Sony-online-entertainment | Dragon*Con MMO

Yeah, I know. We haven’t been as diligent as we should be in updating the site with the latest and greatest news in MMO land. On the other hand, we’re too busy playing them to write much.

In preparation for our next SnarkCast and because Krystalle can be, at times, a moderating influence on me, I have prepared a Christmas “Naughty or Nice?” list of stories, people, and things that have happened in the past year. Don’t expect anything even remotely “correct” or “political”.

Nice
World of Warcraft’s 3.3 patch
The new content is nice, but the LFG tool has made dungeon groups fun again. I don’t think I’ve seen a wait time longer than 10 minutes for a dungeon. I love to bag on WoW on the SnarkCast, but I must give credit where it is due. 3.3 has me playing again… a lot.

Fallen Earth

The folks at Fallen Earth have come up with a rather nifty game set in a Post Apocalyptic American Southwest. (Grand Canyon, to be specific) If you’re in the mood to check out a game that departs from the average fantasy-based WoW clone, I highly recommend this one. It’s from a small, independent studio so there are some warts in the game, but the community is tight-knit and the in-game customer service staff is responsive. Enjoy.

Sony Online Entertainment

SOE has a lot going on. There is a new EQ expansion out there (16!!!), more EQII content on the way, and Free Realms has gotten off to a very good start. That, and Brenlo and the gang are lots of fun to hang out with at Dragon*Con.

Ok, enough of the syrupy sweet, here comes the “coal in the stocking”…

Naughty
Aion

A craptacular grindfest which is packaged in eye candy is still a craptacular grindfest. The fact that NCSoft, a studio which seems all-too-eager to pull the plug on MMO’s that don’t make enough money for them, is behind it leads me to believe that this title won’t have much staying power. (Tabula Rasa, anyone?)

MMO’s which are basically LAN-party sized games with a giant chat lobby.

Ok, so it isn’t Guild Wars’ fault that so many new games are adopting this approach, but for the love of Curt Schilling, can we stop calling games that are chat lobbies for 5-10 player “dungeons” MMORPGs? Raiding Temple of Veeshan with 300 players is Massive. Raiding Molten Core with 40 players is Massive. Sitting in a chat lobby until you can mash together a 5 man group in order to run a dungeon is NOT Massive. If you can’t get out of the quest hub and explore the world, it’s not an MMO. If “the world” is instanced to the point that you have zero chance of randomly encountering another player in it, it is not an MMO. It can still be a great game, but call it something else.

Champions Online

Ok, so I was super stoked about buying this game. So much so that I got the 6 month subscription (thus guaranteeing me a place in the Star Trek Online beta, which I am currently enjoying) I played it for about a week, then realized… Grind-tacular snorefest. The comic book style graphics are interesting and the game has a world of promise, but do us all a favor. Reduce the level cap by half and cram what content you have into those levels. Gaps in content make levelling an endless chore. If I wanted that, I’d have stayed in Everquest. I hope Star Trek Online is listening…

As always, this is just my opinion. I can’t help it that I’m right.

Merry Christmas!

-Grim

P.S. as an added bonus, and because I’ve mentioned her in just about every SnarkCast we’ve done, here’s a Christmas pic of Samantha.

Thanks so much to all of the fans who came out to see us at Dragon*Con this year. We are still in the process of braindumping and writing “after action reports” so that we retain all of the information and lessons that we have learned at this year’s convention. Some highlights.

We WTFPWNED! the old Thriller Dance record set at William & Mary (Bill and Buffy) University. They had just over 200 people dancing to Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Dragon*Con had over 900.

Comic-Con took the record for largest charity blood drive from us…briefly. We retook the record with over 1900 units of blood donated. DC*MMO’s own “Horde vs. Alliance” blood drive saw 250 donors step up and bleed for a good cause. My most sincere thanks to everyone who gave. (even if it did make you a cheap drunk for the rest of the weekend… Don’t think we didn’t notice.)

50 panels and events on the MMO track this year, and hardly a “bomb scare” in the bunch. Thank you to our guests and panelists for making this year’s DC*MMO track such a success.

Felicia Day is amazingly cool, and apparently had a really good time at Dragon*Con. Thank you Felicia, and thank you fans for showing her a good time this year. Felicia screened all of seasons 1 and 2 as well as the first episode of season 3 which debuted last week just before the convention started.

Thank you Funcom for throwing a killer party on Friday night!

Thank you Sony Online Entertainment for throwing a killer… well… all day Sunday!

Thank you CCP, Cartoon Network, Wardog Studios, Artix Entertainment, Hi-Rez Studios, Massively.com, and WoW.com for hosting excellent panels and events for us. We look forward to working with you again next year.

Thank you, WoWTCGLoot.com, NCSoft, iZ3D, and Turbine for donating prizes for us to give away this year.

Most of all, thank you to my staff of unpaid volunteers who busted their humps for me all year long in order to pull this weekend off.

My assistant directors, Trevor Legg and Krystalle Voecks. I could not have done this without you two by my side to keep me sane and remind me of all of the things that could have slipped through the cracks. Trevor’s ideas and ability to think creatively (I hate the term “outside the box”) and Krystalle’s organizational skills and industry knowledge were both absolutely essential to our success. I thank you both.

To the rest of the gang, Michael McGreevy, Rafe Brox, Ian Wickenkamp (I didn’t forget you this year!!!), Jonna Crane, Doug Keller, Scott Blanks, Jay & Sheryl Sturrock, Sam Levine (Happy Birthday!) and all of the folks who stuck around and chipped in to help us even though they didn’t have to… You have my thanks, and that doesn’t even begin to cover it. I put you guys through a pretty brutal wringer this year, and you all came through shining brightly. Rest well, you have earned it.

Planning for Dragon*Con 2010 starts next week.

-Grim

Everquest II Extended with the Dragon*Con MMORPG track

Season’s Greetings from DC*MMO

Another year has come and gone – The 2009 DC*MMO Wrapup Post

Oh, and another sign that we’re getting close…

Actual Dragon*Con MMO News!!!