Just another day on the old grind...

I wish I had some exciting news from the land of Rubi-Ka, but sometimes, with any rpg, you've got to grind a bit. While Riknas was elsewhere today, I braved the subway by myself. Not an unpleasant experience. Sometimes when the game's right, a bit of grinding gets you in a good mood. The familiarity that comes with running through the same motions repeatedly doesn't always have to be dull. Grinding gives the same sort of satisfaction to a gamer that it does to a man who knows his job.

A few levels more, and it'll be time to move on.

Rubi-Ka, Day Two - The town of West Haven

You know, I've always had this thing about cramped, dark spaces. They're just plain nerve-racking and I don't care if you're a claustrophobic or not. Needless to say, when a buddy of mine, a fellow named Riknas, suggested that we enter such a place, which was quite possibly filled to the brim with violent junkies and homeless wretches, I happily strolled in. What can I say? I might find it to be a scary place, but Coyce? He lives life on the edge.

Scary lookin', ain't it?

Who's Coyce you might ask? He's Martin Riggs, Harry Callahan, and John McClane all rolled into a single sci-fi ass-kicker. So I guess you could say he's got a little bit of Ellen Ripley in him as well. In my perfect narrative, he's a former soldier looking to start over doing some freelance work on Rubi-Ka, but he's not in this alone. Coming along for the ride is everyone's favorite giant, Kendar (that's Riknas for those who didn't know). This loveable Atrox has a tendency to bash skulls in first and ask questions later. He doesn't have many likes so I'll just list a few of his dislikes: drunks, rollerrats, and Coyce. After obtaining passes to Rubi-Ka's mainland from a group of Clan rebels, the two mercenaries found themselves in the small town of West Athen with no cash, no equipment, and no clue of where they are or what their next move should be. So what happened? Just what you'd expect. They kicked a lot of ass. It's the type of bromantic action escapade that only a Hollywood-esque buddy cop blockbuster could portray. But all joking aside, when you get down to the nuts and bolts of how the actual gameplay pans out, while there are still problems to be had, it's a damn fun experience.

When you finally reach the mainland of the map, off the tutorial island stage, what you have is an incredibly deep game the likes of which simply doesn't exist anymore. With the complexities and depth though, come the issues with the game. If it hasn't been mentioned thus far, the learning curve on this game is a steep one. The different equipment, how nano technology works, crafting, implants, the mission system, hell even learning the basic UI was a pain in the ass.

It took Rik and I the better part of a few hours before we finally managed to figure out where the AV options were located at, and that was simply because he had already filed a petition in game, asking one of the moderators about a different issue he had stumbled upon. He managed to get in another question in during the conversation. If I had one major complaint about Anarchy, then it would be the lack of explanation concerning the mechanics of the game. It's frustrating and will drive you up the wall. There is no doubt that without prior experience playing the game, you'll be asking a lot of questions. That's not to say that there's not an established community willing to help you (which, thankfully, there most certainly is), but these basic errors end up being the ones that'll cost developers and publishers at the end of the day.

If you ask around on the game for the different ages of those playing, then you'll find that several of them are older gamers, which is to be expected. I tread lightly when I say this, but if several newer players to the MMO world were to boot up Anarchy, the clunkiness of its interface and the lack of integration would probably be why those who stop playing do (if we ignore its dated graphics). A big reason for this is that there are things that separate modern MMOs from titles of the past. Take The Old Republic (hell pick any newish game), while I wasn't necessarily hand-held throughout the introduction, it did far more to teach me about the game than older titles like AO. This is a problem, but it's not one that AO should get a ton of flak for. It's the old adage that you can't judge something from the past by the standards of the present. Often I'll be the one to call "horseshit" on similar arguments, but from personal experience, I'd say it fits here. Pick any MMO from the around the same time, and you'll notice a lot of the same issues (Star Wars Galaxies comes to mind from a comparative standpoint).

Another thing to make a quick note of, while teaming up was certainly rewarding within the game, you weren't in any way pushed to do so. If you pick the right class, at least through the first few levels, then it's possible to breeze through a good chunk of the game on your own. It's another contrast to more modern games that are more willing to put you into a group or try and promote teaming up. Neither is better, but it's worth pointing out as another example of how time changes things.

So back to Coyce and Kendar. Actually...Kendar's a bit busy at the moment.

  And he's out...Damn it!

The Newbie Blogger Initiative

Unlike I promised, today's post will not be featuring more exploits on Rubi-Ka, tragic, I know. Instead, I wanted to take a brief moment to highlight the effort of a dedicated group of both veteran bloggers and newcomers (like me) who are just getting their feet wet. It's called The Newbie Blogger Initiative and it's an incredible undertaking to try and create a spark within the MMO blogging community. They want to get more people writing about the things you're interested in. Unfortunately, I happened upon the project a bit late in its run and as a result, I don't think the effects of this one post will be as widely felt as the might could have been, but none the less, while this isn't necessarily the best promotion, I still want to applaud it and everyone involved for such an inspiring idea. So a few more details about the project and why it's so damn cool.

If you have ever attempted to blog and get your opinions and words out there, then you know it's a fucking discouraging business. Even as I'm typing, it's under the assumption that as I'm starting out, only a few people will read this. Nevertheless, the people over at the forum have gotten established bloggers to come in and write advice articles ranging from how to keep yourself motivated to some basic facts about how different website services work (i.e. Blogger and Wordpress). In the end, we have a long list of blogs being promoted that could very well contain some of the next big names in the quote on quote "blogosphere" and if even one of these writers goes on to be successful, in my opinion, this little venture has been a success. So if you're indeed a newbie looking to start out, or a veteran who wouldn't mind spotting a bit of advice, get on over there now before it's over.

And even if it ends, a lot of times, projects like the one here, if they're successful, will end being either reintroduced, extended, or expanded upon. So this post might be a little late, but that shouldn't prevent any of you from going to check it out. Next time we'll see if we can't get a little more AO in.

So what makes the second M in MMO?

It's been a slow kind of day, but I managed to get some AO in. Was rather surprised by how much the game opened up after getting off the tutorial island (Froob Island, as the locals call it), but that's one of the nice things about trying something new. There's more to explore, more to do, and none it seems dull because it's nothing you've experienced before. I've often wondered about people who end up sticking to the same games for years on end and how it is that they're able to continuously move through the same quests over and over again. I guess there's always the enjoyment of PvP to alleviate some of the repetition, but that's never been a side of MMOs I've enjoyed.

Nah, I'm a PvE kind of guy in the loosest sense of the term. It's not even about quests or raids. I like getting a friend or two together and blazing through different environments just for the hell of it, especially if it's a new game. Exploring for the sake of exploring, that's the good stuff. In my opinion, the greatest amount of enjoyment that can come out of an MMO is capitalizing on the second letter; M stands for Multiplayer. It's a social experience. The reason people get sucked in and attached to their PCs isn't because they're anti-social, closed-off hermits...well I won't speak for everyone, but it's because they're involved in a social experience that can be nearly as fulfilling. I won't go so far as to say that having friends online is an appropriate substitute for day-to-day, real world interaction, but I think this vast over-exaggeration of how damaging it can be misrepresents a community that's grown to the extent it has its own unique sense of culture and is just starting to retain a degree of legitimacy in the eyes of "outsiders". Part of this being that there's not too many "outsiders" left. Gaming's just not as niche as it once was.

Next time the droning continues with more fun on Rubi-Ka, but this time with friends...

Rubi-Ka, Day One

Morning...

I've been trying to get into the blogging game for a while, and besides the occasional optimistic first post, it's never quite panned out, so let's forgo the optimism this time and get straight to it. The multitude of things I enjoy mostly revolve around a few common themes: video games, nerd culture, comics, and sci-fi and fantasy genre fiction. That's not to say those are the only things I'll be writing about, but they serve as a general overview of what to expect.

Unfortunately for me, my ability to game has been limited for a number of issues, but it's picking back up, and I'm hopeful.

Well that about sums things up. See you around.