As such, I’ve decided to make a quick list of what I intend to play (and beat) this week.

• Bayonetta – Just started 1st playthrough (normal) intend to probably play through on hard also.
• Tales of Vesperia – Part way through (10 – 20 hours, perhaps?) intend to finish it, depends on how much time I spend on other games.
• Infinite Undiscovery – Just bought on the cheap, I’d like to give it a fair play – at least.
• Some Warcraft (of course) – Iraia is at 76, I’d like to get her to 80 in the next few days.
• Assassin’s Creed II – Finishing up the achievements, to properly 100% the game.

As you can see, that’s a fairly Xbox 360 based list (all but WoW are on there) – which means that they’re only going to get played during the evening, really, as the projector is kinda useless during the day (from about 12 - 7:30 , as it is summer here in Australia, and the room I’m using for projecting has a huge amount of windows in on the North/West facing walls) so there will still be plenty of time for WoW, and getting various achievements (like Peedlefeet now he’s not a random luck thing).

So, with that, I bid you adieu for now. Catch you in a few days, I guess.

When I plan out my characters, I get a piece of paper, and write down 3-5 traits that they have. These can (and should) change over time, but they represent the character at the current moment.

For instance, let’s take Selite. (Oh yay.) When I sat down and did this she was level 70 – and had been ‘shaped’ a little, and she’s been ‘shaped’ since, but she’s one of my more static characters.

Selite, at 70.

• Wants to help people. This is her primary motivation.
• Wants to obtain more knowledge.
• Independent.

Now, this is much earlier, and is quite different to the current style I use to write these. But still, these give a good idea of what her motivations and wants will be at a given time. As an example of ‘evolution of character’ I’ll now show you what she’s all about at level 80.

Selite, at right now.

• Independent.
• Mercenary disposition.
• Vengeance to the Scourge.

So, Selite now is much more about killing undead, and getting payed for it. You might notice that I wrote ‘Independent’ first this time. This is what I call the ‘primary motivation’ of a character. While the other factors are a part of her, the higher up the list it is, the more it means to her. (Well, you forgot “likes things to be shiny” and “likes cats” :p)

This whole post isn’t about Sel though. (Boo.) It was inspired by her wonderful younger sister Iraia. (You’ve been hitting on my sister?)

Iraia has recently gone through Dragonblight. Now for those of you not familiar with Warcraft, Dragonblight is a big zone, filled with lots and lots of quests (over 130 of them, at least). The main quest chain in Dragonblight, however, is about the Wraithgate, which is where the forces of the Alliance and the Horde have decided to prepare for their initial assault upon the Lich King. Unfortunately, bad things happen, and they get killed by a dangerous splinter group of undead.

Then a few more quests happen. But before that last part of the quest, you have probably spent the best part of the last 3-5 levels perfecting that plague for the undead. Now, this has changed Iraia dramatically.

She used to be all about (exclusively) ‘Seeing new things’. Being responsible (at least in her eyes) for the deaths of not only a bunch of mooks, but the greatest hero the Alliance has ever know (or so she thinks) has made her quite the introverted Blood Knight (fancy way of saying ‘Paladin’ if you’re a sexy elf). (One more thing, Iraia is technically part of the Horde – not that she feels like she has any reason to hate the Alliance)

Iraia, after Wraithgate & battle of the Undercity.

• Introvert.
• Wants to help people.
• Is inclined to pacifism.

Now this has already changed in the course of the last 12.5 hours, but there’s no rule against that. I say ‘inclined’ as she is still leveling, and as such, is still a Retribution Paladin (basically she hurts things) out of necessity (and don’t say “why don’t you heal randoms”?) – but she’s changed slightly.

Iraia, after completing the quest [Mystery of the Infinite] (level 73 version).

• Wants to help people.
• Has come to grips with the fact she needs to use violence.

Now, this quest has some funky time travel bits, so most of this is due to the influence of FUTURE IRAIA! *Cue Twilight Zone music*

Anyway. I’m not sure if that helps you guys think about your characters, but it’s always nice to throw out some examples of what I’m thinking.

New post “Character Interview – Iraia” coming soonish. (I’m thinking before friday, but we will see)

Before I begin, though, I feel the need to state that I enjoy the zones, and their flow, and everything else, and I’m not ‘hating’. I’m simply stating what I feel would be a better direction.

I would like bigger zones. In fact, not even that. I would enjoy having either bigger zones, with more more ‘padding’ OR a larger amount of zones that serve no purpose in the world apart from looking nice (and having rare fishing nodes or something) possibly with some mooks to grind on, but they’d be lower level than the surrounding zone, yellow (not aggressive) and generally leaning towards simple beasts.

These zones would reward exploration. Each one might have a dozen quests, all very simple, often nothing more than courier quests, designed to be a (very slight) reward for visiting them. Here’s an generic example. This is set in a large forested area, like a mix of Elwynn and Grizzily Hills, with occasional houses and stuff. Near one of the trees (spawning at random – spread over a big enough area to make it stupid to farm) you find a book or a letter or something. And then you deliver it. Simple. You might get a few gold too. Who knows.

They would exist entirely for people like me, who have explorer because of a need to know what was on that map before there was an Achievement to clear it all and people with Salty. Because they are fucking crazy, and I wish I was one of them.

Now. I’m a gamer. Obviously. Like many of you, I’ve been playing World of Warcraft for a long, to very long, time (longer than I’ve played any other game with the possible execption of Diablo 2, and possibly the first Disc of FF7 (not on purpose, that second one)), and as I mature as a gamer, and look back at what I want from a game, I still find Warcraft worthy of playing – and I’m sure I’ll still play it for as long as it is around. However, I feel that the game is… drifting away, from where I really enjoyed it, and for now (this post) I’m going to focus on one simple, succinct point.

The world (of Warcraft) is getting smaller.

I know this is not technically true, but with the release of Cataclysm sometime this year (I’m guessing before Blizzcon, myself, but I could be wrong (really hope not)) the world will shrink enormously. Now I know what you’re thinking. “But TwilliK! You’re stupid, they’re adding more zones and stuff!” But let me ask you, once you get the chance to fly around Azeroth, not just Northrend, the world will shrink down tiny small.

Remember when you got your 60% flyer at level 70? (If you got a 150% flyer at 60 for your first, then this whole post might be lost on you, missing out on the mount/world curve the way you did) Even though you were going slower, because you could fly over gigantic cracks in the ground, mobs, the Fel Reaver, and anything else, you got wherever you were going faster than if you were on your epic ground mount.

Now imagine that in Old World. Wanna go from Orgrimmar to Winterspring? No 5 minute taxi or 30 minute mount ride (plus the five minutes running through the furblog cave) just hop in your flyer, press the space bar for 30-60 seconds, and fly north. You’ll be there bloody quick I bet. Remember those old horrible non optimised flight paths? They did one good thing. They made you appreciate the scope of the world that Blizzard had built.

Anyway, that’s some food for thought. Also, please don’t say “why don’t you just not fly anywhere?” because I know that to be able to go anywhere worth going, I’ll need to be able to fly.

Via Triv of Raid Naked.

How about a shared topic on RPG Nostalgia? Something along of the lines of your first love in the rpg universe, possibly even mmorpg universe.
For me it harkens back to the days when I first discovered MUD’s. I could actually play a game and interact with other people outside of my own home. It was amazing to me and so varied. MUD’s were the dreamchildren of individuals, and since they are individuals each MUD had it’s own flavor.
I would also add my initial rpg experiences such as Nethack or even console based games like Phantasy Star 3.. (awesome game). I would love to hear how other people fell in love with the genre. I think it would be a great topic to share because it expresses our individuality as well as our community in gaming. (we are all different but the same)
What do you think?

Okay, as a LONG time gamer, I’ve gotta go back a suitably long-ish time to find the first love of my RPG affair. It was probably one of the SNES Final Fantasy games.  Let’s say FF6. I know for a fact that I LOVED that game. No joke. I played it (in an emulator, how daring and pirate like) non stop for two to three weeks over the summer (christmas) holidays one year. Now, chances are that I’m looking back at it with rather rose tinted glasses, but it was a good example of an amazing JRPG.

Not too long after that, (years, that is) there was a game, that while I’d be hard pressed to call a proper RPG as we understand WoW, or FF, or DnD, was a masterpiece. It was The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. OH MY GOD. It was beautiful. Music, graphics, gameplay, it was magical. This sparked a love affair with the Zelda series, and to date, I’ve 100% ed most of the games in the series. (The main ones, so, 1, 2, GB/GBC, SNES, Oracle games, OoT, Wind Waker, Majora’s Mask (I know it’s not a main one, but /shrug), OoT: Master Quest, Minish Cap, and one of the other ones, who’s name escapes my recollection.) In fact, I’m playing the SNES one (on GBA) and Link’s Awaking again at the moment. (Mainly because Link’s Awaking is hard as nails. Like soloing any content from 62+ on a squishy, not well geared mage hard, plus some more)

Then, the next game that really stands out for me was NEVERWINTER NIGHTS. This game was so, so, so awesome. It was my first Bioware game that made me go “WOW!” (because I never had a chance to play any of their older games) and despite the relative badness of the story campaign, the infinite number of AWESOME modules that had been created by members of the community made this one of my favorite games for a very, very long time. Then there were the two x-pacs, which had GREAT main adventures, and expanded the ruleset, adding in prestige classes and epic levels, making the game EPIC FUN. (Ho ho!) I must of spent about 4 years with that as my primary game on the PC.

Other games, that I can’t place on a timeline so much include, the time I played EQ1 at my aunt/uncle’s place, and was entranced by the vastness of it all (then I got killed by some crazy hard mob half a zone over), the first time I played Diablo (once again at their place), which (although mainly these are D2′s hardcore mode’s fault) has been the downfall of several mice.

Anyway, when it comes to the best RPGs of the various generations, we’ll have to go with the following.

SNES: Chrono Trigger – A masterpiece. If you haven’t played it, or gotten all the endings (and there’s tons of them, some radically different, too.) get the DS version. NOW.

GB/GBC: Pokemon Silver. Loved this game, too.

N64: Ooh, tough one. I’ll say Zelda, but I’m forgetting something else.

Gamecube: TALES OF MUTHAFUCKING SYPMHONIA. SO GOOD. One of the best RPGs, with a great story (there’s a great twist near the ‘end’ although, it doesn’t take much thought to see that it’s not the end for real) good length (40+ hrs, that’s focusing on the main quest), and fancy graphics. Loved it so much.

DS: Chrono Trigger. LOL JK. Actually, there are quite a few decent DS RPGs, but it’s hard to give a solid winner, when the best are all remakes of old SquareEnix games. I mean, really, look at the number of FF, DQ, and Crono Trigger remakes on there (like 6?).

PC: This is a hard one. Nethack, is awesome, and crazy crazy crazy tough. NWN is crazy good. More recently, other games have done allright. But the best is Diablo 2. Still racked up more hours on one character in that than I have with all my WoW toons combined. (Well, that’s a lie, D2 toon is at ~20 days though, so /shrug, WoW main is at well over 31, at last check (July-ish?))

Allright, I can’t be bothered writing any more. It’s still a good 500+ words for my portion, probably around 700+, in fact. Also, TWO POSTS IN ONE DAY?!!?!?! WOAH!!!