Yearly Archives: 2011

From the ashes a fire shall be woken, a light from the shadows shall spring.

[A Skyrim quest spoiler follows]

We join our heroine after she has awoken to find herself having been drugged and transported from her bedroom to an abandoned shack in the middle of a Skyrim swamp. The leader of the Dark Brotherhood stands before her, and tells our heroine that the organisation is interested in recruiting her, having followed her impressive progress in the world to date. But first, a test…

Three people kneel before our heroine, their hands bound, hoods over their heads. There is a contract on the life of one of these villains, and –the leader of the Dark Brotherhood informs her– our heroine must decide for herself which one it is. And then she must execute that person.

An entry is added to our heroine’s quest log in this regard.

Our heroine tries to leave the shack, but the way is barred to her; so she speaks to each of the three captives in turn, determining their crimes and judging the reasons for their being here in this place. She makes her decision.

Unfortunately for the leader of the Dark Brotherhood, our heroine has decided to take a path through life which falls not in the shadows. She is a servant of light. No specific deity commands this respect or offers guidance along this path. It is a path she forges of her own accord, a hard path, overgrown with the moral intricacies and complexities of a harsh and unforgiving world. Nevertheless, she follows the light as best she may.

She kills the leader of the Dark Brotherhood and releases the prisoners.

A message appears to the player of our heroine, ‘Failed: Join the Dark Brotherhood’. “Ah well”, thinks he, “I did what I felt was right for my character”. More importantly he felt that he had the choice to do what was right, and that nobody had told him to do so. No quest compelled him to do what he did, it was his decision, and he is therefore happy to live with the consequences, as well as the mild disappointment of having failed the quest.

Suddenly a new message appears to the player ‘New quest: Destroy the Dark Brotherhood!’

A smile appears on the faces of player and character alike.

Time to bring a little light to the shadows.

Moving on is a simple thing. What it leaves behind is hard.

Having spent an entire evening in Skyrim shuffling inventory between my basic starter house in Whiterun and my new super duper, top of the line, ‘oh look at them aren’t they doing well, bet they drive a high-spec German saloon car and wear pink shirts with jeans too’ house in Solitude, I’d like to make a brief appeal on behalf of the This Bit Isn’t Fun party, and ask if some kind soul would like to write a removalist mod. for the game.

Bonus points if, as m’colleague pointed out, the mod. keeps the immersion of the game intact by having a couple of blokes turn up, drop a load of your stuff, bang the rest into various door frames on the way out, chuck it all in the back of a horse and cart, then empty it onto the pavement at the other end and go “nah, was like that when it went in mate”.

Still, kudos to the continued realism of Bethesda’s game: they say moving house is one of the most stressful things a person can do, and that’s as true in Skyrim as it is in the real world.

Accursed inventory weight limit, you win again!

A great source of calamity lies in regret and anticipation; therefore a person is wise who thinks of the present alone

It’s been fairly quiet on the MMOG front here. Since moving on from Lord of the Rings Online a couple of months ago City of Heroes has been providing splendid weekly group-type fun, but nothing to really inspire bloggery (though some of the user-created content in the Mission Architect has at least raised an eyebrow…) While not exactly in danger of being dragged under the Slough of Despond, there’s a risk of losing a welly in the Fen of Listlessness at least.

After three years of hype I hadn’t exactly given up on Star Wars: The Old Republic, but had become inured to official cinematics and shakeycam footage from expos and had no great desire to jump into the recent beta, but the subsequent dropping of the NDA and tidal wave of blogging that followed rather piqued my interest. A good chunk of the blogroll over there headed off to a galaxy far, far away, and many splendid posts resulted; those of Spinks and Warsyde spring to mind, with apologies to the myriad other fine authors also available. It’s all sounding pretty good (in a balanced, genuine opinion about the (almost) final game sort of way, rather than a frothing extrapolation of a fuzzy screenshot and out-of-context quote into some idealised wündergame), so I’ve stuck a pre-order in.

I’d seen an occasional blog post before the beta complaining about the NDA, some suggesting that leaving it in place so close to launch was a clear sign of damage control, but the broadly positive impressions belie that. From my perspective at least it’s just sensible timing; with a month or so to go before a firm release date it’s all rather more tangible (as much as a digital download can be), if we’d had impressions over a series of developing builds for the past six months I imagine I’d be just as bored of them as official screenshots.

There are no better cosmetics than a severe temperance and purity.

A little light LotRO livery now, with a couple of my characters’ cosmetic outfits from the recent Isengard expansion, an update which, if nothing else, brought us some splendid options in the dressing-up department. This is not so much a guide as a bit of a ‘here’s something you can do’, and hey, it might act as temptation to those who are otherwise trying to resist. The devil is in the coattails.

My Captain first. I’ve long been enamoured with the Warrior Priest designs from Warhammer Online, and have wanted something similar for my melee healer in LotRO; with this outfit I feel I finally got close to the spirit of it, even if not the exact substance.

Leather Helm of the Stoic Stag – Rust
Hyrde-Axle – Default/Washed
Wood-Wanderer’s Cloak – White
Clanweave Robe – Default/Washed
Gleaming Gauntlets – Grey
Clanweave Leggings – Default/Washed
Polished Boots of the Dunland Shieldman – Grey


My Warden is still my favourite character by far, and as such I have the most outfits designed for her. Still, this is my current adventuring apparel, a nice mix of elven elegance and that steely sturdiness which is sine qua non to survival in serious skirmishing, if I do say so myself.

Winged Circlet – Umber
Hyrde-Axle – Umber
Campaign Backpack – Default/Washed
Scarred Surcoat of the Pren Gwydh Warrior – Umber
Leather Gauntlets of the Hill Watcher – Umber
Reinforced Leather Dunlending Boots – Umber


Syp recently made a post highlighting a selection of the many LotRO style blogs out there at the moment who are actively pimping outfits, so if you’re interested in LotRO fashion I’d heartily recommend checking out those links.

I would, however, especially like to highlight the splendid effort made by Devonna in detailing all the new and delightful cosmetics that are to be found in the latest expansion – Rise of Isengard, it certainly makes it that much easier to hunt down those rarer pieces which only drop as quest rewards.

Until next time, stay fabulous and carry a fine hat.

No legacy is so rich as honesty

News of the Legacy systems of Star Wars: The Old Republic, particularly a common surname across characters on a server that must be unique, has prompted some furious thinking at KiaSA Towers. What could be a lore-appropriate name that would work for all future characters? Aficionados may be aware of several previous Star Wars video games, but there’s also an entire expanded universe of rather obscure novels, comics and even some feature films, so we’ve been scouring these for inspiration. Here’s the shortlist for our characters, don’t go using them up before we get a chance!

  • Skywalker
  • Starkiller
  • Sunwounder
  • Gasgiantgrazer
  • Layheeyodalayheeyodalayheehoo (surname of some green dude who lived in a swamp)
  • Solo
  • Duo
  • Trio
  • Triiiiiiiiiiiooo
  • IwantatrioandIwantonenow
  • Hutt (surname of an intergalactic smuggler, who later branched out into baked dough products, sunglasses and small wooden structures)
  • Vader (most famously Geoff Vader, but also his lesser know brother Darth)
  • Stevens (Mr Stevens, boss of the Death Star canteen, one of the few individuals more powerful than Geoff Vader)
  • Organa
  • Oregana
  • Oregano
  • Parsley
  • Sage
  • Rosemary
  • Thyme
  • Coriander-Coriander-Coriander-Cilantro-Chervil
  • Tagliatelle-Frozen-In-Carbonara-ite
  • Pad-Thai Urad-dahl-a
  • Grand Moff Lobster Thermidor aux crevettes with a Mornay sauce served in a Provençale manner with shallots and aubergines garnished with truffle pate brandy and a fried egg on top and Spam Tarkin (Hang on, that one doesn’t really work…)

After reviewing the contents of the list, we would suggest not selecting your legacy surname while a bit peckish…

Thought for the day.

M’colleague and I were discussing his intention to order the Digial Deluxe Edition of the forthcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic. His comment “And an in-game flare gun that serves no purpose has to be worth [an extra] £20, right?” had us looking at exactly what you get for your intergalactic space bucks.

The item that stood out for me was the HoloCam: ‘Keep visual records of in-game adventures.’ To which my immediate response was “Wow, they’re going to make screenshots a feature that’s purchasable from the in-game store”.

But then I realised that they aren’t going to have an in-game store. (Or are they? Ahhhhhhh!)

But then I considered all the trouble people reported having with taking screenshots in the recent stress test, as though the functionality was deliberately absent or hobbled, perhaps because the feature might be something which could be enabled by, say, an in-game HoloCam (free with the Digital Deluxe Edition or purchasable from the in-game store that doesn’t exist or does it ahhhhhhhhhh).

But then I thought that that was an incredibly unlikely and cynical supposition: that enabling screenshot (and video recording) functionality only when the player possessed an RMT-purchasable in-game item would open the floodgates to all sorts of the worst kind of micro-transaction-based shenanigans.

But then I observed that I had a cup of tea and a chocolate HobNob on the desk in front of me. And in the end, isn’t that all that really matters?

Have I Got MMOnews For You

News this week of slightly unusual patent rights being granted for “a urinal-based games console”, which does seem to be an actual invention rather than just a terrible misunderstanding of how a Wii-mote is used.

The MMOG potential is obvious, venues such as stadiums offering the potential for 10, 25, perhaps even 40 man raids, though the duration would need to be tweaked slightly to under a minute rather than 18 hours. As for a suitable IP for the game setting, well, there’s only one option, isn’t there?

Looking for one more.

I present to you a loading screen advert for Lord of the Rings Online which I saw last night while logging in to perform some maintenance tasks (pay the house and kinship house rents, check lottery wins, admire my lovely cosmetic outfits, consider playing a skirmish or two and then logging out and launching Skyrim, etc.). The familiar band of LotRO mascots return, with the one-eyed dwarf Champion transformed into a Runekeeper, the elf Hunter slightly tweaked in appearance, and a Warden now joining the fray.

Of course what occurred to me is that the standard LotRO group size is six players, and there are only five present here. What’s more, the Runekeeper is clearly full bore into his lore-melting zappity mode, and thus not healing, so where is the Minstrel?

Doing what healers normally do, I assume: standing at the back, out of sight, and topping up health bars while the rest of the group gets on with the tiresome task of having fun killing stuff.

I expect I was probably supposed to be paying attention to the Recruit A Friend offer or something, but such is the way a mind warped by years of MMO tropes works. Or perhaps that’s really what this offer is about, subtly hinting at a way to solve that age-old MMO issue which occurs with the Holy Trinity style of group play:

Recruit A Friend! (Because you need a healer and nobody else wants to do it)

You’re tired of yourself and all of your creations

Nobody said of Skyrim “why do we need to compare this game to an mmo anyway?” (That’s Nobody the commenter, not nobody in the sense of no-one. Somewhat confusing, though I hear he’s an excellent right fielder.) It’s a good question; many MMOG bloggers have taken breaks for, and posted about, single player fantasy CRPGs over the past few years such as the Dragon Age or Witcher series, but I can’t remember anything that’s prompted the level of pondering Skyrim has, as captured in some of the recent MMO Melting Pot pieces.

Very broadly, single player CRPGs tend to be story- and character-driven, often epic in scope, perhaps taking you from humble beginnings and giving you the chance to save the village/city/country/world/solar system/galaxy/universe/multiverse. MMOGs are virtual worlds, providing a canvas for you to create your own stories, probably accompanied by four, seven, nine, 24 or 39 comrades.

(Massive generalisations, obviously, ample scope for pointing out exceptions to either case, mourning the loss of the worldlier elements of MMOGs to focus on optimisation of mechanics, etc. etc.)

Skyrim is principally drawing attention for its virtual world, hence the MMOG comparisons. It has a story, but people aren’t writing about that side so much, it’s the world, the immersion, the sense of adventure that are sparking posts (such as those, picking an example entirely at random, of m’colleague). Though unusual compared to more story-driven RPGs it’s hardly unprecedented, apart from anything else being the fifth of the Elder Scrolls series (ignoring the spinoffs we don’t talk about), with Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas achieving considerable success as well. It’s not such a surprise that the Fallout games didn’t take hold in quite such the same way as for many people RPGs are most strongly linked with a fantasy setting, particularly when it comes to MMOGs, though I’d like to humbly nominate myself for a John the Baptist award for contemplating the MMOG potential of New Vegas a whole month ago. What’s changed since the previous Elder Scrolls game, then, Oblivion?

Oblivion was released in March 2006, eight months before this blog started, thus in the “beyond living memory” category (though these days I can hardly remember what I had for breakfast half the time, rendering the span covered by my living memory considerably less impressive). WoW was getting into its stride, MMOGs in general were becoming more popular, numerous tantalising titles were in development, things were generally on the up. Some veterans from Meridian 59, Ultima Online or EverQuest were mourning the passing of the Golden Age, but newcomers to the genre could still be awed by a marketplace or plaza packed with actual real-life people (or their digital representations, at any rate). Things feel flatter now, allowing Skyrim to surf the wave of ennui lapping at the shores of the blogarchipelago; it might just be me (and Melmoth), but it doesn’t seem like many new MMOG blogs are starting up, established bloggers have been hanging up their keyboards, even WoW’s subscriber numbers are (slightly) falling.

Perhaps technological developments play a part. Not having actually played Skyrim (I will at some point, but am currently distracted by hopping around virtual reality as a toilet) (no, really) I’m hardly in an optimal position for analysis, but it seems like the cracks that have always existed in the world of The Elder Scrolls are gradually being smoothed over with improved voice acting, human-designed (rather than procedurally generated) dungeons and encounters, better graphics, more sophisticated NPC scripting etc. Of course it’s still obvious the world isn’t real, painfully so if you deliberately stretch the edges and put buckets over the head of NPCs or exploit the inability of a monster to navigate terrain, but each iteration of the series improves things (mostly; cue Morrowind versus Oblivion arguments…) It’s not just making a bigger world, Daggerfall was famously vast, it’s making a better world, a more interesting world. MMOGs, on the other hand, don’t seem to have moved on so much recently; not being intimately familiar with the technical side I can’t be sure, but I guess the challenges they face, of storing data about hundreds or thousands of players and their possessions and shunting that around networks, are pretty tricky before even getting on to the difficulty of player behaviour in a shared world.

The funny thing is, as Skyrim draws plaudits for its single player virtual world, Star Wars: The Old Republic is getting generally positive beta write-ups, especially for its story (or stories). It’ll be interesting to see if it can prompt similar debate over ways single player story-driven games can be improved by online components.

On midriffs and maturity.



Any bets on whether the male version of that battleframe is fully sealed?

I also love the attempt at subliminal sexual innuendo word highlighting and phrase choice in the Firefall advert. Subtle.

And we’re still debating why Skyrim is a runaway success while the reputation of the MMO genre goes from bad to worse?

No respect for a huge section of your paying customer base, garners no respect in return.