Dec 31

The Best of MMOG Nation 2008

Category: Site

This was one hella long year. I began the year working, as I had for the previous three+, for Slashdot.org as their games editor. Two months later I was one of the lead bloggers at Massively.com, a gig that would see me through to my first E3 and a bunch of other far-flung industry events. Interesting times don’t even begin to cover it … but that old Chinese curse seems like a good way to describe a long and strange year. Below is a month-by-month rundown of my best content here on the site. Hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane, just as we did at the end of 2007.

As I said last year, the ongoing conversation that this site has become is one of my favorite parts about maintaining a commentary blog. Thanks for the opporuntunity to chat with such interesting folks!

January - I kicked off the new year with a brand-new gaming rig, a much-needed replacement to the PC that died on me in November 0f 07. I had a couple of interesting essays about how to challenge the player in an MMO, what SOE might want to do with Vanguard, and that old chestnut of an article about why Sci-Fi is a better venue for MMO gaming than Fantasy. I also noted some fun times playing EQ2 with the Shortiez, and expressed high levels of enthusiasm for The Agency after returning from a trip to CES.

February - The second month of the year was crazy busy, and looking back I have no idea how I managed to fit it all in. I had two fun adventures, hanging out with the VirginWorlders in San Francisco and meeting my Joystiq comrades for the first time. I also kicked off the MMOG Nation Broadcast podcast, dropping episodes one, two, and three all in the span of a week or so.  I also had a couple of interesting commentary posts, including my ‘Muddle of Middle levels‘ piece that a lot of folks seemed to respond to. I also supposed an alternative Star Wars MMO to the Old Republic one we now know to be a reality, cheered about the Lunar Fest in WoW and the joys of a static group, and offered another update on the ongoing struggle to see the Shortiez through EverQuest 2. I was also crazy frustrated by the efforts of a hackbot, but thanks to the awesomeness of having one of your best friends for a server admin everything turned out okay in the end.

March - More on-the-go in March as I headed out to the coast again for SOE’s Influencer event. I blogged about whale watching, socializing, and even some of the real content from the event. It turned out that I had misunderstood where this event fell for the Joystiqers, and ended up ‘only’ being able to lay out the best Free Realms content I’ve seen on the web yet here on MMOG Nation. That Free Realms content lead into a great podcast number six, which fell after podcast number five (all about Erik Bethke’s ‘7-11 gamer’), and also after podcast number four (my chat with SOE’s Greg Short). On top of that I managed to get in some time playing WoW, where I hit 50 with Hackworth. I played a bunch of EQ2 with the Shortiez, wracking up miles in Faydark and EverFrost, two very fun and enjoyable zones. On top of all that, I had a new logo made for the site, started up one of the two attempts for me to start writing at GameSetWatch again, and went to the IMGDC conference up in Minnesota.

April - April jumpstarted with a ton of writeups from the IMGDC conference. Those properly went up on Gamasutra, but I had a lot of ‘leftovers’ on the ground to put into some posts of my own. I did post-reflections on Gordon Walton’s keynote, Bartle’s “Good, Bad, and Ugly” talk, and Nick Fortugno’s ‘The Casuals are Coming’ discussion. I also publically announced my departure from Slashdot, and jumped into Whirled for the first time. I put up my first article on Gamers With Jobs, started playing World of Warcraft with my fellow VW podcasters, and launched the Massively Speaking podcast with Shawn. I also somehow found the time to write up a bunch of really fun posts, including:

You know, looking at this list of content just for April, and then knowing that I was working diligently at like three sites and doing podcasts and trying to be a husband/friend besides makes me realize why people make jokes about me not sleeping.

May - Inevitably after that busy month, I took it a bit easier in May (on MMOG Nation). In reality I was straining like a draft horse over at Massively, readying for the launch of Age of Conan and prepping for my visit to EA Mythic to talk about Warhammer. I still managed some fun, getting back into podcasting after skipping a month. Episode seven of MNB was all about IMGDC, with episode eight focusing down on horror and the MMO genre. I still managed to drop a load of snark on Beckett’s Top 20 list, offer up a few opinions about the huge Wrath of the Lich King news drop, and argue for some improvements in guild recruiting.

June - The year’s halfway point marked a number of firsts, with firsts seeming to be a big theme this year. I made my first appearance in a print magazine, my first appearance in an RPG supplement (even if it was uncredited), and for the first time really got to dive into the fourth edition of D&D (which launched this month). June was a strong month for podcasting as well, with MMOG Nation Broadcast breaking out of the monologue mentality to go interview-style. I talked to Shawn about Guild Wars 2, Rabbit about Age of Conan, and Paul Barnett about almost everything except Warhammer. You know, as we do. Meanwhile, the Shortiez kept on playing EQ2, I did some theorizing about the expansion that would end up being The Shadow Odyssey, discussed the podcasters’ reasons for moving to Dungeons and Dragons Online, and tried to assuage fears about WAR realm imbalances. Oops on that last one, huh? I also played a hell of a lot of World of Warcraft, racking up big time with the Summer Bonfire festival and really getting into the holiday event. I dinged 60 and picked up my epic mount, and was having so much fun I put out the call for a guild that hooked me up with Cuppy and Scott’s home in Azeroth.

July - I went to E3 for the first time and all I got was a bunch of sleepless nights. Woo! July started off just fine, with my continued diligence as a WoW player paying off and fun to be had with the Void Event kickoff in EQ2. I grappled with the move from a PvP server to a PvE one, and even came to terms with the PvP differences over in Warhammer’s Beta. MNB episode 12 saw Brent and I tackling the theoretical Shadowrun MMO, and episode 13 was the well-recieved Shortiez Rule podcast. I even had time for a fun commentary piece about ‘the personal NPC’, which is still an idea I want to see show up somewhere. Of course, I’ll primarily remember July for my first real taste of what working on the internet means, and the fallout from that event. July’s gutclencher would affect the rest of my year, and is still very much in the back of my mind.

August - I dealt with July’s horrors by playing a lot of World of Warcraft. So much so that I finally dinged the level cap of 70. I was looking forward to Wrath at this point, but felt the need to snark a bit about the WotLK cinematic, which I still consider to be pretty lame. I jawwed about gold-farming (again), and did probably my favorite interview of the year with the guys at Red 5. Episode 14 of MNB dropped in, with myself and interweb superhero Van Hemlock sitting down to have a nice grave-digging session.

September - Warhammer’s launch month allowed me the opportunity to refocus on that game, and away from my own problems. I talked about the problems of playing a truly evil character, was surprised to end up playing a human character, and dug once again into the issues of RMT as they pertained to WAR. I still managed to play a lot of World of Warcraft, with more than 24 hours played at level 70 by this point. I participated in the Brewfest event, lamented the death of WoW’s 1-60 experience, and offered the opinion that WoW already has WAR-like public quests. At Massively I helped to unveil news of a Buffy MMO and wrote the single-highest pageview article on the site to this day. Episode 15 of MNB, what may turn out to be the final episode, aired with Darren and I crabbing about stuff we don’t like in MMOs. I weighed in on Tobold’s side not once but twice, sallied forth once again to AGDC, and did a quick retrospective on ATITD becuase of some comments made by John and Tim. A month for endings, September saw the Shortiez leaving Norrath and trying out Bang! Howdy for the first time. This was also, of course, the month that Mr. Freeman passed away.

October - A comparatively quiet month, October saw me finally snagged the epic flying mount I’d been seeking since I restarted WoW back in February. I went hog-wild with the new achievements thing, really enjoying Hackworthe’s new haircut and jumping in on some most excellent old-world instance runs. Lich King fever was running high thanks to big announcements at BlizzCon and the unveiling of new media and trailers. My only real commentary piece on the site was a rumination about enjoying MMOs as worlds, though it was fun to dig on 38 Studios’ interviewing style.  And – of course – I went happy-go-nuts about the announcement of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Finally!

November - We elected a new president! Yay for the system working! That nice kickoff for the month lead right into Wrath of the Lich King’s launch. I dove into the game whole-hog, dinging 71, dinging 72, and dinging 73 in as many days. I had the chance to tour the Fjord and and learn there was nothing boring about Borean Tundra, to boot. I gabbed about the emotion and storytelling in MMOs thanks to Fable 2, and sat in on my first appearance on the Van Hemlock podcast! The backlash against Warhammer began in earnest, which I smirked about a bit, and then came back to address what I saw as a problem with a perception on launch expectations. The VW podcasters and I also made the jump to Lord of the Rings Online this month, a decision that would eventually lead to the formation of the Podcasters of Bree and much amusement on my part.

December - Which brings us to the month just closing. After a slow start at the beginning of the month I vowed to really jump back in with both feet. I dinged 74 in World of Warcraft, probably the last ding I’ll see there for some time to come. The second week in December was an MMOnewsplosion that almost killed me. December 9th will forever live in infamy in my mind. The most dramatic news was on the MT front, of course, with SWTOR’s plans the most surprising. SOE’s Station Cash project wasn’t all that surprising to me, but they definitely have their work cut out for them. Meanwhile, I was exploring Norrath by myself while enjoying high seas adventures with the Shortiez. Downtime this month lead to a lot of chances for photo editing/tagging, and I put up Flickr sets on my visit to Mythic, my visit to SOE Austin, and a bunch of conferences besides. I came to some realizations about why Tabula Rasa was closing down, and spoke again about the problem of bewildering content amounts in MMOs. Moria well and truly pulled me away from Lich King, and I further reflected on new opportunities in EQ2.

That brings us all the way to the end, where in the last week or so I’ve graded myself on last year’s predictions, reflected on the year’s big trends, and asked Santa to be nice to the MMO industry next year.

Thanks again for reading all year, and I can’t wait to see what you have to say in 2009!

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