DAoC Interview with Mark Davis

Rancid, over at Back to the Dark Age, had a chance to talk with Dark Age of Camelot's new Producer, Mark Davis (WAR Live Events producer).  DAoC isn't in the news much, so it is nice to see some new information come out about it.

BttDA on Expansions.  UO showed that you’re never too old for an expansion.  Many consider UO and DAoC in the same “maintenance” mode right now, and that no new development is going on.  Can you dispel that rumor?  Are plans for an expansion in the works?

MD: We have new development going on all the time for Camelot, though not necessarily in the form of a boxed retail expansion.  The question is, what’s best for the game?  Does Camelot need another expansion?  Possibly, however it’s not what we’re working on currently. That being said, it could be something we do in the future.

Go read the full interview!

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Werit subscribes to...

Over the weekend I re-subscribed to Everquest II.  Don't be jealous WAR and FE, this is just a fling.  My desire to play has been slowly creeping upwards for the last month.  Sure Syp didn't help, but the main reason is the Sentinel's Fate expansion pack.

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Adwords

Last week I talked a bit about what I learned from trying out Adsense. This time I experimented with Adsense's sister product, Adwords.  Adwords is Google's ad creation and management product.  When I created an Analytics account  I received a free offer of $100 worth of ads.  So I thought, why not?

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This is the DROID you are looking for

A couple days ago, I became an owner of the new DROID phone from Verizon.  This is actually the first smart-phone I have ever had.  The main draw for me is the web access as I am not a big text message user.  For my impressions, read on.

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Two great Steam deals

Want something to be thankful for?  How about digital distribution and the great deals that can be had.  First up on Steam we have Fallen Earth for $25.  Not only is it a great price, you get a special Faction t-shirt in-game item.  It bears the emblem of your faction and gives +stat increases.

Also on Steam is the THQ Complete pack for $50 (50% off until Monday).  This sucker has 18 games in it!  Titans Quest, Saints Row 2, Warhammer: Dawn of War I and II, Company of Heroes and more are all included. 

Have a good holiday, and for those non-US folks, have a good day at work? ;)

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WAR's December Plans

The WAR newsletter arrived yesterday and with it a glimpse of what is in store for the month of December. With the recent layoff's and the holiday season, I was not expecting too much.  It does look like it will be a good month for WAR though.

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Werit at WAR: Shaman

In previous episodes of Werit at WAR, I have played only Order characters.  I think it is time to give Destruction some attention.  So this week I bring to you Werit the Shaman on Iron Rock.  He is Rank 15, likes long walks on the beach and fungus.  Watch the video after the break.

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Well played Aion, well played

Even though I don't play Aion anymore, I like to keep up with what's going on in the game.  Recently they had a new patch, 1.5.1, which was interesting. CAPTCHA's in game, really Aion?  Then today they released a new video of Aion's future.  I must say, it is nothing short of amazing.

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STO's Next Faction

Star Trek Online is starting out with two factions, the Federation and the Klingon's. Even though the game hasn't even launched yet, I think it is a safe bet that they will add a third faction eventually.  Star Trek has a number of interesting possibilities, so which will it be?

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Borderlands and Fallen Earth

Bronte, over at Are We New At This, got a chance to interview the President and CEO of Gearbox, Randy Pitchford, about Borderlands.  It is a very interesting interview, so check it out.  Part 1, Part 2.

One of the Fallen Earth forum goers made a music video for the game using A Horse with No Name. It is extremely well done, take a look after the break.

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Lessons Learned

Some of you may have noticed that last week I had an Adsense ad in the sidebar.  One of the reasons for this site is as a vehicle to try new stuff.  Whether it is a new game or a web technology like Adsense, there is plenty to learn.  While the Adsense is now removed, I did learn more about how it works.

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Torchlight Contests

Runic Games, the creator of the action RPG Torchlight, is holding a fan art contest.  The winner gets a Penny Arcade strip, signed by the dev team. One interesting piece is that they mentioned you can participate without any artistic talent (like me!).  A fan site is also holding a contest.

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Dawntide Update

It has been a little while since I posted about the new sandbox MMO in development, Dawntide.  Turns out they have been pretty busy and the game is coming along nicely.  As there is no NDA,so  I can post what is new.  Read on for the latest news.

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Friday Temptations

You didn't really want to work today, did you?  It's been a busy week for me and not in a fun way.  Luckily some other folks picked up the slack and gave me plenty to read.  Now I pass them on to you, so that this day can go a bit faster.

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What's so civil about Galactic Civil War anyway

One of the major things missing from Star Wars: Galaxies has been any kind of meaningful galactic Civil War.  Sure, you could fight those evil rebels (weren't they the bad guys?) but it was largely inconsequential. All that is about to change, because the next update is all about the GCW.

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Open the Gates

When the Land of the Dead was released, it required many more resources in order to open it to your realm.  The only practical way to do it was to flip two zones.  Not too long ago, they lowered the amounts so turn-ins were more meaningful.  Now, in combination with the frequency of city sieges,  control of the zone changes hands pretty regularly.

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Pandemic

Yesterday, the gaming world received some sad news.  Pandemic Studios was shut down as a part of the sweeping EA cuts.  They were one of my favorite game studios.  Let's take a look back at some of their awesome games.

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Gratuitous Space Battles hits Steam

Gratuitous Space Battles is a game where you design your ships, deploy them and watch the carnage unfold.  There is really nothing else like it on the market.  I have always enjoyed the space battles in Star Wars, Star Trek and others.  GSB takes that aspect and builds a game around it.

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Missing armor in Dragon Age?

A few days ago, I started up Dragon Age only to find that my character was walking around in his underwear.  While there are certain situation where this is acceptable, fighting the darkspawn is not one of them.  It seems he was missing his armor.  In particular, this armor was from the Warden's Keep DLC.

To fix: Go to Downloadable Content then the Installed Content tab.  Un-check all of the items and then re-check them.  Go back into the game and your character should have his armor back.

Another fix:  Make sure you are logged in (lower left corner).

Hope that helps.

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Dragon Age: Origins

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Werit at WAR: Bright Wizard

Dragon Age wasn't the only game I played over the weekend.  I was in a PvP mood so I spent some time in Warhammer Online.  Rather than playing my normal characters, I had an urge to throw some fire around.  So I created a Bright Wizard.

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Classy

Just because it's the apocalypse doesn't mean you have to wear those instruments of death and destruction.  Fallen Earth announced a new bonus when you purchase the game which is sure to get you looks around the canyon.

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Dragon Age + The Old Republic

Most of my game time has been consumed by Dragon Age lately.  It is rather addicting.  As I play, I can't help but think what Dragon Age tells us about Bioware's upcoming MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic. 

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Envy

Recently, I have come down with a case of MMO envy.  I had hoped yesterday's WAR Producer's Letter would have alleviated it but it did not.  In fact, the letter did not do much of anything except tell us what we already knew.

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Last night's PTS event

Last night, there was an event on WAR's PTS to test out the new shortened city siege.  I, as usual, strolled in later than I had hoped.  I did get a chance to fight for close to an hour though.  For a look at the video and my impressions, read on.

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Q&A with Torchlight's Matt Lefferts

Today we have the third and final Torchlight interview.  Matt Lefferts, the animator of Torchlight, was kind enough to answer the questions as well.  I think the animations in torchlight really help to get across the feel of the combat.  Thanks Matt!

Werit:  Can you tell us a little about yourself?

I’m Matt Lefferts.  I’m one of the founding members of Runic Games.  I’m the animator for Torchlight.  I went to the Savannah College of Art and Design and graduated in 06.  I’ve been in the industry for about 2 years and freelanced for 2.5 years before that.  I will be playing the part of Biff in this production of, Death of a Sal… moving on.

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PTS Event Tonight

First, I want to wish everyone that lost their job recently, good luck and thanks for the effort.  As it often does, WAR marches on.  Tonight, at 8pm EST, they are holding a PTS event in order test some of the new City Siege changes.  They include the shorter duration and changes to how victory points are calculated.

These events are usually pretty fun.  You can use a template and try out classes on either side.  Some of those fancy mounts will also be given out to a lucky few.  I plan on stopping by, as Werit of course.  If you can, stop in and say hi.

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Q&A with Torchlight's Matt Tanwanteng

Torchlight week continues with the second of three developer interviews.  This time we have Matt Tanwanteng, one of the MMO and Toolset developers.  Can you spot the Simpson's reference?  Thanks Matt!

Werit:  Can you tell us a little about yourself?

Hi!  My name is Matt Tanwanteng, and I graduated with a Master's in Computer Science from MIT before coming to Runic and inheriting the Newbie Brick.  Here, I'm officially helping Peter lay out the codebase for the upcoming MMO version of Torchlight.  Most recently, I've been working on testing out and documenting the modding process and have been having fun throwing together little unofficial Torchlight mods.

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The Engineers new clothes

Don't worry, no dwarfs in their birthday suits.  I had to phrase that last sentence carefully as it could have brought the wrong kinda traffic to this site.  I don't change my gear often in WAR, as it isn't that important.  Eventually, I saved up enough medallions and was able to upgrade.

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Q&A with Torchlight's Wonder Russell

Recently, I had an opportunity to ask Wonder Russell, the Minister of Culture at Runic Games, about Torchlight.  This is actually the first of 3 interviews with folks at Runic, thanks Wonder!  If you are not familiar with Torchlight, be sure to check out this video review of the game.  Check back tomorrow for the next interview.

Werit:  Can you tell us a little about yourself?

My name is Wonder, I’m a chick in the gaming industry which reminds me of a quote from my Alaska days: “the odds are good, but the goods are odd.” Except for Runic Games, that is! ;)

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Combat in Dragon Age

In my previous video, I only showed off the very basics of how fighting works in Dragon Age.  Looking back at it, I don't think it really showed how fun the combat system can be. So today we have a video of the first boss fight.  This may be considered a minor spoiler.

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Fallen Earth Friday

It has been a crazy week for gaming.  I've played Torchlight, WAR, Dragon Age, GSB and a little Fallen Earth.  The Halloween Event ended but I did manage to get my shotgun.  Sadly, I am not skilled enough to use it yet.  I do have some pictures of some other stuff though.

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Dragon Age Video Review

This really isn't a review, as I don't judge the game.  The video will show, without spoilers, what Dragon Age has to offer.  So if you still have not had enough Dragon Age, you can check it out after the break.

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Changes coming to the City Siege

When the fortresses were removed in WAR's 1.3.2 patch, the intention was to get campaigns moving again.  It was successful but perhaps too successful.  On some servers, city sieges are occurring too frequently, resulting in some players being locked out of their city.  Mythic is aware of the problem and has outlined some of the planned fixes.

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Gratuitous Space Battles + Star Wars

When I think of space battles, Star Wars immediately comes to mind.  In fact, I have always liked the space fight angle much more than the Jedi.  X-Wings, Star Destroyers, Tie Fighters,  it was all great.  When I first played around with Gratuitous Space Battles it was clear that someone would make a mod to use Star Wars ships.

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Dragon Age: Impressions

Yesterday the long wait for Bioware's latest venture, Dragon Age: Origins, came to and end.  I went with the Digital Deluxe version from Steam.  I played for 3 hours or so yesterday.  Read on for my no spoiler impressions. 

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Streaming WAR

Recently, I did some intensive investigating (twitter) and found an interesting tidbit about WAR.  You may recall that WAR is revamping their free trial.  That is not the only change coming to it though.

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Farewell Aion

If you have been reading my recent articles about Aion, it should be no surprise that I have canceled my subscription.  Since well before launch I have been cynical towards Aion, but the game at least deserved a try.  Much to my surprise it was not as bad as I thought.  In the end though, it just wasn't the game for me.

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Death Troopers

Death Troopers is both a new book in the Star Wars universe and also an event in Star Wars Galaxies.  As you may expect from the title, it involves zombies.  While you may think they are hopping on the zombie bandwagon, it appears that they have been a part of the Star Wars lore for a while.  For a video and more info, continue on.

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What Aion can learn from WAR

Last week, I made a post discussing what WAR can learn from Aion.  Performance, Crafting, PvP and the economy were all included.  That doesn't mean Aion is perfect in those areas.  There is always room for improvement and WAR does have some good ideas.

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