Highlights:

• I missed MMOG Nation’s 3rd anniversary. Again. Sorry!
• It’s really freaking snowy in Wisconsin.
• I’m working on a fun post about the ‘next’ EverQuest.

Dear Michael Zenke:
Your account has been removed by the Vimeo Staff for violating the Terms of Service of Vimeo.com

Reason: Uploading game walk-throughs, game strategy videos, depictions of player vs player battles, raids, or other videos that simply depict individuals playing a video game. We hope you find a video host more suited to your needs. If you believe this was an error, please send a civil response to this email and we will work with you, assuming you are correct.

Regards,
Vimeo

Here’s what I actually sent them:

Dear Vimeo,

No, you’re absolutely correct. “Videos that simply depict inviduals play a videogame” were all I had in my account. Under the terms your site operates, my account was entirely due for removal.

However, I want to note two things. First, I find it a bit offensive that videogaming  should be looked on as somehow ‘beneath’ the notice of your website. Machinima and in-game activities are a rich part of gaming culture, and the dismissive tone of your email to me here is very frustrating. Why videogames and gaming activities are somehow ‘not good enough’ for your site is somewhat beyond me.

Second, I just recently obtained an HD camcorder. Given the (previously) pleasant experience I’ve had with your site, I was planning to spend the money required to move my account to premium status. Now that you’ve removed my account, you’ve also removed my interest in doing so. Your choice to view videogaming in this light has, as of today, cost you money. Please take that into consideration as well.

Thanks for your time,

- Michael Zenke

Here’s what I want to say to Vimeo:

Fuck you. Fuck you and the horse you road in on, you pretentious ‘art-loving’ prats. Gaming’s not good enough for you, eh? Well, gee, I guess I’ll just have to go spend money with one of the other hojillion video-hosting services out there. Sucks to be you! (raspberry)

I’m so glad I’ve grown up so much over the last few years.

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 -

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:

• Even Blizzard doesn’t know what WoW Means
• Why Microsoft has lost the MMO market
• Views on Anti-Microtransaction Bigotry
• What I Learned from EQ2’s Box Art
• Why Developers Should Treat Players Like Zoo Animals
• It’s Hell Being Popular (WoW Class/Race Breakdowns)
• My Ultimate MMO in Ten Bullet Points

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!

For one more special bonus, guest MMO expert Michael Zenke takes a look at the year’s five most compelling trends in online gaming. The world of MMOs is an enormous business and huge opportunity for the game development community at large. As a fast-growing and influential part of the industry, ripples in MMO development will have serious consequences in the rest of the pond down the line.

Here are the biggest stories of 2008 in online gaming, so you can know what to look out for next year.

Tomorrow I’m heading to LA to help Massively and Joystiq cover the shredded remains of E3. Wish me luck.

As you might imagine, I’m unlikely to get a ton of blogging done here over the course of the week.

I also think I’m going to take a short break from MN – maybe just a week or two. Need to do some relaxing now that I’ve gotten my ‘out of the gate’ shakes down pat.

In the meantime I’ve got two podcasts in the can to fill out the time off. Just wanted to give you a heads up.

Hope you’re looking forward to a good week.

I have to give him the respect, too, because (whether my name ends up in the credits or not) I’ve got some words in that book as well. I know it’s not something that shows up much of anywhere, but I’ve actually done a lot of fiction writing over the years. Most of it is on my hard drive or locked away in college projects. In one case I can reference it via an embarrassing high school literary magazine. If you get a copy of the Unwired book, you should know that the quick jots of fiction at the start of the security section and the ‘life in the Matrix’ were written by yours truly.

As if that wasn’t a treat enough, apparently my stuff was enjoyed by other people working on the project. The scene of the security hacker defending her garden from an interloper was re-interpreted from the other side for a section about illegal hacking. The image to the right (the full version of which is a click away) is an artistic vision of the other piece of fiction I wrote, about a young woman seeking escape from a sheltered corporate existence.

It can’t be more than 1000 words in an enormous book, and I didn’t get paid for it. That said, it’s some simple writing I’m smiling about seeing in print.

Part One focuses on Paul’s background and the inspiration for making games:

MN: The next more serious question I have is, moving the game back out until next year: that seems like an obvious, intelligent thing to do. But, can you give us some insight into what the decision-making process was there?

Paul: Yes, it’s about FARTs.

In Part Two the bulk of our time is spent talking about the role of designers in the games industry, and the wankery of both:

Paul: Let’s stop talking about C++, let’s stop talking about our new clever way of doing a design, and let’s start talking about the fact that we earn quite a lot of money, that we pay the bills, that we’re interesting people, that we’ve got a career, that you can do it, that we can all do it. And if we all work together, we can have a bloody good laugh. And! Mom will be impressed.

Part Three caps off with some discussion of class balance:

Paul: Ninety percent of the people playing Class A have no idea that they were unbalanced. They had no idea that they were cheating. They had no idea that they were having an easy run of it. All of a sudden they log in and find that their character’s crap. Their character is crap, and yet they did nothing to justify that. They were just paying you money, and playing the game. But because some la-di-da clever designer went and read the message boards, and found out that four people playing Class A were able to kill the dragon “Sparklers” while walking backwards waving fish, these people suddenly have their characters crippled.

To listen to the whole thing as audio, check out the (somewhat poor-quality) recording.