proclaiming Sony’s new alternate subscription plan, a 3-day passport that was non-recurring.  It sounded like just the teaspoon of Everquest deliciousness that I needed — nothing long term and nothing too expensive.  This morning I woke up extra early so I could update the game and get all my characters fielded for the weekend to play.

After charging my credit card and receiving a notice that Sony had accepted payment, I tried to log in.  I was met with the error: “You Have No Subscription to This Game!”

I went back to my accounting page and sure enough I was active, so once again I reloaded Everquest II and put in my credentials.  Again, I was told I had no subscription.

I did learn from the Forum (before my post was blocked and deleted) that they were experiencing problems linking accounts to the 3-day passport.  Strange, they didn’t have any problems TAKING my money but they do have a PROBLEM giving me the services I purchased!

I also learned that for us East coast players we have to wait until 1 pm to get any sort of customer service support via phones.  Now I have to spend my day trying to get through to someone over there to make sure my account is updated — since you know they don’t work the weekends (unlike some of us).  If I don’t specifically call them, I know what will happen. I won’t have access for the entire weekend and basically flushed 5 bucks down the drain.

Again, I wish this could have gone over better so I could start healing my Sony wounds, but now they have been scratched open again.  I must say I am livid right now that they screwed me like this.

Perhaps tomorrow I will update this post, if things go better tonight.

After waiting an hour, I finally got through to them (to a nice guy named Victor) and he honestly told me that the service is broken and there was no ETA but that my passport would be pro-rated for the full three days.  We shall see. . .

Troy