Or Just For The Views
There are many reasons to play Skyrim. The immersion and the story, the feeling of exploration, the enjoyment of shield bashing guys with long hair in the face…
Is That What I Said?
As always Penny Arcade is spot on in their observations.
In SWTOR choosing how your character acts is a big deal. You choose between Light and Dark (capitals, yes!), how you interact with people and what your companions think of you. The choice you are faced with the most is dialogue options. Three ways to react in a conversation.
Evaluations
I am very pleased with choosing to cash in some vacation time between Christmas and New Years. As previously mentioned Lasse and Adrian shoved SWTOR down my throath. On top of that Steam had Skyrim on a special offer and after trying it out at Torill‘s place I was pretty anxious to give it a shot.
I am very pleased with both games. SWTOR is the newest and most ambitious MMO on the field. Sporting the powerful Star Wars brand and coming from Bioware it is a high powered, fast moving object. Skyrim is a single player game and despite the lukewarm reception Oblivion, the previous installment in The Elder Scrolls series, recieved it has been highly anticipated. Skyrim now sports all of the experience, good and bad, gained from Oblivion and I feel like some solid inspiration has been gathered from Dragon Age as well.
Mae-Lin, my virtous jedi, is now level 15 and Kean, an emotionally detatched and ruthless bounty hunter, is level 11. In Skyrim my Dunmer warrior-mage is level 16 and has three dragon kills under her belt. I’ve decided to share my experiences so far in the form of a simple pro/con list.
Star Wars: The Old Republic
Pro:
- It’s Star Wars. It feels like being in the movies and the depiction of a grand universe is very convincing.
- Storytelling. Every class has it’s own unique story, for the first time I have felt like doing just one more quest because I want to know what happens next. The
- Relating to your character. Through the simple system of light/dark points and choices in conversation you get a feel for your character. Mae-Lin is strong willed and virtous but not understanding of the fact that others may not be. Kean is loyal only to the highest bidder but has a strict code of honor inhow he conducts himself once he is on the job.
- Character animation. Combat feels dynamic, powers have a very individual feel to them and when fighting another toon there’s is a distinct feeling that the two are actually engaged in combat.
- Everyone gets a pet. Your companions have opinions and influence how you play both in terms of the story and mechanics.
Con:
- Still some things copy-pasted from WoW (the benchmark of MMOs). Do we need a skill point based crafting system?
- A lot of effort put into making YOUR character seem like the center of the universe. It’s an MMO and there is a lot of other universal nexuses running around. My impulse is to ignore them.
Skyrim
Pro:
- Streamlined. The newest incarnation of the mechanics are a huge step up from the previous games. None of the skills feel awkward to use and, get this, theres a talent point system that works!
- Reaction/immersion. In Oblivion NPC’s would turn to face you and some times greet you with a standard phrase. in Skyrim these messages are highly individual. They relate to where you are in the story. In Whiterun your identity is known. In another city it is not (and this may depend on wether you choose to use your special powers within the city or not) and as such the responses will be different.
- Atmosphere/graphics. Skyrim is just beautiful. Mists and weather artistically blend with the landscape. Mountains tower above you in the distance and the ruins are, as always, creepy as fuck (as are their inhabitants).
- Freedom of choice. As always you have a choice to go where you want and do what you want to do. Pick sides in the great war, go study magic, make friends with the reclusive orcs… it’s all up to you (ps: the orcs are assholes).
Con:
- Sometimes it happens I get tired of being awesome. In Skyrim you cannot sneeze without everyone complimenting you and if you’re in luck a priest will show up just then and declare you the herald of the mucus god. You are so fucking special it hurts.
- There’s some balancing/power level issues that get to me.
- Someone should have bothered to name all the dragons. Killing “Dragon #16″ is anticlimatic (yes I’m nitpicking)
Forced
As I was handed a bag from a cupcake shop I was, as one does when handed a bag from a cupcake shop, thinking: “uuuuh, cupcakes!”. As it turned out, however, the bag contained a little box with lightsabers and the Lucasarts logo on the front. That’s when it hit me: I had been Forced.
Universal Truth
Steam has a lot of nice special offers these days. One of them being Orcs Must Die! …in which carnage is the word of the day.
Random Teleportation III
I knew where I was before I managed to turn the camera so I could actually see past a huge stone pillar. Dire Maul has a unique jade green light and is one of the instances I remember doing with my very first guild. Getting through this place could take the better part of an evening. This is where we actually had a designated “tank” for the first time. Game balance was till so-and-so and dual specs did not exist so everyone was, more or less, specced and geared for solo play. My career as shaman healer started here as I started collecting gear (mostly leather and cloth items) that augmented my healing and started staying out of combat so I could help out my poor guildmates.
Random Teleportation II
Today I was sent to The Blasted Lands. This area has always been a bit out-of-the way. I don’t remember questing in it at all. It is, however, an important site for Warcraft history being the location of The Dark Portal.
It still is a desolate place but has changed a lot since I first set foot there. The teleportation relic deposited me on top of one of the many plateaus that was, until flying in Azeroth became possible, completely unreachable. I used to wonder what I might find on top of those and today I get my answer: three skeletons sitting around some menacing looking device. As usual the answer just brings more questions. Who were they, what were they doing and why?
Random Teleportation I
I’ve started up WoW again and one of the things that has been amusing me for several weeks now is the Last Relic of Argus, an item found by performing the Archaeology profession in Outland, which will teleport you to a random place in the world. Or, as the item states: “exactly where you want to go… if you aren’t too picky”
Today I was taken into the Golakka Hot Springs in Un’Goro Crater.
Un’Goro was always one of my least favorite zones. It’s filled with surprisingly stealthy mega dinosaurs and the quests there required a lot of running around. In later patches the place has been fixed up a bit… but there’s still a lot of dinosaurs.
*heartstone*
Puzzle Quest II
Since Lasse and Adrian are actually using their TV these days (for what we shall not speak of) I’ve had to take steps. Drastic steps. Thankfully Puzzle Quest II is also avaliable on Steam and I’ve just played through the storyline.
Last Flight
Last Flight
Caldari
The window in her quarters were framed with Gallentean faux bois, an organic shape pleasing to the eye and yet utterly inhuman. Real wood would have never been able to bend and twist as it did and even if it could no human hands would have been able to make such delicate carvings. It was in every way an artificial creation. An imitation of a craft long since obsolete and mimicry of a material that had no place in deep space.
The screen set inside this abomination was currently displaying space as seen from the surface of the asteroid. There was just one camera publicly available and as such she was only able to see the battered spacecraft for about nine percent of it’s elliptic orbit. Soon it would appear in the counterfeit casement again marking the completion of it’s thirty-fourth orbit. Having long since run out of notes to review, inventories to double check and processes to monitor remotely, Kinachi was beginning to feel impatient.
Minmatar
Faded markings identified the spacecraft’s name as “Maris” and once again it had reached the apogee of its orbit around the barren asteroid. The thrusters kicked in to compensate for a slight movement of the fix point and another cycle began. In twenty-three minutes the sun would set over the rim of the tiny asteroid and the shields would power up to protect the scarred hull. This time exposure would be minimal since the systems lone planet, a gargantuan sphere of black rock, would eclipse the ailing star soon after. The shields would power down yet again and there would be silence until the computer would state that the frigates position relative to the tiny installation on the asteroids surface was optimal for docking. Jaan tried to reassure himself that this time he would initiate the procedure.
Gallente
Roughly half of the little lights indicating the fastest route to an evacuation centre were working. Their luminescence barely enough to let someone walk through the hallway without stumbling over piles of scrap leaning haphazardly against the walls.
The complex clinging to the barren asteroid had been built a long time ago as a storage facility for the felsic magma tapped from the once volcanically active planet drifting through this system in a lazy orbit. As the sun cooled so had the planet and the silicon rich substance had ceased to flow. Now the structure was manned by a crew fit for an installation one tenth of its size and most of the gigantic storage complexes dug into the rock beneath were sealed off. The dimly lit derelict hallway led to one such storage facility only this one was not as abandoned as the station reports would have you believe.
Thanks to her ocular filter the darkness was less than an inconvenience to Sophia. Her hiding place was quite another story though and while it allowed her to monitor both the elevator door and the entrance at the other end of the hallway it required her to maintain her vigil awkwardly pressed against the dusty floor.
Amarr
While the main generator was shut down to avoid long range detection the ship was far from dormant. Even the mirage effect extended by the cloak generator could not completely obscure the multitude of impacts against the ships outer plating. A swarm of repair robots scurried across the hull tearing tiny chunks of rock from the armor and sealing off every dent.
Maintaining a position so close to the planet was hazardous at best since the dead world was breaking apart. The irony of describing a process that hurled splinters of black rock into space at sickening velocities as “slow” was not lost on the men and women crewing the obfuscated vessel. However perilous the position it was true that the sheer mass of the crumbling giant made their stealth complete. Checking again that his orbit placed the sad remnants of the volcanic globe directly between himself and the asteroid mounted station, Murash breathed a prayer of gratitude. He was completely certain that no one was aware of his presence and soon his patience would pay off. He would eliminate a pilot who had slaughtered faithful warriors by the numbers and given rise to a region wide legend.
Gallente
Sophia twitched slightly in her cramped hideaway as the mechanism operating the lift broke the hour long silence. At the same time the door to her right opened and for a second she was staring at a reflection of herself in the surface of a highly polished knee-high boot before her quarry proceeded down the corridor. She forced herself to breathe slowly, ignoring the urge to seize the woman here and now. She needed photo evidence as well as solid data of an actual transaction before she could act.
She had spent years collecting material on the former Caldari Navy pilot who had made a career of building advanced ship for anyone who would pay. Pirates and megacorporations, capsuleers and empires. While it didn’t seem to matter to the reclusive mechanic, the amount of advanced weaponry making it’s way into dangerous hands did matter to Sophie’s superiors. She had been given the seemingly impossible task of detaining a capsuleer with an otherwise flawless security standing, connections with both the Caldari Navy, Ishukone and possibly several dangerous nullsec residents. Sophie had welcomed the challenge. She had never failed to bring a mark in.
Caldari
Just when she had been contemplating welding a tractor beam onto her shuttle a raspy voice on the intercom informed her that her client had finally initiated docking procedures. She had worn the jade green finish covering the fingernail on her left thumb completely off but otherwise her appearance was up to standards. She adjusted the clip holding her hair in place and set off down the corridor to meet the man whose ship was her next project.
Multiple nuclear reactor units were being brought online in the workshop below. The fernite carbide composite armor plate, a cluster of plasma thrusters and a multitude of advanced electronic components was waiting in their containers.
During her long wait there had been plenty of opportunity to examine the ship that was pulling into the docking perimeter. It was a mess. It was junk. But she would fix that. She felt a rush of excitement at the thought. It would not be her first work on a Minmatar ship but it didn’t matter to her. This kind of task never became routine. Once the transaction was completed she would pull the old Rifter apart and the pilot would leave this station in an impressive Wolf class frigate.
Amarr
The docking procedure was initiated and Murash was slowly beginning to run projections of how to best cut off his prey when it was to leave the station. A warp scrambler and several advanced drones capable of all but halting a ship in space was standing by. His acolytes were waiting at every gate out of the system. He was going to let the Minmatar scum perform the planned upgrade of his precious ship. It did not matter. Murash would tear open his adversary’s pod and use the sophisticated sensors on his ship to trace the signal back to Jaan’s clone bank. No matter who was providing shelter for this criminal, they would pay the price. Just as the female had when she had intervened in Jaan and Murash’s first clash many years ago. There were scores to settle here and Murash was going to make sure he collected every due. Deep inside his pod the Paladin smiled as he urged his Redeemer class ship into action.
Minmatar
Letting the station computer guide his ship towards the designated hangar Jaan accessed the internal cameras. Even though the life support system was running around the clock, even when he wasn’t piloting the ship, it had been years since anyone had been in the passenger section. He took the view of the different rooms in and for once allowed his memories to take hold of him. The chamber and the uncomfortable cot they had shared. The bench she had preferred over it’s four identical siblings. He hesitated for a second before calling up an image of the main cargo hold. There, behind the shuttle pad, their initials carved into a part of the exposed exoskeleton. He knew he was going to ask if it was possible to leave just that part of the hull intact.
The station and the asteroid continued to grow in size as the Rifter made it’s approach. The last flight of the Maris. On autopilot.
Woehammer III
I’ve been a bit lax with this update: I actually managed to get Warhammer Online to work. I’m not retracting the harsh words I sent towards Warhammer Online, their customer support, EA and the accounts within accounts ect… I feel they were well deserved. I had not overlooked some shortcut nor misunderstood any instructions. In the end the way to make it all work is arcane to the point of being silly and the website(s) might as well have been written in latin.
Diary of Kinachi Roi 4
I have always prided myself on my hearing. Indeed my oldest friends have caught on to my fascination with complex sound patterns long ago. Music does not interest me. It is the resonance of a shield generator, the steady beat of a pulsar and the hum of machinery that pleases my ear. I did not, however, expect to find such exaltation in the cacophony caused by thousands and thousands of gargantuan armor components being stacked, moved and handled by my mechanical henchmen.
My workshop is now considered a section of the station in itself and I was pleased to discover that my Ishukone hosts has installed and equipped a considerable complex that can house not only the workers I employ but also the crew of my ships. I had not noticed how many human beings are now in my employ and it is rather daunting to learn that many of them live here with their families. I can, however, live with the idea of children roaming the corridors of a sealed off complex half a kilometer away as long as the kitchen continues to deliver my food directly to my office. It is peculiar how that the boy who makes deliveries to me seemed surprised when he saw me eat. It is only when I’m strapped into my pod that I do not require traditional nourishment. This little anecdote does illustrate the power of the capsuleer myth though. To them I really am an immortal.
Woehammer II
The saga continues.
I have managed to locate the book I used to keep my passwords in. I found the password I used for Warhammer Online and luckily I reembered how to decipher the code I used (what, you don’t write your sensitive information in code?) to protect it.
This, along with the old emails I have recieved from Mythic when I activated the game, means I have the login information… in theory I should be able to log into the game itself. I decided to give it a go and downloaded the client, typed in my account name and password and…
…ok, too much to hope for perhaps but this is not half bad. It means my username and password was recognised. I’m in the system! (happy existentialist!). Hopefully being directed to the “Account Center” will let me perform the updates I need and also let me resubscribe to the game… who knows? I might even be able to PLAY it!
Perhaps this merry chase is like a feature? A mini game designed to highten ones anticipation and appreciation of actually being able to play?
It’s not working.
Woehammer
I was elated back in the day when they announced Warhammer Online. I pre-ordered the “collectors edition” (which means paying more money to get nerdgasm items) and then forgot all about it.
Then one day it was in my mail. Very wtf moment. I only half remembered ordering it. I even called my Warhammer guru to ask if he had ordered it (some times he has things shipped to my address because he is paranoid) but he confirmed that I had been bouncing around his living room for an hour and a half after placing the order.
I spent days looking over the amazing artwork book which is an amazing piece in itself. Then played the game for a month or two. Got bored and went outside to climb a tree. You all know the story (if you insert WOW instead of the tree I guess).
Now. Years later another friend poked me about Warhammer Online and I must admit I am curious to see what has become of the game. What it turned out as.
I decided to re-activate my account. Only, as it turns out, that is no easy task at all.
I remember disliking the game website from the very start. It was very poorly concieved. Very rigid and unintuitive. At times I suspect that the content and site has been developed seperately. Verily so the content and imagery of Warhammer Online is powerful (the Warhammer World being what it is) but all the beautiful images and rich background story seems like fish caught in a net when presented on the webpage.
Returning to the site… it is roughly the page I remember although changes has been made for the better. Still, it resembles the ugly twin sister of the WoW site.
I choose to go to “account management”. Having dug up the old emails from Mythic with relative ease thanks to my slight case of OCD when it comes to ordering my inbox (2007? Really?) I thought I might have to ask to recover my password, nothing too stressful (2007 was back in the day when I still insisted on using different passwords for every service, game and website I used).
However as I go to “Account management” I am asked to log in using my EA account.
I do not have an EA account. The page, however offers a lot of other options and surely one of those will help me to update the old game account?
I start by slicking “start” since I do need an EA account and I do have a CD key to verify my account. Only that option takes me to a formula to create an entirely new account and I am politely informed that my email address is already in use. A positive thing surely… it means they still know who I am (or at the very least that I am and that’s all an existentialist can really ask for).
Thus, divulging both my birth date and country to the internet, I return to the previous page to try out one of the other options. I notice that your EA account name supposedly is also your email.
So maybe, since they have told me that my email is already in use, my old game account has become an EA account and I can ask to recover/change my password.
I’m a bit confused now since I have just been told that:
1: My email is already registered and so I cannot make a new EA account.
2: My email is not an Account Name.
I return to my point of origin: The account managament page. I look over the original emails sent to me and there is both a “login name” (that is not my email) and a “username”. So my last option is to see if any of these corresponds with the “Mythic Master Account”. My game account might have been changed into one of those… according to the page I can then tie that into an EA account, log in, re-activate and play the game.
The page does not recognise my email or my “login name”. It does, however respond to my “username” and tells me that I should recieve a confirmation request in my inbox soon.
I never recieve an email. As I am politely asked to notice that the email is only valid for 24 hours for security reasons I decide to wait for a day or so just to be sure. No email.
I assume the “username” I have typed in belongs to someone else and I’d like to apologize for having three of these messages sent to you by now (the original, one to be sure and one just to make the screenshot).
That, however, leaves me with no options left. I am unable to access account management and I see no other option than to contact Customer Support for help…
Details
Incarna makes your character more “real”. For the first time in the history of EVE you can see and move your character around (though lmited to your quarters on the space station you’re visiting). I’m actually kindof liking the new, more dynamic, backdrop. My character lounges on a couch while I have my windows open and play the game like I always have.
I’m not a fan of the idea behind Incarna. It seems to me that it mostly serves to streamline a game whose main feature is being different. I am a fan of the vast amount of small interface fixes and upgrades Incarna has brought with it though. Taking the time to improve my search options in the market tab is an investment of time and energy I appreciate. Claiming to make the game feel more real and then forgetting to give the avatar of my capsuleer the trademark socket at the base of her skull, is not.
Incarna So Far
I can’t say I’m all that fussed about the “first leg of Incarna”. As an immersionist I should be having a hard time getting my arms down over this but fact is: I’ve never missed immersion in EVE. I’ve always felt very connected to the idea of my clone self. The cold world of the capsule. The data interface I see on the screen. In my optics it’s a mistake to confuse “avatars” with immersion. I think a lot of people are missing the point that the screen you see in front of you is NOT the game interface. It’s the interface your character sees as she/he is connected to the system of his capsule. The view of space is through the eyes of drones. Every window you call up is how it actually looks. When I see my character walking around in a first person view that’s when it gets unrealistic for me. Is a camera drone following me around? Why do I need to see the world like this and not just through my own eyes? That is when the immersion is broken and EVE becomes just like the other games.
Diary of Kinachi Roi 3
Realising I have been wasting a lot of materials (and therefore mony) I decided to put the production of spaceship components on hold while performing the research required to reduce the amount of raw materials I use up.
This has left me with some free time that I have been spending getting used to my new Buzzard (a replacement for my lost Myst, a Heron).
I must admit that I feel quite uneasy piloting Myst II. It’s like traversing space wearing a tinfoil suit! I’m used to the secure and comforting feeling of Silver Wings’ armor and the peaceful resonance of the shield systems. Knowing a single salvo of missiles can take you out of action certianly makes you double check coordinates quite often.
Diary of Kincahi Roi 2
Today a section of the hallways on the station had been sealed off due to an explosion that appears to have been set off by a Sansha Loyalist. The culprit will be happy to know that he, by his death, sucesfully has caused people to have to make a detour of several kilometers for an extended period of time. And they say that one man can not have an impact on the universe.
As I tend to let my mind wander when I walk I often stick to well known, but not always time-efficient, routes and as such I found myself walking past the lab. I was surprised and could not resist the urge to walk in and inspect the consoles. As expected all of the long term processes I am running was being tracked and the data stored in the specialized cores I have manifactured. None of that was unexpected, of course, as I monitor these processes remotely on a regular basis. What caused my surprise was the sudden realisation that it’s been weeks since last I was in here doing hands on work.
MORDOR!!!
As I was stashing away some old CD’s (in this age of Steam, BattleNet and cheap Amazon downloads (that they really should start offering to Europe) those things are starting to seem obsolete) and behold what I found: my copy of MORDOR: Depths of Dejenol.
“Mordor – The Depths of Dejenol is a grand scale Fantasy Role Playing game that captivates all who play it. This first advanture will take you into the Mines of Marlith, now known as the Depts of Dejenol.
In the Depts of Dejenol you will create characters from a choice of races, oversee their training in skills taught by one or more of a dozen guilds and lead them into a mysterious dungeon on a nearly endless mission of exploration, mapping and looting.
Along the way you will encounter hundreds of exotic and terrifying creatures and when properly trained you will be able to charm or vanquish them as you see fit.
As you venture deeper into the mines you will discover rare and powerful artifacts. Artifacts that you can sell for considerable profit or use to cast magical spells.
The deeper you explore the more excitement and challenge you will find. But proceed with caution or you may discover why so few explorers return from… the Depts of Dejenol.
EVE-provements!
Two things that excite me:
It might seem like a minor thing but in a game where you can spend all of your time flying around in space shooting… stuff it’s important to look good while doing it. Quite often I have found myself disapointed with the seemingly universial design for turrets. Be they railguns, missile launchers, lasers or even tractor beams they all looked the same on all kinds of ships. I am glad to see this rectified!
As mentioned before: flying around in space. Space has to be pretty. A lot of people I know stare at the black voids you sometimes encounter in the EVE universe and express their surprise that you can stand to watch this for hours. Usually I explain them that I will, at any given point, have a lot of windows open… checking the markets or the starmap and so forth. But I can see why a black screen with some stars on them will dissuade some people. This is an important step to making the EVE universe a lot more exciting to travel through.
Diary of Kinachi Roi 1
Even though the capsuleer training program spent considerable time preparing me for the loss of a sleep cycle, both with the initial chemical compounds as with implants, I still find myself at odds with some deep instinct when I’m nearing 40 hours of lab time. Usually I can maintain productive functions for as much as 63 hours, without stimulants, quite easily. But even when I’m flying Silver Wings, which is well capable of scorching the surface of a planet, I find myself hearing my mothers high pitch: “Roi! Time for bed now. Put down the reader“. Bothersome.
I have spent most of my time in the Ishukone labs for the past month. I was elated when finally my research started to yield very specific results. Being trained as a theoretical physicist I am still having some trouble not running off on a tangent when my work presents an interesting challenge. Still… forcing myself to think of everything within the context of ship engineering has its advantages.
Incursion!
“Sansha’s Nation
Founded by Caldari megalomaniac Sansha Kuvakei, the Nation was created to be a personal vehicle for unfettered technological research and arms manufacturing, and sold to thousands of eager colonists as a new Paradise where every citizen is free to pursue their dreams. Deep in his secret facilities in the heart of Stain, Sansha melded man and machine to create unquestioning cybernetic slaves who he intended to serve as soldiers in the coming war.
When the Empires discovered the true extent of his work, and the threat he posed to civilization throughout the EVE cluster, they put aside their differences for one singular moment and united to purge Sansha’s Nation from the map. While they succeeded in destroying his colonies and the bulk of his equipment, they failed to decisively complete the job; Sansha’s corpse has never been found, the True Slaves were never truly exterminated, and in the intervening years their numbers seem to have started growing once again… “
Now Sansha’s Nation is launching incursions into otherwise secure space, CONCORD calls the capsuleers to arms and luckily I do not have to concern myself with this at all since EVE remains such a vast game where your focus is for yourself to decide. Currently I’m working on my skills at building advanced spacecraft and extracting resources from planets.
