Monthly Archives: April 2012
Off-Week Update (for Ep. 19)
You know, I think it makes slightly more sense to do these on Thursday. I dunno.
First up, I’m glad you all seemed to enjoy my April Fool’s video. As I mentioned on twitter, I mostly just like being able to be goofy, and I don’t want to be overall malicious, like claiming I’m ending the series, or mentioning something equally believable. I prefer over the top, goofy things. The kind of things you WOULD have to be a fool to believe.
OK, so yeah, three videos in the span of a week. DON’T get used to it. A lot of these were pre-planned, especially the April Fool’s video.
As for the new addition of the “Sidequest”, this pretty much spawned entirely from Julien giving me the free trial to SWTOR. Yes, I do plan to do more, but besides to fill the gap after next week, I won’t be posting them on any regular schedule. Next up is the Closed Beta of “Brick-Force”, a game that debuted in Closed Beta only a week or so ago…. as long as my beta key is still valid…
I will accept beta keys for other games to do for Sidequest, but if you wish to send me a key, make certain that it’s not a key with an expiration date first. If it does have a usage time, contact me first to let me know you have one, so it doesn’t go to waste. For example, Julien’s SWTOR key needed to registered within 14 days or the key would become invalid.
Finally as far as the OFFICIAL episode goes… eh. Champions. It’s out of the way and I sure as shit ain’t looking forward to DC Universe (no, it’s not next.) My issue is that there’s something about these Superhero MMOs that brings out… rage in people, I don’t know.
My only real complaints I’ve received are about my remark concerning the powers and how they worked in Freeform. Normally I don’t mention how paid content works, but the only reason I mentioned Freeform in this review is to relay a personal experience I had. I didn’t really explain myself in the video, but it seems my main claim if “Ice is a tanking power” is what got the major reaction. When I say that Ice was a tanking power, I didn’t say it was a worthless power for damage, (which many infer I did say) but it’s not played like a mage. It doesn’t have the range, it doesn’t have the power, and if you place your stats into “mage” skills, it doesn’t work. Each power has a very specific stat that needs to be focused upon in order to function properly. I didn’t learn this through experience, I learned this through a massive strategy guide I was reading through at Best Buy, and I generally felt that creative control over your powers were limited. The story was just an anecdote. I wasn’t trying to say Freeform was worthless, or Ice was limited. I was only saying that if you’re coming from CoH, or another MMO, you need to be careful how you set up your character.
Regardless, progress on the next episode script is going well. Today was a complete wash, but hopefully I’ll make more progress tomorrow, and have it ready to go on time. That’s the beauty of the simpler games… there’s much less to “miss”.
Episode 20 on the other hand…
(Bonus “Oops I forgot to add this” addendum:)
For those of you wondering what the hell I was referencing in my end credits quote, MegaGWolf and I created a short Machinima for the hell of it and to promote the Champions episode. So I figured I’d share it here:
The Suggested MMO List is finally updated
Yes, after… who knows HOW long, I finally got around to updating the Suggested MMO List. I’d normally talk about this kind of thing in the Off-Week Update, but considering I literally spent the entire day working on it, I think it’s deserves its own mention.
Here’s the major changes:
Updated with every suggestion I could find.
I might have missed a few, or just plain didn’t count them as MMOs. (i.e. Heroes of Newerth is another MOBA, and I explicitly stated in the League of Legends review that MOBAs are not MMOs. Also I keep having to say this, but I don’t count Team Fortress 2 as an MMO. Not that that’s going to stop anyone from suggesting it again.) If you have one you suggested but it’s not on there, consider that one of the options, but feel free to suggest it again if it does fit the definition and I just missed it.
Split the games into categories, “Downloadable”, “Browser-Based”, and “Free-to-Try”.
Downloadable MMOs are priority one on MMO Grinder.
Since Browser-based are harder to record, and very often don’t exactly follow MMO formulas or merely don’t have much content, they may only occasionally appear as Official episodes, or will appear if I ever get around to making a Browser-Based spin-off.
“Free-to-Try” MMOs are MMOs that claim to be Free-to-Play, but severely limit you in gameplay. I consider these “unlimited trials”. See the likes of “WoW” and “Wakfu”. Grinder eps might be done on these, but with the “Cash Shop” portion changed to reflect subscription/purchase benefits.
Deleted nearly all the comments.
General consensus among the comments from the last off-week update was that it made perfect sense to delete the comments once the list was updated. I left two comments there for two reasons. One provided a link to the soundtrack of the game suggest, and that would really help me out when it comes time to look at that one, and the other had a warning for another game that had major security issues. Comments that suggest a game only, or talk in depth about a game on the list will be deleted once the list has been properly updated. I apologize for that, but the page was becoming a severe mess and I couldn’t let it continue on like that.
Please keep all suggestions to either my e-mail address (mmogrinder@live.com) or the Suggested MMO List as I all too often see suggestions popping up in other areas. Exceptions will be made for posts like this, regular episodes, and off-week updates, but please do not post suggestions on the Episode Guide, About, or F.A.Q. pages.
Speaking of upcoming pages, I’d like to eventually get the Terminology page set up. What kind of terms that I’ve used, or that you’ve heard me use would you like to see on there? Right now I’m planning on including not only common MMO terms, but terms I’ve made up, like “Microsoft Points Syndrome”. Please leave comments here about what terms you want to see on that page, just so I can add to the list I’m already thinking of.
I know this is earlier than usual…
…but I just HAD to get the word out about this…. thing. You might want to avoid it at all costs, but those brave enough to check it out… well, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
MMO Grinder 