There was a bit of a hullabaloo this past week in the e-book world. Apple apparently penned some deals with book publishers, and then one book publisher and Amazon have had a spat. *shrug* None of that is anything I really want to be bothered with. Instead I simply want to love e-books. I really do.
To bad I have some problems; price and DRM.
Let’s take DRM first. When I buy a paper book, I own it. I can loan it to my friends and family, donate it, or even sell it. When I buy a e-book from Amazon its more like an extended rent; I can’t loan it out, donate it, or sell it. If I can do any of those things please tell me how.
Second we have price. I am a cheapskate, and I am always looking for deals on books. I frequent used bookstores, borrow from friends, check out from the library, and yes buy new (though I don’t buy hardbacks). So when I go online and see E-books selling from the same cost as a new paperback or more, I am bit at a loss.
Logic tells me the cost of manufacturing and delivery should be less than paperback and I , the consumer, should see that reflected in the cost of the book. On top of that the restrictions placed on my usage of the product should also be reflected in a lower cost. Yet in most cases they are not.
I could deal with the DRM, if the costs to me was lower. And I could deal with paying full paperback price for an e-book if when I did I got an actually file I could transfer, loan, or sell. Alas since neither of those are the case, and publishers are trying to find ways to raise prices on e-books, I don’t see myself getting rid of my bookshelves anytime soon.
MrAnderson Musings
This past weekend I gave a few more hours of time to playing the Star Trek Online open beta. While I have enjoyed some parts of the game, there is an uncanny valley between the game Cryptic is offering and the Trek game I would love.
Anyhow, there are a few things I encountered over the course of my playing that left a bruise when I woke up today. I felt these were worth documenting so I can recall them later and see how or if they changed over time.
Of course my standard beta disclaimer applies:
I know beta issues are not always reflective of the released game. I get that, but that has zero impact on me recording my experiences and watching to see how things end up.
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MrAnderson Games, Star Trek Online, beta beta, Games, MMO, STO
The Situation
Returning to limited play time that comes with work was a bit jarring. Over the holidays I could slip off almost anytime and sneak some play time in, while being at work for 10-12 hours a day limits that dramatically. I have settled back into a good routine and am wonderfully grateful for the couple of hours I get each day to play, even if it does mean I going back to being a one or two game at a time player.
It also means that while I consistently seem to have drafts of posts saved, very few will actually get posted and as usually I probably won’t be writing up well thought up comments to others posts. That’s my situation and now for my report.
MrAnderson Everquest2, Games, Star Trek Online EQ2, Games, MMO, STO
After three weeks of playing I have found several items that have struck me as much better than my previous impressions led me to believe.
Though before I start that list I wanted to re-iterate the three items I feel EQ2 is most ‘hurt’ by. These items are subjective, of course but I wanted to get them out there.
“The Ugly”
Art Style and Direction
I believe the game’s art is not inviting, or presents much in the way of “pop” and “zing”. When people see me playing they never walk up and go “wow that is awesome looking. What are you playing?” That, to me, is a problem. These days, you want people to be wowed by the look of your game.
Accessibility
EQ2 has a lot of depth and variety, and with almost six expansions out now (as of this writing) there is a lot for a new player to take in. Yes there are help tips, and I suspect buried in the game is some documentation, but none of it is presented well to a new user.
UI
The problem I have with the game is that the default UI when you first launch the game is a mess. I think they need to two things: 1. Have an artist take a pass at all the windows, looking at some of the more popular skins and see where the default can be improved. 2. Build a more cohesive initial layout of the windows, so things are nicer for new players.
Now the EQ2 does allow UI skins and installing them is fairly simple. Kudos to them, and yes that fact does mitigate part of my UI issue since you can correct things. Though I believe Users should have to do minimal work to get an organized functional UI. (yes I know UI layout is subjective, and many people might be happy with the default layout)
Now on to the fun stuff…
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MrAnderson Everquest2, Games EQ2, Games, MMO
I thought a lot this week about my 2009 games of the year, as I saw gaming sites all over the internet posting their lists in various different formats. I was going to skip the whole thing, because I did not want to be a “me too” poster. Then I took a pause today and remembered this site is not for anyone else but me, and I a post about my thoughts on 2009’s game is something I would like to read later. And thus I bring this post.
How this works is I am going to list games that I have memories of , along with a bit of commentary. This is not a best of list by any means, just me thinking back on the year. It’s also not in any particular order.
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MrAnderson Games, Musings Aion, Champions Online, EQ2, Free2Play, Games, Lotro, MMO, Runes of Magic, World of Warcraft
Yes it is true I am playing Everquest 2 once more.
It all started a couple of weeks ago my wife and I chatted once again about playing an MMO together. I thought for a bit about trying Everquest 2 with her, and when I looked at my account status I discovered Sony had reactivated my account for the month. I am a sucker about free time so I reinstalled EQ2 and started messing around a bit from the perspective of teaching my wife how to play. Well the washed out five year old graphics engine and high learning curve was going to be a turn off to my wife and I suspect this venture into the game was going to be a passing fancy for me. Then I found out a friend of mine had also taken advantage of the free play time.
Friends make games more fun; that is a proven fact. So with the knowledge of my friend playing I created a new character on the server he was playing on which is now my 3rd server (all with characters no higher than level 22).
While we have only grouped together one time as we ran past each other, simply having someone to chat to made the game much more fun. He also encouraged me to get into the guild he joined for more social interaction, and that was the best meta game decision I have made. Guilds are the social heart of MMOs, as long as there are a few members online for me to chat to the game becomes much more than just a game it becomes a “watercooler”.
As for characters I started another Fury (half-elf) and a Troll Defiler (an homage to my very first troll shaman eq1 character), both of them have been fun to play but the Fury has been getting most of the play time lately. I am finding that as I level up and experience some of the games subtleties, I am enjoying it more and more. I think in my next post I will chat about those things EQ2 offers me that other games have not.
MrAnderson Everquest2, Games EQ2, Games, MMO
I wanted to spend a few hours a week with my wife playing together in an MMO; I wanted to experience the game together, encountering and overcoming challenges together. We were talking about trying several different games including WoW.
Then I realized something; I can not casually play World of Warcraft, at least not on my most recent server of choice. As soon as I log in I see friends with higher level or better geared characters doing new content and I am drawn to it. Next thing I know I am either leveling up as fast as I can or I am swapping to a higher level character and begin the work to do what my friends are doing or where the new content is.
I suspect if my friends and I started on a brand new server together I would not be able to hold back. I would want to always make sure my character was optimized for our grouping and as high of a level I could be to continue grouping with them. If it was a locked group playing once a week, I would have at least two other alts on that server, leveling and earning money to help support the group.
I simply can not play the game in a slow and relaxed, “smell the roses” sort of way. Today I started to wonder if the mechanics and design of the game lend to my issue. I mean Blizzard has actively worked to accelerating the journey up to the higher levels, and most content updates have focused on the higher levels of the game. Up until the forthcoming expansion they have done little to expand, alter, or build upon the existing content.
Also there is little unknown or feared about the world as a whole. Part of this is due to the internet world we live in where players can share knowledge instantly, but the static nature of the world makes that knowledge long lasting. There is something exciting about not know what you will encounter just over the next ridge, or around the next bend. That “unknown” is what draws me to trying new MMOs and the lack of that element is one of the factors that drives me away.
Which leads me to thinking that maybe I can not play any MMO casually, and that makes me sort of sad.
MrAnderson Games, Musings Games, MMO
I have not been a competitive MP FPS player since my quake 3 days, so I am as surprised as anyone at the amount of CoD:MW2 I have been playing. It has some secret sauce tickles my gaming fancy enough that even though I am terrible (playing on the 360 makes me even worse), I keep wanting to play.  Part of this I am sure is the leveling and unlockables system they have in place, I am a sucker for leveling up and MW2 has tons of it.
But I do have some issues with the MP.
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MrAnderson FPS, Games FPS, Games