Roger Edwards posted this on July 10th, 2011.
Categorized as F2P, franchises, gaming, lotro, MMO, mods, movies, podcast, sequels, swtor, wow.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://www.containsmoderateperil.com/2011/07/contains-moderate-peril-episode-13.html
Here we are again, this time with the thirteenth "Contains Moderate Peril" podcast. The summer can be a quiet time for gaming, especially with regard to MMOs. This week Brian and I look at what's happening in the wider MMO scene and discuss whether the genre is naturally evolving or are market forces killing this area of gaming. Can a premium title please both the casual gamers and the hardcore players?
With the final Harry Potter movie hitting the theatres over the next week, we ponder Hollywood's obsession with sequels. Does every film need a follow up? Why can't a story have a definitive ending? Or is it simply a matter of financial necessity. With up to 25% of Hollywood's output in 2011 being sequels or reboots, do the public have less choice?
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Roger Edwards posted this on July 4th, 2011.
Categorized as Age of Conan, endless trial, F2P, gaming, Green Lantern, lotro, movies, podcast, summer blockbusters, transformers 3, wow.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://www.containsmoderateperil.com/2011/07/contains-moderate-peril-episode-12.html
As summer is now upon us, the twelfth "Contains Moderate peril" podcasts looks at the phenomenon of the cinematic blockbuster. We assess what's been released so far during the season and what is to come. I ponder whether the big studio releases actually mean less choice while Brian reflects on his disdain for Ryan Reynolds in spandex.
Turbine are making further changes to the Lore-master class in LOTRO's next expansion, "Rise Of Isengard". Does removing the item component required to use the resurrection skill, make things too easy and will the new Auroch pet prove useful or simply another way to block everyone else's line of sight? Are you fed up with spending hours looking at another player's pets butt?
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Merric posted this on June 29th, 2011.
Categorized as F2P, Free to Play, Outside LOTRO, wow.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cstmfeed/~3/D_FUwFlbXts/
Mashable is reporting that World of WarCraft is now going to have a free to play option, that is until you reach level 20 (sound familiar?). They are titling it “World of Warcraft Starter Edition” and it allows players to play until their characters reach level 20, then they will have to subscribe to the “full version” of the game if they wish to keep gaining experience; which can be done through an online account page. There are some restrictions on Starter Edition Accounts, of course:
- A level cap of 20.
- A maximum of 10 gold.
- Trade skills are capped at 100 ranks.
- Unable to trade via the Auction House, mailbox, or player-to-player.
- In-game access to public chat channels unavailable. Players are limited to communicating using only say, party, or whisper.
- Characters will be unable to create or join guilds.
- Characters are not able to send whispers to other characters unless they have been added to the characters’ friends lists or have received a whisper from a character first.
- Characters will not be able to invite other players into a party.
- Characters will not be able to join parties with other characters above level 20.
- Voice chat disabled on Starter Edition accounts.
- Realms experiencing login queues will prioritize players who have full, paid accounts.
- Starter Edition accounts are not eligible for character transfers
- RealID features are disabled on all Starter Edition Accounts.
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Roger Edwards posted this on June 1st, 2011.
Categorized as COD, gaming, gaming and relationships, lotro, mmo-addiction, wow.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://www.containsmoderateperil.com/2011/06/gaming-and-relationships.html
Now there's a showboating, attention grabbing headline if there ever was one. This stems from a much reported article that appeared on various
gaming websites yesterday. The story goes that
"Divorce Online", a website facilitating non-contested divorce proceedings, claims that 15% of the cases it has administered can be attributed to one party "allegedly" being addicted to gaming. As per usual, top titles "World Of Warcraft" and the "Call Of Duty" franchise were cited as examples. So I thought it may be interesting to explore this and a few other wider topics.
Whenever writing about that nebulous group known as gamers, it's very difficult not to invoke all the standard clichés. Furthermore, if you even hint at going down this route, you will receive a deluge of rebuttals from those who are affiliated to this group, providing a detailed analysis of why they are an exception to the (ambiguous) rule. This is hardly surprising, as no one like to be criticised or associated with a stigmatised social group (The Liberal Democrats?). It should also be noted that where the online community seems to have a broader understanding about gamers, the tabloid press still like adhere to their hackneyed, 80's perceptions.
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Roger Edwards posted this on May 25th, 2011.
Categorized as Age of Conan, APB, champions online, Craig Morrison, Cryptic Studios, F2P, Funcom, gaming, lotro, PC Gamer, turbine, wow.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://www.containsmoderateperil.com/2011/05/f2p-another-title-adopts-hybrid-model.html
Funcom have announced that "Age Of Conan" will be adopting the
free to play business model as used by LOTRO and DDO. The relaunch will take place this summer under the new title of "Age Of Conan: Unrated". The game will be financed by a mixture of subscriptions and micro-transactions and will include material and characters from the forthcoming Conan movie. The games content will also contain more adult material to further reflect Robert E. Howard's work. Age of Conan’s Executive Producer, Craig Morrison, made the following statement in an interview with
PC Gamer.
"We’ve always felt that [going free-to-play] is a natural progression for an MMO title at a certain stage in it’s life cycle. We were really pioneers with this format back when we did it in 2005 with Anarchy Online, so it was natural for us that we would adopt a similar approach for Age of Conan".
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Roger Edwards posted this on May 21st, 2011.
Categorized as Cryptic Studios, lotro, PlayStation Network, podcast, Sapience, swtor, Turbine Global Service, wow.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://www.containsmoderateperil.com/2011/05/contains-moderate-peril-epsisode-6.html
The sixth "Contains Moderate Peril" podcast is now available, hard on the heels of last weeks episode. The whole enterprise seems to be hitting its stride at the moment so we will continue to produce material as often as we can, despite being described by one listener as "a turd that will not flush". Joining me on the show once again is Brian, formerly of "Mordor Or Bust". In this episode we explore the following topics:
- "World Of Warcraft" is losing subscribers. Not a big deal or indicative of a market change?
- Atari to sell Cryptic Studios. What does this mean for "Star Trek Online".
- Update 3: The Lost legends Of Eriador is coming to LOTRO.
- A selection of your Comments, Tweets and E-Mails.
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Roger Edwards posted this on May 18th, 2011.
Categorized as aion, Atari, blizzard, champions online, Cryptic Studios, gaming, lotro, NCsoft, Star Trek Online, turbine, wow.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://www.containsmoderateperil.com/2011/05/trouble-at-mill.html
In December 2008 Atari bought Cryptic Studios for $26.7 million. Since then, despite the launch of "Champions Online" and "Star Trek Online", Cryptic Studios have recorded financial losses for the last two financial years. As a result, Atari are writing Cryptic off as a "discontinued operation" and plans to sell the studio. Logically, this raises questions over the future of both those titles and subsequent licenses that are under development, such as "Neverwinter". Will a third party quickly snap up Cryptic or will its balance sheet be considered a liability?
Conversely, NCsoft has experienced a rise in net profits for the first quarter this year, to the tune of $37.5 million.. It would appear that NCsoft's revenues has remained constant for Q1 2011 and that the rise in profits of 30% are due to recent promotions in "Lineage" and "Aion". According to
Gamesindustry.biz, "Aion" accounts for 44% of revenue, followed by 30% from the "Lineage" franchise. However it should be noted that the bulk of NCsoft's money comes from Korea. It would appear that Western markets are not so lucrative. A telling state of affairs.
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Roger Edwards posted this on May 6th, 2011.
Categorized as Apps, authentiactor, lotro, lotro herald, smartphone, turbine, wow.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://www.containsmoderateperil.com/2011/05/smartphone-apps-for-mmos-does-lotro.html
"World of Warcraft" players with smartphones can currently test free of charge for one week,
World of Warcraft Remote, a guild chat functionality. This is on top of the existing auction tools that have been available for a while. If impressed then users can upgrade to the subscription service for a few dollars a month. It's all officially sanctioned by Blizzard as its simply seen as another source of revenue. So considering the success that F2P has been for Turbine and the consolidation of all LOTRO customers into one global service, are such apps going to be developed for the LOTRO community?
 |
| Yes before you ask, this was a April 1st joke from a while back. |
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Roger Edwards posted this on April 23rd, 2011.
Categorized as lotro, podcast, podcast contributors, Rift, wow.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://www.containsmoderateperil.com/2011/04/podcasts-labour-of-love.html
It's a pleasant Saturday afternoon and I've decided to take a break from editing the latest "Contains Moderate peril" podcast, to write this blog post. I thought it may be a good idea to write about podcast per se, as they are such a common aspect of fandom these days. I've been working using "Audacity" since 08:30 this morning. Over three hours of material has been recorded over the last few weeks and it needs to be refined into a coherent format. Like many people who produce podcasts, I've had no formal training. I've simply read a few articles on the internet and then made it up as I go along.
Every podcaster approaches their final cut with their own unique set of rules. Some folk edit very little, where I fret and fuss about every pregnant pause or piece of over lapping dialogue. I hate it when I mangle my words or fluff my lines. I also worry that the respective segments are too long. It's very hard to define a common standard as so many people have different views. It's also a temptation to listen to other peoples podcasts and make comparisons to your own, despite the fact that often you are doing completely different things.
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Roger Edwards posted this on April 8th, 2011.
Categorized as gaming, gaming addiction, lotro, playing too much, rant, Real Life, Rift, social interaction, wow.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://www.containsmoderateperil.com/2011/04/gaming-versus-real-life-polite-reminder.html
Gaming is a perfectly valid and acceptable pastime, despite all the negative stereotypes and bad press that it gets. I have met some good friends through gaming and have often enjoyed online social interactions as much as real world ones. I also think that gaming can be a useful learning experience, especially with with regard to teamwork and group dynamics. However, I do keep the entire matter in perspective and do not buy into some of the more wilder claims that are made. Gaming at the end of the day is a leisure activity and nothing more.
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