Christmas Week Abbreviated Adventures

Pippa managed to run into Krampus finally in The Secret World and blindly followed him into the portal he opened.  He and his buddies immediately kicked my rear and Pippa was dead on the floor faster than wrapping paper on Christmas morning.  She wisely exited the instance upon regaining her sense.

Pippa, the original character of that name, and the bevy of 90’s opened presents and rescued Metzen until one of them was lucky enough to get the Rotten Little Helper companion.  He is decidedly evil and miserable looking.  Can’t say I feel the effort was worth it.  I will admit, I think I’m over WOW for quite a while.  Yes, I still have characters I could level and I haven’t completed the loremaster achievement.  But I’m not enjoying myself.  I enjoy reading the lore in novels much more than I am repeating myself in game. 

I can’t say I won’t ever be returning to WOW, I’ve made that claim too many times before and Pippa always get’s missed.  I wish Blizzard would wise up and give the non-raiding crowd a reason to stick around, like adventure or quest packs.

I stopped into Guild Wars 2 again this year.  Same even as last year it appears, I didn’t stick around that long to find out.  I decided to try out one of the event instances and imagine my delight in learning my level 10 warrior was stuck (until I logged out) in an instance filled with level 80s.  I can’t deny the game is lovely but there is no quest content and thus no interest for me.

I’ve dropped my LOTRO several evenings this week and completed the quests in Frostbluff for cosmetics.  Luckily, LOTRO will run on the Surface Pro well enough to do things like festivals and crafting so I’m not trapped in the office.  I think I’ve gotten almost everything I want from the festival this year.  Trying to decide if I want this year’s horse or not.  I’ve gotten one, not sure how interested I am in the other. 

I stopped by Star Wars: The Old Republic this week.  I activated one character, my Consular.  She’s on Hoth and I want to finish her story line.  I didn’t play her, I browsed the Cartel Market and realized that I need to change her gear out if I’m going to play her without subscribing.  Two years after the game launched and I don’t have a character at max level yet, but I keep wandering by for the story which speaks to how compelling the quest writers at Bioware are.

This time next year, I imagine I will still be happily immersed in Elder Scrolls Online.  I hope everyone had a safe and happy Christmas.  Happy New Year and may all your football teams be victorious!

 

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Beta: Project Spark First Impressions

When Project Spark was announced at E3 this summer I was floored.  I signed up for the beta as soon as they started accepting applications.  This afternoon I got my beta invite and downloaded the game immediately.

I have never been into building games, so I have a clean slate when it comes to experience and intuitive tools.  First impression is mostly positive.  World s gorgeous and immersive.  The ability to create what I want, how I want is the draw. 

There are a large variety of pre-created items to place in the environment you create.  Everything from the background sounds to the way fish interact with the environment.  However, the only thing you can create from your imagination is the environment itself and then only within the color palette and terrains provided or you’ve purchased.  There is no ability, at least so far, to create your own houses or building structures and no way to go inside that I have discovered.

Trees and just about everything else can be recolored to suit your fancy.  However, once again the shape and style of trees, etc. is limited to what is available for free or purchase.  There is a very Seussian sense about the world, I find charming. 

I will continue to explore the world in beta.  I’m not sure it will be everything I wanted it to be.  Time may change that initial judgment and I definitely think the couple of hours I spent exploring today mean the game deserves more play time.

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This Week’s Adventures

Not much happened in the gaming world this week.  Last full week before Christmas and I spent it reading, cleaning, and writing.  But there are at least two screenshots this week.

 

Yule Festival has arrived in Middle Earth and Moirareth, my rune keeper when off to Frostbluff as soon as possible.  She built snowmen and did the first day’s daily and watched as experience accumulated.  Needless to say, I purchased the Stone of the Tortoise immediately.  I had been considering it anyways so I wasn’t overly upset at purchasing the Stone.  I haven’t been overly diligent about acquiring tokens or completing quests this year.  I did them all diligently everyday last year and burned out on LOTRO for months to come.  I like the mounts but I do not like the manner in which Yule Festival cosmetics dye so the pressure just isn’t there for me this year.

Winter Veil has arrived on Azeroth and off went my wee Goblin to visit great Father Winter.  She did notice immediately how close the Goblin decorators placed the Winter Veil tree to an open fire barrel.  Perhaps there is a Goblin plan underfoot to burn Orgrimmar to the ground? I must admit to being HORRIBLY disappointed that all of the Winter Veil quests are once again unavailable to characters above level 20.  Make it dangerous or require a group but there is no reason to exclude non-max characters from being able to fully participate in holiday activities.

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World of Warcraft: Nostalgia and Love

I was struck with a case of nostalgia last night as Taalina began to level through Ashenvale.  Darkshore and Ashenvale were the first places outside of the starting zone I ever leveled, and how those places have changed.  Penelope, my first character, did a brief fly though this morning.  I know all this scenery and questing changed with the release of Cataclysm three years ago but this is really the first time I’ve extensively quested through the zones.  Cataclysm was the first expansion release I ever experienced to be honest, since I started playing shortly after the release of Wrath. 

Unfortunately, when I originally played through these two zone with my husband I wasn’t taking screenshots, heck I doubt I even knew how to take a screenshot back then!  I hit the coast line of Ashenvale last night and the Zoram Strand instantly smacked me with a strong wave of nostalgia.  I remember playing with my husband killing Naga and not understanding why he was so upset when he “missed” or why he was so frustrated when I pulled critters off of him.  I was a complete noob and he had the patience of a saint.

The memories are all good ones however.  Even if the beauty that is Ashenvale is currently being destroyed by the Horde, I will always smile and remember how deeply my husband loves me because of these memories.  The landscape and our play styles may have changed over the years, but these first few months when he introduced me to MMO’s are a precious memory I cherish.

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Wish List for Changes to Games for 2014

Maybe it is a side effect of growing older, but my list for changes for games becomes a little longer every year.  It isn’t that I think any one game suffers or is unplayable, but with a few simple changes standardized across games, gaming life in general would be much improved.

My first wish is for area-wide auto loot to be implemented.  I much enjoy the auto-looting in Lord of the Rings Online.  Nothing is more convenient than loot automatically being deposited in your bags.  Yes, it can be inconvenient sometimes when your bags are cluttered with vendor trash, but that minor inconvenience is outweighed by never having to loot an enemy again.

Next up on the wish list, mentoring. Everquest 2 and Rift both implement this feature enormously well.  It makes sense and allows for friends and family who have differing play time to still play together.  Turning off experience, doesn’t make it possible for a higher level character to effectively play with a lower level character without it being unbalanced and in the end power-leveling. 

The ability to turn off experience directly from your experience toolbar.  EQ2 does this and it prevents the problem of out leveling a zone simply and elegantly.  This becomes more and more essential as games reduce the amount of experience required to reach maximum level.  Nothing is more irritating than constantly out-leveling zones and leaving stories unfinished because non-story content has become trivial.

Housing, for the love of all that is holy, HOUSING.  And not just any old housing, but housing as magnificent and immersive as the housing in EQ2.  I want someplace my characters can all home, display their spoils of questing, relax with a full hobbit second breakfast, or curl up and read a book.  I miss the housing in EQ2, and if there weren’t other issues preventing full enjoyment of the game, I’d still be playing it.  I don’t want small cramped hovels with over-priced rents and storage costs.  I want the ability to decorate and for all characters to be able to share the space.  I also want housing that looks like house, not some weird variant of housing that only vaguely resembles housing.

Shared banking and storage among all characters on the server.  How hard can this be to implement?  Personal storage and communal storage should be standard at this point.  And there should be separate storage for crafting materials shared among characters on a server.  Guild Wars 2 does this beautifully.  One of the few strong points of that game is the ability to send crafting materials to shared storage.

Cosmetic wardrobes and for this there are truly only two models to be followed: LOTRO and GW2.  GW2 has the most beautiful dyes and more importantly, find the dye once and it is yours forever.  Nothing I hate more than constantly having to search for the dye I want every time I want to dye a new piece of cosmetic clothing.  LOTRO has hands down the best cosmetic clothing system, minus the dye issue.  The ability to have multiple outfits to wear at a moments notice without changing or disturbing the stats on your battle armor is phenomenal.  I freely admit, my LOTRO characters change clothes frequently depending on mood and season.  Why can’t all games do this? Why can’t my casting class characters slip into heavy armor so they look intimidating if they want to, or why can’t me heavy plate warriors look less threatening and those surprise foes? 

I know I’m tilting at windmills.  I know despite he fact that I make sense and all games thieve from one another, no consensus amongst game designers and companies is magically going to unfold in the next year.  Doesn’t mean I am going to stop wishing that there will be dramatic changes for the better across all games or that new games releasing this year will come to understand that it is better to delay release and implement features from other games that a vast majority of players consider as standard.

Technorati Tags: World of Warcraft,WOW,Lord of the Rings Online,LOTRO,Guild Wars 2,GW2,Rift,Everquest 2,EQ2,free to play,F2P,cash shop

Leveling Screenies from this week

We both have colds and I will admit that those colds are kicking our butts.  No real thought intensive gaming was accomplished this week.  Most of the gaming time was spent in WOW where it is much easier to engage in mindless gaming activity with very little danger of dying because you aren’t paying attention.

So, onwards to screenshots from The Secret World, WOW, and Lord of the Rings Online.

Pippa meet Sam Krieg this week while continuing to explore the Savage Coast in The Secret World.  He in incredibly fascinating and I loved his quests. 

The dialogue from Sam Krieg is amazingly well written, not that is all that surprising.  I hope there is more of him to come otherwise I will miss his insights into humanity.

After the heaviness of the conversations with Sam Krieg, Pippa felt a need for a little whimsy and so she slipped into her pirate costume.

Taalina was been gifted a heirloom weapon and thus she spent her week leveling in Darkshore.  As you can tell, the Murlocs were incredibly happy when she stopped and rebuilt a dwelling for them.  Now if only game phased to permanently show for Taalina there rebuilt Murloc home.

Queen Azshara and Malfurion Stormrage decided to have words off the coast of Darkshore.  Taalina somehow escaped the Queen’s wrath despite the dead Naga scattering the island.

 Meet Brynhildd my Dwarven Champion who was created this week.  Her name means Warrior Woman in German and she is my cosmetic vault keeper.  I already have one character of every class with appropriate leveled professions, but no Dwarf characters.  Making a female Dwarf isn’t possible in LOTRO, so Brynhildd is going to be a female Dwarf disguised as a male Dwarf out to seek adventures of her own.  Now she may never see more than Thorin’s Hall and gate but she will be prepared for the eventuality of leveling further.  She slipped into the Boots, Shoulders and Gloves of the Eastemnet (pre-order items for Rider of Rohan expansion) and the Leather Cloak and Hauberk of Mystery from Skirmish Cosmetic boxes.  All in all, I think she looks quite attractive.

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World of Warcraft: Patch 5.4.2

Patch 5.4.2 is currently being applied to World of Warcraft and according to the patch notes, the cash shop is now live in-game for WOW.  That’s right folks, if you thought the cash shop was going to be exclusive to Asian servers and it would never invade the rest of the game, today is a black day for you.  The cash shop will make it easier to purchase mounts and companion pets without having to go to the external website.

There are a couple of patch specific notes for mages and warriors, as well as some questing improvement implemented.

Bind-to-Account items can now be truly be considered BOA and not Bind-to-Realm items.  Starting today BOA items, and ONLY, BOA items can be mailed to your characters on other realms.  Simply follow this format: Jane–Silvermoon (no spacing) this will allow you to mail BOA items to your character named Jane on the Silvermoon server.  I’ll admit, it will make some of those languishing characters on other servers get some playtime now.

And finally, cross realm raiding is arriving.  No it isn’t the feature that will be coming with the release of the next expansion but it does take advantage of functionality already in the game.  Open the Social Menu (O) and click on the Raid tab.  This will allow you to queue for or find members for your raids from other realms.   This functionality is only viable for Mists of Pandaria world bosses (Celestials and Ordos) and the Siege of Orgrimmar flexible raid. 

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The Leveling Ladies

This week I did much more around the house or reading than I did playing games.  When I did venture into the gaming world, most of my time was spent completing Volume 1, Book 5 in The Lord of the Rings Online.  My time in World of Warcraft was much more limited.  I keep trying to force myself to play Horde and it is making me miserable, so this morning I returned to my last sub-ninety Alliance character and had a very relaxing time for a couple of hours.

So, without further ado, here’s a brief visual tour of this week in PC gaming.

The Misty Mountains were snowy when Moriareth ventured out of Rivendale and into the Misty Mountains.  Here she found a land inhibited by giants, dwarves, trolls, and servants of the Dark Lord.  The local wildlife was far from friendly but were beautiful on the snowy days she spent in the Misty Mountains.

Moriareth arrived in Angmar and promptly changed her clothing to her Rohan pre-order armor.  She immediately felt a change in the air and knew that there was something wrong with the land.  She has begun her quest to help the tribes and rangers that inhibit Angmar.

Mistalaina, or Mista for short, reached Northrend this week.  She is a rogue and is my last sub-90 Alliance character on Silvermoon.  She is questing and only running around with heirloom weapons because I hate trying to replace weapons when I don’t have to.  As you can tell, she’s currently landed at Fizzcrank Airstrip where the Gnomes seem to have gotten handy with the paint cans once again.

Meet Blessed, Mista’s Alterac Brew Pup.  His beer comes in quite handy now that she has ventured into Northrend for the first time. 

My lovely Enchanted Fey Dragon, gifted by my husband, that Mista named Bella.  She took flight this morning at Fizzcrank Airstrip and turned the perfect shade of Borean azure blue with violet blue accents.

Gwennya is currently in her mid-40’s and hanging out in Tanaris.  Apparently the innkeeper of Gadgetzan irritated her somehow this morning because she certainly appears to be giving him an earful.  She’s steam rolling everything, because of the heirlooms and the fact that old content hasn’t been retuned for new skills.  The end result, there is no challenge and I have to make a decision.  Remove the heirlooms and level content more slowly so that there is a wee bit of a challenge or suck it up and power level to 80 for the Horde story from 80-90.  I am leaning to power leveling, the old world quest content doesn’t differ between factions and I’m tired of trying to force myself to enjoy content where there is no challenge.

 

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Xbox Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag released a month ago but we patiently waited for the arrival of our Xbox One before purchasing the title.  Digital copy downloaded and we’ve both played it.  Neither of us has yet finished the title, but hubby is well on his way. 

First things first, the game is beautiful.Colors are deep and rich and the lighting effects are superb.  It was worth waiting for a month because let’s be honest here, the 360 is quickly going to fall out of use here (even though I still have a ton of unfinished games).

I was immediately happy when I loaded up the game for the first time and realized that Ubisoft seemed to have taken all the best elements of previous games and rolled them into this title.  It gave me hope.  Gone was the caped crusader nonsense of Connor in AC:III and back were stealthy missions. 

All of that hope was quickly dashed however the longer hubby has played (he has more play time this week because he’s on vacation and I’ve gladly let him unwind with the controller).  The game isn’t an Assassin’s Creed game it is a naval simulation game with some minor Templar vs. Assassin missions thrown in as an aside. The starting mission and the beginning missions in Havana were all decent homage to games past but then, it all goes to hell when in order to progress you are forced into sailing around the Caribbean to do pirating.  Yes, I know, it’s a game about pirates but it is first and foremost, an entry into the Assassin’s Creed lore.  It is disappointing.

Ubisoft seems more content to develop lore for the franchise outside of the games then to tell actual stories any more.  The writing for the series has diminished with each new game released.  Gone are the days of Ezio and the rich world created for his story.  Now it is a random bunch of yahoos thrown together in some loose semblance of a story line. This game is not an Assassin’s Creed game, it’s a pirate game dressed up in Assassin’s Creed wrapping.

I think the ultimate downfall of the storytelling in the franchise has much more to do with the implementation of multiplayer in the game than anything else.  Single player game feels like it is tacked on to a multiplayer game that is the primary focus of Ubisoft.  If most players spend their time in multiplayer, than there is no reason for Ubisoft to concentrate on writing compelling and rich single player stories. 

I’m not quite ready to write off the franchise yet but Ubisoft and it’s creative team need to figure out if they want to tell stories in the Assassin’s Creed universe or develop multiplayer games.  Ubisoft’s story telling capabilities in this franchise are far, far below that of it’s competition.  I will struggle to complete this game only because of the constant need for sailing and pirating.  I am thrilled about how happy the naval simulation gameplay has made my husband but it has the exact opposite effect on me.

And lastly, the shimmering (flickering) in the game on larger television screens is annoying and frustrating.  The game doesn’t experience this problem on last generation console but both new generation console users are reporting the same issue.  Trees and foliage have this horrible shimmer affect that makes them shiny and sparkly in bright sunlight and bright blue ocean.  The issue is popular on the Ubisoft forums, and is of course being ignored by Ubisoft themselves (reminiscent of their failure of acknowledge problems with DLC for AC:III).  This is the only game that suffers from this issue on our Xbox One.  It may be the direct result of porting a game designed for the PS3 and the 360 to next generation consoles but whatever the cause, Ubisoft needs to step up and fix the issue.  Or at least admit there is an issue, even if the resolution is sorry but there is nothing we can do about it while trying to design games that fit on multiple platform generations.

All in all, I don’t think the game is worthy of all the high praise it has received from game sites.  Yes it is beautiful and fun, but it is in no way an Assassin’s Creed worthy game.  It is a naval simulation based around pirates.  The single player aspect of the game is poorly written, poorly conceived, and an after thought to the development team’s first love of multiplayer.  I will finish the game, although I can’t promise it won’t be with me handing the controller to my husband to successfully complete those annoying sea battles.  I give it a 2.5 out of 5.

 

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Xbox One: Our Review

Our Day One Edition arrived right on schedule a week ago and was easily installed in the entertainment center.  We were both impressed when the system was compatible with our audio receiver which is at least seven years old.  So, it honestly started off on a very good foot.

The system was also compatible with our cable provider, Cox.  The Xbox One now seamlessly controls the television, cable box, audio receiver, and the console.  The various remotes that used to clutter the sofa and family room tables have all been consigned to a drawer. 

The overall picture quality of our Plasma Samsung television has increased as well because the Xbox One is handling the 1080p upscale of television programs much smoother than the cable box ever did.  The shimmering has disappeared from television programs, although it does return for poorly optimized games on the One (forthcoming review of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag will discuss this). 

The biggest complaint either of us has is that the One sometimes can’t hear us  We have tall ceilings, fifteen feet plus high, in a large room with stone flooring.  Voices can easily got lost in our family room and it appears that the Kinect doesn’t quite know how to deal with large family rooms.  The voice issue is most irritating when turning on the system, after that voice commands are rarely lost in our cavernous family room.

The Kinect is vastly improved over the Xbox 360 version.  It has no trouble picking up hand motions in games like Dead Rising 3, even when comfortably lounging on the sofa in the reclining position a good ten feet plus from the television.  True, facial recognition isn’t stellar when reclining but as soon as you sit up straight the Kinect has no issues with facial recognition.  Having owned both versions of the Kinect, the new version is miles ahead of where the technology started several years ago.

The system is whisper quiet, runs cool (even in an enclosed media cabinet with other devices running), and seamlessly integrated into our lives.  It was well worth the purchase price for the endless hours of entertainment it will provide in the years to come and personally, I don’t miss chasing remotes.

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Lord of the Rings Online: Helm’s Deep Patching has begun *UPDATED

 

LOTRO has begun patching the client for the Helm’s Deep expansion.  Patch notes have not yet been released but I will update with release notes as soon as they become available.

*UPDATE*

And here are the highlights of the Patch notes; full notes can be found here:

• Epic Story continues: Books 11 – 13: unlike past expansions, you must have purchased the Helm’s Deep expansion to play through the continuation of the epic story line
• Five new zone in Western Rohan to explore
• Broadacres
• Stonedeans
• Kingstead
• Westfold
• Eastfold
• Big Battles: new roles and five epic battles to experience as players stand and battle with Théoden King, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli
• Class changes: every class is undergone significant revamp and trait trees have been introduced.  Please so the LOTRO class forums for specific changes to your class
• Level cap has been increased to level 95 for all characters
• Travel Rations are no longer required
• Crafters will want to review the changes in detail here

Enjoy the changes when the servers come back online!

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Random Screenshots for MMO Tours this week

Pippa at the Kindergarten on the Savage Coast in The Secret World.  Atmosphere here is seriously creepy, appropriate but creepy.

Taalina the new Draenei paladin on Fizzcrank.  So, last thing I need is another character in WOW, but I need a Draenei that isn’t on an imbalanced PvP server and I need a woman Draenei to go through and kick Orc ass when the expansion releases.  I will be leveling her slowly and without heirlooms, gives me a good opportunity to close out some zones for my loremaster title.

My Horde Shaman on Silvermoon.  She’s in her mid-40’s I pop-in, grab a couple of levels on her and then log right back out.  I think Blizzcon left a bad taste in my mouth for the Horde and I’m already Alliance biased by nature.  I will level her to 90 but I won’t be powering through it.

 

Cilantro hanging out with the Elves in Rivendell.  Sometimes the scenery in LOTRO is just drop dead gorgeous that I find myself stopping just to take the random screenshot of nothing in particular.

I poked my head into Guild Wars 2, completed a quest and then logged right back out.  While the models for characters are pretty, I’m completely agnostic about my characters, the game, and the setting.  I have a feeling that Bronta here will be a long, long time (if ever) leveling to max.

I poked my head into SWTOR and Rift as well but did nothing in either.  SWTOR change regarding names is just irritating although I’m honest enough to admit that free-flight PvP in the upcoming expansion looks like fun.  Rift I can’t get any enthusiasm for at the moment.  The game is fun but it isn’t at the same time.

Technorati Tags: PvP,free to play,cash shop,Guild Wars 2,The Secret World,GW2,TSW,Lord of the Rings Online,LOTRO,World of Warcraft,WOW,Rift,SWTOR,Star Wars: The Old Republic

The Secret World: Loving It

I admit it, when The Secret World was in beta and then released I was not happy, to put it mildly, with character creation options or the clothing choices available.  Time has greatly improved the later and the former is still problematic but in this case clothing choices can completely compensate for crappy character customization. 

I fired up TSW over the long weekend and was more than pleasantly surprised to discover DRESSES in the cash shop.  My accumulated currency was quickly exhausted as I went on an account wide shopping spree.  Pippa is modeling a couple of the looks as she explores the Savage Coast.

My preppy heart is thrilled and better yet there are female clothing options that don’t scream “WHORE”.  I am having a blast running around the Savage Coast.

Anyone who knows me, knows I would so totally wear the above outfit in real life without even thinking about it twice.  In fact I have a much loved pair of pink slippers.  And as for the blue-gloved, highly creepy but oh so incredibly interesting NPC standing next to me, I am loving his story and missions.  Hayden Montag is the current headmaster of the Innsmouth Academy and to say that there is something of a magical problem is an understatement! 

Again yet another outfit I would consider in real life, so yeah I’d prefer a longer hemline and a more structured built-in bra but this dress is fabulous.  And those green shoes, would totally wear those with anything.  Still hanging out at the Innsmouth Academy for this shot, taking my time and enjoying missions that require me to think to successfully complete them.  But as you can tell, apparently my character is more concerned about her fingernails than the horde of familiars in the room behind me waiting for their chance to try and kill me.  Hey, don’t judge those familiars leave GOO under my nails!

I admit it, I bought the sea pirate costume for Pippa.  It was cute and seasonal and let’s be honest, I’m looking forward to playing Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag when the Xbox One arrives on the 22nd and so I was completely inspired by that.  Pippa is a Templar which just blends in perfectly to her homage to AC:IV.  

TSW is a thinking MMO, don’t fire it up when you are tired or cranky because frankly you just won’t have fun.  However, when you need to get your brain cells firing on all cylinders or want a good old fashioned scare or just want to be creeped out, than fire up TSW and experience the awesomeness for yourself.

 

Technorati Tags: The Secret World,TSW,Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag,cash shop,free to play,F2P,AC: IV,Xbox One,Savage Coast,Innsmouth Academy,Hayden Montag

Women and Gaming

Blizzcon just ended and once again another gaming convention has come and gone with an ever present male bias in gaming.  It happens every gaming convention, not just Blizzcon.   I get my hopes up that some gaming company somewhere will present reveals, cinematics, or a new major character(s) that are women.  I fear that is never going to happen however.

The executives, hell almost every panel member, is male.  The new character models on the Warlords of Draenor site are so far male only models.  The only models shown during the art panel and discussed were male models.  Sure they showed a slide of a female dwarf and gnome, but these were non-animated slides and are not available on the website.

Every major character discussed at Blizzcon was male.  Why?  Warcraft has so many amazing women that would make excellent vehicles for story telling: Sylvanas and Jaina immediately spring to mind.  There are so many story lines possible with just these two woman alone that it is inconceivable to me that they are left to languish and sit there on the sidelines.  Sure we heard from Jaina a couple of times in Mists of Pandaria but her story was left  unfinished from the brilliant treatment Jaina received from Christie Golden’s Tides of War.

Star Wars:The Old Republic does a somewhat better job.  Satele Shan is the Grand Master of the Jedi Order and she isn’t a figure head that players have no interaction with either.  She is a strong, lead female character but SWTOR isn’t a great example to draw on unfortunately.  SWTOR is extremely story driven by the player’s in-game choices thus allowing Bioware the opportunity to write strong female characters into cut-scenes. Bioware, in general, writes strong, prominent female characters but even these characters aren’t the “star” of any Bioware game.

I want development of lore from the games I play that involves women.  Women play games, write about games, and want game developers to recognize that we are more than just a small, insignificant portion of their player base.  We are more than spell slingers and healers.  We tank, we burn stuff down quickly with blade and spell alike.  We lead raids and guilds, we write about our gaming experiences and we bring others into games we play.  What do game developers fear in making a woman front and center in a game?  That their male audience won’t play because of the presence of a strong woman lead character?

It’s time that gaming developers recognize that women play games and that we want stories that are balanced between the sexes. My characters, are more than a plate bikini digital image to feed the imaginations of young men.  Women everywhere deserve equal lore representation and focus as male characters.

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