Let's begin!
*****
MARVEL SUES CITY OF HEROES - I love it when a company doesn't think things through: "Hey! You plagiarized my update you fucker, I'm going to sue Websters Dictionary for teaching you, like, words and stuff!"
Seriously, is this any different? Anybody who has played City of Heroes knows that, yes, you can be a big green dude, but you can also be a big rainbow dude, or a SKINNY CAMO AFRO PIMP DUDE considering you have some absurd spectrum of colors to choose from. And somehow, I can't think, just because they offered 'big' as an option, and 'green', they're suddenly infringing on Marvel's copyrights.
What annoys me the most about this though is it shows Marvel's already faulty way of thinking. They're saying: "oh, no! A player in City of Heroes can play a big green dude named 'The Hurk' and that will devalue our eventual license!"
Sorry Marvel, but you're wrong. I could care less if some MMOG let me play close facsimiles of all the Marvel Superheroes. It holds no value for me. What holds value, on the scale of a virtual world anyways, is the 'Marvel Universe' and that's something YOU DO own. Wake up, smell the ink, and recognize the fact that what you have created in the last forty years is priceless, and literally, nobody can infringe upon that without your full consent.
Moving on.
*****
EA Says: "I'm not the Prince of Lies! You're the Prince of Lies!" - Got to love this one. Honestly, I feel some vague level of sympathy, because yes, I know this is how the industry often works. On the other hand... uh, if you are, like, working for the DEVIL, and he treats you poorly, don't you think feigning surprise at being treated like shit is sort of redundant?
I don't know... like... just a little?
Seriously, with my little experience with the industry and EA, I know enough that unless they PAID ME IN SMALL GOLD CHILDREN, I probably wouldn't work for them. While on the other hand, there are many other dev companies that I would happily work for, and who I know treat their employees well.
Yeah, if you're behind during milestone time, you're going to have to crunch, no matter the company. But that really can't surprise anybody. I mean, isn't that life in general? If you have a deadline, and you find yourself on the eve of it, half finished, don't you usually shotgun Redbulls and work until you finish?
Why. Yes. Yes. I think you do.
Hell, this was taught to us in high school, it's not like it's precisely gaming industry specific, it's just more prevalent there due to the fact that the entire industry structure is much akin to an angry rabbit wigging out on LSD. That's just the way it is.
So, I can't say I really fall one way or the other on this issue. Which leaves me pointing out the one thing I think is worth pointing out. Personally, from what I've seen, the reason the industry is so poorly run, with people working their asses off and burning out, etc, is because projects are so poorly run.
I believe, when a project is run with a clear, cognitive, complete vision, from beginning to end. And it is planned and budgeted correctly, there should be no reason for anything more than some survivable crunch, and a few extra hours for the people who need to catch up on their assigned work (or bugs, or whatever).
FORWARD HO!
*****
EQII Got Released; Blizzard Responded With Their Wang - Well, I haven't bought EQII... yet. Which is a bit odd for me. It's the first MMOG in about three or four years I haven't had some extensive experience with before launch, or purchased at launch. Even more ironic is the fact that it was the game that really got me into this whole 'wanking' thing in the first place. It's where I started toying with community management, writing the odd update, etc.
So yes, it's a bit odd, but that will be remedied soon enough, then I'll say whatever I have to say, which, naturally, is totally useless right now considering any part of the world that cares has either already purchased the game, or played it enough in beta to avoid purchasing it.
I do so love redundancy.
That said, with all the fanfare, and, like, the force crying out with a million voices, EverQuest II was released. And, well, it sold. Good apparently. I haven't counted the entire list of servers yet to make a vague subscription estimate, but I will soon.
The amusing part of this story of course was the fact that, while it sort of seemde that WoW had made their move with the safe bet on the November 22nd release, letting EQII get the headstart, they pulled a fast one and said: "YOU CAN PLAY OUR GAME FOR FREE ON THE SAME DAY."
Those conniving bastards! Brilliant! Naturally, people, being, well, people, did exactly that. And, they did it in droves. Literally, crashing hordes, somewhat buffaloesque, they stampeded over top of any and every possible download link, and pretty much managed to 'break' the internet in one fell swoop.
Okay, maybe nothing that major, but they certainly managed to throw the Blizzard servers for a spin (though we know Blizz doesn't care about that) as well as other usually very high traffic websites such as fileplanet.
Eventually, when some dude, somewhere, finally got into the game, Blizzard screamed out a totally SUBTLE cry along the lines of: "UH! UH! UNFFF! SAY OUR BETA NUMBERS SOE! SAY IT! FIVE HUUUUUUNDREEEEED THOOOOUSSSAAAAHHHHHHHND!"
I'm not entirely certain Blizzard won the round though, because, I heard personal accounts of people being pissed off enough from the whole debacle, that they decided not to bother with WoW altogether.
Okay. So, I heard, one, small, tiny, piteous person say that. But still. That's -1 for Blizz. Which, on the cosmic scheme of things, probably doesn't count for anything.
*****
Middle Earth Online; Who Would've Thought They Could Make Lord of the Rings Longer - In case you didn't get the title, I should fill you in that this game wasn't the first iteration of Middle Earth Online. Way back when, when MMOGs still ate players with sharp pointy sticks, and beat subscriptions over the head and dragged them back to the cave by their hair, a sort of forward thinking game with a priceless IP was pitched.
That game was Middle Earth Online. I can't really remember who the first developers were. Nor, can I remember what their plans for it were. Only that somewhere along the line, it went from: "yay! we're going to make so much money, we'll never stop snorting coke again!" to: "woaaah, Bill? MMOGs are hard." Which of course ended up with its first departure from the spotlight.
Then, Turbine somehow got their mitts on it. That still baffles the hell out of me, but, whatever. Either way, it was resurrected once more, in a sort of Sauron the Dark Lord kind of way, and began its long ass, mostly unintersting journey once more.
Thankfully enough, the journey has at least been a quiet one. Not a lot of scandal. Not really a lot of caring actually. Then it was announced that the new MEO, would be suffering a delay.
The purpose?
To make the game suck less. Or, you could translate this into, to not make the same mistakes we made with Asheron's Call 2. Or, to be more specific, to not make a big world with nothing in it except the weird demon shadow of anti-fun who attacks any daring to enter, draining them of their sanity.
At least, one thing I can't complain about is MMOG delays. After all, a better game is always going to be a better game. And if another five or six months will make the game better, more power to them. On the flip side though, the problem with a poorly planned out or developed MMOG is that by delaying it beyond the original projected release date, your competition from people releasing their game on time, but close to your date, grows that much more fierce.
For example. Middle Earth Online screenshots using the Asheron's Call 2 engine (at least, so I believe, I could be misinformed). Compared to, say, Vanguard screenshots, or Imperator screenshots. Yeah, I'm a whore, but MEO is quickly becoming dated. And a game that looks like ass, IP aside, will have a harder time making it on its own merits.
Of course, I'm saying this, as if it had some validity, when I know full well the horrible Electronic Arts travesty that was The Two Towers, actually sold decently well. So maybe it doesn't really matter in the end considering sometimes I think half the gaming mass market is made up of people with an IQ that doesn't quite match an advanced two year old.
Well, that gets me as up to date as I feel I need to be. Next update: The MMOG Price Wars and the Bottom Line. Except. With a better title.