FailedSuccess.com has a piece talking about Frontier 1859, a MMOG I haven’t heard anything about since back in my MMORPGDot days. It sounds like they’re actually gearing up for a launch. GamerGod had a two part interview with the developer a little while ago. Always nice to hear that indie games are still out there and breathing.

Already? Already. The Dragon’s Vault will have a raid, 15 new dungeons, and an actual dragon! Now, as Kill Ten Rats jokes, they can be called Dungeons and Dragon. Just one more and they’re accurately named.

From the release:

The new dungeons provide a variety of additional content for players of all levels in the game. Turbine announced today that the Dragon’s Vault module will be free of charge for all current DDO subscribers as a way to say “thank you” to all of its fans. Turbine also declared its plans to release additional modules over time that include new content, features, and other improvements to the hit MMOG.

I love that they’re calling them modules. That’s just classy. I hope to have something up on Slash tomorrow on this game. I hope. I’m so conflicted.

Psychochild had a post up at the end of last month talking about the value of being in the credits for a game. More than just a ‘Hey mom look what I did’ trophy on the wall, credits prove to future employers that Kilroy was really there. Jason Booth, over on his site, talks about the crappy way Turbine handled Dungeons and Dragons Online’s credits. If you weren’t there at retail launch, no credit for you. Even if you wrote like half the code or were responsible for most of the design.

Sometimes, given the creative nature required to make good games, it’s disconnecting to hear stories like this. There are some people I’ve met who don’t follow gaming news that seem to be under the impression making games is like a big party all the time. Designers are these really creative people who get to sit around all day just thinking stuff up while looking at the ceiling, and programmers get to play with really cool technology and stuff. I will even admit; Within the last five years the thought of going into game design was appealing.

Thankfully over a year of reporting on the industry has cracked that nut but good. I’ll take my little corner of the universe, full of story-stealing blogs and prima donna reporters, over the soul-crush of game creation.

As a final DDO-related note, I intended to have a review up on Friday for the game but decided to push it back. I’m really wrestling with what I think of the final product. There’s good and bad there, to be sure, but overall it’s just not what I want in a game. I think I can get that across well enough, but I have to also think of what others might like about it. Bah, writing.

The n3rfed blog is breathing again, and Cosmik has a great post from his time abroad poking at the design stereotypes of Western MMOGs. From the piece:

We’re so intent on feeding the bottom line that we resign ourselves to churning out the next clone even when we’ve had our fill. We’re taught to fear chance or change, and dismiss anything that doesn’t fit our mould. We look for validation, not inspiration.

There’s a huge Non-Level Non-Skill Non-Fantasy market out there waiting to be tapped for both monetary and enjoyment value. It’s no rumor of a secret southern counterweight continent (hah, who would believe that?) – it’s true.

We say the Japanese with their stylized arcade and action themed online games are crazy.

Are we not in fact the crazy ones?

Sounds familiar somehow.

Tobold has a piece pondering the revamping of several high-end dungeons as 5 and 10 man instances. By restricting more than five folks from entering places like Blackrock Depths, it’s going to make them much more of a challenge. Tobolds worries (quick logically I think) that this is going to put off casual players who may not have the gear to hold their own or the connections to do more than a pick-up group. A PUG in BRD sounds like a really time consuming way to die over and over again.

In another ‘huh?’ moment, Blizzard has apparently stuck it to the pirates. Fans of the Bloodsail Buccaneers won’t be able to upgrade their shiny armor set pieces because the quest to do so starts in a goblin town. Goblins, the natural enemy of the pirate in World of Warcraft.

These aren’t so much poorly thought-out decisions as they are decisions with somewhat narrow vision. Course, I play a paladin so I’m not really one to talk.

Heartless has a rant up calling for the death of Star Wars Galaxies. As someone who has called for an SOE title to be put into sunset himself, I’m not going to question his choice of topic. An announcement on the forums a few days ago spurred me to put down what I thought of the game, and H’s comments made me think it might be a good idea to put them out here. So here, then, is a cathartic little piece looking at some of my experiences in Star Wars Galaxies, what I think of the game’s place in MMOGs as a whole, and why I find myself agreeing with a heartless call for its destruction. If you just want the part where I bitch about how angry I am about the game now, feel free to skip to the paragraph right before the quote.
Read more

Via Cathode Tan, the YouTube version of Colbert’s D&D sendoff. Don’t put up those dice just yet Stephen.

DDO sucks. does not live up to the reputation of the D&D game, nor to the design the Turbine folks have set out for the title.