Star Trek Online Looks Stupid

I have been visiting some other blogs today, and reading all the hype for Star Trek Online from some other bloggers.

I have never been a Star Trek fan. I maybe have watched two or three episodes in my whole life, and have never seen any of the movies.

I can give one Star Trek quote "Beam me up Scotty" even though I have the slightest idea what it even references.

I know one of the guys does Priceline commercials now, but that is about all I know about Star Trek.

I can't imagine going into a game not knowing anything about the races, factions, and the whole lore. I am sure 99% of the players who are buying this game are Star Trek fanatics, and will have a competitive advantage by everything they already know about Star Trek.

On top of that I have seen some screenshots today. The game graphics remind me of Champions Online which I thought were very corny looking.

I could never even imagine playing, or buying this game. I wouldn't even buy it off of Steam the day after Xmas for $5. That is how stupid Star Trek Online looks to me.

My prediction is Star Trek Online fails before 2010 ends.

30 Trillion Kinah Quest Rewards in Aion

Could you imagine getting 30 trillion kinah for a quest reward in Aion?  On Azphel it was happening.  NCSoft had no choice, but to roll back the servers to save the servers economy.

Greetings Daevas of Azphel,

Earlier today we began to receive reports that a small number of players on the Azphel server had received over 30 trillion Kinah as part of a reward glitch. Since that time, we’ve brought down the Azphel server and have been working diligently to identify how to restore economic stability. We’ve made the decision to rollback the Azphel server data to 6:00am CST this morning and will continue to monitor all servers for related anomalies.

It’s important to understand that we saw the rollback as a last option and made every effort to avoid doing so. We’re currently performing the rollback and anticipate the server will be back online sometime on Tuesday, January 5th. At that point, all character progression on Azphel will be restored to its state as of this morning.

As an apology for the downtime, we’ll be rewarding everyone on the Azphel server with five Lodas Amulets later this week. It’s our goal at NCsoft to provide the best possible service to our customers. Our apologies for the downtime and as always, thank you for your continued patience.

So how many Aion players are going to ragequit over this?  What if you received a great drop from Dark Poeta, completed 12 hours of grinding, completed your xenophon weapon quest,or  dinged 50?  I would think all of the above would leave a sour taste in your mouth with the rollbacks.

Did NCSoft have a choice?  Probably not.  I imagine with trillions of kinah instantly added to the economy there would be no way to track down everything.  It was the best choice for Aion, but if you lost something you earned legimately during the rollback hours you will be very angry.

Once again they offer lodas amulets as a reward.  Is that really the best thing they can offer after something like that?  How do you think they should of handled it?  What would of been a better than giving five lodas amulets?

My Top 5 Warhammer Online Videos

The first video featured for Warhammer Online is during the PTS for the launch of the Tomb of the Vulture Lord.  It shows some of the introductory fights.  The first fight you have to stand in the little clouds to actually do damage to the mobs.  The next part you have to stand on the lighted squares similar to the game Simon.  Once inside you get to the pendulums.  I found it easiest to aim my camera from a top view to walk through them with ease.    You can follow this guide for all the details of the boss fights in Tomb of the Vulture Lord.
 

This second video of Warhammer Online features the biggest zerg guild that played on Dark Crag called Rhuin.  The video was made to make fun of the zerg title, and instead they should be called a convoy.  It shows them riding through the streets of Praag in massive numbers.  No wonder Rhuin was in Inevitable City every night, and drove Destruction to ragequit in droves.

The third video features Rhuin being bored one day, and having all the Engineers lay turrets on the stairs.  The best part of it was Destruction thought they were just doing RvDoor, and didn't know we had been secretly waiting inside there for an hour.  It was definitely one of the funniest keep defenses we ever pulled off.

The fourth video features Rhuin introducing all the Destruction Praag server merger players to RvR.  For that day we called Dark Crag by Dark Praag.  It was some of the biggest fights in Chaos Wastes that first night of the closure of the Praag server, and players being merged with us.

The fifth, and final featured video shows one of the biggest fights in Praag before all the bright wizard AoE nerfs.  Order seemed to take control of the zone Praag as they eventually were able to even kill the guards by their spawn point.  It was definitely one of the more memorable, and epic fights I remember in Praag.

Warhammer Online, and the server Dark Crag will always hold a special memory in my heart.  I had so many great times, and made so many friends, and enemies.  I really thought Dark Crag would be the last server standing in the game.

Warcraft and My Addiction to It

I did the craziest thing ever last night.  I downloaded the free trial of World of Warcraft.  Guess what?  Warcraft to me is like Life cereal to Mikey.  I couldn't stop playing.  Why does this game have so much control over me?

So many things in the game seemed so refreshing compared to all the games I have played the last two years or so.  I really want to wait for Cataclysm, but I doubt I can wait now.

I really think I am addicted to this game.  It is like an alcoholic who hasn't drank for five years, but has one drink, and the next thing you know its back to drinking.

I  admit the graphics look horrible in Warcraft.  They don't even come close to comparing to Aion, or even Warhammer.  It felt like I had my settings on the lowest possible using an on board video card.

I love the feel of the fast combat.  It could of just been my imagination, but it seems like I am able to cast spells super fast.  The cooldown on spells seem very small.  My mana goes quick, but if I am able to kill something in three seconds its better than thirty seconds like most new mmorpg's.

I enjoy being able to know my way around so easily.  I have leveled through these lower areas about twenty times now.  I know where every quest is, and mob.  It will all change when I get to the Wrath of the Lich King content.  I look forward to seeing some new content that I never have seen.

Leveling is so fast.  It is nice to see my xp bar move almost on every kill instead of every hundred.  Just seeing my bar move is motivating to keep leveling instead of logging off.

I also decided to roll on a pve server this time around instead of pvp.  I just want to be able to level quick without the distraction of wasting hours pvping.  I will pay to switch servers later to a pvp once I hit 80 if I feel the urge too.

I have almost always been a pvp person, but I think I really want to play the game for its pve content for once.  I am a little scared though.  I haven't done raid content since Molten core.

All in all I am really enjoying myself being back in Warcraft, and look forward to the days ahead.