Gaming My Way Blog Carnival, March 2010
Welcome to the March 2010 edition of the Gaming My Way Blog Carnival. We’re picking up steam, and have some great submissions this month, so hopefully you’ll enjoy the hard work of those who’ve contributed.
Meg put in the first submission of the month with her post Silkroad Society at Simpson’s Paradox. In it, she takes a look at a problem that plagues MMO’s that I actually haven’t spent a lot of time on here: the lack of politeness in many MMO chat channels. Noting that Silkroad Online is currently attempting to combat this problem, she goes on to examine some reasons why people act like this as well as talking about some solutions, all with their good and bad sides.
Luke Geraghty has two pieces for us today at Luke Geraghty.com. First up is 101 Classics: Diablo 2. From Luke himself, “With Diablo 3 looming on the horizon, I take a look back at its predecessor and argue that it should be heralded as a classic in the RPG genre.” This one is a slam dunk. My friends and I still play Diablo 2 to this day, Blizzard continues to run the ladders and people still flock to play, the newest balance patch was released two days ago, and the game came out nearly ten years ago. Going strong for ten years sounds like we’re headed to classic territory to me. Next he tells us what he thinks about The Future of ‘Tomb Raider’. In his own words, “‘Tomb Raider’ is a gaming megabrand with its heroine perhaps outshining the video games themselves. With the latest title ‘Underworld’ in mind, I dissect the past and present games in the series and ask: ‘What exactly lies in store for ‘Tomb Raider’?'” While I was never a fan of the series myself, I recognize it as an important series. The new action game idea does intrigue me though, and I may have to check it out.
Redmongoose would like us to see Mistwalker Releases Concept Art for New Wii RPG at Red Mongoose. I have to say, the concept art for Last Story is looking good to me. Here’s hoping it turns out to be a good game. With a name like Last Story, if it turns out to be an excellent game, we could see this become the next Final Fantasy, going on forever despite a name that implies this should be it. Doesn’t bother me, but it can be amusing when people take the name too seriously.
Douglas Byrd takes a look at the tightrope a GM walks between challenging PCs and survivability in his post DnD: Keeping the game safe, but challenging for new players at Novacorp. This is a common problem GMs face, and it’s good to have a look at ways to deal with it. He has some good suggestions for starting GMs so they can get a feel for the game, so you should check them out. Covers both combat and puzzles. I think the puzzles are something many GMs could use a lesson or reminder in. Myself included at times.
Matt Willard has Today’s Really Kick*** Moment – Excalibur Sonic at Giant Robot Invasion! Click on over for a for the video. An amusing take on Sonic and the Black Knight. Not sure how I feel about the game since I haven’t played it. I kind of like the mystical tack the series has taken, at least when the gameplay stays fun. Others, such as Matt, disagree, but still see the good that exists.
That concludes this edition of the Gaming My Way Blog Carnival. You can use the carnival submission form to submit posts for next month’s carnival, to be hosted on April 29, 2010. Be sure to check out some of the posts of other submitters and perhaps leave a friendly comment or two if you like their work.
