I knew this was coming, since I had to sign the legal paperwork awhile ago, but I participated in the Tabula Rasa Base Announcement Contest. I have barely had time to play EVE the last couple of weeks, so the fact that the results have been posted escaped me. I look to get some sweet swag off this gig.
I am so witty!
Showing posts with label tabula rasa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tabula rasa. Show all posts
Monday, May 5, 2008
Friday, March 7, 2008
Non-EVE MMO Experiment Part 2: Tabula Rasa
Well, I've given WoW just under a month, and it's still WoW. It didn't magically turn into God's gift to MMOs in my absence, despite what hordes of fanboys will tell you. It is still a solid game, with massive improvements over when I played originally (back when subscribers were counted with six digits), but it's still just...meh. I paid for 3 months, and will play them out, but I don't see it captivating me.
That said, Alsedrech and I looked at alternatives for our secondary MMO, given that we're both pretty committed to EVE. As you might have heard on the podcast, we downloaded and played the trial for Dungeons and Dragons online. After ten minutes, we both decided we would rather set fire to all our polyhedronal dice than spend another second in that game. It's not a bad game, it's just....ok, it's a bad game. In fact, I blame Gary Gygax's death on the crappiness of that game's UI and gameplay.
Al then gave the LotRO trial a spin, perhaps after feeling guilty for the thrashing we gave Turbine's other MMO over Skype. According to him, it's a great deal better than DDO, but just feels a bit slow. He and I often share game opinions, so I'm willing to let this stand instead of downloading the 7GB client over my very bad broadband pipe.
That brings us to Tabula Rasa. I played this game in open beta and found it to be resoundingly "meh." It was cool, but the innovations still didn't get rid of the feel that I was playing WoW in space with guns. Now that they've added considerable content, and after a few recommendations, I decided to reactivate my account. Al activated an account at the same time.
Thus far our views are...surprisingly good. The game is a lot of fun, and the pacing of the random dropship baddies has made the tempo of the game feel more urgent. I've always been a big fan of the instance cut scenes, and any PUG members who begrudge me watching them every time are taking Lord British in space as a bit more serious business than it really is. Additionally some good game balancing has been done, and they are finally going to give proper re-specs (first one to mention cloning gets a polarity gun to the fifth vertebra). There are still some glaring issues, specifically that having their pinky toe behind a passing ladybug grants a nine foot tall Thrax Officer total cover, whilst standing behind a boulder the size of a small post office seems to do nothing for my situation...and there are dance emotes.
Thus concludes one of the first entries that befits the name of the blog. More to come on our adventures on the Cassiopeia server. If you play on Cass, shoot me an e-mail and we'll go run instances or something.
That said, Alsedrech and I looked at alternatives for our secondary MMO, given that we're both pretty committed to EVE. As you might have heard on the podcast, we downloaded and played the trial for Dungeons and Dragons online. After ten minutes, we both decided we would rather set fire to all our polyhedronal dice than spend another second in that game. It's not a bad game, it's just....ok, it's a bad game. In fact, I blame Gary Gygax's death on the crappiness of that game's UI and gameplay.
Al then gave the LotRO trial a spin, perhaps after feeling guilty for the thrashing we gave Turbine's other MMO over Skype. According to him, it's a great deal better than DDO, but just feels a bit slow. He and I often share game opinions, so I'm willing to let this stand instead of downloading the 7GB client over my very bad broadband pipe.
That brings us to Tabula Rasa. I played this game in open beta and found it to be resoundingly "meh." It was cool, but the innovations still didn't get rid of the feel that I was playing WoW in space with guns. Now that they've added considerable content, and after a few recommendations, I decided to reactivate my account. Al activated an account at the same time.
Thus far our views are...surprisingly good. The game is a lot of fun, and the pacing of the random dropship baddies has made the tempo of the game feel more urgent. I've always been a big fan of the instance cut scenes, and any PUG members who begrudge me watching them every time are taking Lord British in space as a bit more serious business than it really is. Additionally some good game balancing has been done, and they are finally going to give proper re-specs (first one to mention cloning gets a polarity gun to the fifth vertebra). There are still some glaring issues, specifically that having their pinky toe behind a passing ladybug grants a nine foot tall Thrax Officer total cover, whilst standing behind a boulder the size of a small post office seems to do nothing for my situation...and there are dance emotes.
Thus concludes one of the first entries that befits the name of the blog. More to come on our adventures on the Cassiopeia server. If you play on Cass, shoot me an e-mail and we'll go run instances or something.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Of EVE, RL, and Tabula Rasa
This week saw me explode in spectacular fashion in the alliance tourney match against Pandemic Legion (I was the second Dominix to go down for MC on Day 3), and not too much else for me in EVE. BoB's attempt to re-take QY6 is going only marginally worse than their propaganda campaign, and Tyrrax Thorrk is making a general moron of himself on the forums. Me dying, check. BoB losing, check. TT being an attention-seeking drama queen, check. Yup, looks like EVE is much the same as it was four months ago.
In other news, The Drone Bay, Episode 1 (yes, it is the second show, but the first was technically Episode 0 or 0.1 or something as it was the pilot) is edited, converted, and the link is sent to Brent. Hopefully it will be up in the next day or so. As always, give us loads of feedback. Feel free to flame us, too, but know that if you do, we'll mock you on air. Also, The Drone Bay has a new GAX Group, so be sure to check that out. If you're not on GAX, you should be. Think MySpace with more gamers and fewer emo high schoolers and crappy bands.
I've been playing a bit of Tabula Rasa again,lately, and it is dangerously close to supplanting WoW as my non-EVE MMO of choice. They've done a lot to the game since the weeks after release when I played, most of it good.
On a semi-related note, I'll be likely moving back to the States from Japan in the next couple months, so there will be a stint where there may be no podcast or blog updates for a few weeks. I'll give warning when this is getting closer. On a note related to the semi-related note, I'm looking for a job stateside, so if you want to throw buckets of cash at me to prognosticate and give opinions born of an inflated ego, please send me an e-mail, or simply make out checks to cash and send them to me.
In other news, The Drone Bay, Episode 1 (yes, it is the second show, but the first was technically Episode 0 or 0.1 or something as it was the pilot) is edited, converted, and the link is sent to Brent. Hopefully it will be up in the next day or so. As always, give us loads of feedback. Feel free to flame us, too, but know that if you do, we'll mock you on air. Also, The Drone Bay has a new GAX Group, so be sure to check that out. If you're not on GAX, you should be. Think MySpace with more gamers and fewer emo high schoolers and crappy bands.
I've been playing a bit of Tabula Rasa again,lately, and it is dangerously close to supplanting WoW as my non-EVE MMO of choice. They've done a lot to the game since the weeks after release when I played, most of it good.
On a semi-related note, I'll be likely moving back to the States from Japan in the next couple months, so there will be a stint where there may be no podcast or blog updates for a few weeks. I'll give warning when this is getting closer. On a note related to the semi-related note, I'm looking for a job stateside, so if you want to throw buckets of cash at me to prognosticate and give opinions born of an inflated ego, please send me an e-mail, or simply make out checks to cash and send them to me.
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