Escapist Podcast: 109: MMOcast

DarkhoIlow

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Thank you guys (and girl!) for this MMO centric podcast.

I really was looking forward to hear all your experiences. As a Vanilla (started at beginning of 2005) player it warms my heart to hear others talk about it. It brings back so many fond memories it's fantastic.

I am still actively playing it and although it has it's up and downs, it still remains the best MMO I have ever played.
 

RoonMian

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I would have thought that at the "EvE 2" moment someone was surely going to mention Star Citizen which already has more than 200,000 people in it two years away from the finished game... :\
 

2clueless

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Awesome Podcast cast guys. I have enjoyed all the ones that I have watched, but this one was definitely a lot closer to heart.

Two things for anyone and everyone to take away from this podcast, be you developer, market'er, or player:

1) Having the right social connections transcend games from merely being fun to being Awesome!

2) Be polite.

MMOs at their heart are the current pinnacle of social gaming. I would argue that if you are playing an MMO, you are looking for a person or people to play and have fun with in your chosen virtual world. Joining guilds or outfits, making friends, learning to work and play well together, complimenting each others' gameplay, all of it just creates such a fun, accepting, positive atmosphere.

My first big three multiplayer games were Starcraft, Unreal Tournament, and Counter-Strike pre-1.0. At a younger age, playing with friends and family on console games was always such a blast. When I learned you could do that on my computer games, playing with tons of other people online, I was hooked. Since I had bad attitude beaten out of me during my formative years and niceness and politeness instilled into me as base traits (Thank you, Mom!), I would find communities of awesome people, decent servers to play on, and such experiences had no equal.

Then came Planetside.

I was at my First Person Shooter pinnacle. 32 man UT (Last Man Standing INSTAGIB ftw!) and CS servers were nice, but the thought of hundreds of other people all vying for control of the same territory in real time made me salivate. By this time I had my own job. I bought the game with one of my first paycheques, used my mother's credit card (payed her back of course) to get my subscription and GAME ON! For the first month or so, I had a lot of fun. Battles were raging, gunning and piloting vehicles were major adrenaline rushes, but it wasn't until I found the perfect outfit that my Planetside experiences really became the stuff of legend and nostalgia. US West / Markov server. Bellum Aeternus for those who know and might have seen the outfit. Such a great time.

To this day, some of those folks are my best friends (found in real life, moved into the same city), and have maintained contact with others through various games and platforms.

I have done my time in World of Warcraft. Where Planetside was shooting star, incredibly bright but over with quite quickly, WoW was as steady as the sun. It was also my first true MMORPG experience. Being my first, I really had no idea what I was doing. Why the game interested me was because I had played through Warcraft one, two, and three, and I had a burning desire to discover what had happened to my favorite characters. So I stumbled into this gigantic world.. and quit. But three times. Three false starts.

There were a few reasons for this. One, still a teenager. Angsty, confused, impatient teenager. Two, complete inexperience and lack of direction with regards to RPGs. Three, no clue what I actually wanted to do in game. I got to 58 and quit because I had no idea ultimately what I was doing, how to raid, any of that. Came back a couple months later, brand new server, got to level 60, did a couple raids.. and quit. The guild I joined.. just wasn't a good fit. Driven, passionate people, but too hardcore. Didn't have the time (even though I was the second warlock on our server to 60, I was pround of that), and didn't like where the guild was headed. Round three, was lured by my Planetside friends onto the server they finally settled on, got to level 43.. and quit. Turns out I didn't want to be healer.

Went and played EVE for six months. Ah, EVE. If I could devote my every waking moment to your glorious'ness, I'd still be playing. But, I do not have that kind of time.

Finally, cracked it. A few months before Burning Crusade. Made a rogue on an RP server. Friendlier, low key people, I could learn the ins and outs at my own pace. Got a Rogue to 60. Got geared. Led PuG 10-man Scholomance and Stratholme raids. Had for too much fun while raiding. Found my direction. Transferred back to my old Planetside buddies. Game'd and raided until just after Cataclysm was released. That was enough.

What kept me playing for over five years? The Right People. Good people. Not the best raiders, but I had the most fun playing with them against the world and content offered.

At the moment, I am game hopping. Currently hiding out in Guild Wars 2 and Secret World. These are merely hold-overs, I am waiting for the next game with the right mix of mechanics, world building, and people to make it a truly awesome game.

Wildstar looks very promising.

-------------------------------


TL:DR? All multiplayer gaming is social. Are you online? You want human contact and want to play with people. Be nice and polite, make friends and allies, and you will have the best gaming experiences of your life!
 

Deathfish15

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The Escapist Staff said:
Running Time: 57 minutes.

00:00 - Introduction
03:03 - What MMOs did we start with?
12:15 - Early Days of MMOs
14:56 - World of Warcraft
27:07 - Next Generation of MMOs
36:50 - WildStar, Eve Online, Pathfinder Online, Star Wars: Galaxies
55:27 - Elder Scrolls Online and more World of Warcraft
1:07:54 - User Questions

Read more at http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/escapist-podcast/8093-109-MMOcast#xP5i8rwkf3hvUteJ.99

I did not watch the video. Why? Because you neglected the 2nd biggest Elephant in the room: GW2. Seriously, WTF? I mean, 'fastest selling [western] MMO, ever' and it's skipped in favor of the shut down SWG and niche EVE Online? Really, that's messed up. It's done so many revolutionary outside-the-box differences from standards that EQ/WoW helped create, yet it's all so right. I'm so irritated that it's completely skipped over like that. :mad:
 

Greg Tito

PR for Dungeons & Dragons
Sep 29, 2005
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Deathfish15 said:
The Escapist Staff said:
Running Time: 57 minutes.

00:00 - Introduction
03:03 - What MMOs did we start with?
12:15 - Early Days of MMOs
14:56 - World of Warcraft
27:07 - Next Generation of MMOs
36:50 - WildStar, Eve Online, Pathfinder Online, Star Wars: Galaxies
55:27 - Elder Scrolls Online and more World of Warcraft
1:07:54 - User Questions

Read more at http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/escapist-podcast/8093-109-MMOcast#xP5i8rwkf3hvUteJ.99

I did not watch the video. Why? Because you neglected the 2nd biggest Elephant in the room: GW2. Seriously, WTF? I mean, 'fastest selling [western] MMO, ever' and it's skipped in favor of the shut down SWG and niche EVE Online? Really, that's messed up. It's done so many revolutionary outside-the-box differences from standards that EQ/WoW helped create, yet it's all so right. I'm so irritated that it's completely skipped over like that. :mad:
We talked about GW2, it just didn't make the Table of Contents. Listen to the podcast to check it out.

Greg
 

Rassmusseum

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Haven't listened yet, but I think the posted running time is incorrect since you have things listed at 1:05:54 and that's beyond the currently marked 57 minute running time.
 

Fiz_The_Toaster

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I've never played an MMO, but a friend of mine is totally into WoW and I would always ask him the latest stories because they were so interesting. It made me want to get into MMOs, but the only problem is that I don't really have the time for them. However, after looking at all the coverage of Final Fantasy XIV and Elder Scrolls, I think I might actually make the plunge into them. I have no idea why, but they look like so much fun.

Also, I'm totally excited for the Expo and I can't wait to be there. I had a blast last time and I know Thursday night I'm meeting up with some other early birds and wandering around.

Also also, chicken and waffles are the shit. :D
 

Strazdas

Robots will replace your job
May 28, 2011
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Bes decription of eve is "Excel with graphics". And im loving it.
Though like most people you completely forgot the first graphic MMO out there, Tibia....

The monster luring mechanics, you know, in plenty of MMOs you will get banned for that. and the others make mechanics where monsters would dissapear after certain dsitance from spawnpoint, making a low level archer chracters impossible to play.
 

Greg Tito

PR for Dungeons & Dragons
Sep 29, 2005
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Rassmusseum said:
Haven't listened yet, but I think the posted running time is incorrect since you have things listed at 1:05:54 and that's beyond the currently marked 57 minute running time.
Our video system wasn't built to accommodate hours, so it's actually got a 1 hour 57 minute running time. :)

Greg
 

madwarper

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Ah, classic EQ. Many a hour spent cursing while waiting for a boat to take me between continents for a corpse run.

So, for your reading pleasure, I'll leave this particular story I came across a long time ago.
So there I was.....minding my own business in The Overthere, when all of a sudden I see the message: "d00d sow plz".

Of course, my natural instinct was not to answer, since I thought the clueless newb (hereafter referred to politely as "the petitioner") must have been poorly informed at best.

Boy was I ever wrong.

I switch out of 1st person into an external camera, and what did my wandering eyes behold? Only myself and the petitioner.

So I says to myself...."Self? You need to edumacate this fella!"

(Keep in mind what the overall setting looked like: There I was, in skeleton form, carrying a scythe, FLOATING IN MIDAIR IN A MEDITATING POSITION, with a LARGE dark-brown skeleton named "Gibober" standing behind me. Ummm....No, skippy, I'm not a druid or a shaman.)

I say "Wish I could, bro, but I don't have SoW. I'm a Necromancer."

The Petitioner says, "$#*&@#$ dick, sow me already! it's for a cr"

Feeling as if my feathers had been ruffled a bit, I do a "/who all dumbass" (um..pardon..I meant "/who all petitioner")

This is where I discovered the "/who all" bug. Certainly it must have been a bug, right? There's NO WAY IN CREATION the dumbas...err...petitioner could have been a level 31 Dark Elf Wizard, right???? RIGHT????? /em begins to cry like a little girl.

Well, needless to say, I couldn't have been any more shocked than if my pet began dancing an Irish Jig. I quickly begin the arduous task of maintaining my composure, while deciding how best to deal with this tricky situation.

I say, "Necromancer's can't cast SoW".

Petitioner says, "Bull@#$%! you cast a spell while you were running and you sped up! i couldn't catch you until you sat down! if you're not going to sow me just say so you dont have to be a dick about it a$$hole"

Yes I know....he didn't use any punctuation in that last sentence.

I say, "I have JBoots."

He says, "what are they"

Before I have a chance to pick my chin up off the floor....

Petitioner asks, "can you buff my hps my hp sux"

I say, "I can't buff you, dude. I'm a necromancer. I only have one buff that you would probably want."

He says, "yeah the one you won't give me dick"

Ok. Time to have fun with the hopelessly clueless.

I say, "Why do you need a sow?"

He says, "i need to get to burned woods to hunt. sumbody said its perfect for my level"

Yep. That's what he said......"burned woods".

I say, "man are you ever in the wrong place."

He says, "?"

Apparently he found the "question mark" key conveniently located nearby other various and sundry communication facilitators.

I didn't answer him.

He repeats, "??"

Found it twice...good for him.

He repeats, "???"

Having an IQ greater than plantlife, I sensed a pattern forming.

I say, "You are NO WHERE near Burned Woods."

He says, "my friend told me it was in kunark"

I say, "Yeah, the operative word there is 'WAS'. There was a major patch a couple of months ago after a bunch of complaints were filed about 'static content'."

He says, "?"

I say, "!"

He says, "?"

I say, ","

He says, "wtf"

I say, "no, already have some."

He says, "????"

I don't respond.

He says, "so where the @#$% is burned woods"

He lost the question mark button again. Probably popped off when he was sniffing his feet.

I say, "Well, THIS week it's south of Freeport. It changes with every patch, since they began randomizing zone locations."

My guild is hysterical at this point. And I haven't even told them the ENTIRE story yet. Just snippets.

He says, "@#$% i just got off the boat"

I say, "You don't need the boat."

He says "why"

I say, "You're a wizard!"

He says, "how you know that"

I say, "I did a /wh...nevermind....the important thing is you have teleportation spells."

He says, "oh yeah the green ones"

I nod.

I say, "Yep. The 'green ones'. Pretty nice how you have them grouped by color."

He says, "thx"

I say, "How'd you think about doing it that way?"

He says, "they were all @#$%## up when i got this char"

I say, "Sit down and mem the spell 'Fay Gate'."

He says, "why"

Question mark key is on the ground in front of your chair, guy. Mixed in with your collection of boogers.

I say, "It's going to put you within spitting distance of Burned Woods."

He says, "how do you know"

I say, "All patch messages come with a zone connection map."

He says, "oh"

I say, "Ok. You have it memmed now?"

He had just stood up after what I assumed was meditating/looking at his spell book.

He says, "yeah"

I say, "Ok. Cast the spell and let me know when you get there."

Dumba...errr....Petitioner begins to cast a spell.

A LONG time goes by.....ok, maybe 5 minutes
I still haven't heard from him.

Getting curious:

I tell petitioner, "Are you there yet?"

No reply. No reply at all. [Yes, I'm a Genesis fan... ]

Obviously he's there, or my tell wouldn't have gone through.

I tell petitioner, "Hit the 'r' key to reply to me."

He replies, "i'm here now where do i go."

Right idea....wrong punctuation mark. Oh well. "C" for effort.

I tell petitioner, "Ok, do you see a hotkey on the screen that says 'Sense Heading'?"

He replies, "no"

I reply, "Hit the arrow buttons one by one until you see one."

It was a guess, but an educated one.

He replies, "found it"

I reply, "Click on it."

He replies, "north"

I reply, "Ok, you need to head east along the path. Keep going until the path turns north. When it forks to the right, take the right fork."

He replies, "ok"

Who knows, maybe the guy who sold his account on Ebay worked his Felwithe faction up.

He replies, "sumbody told me i shouldnt be here cause i'm a dark elf"

I reply, "They were roleplaying."

He replies, "oh hehe @#$%@#$ morons ;P"

Priceless. Utterly priceless, I tell you.

I reply, "Where are you?"

He replies, "i see something now. looks like a castle"

I reply, "Run into the castle as fast as you can. The guards might give you some trouble, just keep running."

Yeah...damned conscience started kicking in.

A fairly long period of time passes. Not sure how long, but longer than I was expecting.

I tell petitioner, "What happened?"

As if I didn't know....

He replies, "my spells are gone!"

I reply, "What happened?"

He replies, "i died why"

I reply, "Oh man! Did I tell you to run east or west?"

He replies, "east wtf???"

I reply, "Yikes. My bad. You should have run west."

He replies, "?"

I reply, "So where are you now?"

He replies, "how can i tell"

I reply, "Look right after you see 'Loading please wait'. It should tell you 'You have entered [zone]'."

He replies "it doesnt say [zone] there."

After smacking my head against my monitor....

I reply, "What does it say in place of [zone]?".

Get this....

He replies, "Burning Woods"

I nearly fell out of my chair! I couldn't have PLANNED it that way!

He replies, "is that the same as burned woods"

I reply, "No, but you're close. Start running south so you can get your corpse back."

He replies, "i have to get my corpse back?????"

/ignore petitioner


Moral of the story: EBay...Just Say No!

Out of sheer curiosity, I took him off ignore later to find out what happened.

I tell petitioner, "How's it going?"

He replies, "wtf? where you been"

I reply, "been afk, sorry."

He replies, "got my corpse back. some dude rezzed me."

My conscience somewhat eased...

I reply, "Really? Cool! Where are you now?"

He replies, "iceclad ocean"

I scratch my head a few times.

I reply, "Why Velious?"

He replies, "the guy that rezzed me told me burned woods was in western wastes this week"

I don't recall exactly how long it took me to stop laughing. I stopped breathing shortly before my dog dialed 911.

He replied, "@#$%&* wouldnt sow me either. what is that sh#$ gold?"

That's what finally killed me. I'm writing this from the afterlife.

Mujahid Mukhtaar
Questmaster of the Enchanted Circle (Solusek Ro Server)
 

JonB

Don't Take Crap from Life
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2clueless said:
Then came Planetside.

US West / Markov server. Bellum Aeternus for those who know and might have seen the outfit. Such a great time.
WHAT. That was my server!

New Conglomerate for life! !

I doubt you remember me, as it were, because I played in a small outfit with some close friends. I can remember seeing Bellum Aeternus looming over the battlefield. Y'all were the largest on the server, right?
 

2xDouble

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I know it's a one-off throw-away joke, but come on... you didn't use "where did you come from, where did you go? Where did you come from, Janelle Bonanno?" Seriously, it's your own name. heh.
Deathfish15 said:
I did not watch the video. Why? Because you neglected the 2nd biggest Elephant in the room: GW2. Seriously, WTF? I mean, 'fastest selling [western] MMO, ever' and it's skipped in favor of the shut down SWG and niche EVE Online? Really, that's messed up. It's done so many revolutionary outside-the-box differences from standards that EQ/WoW helped create, yet it's all so right. I'm so irritated that it's completely skipped over like that. :mad:
Stop that. Seriously. We all love Guild Wars 2 (except "dem haters") but our communities are better than the childish "you no talk about teh guilwarzz! UNSUB!", common among the youtube and other "interwebs". Please, if you're going to represent a community, do it with dignity, not ferocity. (...or at least charm. heh)

You bring up an interesting point though, Mr. Deathfishie. Do they consider Guild Wars 1 an MMO? why/why not?

Also, ignoring the fairly disappointing story arc featuring Trahearne more prominently than yourself, what do you guys think about ArenaNet's current "machine gun" content strategy? To me, it feels like a biweekly DnD campaign with some incidental feature and technical updates, but I'd be curious to know your take on it, assuming you still play after Trahearne "Kormir'd your glory".
 

puff ball

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easily my favorite time in a mmo came in the old republic it was a four man instance two sentienals and two sages(so 3 dps and no tank), most of us were under leveled but we were getting by till the optional boss he killed us three times and looked to do it a fourth time killing all but one sage who promptly started running back to the begging of the raid bringing the boss with him giving the rest of us enough time respawned and start fighting again. there's nothing i love more then winning in unconventional ways. so many players will bail at the first sign of trouble and thats sad cause thats when it starts to get fun.
 

2clueless

Clueless since 2003
Apr 11, 2012
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JonB said:
"US West / Markov server."

WHAT. That was my server!

New Conglomerate for life! !

I doubt you remember me, as it were, because I played in a small outfit with some close friends. I can remember seeing Bellum Aeternus looming over the battlefield. Y'all were the largest on the server, right?
Forever Vanu! Technology equals Might!

Heh, I am not sure if we were the largest, but I would say we were one of the outfits that made an impact if we entered the battle. BA was all about surgical strikes, missions, goals, and learning the skills to achieve them. Taking towers, back hacking bases, blowing generators behind enemy lines, all the good stuff.

At our best, I think we could field 4 or 5 squads, but we usually had a couple going at peak times.

Was Vive your outfit name? Not sure I remember seeing it. Main outfits I remember from NC were the zerg of Devil Dogs, and persistent/elitist/hackers.. their name escapes me.. abbrev. UT? Anyways, remember being killed by Dreamer far too many times.
 

Deathfish15

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Greg Tito said:
Deathfish15 said:
*Snip*

I did not watch the video. Why? Because you neglected the 2nd biggest Elephant in the room: GW2. Seriously, WTF? I mean, 'fastest selling [western] MMO, ever' and it's skipped in favor of the shut down SWG and niche EVE Online? Really, that's messed up. It's done so many revolutionary outside-the-box differences from standards that EQ/WoW helped create, yet it's all so right. I'm so irritated that it's completely skipped over like that. :mad:
We talked about GW2, it just didn't make the Table of Contents. Listen to the podcast to check it out.

Greg
Any timeline as to when or will you make me listen to the whole thing? :p

2xDouble said:
*SNIP*

Stop that. Seriously. We all love Guild Wars 2 (except "dem haters") but our communities are better than the childish "you no talk about teh guilwarzz! UNSUB!", common among the youtube and other "interwebs". Please, if you're going to represent a community, do it with dignity, not ferocity. (...or at least charm. heh)

You bring up an interesting point though, Mr. Deathfishie. Do they consider Guild Wars 1 an MMO? why/why not?

Also, ignoring the fairly disappointing story arc featuring Trahearne more prominently than yourself, what do you guys think about ArenaNet's current "machine gun" content strategy? To me, it feels like a biweekly DnD campaign with some incidental feature and technical updates, but I'd be curious to know your take on it, assuming you still play after Trahearne "Kormir'd your glory".

Sorry, but rabid-fanboy mode kicked in when seeing that list of mediocre games being discussed in something that says "Everything from MUDS to Wildstar" yet neglects the really good GW2. Had to call them out, even in the most obscure way possible.


Not even the developers considered GW1 an MMO. It was an RPG with multiplayer aspects, but nowhere near a massive scale like GW2 has.

I'll approach the next question and last as the same (though you smashed the Trahearne question with the constant content question together). Trahearne is a pain in my arse with which I wish would have tried turning Frodo at the last moment, allowing me to kill the glory stealing twig. If the story keeps to what it was, his "Wyld Hunt" was just keeping with healing Orr only, so he shouldn't be returning to the personal story when it continues on with the other Elder Dragons in other locations in Tyria. But the more recent story arches have included much more likable characters like Rox, Braham, Ellen, and Scarlet (hey, I actually like her cackling craziness).

The Living Story is spectacular. Never has an MMO ever really given such a constant reason for logging in every few weeks for something completely new. Sure there are those with snail's pace progression blocked by artificial timers/reason to keeps the players from eating through the content fast, but even WoW has gotten rid of that stuff (in TBC they had keys,...then they got rid of keys...WTF?). But during the Anniversary celebration at the Q&A, the developers have said that the Living Story has given consistent increased weekly logins to the population at a steady pace. And with Scarlet (as well as other returning characters such as Canach in Southsun), the story pieces are all coming together so smoothly.
 

Slycne

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Feb 19, 2006
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Deathfish15 said:
Any timeline as to when or will you make me listen to the whole thing? :p
If I remember right it's in the block of 36:50 - WildStar, Eve Online, Pathfinder Online, Star Wars: Galaxies, etc. We unfortunately don't spend a huge amount of time on it, I'm the only ones that has played it. But considering I gave it high praises in my review and 1st in my Five Favorites last year, it certainly wasn't going to get passed over.
 

Deathfish15

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Slycne said:
Deathfish15 said:
Any timeline as to when or will you make me listen to the whole thing? :p
If I remember right it's in the block of 36:50 - WildStar, Eve Online, Pathfinder Online, Star Wars: Galaxies, etc. We unfortunately don't spend a huge amount of time on it, I'm the only ones that has played it. But considering I gave it high praises in my review and 1st in my Five Favorites last year, it certainly wasn't going to get passed over.

Found it, really closer to the 59 minute marker. At first it's a bit of discussion about how friendly the mob tagging/dynamic events are, then it's to say that the new 5.4 patch in WoW has content {Timeless Isle} that is essentially GW2 in WoW. Kind of a flattering thing that WoW copies GW2 in such an extreme way, only helps solidify the fact that it's a great game.
 

JonB

Don't Take Crap from Life
Sep 16, 2012
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Slycne said:
Deathfish15 said:
Any timeline as to when or will you make me listen to the whole thing? :p
If I remember right it's in the block of 36:50 - WildStar, Eve Online, Pathfinder Online, Star Wars: Galaxies, etc. We unfortunately don't spend a huge amount of time on it, I'm the only ones that has played it. But considering I gave it high praises in my review and 1st in my Five Favorites last year, it certainly wasn't going to get passed over.
All of this makes me want to check it out. MMO-style content minus the fee appeals greatly to me.
 

2xDouble

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Deathfish15 said:
Sorry, but rabid-fanboy mode kicked in ... Had to call them out, even in the most obscure way possible.

*SNIP*
Thank you.

As to the rest of it... while I find your opinions well thought out and presented and thank you for the detailed analysis, I was really more interested in the panel's opinions on the subjects... both from Justin, who has played and covered GW2 extensively, and from the others who seemed to prefer other games to it. ("outsider" opinions are always welcome and valuable, so long as it's not blind fanboyism or dickish trolling).

I'm sorry if my intent wasn't as clear as it could have been. (damn you, English language, and your imprecise second-person pronouns! /fistshake)

PS: I also liked Scarlet as a character. She's like a Harley Quinn mixed with [mtg_card=Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite].