Final Fantasy XIV Beta: Now with added “Whenever you want”!

Today the Final Fantasy XIV closed beta went into it’s final phase, which means us lucky few with beta keys get to log in whenever we want!

I haven’t really been playing the beta as much as I could, don’t want to know everything about the game before I really get started on it after release, but have checked out the crafting, harvesting, trading and combat mechanics, and they’re all “good in the hood” as the kids might say.

Only a few short weeks until the 22nd of September before I get my hands on my copy, and my Collectors Edition “Frosted Adventurers Tumbler”!

Joy!

EverQuest 2: Free to Play?

Today, Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson, EQ2’s Senior Producer announced EverQuest 2 Extended,  a version of EQ2, that is rather limited but free to play.

The FAQ on it is located here.  To me, it seems like a unlimited trial, very similar to Age of Conan, limited in what classes/races you can pick, and not being able to chat in certain channels. Obviously SOE want a piece of the very lucrative F2P pie, and call my cynical, but I personally think this is ridiculous.

Payment options etc. after the break.

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Rift: Planes of Telara

Logo for Rift: Planes of TeleraOk Wodge has gone and done it again…

His post “Not Playing MMO’s” mentioned an upcoming game, Rift: Planes of Telara which I’ll admit I hadn’t really heard much about or looked into. Well thanks to the Short Shiny one (he plays dwarves in plate mail),  I have been having a read of the Rift website.

I have to say first of all it’s my kind of MMO, I’m a high fantasy MMO fan as you may know from my previous posts. I find high fantasy style worlds more interesting than the more futuristic worlds of Sci-Fi MMO’s, that’s not to say I don’t play those games, they are just not my preference.

Rift takes place in a world call Telara which was protected by a Ward setup by the Gods, due to the actions of the inhabitants of Telera this Ward was damaged and creatures from outside are now trying to get in. It’s a bit like the Shadow Odyssey expansion in EQ2 I guess though much more involved.

There are 2 factions on Telara which the players get to choose from, the Guardians and the Defiant. For the Guardians think religious “I’m going to cleanse the world to save it” types and for the Defiant think “Where are the Gods when we need them, we’ll save the world ourselves” types.

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Raptr! It’s Awesome!

Just a brief one while I remember.

Been using XFire to keep in touch with my merry band of followers, but recently I was told of Raptr.

This program is the canine’s reproductive organs!

Here is where you go to get it, it supports, XFire, XBox Live, Playstation Network, AIM, Yahoo IM, Google Talk, MSN and tracks yer achievements and all that jazz.  Also has a client for *spit* iPhone *splurgle* and one for *yay* Android *cheer* supposedly in the works.

Here’s my Profile Thingymabob as an example, it’s a great way to keep in touch with people playing other MMO’s, and lets you know what they’re upto.

Not Playing MMOs.

Ok, I guess I should come clean.  I’ve not been playing many MMOs in the last few weeks.  Odd trial here and there, a brief stint in Age of Conan, but that’s it.

Why?  Complete and utter bordom of the genre.  Why am I still posting on and reading the various MMO websites?  I know of all the good stuff that is just around the corner…

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My Cataclysm Wish-List…

Hi!  I’m Wyntr — I have a platoon of level-80 toons in World-of-Warcraft.  I’ve been playing this game steadily for the past five years, am active in end-game, and have slowly acquired a sense of proficiency across the available classes, races, and aspects.  I play the game with a programmer’s eye for details and I’ve written one or two mods over the years.  I have a WoW-blog at wowrantz.com where I nitpick (with a programmer’s sense of anal-retentiveness) or praise the work done by Blizzard on this epic piece of software.   I’m absolutely stoked at the invitation to contribute to MMO-Symposium and hope my WoW-based articles find an audience here!

Blizzard is currently upgrading the servers in a concentrated twenty-four-hour window of maintenance to prepare the realms for the release of the new Cataclysm expansion.  This is the third major revision, following Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King, for the World of Warcraft since vanilla WoW was first launched.

In this expansion, we’ll see a new level-cap taking our toons up to level-85, new instances and end-game content centered in Azeroth and the sundering of the lands by black dragon aspect known as Deathwing.  Two new races will be introduced: the Worgen for the Alliance, and the Goblins for the Horde, along with their corresponding starting-zones and quest lines.  Also on-tap for the expansion is a re-vamping of the talent-trees, and the addition of new classes to the existing races.  (Tauren Paladins FTW!)

However, as the old saying goes: the devil is in the details.  And, fwiw, I’d like to take a brief moment both as means of introducing myself, and as an outlet to pent-up frustrations, introduce my list of improvements that I’d like to see addressed in the new expansion.  Realistically, I understand that most of these issues are probably way far down on the features list and won’t be addressed anytime soon.  But, in spite of that, let’s gird our loins, hoist a lance, and go tilting at that Blizzard-owned windmill, shall we?

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The blogging block

Apologies for the slow arrival of posts in the last month or so, I’m having a (partly enforced) blogging block. With a mini me on the way and all the things that need to be sorted before the arrival, my time for gaming (for those long weekend sessions) is reduced. I’ve had less time to look around the MMO space or to write the posts here.

I’m hoping this will improve now most things are sorted out though I’m sure when baby arrives I’ll find gaming time harder to find.

It has got me thinking though about blogging in general. What kind of posts do people want to see? Lots of MMO blogs post only about aspects of the genre or upcoming games, with less in game experience posts. Here at MMO-Symposium myself and the other slacking writers have tried to make the site about all aspects of MMO’s. For me in game experiences are a big part of my MMO life and I often like to write about them or post a few pics of what I’ve been up to in game. I even thought about having a dedicated MMO photo blog as I sometimes feel that angles on MMO’s I want to write about have all been covered by those who slack less.

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MMO’s Up and Coming?

There is currently a post going on, on my guild forums where a member asked what MMO’s we were looking forward to. The answer is pretty much Star Wars the Old Republic (though nobody is sure what to make of that game) and nothing much else.

The Agency was mentioned but I myself am not that bothered about what looks to be an FPS with an MMO amount of players.

I’m currently playing Everquest 2 still and Lord of the Rings online, both of which I still enjoy though LOTRO is a more occasional MMO for me. I also play Battleground Europe though I think I may be taking a break from that game soon  due to my impending Dad status. I don’t feel that paying a monthly sub for a game I only get to play now and again is worth it, I have a life sub for LOTRO so don’t have to worry about play time there.

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Guild Meet 2010

A drunk in LOTRO, a bit like some of us at the guild meetAnother neXus guild meet is over and a whole year until the next one, so sorry for the lack of posts but I’ve been away/recovering.

This year we met up in Liverpool and headed to the Isle of Man (the home of our guild leader) for the last few days. The usual suspects turned up along with a few members we haven’t met before all of who soon found the beer and got on great with the rest of us.

Meeting new members is always interesting as I often wonder just how much you know someone from voice chat or even just text chat for those that don’t use voice. With all the neXians I’ve met so far though it is just like I’ve known them for a while anyway as I think all who turn up do use voice chat and so I’ve already spoken to them just not in the flesh.

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LOTRO – Level 20

Into a DungeonWell I’m still playing Lord of the Rings Online after my latest return, popping in from time to time when I’m not EQ2′ing.

My Character Yetian is now level 20 and has entered the city of Bree, found my Kinship house and ventured into both the forest near Bree and the Barrows.

I am enjoying the game again and even at my slow pace there is plenty to see, with the views still outstripping other MMO’s I have played. The character models are still poor  though and I’m trying to get a decent black outfit now I can use appearance sets of armour.

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