– Left to right, top to bottom -

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!

Turbine’s been sitting on a dragon’s horde

- A free to play Harry Potter MMO -
We know they have connections to Warner, and we know they’re working on a Free to Play title. Why not have the best of both worlds? This game would be so good just from the spare parts it’s almost hilarious to think about. Every player gets to start off as a new schoolmate at Hogwart’s. Pick your faction (house), and offer differing content to each group. Leveling up isn’t hard numbers, it’s school years! Your avatar changes as you get higher in grades, getting older and getting more clothing options.

Go adventuring in classes, do homework and get graded on your performance (ultimate single-player element) and then collaborate with classmates on projects (grouping). Even go head to head in sports and wizards duels (PvP). Microtransaction elements include clothing, brooms, etc. etc.

Built-in audience, easily understandable mechanics, and if you do the ‘look’ right could be playable on just about anything. Must-do, must-do.

- A console version and revamp of DDO -
Dungeons and Dragons Online is already a perfect fit to move to the console. The ‘swing and whack’ style of combat the game offers would be a great amount of fun mashing on a controller. I think the ideal, though would be to offer all-new servers for the console version with a ‘stripped down’ gameplay sensibility.

Let’s face it, DDO is hard. It’s pretty punishing even if you’re in a group, and the fun-factor you can see lurking just around the corner tends to get pushed aside. So for the console version, just damp it down a notch or two. Make soloing a possibility even for squishies like Wizards, and make players think “Diablo” more than anything else.

This game deserves buckets of success. It’s beautiful, innovative, and uses one of my very favorite fantasy licenses ever. If there was any game that could survive being ‘dumbed down for the masses’ it’s this one; in point of fact,  I think it would be all the better for it!

- An aggressive ad campaign and new starting experience for LotRO -
Turbine is going to do expansions. They’re going to do more content, they’re going to do more books, they’re all set to do all of these things. Nobody needs to tell them to do it. What I think they need to do now is start advertising the hell out of this game.

Ramp up a serious marketing campaing, with everything from banner ads to magazine inserts. And not just gaming mags (all two of them left). Go after men’s magazines, teen beat-style rags, and even good housekeeping! Lord of the Rings is a family friendly experience. It’s loved by millions, and deserves lots of success just on its own merits. Get out there and sell that puppy! Do TV ads for criminy’s sake! WoW can’t be the only MMO worth advertising on television.

Combine that with a brand-new starting experience for the game. Offer a 1-10 experience that more fully captures the fun of the game without putting players into the rut quite so quickly. As it is, working your way through the Shire can be kind of a daunting experience. Give players a little room to breathe at the low end and they’ll thank you for it.

These are just my two cents, though; what do you think Turbine should do with all that money?

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.

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.

Or rather, how I finally ‘got’ LotRO. As I’ve said elsewhere I honestly think Lich King is a better expansion. Moria and the two new classes are incredibly impressive, but WoW’s newest offerings are (in my opinion) some of the best content ever added to an existing online game. What the last few weeks have proven to me, though, is that when I keep saying ‘the fantasy MMO is a solved problem’, I’m not giving enough credit to the other fantasy games that are already out there.

Let me be clear: new fantasy MMOs are almost certainly a losing proposition at this point. That’s just the way the market looks. But my viewpoint that WoW’s success had completely overshadowed other company’s work is oversimplifying things. Turbine’s hard work on LotRO – which I’ve long tried to highlight at Massively and elsewhere – is not wasted effort. Nor, I think, is SOE’s work on EQ2 – but that’s another blog entry. Read on for some thoughts on why Turbine’s work should be lauded so.

Online games are, first and foremost, a hobby. Like bowling, golf, or any other social hobby, there has to always be a ‘reason’ to engage in your leisure pastime. Mythic Entertainment specifically designed Warhammer Online with that thought in mind, and I think Turbine has proven out an understanding of that mindset as well. LotRO’s quality doesn’t come from the place of sheer excellence that defines World of Warcraft. Nor does it offer the nostalgia of EverQuest 2.

Instead, Lord of the Rings Online compels you to play by always offering one more layer to work through. There’s always, it seems, just one more thing you could be doing. While I’ve always enjoyed the concept of crafting, for example, I don’t engage in it much outside of EQ2. There’s usually a lot of hurdles to jump through, and the ‘feel’ is often rote and frustrating. The tripartite ‘jobs’ that LotRO offers gives crafters enough variety to keep them – or at least me – truly engaged.

There’s only one hobby in the game at the moment, fishing, but I truly enjoy that singular hobbit-lark more than any other fishing system I’ve ever encountered. I wrote up a full article on the subject over on Massively, and I mean every word.

Then, of course, there’s the quests. The bread and butter of modern fantasy MMOs, the rich storytelling background offered by Middle-earth really does make a difference. If you’ve read the LotR trilogy, or seen the movies, you’re going to see a lot of names and places that ring very familiar. The early levels are nothing but lore-steeping, as you literally swim in references to places in the Shire or brave the darkness of the forests near Bree. While I’ve changed my tune recently, in the past I was always very much a quest-ignorer. I’m very glad my perception shift came in time to fully enjoy the stories of Hobbits, Men, and Dwarves.

The final layer, and one that catches me fairly often, is the game’s extensive Deed system. Each zone has specific achievements you can unlock by performing certain tasks or exploring certain areas. Kill 30 wolves in the Shire, for example, and you earn the ‘Fur-Cutter’ title. Kill 50 more and you unlock a trait, one of the game’s build components. These traits are extensively tweakable, and compel you to complete deeds for mechanical reasons as well as simple check-box completionism. Even using your class abilities in combat sees you working towards new traits; pushing class traits together helps you to further define your class, and ultimately allows for variation where there may have been a lot of uniformity.

I have loved my time in Middle-earth for the simple reason that it’s fun, a claim I’ve made with other games before. I’ll admit it: I do have MMOADD. But for a guy that’s always admired Lord of the Rings Online from afar and never ‘got it’ the way I wanted to, the last month or so has been a real treat. I’m honestly glad to be enjoying this game the way I do, because I feel like something has finally clicked inside my head.

Whether it’s enjoying the beauty of Bree while fishing or shield-slamming my way through waves of goblins, there’s just nothing quite like time spent in the world Tolkien and Turbine have created.