Posted by alexandra_k on May 25, 2009, at 12:56:23
So I've been playing 'Minions of Mirth' which is not funny at all (despite what the name suggests). Rather 'Mirth' is the land and there are three realms, 12 races (plus you can unlock monster templates and play those), and 16 classes (where you can train up to three to 100/100/100). Typical RPG (with MMORPG capacity). Offline you can play a 'party' with different members, online you can join a temporary 'alliance' with different players. It is basically finished (though needs to be epic quest for revealer and bard epic is unfinished) but new update due to come out in the next few months:
Kind of 'old school' so while the graphics are cute they are kinda dated. Runs very well on my macbook, though :-)
But after a while... Things get tired. As there aren't a huge number of people playing and there is much more experience in teaming and some little kid tempest seems to always get in on teams and delight in flitting around pulling more than the group can handle laughing his head off as assassin who relies on sneak and stealth dies. Sigh. I simply can't bring myself to play something 'easy' like warrior... Someone suggest I try out Everquest, which is fairly similar apparently as one of MOM's (now independent) developers was a developer for Everquest.
I've been reluctant. One of the nice things about MOM is that you can download a very adequate trial (can level up to 15/5 which is many hours of gameplay) and paying a one time fee of $30 gets you the 'premium' patch and basically the full version including access to the online servers. Everquest is about $13 per month with no offline playing capacity (and can't rely on internet access for games back home).
Looked into downloading Everquest since they advertise as a free trial thought I'd give the trial a go. Turned out to be a pain to get the trial (they wanted credit card details just to download). But since I was looking into trials... Discovered World of Warcraft has a free 10 day trial. I'm here for less than 10 days... So I downloaded that.
WOW. I don't just mean 'WOW' as in 'World of Warcraft' I mean WOW as in 'How AMAZING'. The graphics are simply BEAUTIFUL (and only running at half capacity on macbook) and the quests are WONDERFULLY laid out (they naturally encourage you to explore everything of interest in the proper order) and the gameplay is progressive (with help features as you go) so it isn't such a steep learning curve as I found MOM to be.
My absolute favourite old school RPG is 'Heroes of Might and Magic: Mandate of Heaven'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Might_and_Magic_VI
I felt a little embarrassed about that, but have since discovered that a number of people feel the same way (there are a couple of people who have videoed a WHOLE PLAYTHROUGH on youtube rofl. I mean really ROFL I haven't laughed so much for simply ages. There is something about computer games that result in me (sometimes) becomming totally immersed in the gameplaying world. I had an x-box (though haven't played 360 yet) and... While the games were good (e.g., Baulders Gate and Fable) they simply weren't as immersive as I have found computer games to be. Not sure what it is... Maybe it is to do with complexity.
WOW seems to be a curious blend between the RPG's I'm used to (yeah, while I just said that about Mandate of Heaven I'm also fairly into D&D combat and character complexity) and beauty of graphics and ease of gameplay of something like Fable or Baulders Gate. It really is... A very catchy and beautiful little game. Maybe not as complex as I'm used to... But then not everyone feels the same way about studying a game manual for several days before you dare choose your alignment etc. And I suppose it is possible (even highly probable) that things get more complex with level-ups (highest character level 12 at the moment).
So... Yeah, having to buy the games (though I guess you just buy the first one first off then the next once you have conquered those lands and so on) is kind of an investment. Then there is the $15 per month fee to access the servers to play the game (no offline playing capacity). That makes it unsuitable for me to invest in since university wireless access blocks such things in order to keep down the bandwidth usage but, really, if I discovered this game at the start of my time here I would have been more vocal about cutting cable and I would have personally invested in that.
One day I'm going to get a job. And I'm going to get me one of these:
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/mac_pro?mco=MTE4MTU
With a wireless keyboard and mouse. And I'm going to hook it up to a projector and surround sound speaker system. And... Take a number of sick days, I guess lol.
Someone being a dofus but gives you the basic idea:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF7YU9zK5js
Any players?
poster:alexandra_k
thread:897584
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20090513/msgs/897584.html