Really? What were you people thinking?

Still, it might not have been their fault per se, after all M.U.L.E. was released in 1983 for the Atari 400/800 and C64 (as well as a few other platforms) and reputedly only sold less than 50,000 copies. And today, if you tried to find a copy of M.U.L.E. you might be hard pressed to do so. Still, I find such excuses lacking for those who fancy themselves true gamers of moderate sophistication.

But, you ask, what about people who don’t want to scour the internet looking for it? What about people who can’t afford such an awesome program, even if they could find it on ebay, or craigslist or Bijan? What about people who get I.D. 10-t errors when they try to run all but the most basic programs? What about people who don’t want to use an emulator and try to mount virtual drives because that’s something they’d rather not ask for help doing as it sounds a little bit weird when you shout it in mixed company? And finally what about those people who just don’t think it’s going to be any good because… well, because it’s just soooo old and the graphics are just not pretty enough?

Well, I’ll tell you what you can say to those people… ready for it?

planetmule.com
The folks over at planetmule.com understand those concerns and better yet, they’ve addressed them. Check out this… checklist of M.U.L.E. awesomeness!

• Play M.U.L.E.!
• Runs on Windows! (any version)
• Runs on Mac
• Runs on Linux (don’t worry if you don’t know what this means, no one really does)
• Simple to run. (No mounting anything)
• Multi-player over the internet
• Updated graphics!
• Officially blessed by the Bunten family (Dani and Bill Bunten were part of the Ozark Softscape team that developed the original M.U.L.E.)
• It’s FREE!

So tell them all, M.U.L.E. is back, baby.

Now go get it!

*Editor’s note: Some people, if they looked really, really hard out there on the internet, might discover that this same post almost word for word appears on another website “straygamers.com”. Yes, I know. I wrote it there too.

On the very first day that the server came up, I had made a human character in Qeynos and was running around in Qeynos Hills happily bashing wolves and snakes and whatever I could get my level 5 sword on when a strange thing happened: I ended up on a 30 person raid.

You see, in Norrath’s Qeynos Hills, a Necromancer named Pyzjn will rarely spawn and occasionally drops a piece of rare loot which, back in the day, used to be worth a fair bit. Unfortunately, Pyzjn is about level 14 and the highest player in the zone at the time was level 8.  But since this was an expansion server full of people who had put aside higher level characters on other servers to “re-roll” as newbies, the call to arms went out across the zone and soon we had a good part of the zone organized into an impromptu raid force.

It was a bloody fight to be sure, but in the end Pyzjn was down and there was much rejoicing (no real loot to speak of) and then about 30 seconds later everyone went back to the business of trying to level up their little characters to get up to the “end-game” part where we could do this raid thing all over again.

—

I started writing this post a couple years back (timely updates are hard to come by on this blog) and at the time, I was prepared to propose some radical thinking: Why not have end game style content available at the beginning of the game? I mean, it seems as if a great majority of players try to rush through the “grind” to get to the “end game”, so I wonder if it wouldn’t be cool if instead of simply throwing chaff experience monsters in the path of otherwise brave raiding adventurers, games would present some kind of raid content (with raid level loots) throughout the course of the game instead of just all bunched up at the end?

Since having this notion, I have seen in several newer MMOs, that the impromptu raid idea has been incorporated to varying degrees of success. Warhammer and Champions Online both feature raid-style content for triggered zone events. This is a step in the right direction, I think, but they lack the intricacy of planning and strategy that dedicated raids tend to have. I know, I know… I haven’t played all MMOs out there exhaustively and I am sure this kind of thing is done on some kind of level somewhere, but I expect, at best, it is hardly the norm.

So I wonder, why not offer it as an alternative? Some reason not to simply rush through the levels to get somewhere because the somewhere to get to is right there all the time? Make the loot rewards you get at a low level scale with the character’s growth, so Bigblam’s Bow of Boffoness is a kick ass, cool-looking weapon at level 2 or 10 or 100. Just because you get it at level 2 doesn’t diminish it’s coolness, but maybe even enhances it, based on exclusivity. Imagine if many of the “best” end game weapons had to be acquired at the beginning of the game  Imagine if special titles, abilities or bonuses (like a fancy glow!) were only available at the beginning of the game. Then what kind of paradigm have you introduced?

This isn’t the same as making people jump through “advancement quests” or grab “zone keys” as hurdles to slow leveling. Getting cool loot, or titles is purely an optional exercise, but at some point in most MMOs, that’s what people are looking to do. Making it available at the beginning and middle could help reduce the over-emphasis on the whole rush to the “end-game” idea.

1. No more corpse runs.

Now, when you die, you simply respawn with all of your gear feeling pretty tired for a bit of time. Of course, you are still penalized some experience points and still need to have a resurrect spell cast on your body if you want to get a portion of that experience back. I am probably the only one who, kind of, sort of misses the naked corpse run. I met a lot of really cool people because they either a) needed help to get their body, or b) were willing to help myself/friends recover ours. The naked corpse run was a community building vehicle which made people be somewhat reliant upon each other from time to time. It was one of those things which I felt defined EQ (for better or worse). The change was such a shock, such a reality twisting event that I was inspired to break out my litle drawing tablet and draw a cartoon memorializing it.

(you can click this for a slightly bigger version)

2. Mercenaries are another new addition to the game.

If you like to solo, these guys (and gals) are great. Simply pay some money to have a partner in your group. You may choose either a tank, or healer of most any race you wish. They come pre-geared with all their spells and level up with you. Each fifteen minutes of use, you pay an upkeep fee for your rent-a-friend. At lower levels, the mercenaries are almost over-powered. I am wondering how people who have chosen clerics and warriors to play as their class feel about the mercenaries, but when I asked in the general chat channel no one answered. So, I am guessing they are indifferent?

3. OR the lack of response might be because the game population is incredibly low.

On the Luclin server, most times our group is completely alone in whatever zone we have chosen to stomp around in. It is like playing on our own personal server. Without having to deal with other players in the way of what we want, it makes the game much less stressful. We kill lots of named monsters. We don’t even think about sitting in one camp waiting for respawns. The level “grind” doesn’t seem so grind-y. But then again, we are playing the game with a full group ready to go each time we log on. It probably isn’t the same thing for most people who still log in and have watched their friends gradually move on to newer, shinier games. I imagine that the two changes I mentioned above are directly related to this reality. Few people means no help getting corpses. Few people means no groups. Few people who can’t get groups and can’t get corpses means even fewer people who are going to remain interested in paying every month for a frustrating decade old game.

For now, I’m having a lot of fun, more than I have had in any MMO since leaving EQ four years ago. It’s probably 50% my nostalgia, 25% my insanity and 25% the actual game. Hopefully it’ll last a while before the shine of this old game starts to wear off again.

In the meantime, any ideas for a cool guild name?

Hopefully, I’ll be back here again soon.

And although later I might post a review of sorts for the game, this isn’t it.

This is a gripe which applies to Afterlight and a philosophy which pervades games everywhere.

My complaint is that the game will not let me be a part of it. Oh sure, I can play it. I can go through the missions and research the technology and fight the monsters and win, but it’s all according to the developer’s vision, not mine.

UFO:Afterlight is similar to a giant in the PC gaming pantheon: the X-Com franchise. In some respects, it may be a better game than any of the X-Com games, but there is one glaring, nearly unforgivable omission: I can’t put myself in the game. In the original series, you could name your soldiers, level them up and become attached to them. You could make yourself in the game and lead the charge, or cower in the base at your discretion. In Afterlight, you are stuck with the character names they thought up.

The rationale is (I imagine) that there is a story based around those characters, so they need to be the same to preserve the story structure. That’s fine. Some set characters are good, but if I want to have some fresh-faced, new, alien hunter recruit be named Shootja Indaface, where’s the harm? I think it would also be nice to be able to name my base, my spaceship, my weapons, my robots and whatever else I can. In a single player game, where my choices would impact only myself, what’s the difference to the developer?

The cause could be developer hubris, or perhaps laziness. There is also the possibility that they may feel it isn’t a significant point to address, but it is a gripe of mine nonetheless.

It extends beyond the non-ability to name the characters in Afterlight. It’s everywhere. In nearly all games, the developer’s craft a perfect little polyethylene bubble over their creations which won’t let the players “screw them up.” I’ve ranted similary in the past.

In an MMORPG if you want to name your +7 Sword “Death-Pain Slayer with Whipped Cream,” you can… but only in your head and only people you mention it to in passing will know. The game won’t let you enchant the name onto the sword, or engrave it into the blade, permanently marking it so for the rest of the world to see. You have to settle for whatever name the developers have given it like “Windbreaker” or whatever amazingly perfect name they have chosen and is, of course, exactly the same as every other sword of that type. The same applies even if you craft the sword yourself from a lump of iron and a twist of rawhide, mashing and folding the metal into perfection. Yet even before the blade is created, its fate has been determined.

Want to cast a spell you have dubbed “Great Ball of Fire?” Sorry, instead it will read Fireball III, but someday you can aspire to cast the much more creatively named Fireball IV. Some areas of MMORPGs are crying out for creative player additions. And I’m not even at the point where I am asking to record my own voice for a battle cry, put my own image as an insignia on my armor or introduce true user-created content. This is just about customizing things that already exist within the framework of the game.

People will argue that names provided by the game “fit” and player created ones might “ruin immersion,” which I think is a funny concept. Would being able to make the world you play in uniquely reflect the personality of the players in it ruin immersion or increase immersion? I suspect that opening the hermetically sealed cases to the unwashed masses might ruin the immersion of the store display version of the playscape, but it would begin the process of increasing immersion in the new world conceived by the players.

So in MMO space the question really becomes: Is the world the developers create “better” than one the players would create themselves?

But how could I not? I can’t help but notice is that life is pretty good for Sim-Noob. He looks good, he’s got lots of cool stuff, women dig him and he’s a luminary in his career field of choice (And he’s a doctor… not an aspiring gamer).

Sim-Noob seems to have it much better than RL (real life) Noob. In the real, I’ve got a few extra pounds, am constantly low on cash and have a career stuck in a continual state of restarting.

So as I was watching the rise and blossom of Sim-Noob, I could not help but think, “what if I were to simply do what Sim-Noob does, how would life turn out then?”

So, I’ve been giving it a try. Sort of… I have been making more of an effort to keep in touch with friends, exercise to stay more fit, take the occasional shower… that kind of stuff. It’s actually pretty amazing how well a good sim-life translates to a good real life. And while it keeps me away from my blog somewhat, I’ve got to admit my life has really taken off. I find my mood is firmly in the gold and most of my need meters register nearly full bars of green.

There are some really important life lessons that I have learned in my pilgrimage to make my actual life more like my idyllic videogame existence and because I can’t figure out any way to profit from it by keeping it to myself, I’ll list a few of them here, in case one of you loyal readers is thinking about taking the plunge yourself.

1. Learning to cook is better than being forced to eat instant meals, TV dinners and toaster pastries. Sim-Noob learned mostly by trial and error (and a fire every now and again), which is pretty much how I have learned, but now I too can make pancakes!
2. Knowing a little something about how things work saves a lot on repairman bills. Sim-Noob can fix anything with a hammer and wrench. After a small electrical fire and some flooding, I’m still working on proper real-life technique.
3. Hiring a maid is the best thing you can ever do. Because not only will she clean the house, but there’s always the chance that you could chat her up and get lucky. But make sure you have the cash to pay for the cleaning, or she might steal your stuff. Ahem.
4. There is little payoff in gardening. Yeah plants and such make the outside of the house look nice, but unless you hire a gardener, it’s going to take too much time away from your social life and the work you need to do to improve your career. And besides, does anyone really like gardening? I thought not.
5. Getting fat sucks, so get some exercise every day. Seriously, would you let your Sim get fat? Of course not. But then again Sim-Noob doesn’t seem to have tubs of cake frosting which call to him from the refrigerator.
6. Work on creativity, logic and charisma to get ahead. Reaching the top of many careers is going to require some dedication to all of these skills. I have found that to save time, you should hit all 3 at once… try painting a picture of a chess game on a mirror while practicing your public speaking for the trifecta.
7. Just like in the Sims, getting rid of people you don’t like is easy if you lure them into a room and trap them, or drown them in your pool by taking away the ladder for them to get out… or so I’ve been told.
8. Invest in a burglar alarm if you are going to buy a big plasma TV. No, seriously.
9. Work clothes for work, dress clothes for formal events, pajamas for sleeping and swim wear for swimming.It’s scary to think of how many embarrassing situations I might have avoided had I known this earlier.
10. Buy a hot tub. Do it now. You’ll never regret the purchase (especially if you get a pink heart-shaped one).
11. Carpool to work with someone who will arrive to pick you up an hour early, will wait patiently outside for you to come out when you’re damn well ready and doesn’t charge a cent for gas. They’re everywhere, trust me.
12. Magic, life-extending elixir is pretty much the way to go. Sim-Noob drinks this stuff by the gallon. I would suggest trying to score as much of this stuff as possible because getting old is kind of a bummer (Note: All life extending elixirs are not the same. At no point in time should one use unicorn blood to keep their youthful glow. It’s just not cricket.
    “It is a monstrous thing, to slay a unicorn. Only one who has nothing to lose, and everything to gain, would commit such a crime. The blood of a unicorn will keep you alive, even if you are an inch from death, but at a terrible price. You have slain something pure and defenseless to save yourself, and you will have but a half-life, a cursed life, from the moment the blood touches your lips.“)

Hmm… after reading back over this list, it all makes so much sense now, I only wish that I had figured it out earlier. Now that you know all the secrets, there’s no telling how far you might go. Pretty soon, you too may be hopping in a private helicopter to go to work from your moated mansion in Pleasantview.

When the Optimus was announced, back in July of 2005, it made a pretty big splash. I can recall thinking that it was a must have item for me. The designer, Art Lebedev, originally said that he figured the keyboard would cost “less than a good mobile phone.”

The product was delayed time and time again. Eventually the company released a mini 3-button version in August 2006.

So now the full-size version is scheduled to finally arrive, supposedly in December of this year. If I had enough money (which I don’t) and nothing else to spend it on (which I do) and I DID pre-order (which I didn’t), I don’t think I would be holding my breath for it to arrive in time for Christmas.

That’s just a hunch.

Of course, if someone wanted to get one for me, I wouldn’t say no.

If you are deeply intrigued by the story of the Optimus, you should read the project official blog.

I had already canceled my subscription because Sony decided to hike up the rates on their Station Pass, which I was a subscriber to despite only playing Vanguard at the time. I hadn’t even thought about it since then, I can’t believe that was only back in March, it seems like such a long time ago that I played it.

But to finally un-install it made me just a touch melancholic. Maybe it’s the rainy New Hampshire evening that’s got me a bit down already, or maybe it’s the idea of “the Vision” which could have been, but never quite materialized from the murkiness of the wonderful daydream that it must have been and that many of us at one time shared.

I can still remember how excited I was when Sigil Games was formed. At the time, I had even sent Brad McQuaid, the CEO, an exuberant email inquiring about possible employment, which he took the time to respond to personally.

I was excited for this game from the beginning, although I didn’t much care for the title. I heard the wonderful ideas and plans and I imagined great things to come.

Of course, I knew the reality would never live up to the utopian game I had imagined Vanguard would become, just as a movie seldom plays out exactly like you imagine it would from reading the book. There is always a lot which gets lost in translation. But even as I was ready to acknowledge that in my head, I still was waiting for something great.

When Sony took over the publishing role for the game, there was such a hue and cry among those who were excited about the game, and there was much hand-wringing done in the forums over the switch. It would be the death of “the Vision,” some said. And looking back, maybe it was. But personally, I didn’t see Sony as that much worse of a partner than Microsoft. After all, what wonderful Microsoft published MMOs have there been? Asheron’s Call? Sony almost seemed like an upgrade to me.

By the time I was selected for the beta on August 29, 2006, my anticipation was still running high. I spent nearly 2 days downloading the client and I completely quit playing Lineage 2. Once I had it downloaded, I found that my system couldn’t really run Vanguard all that well. I was using a AMD Athlon 3000+ and an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro in an AGP slot. I was disappointed in the performance and although I desperately wanted to play, the horrible frame rates made it nearly impossible.

So, I upgraded my system. Did I upgrade solely for Vanguard? No, but it was a factor. I bought a brand new Core 2 Duo 6600 to put in a 680i chip-set motherboard and GTX 8800 video card on the day they were released (November 8, 2006).

On my new system, the textures rendered incorrectly on the 8800 video card, but after a couple weeks it got sorted out and the game ran very well in 1600×1200 resolution. But although Vanguard was pretty, the game wasn’t compelling enough for me to stay interested in to test. The combat mechanics felt like a step backwards from EQ2 and other games, the world felt flat and lifeless and I just couldn’t get into it. I did like the diplomacy part of the game, but it didn’t feel integrated enough. I felt like a bolt on extra time-killer rather than a real path of advancement. I was pretty disappointed. So, I more or less dropped out of the beta a few weeks later and I imagined that there would have been plenty of angry folks on the forums to know that one of those coveted slots had pretty much gone to waste.

When the announcement came from Sigil in early January that the game would be released on January 30, I logged back into the beta to see what kind of progress had been made. What I found is that it was still a very buggy game. Even in the last stage of beta, each game session could be counted on to have a) a crash and b) at least one falling through the world episode. The forums were full of posts wondering what the heck Sigil was thinking rushing the release of a product destined to piss off people who purchased it and Brad McQuaid posted that the launch was driven by financial concerns and major work on game bugs could continue after that point.

I wasn’t going to bother with Vanguard, I knew it would be a mess, but against my better judgment, I bought it on release day anyway through direct2drive.com.

On my system, the released game was still unstable and would crash randomly or crash as a result of certain repeatable circumstances (like if I received two pieces of mail in my character’s mailbox… crash), but most of those bugs started disappearing by the end of the first month.

It took me longer to stop playing than it should have, I think I quit in mid-March. Ultimately, there wasn’t all that much which was new, different, better or whatever. I guess that realization came to me at a little earlier than it did to Sigil, but they soon learned that the wheels were off the wagon themselves a month or so later.

Then there was the announcement by Brad McQuaid which read more or less like an obituary for Sigil where he admitted that in retrospect, things should have been done better and that Sigil would need significant help from the Sony partnership in the future.

It really came as no surprise to hear today that Sony has acquired them outright.

I imagine that Vanguard fans out there will be hoping that Sony will attempt to right the ship, improve the playability of the game and make it relevant in the currently crowded MMO space. Someone let me know if they do.