VirginWorlds MMORPG News Host: Brent VirginWorlds is a weekly news podcast covering Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) such as World of Warcraft, EverQuest, Guild Wars, City of Heroes, Eve Online, Vanguard, Lord of the Rings Online and many many more. The VirginWorlds MMORPG Podcast is the flagship podcast of the VirginWorlds MMO Podcast Collective found at http://www.virginworlds.com
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VirginWorlds Podcast #39Tue, 7 Nov 2006 04:06:00 GMT [download/play]
Topics: Archlord Asheron's Call Carpe Diem Eve Online Multiverse Rappelz Second Life Vangaurd World of Warcraft The History of Will Wright Dev Profile Podcast suggestion Blog suggestion What we're playing Listener mail
VirginWorlds is a weekly news podcast covering Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGS) such as World of Warcraft, EverQuest, Guild Wars, City of Heroes, Eve Online, Vanguard, and many many more. The main site can be found at http://www.VirginWorlds.com Login to post a comment
'Good Podcast!' by Streamweaver Submitted on 2006-11-07 09:36:32 CST I have no idea if you read it or if it made any difference but I posted a review of the pocast on iTunes earlier last week and this podcast really changed almost everything negative I talked about. The cadence of speaking was great and flowed naturally, I enjoyed the exhcange between the two hosts and a lot of personality shined through.
I wanted to add a comment on your issues with Blizzard and WoW development. Something that really drives me crazy about Blizzard is they still trying to pass everything off as if they are some small or new game developer. They don't get things out the door and can't keep servers running even years after release and seem to try to come off like a small garage developer. This of course is silly and one of the more frustrating things about the company to me.
'Another good show' by kain Submitted on 2006-11-07 09:38:32 CST I enjoyed todays show. Also thank you for not moving over to an apple format. You can play those files in VLC but it does not work as well as it could on the proprietary end. Also thank you for making it so easy for us who do not use iTunes. Some times for MOG I have to boot up my iBook to get the show and I am super glad that is not an issue here.
'Streamweaver and Kain' by Brent Submitted on 2006-11-07 14:54:11 CST Streamweaver: I get many comments about sometimes being sorta flat. Honestly, it is much easier to be a dynamic speaker when I'm not doing it myself, unfortunately, in interest of scheduling and not literally killing Brenden, having a full time second host is probably not in the cards just yet, so in the meantime I'll just have to twist him arm as much as possible (I'm kidding, he seems very willing) and otherwise just drink a ton of coffee and get all riled up before I record.
I'm glad you liked the show. I also felt it was a bit more lively than normal. So many thanks for your comments.
Kain: MP3 forever! I also want to add a little player on the site, but my encoding choices have tended to kill that idea as they haven't supported it very well. I changed the encoding on show 39 in an effort to re-test some options, which of course resulted in a massive file, much bigger than normal. I'll continue to look into that, but it sounds like you're pretty happy with the distribution options thus far!
'Rap-hellish' by Jarimor Submitted on 2006-11-07 14:56:39 CST I considered doing a Rapellz review to follow up the Hero Online one but it was honestly too painful.
The gameplay is almost identical, the difference in design seems only on a very superficial level and I don't think the repetitive, potion heavy gameplay needs reanalysing much.
It is bad enough that people are rushing to imitate WoW's gameplay but bloody hell the Koreans seem depserte to make exactly the same game repeatedly just with different art.
Anyways. enough of my rambling, I enjoyed the show as always.
Keep up the good work.
'Who was the listener with the sexy voice?' by hughnme Submitted on 2006-11-07 21:09:44 CST Just kidding, great show as allways, thanks for the thoughtful answer you and Brendan supplied for my question on end game stuff.
Recording a question was a learning curve in itself for me, I used audacity for the fist time and sort of half guessed how to use it, the other thing was when I started talking into the mic I was as nervous as a schoolgirl, so it gave me a little insight into what it must be like to do a whole podcast!
I personally have no issue with your voice tone (or lack of it) Brent, that’s a bit nit picky I recon, as long as you keep coming up with the good stuff ill keep listening
'Suggestions for the new feature' by misterB Submitted on 2006-11-07 23:54:51 CST First of all, I love the idea of dev. profiles.
I'd like it if you'd go a bit more in-depth on the devs. Maybe pick a few of, for example, Smedly's posts and talk about why they're relevant to us as gamers. What ideas did Smedly bring to the table that really stand out and make him a unique figure? I'd like to hear discussion on some of those issues.
As another dev. to be profiled, I'm sure that Raph is high up on your list. I'd love to hear some discussion of some of Raph's ideas, which he's not afraid of sharing. Raph is great in that, even if you don't like all of his ideas, he shares them and prompts discussions.
I am thinking, most recently, about all of the posting around his thoughts on WYSIWYG looting.
Huh, how 'bout a round-table Skype session with Raph?
Yeah, I'm getting way off-track.
Thanks for the podcast and I'm looking forward to the next one.
'So awesome' by Brent Submitted on 2006-11-08 01:51:37 CST Ok, the next show will feature a cage match between Raph Koster and David Perry. It'll be simply awesome.
'And you will be??' by darrenl Submitted on 2006-11-08 15:48:43 CST And will that make you the ref Brent?
Be sure to bring a whistle..
'Endgame ideas' by mdubuc Submitted on 2006-11-08 18:45:37 CST After listening to the podcast and hearing you guys talk about the “endgame” issue in MMO’s I started to think about what would be a good change to the current endgame scenarios. What if once you “maxed out” you character you could ascend and rise to another level of consciousness, which would remove them from normal play (meaning lock out the toon for a period of time) but allowing their consciousness to affect the account. What I mean is that what if you could affect/improve your play on alts by maxing out another toon in a specific class. I was thinking that once you reach endgame in general you tend to become a “sugardaddy” economically speaking to your alts due to the relatively easy access to coin so why couldn’t you add special moves/effects/combos based on the wealth of profession specific knowledge you possess from playing an other toon up to the max level. And it could be cumulative, so that if you had more than one toon maxed out and ascended they would have some kind of combo effect. This would also provide some incentive to play more than one class.
'Great Show' by Jarod Submitted on 2006-11-10 04:02:12 CST Really enjoying listening to the MMO news via your podcast, keep up the excellent work! I am looking forward to hearing how you get on in Neocron2 (I hope it is Neocron2 you bought for a $1)
I played this a few years ago, so it will be good to hear your thoughts!
'Comment for Hugh Looking for a game' by lochness Submitted on 2006-11-10 12:45:45 CST Hi Hugh:
One game that was conspicuously left off the top 10 that fits your description is Planetside by SOE.
It is not an RPG but a FPS but you play it in a persistent world. It is entirely a PVP game. there are no NPC characters to fight.
There are levels but a level 1 character can kill a max level character. Levels only provide a way to have a character more diversified. You can pretty much get the harderst hitting weapons straight out of the gate.
This is a game that you can play for a quick 15 - 20 mins kids are in the back playing in the sprinklers..or joining an outfit and coordinating large scale raids for a couple of hours.
Also you can play for free but are capped at level 6. That’s what I do and have 3-4 characters just specializing in different abilities.
'Not a girl' by CowNoseThe50PoundCat Submitted on 2006-11-10 15:32:05 CST Just so everyone knows, I am not a girl. I don't know what about my e-mail made me seem like one. :( Jeeze shouldn't you assume the person who sent the e-mail is a guy? So just for the record, I am a he not a she!
Hehe, I'm mostly kidding but just wanted to correct that. :) I was person who sent in e-mail about private servers.
'Good Podcast!' by Streamweaver
Submitted on 2006-11-07 09:36:32 CST
I have no idea if you read it or if it made any difference but I posted a review of the pocast on iTunes earlier last week and this podcast really changed almost everything negative I talked about. The cadence of speaking was great and flowed naturally, I enjoyed the exhcange between the two hosts and a lot of personality shined through.
I wanted to add a comment on your issues with Blizzard and WoW development. Something that really drives me crazy about Blizzard is they still trying to pass everything off as if they are some small or new game developer. They don't get things out the door and can't keep servers running even years after release and seem to try to come off like a small garage developer. This of course is silly and one of the more frustrating things about the company to me.
'Another good show' by kain
Submitted on 2006-11-07 09:38:32 CST
I enjoyed todays show. Also thank you for not moving over to an apple format. You can play those files in VLC but it does not work as well as it could on the proprietary end. Also thank you for making it so easy for us who do not use iTunes. Some times for MOG I have to boot up my iBook to get the show and I am super glad that is not an issue here.
'Streamweaver and Kain' by Brent
Submitted on 2006-11-07 14:54:11 CST
Streamweaver: I get many comments about sometimes being sorta flat. Honestly, it is much easier to be a dynamic speaker when I'm not doing it myself, unfortunately, in interest of scheduling and not literally killing Brenden, having a full time second host is probably not in the cards just yet, so in the meantime I'll just have to twist him arm as much as possible (I'm kidding, he seems very willing) and otherwise just drink a ton of coffee and get all riled up before I record.
I'm glad you liked the show. I also felt it was a bit more lively than normal. So many thanks for your comments.
Kain: MP3 forever! I also want to add a little player on the site, but my encoding choices have tended to kill that idea as they haven't supported it very well. I changed the encoding on show 39 in an effort to re-test some options, which of course resulted in a massive file, much bigger than normal. I'll continue to look into that, but it sounds like you're pretty happy with the distribution options thus far!
'Rap-hellish' by Jarimor
Submitted on 2006-11-07 14:56:39 CST
I considered doing a Rapellz review to follow up the Hero Online one but it was honestly too painful.
The gameplay is almost identical, the difference in design seems only on a very superficial level and I don't think the repetitive, potion heavy gameplay needs reanalysing much.
It is bad enough that people are rushing to imitate WoW's gameplay but bloody hell the Koreans seem depserte to make exactly the same game repeatedly just with different art.
Anyways. enough of my rambling, I enjoyed the show as always.
Keep up the good work.
'Who was the listener with the sexy voice?' by hughnme
Submitted on 2006-11-07 21:09:44 CST
Just kidding, great show as allways, thanks for the thoughtful answer you and Brendan supplied for my question on end game stuff.
Recording a question was a learning curve in itself for me, I used audacity for the fist time and sort of half guessed how to use it, the other thing was when I started talking into the mic I was as nervous as a schoolgirl, so it gave me a little insight into what it must be like to do a whole podcast!
I personally have no issue with your voice tone (or lack of it) Brent, that’s a bit nit picky I recon, as long as you keep coming up with the good stuff ill keep listening
'Suggestions for the new feature' by misterB
Submitted on 2006-11-07 23:54:51 CST
First of all, I love the idea of dev. profiles.
I'd like it if you'd go a bit more in-depth on the devs. Maybe pick a few of, for example, Smedly's posts and talk about why they're relevant to us as gamers. What ideas did Smedly bring to the table that really stand out and make him a unique figure? I'd like to hear discussion on some of those issues.
As another dev. to be profiled, I'm sure that Raph is high up on your list. I'd love to hear some discussion of some of Raph's ideas, which he's not afraid of sharing. Raph is great in that, even if you don't like all of his ideas, he shares them and prompts discussions.
I am thinking, most recently, about all of the posting around his thoughts on WYSIWYG looting.
http://www.raphkoster.com/2006/10/27/wysiwyg-loot/
http://www.nerfbat.com/?p=163
http://www.lietcam.com/blog/2006/10/27/why-mobs-shouldnt-drop-their-equipment/
etc.
Huh, how 'bout a round-table Skype session with Raph?
Yeah, I'm getting way off-track.
Thanks for the podcast and I'm looking forward to the next one.
'So awesome' by Brent
Submitted on 2006-11-08 01:51:37 CST
Ok, the next show will feature a cage match between Raph Koster and David Perry. It'll be simply awesome.
'And you will be??' by darrenl
Submitted on 2006-11-08 15:48:43 CST
And will that make you the ref Brent?
Be sure to bring a whistle..
'Endgame ideas' by mdubuc
Submitted on 2006-11-08 18:45:37 CST
After listening to the podcast and hearing you guys talk about the “endgame” issue in MMO’s I started to think about what would be a good change to the current endgame scenarios. What if once you “maxed out” you character you could ascend and rise to another level of consciousness, which would remove them from normal play (meaning lock out the toon for a period of time) but allowing their consciousness to affect the account. What I mean is that what if you could affect/improve your play on alts by maxing out another toon in a specific class. I was thinking that once you reach endgame in general you tend to become a “sugardaddy” economically speaking to your alts due to the relatively easy access to coin so why couldn’t you add special moves/effects/combos based on the wealth of profession specific knowledge you possess from playing an other toon up to the max level. And it could be cumulative, so that if you had more than one toon maxed out and ascended they would have some kind of combo effect. This would also provide some incentive to play more than one class.
'Great Show' by Jarod
Submitted on 2006-11-10 04:02:12 CST
Really enjoying listening to the MMO news via your podcast, keep up the excellent work! I am looking forward to hearing how you get on in Neocron2 (I hope it is Neocron2 you bought for a $1)
I played this a few years ago, so it will be good to hear your thoughts!
'Comment for Hugh Looking for a game' by lochness
Submitted on 2006-11-10 12:45:45 CST
Hi Hugh:
One game that was conspicuously left off the top 10 that fits your description is Planetside by SOE.
It is not an RPG but a FPS but you play it in a persistent world. It is entirely a PVP game. there are no NPC characters to fight.
There are levels but a level 1 character can kill a max level character. Levels only provide a way to have a character more diversified. You can pretty much get the harderst hitting weapons straight out of the gate.
This is a game that you can play for a quick 15 - 20 mins kids are in the back playing in the sprinklers..or joining an outfit and coordinating large scale raids for a couple of hours.
Also you can play for free but are capped at level 6. That’s what I do and have 3-4 characters just specializing in different abilities.
'Not a girl' by CowNoseThe50PoundCat
Submitted on 2006-11-10 15:32:05 CST
Just so everyone knows, I am not a girl. I don't know what about my e-mail made me seem like one. :( Jeeze shouldn't you assume the person who sent the e-mail is a guy? So just for the record, I am a he not a she!
Hehe, I'm mostly kidding but just wanted to correct that. :) I was person who sent in e-mail about private servers.