Skiing in lotro and some awesome char pics

Well I'll just post pics of my chars here since my friend Anton is taking a bit to get me photos. Anton can add his to this post by using his magic 'Edit Post' ability. Btw my pics are much bigger than the blog is letting me show does anyone know how to get it to allow bigger pictures or is blogger just gimped like that? I mean these little thumbnails don't really do them justice. First a link to a funny movie: http://s256.photobucket.com/albums/hh197/ZigenGoG/?action=view&current=SkiinginForochel.flv
They say that if your fishing and your press forward with 'w' you can ski, I'll have to try it before the devs fix it.

First up my bro Torkek finally scored a balrog fight shot, followed by a picture of someone fishing for tanks :P



Here first of mine is my captain Tordekel crossing the Bruinen ford with my buddy Banorili :)

Next up is my second 'main' Rumples the dwarf minstrel in his native dwarven habitat, with my friend Reizsor, Torkek and Halfhot. Still waiting for an epic torkek versus Balrog picture.

The last I'll show is my hunter, Telanghara. She kicks more butt than the other two, but she has other issues in life. Like where to find matching shoes. And a new quiver.. I still haven't got one of those. I definitely want to get her to 50/60 to do pvp though. Hunters get the most stars usually. (stars in this game mark how many kills versus deaths you have, i.e. how much of a 'hide in the back and run away when things get bad' type of person you are) Shes out hunting bandits and bad bad deer in Evendim in this picture.

Friday night I had the privilege of being in Utah for my brothers graduation and I took advantage of being there to meet with Anton and plan out what we are going to do for our "awesome" game. I am going to make a layer of "bricks" to be a base, then make 3D terrain according to a grid of data so it'll be like the ground of final fantasy tactics or some such game, then we'll put in some characters and work out the rest. Details will ensue once we make them up. I promise :)

MMO Psychology

http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/arch_issue.php

I stumbled into this site devoted to MMO psychology, it has an archive of articles over the last two years, you can find all kinds of interesting subjects, see how you compare with statistics and learn just how dumb people can be when they take social aspects of online video games beyond what they ever should be.

Why I like lotro at all

I have given this subject some thought because my liking of lotro is challenged on all sides by fans of other games. I think it has to do with a few things. I like the fun group mechanics (fellowship maneuvers and crazy fun are a plus) I like the feel. See http://www.killtenrats.com/2008/04/23/shire-as-a-place/
And I like something that turbine is doing and no other MMO I have ever seen before has done..

They are constantly changing the game. In a positive way. It gets more fun with every book. Now tell me thats not exciting when you think of where they might go with this thing. And the next Book, book 13 is arriving on the 24th (actual 'new' news) :) With fishing and a new area. And some other stuff. Anyways, I cant wait to see what they do next, I wonder if AoC and WO will have a WoW like update model (just enough to keep people from revolting) or more of a Lotro update model (almost more than the poor developers can handle)

Btw I am waiting for my bro to get me a balrog pic in combat with his dwarven guardian and for Anton to get me some pics of his wow chars and then I'll post char pics :) So just be patient.

Some Links and Alien Spleen Venting

Ok so I'll try to keep the angry venting down cuz I generally like to be a positive person and cheer people up but here's an angry vent right here worth discussing: http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=133156
and here's an orc defiler to go with the spleen venom, with all his beautiful abilities listed:
http://mmorpg.qj.net/Lord-of-the-Rings-Online-The-Orc-Defiler-coming-to-Book-13/pg/49/aid/118428

Aaaanyyways, back on subject: People need to figure out that the wii is more powerful than the PS2 + the gamecube and take advantage of it. But that isn't the only issue here, developers need to think outside the box more. When was the last time you saw a game with a genuinely new mechanic or concept? Let's hear it form the studio audience. I personally loved the gravity gun in Half life 2 and the striders plus the physics. That game even had great graphics that ran well on our old pc which compares favorably with the Wii in horsepower. No I haven't even seen Portal yet (hangs head in shame) Metroid Prime 3 looks great on the wii ... and adds new things.. but shooters where you blast aliens shouldn't have the only love, they could make a new genre (could be first person or not I ain't picky). I don't know if you guys ever played Oni but it was probably one of the more innovative games Bungie made pre-Halo, other than Myth of course. You should go pick up the windows version (Keen&Graev I'm looking at you) if you haven't played it.

There's no reason why MMO's have to be boring and slow. With no plot. And no strategy. the only thing stopping us from having better games is our own mental blocks keeping our imaginations in check. We have seen plenty of games combat this but I haven't seen too much that REALLY breaks with tradition. Steven Spielberg's Boom Blox is coming out soon that may be one to watch and Spore is coming out in September, which will definitely be one to check out. I liked Kororinpa, even though it was short cuz it had good physics and was fun (marble madness for wii) I still haven't seen a single good sword fighting game for wii.. you would think this would be obvious to devs. (Yes, I own the dragon quest swords one) Super swing golf 2 is the first golf game I give a thumbs up to. The first one was too wonky, and Tiger Woods was too much of a stickler for form. Wii golf sucketh IMO. I do like tennis though it needs work, and bowling is great, and of course boxing does need work but it is still fun.

Still a "well done" Olympic one would be amazing. Sonic does not count, even though it sold a lot of copies. What are some of your ideas for what needs to be done that's innovative? Anton and I are thinking of doing something with more strategy than your typical fare... If I can figure out XNA. I have it working and printing out lines and making windows on my laptop so that's good, next up is sprites and images. What do you guys think would make a great game? Just please don't suggest another fps where you blast aliens... :P

Mustering Horns ftw

Someone over at turbine finally listened about the grouping problems and now you can summon people whether you have a hunter or a captain or not as long as you can find an official campfire (tm) anyways heres a link with actual details of what we can expect in a few days in lotro on the technical side, the last post was on the beauty side of things. http://www.lotro.com/article/528
Also please pay your regards to Anton for our lovely banner he is working on. I cant wait to see what he comes up with. My next post will probably involve my birthday party or something ;). When's your birthday Anton? (which month, not the actual day cuz thats not safe online)

Forochel in living color

The newest area will be added soon to Lord of the rings and its likely if you've only read the books you haven't heard much about it. This area will be cold.. so cold that the blizzards will cause status ailments and the water will slowly kill you. They are also adding a "show you your breath animation that gets stronger the colder you get, plus lots of different mammoths. I like mammoths so I'm excited. They are also adding fissshing, preciousss, yesss.... I just played the Gollum instance in the trollshaws the other day for the first time and the music was great. I had been putting it off for a while. Gollum looks pretty cool in directx10 and I am sure he isn't done with his hijinks. Maybe he' s stealing people's left socks as we speak... http://www.lotro.com/article/525

Awesome Artist!

Just to show what an awesome artist I am, I thought I'd point out that it's been 2 weeks since I joined the blog and I still haven't put up anything! Woot!

Seriously though, sorry I'm so slow at this, I've sketched up a few things for the banner, but nothing finished yet. Take this post as a reassurance that I am still working on it and it's still on my mind.

To be a gamer or not to be

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=18133

Read this. Its a good article. I really think I am of a same mind in regards to labeling people. That's why I don't like those surveys that ask you some questions and then "color" your personality or define what kind of personality "type" you are. According to them I am pigeonholed as an 'accommodator' but that's not important because I cannot be put into a bag or box.

I am many things and they are different at different times. And I am always changing and becoming something new, trying to become something better, though not always succeeding. Anyways my point is try not to label people and try not to get angry at people who label you as a "gamer" or some such nonsense since everyone likes to play games of some kind.

Best wishes to all game playing type persons. :)

Letsa go!

So much time so few games.. or is that the other way around, oh yeah it's like this for me: so little time, eh you get the picture.

I have too many wii games, so I have postponed buying the big title ones until I give enough time to at least figure which ones I like and don't like. However! I will make an exception for mario kart if someone in my family decides I need to have it for my birthday :P. Anyways the reason I'm even blogging about something I haven't tried is cuz I found some info on it you might like here:
http://www.infendo.com/wii/nintendo-dishes-nitty-gritty-on-mario-kart-wii/

Btw mario kart is pretty much the most awesome game evar. :) Tho smash bros. is a close call. I wish, want, desire, covet, whatever, that wii had xbox's standardized live service. It would be the bomb. However random matches with strangers sound like they are supported in the game.

April Fools

Here are a few more great April Fool's day jokes from Blizzard :)

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/wrath/features/bard/bardclass.xml

http://www.blizzard.com/us/diablo2exp/pinata.html

http://www.starcraft2.com/features/terran/taurenmarine.xml

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/moltencore/

Also, IGN made a fake Zelda: The Movie trailer, and Google did a fun one about looking for volunteers for the first Mars colony (www.google.com/virgle)