Life’s A Lich And Then You Die (And Respawn)

The new WoW parch came out yesterday, in anticipation for the Wrath of the Lich King, the second expansion for the massively popular MMORPG. There have been a few bumps along the way, and as my first patch experience, I think I handled it pretty well… kind of.

courtesy Blizzard

The realms (servers) all went down for a few hours, and there was a new patch to install. That was to be expected, but what I didn’t expect were all the fun little glitches. For instance, once the game went back up, with a brand new log in screen and load screens, the characters were inaccessible. This scared me, and concerned, I asked some of my friends what was going on - they told me that sometimes during updates whole servers are deleted. After my heart attack subsided, they told me they were joking, that this was my first patch experience and that these things take time. Read the rest of this entry »

Tonight at midnight players can create characters and begin playing Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, the newest MMORPG, a fantasy multiplayer game in the vein of Blizzard’s World of Warcraft. This game looks very cool visually and many gamers are planning to start playing or switch from WoW.

But Warhammer poses some marketing problems. The first is about the world of the game itself. Warhammer is a collectible game played on tables with figurines produced by Games Workshop. The world is generic fantasy with heavy Tolkien influences. Maybe more darker than most fantasy worlds, but it’s traditional fantasy at its core. The same can be said of Warcraft, Magic: The Gathering and many fantasy properties. The reason these properties can coexist is due to their different mediums. Warcraft has always been video games, Warhammer as tabletop games, Magic as a card game, and so forth. But these properties are essentially the same sort of world, only riffed slightly for copyright issues. Warhammer is fresh and unique because it’s a tabletop game, not because its story is so badass it transcends mediums. There is a reason WoW shouldn’t have been made a card game, and why Magic’s video games never really caught on. To each his own.

But the biggest drawback to Warhammer is its presentation. Yes, if you are a PC gamer with all the right cards and hardware you can play the game. Everyone else is out. Warcraft can be played on PC or Mac, and while lower graphics, playable on most recent computers, including my 5-year-old iBook, which is saying something. Blizzard has the right attitude towards this sort of gaming, trying to get a multitude of customers. Maybe Warhammer will be this way, but so far all that game has done is alienate me from playing with its hardware restrictions and unimaginative premise.

Now, Warhammer 40K would be an amazing game…

The Walrus to Blizzard’s
Carpenter - we are the oysters

Hey there my fellow Guildsmen and women. Finally the second expansion for World of Warcraft’s release date has been revealed - 11.13.08.

This expansion features a new continent, a higher max level, and the much anticipated Death Knight class. I’ve leveled up quite a bit since I began playing a few weeks ago, but I’m still nowhere near Death Knight level (55), so it will be awhile until I personally am able to reap the benefits from the game, but I’m excited that this expansion will bring players back tot heir accounts.

This is also good because Warhammer Online is going to grab some of the WoW gamers, but with Lich King, hopefully they won’t grab too many.

image copyright Blizzard Entertainment

So, I started playing WoW at the behest of my friends, and have to say it’s addicting as hell. For those unfamiliar with the game, it’s an online world based on questing and co-op play with other players.

I was skeptical at first about playing, having watched my friends and thinking it was boring as hell. But once you start playing, it will be a good time, especially if you have friends that play as well (they’ll let you in their Guild at level 1 and give you money).

I do have to say though, make sure you have free time to play. I ended up pulling an all-nighter when i first got the game a few days ago. This’ll consume you.

I made a promise I couldn’t keep. Covering Comic-Con by oneself is impossible. The convention center took days to explore, and each panel had a line so long, you would have had to be there an hour before hand to ensure attendance. I thought I’d have free time, but at night when I thought I’d post, I was occupied by parties.

As far as the Con went, I have mixed feelings. As a comic fan, everyone and everything you’d want to see would be there, and lines in teh comic book area wouldn’t be too horrible. But, the movie and TV and video game and toy stuff really stole comics’ limelight, and filled the con with tourists and kids who admittedly didn’t read. Harold & Kumar were there, for example, and their booth put Marvel’s to shame. But once I stayed out of the entertainment section and kept to the comics area, I had a good time meeting with publishers and creators.

The parties were by far the best part of the Con because I could meet and talk to people one on one. You’d turn around and Joss Whedon or Bruce Campbell would be chilling. I met Mark Waid, Stephen Baldwin, Bill Willingham, the heads of DC and Marvel, Keith Giffen, and Grant Morrison at these parties, and as a professional and a fan boy I had a great time just talking to people.

News: Read the rest of this entry »

Beginning on Thursday and concluding today, this convention was hosted in Rosemont, up in Chicago. Compared to earlier this year’s New York Comic Con, WizardWorld was a more laid back experience, where speakers and company reps spoke more candidly and seemed less stressed. This was a far better fan experience than New York, and while writers and such qualified every secret with “We’ll be revealing in San Diego”, there was less showmanship - sensationalism geared at new projects - and more reflection on the medium, at least in the sessions.

I saw the hilarious Robert Kirkman and a retrospective on Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev’s Daredevil. I also got to see the Marvel and DC panels, as well as the first ever Marvel & DC panel, where Bendis, Brian Reed, and C.B. Cebulski sat with Gail Simone and Geoff Johns to talk about what they liked about the other company. I would have seen more, but I could only attend Friday, as some of my friends were so inconsiderate that they just had to get married this weekend. Read the rest of this entry »

Hey kids! Sorry for not updating for a few days - the Convention was amazing! There was so much to see, so much to do - everything vaguely nerd was there - from Japanese designer toys to trading card games to comics. Walking around, there was so much going on you actually forget to eat and drink. You bump into famous people and realize they are human beings, or hear them speak and become more convinced they are a literary god. I’m still absorbing the events, but I’ll share with you some of the cool news I picked up. Read the rest of this entry »