Random Junk Sept-14

The brand spankin' new fiber optic internet connection is yummy. Daddy likes. I was excited last night and bouncing around like a kid with a new toy (which is the truth, I suppose). I spent the night installing and updating and patching and configuring. The new computer is feeling more and more like home. Firefox was giving me a headache though. I could browse normal pages, but I couldn't log into my Google apps. Argh. After ten minutes of banging my head against the desk, I checked the firewall. D'oh.

I returned the Godfather to Gamefly earlier in the week, and I'm getting a kid game for my daughter next. Amazon says they'll deliver LotRO the week after next. This means a one to two week lull. What to do with myself in the meantime? I have a few options:

• Meditate nightly in preparation for my journeys in Middle Earth
• Play more of the Saga of Ryzom free trial, which I put on hold for the Godfather
• Check out my son's new Metroid Prime 3 game
• Hack and slash in Dungeon Runners (having some install issues on Vista... grr)
• Create an avatar in Second Life and go harass Avril

Dungeon Runners Dodges The Bullet

File this one under: Did-Not-Realize-How-Much-I-Missed-It-Until-It-Was-Gone.

The good folks at Verizon should be (fingers crossed) at my place this Thursday to upgrade us to their fiber optimus prime Internet service and a wireless network. Meanwhile, I've been "banned" from the one computer in the house with connection to the intrawebs. Banned sounds harsh. More like Avril wants me to have the newer, nicer computer, which, coincidentally, has no Internet connection, thank you very much. Hohum.

Back on topic...
Fact 1: I have not played Dungeon Runners in a couple weeks.
Fact 2: I will not play Dungeon Runners in at least two more weeks.
Fact 3: While Dungeon Runners is interesting and fun, it ain't all that.
Conclusion: Suspend my Dungeon Runners account and save my $5 to spend on coffee now that Starbucks bumped up their prices.

When Avril was busy napping Saturday afternoon, I logged on and jumped over to NCSoft's account site to suspend Dungeon Runners. Or so I thought...

Instead, I downloaded and installed the long promised update for Dungeon Runners. Multiple characters. Member-only servers. PvP. Item linking. Something I want to check out. Guess how much time I spent in the game? If you guessed more than zero, you'd be wrong.

Hmmmm...maybe next weekend.

Repetition

The last few days have been too busy to find much time for games... unless you consider cleaning and reorganizing the garage a fun game. Not me.

While I was cleaning the garage I was thinking about one of my earlier posts where I complained about the repetition in WOW. Then the post after that I was talking about how I enjoyed Dungeon Runners. WTF. Dungeon Runners is nothing but repeating the same dungeon over and over and...

But I'm not bored by Dungeon Runners. The difference is expectations. I know Dungeon Runners is a simple, action RPG. I expect to run through the same ten levels of dungeon repeatedly until Mumbles is high enough level for the next dungeon. No trade professions, no auction house, no problem... it's a free game.

I expect more from WOW. I want depth and breadth of content. I want multiple zones to choose from at any given level. I want distractions galore. Does WOW deliver on this expectation? Yes. It does. There's so much content I've never seen (and I'm talking low, mid, and high level stuff here), but I played long enough to see the repetition.

Could I play Dungeon Runners for 15 months like I played WOW? No. One month, maybe two tops. But for now I'm enjoying jumping in for 30 minutes or an hour. And that's something Dungeon Runners excels at... getting into a dungeon quickly and adding party members on the fly. Zero effort. Compare that to WOW. Even playing a priest, I'd spend too much time looking for a full group before starting out.

Wouldn't it be cool if WOW instances could scale? Even a little. So if I have two other people with me, we can still run something instead of spamming LF1M SM any class over and over... talk about repetition.

Dungeon Runners

I downloaded Dungeon Runners a few days ago. The game, if you haven't heard, is a new and free Diablo 2 knock off. Less story and features. Better 3D graphics. Easy to get a group going. The humor is good... spoofs other action RPGs and MMOs. The names of items is a hoot: Recycle Paper Shirt of the Ladybug. Dungeon Runners gets a B-.

The game is so casual. I login and start running a dungeon. I open a group and people start joining me. The difficulty (and quality of loot) scales as more people join the party. Most nights I play for an hour or so, and then turn the computer over to Avril so she can do some building in Second Life.

I debated about subscribing to Dungeon Runners, but for $5 a month I figured it was worth a month or two. (Hopefully by then I'll get the whole WOW/LOTRO/Whatever thing sorted out in my head).

My character is Mumbles, a level 20 mage, and I typically play on the busiest server. I like how you select a starting class, but are free to dabble in other classes and mix/match your skills. I'm focusing on AoE damage, which works great for the groups of little critters. Not so much the bosses. I ran some ice chief boss dungeon over and over on Insane difficulty tonight. I sucked down so many potions to stay alive but got tons of loot and gold. Fun time.

Because this is a free, casual, easy-to-play game, the crowd is a bit immature and stupid. I've found many good and funny people to group with and add to my Friends list. I'm looking forward to the next build where they add a Member-only server.

-Link