I posted a quick and dirty (and highly unorganized) review of Tabula Rasa.  It's available in the Game Reviews section, or just click here.

Seriously!  Why is there no cyberpunk themed MMO?  I don't mean some 50 player, never heard of, free MMO.  I mean a major title, the size of EQ, LOTRO, or similar?  A major title.

I don't get it.  The cyberpunk genre seems like a "bullets and guns" go-together for an MMO.   You're playing in virtual space anyway, a major theme in a lot of cyberpunk fiction.  There's so many cool things that could be done.  World shifting.  Genre shifting.  Go from far-future sci-fi to the Old West to Fantasy and back to present-day.  Cause it's all virtual.  Just so much potential there.

I don't really know what else to say.  There are precious few major sci-fi MMOs and none of them cyberpunk themed at all.  I just can't figure it out.

I finally did a complete rebuild for the first time in years.  Normally, when I upgrade my machine, I keep a lot of the existing hardware.  Case, drives, etc.  Sometimes I just upgrade the video card.  Not this time.  Not a single component is re-used.

For the CPU, I wanted to go with Intel's 45nm chips, and since the machine is mostly used for gaming, the QX series is overpriced and unnecessary, so I went with an E8400.  It outperforms a lot of the Quads for gaming.   Cooling the CPU is a Zalman CNPS-9700LED.  I wanted an X38 motherboard, so I went with ASUS's P5E.   I mainly play MMOs which are RAM hogs, so I went with 8 (yes, 8) gigs of RAM. :D  Muahahha. 

I built the machine two days after ATI released the HD3870X2, and at the time (and still as of this writing), it was the fastest video card ever made.  And, at $450, a steal.  So that's what went in for a video card.  I love it so very much.

For storage, I have a pair of Western Digitial KS series 500 GB drives in RAID0 (Striping) setup, for 1TB online.  Samsung SH-S203B optical drive.  Antec Nine Hundred case. OCZ GameXstream 700w power supply. 

For the operating system, I had little choice.  Vista Ultimate x64 it is.  I kind of like Vista... sigh.

The machine is insane.  It's easily the most powerful machine I've ever owned, and the performance is just...sexy.  And the build cost... Right around $1,950!  INSANE!  Never before has it been possible to assemble so much power for under 2 thousand dollars! 

Yeah, it's been about 8 months since I've posted.  I do that.  Get real gung ho on posting every day (or nearly every day), then just... slack off.  Well, I'm back for now.

I've mainly been playing LOTRO.  It's a good game, and I've finally borg'ed a lot of my longtime gaming friends to it.

My Lore-master is 50, my Captain near 50 (44), and I have 2 accounts worth of other lower level alts I work on as I feel like it.  LOTRO is really an "enjoy the ride" type of game.  It's fun at level 1, and at 10, 20, and 50.  It's just fun all around.

The only thing I wish the game had was a true pet class.  Sure, Lore-masters have pets, and Captains have their heralds.  But compared to "real" pet classes, such as UO's tamers, EQ1's necromancers/magicians/beastlords, AO's meta-physicists/engineers, or WoW warlocks and hunters... LOTRO doesn't really have a pet class.

I realize a true pet class would take some work to fit in with the lore, and believe me, I massively respect lore-trueness -- it's one reason I love the game.  But I think it can be done, and I truly believe it's very worth it, as I'm NOT the only "Pet Class Nut" out there.

It's a small complaint though.  I've played every class in the game to at least level 30, and I do love them all.  That's why I can't really "focus" and get characters to 50 easily.  Lots of people have 3 or more 50s by now, while I've only got 1 and 1 near.  The alt-itis is so bad, like I said, I have 2 accounts.  But it doesn't matter!  It's still fun! :)

I'm probably the only, or close to the only, gamer, that will say this, but here goes:

I AM INCREDIBLY GLAD THAT FLYING LAB DECIDED TO HAVE SOE PUBLISH PIRATES OF THE BURNING SEA!!!

Ha!  There!  I said it!  

Why?  Look, I hate the SWG NGE as much as anyone.  THEY REMOVED MY CLASS ENITRELY, FOR "BOB"'s sake! So trust me, I hate the NGE!  But SOE had nothing to do with it.  It was a directive from high up in LucasArts, mouthpieced by Julio Torres of LA, and rumours are that it originated with GEORGE LUCAS himself.  SOE has no creative control over SWG.  LA holds all the cards.

Additionally, Station Pass is awesome!  You can play a LOT of really good games for $29.99/mo: Everquest I, Everquest II, Vanguard, SWG, MXO, and now... you'll be able to add Pirates of the Burning Sea to that!  If you like to change up your games a lot like I do, Station Pass is an INSANE DEAL!  

SOE also has the ability to achieve ultra-wide distribution, something few publishers can do.  Every store that carries computer games carries SOE's games.  So they will also carry POBS.  That means MORE PLAYERS, which means MORE SUCCESS for the game, which ultimately means a better game for us all! 

So, kudos and congrats to Flying Labs! 

So it's been a couple weeks since LOTRO launched.  It was easily the smoothest launch ever.  The transition from open beta to live was completely transparent.  No server instability, no insanity, just ... smooth launch.

The game seems to be doing pretty well -- no official numbers from Turbine yet, but those usually get released 30 days or so into Live.  There's always a ton of people around, though, at least on my server (Elendilmir). 

They've already announced June's content update. :)  They're skipping May, which makes sense, as they deserve a month "off" after release, hehe.  Turbine's famous for monthly content updates in AC1, and hopefully they'll keep in the traditional in LOTRO as well.  

I may as well update you all on my WoW situation.  I will no longer be playing the game, ever.  My last account was banned inexplicably after not even logging in for over a week.  Standard canned message "exploiting the WoW economy".  I didn't even bother to fight it this time as it is quite obvious the process is only there to make people feel like someone is listening or they have a chance of getting an improper ban reversed.  I told them to fuck off and die.

The WoW account ban process is completely and utterly flawed to the core.  They first will not tell you why you have been banned.  Then, when you want to appeal the ban, you must appeal it with the same people who banned you in the first place.  This is akin to complaining to the police if you are improperly charged with a crime.  It makes no sense, and the legal systems of most civilized countries avoid this for that reason.  Yes I realize WoW is not the legal system, but my point is fairness.  This is an issue of basic fairness.

The worst part is, there is truly nothing you can do about it.  In the TOS you agree to, you agree that they can ban you for any reason they want, including "anything which is contrary to the 'essence' of World of Warcraft", which they fully admit is a complete judgment call and cannot be defined.  So, really, they could decide that the name "Joe" is contrary to the essence of World of Warcraft, and ban everyone named Joe.

Furthermore, you also agree in the TOS that you cannot sue Blizzard over any dispute.  All you can do is enter "informal negotiation" with, again, the same people who banned you, or, if that fails, you can go to Binding Arbitration.  Insanity.

So, fuck Blizzard and their idiotic ban sprees.

I'll link to the FoH boards thread: http://www.fohguild.org/forums/mmorpg-general-discussion/28443-return-neriak.html

In short, Neriak is being put into EQ2, and as a FREE PATCH.  With a new race (to match the new good race they added with the last expansion).  

I wouldn't ordinarily post EQ2 news, as I haven't played or followed EQ2 in a couple years.  The game never really "clicked" with me.  I enjoyed it.  The graphics are great, the classes are great, and I like the lore and feel of the world.  But the quest system never really clicked for me.  I always had trouble finding quests past the "newbie" stage.  Once I hit somewhere between 15 and 20 or so, I just couldn't find quests anymore.  It's not like WoW where you always know where your quest "hub" is.  It's just ... weird .. and never clicked for me.

But I'm giving it another serious try now.  Some friends are playing it again and I may as well play with them.  I've just got to make the game click with me and be able to progress.

Neriak sure does look awesome, though, I'll definitely say that!

My name is Sevok, and I'm a RMT user.  I've been free of RMT for about 6 months. 

To those that know me, this will come as no surprise.  But I'm going to be perfectly honest with all of you readers here: I have spent thousands of dollars on RMT (Real Money Trading) activities over the past 8 or 9 years.  Mostly on game accounts (mostly EQ1 accounts), but also on currency and other stuff.  

I look(ed) at it this way: hobbies cost money.  If your hobby is, say, golf or skiing or stamp collecting or radio controlled aircraft, you spend lots of money, probably many hundreds and possibly into the thousands of dollars on that hobby.  Well, since 1997, my main hobby has been MMOs.  And I've spent lots on it!  But that's all changed now...

In the beginning, back in UO's heyday, RMT was gamer-to-gamer.  A player that had way more playtime than most, or had found a good way to earn lots of cash quickly would sell things to people with less playtime or who didn't know the secret.  It wasn't really a big deal.  Just players selling stuff to other players out of the game.  After EQ was released and shattered all subscriber records for MMOs, a few actual companies started engaging in RMT.  They were still owned and staffed by players but they were definitely companies and were doing it for serious profit.  IGE started this way.  Things were still sort of ok, because you either did RMT or you didn't, and if you didn't, it never really intruded on your game life.

That all changed about a year or so ago in World of Warcraft.  WoW had already blown away all subscriber numbers ever dreamed of, and a new breed of RMT company entered the arena in serious numbers.  This is the "Chinese RMT company".  Of course not all of them are Chinese, but unfortunately for the legitimate Chinese players, they take the rap for it.  Anyway these companies are not owned nor staffed by players.  They are simply businesses massively farming in game currency and items to sell.  They do not play the games, they do not care about the games, and they are using annoying and  disruptive business tactics such as mass spamming in game.  I doubt many players of WoW go a single play day without getting at least one "ZOMG BUY MY GOLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!2@" spam tell or in game mail. I can no longer support RMT in any fashion because of the involvement of these companies.

What can be done about it? Well, probably nothing.  WoW bans thousands of not tens of thousands of accounts per week for RMT spamming and the like.  But as people always point out, the accounts are usually just trial accounts and mean nothing to the RMT company.  Even their "real" accounts they use to farm and transfer gold don't mean much to them.  The only real way to stop RMT is to make it so that players have no desire to engage in RMT.  If the market disappears, so will the companies.  If no one's buying, they can't sell.  

Another possible way to fix it is to take the focus off so much difficulty in games.  WoW is an "easymode" game basically, but there are still things that are a little harder to obtain.  Mounts for instance, especially flying mounts with the BC expansion.  Your friends have them, you want them.  You can't play as much, so you might turn to RMT to help you get one.  Since I used to be a huge RMT user, I can explain at least my mentality.  I didn't enjoy being poor in real life.  Thankfully those days are behind me.  So why would I enjoy being poor in a game?  I don't!  So, I used RMT to negate that un-enjoyable portion of the games, thus having a much better experience.   There are other reasons.  Some people have really low playtime, but have friends that play that have high playtime.  In a lot of games, high level players cannot meaningfully group with low level players.  No one disagrees that a major attraction to MMOs is the social aspect: playing with friends.  So that low playtime person might turn to RMT (power leveling services in this case) to help stay evened up in levels with their friends.  A way to make that less likely to happen is to have "mentoring" type systems in games, where high level players can temporarily drop down in level to group with their lower level friends.  EQ2 and CoV/CoH both have this type of system, though in CoV/CoH, the low level character is temporarily made higher level to group with the high level person, I believe.  Never used it myself.

In the game I'm mostly playing now, Lord of the Rings Online, they've already banned a few hundred accounts just in open beta for RMT activities.  Yes, in Open Beta.  So far the LOTRO community seems rabidly anti-RMT, so maybe LOTRO can be made a relatively RMT-free game.  We can only hope. 

I have been playing World of Warcraft lately.  I have 2 accounts, like always ends up happening in games for me.  No big deal.  One has my level 55 warlock, 28 shaman, 25 mage, and such on it.  The other my rogue and hunter.  Well, the warlock account got banned!

From reading the "customer service" forums @ Worldofwarcraft.com it seems the generic message everyone gets when banned says they were banned for "exploitation of the WoW economy".  Excuse me?  I don't exploit game economies.  To me, that means using a dupe bug, or some kind of vendor exploit where an item sells to a vendor for more than it costs to buy from a vendor.  That is "exploitation" in my book.  Oh, but to Blizzard economy exploitation is buying/selling gold, using powerleveling services, or any other such thing.  I freely admit I've spent tons of money on RMT stuff in other games, but I never have done so in WoW because (1) I never saw the need as WoW is an easymode game basically and (2) I always knew Blizzard was a little hardcore on banning people for it, so I never wanted to risk it anyway.

And what's worse is that someone posted on said "customer service" forum that they were 72 hour banned for speed hacking!  But people that buy/sell gold or use powerlevelers get perma banned!!!  Ok, so actual, true hacking is less of an offense than just buying or selling gold?  WHAT THE FUCK?

Oh, and the only way you can protest a ban is by emailing their Account Admin department and waiting.  It takes around 10 days to get a reply from them, and of course nothing is resolved in one go around, so you've got to wait a really long time.  If it takes 4 go arounds, you'll wait 40 days!

This is not good customer service at all.  Blizzard is banning accounts by the thousands and it's only a matter of time before every player knows someone who was banned unfairly.  I can only imagine this will not be good for WoW's subscriber numbers ultimately.