Tuesday, April 30, 2013
A Shoutout
Every now and then I read something so good that I must share it with others. IGN.com had a guest blogger on today, speaking about Piracy and the entitlement mentality of those who practice it. I've focused on piracy to some degree before, but this one is rather eloquent. Here's the link.
Friday, April 26, 2013
What is a MMO?
I made a comment on a MMO website, that any online-only game counts as a
MMO. I was quickly told how much I didn’t know about games, amongst other
things. I didn’t say anything, but it got me thinking about how we define
MMO’s now and into the future. When I was younger, an MMO fell into two
categories, West and East. The Western MMO was
all subscription based and tended to be considered AAA, even if the quality
varied. On the other hand the Eastern MMO
tended to be F2P, dated, and grind heavy by the standards of the time.
It’s from here that Eastern MMO’s
got the moniker of being ‘grind-fests’.
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
The Best of the Best VII
Here lies the broken dreams, the forgotten promises, the
disappeared but not unloved. Here are the children of entertainment, television,
video games, and movies that nearly saw success but were cut down before their
time. In the words of the immortal John Keats, ‘Here lies one whose name was
writ on water’:
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Eorzea Reborn
I finally got into the Final Fantasy XIV beta last week. A
Realm Reborn is pretty much exactly what I thought it would be. Classic Final
Fantasy MMO with a slightly modern flavor to it. It is however, nothing that is
going to impress the new generation of jaded MMO gamers. I say that with a
touch of sarcasm, but I believe that FFXIV will likely endear itself to the MMO
gamer that started playing the genre before World of Warcraft. While the game
has many of the modern nuances of quests, solo gameplay, and most of the modern
conveniences of today’s MMO’s; it also harkens back to the
Everquest era of party-first gameplay.
Monday, April 15, 2013
Defiant
It's not often that I talk about a single episode of a television show, so when I do you'll know that I was impressed. I just saw the first episode of Defiance, the new SyFy show in partnership with Trion, the MMO developer.
Defiance surprised me from the start, familiar names graced the credit roll; Rockne S. Bannon of Farscape fame, actors and actresses that I recognized from some of my favorite shows. I've said before that the first 15 minutes surprised me with how good it was, but it was the last 75 that had me smiling in the end. Little old ladies with the devil in their eyes, acquiescent and motherly wives who'd make Machiavelli smile in pride; Defiance refused to be pigeonholed. At the center of the storm were two people, a father and daughter, not of blood but tightly woven together all the same.
All of this ensures that Defiance will be my most anticipated show from this side of the pond. Whether or not it continues the excellent threads that it showed in the series premiere I can't say, but I can't say it won't be fun watching.
Defiance surprised me from the start, familiar names graced the credit roll; Rockne S. Bannon of Farscape fame, actors and actresses that I recognized from some of my favorite shows. I've said before that the first 15 minutes surprised me with how good it was, but it was the last 75 that had me smiling in the end. Little old ladies with the devil in their eyes, acquiescent and motherly wives who'd make Machiavelli smile in pride; Defiance refused to be pigeonholed. At the center of the storm were two people, a father and daughter, not of blood but tightly woven together all the same.
All of this ensures that Defiance will be my most anticipated show from this side of the pond. Whether or not it continues the excellent threads that it showed in the series premiere I can't say, but I can't say it won't be fun watching.
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Chronicles of the Old Republic
I’ve been playing a lot of The Old Republic of late,
these past couple weeks. Taking advantage of the March Double XP Weekend,
I’ve managed to level a few alts and taken my Jedi Knight to 50. It has
been enlightening to finally finish off the story side of the Republic.
I’ve taken quite a few Republic characters past chapter 1 of the
storyline, but I always got bogged down in Balmora.
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
The Doctor Will See You Now
Gamesindustry International has a phenomenal interview from Dr. Greg. I've made no secret my love of BioWare and what they accomplished in the last decade; but this interview is pure gold for anyone who loves the industry. Here is the link.
How to Tell a Great Story
I’ve been watching a lot of serialized television lately.
Justified, the Hannibal premiere (it was quite excellent), Sherlock, even The Following
for a bit; serialized television is my favorite genre of television. I love character development, and standalone television rarely does character development well. From the premiere to the series finale, little is ever done to make a character different from start to finish. It would be as if a person never grew, never changed, never learned life lessons. The
standalone form of television has grown quite popular these days, especially in conjunction with
the procedural that Law & Order, CSI, NCIS, and its ilk have made so
famous. And while I will forever love the great procedurals I grew up with, I
grow increasingly weary of the format so often used by the television industry.
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Long Live the King
Robert Joseph Ebert, famed film critic, died Thursday after a long
battle with cancer. He was one part of the critical duo with Gene Siskel. Ebert, served with distinction at the Chicago Sun-Times for more than 40 years, received the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, and published many books.
When
I was growing up, Siskel and Eberts’ ‘two thumbs up’ meant a
movie was worth watching. After Siskel passed away, it was Ebert and Roeper. Though I enjoyed watching them late night to some degree, it never had the same
charm. Most gamers know Ebert for his later years, especially with respect to
the divide between video games and movies. I believe that Ebert saw video games
as the rising challenger duking it out for supremacy with his beloved medium.
However, even when he questioned the nature of video games and whether they’d
ever truly become art, he always left room for advancement. While I disagree
with his final judgment, I’ve never been to the Sistine Chapel,
I’ve never seen any of the great masters up close; attempting to compare
Mass Effect 3 to Starry Night
then, would be facetious and make a joke of a most interesting question.
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