What are you playing? [SPOILER TAGS PLEASE]

[Tonalberry]

Depends on what you're looking for?  Champions Online is a pretty fun superhero mmo, even if you don't do the monthly fee.  The F2P doesn't have the option to make a freeform character, you're stuck picking an archetype, but even then they're still fun.  Though you don't get them all.  Some of them have to be bought.  The character creation, looks wise is pretty nice, even though a lot of options are locked.  If you choose to go the monthly pay, which is the standard $15 a month, you unlock most of the costume options, though some are still locked.  And you unlock all but three of the different travel powers you get to pick from.

[dready]

Team fortress is somewhat a F2P MMO in the same sense that people consider online shooters MMO's.

Then there's Dofus. Fun game, requires some strategy and yet it works out wonderfully.

[Sabby]

I looked all of those up on Youtube, including DC Universe. I don't get it... why are all MMO's built the same way? :/ The name is 'massively multiplayer online', not 'I have higher numbers then you so I kill you'. I really don't think I'll touch any of them... why can't there be an MMO with a different play style, I'm sure character creation and skills development and parties and raids and such could be worked into a third person action game. I can't even see what's happening in these videos...

[Wolfy]

I looked all of those up on Youtube, including DC Universe. I don't get it... why are all MMO's built the same way? :/ The name is 'massively multiplayer online', not 'I have higher numbers then you so I kill you'. I really don't think I'll touch any of them... why can't there be an MMO with a different play style, I'm sure character creation and skills development and parties and raids and such could be worked into a third person action game. I can't even see what's happening in these videos...

Oh Sabby..

MMO's are all about Numbers. They're a mathematicians wet dream.

See, what happens is, you get numbers. But those numbers aren't enough, no. That monster? He has bigger numbers. So you have to get bigger numbers than his numbers by using your numbers against other monsters with numbers to get more numbers.

Haven't you ever played an RPG before?

[Sabby]

Yes, that's the way things are, but my question is why? MMO and MMORPG are two different terms. These games are all MMORPG's, a subdivision of MMO's, but I see no other subdivisions anywhere. The only thing that categorizes an MMO is a persistant world. World of Warcraft is an MMO because it's a virtual society, a world that you can leave and when you come back in a year it's still there but has grown without you. This is the one and only quality that makes your game an MMO. The possibilities are inormous, but all I see are Wow rip offs, and its just baffling. I refuse to touch a single MMO while they still bafflingly cling to the RPG design.

And even that confuses me, RPG means "Role playing game", and that description is actually really vague, since 'playing a role' is actually in a lot of other games that aren't considered RPG's, and in some really good RPG's the 'role playing' is very light or non-existent, and this is all under the assumption that I have the term 'RPG' pegged right, which is I'm not sure I do...

The whole situation with MMO's seems to have blind assumption and comformism rife through every element of it, tape worming all the way back through the genres that it was spawned from. The whole thing fascinates me in a morbid way.

[Sabby]

And just as I give up on MMO's clinging to the RPG design, I discover Vindictus. Not sure if it's any good yet, but at least it's trying a different play style. Looks like a more traditional hack and slash, with a persistent world. Guna research it up a bit before I try it.

And its free to play too!

Edit: Ah, I see how this works... download and install for free, but buy ingame currency. Thats not so bad, but I don't really know how much it's worth. $1 = 1000 fantasy monies, but for all I know, the good stuff is worth 5 bucks :/ plus it doesn't say if I can actually earn their fantasy dollars in game... do I have to buy every item with real money? Can I make money in game, and just top up with a credit card? Are certain items restricted to non-paying players? I don't know, it doesn't say :/

[Tonalberry]

That's pretty much how all the F2P games are, whether they're the little browser games you can find, or bigger games.  A lot of the good content, whether it's just items, or other unlockables, have to be bought with real money.  It's how they make their money.

[Sabby]

The game has two currency NX and gold. Gold is earned in game and can be used to buy weapons, armors, etc.
While NX is optional, and is used for extra's such as cosmetics, goddess graces ( a revive when no one can revive you), etc.

Suddenly very excited about this game.

[dready]

Suddenly very excited about this game.

Which server are you joining? *is interested too and wants to team up* e u e

EDIT: *joins west server anyway* GUNS A BLAZIN'! or um... swords? Looking at going for polearms. c:

[dready]

Character summary:

Lan: Dual-blade side-stepper close combat AOE character that is meant for constant attacking and weaving combos together. Starts off with light armor but can gain the ability to use heavy armor without impeding movement.

Fiona: Sword and board counter-attacker and combat tactician. Requires the ability to time guards correctly to counter-attack, and shield durability decreases with each hit. Starts off with heavy armor and can gain plate mail proficiency later on.

Evie: Mandatory far-eastern spellcaster who specializes in ranged combat. Golems can be summoned as well as the standard fireball, and reversed gravity to give teammembers an edge in combat. She is also the only character who can revive others normally, but at the cost of injuring herself in the process. Starts off with cloth armor, can later learn light.

Karok: The brute. His standard weapon of choice: A stone pillar. What can he do with it? Smash everything with slow, but knockout attacks. He can also throw the pillar and go into hand-to-hand combat with surprising efficiency. He is the character that specializes in grapple attacks well enough to clash larger enemies, and even win against them. Starts off with heavy armor.

[Sabby]

I might go with the spellcaster if your not taking that, we can team up then :) I was guna go for east, but will do west if your there.

[Sabby]

Hey, you having any trouble getting online? It keeps giving me "Authentication failed"

[Sabby]

Oh... I'm sorry, I'm not allowed to play your game. I don't live in America. Haha. And here I was thinking online games were on the world wide web. Silly me!

[dready]

Oh... I'm sorry, I'm not allowed to play your game. I don't live in America. Haha. And here I was thinking online games were on the world wide web. Silly me!

:c Damn. Well want to play Dofus? That's worldwide and it's a pretty good MMO so far. c:

[Sabby]

Depends >.> So far, Invictus is the only MMO I seen that looks even remotely enjoyable, considering I don't like WoW. Will Youtube it in a bit. Figures, the one MMO I find that tries to be an 'online game' and not a number cruncher with multiplayer, and I can't play it. Fuck you fate Dx

[Sabby]

Playing Stalker: Call of Pripyat. Take note Bethesda, THIS is how you do a Post Apocalyptic sandbox shooter >.> its grim, immersive, interesting, and at times haunting and tense. Plus it's damned fun. Being in a burnt out office building with a thunderstorm outside flashing light through the windows, playing cat and mouse with a squid faced invisible mutant with glowing white eyes, and when you do shoot, the muzzle flash lights the room up like a rave.

[Wolfy]

Oh Sabby, Sabby, Sabby....all of gaming-dom can be summed up with three words.

Numbers vs Numbers.

;D That's all that gaming is. It's your numbers versus their numbers..and if you have more skill with yours, then all the better.

[Sabby]

Your right, all of gaming is numbers. Two numbers, specifically. Zero and One. The art of creating games is to sculpt those two numbers to a point where you can forget that they are simply code projecting a false illusion. Thats the thing with immersion, when its working, you don't even know its there. We only appreciate immersion when some part of the game draws our attention back to the fact that we're sitting in front of a TV with a controller in our hands.

[Sabby]

Okay, I'm mostly a modern gamer... some think that makes you stupid and you can't appreciate anything that isn't a CoD sequel, but I'm not like that >.> I just don't enjoy a lot of older games. Things like Ocarina of Time I just don't like, and people say "I don't get it" Your right. I don't. I thought Chrono Trigger was a horrible sounding lump of repetitive garbage.

But there IS a game from way back when I love, so much so I actually managed to force my way through most of it, even though it was from the 'Nintendo hard' school of game development... Shinobi 3: Return of the Ninja Master, on the SEGA Master System. You called it the Genesis, but fuck you, we got the Master System >.>

Shinobi 3 Speed Run in 25:35 Part 1

Seriously, I want this game remastered. HD new artwork, new animations, new sound, I will buy that and finish that, even if some of the boss battles make me wanna put a foot through the screen.

[Sabby]

Shinobi 3 Speed Run in 25:35 Part 2

Ninja's on surfboards... awww yeah!

[Tonalberry]

Ninjas on surfboards you say?

[Wolfy]

Hmm..a Conundrum...

do I get the Gears of War 3 360 Limited edition in September, or do I wait until the Star Wars Limited Edition 360 comes out? That one comes bundled with Kinect as well

Hmm......

[Sabby]

With things the way they are, putting the Star Wars logo on something is guna detract from the items value soon.

[Oniya]

I'm down to four fields remaining on GemCraft Labyrinth - the final stage, and three 'challenge fields' that I probably won't be able to access without getting the premium edition.  Most of the challenges (40 in all) are damn near impossible without having unlimited waves available to you, although I might be able to swing a couple more by persistence (I can do the 'kill 24 shadows' challenge by playing the one shadow level on the free version 23 more times, for example, and might be able to do one or more of the 'kill 7,000 monsters' challenges by running 'Swarms only, double monsters, +15 waves' and then hammering the extra summons).  The only problem is that I don't know which of the challenges will actually open up the three remaining challenge fields.  *pout*

[Sylk]

pre-ordered SW the old republic. We'll see if I like it or not