Alright, let’s get this thing out of the way…

First off, I’m positive I don’t need to mention this to anyone who’s reading this, but who knows?
I was recently picked up for Channel Awesome’s Blistered Thumbs. The only thing this will effect is that I will place the Blistered Thumbs bumper at the very end of the video (post stinger). I’ll post on LordKat’s Blogs and Angry Bananas, but let’s face it… a good amount of you come here first, anyway.

I’ve been getting some oddly overwhelming feedback from people, which I honestly didn’t expect. I never go into something expecting a warm reception. What I DO hear most often is that I’m very stiff in my delivery. Some even take it as “lifeless”. I guess now is as good a time to tell you that’s just how I look. I think a lot of people might be overly used to the “angry reviewer” trend that was so prevalent these past few years, but I don’t think multiple camera angles, wearing sunglasses, or flailing my arms around while wielding garden shears constitutes as a review. I really don’t appear on camera that much, unless I have a quick joke to make that I think would work better visually. That’s just how I roll. For the most part, I let the words or the footage do the talking. I only seem to go on camera to remind you where that voice is coming from. I know I’d forget.

The Superhero MMO Poll is going much better then I thought… mostly because someone posted about the poll on a message board. (Don’t think I didn’t notice the sudden influx of comments and votes, even before I checked in with the “referrers” feature on this site.)

I would like to mention to those players/commenters one thing, because there seems to be some confusion. The poll isn’t giving an award to the “best MMO” or saying that the winner is the best choice of the three. All the polls are are a gauge of interest in a certain MMO, and the winner is the one I review for that episode. In no way does that mean I WON’T review the others at some point, nor does it mean that I’m going to give any special praise to the poll winner. I’m going to go in the same way I always do. I know a lot of people think I was very negative to Maple Story, but I honestly expected to be much more harsh about it, and it was nice to see the changes they made for the better. (Also, is traveling around the entire fucking world REALLY a better option that taking the transportation provided? That seems broken as hell to me. Why not tell me it’s easier to get to China by waiting for winter and walking over the Bering Strait, and through Russia?)
Ok, I digressed long enough. When it comes right down to it, when you vote in a poll, you’re only making my job in choosing the next MMO to review that much easier. I am very impressed by your fervor however.

So, League of Legends. Ok… You all were right. It’s NOT an MMO and it really doesn’t fit my definition of an MMO, so yeah. You were right about that. Still there’s a bit of roots and style that lend itself to MMO like development, such as talent trees in the form of “Masteries” and equippable bonus traits in the “Rune” system. There’s summoner levels to be gained and grinding to be done. So it’s closer then Team Fortress 2 will ever be.
I’ve… yet to start the script because… there’s not nearly as much to talk about, and I’m wondering how I want to go about doing it. Perhaps I’ll get more work done today, if the weather would stop being so damned depressing.
If you want to catch me online in LoL, look for me as Nios, but I do play alongside a few other people. Feel free to ask me if I want in a game, but don’t expect me to answer yes every time.
I have to warn you, though. I am absolutely terrible.

I haven’t updated the Suggested MMO List in a while, and I really should get on that. I think I might want to organize it better… like separating Browser-Based MMOs for the others. I’ve received a FEW new suggestions but still haven’t gotten around to doing anything but removing Rusty Hearts from the list.

So, before I go, I mentioned that LoL doesn’t really fit what I think counts as an MMO, but as well all know, that’s a heated discussion for the ages. So much so that it’s the topic of a podcast I have been in that recently started up with TWBfromTDOB (an MMO news blogger who frequently posts on the BT Blogs, and Tyger from MUD2MMO. Right now it’s only one episode, but keep a look out for “The MMO Underground”. In time, I’ll probably have a link to it on the sidebar once we have enough episodes up. So if you want to hear a recording of myself talking out of my ass to other people for about an hour, feel free to check out the Pilot, here. We just finished recording the second episode, and if you want to keep up on anything and all things MMO, check out TWBfromTDOB’s site here.

Ever since DC Universe Online went free to play all of… a few weeks ago, I’ve been bombarded with requests and inquiries as to whether or not I’m going to look at it. While the interest is there, I am noticing that a LOT of people were also requesting City of Heroes and Champions Online, two much older, formerly subscription based, and now Free-to-Play MMOs that I have previous experience with.

Since both CoH and CO put up an initial good fight in the last poll, and the interest in DCUO is there, I figured… why not pit all three against each other?

Same poll rules apply as last time.

• Poll closes the Saturday night before the previous episode is released. In other words, just before Episode 11 airs. (Sunday Dec. 11th, 12:01 a.m.)
• In the event I am unable to run the game that wins, for whatever reason, the next highest voted game will be chosen.

I added a new twist this time around. Now you will not be able to see the results in the poll, so you won’t be able to vote stack the game that’s currently winning to ensure its victory. Have fun now.

Ok, as many of you might have figured out by now, my Eden Eternal episode is now up on TGWTG’s main page. (Well, second page by the time you read this.) I’ve noticed a major influx of views on here, so if you’re just arriving…

Welcome to anyone who’s found this site from TGWTG! I usually post new Episodes every other Wednesday, while I update with news about the show here but that is subject to change. Feel free to check the About page to get an understanding of how the show works (as well as find Episode 0). You can also check the F.A.Q. for other more specific show questions, otherwise, feel free to ask. You can also find the Episode Guide to see what’s been currently reviewed, or the Suggested MMO List to see what’s being considered, or offer suggestions of our own.

If your comments are not appearing immediately after posting them, it’s because I have to approve the initial comment. Luckily, I get the alerts to my e-mail, and can approve them over my phone when I see them. After the initial approval, you can comment again at any time. I do this to weed out the amount of spam WordPress blogs usually get, as even though the filter here does a decent job detecting them. Usually.

Ok, that’s over now. Time for the actual update.

I’ve been playing Rusty Hearts for a good while now, and like DFO, I think I have more then enough footage and knowledge to finish up, so I’m using the time to make sure I can cover as much as possible. I’m finding the lack of the “awakening” mode information a bit annoying, and since I’m already level 21 with Angela, I’m not sure how much further I have to go before I reach it. It might end up being another “Skirmish” issue like in LOTRO where I didn’t have the time to reach the appropriate level, but we’ll see. As for footage I’m sure I have more then enough, but I might need to delve into PvP… just because I like being humiliated before I finish playing.

I’m noticing that once you leave the first town area, and move onto the second, the framerate (on my PC mind you) seriously dropped, and it was a lot more lagging. Unfortunately the stages weren’t much better as the Atrium was pretty choppy… I chalked it up to my PC being junky again, so I’ll delve back into it solo. I also need to verify something about the gamepad controller option, otherwise this should be on time. Vegas willing.

Looking at the Poll for Episode 10, it seems a tug of war between Ragnarok and League of Legends. It’s nice to know that one isn’t drowning out the other, but it’s sad it seems like it’s only down to two games again. Now since I want to have ample time to deal with possible video issues, the poll will be officially “closed” on 12:01 a.m. Sunday, November 13th. (That’s “Saturday night” to avoid confusion there.) Whatever the poll reads at that time will be game I look at. Standard exceptions apply. (i.e. “Shit don’t work no good.”) Make your final pushes soon.

Stay tuned for Episode 9: Rusty Hearts on Wednesday. It’s a game I’ll probably keep installed, so message me if you want to find me in game as “Vaias”.

UPDATE: Poll is closed. League of Legends wins.

Since it was voted on often for the Halloween Episode, I have chosen 10 MMOs from the Suggested MMO List that you can choose from to decide from if you want to see me review it for Episode 10. I’m not much for “milestones”, but I figured a poll would be a good way to decide on what you’d want to see.

Rules again are as follows… well more of a cautionary, really. If the game chosen as the number one spot cannot be reviewed for any reason, be it my PC won’t handle it, I am unable to register, I cannot record it, or it just ends up being shut down, I will immediately default to the next highest on the list, until I find one that will work. It’s been a while since I played a few of these, and I don’t know how well they will take to this PC. I also may have to make some room. (Sorry, LOTRO. 8 gig is pushing it.)

I will “close” the poll right before Episode 9 airs, and announce it at the end of Ep 9. (Don’t worry, next week is only Episode 8.)

While I’d like to say this is the “halfway” point between the last episode of MMO Grinder and the next one, I am actually shooting for a Halloween day release. Wish me luck with that.

I’ve been busy working on a Haunted Trail this past weekend, and had a few other things to take care of in the past couple day, but I think I have enough of a handle on Hellgate to finish up the script. I’m shooting for finishing it today, with filming tomorrow or Friday, and editing on Friday or Saturday. I’m going to have to see what my schedule is like. As much as I don’t want to wait until next Wednesday, at least expect it by then if nothing is completed for Halloween.

I’m really thinking of doing Rusty Hearts for Episode 9. There’s a bit of technical drama going down with Perfect World and the release of Natasha, but if they figure it out, she’ll be a playable character by the time Episode 8 is complete. If not… I’m going to need to find a backup.

I also had a bit of time making a Mountain Dew video (The stinger of Episode 7 wasn’t just a joke.) If you want to check it out, or at least me try something similar to a vlog when I do a live tasting, I’ll embed it here.

http://blip.tv/chaosd1/chaos-reviews-mtn-dew-game-fuel-2011-5670069

Ok before I start I want to mention that I had NO CLUE people would respond this positively to Episode 6 on Myst Online: Uru. It really didn’t seem like the kind of game that people would expect to hear about in this series so that’s good to know. Again, I have to thank Tyler for the suggestion, and the tour. It wasn’t an easy game to figure out solo.

I’ve been very busy playing/scripting episode 7, and while today was a bit of a mess up on my part, I am certain I can get the script done and filmed within a day or so. I predict this episode will be another long one. Hoping not to go into Maple Story territory, but who knows? I will say I find myself enjoying the game, and there are a LOT of interesting innovations in the game I wish more MMOs would take notice from.

Also, in case you didn’t read the post below, the poll to choose Episode 8 (the Halloween Episode) is going on at the MMO Grinder Facebook page. Right now it’d say it’s pretty obvious which one is going to win, but time to sway the vote in your favor still exists. (I really should get to downloading it, though. It would suck if I couldn’t run it.)

In that same vein, I’m thinking I should do more of these polls so people have more of a choice as to what game I pick to do next. I won’t be doing that for EVERY episode, as I like to have a bit of control in what I play. Right now, I think the next poll to vote on would be for Episode 10. And since it’s a “milestone” ep (albeit a small one) I think I’ll let it be free reign of the entirety of the Suggested MMO list. (There are probably a few titles I’ll end up not including for one reason or another.)

The other polls would probably be a smaller group of choices resting on a theme. (2D MMOs, Action MMOs, Arena combat MMOs, etc.) I’m sure any polls I announce will be broadcast here… or on Facebook…. or both.

Anyway, keep an eye out for Episode 7 next week, cause I’ll have to speed it up for the episode right after that.

I have a vote poll running on my facebook page. (Click HERE) to decide between the two MMOs I’m planning on reviewing for Halloween. (Which will be episode 8 ) Feel free to check it out and vote if you haven’t already… or “like” the Facebook page while you’re at it… whatever works.

Unfortunately since I cannot differentiate between people on Facebook and people who post here, I cannot make another version of the poll here (like I should have) but hey, I needed to do SOMETHING with that page.

Also I will NOT be counting “votes” that are posted in the comments here, sorry. For the same reason above. I don’t want the same person voting for their favorite game in two places, and therefore double-stacking their choice in their favor. But feel free to comment here with a preference in the event I need a tie breaker. (Currently, I’m pretty sure I won’t need one.)

The poll will be closed (if I can figure out how to close it) on October 16th and the game I review will be announced at the end of the next episode. (Episode 7)

In case you are unable to see the poll, as in you are allergic to Facebook, the two games in the poll are Hellgate: London and Requiem: Memento Mori. Halloween is a perfect time for games with a colon in their title.

Let me know if you like the idea of these polls, and I might do more in the future, so I’m not always the selfish jerk who gets to make all the choices around here.

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