Yeah, yeah, lore is fluff. But a lot of people (myself included, actually) find WoW’s backstory kind of interesting.  I certainly agree with David’ assessment over at Timesink - WoW has more compelling lore than EQ2 as an example.

I am fully aware that a lot of this is completely subjective, and people’s opinions will vary. I love EverQuest II, it’s a great game, but when compared to WoW, EQII does not feel like a “world” as oppsed to a bunch of loosely connected zones. I’m not criticizing EQII’s use of zoning, that never really bothered me, rather, EQII’s zones feel like zones. They feel like arbitrary areas created to adventure in with no connection or relation to any other parts, nor do they evoke any sense of historical importance.

I try to unravel the complicated threads of the Alliance racial backstories in my weekly WoW Exposed column for GameSetWatch.

While sci-fi’s played-out tropes have been rehashed and thinned down somewhat in recent years, we haven’t had a truly great genre shake-up for fantasy fans. The result is that even World of Warcraft, as successful and entertaining as it is, bogs down with an endless amount of backstory and genre cliches. Despite that, the lore of Warcraft is interesting stuff. There are a lot of compelling elements, individual tales that you can follow along through the thousands of years of sketched out storyline.

If you ignore the clap-trap about who specifically did what when or the endless back-and-forth between all-powerful entities, there are interesting characters and situations to focus on. Consider this the first in an ongoing series of articles looking at the backstory of Warcraft, with an eye towards making the material as approachable as possible.

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Sooooo I’ve been enjoying FRAPS quite a bit of late. My Flickr account has been steadily getting more interesting in the last few weeks as a result. I’ve decided to start doing some more video just for kicks, (I did pay for the full version after all) and now my YouTube account is starting to feel some love as well. I certainly play MMOs enough to have one bloody interesting thing to show you each week and thus starts my attempt at a regular post: the Friday Film.

Notice: The Friday film is intended to be a brief glimpse into my gameplay over the past week. It is not intended to amuse, frighten, or inform anyone but myself. By watching the video you indemnify me from any comments along the lines of “Boring”, “Teh Suxx0r”, or “L2P”.

Today you get two videos. One’s an ancient file I’ve been keeping around for years now: video of my first character dinging 60. Good old Grodin. The other video is the actual clip from this week, of the Shortiez EQ2 group battling a pack of wolves in Permafrost. My wife Katie (Caimia) dings 53 during the course of the battle.

Enjoy. Have fun. Tolerate, citizen.

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After the harshness of Everfrost and the giant citadel, the green lushness of the Lesser Faydark was a great big relief. Especially since, at least for my wife and I, Everfrost bore far too close a resemblance to the view out the window. Early February was a cold, terrible month in Wisconsin. The chance to travel to a warm, green place - if even virtually - was fantastic. The Shortiez group was there, we saw … and we did a good number on the local plant and fairy life. We also, as a result of Tipa’s awesome assistance, are now officially a guild!

Read on for a discussion of Faydark’s secrets and the process of tagging a surly bunch of gnomes.
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The sixth episode of the MMOG Nation Broadcast is another audio clip from out in the world … hopefully you’ll be able to hear this one better than the interview with Greg Short. Step into the world of Free Realms as you listen to audio from a Q&A with the game’s lead designer! Recorded at the SOE community Influencer’s event early this month.

Relevant Links:
What the Heck is Free Realms?
Free Realms: Getting Rid of the Bullshit in MMOs (Pt.1)

Music:
Demo track for the Free Realms video; used with permission, I assume.

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Though I’m a day late I now have the second part of my demo of Free Realms, the upcoming tween/teen-aimed Massive game from Sony Online Entertainment. Yesterday I had a full writeup of the demo video and Laralyn McWilliams’ running commentary. Today I have brief notes from the Q&A session that followed and (more enlightening, I think) the full audio of that experience in the form of the MMOG Nation Broadcast #6.

Many thanks to Ms. McWilliams and the SOE community team for the chance to see the game; it was actually kind of inspiring. Read on for the notes, or go check out MNB #6.

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Earlier this month I sat in on the SOE influencer’s event, a unique opportunity to provide feedback on and hear feedback from the Sony Online community team. As part of that experience, all of the folks at the event were shown a demo of the in-development title Free Realms. Our host was the informative Laralyn McWilliams, lead designer on the project . The core of the presentation was a video demo, essentially the same experience that press folks had at CES. What distinguished the demo we were given was that it wasn’t from CES - it was actually from SOE’s in-house open house event held early this year.

Today I have a complete writeup of the demo we were shown, which fleshes out many elements previously only glossed over. In and of itself, it answers a lot of questions previously raised by SOE’s ambitious project. You can learn about your character’s personal Facebook-style website, the features Free Realms has in common with Google Maps, and what bestselling Nintendo DS game is being incorporated as a major non-violent gameplay component. You can also enjoy concept art like the Town Hall above … exclusive concept art never before seen outside of SOE. Fancy, no?

For the fully monty, make sure to come back tomorrow. I’ll have the contents of the Q&A session held at the end of the event, complete with audio! (Also known as a podcast episode.) That session is full of fascinating insights and hints at what this game may offer - as well as the categorical statement above that seems to typify the attitude of the Free Realms development process. The full on MMO experience, aimed at younger folks … and sans the bullshit.

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I do a lot of nitpicking on games, but every once in a while I think it’s worth pointing out a really standout good bit. I’ve previously talked about my love for game holidays, for good quest breadcrumbing, and even for some of the design components of D&D Online. Something I’ve been thinking about a lot recently is movement. Namely, avatar movement. It’s something that’s been impossible for me to ignore since Damion’s Zen of Design talk last year at AGDC; his comment that ‘getting jumping wrong’ is a fundamental problem really stuck with me.I want to call out a fantastic bit of movement and race design, with the Arasai race in EverQuest 2 acting as my paragon of awesome. Read on for why the little winged terrors are so fantastic - with video footage!
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