Each unique in there beauty and defy description. However as with everything, the beauty only runs skin deep, underneath is a bubbling morass of evil, tainting everythingit touches and creating a dark horror that leaves you breathless, weeping for the damned and faceless individual corrupted by its touch.

I have night terrors from my experiences within the walls of the sanctum of the burning souls. A dark and oppressive ruin of a once acheronian strong hold. A place where the unquiet dead stalk its halls, where its ancient masters presence can still be felt casting shadows and corruption far across the countryside.

Where am I, I am 3 days out from the nearest town. Standing shoulder to shoulder with a band of brave and stalwart adventurers, awaiting the warmth of the morning sun to wash over us, before you again step forth into this infernal place to face our fears and gain some new ones ………

I can safely say AoC is the most beautiful game out there. I will be returning to the sanctum of the burning souls on my 30 something conqueror to have a look see at that and taking my shaman back through the craddle of decay for picture ops.

Fields of the Dead

Question is, is Dx10 really the way to go for an Mmo ?

More stuff to come as I setttle back in to blogging. If i get time between War and AoC.

Oh and a shout out to my fellow CoW’s … got to love these guys, best group out there for any game you want to play.

Following where I’m going with this ? well if not, what I’m trying to say (probably not that well) is the inappropriate use of  puzzles, traps or switches, attunements etc  in an mmo that can really lead to breaking the players enjoyment and immersion in the game. Let me tell you nothing annoys me more when I see this in a game, and its not exclusive to mmos either.

Is it a case of bad quest design ?, the designer of the encounter running out of ideas ? or is it that they need to have 1000 quets in game before release and any anything is better than nothing.  Who knows, all I know is that it spoils my game play and I presume others as well.  I put this down to bad game design and in the era of polish and big dollar game budgets should not be happening.

I’m playing a herioc toon and I dont want to be playing wheel of fortune or university challenge … If you must use these type of game fills be a little more cirumspec and make it immersive and not a Wth situation ….

Any one else get annoyed with these situations or is it just me ….

However I’m feeling a little unfocused today, mainly as its day 2 of my journey towards giving up smoking. So i thought i would just ramble about a new passion I have found in the mmo world. No its not EQ II or Wow or any of the myriad of wow clones.

I love pvp and have done since my early days back in eq 1. However it was not until Daoc and Guildwars came out that I really got hooked. Daoc was great but lost it novelty after a year or so of pvp, so i turned to Guildwars for the pvp areans and had a blast. Even got to play a few rounds in the 24 vs 24 areanas with a few of the players from the top ranked guilds. However over time the novelty wore off, not as it was bad pvp but I could never find a good enough but casual pvp focussed guild.

A year later along comes a new pvp mmo and I’m hooked, Fury has landed on my desk and damn is it not a fun game. Deep as well if you like to  just play around with builds, which incidently is almost as fun as playing the game.

If you have not tried it, keep an eye open for beta open play however it is getting very close to launch so they might not be any open. It is a great pvp game ala 2142 with swords and spells. No monthly subsciption if you dont want to, however it is there ala Hellgate if you want a little extra bag room, guild halls etc

Anyway I lost track of where i was going with this, damn nicotine withdrawls, anyway have fun and if you try Fury keep an eye out for Pixey Styx .. you will probably find me running the other way screaming like a girl ….

Can someone please explain to me then why this is still the standard ? is it to much to ask to have multiple responses to the paragraphs leading to maybe something like a coversation … maybe the responses could lead to alternative quest lines from the same quest giver. Is it to much to ask …. are we really that lazy to not care to read the quest dialogue ? or is that due to the current way quests are given … are designers just taking a short cut as multiple quest lines and dialogues is just to much bother, time intensive.

I know for one thing i would be happy camper if my response to quest givers conversations could lead to dififernt quest lines, certainly would lend a bit to roleplayer you character … anyone else think that this is an area that could really do with some improvement ? any suggestions ? … or am i just delusional

In an unamed beta I’m currently playing they have an option for a hardcore mode, that is to say you create your character and play through the game as you would normally. The kicker is when you die your character dies and is gone for good, back to the drawing board with you …. now I dont usually subscribe to this type of hardcore mode but this is beta so I thought i would give it ago. Wow … what a blast it is, really puts you on edge and makes you think statergy more than in softcore mode. Its like a whole new game …

Now with all things there are some perks and disadvatages to the hardcore mode that I have seen …. random disconnects can play havoc on your nerves let alone the life expectancy of your character. A bad pug can spell the end of dreams for ultimate recogniztion for Mr. hardcore character and it would seem to promote soloing more as to avoid asshat players and pug woes and not to forget the biggest one, once your dead you are dead, no take backs, no apologises, its over and its final ….

However saying that the perks defernatly out weigh the disadvantages, fame and recognition being the biggest advantage, imagine reaching the cap of wow in hardcore mode, talk about a milestone. Better loot to compensate the trials of hardcore mode, always a nice bonus and to be honest a necesity to compensate the risks involved. The shear thrill, adreneline rush of this gaming style. Oh and its addicitive …

Now why did I bring this up, well I was wondering how viable this style of gaming would be in conventional mmo’s ? could it be an alternative gaming style to raiding ?  and why has none of the big name mmo’s latched on to this idea and added it.

Personally I see hardcore mode as a very viable addition to all conventional mmo’s, it really dose not change how the game is played by others, or really only effects the player playing in this mode. Could it be an answer to raiding, no but certainly a good alternative or even a good compliment to raiding. Would really add a new level of playing a mmo you are either burned out on or really want a challenge.

So why hasnt current mmo’s really added this option to there mmo’s, no clue to be honest, I wonder if its just not seen as an option or been fully explored before. Either way I like it and would like to see more games pick up this option. If you ever have a chance to try it, go do it, the rewards out weigh the disadvantages, more importantly it can breath new life in to your experience of an mmo

What do you think ?

Pixie out

(Ok enought of the News Thing I’ll leave that to Brent)