Ultima Online.

So I've somehow found my way back to Ultima Online. The game is about 10 years old now and it looks it. But it still doesn't change that its still charming for all the old reasons.

This game demonstrates a critical divide between older MMO’s and Newer ones. Ultima Online and Star wars Galaxies “Virtual Worlds” if you look at their old packaging the emphasis on freedom and community was always pushed first and formost. EQ eventually paved the way to herald the coming of the new MMO’s which are really Massively Multiplayer “Games” as apposed to “Simulations”. Where as the box for Ultima Online might tell you how you could become anything you wanted, and form a community. A game like WoW’s box informs you of all the dangers you’ll be facing, and places you’ll be exploring. The difference? Well in WoW and similar games every player is an adventurer, There’s tons of classes and races but untimely everyone is a Hero. UO and SWG are the only game’s I’ve ever played where it a valid and fulfilling choice to make a character who had no combat abilities at all. In Ultima Online I played a Miner for close to a year. I went out, Mined ore and brought it back to town to sell to smiths. I made a fare amount of money and eventually purchased my own house. In SWG because I simple couldn't stand the combat systems that seemed to change every other day, My main character was a Musician who spent the majority of his time in the local cantina playing music and talking with the other people in there. Eventually I earned enough money from that to open my own theater in the player run city my guild owned.

I guess the problem is most people already have a job and don’t need a “virtual” one. They want to just log online, kill a few things and get off. I was never like that though. I’ve always played computer games, but when I heard about UO I was so eager for it because it provided something that was more then just a game, It was a virtual fantasy life, a geeks dream I imagine. I’m not surprised that WoW has done so well. At its base its really just a massively Multiplayer Diablo. Diablo was and still is incredibly popular. Its sad however that WoW’s success has all but destroyed the chance of another game like UO coming out.

Digital Distribution Dilemma?

Ironically looking back I note that I ended yesterdays post with a quick jab at EA’s expense. Today however I’m going to illustrate not the source of that jab, but validation for it. First however, I feel it important before one begins a story to illustrate the setting.

The date is November 16, 2004 the place: The Internets. The long awaited and frequently delayed Half-Life 2 is finally released. And along with it Counter Strike Source. I’ll come clean now and admit that I’ve never been a huge fan of half-life. Don’t mistake this to mean I think it a poor game, no in fact I think its a great game. I just never really considered it the epic masterpiece of video game storytelling that others do. No, rather I found it somewhat amusing but was infinitely more captivated by Team Fortress Classic.

Eventually Counter-strike came out, and while I can’t for the life of me recall how I discovered it, needless to say it engulfed my life like no other FPS ever had. To me it was the pinnacle of a FPS. Fast paced with incredibly responsive controls, mostly realistic and with an emphasis on position rather then just twitch reflexes. That's not to say that fast fingers didn't win fights, they sure did. But unlike a game like Quake 3 a few well placed shots from a secure location wasn't ruined by a lot of frantic running to health orbs and 1shot rail gun instagibs.

Regardless having been such a fan of CS and eventually Day of Defeat it was physiced that they would both be remade using the new Source engine of HL2. So when Valve announced Steam and offered the deal to preorder the game in advance, get into the CS:S beta and download it in advance and receive Day of Defeat and CS:S for the same price, I jumped all over it. It was pretty much my first digital purchase of a commercial computer game

So lets pause and review. HL2 + CS:S + DoD:S + Beta = same price as buying game retail the day it comes out = sold.

I bring this up because I recently purchased the expansion “Immortal Throne” for Titan Quest off of Direct 2 Drive. The only reason I did this is because I was unable to find a copy at my local game stores. What erks me is that it cost me exactly the same price to buy it online as it would in the store. Only I receive No Box - No CD - No - Manual. Any “convince” I enjoyed from not having to leave my house is removed by the fact that in the time it takes to download a 2gig game, I could easily drive to the store, purchase it, return home, install it and be well on my way to enjoying my purchase.

So what then is the incentive of purchasing a game digitally. It clearly costs the publisher less money to provide its game via Direct 2 Drive then it does in a brick and mortar establishment. Even when considering that Direct 2 Drive is taking a cut (and be assured they are) it logically isn't any different then the mark up that a EB or Gamestop would do. In fact, I’d wager that is it significantly cheaper to host the games online, then it is to run a store with an equal level of consumer reach.

So what does that mean? It means the publisher is saving money. The retailer (In this case D2D) is saving money and we the consumer are not only getting the product any cheaper, but we are actually receiving less product then we would otherwise.

Wait it gets worse. Now what happens when we take this arguably dishonest business practice and put it in the hands of a company notorious for producing sub par products and doing whatever it takes to make a quick buck off you the user?

We get EA Link

Let me give you a tiny rundown of my experiences thus far with EA Link. First of all, it should be noted that I’m reluctant to install any piece of software that's intended use it to get me to buy things. I equate it to inviting the vacuum salesmen in, and giving him a place to sleep in the guest bedroom. I came upon this program because I felt the urge to play Battle Field 2142 (A game which still refuses to support native wide-screen resolutions I might add). It came to my attention that EA had released a “Booster Pack” for the game called Northern Strike.

A quick visit to Google informed me of everything I needed to know regarding it. It contained 2 new vehicles, 1 new game mode and 3 new maps. It didn't sound like much but I discovered it was only $10. Not to bad, I thought so I hopped over to Ebgames to check if the local store near me had it. Ebgames didn't have it listed. I wasn't exactly shocked as Ebgames doesn’t list anything that doesn't sell well or is more then 6 months old. Assuming it to be more of EB’s shenanigans I hopped over to Amazon and again was unable to find it.

A little more digging provided me with the fact that I could download the game directly from EA. It was a booster pack, fine whatever I thought, so I go to buy it and I’m informed I need to download EA Link. already in my head I'm imagining a program like Steam, only if Steam was developed by a bunch of heartless monsters that I suspect gain physical nourishment from the consumption of American legal tender. Still though I press on, eager to download my $10 Booster pack and exercise the devil before its grasp on my system becomes to great.

So I hit purchase games, I find the pack, Click buy now and this is what I see.

And regardless of how many times I try, this is all that ever happens. And since this is the only way to procure the game, I guess I'm fucked.

Once again, EA fucks everything up.

A dark age upon DAoC?

So here it is, the inaugural post for this, my blog. I imagine that should this ever go anywhere I’ll look back on this as the start of something I’ve been throwing around my head for a while but am only just now getting around to.

But enough of that, onto my thoughts.


I downloaded the 14day free trial of “Dark Age of Camelot” yesterday.I think what drove me to do such was a combination of boredom and curiosity. Having recently quit WoW and been somewhat unable to find a new MMO that provides the same experience I've been hopping around from game to game, trial to trial from EQ2 to Titan Quest to this. It should be noted that I had played DAoC for approximately 9months about 3 years ago. I had an Albion Cleric which I ultimately grew tired of. I came back curious to see what a company could do to a game I had been paying no attention to whatsoever for the last 3 years. I was also interested because Mythic the creators of DAoC are releasing “Warhammer Online” sometime near the end of 2007 (or early 2008 I suspect) and I wanted to get a fresh outlook on their company.

What I discovered is that the population of the game has dwindled greatly. Though this is obviously to be expected, I still found it shocking to see servers that had listed populations of 200 or 300 people. It’s a shame really since in its time I recall that many people attending just one of the many RvR battles on a single server. I am curious to know if Mythic has considered a merge of its severs, as they still have around 10 or so and it seems that given their current population, and the focus of DAoC on large scale PvP it would be foolish for them not to try to consolidate their users to provide the best experience for those that they have remaining.

This brings me to my next discovery.

I left the game shortly before the release of “Trials of Atlantis” their second expansion. It seems clear that this expansion was very ill received by the players and might be responsible in part for the massive drop in subscribers the game seems to have suffered (though all MMO’s have no doubt suffered from the monster that is WoW). However in a surprising move, Mythic, seemingly admitting their fault has opened a number of “Classic” servers which contain the same game as other servers, however completely omitting “Trials of Atlantis”. This is not the first time I’ve seen a game all but ruined by a single expansion (I would argue that the downfall of “Ultima Online” was its renaissance when the worlds where split into PvP and PvE areas). I think it was a great idea for Mythic to offer its players the option to omit something they feel was poor, and its no surprise that the “Classic” servers are the most populated of the remaining servers. I’ve often said I’d return to UO if they opened a server with pre-renaissance rules.

Another positive thing I immediately noticed is that DAoC has received a rather large graphical upgrade. I was amazed by how much better the game looked then I remember it. Everquest was the first game that showed me the power of a graphical upgrade and I’m glad to see that DAoC continues to improve its look along with its game play.

Which brings me to the next point, DAoC’s strength has always been its RvR. It PvE is acceptable but ultimately sub par to most others, and previously it was a bit of a wall preventing you from getting to the PvP goodness. Before I left they added a number of instanced Mini battlegrounds starting in the 20’s but I’m happy to see that they now have them starting at level one.

Sadly it seems that due to both the games age, which results in most players having already reached the maximum level, combined with the low player population it appears that most of these low level battlegrounds are empty It seems that for all its improvements it may simply be to late to revive DAoC.

But fear not, It seems to me that they’ve learned from many of their mistakes. They’ve shown that not only can they admit when they screwup, but they’re willing to fix it, and improve on it. And I’m confident that they’ve learned from their mistakes and are taking all they’ve learned and applying it to Warhammer Online their new game has the spirit of DAoC with the amazing setting of the Warhammer IP.

Now if only EA wasn't involved with Warhamemr Online I'd be all hardcore fanboy over it already.