The MMO Notebook

Bioware has finally released a game play video of Star Wars: The Old Republic that shows what low-level grouping looks like and I have a few complaints. See the video for your self (you must enter your date of birth before you can view it):

My first reaction was that the graphics do not look that great. For a brand new Grade-A title, it seems they have lowered the bar a tad too low. Sure, you want your game to play on as many machines as possible, but not at the expense of looking dated on day one. In my opinion, it looks too much like Star Wars: Galaxies, which as been out for years.

Another complaint I have is how the user interface looks. I do not like the design aesthetics at all. Just as I mentioned above with the graphics, the UI looks dated, and to put it bluntly, ugly. They have a long way to go to match the quality of World of Warcraft’s UI.

A third complaint is with the Jedi Consular in the player group. The Consular is the healer for the group, so for the entire video, she heals her group mates and never uses the light saber in her hand. Is the light saber just for show on this class? That would be terribly disappointing if it turns out that way.

There are a few things I liked in the video. The sound effects are very good, especially the sound of the Trooper’s gun when he fired it. The “spell” effects were not bad, either. The flames that erupted around the large droid were nice and I liked the way the ground cracked underneath it when it hit the ground after jumping at the Trooper.

The group dynamics were interesting to see. The Jedi took on the “adds” that appeared during the main fight. I am not sure what to think about that. The Jedi reminded me of how an Everquest Ranger played back during its initial launch. The Ranger could tank decently for a time, and was excellent at handling adds. I would have thought that a Jedi would be reserved for taking on the meanest of the bunch, but it may not be that way.

I am not sure what the Smuggler was supposed to be doing. The narrator said that she was supposed to be doing damage from the sidelines. Well, from what I could tell, she didn’t do anything for half the battle. It is possible she was doing other range damage that did not involve firing her gun, but if she was, I could not see it.

I was most impressed with the Trooper. He obviously carried a big weapon and stood toe-to-toe with the large droid. What worries me is that the Consular focused almost all her attention on healing the Trooper. That can only mean that this game relies heavily on the “must haves” in a group. The old “can’t do anything without a tank and healer” argument seems to be valid here. The narrator even said that if the Consular makes a mistake then the group is done for. Those players looking for new game play dynamics may be disappointed.

I know that I am being fairly harsh on a three minute video that shows off low-level grouping, but it does worry me how the group play is turning out. I certainly hope that there will be more than one way to “skin a cat.” I look forward to seeing more of the upcoming game play videos.

It has been a long time since I have played Lord of the Rings Online. I started playing on launch day and made it into the late 30′s until my friends and I moved on to other things. With my return, I was curious to see how things have changed from the way I remember them. I recently completed the first ten levels, and from what I can tell, the changes have been subtle.

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Anyone who has played a human in Lord of the Rings Online will be intimately familiar with what I recount here. Be that as it may, I must start somewhere, so I now begin to tell the tale of my human hunter named Wolfbow.

Once you complete the starter instance, which takes place in a small town named Archet, you are placed in the “real” game world. Archet is not the same town you started in. It was terribly burned during the invasion, and as you would expect, the world has greatly changed around you.

Archet after the burn

The first few quests I picked up were: Burying the Dead, A Threat from Spiders, Disease Among the Boars, and a quest started after I had previously killed the Marsh-Fly Queen. The quests are pretty straight forward. I had to find the bodies of three men and bury them, kill 10 diseased boars, and kill some spiders over at Quigley’s farm.

The spider quest led  me to finding the famous dwarf Bali just before he died. It ended with me killing a big spider named Iornaith in the spider infested tunnels beneath Quigley’s farm. These quests netted me around 90 copper per quest, better shoulderpads, and a better helm to wear.

Burying the Dead

Finishing these quests earned me level 10 and some nice new skills to go along with it:

Spider Caves

Bali the Dwarf is dead

The next couple of quests sent me to the town of Combe, one of which was  to find a ranger named Toradan, who wants me to help find the missing ranger Amdir. With these quests, my stay at the little town of Archet it at an end.

Wow, it has been a long time since I posted anything here. The job I started a year and a half ago began to take more and more of my time until eventually I had no time to play games. Not playing games makes it a tad difficult to write about them. I had also started another blog that dealt with computers and technology around the same time as this one (you’ll see its posts integrated with this blog). Again, the job took all my time away from it. Finally, things have slowed down to a more livable pace, and I am ready to start playing games and writing about them again.

The big question I am struggling with right now is which game(s) to play. I have a lifetime subscription to Lord of the Rings Online, so I am leaning towards it for now. I have already started a new character and I am working on the newbie quests now. Of course, with LOTRO becoming a free-to-play game soon, being a lifetime subscriber doesn’t mean much anymore.

I had focused heavily on Vanguard: Saga of Heroes when I started this blog. I contemplated starting it up again, but I just don’t see this game having much of a future. This dampens any desire I might have had to play it.

I have friends who play Star Trek Online. I gave the free trial a whirl but never got past that. Plus, my friends would be light years ahead of me by now. It was an interesting game, but it didn’t pull me in enough to make me stay.

The game I am really waiting for is Star Wars: The Old Republic. I just wish it was going to launch sooner than it is. It looks to be a fantastic experience, and I hope it is better than Star Wars Galaxies turned out to be.

So, the Ultimate Casual Warrior is back in the saddle. I will begin making regular posts soon.

I prefer a full-size mouse, but virtually every bluetooth mouse on the market are “travel mice” size, which is another way of saying you need baby-sized hands to comfortably use them. Long ago I found a full-sized Kensington bluetooth mouse that has served me well. It worked with every PC and MAC that I tried to pair it with. Indeed, I was a very happy camper with this mouse until the time came to install Apple’s new “Snow Leopard” operating system. My trusty old mouse would not pair with my Macbook Pro. I was in a panic.

The pairing process baffled me because my Mac could actually “see” my mouse. The Bluetooth Setup Assistant would show the mac address of my mouse in the detection window but it would not go any further. The pairing process would fail. Since the mouse was working fine right up until I installed Snow Leopard, it was fairly obvious it was a software problem. I was worried that my old bluetooth mouse was no longer compatible with Apple’s latest bluetooth stack. Luckily, an idea popped into my head that fixed the problem.

When you run the Bluetooth Setup Assistant on a Mac, it displays any bluetooth device it finds in the detection window. The normal sequence is that it sees the mac address of the mouse and then it changes to the actual name of the mouse. In my case, it should change to “Kensington Mouse,” but it never would get to that point with Snow Leopard. I began to wonder if I could somehow manually type in the name of the mouse to see if that would help things along. Thankfully, the answer is yes.

I started the Bluetooth Setup assitant, and when the first window appeared, I clicked on the “Specify Device” button. I typed “Kensington Mouse” in the dialog box and clicked “OK.” Amazingly enough, it worked perfectly!

Give this method a try if you are having trouble using a bluetooth mouse with Snow Leopard. The name you type in the “Device Address” box must be the exact name that would display if detection was working properly. I was lucky enough to remember the name of mine.

–Kevin

Unique Skins is a company that sells protective skins for iPhones, iPods, and other devices. Their products are popular because you can customize the skins with your own pictures and artwork. One of their newer products is the Gel Skin, which takes their standard skin and covers it with a soft and clear gel padding. The idea is a good one, but the execution leaves much to be desired. Watch my video review found below to find out why. Click here to view a larger version.

Microsoft has opened up their Windows 7 pre-order website and for a limited time you can get the upcoming operating system for half price. Upgrade pricing for Windows 7 Home Premium is set at a low $49.99, with higher tiers scaling up in price. The low pre-order pricing is for a limited time only, so take advantage of this soon if you plan on upgrading to Windows 7.

My advice: Windows 7 is the best operating system Microsoft has ever created. Run, don’t walk, to the pre-order site and get the great pricing and ditch Vista and XP.

The Waterfield Sleeve Case from sfbags.com is a unique take on the standard “sleeve” type laptop case. It can be customized in several different ways and the quality of workmanship is very high. This is the second bag I have purchased from sfbags.com and I have been extremely pleased each time. Please view the above video for more information.  Click here to see a larger version.

Edit: One correction to the video: I stated in the video that you don’t get the D-rings if you don’t order the shoulder strap. That is incorrect. You can order the rings without the strap.

The Lacie Iamakey is a USB thumb drive in the shape of a key. Please see the above video for more information. Click here to see a larger version.

The transition from analog to digital over-the-air television signals has been completed. This means that you can no longer use those old “rabbit ears” to receive TV signals if you don’t have cable or satellite TV. Converter boxes are availble to those who need them.

The FCC has created a handy website that allows you to check which digital channels are in your area and what signal strengths you can expect from them. Very nice, indeed.