Business » The Grouchy Gamer

Darren is going to Blow A Gasket

Business, Gaming, What I'm Playing 4 Responses »

Apr 152010

Forgive me Father, it’s been almost 90 days since my last post.

A while ago, you might remember Darren over at The Common Sense Gamer losing his mind a little when one of the publishers had the audacity to ask for $10 for an in-game horse. Well Darren is going to absolutely flip over this then.

Blizzard is selling a mount on the Blizzard Pet Store. You can get your Celestial Steed now on the Blizzard Store for only $25 US. What a deal, right? I know Tarkheena is looking for her credit card right now. I think they are going to sell a TON of these. What do you guys think though? How much is too much?

I still think that any of this stuff that is not germane to game play is fair game. I don’t need it to craft, or to store items, or to access content. It’s purely cosmetic. As a matter of fact, reports are that the mount will scale to the speed of your fastest mount. So it’s almost literally just a skin on whatever you already possess. I’ll probably end up with one. They are pretty cool looking.

There is some understandable Nerd Rage about this, but I go back to the fact that it’s an in-game collectible, and nothing more. If Blizzard starts asking for money for unlocks, or crafting goods, or bag space, then you will hear more from me. Until then I think I’m going to enjoy seeing what they come up with next to separate us from our money.

I'm an Idiot

Business, Opinion, What I'm Playing 11 Responses »

Nov 052009

I may have used that title before, because let’s face it.. In my case it’s pretty recyclable.

I’ve ranted here before about microtransactions, and the negative effects of RMT on today’s games. I’m not a big fan. But what I don’t like is the type of MT that gates or changes game play. So when Blizzard announced this week that they were adding the Pet Store to their Blizzard store for use in WoW, you might expect that I would have a problem with that as well.

Instead, as you can see here, I now own one. It’s actually fun, as people can come up and bow to him, and he will bow back. He’ll also do some animations that are kinda fun.

I’m still not a fan of changing game play with MT. Even the moves that SOE made this week rubbed me the wrong way, converting Free Realms from a Free To Play to a Fee to Pay. But to me, cosmetic things like this are harmless. If you think they are stupid, you don’t have to buy one to remain competitive or able to play. So you are free to take a pass. To those who say that they are too much money, I say the same thing. If it’s too much money, don’t buy it. You don’t need it to raid/crawl/craft or whatever you like most in the game. It’s really something you can ignore if you think it’s overpriced.

Me, I’ve already got my $10 worth out of the little guy. Had some fun parading him around Dalaran tonight and watching others interact or try to interact with him.

I’m interested to see what else may come along for this kind of thing. Armor dyes, color swatches to match up all your armor, other pets? All of this kind of thing are the least objectionable form of MT to me. The first time they ask me for cash for a key to a dungeon or the like I’m gone though. How about you guys?

SOE Management - Why So Clueless?

Business, Opinion, Rant 20 Responses »

Oct 092009

So it’s baseball playoff time, and I’m enjoying a game on TV when I get an email. It’s from SOE. They want to make sure that I know they are closing about half of their SWG servers. Yeah, OK, I know that. And they want me to know a couple other things. To quote;

In accordance with the server closure date, the Free Character Transfer service has been extended through October 15. 2009. Between September 15, 2009 and October 15, 2009 at 4:59 PM PT all characters on the affected servers are eligible for a one way, one time Free Character Transfer* to any of the remaining thirteen (13) Star Wars Galaxies servers.

Cool! Free character transfers! That’s always good, especially when the server you are on may be one of the soon-to-be-obsolete variety. Duh. But there is more;

After October 15, 2009 at 5:00 PM PT, any characters and their associated items and structures remaining on the identified servers being closed will no longer be accessible on your Star Wars Galaxies or Station Access account.

Ouch. OK, no longer accessible? You mean deleted, right?

But wait! There’s more! And this is the really good part!

To access the Free Character Transfer Service, you must login to Star Wars Galaxies with the character you would like to transfer. You will be notified that your character qualifies for the free character transfer service opportunity when you login. Eligible characters may also enter “/freects” to begin the transfer process. Only one character may be transferred at a time. Please read and respond carefully to each question and answer entry you type. All Character Transfers are considered final and cannot be reversed.

This means that there is no way to transfer your characters if you are currently unsubscribed. I say currently because the nature of MMO subscriptions is that people come and go, then come back again. Tarkheena and I have resubbed to SWG three separate times.

Blizzard: Game Development-Just Slow Down

Business, Design, Gaming 5 Responses »

Sep 192009

All of us love our games (I assume you do too, and that is why you are here) and most of us want exciting new games to come along. We want them fun, we want them nuanced, we want them polised. Oh, and we want them right damn now. Why does it take so long to develop a game anyway? While I suspect that most of us have ideas why games take so long, I think that most of us don’t really think about some realities that govern whether a game is polished (seemingly a large yardstick for measuring the success of a game), fun, and attractive to us. I don’t think most of us have any idea of the scope of these games or the resources required to develop or operate and manage them.

During AGDC this week during 2 separate events Blizzard Entertainment shared what they think makes them unique in this regard.

The first, a Gamasutra interview with Blizzard lead content designer Kevin Martens is relatively simple: Iteration. Taking something and playing and testing it over and over. Tweaking it and playing and testing it over and over again. I suspect that many of us would expect that this is the essence of “polish”. How can something be polished without lots of testing and lots of adjustments from what you found while testing? Of course all of this iteration costs money, so that excludes some studios who may be operating on a shoestring or are under time-pressure to release a game. It’s also clear that this is why Blizzard takes so bloodly long to get anything out.

GameBreakR Goes Live at AGDC

Business, Community 1 Response »

Sep 162009

I’ve been a fan of Gary and Ryan from MMOG nation for a while. I used to listen to their podcast back when theirs was just about the only podcast out there about MMO’s. Gary Gannon, the Gary from the aforementioned team has been semi-retired from podcasting and community in general for about a year or so.

He’s returned in a big new way with his new site GameBreakr. The new site is a combination of news, ultra-brief reviews, and something a little more experimental, Gary’s live video podcasts. At AGDC, he’s launching the site with the help from the folks over at Vivox. He’s also peppering in a lot of social networking components with his presence on Facebook and Twitter as well. It’s a little more of a 360 degree approach to an online presence than is being done elsewhere.

The tag line on the blog is “Video Game Talk You Can Trust – with Gary Gannon” The scope of the podcasts will be everything gaming from Xbox, Playstation, Nintendo, and PC gaming. I’d encourage you guys to go over to the site and check it out and click the “Game Breakr Live” tab at the top to see the live podcasts during AGDC with people from the industry, and check back each day to see what he’s got going. I’ll be following this new experiment and see how it develops. It’s cool to see someone take a little more complete approach to the community.

Cryptic Studios Aptly Named on Pre-Launch Event

Business, Opinion, Rant 8 Responses »

Aug 292009

Champions Online

Like anyone who is interested in the MMO space, I tend to want to at least try every game that comes along. I was a little resistant to mess with Champions Online just because from the brief time I spent with it in beta, it felt like CoX 2.0. This isn’t a ringing endorsement.

Like a lot of people, Tarkheena and I were fascinated by the character creation though. Add to that a lot of friends that are playing and we decided to give it a run. I headed over to the Champions Online website to find out what the deal is with pre-order, head-start and the like. I also wanted to find out when the game was going live. According to what I saw there, I’m evidently just supposed to know this by osmosis or something. There isn’t a single banner, news post, or link that would tell me when the damn thing is going to happen.

Being the stubborn sort, I refused to look elsewhere to find this news because if you are trying to sell me a product, I feel like you should effing tell me when it’s going to be available before I have to google (or Bing) it.

Brett Close out, Jennifer MacLean in as 38 CEO

Business No Responses »

Aug 232009

In a move that I didn’t see coming, Brett Close has left 38 Studios “to pursue other interests.” This is a big change because it’s been said in the past about Close that he’s loyal and sticks to a position. As a matter of fact it’s been discussed in the past that they were very pleased to be able to wrest him away from his last position. Now we don’t know if this is a personal change for Brett, or if this is business driven. We probably won’t know for a long time, if ever. Brett isn’t from the Boston area and maybe there were family reasons for the change. We’re just speculating, but any time the person at the top changes it’s a big deal. The announcement hit the 38Studios.com site Friday, August 21st.

Brett is replaced at the helm by Jennifer MacLean, who was announced as joining the team back in March. According to the release on the site, Jennifer is going to be the new CEO. Close held the position of President and CEO. 38 has not announced if Jennifer is going to be running the day to day business or if she’s going to take a more traditional CEO role and drive strategy.

According to IGN.com;

Prior to joining 38 Studios in March 2008, MacLean was vice president and general manager of games at Comcast, the largest cable company in the United States. Chairwoman Emeritus of the Independent Game Developers Association, named by Gamasutra as one of the “Top 20 Women in Games,” and listed by Next Generation as one of the game industry’s “100 Most Influential Women,” MacLean has more than fifteen years of extensive experience in online content and interactive entertainment and holds an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School.

We’ll keep on top of this and let you know what role she will take and where Brett Close might land.

It's True! It's a Cataclysm

Business, Design, What I'm Playing 4 Responses »

Aug 212009

All of the rumors turned out to be true.

It's a Cataclysm

Which means they weren’t rumors at all. That means someone seriously stole Blizzard’s thunder by leaking that information. We reported it here a few weeks ago, and MMO-Champion took the report to a level of detail that turned out to be very factual. They claimed that people found this by data mining, and some of that might be true, but it sure looks like they got some inside information. It’s turned out to be true, almost verbatim.

So what does that mean for WoW players? In my opinion it creates what has to be the most exciting expansion yet. But this expansion is certainly not without risk.

When the news broke officially today I was at work without access to the Blizzard web site or this one. Of course, I had to comment so I did what everyone else seems to be doing today and turned to Twitter. Here is what I said;

We’re all excited about Cataclysm now. What’s the over/under on the date that people will call for “classic” servers?

You know how we are. And when I say “we” I mean us MMO gamers. We clamor for something when we like the romantic notion of it, but we don’t necessarily like it when we get it. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that this one is going to be a little different. I do believe that there will be those who long for the “old” Azeroth once it’s gone. I can totally see Branyanu and I running around somewhere in the old world the last days before the patch hits, soaking it in one last time. We did that at the end of beta, parking our favorite beta characters up on the top of a mountain as we watched the server click down to the end, never to see them again. I’m sure that nostalgia will strike again.

But in reality, the old zones have served their purpose, and now lie mostly dormant. The ones that don’t are often the scene of level 80′s murdering level 30′s. Maybe in the post-Cataclysmic Azeroth there will be mechanisms that make that harder to do. If you’ve read this blog for a while you know I’m no fan of Wolf vs. Sheep PVP. But I digress. The old zones will now be filled with new scenery, monsters, and challenges. Blizzard has already said that the monsters are “leveling up” as we speak. Sounds like they are planning on shaking up the old bestiary too, at least on how tough they are.

I’m not going to report all the new features, you all probably already know them. If not click the graphic of the new logo above to be taken to the Cataclysm official site.

Are you guys looking forward to this as much as I am?

Where WILL all the Money Come From?

Business 5 Responses »

Jul 302009

Curt Schilling, 38 Studios

Recently, Werit wondered if the MMO thing isn’t getting out of hand and whether a lot of the new MMO’s on the horizon are destined to fail because there isn’t market share for all of them. You have to wonder if it’s not only the bloggers of the world that are wondering this.

In the Boston Globe recently, there was an article that mentioned that Curt Schilling was out pounding the pavement in search of venture capital. Some people may be surprised to learn that 38 Studios isn’t funded by Curt with his own funds. His family would have the right to have his head examined if he did. Why? Someone once gave me a really good definition of the difference between rich and wealthy. He told me that Kobe Bryant is rich. He said the person that signs his checks is wealthy. Curt is very well to do, but I wouldn’t call him wealthy (unless you compare him to me, but that is another story.)

I was wrong. I was SO wrong.

Business, Opinion 12 Responses »

Jun 162009

Turns out that the site listed in the previous post is indeed Brad’s.

There was too much about it that made it seem “off” that I didn’t believe it. But I got from a trusted source today that it is his site. Too bad, a spoof would have been funny.

As it is, it’s kind of creepy seeing some of the posts there. There are sycophants and there are vitriolics, and not much in between.

Judging from Brad’s post today, there isn’t going to be an interview, which is too bad. I guess we’re going to pretend that everything never happened and there is no culpability. I wish when I didn’t make my sales figures for a month, I could go to my boss and say; “I’m really looking forward, not looking back.” Like that would work.

I hear from my sources that Brad is in a better place, and that he’s healthier and doing better than he has in years. I’m glad for that. I never wanted the guy to be sick or unhappy. I just don’t want him around any game that I’m playing. From all accounts, he’s a good guy. Just not a good manager.

Good luck, Brad. I don’t know what you are trying to accomplish. I think the road is going to be a little rockier than you may expect.

And I’d still like to do an interview. Shoot me an email when you are ready.

That's NOT Brad McQuaid

Business, Gaming, Opinion 32 Responses »

Jun 152009

I think someone fooled my friend Darren over at The Common Sense Gamer.

As most of you know, I started off my online “career” doing a fan site for Vanguard. During that time, I got to read a LOT of Brad McQuaid’s essays, posts, and manifestos. After a while, I got to where I could easily recognize his style. So I was surprised today to see that Darren posted about how Brad was popping back up with a couple of posts on his blog at bradmcquaid.com.

Here’s what Darren and most of you probably didn’t know. bradmcquaid.com’s domain registration expired in February. What you also don’t know is that on a flyer, I took a shot at picking it up when it expired. I didn’t get it. It was scooped up by;

What Constitutes an MMO Success or Failure?

Business, Gaming, Opinion, Prediction 11 Responses »

May 062009

FAIL As discussion on some of the blogs in the MMO blogosphere seem to be discussing the slowdown of activity in some of the WAR-dedicated blogs recently it occurs to me that there are all kinds of different definitions of what makes an MMO commercially “successful.” While some companies look at anything less than Blizzard-Level numbers as too small, many companies are looking at smaller niches or alternate styles and saying “yes” to new game development.

So what DOES make an MMO a success in your eyes? I think that is a complex question. There are certainly different levels of success. There are definitely different levels of failure. When you see a game like Tabula Rasa close down so soon after launch, you have to probably agree that it’s a business and critical failure. Same for games like Auto Assault. But what of those games in between? Certainly I’ve written enough about how big a DISAPPOINTMENT Vanguard turned out to be, but with a dedicated team still working on it and a small but loyal customer base you may be able to successfully argue that it’s not a total failure. Certainly the economy of scale that SOE has working allows for some marginal games by today’s standards to stay open and running. Whether the publisher thinks a game is successful or not is certainly dependent on the investment they have in it and how profitable it remains.

Older Entries

The Grouchy Gamer

Darren is going to Blow A Gasket

I'm an Idiot

SOE Management - Why So Clueless?

Blizzard: Game Development-Just Slow Down

GameBreakR Goes Live at AGDC

Cryptic Studios Aptly Named on Pre-Launch Event

Brett Close out, Jennifer MacLean in as 38 CEO

It's True! It's a Cataclysm

Where WILL all the Money Come From?

I was wrong. I was SO wrong.

That's NOT Brad McQuaid

What Constitutes an MMO Success or Failure?

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