11 January 2008 | |
LHStaff
Disclaimer: MMOCrunch takes no responsibility for any damage you do to yourself, others, or Orc Shamans. Seriously, please be careful.
Have you ever seen a Fire Mage and thought to yourself, “Wow, that would be neat.” Who here hasn’t wanted to throw fireballs from their hands? Well, now you can in just a few easy steps. Just follow the directions at this site to create your own homemade fire balls! Impress your friends and get laughed at by your loved ones! You’ll laugh all the way to the fire extinguisher knowing that you were a Fire Mage at least once in your life.
7 January 2008 | |
LHStaff
Since becoming a writer for this award-winning blog I have often been asked by readers and other people, just curious about the website, if I ever meet up with the same people I game with. It’s probably not that uncommon of a question and I am sure somebody, at some point, has asked the same of you. This got me to thinking about the whole situation of meeting up with your online buds outside of the game.
Whenever I am asked this question my answer is always “no”. Real life meetings with online pals just aren’t my forte, y’know? Aside from the paranoia I feel at the fact that maybe, just maybe, my guildmate is actually a serial stalking, spoon murderer there is also the simple fact that the person I know online is probably very different than the person I meet up with. I act differently when playing a game than I do in real life and I am sure that holds some truth to all gamers. Even then, if I do meet-up with them what are we supposed to talk about? I can’t talk about the game or else the meeting will have just been wasted. So, without the game to talk about we awkwardly try to find other interests in the person whose main interest is a game we both find interest in. It all gets very complicated.
Bottomline is that I just don’t think that mixing my real life and game life is the wisest of decisions. Am I alone on this one?
27 December 2007 | |
LHStaff
In a genre of gaming where the first word is ‘roleplaying”, its a bit humorous that almost no one actually roleplays. Seriously when’s the last time you saw a character act like there supposed to. For instance in LOTR lore we know that elves and dwarfs are not very fond of each other in, however in the actual game dwarfs and elves regularly quest together and are even in the same guilds. Once in a while you can find a elf, dwarf or hobbit in character, but after a joke or two the player would go right back to normal breaking out of character.
The obvious answer here is that most people don’t actually want to roleplay. Sure being a elf hunter with a mean bow shot is one thing, but who wants to go around talking like a Legolas or not joining a quest group because theres a dwarf in it. Hell its hard enough finding full groups for raids and quest without discriminating dwafts. Also think about what you type when your chatting. If your seeking a group for a quest you probably type somethink like “LFG – quest name”. If I had to write a long winded sentence in the style of LOTR, I’d never get anywhere.
With that said, I do enjoy running into people that actively roleplay. It brings the game more to life and it’s actually fun to be around them. While I don’t actively roleplay myself, if I run into someone that is, I try to get into it also. It’s quite fun once in a while, you should try it.
(img: http://www.tehw00t.net)
9 November 2007 | |
LHStaff
So, I was browsing some of my usual forums the other day when I noticed a debate was beginning to simmer about whether or not MMORPG developers actually listen to the suggestions their players give them. It may seem like a pointless debate, but, for what it’s worth, it actually brings up important issues about customer service and the goals of the developer as a whole. A lot of companies do put their own finances beyond their player-base, and, no matter your stance on the debate, putting money ahead of the community almost always yields negative results.
Personally, I have never been much of a suggestion-maker within any of my MMORPGs communities. I typically make my suggestions when writing blogs like these, which, believe it or not, probably yields higher results than simply posting in the game’s official forums. For those that do make suggestions direct in their game’s forums, does it actually work? Have you ever received any sort of feedback, or maybe even seen it come to life?
Do you feel that suggestions are ever paid any attention in your game?
9 November 2007 | |
LHStaff
How many countless hours have you watched your character with nothing but their back towards you? It seems that a great many MMORPGs and a good amount of regular games are in third person, but why? We don’t live our lives in third person. Well a design student, Marc Owens had decided to see what it would be like if real life was in third person. He created a helmet with a camera strapped a few feet behind and a boxed screen infront of your face so you can’t see anything but the screen. Turned on you are now living your life in the third person.
So whats life like in the third person? Surprisingly Marc says that while most people are slow to get used to it, once they do they tend to act more freely than they normally would. There seems to be a disconnect between seeing yourself in the third person and your actions. People approach strangers, start jumping around and moving as they normally wouldn’t. Sorta like the vast majority of gamers you’ll see jumping around like idiots, myself included.
Heres a video of the Avatar Machine in action.
1 November 2007 | |
LHStaff
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Browsing around YouTube today, I stumbled upon a little show called The Guild. The show is based on a group of online friends that game together in the same MMORPG guild. Currently there are 4 episodes with a new episode added at the beginning of each month and between 3-5 mins long.
With all the mainstream coverage over the last year for MMORPG games (South Park WOW episode, Toyota WOW Commercial), it wasn’t long before a show was made based around MMORPG’s, even if it is just on YouTube. The show has a solid following, the last two episodes each have had 380,000+ views with the first episode nearing a million. So it makes you wonder why a show like this can’t make it to TV. The show was the creation of Felicia Day an actress you might have recognized from “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”. Ok, if your a girl you might have recognized her from Buffy. Felicia took the project and shopped it around Hollywood, who politely declined. However Felicia didn’t take no for an answer. Felicia and partners funded the pilot episode and posted it on YouTube. Gamers responded by not only watching but by donating cash for future episodes via a donate Paypal link.
After watching all four episodes I’m ready for more. I mean common anyone watch The Big Bang Theory? Its horrible and as stereotypical as you can get. The Guild on the other hand is witty, humorous and portrays gamers from all walks of life. A definite triumph!
