Deadline

At this very moment I’m doing a write up about Planetside. Not a full review, mind you. Just a basic overview of the game with some first impressions. I still haven’t decided how I feel about this MMOFPS. I’ve been playing FPS games since the beginning of time and online since Quake World. So this isn’t really new territory for me, but it is different.

The article is due tomorrow. And as usual I’m writing it the night before. Although technically it’s due today since it’s after midnight. Still it’s only about half done and it’s 2am. I’ll get it in on time. I always do. Only once have I ever missed a deadline.

I should get back to work. I’ll make sure to post up a link when it’s live on the MMORPG.com website.

Interview?

A part of my job of course involves interviews. Unfortunately a large portion of them aren’t face to face or even in real time via a chat program. No, most are me writing a bunch of leading and hard questions and sending them off to whomever.

Now through a fair amount of practice I’ve learned how to write leading questions. The kind of questions that should provoke more than a single sentance response. The kind of questions that just beg for a detailed response. Sometimes though no matter how I try the interviewee jsut won’t play ball.

A recent interview I did with a CEO of a rather large game company here in the UK was one of those flops. All of his answers were short and flat. Sure he answered my questions, but not with much detail or gusto. It makes you think that either he hates these things or he doesn’t want to tell players anything.

And that right there is the point I’ve been slowly driving towards in the last 170ish words. Why do these CEOs bother agreeing to these interviews if they aren’t going to tell us anything? You’d thing that they’d be happy for the chance to toot their own horn. I’ve done talked with CEOs and Community Managers before, they love to toot their own horn given half a chance.

Bah!

A Piece of History

Not really about gaming, but I stumbled on this today and thought it would be good to share. This was the beginning and without it we wouldn’t be sitting here right now and you wouldn’t be reading this.

Playing a Captain

Recently I was asked by one of my editors to write an guide to playing a Captain in Lord of the Rings Online. My prompt response was that I don’t write guides. He wasn’t ready to let me out of writing something though so instead we agreed on a small op-ed piece about me playing a Captain.

I don’t like to tell people how to play a class in any game. As far as I’m concerned there is no right or wrong way to play something. How I play something will always be different to how the next guy does. In the gaming world this is a long running debate on classes. Wat is best for what and how to play certain ways. Obviously I don’t follow this logic and feel people should jsut play how they enjoy it.

So here is the outcome of that article. I know left things out, but it isn’t a guide, it’s jsut a small way of how I play and what I think is important in playing a Captain. Oh and that screenshot is a picture of my very own character.

January Sales

The holiday season is over and I can get back on track with posting here.  I got a little distracted, sorry.

All of the game shops are having after Christmas sales. Marked down prices and 3 for 2 are exploding out of the woodwork. The only problem is that all of the games on sale are obviously old stock they want to get rid of. Games that no one wants or they already have. I get what they’re trying to do, but it annoys me. The good games are still marked at the normal retail price. So these sales are nearly useless to me for console games.

I did nearly buy a Zelda aluminum case for my DS in the sales. A case I really very much don’t need but it was jsut so kool I really wanted it. The only thing that actually stopped me was the mile long line and my lack of patience.

So what is coming that I really want in the way of games? Street Fighter 4 should be interesting. I’m very interested in the art direction they’ve taken. It’s so very different from the previous games and many current games. It’s a fighting game so I’ll very likely enjoy it and it is Street Fighter, a series that ate days of my life as a teen. But it’s the art that truly has my interest.

We’ll see what the new year holds for games. Hopefully it’ll be more interesting than last year. Every yea of games should be more interesting than the previous one.