Keith Lord - Online Portfolio

So a few weeks back Ryan (GreyDragon) popped up on MSN and asked me and Denis (amon-re) if we would be interested in interning at Cyan, so we said yes.
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I’ve been contemplating getting Guild Wars for a while now, the prospect of an online game with no monthly fee appealed to me greatly. Jen has been looking for a new game to play herself and had been looking at Guild Wars too, so we decided to get a copy (each) so that we could play together.
I have been playing World of Warcraft since it pretty much came out, so it was natural that I would be comparing the two games as I played. Sure enough I was noting which elements in WoW should be in GW (the ability to jump for one, and the less restrictive terrain WoW has), I also noted which elements from Guild Wars should be in WoW (mission map for example).
Movement was a huge issue for me in GW to start off with, I couldn’t get my avatar to move when I use the mouse buttons, sometimes it would work other times it wouldn’t. It was only when I discovered that I need to press the right mouse button before applying the left that things got easier and sure enough with several days I play I have gotten pretty comfortable with the game mechanisms.

It has been a pretty enjoyable game, some of the environments are really nice, one of the things about WoW is how “Disney-like” the environments can be, if they were a little more realistic bit more graphic intensive then that would be cool, I can see why they are not however when bandwidth and lag is taken into consideration. Debating whether to purchase the expansion packs for Guild Wars, and whether to get Guild Wars 2 when it is released.

I am going to take a moment to show off my geek colours.

I was browsing MYSTCommunity today and I discovered a thread by “MYSTRIVEN” in which a replica of the Bahro Tablet from Myst V End of Ages had been created.

I was very impressed with the work, I’ve worked on a few replica projects myself for Myst, none of which ever saw the light of day, but seeing this does make me want to go back and finish them.

You know of Godwins law right? The whole thing about if an argument goes on long enough at some point Hitler and the whole Nazi thing will be brought up and the person who envokes this “automatically looses the argument”.

I tend to think of the whole “its a game” thing as a variation on Godwins Law. It has come up alot lately in the last 2 months on the Uru Live forums and DRC forums. An argument will be going on, there will be hurt feelings and someone will throw out the line “its a game”. Now in my opinion the person or persons who through that line out automatically loose any standing they had in the discussion or argument. Why? Because it indicates to me that they just don’t get it, they don’t understand that no…to some people its not just a game.

I think I am going to have a problem with Uru Live, I am one of those people who complain about the lack of things to do, much to the annoyance of others.

Content
I have been playing Uru for 4 years now of the same content (not including the expansion packs). So after all that time, the old content, is really not very interesting infact there are some places I actually dispise going to. So the “Preview” launches with the same old stuff, the city is closed up yet again. Over the days they city is being opened up again and some of the missing items being replaced in to the hoods etc. I think what annoys me about this is passing the old content off as new, I mean I can understand wanting to draw in and keep new visitors but what of the old ones to whom all this is old hat and dull?
Ah yes they released a couple of new things, new Relto Pages, Shirt and Circle Stones and Eder Delin.
Now don’t get me wrong the new stuff is nice, but short lived, you pick up the pages they’re done, you pick up the shirt and it’s done, you complete an age that you have played several thousand times and get the stone ring segements and you’re done, you go back to a place you don’t like to get the sparklie and you get the Calendar Rose and thats done (for now I expect). I haven’t timed myself but I think I can complete the original Uru content in about an hour. Now some would say well pace yourself take you’re time going through and getting the stones and poles. To which I say see above about my views on the older content, I am not gonna slowly wander through stuff I no longer enjoy, I’m going to do it quick and get it done (like Matthew does when we’re eating something he doesn’t like).
So Delin right, well you’re in there an hour or 2 working with others to get the door open and when it’s done the Age is done. I still go there to walk around but I couldn’t spend 3 hours doing that.

See here is the thing, when I play World of Warcraft I spend hours on there playing, some times its a couple some times it’s an entire day. I can do this happily as there is plenty for me to do, I have quests I can do, I have new area’s I can explore, there are new items I can get hold of. I can spend my weekend playing this game and it feels like it’s worth it, it keeps me entertained.
At the moment Uru just isn’t doing this, ok so technically we are not paying for Uru at the moment, but I don’t expect this to magically change on the 15th. There just isn’t enough to keep me interested or keep me in playing for long, there are other factors to Uru of course;

Socializing/Community
It’s an MMO so there are other people there, and in the past I have been quite happy to get in there, meet new people and do some hood surfing and what not.
These days I really am not one for talking to people in the cavern, after the liaison fiasco and other incidents I’ve felt really quite appalled with the actions of some, esspecially the ones who should know better, this isn’t to say I’m an angel myself because I’m not. But the whole thing has left me feeling like I don’t really trust anyone and inturn it makes me not want to approach them. There are a few people who I would happily talk to however, I guess thats one thing about the community, it can fool you into thinking you have alot of friends, but when it comes down to it, how many will be loyal? How many genuinely care and how many hang around for the “popularity” thing and what not?

Story
So the DRC are back, thats good right? Sharpers coming back thats good right (for some people)?
I guess so, I am finding it very difficult to be interested in the story and I wish I knew why. Is it the three years of lack of story? Is it the bad fan stories that have blown up (I know these have put me off fan stories myself)? Perhaps that’s it, Uru is about us being in the story and what not…but if I don’t like fan stories then is that why I am not liking the official story?
Everyone is getting their knickers in a twist that Sharpers back, and I am sitting here feeling like “so what”, thats not right.

They want this game to work for old players and new players, casual players and non casual players. To do this you need a balance between these aspects and as it is, I don’t see the balance, things need to pick up and start happening.

It’s kinda sad I feel this way about it all really, perhaps I should leave it for a couple of months to a year come back when things have had a chance to build up some.

[edit] just a note, the traitor is in reference to myself.

No it is not some sort of venereal disease caught from freaky little gnomes.

Blizzard released the Cinematic Trailer for the upcoming expansion back on the World of Warcraft site. I had seen this trailer a while ago after someone posted a video of it on YouTube, the video was from some game event with a live choir singing over the trailer that was being shown in the background. Anyway to the point, it looked damn nifty even if the video was of poor quality, but with Blizz releasing a HD version of the trailer I got to take a better look and damn, that is a freaking nice trailer.

We are definatly loving the sheeping and murloc frames.

Soul Kerfuffle posted an excellent entry yesterday written by a friend of his about over coming an addiction to World of Warcraft. Not surprisingly this kind of issue has affected alot of people who also play the game (And some UO players too).

Thankfully I can say safely I do not have this problem myself (Oh denial he has a problem). I am a casual player its taken me 2 years or so to get to level 47 (mind you I have about 8 other characters and have taken time out from the game).

As some of you know I mentioned about being interviewed the other day and well here is what its for (stolen from DJC):

Daniel Terdiman recently interviewed Ron Meiners, Josh “Vortmax” Draper, Eleri Hamilton and DJC’s own Keith “Tweek” Lord about Uru Lives return, Beta Testing and GameTap.

The Article;

• CNET News - Fans celebrate rebirth of ‘dead’ online game

I believe I saw a screenshot to the new Family Guy game a while ago but I cannot be sure, however Robert over at Destructoid has posted a selection of new screenshots from the upcoming game.

I am not usually a fan of games made from popular cartoons, my experience with The Simpsons games left a sour taste in my mouth for the most part. However I am a huge fan of family guy and if the game contains a fraction of the genius thats found in the cartoon I expect I would enjoy it. Of course whether the shows genius outweights the bad points of the game remains to be seen, like alot of games in this style it seems to me that the creators skimp on graphics due to the nature of the game which often results in blurred and stretched textures and poor looking characters.

Its been years in the making, and when it arrived it didn’t get the look in it deserved. Now CyanWorlds has partnered up with Turner to bring Uru Live back once again.

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So I have been thinking of upgrading the old DJC forums. The problem is going from v1.3.1 to v2+, means you need to completely rewrite the skin.

Seems they are relying on CSS sheets more in the newer versions which is nice, made skinning a lot easier. Still not brilliant though and trying to remember what effects what on a forum that has so many pages causes headaches. I did have to dive into the root HTML files and add some new elements in order to get what I wanted.

So the new forum skin looks ok, I might write a better skin later but its no longer at the top of my “to do” list. Seems more integrated with the new site build too which is nice, there are some elements that kind of break out of their boxes (basically when one is setting up a new registration).

My main concern is the upgrade messing up the SQL database, but I have plenty of time to figure that out. The forums won’t go up until the new build is released, and until I fix this issue with the “News” section thats not going to be up any time soon.

Really optimistic about the new site, content is better sorted, easier to find for new players and old players plus a lot of new info to be added.