Crunch time at Windstorm also took me away from the Tour of Azeroth, and so we are off to a somewhat sporadic start. Hopefully, things will even out over the long run. I’ve also decided to start calling these chapters, instead of days, as who knows how many days will elapse between posts, or even how many days a single post will cover. When we left off, Delsenora was level 8, and still had some things to do in Elwynn Forest.
I still have, on my hard drive somewhere, my initial impressions of Guild Wars, which I wrote in 2005. It is, in a word, scathing. There was a lot I didn’t like about Guild Wars in the first fifteen minutes of playing it. Guild Wars, eventually became one of my absolute favorite MMO’s, and is one that has earned a permanent place on my harddrive. I still log in from time to time, and go through bouts of extreme activity around the holidays, or just when I get a hankering to travel with Koss, Mhenlo, and Cynn. I keep my scathing first 15 minute review around to remind me that, quite often, especially where MMO’s are concerned, my initial impression does not end up being my lasting impression. That often things drive me crazy in the first fifteen minutes I eventually overcome, get used to, and learn to look past, to enjoy the broader, much bigger picture.
And this is why I haven’t put up my overall impressions of Champions Online until now — nearly 3 weeks after launch (Well this and the fact that I’ve been insanely busy, but lets pretend this is all carefully planned — indulge me). But the closed beta has come and gone, which I participated in to some extent. The open beta and head start have come and gone, and now, the game has launched for real. So it’s time to talk about it for a bit. Read on:
Every blog has them. Every one of them. And Of Course I’ll Play It is no exception. That would be the ubiquitous “Apology For Being Away So Long” post, usually followed by, or combined with the “I Promise to Post More” post. This would be the first of those, but I’m not even going to attempt the second. Namely because I’m, if nothing else, a realist.
I will, however, offer up at least something that passes as an explanation. As many of you know, I’m currently involved in the bootstrapping of a new game development studio. And to make matters more interesting — because why would you do something if you were going to do it in a way that made sense — we’re not a fledgling iPhone App developer, we’re not a facebook App developers — no no, we’re tackling a friggin MMO. As big as it gets. So for the last 8 months I’ve been in intense production of a prototype for said MMO, for the sake of having something to show to publishers that says we are, in fact, for real. And since July, I’d pretty much been in full blown 24/7 Game Development Crunch. So as you might imagine, blogging came to a screenching halt.
Well the crunch is over (for now), and now begins Windstorm Studios’ road show, as well as a bunch of other indy game developement related tasks I won’t bore you with. But for now, at least, I’ve got a little breathing room, and hope to spend some time catching up on a post or two. But make no mistake, another time will undoubtedly come, and perhaps sooner than later, when again the wind might blow through Of Course I’ll Play Its halls as I tackle more pressing concerns.
I only ask that you keep us on your reader, or check in from time to time. And if you’re a relative latecomer, don’t hesitate to go back through some of the earlier stuff. Most of what I write is game design stuff, and it’s as salient now as it was when I wrote it. Some of it I think is pretty good. Some of it — eh, maybe not so much. Hopefully all of it is at least a little bit interesting.
And until my next disappearance, stay tuned, we have all sort of exciting things in the days ahead!
Cheers,
Dusty
