The Blame Game. A new MMO!

Mythic recently laid off some workers. The reasons for this are pretty simple, they hired extra people to anticipate an influx of paid subscribers and now that there doesn't seem to be quite as many as expected, they had to let these people go.

Some people in the blogging community have expressed that this might be the fault of Mythic for not following through on their promise to create a WoW killer in the first place. Basically, because Mark and his crew didn't do everything in their powers to capture a larger segment of the MMO community, they have not only failed the community, but now they have failed those they employed to assist during this influx of subscribers.

When you sign up to work for an MMO it's pretty much a given that things can change in an instant. If the Sigil fiasco didn't teach us anything, it should have taught us how volatile the industry is when it comes to employing people. If your still a subscriber of Warhammer, then you should be a bit upset, because it was your money that helped pay the salaries of those people, but if you had left the game and stopped subscribing, then there is no sense getting upset, because you basically threw in the towel on those people and consigned them to their fate.

The issue I have is people shouldn't be blaming Mark and his people, EA or Mythic for firing these people. They crafted a game that is enjoyable by many. If people are becoming disinterested then, is it really Mythic's fault? I mean, it has better numbers than most MMO's, so people must find it interesting and fun. If they hadn't hired all those people and then the game exploded in the WoW killer everyone thought it would be, then people would be blaming Mythic for not having enough customer support people. They thought they had it in the bag, so they hired people. The community didn't respond as expected so now, people have to lose their jobs and in this current economy, which, isn't EA or Mythic's fault either, layoffs are expected.

When people take a job for an MMO game then they have to expect when membership starts to wain, then so might their job.

The savory flavor of MMO's!

What is the most enjoyable part of an MMO? Is it in depth character creation, like in City of Heroes? Is it the detail to the stories lines that drive the game like those in World of Warcraft? Or could it be the complexity of a game like EvE online? How about the unique combat system in Age of Conan?

I ask this because most MMO's have basically the same core, which is to quest, level up and get loot, then repeat. Sure, there are lots of arguments that it's a little bit more complex than that, but if you boil it all down, its all the same. So what makes us pick up one MMO over another? Why are we so picky about the questing and looting in one over that of another MMO? I know that bugs and performance issue take some credit for steering people away from one to another, but let's say it's not an issue, what then makes us play one over the other?

I'm just curious....what is the spice that they add to the soup of your favorite mmo which causes you to play it over another?

The Seventh Veil

Well, I'm back. California was fun. Got a chance to see Disneyland, which was fun because it ended up being the only sunny day we had in California. We also did a lap or two around Hollywood and Vine as well as stopping off on Sunset strip to visit some "Girls, Girls, Girls" at the Seventh Veil, which wasn't my idea at all, it was a co workers. I wanted to go to a completely different strip club. lol

I'll post a link to some pics as soon as I remember my flicker account password. I'll just say this about L.A, it's a fun place to visit, as long as it's not raining like mad and only if your there for a few days. It's not the promise land as some in Hollywood would lead you to believe. I found it overcrowded and not very pretty to look at, not to mention the bad air because of all the smog. But at least I can say, I've been to L.A. I wanted to also add that it's the best place on the planet to be an alcoholic since they have liquor stores on every street corner and I'm not making that up.

Now, in gaming news, I received my white, Xbox 360 coffin while I was gone and managed to get it shipped back out this afternoon. The guy at the UPS store knew what I had the minute I walked in. He also mentioned that most of them had been sent off for RROD issues, which made me feel unique in a strange way since mine is going in to get the disc drive fixed. Still, Microsoft has a serious quality issues if a lot of boxes are getting sent in to be fixed. I've not heard one issue with the PS3 or Wii in regards to quality issues and having them sent in for repair. Still, I love my Xbox so I had to get it fixed.

I also managed some more time on the DS while out of town. I do love Final Fantasy 3. I got about 20 hours invested in that game currently and I'm still not scratching the surface of that game. The only problem I've seen so far is that if you miss a clue as to what to do next, your pretty screwed. I had to look at a walk through online this morning, so I'm back on track. In the old days, I'd use the Internet a lot to look up cheats and walk through's, but now, I'm really enjoying feeling of figuring it out on my own. Course, I did have to get over that one hump. lol

That is about it for now. I'll have to do some blog reading to catch up on all the gaming news since I've been away, and once that's done, I'll probably have something interesting to say about that.

The Dwarf and the General

Ok..I hate people that name drop, but guess who the guy is behind the fat, bearded human looking dwarf?

Also, see if you can tell what the dwarf is playing?



Man, I love my job.lol

How high do you fly your Geek flag?

Do you have a favorite Gaming shirt? Maybe a World of Warcraft bumper sticker, Star War's hat or Everquest 2 key chain? Do you wear or display it proudly? Is it something you make sure to put on when your headed to the mall or out to eat with friends in the hope of finding other geeks that share your passion? Maybe to find them so you can show loyalty to that particular part of geek culture, to also converse with like minded individuals and trade stories so you won't feel so alone in the world?

I mean for what other purpose would you buy a "Horde" t-shirt? What is the reason behind getting a shirt that says "Green Linen Shirt: Armor class 3: Requires level 5" if your not trying to a) become a beacon for all other geeks to gather around or b) to fly your geek flag higher than others?

Do you even have a geek flag to fly? Is that something only Hardcore geeks do? Are casual geeks less likely to make it known they are geeks by not wearing geek centric items or placing geeky bumper stickers on their cars? Do other geeks scare or frighten you because they fly their flag so high?

Just wondering!

The Crash and Burn

I have to send off my Xbox 360 for repair. For some time now, my system had been giving me grief concerning the reading of certain DvDs and game discs. The DvD issue was solved when I purchased a PS3 in December, but apparently the game disc issue just wasn't going to fix itself.

After being away from my system for a month, it has decided that I didn't love it enough and has decided to not read any of my game discs. This is an issue because, I miss my L4D and Fall Out 3. So, I decided to contact Microsoft concerning their console system.

First I tried the website. I didn't have any problem registering my console for the repair, except I thought that Microsoft had extended it's original warranty from 1 year to 3. Course, later I found out that this was only when it came to the RROD (Red Ring of Death). If your system has other issues, your pretty much screwed. So, after getting the impression my system was no longer under warranty through their website, I decided to call them up and chat with a tech, play ignorant and hope they would repair my system under warranty. To Microsoft's credit, their tech support is open 9am - 1am EST every day of the week.

I got a really nice lady on the phone, who proceeded to help me run through a few diagnostic checks. One consisted of checking for bad files on the system, then once we found none, she had me remove the hard drive to make sure it wasn't a software issue. The bad news it was a hardware issue so I would have to send it in. Upon finding this out, she proceeded to check to see if my system was still under warranty, which it wasn't. It had expired last month on the 3rd, bummer. She was even nice enough to see if she could still file it under the warranty, because it had only been a month out, but when she came back, I already knew she wasn't going to get that done.

I then proceeded to confirm my address so she could send me the famous coffin most people speak about when they have to send off their defective Xbox's. After that she told me the repair would be a stock $110.00 including shipping and tax. I wasn't very happy about it, but since I have grown very fond of my 360 and I didn't want to spend &300.00 replacing it with a new one, I proceeded to give her my credit card information. Besides, once repaired, I would get a new 1 year warranty covering not just the repair, but the entire system, including controllers.

I then asked her jokingly if she could sign me up for a free magazine, since I was about to spend $110.00 on replacing a $20.00 disc drive. She laughed and said she would see what she could do. In the end, what I ended up with is a free month of Xbox live, which worked out pretty good since the repair will take about a month, with them shipping me the coffin and me shipping it back out to them. The repair will take about 2 - 3 business days, but getting it there and back will be the pisser.

So, I'll be out of commission for about a month. Hopefully, I'll get the shipping box or Coffin, next week and I'll send it out. I'm hoping that I won't miss it that much since I have found a new love, my Final Fantasy game on the DS and the fact that I will be mostly out of town for the entire month of Feb anyway.

Course, this means, I most definitely will be picking up the Left 4 Dead Pc version very soon. lol

All in all, I'll have to give Microsoft a good grade on handling my problem for right now. I'll give an update once I get the brick sent off and get my wonderful Xbox returned to me.

The Label

A few of my favorite blogs, The Fickle Corebear and Stylish Corpse, have been discussing the meaning behind Hardcore and Casual. Their posts basically discuss, how hardcore people detest casual and how that all translates into different labels, for example casual is often thought of as stupid, lazy players, while Hardcore is often more learned and educated about a game because they play every aspect intended by the developers and in their minds, they are the superior player.

Labels are never a good thing, especially in an MMO atmosphere. It breeds pure stupidity, nothing more. What people don't understand is that no matter what kind of player you are, hardcore or casual, your a vital part of each others world. If all games did was attract one type of player, then we wouldn't have so many MMO games to choose from right now or game companies trying to craft new and interesting content. People wouldn't be trying to create the WoW killer or improve on what has come before. Someone got smart and said, "We need to design games for all kinds of players, because eventually, if we design for one type of player, they will eventually get bored with MMO's, because our ideas will become stagnant and then where will we be?"

We need each other because it makes a better game for everyone involved. It keeps the creative juices of the developers always looking for new stuf to add to the game so people won't get bored. It can also turn causal people into hardcore and hardcore into casual, but in the end if you adapt your game for both, you won't lose anyone to another game. I know this because a friend of mine was once a hardcore raider, but now, since the new expansion, he's decided to slow down and give life a try, but he's still playing WoW because it offers stuff for the casual as well as the hardcore. If WoW was just hardcore, then they would have lost a sub and losing money isn't something Blizzard had in mind when they developed WoW.

So, all I'm saying is why bitch about each other? There is no need to place labels. I mean, in the end we are all just gamers, hardcore or casual and our subs help keep the game running and forces the developers to come up with new creative content so everyone is happy.

Isn't that a good thing?