As I sit here sometimes, I dream of where I’d like Age of Animus to go. I’ve already got a number of things that I want to do that are actually within my current skill set thanks to print on demand services. But there are some things that I dream that are beyond my abilities, like an animated television series and/or movie and computer games, specifically an MMORPG.

This weekend, I delved into the Lord of the Rings MMORPG and it was as I was playing that I thought how cool it would be to someday play something similar set in Pelaria. For those of you out there who aren’t familiar with the acronym, MMORPG (often shortened to just MMO) stands for Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. It’s a type of game where players create their characters in the game world created by the designers complete with quests and adventures to play through. They can be a lot of fun if executed well, but sometimes they can just seem like a lot of work. “I spent three hours yesterday walking around to collect the materials I need to craft a new set of armor”. Some people enjoy that kind of stuff and more power to them, but I spend my day at work working, I don’t need my games to feel like work too.

But you see, these MMOs need content. These kind of grinding tasks offer many hours of gameplay for very comparatively little design work. If I ever licensed an Age of Animus MMORPG, chances are it’d include a lot of this busy work that I don’t much care for personally. But the other stuff, the adventures and dungeons instances and quests…those would have to be made awesome to compensate.

Wouldn’t YOU want to create your own little kitty cat or bunny and have him or her have an encounter with the Undertinker or fight the Coven? Of course you would! Gimme a call software designers!

MMOs I have played (roughly in order):

• City of Heroes/Villains – Creating my own superheroes was fun, but there was little to do but fight generic mooks…even the “quests” revolved around fighting localized instances of generic mooks led by an identical but named mook. I paid for the game and the monthly fee.
• Star Wars Galaxies – I played for roughly four hours and I decided it was too boring to ever pick up again. The license worked against it for me, because it didn’t seem like they were very interested in creating a Star Wars experience for their players. It felt like a generic sci-fi game that painted Star Wars trappings on everything. Money wasted in every sense of the word (game and monthly fee).
• World of Warcraft – It’s the biggest MMO out there. Every MMO that comes out aspires to be the WoW killer. They all move to free-to-play sooner or later. Paid for the game, the expansions and the monthly fee. I have issues with the lack of customization and with the fact that the game focuses most heavily on the aspects of gameplay that I care less for, but there’s still enough to keep me coming back. Currently playing.
• Dungeons and Dragons Online – This was the first of the free-to-play games I tried. I liked a lot of it. The quests are all exquisitely crafted. There just didn’t feel like there was enough of them, especially at the lower levels. I like making multiple characters, but with only so many low-level quests, you end up doing those same quests A LOT. Even though I could play for free, I enjoyed the game enough while I was playing to pay for the extra content and the bells and whistles.
• Lego Universe – This one was designed for a younger demographic but I still found some enjoyment from it. It’s one of only two games that I tried right at the game’s launch and I feel there was work that needed to be done so I didn’t get beyond three or four plays. If it ever goes free to play, I’d be tempted to take another look.
• DC Universe Online – What was there was awesome, there just needed to be more of it. For all the development time it took, I found there was stunningly little content. I played one character to max level in one weekend. Any character you made was guaranteed to go through 76% of the same content as any other character and the other 24% was split between the six mentors, meaning there was 4% that made playing a magic hero different from a metahuman. When they added content, it focused on the end game competitive stuff that I didn’t care for. In less than a year they had lost so many players they had to move to free-to-play to stay alive.
• Age of Conan – I really liked this game. I got it just as it was going free-to-play, but I paid anyway. I just felt the stories more engaging in this game than any game I had tried up to that point. I haven’t played in a while. I have a yearlong subscription though so I really should go back.
• Free Realms – It’s free. That’s about all I can tell you. I only played twice and while there’s a LOT of content, I just found it too slow-moving.
• Remnant Knights – It’s free and it’s anime-based. That’s about all I can tell you. I only played twice and the gameplay wasn’t very engaging. The game was still felt like it was in development (and it may have been).
• Wakfu – It’s mega-popular in Europe apparently. It has its own animated television series in French (which I enjoyed actually). It’s more of a turn-based strategy game than a straight up RPG.
• Lord of the Rings Online – I started this one last week. I’d rank it a close second to Conan so far. It’s free-to-play and while I haven’t paid for any of the extra content and options, I can see that I probably will do so in the near future. I’ve been having fun with just the free stuff for now though.
• Star Trek Online – I started this one last week too. I’ve only played it once and not for very long. I didn’t find it as engaging as LOTR so I’ve been less interested in playing for now. When I’m ready for a break from LOTR I’ll give it another try. It just moved to free-to-play so that’s a plus. Unless the a la carte content is killer, I don’t see that I would want to spend ANY money on it.

Rankings:

1. Age of Conan
2. Lord of the Rings Online
3. World of Warcraft
4. DC Universe Online
5. Dungeons and Dragons Online
6. Lego Universe
7. City of Heroes/Villains
8. Star Trek Online
9. Wakfu
10. Remnant Knights
11. Free Realms
12. Star Wars Galaxies

It’s Monday Blog time and I don’t know what to write about. How about not knowing what to write about? Yeah, that sounds good.

I wrote a series of short stories which I’ve been steadily posting every Friday. Well, that bank of stories is depleting and I’m not coming up with any new ideas on how to continue the ones I left open-ended or even new stories to start. That’s a problem. So how to fix it?

Well obviously, sooner rather than later I’ll need to brainstorm some new story ideas. Things I’ll need to consider, do I want to use my existing stable of characters in new stories or will I create new characters. I’m not sold on creating new characters or at least not very many, so that would leave new stories using existing characters. Okay, easy enough. When do these stories take place? The book I want to write theoretically takes place immediately after the events described in Tale of the Tinkerwood, which occurs more or less simultaneously with the events described in The Adventures of Red Rich which was supposed to happen shortly after The Meeting of Sass and Mouser, only then Sass appeared in Dust-up in the Burroughs (Big Oonch’s story) and certain events would lead one to believe that THAT story happens after The Meeting of Sass and Mouser, only Mouser doesn’t appear in the Big Oonch’s story, so obviously it happens before…or something happened to Mouser. So yeah, there’s a timeline issue that I need to address.

So far I’ve written in two different time periods. The “present” which is when the main cast’s stories take place and the “past”, which is when Enzo and Pepetus are around. Enzo first meets Pepetus before he’s crowned king, so that means Enzo’s story comes first:

• The Age of Animus
• Enzo the Roly-Poly Puppy
• How a Cat Became King: The Story of Pepetus, Eighth King of the Age

I can write any stories involving Enzo and Pepetus and they will not affect the stories involving the main cast any more than their original stories did.

Mouser isn’t in Dust-up in the Burroughs, so that one happens “first”. Sass has a scroll in that one and she’s hired to find a scroll in The Meeting of Sass and Mouser. Either it’s two different scrolls or I can edit Dust-up in the Burroughs so that it involves something other than a scroll so there’s no confusion. I think I’ll opt for the latter. *REMINDER* I need to think of something else for Sass to be carrying.

Chapter One of my hypothetical book opens with Cyran coming home after the events in Tale of the Tinkerwood and he crosses paths with Sass, Mouser and Red Rich. It’s alluded to that they’re laying low in Bree after the events which transpire in The Adventures of Red Rich. Since Mouser is there, both stories have to take place after The Meeting of Sass and Mouser.

• Dust-up in the Burroughs
• The Meeting of Sass and Mouser
• The Adventures of Red Rich
• Tale of the Tinkerwood
• Hypothetical Book

Big Oonch isn’t a main character in my book (sorry Fab). He’s a character with experience when Dust-up in the Burroughs starts, so I can tell stories with him that happen before or after that. If I decide to feature Sass in any of them, they have to be after (but before the book), because that’s where they meet and Mouser shouldn’t be in any of them because she hasn’t met him yet.

Red Rich and Cyran are characters with a limited amount of experience. I can tell stories featuring them that occur before The Adventures of Red Rich and Tale of the Tinkerwood but preferably not too many.

Nektara isn’t a main character in my book either (sorry Carolyn). But Todrick definitely is. He’s introduced in Nektara’s Tale and then goes almost straight  into his appearance in the book. So Nektara’s Tale happens after Tale of the Tinkerwood and before the book . Todrick and Nektara are both starting out in the world inNektara’s Tale, so no stories that happen before the events in the book should feature them. So Todrick is off the table and until Nektara’s Tale is completed, Nektara can only appear in that story.

So what about Barnaby, Zoë and Popkin. Will they show up in the book? Probably. Will they be main characters? Probably not. (sorry Lyne) Barnaby hasn’t featured in any stories thus far, so he’s got no strings attached. Zoë of the Mouse Wing occurs when Zoë is just starting out in the Mouse Wing but they’re free to meet Cyran, Red Rich, Sass (without Mouser), Big Oonch and Barnaby after that story. Because the Mouse Wing mostly operates around Sunnyvale, the likelihood of her meeting Big Oonch or Barnaby is low. Red Rich and Cyran are only slightly more likely. Sass moves around a lot, so they could meet. Just to be on the safe side I’ll say that Zoë of the Mouse Wing happens before Dust-up in the Burroughs.

So the timeline as it stands right now is as follows:

• The Age of Animus
• Enzo the Roly-Poly Puppy
• How a Cat Became King: The Story of Pepetus, Eighth King of the Age

A PERIOD OF NO LESS THAN 100 YEARS

• Zoë of the Mouse Wing
• Dust-up in the Burroughs
• The Meeting of Sass and Mouser
• The Adventures of Red Rich
• Tale of the Tinkerwood
• Nektara’s Tale
• Hypothetical Book

Glad I cleared that up!

It’s Monday and that means it’s blog time. But what to write about? I could write about how it’s Boxing Day, but I’ve never been much of a pugilist! HA! Seriously though, I don’t think I’ll be braving the stores today. Boxing Day is just cuh-ray-zee! There’s nothing I need to save 10% off that bad! If my local comic book store were just a touch more local, I’d stop in there…not because I need anything, but just because it’s a nifty place to check out.

So no shopping today. Tomorrow is the day my friends and I have set aside this holiday season to get together and exchange our Christmas gifts and play board games and stuff. That should be fun! I’m looking forward to more swag…uh! I mean seeing my friends! Yes! That’s what I’m looking forward to! Seeing my friends!

I scheduled vacation days to be off until January 4th. I could have saved a vacation day and gone back in on the 3rd, but that’s a Tuesday and we all know how I feel about Tuesdays! This is the longest stretch of days off I schedule for myself in the year. During the summer I usually take Fridays and/or Mondays off so as to make for a whole lot of long weekends rather than a straight 2-3 week vacation.

I had a wonderful time at my sister’s place yesterday. Exchanged Christmas gifts with the family, had a nice little Christmas lunch and then we just hung out until Christmas supper, complete with turkey with stuffing and ham and more savory foodstuffs. It would have been even awesomer if I hadn’t gotten a headache that just grew and grew throughout the day until it hurt every time I leaned over. I broke my no-aspirin rule and downed two of whatever brand my sister buys before we left and fell asleep on the couch when I got home. I woke up ever so briefly around midnight and was just aware enough to note that my headache was gone and then I zonked out again until this morning!

I bought Kayla (my niece for those keeping track at home) Karaoke Revolution: Glee Vol. 3 for the Wii for Christmas. I may have to track down the previous two volumes and the third for myself. I have all the previous Karaoke Revolutions (except the second American Idol edition I think) on Playstation, but they don’t seem to make the Glee versions on that so I’ll have to get them on the Wii.

Well that’s it for this week’s blog. I’ll be back with more musings and notes next week. Enjoy the Funnies and a new story starting this week!