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1.) BioShock. A momentous moment in the game, that thankfully I could take a snap of without spoiling anything. I took a snap right after this that was a spoiler, of course.

2.) This is the strange non-crazy illithid in one of the House areas. I think his name is ‘Bob’ or something.

3.) The special ’social’ area behind the scenes in EverQuest II has a piano with its own built-in dancers.They’re wacky haflings named after some of the community folks, lest I’m mistaken.

4.) I dunno why I took this screencap; I just really liked the way this lizard was dressed.

5.) From one of the test houses, this great tent and a pair of animated-pet decorated bed was quite a treat. Along the walls were pretty much every one of the heritage quest weapons. Awesome, amazing example of EQ2’s housing.

6.) I really really have wanted to like the offerings in the EQ2 marketplace, and until this awesome spellcasting outfit dropped in I hadn’t. Want. Want want want. Not want at $10. But want.

7.) Err. Sometimes when I’m watching stuff on iTunes I catch snapshots because my cap button is a weird one. What can I say, I actually like Clone Wars.

8.) One of the early moments in the dwarf starting quest in LotRO. Gandalf kicks a cave troll to the curb, and looks really hawt doing it.

9.) The amazing-fantastico Podcasters of Bree! L to R, Back to front. Brent, Darren, Jonathan, Adam, Michael, Craig.

10.) This is what it looks like to podcast with the guys from the Gamers with Jobs crew. This is another of those accidental screencaps that turned out so nicely I kept it.

11.) This is me as Amak sitting in the Theed square during the SWG Fifth Anniversary celebration.

12.) I think this is from the second hub in the High Elf area in Warhammer Online. I love the ‘destroyed beauty’ look that WAR goes with in a lot of places. Very effective.

13.) And yet, the regalness of the intact bits are pretty awesome too. This is from the Imperial City, near the library.

14.) I love this graphical bug. Huge pets are just so awesome. This Rex is enormous compared to the little peeps.

15.) I love the theme in the Nethers. Amazing, amazing zone. I don’t understand why most folks don’t like this one.

16.) The, um, Dark Lady’s new skin. A lot to like, and not just for the obvious reasons. Check out that bow!

17.) I actually really like the WoW comic. It’s popcorn fun, and awesome to see events from the comic show up in game.

18.) A quick cap from the world event that presaged Wrath of the Lich King’s release.

19.) My favorite place in the whole wide game! Gjalerbron all the way. Howling Fjord or bust.

20.) Speaking of which, this central area is majestically amazing no matter where you’re standing.

21.) I … just like penguins. Especially these penguin models. Squak!

Wrath of the Lich King won’t come out in 2008.

So. Not a good start here. Fail. But I will point out that I wasn’t alone in thinking this would be the case. Plus, I’m really glad it did come out. Good stuff, and nice job Blizz.

The concept of RMT and microtransactions will continue to gain acceptance with North American gamers. This will be reflected commercially by further successes for MapleStory and Nexon’s other games in the US.

Big pass. Nexon was big business this year, and MT made big inroads with a bunch of different games already out.

Other companies will begin to consider alternatives to the flat subscription fee, even if outright RMT/microtransactions aren’t yet on the table. At least one newly announced game this year will feature a non-subscription schema.

I’m going to say this is like a double-pass. If that’s possible. SOE’s Station Cash service is a big ‘alternative to the fat subscription fee’, as is NCsoft’s adoption of its own cash system and City of Heroes Boosters. SWTOR’s non-subscription schema definitely counts for that last point.

The Agency is going to go over like gangbusters … FreeRealms, on the other hand, is going to have a rough go of it.

I’m going to call this a fail. Obviously Agency didn’t come out this year, and Free Realms looks better and better every time I see it. Just the same, I think SOE still has its work cut out for it making gamers and non-gamers understand what these titles are ‘about’.

Warhammer is also going to be a big hit, though it perhaps won’t be everything that EA is hoping for … Conan will be a much less resounding success. It’s not going to fail, but Funcom is going to end 2008 more than a little bit frustrated.

I’m going to call this a pass. Obviously my hopes for Warhammer haven’t gone quite as far as I would have liked, but I think I was pretty close there. And my sense that Conan wouldn’t do as well as Warhammer has, I think, borne out.

The CCP/White Wolf game is going to be big news this year.

Aherm. Fail. That said, the more I think about the possibilities of CCP’s experience with a one-world/one-server game applied to a non-space game the more excited I get. I’d really like to see what a game with avatars in a one-server space would look like.

One of the newbie studios (Carbine, Red 5) is going to announce a project that will really excite and surprise Massive fans. 38 Studios will announce what they’re doing, and it won’t surprise anyone … but it will be somewhat interesting.

Fail. But, again, we have big and tantalizing hints about what’s coming down the pipe from these companies. Big things on the horizon.

There’s going to be yet another major AAA title whose release date is pushed back to late in the year. One of the big games that we think is going to come out in 2008, won’t.

WAR was slated for early 08 and got pushed back, so ding there. There were a number of games loosely slated for 08 that have slid to 09, so I’m going to call this a total success.

At some point, Vanguard players are going to get tired of waiting around for ‘the good’ to show up in their game. Expect to see some of Vanguard’s best features showing up in EverQuest 2.

I’m going to give myself a half-point for this. I don’t think there’s been a mass exodus from Vanguard or anything, but I’m told by Karen that my point about features migrating to EQ2 was pretty spot on.

We’re going to see another live game close up shop this year, and an in-development title will slip into the unseen depths as well.

Well. Shit. Right on both. TR is closing up, Hellgate slid beneath the waves, and Mythos (among others) went the way of the dodo. Pass.

Another MMO dev or publisher will join Blizzard and SOE in making an official podcast.

Pass. NCsoft has one now too.

Tabula Rasa is going to maintain a steady playerbase throughout the year as folks enjoy the new and exciting flavour. Turbine will continue to not report LOTRO’s subscription numbers, for a reason.

Epic fail Zenke. I especially want to upbraid myself for that LotRO crack, because I’m now officially a Middle-earth fanboy.

BioWare will announce what they’re making in Austin.

Yayyyy! Pass! And finally! Let’s all sing The Old Republic song now!

Right: 6.5

Wrong: 5.5

Wow, I managed to get the exact same ratio this year as last year. Nice job me. That must mean that tomorrow is my day for calling next year’s shots. I think I’m going to do a bit more going out on a limb . Maybe.

You have to understand … as much affection I have for all of my mains (Grodimil, Hackworthe, Amak, Jacob’s Ladder, etc.), I’ve been playing Osti for more than two freaking years. On top of that, almost all of my time with that character has been spent playing with good friends, two of whom in turn I’ve known for something like half of my life.

Even after the Shortiez took their leave from EQ2 to try out new games, I didn’t want to put down my imperious Inquisitor. I jumped to the Guk server and was given a very kind invite by some of the members of Revelry and Honor, the guild Karen (Jaye) runs. Though I haven’t had much time in the last pre-holiday weeks to actually enjoy playing with guildies, it’s always nice to know there are people around. And, of course, I get to enjoy the guildhall.

Oh. My. God. The guildhall.

Guildhalls in EQ2 are so good they feel like cheating. Cross-world teleports, a unique recall spell on a separate cooldown from your ‘port home’ spell, buff statues, a dedicated crafting room with unique crafting storage, a bar, hidey-holes, a lounge … there’s even easy-to-use vendor/bank/broker NPCs hanging out just waiting for my business. So beautiful. Should have sent a poet.

Though I’ve been chipping away at level 59 and remembering very clearly how much soloing used to be deprioritized in this game, the last few days I’ve been having fun with Frostfell. Every year SOE trots out and entire unique zone associated with the holiday, a hub for all sorts of jingle-related malarkey. This year they’ve not only introduced a new quest, we can actually go back and do all the older quests from previous years. I quite liked the new one: a quick dash around Freeport that resulted in some unique ‘tweaks’ to my apartment’s Christmas Tree. I can now make Eyeballs or Bats grow from it … basically making it into a Halloween tree. Yay for multi-tasking decorations!

I don’t know how serious my intentions towards EQ2 are at the moment … lots of fish to fry out there. Either way, it’s a game I have a lot of affection for. In the long run, I’ll most definitely be returning on a regular basis. Norrath, it seems, feels just a bit like home. And isn’t that a little bit what today is about? Happy hols, everybody!

Here’s what I want for my 2009 year in MMOs:

• Mega-quantities of awesome from SOE. Agency, Free Realms, and DC Universe Online are all very near the top of my awesomedar. I am really looking forward to the Free Realms Beta, and my hope is that Agency will go into Beta at some point near the end of the year. I don’t imagine we’ll be seeing much of DCUO publicly, but at least one more chance to play that kickass demo would be much appreciated.
• An ongoing stream of content from BioWare about The Old Republic. Not only am I personally really thrilled that we’re finally getting something, professionally I can’t get enough of that SWTOR.
• The lads at 38 have told us that we should see real news on Copernicus sometime in early summer. I want their kickoff to be a huge splash, their content to be incredibly well-received, and their design to be absolutely inspired. I’ll be straight: I think they’ve got a long haul ahead of them. The fantasy genre is going to be hell and a half to enter as a direct competitor to WoW. But if they want to give it a try, who am I to stand in their way or do anything but cheerlead from the sidelines?
• After one of my favorite interviews of the year with two gents from Red 5, I have been obsessed about getting more details on their game. I would absolutely love to know what the hell they’re doing down there. More than any other ‘dark’ company right now, Red 5 is making the game that I’m desperate to explore. Here’s hoping they give us a bit more insight on their plans thiscoming year.
• I’m greedy, I know, but I really want a look at Guild Wars 2 as well. It’s been more than a year since Arena.net put out Eye of the North, and GW2 was well along in development back in that point. While I completely understand why it’s not out yet, the tomb-like silence that we’ve seen from the company on the topic of their sequel to their groundbreaking title has been a bit unnerving. I really hope Arena will finally be able to throw back the curtain and give us a look at the goods.
• Tons of success to my fellow MMO bloggers and podcasters, be they industry paragons like Scott or enthusiast juggernauts like Tim (Van Hemlock). While I know I don’t contribute a lot from this domain much any more, I’d like to think that the MMOblogosphere is a pretty darn special place to be hanging your hat. Here’s hoping it continues in 2009.
• Continued good gaming vibes and personal connections between myself and my guilds! A year ago I was a boring-as-hell soloer, and now I have a community in all three of my primary MMOs! I hope that 2009 finds me growing even closer to the Podcasters of Bree, Revelry and Honor, and What Would Thrall Do.
• The will, intelligence, writing skill, and patience required to run Massively.com. I’ll be honest, a year ago I never in a million years would have imagined I’d be running an MMO news site. It’s exactly, precisely what I’ve been working towards for the last few years and I feel incredibly lucky to be here. It’s hard, it’s challenging, it’s stressful, and to be honest it doesn’t pay that well. But it’s Massively, and I’ve got lots and lots of love.
• The energy to recommit to doing the MMOG Nation Broadcast … a podcast that should be returning soon!
• And, of course, the dedication to keep the feed alive here at MMOG Nation.

Feel free to drop in what presents you want from the industry next year in the comments.

I’ve written before about the frustrations players have finding and following content in MMOs. Specifically I think it’d be helpful to have guides or aides that specifically connect players with level-appropriate content. In my discussion of ‘the Personal NPC’, I brush against the problem that players face when they return to a character after an extended absence. Back in the day Brent dropped all of his quests when we left World of Warcraft so that he could come back fresh, and I’ve been reflecting on that ‘coming back fresh’ element. More on that in a sec.

In some ways I think the bewilderment of a returning player is almost equal to the transition from a new player to a veteran. In games like World of Warcraft or Guild Wars there isn’t a lot in the way of a problem there. Point A to Point B, no problem. What about a game like EverQuest 2, though? Or Dungeons and Dragons Online? If you’ve never tried to make your way through that content without a signpost, you’ll know: it’s hard. My thought is that there are ways to solve the issues of contextless gaming and confusing leveling paths. Ways that involve cool instanced visitor centers! Read on.

Coming in fresh, without a lot of context for a game’s story or purpose, is the real hurdle here. If a player is a returning one they’ll probably quickly recall how to actually play the game. Likewise for a new player, the act of playing probably won’t be a big hurdle. Someone that’s never played an MMO ever, of course, is going to have some serious adjustments to make. But for folks that have played at least one other online title, the rules are going to seem very familiar.

No, what both of these types of players actually lack is motivation. Understanding of what they’re ’supposed’ to be doing. New players get over this hurdle quickly because dealing with this disoriented state is entirely what the early game is ‘about’. You log in for the first time and the developers have created a space that will walk you through what you need to know. Returning players, though, are left adrift. They’ve got a quest  log and maybe some inkling of what they were doing when they last logged off.

Without the context of having played recently, returning players are left trying to connect with an entire life they’ve left behind. The threads of their life in that gameworld are tattered and torn, with their strongest links (other players) most likely long gone. Returning to a game after a protracted absence is a dodgy enough decision to begin with – this period of reconnecting is an incredibly fragile moment for players. I don’t have any firm statistics in front of me, but I’m going to guess my own difficulty of rejoining the player populace is representative. Even a player that actively wants to re-engage is going to have a daunting task before them. Less patient players, or players that might only be in for a ‘free weekend’, are almost certainly not going to stick.

My suggestion is to one-up the idea of a player guide with an entire player visitor center. If a player’s account has been inactive for a certain amount of time (I’d say three months or more), characters logged back in should have the option to appear in a themed ‘visitor’s center’ instead of the last place they logged out. This should be optional, obviously, because some players are just not going to need it.

For those that want a bit of reorientation, though, there should be several NPCs and help systems available. The full gamut of the game’s changes should be available in digestible chunks, everything from in-game cinematics to catch a player up with ongoing lore to full-on tutorials for new or expanded mechanics. Helpful minstrels that can spin you the tales of the latest expansion should stand side-by-side with helpers that will let you reset your skills, retrain, or straighten out your inventory.

I’d even go a step further than that, with NPC merchants allowing returning characters the chance to catch up on stats and loot. As an example, imagine a merchant that would sell level 70 World of Warcraft characters with hopelessly outdated gear greens that would put them on par with pre-Wrath equipment.

To jump back with this a bit, I’m very much also in favour of a little handholding for players leveling up through games with confusing zone spreads. Dungeons and Dragons Online, as much fun as it was, is an infuriating game to move through. Both individually and as a group I had absolutely no sense of what content I should have been attempting. My tactic, such as it was, devolved to grabbing every single quest I could and hoping I got one or two in my level range. The quest tracker’s sorting schema made even this default of an idea challenging.

Similar to visitor center guides, helpful NPCs would be a boon in major player cities with leveling problems like DDO. Even just a simple suggestion of what zone to be in would be a huge help for players looking to get ahead in the game. The default assumption seems to be that all players are relying on external guides to move through the game. Indeed, that’s a generally safe assumption … but not only does it seem kind of lazy, it offloads a bunch of work onto the player. “Here’s a bunch of content,” the developers seems to say. “Work out what you should be doing.” That’s all well and good if you’re caught up to bleeded edge of expansions or working your way through a just launched game, but what about five years down the line?

EQ2 is a fantastic example of this, because at level 59 I have roughly 1,000 zones to adventure in. Which one is ideal for my level? Which one should be seeking solo content in, and which one should I be looking to for group activities. Yes, I know the answer to that thanks to EQ-IQ, but my point is that I shouldn’t have to go looking for that kind of information external to the game. Why isn’t there a bard in Freeport somewhere that can give me rumors of solo adventures in Tenebrous Tangle, or hilarious group hijinks in the Clefts of Rujark?

Ultimately I’m not looking to be coddled here. I don’t want to be babied or railroaded … I just want a sense of what I should be doing so I’m not wasting my time. Time is valuable. The DCUO developers impressed me greatly back in Austin by proclaiming their respect for player time, and I’m right there with them on that.

If I have time to play, I want to play damnit. I don’t want to go searching through your endless expansions and patches for the quest lines I should be doing. I don’t want to guess which zone I should be in. If I’m returning to a game I don’t want to have to remember what quest line I was in the middle of months and months ago. I want to jump in, have fun, and get on with the important work of playing.

On the AAA front, I wanted very much to make sure that Ostimak the Gnomish Inquisitor didn’t die the death of loneliness. After two-plus years of play I’m kind of attached to him. So I took up the kind offer of Karen (Jaye) and hied him over to the Guk server. There Revelry and Honor reside, her guild and the guild Darren plays in. Other VW’ers also call R&H home, so I’ll be in good company. On the more casual side, I return to the fun and games of Shortiez gaming in a bit more casual environ. We took on Puzzle Pirates with a fervor.

Read on for my duality of experiences; old and (old) new.

It’s fascinating because after the aforementioned two-plus years of gameplay, Osti is now more-or-less on his own for leveling. As a result I’ve been retune/reorienting my understanding of what it means to play him as a character. I’ve had to swap around some Achievement points, I’ve made a point to look to my equipment more than I might have otherwise, and I’ve done a lot of examining how to solo through the levels.

Thankfully the EQ-IQ podcast, and the associated guide Dave made up for episode 5, have a lot of handholding guidelines. I’ve actually found myself … sigh … in the Kingdom of Sky content. It’s actually quite beautiful. As I remember, I didn’t lead the Shortiez there because I heard that it’s not that great an area for grouping. For soloing, it’s working just fine. My only problem is that I can’t handle more than three regular guys or one group guy at a time. Healers are fun, but even my Inquisitor isn’t so much for the DPS. Especially since I’m primarily still a healer, and haven’t completely gone into DPS-speccing.

As I write that, maybe I should look into that more; completing quests gets you AAs, so … yeah. Really glad to reconnect to my EQ2 time, though it might not be something I do much more of overtime.

Speaking of the Shortiez, yesterday we played together for the first time in something like two months. Weird to say, but that’s the way it’s been. Between holidays and RL issues it’s just not been conducive to gaming together. Yesterday’s outing was notable then. Notable too because it was a return to Three Rings territory.

That’s right, we played us some Puzzle Pirates, and I’m pleased to report it went over like gangbusters. I actually still had a character sitting around from back in the day, though his skills had atrophied quite a bit. It was nice to walk around with a guy wearing something better than the ‘castaway’ garb. It was equally nice to be able to outfit my comrades with gear.

To add a nuance, though, I was basically giving away money to my friends. I’ve played on one of the Doubloon oceans essentially since they started up, and having cash in your pocket is as easy as swiping your Visa. Doubloons are the RMT currency that underpins the game, translatable into in-game pieces of eight at an island’s bank. The night we were playing each doubloon was trading for about 1250 piece of eight, so I was able to give each of my comrades about 12-15,000 in-game coins – about four or five bucks in real money.

As a quick aside, have you looked at how easy it is to buy Three Rings money now? Check out the FAQ on the official site … you can buy Doubloons at one of those freaking green coin counting machines you see in the grocery store! We live in an age of wonders!

Once everyone had played through some tutorial time and outfitted themselves adequately, we had a ton of fun playing games together. We played about 45 minutes worth of Spades, and then did quite a bit of Swordfighting. Both of these games (as well as Rumble) were available as free-to-play options that day. If we hadn’t played on Thursday, we would have had other options. There’s even a helpful calendar.

Spades was a bit weird. It has a kind of hardcore bidding mechanic that all of us found a bit abrasive. When we sit down for cards (and most of us are from Wisconsin, where Euchre is like a freaking state-wide pastime), we do trick-taking games for fun. All this trick bidding and hardcore decision-making, penalties for overtricking … very harsh. Fun, because it’s basically a Euchre offshoot/Hearts variant. But, still. Harsh.

Swordfighting though, is just as fun as always. Definitely one of the best game rip-offs on the high seas. I’ve never actually played Puzzle Fighter proper, so all of my experience with that mechanic has been with this Swordfighting mini-game. It’s perfect for an MMO because of the potential for numerous players all participating in the same fight. I found it’s also a bunch of fun to play while voice chatting, because you can say things like “Have at thee!” and “Take that!” and not just be talking to yourself.

I’m finding … and I don’t suppose this should come as any shock … that as I get older my definition of ‘an awesome game’ is changing. As reflected by Tipa’s change at West Karana from a hard-bitten raider to a Wizard 101 grinding / DOMO rocking titan, free to play games hold more and more appeal the older I get. There’s a lot to like in these quirky titles … not the least of which being that they don’t cost anything. If I can get together with some friends in an online space, screw it. Who cares if it’s some huge AAA game or a puzzle-based f2p title about pirates? As long as we’re having a good time, that’s really all that matters.

That said, still really like AAA games. I’m not exactly planning on hanging up my hardcore spurs anytime soon.