Goodbye Letter to First Love

I can still remember it like it was yesterday. The sun was bright upon my face from the noon day sky as the gentle calling of an unseen bird filled my ears and the sweet smell of blossoming flowers washed over me with every breath. I was young and eager then, willing to take on anything I came across, but I was also naïve and ill-prepared for the journey ahead. I thought I knew what I was getting myself into, thought I had a handle on things, but you taught me that I was wrong. It seems like a lifetime has passed between us although it has only been but a handful of years.

              Right from the beginning, you have been both my savior and my villainess. For every helping hand you have given me, you have denied me help just as much. The trials and Tribulations I have endured alone are equal to the ones I have conquered with you as my guide. The journey of my life is etched across your face, both the scars and the healing. I would not be the man I am today without you, could not have grown like I have without you or learned as much as I have without you.

            I have become wiser in so many things and learned much the hard way. I have been a leader of many and with their help completed incredible tasks and achieved great goals. However no matter how high I have climbed, you have always been there to humble me and remind me that I am just one man. The scars on my body are proof enough of the hard lessons I have had to learn along the way.

Through it all I have always marveled at your beauty and have done everything I can to protect you and keep those that would from destroying you. Although you have never asked for my help, I have tried my best to defend you in your times of need and you have in return blessed me with so much. But the one thing that neither of us can do is stop time and Even though you are much more scarred than I am, I believe that I have weathered the ordeals less than you.

I guess what I am trying to say is that I am tired and I am struggling daily to continue this fight. I will always treasure you more than you’ll ever know and I long for the days of old, but I am afraid my time with you is drawing to a close. I am planning a new journey, one that will take me far from you and I don’t know at this time if I will ever be able to return. So in the event that we never meet again I just wanted you to know how much I have enjoyed our time together and hope that you do well in the future.

Man, I just can’t get over the fact that this is goodbye. There are so many fond memories that I have of my time with you, so many things that still bring a smile to my face... Hey you remember that time in Stormwind when my friends and I ran through the streets in our underwear making train sounds? Kind of embarrassing today, but we were plastered when we did it after having that big party. I can’t even remember all of the heroic battles that are in the past. Hyjal, Blackrock Mountain, Zul Gurub, Karazhan, and so many others I cant name them all.

Well I've rambled on quite long enough and I don't believe I have expressed just how much I owe you. I guess that's it then huh, words can never express what is in our hearts or the real gratitude we feel. I guess all that is left for me to do is wish you well Azeroth. I am moving on to other things and am hanging up my sword and shield. Who Knows maybe someday I may return, but I get the feeling this is it. If we don't see each other again it's been real.

Deep Space 9 and Panzers

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

Haven't been doing a whole lot in this game lately, its another casualty of my tank warfare rampage. However I did enjoy stopping by Deep Space 9 while making my way around Cardassian space. One of the allures of STO is the ability to visit locations made famous by the movies and TV shows. Also have been playing some of the Featured Episodes and still impressed with how much better they are compared to standard quests.

World of Tanks
Surprisingly enough this game has engrossed me to addictive levels. I recently entered the TIer 5 range and am getting introduced on a regular basis what real tanks can do to me. Most of my matches have me paired up with heavy tanks in the 6-8 tiers. I am really surprised at the draw leveling up has in this game as the desire to get that next higher level of tank really draws you in. Also the new tank company war system was introduced allowing player groups (clans) to battle for a war torn map of Europe. Unless you have been able to reach the upper level tiers there isn't really any reason to apply to a clan as there is no level restriction so everyone fighting is in tier 8 goodies. I suppose this is W.O.T.'s version of endgame content. I look forward to trying it out in the future as I plug along to my goal of my very own Tiger tank.

How Much Does Cost Influence Expectations and Enjoyment

           So today I was discussing with a friend how good of a game World of Tanks has turned out to be. This conversation carried over into how it was also free to play and that got me thinking a bit. Recently I decided to purchase some gold currency for the game, but the game is primarily centered on the F2P format (Excellently done I might add) and does not require any form of payment to enjoy almost all aspects of the game.  I have always been curious about this game and have wanted to check it out for some time, so as soon as it was released I jumped right in and tried it out. I mean after all what’s there to lose right? The question is how excited would I have been to try the game if there was something to risk? Would my view differ if my real life money were on the line in purchasing an unknown quality game?

            Without a doubt the fact World of Tanks is free played a major role on my decision to try the game. If I were forced to pay 50-60 dollars for the software and another 10-15 dollars for a subscription, I doubt I would have given it a try so soon. In fact the fact it was free to play was probably the only reason I tried it out when I did. So it goes without saying that although the game had my interest from the start, there wasn’t enough of it to garner me paying to play. I needed to try it before I bought it.

            The next question is a little more complex and is not so easy to answer. I wanted to know if a games financial burden augments a person’s expectation and overall rating of a game. In other words let’s say you really enjoy a game and only had to pay 5 bucks for it. Then after playing it for a while you find it entertaining, but overall bug filled and that it doesn’t have much replay value. That 5 bucks would still seem like a good investment, now let’s say you paid 60 bucks for it; would you still be okay with bugs and lack luster game play? Probably not, my guess is you would be seething with rage at the wasted money and the only thing from keeping you from lighting the disk on fire would be that 60 buck investment.

            So if you end up playing a game that is free, would it then be reasonable to assume that your expectations before playing the game would also be lower? Would this then garner a better impression of the game from you? When I first got World of Tanks I was impressed with the overall game play and balancing mechanics in place. I was also impressed with the graphics and overlooked some of the bugs like water and grass going through my tank. I was most impressed that this well designed game was free. If I had to pay for the title at the beginning I might not have been so impressed.

            Think of all the games that have started out as a pay model with subscription and gone to the free to play system. Games that in the past had received bad reviews and have only been able to garner low player populations. Once they changed their format to free they often are revitalized and become money makers instead of losers. Did these games get any better? To some extent I’m sure they did, but it can’t be by that much.

            I do believe our expectations and overall satisfaction with a title is definitely influenced by our monetary investment. World of Tanks does not suffer from poor game play or bad design concepts, however it is very light on content at the moment and unless you enjoy running match after match the game itself will quickly become boring to you. If I had to pay a large sum of money for it I might become angry at the lack of content to be played.

           

            With several years of hype and anticipation behind it, Star Wars The Old Republic is certainly one of the most anticipated games of 2011. BioWare has stated the game will have an initial purchase price with a monthly subscription model. My expectations of the game are very high and believe it will be a high quality title.

           

            I will be playing this game from day one and will be happy to pay whatever reasonable price BioWare requests, but what if it sucks? My disappointment will be huge as compared to a free game like W.O.T. and my desire to continue paying will be effected. If BioWare were to release SWTOR as a Free to Play game how much disappointment would I have then if the game were to suck?

             I can guess that to some extent I would not be as disappointed and would be more forgiving of the overall product. I would like to believe that either way I could be objectionable in rating a game regardless of cost, but the truth of the matter is if you expect me to pay top dollar for a title you better make sure it is done when you release it.   

Paying the Premium

   
       

            I decided to do something that I have never done before in a game, well sort of. Although I have paid a subscription to games before on a monthly basis, I have never made a extra purchase or paid for any kind of premium service.

             This week I went ahead and purchased some gold in World of Tanks. My two reasons I decided to do this were 1. I am really enjoying the game and will support something I am enjoying and believe in. 2. I wanted to see the differences between a free account and a premium account. I chose to buy 3000 Gold for 14.95 which is basically the same price as 1 month of game time for subscription games like World of Warcraft and Star Trek Online.

            The very first thing I did was to convert all my unused experience on lower level tanks into free experience, which will allow me to use that XP on future tanks. The second thing I did was to purchase a premium account for 1 day. The cost of the Premium account was 250 gold while the XP transfer cost me 1 gold for every 25 XP I converted. In the end I spent a total of 729 gold and I am left with 2,271 gold.


Premium Account


            For buying a premium account I received a 50 percent increase in XP and Money received per match. I also receive the ability to form a platoon with my friends to fight together and some other lesser benefits. While playing with the premium account I did notice a difference in both XP and Money gains from match to match, enough so that I could see a true benefit of playing this game with a premium account. Game play is basically the same without any direct benefits or assistance to aid me in my crappy shooting skills. This is how I would prefer to play the game as I side more with skill at playing than game assistance.

             I did notice that my garage looks different from a regular account (See Picture Above) as it is much larger and tactical looking with maps and such on the walls, but basically it has the same function as far as I can tell. As for the cost options on a monthly account they are:



1 day(24 Hours) - 250 Gold

3 days(72 Hours) - 650 Gold

1 week(7 Days) - 1250 Gold

1 Month(30 Days) - 2500 Gold


This seems reasonable as a 1 month subscription is around $14 dollars which is about the same as other subscription games.

 Left Over Gold

             I honestly have no idea what I will do with the left over gold. Some of my options include purchasing premium tanks or premium ammo (Which I am told is better) or I could continue to buy a premium account. For now I think I'll just hold onto it and purchase more premium account time whenever I need a slight boost to my level gains.

My tank got some bad fuel from the Lag station

                    Well World of tanks released its latest update  v6.4 and ever since the server has been hit or miss with terrible lag. In some matches my tank seems to lurch uncontrollably and my shots are shooting where tanks used to be. Others act and play as normal with minimal problems. As indicated in this forum post I am not the only one wxpiriencing problems and the complaining in game is getting worse. I have grown to really like this game and am hoping they can find a solution to this problem soon.

Oh and by the way the new map Mountain Pass, as seen above, is very nice indeed. W.O.T. has some excellent maps.