Legends of Norrath, I weep for what could have been.

Now this isn't about an overpowered card combo, or a rule misstep, it is that the biggest problem as I see it with Legends of Norrath(The recently released in-game card game from SOE) is that I can't play it! Well I should be more specific, I have to jump through hoops to play what should be a universally accessible card game.
There are two ways to play LoN:

• While inside of EverQuest or EverQuest2 you can launch the LoN client software and play from within the game.


• From stand alone client software that must be installed and run on a Windows PC

Now this probably covers 90% of those who wish to play LoN, but I am in the minority here. I'm a mac user. And its safe to say that SOE will never release a mac client(especially after their half attempt at EQ mac development). So what you are cutting out the mac users, oh well. Well really it is much more than that, you are cutting anyone who doesn't have admin on their machine(aka the working public), this is a serious chunk of folks who on their lunch break or downtime might play a game or two. Oh and those "linux" users out there, whoever they are...(internet sarcasm, I run linux on a few boxes).

This is a problem, both for SOE and for the potential users, what oh what could solve this catastrophe? Well in today's day and age we have this thing called "Internet" and the "Web" oh and "Standards complaint browsers"(the last one sort of). And with all of that fancy "Web 2.0" out there, why can't we just use a little bit of that black magic and have a web client for Legends of Norrath? I sincerely wish they would, I understand with the web comes a whole load of issues that are a pain in the neck, but SOE would seriously open up their possible customers by doing this, and in turn please me. Well I can just BootCamp it up to play, but really who wants to reboot their computer just to play a card game? Especially if you are just a casual player. So please SOE, just think about it, besides its what all of the cool kids are doing, web clients that is.

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Cheston

FanFaire Recap!

Yes, its true, though limited I did make an FanFaire appearance!
Proof:


I have to say I only attended for one day, and half a day at that(curse you Vegas hangovers). But I was impressed, there was a much larger crowd than I was anticipating, and the setup SOE had was pretty snazzy, especially for the cost of admission which wasn't all that much for the event and panel list. So I only attended a few panels, they were held in very tiny rooms with chairs for about thirty people. It was a very personal experience, unlike DefCon whose talks were given in huge lecture rooms fit to hold hundreds. I wasn't able to hang around as much as I wanted to, mostly because of the hangover, but I chilled out in the vendor/game/etc.. area for a bit and wrote blog posts meeting a few people along the way.
The crowd was certainly a mix bag, spanning all ages and professions, with a few costumed folks running around. The panels though were great, very informative, and the speakers were very open to answering any questions. I really enjoyed the level of detail some of the questions received it really gave me an idea of how things happen behind the scenes and the relationship different departments have with each other. All in all, coming out of FanFaire I have a very positive view of SOE and their upcoming releases and cannot wait until next year(hopefully it will not conflict with DefCon as it did this year) where I will be able to attend without having to split my time, because although I did get quite a lot out of FanFaire, I feel like I really missed out on some good times and good people.

P.S. Sorry Cuppy for not getting in touch, my phone battery died the second day in Vegas and I forgot my charger at home(note to all travelers, don't leave your charger behind it will plague you throughout your vacation) .

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Cheston

LOST

No, I'm not going to ramble on about smoke monsters, and "others". I am lost in the MMO world, I have no game I am seriously into. I'm still trying to set off that spark with LOTRO, the game is great don't get me wrong. It is beautiful, cute, and pretty fun, but I just can't get into it. I'm sure other gamers are the same way where you feel that spark when playing a game for the first time, where you stay up until four in the morning playing and just don't want to stop. Now I used to feel this spark with the release of almost every MMO years ago, and now a days it seems I wade through the sea of MMOs and just can't muster at least one all nighter. And as an old break up line once said "you can't force love baby", and that is certainly true for games. No matter how pretty or how much content there exists in the game sometimes it just doesn't ignite that gamer fuel that we all use to power through those late night raids and get that next level.

Of course I mentioned LOTRO, but I've been in this MMO lull since I really fell out of love with WoW. I've gone back to EQ, SWG, EVE, and others that just havn't done it for me, now part of the reason I think going back to old games just doesn't do it for me, is that I am a social gamer. I love to chat it up with friends and the guild but all of my friends have moved on from these older games, and it seems the only people I know playing MMOs anymore are the WoW devotees and a few out there in EQ2 land. Really friends make the game so much easier, just for chatting, grouping, etc... I really find it tough to play a game where I have no friends. So why not go back to WoW? Well because boyfriend is a hardcore WoW player and so I know what the bleeding edge raid game consists of and frankly it doesn't look all that appealing to me, neither does their PvP, or constantly farming mats. Also really I just don't know how much more of that world I can take right now. I'm currently in a couple of closed betas right now which are pretty fun but not as we say in the software world "feature complete" meaning they are lacking several components that will be in the finished product, and these are pretty big components. And really the beta has a deadline and the fun can't last all that long, so why try and stick around for a character wipe when I'm really not sucked in yet. Now as a note I'd love to get into EQ2, but unfortunately I am having technical issues, that could only be resolved by an upgrade from XP to Vista. Who knows maybe I'll make the jump, I am just worried that I will end up disappointed after having put in all that time to upgrade.

Of course I am waiting on a few new games coming out, namely Age of Conan:Hyborian Adventures, and Warhammer Online:Age of Reckoning. But in the interim I have no idea what I am going to do with myself when I've got that gaming itch, especially during the summer where I actually have free time. Anyways please let me know what you guys out on that interweb think? What are you playing? and should I be playing it?

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Cheston