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Dragon Age: Origins. Done.

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Jan 052010

I completed Dragon Age: Origins last Saturday evening, almost exactly two weeks after I purchased it (or rather traded in the PS3 version for the PC one) with a total of just under 50 hours clocked. Yep, I had a pretty intense Christmas holiday with it, exactly what I needed. I wanted a great single player game to get stuck into and I got one.

Without a doubt, Dragon Age is a fantastic single player game, right up there with Mass Effect, BioShock, Sins of a Solar Empire and golden oldies like C&C, Civilisation II and Final Fantasty VII (I’m just listing the games that I got truly hooked on and consumed my life for weeks). One of the highlights of it for me was having so much freedom of choice and ability to truly roleplay the character I wanted. I decided right from the start to be the “bad” guy or, well, the “misunderstood” guy who would do anything to end the Blight, to any extent. It made sense to me that a character who lost his family would be driven to the depths of darkness and lose his moral compass. He was also bisexual but that’s another blog post.

After playing MMORPGs for almost 18 months solid since playing another single player RPG, it was very refreshing and welcoming to be given so much choice in my character’s direction and influence. Dragon Age doesn’t hold your hand and prevent you from making bad choices. In fact, some of the decisions I made probably made the game harder for myself in the long run (such as killing a certain magical companion instead of accepting their offer to join my party) but they were my choices to make. I’m glad to say that I really tried to roleplay my character and not just min/max my stats and take the easy, most competitive routes.

Of course, DA:O isn’t without it’s flaws and there are a few biggies that will certainly niggle at you along your journey. For starters, the AI is shockingly bad and sometimes your companions operate just fine on their own and sometimes they act like they’ve had a frontal lobotomy. The selection of companions available is also very poor and you end up with something like 6 Warriors but only 2 Rogues and 2 Mages to choose from and it’s a little frustrating. The game is also incredibly long which, yes, most people will see as a good thing but to me to started to drag, especially around the Dwarven areas. It was a slog to finish (but worth it in the end).

My hat goes off to BioWare for turning out yet another excellent game. I have to give them kudos for making such an excellent RPG that hit the mark on so many levels and truly defined and highlighted the power and point of roleplaying games again. They’re all about character and story and Dragon Age has that in spades.

Suffice to say that I’m now hyped up for Mass Effect 2 and Star Wars: The Old Republic more than ever.

Original post from: We Fly Spitfires – MMORPG Blog

Dragon Age: Origins. Done.

My Goals For Age 28

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Jan 042010

Ding! Today I turn 28 years old. Having a birthday so close to the New Year is a double edged sword. It’s good in the sense that I have a solid two weeks of gifts and celebrations from Christmas until now but it sucks in the sense that I don’t have anything to look forward to for the rest of the year.

Turning 28 has given me moment to pause and look at what I want to accomplish before I hit 29. Here are my personal goals for the nex year of my life (in no particular order):

Be a better husband.
Learn Hiragana and Katakana script and 250 Kanji symbols.
Implement another design upgrade on the blog by April 1st.
Read 10 books (I’m a sloooow reader).
Come 2011, I will be able to hold a full, basic conversation in Japanese.
Hit 2,000 RSS subscribers (spread the word! ).
Write two short stories/manuscripts.
Play less but more quality games.
Overcome my inane OCD and be able to leave the house without checking the door is locked 274 times.

Some are obviously harder to achieve than others but I want to give it all a shot. Honestly, I feel a little strange about not only revealing my personal life goals to everyone but also about writing them down. I guess it’s a commitment thing. However, by putting these down in black and white (or in this case, 1s and 0s), I’m setting myself up a challenge.

It’s good to have things to aspire to. What are your goals for the next year of your life?

Original post from: We Fly Spitfires – MMORPG Blog

My Goals For Age 28

MMO Win, RPG Fail

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Jan 032010

MMORPGs are pretty spectacular things. When you consider the amount of effort, scope, money and time that goes into one, they are truly the giants of the gaming industry. However, as much as I love them, I don’t think they are necessarily true to their RPG heritage and perhaps calling them such is an injustice to such traditional single player games. You see, MMORPGs do the ‘massively multiplayer online’ part very well but often implement the ‘roleplaying game’ half very poorly.

MMO Win

Ever since I first played Everquest, I was stunned and amazed by it’s vastness and immersion. For the first time I was actually able to exist as an online persona and interact with thousands of other players in a vibrant world.

By their defining nature MMOs do, well, the massive online part very well. It’s their main characteristic and even from games with separated servers to ones like EVE in which everyone exists in a single galaxy, the breadth and scale of the genre is breathtaking. The interactivity and socialising in these microworlds is second to none and the main attraction, for me at least, to these games.

However, as they succeed in being ‘MMO’, they fail in being real RPGs.

RPG Fail

Most MMORPGs should really be renamed something like MMO-acquire-points-level-up-press-button-action-games. Even by the loosest definition of roleplaying, MMORPGs fail completely. Roleplaying games are about becoming a role, immersing yourself in the character, and customising yourself to be individual. When was the last time you were even allowed to assign you own statistic points in a MMORPG? Most now offer only the simple choice of picking a race and class and then deciding which of three specialisation paths you will follow. Hardly unique customisation in my book.

And then we have the questing and interactivity. RPGs are meant to be about undertaking epic quests and shaping the world you reside in, not just about skipping through some text dialogue and then killing X mobs in order to affect absolutely nothing in your surroundings. If I play a RPG, I want to be a holy guy or a malevolent guy or a charming guy or whatever-I-feel-like-guy. I don’t want to follow a pre-deteremined path through a series of events that I have absolutely no control over.

Win-Win

Although we can act anyway we want in a MMORPG and pretend to partake a certain role, I’d find it much more satisfying if my conversation was actually embodied in my character. Let my Warrior have high charisma and speech abilities so he can talk his way through a quest rather than fight it or let my Rogue actually be evil and murderous, using underhand tactics to receive his reward.

I don’t mean to be overly critical of the MMORPG genre but after playing intoxicating single player RPGs like Mass Effect, Dragon Age: Origins, Oblivion and Fallout 3 it’s refreshing to exist in a world that has so much choice and consequence.

There is a glimmer of hope though as even games like World of Warcraft invest in new technology like phasing to try to create alterable situations and replacing the predictable “everything will reset in T-minus 6 minutes” environments. I also have hope when I read about forthcoming games like Star Wars: The Old Republic and the developers renewed efforts and focus on story and character.

These games have conquered the MMO aspect, now it’s time to return to their roots and resurrect their RPG half.

Original post from: We Fly Spitfires – MMORPG Blog

MMO Win, RPG Fail

My MMORPG New Year’s Resolution

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Jan 012010

It’s custom to come up with a resolution every New Year and although there’s plenty of things in my personal and professional life that I want to resolve to change, I’ve got a very specific one for MMORPGs:

Play less; play more quality.

It’s now 2010 and when I look back at my MMO gaming over the last 11 years, I think a lot of it has been very blind and habitual, especially around the turn of the century (I feel so old saying that). The simple fact is that I often spent a lot of time in MMORPGs that I never fully enjoyed or, quite simply, weren’t good enough. I did so because time wasn’t an issue and it was no skin off my nose to invest 4+ hours a day playing Earth & Beyond or Asheron’s Call 2 or even more recent games like Aion (yeah, I know some people love it but it just didn’t do it for me).

I also want to make my time in game count for more. I’m a big supporter of making games more accessible (which doesn’t necessarily mean dumber or easier) because, quite frankly, I don’t want to spend my time waiting, queueing or grinding any more. I want to enjoy every moment of the game that I play and if something’s a chore, then it’s not fun and, hence, not a game. This is a difficult thing to balance with the whole risk vs reward aspect of gaming and measures of gaming to make things challenging but I’m a firm believer that it’s possible to achieve without just plonking down an unimaginative timesink.

A lot of these feelings are due to the fact that I, as both a person and a gamer, am evolving. Gone are my wild bachelor student days (I used to be able to rock MMORPGs all night long, baby!) and here are my calm married professional days. My time is simply too precious now to waste on things that aren’t good enough or enjoyable enough.

So that’s my MMORPG resolution. I want to play more quality and have more quality experiences when I play and I’m not going to sink time into games that don’t cut the mustard.

What’s your MMORPG New Year’s Resolution?

Original post from: We Fly Spitfires – MMORPG Blog

My MMORPG New Year’s Resolution

I’m Your Hero, Baby

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Dec 292009

I guess I’m not your average hero. When I create a character for a RPG, there are usually four golden rules that I follow:

My Dragon Age Origins Character

Go for the direct approach. My preferred play style is that of grabbing the biggest, meanest looking weapon I can find, walk right up to the my enemies and recklessly attack them straight on. I don’t do subtle. It’s just not my style.
Look different. Crooked nose, balding head, comb-over, moustache, gaunt, fat, anything but your stereotypical heroic hunk. I want to look like I’ve got character and a story to tell, not that I walked off the set of Baywatch (no offense to The Hoff if he’s reading).
Be a mavrick. I don’t like to play by anyone’s rules, even my own. If there’s an opportunity to be evil or the bad buy in a game, chances are I’ll take it. What can I say, I just like being a bully and a brute… probably because it’s so utterly different from own personality in real life.
Have flaws. I don’t my want my character to be perfect. No one is in real life so why should a virtual avatar be any different? Sometimes that might mean making life difficult for myself but that’s a price I’m willing to pay.

Most MMORPGs cater to point 1, some cater to point 2, almost none cater to point 3 and absolutely none (that I know of) cater to point 4. Single player RPGs usually cater to more of these points, such as choosing to be good or evil or making decisions that may penalise you for the sake of roleplay, but either way, I try my best with what I’ve got.

Creating a character is an important aspect of any game for me and I’ve really got to buy into him in order to be able to enjoy the game. The more flexiblity and variety there is for play style, appearance, and general character building, the more likely the game will immerse me into it’s world. I think it’s a little sad that a lot of MMORPGs have forgotten this fact and just tend to be action games with stats rather than true RPGs. When was the last time you, or anyone you knew, made an in-game choice for the sake of roleplay rather than “being the best”?

I guess what I’m saying is that my preferred hero is unique and flawed, not a perfect Warrior with maxed stats and the most effective talent build. I’d like to see more MMORPGs offer the flexibility we often find in single player RPGs. It might mean making a character who isn’t perfect but instead marred with petty human qualities or choosing between truly being good or evil and not just have it appear as some item on a quest journal. I want our character decisions to affect the MMO world we play in and the way we play and interact with NPCs and PCs alike. I think that would be a heck of a lot of fun.

Original post from: We Fly Spitfires – MMORPG Blog

I’m Your Hero, Baby

I Pre-Ordered Star Trek Online

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Dec 282009

Title says it all, frankly. Even though I’ve been feeling (and still feel) very lukewarm towards the forthcoming Star Trek Online, I decided to pre-order it anyway. It was a combination of a beta-access (even though I recall swearing I’d never beta test another game) and head-start promise and some well-received Amazon vouchers as a Christmas present.

I Really Do Want A Khaaan! Emote

Although Direct2Drive are offering a “Digital Deluxe Edition” for £45/€50/$72 which comes with a bunch of goodies including a personal shield, original Star Trek uniform, KHAAAN! emote, NX ship registry prefix and access to the Joined-Trill race, I still decided to just buy the vanilla version from Amazon UK instead. Don’t get me wrong, those items are very tempting (especially the KHAAAN! emote) but I can’t really justify the extra cost for a few fluff items, especially for a game that I’m not totally convinced by. The Amazon version is only costing me £25/€28/$40 and it gives me an exclusive Borg Bridge Officer crew mate. No KHAAAN! emote but still, pretty cool.

As you may have gathered, I’m still very sceptical about the game and the more I read about it the more my cynicism grows. Oh how I worry Star Trek Online will turn out to be piss… but at least with low expectations all of the surprises will be pleasant ones. Yes, it’s with this pessimistic outlook on life (or at least MMORPGs) that I intend to guard myself from the ineviteable Anti-Hype-Letdown that seems to affect everyone about 3-4 weeks after a new MMO comes out. Age of Conan has no content? Really? Aion is a mega-grind-fest? Really?

Of course, I say all of that but then there’s always that little glimmer of hope that lurks depth within my brain and whispers to me, “y’know, maybe it will actually turn out to be good”. And hence the pre-order.

Original post from: We Fly Spitfires – MMORPG Blog

I Pre-Ordered Star Trek Online

Should MMORPGs Be Simpler?

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Dec 272009

As Tobold points out, with the release of Cataclysm Blizzard will be simplifying many of the stats that are currently in the game, including things like Spell Power, Attack Power and Defense. Check out his article for a full list.

I’m in two frames of mind about the whole thing. I agree in principle with what Blizzard are trying to accomplish (making the game more accessible and streamlined) but I also wonder if it’s taking away a lot of what we love about MMORPGs – choice. Part of the fun and drive of these games is to improve your character through itemisation and by removing statistics and components like Attack Power, Defense and Armor Penetration, they are effectively reducing the pool of options available to us.

The flip side of the coin is that statistics will be a lot more instantly recognisable and players won’t need to rely on stat calculators to determine what item gives them the best increase. Blizzard are also being careful to help simplify the gearing process in groups and raids by making sure that plate wearers will only want plate items and won’t be tempted on rolling on leather or mail items just for the stats. It’s a clever move which should help eliminate a lot of squabbles.

Overall, I don’t think this move will have a large impact on me as a WoW gamer as I’m just a very casual player of the game. Still, it does make we wonder where the balance lies. I want my RPGs to be fairly complex as, traditionally, they have always been that way and required a little bit of thought and foresight in order to gain the best benefits. It may also remove a lot of choice from the game and make items a lot more samey and less interesting. However, saying that, I also understand that some statistics are just silly and unnecessary and complicated for the sheer sake of it.

It will be interesting to see how it plays out with the release of Cataclysm. Undoubtedly there will be the usual cries that Blizzard are “dumbing down” the game and, well, that is hard to argue with in this case. But is it the right move? Will it improve the game? As Blizzard are often the trendsetters in the MMORPG universe (with new games copying their approach in order to try and recreate their success) we will likely see a lot more of this in other games. That’s the most worrying thing to me: seeing Blizzard’s approach mimicked poorly in the next wave of MMORPGs, leaving us with games that lack any sort of variety or complexity.

Original post from: We Fly Spitfires – MMORPG Blog

Should MMORPGs Be Simpler?

One Year Of We Fly Spitfires

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Dec 252009

Not only is today Christmas Day but it also marks the first anniversary of this blog. Crazy huh? I can’t quite believe it’s been one year since I started it, it’s just passed so quickly, nor can I quite believe how popular it’s become! When I first started writing I thought I’d be lucky to get a handful of visits and now I’m getting hundreds, sometimes thousands, every day. I’m incredibly thrilled that people seem to be genuinely interested in what I have to say and, as a blogger, it’s very rewarding to get such excellent feedback and comments from so many people.I’d like to take this opportunity to say a huge thanks to everyone who reads We Fly Spitfires and takes the time to comment here. A blog is nothing without an interactive audience and your feedback and comments have not only spurred me on when I needed it but helped me gain understanding and insight into such a fascinating and deep gaming genre.

Since today marks the first birthday of We Fly Spitfires, I’d like to highlight some of my most favourite articles, ones that I’ve got a true kick out of writing and have hopefully given you as much pleasure as they have me:

MMORPGs Are A Lot Like Women
With a shadow of a doubt, this is my most favourite article that I’ve written so far. I was worried that it would be misconstrued as being sexiest or some such when it was released but the feedback was both tremendous and overwhelming. I’m so glad so many people got as much of a laugh out of reading it as I did writing it.

Zombie MMORPG
With a staggering 116 comments, this is the most popular article that I’ve ever written… now I only wish I could actually create the game we were all talking about! I discovered in writing this that people are crying out for something new to hit the genre, something a little different from your standard run of the mill fantasy MMO.

When Did Groups Become PUGs?
My first ever article. It sucks. Don’t read it. But I guess it will always have a place in We Fly Spitfires history.

I Have An Ogre Fetish
The moment when I announced to the world that I had a well-hidden Ogre fetish. The news was surprisingly well received.

The Sting Of Dead
I died for the first time in EVE Online and it inspired this article about using consequences to invoke emotions in our MMORPGs. It wasn’t until I wrote this that I truly started to understand and appreciate the design behind EVE and all of the clever ways that it subtlety affects us.

So there you have a brief selection from some of the articles of We Fly Spitfires Year One. I hope the next 365 days are as fascinating as these last ones have been.

Oh and merry Christmas everyone

Original post from: We Fly Spitfires – MMORPG Blog

One Year Of We Fly Spitfires

Dragon Age: Origins – PC vs PS3

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Dec 242009

For some reason when Dragon Age: Origins came out I got it into my head that I wanted the PS3 version instead of the PC one and even ended up waiting two weeks to get it (for some reason the PS3 version was delayed in the UK). I think at the time I thought I’d rather play it on my TV and be able to trade it back into the store I bought it from when I was finished with it. Unfortunately the control system on the PS3 proved to be so utterly terrible that I never really got into the game and only scratched the surface of it.

Last weekend I decided to take Dragon Age back up to the shops and trade it in (most shops in the UK will buy back console games for a reduced price once you’re done with them). Although a little hesitant, I saw that the PC version of it was on sale for coincidentally the same amount as I had received from the PS3 exchange. Fate was calling me and I just had to answer. I bought the PC version and boy, oh boy… is it so much better.

I’m absolutely loving Dragon Age now and playing through it quite steadily on my PC. The user-interface is so much more friendly and I barely notice it, let alone having it obstruct me as it did on the PS3. Combat is also a heck of a lot easier and far less frustrating. Some games were just never designed to be released on consoles and DA:O is one of them.

Although I’m still dicking about a little bit in World of Warcraft, Dragon Age has taken up most of gaming time this week and will continue to do so for a little while longer. It’s actually very refreshing to play a SRPG after so many MMORPGs and I feel a connection with the story and NPCs that I never do in MMOs. Although it does feel kinda lonely at times (I keep instinctively looking for the chat window) and ultimately my in-game actions will die with my save game files, it’s kinda nice to be able to play through a predefined story and actually shape the world as I do it. Kill an NPC and they don’t respawn in 6 minutes, defeat a boss and he won’t be there the next time I return to the same spot.

Next on my conquest list: Fallout 3.

Original post from: We Fly Spitfires – MMORPG Blog

Dragon Age: Origins – PC vs PS3

Dragon Age PS3 – First Impressions

Mature MMORPGs

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Dec 232009

When Age of Conan came out last year it brought something new to the MMORPG genre – blood, guts and breasts. I remember there being some controversy as people divided into two camps about it all. Some deplored the idea of grotesque combat and nudity, arguing that it glorified violence and objectified women. A highly censored version of the game was even released in Germany and Austria, forcing many gamers to import copies of it from the UK if they wanted the full-on gore and frequent nipples. Of course, others applauded Funcom for taking such a firm stance and not comprising their vision of Conan. They also enjoyed the refreshing nature of the content and the “maturity” that it offered. We can watch violence and nudity on television, what’s wrong with a bit of blood and boobage in our games?

Just Another Quest In Age Of Conan

Funcom’s take on it all was that they wanted to stay true to Robert E. Howard’s vision of Conan. He is a barbarian after all, living in a barbaric world. Every medium that has depicted the character before has always emphasised the violence and nudity aspect of it and the MMORPG was to be no different. Ironically, although many have criticised Conan over the decades for it’s violence, REH’s meaning has always been to show that humanity has become corrupted and lost with it’s attempt at civilization; we are now living unnatural lives, far removed from our genetic pre-dispositions and nature.

Personally I welcomed Age of Conan from bringing something new to the MMORPG genre. It’s the only MMO that I know of that actually has a high degree of blood, fatalities and nudity in it. Yeah, it wasn’t enough to make up for the appalling lack of content but it did provide a solid degree of immersion in the world, very appropriate and suitable to the game’s lore. Aside from anything else, it just made the game a little different from anything else out there on the market and I enjoyed that.

Now we have games like Dragon Age Origins which have a similar level of blood and guts to Conan and a mature certificate rating to go along with it. Again, the violence doesn’t make or break the game for me (or anyone else I think) but it does add a refreshing aspect to everything. No longer are RPGs and MMORPGs the realm of happy little smiling elves and scowling goblins with a gentle pat on the head by an old wizard as a quest reward. Nope, now you can decapitate your enemy and laugh in the face of their severed head before you head off into the woods to perform bizarre sexual acts on your party members.

I’ll end with two questions for y’all. Mature MMORPGs, good or bad? And how long do you think it will be before we see the arrival of the sexual intercourse mini-game (Grand Theft Auto style) in a MMO?

Original post from: We Fly Spitfires – MMORPG Blog

Mature MMORPGs

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Dragon Age: Origins. Done.

My Goals For Age 28

MMO Win, RPG Fail

MMO Win

RPG Fail

Win-Win

My MMORPG New Year’s Resolution

I’m Your Hero, Baby

I Pre-Ordered Star Trek Online

Should MMORPGs Be Simpler?

One Year Of We Fly Spitfires

Dragon Age: Origins – PC vs PS3

Mature MMORPGs

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