Will electronic games take the place of table games? I dunno. But there plenty of things that are just silly about electronic games that would never fly in a table top game.
1. Run the same adventure over and over until everyone gets the loot they want
2. Have the party wait around because some other party killed the what you needed to kill
3. Go out of the dungeon to grind a few levels so they beat the monsters
4. Do a patch that requires all of the players to rewrite their characters
5. Have strangers show up to your game and offer to sell you gold. Just give them your credit card number.
6. NPC’s with very sense and know how to say only one or two things.
7.Quests that consist of “Talk to the guy standing next to me.”
8. Quests that consist of killing animals for their internal organs. Mysteriously half of the animals don’t have these organs.
9. Sometimes normal animals are carrying magic items for loot that would be impossible for the creature to carry/eat/have on its body in any way.
10. A TPK is just another way of saying “Do Over”.
Oh not you too, Texas. Don’t tell me you’re in on this too. Somebody tell them that the state brings in some good money from all those evil games. But then again they still should be considered a form of expression and (I dare say it) art. Just like a bad novel or the latest stupid reality show. There’s already a rating system and if parents don’t want their kids playing a video games, it’s their responsibility. This is just another case of moral panic followed by bad legislation.
Here’s the best response to all that video game horror proudly presented by two of my heroes.
I’ve been really bored with World of Warcraft lately. It just isn’t that same as it used to be. Horde and Alliance sitting all cosy like in some city. Everybody just sitting around waiting for the next raid. The rest of the world is pretty much dead. You can for hours without seeing another player.
With this quandary in mind, I started checking out some of the free MMO’s out there. I messed with D&D Online but I think I’m so used to playing on the table top that it just didn’t do it for. There was little with Shaiya and for fun I gave Warhammer Online a run with their trail.
What’s kind of grabbed my attention is Allods. This may be due to its slightly steampunkish looks and we’re getting ready to start a Spelljammer campaign and I couldn’t pass up magical space galleons. As you can tell by the headline, this is a Russian game and it shows. There’s two opposing faction just like WoW; The League (Humans, Elves and Gibberlings) and The Empire (Humans, Orcs and Arisen).
Everything is pretty much standard. The Elves are pretty much the same except that have fairy wings. You really don’t fly just hoover above the ground. The Orcs are well Orcs. The Arisen are like the Forsaken if they had mechanical arms and legs. Now the Gibberlings are interesting. They’re the small race because every MMO needs a cute little race. These little guys are kind of interesting and I say guys because they are always born in groups of three so in a way your running around as three Gibberlings. They look sort of like a feral Gizmo from Gremlins. The classes are pretty much your standard fare. Warrior, Paladin, Mage, Healer, and few others that folks will recognize.
You can really see the game’s origins if you play Empire. You start off in a dingy gray sailor suit which looks really silly if you’re playing an Orc. Once you reach the starting city, some of the signs in the backgrounds are still Cyrillic. But the quests have a stereotypical Russian feel. Bug these buildings for conspirators. Find some smugglers that are bringing in Elf porn. Apparently, Orcs like Elf porn. The whole are has dull industrial look to it. Orcs patrolling the streets in police uniforms. All of the NPC’s have Slavic names. It’s not really a bad thing and in way it’s nice change of pace.
The game play is pretty much typical MMO/WoW style. The graphics are pretty darned good. I just wish they would have spent more time on sound. Some of the music is just annoying and there’s not too many sound’s for effects. Unlike some free MMO’s I haven’t been spammed with buy stuff. But from what I’ve read they put over a barrel if you die. Long down time to cursing your items. But hey they do have to make some money to support the game. I’m all for capitalism.
Overall, it’s been pretty fun and heck it’s free.
I know it’s not Webclip Wednesday yet but these clip are just too cool. I knew when Bioware released the developer’s kit that someone with a lot time and talent than I was going do something really cool with it.
The Trailer for those with a short attention span.
Yeah, you probably already know that by now but figured I’d give it a shout out now. As luck would have it I’ve been off the the Net for a few days now thanks to an insane urge to rearrange the house so there’s lots of catching up to do.
Anyway, it’s out and I haven’t picked it up yet. I’m waiting on a couple things. I’m pretty sure there will be some twitchy bits and Bioware will probably come out for patch. That’s just pure tin foil hat conjecture on my part. I have no proof nor heard any rumors. Also waiting for all the mods I use to catch up and to make sure I can export some of the cool swag I picked up. The great modders over at Dragon Age Nexus have come out with one mod to export stuff but I’ll just give it a few days and see what happens. Also, I’m kinda broke right now so. . .
I know I missed a couple of the neat trailers so I’ll just skip on to the launch trailer. Enjoy.
This is my place snarky rants about all things things geeky. I'm a life long gamer, geek and nerd. If you're in the mood for a little geeky humor visit my other blog!
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