My Combat Entertainer Project – Part 6
Posted in Star Wars Galaxies
Phantom of the Opera!
I saw the Phantom of the Opera at the Detroit Opera House with Dana yesterday night. It was great 
It gave me chills a few times. I know Dana was lost as she’s never been to the performance before, but I know she loved the imagery.
The music has been stuck in my head all day! I wish I didn’t lose the only CD I had of it…
This was a busy weekend! Saturday we leave EARLY in the morning to drive th Grand Rapids again to go to the Meijer Gardens. What a cool place. So many sculptures and flowers… Dana had so much to take pictures of! After that, we left to visit a friend at Michigan State. Bad time to drive there. Michigan State just lost to Central where a series of lucky events had to happen… Everyone was angry. I laughed driving through the traffic. To rub it in to all the Spartans, U of M beat Notre Dame with some good playing. Where is all the facebook spam now? Spartans lose and everyone hides… hmm…
We hang out with Steph for a while which was nice. We ate pizza and got ice cream, walked around MSU, saw drunk people laying all over the place, the usual.
After the drive home, we pass out.
Sunday hits and we’re up and off to Best Buy to buy a laptop! We go to one store and they tell us they don’t have one AGAIN! that’s twice they don’t have the Laptop we’re going to look at… fail. So we went to a different Best Buy and they took care of us Kinda weird to see a lot of the same faces working there from when I worked there about… 6 years ago? maybe 5… I dunno anymore…
But Dana’s laptop is awesome. It is a 16in wide screen monitor and a very solid performance. Now we can watch movies without having to use my small school laptop! yay.
Today is Monday and I had a job interview! I think it went well. I’m hoping to hear from them soon about a skills assessment test they want me to take. That should be easy enough. It will certainly be weird moving out of state, but we both realize that we will be moving away soon.
A lot going on, but I’m anxious to try something new!
ps. I’m using Windows 7 right now, so far, it’s a LOT better than vista… thank God.
RUMOR: SOE to create new Star Wars MMO
I’m sure everyone has heard about this by now. At least anyone that reads my blog has heard about it… But I wanted to give my thoughts on this.
In case you don’t know what the heck is going on, TenTonHammer reported that an inside source leaked that SOE was making a new MMO for the Star Wars Universe. This will be the 3rd MMO to be launched under close watch by Lucas Arts. Obviously we have Star Wars: Galaxies (SOE – which has been kicking for over 6 years now), we have Star Wars: The Old Republic (BIOWARE – Soon to be released), and the rumored Clone Wars era MMO. This is the best article on it that I could find – http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/73904
IF (a big big if) this was true, I would expect the see the new Star Wars MMO from SOE to be very similar to Free Realms. SOE has proven that Free Realms is a huge success (I believe they are about to hit 5 million subscribers soon after only being out for a short time).
The following is a breakdown of how I see things playing out:
- Free to Play*
- The game will follow a free to play method with the * meaning an optional subscription. If the game follows closely to the Clone Wars series, this will draw the same audience that Free Realms is drawing: Tweens and Teens, and all the rest of us that can’t get enough gaming (and if it’s Star Wars? Easy audience, even after the scarlet NGE Badge SOE will wear forever)
- The monthly subscription will be low. The $4.99/mo is working well for Free Realms and I expect there will be no change here. This is very affordable for everyone, especially through the turbulent times in the economy, and it will be easier for kids to talk their parents into a $4.99/mo subscription over anything higher.
- The real Money Maker: Micro Transactions. SOE has been moving into a more micro-transaction based system for many of their games as of late and Free Realms is dominating in that category. More and more items show up through Micro Transactions and there is no sign of this stopping. Every update offers more and more items to purchase using station cash. Expect to see Station “Credits” here too.
- World Map
- The World Map will actually be a Galaxy Map. There will be a series of planets that players can travel to and explore. These planets will include Christophsis, Coruscant, Tatooine, and Teth. More will be added in later releases. Travel between planets will be instant after going to designated travel zones.
- Playable Classes
- The first and foremost class is Jedi. This WILL BE FREE TO PLAY. They must draw their audience in right away and give them something great from the start. Jedi is obviously going to be the popular class to play, much like Ninja is in Free Realms. Making the most popular class Free is a perfect way to draw people in, and then of course dangle the carrot in front of them with all the awesome weapons available using station cash. It worked for Ninja, it will definitely work for Jedi.
- Bounty Hunter will only be available to those that pay the membership. All bounty missions will be against mobs and not against players.
- Miners will be free to play. Similar to Free Realms, these players will be able to get the materials, but will have to sell them to a Weaponsmith to get some use out of them.
- Weaponsmith will be pay to play. Craft weapons for all classes
- Many more classes will be available including Soldier, Medic, and Sith Warrior.
- Instances Battle Systems
- Again, another aspect very close to Free Realms, it will allow the developers to provide many areas for players to explore and not have to worry about people camping spawns and ruining the experience for others. All instances will have missions for the player to complete and things to collect.
- Music
- The music provided in this game will be from conductor Kevin Kiner. The tracks will include some original tracks, but mostly straight from the Clone Wars series on Cartoon Network.
- Combat
- Straight forward system like Free Realms that will not add clutter and complexity. The game is geared towards children, so having multiple hotbars with 30 spells and abilities won’t work. Expect to see around 6-10 actions available in combat (including abilities, items, and attacks)
- Expect ground combat to be at launch, but space combat to come out in the future
- Misc
- There will be a collection system, where the players will collect various items around the planets that are from the Star Wars Universe. Completing a collection will reward the player unique clothing, rewards, and items.
- Pod Racing is very possible. Expect to see post launch the ability to customize your pod racer and whip around tracks on each planet
- Pazaak and Dejarik may be available as mini games for players to compete against the computer or other players.
This is what I feel will be a major focus if the new game is really true. I was thinking there would be a card game like in Free Realms, but there is already the TCG from SWG, and I don’t see making a second as a possibility, though you never know… A TCG with the same rule set as Free Realms has could make it all the more possible.
SOE has learned from their past, and even though they will always be criticized for the NGE and other decisions, they have succeeded with Free Realms more than most ever thought they would. If they apply the same strategy and dedicate a massive team to make the new Star Wars game work, it is very likely another major MMO hit is in the works.
I’ll return to my dream land until this is confirmed.
-MC
Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: Clone Wars, New MMO, SOE, star wars
Here’s a quick update
It’s been quite some time since my last update. Things have been extremely busy! Dana and I are doing our best amidst all the latest drama going on to enjoy our first month as a married couple
Since we’ve been married, we’ve traveled to San Diego, Cincinnati, Grand Rapids, and went to see Kate, Mike, and little Lauren more than we have in the last year it seems. We went with them to see Nickelback which was a great show. We’re the only ones that are married in our group of friends so it is good to get together with them and talk. Heck, Mike even had me making food the other day and I didn’t burn the house down, which was a plus.
In the last few weeks I have seen a lot of movies. 2 movies I have liked were “I Love You, Man” and “Taking of Pelham 123″. 2 movies that I didn’t really care for were “Horsemen” and “Night at the Museum 2″. The only reason I liked Horsemen was because Zhang Ziyi was in it and she’s my asian crush, and because the movie was based in Chicago, and they main character and his sons love the Red Wings over the Blackhawks. Night at the Museum was just meh… Not really funny in the end…
I haven’t really done a lot of gaming lately because of how much we’ve been running around and trying to have fun. I logged into SWG for about a total of 15 minutes… Sad I know. I played Team Fortress 2 for a few hours, and I don’t think I logged into Free Realms in awhile.
Right now, FPS games are my IT game. Taking a break from the RPG style is good to do once in awhile. Now that the wedding expenses are paid for, minus the wedding pictures which is already budgeted for, we’re going to start saving up for a TV. We’re not going to get anything crazy right now since we’re looking at just entry-level stuff to get us by for now as we don’t know exactly where we’re going to be in the next few months. After the TV, we’ll be getting a PS3 Slim and I’ll probably be playing many of the great FPS games for that system.
I start school in 2 days… This will be my LAST semester of my Bachelor’s Degree era. HURRAY! 12 credits until I’m done! After changing my degree like 3-4 times and losing many credits in the process, I’m finally done after 6.5 years of school. It took a long time, but I had to find what was right for me and find the right school for me. I’m pretty proud of myself for graduating from Lawrence Technological University with honors (potentially highest honors if I get all A’s). Especially because I’m one of the few that I know at that school that have worked full time and taken 12+ credit hours every semester. I’ve busted my ass to get where I am so I am certainly happy. I can thank Dana for kicking my ass when I needed it too 
That’s all for now. Hopefully everyone has had a great summer break from school, and for those done with school already, get to work!
-MC
Posted in Life
Kings Island
The forecast has cleared up a bit and we’ve decided to go to Kings Island tomorrow! We’re leaving right after work for the 4.5 hour drive to Cincinnati. YAY
I loved Kings Island when I was younger and I cannot wait to go! Last time I was there was in 10th grade. It was there that I bought a ring that I had specially engraved for Dana. I didn’t look at it as a promise ring or anything, I just knew she loved wearing a lot of rings and I thought it would be a nice gift! Who knew then the next ring I’d give her would be an engagement right 7 years later…
They have a ton of rides I rode on before (BEAST, Son of BEAST, Vortex) and added some really awesome looking rides since (SkyHawk, DiamondBack). I’m really excited for the two new rides being the SkyHawk is one of the flying coasters that has you Superman style instead of sitting. We went on the Superman at Six Flags a while back and it was awesome. The DiamondBack is another interesting ride being it’s close to the Millennium Force, but not as high, and a ton more hills. Woot! I’m really tired of Cedar Pointe so this will be a nice change of scenery.
I FINALLY found a hotel down there that wasn’t super expensive also which made me happy. Hopefully the park is what I remember it to be and more!
www.PKI.com
Posted in Star Wars Galaxies | Tags: kings island, paramount, roller coaster
Free Realms Comic and More
I picked up Issue 1 of the Free Realms comic book yesterday during lunch. The last comic book I bought was when I was 10 and it was a Sonic the Hedgehog comic I wanted to read as my parents were taking us on a vacation up north. The art is pretty cool and the price is reasonable at 3.99
You get a cool Racing Helmet and also a unique code to unlock a sweet weapon. I knew it was going to be a ninja weapon, but I was sad when I found that I had to be lvl 20 to use it 
Oh well, I guess I’ll finally level my ninja, as I’ve been avoiding that one since everyone is a ninja that I’ve come across Ninja certainly does have the best selection of weapons to use. They have all the best designs, from fire swords to lightsabers (don’t lie, they are lightsabers, just called something different to avoid paying Lucas anything else 
).
I’ve been playing Free Realms again and I have been diving into the Racing right now. The first few quests were pretty easy. Now I have to beat a race 3 times and I have yet to get higher than 6th place! I know the difficulty was set to be toned down, so I hope that helps. I actually just spent about 700 Station Cash on new items for my Racer… I can’t help it! I hope it helps give me a boost in racing!
I also began playing Team Fortress 2 more. I started playing classes that I always avoided: Spy and Demo. Now that I’m more comfortable with the game, spy is a little easier to use, although I still have noob moments of trying to stab someone while still cloaked and end up blowing my cover and failing miserably. Demo is still tough for me. Right now I’m working on defending before I go all out offense.
Dana is working on the process of changing her name. MAN do they make that tough! There is so much paperwork involved and documents needed to get that done I almost feel like it’s impossible! Not only legally changing her name, but changing it with everything like credit cards, bank accounts, etc. Yikes. She’s also doing a heck of a job with the thank you cards too. She’s a machine! I need to slow her down before she gets herself sick!
I’ve been looking for a permanent job lately. I will be getting my degree after this next semester which I am so happy about, but I’ve been having a tough time finding a job in this area! I keep sending resumes and stating I will be graduating in December, but I have not heard anything from anyone yet… Hopefully I’ll find something. I just need that lucky break to get started and I hope things go from there. I’ve been working as an intern for about 3 years now. I have a ton of work experience, but nothing is biting yet. I’m keeping my head up though!
Posted in Life, Me and Dana
I’m Home!
I’m back in MI a married man
I had the best week and a half of my life! The Rehearsal Dinner was a blast, the Wedding was the best night of my life, and the honeymoon couldn’t have been better!
I plan on writing all about the last week and a half, but I’ll hold that off until I get more pictures. We already have a few pictures already posted on the photographers blog which is nice. Check them out!
Posted in Me and Dana
It’s finally Wednesday!
FINALLY!
It’s the last day of work for me for almost 2 weeks! Tonight is the Rehearsal and Dinner, Tomorrow is a mini party with friends from out of town, Friday is the amazing wedding, and Saturday is our trip to San Diego!
Dana and I are very excited. We’ve been waiting for this day for YEARS! All the hard work that we both pushed ourselves and each other to do is finally going to pay off. Both of us went to school full time and worked full time every semester. We never gave up. We pushed hard and we’re going to make things work.
Hurray! Party time!
Posted in Me and Dana
Almost Free!
I guess “free” is a matter of opinion. I consider myself free because I am Done with work for a week and a half starting Wednesday, I’m getting married this Friday, and going on Vacation on Saturday.
While most people do not look at getting married as free, my life has taught me otherwise. I’m so excited for Friday, I wish it was tomorrow. This week will go very slow, I can already see that.
The bad thing about this week is that the forecast bounced around for the last week and it finally seems to be setting on the fact that it is going to RAIN all week! WTF is that?! This July has been a really lame summer month for Michigan. I’m used to insane heat, no rain, with a mix of some really beautiful days! What we have had so far has been a couple nice days and the rest are meh. We had almost no rain until the last couple days, and go figure it will continue for the next 10 days. Thanks Mother Nature! I will be sure leave my car running in your honor.
Once school starts up later in August, I have my final senior project to complete. I got the okay from the Dean to do a project for SWG and I am really considering it. It was either that or work on building a website like Pogo… I’m going to see what I can do to get as many resources for SWG as possible to make a web site worthwhile compared to all the other SWG fan sites out already… Mine really has to be something worth it…
Well, Monday is almost over. Hopefully Tuesday and Wednesday do not prove to be this slow!
-MC
Posted in Life, Me and Dana, Star Wars Galaxies | Tags: Rain, Senior Project, SOE, SWG, Vacation, Wedding
Something to pass the time
I’m excited! Time is going so slow this last 2 weeks… UGH!
Posted in Me and Dana
