Joannas Diary: a TGirl Blog : Warning, May Contain Nuts

So the news doing the rounds is of a movie of Everquest being put into development. This is probably a bad thing. While games of movies can sometimes be quite good, movies about game usually suck bigtime.

Everquest certainly has the massive backstory and tonnes of lore to draw on, but it would simply become another cliched swords and dragons movie with namechecks for the geeks.

If the movie is anything like some of my gaming experiences you will probably get one of two plotlines:

The first will involve a brave adventurer on an epic quest to kill 10 rats over and over again.

The second would involve a group of adventurers waiting in one spot for several hours, camping a scary named monster. At the end the monster appears while half of them are taking a toilet break and kills them all in seconds....

I'm kinda back playing Everquest quite a bit these days. I had a bit of a malaise in the Summer due to my guild being mainly US players and being the sole member on a lot of the time. I started playing Lord of the Rings online for a change. I've since joined a new European-time guild and have been raiding some of the 24 person zones and having a lot more fun. I've let my Lord of the Rings subscription lapse for now. I now have two characters at the level cap (70) and the Rise of Kunark expansion is out in a few weeks too.. so a lot to look forward to.

It's just a shame Everquest2 doesn't get the media attention that World of Warcraft does, the game has improved in leaps and bounds over the three years, and like others I despair at the lack of vision SOE has in promoting the game. Cudos to WoW for making online gaming mainstream though.

Some interesting new games coming on the market soon though. This page from Yahoo details some of the contenders for the World of Warcraft crown. (although one of those, Gods and Heroes has already been cancelled). I'm hoping Warhammer Online will be good, I'd quite like to give that a try.. also Tabula Rasa looks very interesting. I've yet to try a space MMO, apart from a quick trial look at Star Wars Galaxies when it was in its death throws.

So many games, so little time.....

8 Comments:

At October 12, 2007 12:11 PM, Pandora Caitiff said…

I've heard EVE Online is pretty good if you want a space game, but it will take over your life!

I prefer browser MMOs like Kingdom of Loathing, Travian and Urban Dead.
At October 12, 2007 12:34 PM, Joanna said…

I quite fancy trying Eve sometime. Only issue I see is that you level up even if you arent in-game, and there is no level cap. So the people that played from the beginning are now uber-awesome, and any new players get blown to pieces ;)

Still fancy trying it. I did see a free trial advertised somewhere.
At October 12, 2007 2:57 PM, Pandora Caitiff said…

Sign up with a corporation and stay in the safe (policed) zones until you can hold your own.

If you hate things happening while you're away, avoid Urban Dead. When you log off, your character goes to sleep wherever you left it, and stays there until you log in.

Yep, you can get attacked and infected by zombie players if the barricades are breached while you sleep!

Which is why I joined a survivor group.
At October 12, 2007 7:54 PM, Helena Love said…

I played the Tabula Rasa beta and was severely under impressed, I found it to be badly implemented, simplistic, repetitive, not great to look at and it just didn't feel right. The Starwars Galaxies (pre CU) and now defunct Auto Assault where much better as a Scifi MMORPGs IMHO. Eve I got bored with very fast, just wasn't my sort of thing, it seemed more like a pretty interface to a spreadsheet. There supposed to be huge depth and inter player trade, combat and politics, but all I seemed to get to do was shoot rocks.

I'm looking forward to Warhammer online too and polishing the brass bikini for Age of Conan ;)
At October 12, 2007 9:51 PM, Becky said…

Eve is good, but only rewards masses of time investment.

My Warcraft playing has lapsed, just waiting for the next expansion.

There's a Warcraft film due too, which might be interesting. Lore-wise they've got 5 games to draw on, but since when did filmmakers even bother to stay true to game licence? Final Fantasy and Super Mario Bros, anyone?
At October 12, 2007 10:51 PM, Tina said…

Eve online is fabulous.....but you need to join a good Corporation...I am Lyta Dawkins if anyone wants to get in touch.

btw...long time....joanna you are as sparkly and fluffy as always

Hugz
At October 14, 2007 2:00 PM, Zosimus the Heathen said…

I'd have to say I've never gotten into online gaming myself, mainly because given how much time I waste on both the internet and computer games*, I shudder to think how much more time I'd waste if I combined the above two pastimes! I can understand your misgivings about the upcoming Everquest movie, however, given the generally poor track record movies based on computer games have (I have to admit I quite liked the Resident Evil pics, though). Then again, could any new movie based on a video game be any worse than the abomination that was 'Doom: The Movie'? (Or 'Mortal Kombat'? Or 'Street Fighter'? Or...)

*Mainly gratuitously violent first-person shooters: the sorts of games that are no doubt insidiously programming me to become some cold-blooded killer. ;)
At October 15, 2007 3:43 PM, Emilygrae said…

Movies about games pretty much suck as a matter of course, and games based on movies usually suck. Cosmic balance needs to be maintained. =)
As for World of Warcraft, I doubt they'll ever make a movie as interesting as the machinima that users make with the game and post on YouTube.