Since it went off well enough last time, I figured I’d take a bit of time to hop in and tell you what I’m up to while we’ve reached the “halfway point” to the next MMO Grinder episode.

The next episode is going to be… interesting. It’s probably something no one is expecting, and it loosely fits the “MMO” genre, but it still counts. The script should be complete by the end of this week. Today if I stop being lazy.

A LOT of people have been asking when I’m doing Rusty Hearts, and I’ll be honest, I think it’s still too green. I could easily do an episode with the content available, but I really want more of a full experience with the game before I do that. Right now I’m just waiting for Natasha to become playable. In it’s stead, episode 7 will be about a fairly new game to the free-to-play MMO market that I have received some curiosity toward, and rest assured, I’ve had a window tab open on that very game just waiting until I was ready to look at it.

I had quite a bit of the wind taken out of my sails when I started noticing a lot of the things I wanted to use the name “mmogrinder” for were taken, (Why do you think this is a .net and the twitter site has an underscore?) despite a Google search for MMO Grinder bringing up results for my video, and usually ONLY my site or videos. (With the exception of the Wikipedia article on “Grinding” as a term.) It took me a LONG time to come up with this name, and I’d sad to say it now seems, two months after starting this series that someone else didn’t bother to check if it was in active use… or did check, and doesn’t give a shit, (Knowing the internet, I’m going to go with “B”.) is using the name “MMOGrinder” for their own site. If this concerns you as much as it does me, do what you can to support THIS page and show by visiting as often as you can to keep the views and Google placement up. (That’s how that works, right? I honestly don’t know.) What I do NOT suggest you do is look into this matter further unless it does start cutting into my recognition. Giving attention is what allows things to prosper and lack of attention will cause anything to die out. It’s why the internet is so bad with dealing with trolling. They think they have the perfect comeback, when ANY comeback is a victory on the troller’s part. I’m digressing. Long story short, do what you can to support me and my MMO Grinder show if it bothers you as much as it’s been bothering me lately.

Breaking my rule of “not telling you what MMO I’m doing” I’m thinking of looking at an MMO with a horror theme for my episode closest to Halloween. Possibly Requiem: Memento Mori. I’ve also thinking of doing a side project and “sequel video” to my “Chaos Reviews” episode of Paranormal State, of the one other ghost show that I think it unquestionably WORSE, “Scariest Places on Earth”.  And in relation to that I ask you this… Any of you do a good voice impression of Gilbert Gottfried. Yes, I have a reason, and no this has nothing to do with him appearing in that one episode of “Are You Afraid Of The Dark?”

Couple confessions to make. I have two dungoofments in the past two videos. (Probably more but these are the ones I noticed the most/pointed out to me.)

First up is the LOTRO video, where I state that you need to be level 30 in order to do Skirmishes, when you can do them at level 20. I really have no idea where I got the level 30 info. I swore I looked it up in a LOTRO wiki and found it said level 30, but searching again all says level 20. I still would not have reached level 20 in time to reach the deadline so my issue still stands.

Second is the DFO review, where Pi Story is given the “death date” of 04/01/08. It was shut down 04/01/09. I should know. I wrote that article I used in the review. My preview window in Vegas is shit, and the clumped resolution looked like the date read 08 instead of 09, and I didn’t bother to look further because I just wanted it DONE. This is something I could probably fix easily, but I’m not concerned with it right now. Maybe later. Also that month and day are still not a typo, Pi Story DID get shut down on April Fool’s Day. I’m not happy about that.

Your homework for this post: Ask me questions that I may create an F.A.Q. with in this comment section. I’m certain that people are wondering why I make the choices I do. (Like the two-week release schedule, or the fact I won’t reveal the upcoming episode until I release it. Yes you can ask those even though I just listed them as examples.) I probably will NOT answer the questions in the comments (unless it’s something really simple, or I decide not to include it in the F.A.Q.) and will have an F.A.Q. page constructed with the ones I choose. Don’t worry, I won’t take forever with that… probably not. I dunno.

Ok, for those who think I spend most of my time on Skype desperately waiting for someone to contact me… you are partially right, but I will also let you know what I’ve been up to lately.

First off, Episode 5 is scripted and the subject of Episode 6 is determined. All going well, I should have Ep 5 completed in a few days, and uploaded on Wednesday or Thursday. If you are wondering why I don’t tell you what game I’m looking at, I have my reasons. If interested, I’ll explain in greater detail in an F.A.Q.

As a couple people have told me, Rusty Hearts is finally in Open Beta, which I do allow full reviews on. (Games rarely change too drastically from Open Beta to Release.) Expect that one to be covered fairly soon, depending on the news I get.

I’ve been getting a ton of good suggestions for reviews, but be sure to check the Suggested MMO List page to see if it already listed so you don’t end up wasting your breath… or keyboard letters… whatever. I will be updating that page once I get some more time, but expect it to be updated once Episode 5 is completed. (There’s a reason for that. Yes, that’s all the hints you’re getting.)

As of now, I will NOT be looking at MUDs or limited graphical interface MUDs. I’m not completely shut off to the idea, but it’s not something I can review with the show’s format. The same goes with games that are contained within a browser like Kingdom of Loathing. Adventure Quest MIGHT work, but I’ll have to find some workarounds. I should also mention that I will NOT be looking at anything subscription based unless it has a free-to-play option. This includes things like Eve Online, Aion, and technically Guild Wars, as while you don’t have to pay an upkeep to play Guild Wars, you DO have to buy the game itself. (However since I do own the game there’s a slight chance I may look at it… but it’s not like I’m running out of material.)

One final thing of note is that MMO Grinder is now featured on AngryBananas.com! Currently the LUNA Online episode is up there, and the rest will soon follow. Check out the site when you can. A special thanks to Carlos, who runs the site, and to Justin Carmical (better known as JewWario) for introducing my video series to him.

Thanks for watching the show and I’ll keep working on it as best I can!

-Jon