AMD vs Intel

It is not every game I play that this even comes up. In fact, most gamers don't even know what they have ...will my computer be able to play it? Will it run on a mac? These are more common than "what processor are you using?"

I guess the thing with MWO is connection matter, memory matters, video card matters, CPU matters ...or does it?



Everyone knows by now that AMD is ATI now. Intel has its own video card division but most people when given the choice will choose a external video card ..In my case it has been Nvidia for years. I have never owned a ATI except for a home theater pc with an all-in-wonder card. I never was impressed with the graphics (probably due to the TV I was outputting to).
My opinion has been that AMD exist to keep Intel pricing down and to force them to remain competitive.  AMD has some really good technology but unless you are writing code to specifically take advantage of it there is no benefit. I still believe this to be true. The last computer I built (Jan 2012) I tried to build AMD but the Intel components were only 10$ higher - of course I went over my original build budget because I saw shinies and in reality I increased my own cost.
My wife needs a new pc and here is another opportunity for AMD.
I am looking at Sapphire's EDGE
http://techiser.com/sapphire-edge-vs8-mini-desktop-amd-trinity-cpu-153908.html

 

Battletech 101: Inner Sphere and the Houses

I can't even imagine jumping into a game with super rich lore and history and being expected to stay because of that content. It is just too much to ask for a casual player.

WoW is kind of an exception because so much of it became mainstream ...but still new people jumping in are doing so to play with friends or family ...I highly doubt they care about the lore or background story.

I am thinking about starting a Tuesday blog discussing components which hopefully will be interesting enough to draw more people in and show the reasons to play besides "blowing up some bitches".

Years ago; to get anyone off my back when I was on my way to my office to start gaming I would tell my family "Well, I guess I am off to save the world (or universe)" they would laugh because they knew I was off to gaming ....but the side note here is I was playing a game which is persistent with people from all over the world ----I don't know about you but that is just damn cool to me.

Now I do not know a lot about Battletech or MechWarrior ...I played Mechwarrior 2 and fell in love with piloting a huge mech and I said I am not interested in playing any new games unless someone does a battlemech type game. Fast forward 5 years later and here we go.

MWO timeline: We are currently in 3049 during Mechwarrior Online. Basically Humans have moved beyond the solar system; achieved FTL (faster than light) and splintered into feudal territories which each believes to be theirs.

What is the Star League?
The brainchild of Ian Cameron, the Star League was a self-policing interstellar council formed from the Terran Hegemony, the Great Houses of the Inner Sphere, and the Territorial States of the Periphery. Each of the States of the Star League was required to provide soldiers and war materiel for the mutual protection of the Star League Defense Force, but otherwise was allowed to maintain its own standing army, and even conduct (rare) small-scale wars. Though not completely stable, the relative peace, prosperity, and advanced technology of the Star League have led many to consider the Star League as the zenith of human civilization.

What is Inner Sphere?
The Inner Sphere is a region of interstellar space surrounding Terra to a radius of roughly 450 - 550 light-years, generally demarcated by the outer borders of the "Great Houses." Within this region of about 2 million stars, there are approximately 2000 inhabited planets. Beyond the Inner Sphere is the Periphery.

What is Terra?
Terra is Earth.

What are Houses?
The sundering of the Star League, followed by centuries of Succession Wars, brought about five large nations known as the Successor States (called so because they were controlled by bloodlines). These are feudal realms, modeled after stereotypical cultural templates. They collectively comprise the Inner Sphere. Numerous other factions came and went over the course of the perpetual conflicts. The most notable and long-standing BT factions are:
 House Davion, House Liao, House Marik, House Steiner and House Kurita

What is Lostech?
It is Lost Technology - technological advances and knowledge that existed during the Star League era, but which were lost in the Succession Wars that followed

Do you remember QEMM?

Quarterdeck Expanded Memory Manager
This post has a point ....it is one of those remembering the past to better understand the future.

QEMM was a product from the 80's it was a memory manager for DOS. My dad and I had it on every pc we owned ....it was vital the difference between loading a application and a game at the same time without running in to memory error. More than likely my dad and I over did it with utilities ...we were obsessed with fine tuning everything to make it run better (which meant we probably slowed it down running utilities) but we could really tell the difference if we commented out a load command.

Today memory is CHEAP like $54⁹⁹

G.SKILL Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-14900CL9D-8GBSR20% off w/ promo code EMCNAJF34, ends 9/20




So today you don't need memory management right? Well that is not entirely true. Razer has announced Razer Game Booster.

So what is it?
I signed up for beta so i will tell you as soon as I know.
Here are the facts (followed by a video)
It looks at everything that is running and creates a profile which disables EVERYTHING that is not essential to gaming. Once the game is over it reverts to its standard profile. Memorymanager, Application Manager and Monitor all in one and its free.





I am becoming a fan of Razer. This needs a cooler name though.

What is success in a gaming MMO?

First
What is an MMO?
MASSIVE - Supporting Hundreds of players.
MULTI-PLAYER - must allow multiple people to play simultaneously in a persistent world
ONLINE - must be online to play

Second
What is success?
Well no one will give the same answer. The truth is success is a measurement of happiness and money. For example, if I owned my own business and barely made any money but I loved what I do - I would consider that a success. But say I had creditors ...then I owe money and I am also quite unhappy. What if I make enough to pay my creditor but cannot pay my employees what they deserve and they are unhappy.

Now look at the gaming industry MMOs in particular.
The most successful game in the history of gaming World of Warcraft. Even if you haven't played it I bet someone you know close to you has. WoW became the standard of what gaming companies thought they should be. So now every single game that comes out says well its like WoW but the setting is different or Wow doesn't include this we do.
When someone steps outside of what makes WoW successful they either fail, or are looked down on like a failure.
EQ2 has been running as long as WoW ...it has a deep lore, made players happy with wants and fulfilled many roles. Yet no where near the player base of WoW, gone free to play, yet no advertising.
Warhammer Online - huge opening day, too big in fact they underestimated the need for servers and had long queues. They resorted in opening new servers and after the newness wore off they had to shutdown and combine servers. While they had lots of testing they failed by not including a 3rd realm for combat and could not support huge battles when 300 people entered a combat zone the servers just could not handle the load.
SWTOR - after a huge bump and push to take over the top slot ...failed as of this writing it looks like they are combining ALL servers just to get a reign on population. Froogle
Guild Wars 2 - nothing truly original and yet, so far, highly successful. 2 million subscribers when it opened.

There is no magical formula. WoWs numbers are slipping even though they have a huge expansion coming out. Almost every game on the horizon is free to play. How much time are you willing to invest ... and how does that equate to money and success for the company making the game? Can they paid developers with that success? Do companies just keep making games as fast as possible and move to the next one until they make a successful self running game and then come back to it and "fix" it? At what point is it considered a success?

HUGE NEWS from MWO

MechWarrior® Online to Deploy Vivox’s C3 Voice Integration http://t.co/02OMy6aT

This is hugely important move for this game. Team communication is beyond vital for a winning strategy it is a bonding feature in team play.
Using teamspeak felt like such a gimmick for such a slick game. This is great news for all players and new people to the game.

Well done PGI!

Another MMO is leaving the fold. Cost of Gaming.

Another blog I read Ancient Gaming Noob points out the fact that even while F2P model is working for some companies. City of Heroes is throwing in the towel in November. It has survived where others have failed even being assaulted by Marvel for infrigement.

This reminds me of a quote that was credited to anonymous
"Linux is only free if your time is worthless."

It is so true; I mean how many games can you think of off the top of your head. I can name probably 15 without pausing ...some are gone, some are running.

Everquest for example; I was addicted to this game. I promised myself an account for finishing my MCSE and I never stopped playing it ..every waking moment was obessed with it.

Yet, I have tried to go back and play it and I just can't it hurts me to play it now. The fond memories I have are fond because of the people I played with not because fo the game itself. Even free I cannot handle it.

I am looking forward to what is ahead for MMO's ...it kills me because the cost of the game is no longer the issue (since everything is going free to play). It is all about YOUR time.

TIME = money

I enjoy entertainment; in fact, if you were to get to see my checking account I believe you would see about 60% goes toward enterainment. Dining, groceries, movies, video games, hardware all are entertainment to me. Yet the value is in the time spend.

Movies: 3 hours = $7.50

• I am (usually) entertained
• Great escapism
• Fun to attend as a group or watch solo

Dining out: 2 hours = $20.00 (x2 for 2 people)

• Good food
• Great Company
• Satisfies a need (usually in abundance)

Dining in: 3 hours (I am talking about cooking, eating, clean up) = $10 (per person)

• I enjoying fixing a meal especially with my wife. The more elaborate the more I enjoy.
• I enjoy the eating part.
• I hate the clean up.

Videogames: X Hours = $800

• Hardware (just upgraded everything about $500 total)
• Software (about $300 this year)
• I enjoy everything about it and I spend a minimum of 1 hour a day.

So to me the cost/value lies in the time I willing to spend. Every hour of my life has a dollar amount just as your hours cost you money to ...either making it or spending it. What value do you have in entertainment? What are you willing to invest your time in?

Current state of Mechs

From the wiki
BattleMechs (often abbreviated 'Mechs) are large walking war machines that feature prominently in the fictional universe of BattleTech. 'Mechs, which are generally either bipedal or quadrupedal in configuration, are controlled by human pilots and can thus be classified as mecha.

Now this isn't really useable by anyone but it is a step in that direction..

 

Not real but closer!

Real but not built anymore.

 

 

Burning man video ...who is the builder?

 

Slow and yet still.

Death of MMOs?

EQ2Wire: What George Smokejumper said about the MMO industry

 

SmokeJumper on Taking Risks in the MMO Industry

Written by Feldon on Wednesday, August 29, 2012 at 11:46 pm

In response to a thread asking the perennial question “Is the MMO Genre Dying?“, SmokeJumper had some comments that may resonate with readers who have tried, or plan to try some of the new concept MMOs on the near horizon:

I think the main problem with most MMOs today is lack of imagination and fear of failure.
Individual developers at any given company have slews of good, innovative ideas. However, what matters is what the person that signs the check will authorize…and that involves risk assessment.
So yeah, we have a few models out there of “chase loot, get check” that work really well. So everyone starts making their games do exactly that as the only main goal. Thus, we’ve trained our own players to do only one thing.

Well, bad on us. But we’re reaping what we sowed.
That being said, the reverse is true. Once you start playing a game, you don’t really want it to morph into another completely different game over time, because you fell in love with the original game…not this new one. (And yes, we’ve done our share of that morphing ourselves. We’re changing that approach to our games now.)
So, MMOs are not dying. However, players that have played those MMOs many times over many years are…surprise, surprise…tired of playing that particular game model. They want something new.
So, enter the new breed. Things like Tera and GW2. They’re trying new ideas. Maybe they work, maybe they don’t, but no one has hit it out of the park yet. We all know…feel in our bones…that change has to occur and we’re all working toward new ways of doing things.
Part of that is gameplay. Part of it is business. And part is something no one has seen yet. EQN is where we take our theories and practice and combine them into the form of something new.
But no way is the genre dead. That’s like the rumors of “the PC is a dying platform”. It’s just not true. We do nothing but grow because people like being around other people.

Georgeson also made a point of reiterating that while EQNext will be different from EQ2, it will not be “simpler”.


TL;DR version:
Bottom line is MMO's are changing into something new out of the gate instead of changing what is already out.

Future MMOs and PvP

http://kotaku.com/5938199/somebody-has-already-hit-level-80-in-guild-wars-2

Somebody Has Already Hit Level 80 In Guild Wars 2


Its amazing the game is barely out (launched on August 28th) and here we are - a person at level cap. In a pvp game; the comments indicate that crafting levels you faster than playing or doing pvp.

I am personally burnt out on fantasy style MMOs - for years I have logged in and played with friends and people I had met. What made this fun was it was world wide and I thought it was uber-cool to be playing with them one night and the next day at work discussing it ...yeah my friends in Austrailia or Russia said (whatever they said) that was cool to me.

I don't roleplay so maybe I am missing out on that but its just not me. In fact, I secretly laugh at those who do roleplay its awkward to invite other people when you got a very plain American trying to act British ...yeah awkward.

WoW in one corner and Everyone else in the other. You could say well WoW is not the leader anymore and I would agree with you. Worldwide it holds the largest population but does that mean its the best ....I would say not anymore. The formula mmorgp is not working anymore - people want something different and this is splitting gamers in every direction.

Warhammer to me was the pinaccle of pvp, however, a few broken patches and server consolidations, hardware issues with so many people in one zone and a lack of a third realm killed the game for me.

EQ2 held my attention the longest - even with no friends playing if you are bored in EQ2 you aren't doing it right. There is so much to do and so much to see the world is expansive and the quest are endless. The graphics are better than any game I have ever played with everything turned up all the way up you will find yourself turning them back down because it is too much input for your eyes. Imagine if everything you did casted a spell which turned on police lights and strobes your eyes would hate you.

DDO great game. In fact so close to tabletop DnD I cannot play it - I would rather do tabletop. Unless you want to run the same dungeons over and over.

So what does all this mean:

It means to stand out you have to think differently, try something new. Who will step up? What company will hire a visionary, an artist that is willing to make the next best thing. Will it be PC, console or a combo? Will it be pve, pvp, crafting, solo or team based or guild based, f2p or p2p or p2w? How will communications be handled?