Adventure of A Jawa

While surfing a gaming looking for the latest developers chat log I saw an image for the game called EVE and it has a 14 day trial period. And being that I’m curious as to how other MMO’s play I decided to give it a shot.

My first MMO was Star Wars Galaxies back in the summer of 05. Then on 15 November I stopped playing (along with 90% of the population) when the game totally switch the game mechanics and class and everything. Yet to this day SOE still holds true to that decision despite the negative flack. To this day this is the best MMO I ever played (Pre SOE redesign)

Then I joined the humongous World of Warcraft shortly after that. Played WOW till around January 07. The main interest I had in the game was raiding but in order to raid you had to be dedicated to a very tough schedule and after doing it for month’s n months on end the same thing over n over with no real other enjoyment in the game it got to be too much. Looking back now with more MMO’s under my belt two things about this game that sticks out is the Warrior Charge and Hunters being able to train pets from beasts of the wild.

The around February I got accepted into a “Stress Test” for The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar (LOTRO) and shortly after beta and then in April full time when the game released. I have been playing it for Approx 10 months now on the live servers. I have a life time subscription for this game so I will always be playing it in some form or another. Over all it’s a good solid game, but with any MMO’s things that make u wonder “Who in this Galaxy thought this crap idea?”.

And then I’ve beta tested parts of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning , Pirates of the Burning Sea and Tabula Rasa.

Warhammer is PVP based and it’s not something I really get into. Either that or I just never found a game that makes is awesome to me.

Pirates were just weird to me. It was like playing a cartoon. I am sure if I gave it effort and time I might of come around to it, but with others out there that appealed more I moved on.

Tabula Rasa was my favorite I’ve beta tested so far; but its combat is a lot like the new SWG with the shooter fast action paced click spam buttons that I don’t like. It saddened me because this game had a good story and some of the guts of it really interested me.

And that brings my MMO past to a close.

And now it brings me to EVE. The only question I have to ask is: “Why didn’t I find this game back in 2003 when it came out?” I’ve always enjoyed space based combat and this game is nothing but that. It’s also FREAKING HUGE game world with one server for all.

Being that it’s been out for 5 years a new player I am nothing but LOST. I got the basic stuff but wow. There is so much to learn to get it all.

Also the skills and training is based on real world time. I skill takes 20 minutes to learn means 20 minutes go by before you learn it, and it can be learned while u r offline. Pretty much means everyone who started to play before u will always be ahead. Not sure I like that.

But I am going to give this game a shot for the moment and see where it goes. If nothing else it’s filler till this winter.

And the future:

One MMO’s I really want to check out.

Stargate Worlds which is set for winter of this year. It is based off of the TV shows Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis. Being that I have seen ever episode of Stargate SG-1 multiple times one can’t help but check it out.

Two MMO’s that looked sweet that has since folded.

Star Trek Online: My love for space combat with a series I have seen every episode except the originals. It could have been a sweet game. Last I knew the rights where bought by another company and hopefully we will see news of it soon.

Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising was into beta status before it the company pulled the plug on this game. This game was going to ROCK. Maybe someone will buy the rights to it and continue it.

And these two games had one thing in common; Perpetual Entertainment was building them and both of them where pulled.

I was negative 2 years old. Man was I young!

But also:

George Lucas’ first “Star Wars” movie opened in theaters.

30 years is a long time, been alive 28 of those, so I know first hand. Yet for some reason “Star Wars” is still as popular as ever.

What tells you a lot is: “without adjustment for inflation” 3 of the top Ten North American films of all time are Star Wars. As of May 21st, 2007. Of which #2 “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope” was release in 1977. The only other film released around that time is E.T. Considering how much ticket prices have gone up over the 20-30 years that the rest of the movies fall into should tell u how many people watched them and how many repeated trips people made to watch them over n over. Just be-daffles me.

All six movies are currently in the top 25. Although the lower three keep dropping.

I managed to lose my copies of Star Wars and a bunch of other movies, so I won’t be doing a back to back to back to back to back to back showing anytime soon. Sadness confounds me… Soon enough I will replace them and make up for it. Some day will get my wife to sit down and watch them all back x 6 with me…

Days like today I wish SOE hadn’t FUBAR’D the Star Wars Galaxies MMO.

In the two MMO’s I have played to date since, WOW and LOTRO; neither have yet to capture me like SWG did. Still playing LOTRO so there is still some hope, but so far doesn’t look like it will be close.

Being a LONG time Star Wars fan it was just awesome to play in the world. The crafting system was rock on. The 37 combat/tech proficiencies truly created diversity. Not to mention the hard work and dedication to become a Jedi. Every now and then SOE offers a free 10 day trial to try to entice us back, so I log in and play, but it just never pulls me back in.

Maybe someday there will be another company that brings back all the great SWG things without SOE messing it up. But slim to none I am sure.

There are 10-20 MMO’s coming out in the next 1-2 years that could.

Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising – Stargate Worlds are too I am looking at.

After a long wait the day has finally arrived. Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar officially gets released Tuesday 24th. They expect the servers to go live around noon eastern on Tuesday; which is 1AM Korean time. That Blows. So it’ll be Wednesday night before I get to play to expand my characters.

I’ve been in Beta since the end of January.

There was an offer to anyone who pre-ordered the official game to keep the characters created during “Open Beta” which started in April. They put a level cap of 15 in effect for this event. So I got two level 15 characters sitting and waiting for release so they can grow more.

I would probably of had all 5 character slots allowed on the server maxed out, but sadly during most of the “Open Beta” I was without a computer and internet connection as I moved to Korea.

My characters:

A Human Hunter named Legacy and An Elf Champion named Athena.

My intention when I started “Open Beta” was to take a Champion as my main. During Closed Beta I played a Guardian and really enjoy it. Being the “TANK” class was fun. I think Turbine did an awesome job with how they created the Guardian. Most of your offense is triggered off using a shield and being beaten to death by the enemy.

But the saying “been there, done that” comes into play. I didn’t want to re-level another one.

So I decided to go Champion. Duel wielding DPS machine class. I enjoyed playing the character to level 15 and had all intentions to continue with this character as my main.

But deep down inside “Hunter” called to me, so I deiced to level one of them to 15 and get a feel for it.

Star Wars Galaxies I was a Creature Handler. Basically I could tame pets and use them in combat. Then Sony fracked the WHOLE GAME UP…

World of Warcraft I started off with a Hunter as my fist character and got it leveled to the high 30’s before I decided to go a different path. I wanted to get into “End Game” play and realized as I hunter it would be a tough tough thing to do. Hunters in WOW could tame almost any animal they came across in the world and use it for combat.

Hunters in LOTRO cannot use pets or tame creatures of the wild. Turbine claims they couldn’t fit it into the LORE of the franchise. In Fact there are two classes in LOTRO who can have pets, Captains who can have a “Herald” to fight n buff for him. Lore-master can summons pets; but as of now you get the choice of Raven or a Bear, and later in the game an eagle. Neither of these classes appeals to me.

I think it is kind of LAME to have no real pets; but I can understand them trying to stick to LORE the best they can.

I think what appeals most to me about “Hunter” class is the Long Range combat (AKA Bows n Arrows), and in other games the taming of beast.

Something that I find ODD (Albeit with a disclaimer that I have never been apart of any others MMO release day, so I am not sure how others have done it. Plus the unique fact the characters we created during “Open Beta” can be carried over.) is that Turbine is hosting 5 launch parties at various GameStop/EB Games though out the US. Yet it does no good to get the game early.

One: The servers will be in “Open Beta” set up until they turn the servers off at 6am and bring it back up around noon with the “Live version”

Two: Turbine has given us a grace period of three or four days after “Launch Day” that we can play the “Live” version without buying the game for us who pre-ordered.

I just hope they have awesome Door Prizes :-p