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RETRACTION for Age of Conan

This is the first time we have ever found ourselves in the position of having to post a retraction.  We are aware that the overzealous attitude we expressed on  No Prisoners, No Mercy Show 55 and our recent article entitled The Reports are exaggerated  may be a bit catching. If you got caught up in our excitement and  had a great time we will say “Bravo, good for you.”  However, if you had the same experience we did, we apologize.  When we returned to Age of Conan this weekend we found the same problem that has plagued the game since day one, over two years ago – low frame rates per second (FPS). Even on our computer which exceeds the recommended system specifications, our frame rate per second never exceeded 20 fps, and usually hovered around 10 to 14 fps, sometimes dipping as low as 3 fps.  If anyone had as bad a time as we did, we apologize. We have, in fact, posted about it. While the letter in the post is not the one we sent to Funcom, we did send a letter to our contact at the company.

Quite frankly we are a bit hurt by the whole thing.

 

The No Prisoners, No Mercy Team

 

The link for the show is on the right or you can listen here.

The early release of the No Prisoners, No Mercy show 55 is live, for those of our listeners who demanded the ability to hear it before the show goes public to ITUNES and the Virgin Worlds collective.  After all, Saylah, of Mystic Worlds fame and a regular guest, tells me it is one of the only three podcasts she listens to.

Now many of you may see the picture above and think we have become an Age of Conan podcast. However that isn’t the case. Some of our long term listeners will remember that we actually started out as an Age of Conan podcast entitled “Age of Conuns” back “in the day” as they say.

This time, the picture is actually in honor of this weeks guests, who are Glen Swan and Oliver Kunz, two of the community managers from Funcom.   The community managers talk about many topics, including where the name “Famine” in Glen “Famine” Swan comes from, they talk about the new Age of Conan Expansion, debunk some of the opinions  by the blogging community about the decisions made in the development of Age of Conan, and talk about their new mmos (including The Secret World) as well as other topics.

We hope you enjoy listening as much as we did producing the show.

So, this is one of the few times that Sr. Fran is actually writing an article! I’ve been long skirting the issue, having been asked many times to write something, and I rarely given in. The reason for me dodging the issue is I don’t think of myself as a “gamer” per-say. I am what Paul Barnett calls, “a non-gamer gamer”. For me, gaming is fun, it’s a hobby, an activity I do to blow off a little steam, and share some fun with other people online. I game usually at night, about 2 – 4 hours, but not every night. I seem to go through cycles, I give up games for a while, then I go back just a couple hours a week, then increasing to many hours a night. Last year for Lent, I gave up gaming COMPLETELY for 40 days (the 40 days of Lent) and then when Lent was over, I really didn’t go back right away, because I had found many things that needed my attention over the course of the 40 days. But the lure of World of Warcraft just was too much, I went back, and now I’m on it every night, which makes me a little aggravated. Aggravated because I thought I had “licked” this addiction! But no matter how long I stay away, it always seems to lure me back, like the sirens call to the sailors at sea. Recently, there is an even bigger reason I enjoy going back, night after night…I AM A TANK!

I have 4 toons actually, an 80 DK (death knight) Blood Elf, an 80 Troll priest, a 72 Blood Elf Warlock, and my latest toon, a 60 Tauren Warrior (tank spec). Well, the toon I’ve had the longest has to be my warlock, she is over 4 years old. WoW just recently had their 5^th anniversary, and she was created after WoW had been around for about 8-10 months….so she’s definitely my oldest toon. I remember when Sr. Julie and I first started the pod cast, and we were discussing Death Knights because they were just added to WoW, and we were talking about that quest you have to do as a Death Knight, where you have to kill a bunch of villagers. I was appalled! I was saying how “I could NEVER do THAT!” Julie just laughed at me and said “how can you justify being a nun playing a WARLOCK then?” and I replied that my warlock is like “Glenda the good witch!” much to the amusement of Sr. Julie and our listeners. I played my warlock and I enjoyed it to a certain extent. What I didn’t like was being so squishy that I got “one shotted” all the time in battlegrounds, and if a boss ever hit me it was over. Battlegrounds were actually such a sore point with me that a few times, I ranted pretty bad in battleground chat, and got myself kicked out of whatever guild I was in! I guess you can’t use the “f-word” in WoW without someone noticing (needless to say, no one knew who was actually saying those words, or they would be horrified)! It got to the point with me and guilds that every week I was in a different one. Plus it didn’t help that in every patch WoW was nerfing Warlocks into the ground. Then with that whole “keying” thing [EDITORS NOTE:  For those new to WoW she is talking about getting the keys to instances in outlands] and everyone pulling out their measuring sticks and shouting at me that I was supposed to be the top of the dps chart and wasn’t, well that didn’t help me want to play my warlock any either.

So, maybe 2 years ago, as a reaction to all the grief I was getting, I rolled up a Drenai Warrior. I liked seeing the new Drenai lands, but once I was out of the new lands into the “old” lands grinding away, it was hell. It got so bad that I abandoned my warrior completely when DK’s came out. Well, I got over the whole killing the pixels/villagers thing and rolled up a Death Knight. I rolled Blood Elf, in the new, “good” guild I was in, The Older Gamers, or TOG as known to many. I was REALLY happy with my DK! Finally, I had STAMINA, AND STRENGTH, AND PLATE ARMOR!!! Woo Hoo…I could even TANK instances and not get us killed!!! I was having fun, especially in Battlegrounds! But then Blizzard went and nerfed DK’s to the point where they make terrible tanks, and their dps is usually the lowest compared to mages and warlocks…so here I was again…stuck without a tanking toon. So, I went back to my “old” Drenai warrior. Almost as soon as they allowed faction changes, I went from Alliance to Horde. I do think that Horde is the side where it seems more reasonable people play. I have run into a few pugs that want to make kick them all in the butt, for the most part however, I really am happy I changed to Horde. Plus I changed from a Drenai to Tauren.

I had tried Tauren when WoW first came out, but didn’t like them so much. But with my Warrior, it’s different. Taurens LOOK like Warriors/tanks! They are big, they have that stomp ability that stuns the targets – it just works. I was also leveling up my priest, which I still play for raids, since priests are ALWAYS needed for raids. But aside from raiding with my priest, I’m playing/leveling my warrior. I never realized that the toon I really wanted to play the most was a tank. Now that I’m horde, in a good guild, and playing a tank, I’ve never had so much fun in WoW! I’m sure that other Warriors will tell me the drawbacks to being a tank, but so far, I can’t see any. Probably the ONLY thing that irritates me to no end is when I do PUGS and they pull out the measuring sticks. I’m always second to last on dps charts. But then last night I had a realization…tanks are supposed to TAKE damage, NOT GIVE damage. They need to hold aggro, which can be a challenge with some of the AoE happy mages/warlocks out there, but once I realized that, it didn’t bother me about them pulling out the measuring sticks. And what I have found is that when there are others who want to “off-tank” or more like “be the tank” but don’t have the stamina, gear, or talents for it, I just back off and let them tank…see how long they last…usually it’s not too long resulting in the complaint that I “didn’t hold aggro”! Well I’m not the one who charged in there wearing cloth armor, am I? The best part about being a tank, is that I just don’t have to put up with the BS that pugs give. Too much BS from someone in a pug and I’m outta there…faster than you can say “pug”!

You know, I have thought about it, and it seems to me that each of my 4 toons in WoW have some part of my own personality…I can be, and have been a healer in my life. I CERTAINLY have been a witch a time or two! I’ve got a side of me that I don’t like to show, which is the vindictive Death Knight side. But who knew, that I would most like, and most relate to being a Warrior/Tank! Years ago, I was going through probably the most difficult period in my life. I had been dumped by my fiancé who left me for a married woman he worked with, who’s own marriage was failing. I had dreams of being a wife and mother, and a graphic designer…it just all crumbled to the ground like old buildings in an earthquake. I remember very fondly, my mother who I had a strained relationship with before, came to my rescue. She couldn’t walk very well, she couldn’t breathe very well, and here she was at my Chicago apartment, struggling, puffing, up 3 floors of steep stairs in order to help me clean out my apartment and move back home with her. She helped me pack, she washed and cleaned, she held me while I cried, she was this tiny, frail, thin, sickly, monster-warrior soul of a woman who just would NOT let life’s troubles beat her down, nor her precious daughter! She put up with so much abuse from me in the past, yet here she was by my side, fighting off the depression that might have killed me if she had not been there. She showed me then, how much she loved me. But it wasn’t until I was her caregiver in the last 5 years of her life, that she showed me what a TRUE warrior is…she suffered ailments, and humiliations because of those ailments that would make most people crumble into a pile of insanity! Yet, she handled it all with such Grace as I have never seen. Yes, she had her bad days. She even yelled at me in a restaurant one day, something that made me burst into tears. But I realized that I was the ONLY safe target she had to unload on. All the suffering that life was throwing at her, she had no way to unload it, except onto me, the daughter she loved and fought with, and fought FOR …for so long. I forgave her; because she forgave me for all that I had done to her. That’s what a warrior is…someone who can take a beating and still smile – Someone who can take a beating and realize that we are all only human. Someone who knows that forgiveness is NOT just an option…it’s a shield, not just for the warrior, but for the person who’s hitting as well. So, of all my characters in WoW, I think I like being a Warrior/Tank the best, because I was shown by my mother, what it means to be a good warrior, to fight the good fight, and not let the sadness or suffering make you bitter and angry and mean.

To my mom, the best warrior I’ve ever known. Mom, I only hope that I can one day, be as good a warrior as you were! I love you.

Sr. Frances

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Thank you to all who participated…the last of the closed beta keys has been awarded and the contest is now close.

Hopefully we will see all of you in game, even if it is just to fire a photon torpedo across your bow!

The No Prisoners, No Mercy Team

 

 

Hi Folks! The contest has begun here are the questions: the first 4 ppl with all answers correct sent to noprisonersnomercy@gmail.com will have a Star Trek Online closed beta key code sent to them DIRECTLY FROM CRYPTIC STUDIOS!!

Here is the mp3 file to listen to and answer the questions about!

2. What was the name of the episode?

3. What were the names of the two characters singing the song?

First Clue:

O.K. Personally we didn’t think it was that hard and we are glad that we didn’t chose the other audio clip we had in mind.  Still…as promised here is the first clue.  One of the characters also appeared in a television series with a member of the original star trek series.

p.s. We are sorry about the delay in posting…remember those unforseen circumstances we told you about? Mother natured dumped one on us. We have  had winners but there are still keys to be had.

Here it is folks…show 49 early bird special! Let us know what you think!

So what happens if you are a game developer and you stop listening to your community? The time was we thought it depended on the size of the developer – after all, the indie developers seem to spend a lot of time interacting with their community (we know that Icarus Studios sure does).  But it seems that size doesn’t always matter these days. Now we do understand that there are myriad different factors at work here (who is owned by what parent company for example) but still… 

 The cartoon below is something that our own Fran put together early, early this morning. She saw it at breakfast and knew she just had to whip up a parody version.

 

 As we have said all along, we desperately wanted Warhammer Online to succeed, after all, Julie is a fan of the tabletop version from way back.  It seems if you are Electronic Arts and you consider all that has transpired with what used to be our favorite game you decide to “cut bait” – or at least slowly whittle away at it.  It could be that some of the parties involved had a bad case of what our mothers used to call “selective hearing.” 

 But not all the “big guys” react in the same way when things go a bit sour. 

If you are the 800 pound Activision/Blizzard gorilla you simply stick your fingers in your ears and say “WE CAN’T HEAR YOU.”

 Now we will be the first to admit that the NPNM team are not fans of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare games. As a result, when the news feeds came across our desks we tended to give them only a passing notice. So we would like to take a moment to thank a reader/commenter who goes by the name “McDonagh” for bring the matter to our attention.

 It seems that there is more violence in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 than some people would like in their games. Here is an excerpt about the part of the game that has raised more than a bit of a ruckas:

 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is the latest in a series of ultra-realistic first-person war games, the last of which won a Bafta earlier this year for its story and character development. In the course of the ten hours or so the game will take to complete in solo mode, the player will assume a variety of roles in a global war against Russian ultranationalists led by Vladimir Makarov.

“Like many war-themed titles, the game – set five years in the future – features bloody conflict throughout, but Modern Warfare 2 is so harrowingly realistic at some points that an on-screen warning offers players the option to skip scenes they may find disturbing…One of the most controversial of these is an episode where your character must choose whether to kill unarmed civilians in a Russian airport in order to infiltrate a terrorist sect successfully. The scene is so genuinely shocking in its brutality that the game’s distributor Activision has already attempted to forestall criticism by issuing the following statement.” – Technology Times Online, full article available here:

Here is the statement, via technology times online, issued by Activision in response to the issue:

 ”Modern Warfare 2 is a fantasy action game designed for intense, realistic game play that mirrors real life conflicts, much like epic, action movies. It is appropriately rated 18 for violent scenes, which means it is intended for those who are 18 and older.”  - Activision, Distributor for Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2

In the mean time, it appears that the game has been banned from Russia and all copies of the console game recalled from store shelves, this comes to us via www.GamePolitics.com

“Every copy of the console version of Modern Warfare 2 has been recalled from stores in Russia due to the content of the “No Russian” mission, better known as the controversial airport massacre level. Likewise, Infinity Ward has released an official patch for the PC and Steam versions of Modern Warfare 2, entirely removing the mission from the game…The game’s content has raised the ire of the Russian gaming public as well as a number of politicians who object to its portrayal of Russia’s armed forces as terrorists who invade the United States and subsequently erect statues of dead terrorists in Washington D.C.” – Sol Invictus, of Hellforge, entire article available here.

Hellforge reports that a revised copy of the game will be available on Russian store shelves within the month.  However, Telegraph.co.uk’s Nick Cowen reports that Activision claims that the Russion Banning is a lie:

“However, Activision says these reports are untrue. An official statement released by the video game publisher said: ‘Reports that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has been banned in Russia are erroneous. Activision only released a PC version of the game in Russia which went on sale on Tuesday, Nov. 10.’” – Nick Cowen, Technology Times Online, entire article available here:

One way or the other, if what Julie’s marketing teacher taught her back in grad school is true, there is no such thing as bad publicity – there is only publicity.  That being the case, it seems you can’t buy publicity like this.  After all, there is no better way to get someone to buy something than to tell them they can’t have it, or even that they might not be able to get it in the future.

In the end Bobby Kotick and Activision are “laughing all the way to the bank” as it is oft said. As we saw a bit earlier, the stock options Mr. Kotick just exercised are worth a cool $20 million and Activision, with Bobby Kotick at the helm, is even better shape:

“The debut of the video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 looks sure to become the most successful product launch in the history of entertainment, with global first-day sales estimated at $500 million. Less than 24 hours after launch, first day sales of the controversial and violent new new game are set to exceed the previous record set by Grand Theft Auto IV in 2008 by $200 million.” –  Nigel Kendall, Technology Editor, Technology Times Online, entire article available here.

God Bless,

Sr. Frances (& Sr. Julie)

Let’s talk about Blizzard – after all, just about everyone is today.  But let’s not start where everyone else does. No, let’s start with pugs. Not those cute little dogs with turned up noses and a sweet disposition. Instead let’s talk about the kind of pug that has 10 legs, averages six feet tall and has a nasty disposition.  That sounds like one heck of a beast doesn’t it?  And let me tell you, these days when I run an instance with a “pick up group” (PUG) they DO have one nasty disposition.

Julie has a rule. She never groups with anyone outside of her guild (No, Julie hasn’t suddenly start talking about herself in the third person, this is Fran). Now you may think that having a rule about not running with anyone outside the guild is an imposition, but considering the gaming group we belong to has 14,000 members that’s not all the big of a hardship. What has started to become a hardship, is running an instance with a pick up group (pug).  Now, as many of you who listen to our show know, my game of choice is World of Warcraft, so that is the context here.

Having finally reached level 80 on my Troll priest I assumed that filling half of the oft heard “looking for healer, looking for tank” would put me on a pedestal when it came to running an instance, especially a heroic instance. These days, however, that appears not to be the case…

Sherman set the wayback machine for 2 nights ago. The setting is right after our instance wiped because the Tank took off on his own, and ran out of range of the person keeping him alive – ME!

Tank:    “Way to go priest, how long do we have to carry you?”

Me:      “You’re carrying me? And here I thought you had your hands full with just being the tank.”

Tank:    “What?”

Me:      “Well you must be quite the player who can tank, heal himself and the entire party at the same time. Wow, talk about an ‘army of one’! You really ARE an army of one. With that sort of talent all the rest of are sort of extraneous aren’t we?”

Tank:     “Did you buy your character? Why did you let me die?”

Me:       “Is it my fault you decided to tank a Northrend Instance by way of Tanaris desert? Next time you might want to at least stay close enough so I can see you with a telescope.”

(The boss is looted and cloth armor with a healing bonus drops. I roll need)

Tank:    “What you doing? Why did you roll need?”

Me:       “We started with need or greed loot rules. I’m the only class here who wears cloth armor, and the only healing class. What’s the problem?”

Tank:     “I wanted to roll on it. Listen homie, we don’t roll need on blue items here.”

            (long pause)

Me:       Did you just call me “homie”? That strikes me as being a little like Pee Wee Herman calling Will Smith homie”

Tank:     What if I wanted the gear?

Me:      “Cloth healing gear? Too bad it’s bind on pick up, otherwise I would give it to you – as a protection spec’s fighter you make a great healer.”

And that’s why THIS “homie” doesn’t like pugs either…

Now let’s turn from pugs to pets – not the four legged kind, the cute cuddly furry kind (although the first two pets in question only have four legs between them). Here is the quote of the day that has so many people up in arms:

“Today we’re pleased to introduce the Pet Store for World of Warcraft, a new way for players to obtain in-game pets to join them on their adventures in Azeroth. Two brand-new companions are now available for purchase exclusively at the Pet Store in the online Blizzard Store: Lil’ K.T. and the Pandaren Monk.”  – Blizzard poster, Nethaera (available here)

Whether or not the 800 pound Blizzard Gorilla gets it’s big furry behind kicked out of China, I can’t say. However, Bobby Kotick (Director of Activision/Blizzard) doesn’t strike me as the kind of man who takes even the slightest chance that there will be the words “fourth quarter loss” in a financial report.  As anyone who knows business will tell you (and even if he isn’t a gamer Mr. Kotick knows business) if an investor sees the word “loss” in a financial report, it won’t matter if it is followed by a profit and loss statement that reports a net profit the size of the gross national product for an entire nation. All they will see is the word “loss” and, especially in today’s economic climate, will run around screaming “all is lost, all is lost.”

I have noticed that Blizzard has tried to soften the blow to the egos of its more suspicious consumers with the following:

“For every Pandaren Monk that finds its way to a player’s side between now and the end of the year (December 31, 2009 at 11:59 PDT), we’ll donate 50 percent of the $10 purchasing price to the Make-a-Wish Foundation in an effort to brew up a little hope, strength, and joy in a child’s life.” – ibid

Now it is unlikely that the Blizzard Gorilla will be swinging high forever. Still, no matter how many bloggers and columnists are upset about the opening of a new virtual pet store, the chances are that nay sayers will have about as much effect as the “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2” boycott!  Go ahead and tell me that you won’t be there to at least check out the “Cataclysm” expansion because of a micro-transaction or two – I will know it’s a lie!

Bless you all,

Fran