People have been nice things about my work, and I wanted to make sure to thank them. Van Hemlock gave the Massive Update a big shout-out on his blog, and it’s very much appreciated. It’s been great to see an overwhelmingly positive reaction to a concerted effort at covering Massive news on a mass-market site; getting a thumbs-up from someone whose opinion you respect is all the more gratifying.

Sez Hemlock:

Of course this is partly shameless reciprocal backslapping backlinking, as he seems to link to yours truly on an alarmingly frequent basis, down there in the ‘What People Are Blogging About’ bit, but also I can’t help be impressed at an objective level, as these weekly roundups seem to contain staggeringly comprehensive and detailed lists of pretty much everything that’s gone on in almost every MMO during the week; news, updates, patch notes, the lot - along with podcasting and blogging notes too. I can only imagine how much work this must take, and hope a nervous breakdown isn’t in the post.

I’m trying to make the blog/podcasting sections of the Update kinda egalitarian, but they’re usually the last part of the post I do; as such I go for quality. The best win out, and Hemlock is definitely one of the best. I’m hoping along the same lines with the nervous breakdown. Keeping track of that much stuff … can get grating.

And, of course, this week is E3. :D

He mentions having troubling permalinking to the posts, which is odd, but if you’re wanting to follow the post series, I would refer you to my 1up page or the Massive Update topic here on MMOG Nation. Both of these should be running references to the articles as they go up on the 1up site.

More locally, Dan Dormer over at the Videogame Media Watch site was nice enough to include me on a list of his top gaming blog picks. The list was prompted by MTV Games’ list, which Dan thought overlooked a couple of people.

About the site, he says:

To go a little more off the beaten path, let me recommend MMOG Nation, penned by Slashdot’s Michael Zenke. Focusing solely on MMO titles, Michael does a wonderful job going in-depth on issues surrounding a number of virtual worlds. With only a passing interest in some of the games he discusses, I still find myself reading each post because of the passion he has for the topics.

I guess I should “Hi Dan!”, and thanks for thinking of the site. :)

Some of his other picks are much more must-read than mine, of course, and if you don’t follow GamePolitics, GameSetWatch, LevelUp, and Game|Life, I highly recommend them.

So. You’ve probably noticed that my ruminations on the GameSetWatch site have been absent from the site of late. The reason is that, following some discussions allll the way back at GDC, the ‘MMOG Nation’ column has found a new home. Now to be known as ‘Massive Update’, it’s going to try to be a slice of the previous week from the Massive perspective. Kind of like Brent’s VirginWorlds podcast, only in text form and thus less enjoyable without his voice.

This does, of course, mean that GSW will no longer be playing host to this site’s offshoot. The first column went up in August of last year, meaning I managed to contribute to one of my favorite gaming sites for some ten full months. Simon was always incredibly kind with deadlines and subject matter, and it was a pleasure to write for the site.

It will still feature my opinions, but instead of a grand subject I’ll be focusing on concrete things that have happened in the recent past. It’s going to break down into a few sections: one longer form piece covering the most important news item of the day and offering my opinion, a section doing quicker news briefs as short paragraphs with lots of links, links to any patches that may have dropped in games across the globe, and finally links to podcasts about Massive games that have updated since the previous weekend.

The keenest bit? Massive Update’s new home is the 1up network.

This first one covers most of the beginning of the month, and there’s likely to be another one this Friday about last week and this week. As you can probably tell, it was supposed to start last week and so all the references to ‘this week’ are now out of date. Bah. Starting next week the column should appear every Friday on the site, informing the general gaming populations about stuff they’d never have the chance to read. Examples of ‘never reads’ include the details on the Barbie MMOG and a Raph rant. Already have a bunch of stuff lined up for this week’s Update.

The header asks for feedback, and here’s hoping it’s positive. This is pretty damn cool, and I’d like to keep it up. :)

Oh the puns, I love them so!

Again with a Citizen spotlight, we head into the mmogblogosphere. Aggro Me goes under the magnifying glass today over at GameSetWatch.

Some of his words, from the interview:

I love horrible groups, because they give me ideas for humor columns. My worst memories in an MMOG are probably technical issues. I remember there was a named in Zek my group and I fought for literally forty-five minutes in the early days of EQII. The server went down when he had just a sliver of health left. It’s also incredibly annoying to have the server go down in the middle of a raid and be faced with a lockout timer.

Today (finally) had another GSW column go up. It follows on Raphs’ commentary at GDC and the CNN Money article on Webkinz/Club Penguin, talking about the dystopic future of kiddie-oriented Massive games.

I’m joshing you; I don’t think it’s all that bad of a thing.

Money is going to be a major sticking point with these folks, and that’s an issue that I feel will have to be addressed by subscription titles sooner rather than later. Within a few years, the newest crop of AAA players are going to find the idea of paying $15 a month for these services alien. They’ll consider it an affront, their access to a virtual world a default assumption. On the flipside, they’ll be completely unsurprised by the inclusion of advertising in a virtual space. They’ll be comfortable with the idea of being charged on a per-item basis, and won’t squawk if they have to pay a fee to get to ‘extra’ content. Once they are in the front door, they’ll expect to be charged; they will just expect the door to be left open for them.

Additionally … sorry Hemlock … I never mentioned my Citizen spotlight of the monster hunter that went up early in March. It includes what I think is kind of a cool/arty Van Helsing ripoff image.

Enjoy both, please, citizen.

Look for a bonus MMOG Nation column on the site this week (because I’ve been so slacky lately): another Citizen Spotlight!

MMOG Nation column up at GameSetWatch, a lot faster than I expected actually. I uhh, kind of went off on a rant. Sorry if it gets a little incoherent/preachy in there. After having an entire day or so to think about SOE’s White Paper, I decided the most topical thing for this week would be to get all of my brainstem swirlings out onto the virtual page.

Gaming is a hobby. I take it very seriously, as do a number of other people, but gaming is a big part of my job. For most players, for the average player, gaming is supposed to be about having fun. How is a player supposed to have fun if the same have/have-not bull that makes ‘real life’ so challenging intrudes on the game world? How will a casual player feel if he knows ‘all he needs to do’ is drop 50 bucks and he can be playing with his friends again? These kinds of questions are precisely why a lot of people play Massive games in the first place. Force real-world economics on most Massive players, and I think they’ll respond by just leaving.

I’d love to hear from folks what they think. Both on GSW and over in the comments on Raph’s site, I let my lid flip a little bit. I just … blarg. I love the business side of games as much as the next blogger/editor/journo/gamer person, but at the end of the day these vast virtual environments are nothing more than diversions meant to make people happy. Anything that gets in the way of that is (IMHO) academic, and I feel like sometimes that doesn’t get said enough.

In the interests of covering some bases with the B to the C, I wrote a longer version of the post from the other day for the GameSetWatch site. I transplanted my list of competing viewpoints over there, so if you were wondering where that went … there it is. I also touched a bit trends in the game moving forward, and new, future features that the game may offer. It’s all very exciting.

Many Factions And Reachable Epics - Even moreso than back on Azeroth, who you befriend in the Outlands matters a great deal. Every mob and quest, it seems, earns you a higher reputation with one faction or decreases your import with another. From a world perspective this is invigorating; as a player it’s fascinating to see the interplay between these new and sometimes arcane layers of society that are already in place. What’s even more invigorating is the material benefits of allying with these factions. The BC expansion introduces a myriad of new outlets for purchasable epic gear. From what I’ve seen, some of the items obtainable by becoming friendly with High Hold or the Scryers is on par with what is being pulled from the dungeon instances. As with the revamped PvP offerings from the last patch, these raid-less epics are a godsend for those looking for emo-free high end gear.

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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