And both with two really good patches, from my point of view.

This last patch in DAoC in particular reminds me the old times when I was really anticipating the changes and always excited to discover what was next and wish to be part of it. It’s a bond with the game. You like where it’s going and you can forgive the devs many more mistakes. Right now I like what DAoC offers me. I don’t play often but I wish I could, and I know that I’ll have some fun if I do. Of course this doesn’t mean that I cannot criticize it. It’s just that my tone is less the one of the angry ranter.

About Eve-Online is pretty much the same. I resubscribed and plan to remain so for a long time. Again mostly because I have faith in what they are doing more than rabid fun coming out of the game. On the contrary to every other game, I keep rerolling characters in Eve. With this new patch/expansion I’ll take advantage of the new bloodlines and the changes to the tutorial and entry-level ships for a new fresh start. In this case there are two reasons why I’ll do this. The first is because of the accessibility barrier. The “group play” in Eve is the heart of the game and of the fun, but at the same time it is not easily accessible and it’s almost impossible to group casually and do shit together. Actually I believe that since beta I’ve never grouped casually with anyone. This also means that I log in the game without any type of bonds (as I always do), nor I “make friend” in the game because of those reasons. So I’m a “stranger in a strange ship”. The second reason is that I love Eve because of its depth. And I love to learn stuff. From the forum, from the game, lurking the chat channels. The tutorial and the fresh starts are a way to reenact that learning part I love and get accustomed with the game again since I use to resubscribe after many months, while the whole game shapeshifts. It’s fascinating to go back and discover what changed, how it improved, the new mechanics added. And each time I do a step forward and fall in love again with this unique game.

For DAoC there’s a rather conventional patch, while Eve will be down for a full day, if not more (and I expect problems, but I also like this unpredictability and continuous development. so it’s all good to me and I’ll follow along especially when things won’t work). Till the very last day the patch was in doubt and it seemed unlikely they could finalize it before the holidays. Instead they managed to meet the deadlines and even anticipated the patching by one day (I wonder about the reasons).

The only game missing at the call is WoW. No patch for it and it seems we’ll have to wait the very end of December or even the next year. But then, beside some smaller features, I’m not missing much of what’s announced. So I’m rather indifferent at the changes. WoW is a game in a better state than the other two, but in this case I don’t have the same faith in the devs.

With the new patch for Eve the forums went down for 24h as well and CCP replaced them with eight pictures and comments that I’ll archive on this post. For the children.

It seems they are partying after the restless work of the last weeks to push the expansion out of the door. Good work.

And there was none of that while developing RMR


 

 

Proud of it! Hope you are too being a part of it.

 

 

Thanks to you all, we’re here today still enjoying EVE as much as you do.

 

 

The fanfest really brings all of us so much closer to eachother.

 

 

You do, you all just really do.

 

 

Hang in there, we’re doing our level best to please you.

 

 

O RLY? YA RLY! NO WAI! YA WAI!

 

 

A 24 hour downtime? better be prepared!

Thanks for sticking around,
The EVE Online Team