Fan Faire 2008

… is done. But what a time it was!

The first day was tough. We couldn’t say much of anything during our panels and our “History and Lore” panel was that day. Fortunately this Ethernaut stuff has been coming out for a bit so we could at least generally talk about them. I did a reading from “Of New Friends… Part II”, so a little sneak peak there for the Fan Faire folks. It was like a weight off as soon as the news hit and the beautiful box art hit the screen at Smed’s address. Truly, they have made up for last year with this year’s box. We gave free digital copies of both the EQ and EQ2 coming expansions to our FF attendees, but I think more than one of them is going to want to buy the box just for how pretty it is. Well, at least, I would, but maybe I’m just a dork. Hey wait a minute… I’m a game designer. *Of course* I’m a dork!

Saturday’s panels were great. I got to talk about my two big projects for the expansion - our massive overland zone, Moors of Ykesha (the former Innothule) and the signature quest series that carries through the lore of The Shadow Odyssey (of which there will be an evil version and a good). After that I pretty much had a beacon over my head for the solo players and got to chat a lot about what they want to see. Oh yeah, did I mention troll pirates? I think I did! I love trolls, I love pirates, and I am having fun with them in that zone.

So I didn’t lose any money gambling. I genuinely wanted to play craps but didn’t manage to end up with someone teaching me until Saturday evening and then it was the banquet, and then to bed for me, as I am here in the airport on an 8:30 flight. Again, a dorky moment, but in an odd way it reminds me of playing Settlers of Catan… I played the slots all of twice, both times only inserting a dollar. I did manage to win 22 bucks off of one of those dollars, so I guess I came out ahead. I managed to spend relatively little money overall, but I didn’t eat nearly as much food as I should have, so that helped. I don’t have a massive appetite but I recognize even I should probably go through a day on more than some leftover omelette and fried zucchini.

I was reminded quite a few times that I need to pour through Vhalen’s many, many lore notes even more than I have. I tried to answer the questions that I could, but people came to me with some really obscure lore questions. I suppose if they weren’t really obscure, they would already know the answer, because they are much more clever than I am.

I really connected with a lot of our players, and that’s what counted. I was giving out hugs by the time I started to say good-bye on Saturday, and made a promise I well intend to keep that I will have at least one fae react to the odd sight that is an arasai citizen of Kelethin.

The parties were, of course, good. I really have to commend SOE for the Friday night bash. It was really fun. I worked the crowd with ‘I Love Rock ‘n Roll’ during the live band karaoke and then danced with friends & players most of the night. I was in line to do the rock wall when I had to come up for my song, so I didn’t end up doing that. But I probably would have embarrassed myself. Upper body strength is not something I work on at the gym as much as I should. It turned out Felicia Day of The Guild, Buffy, and Dr. Horrible’s had been in the Hilton for another convention and been invited to the party, so I ran into her there. That was very neat.

So it’s done, back to work! I think The Shadow Odyssey has the potential to be really fantastic but that’s only going to happen if we keep our noses to the grindstone.

EQ2 Lore: Of New Friends and Troublesome Enemies - Part I

Just in time for Fan Faire, here is part I of the first story to feature all of the Ethernauts.

From the pen of Eylee Zephyrswell –
Finally, we all came together, and that was when things began to become truly dangerous.

Of New Friends and Troublesome Enemies
Part 1

The sensation of being taller than so many people put Eylee ill at ease. She had always been petite for a Fier’dal, and in the plainsmen’s settlements she had been forced to crane her head up to look at some of her taller companions. Here in Rivervale, however, she felt as though she were a giant. At one point she had caught her reflection in a window and despite being surrounded by a crowd of bustling individuals, not a one of them had even been able to reach her shoulders. She’d caught herself staring at the oddity and practically came to a stop, causing the bustling halfling behind her to bump his head square into her back.

Read more…

Ready for Fan Faire

So last night I went out and bought a new ‘little black dress’ (my trademark) and an ASUS gaming laptop and everything’s packed and ready to go. I just need to log on to Southwest at 1:20 pm sharp this afternoon to get a good seat for tomorrow’s flight.

So yes. A new laptop. My old HP was on its last legs… video/sound didn’t work on it (video because of the sound element), the battery lasted for an hour max, and my dogs got to the cord. I decided to drop by Best Buy and they had an offer whereby you could get 2 years no interest on a new line of credit if you spent at least $999.

Every time I get a new laptop, I swear that its primary use is for writing and otherwise being efficient, and then I always end up wanting to use it for gaming at some point or the other (usually when I am in Washington, snowed in, during the holidays), so this time I went ahead and bought a gaming laptop. It’s an ASUS with an Intel duo, 4G RAM, and 512 dedicated video memory. It’s got all these crazy lights on it that it swears are great for gaming but I’m not sure I’m a fan of them. I’d prefer the simply, classy look of an HP or a Mac, but I can deal with it. Still, it was the best looking machine for the price (especially because it was on sale on the website, which they matched in store). Also, the only other gaming laptops were two Gateways and a gigantic Toshiba. This ASUS is already bigger than I went in wanting (15 inch screen), so the Toshiba was out. And I have been skeptical about Gateways for a long time.

Gold Farming: Poor Game Design?

A coworker linked me to the following post by a blogger named Tobold that asserted that gold farming is the result of bad game design.

http://tobolds.blogspot.com/2008/08/research-on-gold-farming.html

I have to heartily disagree. While I do think that it is true that players being given to buy gold can be the result of bad game design (the obtaining of gold relying upon doing repetitive tasks that bore them and why would the player want to skip content if it was good?), I don’t think it is the only, or even primary, reason that they do, and his assertion that if someone released a perfect MMO, no one would buy gold, is naive.

He makes the point that people don’t pay their friends to play basketball for them, because the enjoyment is in the activity and not the result. But while people may not pay a friend to play basketball for them, people will pay for steroids to make them better so that they are better than other players. So long as there is an element of competition involved in an activity, people will find a way to cheat, and buying gold is a way to cheat your way to dominance in an MMO setting. If anything, the most exceptional, fantastic, popular game would only attract more goldfarmers than inferior games, because more people would be driven to dominate such games.

Also, many people are lazy. The obtaining of gold has to be at least to some degree hard for that gold to have any value, and so while that will drive some people to rise above and overcome that difficulty, it will cause others to find the easiest way to that goal, often subverting the route that was intended to take you there.

And to make a less negative-about-human-nature point, people want to play with their friends, and in a game where people invest years in a character, this can be impossible to do, so buying gold or power leveled NPCs is the only way to catch up and enjoy said game with your friends.

The point is, in a multiplayer, persistent game, there are going to end up being huge disparities between players, and for one reason or another, people are going to look for ways to bridge that gap. The primary reason one goes to an MMO instead of a single player RPG is because you want to interact with other people, either on a competitive level, or a social level, and you can’t really make a good case that an MMO’s purpose should be to create a single player experience that is so exquisitely sublime that no one would want to skip it, because honestly, if you do, then you have made a fantastic single player game, but not necessarily a fantastic MMO.

I certainly can agree that boring, repetitive activities do not a good game make, and that MMOs should always be striving to create more dynamic and enjoyable content, but the fact is that when the first player realized that in order to be better than than his fellow gamer, instead of spending the time to actually do that, he could use his parents’ credit card to buy gold and buy all of the best gear in the game, the gold farming industry was born. And it’s not going to go away any time soon, even if a cadre of the world’s finest minds in game design come together to create the most subliminal gaming experience ever put down in microchips (and their egos don’t completely ruin the whole thing).

My Top 100 Sci-fi and Fantasy Books

A coworker challenged me to compile my top 100 sci-fi and fantasy books list after looking at another list online and this was what I painfully managed to come up with over four days. As you can probably tell from the list, I read a lot more fantasy than science fiction. I’ve also included some graphic novels/comic series. I tried to put together the list using a combination of how I judged the books in terms of a combination of: literary value/fun/impact. So book series I didn’t really care for but I know have had a huge impact have made it on, or moved up on the list, because of their impact. The top 10 was the most difficult, and the top 10 should probably most generally be seen as ‘the top 10′ and not as their individual places in that top 10, though I won’t quite say they are in ‘any order’. I did try to order them but didn’t feel great about said order. These are confined to books I have read, and I am sure there would be other books that would have made it on if I had read them.

Top 100 Fantasy & Science Fiction Books/Series

1. Perdido Street Station - China Mieville
2. The Song of Ice and Fire - George RR Martin
3. Hyperion - Dan Simmons
4. Dune - Frank Herbert
5. The Dark Tower - Stephen King
6. The Once and Future King - T.H. White
7. The Book of the New Sun - Gene Wolfe
8. The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K Le Guin
9. His Dark Materials - Phillip Pullman
10. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
11. The Forgotten Beasts of Eld - Patricia McKillip
12. Good Omens - Gaiman & Prachett
13. American Gods - Neil Gaiman
14. Redwall - Brian Jacques
15. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
16. Fareinheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
17. The Black Company - Glen Cook
18. Neuromancer - William Gibson
19. Watchmen - Alan Moore
20. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Phillip K Dick
21. Kushiel’s Dart - Jacqueline Carey
22. Wizard’s First Rule - Terry Goodkind
23. A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
24. Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
25. Y: The Last Man (comic series) - Brian K Vaughan
26. Hellboy (comic series) - Mike Mignola
27. Tales of Nevèrÿon - Samuel Delaney
28. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
29. 1984 - George Orwell
30. At the Mountains of Madness - HP Lovecraft
31. The Giver - Lois Lowry
32. The Sandman - Neil Gaiman
33. Deerskin - Robin McKinley
34. The Handmaiden’s Tale - Margarett Atwood
35. The Colour of Magic - Terry Prachett
36. Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas - Tom Robbins
37. Parable of the Sower - Octavia Butler
38. Rhapsody - Elizabeth Haydon
39. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
40. The Martian Chronicles - Ray Bradbury
41. The Dark Knight Returns - Frank Miller
42. V for Vendetta - Alan Moore
43. The Fall of Hyperion - Dan Simmons
44. Beauty - Robin McKinley
45. Ombria in Shadow - Patricia McKillip
46. The Enchanted Forest Chronicles - Patricia C Wrede
47. Fables (comic series) - Bill Willingham
48. Stardust - Neil Gaiman
49. The Princess Bride - William Goldman
50. The Scar - China Mieville
51. Sabriel - Garth Nix
52. Wicked - Gregory Maguire
53. Swords and Deviltry (Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser) - Fritz Lieber
54. The Thief of Always - Clive Barker
55. Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
56. The Wyrd Sisters - Terry Prachett
57. The Alphabet of Thorn - Patricia McKillip
58. The Last Unicorn - Peter S Beagle
59. Runaways (comic series) - Brian K Vaughan
60. The Black God - J. Gregory Keyes
61. Elantris - Brandon Sandersen
62. Coyote Blue - Christopher Moore
63. The Earthsea Saga - Ursula K Le Guin
64. The Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley
65. Harry Potter - JK Rowling
66. Mistborn - Brandon Sanderson
67. Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood
68. Preacher (comic series) - Garth Ennis
69. Mattimeo - Brian Jacques
70. The Book of Atrix Wolfe - Patricia McKillip
71. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
72. Magician - Raymond E Feist
73. The War of the Worlds - HG Wells
74. Dracula - Bram Stoker
75. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
76. Titus Groan - Mervyn Peake
77. A Scanner Darkly - Philip K Dick
78. The Odyssey - Homer
79. The Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
80. Atop a Pale Horse - Piers Anthony
81. A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L’Engle
82. The Snow Queen - Joan D. Vinge
83. A Spell for Chameleon - Piers Anthony
84. The Farseer Apprentice - Robin Hobb
85. Elric of Melnibone - Michael Moorecock
86. A Midsummer Night’s Dream - William Shakespeare
87. The Puppet Masters - Robert Heinlein
88. The Black Unicorn - Tanith Lee
89. The Chronicles of Pyrdain - Lloyd Alexander
90. The Dark is Rising - Susan Cooper
91. Dr. Strange - The Oath - Brian K Vaughan
92. Meridian (comic series) - Barbara Kesel
93. Dragonflight - Anne McCaffery
94. Interview With the Vampire - Anne Rice
95. The Eye of the World - Robert Jordan
96. Ella Enchanted - Gail Carson Levine
97. Briar Rose - Jane Yolen
98. Sister Light, Sister Dark - Jane Yolen
99. Magic Kingdom, For Sale, Sold! - Terry Brooks
100. The Hero and the Crown - Robin McKinley

Fan Faire Update

I’ve had my room for a bit now (I am staying on site, at the Hilton) but today I finally booked my plane ticket. I had been going back and forth for various reasons about whether I would be driving or flying but it landed on flying. I couldn’t find anything reasonably close to the price that Southworst offered me, so I am begrudgingly flying with them.

If you haven’t seen, they posted the schedule:

http://events.station.sony.com/fanfaire/schedule.vm

I’m going to speaking on the following panels:

Friday

3pm - 4pm
EverQuest II: History and Lore
Panelists - Jeremy Gess, Roger Uzun, Noel Walling, Morgan Lockhart. Arcane knowledge or Norrathian trivia. The people who write and catalogue the lore of Norrath will be here to answer questions and talk about the History and Lore of EQII. Pavilion 1.

5pm - 6pm
EverQuest II: Anything Goes
Panelists - Joshua Kriegshauser, Bruce Ferguson, Greg Spence, Noel Walling, Jeremy Gess, Roger Uzun, Emily Taylor, Morgan Lockhart, Chris Junior, Chris Kozak, Jason Woerner, Jennifer Gerull, Bill Yeatts. Anything you didn’t get to ask during the day is up for discussion in this “Anything Goes” panel. Or you can just see what happens when you put a bunch of EQII devs in one room! This panel is available both Friday and Saturday. Pavilion 1.

Saturday

2pm – 3pm
EverQuest II: Preview the upcoming expansion.
Details to be announced. Pavilion 1

5pm - 6pm
EverQuest II: Anything Goes

So I suppose Friday I will mostly be wandering. I’ll probably sit in on a few of the other EQ2 panels for moral support and maybe see what my old pals at Vanguard are up to.

EQ2 Lore: Asharae - Part II

They’ve posted the second and final piece of Asharae’s story on EQ2 Players.

Asharae - Part II

This is the last of the ‘character profile’ stories. The next Ethernaut story will involve the whole crew and their further adventures, which has me really excited. I could probably write a whole novel about these characters, and so getting into the meat of their tale is thrilling. ‘Asharae’ was probably my second favorite of the stories. The first half was my attempt at writing a sort of ‘dark fairy tale’, and I like how it turned out. ‘Kaltuk and Nurgg’ is still my favorite story, and the pair of them are my favorite of the Ethernauts.

There are two Ethernauts who didn’t have their own story for… various reasons. Eylee has begun to be developed through “her introductions” to the stories, but the last has yet to appear. They’ll all be featured in the next story though, so everyone will get to know them soon.

Dr. Horrible’s is anything but horrible

In case you’re living under a geek rock, let me sell this to you. Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-long Blog. Neil Patrick Harris is a second rate super villain, Nathan Fillion is an egomaniac super hero named Captain Hammer (his fists are NOT his hammer, baby), and Felicia Day is the cute laundromat girl out to save the homelss that Neil Patrick Harris’s Dr. Horrible is in love with.

It is hilarious.

http://doctorhorrible.net/

If you need to be sold on it further, here’s the trailer:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1004572358576&ref=share

Cooking with Morgan: Garlic Lemon Shrimp and Broccoli

Tom and Steve stocked the house with burgers and hot dogs and chili for their B-movie-marathon this past weekend, so I cooked only for me and left me to cook lighter than I normally do when I am trying to feed both Tom and I (yeah, trying to feed a 6′5″ man and myself is an interesting balance). I put together this dish:

Garlic Lemon Shrimp and Brocolli

Ingredients

1. Lemon juice - fresh squeezed or from a bottle
2. Chopped garlic
3. Uncooked shrimp - fresh or frozen
4. Head of broccoli, chopped up to the size you’d like your clumps
5. Salt, pepper, and bay leaves.
6. Shredded Parmesan cheese.

1. Start steaming the broccoli. Sprinkle salt and pepper on the broccoli and splash a little olive oil on it, rub everything together.

2. Spill just enough olive oil into a small pan to cover the bottom, add chopped garlic, let simmer. Add enough water to give about 2 inches of depth, and then salt, pepper, and bay leaves. Bring to a boil. Add the shrimp. I used frozen, so I cooked it until the water boiled again and then for about 2 minutes after.

3. Once broccoli is steamed, squeeze lemon juice over it. Spread on plate, add shrimp to the mix and then squeeze more lemon juice on top. Finally, sprinkle Parmesan over the whole mix of it.

New Ethernaut Story - Asharae - Part 1

The first part of the June lore story, Asharae, is up on EQ2 players!
Asharae - Part I