Portland, Ore. - Standing composed and confident on the Stott Community Field following Portland State's short walk-through Friday morning, the glimmering smile on Tygue Howland's face was tough to miss.

The beaming grin that the junior quarterback owned followed a few short words that encapsulate his more than three years in the South Park Blocks.

"I've been waiting three years for this," Howland said.

The this Howland is referring to is, of course, the Vikings' matchup with Western Oregon Saturday at 1:05 p.m. at PGE Park.

The Vikings are back in action Saturday afternoon with a must-win matchup against Western Oregon to kick off the 2008 season. Vanguard beat writer Nate Hellman has the scoop, which apparently is that Vikings starting QB Tygue Howland still has a lot he must prove, especially since he's only thrown 13 completions in just three career games.

If you're a Vikings fan, that isn't heartening news. I'm not usually a hater, but there are few things that cause me more pessimism than Portland State football. We all know Jerry Glanville isn't going to put a decent team on the field until at least next year, and we all know that there are huge problems with everything from the O-line to the itty-bitty running backs that Mouse Davis is trying to turn into receivers.

The Oregonian picked the Vikings to go 5-6 this year. They're going to be lucky if they win four games, and that is being generous. Let me put it this way: lose THIS game, and the program will be destroyed for years to come. Actually, I think Vanguard sports editor Skyler Archibald put it this way: lose this game and it will literally ruin your program for a bit. Agreed.

Beat Western Oregon, then we'll worry about confidence and dreams fulfilled. If Howland can keep his knees intact, that'll be a victory in itself.

Note: The dude about to score a TD is former Vikings player Shaun Bodiford, a good guy with a motor mouth who is now, I believe, a kick returner and wide out with the Green Bay Packers.

The Blazers sent these pics of Kevin Duckworth to Vanguard sports editor Skyler Archibald, who hooked up the Beer Garden. These were taken on Monday, just hours before his death. They are a fascinating glimpse into what Blazers media wiz Bill Evans calls "the essence of the man we knew."

The Blazers are hosting a memorial service at the Memorial Coliseum Saturday morning starting at 11 a.m.  Parking at the Rose Garden will be free to the public. Come pay your last respects to a local legend. The Beer Garden will have a report from the service.

His email writes:
I'm the managing editor of Culture11 (www.culture11.com), a new online magazine/social network that was started by Bill Bennett, David Kuo, Steve Forbes, et al. Today is our first day and rather than trying to get attention using traditional media, we've decided to announce our launch by reaching out to our friends.

-Joe

Some pieces from the upcoming collection, due out next month:

Sad news, as most of you have probably heard: Kevin Duckworth is dead, after suffering congestive heart failure. Too bad, because the Duck was one of the true characters from those early '90s teams. He was also a key component of their success during the Blazers' two runs to the NBA Finals, one year averaging 18 points and eight boards a game. Duck was a big, sweet-natured man who never wanted to leave Portland and never stopped loving the Trail Blazers.

Not that you couldn't see Duckworth's death coming from miles away. I saw Duckworth last November at a Detroit Pistons game. Like many retired pro athletes, Duck didn't much resemble the man he was during his playing days. He'd gained a lot of weight and was literally wide as a truck, but he'd remained active with the Blazers, supporting them in the community with a smile and stories from the glory days of Rip City. That's what he was doing on the Oregon Coast when he died.

But that fall night last year he was at the Rose Garden there to be honored alongside former teammates Terry Porter, Clyde Drexler and Jerome Kersey during a halftime ceremony. I was there covering the game for the Vanguard and had a chance to speak with Duckworth.

It had been a particularly cold fall night, and I remember entering the media room with a chill. The Glide sat at a table in the front of the buffet line, TV lights shining on his bald head. He conducted court, smiling, regal. Drexler owns this city, and he owns the Portland media especially. As they fawned over their returning hero, Kevin Duckworth sat on a painfully small chair and dabbed at the beads of glistening sweat collecting on his brow.

"How's it going, Duck?" I asked, trying to be casual.

"Going good," he wheezed in a surprisingly soft voice. "Going good."

I introduced myself and asked him a couple of questions. He was excited to be back. He loved the Blazers and the fans. Standard stuff, but I could tell something was wrong. Duck was really laboring, even a year ago.

I said goodbye and thanked him for his time. He thanked me for speaking with him, which I thought was odd. He seemed genuinely appreciative.

In case you need some proof that I don't just have a wild imagination, some photographic evidence below. The Glide in all his glory, sitting at the press conference table.

I know that's strange, and it's strange to me, too.

The people here are pretty amazing, which is part of why it doesn't feel anything like home.

EVERYONE is super nice. People smile at you when you walk past them. People come up to talk to you and meet you. It's not cliquey. It's nothing like COC. I basically love it already (although classes don't start until tomorrow haha). I'm still not used to living here, but it's getting better.

The people definitely make this a much different experience than my old college.

It's just a bit farther from home than I wish it was...

Let's look at MMO's.  WoW?  Not going to bother until Lich King comes out.  LotRO?  Considered it, but not sure that I want to pick up a month's sub when I'll most likely drop it as soon as WAR releases.  Vanguard?  Not until the Isle of Dawn and new character models are patched in.  Eve?  I gave it a quick trial, but I spent more time staring at the screen than actually doing something.  AoC?  Oh please, no.

Here's something out of left field: Requiem Bloodymare.  Requiem is one of those free-to-play Korean imports that made it over to the States a long with the usual interesting translations.  The only real difference here is it's graphic nature.  I'll probably give it a shot and see if I can get 2-3 weeks out of it.

I thought about maybe giving Mass Effect another shot.  I had to give it a break back in December after my son was born and haven't been able to motivate myself to pick it back up.  Maybe something casual on the 360?  /sigh

Our fantasy football (American) league just had its draft so that will give me something to focus on once in a while, but the season doesn't start until next week.

The summer doldrums have really taken their toll on my gaming along with everyone else apparently.  Just look at the blogs out there.  Everyone is either blogging about WAR or nothing at all.  Hopefully, WAR will be the shot of adrenaline that we all need, and then we roll into the holiday game season.  I just need to keep my sanity until then.

Portland, Ore. — Like a ticking time bomb nearing its explosion point, the hours before the Vikings hit the field against Western Oregon are quickly shedding off.

The dial now reads seven days until season number two under head coach Jerry Glanville officially begins, when Portland State takes on the Wolves at PGE Park next Saturday afternoon.

And despite Glanville’s remarks that his squad is far from ready for live game action, offensive coordinator Darrell “Mouse” Davis believes the offense is shaping up nicely.

“We’re much better than a few weeks ago,” Davis said about his offensive unit.

Nate Hellman, ace beat reporter and sometime-editor of the Vanguard, Portland State's daily student newspaper, has the scoop from the Vikings football practices. There is literally no other place on the web to get this much in-depth information on the Vikings than Hellman's football blog. Check it religiously.

However, there's something I have to say: the Vikings are going to get railed this year. Good god, they only went 3-8 last year and have a bunch of unproven running backs trying to play receiver. That sounds like a recipe for disaster, even in the abysmal Big Sky Conference. If they even flirt with going .500 this year I'll tip my fucking cap. Until then, I'll keep saying what I always say about Portland State football: When does basketball season start?

Adam's back with another show!  In this episode, Adam, Luper from Voyages of Vanguard, John from TAGN (who had a contribution to the show, but was unable to discuss it as he was silly and gave away his mic so someone could do work! Work over gaming?!?!?!  WHERE are your priorities, John????) and Michal, aka Syncaine from the Hardcore/Casual blog tackle the 5 "N's" of MMO's for 2008:

New features in MMO for 2008 and the 5 N's: "NICE! Neat. Nuwhut? Nonimportant, or NASTY!"  The concept was each contributor came up with at least one feature from a 2008 MMO release, and what they thought of it, within the context of one of those N's.  MMO's involved in this discussion were Tabula Rasa, WAR, AoC and PotBS.... it ranges from there, but as always a good discussion.  Looking forward to people's thoughts.  Enjoy!

PS: iTunes reviews make for a happy Podcaster :)

Go listen, and give the man an iTunes review!

Level 60-80

At level 60 to 70, again there are only two zones available for questing in. Aztel's Approach in Cimmeria and Thunder River in Aquilonia. Aztel's Approach is huge, with lots of quests and repeatable bounties for players as low as level 57 through to level 75. Snowy mountains with monsters, bandits, beautiful scenary and glorious Acheronian structures. There are many places to grind experience in the zone, and many quests as well. In contrast, Thunder River is severely lacking in quests and feel like a lost opportunity. The zone is beautiful and not too small, but there are too few content in the zone. A prison colony for Aquilonia surrounded by waterfalls and forest. Most of it is pedestrian, but it is topped off by a nice level 69 elite zone called the Prison Colony.

Level 70 to 80 has a painful zone called Kheshetta. We left Stygia behind at level 40 and it is only now that we find ourselves back there. Kheshetta has as much ganking as White Sands, quite simply because there are lots of level 80s walking around with nothing to do. There are quite a number of quests in Kheshetta and it has some intriguing mobs in the form of the Selkhetite Archers, four armed humanoid archers that draw their bowstrings with their feet. It is hard to explain, but they must be the most refined monster in the whole game, from design to their movement animations. If the rest of the game had this quality, it will kick every other game's butt. I hope the designers of this monster still works at FunCom.

There are not enough quests in Kheshetta to bring you to level 80, so you will have to resort to grinding. There are two to three areas of grinding in the zone. One is the Cohorts of Set, which are level 74 to 76 worshippers of Set, the next is the famous Death Master's Camp (DMC), where there are these bandits which respawn really fast for great grinding. The last place that many people ignore are the big cats in the corner. Cheetahs and Leopards. While they don't drop much gear, they drop lots of Gnarled and Whorled Leather for armour crafting.

Kheshetta in Epic Mode is also a popular one for grinding "Tier 0" armour and epics. In the southern part of the zone, there are many bosses from level 80 to 82, and in Epic mode, their loot is the best short of raid dungeons.

Level 80 and beyond

Let me start by describing what is available at endgame.

There are three "Tier 1" dungeons for "Tier 1" epic gear. Kylikki's Crypt in Fields of the Dead, The Lair in Aztel's Approach and Yahkmar's Cave in Eiglophian Mountains.

Kylikki's Crypt has two bosses, the Champion of the Honourguard and Kylikki herself. She seems to be a White Hand mummy and she has risen from the dead and ordering the Vanir to dig up Fields of the Dead.
This seems to be the easier of the three dungeons. Once raid groups figure out how to manage the trash mobs, they should be able to kill the Champion as well. Kylikki can be challenging because she spawns some minions that heal her.

Vistrix the dragon resides in The Lair. The trash mobs there are quite easy, all except the Chill Crawler Champions can be crowd controled. Vistrix has a massive AoE stun every minute, and after which he uses a fire breath that does massive damage. Some classes can do a quest to get a talisman called Vistrix's Bane. This helps remove the stun from tanks and gives them added fire resistance. Every 25% of her health that she loses, a massive wave of minions are spawned. These minions can be crowd controled. Once a raid group gets a handle of the stun timing, it should be a manageable fight.

Yahkmar is a worm of the Dune variety. Currently the hardest if the Tier 1 bosses, so much so that many guilds are skipping him completely. He spawns a group of additional mobs every 20 seconds or so, overwelming most raid groups.

I have not done any "Tier 2" dungeons so cannot say much about them. They are all wings of the Black Ring Citadel, which is in the middle of Kheshetta City. There are eight "Tier 2" bosses, some are said to be easier than "Tier 1" bosses. Currently "Tier 2" gear seems to be recolours of "Tier 1" gear with better stats.

Besides the raid dungeons, there are a number of endgame group dungeons. Aztel's Fortress and Halls of Eternal Frost are in Aztel's Approach. Scorpion's Cave, Onyx Chamber and Caravan Bandit's Hideout are in Kheshetta. They have multiple bosses and follow the trend of the group dungeons of lower level. Onyx Chambers is a public dungeon like Cistern and Main System, and suffer the same problems.

Besides PvE content, there is PvP content. Currently there are only two types of PvP minigames: Annihilation and Capture the Skull (Flag). There are three maps, one larger outdoor map, and two indoor maps with symetrical twists and turns. The other PvP content is the Battlekeep Sieges.

Lots of endgame stuff to do, right?

I believe that this is where Age of Conan is at its most disappointing, and as a result has lost a lot of their subscribers. They completely mishandled their endgame. Age of Conan endgame is unrefined in many ways and I hope to list them all here. The biggest complaint from players is that there are not much to do at level 80 and here is why.

About one month into the game, the guys at FunCom realised that some classes were powering through the levels too fast. They also realised that everyone was grinding their way through the level 70s too fast. This resulted in a few classes being nerfed, a few game mechanics being tweaked, and level 70+ mobs being buffed. The byproduct of which turned level 70-80 group dungeons into complete nightmares. The trash mobs are tough and tedious, which turned the group dungeons into three to five hour affairs.

If that was not discouraging enough, players started to realise that the level 80 group dungeons does not actually drop anything unique. Everything on the loot tables there, particularly the "Tier 0" armour are also available in world bosses. So farming Elite bosses in Epic Mode Kheshetta was a much easier and faster way of getting "Tier 0" drops.

Yes, there are a number of group dungeons, which might be fun if their trash mobs are moderated so that they do not take 5 hours to clear. On top of that FunCom needs to give the players a reason to raid these dungeons. Some drops must be unique to these dungeons as an incentive. I propose that all level 80 "Tier 0" armour as well as level 80 flawless gems be only available through these dungeons.

Guilds are supposed to raid Kylikki and Yahkmar for their "Tier 1" armour and then proceed to Vistrix for their "Tier 1" weapons and to unlock the "Tier 2" raid dungeons. But because of the imbalance of Yahkmar, almost everyone skips it. Getting a few piece of "Tier 1" from Kylikki's Crypt, they clear Vistrix for the "Tier 2" unlocks and proceed to raiding "Tier 2" as some of the bosses are easier.

FunCom needs to moderate the difficulty of the various dungeons, perhaps to add more variety to the trash mobs. The ironic thing is that the group dungeons are fun and have some variety and interesting mechanics, but the raid dungeons must be the most boring part of the game. They can be spiced up a little.

My main problem with endgame raiding and elite mobs is that only the Guardian is a viable tank for these situations. The Conqueror and Dark Templar fall far behind the Guardian for the purpose of tanking. The Guardian is superior in not one, but every single department when it comes to tanking. They have more hit points, they have faster hit point regeneration, they have higher invulnerabilities to all forms of physical and magical damage, and they have higher defence rating.

Conquerors and Dark Templars will not be selected for tanking while Guardians remain tanking on easy mode. This blackmails guilds to only raid when their Guardians are online. To make matters worse, Guardians tank much easier with a suit of armour dedicated to a particular damage type. This means that guilds have to wait for a specific Guardian to turn up for raids, or spend heaps making multiple sets of armour.

FunCom needs to break the monopoly of the Guardian for tanking and reduce the difference between the Soldier Classes. All Priest classes can heal equally well, all Rogue and Mage classes can dish out the damage, its just Soldier Classes that are not balanced. "Tier 1" raid dungeon mobs and bosses should be moderated so that ungeared tanks can do their jobs. The reason why they go to raid dungeons is to get geared up.

Another issue is with Gemmed items. Players realised fast enough that the most worthwhile gems to put in their armour is a physical damage gem. Any class that can use physical damage weapons can effectively treble their DPS with a full suit of gemmed armour. This lead to physical damage classes one-shotting almost everyone else in PvP. The result had many people despairing about the state of PvP, and must have lead to quite a number of people dropping their subscription.

In the middle of this was an exploit that allowed gems to be duplicated. FunCom did not stop the duping for two weeks, destroying the gem economy. It finally sealed the exploit but did nothing to dupers or the duped gems. I know of other games who would be on top of such a situation within days, and would roll back the servers and be prepared to ban hundreds of players for duping. FunCom showed that it either does not have the means or the will to take such strong measures to protect the interest of their player base.

Of course, PvP against fully gemmed players was a brief affair. They take 2 seconds to kill you, while you need 10 seconds or more to kill them. If there was no incentive to play the PvP minigames before, there was even less now. World PvP also left a bad taste in many people's mouths. All these might come to an end soon, as gems are being nerfed to the point of worthlessness as a temporary measure to ensure some semblence of balance before they introduce PvP experience points, levels, PvP gear and PvP Notoriety.

Arguably it is impossible to perfectly balance classes for PvP but with all the issues that FunCom has in their in-tray, they have barely started working on class balance. Hopefully with gems taken out of the picture, they can finally start working on class balance.

First, they allow victims of one-shotting to be marginalised by their inaction about gems and duping, then they will now marginalise those who benefited from gems and duping. I hope when all these issues are long forgotten, that their player base can grow again, but these memories are fresh, there will be a downward trend.

Currently the game is in the stage where people are quitting because their server populations are low. People usually start quitting when they dislike this or that aspect of the game. But when people quit because others are quitting, the domino effect of player loss can be quite serious. FunCom needs to stop the bleeding and fast. Buggy and exploitable Battle Keep Siege mechanics do not help. This is their centrepiece and it is not working.

My biggest worry is that FunCom has not shown that they have any masterplan for class balance for PvP or PvE. They have not demonstrated that they are in control of their game mechanics and are able to tweak them to balance the game. The temporary fix to gems is the case in point.

The only encouraging thing for me is that FunCom seems to be able to do low level content reasonably well. Leveling from 1 to 80 is quite enjoyable, and the low level dungeons are fun. As they slowly patch and improve their content up the levels, hopefully they would get to a point where they improve level 80 content.

i had the fantastic opportunity to see my favorite adored comedian in concert. wow, he was amazing. as funny as i had ever hoped. i laughed so hard, i cried. went with some great friends, and it was a great night out.

this was his stripped tour. needless to say, I am SOOO upset, we missed a QA after the concert. this picture was taken by a friend of mine the next night. we missed him by about 10 minutes. we were hot, tired, and i ended up working till 2am because of a deadline. worst timing ever.

that's not what i really want to write about, I really came away from his concert with wanting to talk to him, enlighten him, share my experience with yes, the EDDIE IZZARD. if I have had the chance, what question would I ask him??? why would he care what I thought?

here is what concerned me from his stand-up act... he talked a ton about Christianity and his doubts and questions/disbeliefs. he wants to empower everyone that we can do great things, but without God. how can that be? 6 years ago, i would have been right there with him, now... not so much.

he is missing out on really trying to understand who God is and who he can be in his heart. i guess, I felt sadness for him and wondered if I (little me) could change his heart, because i have feel obligated to help him and i have walked this similar path of doubt. i felt the same way he does for probably 17 years. i live with a born englishman, who feels very similar. i see the doubt, sarcasm, and hypocrisy daily and I see the sadness and the weight of having to take on so much as an individual and having little or no hope/faith of a savior to take away the pain. it deeply hurts me to hear eddie izzard speak so directly to me. it went straight to my heart. i know, I saw my family in his words, maybe I am wanting to help them see God?

from what I experienced just being in England this Spring, it seems like England and Europe have mostly put God on the side...as izzard has said in one of his routines... 'christianity is kind of a hobby.' we were just in England and I saw it with my own eyes. And, those people that have made God a priority... they are the outsiders and few people understand them. where did they get lost?

one of my thoughts that I may share with mr. izzard via email might be for him to download some sermons from a great church that changed my feelings. my friends told me 'give it one month, when I doubted'. it took two visits to the church and it hit me deeply on father's day in 2004. Try out listening to pod casts of Kelly Williams at www.vanguardchurch.org. In one of our sermons, our pastor talked of our church has sometimes been known as the 'last outpost' before people give up on God, maybe Vanguard could soften the great Eddie Izzard's heart to take the challenge to at least get to know God, then decide on his path. i know it has soften my family's heart and I continue to pray and continue to lead my life as God has instructed me, which is difficult to know what he wants vs. what I think he wants.

maybe eddie will find this post. thank goodness, he is a MAC lover, as I am. sounds like he can move around the internet pretty well

maybe I can get through to the great eddie izzard via email and pray. crazy, you may say... nothing is impossible with God on our side. lord, do I know this!

Electronic music reached the US in a whole new level this past weekend as the innovative DJ Martijn ten Velden dropped his funky, electric beats for an ecstatic crowd on Saturday August 16^th at the Vanguard in Hollywood.

Hailing from Haarlem, Holland, the legendaryDJ/producer has been recognized as a leading icon in the electronic music scene for his thumping, twisted and innovative house beats known to shake the dance floors in cities around the world including London, Paris, Dubai, Barcelona, and now, Los Angeles. Although this was his first North American tour to date, Martijn instantly connected with the crowds, injecting his cutting-edge remixes throughout the venue. His explosive set included the deep and uplifting house track Gabe O, “Amnesia” and Shapelifters, “The Chime” which has become a dance anthem for house fans worldwide. Known for his stellar sets filled with his energetic vibe, this chart-topping trendsetter truly connects and is in harmony with his audience throughout the night, smiling and grooving with every seamless, minimal house beat. Without a doubt one of the most enthusiastic DJ’s you’ll ever experience, Martijn has made an impressive landing in the US and is an infectious force you won’t want to miss.

Check myspace.com/martijntenvelden for more information on his upcoming shows.

- Review by Debbie Lazo

          Since I haven’t been a high level crafter until recently, I will have to go from memory.  As I recall the original system for the rare, high level recipes was from adventuring drops.  These recipes were tradeable.  This system was considered unfair because players didn’t have to do any work to get recipes, just dish out some dough.  Additionally, players that did not prefer to adventure, didn’t have the opportunity to get their own recipes.  Consequently, we were presented with the Sigil system and the previous system was abolished.  Originally, Sigils were tradeable between players.  Once again, this was deemed to be unfair.  I would guess that the reasoning would be that it was too easy to get Sigils.  So that takes us to the current system in which Sigils are no longer tradeable.   For those who do not know, Sigils can only be gotten from doing grade “A” batches.  Every time a player turns in a Tier 4 + grade “A” batch, they have a “chance” to get a silver Sigil.  Well, I’m sorry, but not only is that not good enough, it’s also even more unfair than any of the other previous systems.  In my circumstance, I have gotten a grand total of 9 silver sigils and my character is on the verge of getting level 50.  I would call that the dirty end of the stick.  That’s pretty rotten, but I have a feeling that there are plenty of other players have been just as unlucky as myself.  If I wanted to rely on “lady luck” I would visit a casino instead of playing Vanguard.

          So what should be done?  Firstly, don’t go changing the system again.  People really get fed up when every time they turn around, the rules have totally changed… again.  What I suggest is that in addition to the current system, players should be given an alternative opportunity to gain their recipes.  How about offering a separate quest for each rare, high level recipe?  But we don’t want it to be too easy do we?  Therefore, require the players to reach a certain amount of faction, let’s just say 7,500, before they get access to the quests.  Still too easy?  Fine, then only allow certain recipes to be available from one of the three factions.

                    My second concern was the fact that crafted gear does not noticeably outperform crafted gear.  And why shouldn’t it?  We’ve worked our asses off spending hours upon hours grinding just so that we can get the opportunity to create an item that probably won’t sell at any appropriate price.  And why would anyone pay more for gear, when they are able to quest an entire set of gear within a few sessions?  Take the bounty hunter quest for instance.  Most adventurers are able do complete all the quests in this series alone, with the exception of the last two missions.  I know that the last time I did this quest it took me one evening.  For the last two fights, I had two friends help me finish it out and the whole thing was over within two hours.  I do think that these types of quests are fun and great for the game.  My opinion is that crafted gear should always be a cut above quested gear.  Top end raid gear should be greatest of all.

          My last concern was the fact that crafting is extremely grindy and has no guarantees that all the hard work will pay off.  Call me sick, but I don’t mind crafting being grindy.  I don’t want just any player to be able to grind to level 50.  However, if they put in the hard work to get there and do all the factioning, they should be rewarded.  There needs to be a level playing field here and there just isn’t.  Worse than that, if your fortune is poor, crafting can become a very bitter experience.

          One thing that has changed for me and Vanguard is that I’m no longer willing to sit by silent and not do my part to help make this game as great as it can be.  I’m beginning to see that the developers at Sony need bloggers and podcasters to get the feedback they need to make the game better.  For that reason, I plan to continue blogging about such things and apologize to those that have read in the past for my hiatus.

I know a lot of people have been hearing the whispers lately. There's a rumor going around that Vanguard isn't quite so bad anymore. Yes, the badly designed Everquest clone from SOE, which failed much harder than I ever could have hoped, is apparently playable now. Or at least close to it.

MMORPG.com recently posted an article saying the same thing:

...I have to say that Vanguard ran 100 percent better then the game I had played earlier. I found out quickly that there were still things I didn't like about the game, but there were so many more that I did like. After playing World of Warcraft for the past year or so, this game felt like a fresh burst of air in the MMO space. Not that WoW Is a bad game mind you, but Vanguard felt like a real and open world.

Among the issues I have with the game, the biggest is the character models. They all felt, and still feel to me, generic and ugly. Granted ,I have not tried out all of the races and the various customization you can do with them, but honestly the character models are my biggest complaint. Luckily for me, the developers at SOE have stated that new models are on the way and should be implemented this year. Part of the reason the models are so odd to me is that most of the original customization was ripped out of the game; the devs do promise that it will be put back in with the release of the new models.

The things I do like about the game out weigh the weaknesses in every way. Often liking or disliking a game is a matter of balance; in this case the balance tilts towards the area of fun. The game has a great and wide open world. As you ride through Vanguard's world of Telon, you feel like you can go anywhere. You don't feel boxed in, like you are in a zone made for a specific purpose. Although I'm not too fond of the character models, the view in Vanguard is gorgeous. You can see clouds building up for a summer storm; you can view animals running up a path as you ride down in to the valley. The view looks great an the world feels lived in. Telon doesn't feel like a generically themed fantasy area. The world has a history and it is written in every rock and abandoned ruin you come across.

And apparently they're offering up a free month to old subscribers. If you're uploading for re-installing an 18 GB game, you might want to give it another try.

- Fungal Abomination+ Torlaxis, puis continuer la Griffon Quest à OT
- Cull 3, à choper à Rahz Inkur
- Ding 50 en Blacksmith
- Ultra Light Cape aka *levitate cape*, à choper à Dragon's Backbone
- Feline Veil, un peu de faction à grinder à River Valley
- Raids à APW
- Ding 50 avec mon disciple
- Continuer mon ranger
- Choisir des classes de craft pour ces 2 derniers
- Farmer du platinum coin pour les montures raciales
- ...

... il y a du boulot !!!!

Stay safe Telonians

-M-O-R-R-A-

Sigil's official descritption

Après de multiples tentatives pour me trouver un alt à mon goût (Necro, Sorcerer, Psionist, ...), la classe de disciple, unique dans le monde du mmorpg, m'a convaincue.

Chaque classe de Vanguard me parait intéressante et, si j'avais le temps, j'en monterai une de chaque au 50 pour en connaitre à fond les spécialités. Malheureusement, je n'ai pas le temps suffisant pour accomplir cet exploit et je me focus donc sur une.

Dès les débuts avec cet alt, j'ai senti que cela irai comme sur des roulettes. Presque hybride healer/melee dps, le disc est d'une puissance tranquille et peut affronter plusieurs adversaires aisément. Gros avantage dès le level 14, le Feign Death vient faciliter encore plus la tâche si la situation part vraiment en sucette.
Niveau buffs, c'est le strict minimum comparé aux autres classes. Pour le moment, seulement deux sont dans mes abilities. Cela dit, je peux booster mes stats et celle de mes compagnons durant les combats grâce aux Harmonious Bonds, ainsi qu'aux Endowments (série précise de coups qui active un buff).
Entre BM et Disc, le solo a l'air plus facile du coté du maitre des arts martiaux car ce dernier peut porter du medium armor (je me souviens de Nel' qui pestait avec son BM pour le solo). J'encaisse pas trop mal les coups et les instants-heal Jin sont vraiment efficaces. Suivis directement par un short-heal, la mort est presque impossible.

Niveaux stats, je focus principalement sur VIT-STR, et de temps à autre WIS-DEX. Sur les forums, deux types de disc se dégagent. Soit un dps, orienté STR-DEX, soit un healer pur, WIS-INT-VIT. Pour l'équipement, il sera bon de prévoir 2 sets différents selon les situations. Le solo requiert plus de dps tandis qu'en groupe, les heals doivent être assuré, même en back-up.
Et puis ce qui m'a attiré vers cette classe, c'est son style de combat. Les postures, les flying kicks, balayages et autres technique du dragon me plaisent énormément et différent des classes plus typiques de combat. Le look des armes lui sied particulièrement : poings américains, épée d'art martiaux, hallebarde de combat,... Par contre, les vêtements sont moins en harmonie. Torse nu avec un monstrueux tatouage de dragon (Haelifur, s'il vous plait) et des pants amples, ce serait idéal !!! Et limite avec un bandana comme helm =)

Bref, si vous voulez être dépaysé avec un classe intéressante et puissante, optez Disciple (et si le heal vous effraie, direction Monk)

Maintenant 24, je vais continuer de le monter gentiment jusqu'au 50. Rien de plus sympa que d'avoir au moins 2 classes au niveau ultime et ce serait une première pour moi dans les mmorpgs !

Ω

Deux nouveaux panoramas cette semaine, avec des vues 360° à Rahz Inkur et Hathor Zhi...

Stay Geek y'all

-M-O-R-R-A-

A massively multiplayer online game (also called MMOG or simply MMO) is a video game which is capable of supporting hundreds or thousands of players simultaneously.

The cool part about MMO's is the persistant universe and the people you meet while you are logged in. The bad part is the people you meet when you are logged in.

To give you a back story, I've been playing MMO's for an extremely long time. I'm not one of those people who will whip out their gaming experience penises and say "Oh well I was playing such and such when it was in pre-alpha beta". I don't care. I've been playing video games since the Intellivision.

My first MMO was The Realm, and the second... which pretty much destroyed my job at the time, was Everquest. And since my best friend at the time had dragged me into this world, I had an anchor to keep playing as much as possible and to keep my level as high as his. See, that's how they keep you playing once you subscribe. You wouldn't want your friend's level penis to be bigger than yours!

But I digress...

I've played all of the major pay to play MMO's that have been out since Everquest including Anarchy Online, Star Wars Galaxies, City of Heroes/Villains, WoW, Everquest 2, Planetside, Vanguard... just to name a few.

I'm not going to tell you what my current game is as I don't want to start a flame war, because my blog is so popular it might bring down the internets. Lets just say I'm playing one of the many current MMO's that deal with a fantasy theme of killing dragons, skeletons and lepers.

So last night I was invited to join a group that was going to an instanced area. We had a smaller group but we were confident we would prevail. We had a tank, a healer, a caster, and a DPS (me). The healer was the person who invited me to the group and was basically in charge of what we were doing. The problem is, Tanks are used to being "in charge" and pulling the monsters to the group. The tank apparently didn't like being told what to do, he was also a major douchebag.

As soon as I joined he started talking about his armor, he kept hot linking armor pieces and weapons in the group chat window. "Oh, yeah check this out. I get .9 attack speed on this and .7 if I use such-and-such ability." "Look at all my high-end gear" "I could even out DPS you" (He was speaking to me at the time, a tank telling a major DPS class that he can out DPS him is a total fabrication).

During the whole time we were fighting he continually went on and on about how much better he was than anyone else there. How he had an alt for all of our classes and they were all equipped so much better and if we were all equipped like his alts we would be going through the instance at lightning speed. The final straw for me was when he did a bad pull (basically pulling way more monsters than we can fight) and then blamed it on the healer.

"Dude, what's up with your heals, they suck!"

I finally let loose.

"Look, asshole, if you would stop typing and actually pull like a decent tank we wouldn't have wiped. Now stop waving your internet penis around and get to pulling like someone who knows what they are doing. Seriously, are you finished? There might be someone else here who wants to talk constantly about himself."

The dude was obviously pissed, he pulled again but pulled way too many and then did a trick to refocus the monsters attack on me. Since I was such a high damage dealer it wasn't hard to aggro the monsters. So I died, and he laughed and said "If you had my DPS equipment you would have lived." By this point I had lost too much and gained to little to keep going.

Since we were almost done with the instance the healer of the group and I devised a plan.

When the tank went to pull more monsters again, the leader kicked him from the group and I evaced (ported to a safe part of the zone) leaving him alone with the 6 or 7 monsters that he pulled. We didn't hang around to watch the carnage, but I'm pretty sure it was an epic massacre.

While I was finishing my play time and was running around selling and buying supplies I was spammed with hate tells and complaints from the tank.

"You wait *expletive deleted* I'm gonna *expletive deleted* your *expletive deleted* in the *expletive deleted* *expletive deleted* *expletive deleted*. All my alts are way better than your *expletive deleted* *expletive deleted*, you *expletive deleted*. I'm gonna petition your *expletive deleted* and get you banned, *expletive deleted*."

I told him to go for it then I did an /ignore.

Tanks shouldn't act like that. They should be the meatshield for the group, taking all the damage and keeping their mouths shut except for when they announce that they are pulling a monster.

The title of the blog is a generalization about tanks, but not all tanks are douchebags. I, myself, have a high level tank who I've been playing for a considerable amount of time. I consider myself to be one of the best tanks in the game and have been commended on many occasions on how good of a tank I was. I've PVP'd higher level tanks and even DPS and won several times. I have such great armor...

Oh, wait, sorry I'll put my internet penis away now.

I think Benjamin Graham was a good thinker and had a lot of patience. That is the reason why he has a student who loves him (Warren Buffet) and we find deep thinkers like John Bogle also quoting him. John Bogle is of course, the founder of Vanguard Funds and the father of Index funds.

When Bogle says, you listen! His 3 books - 2 on mutual funds and one on Investing are all worth reading - and they are inexpensive too. I urge all of you to go and buy the book, and far more importantly read them :)

Just as an aside - I keep telling people that to lose weight you must go to a gym regularly (Ok i know 90% of your weight is a function of what you eat, and only 10% depends on your work out, but...). Many people I know promptly join a gym - and go there once a week, if at all!

I know a gym owner - she has 5 gyms in Mumbai. She is 5' 6" and weighs about 90kg.

My argument still stands - buy a book if you will read it, join a gym if you will go. This gym owner is proof that even OWNING a gym is not enough, forget JOINING A GYM. So if you buy the Bogle books keep reading it - just buying is easy!

Et après quelques semaines au sein de cette nouvelle guilde, voilà notre promotion en tant que membre à part entière acceptée ! Tout d'abord Neldar il y a déjà quelques jours.

Puis dimanche soir, au Guild Meeting hebdomadaire, je me suis rendu à notre superbe Guild Hall à Dornal Coast (pas loin de chez moi...). Belteyn, notre leader, a prononcé mon intronisation et m'a fait prêter le serment du Oath of Binding, devant une dizaine de nos guildmates. Ce côté roleplay donne vraiment encore plus d'attachement à cette guilde qui, je pense, va rester notre "home sweet home" pour encore un bon moment !

Raids à APW, Griffon Questline, runs à RI-NN-Teha', gathering ou crafting sessions, le temps est venu de passer à la vitesse supérieure sur Telon et se forger encore plus de réputation et continuer notre progression.
C'est loin d'être fini...

!!! cheers for Lux Arcana !!!

-M-O-R-R-A-

MP3 Greg Laswell - Days Go On
MP3 Greg Laswell - The One I Love
Myspace: Greg Laswell
Website: Greg Laswell

Compra "Three Flights From Alto Nido": iTunes | Amazon

Der liebe Erling hat sich wieder zu Wort gemeldet und neue tolle Versprechungen zu AoC geliefert.

Eines Tages wird es ein Kingship Feature geben wo wirklich 100te von Spielern gegeneinander antreten werden, das UI wird überarbeitet und die Grafikengine modernisiert.

Es ist wirklich lachhaft, zu diesem Zeitpunkt schon wieder neue Versprechungen zu machen, ohne die alten erfüllt zu haben. Aber das scheint bei Funcom nun die Regel zu sein.

Die Xbox 360 Version soll laut Ellingsen übrigens Ende 2009 erscheinen. Und was sagt uns das? Es wurde noch keine Zeile Code für die Xbox-Version geschrieben. Ohne hier den großen Nostradamus zu geben sag ich mal, es wird niemals eine Xbox Version geben.

Eidos, der Publisher von AoC, hat es übrigens tunlichst vermieden, AoC auf der E3 zu präsentieren und ist ansonsten auch sehr zurückhaltend mit dem Produkt umgegangen. Dagegen zeigt SOE z.B. einen Vanguard Live Raid, wer hätte das vor einem Jahr gedacht :)

Ich bin ja mal gespannt, was Funcom uns in näherer Zukunft noch so alles auftischen wird, insofern

stay tuned...

My time in WOW did not last very long. It was fun for the first 10 levels or so, and then turned into a very boring, slow, tedious grind. But it wasn't the combat grind, or the auction house grind, or the crafting grind that finally did WOW in for me. No, what killed WOW for me was spending nearly an hour just traveling from one place to another to turn in a quest, and then back again. In short, what murdered WOW for me was TRAVEL TIME.

Now, Travel Time in WOW is really not beyond the pale compared to other MMORPGs. One strange element to the game is that there is no sprint or burst run, which I find exceedingly odd. Most charactes move at a rate that could be characterized as a "fast walk," and even mounts only move you as fast as what COH would call a "sprint."  It will take you many minutes, even mounted, to get from point A to point B... usually through an area full of grey cons that holds not one feature of current (i.e., your level) interest. The monotony and tediousness of WOW travel is, I would say, typical of MMORPGs rather than unusual, and they do provide "flying mount" points to allowyou to move from point A to B more rapidly... but it's not instantaneous, and flying a long distance with bats = time to go use the powder room or have a snack (it takes many minutes, though of course is much faster than running).

The problem WOW had, at least from my end, was that at the same time as I was playing it, I was still playing COH... and I am a long-time vet of COH. Starting at 14th level in COH, your character can (and mine always do) get a "travel power." These include Flight, which is slow but essentially risk-free; SuperJump which is much faster but entails risk (each time you "touch down" in a zone your level or higher there is a chance you might land next to some aggro spawns -- though it's not hard to avoid them); Superspeed, which is a very fast travel mode but has no vertical ability, annoying in the zones with high vertical relief, of which there are many; and Teleport, which is the fastest mode and just as safe as flying (if you teleport up in the air) but annoying in that it requires constant clicking. The slowest of these travel modes, flight, will move you roughly as fast as the fastest possible travel mode in WOW (flying transport mounts).

In general, I select SuperJump as my travel power... it has no annoying features (like being unable to scale vertical surfaces), it's quite fast (equivalent to roughly 70 mph), and it's a lot of fun to hop around from roof to roof. The speed and convenience of SuperJump has a huge impact on my gameplay. From the point where I receive a mission, it's usually less than a minute to get to the mission door and start the mission. Contrast this with over an hour a few times in WOW. In short, once you get to 14th level, the amount of "travel time sink" you are faced with is minimal -- nearly non-existent. By 30th level, when your SuperJump power has gotten faster, you can jump longer and higher between "touch downs", and you have probably enhanced it with a Jump enhancer to make it even better, you are zooming around the COH zones and getting to missions really quickly. Add to that the "cell phone" feature once you do a few missions for a contact, and you can literally spend an hour in COH doing 3 20-minute missions, with only seconds of down-time between them, if you so choose.

And of course, when I am in the mood for missions rather than travel, I do indeed so choose.

Now, it is often objected by folks who either like travel itself, or at least like the "realism" that travel brings to a game, that not having long-term travel can hinder certain elements of the game. For example, rapid-fire travel makes the world feel smaller. I don't find this to be the case in COH, but part of that is due to the fact that the world is limited to a huge city. Still, the city does not feel small... it's clearly as large as all 5 buroughs of NYC put together. Some of the zones can be many miles across (Independence Port is 2.5 miles long and over a mile wide, for instance). And yet, travel between zones is instantaneous (on the metro), and travel within a zone is very quick (with Flight, Superspeed, etc). I think the reason the city in COH feels large is because (a) the zones are large, and you still have to travel through them... the sense that you are moving FAST, helps you feel like you are also moving a LONG DISTANCE, and (b) there are lots of zones (30 or so), which makes you realize how huge the city really is once you get a feel for it.  I think COH has hit on the right balance of travel options to give players a good feel for the city size, while still minimizing the amount of time wasted in mindless (and not-fun) travel.

A second issue with speedy travel powers is that players might tend not to explore. There are often "Easter eggs" hidden in the landscape, and if you can just fly over it in 2 minutes, will you ever find them? In my experience this is not an issue in COH. Indeed, COH has 122 "exploration badges" that can be located. Many of these are in places that have no obvious physical features -- instead being something like a normal-looking rooftop that just so happens to be the sight of a battle years ago between Statesman and Lord Recluse. There may be no graphical feature to distinguish it, but if you land on the roof or touch it in the right spot, you get a badge. Not only have the players found all 122 of these badges collectively, but many players have earned them all. My main character, Comet Flare, has has SuperJump since level 14, and yet, so far, she has 89 exploration badges to date... and most of the remaining ones are in zones that she is not a high enough level to explore safely yet. And Comet is by no means one of the highest badge collectors on my SuperGroup (guild), let alone my server. Indeed whole websites have sprung up like "badge-hunter.com" to take care of this for players and help them keep track of what badges they have earned, and which ones are left to earn. The history badges (of which Comet has 15 out of 17, again missing ones she is not a high enough level for yet), also require you to find specific spots in the city, and this time to click on plaques that bring up a popup window telling you some little tidbit about the history of the COH world.

What I have found from this experience is that far from discouraging players, including myself, from finding the "Easter eggs" in the world, giving me a convenient means of travel has given me a reason to look for them. Because the REST of my time is not being wasted on travel, I have time to just hop around the city (or fly around it, or teleport around it) looking for interesting spots. And I would say I have found just about every cool spot in just about ever zone in COH (Fraktal, my main, has found more spots, as a level 50, but I wasn't using badge hunter when I played her, and badges hadn't been implemented yet when she found some of the spots).

In the end, one thing I have definitely concluded from my joint WOW-COH experience is that I can no longer stomach the slow, plodding forms of travel most MMORPGs force upon their players. COH has spoiled me, by showing me that not only can travel be fun and quick in a game, but the things that people generally claim travel would ruin, have not been ruined in COH, but been enhanced. The world does not seems mall. The Easter eggs are still found by many players (indeed, finding them is a hobby to most of us). And I have not missed out on one drop of content. On the contrary, I have experienced it ALL, because I can get right to it without having to waste any time.

I don't think I'll be able to play any future MMORPGs unless they are at least as good with travel as COH is. I am hoping Champions Online will be... but I'm not sure if any other game will.