When Less is More

The Secret World is a small game. I’m sorry but it is, when held up against The Old Republic and Guild Wars 2, it’s found wanting with regards to square mileage. However, what Secret World does have packs a punch far beyond its relative size. Like Mike Tyson in the heavy weight division, it is a game that is not to be dismissed. If Secret World has impressed me at all, and it has in many categories; it has impressed me in its ability to do a lot with very little. It packs a wallop of a punch emotionally, not the least because its simplicity in execution refuses to drown out the good stuff. 

The Rise of DRM

Blizzard got hacked the other week; it joins the long list of companies hit by what is becoming the new crime wave of the century. The dictionary says that piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence at land, sea, or air; or now the World Wide Web. Some gamers and journalists like to imply that piracy and hacking are a mostly trumped up idea by some vast conspiracy of game companies.

The Best of the Best II

The best cult favorites, the shows that never were; the best television shows to ever grace your television that no one ever watched (in no particular order):

Were the Reapers Evil?

Author’s Note: In honor of the Leviathan DLC coming out soon, in which it is likely we will learn more about the history of the Reapers and their inception; I thought it would be interesting to ponder whether or not the Reapers should be called evil.

Can an honest man be evil? Must the actions of a man motived by a selfless good be condemned as evil? If a man believes that murdering a hundred will save the lives of a million is he evil? Is evil in the intention or the action or must it always be both? In Mass Effect 3, the Reapers were brought into being to save the galaxy from an unending cycle of death. Rather than let the cycle of war between synthetic and organic continue to an inevitable end the A.I. Construct decided to commit genocide only on the higher species in the galaxy thereby letting the lesser species grow. But in doing so the A.I. stopped one cycle of destruction and started another.

The Best of the Best I

Best TV Shows Since the Turn of the Century

(in no particular order)

Torn Asunder

The Old Republic sounded the gong when it went free to play the other day. It's detractors were quick to point and say 'I told you so'. Later calmer heads prevailed and between stock analysts and the stock market EA was actually doing better after the news. These days the drive to go F2P has changed the landscape and the billion dollar quarters are the singular domain of only World of Warcraft. I've always felt the the MMO market was sitting on a bubble, but I see F2P as a kind of market correction without the doom and gloom of a crash. I don't think we're ever going back to subscriptions, unless a product can truly transcend the market and I haven't see it yet.


Addendum: I read this article on VG247, that sparked my attention, such a well written article deserved notice.

The Secret of Real Characters

I’ve been playing Secret World a lot after playing the final Guild Wars 2 beta; I’m trying to get to the final area before the first content patch drops and the inevitable nerfs and changes. I’m constantly struck by how good the characters are. Story is always something I look forward to seeing in games but the Secret World is the first MMO where the characters are even memorable. Certainly TOR had great companion characters with pretty good back story but those characters were made to be good from the ground up, aside from a few cool characters (here’s looking at you, Thana Vesh), most NPC’s were completely forgettable. Guild Wars 2 NPC’s are up in the air, but likely to be as memorable as cheap vanilla ice cream, but Secret World dares you to care.