An interview with Jeremy Soule is now up on Gamespot, following the one they had with Jason Hayes. Jeremy, if you’re not familiar with his name, is the man behind all three Guild Wars soundtracks. (Which I’ve been request-whoring all week over at SST, actually.) He also did music for KOTOR and NWN, among others. Another great piece:

GS AU: What are you working on now?

JS: Guild Wars: Eye of The North is really my big focus at this time. We’re working on some mobile and handheld games. A cell phone game for me is quite a contrast from an orchestra. You have a very limited sound palette, and it really reminds me of the old days when I was working on the Super Nintendo.

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Yeah, yeah. Here, you lookie-loos. (Click the images for super-giant closeups) -

Notes: I only buy strategy guides for Massive games, and only because … I’m kind of a collector that way. It’s a sickness. At left, top bookshelf, from right to left, that’s Lum’s book, Massively Multiplayer Game Development 1 & 2, my book, Bartle’s book, Jessica’s book, and … um, a Clone Wars comic. I still own a copy of Raph’s book, but I’m lending it to a friend at the moment. Center top is a NERPs inagural ball pass for the 2056 elections. Right shelves are primarily Shadowrun action figure combat system guys. Lower right bottom center is my replica T-Rex tooth. Just in case.

Notes: Nothing out of the ordinary here really. Only big change since this photo was taken is I’ve replaced the PS2 GH controller with a 360 one, and I have a switch to allowed wired internet access for both consoles.

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Voodoo Extreme (and everyone else) is reporting that Mythic has gotten over 200,000 Beta applications for Warhammer Online in their first 10 days alone. Good on ya, folks!

Mark Jacobs:

“We would like to thank the community for their tremendous response to Warhammer Online. The overwhelming worldwide reaction to the beta test has been phenomenal. The team has been working incredibly hard to create a genre-defining experience, and the beta sign-ups certainly validate the direction we’re taking the game. Player input and testing will be crucial in our efforts to complete the game, and we look forward to beta participants’ help in shaping Warhammer Online.”

See, if you put together a game that offers something different enough from the norm, you’ll get people’s attention even through their other strange fixations! It’s a winning combo! I’d also like to point out how awesome I am, and what good Beta tester I’d make … but those are separate things.

Unrelatedly, am I the only one that thinks these Guild War skill pins are the bees knees? I simply must pick up Meteor Swarm and Shield Bash while I’m at events this summer. MMOG-related swag is the est kind of swag, I say.

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Just a press release. Don’t normally do stuff like this, but I’m feeling all posty today. The full text is below, but the jist is that Blizzard’s Rob Pardo has joined the GDC Advisory Board, a group that assists in deciding event content for the various CMP events. With GDC Austin now providing a public focus for Massive discussion, only make sense.

Plus, those Blizzard guys have made a few other popular games. Or so I hear.

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This is going to sound like total bullshit after other comments I’ve made about Massive games, narrative, blah, blah … but I’ve been having a lot of fun leveling up a WoW character using a guide. Yes, a WoW character. I spent so much time talking about WoW in the last month or so with people that I finally decided to get back on the horse. SWG and LOTRO are by the wayside at the moment, and I am taking advantage of occasional moments of ‘free time’ to work through Jame’s Alliance Leveling Guide.

It’s an interesting experience, because in many ways using a guide is completely antithetical to what I believe in when it comes to MMOGs. It tells you how to “play”, making the activity into a rote experience rather than a period of searching and enjoyment. It removes the player from the driver’s seat, and makes that character just a conduit for XP on the path to max-level. In a lot of ways, I hate the idea of guides.

Or, at least, I did. You see, the problem I have with WoW, and have always had with WoW, is simple: STV. In the late 30s and low 40s there is this quagmire of quest upon quest, in a giant zone where you mostly don’t have your mount yet. My poor tender head is just not equipped to deal with STV. I try to go around it, I try to avoid it … but nothing doing. Every character in World of Warcraft basically *has* to adventure in STV to get to max-level. I have half a dozen characters sitting at around level 38 or so, each of them virtually cowering in fear of the jungles at the southern tip of the Eastern Kingdoms.

The guide has fixed all of that, and how. With my laptop open and my game running on my main machine, I don’t even have to alt-tab. I just turn my head, reference the guide, and then do what it says to do. By chaining myself to this experience as written down by Jame … I’ve found it to be incredibly freeing. Don’t get me wrong; I completely thing the first time through a Massive game should be a period of exploration. But … I’ve quested in STV with three different characters now. I’ve braved the deserts of Tanaris before; having someone tell me where i should be and what I should be doing is actually exactly what I need right now.

I feel stupid saying this, but it’s the most fun I’ve had playing WoW in a long time. I only pick up groups when they’re running the same quests I am, and I just generally plow ahead with the well-laid-out instructions. It’s like having a tour guide to Azeroth in some ways, and I’m really enjoying playing Tourist.

If you don’t mind feeling a bit sleazy, I do recommend Jame’s guides. They’re good work, and I can honestly say I don’t think I’ve ever leveled as fast or as focused as I have playing with his advice. Good show.

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I spent most of Monday night watching the 2006 Liepzig Guild Wars Championships, and it made for strangely compelling television. Even though the outcome is something you can see from a mile away, it’s still a kick in the pants to see a Massive game get that kind of attention. For some reason, I really want to see a WoW Arena tourney live now.

(link via the FoHrums)

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I’ve never watch the HBO series the Sopranos, and now I can say that more than a little bit happily. David Chase has had his last laugh, demonstrating that he has ultimate control over the series, and the fans can fuck all the way off. It’s awesome to be able to know there’s no point to watching those many seasons of content … because there is no ending. If you aren’t’ familiar with the ending, I highly recommend you check out a quick discussion of it from Monday’s Fresh Air.

The thing that occurred to me while I was listening to David Bianculli was how much the outrage of the fans made sense to me. Ultimately, these fans are infuriated because they’ve been robbed of a sense of closure. They didn’t get resolution for their long commitment to a single story. They’d spent years interacting with this world, only to have their time their abruptly cut off without a true finale …

Sound familiar to anyone? I know we’ve been over this before, but there are some very obvious parallels here with a Massive experience. After years of play, you are denied (in every game currently out there) a true ‘end’ to your character’s story.

The idea is that you’ll play forever, but realistically that just isn’t the case. Raiding and endless high-end content aside, there are few people who will play a title exclusively for years on end. I’m sure there are people who have been playing EverQuest from game launch through to today, and who have no intention of stopping. I’m also sure that those people could probably be counted on a few hands. Real life is a harsh mistress.

Several people I’ve talked to recently have mentioned back to me an idea I’ve brought up here before, where episodically released content forces users to play together at specific times. With a tighter control over the narrative, these Minorly Multiplayer Online Games would be able to tell a specific story arc that ends with a definite conclusion.

I think such titles … think of them as cooperative interactive television shows, if you like … could be very successful. I think that somewhere out there is a developer with the Fort save to make a Massive game with an ending; I look forward to playing that game quite a bit.

edit: Doh, I meant to include a link over to a discussion on Raph’s site, and I completely forgot. He talks about the span from instanced to worldly games, and touches on several of the issues I brush up against here.

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