Foundry, DDOS, Reputations and Vietnam

Hello again readers and thanks for coming back around. In this post I will write about some of the more interesting things I have experienced in my gaming world in recent times. I will make this a regular entry on the blog and try to inform you guys on the better experiences from the games I play.

Star Trek Online - So as I previously Wrote I have Completed my first Foundry mission "Ascension". The one problem I seem to be having is finding my mission in game. I have found it here and there but I have to search by author name. For some reason the mission does not show when searching by title. I will have to look into that more closely.
In other STO news I have reached the rank of Commander 3. My leveling has slowed down dramatically because of my use of the foundry and I have been focusing on crafting which has taken me some time as I gather mats, as I am way behind in my crafting for my level. This has required me to go back to lower level areas and has hindered my leveling.

Supremacy 1914 - My favorite Warfare combat browser game was attacked by a DDOS (Distributed Denial-of-Service) attack and games were unavailable for a couple of days. Basically someone bombarded the website of the game in order to overwhelm it's servers and prevent anyone from being able to log on and play. Bytro games was able to get everything working again and offered every current player 30,000 free Goldmarks. As to the games I was playing only one was affected as when I logged back in I found myself the victim of a coordinated assault by two players and my capital, London, already gone. I was able to win my game as Austria-Hungary and am still playing the other Great Britton Game. There are four players left and we are on Day 60, that's right 60 days of warfare it has been fun. Oh and I have started a new Gold Round game which allowed me to choose my starting country. Nice addition and should cut down on the early defections of players since they can choose thier own starting place. I picked Morrocco as my start as some of the other preffered choices were already taken.

This is my 60 day game, I am Britton (Orange) and my allies are Russia (Dark Green) and Northern USA (Light Green) Things are Indeed looking promising, we will have to see what happens once all the opponets have been dealt with.

World Of Warcraft - So for lack of anything better to do, I have been working on my Tol Barad Reputation. I have been able to get into a handful of Tol Barad games and have been working on the Dailies. Unfortunately this is all old news for me as far as playing this game and is way to similar to other daily quests from years past. I am afraid I am losing any reason to log in anymore. I love this game but think I am becoming burned out. I have no desire to run dungeons (Probably from to many Wrath Dungeons and Beta play) and have stayed away from any other parts of this game except PVP.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - So I downloaded the Vietnam Xpac and have been playing this quite a bit. I do like the different look with the Vietnam War as a backdrop and the minor changes to the game play (Flamethrower, etc), but it is basically the same game with new skins, weapons and maps. Operation Hastings is a fun map with its large bridges, water ways and Rice Patty Fields. The one thing I have to know is this, WHEN DID HUEYS GET TITANIUM PLATED ARMOR? My god these things can be a bear to bring down, The problem I think is there is nothing to counteract them. Light arms fire has little effect on them and even vehicle mounted machine guns don't do a lot of damage. Lucky hits from a tank round or an attack from the opposing chopper appear the only real solutions. 

BattleField: Bad Company 2 Prices Cut in Half

If you have never played this game, but always wanted to you have never had a better reason to do than now.

EA sports has cut thier prices in half for the game $9.97, The Expansion Vietnam $7.47 and the SPECACT Kit which allows you to customize your soldiers appearance for only $2.75.

I will be purchasing the Vietnam and SPECACT since I havent already and for 10 bucks its a good deal.

See you on the Battle Field.

Shame of an Elder Gamer

We have all heard the stereotypes associated with playing games, especially MMORPG style games. Nerd, Geek, or my personal favorite “No life loser living in your mom’s basement” are all used in society to label a gamer, especially an adult gamer. In fact the negative names are often used the most by gamers when describing other gamers. Is there anyone over 18 that is not a gamer? Also at what age is it no longer considered cool to be a gamer?

Everybody plays Games

            The first thing I did when I thought about this was to look at the people I know and see who does and does not play video games. I was hard pressed to locate a single person that I know that doesn’t play video games at some level. Each and every person I thought of had or actively does play video games on a daily basis.

            Today video games are everywhere and are played on all types of devices and mediums. From social media sites like Facebook to consoles to cell phones, video games have infiltrated modern society like no other form of entertainment available. How then it is still considered weird or not acceptable in society? Why do people feel it necessary to conceal their online lives behind avatars and pseudo names?

Secret Identities

            In comic books super heroes always hid their true identities for fear of being discovered. In video games we follow this same line of thinking and hide our real selves behind cleverly (in some cases not so clever) fake names. In some part it is the desire to live a secret life that causes us to do this, but how many of you have during the course of a conversation will talk about your latest exploits in Azeroth? Or how many times have you included your gaming life as part of your resume for a job, even under the hobbies portion?

            Normally we are very discreet when disseminating information about the games we play to the general public and will often only do so when we know someone is of like mind. What causes us to shy away from our hobby of choice and hide like a vagabond afraid of the dirty little secret? IS it this preconceived notion that gamers are in general social outcasts unable to maintain a real flesh and blood relationship? If that is the case then how can anyone today be considered normal since for the most part we all play video games to some degree? Shouldn’t the person who doesn’t play any type of video game be the one given weird looks and talked about at the water cooler?

 Fantasy Phobia

           

            As much as we might like to believe that our society has become more modern and forward thinking, a lot of the old world taboos still exist today. This is never more evident than in the worlds of fantasy and Sci-Fi. Saying you enjoy movies or books like The Lord of the Rings or Star Wars in many cases will still get you labeled as a geek or weirdo. However these movies and book series are some of the best selling of all time, so just how many closet geeks exist out there? When you combine these genres with video games, which is the case in most MMORPG titles, you have a recipe for ridicule and shame.

            Whether we like to admit it or not Fantasy and Science fiction will most likely always be considered outside the realm of normality. Go ahead and do a search for “Sci-Fi fan” on your favorite search engine for images. How many “Normal” people do you see in the photos? The image most people have in mind when they hear fantasy or Sci-fi video game, is often one built on pre ordained prejudices and misconceptions.

Add Adult and stir until well blended

            When we interject the word adult into this equation the recipe creates a hideous monstrosity of social awkwardness and deprivation. An Adult Video Gamer is someone who refuses to grow up and move out of their mother’s house. Now the person is unable to maintain a meaningful relationship and most likely is a 40ish year old virgin. Hmmm remember the scene in that very similar sounding movie with all the action figures and collectibles?

            This is the preconceived image that anyone who is over 18 years old and still playing video games, especially MMO games is perceived to be. Going to a Star Trek Convention or ComicCon this year? Better not let that out of the bag to the wrong person because you will most certainly receive a label that is not kind. I think we can all agree that this is not fair, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist today.

            I applaud those who bravely go to these events in full costumed regalia unafraid of what others think, but for the most part I tend to believe that most attendees are unwilling to admit attendance to non followers of the genre. We talk to or fellow gamers about the things we do, but very rarely do we discuss it in open public.

Maybe this is acceptable; maybe it is supposed to be this way, but I have to believe that as these games grow in popularity so will it become more social acceptable to be a fan of them. I look forward to the day that I can say “I am an Adult Gamer who plays an Armor Wearing Paladin” without be looked at funny. Well ok that might be a bit much, but at least allow me to claim my love of online gaming without ridicule.

Sneak Peak at PVP balance design

In case you were not aware Bjorn with GamerFirst has a blog detailing the day to day progress that they are making while reworking the failed IP, APB-Reloaded. A couple off days ago he released a post describing the problems they are having with balancing Player Vs Player combat (APB is all about PVP) because the original release of the game had a very poor system of matching players up.

            He goes on to explain a lot of the mechanics and systems used in gaming to determine who should fight who. Anyways it’s an interesting read if your into how game design works and you can check it out  by clicking the image below.   

Battlefield 3 gameplay looks great

OK forget everything I said in my previous post, if this game looks anywhere near as good as this video I am ready for it now.

Tol Barad, STO Fleet Action, C4 Snipers and More

Hello again readers and thanks for coming back around. In this post I will write about some of the more interesting things I have experienced in my gaming world in recent times. I will make this a regular entry on the blog and try to inform you guys on the better experiences from the games I play.

World of Warcraft

            I finally got into Tol Barad this week. I was so excited as this was only my third chance to see the new PVP zone. I have had nothing but problems getting into this place because of the competitive balancing system in place. (Hmmm sounds like a good future post.) Right now I am only at about a 15 percent successes rate for getting in when I Que. Unfortunately for me my server, Windrunner, has a huge imbalance between Alliance (me) and Horde. In fact the total for the Alliance team in this match hovered between 10-12 players the whole time. I mean lol come on seriously???

            Also I am having problems finding fresh recruits for my newly formed guild. Could this possibly have something to do with the new Guild ranking and Rep system? I tend to think so but I’ll share my thoughts on that one in a future post.

Star Trek Online

            Still having fun playing this game as I learn to play and make my way around the galaxy. I reached the rank of Lt. Commander 5 and joined a rather large fleet as well. Still having some problems with some of the way the game is set up, but I’ll get into that another time as well.

            I got to do some ground based fleet action questing for the first time and I still say this is the true gem of this game. Running around with a handful of other players trying to stop the Klingons plans was very entertaining and is as much fun as the Space fleet actions. The reward of 300+ skill points felt adequate for the time I spent. I really need to write something about STO in general so look for this in a future post.

Supremacy 1914  

           

            Ok I am aware that most of you right now are scratching your heads on this one. What the heck is Supremacy 1914? Well under the games I’m playing section please click the link and check it out and click here to read my brief write up about the game. Anyways I am presently running 3 different games at the moment, 2 as Great Britton and 1 as Austria-Hungry. So far am doing quite well in all three although one has a peace period of 14 days. I have never done this type of game before and I am finding it quite unusual not being able to attack for so long.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2

            I am trying not to brag, but I must admit that I am killer in some armor. I can normally survive quite awhile when using the engineering kit and can really rack up the kills. My number one nemeses has got to be those loathsome C4 packing snipers that with one click of the mouse button can turn your modern day death rig into a burning scrap pile. I dislike this so much that I often wish they would do away with C4 altogether, but I understand this isn’t going to happen.

             I mean some maps its so out of hand as more than half the player base is running around in Ghillie suits and throwing motion sensors everywhere. Either way if you play this kit most often, just know that there is an angry and vengeful, even downright militant soldier out there gunning for you.

           

Battlefield 3 coming this year but is it too soon?

When DICE began to release information about their latest FPS in early February, many gamers (me included) searched anxiously for the precious details that slowly began to leak forth. Battlefield 3 was on its way, the release date was set for the fall of 2011. Wait what??

            Now to most fans of the series a release date set for 2011 is one for celebration and finger nail biting anticipation, but for me it was a little bitter sweet. Although I was ready and willing to get to work on the new title, I found myself stopping and wondering what would become of the game I love now.

            Battlefield: Bad Company 2 in my opinion is one of the finest titles in the series. Even though they removed some popular features from this game, airplanes anyone, the game by all accounts was a huge success. Many even consider it the best title in the series as the new frostbite engine brought forth a destructible environment and beautiful graphics.

            I mean is it really time to put BFBC2 out to pasture? I still play it all the time and I’m not sure even in the fall if I will be ready to let go. Don’t get me wrong I am just as much enchanted as you are by the siren song of the new Frostbite 2 powered game, but is it too soon? It seems like only yesterday I was downloading Map pack 7 and debating whether or not I would plunk down the money for the Vietnam Expansion. Oh wait! That’s right it wasn’t that long ago, a measly 2 months ago to be precise.

 Is it just me or is DICE rushing the next game in the series? Doesn’t it seem a lot faster than previous release titles from the predecessor? To answer this lets look at the release dates of the previous games in the series with a focus on the major titles and their Xpac releases.                                                                     

Title	Date	Time from previous new title.
Battlefield 1942	09/2002	N/A
Road to Rome (1942 Xpac)	02/2003	-
Secret Weapons of WWII (1942 Xpac	09/2003	-
Battlefield Vietnam	06/2004	2 years
Battlefield 2	06/2005	1 year
Special Forces (BF2 Xpac)	11/2005	-
Euro Force (BF2 Xpac)	03/2006	-
Armored Fury (BF2 Xpac)	06/2006	-
Battlefield 2142	10/2006	1 year 4 months
Northern Strike (2142 Xpac)	03/2007	-
Battlefield: Bad Company 2	06/2010	3 years 8 months
Vietnam (BFBC2 Xpac)	12/2010	-
Battlefield 3	Fall 2011 (Sept. to Nov.)	1 year 3 months to 1 year 6 months

Now you may be looking at the time line above and wondering what exactly I am talking about. It appears like DICE is following a pretty straight forward time line and at first glance I tend to agree, but lets dissect that timeline a little and look at it another way. If we exclude Battlefield Vietnam (because it wasn’t very good) and 2142 (because it was a completely different genre.) from the list, we get a completely different look at things.

From BF 1942 to BF2 we have a 3 year span and from BF2 and BFBC2 we have a 5 year time span. Now I agree that 3 years and 5 years seem a rather long stretch, but it makes the 15 moths we have had to play bad company seem like nothing. A fan of these two titles, if they didn’t get Vietnam or 2142 had a long time to enjoy them before moving on to the next best thing. Also keep in mind that 1942 and BF2 had multiple expansions that expanded the content of the core game, whereas Bad Company has had 1 expansion that was more of a reskinned new game than a true expansion.

Am I way off base here or are you also feeling the way I am? I understand I may feel different about this in a couple of months from now, but I can honestly say I will be saddened to let go of Bad Company when the day comes and no I probably wont continue playing it if BF3 is good. One last thing to consider on this subject is whether this release window is based on monetary reasons or the huge success of competitors like Call of Duty.

I am eagerly looking forward to the latest release of my favorite FPS series, but I just can’t help myself in feeling a little remorse in saying good bye to what has been to me a very enjoyable and entertaining game. How bout you? Will you easily be able to let go of Bad Company when the time comes or will you feel conflicted? Is it the right time for a new release? Let me know what you think.