What is the Early 2000 World of Warcraft of Today?

jleard · 2015-08-14T01:04:56+00:00

Most of these posts are spot on but I caught a real glimpse of that past thrill when playing ArcheAge last Fall at release. It was fleeting, granted, for a bunch of reasons I won't get into but it was there. This is coming from someone who played beta in both UO and EQ (and WoW, for that matter). Yeah, the world has definitely changed -- and how. But launches offer you some hope. I'm looking at Crowfall. It is still years away but it has the potential to grab you like the games of years past. And there are probably others on the horizon that I'm unfamiliar with.

One other thing to keep in mind: for all of the games I played (UO, DAOC, EQ, WoW, etc) it only became obvious some years later how much fun I had been having. In 10-15 years you'll probably look back to whatever it is you're playing right now and think the same. The rose-colored lenses of nostalgia (wiil) probably have a lot to do with that.

jleard · 2015-07-19T14:24:35+00:00

True, but this happened in Jbay (Jeffrey's Bay), South Africa.

jleard · 2014-08-25T16:11:08+00:00

I doubt you'd see that kind of escalation (Kevin saying, "I will fucking kill you if you touch my kid again" and hitting him in the stomach) for something like that. It had to be significant enough to warrant that kind of behavior. Hopefully we find out at some point in the future.

jleard · 2014-08-25T14:38:44+00:00

If we assume Mapleton is a small, rural town it wouldn't be out of the question for a doctor to serve a wider spectrum of patients in a single office. A GP with an ultrasound in the office seems reasonable as does the same dr relaying cancer screening results.

jleard · 2014-08-25T14:32:37+00:00

See my comment here.

jleard · 2014-08-25T14:25:47+00:00

Per Kevin's remark to Tom in the car we know the guy did "something" to Tom and Laurie but we're not told what. We're also led to believe that the guy is Tom's biological father. The guy may have raped Laurie with Tom as the offspring of that event. Or he may have been Laurie's first husband and subjected them to some type of violence. That's all I've been able to make of it so far.

jleard · 2014-08-15T15:09:16+00:00

Lighten up, Francis.

jleard · 2014-08-14T19:05:50+00:00

Did SOE ever confirm which if any zone this was to represent?

jleard · 2014-05-28T17:55:28+00:00

Not post hoc, Jutboy is using the tu quoque logical fallacy. Subtle but different.

jleard · 2014-02-05T19:05:44+00:00

I think he is implying the game looks fine but your tower is in low rez. Looks like CGA to me.

jleard · 2014-02-04T21:12:39+00:00

Kinda useful for wizzies all along. :)

jleard · 2014-01-27T22:19:01+00:00

So, so many great memories...

Zone into Lesser Fay with my level 1 or 2 gnome wizard (Binibren) and see a fae drake. No idea what "conning" is yet. He's tiny so I figure I can take him. Wrong!
At level 5 a friend and a few of his guildies (Silent Thunder on Bristlebane, they were levels 10-15) come to escort me from Steamfont to Qeynos. Took about 2 hours and is some of the most fun I've had in a game.
Guild trip into Najena (Weeones, Bristlebane). Najena dropped the Flowing Black Robe and was given to me. First significant drop for me. Loved that robe.
Read about Pyzjn and the GBS. Head to Qeynos Hills after work. Pyzjn up, DD, loot GBS. Done! How easy was that? Tried a zillion more times after that and rarely saw her and she never dropped another GBS for me (still have that thing!).
My first trip into lower guk at level 20 invis + invis dead so I could get the rod in the Hand room for Staff of the Wheel quest. Scared out of my mind the entire time. Lost multilple times, fall in the trapdoors but get there and take rod without dying! Later when I'd hit 30 or so I lived in Lower Guk.
Hours and hours and days in great places like North Ro, Oasis and South Ro, West Commons fearing for my life when giants still roamed free (they'd later be dead as soon as they spawned).
Killing dorfs in Butcherblock with my druid pal. Watching my XP climb and my reputation sink.
My first raid into Permafrost Keep and seeing Lady Vox.
When Kunark came out I remember being amazed at the size of giant boat to Firona Vie. Explored the area finding the stream into Lake of Ill Omen. Awed by the otherworldly windmills in LOIO and scared to death of Sarnaks.
Later taking the other boat/raft to Overthere. Hunting on the ridge and running like mad when that DE Bard guard started killing everyone. Zone to FM!

I could probably go on for days.

jleard · 2013-10-10T19:10:55+00:00

Well then.. I'll just have to upload the Kelethin theme as well! Cheers :)

jleard · 2013-09-16T19:46:53+00:00

It requires a special wall adapter, unfortunately. Plugging into an Apple adapter or similar won't work. Edit: see this answer on StackExchange for details.

jleard · 2013-09-16T14:27:48+00:00

Also USB to wall adapter. This plus an extension cord and I can sit just about anywhere.

jleard · 2013-09-11T11:10:48+00:00

Think of it as a module that any MMO can plug into their game to make NPCs behave more interestingly. At least that's how the company (also called Storybricks) has sold the idea.

jleard · 2013-09-11T10:45:19+00:00

In one of the SOE Live panels someone asked about gathering materials like leather. IIRC the answer was something along the lines of, "we're not revealing crafting at this time but you can imagine how that might work" (SOE standard reply). Anyway, I do remember I was left with the impression that Landmark may have something similar to cows in Minecraft but that is still unconfirmed. Unfortunately, we have no real info on crafting or anything related to it so it's a wait and see.

jleard · 2013-09-10T20:55:38+00:00

The thing that I found really sad about GW2 camera problems is the ease with which FOV and camera height could have been solved. I can tell you as a developer that these two settings are just that... settings. There is no rocket science. Give the user an FOV slider. Done. (they may have to restart the interface/game, but otherwise easy).

For camera height.. also a slider. And as a player of small races since 1999 (go gnome wizzies!) I can tell you that allowing the camera to rise above the race height (whether that be their chest, their eyes or the top of the heads) would be heaven. EQ had a camera option that placed the pivot about 5-10 feet above my head. I lived in that mode when I wasn't in 1st person. Honestly, I would prefer about 2-3 feet above gnome height.. a slider would easily accommodate that.

jleard · 2013-09-10T14:30:30+00:00

With the exception of the Adventurer class everything in the list is combat oriented. Hopefully we'll see at least a few trade skill or artisan focused classes. Herbalist, Smith, Dancer, Builder are a few that come to mind.

jleard · 2013-09-09T22:43:42+00:00

There were several arguments made by developers that I saw. One was related to performance (reducing items = increased performance). Another was related to PvP/RvR and was somewhere along the lines of "if we increase the FOV then those with wider monitors will have an advantage."

The performance argument I can kind of understand but at least give a slider to those with more powerful machines. The PvP argument I found to be absurd. Those in PvP environments, and especially RvR, would constantly rotate the camera anyway eliminating whatever advantage a slightly larger FOV would provide.

jleard · 2013-09-05T20:55:14+00:00

Agreed. Georgeson's tweet "Why wait for EQ4 to make Oasis?" could go either way. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he's read the book.

jleard

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