http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0375505245/qid=1066873488/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-4969012-7688650?v=glance&s=books

I just read this story not long ago and it's fantastic.

Anyone interested on how a bunch of computer programmers and gaming geeks built a multimillion dollar empire should read this.

- J.

No.

- A

Mate you couldn't "own" your way of a wet paper bag.

- J.

No.

- A.

Is this the new trend?

- K.

Que?

- B.

Yeah I started it and now Dogg is trying to be a pretender. Whatever BRO.

- J.

Next everyone is going to start wearing spiderman shirts and saying mate.....

- k.

Given the current trend, quite possibly.

Frightening eh?

- J.

Indeed...

- k.

Good games

Slightly off topic I realise, but did anyone check the link I posted?

- J.

those games kicks ass. all the other new crap takes too much time to figure out. walk around and shoot ****. **** the rest.

From a business/entrepreneurial perspective in itself, you might get a kick out of this Purity. I did.

- J.

actually i remember reading an article about romero way back when doom was on top of the world. all i remember though is that he looks like the devil and collects a ton of ferraris.

Megaman.

I've turned into a computer game junky over the past couple of months.
Wolfenstein and Doom get a thumbsup from me.

Since July I've been playing Asheron's Call 2. I have a copy of Horizons pre-ordered already as well. It comes out next month.
Woohooo.

For you geeks.
Asheron's Call 2 Online (http://www.ac2online.com/)

Horizons (http://www.istaria.com)

Since this is about games, did anyone get SSX3 for the PS2?
You can play it online so let me know if you got it.........

- N.

Nah..either of those games get me dizzy.

When ID made it big they all bought Lamborghinis. Carmack being the true engineer immediately takes his to a speed mechanic to get it souped up even further.

Bella -
I'm holding out until Worlds of Warcraft will be released. Then all productivity will cease in this house.

- J.

Anyone have Heretic? I remember loving that game but can't find it to download it.

Originally posted by The Jake
When ID made it big they all bought Lamborghinis. Carmack being the true engineer immediately takes his to a speed mechanic to get it souped up even further.

Bella -
I'm holding out until Worlds of Warcraft will be released. Then all productivity will cease in this house.

- J.

Sweet!
I've been reading up on it as well. It looks pretty bad ass. I'm sure it'll be something I'll at least try for a while.
I don't think I'll be able to juggle more than one game with school. ;)
However, if I do play WoW, I will let you know.

Originally posted by Bella

For you geeks.
Asheron's Call 2 Online (http://www.ac2online.com/)


Is this an online game? Or is this just the site for a disc game?

I'm hooked on Neverwinter Nights myself. Learning how to use the Aurora toolset and scripting in itself could be a full time job. Asheron's Call is meant to be an awesome MMORPG tho.

I might take a bash at sharpening up my programming skills soon and start writing up my own game/s.... just as an exercise in programming really.

- J.

Bella - these games look pretty ****ing schweet.

What classes/races can you play?
How rapidly do you advance? (do you need to spend 40+ hrs to gain one lousy level or is it fairly rapid?)
Is the system balanced or is one class majorly prevalent over the others? (like animal tamers in UO or SWG?)

- J.

Originally posted by The Jake
Bella - these games look pretty ****ing schweet.

What classes/races can you play?
How rapidly do you advance? (do you need to spend 40+ hrs to gain one lousy level or is it fairly rapid?)
Is the system balanced or is one class majorly prevalent over the others? (like animal tamers in UO or SWG?)

- J.

CD, both of the games I mentioned are online. MMORPGs if you will.

The Jake, were you referring to Asheron's Call 2 or Horizons?
I never played Asheron's Call. I was just introduced to Asheron's Call 2.
As for the races in Asheron's Call 2, you can be a human, tumerok, or lugian.
I have a few toons. My main is tumerok. I also have another tumerok and a couple of humans.
I will post some screen shots of my main toon.
As for classes, each toon can be melee, magice, or missle. Each class has two sub classes. For example, a tumerok melee can be a feral intendant or a zealot. My main is a zealot. She duel wields claws.
The classes go on and on. Each of the three races has a choice of melee, magic, or missle. Each of the three classes has two subclasses.
You can also be hybird. For example, a melee healer. It's insane.
I could go into such more detail, but I don't know who all would want to hear it. It would take me a few minutes to type it all up and describe it, lol. If you want, I will do this.
As for leveling, it's pretty in depth. It's based on experience points. They just updated the cap for leveling. I'm not what it is right off. It was 50, but now I think it's 150, or some insane number. You have to gain x amount of experience points to level, and each time you level, you are required to gain more experience points. For example, my main toon is level 49. From level 49-50 you must gain approximately 150million experience points. The higher in level, the more difficult it is to level.

You asked about how long it takes to level. It varies. You can join hunting fellowships which pushes it along quickly if you have a well balanced group. You share XP (experience points) with the fellows in the group.
As for some groups being prodominate, well, they just recently nerfed the strongest which was the lugian tactition. They could build turrets and totally tear the mobs up. They are working on the Feral Intendant template right now. I'm sure they will royally screw them over.
I think all the races are unique and helpful now.
My toon is a damage dealer. When I'm in a fellowship, I'm normally getting all the kills on the mobs since I'm dealing a majority of the damage.
I have a human mage who is a sorcerer. She can debuff the mobs armor, which is really cool.
All the fellowships look for enchanters (for weapon/armor buffs), sorcerers (for mob armor debuffs), damage dealers, and tanks, which are the ones who are able to take the most damage unto themselves.

I love playing. I've really gotten into it lately. I've set myself a goal to hit level 50 so I can use my new armor and weapons. I think I have about 125million XP to go.

However, Horizons looks very promising. The screen shots look great and I've read almost everything I can about it.
You can choose from nine different races:
Human
Fiend - like humans; they have blue-tinted skin, tails, small horns, they look awesome
Elf
Dwarf
Half-giant
Saris - this is like a half cat, half human creature
Sslik - lizard-like
Dragon
Gnome

The crafting system they implemented is going to be amazing. Also, you can actually buy plots of land in this game and build shops, houses, castles, etc. on it.
I'm really looking forward to it.

Sorry, I just totally rambled here. I tried to make it short and sweet, but I get excited on subjects like these.

okay call me stupid, but how do you access the actual game on Asheron's Call? Cause I'm having issues navigating.....

Thanks for that Bella. No you didn't ramble and I don't care if anyone else thought you did. That's exactly the info I'm after. I was curious how you found it because most of the reviews I found were fairly mixed.

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm?setView=ratings&gameID=1
http://www.pcgamereview.com/Roleplaying/Asherons,Call,2,Microsoft/PRD_155029_1456crx.aspx

(I read up a lot on games)

On a lot of MMORPGs you find people complaining about stuff - e.g.
it takes too long to advance unless you're a freak and spend 40-80 hours on it
or
one class is freakishly unbalanced and whooping everyones asses until the next patch
or
PKing is a real issue, etc. etc. ad nausem.
You know what I mean.

I'm trying to keep an eye out on a MMORPG that both Arju and I can get into. She's familiar with D&D and so part of that spurs me onto making stuff with Neverwinter Nights but with D&D Online coming out soon, I hope to get into that and/or Worlds of Warcraft. WoW looks and feels like any other MMORPG yet simple enough for anyone to pick up yet with enough grit to keep the most jaded gamer interested.

Graphics look awesome though.

Another one I was looking at was Lineage 2.
As with any MMORPG, I will wait until it's released, read reviews then decide. I usually find with these things its best to wait until the release and see what the communities think of it.

- J.

Originally posted by Bella
CD, both of the games I mentioned are online. MMORPGs if you will.

The Jake, were you referring to Asheron's Call 2 or Horizons?
I never played Asheron's Call. I was just introduced to Asheron's Call 2.
As for the races in Asheron's Call 2, you can be a human, tumerok, or lugian.
I have a few toons. My main is tumerok. I also have another tumerok and a couple of humans.
I will post some screen shots of my main toon.
As for classes, each toon can be melee, magice, or missle. Each class has two sub classes. For example, a tumerok melee can be a feral intendant or a zealot. My main is a zealot. She duel wields claws.
The classes go on and on. Each of the three races has a choice of melee, magic, or missle. Each of the three classes has two subclasses.
You can also be hybird. For example, a melee healer. It's insane.
I could go into such more detail, but I don't know who all would want to hear it. It would take me a few minutes to type it all up and describe it, lol. If you want, I will do this.
As for leveling, it's pretty in depth. It's based on experience points. They just updated the cap for leveling. I'm not what it is right off. It was 50, but now I think it's 150, or some insane number. You have to gain x amount of experience points to level, and each time you level, you are required to gain more experience points. For example, my main toon is level 49. From level 49-50 you must gain approximately 150million experience points. The higher in level, the more difficult it is to level.

:lovers:

Originally posted by Crystalline Dream
okay call me stupid, but how do you access the actual game on Asheron's Call? Cause I'm having issues navigating.....

This is the first MMORPG I've gotten into. There's a free trial you can download if you're wanting to try it. I think it's a 14 day trial, unless something has changed.

Try here (http://microsoftgamesinsider.com/AC2/freetrial.htm)

Most MMORPGs come with at least a months free play on them so you can try them out. But most also require a credit card for verification and will bill you immediately after that first month.

- J.

Yup. So beware.

I thought I would NEVER play an MMORPG. I used to watch Brandon play Asheron's Call all the time, and couldn't figure out how he could remember all the commands and controls.
Finally, one day we were bored and I made myself a toon. I fell in love with it after about ten minutes of playing. Then, I downloaded the trial... it ran out... I bought the game... used my free month...
Been playing ever since. :P

And I said I would post some screen shots of my main toon.
I took some the other night as a matter of fact. Let me upload them somewhere and I'll post them.

Oops. Wrong thread. :cool:

See Massive Multiplayer Online RPGs for my screen shots.

Sorry. These suckers are big.