*sigh* Damn blog memes. Thanks Tobold. :)

Herewith, then, are five things you probably don’t know about me:

1. I ran over an old woman with her own truck. True story.
   
2. I graduated from a college with no grades - It’s true. The Evergreen State College offers a four-year undergraduate program with two unique attributes: Individual classes are interdisciplinary, and rely on evaluations for benchmarking. This is a fancy way of saying that I only took one course a quarter, and that course covered all aspects of a particular topic. The Evolutionary Biology course I took my junior year, for example, required a lab component, in-depth literary analysis of evolution texts, and a strong writing commitment. Instead of grades, I got a piece of paper with a description of how I’d done over the previous ten weeks. While I certainly don’t recommend it for everyone, I found that I got a lot out of it.
3. I’m ‘no good’ at playing Massive games - Actually, you probably already knew that from comments I’ve made on the site, but just to put it into words: I’m not a ‘good’ player. I’m actually not that great a gamer in general; a little writing talent and a little gaming talent go a long way in the right shoes. I have a lot more enthusiasm for the genre than I do actual successes in playing. I’ve never been a regular end-game raider, and I can only name two titles where I hit the level cap. I don’t have the focus or dedication to stick with one game at a time, and the patience required to be a good guild member escapes me. It’s funny, because a lot of times I feel like just what my about box says: ‘an enthusiastic cheerleader’. I’m not qualified to build or play, so all I can do is shout encouragement from the sidelines.
4. I used to be a programmer - Not a very good one, but that was what I was. My formal training in school made me ‘qualified’ to work on the backend system of an ordering company for university book stores. My interests lay in the direction of web programming, so I eventually graduated to working on the web front end for the ordering system; two long years of working with true Java in college resulted in salvery over hot Javascript in a soulless corporate environment. When I gave notice with my supervisor, he was happy that I was getting out.
5. I wrote a chapter, in a book, on Massive Games - I’m admitting this in tune with some of the other statements other folks have made, copping to things they’re not all that proud of. I will admit to having written the bulk of chapter 3 in the book Gaming Hacks. Specifically, I wrote hacks 28 - 33: Practice Proper MMORPG Etiquette, Understand MMORPG Lingo, Grind Without Going Crazy, Make a Profit in Vana’diel, Write MMORPG Macros, and Building an Effective Group. Looking through what I wrote just two years ago, I wonder about my grip on reality back then. Bah.

Now, like a fast zombie, I have to tag people to keep the meme going. In the interests of getting him to respond, I’ll join Abalieno and the Freeman in tagging Foton. I’ll also join Lum in tapping Damion. More originally, I reach my arms of horror out to Van Hemlock, Tony, and Alice. See now what you’ve done Raph? It’s spreading beyond the MMOGBlogosphere. Now nothing can contain it. NOTHING!

A few days ago, for Christmas, I talked about what I want to happen in the future of MMOGs. Now I’m going to run down a few things that I think actually will happen in the coming year. I’m going to do this as a series of general statements, with the idea being I’ll score myself around this time next year. I’m just a guy, of course, and I expect a number of them will be very wrong. That’s the fun of this, though, right?

1. Burning Problems - The launch of the expansion to World of Warcraft is going to cause Blizzard bigtime headaches. Their advances over the last six months with server downtime and queues will be temporarily wiped out as everyone who cancelled their account reups to check out the new content. Eventually, this will result in even more impressive subscriptions for the game, as new people get hooked by the hoopla, but in the short term it will cost Blizzard some good will. Update 02/2007: Wrong. Launch went flawlessly.
2. That Not So Fresh Feeling - At least one of the MMOGs slated to launch this year is going to end up being kind of a stinker; reviewers and players who turn away from the game will do so because of ’stale gameplay’. The same-old-same-old of Massive games is already old hat, and just because it has shiny graphics doesn’t mean it’s going to do that well.
3. Less Is Better Than More - The monthly fee-less games will continue to gain in popularity in 2007. With Dungeon Runners and Guild Wars both proving out NCSoft’s wisdom, other companies will begin to consider changing up the usual box-and-a-monthly-sub costs. At least one major U.S. Massive game will offer a substantially different payment setup than the monthly subscription by the end of the year.
4. Raph’s Rabbit - Whatever Raph has planned will prove to be an eyebrow raiser. Even if it’s not the Next Big Thing, Areae’s product announcement will end up sounding like a pretty good deal and will be a constant topic of conversation towards the end of the year. We won’t see whatever it is live in 2007. Update 09/2007: They announced Metaplace. Right on the ‘not live in 2007′, not sure it’s had the splash yet.
5. Later is Worse Than Sooner - One of the big MMOGs slated for release ’soon’ or in 2007 is not going to make it out this year. Whatever game it is, gamers will increasingly think of it as a lost cause, and you’ll see less public interest in the game going forward. MMOG players will have a lot to distract them this year, and anyone who isn’t doing laps is going to be sinking.
6. Bio-Shocking - Whatever Bioware has planned is going to make people really excited. Like “I Want the game to come out now” excited. We’re not going to get so much as a trailer until the end of the year, and interviews with the development team will continue to make jaded MMOG players and designers scornful.
7. Beggar’s Canyon -Â SOE is finally going to get off its ass and do *something* with Star Wars Galaxies. They’ll can it, they’ll announce a new expansion for it, they’ll totally revamp some aspect of the game … something. Whatever it is will either save the game or be the final nail for an already strung out player base.
8. Ever Awesome - 2007 will be the year EverQuest 2 finally gets its due. Good fallout from Faydwer and hype for the next expansion, as well as players looking for an alternative from WoW, will swell the ranks of SOE’s flagship. We’ll start hearing boastful subscription numbers out of them, as they start to get back into the range EQ Live inhabited back in the good old days a few years back.
9. Newbie - A company that has, as of yet, not published a Massive game will announce their intention to do so. They’ll promise the moon, and will have already failed and announced the end of the project by December.
10. Fallout Fallout - The Fallout MMOG will be canceled, with little explanation as to what happened.
11. In Space … - Eve Online will continue to do crazy-awesome well, with their end-of-year numbers at the end of 2007 simply blowing peoples minds. Their cellphone skill/trading app will be very successful, and the company will announce and possibly release another expansion in the next 12 months. CCP will announce the particulars of their White Wolf MMOG by the end of the year.
12. Gutshot - The release of one of the new generation of heavyweights will prove devastating to a member of the old guard. A game we all think of today as stable and healthy will be a shadow of its former self by the end of the year.

2007’s Winners: Warhammer Online, Eve Online, EverQuest 2, Guild Wars
2007’s Losers: Star Wars Galaxies, Gods and Heroes, Vanguard, Dark Age of Camelot Update: 10/2007 Wish I’d been wrong about Gods and Heroes.

As of just a little while ago, the last 2006 chapter in the MMOG Nation Citizen Spotlight series should have gone up on GameSetWatch.  Today we’ve got a look at The Cesspit, a hive of MMOG design scum and villainy if ever there was one. Abalieno has an extremely enthusiastic muse, and thus when you ask him a ’simple’ question like ‘What games are you looking forward to?’, he has a tendency to respond in detail. In the interests of readability, the GameSetWatch post has an edited version of our interview; here, I have no such restrictions. For the complete and unedited word from the man, please feel free to read on.
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A quick list of what I’d love as gifts. Feel free to put your own pie-in-the-sky wishes into the comments.

• “Firefly” and Marvel MMOGs that live up to expectations.
• New and exciting PvP options in World of Warcraft. Past time for new Battlegrounds, doncha think?
• A swift stabilization of the WoW servers after BC launches.
• RvR in Warhammer Online that lives up to Mythic’s promises.
• Entertainment in the continuation of my adventures in Norrath.
• Continued success for Guild Wars and the quirky no-subscription titles from NCSoft.
• Ongoing patience from Simon Carless with my ‘MMOG Nation’ column at GameSetWatch.
• Even more acceptance of Massive games by the mainstream — more WoW in-jokes in prominent places.
• Another really great Machinima series set in a Massive game, and/or the second episode of Illegal Danish.
• A non-combat MMOG that gets more than a handful of players interested.
• The skinny on what the hell Raph is doing.
• A MMOG I can recommend to my Mom.
• New Massive games from Square Enix and Blizzard; the announcement of a MMOG by Ubisoft.
• The inside info on what the hell Bioware is doing.
• For Bioware to make a new Star Wars MMOG. :)

Yeah … some are more likely than others. It’s Christmas, though, right? ;)
Merry Christmas, everybody!

Psychochild’s homework assignment this week concerned innovative games:

What is one of the most innovative console games from the last 2 years? What is one of the least innovative console games during the last 2 years? Focus on console games, if you will. But, if you’re not a console gamer a PC game is fine. Give your rationale for your choices. Pick at least one, but you can go up to 5.

I appreciated the easy week, what with the holiday and all. /me tips his hat.

Here are my choices for most innovative games of the last two years:

1. Half-Life 2: Episode One (PC) - As much as I’ve grown to love my consoles (especially my 360), I’m still a PC man at heart. HL2 gets my nod for best game of the year, most innovative … everything you can throw at it, this three our four hour beauty deserves it. The reason? Two words: Alyx Vance. I have never cared about an NPC the way I did during Episode One. She’s funny, she’s responsive, she’s helpful … what could have been a multi-hour escort mission was instead far, far too short for me. Can you imagine how great Oblivion would have been if every character were as convincing as Alyx? Or if mobs in a massive game could physically interact with your avatar in the way Alyx did with the zombies and ant lions? This, right here, is ‘next generation’ gaming. Valve beat everybody to the punch, and has set a very very high standard for the rest of the industry to follow.
2. Resident Evil 4 (GameCube) - Just *barely* making it in under the two year mark, RE4 is a shooter that is going to go down in the annals of gaming as a watershed moment. This game was one of the best titles ever released on the GameCube, a complete reinvigoration of the Resident Evil franchise, and has entirely set the tone for modern shooters. A lot of the goodness from Gears of War came from filing the serial numbers off of RE4. Plus, it was fricking scary, and it’s getting harder and harder to get actual fear out of gamers today. We’re kind of a jaded lot, you know?
3. Kirby: Canvas Curse (DS) - I could have just as easily picked Brain Age, or Nintendogs, or any other of a number of really great and innovative games for the DS. All things considered, though, I really like Kirby. The control scheme is unlike anything else I’ve ever played, and is one of the first titles that hit the system where the touch screen was obviously a centerpiece of the design. The system has gone on to great landmarks like Elite Beat Agents and Trauma Center, but I remember it all started with a little pink ball of fluff.
4. Burnout 3: Takedown (Xbox) - I really don’t like racing games, or sports games, or anything with folks ‘pushing it to the limit’. The fact that I have been gaffed like a fish by EA’s yearly ‘release a new game’ schedule, and on a driving game no less, surprised me greatly. I even traded in Burnout 4 for the new 360 version when I had the opportunity; I bought the game twice. The reality of it is that Burnout isn’t a racing game so much as a game about speed. You go fast, you fly far, you blow things up. Criterion took the sport of racing and stripped away everything about it that was unimportant. In doing so, this wonderful minimalist leftover is the perfect way to let off some aggression and grab yourself a bit of easy satisfaction.
5. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (360) - While the game itself has some definite flaws, the innovations involved in going from Morrowind to Oblivion have to be respected. Even if the NPCs weren’t all Alyx Vance, their individual goals and motivations set them apart from the usual sword-fodder. Bringing the ‘GTA’ concept to roleplaying is going to be something we’ll see copied a lot in future years, and that’s just the point; innovative games lead to ripoffs because they’re just so dang good.

My choices for the least innovative games of the last two years:

1. Blinx 2: Masters of Time and Space (Xbox)- Sweet jesus on a stick. ‘Time manipulation’ is something that got popular in Ubi’s Prince of Persia series, and then showed up here in horrible horrible forms that man was never meant to play. You’re a time traveling cat, you see, who is fighting against the evil pigs for control of the chronospectrum. Also features the most ludicrously over-developed cat person creator you’re ever likely to see. This is deep, like Tony Hawk deep, and allows you to make your own Cat-Man. *shudder*
2. Black (PS2) - There have been a lot of bad shooters in the last two years, but Black takes the cake for ‘tries to do a lot and fails at everything’. The concept of ‘Gun Porn’, which is what Criterion was going for here, just fails utterly; bullets are just not that interesting.
3. We Love Katamari (PS2) - I liked the first one, I thought it was pretty cool. Self-referential humor, and completely uninspiring attempts at ’story’ do not improve upon the original design.
4. Dead or Alive 4 (360) - The ‘fighter’ genre is dead. Get over it. Please.

Please argue with me in the comments; surely I’m wrong about something? :)

A full year has turned, and once again I’ve got an article in The Escapist. Last year’s Games of Christmas Past was a heartfelt effort that I was really glad I could get out there. This year, to be honest, my piece is just set dressing for the issue. It’s not a big deal, I don’t mind writing fluff. Unfortunately, there was so little room for my fluff this year that pretty much everything I was trying to say with the article was left on the editing room floor. The realities of a gaming magazine. No biggie. I still think it turned out pretty well.

During the holidays, when the games themselves change to reflect the season, it’s a great chance to reconnect with what makes them fun to play. It’s not the raiding, and it’s certainly not the epic loot. The reason we play World of Warcraft or Star Wars Galaxies is the same reason we travel home for the holidays: We need to connect with people that can make a difference in our lives.

Thankfully, the realities of blogging means I can bring you the parts of the article The Escapist didn’t pay for. If you’d like to read the full version of my article, go ahead and open up a tab to the piece on the site: Going Home for the Holidays. Then, read on below to get the rest of the article. I hope you enjoy this ‘writer’s cut’ of the article, and are looking forward to a good Holiday season yourself. :)
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Van Hemlock (who I’ve been enjoying so much of late that I added him to my blogroll) talks a little bit today about the role of achievement in MMOGs. Specifically, he’s discussing the great support for that axis on the Bartle graph within Everquest 2. That’s hardly a surprise, given the tendency towards achieving the average MMOGer has, but it tied in interestingly with comments by EGM editor-in chief Dan Hsu. This past weekend he talked about how much he loves Achivements on the Xbox 360, and how surprising that was for him as a gamer.

I really like Achievements on the 360 too, and not just because I like flashing my epeen. In a lot of ways, I see the Achievements system as a spotlight. Good Achievements lead you to places you might not have gone before, or push you into experiences you may not have otherwise had. I like to think of them as the designer shining a spotlight on a part of the game and saying ‘Hey dummy, this is fun!’ This gets into a grey area with multiplayer games, unfortunately, as a lot of the Achievements in (say) Gears of War are all about killing a whole whole bunch of people; this is purely epeen territory and is kinda boring.

But, I digress. These two commentaries reminded me of my time playing FFXI on the 360 earlier this year. I loved FFXI all to pieces during my time with it on the PC, and getting to actually play it on a console with a controller (like it was more or less intended) was a smashing time. Even if, really, I didn’t understand why they were releasing it on the 360. Something I didn’t touch on in my review, as I was aiming for brevity, was the lack of Achievements for the game. In this regard FFXI is completely unique for the 360’s launch lineup. Every other game had Achievements, and subsequent game launches have proven out Microsoft’s intention for the vast majority of 360 titles to have Achievements.

This lack, then, is glaring and ultimately frustrating. I picked back up my FFXI account via the 360 (thanks to Square/Enix for doing the right thing there, btw), and my little Taru Black Mage began waddling his way around the world again. During the course of play, I actually dinged 40 … and was very disappointed when I didn’t get that very distinctive blip and notice on my screen. I’m sure there is a perfectly good (technical) reason why your character couldn’t be linked up with the 360’s achievement system; that doesn’t mean I’m not disappointed. I know it’s a little thing, but … c’mon. I’m human! More than once I’ve lamented the fact that my time playing Oblivion was entirely on the PC. I would have loved to get some of those sweet, sweet Achievements for being an RPG badass. Anybody can frag somebody; how many people can claim to be a Dark Brotherhood Listener? I can, but I can’t ‘look back on it with pride’ because I don’t have it on my gamertag.

When other MMOGs reach the shores of the 360, this has to be corrected. It’s a requirement. Huxley, Conan … I don’t care how it is to hook your broke-ass character database up to Xbox Live, I want my gamer candy. I want a little popup for having whacked the foozles, and I want a popup for having FedExed. I’m a 360 owner, dangit, but I want my validation for camping a spawn, getting phat lewt, and not being a n00b.

I may be the only one, of course, but I may be the only one who liked the City of Heroes and Star Wars Galaxies badge systems too. At the time I left CoH I had every site seeing badge I could get my sweaty paws around. I also did the Imperial Theme Park when really the only reason to do it was to get the badge. Again, I don’t care if anyone else ever sees these things. I want to be able to look back at my badges and remember that awesome time I did the Trick or Treating missions at Halloween, or the time I helped a bunch of people find that place on Tatooine and earned myself the “Ben Kenobi’s Old Home” badge.

This is wandering off topic slightly (and has given me an idea for another post), so I’ll wrap it up with this: The 360 is going to be a platform for MMOGs. You know it, Microsoft knows it … so they’ve got to get serious with things here. As gamers we’ve come to expect certain things from Xbox Live, and if they don’t deliver we’re going to be frustrated. Given how new MMOGs on consoles are, I think it would behoove the Live team to get this part right. Make sure we get Achievements when we do cool things on your console, Microsoft; MMOG gamers need a little validation too.