January 26, 2012
My smuggler is level 36 now and off to Quesh to work on the latest piece of his class quest. I’m still enjoying the game – it’s a fairly vanilla MMO but I kept my expectations low for this one and haven’t been too disappointed. Even the let’s-ride-a-roller-coaster-and-shoot-things-over-the-railing space battles have been fun as a mini-game.
Having played the game for a bit now, I’m noticing some things more and more that have started flecking that new MMO paint off here and there.
January 21, 2012
As I mentioned previously, the companion system in Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) is one of its best features. Some of the functionality of companions should be familiar to people who have played a pet class in WoW or LotRO: the “pet” is a separate toon that follows the player around and attacks the target the player is attacking. Pets add damage, healing or crowd-control / tanking to combat situations the player gets into and makes fights more survivable.
The primary role of a companion in SWTOR isn’t that much different. They fight alongside your toon and act as tanking,healing or damage to help you take down baddies. But they do a lot more than just fight beside you.
While I could wax poetic about the coolness of Bioware’s companions, they have already waxed poetically in pixel form for you.
I won’t go into too much detail about companions here then, I’ll just mention some of the highlights I like.
January 12, 2012
After playing some more Star Wars: The Old Republic, I got to thinking about what Bioware was doing putting the game so much in the past as compared to the movies. Regardless of their reason for doing so, I think putting the game outside the scope of the original stories allows them to side-step a lot of Lore-based landmines that a game like LotRO much inevitably deal with. In LotRO, there can be no flying mounts and players cannot be something too outside the existing cannon – the Lore won’t allow it. The big time difference between SWTOR and the movies allows the developers more flexibility in creating things for the game.
January 11, 2012
I’ve been staying away from as much of the hype surrounding Star Wars: The Old Republic as possible. I wrote a few posts here and there about some feature or other that I liked but kept myself out of the fray. Like most dedicated MMO players out there, I’ve been burned too many times in the past in getting worked up about a game only to find it was unplayable, or not what I expected, or otherwise crap in digital form.
I spend a long time tootling around in LotRO and WoW‘s latest expansion (Cataclysm) and while the time was fun, I could think of nothing interesting to write about. Grinding is grinding and while it can sometimes be enjoyable, it’s fairly unimaginative game play and doesn’t do much to inspire me to writing.
This past Christmas, I had some time off from work and, with no family commitments or other stuff in the way; I picked up a copy of the Old Republic and got playing it.
It’s wonderful!
December 5, 2011
It’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything here, obviously. I’ve debated whether or not to just close up shop with an official blog fade and be done with it or try to muddle through somehow. While my interests in life are many, my interest in MMO gaming has dwindled. I’ve been playing LotRO off and on and actually returned to WoW for a bit too. The thing is: I really don’t have much to say about either game. Turbine continues its history of near-but-not-quite-excellence which keeps players believing that some great stuff is possible in the game but never managing to deliver; and WoW is, well, still WoW. Blizzard has made some solid game changes, screwed up some minor stuff here and there and still presents itself as the 800 lb gorilla in the room.
While I could find some things to babble about to fill up page spaces, it’s really nothing that hasn’t been said before and nothing I feel like proof-reading (and publishing, and realizing all the stuff I still screwed up, and going back and fixing it, and getting comments on the stuff I fixed because I didn’t save it right the first time … and well, you get the idea) again.
So rather than close up shop, I’ll be mentioning more of my out-of-MMO-land interests and having fewer posts related to WoW or LotRO or whatever other MMOs I may bumble into from time to time.
December 15, 2010
Happy Yulemas
The Yule Festival is here in LotRO! There are many returning quests and deeds, like gathering apples in the Shire or picking up boughs for the elves. There’s lots of new stuff as well. There is a new zone called Winter-home that players can visit. It features a town area with quests such as an eating contest or a quest to restock the party kegs.
My favorite new quest area (in Winter-home) has to be the theater: three players are chosen randomly to play a character on stage. The chosen players will say their lines by using the emote system. If they get their line wrong, the audience throws rotten fruit. If they get it right, the audience throws flower petals. It’s a good time and it shows how Turbine, when the put their mind to it, can create some really fun, innovative stuff.
As usual, there are also a lot of new cosmetic items, a new festival mount and other goodies for players. (New zone screen shot of my burglar wearing his new festival duds below the fold.)
Also, check out A Casual Stroll to Mordor’s Yule Festival Guide!
October 23, 2010
Boo!
The latest Fall Festival is underway in LotRO. There are new rewards, a new festival horse and lots of fun to be had.
See A Casual Stroll to Mordor’s great guide.
October 15, 2010
I moved from Rochester, NY to Dallas, TX a while ago. It was quite the move. I went with a friend and she and I alternated driving / sleeping. 27 hours later we unpacked the boxes at my new place. I’m happy to say that I made it safe and sound … just really, really tired. 
Recently got the Internet back and have set up my LotRO gaming stuff.
After a long time without the Internet, I couldn’t wait to see all the stuff I missed in LotRO while I was traveling, recuperating, or getting to know my new home.
I wasn’t disappointed.
August 29, 2010
I’ve been following Star Wars the Old Republic, an upcoming MMO from Bioware. One of the things keeping me from getting excited about the game was the lack of player spaceships. It’s one of the things I most enjoyed in my brief visit in SWG.
Well, they have them! Woo! There’s only info about two ships available right now but it looks like they’ll be offering more.
August 26, 2010
I stumbled on a project Gutenberg book about the Poetic (Elder) Edda. A source for Tolkien and numerous fantasy works, such as Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, the Poetic Edda is full of gods, dwarves and Norse mythology. The book in the link is a free one from project Gutenberg so it’s older and not as polished as I’d like. The language strikes me as being a bit stilted. But it’s still a good read and likely to result in a future investment of other translations of Norse mythology.
