I am certain that my MMO ADD has fully swung back around to the WoW end of the cycle.  Last night I continued questing in the frozen wastes of Northrend with my Paladin main.  She has been out in Dragonblight for about a level now and I have done many quests out there.  However, the quest lines have now begun leading me to Wyrmrest Temple, where I find myself in lore fanboy heaven.  I have been a big fan of the series since the very first game.  While RTS games are fun to me, I do quickly tire of micromanaging all the little aspects of a game, however, the warcraft series has always been special to because of the wonderful art direction and lore behind it.  I wouldn’t call myself a lore expert by any stretch, but I am very fascinated by it all, especially the lore surrounding the Dragon Aspects.  So you can imagine how I squealed with delight when I made it to Wyrmres Temple and found myself staring at Krasus and Alexstrasza.

The model for Alex is amazing.   It is unique and striking when you first see it. I expected more from the Krasus model though.  He looks like a generic Blood Elf.  I hear that Alex used to have a more mundane Blood Elf model, but they recnetly revamped her so maybe one day Krasus will get a revamp, but then again, his being totally unique is less important, IMHO.

So now I am doing quests for them, building faction with The Wyrmrest Accord.  So far, this is my favorite area of the Wrath expansion by far.  It is steeped in lore, and there is a large variety of unique locations with “cool stuff to see” all around.  I fully plan on staying out here doing every quest I can until they are all done.  I might even grind out rep with Wyrmrest to exalted just because I have a thing for it all.  Only time will tell though.

I dinged level 75 last night, and thanks to my spured interest, I did MANY more quests and had a good 30% into the next level by the time I logged off.  I made about 200g just from questing and selling trash, but when I went to train my new skills I realized that I hadn’t trained since level 72 and I had to blow over 100g in skill purchases.  Oops.

A friend of mine in game logged on and said hi and offered me a spot in their casual 10-man guild.  This was EXACTLY what I have been looking for.  I really want a core group of friend who play often and whom I can hit up to run through instances and other content without having to PUG unless it is necessary.  PUGs are fine, but it is building friendships and making new ones that is the core of what makes MMOs special and makes all the grind worth it.

Last night I did something I totally did not expect.  I played, from start to finish, the entire opening sequence of quests for a brand new death knight in WoW.  Yes, that means I am playing WoW again.  What can I say?  My MMO ADD is a terminal case and I am OK with that since I doubt that I will ever be a raider.  The reason this was unexpected to me was because I spent all day at work thinking about my level 20 mage, looking up builds, thinking about where to quest, etc.  However, I also have been listening to rawrcast, a podcast dedicated to WoW and all the exploits shared by the husband/wife hosts and their guild.  This made me consider creating an alt on their server.  None of my friends play much anymore and if there is a chance that I can find a community there linked by the podcast , that could be great  However, what truly sealed the deal with me was while I was trying to think of what race/class combo to play, inspiration struck.  It started with a name: Saturnine.

Saturnine  is such a light, almost feminine sounding word, however, it means “Bitter or scornful.”  Immediately I pictured a female blood elf, who once upheld the light, but who has since fallen into evil under the sway of the Lich king.  I could instantly picture this character in my head.  So as soon as I was free to play last night, Saturnine, the female Blood Elf Death Knight was born on Staghelm.  A part of me groans at the thought of playing another female toon.  My main is a female blood elf paladin on Dark Iron.  However, I don’t create characters as an extension of myself.  I imagine a character and all of the lore and stories that will surround them, that THAT leads me to create the characters I do.  Maybe I am just drawn to the idea of the strong heroic woman type, who knows.  I DO have male charaters, it is just that the female ones usually end up being my favorites.

Once Satrnine was created I was instantly sucked into the story surrounding the Death Knight class.  This was the first time I had actually played much of the Death Knight opening, and it totally engrossed me.  I won’t go into details about what happens, but I will just say that THIS is how every MMO should start.  When all was said and done and I was logging out on the doorstep of outland last night, I was READY to strike out and let this character come to life.  Mission accomplished, Blizzard.

Another thing I didn’t expect was that playing through the Death Knight story really energized me to want to play my paladin as well (thanks to what happens during the end sequence).  I know that I will likely hop between both, but I am really looking forward to hitting outland with Saturnine tonight.

So it is now 2009!  Time for resolutions!  What?  It’s February already?!  Oh well, better late than never.  I had a number of posts in mind over the Christmas holiday season, but they all sort of fell off the map, as blog posts always do for me.  However, I was thinking about my personal goals for this year, one of which was to blog more, and it struck me that I could be blogging about wanting to blog more and so here we are.

So what, exactly, ARE my resolutions/personal goals for 2009?  Here we go:

1.  Blog more.  I already mentioned this one, but what I REALLY mean by it is that I want to take part in the online gaming community more.  I have been a passive consumer of blogs and podcasts for a long time.  Now I want to give something back.  Even if noe one cares, or is listening.

2.  Update the look/thesis of the site.  When I started this site I mainly intended for it to be MMO focused.  However, I want to generalize it more.  The name “Lost and Eighth” comes from a the classic Ultima 4.  I want to talk about whatever I am playing currently, but I also want to try and actually DO some of the retro-review sort of things I have in my head.  Basically I want to play old games and blog about my thoughts on how well they have aged, what they did wrong/right, etc.  A great place to start would be with my Ultima Retrospective that got off to a false start thanks to work.  Aside form content, I want to re-do the look of the site.  I am not all that ahppy with it.  I want to do something more evocative of “old school gaming.”

3. At least START the Ultima Retrospective.  Yep.

4. Play more Vanguard: Saga of Heroes and Everquest 2.  I have recently gone through my online game subscriptions and cleaned house.  I wanted to force myself to only having two active subscriptions at a time.  I thought long and hard about it and decided to cheat and go with Station Access.  I am currently playing a lot of EQ1 and I WANT to be playing more EQ2 and Vanguard, so it makes sense.  Plus, it truly is great bang for your buck for people who tend to dabble, like myself.  The tough thing is that I am also playing LOTRO quite a bit.  I HATE to give it up, and I might not, but I can only play online games so much, and I have a greater community in EQ1 and EQ2 right now.  I started to make a personal goal out of “Reach level 50 in Vanguard” but not only do I think that wont happen, but also I tend to take my time in that game.  I like to wander and explore and try to not rush my way through the 50 levels.

5. Buy fewer games.  Despite the economy having gone to shit in a sandbox with no end in sight, this resolution is not motivated by financial troubles.  I simply buy too many games.  I usually buy at least 2 or 3 games a month.  What blows is that I hardly ever finish them.  Being an adult with a wife, a child, and a full time job, I have to sneak in gaming time at night whenever I can.  To help achieve this, I have started using Gamefly again.  Gamefly truly is a great deal … if you use it.  Last time I started it up was back when I was still working towards my degree and I just wasn’t using it.  However, my goal now is to rent games, and only buy the games that are “must haves.”

6. Get something going on my own game.  Yes, I have an idea for a game.  I have yet to even start on it at all and I want to change that.

7.  At least apply for a job with Sony Online Entertainment.  Make no mistake, I like thie job I currently have.  However, I got into computers and majored in computer science because of my love for games.  I have always wanted to put my effort and talents into that arena.  Why SoE?  Because I love their sense of community and the games they put out.  Though the chances of it actually happening are slim, if you EVER hear me on the SoE podcast, being interviewed/sharing a coffee with Brenlo or Aimee, know that I am a happy happy man.

At the end of the year I will come back to this and see how I have done.  Overall, I don’t think that this list is anything extraordinary.  However, I am hoping that by having a list I can stay a little more focused and actually accomplish some of them this year.

Lastly, I want to mention twitter.  I finally dove in and joined and I have become completely addicted to it.  If you want to add me, feel free.  My twitter name is cacophonic7, which also happens to be my xbox live and PS3 handles as well.  Add me to any/all you want.

When I first read the news that Tabula Rasa was being shut down I was shocked. I think many people were. Developing an MMO is an expensive endeavor, and it takes time to win back some return on the initial investment. I think that this is the reason that the actual closing down of an MMO game is still pretty rare. In fact, I can only think of 3 now: Asheron’s Call 2, Auto Assault, and now Tabula Rasa. TWO out of those three were NCSoft games. It doesn’t help that in my mind I think of NCSoft as a company that has never truly taken on the task of making a robust, “true” MMO game. Don’t get me wrong, Guild Wars, City of Heroes/Villans, Dungeon Runners, and such are all really great games for what they are. However, whenever I played them I never felt like I was playing an MMO. They feel more akin to a Diablo sort of experience.

Tabula Rasa was always a bit different though. I have no real facts to back this up, but in my gut I always felt like I was playing an MMO. Now, granted, TR was always very grindy and even more repetitive than just about ANY other MMO out there, but the game had a ton of charm to me. I honestly believed that they were trying to truly pull off something different. It didn’t always work, but I appreciated it. It was by NO means the worst MMO out there. Without naming names, I can think of PLENTY of MMOs that are still running strong but are much worse, and likely have a lot fewer subs than TR has/had.

I don’t understand why TR has to die. I hope that there is the possibility of someone else picking it up and at least keeping it running for a while. I would be glad to see NCSoft give it up to someone who actually cares. I think that Brent is on to something when he said, in Virgin Worlds podcast 134.3 that he wonders is NCSoft is trying to pull out of the North American MMO market.

I don’t want this to come off as melodrama, but I am disgusted with NCSoft for this move. I have zero faith in them as a company and I honestly have no emotional investment left in ANY of their games now that TR is gone. I wont say that I will never buy one of their games again, but I can promise you that I will not be an early adopter of any of them. Why bother? Why drop $50 + $15/month on a game that I likely wont even be able to play in a year? Screw that. I will spend my money elsewhere. If you are working for a company who is building an MMO for NCSoft, be afraid. NCSoft is undermining your game before it is even released with it’s lousy reputation. Well, at least in my book anyway.

If the name of this site wasn’t enough of a give away, know ye that I am a big-time Ultima fan. Whenever someone asks me to list my favorite games of all time, Ultima 7 ( including Ultima 7 part 2 ) are easily number 1. Not only was Ultima 7 the pinnacle of the series for me, but Serpent Isle was the game that inspired me to elevate my love of computers from being a hobby and turn it into my chosen career path. While I had grown up surrounded by computers and video games, my other passion was music. For as long as I could really remember, I had decided to do something with music once I graduated and went off to college. However, in high school my family bought our first IBM compatible PC, and I obtained both a copy of the complete ultima 7, and Shay Addams The Official Book of Ultima. The combination is important because when I first played Ultima 7 it was like being hit in the face with a sack of gaming awesome. However, simultaneously I was reading all about the history of the series and more importantly, the life and inspirations that drove Richard Garriot to create these games.

I wanted to be Richard Garriot. I wanted to create games with the computer. Ultima 7 was the future of gaming, and it came at just the right time where I was having to make decisions that would affect what I would do with the rest of my life. I can clearly remember a night while I was playing Serpent Isle in the section of the game where you finally rescue Gwenno. That region of the game is filled with ice and snow and at the time it happened to be snowing outside. I wrapped up my game and was about to get ready for bed when I took a look outiside and allowed myself to imagine that I was actually in the snowy northern regions of the Serpent Isle. Yes I was, and still am, THAT dorky. Jokes aside, it was that moment that I really realized how influential this game was on me. I knew right then and there that my real dream would be to be involved with creating video games.

Now … I never have actually worked for a game company. However, this is not about that. I bring up this story in order to set the stage for exactly what Ultima means to me. The other day a friend of mine and I were talking about what makes for good blog reading and the conclusion we came to was that it was the personal stories about peoples experiences are what make for good reads. Reporting on gaming news and writing up reviews is fine, however, I want something more on this site. Since my MMO playing has been all but completely sidelined by my real life needs, and the summer game glut is in full swing, I decided to whip out the oldies.

What I am going to be doing is playing through all the Ultima games in order, and blogging the experience. I have recently discovered that this is something that has been done before, but this is going to be as much a personal experience as it will be something I want to share with the world. I want to write not only about the games themselves, (how they have aged, how am I running them, etc ) but I also want to write about my memories with the games and tell lots of interesting personal anecdotes that playing the games again reminds me of.

So keep a look out for entries written under this “Ultima” category. I have already started playing the games and posts will be going up shortly. Who knows, if this “retrospective” works out I may go on to do other series of games. I would LOVE to do one for The Bards Tale games. I also had a thought to do one on the Baldur’s Gate series of games, but those games are still relatively modern. Anyhow, I hope you all enjoy!

Probably one of the biggest hurdles for people to get over before entering the world of MMOs is the fact that you will pay for the game every month for as long as you play it. Especially if you are a younger gamer who has to not only ask your parents for the $50 for the game itself, but after your 30 day trial, you need their credit card so that you can pay the monthly fee and not be cut of from the game you paid for. However, the upside is that this monthly fee keeps the game you are playing up and running and keeps new content coming in. Thats fair enough. Most MMOs are living, breathing virtual worlds and someone has to keep the gnomes behind the curtain well fed enough to keep turning the knobs and pulling the right levers.

However, in all my years of playing MMOs, I don’t think I have ever seen a company lower the monthly fee required to play an MMO, no matter how old it is. Case in point: Everquest. Not Everquest 2, but the original, nine year old MMO. I have been playing it again, having a blast running around with Nostalgia the guild. Now, I know that with the whole Living Legacy event going on, I shouldn’t have paid a dime for this game time, however, I started up my EQ account again, literally, 5 days before living legacy started. So I am very much paying for it, however, somehow I DID also get the living legacy /claim items. The reason I bring this up is because last week I finally decided to use them. I decided I would make a new cleric character and twink her out with the living legacy bundles of defiant armor and free weapon from the scabbard of fortune. However, when I tried to use the defiant armor bundles, they basically went *poof* and I was left empty handed. I thought this was surely a bug so I tried to petition for a GM. It was then that I discovered that EQ1 no longer as ANY in game support staff on hand. Yes, there are people still working on the game but SOE doesn’t pay ANYONE to sit around and respond to players needs in game.

When you /petition in EQ1 it now pops up an in game web browser, which just loads up the SOE tech support web site. You can then fire off a question and they will get back to you via email … NOT in game. This meant that if there was a resolution for my problem, I wouldn’t be playing my twinked out cleric that night. This was on a Friday. Saturday afternoon I noticed that they had responded and had reimbursed me for my lost armor bundles. It turns out that you have to be level 5 before using the bundles to get the free armor, however, unlike the scabbard, the bundles are bugged and disappear on you if you use them before level 5.

So the response was very helpful and not too bad considering this was an email exchange. However, I began wondering why I am paying $12.99 a month for EQ still when they are cutting vital services like IN GAME SUPPORT. Why not charge $9.99 a month if you are trimming down the live services like that? I understand that the economics behind it are such that SOE needs to charge enough to make the product viable from the companies standpoint. Fair enough. However, lets face it … I am a special case. I am playing EQ again because I played it ages ago and there is a nostalgia factor there. A new kid faced with an ever growing number of choices in which MMO to play is very unlikely to pick EQ out of the crowd. Especially when the monthly fee is practically the same. Whats even worse is how ripped off they will feel when they realize that they are paying the same for an old game, lacking the support that a more modern game has.

Earlier this year I had a stint in Vanguard. Vanguard is a game legendary not for everything that it does right, or how much better it is getting, but for how lousy the launch was and for how dead the games population seems to be. These assessments may not be 100% correct, but it is how people feel about the game. They think Vanguard, and they think “burning wreckage” not “grand adventure for the hardcore!” I bring up Vanguard because while playing it a few months back I had to petition a GM in game for a problem I was having. Within minutes I had a response telling me a GM would be there in just a minute. Three minutes later my problem had been resolved and I was profusely thanking the GM for such speedy response time. I was floored by the speed and quality of the help in Vanguard that day. That will never happen again for any player who picks up EQ. Vanguard costs $1/month to play. EQ1 costs $13/month to play. Those two extra dollars really do make a difference I guess.

With AoC now out, Warhammer Online looming in the distance, and Wrath of the Lich King towering over everyone, the MMO market is more crowded than ever before. People physically cannot play all the MMOs at once and because all MMOs have a monthly fee, choices have to be made. I personally think it is folly for companies to charge the same, if not more, for a monthly fee. Even the ex-hardcore EQ player who might miss running through Norrath is unlikely to stick with it with all these other, fresh, MMO experiences are out there to be had for just a couple extra dollars a month. Once they figure out that you are still paying the same, yet services are being cut, that seems like it would make the decision to cancel all the easier. But what do I know?

P.S. SOE … I love you. I love all your games, especially the Everquest line. However, that in game web browser sucks and the fact that it is HOW your customers interface with you when they need help is inexcusable. Its obvious that you don’t want to throw money at supporting EQ more than you have to, but you NEED to upgrade this browser if you are going to use it as the means for submitting petition requests. There are no navigation buttons on the damned thing, yet when you screw up one little thing in a petition request the website tells you to click the back button without proving a “back” link. So I had to click to completely start over my petition as opposed to just fixing what was wrong. This ordeal was made worse by the fact that there are combo boxes on the web page that, when you select one it pops up a secondary combo box to select a sub category, however, when this happens it clears out a different combo box on the petition page. I didn’t realize this and it caused me to have to enter my petition in its entirety three times before it went through. Thats low quality and very very annoying. EQ is nine years old and I expect more from a company your size. Amateur mistakes like this are a lot harder to swallow when I am paying the same, but you are providing LESS service.

In case you don’t know, two days ago SOE launched a massive summer program called Living Legacy. This is an incredible promotion and when I heard about it it seemed too good to be true.

• All inactive accounts have been reactivated and them, along with new trial accounts, can play EQ2 for free until July 31st, and EQ1 until July 25th. If you don’t have all the expansions up to date … no worries. You can have access to them for free if you convert to a paying account at the end of the trial.
• Recruiting new players can earn you up to 20 months free game time.
• You get special in game items for joining in on the fun:
  • EQ1 Items include:
    • Bundles of Defiant Armor — Class and level specific armor upgrade
    • The Scabbard of Fortune — Class and level specific weapon upgrade
    • Ten Potions of Adventure — Increased XP to get back in the fight
    • Ten Movement Speed Potions — Jet from battle to battle
    • The Legacy Satchel — A container for your loot
  • and if you convert to an actual account you get:
    • The Temporal Chrysalis* — A mysterious item that pulses as if alive. Who knows what it will hatch into…
  • EQ2 Items Include:
    • Norrath Adventure Pass – Magical transportation to new areas of Norrath
    • Make Over Mirror- Change the look of your avatar
    • Pouch of the Prodigal – 12 slot bag
    • XP Potion Pack – Three-pack of potions to jump-start your advancement
  • Granted Upon Purchase and Release of the Next EQII Expansion Pack
    • Cloak of the Void – A specially-designed cloak created exclusively for the upcoming expansion

On top of all that there are a ton of in game events taking place, including double exp weekends TWICE during the summer for each game. There is a LOT to this promotion so if you want details, go here and read all about it while you are installing/downloading the latest versions of the client software:

http://livinglegacy.station.sony.com/

I can’t believe that after years of not playing EQ1, I resubscribe to the game and DAYS later they give away access for free all summer. Now, they may have taken that into account, because I think I remember seeing some of those promotional items in my /claim list already, but I could be wrong. If I DON’T have those items I will commence begging some poor customer service rep to take pity on me and see about letting me in on the fun.

If you haven’t played EQ or EQ2 in a while, you really have no reason to not check them out. For me, revisiting EQ1 has been a blast and I really hope I stick with it long enough to see some of the higher level content. If you haven’t played EQ2 since since the release of Echoes of Faydwer or Ruins of Kunark, man you are in for a shock. Those two expansions added the best starting areas and TONS of content. I created a new human assassin with Timorous Deep as his starting city and playing him has been like a whole new game. The progression is quick, there are introductory tutorials for everything, the story going on I am finding compelling, and the scenery is gorgeous.

Whenever I play EQ2 it strikes me that they have made a game every bit as quick and accessible as WoW, but it is loaded to the gills with content. If you are a PvP junkie, I have heard a lot of good stuff about the PvP in EQ2, but honestly … I think the general consensus is that PvP in WoW is priority one, and it is not priority one for EQ2. There used to be a great little podcast called “The Pwnage Brothers” who primarily focused on PvP in EQ2 and listening to their stuff really made me want to be a part of it, so I am guessing that EQ2 PvP is at least a little compelling. Hell … its free. What do you have to lose?

Ok, I am going to wrap this post up and stop whoring myself out for SOE.

Last week something funny happened.  I reactivated my EQ account.  Yes.  A 9 year old game that I haven’t played for years has pulled me back in and stolen me away from the new shiny that is Age of Conan.  This reactivation was not completely unprovoked though.  Over at West Karana, Tipa started up a new progression guild dedicated to playing through the game as newbies and seeing all the old and new content through non-twinked eyes.

I had resisted the urge to join them for a while, but this week I snapped.  I expected to create a new character and see some of the old haunts and quickly lose interest, because previous attempts to play EQ again have been frustrating because of the older feel of the interface and game itself.  This time though, it stuck.  I played the tutorial quests all the way through and they did a marvelous job of reacquainting me with the UI and how to play.  However, they also filled the tutorial with plenty of goodies to arm my character with.

By the time Maetra, my new Drakkin Shadow Knight, was finished with the tutorial area I was level 11.  People have told me that the tutorial area is somewhat of a waste of time since there are better quests and gear to be had in the real world, however, I disagree.  The tutorial was a fantastic way to get me back into the game and I thoroughly enjoyed myself during that time.

Since AoC was unrunnable for me all weekend thanks to “out of memory” errors, I spent plenty of time exploring new and old areas of Norrath and generally having a bang up time.  I am going to try and keep writing posts about my adventures with Nostalgia the Guild, and I already have a few in mind based on the weekends adventures.

Before I wrap this up though, there are a few things that really struck me about modern day EQ:

1.  A plat is nowhere NEAR worth what it used to be.  I thought I had discovered a bug when I found multiple bows in the tutorial area that sold for almost 3 plat a pop.  I think I am already up to 115 plat.  These days that wouldn’t buy me anything, however, back in the old days that was a fortune.

2.  Over the years EQ has seen a number of face lifts.  Freeport is unrecognizable to me now.  However, there are still old places that have not been touched since before Ruins of Kunark or earlier.  Blackburrow is a great example.  I was sent there for an armor quest and it was a joy to see that all the old blocky models were still being used.  Thats something that only players in my position, who played and loved the old game, can really appreciate.  I imagine that any new player who comes into EQ these days would wonder why the hell that zone looks so bad compared to the rest of the game.

3.  Holy crap you level up fast.  I had a few minutes to kill before work this morning and so I ran out to North Ro to kill a few blues to ding to level 17.  It only took ONE blue to finish off 16 and 3 blues later I have an entire “bubble” of level 17 done.  Literally.  If I had had another 15 or 20 minutes I could have easily dinged to 18 on the spot.  I think this is necessary because the vast majority of the content is aimed at higher levels, but MAN I am flying through the game.  It makes me think that these armor quests aren’t going to be worth it.  At level 20 a whole new series of quests begins for even better armor and I am sure that I will hit 20 well before I manage to get all the drops for the armor quests I am currently on.

So, yeah … I am really enjoying getting to see EQ again.  The fact that it has sucked me back in is a testament to the original vision and the fact that if you make a compelling virtual world, the fact that the graphics aren’t the latest and greatest don’t make much difference at all.

I had not intended to jump on the Age of Conan bandwagon on day one.  Nothing I had heard about the game really had me all THAT excited.  However, the stars aligned in just the right way a couple weeks ago.  I had just received my “Economic Stimulus” check and I was in a game stop looking to pick up a used copy of Kingdom Under Fire for the xbox 360.  Despite the servers not coming online until the following Tuesday, game stop had copies of AoC sitting out for sale.  Being a sucker for MMOs I decided to just give it a shot.

Initially, I was super impressed.  The game runs great for me, and it really is damned good looking.  The melee combat is a nice touch to mix things up a bit.  I played through the tiny intro section leading up to Tortage and it did a great job of building up my excitement.  After arriving at Tortage I called up my brother so that we could form a party and really start exploring this world.  We decided to meet up at an NPC outside the city.  I waited and waited and finally asked him if he was actually coming and he informed me that he was, in fact, standing right next to the NPC.

My first thought was that we had discovered an insidious bug where I couldn’t see certain other players.  Thats when it hit me that this game had instances.  Not only that, but EVERY location is an instance.  This just about killed the game for me.  I was expecting a virtual world to explore, and heavy use of instancing robs the game of that for me.

However, I pressed on and kept playing and overall the game is really fun.  For the most part the game plays well.  I now have a level 23 Demonologist and I did every possible thing I could do in Tortage.

Saturday night I had decided to meet my brother and spend all night grouped and questing and really taking a bite out of this game.  I log in and after about 8 minutes the game crashes with an “out of memory” error.  Since this had never happened to me before, I shrugged it off and restarted the game.  8 minutes later I get the same error.  I won’t get into the details of my problems.  If thats your thing, log onto the Aoc forums and check out the 28 ( at the time of this writing ) page post about it.  What I WILL say about this bug is that it kept me from playing AoC all weekend and as far as I know, they bug is not fixed yet.

I feel like I am losing my desire to keep playing AoC.  If this bug gets fixed and friends keep playing, I most likely will continue playing it.  However, overall, AoC is not what I wanted out of an MMO.  I want the world to have lots of things to do, but I also want earning a level to feel like I actually accomplished something.  I want a world that feels alive and real and that compels me to explore over the crest of the next hill just to see whats over there.  Honestly, what I want is the promise that Vanguard failed to deliver.

In fact, update 5 for Vanguard is coming out soon and I can already feel myself wanting to play it again so unless Conan does something to really pull me in, I just don’t see it lasting for the long haul.

When I was in sixth grade I bought a copy of the book Pools of Radiance, my first Forgotten Realms novel. I was hooked. Fast forward 20 years and here I am, still reading Forgotten Realms novels. Though I can now see that they are not always the most well written books, they keep my inner child well fed on stories of magic and high adventure. Plus, Faerun is a land that I am invested in. There are countless novels, computer games, AD&D campaign modules that use the Forgotten Realms setting as the backdrop for their story. When I first got into computer gaming there was one game series to rule them all: Ultima. However, hot on its heels were the gold box series of games. The early gold box series games took place in the Forgotten Realms setting and in most cases, were named after and based on Forgotten Realms novels and as a young fan I was hooked.

My point in that long winded introduction is that to people of my generation, Forgotten Realms is synonymous with fantasy gaming. So why has there never been a Forgotten Realms MMO? Sure, there were Forgotten Realms MUDs floating around out there, and there was the AOL exclusive, pay-by-the-hour ( at first at least ) online game Neverwinter Nights, but there has never been an attempt to create a true Forgotten Realms MMORPG. Perhaps it is a problem with rights. When an author introduces a new character into the Forgotten Realms universe, does TSR … erm, I’m sorry … Wizards of the Coast at least partially own the rights to the character? Who knows. Either way, I think that people are missing out on potential boat loads of cash from a well executed Forgotten Realms MMO.

I suppose that the problem is that the fantasy MMO thing has been done to death. Its hard to look at everquest and not see how it was potentially inspired by Forgotten Realms material. However, I know that I would be interested in a Forgotten Realms MMO from the get go. I have shared in so many adventures in that universe that the promise of getting to explore it in MMO form would be too good to pass up. Hell, my love for Ultima games and the lands of Britannia kept me playing UO long after I had stopped having fun in the game. I just enjoyed existing in that setting and being a part of it.

Imagine small in game events that introduce new characters and/or quests that are tied into the release of a new FR book. That would be an incredible opportunity to market directly to your core audience. You involve me in a quest line that not only lands me some phat lewts, but serves as a prelude to a book that is coming out soon and you not only have my monthly fee in the bank , but you can count on the sale of a paperback as well.

Maybe I am wrong, but a boy can dream, can’t he? There are rumors that the mystery Bioware MMO project is not a KOTOR MMO at all, but perhaps is a Forgotten Realms based MMO. Given Bioware’s involvement with the Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights games, this seems like it could be a possibility. I guess we will just have to wait and see.