I’ve long ago lost the ego to think that I can tell you what the “best” music of any given year is. Music is far too personal a thing for one blogger to tell you what is good and what isn’t.

What I can do, however, is list my favorite music of the year. Hopefully what I write will be descriptive enough to encourage you to buy (as in pay cash money for) some of these albums, whether physical or digital copies. I don’t need to remind you that the music business is in dire straits as it seeks to reinvent itself, and the one thing we don’t want to see happen is that it becomes economically impossible for great artists to make a living doing what they do best. So please, buy some of this stuff. Albums listed after the break.

Continue Reading »

Happy Holidays, whichever you may celebrate. I’ll go ahead and call out Christmas because, well, it’s Christmas.

I do plan to write about games again at some point, as soon as I can figure out something worthwhile to say. Honestly, despite some relatively big news in the latter months of this year, I can’t think of all that much to talk about that hasn’t been said already or wouldn’t be in bad taste for me to comment on.

Before the year is out I’ll be posting my picks for the best music of 2008. Until then, please keep me in you thoughts as I’m currently freezing my nethers off visiting my homeland of Minnesota.

It’s a tough day to be an SOE community manager.

There’s a great thread over at Fires of Heaven asking posters to list their favorite weapons and armor from any MMOG. Not surprisingly, the original EverQuest dominates the list.

Partly this is because the FoH board has its roots firmly in EQ, but there’s more to it than that. EverQuest had memorable items because, at least in the early days, it had no rules. Modern MMOGs like WoW and EQ2 have pretty strict item creation guidelines which give designers a set budget to spend when creating weapons and armor. Sure, the high-end game has great loot with effects that make you drool over them, but there are very few that stand out as truly unique or indispensable. They simply hold you over until the next level cap increase, when even the uberest of loot will be replaced.

EQ also started with no level restrictions on items. This had the interesting effect that there was no stigma associated with wearing an item you got at level 30 when you were level 50. Many of the most desirable items were hard to get because they came from rare spawns, not necessarily because they were raid drops or from the highest-level dungeons.

Today’s game designers will tell you that original EQ’s itemization was broken. You want players to feel like they’re making steady progress, leaving old gear behind while shooting for the new stuff. But broken or not, no other MMOG has made me put as much time into planning my gear as EQ did. I had a three-ring binder full of printouts listing items I longed to get. While I do pay attention to certain gear in WoW, it’s really only raid drops that are worth paying attention to. As far as regular gear goes, you can pick up stuff you need as you quest, level grind, or PvP.

Modern itemization is technically “better” in that it is balanced and offers measurable progress. But there is an undeniable magic to items that break the rules and really stand out in players’ hearts and minds. It may be true that there will never be another major MMOG that features the Wild West itemization of old EQ. But maybe, just maybe, there will be games that break the rules every so often and create some gear that remains memorable.

Oh, and my vote? Gotta be the Shroud of Longevity and Celestial Fists, because obtaining those two items alongside my guildmates gave me the greatest sense of accomplishment in any MMOG I’ve played. Although I have to give props to the Flowing Black Silk Sash and the Hero Bracers (the latter which I farmed  incessantly so that I could afford the former), and the original granddaddy of raid loot: the Cloak of Flames.

You probably hoped the worst was over, that we’d given up on this silly podcast thing. But like the Scourge, we’re back to make your life uncomfortable again.

Click on this fancy doodad to have a listen.

Or, you can do one or more of the following:

• Download it here.
• Subscribe to the podcast feed.
• If you like it and want to give us money, find out how.

Apart from our usual antics (this time including possibly our most annoying gag ever), all we’re doing is talking about Lich King. So if all you want to do is hate on WoW, you probably want to skip this one.

Like so many others, I have been lured by the call of the Lich King. After drifting off into AoC and WAR for a while, one appreciates just how polished and solid the act of playing WoW is. That’s not to say it’s perfect; rather, I mean the fact that there usually aren’t stupid little annoyances that gnaw away at your urge to play like so many rabid chipmunks.

My main in WoW has been an undead warrior, a character of which I’ve never been especially fond. As a DPS build, I pretended he was a monk in order to get through the day. As an undead, I pretended he used to be an attractive human (unlike the human models in WoW, which I can’t stand). You might guess based upon my general malaise that I was a prime candidate to try out the death knight, and you’d be right.

General impressions and a couple spoilers after the break. Continue Reading »

I’m as guilty as anyone: bloggers who don’t update their sites very often. What a slap in the face to the community!

Well, now there’s a solution to ensure that all blog writers get those updates done fast: Write or Die.

Genius!

I’m not going to tell you who to vote for. Frankly, you shouldn’t be looking for political advice on a gaming blog.

But this is an important election, one that will directly shape the future of the next decade. Issues will be decided in the coming years that will affect America’s economic and strategic place in the world. This is big stuff.

It falls upon all of us to exercise our right and make informed decisions in the upcoming election. That means looking beyond who has the smoothest soundbites or who does the more convincing job of slamming his opponent and focusing on which candidate you believe will best lead us to a prosperous future.

One great thing about the presidential race is that, unlike some recent elections, I think both candidates are good men who sincerely care about their country and its people. They differ greatly on how they think we should go about fixing what is broken, but neither is completely right nor completely wrong; if that were the case, there wouldn’t be so many intelligent people on both sides of the political aisle.

Don’t leave decisions like this in someone else’s hands. Too many good people have fought and died to give us the opportunity that so many take for granted on election day. Don’t be one of those sad statistics. Invest the effort into examining the issues and taking a hard look at where you stand. Your voice only counts if you use it.

Don’t be stupid. Vote.

The BioWare Austin folks are talking a lot about Star Wars: The Old Republic. And they should, because it’s without question one of the most anticipated MMOGs on the horizon, thanks in no small part to BioWare’s reputation for making quality games.

Besides meditating on the size of one’s lightsaber, a major point of emphasis that the devs focus on is the role of the player as hero. For instance, the lead writer discusses making the player feel heroic:

Daniel Erickson, Lead Writer BioWare Austin: The k’lor’slug is 20 feet tall, and horrible, and can eat your face … and that’s what you fight at level one as a Sith. The first thing you ever fight in the game is that thing. And you never do anything less heroic than that. There are no bunnies, no rabbits, no snakes …

A noble goal, that of relieving players of the burden of killing all those tens of rats. This has caused many to consider the role of the hero, including some folks I happen to know. But while I agree with the general goal of making the player feel heroic, there’s a lot more to it than just the type of creatures they fight. Continue Reading »

Wow.

An obvious exclamation to use after returning from BlizzCon, but it fits. This was an amazing event in so many ways. Anyone savvy enough to find this blog doesn’t need me to point to the multitude of links recapping the show (Massively alone wrote like a hundred articles), but suffice it to say that Blizzard has applied their usual polish and class to this event. Knowing the massive undertaking required to put on an SOE FanFaire, I am stunned by the effort it took to pull off BlizzCon. In ways it reminded me of the excitement and energy of the E3 of old, without most of the excess and eventual decadence.

After standing in line about a half hour I even got to play Diablo 3, and let me assure you that it rocks.

I must admit, the frenzy of BlizzCon and the launch of the 3.0 patch has me in a quandary as to whether I should return to WoW now or wait for Wrath in a month. I’d like a little time to get to know my class again (since they basically rewrote the talents of just about everybody), but I’m not sure what I’d actually do in the game. I don’t want to roll an alt, and any gear I’d acquire on my main will be instantly obsolete in Northrend. I suppose I could try to make enough cash to finally get my epic flier, but I’m not sure that’s enough to keep me interested.

This dilemma is partly fueled by the fact that my playtime in WAR has been dragging a bit lately. After exhausting the tier 2 content in chaos, I ran through the dark elf area. I feel the quest design and population  leave a little to be desired, and I’ve found myself frustrated more often than entertained. I still find the marauder much more to my taste than WoW’s warrior, so I’m not sure what I want to do yet.

Hey, it’s good to have options at least!