Secret World Legends First Devstream

I am totally including this as a DAW entry, because I love The Secret World, and Romain "Tilty" Amiel, is one of the few MMO developers I had the pleasure of personally interacting with, thanks to my stint on the Beyond the Veil webcast.

So, back at the end of February, Funcom announced through a quarterly financial report that they intend to relaunch The Secret World with new combat systems, a reworked new player experience, and a free-to-play business model. Concerned voices raised the specter of Sony Online Entertainment's "New Game Engine" for Star Wars Galaxies. Relaunch activities were set to begin in late March. Bloggers at the time assumed this meant an actual relaunch of the game; however, it was apparently only a reference to the start of closed beta on 28 March.

I've adopted a wait-and-see approach to the news. I've been resubscribed as of early February, but have only been able to play a few times in the intervening weeks. So I totally missed last Wednesday's Letter from the Producer. Having a little time today, I logged in to play me some TSW, and discovered the beta had started already. They did a devstream on Twitch that I had just barely missed by a few minutes. Of course, I was able to watch the recording, which featured community manager Andy “Odonoptera” Benditt, newly promoted community team member Nicole "Spynosaur" Vayo, and game director Tilty. The stream was fairly informative and included a bit of character creation and gameplay.

The most striking thing I learned about the new Secret World Legends (SWL) is the forced reticle combat mode, where there is a small target circle in the center of the screen which represents roughly where the player character is aiming. I say roughly, because the actual target box is much bigger than the reticle itself (which many people in the chat felt was too big as it was). If you're not sure what reticle mode is, think of how you might play, say, Call of Duty on a console. Belghast once called it "Action mmo perma-mouselook interface." The Elder Scrolls Online uses reticle mode (or, it did when I tried it a few years ago), as does Neverwinter Nights.

Now, TSW already has a reticle mode option that can be toggled by hitting the "T" on your keyboard (by default). But I generally stick with the regular MMO (read: "WoW") style of moving and controlling my camera and cursor. I haven't really liked reticle mode in the past, so I am skeptical about it being the only mode for movement and combat in SWL. But I signed up for the beta in hopes of checking it out.

But not so hidden in the Producer's letter mentioned above is the following:

"This will not erase your progression in The Secret World though! Secret World Legends will exist on a different server than The Secret World, meaning you will still be able to play your old character on The Secret World server."

In many ways, I still feel woefully uninformed as to the direction Funcom is taking with their IP. It seems that they'll be putting TSW into maintenance mode; that is, all new content will be presented in SWL instead. But they seem to have learned at least one thing from SOE's NGE debacle: Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Maybe I'll get LoneStarBelle to Panoptic Core after all.

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Scooter proofreads almost all my articles before I post them, for which I am very grateful. However, any mistakes are mine and mine alone (unless otherwise noted). If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

Developer Appreciation Week 2017 - WildStar Soundtrack

Another Developer Appreciation Week is upon us. I've been so out of things, started a vacation with Scooter on Friday, handed off a torch to Ravanel Griffon and she ran with it.

What is an MMO without its music? SWTOR couldn't be SWTOR without the epic score that pays homage to classic John Williams' Star Wars themes. Is there anything more poignant than the tragic score of WoW's Wrath of the Lich King or Legion?

(Insert a plug here for my friends the Battlebards: Syp, Stef and Syl, who are up to 95 episodes as of this writing, and much more capable of musical analysis than I.)

I may have mentioned this once or twice before, but I love the WildStar soundtrack by composer Jeff Kurtenacker. Few game soundtracks come quite as close to WildStar in evoking the feel of the game world. It helps that I love the mix of electronic and rustic instruments. The music is so cool, I included it in our travel mix playlist, alongside Elvis, Adele, Taylor, ELO, REO Speedwagon. And, of course, Journey.

Hopefully, I'll have time to post at least a couple more times before Ravanel's DAW 2017 Deadline of 10 April. And I encourage you, Dear Reader, to post about your own appreciation for the developers of the games you play. Everyone have a great week!

Hmm, feeling the pull of Nexus' gravity well . . .

ETA: Wildstar is free to play, so go ahead and give it a try if you're so inclined.

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This article from I Have Touched the Sky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If you repost part or all of the work (for non-commercial purposes), please cite me as the author and include a link back to the blog.

Scooter proofreads almost all my articles before I post them, for which I am very grateful. However, any mistakes are mine and mine alone (unless otherwise noted). If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

DAW2016: BioWare

Considering how I myself have promoted Developer Appreciation Week in the past, I find myself ashamed at my own poor showing this year. Then again, I feel pretty detached from the bloggin community in general. Unlike folks like Belghast, I been almost exclusively playing a single game for over a year now. So while I may still have fond memories of games like World of Warcraft, Star Trek Online, Rift, and The Secret World, I don't have much new to say about the companies behinds them. Although I certainly appreciate the efforts of the folks working on those titles.

Which brings us to SWTOR and BioWare. Looking back through my own DAW posts, I realized that I never really singled out the Austin-based division of EA for their contribution to my MMO gaming pleasure. I thought I had talked about the writers more recently, but it was not in connection with DAW. The single reference I found to the "storytellers" was way back in 2012, only a few months after SWTOR launched.

Perhaps needless to say, the storytellers and everyone else involved with SWTOR have kicked it into high gear with the recent Knights of the Fallen Empire expansion. The cinematography and story are top notch, though I have criticisms I will save for another day.

Maybe because I myself have relaxed and have adjusted my expectations (and by that I do not mean "lowered my standards"), the game is much more enjoyable than the frustrating spring and summer of 2012. Also, while I may dabble from time to time in other games, SWTOR is enough to scratch my itch. Scooter loves playing it, and I love playing with her.

And so, many thanks to the BioWare team for SWTOR and all the games you have worked on and continue to develop.

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If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

ARPil and Other Business

Well, this week certainly has been interesting (not really). I returned from a lengthy business trip last Saturday, and fully expected to have a post or two up this week. But it didn't happen. Honestly, I barely even played video games; as Scooter's schedule has also been funky this week, and we've chosen to do other things with our limited time together.

So I may try to cram two question a day into the second half of ARPil. Meanwhile. Belghast was asking the other day on Twitter about what happened to Developer Appreciation Week this year. I had completely forgotten about the event, what with my being out of town and preoccupied with work. Normally, I've aimed to promote it towards the end of March, perhaps pushing into April, but upon consultation with the gamer formerly known as Scarybooster, who originated the idea in 2010, we decided to encourage people to participate from 24 April through the end of the month.

In the meantime, on with the ARPil questions. I decided to make Darth Morrenia, the Empire's Wrath, my subject for ARPil. Like Pizza Maid, I will answer in character.

What are your most prominent physical features?
I am admittedly petite and slight of frame, not exactly what one might expect of a Warrior of the Sith. All the better to surprise any opponent. As my connection to the Dark Side of the Force has become strengthened, my green eyes have turned the characteristic Sith yellow. And while not a physical feature, per se, I am never in public without wearing traditional Naboo-style cosmetics.

Describe your relationship with your mother or your father, or both. Was it good? Bad? Were you spoiled rotten, ignored? Do you still get along now, or no?
I was raised among the nobility of Naboo, so I guess you could say I was spoiled. I certainly had all my material wants satisfied. My parents doted on me when they were around. But they had many social commitments, and much of my upbringing was conducted by governesses and other servants of the household. My parents brushed shoulders with the leaders of the planet, and I was involved in the Legislative Youth Program. However, I was deemed too volatile for leadership. I was in my early twenties when I was approached by representatives of Overseer Tremel of the Order of the Sith. Since I began my training, I have not returned to Naboo, nor communicated with my parents other than to reassure them of my well-being.

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This article from I Have Touched the Sky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If you repost part or all of the work (for non-commercial purposes), please cite me as the author and include a link back to the blog.

If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

Developer Appreciation Week 2015 Recap

Whew! This weekend was interesting! I planned to post this on Saturday, but spent much of the day at the Austin Zoo and Animal Sanctuary, not returning home until about 10 pm. Then yesterday, I cut off a chunk of my thumb (It's just a flesh wound!) while cutting spuds for Scooter's delicious homemade potatoes au gratin, so the post didn't done on Easter either. Let's call it Developer Appreciation Tenday, and make this Roundup Monday, so here it is. Let me quote Stargrace:

[T]his fine balancing act of giving players what they want, what is best for the game, what can be done with the time and funds available, and every other factor that comes into it is probably one of the most difficult things to do. They need to be able to look at an issue from many different sides and then choose the best course of action.
~Stargrace, MmoQuests

Like Bhagpuss said in his post, I don't think games developers are rock stars. They are just teams of people working hard to make our lives a little more fun. And I applaud them for it. Here are the participating posts that I am aware of (besides my own) in approximately the order they appeared:

• Ravalation
• Tales of the Aggronaut, Pt 1
• EDIT: I would be remiss if I did not include the announcement article on MMO Games (dot com) (Thanks, Hannah!)
• Harbinger Zero, Pt 1
• Tales of the Aggronaut, Pt 2
• MmoQuests
• Alternative Chat
• GamingSF
• The Mystical Mesmer
• Tales of the Aggronaut, Pt 3
• Zerneblog
• Harbinger Zero, Pt 2
• Shards of Imagination
• Scarybooster
• Healing the Masses
• Casual Aggro
• Inventory Full
• EDIT: I missed one from Game Girl Confessions

Thank you to all who participated. I know a couple of my tweets got favorited by the community teams of the relevant games, so they are being seen. I hope everyone reads these and gets a warm fuzzy. That concludes the lovefest of Developer Appreciation Week. Please don't go back to your regularly scheduled rants.

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DAW2015: These Are the Voyages...

I'll be doing a Developer Appreciation Week rollup post tomorrow, since I did say folks had until the 4th of April to post. Of course, I will probably add whatever stragglers there are in the next couple days. In the meantime, Belghast has dedicated his weekly Blog Bonanza on MMO Games to DAW 2015.

Cryptic Studios: Star Trek Online

Just over five years ago, a new chapter in the lore of Star Trek launched Online, folding in the events of the "Prime Universe" that led to the formation of JJTrek. It featured the voice talents of no less than Leonard Nimoy, who has since been joined with cast members from the other series.

STO blends great storylines with immersive space combat and team-based ground missions that exude both the feeling of Trek and the responsibility of command. I became so attached to my Captains and their crews, that I still conceive stories for them five years later.

I recently jumped back into the game and created a new Captain to relearn the ropes and see what had changed, only to discover that Cryptic had a grand plan both to recruit new players and to encourage the steely-eyed veterans to rejoin the newbies at the lower levels. This event is called Delta Recruitment, and it just started yesterday. Scooter and I will therefore be creating even newer characters, hopefully tonight.

The folks at Cryptic are enthusiastic about STO and about Star Trek, and it shows. And far as I can tell, they get pretty free rein from their Perfect World overlords, which is also commendable. They've worked hard to make STO a pretty fantastic experience.

The hawkeyes among you, or those with a good memory, may realize that I Have Touched the Sky also launched five years ago. Much of what it is today, IHTtS and I owe to Star Trek Online. Blogging is a great hobby, and I have developed as a writer of both fiction and exposition. Most of my current online friends would be unknown to me if not for this blog; and therefore, if not for Cryptic Studios and STO. And for that I am truly grateful.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

DAW2015: Most of the Rest

I've played quite a few games this year, though perhaps not as many as some other folks. As Belghast said in today's Aggronaut, "[Devs] are my rockstars, and even if you are making a game that no one will ever play…  you are being awesome.  Games bring me so much joy, and there is a cast of often nameless and faceless people who struggled through crunch time to get that product into my hands." Even games I decided not play after some trial or beta are still herculean efforts by teams of people who poured no small portion of their lives into making what they hoped would please the players. No one sets out to make a crappy game. It's usually time and/or resource constraints along with pressures from folks who don't really understand the process that do damage to it. And sometimes a perfectly well-made game just isn't my cuppa tea.

Carbine's Wildstar Team

I spent a chunk of the summer playing Wildstar with Scooter. Wildstar is an interesting mix of old and new game design. I liked the irreverent approach to storytelling, the cartoonish art style, and of course the great music from Jeff Kurtenacker. You can tell the team had a lot of fun developing it. In many ways, playing Wildstar was a lot like I imagine playing in the Firefly 'Verse would/will be. And that's not nothing.

ArenaNet's Guild Wars 2 Team

Tyria is always a nice place to visit, and ArenaNet's buy-to-play approach means that I can poke my my head in whenever I get the itch, without worrying about the hobbles of F2P. I started a couple new characters around Christmas to experience GW2 anew, and enjoyed the look around. While some folks are not impressed with the living story, you can't deny the team is trying to keep things fresh. And of course the "Game of Thorns" expansion is on the horizon.

Trion's Rift Team

Rift will always have a special place in my heart as the game that Scooter and I bonded over. We returned this fall just in time for the Nightmare Tide expansion, and things are still hopping. I like the new minion mini-game, and I really like the Dimensions housing system. It seems like Trion has done the most to enable players to play with all their friends, with the "Faction as Fiction" crossover content; and not only the ability to "mentor" down from higher character levels, but also the ability to "sidekick" up lowbies to match veterans for some content.

Tech Support
On a side note, it is not just the people creating the game that we need to appreciate. I've been assisted many times by the support teams of various games, fixing issues with my account or the game client. Often issues caused by my own derpiness. Thank you so much to all the support personnel and community managers out there.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

DAW2015: I Am TSW

What is DAW?
Dang! it's already Tuesday of Developer Appreciation Week, and other than soliciting posts from my fellow bloggers on Friday, I haven't really done much. I blame the folks that actually pay my wage. Busy, busy day yesterday.

A few years ago, not long after I started blogging, the MMO Gamer Chick brought to my attention the efforts of The Blogger Formerly Known as Scarybooster. He set aside a Week every March to explicitly show Appreciation for the Developers who make our favorite games, and encouraged other bloggers to make similar posts to their blogs. Since then, TBFKaS, has decided to shed his "Bad Boy of the Blogosphere" image, but the spirit of DAW lives on. I hope if you're reading this, you make a post, on whatever soapbox you use, thanking the Devs of your favorite game(s).

Funcom, The Secret World

In the summer of 2012, I played the public beta for a new game, different than any other MMO I'd been involved with, from the setting (Modern-Day Lovecraftian Horror?!) to the character progression system (Take a spin on the Ability Wheel of fortune!). It is perhaps a tribute to the abilities of Ragnar Tornquist, Joel Bylos, and their team that they built a game that thoroughly enthralled me in a fictional genre that does not really appeal to me at all.

I am more attached to my characters in TSW than I am to other characters I spent much more time with. With deep backstories (of my own creation), they move through stories crafted by Joshua "Scrivnomancer" Doetch that are are creepy and wonderful. Romain "Tilty" Amiel and the rest of the TSW dev team have created an astonishingly detailed world, depending in part on our own, but incorporating our legends and myths into a credible cosmos of horror, intrigue, and grand adventure. A realm that is both in the now and firmly rooted in our own often nightmarish folklore.

Thanks to my association with the crew from Beyond the Veil, I have had opportunities to interact with Joel, Scriv, Tilty, and the community managers Laurie "Sezmra" Payne, "Tomium," and (formerly) "Morteia." They are all gracious folks, working hard to bring us a little scary and a lot of fun. Even though I am not currently playing, some of the best times in my life during the past three years—and certainly the best times playing MMOs during the same period—are thanks to these wonderful people and the effort they have made to make my hobby more enjoyable. Damn if I am not going to have to re-up now.

P.S. Belghast, of Tales of the Aggronaut, has made another logo for Developer Appreciation Week. Feel free to use either mine at the top of the post or his when you write your own DAW post.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

Axes to Grind

This rumination might ramble a little more than others.

Why'd You Have to Be So Mean?

Belghast is wondering when it became so "hip to be mean." Games are supposed to bring people joy, or at the very least some form of relaxation. Granted that there are many ways to relax—some folks like to lay on a beach, while others only yards away enjoy riding the waves. Some people spend their game time fishing, while others enjoy pitting their skills against each other in various forms of mock combat. But at some point, it became de rigueur to criticize—to judge—the pastimes of others. We accuse people of cheating when their playstyle or resources are different than ours. From our armchairs, we criticize the decisions of creators, athletes, and performers we can't possibly hope to emulate.

There’s a huge number of gamers out there who don't comment on websites, who don't know the ins and outs of the industry, who don’t care about who’s who. They don't know or care how exactly or technically games work. They're just interested in the experience of playing them. And I think that there is a hundredfold more of those people than the thousands who get paid to talk about games and write about games and the tens of thousands who leave shitty, nasty comments on game blogs and elsewhere.
~~An anonymous game developer on Don't Die

Politics Don't Only Happen in the Capitol

I can sympathize with game developers. I work in an industry, on a project, that always seems to be getting bad press. Some of it is perhaps deserved—we do a lot of internal critiquing ourselves—but much of it is not. The criticism is more about unrealistic expectations than any actual failing of the project. It's compared unfavorably to products that don't possess half the features, by people with their own axes to grind. Perhaps it suffers a bit from feature creep. Ultimately, it represents years of effort by people who just want to make the best product they can with the resources they've been given.

So many of us, and now I'm talking more narrowly about gamers, and particularly the gaming commentariat, come from a history of being bullied. And yet how quick are we to become the bullies ourselves? How often have we declared that someone not playing the way we do are doing it wrong? I have found myself on that bandwagon all too often. We become so defensive about our own interests that we wind up tearing down the interests of others. When we like a game, it becomes the delicious chocolate dish that everyone should love. But if we don't like it, we can't imagine why anyone would. And, therefore, those that do must be mentally defective in some way.

Look Beyond the Monkeysphere

We forget that these people are actually people. They have hopes and dreams, and hurts and difficulties, just like we do. We forget the long hours they devote to their endeavors, only to have someone come along and criticize, whether it's developers working on a game, or players playing it. We forget that those "evil" corporations are mostly just a bunch of people trying to make a living for themselves and their families. We forget that those other players may not have as much time as we do, or maybe not as much money. Or maybe they have some disability that simply makes it harder to play the game. Or, possibly, they just don't prioritize their lives and their game time the way we do.

I guess what it boils down to is that I think we should have a little less pride in our own supposed abilities or accomplishments and a little more empathy for one another.

Show a Little Appreciation

Someone I consider a good friend started something a few years ago he called Developer Appreciation Week. He wanted to shed a more positive light on the industry. I don't think anything like that has been organized this year, so you know what? I am declaring this coming week to be DEVELOPER APPRECIATION WEEK. If you're a blogger reading this, I encourage you to spend at least one post between tomorrow, 28 March, and next Saturday, 4 April, expressing your appreciation for those hard working people that make your life a little more enjoyable creating the games you play. And spread the word about DAW, because you reach people that I do not. If you do such a post, please send me the link either in the comments below or on Twitter. I will do an index post next week.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

DAW Links

During the last week of March, some great people showed their appreciation for the folks who develop our games. Head on over to Scary Worlds to check out the list. If you wrote a DAW post and the link isn't there, leave a comment here or on Scary's post.

Wrapping up DAW4: Scarybooster

For a full list of bloggers and posts from this year's Developer's Appreciation Week, head on over to Scary Worlds.

My friend has gone through a rough patch with the community this winter, almost stopped blogging. His naturally upbeat personality broke through though, and here he is again heading up a week of simple appreciation for a group of people that make our lives better. They're not curing cancer or feeding the hungry, but game developers are striving to make the world a funner place to be in. And their fans often dump on their efforts with extreme prejudice, making many others flee the forums in droves. But the devs have to put up with it, and figure out how to filter any good information from the vitriol.

But this post isn't actually about the devs. It's about a man who appreciates them. I've never met him, but I consider Scarybooster one of my best friends. He always makes me laugh. And despite being pretty foul-mouthed on his blog in the past, he frequently shows immense wisdom and even-handedness—without the cynicism of so many others. His parables and metaphors always make me think, reminding me that gaming is about having fun, not about having the biggest e-sword or whether the devs' design is flawed.

And he's always trying to improve. Trying to be a better father, a better player, a better blogger, a better writer. Scarybooster inspires me to do better, and I am far better for having known him and read his work, even if we have never met. We need more people like him in this community of gamers and bloggers.

So on this last day of DAW4, organized once again by an outstanding blogger—an outstanding person—he is the one I appreciate. Thank you, Scarybooster.

DAW4: ArenaNet

About a year and a half after Blizzard released the juggernaut World of Warcraft into the wild, some former Blizzard senior devs set free "a game which took risks with game design and business model." ArenaNet's Guild Wars didn't require a subscription, only a box purchase. The plan was to provide purchasable "expansions" at a rapid pace and minimize bandwidth requirements to turn a profit. The devs correctly projected that a subscription leads to a lifestyle/commitment to one (maybe two) MMORPGs, rather than the previous player practice of skipping around from game to game. Two more campaigns, independently playable (no need to purchase the original), were released in the same game-world of Tyria, plus an expac that required at least one of the other three to play. I believe they introduced a cash shop for cosmetic items a little later.

I never played Guild Wars. As assessed by ArenaNet, I was locked into WoW by my subscription, and only broke out of that mindset as a result of my BNet account getting hacked and Star Trek Online being released at almost the same time. But the little-developer-that-could chugged on, proved their business model was viable, and began developing Guilds Wars 2.

Fast forward to August 28, 2012—seven months ago today. As Scarybooster put it, the yellow and red logs had kicked the futuristic hype-train of GW2 into overdrive and millions of players were aboard, including Sctrz and me. GW2 probably surpassed everyone's expectations sales-wise, and even through the hiccups in the first month or so, was an immensely playable game.

It's still a ton of fun (the most important thing in a game), easy to jump into and play for a few minutes or a few hours. The game has a good skill/progression system, gorgeous graphics, plenty of lore, and just a touch of whimsy—without going overboard. The cities feel truly alive and—well, Divinity's Reach & Lion's Arch, at least—livable, something I haven't really experienced in any other game. My main, which I play in a "spousal leveling contract" with Sctrz, is at the max level of 80. I have several others that are lower levels.

I wanted to single out the Guild Wars 2 Social Media Coordinator, Rubi_, a.k.a. RB2, and the rest of the ArenaNet community team. You could say Rubi is an ascended fan, a leader in the community that ArenaNet was wise enough to bring into the fold. (Also a quick DAW shout-out to Stephen Reed, ersatz CM for SWTOR, currently working with Marvel Heroes.) The job of the MMO community manger is a thankless task, sometimes even from the devs themselves. But I thank you.

I appreciate ArenaNet for going out on a limb with game mechanics and pricing models. Besides the box, I've thrown a few tens of dollars into the gem store. But I don't feel that dragging commitment I did with subscription games, like I have to get my money's worth. I already have, and can go back any time I want. And ArenaNet is OK with that.

It's worth it.

DAW4: Funcom Oslo

In 2009, my friend told me about a new game he'd heard was being developed. It was going to be set in the modern era, include secret cabals, fighting demons and each other for control of the world. There weren't going to be classes or levels; players' spells or moves would be based on skills and the weapons they wield. It sounded pretty, cool since we'd discussed that sort of "natural" progression— somewhat like Tabula Rasa, where PCs started out as generic soldiers and specialized from there—would be ideal.

Flash forward to Spring, 2012. My friend has gotten into a couple of the beta events and likes the game well enough, I'm hot in to SWTOR, and don't care much about The Secret World, yet. Ragnar Tørnquist and his team have worked hard and long to develop the game, which is released on July 3, 2012. Mixed reviews and competition from two highly anticipated games, Diablo 3 and Guild Wars 2, lead to disappointing sales and subscriptions. Rather than fold up, Funcom transitions TSW to a buy-to-play, with an optional subscription.

Fast forward again, to this month and Issue #6: "The Last Train to Cairo." Granted that it is a $10 DLC, Issue #6 is a fantastic story and worth every penny. The last mission alone is a heck of an E-ticket ride. It's helped my lovely bride get enthusiastic about the game again. A game I love to play.

And for that, I appreciate the team in Oslo.

DAW4: Give a Dev a Hug

Developers. It's almost a four letter word, if you believe certain gaming blogs out there. And while I have had issues with certain game Publishers, and sometimes questioned the design decisions that Developers make, I always appreciate the effort these wonderful people put forth for my entertainment. Let's face it, if you're mostly an MMO player like me—other than the cost of an internet connection you're probably going to spend anyway—the monthly subscription you might be paying is probably the most economical form of entertainment available, besides going outside and kicking an old soup can around the yard. If you're playing F2P or box-only games, it's even better.

WHO MAKES ALL THIS POSSIBLE? The Devs: the designers, the code monkeys, the modelers, the lore masters, the quality assurance testers, the community managers, etc. One week a year, we the blogging community get together to show our appreciation to these often unsung heroes of our leisure time. That's this week. I encourage you to post at least one post this week thanking the people that make possible our MMOs, MOBAS, etc. You can be generic in your appreciation, or specific in thanking an individual Developer that really touched you in some way.

If you do, the legendary Scarybooster is collecting the posts to make into a list later this week. Be sure to send a quick email (scarybooster at gmail dot com) with a link to your post, so he can include it in his master list.