Decision Crisis

Lotro just lost me again. I simply can't force myself to log in and play, although two weeks ago I really enjoyed the game. But not now.
Why is that? Partly because Paint Bomb is almost out of the door, and I rather spend my free time with developing that than playing Lotro. Also, I became interested in two other games (and almost at once, which is annoying!) and I'd like to play them already, instead of Lotro. To be precise, for monetary reasons, only one of them; that why I am in a crisis.
These two, as you may know from the first post, are The Secret World, and Guild Wars 2. For both of these I have cons and pros, some of which is really important.
Let's see these side by side:

The Secret World	Guild Wars 2
Pros: Unique Environment Action style combat Classless Quests are different Interesting environmental effects Dungeon learning curve Cons: Monthly fee Soloability is unclear	Pros: Free to play once bought Quest System is totally overhauled Action style combat World events - Very Solo friendly WvsW Cons: Fantasy setting

I will update these when I can think of others. Please, feel free to educate me on any of the above, if you think you have a good understanding of the topic.

Elder Scrolls MMO

from gameinformer.com

For some reason, the Elder Scrolls series - although I played with the last three games - never raised the desire in me to have them as an MMO. But it certainly did in some other people, who were told again and again over the years that this will not happen. Again, this didn't make me sad, not the tiniest bit.
It's probably needless to say that I didn't feel any excitement whatsoever when the plans for this game were announced yesterday (Elder Scrolls Online, aka. ESO). My heart almost skipped a beat though, I hope that counts. ;)

Jokes aside, let's put together what we know about these games and see whether it will make it into the MMO or not.
Huge maps: This one will certainly make it. It may take some time to upgrade the maps from Oblivion and Morrowind, but I'd love to be able to go to those continents (besides the nordic lands in Skyrim) and visit the all familiar places. (although, as much as I am aware, it will be placed to a thousand years before the series)
Races: Yes, this is a must have part of the world.
Exploration: Comes with the huge maps, of course. I hope they will keep providing you with places which are just there and have nothing to do with your quests.
The world reacts to you: Your actions won't have as much effects on the general world as they have now. If you close a portal, it won't stay closed.
Intelligent npc behaviour: Definitely.
Graphics: They will probably still provide the same excellent graphics for the high end, but they will provide something for the very low end as well.
Expansions: Of course. Good income, and already have the culture for this in the company.
Alchemy As-Is: Nope. It offers too much for the player. But a limited version will definitely make it to the game.
Lore: Yes, naturally. They have a huge amount of Lore collected.
Crafting: Yes. The one is Skyrim is already very similar to the ones in the current MMOs.
Enchanting: Yes, but with limitations. Soul stones will be in the game, that is for sure.
Skill based levelling and advancement: Yes, definitely. It is a very good system for an MMO.
Custom spells: Possibly, but even if it will be included, there will be a lot of issues with "balance".
Guilds and guild leadership: One of the best opportunities to add PVP. It will be in, and will be much more complex than it is now.
Action based combat: Yes. That's getting more and more attention in the modern games.
Traps: There is an issue here with player-player interactions. Even if they will make it, they will be heavily toned down.
Unlockable special powers: Yes.

Did I forget anything important?

Update:
Sure I did.
Open world items and stealing: You can forget about that. It is very challenging technologically to solve the open world item problem (that is, two players tries to pick it up at once) and stealing would only work so far.
Dynamic monster levels: Pretty much the same; Can't solve the case when a high and a low level player stand next to each other, and a monster approaches. (Can be solved with an automatic sidekick system, but that would cause further issues)

Spiral Stairs: Blow 'em up!

Lighthouse in Glasgow
From Wikipedia

Spiral stairs are probably the most spectacular indoor structures in a building. They also provide you and the designer with the ability of minimizing the space you need to use for getting from one level of the building to the other. Thus, they are present in most fantasy mmo games.

My only problem is that I hate them. Deeply. 

I find it rather hard to go up or down, if I have to watch out for enemies at the same time. More often than not I simply jump down or go around if possible, so that I don't need to use them. I actually got so used to doing this, that one of my low level characters died because of it in Ogrimmar. More than once.

Is there anything that's even half as annoying in MMO architecture? 

Token Lottery

After several days of hiatus (I needed some time to improve Paintbomb), I logged in again to Lotro. Thanks to the Lotro Check, I was participating in almost all lotteries, and now I wanted to collect.

Oh, boy.

The result: Over 200 ancient silver tokens, over 200 platinum tokens, about 100 iron tokens, and X tin tokens (can't recall the number).
As I very rarely do skirmishes, my current number of marks is about 2400, including at least 600-700 that I won. (yes, lottery again.) Now, on the other hand, the above mentioned tokens can be exchanged for Marks. I get 30 Marks for an ancient silver, 20 or 25 for a platinum, 10 for an iron and 5 for a tin one. That is more than 10k...

Did I mention that Lotro Check is a great tool? :D

MMO Blogger v2.0

After registering the blog on the Newbie Blogger Initiative, I checked some other new blogs. I have found a few which I wanted to follow, even some where I am not interested in the topic at all, but the writing style of the blogger was so enthralling that I decided to add the blog to my reader. (namely: Eve All Night)
I think all of these new(ish) blogs will find a following, but I have selected only a few for myself, so that I can pay more, deeper attention to them.
I will also add these blogs to my blogroll, so anyone who finds my posts interesting can at once go to some other, similar blogs.

We are the new generation of MMO bloggers. I wonder whether those few who will keep up and stay posting will actually form a community - we have a common ground now, but we need to make the effort to be more than just some strangers who started blogging at the same time.

I wonder if anyone else feels the same way, or even care about this at all..

Casual = Social?

Paintbomb is very close to completion. It is a multiplayer, turn based, casual game on the web. The players will be able to play, blow up (or more precisely, paint) each other, get on highscore lists, etc.

But.

They won't be able to communicate with each other. I started to wonder about this a while ago: Is it a requirement in today's casual multiplayer game to provide the players with the ability of talking to each other? Either by in-game channels, or some attached third party forum? Or, if it is not a requirement, how serious is the players' need of boasting and talking?

Is this something I need to put in right now (even if it delays the start) or is it something I can postpone until the next release?

Storybricks Kickstarter

In the last few days there was one upcoming MMO I was thinking about the most: Storybricks. It is a unique take on the role of the player, and something I'd like to see published.

Have you heard about it? No? It's not surprising, as they are still quite far from finishing the game, and - being humble and all - they are trying to stay under the radar.
On the other hand, they just went to Kickstarter. Here is the link: Storybricks Kickstarter

If you are still not decided to support them, please go to their site, and read about it. I'm sure they will convince you, as they did convince me.

Lotro Gift

I like Lotro Lottery. The whole idea is amazing: Offline, web based lottery to win stuff. This is the perfect way to hook up the players.
I only have two issues with it. One is the fact that I need to periodically go there and check the page for new lotteries. The other one is the timestamps, which are provided as EDT/EST times, and I am simply too lazy to go and look up the current time, and then calculate the local time of the lottery.

My geekish tendencies provided the solution: As I usually use Chrome for browsing, it was relatively simple to develop a Chrome Extension to do this work for me.
So, here I present Lotro Check v1.1. If the player is logged in, it will fetch the page contents every 30 mins (configurable) and will show an alert if there are new lotteries or winnings. If allowed on the options page, it will also convert the timestamps to the users local time.

I hope you will like it.
Lotro Check

(Instructions: Download the file, open with Chrome, accept that it will access your tabs+my.lotro.com, and there you go. You can set the check interval and other options on the .. wait for it .. Options window!)

Intro

Who am I?

I am Vagabond, casual gamer

What do I write about:

Mainly three topics:

• The MMO games I play
• Ideas, thoughts about how MMOs could be improved
• Game development pet projects

All posts will be tagged accordingly.

What is my personal background?

At the moment I am 36 years old, father of three, occupied as an Analyst.

What is my professional background?

I was working as a software developer for more than 10 years. Now I only do development on my pet projects. I have read a few books about game design, following a lot of wannabe and actual game designers, and I am literally just a few days away from finishing and publishing my first game. I will write about that as well.

What games do I play?

At the moment only Lotro. 

I used to play a lot of different MMOs, including some well-, and some lesser known ones. So far the one I was attached the most was Vanguard. Also got myself involved in some open and closed public betas.

I plan to play Vanguard after it goes F2P. Until that time I will play Lotro, or possibly The Secret World. I also need to make up my mind about GW2.

Is this my first blog?
Nope, this is about the 6th, but this is the first one specifically about games and gaming.

What does the name of the blog mean?
It's a reference to an excellent book of Umberto Eco with the title of "Six Walks in the Fictional Woods". The book is helping to become a better reader or writer of stories. It provide an analysis about a lot of aspects of books and stories, and gives the reader an insight that helps understanding a book better. My ultimate goal is to provide a similar experience for gamers and game developers about games.