Ninja Baseball Batman - Angry Video Game Nerd

Warhammer and SEGA Status Update: In a Relationship

Warhammer Online. I could go on and on about this game and many others can as well. Whether or not people want to give it credit, it served its purpose as a staple game in player versus player online gaming. But I do not want to talk about Warhammer Online as a game that released in 2008, or even as a game that was developed by Mythic, then EA Mythic, then Bioware Mythic. We can easily discuss the EA Louse incident of disgruntled employees and the believe that the former Mythic head was forced to step down and not just leaving out of good decency as well as the belief by fans that Paul Barnett is nothing but a dirty English two-faced liar. I want to go back before all of this. Back to 2001. Yes, 2001...

The MMORPG world looked a lot different in 2001. RuneScape Classic (though known just as RuneScape until RS2 released in 2004) was opened to the world and Mythic released their first game, Dark Age of Camelot. Somewhere in that mix of a market just beginning to bloom as the internet became more readily available and online gaming began making its way into the hands of preteens (such as myself), Games Workshop saw an opportunity to enter into the market. So they snagged the title "Warhammer Online" in 2001 and held onto it. This is interesting because so many people complained about the tag of "online" and even laughed Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning being acronym'd to "WAR", but really they had no choice to not include the "Online" title.

So who did they turn to in order to license their world and create this online game? Well, they got a developer called Climax studios who started work on it. Games Workshop then went to work on finding a producer for the game. And can you guess who they got? Nope, not Electronic Arts. SEGA got the call, if you can believe it. Now what is more interesting is the fact that this wasn't just something that was formed and then we never heard about it again. No, in fact there screenshots released in 2003. Even more interesting is that a trailer for the game was shown at E3 in 2004. A legitimate trailer. Everyone can say that Warhammer copied Warcraft (ignoring the longstanding history of Games Workshop since the 80s) and was trying to cash in on the online department, but this game was thought of and created before the titan of online gaming that is World of Warcraft was released, or even announced. This is what is so astounding to me, though, is that the game SEGA was creating was by far superior in design and idea than what turned out to be a 4-year-too-late release that couldn't live up to its promises.

It's a tall claim to say that a game that never saw the light of day was superior to a game that received rave critical reception and sold 1.2 million copies within the first month of release. To that point, I will agree. But as a Warhammer fan, It's hard to agree with what the game turned into. What makes it even harder is watching this video below. It truly will bring bewilderment to anyone who loves the Warhammer universe that it never had chance:

Are you fucking kidding me? This shows you so many fucking armies from Warhammer that never got their moment in a Warhammer Online game that died within one year. And seriously, these are some quotes of articles regarding the SEGA UK publishing decision allude to more questions than answers. And I'm not talking about bad questions about the game, but seriously what happened that this didn't release in 2004 when it was slated to be released? Yes, you read that right: slated for released in 2004!

"The combining of Games Workshop's Warhammer universe and Climax's cutting-edge technology and game design is proving to be something genuinely breathtaking. Watching this game in development has been enthralling. Sega is delighted to be involved in this project and we're genuinely looking forward to a ground-breaking game."

That's Matthew Woodley, the European Marketing Director from SEGA Europe commenting on the game. Seriously, with that amount of praise what happened? And what about features within game? What can the players do? I found this snippet from a long dead article from Gamershell.com:

"Warhammer Online is a new massively multiplayer online computer game that allows players to take on the role of outlaws and mercenary adventurers within the grim and gritty realisation of Games Workshop's dark, gothic fantasy world of Warhammer. At the heart of the game is a combination of fantastic new technologies coupled with the deep and atmospheric Warhammer background and some of the most innovative player and character development within an online RPG. "

 So it begs the question, what really did happen? Well, this may be surprising, but it became evident that the cost to actually make the Warhammer world a reality was not within reach. This led to Games Workshop and developer Climax to cancelling the project and going their separate ways. SEGA and Games Workshop then also had to part ways as well since without a game, there was no need for a publisher. What happened was that the joint development between Games Workshop and Climax ceased, which meant Games Workshop was no longer contributing any funds to the project, but Climax pressed on. The amount of effort and time they had put into the game made it seem logical to keep on going. In fact, an interview with IGN in October of 2004 made the development seem positive, despite the loss of the join agreement with Games Workshop. Climax was still looking for a new investment partner to help overcome the obstacle of launch costs that games like Star Wars Galaxies had seen in the $30 million range.

They never succeeded...Climax and SEGA officially put the demon to rest in 2005, where Mythic Entertainment then purchased the newly available license for the Warhammer Fantasy universe. An article that took a look back by Massively I think really sums up the "what could have been" for this game. Enjoy the read and may your imagination forever be let down by the "what ifs" it presents:

Playable races announced included Humans, Elves, Dwarfs, Halflings and Ogres. Four starting classes were also released: Warrior, Academic, Rogue and Adventurer. Guilds would be called "Warrior Companies," and clothing and armor would be independent graphical layers that would go on top of your character's model versus the standard "reskinning" the basic character model that was standard at the time.

It was stated that the large game world (set in the Reikland) would take around 12 to 14 hours to walk its seamless 400 kilometers end-to-end. Along the way, players would find three cities, 12 towns, 30 villages, 30 farmsteads, 18 coaching inns, 15 dungeons and other various landmarks to explore. The game world's look skewed to the more realistic than stylistic, saturated with dark and muted tones. Weather effects were planned along with seasons, including snowfall that would actually accumulate over time and other effects that would affect combat.

This world wouldn't be predictable, either. Enemies would roam randomly, and if left unchecked, would start to congregate in even greater numbers and potentially build NPC camps.

Noise was made by Climax about getting away from level-based advancement toward a more skill-based system. The idea here was that you would earn reputation with a certain group and then join them to learn what career skills they could teach (including non-combat abilities). Careers were lumped into various tiers that represented the power and difficulty level of the skills. You could easily learn Career 1 skills, but you had to jump through a lot of hoops to access Career 2, and so on.

Once you accumulated a certain set of skills, you would find yourself fitting into a class of sorts. A Master Assassin required beggar, ruffian and herbalist skills, among others. The higher you went in the career tiers, the more you became flagged for PvP to members of opposing career sets. As far as I can tell, this type of PvP flagging would not be optional but integrated.

The debate could go on for which Warhammer Online truly had the better idea. WAR on paper was a monster of a game that was hampered by scaled back content and bugs, which is exactly what Climax was hoping to avoid to the extent of not releasing a broken product. Mythic and EA did not follow these sentiments and the Warhammer Online we know today was spawned.

But what do we have now? Well, if you know anything about the video game industry, THQ, a long standing publisher of many great games and a ton of shitty movie-licensed games, has been going through financial problems for some time now. THQ's assets are being auctioned off as we speak and it will be no more. So everyone knows and loves the Warhammer 40k Dawn of War games developed by Relic. Well, Relic was bought. By whom you may ask? SEGA! What's even more important is that this means SEGA has a unique position to possibly hold the 40k license, but that's assuming Games Workshop sticks with Relic and continues to support them, which apparently reports say they will. On the grander scale, however, is SEGA and their power with the Warhammer licence that they actually do have.

Yeah, SEGA has the Warhammer Fantasy license now. In December 2012, just over a month ago, they granted developer Creative Assembly the licence. Electronic Arts, on the other hand, no longer has their licence. That licence belongs to SEGA now, and graciously given to Creative Assembly.

So does this mean a new online Warhammer game will appear in the future? Maybe, but its unlikely from my perspective. If Vigil studios (also form developer under THQ and creators of Darksiders and Darksiders II) truly turned the 40k: Dark Millennium title into a single player game, then it seems not likely that a new online warhammer game will appear anytime soon. It's not even clear of Vigil has the rights to make the game anymore since it was a joint effort with Relic. With WAR dying out and Wrath of Heroes not taking off in the online competitive PvP market, I wouldn't even bank on a new fantasy based Warhammer game being released for a couple of years, and certainly not online.

But a boy can dream...and maybe one day, in the not too distant future, there is only WAR...

Path of Exile: A New Hope

First, let me start by saying I am still releasing a video observation of Path of Exile as well as debuting it on a newly create Youtube channel. I’m sure like two people got excited.

But let’s talk about Path of Exile and something that means a little bit more than the game itself. Path of Exile is developed by Grinding Gear Games and developed this game because they think that the recent releases of Action RPG games are absolute garbage. It’s hard to disagree with that sentiment and it’s that passion. Resident Evil, as an example, was birthed by this same exact sentiment in the survival horror genre. However, Path of Exile is interesting on a larger scale of the game industry and gives out a glimpse of hope for us as players.

So imagine this: you’re waiting playing this awesome game that your friends also play called Diablo 2. It’s this fantastic loot fest of a game that you can pour hours into and not think anything of it. However, time goes on and other games gain your interest, but you always kept that sweet spot of Diablo in your heart…that deep dark crevice of your heart that loves that dark and desolate hellish world. There are rumors of another entry coming out, but it dies out, then you hear about it again, then it goes away, then again. But this time, you got concrete evidence. A decade it may have been, but you can forgive the developer. It’s worth it for a game that should have endless amounts of content and polish. But you were too narrow-minded.

Suddenly, this game gives you basically a shitty MMORPG launch problem with DRM protection that won’t allow you to play the game unless you are 100% connected to the internet at all times. You play through the game, and it’s alright. But that’s it. Tons of content? Nope. PvP? Nope. Oh, but there’s an economy…and you can buy stuff with real money…yay?

Suffice it to say, Diablo 3 pissed a lot of people off. And at that, the graphic art style moved completely away from the original dark and creepy dungeons of Diablo and Diablo 2. Instead, the game seems more like WoW: The Action RPG You Never Wanted! Let’s be honest, Blizzard along with their butt buddies Activision fucked this up and shot themselves in the foot, and it didn’t surprise me. No one believed me when it was not worth the price of admission, which is overpriced for any PC game at $60.

So that brings us to Path of Exile. Price of admission? Free. Don’t believe me? Go download it and see for yourself. But it must have an item shop or some other cash shop right? Cosmetics only. Don’t believe me? Go download it and see for yourself. Well it’s free so the graphics must suck right? It has very well done visuals with an innovative art style that is dark and evil reminiscent of Diablo and Diablo 2. Don’t believe me? Go download it and see for yourself.

Or you can just look at this image. Do you see the difference here? Notice a different tone here?

Now, I’m not going to get into my observation of Path of Exile thus far, that will be in the video, but I want to talk about what this means for the video game industry and how this is a positive step for us as players. Action RPGs like this will no appeal to everyone. I’ve already talked to those that either just don’t get the fun in the genre and never really gave it a chance or whatever their opinion may be for not liking the game. And that’s fine, everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I get that every game isn’t for everyone.

But what we have are developers who understand mechanics that make the game fun. This is a great example that developers are still game lovers as well and will game of passion and not just to suck money out of our pockets. These guys at Grinding Gear Games identified a problem plaguing a genre that they themselves loved and decided to take it in the right direction.

It also just goes to show you that you don’t need to force players to buy your game or buy items to make their character viable to even have fun. The recent surge in free-to-play competitive games like Planetside 2 and Hawken has really revitalized my faith in developers, but I still like cash shops are sometimes the only way to get on par with other people who have “progressed” through the game. This is evident in games like League of Legends where you can say how “fair” it is and if you put the time in, you can buy any character with points in game, but it takes for fucking ever. Sorry to say. And even then, if that one character is the only character you really enjoyed playing during that week’s free line-up and you want to keep playing it, then you better start grinding your way to get him or her. Or, you can put $10 in the game and just get the character you want and maybe a costume. I don’t approve of these kinds of money traps for something I’m not going to ever physically hold in my hands, sorry. Path of Exile focuses on just the cosmetics. There’s no currency in game, so there’s no item farmers. Trading with players and NPCs is based on a barter system, and it actually works.

It seems Path of Exile focused on the important thing and that is playing a dungeon loot crawler with randomized maps. There’s no worrying or grinding for that epic loot drop to try and sell in on the auction house for money. The sad thing is, this seems revolutionary, but it really isn’t. It’s just something game developers don’t get, for some reason.

Path of Exile is worth everyone’s support. Even if you don’t like the genre or even the game, just know that somewhere out there a developer cares about you. They care that you hate the games that saturate your favorite genre with garbage.

Hype Train to Nowhere

Cinematic Trailers are always amazing to watch and amazing to look at. They hype up games to unnatural levels to make players wet their pants at a chance to experience what they just saw. Unfortunately, few, if any, ever live up to the hype that their cinematic helped build. The same is true now as it was more than 5 years ago and far beyond that. 

This was the Warhammer Online Trailer from 2007. Needless to say, this trailer made me so excited to play WAR that I literally only thought about this game for the next year. Getting into beta test, I was addicted to the combat. Chaos-Empire T1 was a non-stop war on a massive scale that I only saw again during the Iron Rock server transfer that turned it into a super server, but no one from Red Eye Mountain could play their characters for a whole day. So we all jumped into a T1 all nighter, but that's a story for another day. This is about the trailer. I still get chills watching what seemed like the game of the century in the making. Bloody PvP built around the Warhammer universe. The tale of Warhammer, however, is filled with sadness for me.

Let's move on ahead...

This is the first Old Republic cinematic trailer. This made everyone excited and maybe a little too much. Maybe, just maybe, I was the only one mature enough to see through the CG trailer. Awesome as it may be for any Star Wars fan to witness, there was no way the cartoony looking game would ever be this bad ass. No way. Turns out, I was correct. Just because Bioware makes something does not mean it's automatically the greatest thing ever made, and now every one is aware of this fact.

Now, let's see something that has come up just this very day:

You can just feel those chills. How can this game be bad? And a beta sign up as well? Icing on the cake. While this post may leave you feeling empty with no real in depth look at the Elder Scrolls Online trailer, I implore you to walk away from this like I have. A cool trailer and a cool fight sequence with no added value to anything we've seen so far. Again, I still stand by my statements in my previous blog post titled A Pause for Concern that I believe staying power is not with this game. 

An interview today tried to address the staying power of the game, but the supporting evidence is exactly my point that everyone seems to be missing. In Bill Murphy's interview with Paul Sage, the games creative director, (which can be found here) he even states how excited and focused the team is on giving a player the ability to "build the character of their dreams." Oh, really? My friend is playing a Wood Elf, straight up, no exceptions. I like the Red Guard in previous games. No matter what, I'm forced to A) not play with my friend and B) not able to choose where my character fits in the overall war. Maybe my Red Guard doesn't want to be in your Alliance War. Did anyone ever think about that? Maybe I want to PvP and loot corpses and not go to Cyrodil to get a bit of action. Maybe I want to abandon my race and my people and side better with one of the other factions.

I don't care what you think is going to keep players "coming back for more," but your siege warfare isn't going to be it. I'll admit, I may still be jumping the gun and not giving this game the credit it deserves. I hope I'm wrong and every gamer finds happiness in ESO for the next decade, but I doubt it. But I've heard the same speeches from every AAA MMORPG in the past few years and they are all starting to run together now. Hopefully I see you all in beta, but time will truly be the judge of this game's fate.

It's 3 AM in the Mornin'

Eminem songs aside, I'm currently downloading Path of Exile to play me some open betaness (which happens like 60 hours. The game is going to free to play at launch is very Diablo-like (just like every overhead action RPG). The difference, here, is that "people" have said this is what Diablo 3 should have been. Normally, I wouldn't go for this, but I'm willing to give it a shot.

On a higher note, I'm planning to open a YouTube channel to use to show off some shit and will have some peeps co-host with me. The objective is to be just like every fucking other "let's play!" on YouTube with boring ass commentary and shit. So I guess, check that out when it happens.  Till then, here's a preview video of Path of Exile, so check it out.

And for all of you sports collectors out there, I know the design for the Topps 2013 has been out already, but the cards should be in retail stores within the next week or so. Anyway, here's the new design. It looks alright, I'm hoping the physical cards will 'wow' a bit more in appearance, though.

 Anyway, check back daily for posts and share this blog with your friends, family, neighbors, that hot girl at the coffee shop, and who ever the hell else is in your life. Just, get this out there and comment if you can. Also, join Google+ and stop being a little bitch.

ALSO THERE'S GOING TO BE A SUPERBAUGH. COINED HERE FIRST, FOLKS.

You're Not Demon's Souls, Sorry

I'm aware that I only recently griped about full-loot and perma death and all, but I feel I need to reiterate it with the game that really made me start to hate the idea behind the concept in MMO scapes. I bring to you all Wizardry...Online!

I'll start by saying Sony Online Entertainment. Everyone just had a moment of clarity. So, if you're all like "aww, well jeez, you can't judge a game based off of JUST that" I will agree with you. I will let those who destroyed one of the most beloved sandbox MMOs in gaming history to have another shot, even if it took me this long to do it. So let's keep in mind I'm judging purely off of looks, which as we all know is the only real way to judge anything. So let's dive in to what we can find.

Wizardry is a long standing game line and blah blah blah no one gives a shit. Let's cut out the back story and get right to the fucking gameplay and what they claim. So right off the bat at  http://www.wizardrythegame.com/ there is a bold quote:

Wizardry Online is the most hardcore fantasy MMO ever created. The difficulty level is insane. The dungeons are brutal. There is no auto-healing. Your crimes taint your soul. Your allies could betray you at any moment. And when you die, you die forever.

Ok, cool, sounds alright. I'm all about stupid hard difficult shit.  Plus it's free-to-play. Then  again, what isn't these days? But fucking I'm just going to say that they made a good choice in not making this pay-to-play because it looks like garbage and the second you die you're going to punch a wall.

Again, I cannot reiterate this fact, that I LOVE difficult games. I LOVE steep learning curves. I LOVE the sink or swim moments in games that show whether you truly learned how to play and succeed at the game, or you were just lazily coasting along. It's the only point to actually engaging in a game for me. Any game. Baseball, pinball, Mario Kart, and even that stupid fucking ball in a cup on a string game you get from shitty gift bags at children's birthday parties are all games that have a level of difficulty that I oogle over. I remember when Dynasty Warriors 2 came out and I was rolling deep on Zhao Yun at Hu Lao Gate and rocked through that shit. It was tough because I just jumped right into the Musou mode (story mode basically) but it still was just hard enough to be interesting, but not making me desperate for health. Then I came across arguably one of the most iconic "Oh Fuck" moments in hack-n-slash history. Lu Bu. Need I say more? He fucking rocked my balls. So I restarted and came to that point in the Hu Lao stage once more. You see, you could just walk around him and go straight to end the stage, but I said nay nay. I got this. I didn't. So I tried again, and again, and again, each time refining my strategy. I didn't do enough damage to make him flinch on hits. A full rotation from him would kill. His power attack alone would red bar my life. Arrows hurt him, but again he didn't flinch. But I did it. I finally killed that son of a bitch and it felt so good. And it continued to feel good in every Dynasty Warriors since.

This all related to one thing: challenge. Difficulty that is out of this world. Not acceptable by the majority of people who buy games for casual play. But there is a difference in enjoying a challenge and absolutely abhorring a challenge. Wizardry falls in the second of those, by the looks.

Seriously, watch this video. Do it, right now before you read any more.

Are you any more enthused to play this? Oh, we're going to be hardcore and have perma death! But you have to stand there and get your fucking ass handed to you by trash mobs. Nice. So in a game that is all about not dying, you have no way to avoid dying...unless you use pots...or back track to a fucking town to stay at an inn. Oh, and then you still only gain half of your health back. Not even like "Ok, I have to rest for 2 nights" No seriously, 50% is it. You want 100%? You pay. Money. Really real money. The shit that some dude pays you for working your ass off for 40-60 hours a week and you pay the developers of a piece of shit game so that your character gets enough health back to continue having fun. FUCKING BRILLIANT.

Look, we get it, it's a HERDCURRR GEAAM. You know what else is? DEMON'S SOULS! You know what game doesn't suck? DEMON'S SOULS! Seriously, just watch this. Ignore the guy playing it and talking over it, but watch the game play. Indulge yourself in the game play and notice how the player needs to engage with the enemies. You have chances and you die because YOU fucked up. You have options to engage and avoid enemies and their attacks, especially at around 5:30 or so in the video against the red eye knight.

The game itself though shows that you don't need some crazy perma death style game play to make a game hard core or difficult. The challenge comes from getting balls deep in a level with 20k souls (which acts as currency in the game) and praying that you don't die at the end of the chapter of that level. There's no garbage or bullshit. You have to proceed cautiously and intelligently and understand how your character plays and engage from there. Wizardry makes you run up to fucking guys that are 3 times your size and wail at them with your derp da derp sword. and then punishes you because the game play is god awful.

If a game wants to have hardcore combat with harsh consequences, go right ahead. But make a fucking game that doesn't suck first. Sort of hard to build off of shit. Sony, I love the PlayStation and all that, but your online entertainment branch needs to just fucking quit, sorry.

Oh, and before I forget, even ignoring the garbage ass Japanimation characters, I still hate the way this game looks. So yes, we can judge a game by its looks because it looks like shit, both visually and based off of game play. This is not that rare gem you're looking for. This is an instance of road kill where you get out of your car and go "Aww, eww...I'll just push it out of the way and leave."

And before anyone asks, the first time I made it to the boss fight below, I put my controller down and walked away. Didn't even try. The boss is really simple though, but I was so overwhelmed I was just like "naw" and decided to come back later on in the day after I picked up my brain matter from the ground.

The Greatest Thing You'll Never Play

Perfect World. Producers of some of the most well known free-ish games. Blacklight: Retribution, Torchlight, Champions Online, and now Cryptic Studio's Neverwinter. Yeah, it's a D&D game, which is am immediate "fuck that" from me. Sorry guys, but there's only so much birth control I can use, and abstinence because my wife is holding her goods hostage due to my nerdiness is not going to be one of them. With that being said, Neverwinter is a game that you don't care about. And why would you? The game isn't advertising itself to be the next big thing that every real PvPer will love. It's not about "massive" content and huge world bosses. It's not about gear grinding to do the next tier raid to get the gear to do the next tier raid. Hell, it goes against the tide to bring us just simple features and a simple game with a simple goal: fun.

Dare I say it again? Fun. Dungeon crawling goodness. Oh, and not just their own pre-scripted dungeons or some bullshit randomly generated Diablo crap. Again, one word: Foundry. The-Ultimate-Mother-Fucking-Time-Sink-Fucking-Feature ever. I really believe that they should use that to describe it - TUMFTSFF. Hard to say off the tongue, but people get the point.

So what the fuck is Foundry? Oh, nothing much. Just the ability to MAKE YOUR OWN FUCKING DUNGEONS AND HAVE PEOPLE FUCKING PLAY THEM. For someone like me, I don't feel like keeping track of character sheets and bringing my pewter warrior to my good 'ol buddy Dave's 'bachelor pad' and crack open a few Bud Lights and listen to some stupid fucking narrative where no matter what is happening I'm just going to try to steal everyone's shit until I get someone killed. Honestly, I just was never into that shit. I'll play fantasy sports all day and challenge a mother fucker to some Warhammer tabletop, but god forbid I play some pen and paper games. But I'm getting way off base here. Foundry is a modders dream and a feature that immediately establishes a lasting feature that will keep gamers playing for years. Not months, years. If I may quote directly from their site at http://nw.perfectworld.com/about/foundry :

You've played tabletop campaigns, sketched out dungeons and imagined ancient ruins, wishing all the while that you could make them come to life. Now, you can. The Foundry for Neverwinter lets you build and share the adventures you've always wanted to see.

The Foundry gives you the tools to build dungeons, castles, cities, foreboding woods and everything in-between. Build NPCs the way you see them in your mind's eye and populate your world with tavern keepers and soldiers, Queens and scullions. Lay the groundwork for an epic adventure that takes players into the depths of the earth in search of dwarven treasure, or pits them against near impossible odds to save the city of Neverwinter.

Easy to use, The Foundry also features a dynamic rating system that allows players to rate and highlight the best player-designed adventures.

NOTE: The Foundry is currently in development and due to the nature of games development, information and content found on this website may not be representative of the current gameplay experience.

Tired of the same old quests? MAKE YOUR FUCKING OWN! Tired of shit being too easy? MAKE THE HARDEST FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT FIGHT ANYONE HAS EVER SEEN! JESUS FUCKING CHRIST! According to their Q&A it will be built into the game to access it and you can access other player's published maps and rate them and recommend them and shit.

Now, that's all fine and dandy, but what about the combat? Well, this is where things get muffled because if you were curious about how the game played and looked up a video, you would not be blown away. I will tell you that straight up. However, from watching the individual class videos that have been released to date, I will tell you that the roles characters have are tried and true for the most part and the Alpha animations are a bit lacking (but not all moves are featured yet, so they could just be basic garbage moves we are looking at). The Control Wizard (obvious cc), Great Weapon Fighter (obvious PBAOE DPS), and Trickster Rogue (Obvious rogue) are the currently announced classes. Other reported classes are a Devoted Cleric and Guardian Fighter as well as 6 races featured on their website (Human, Half-Elf, Elf, Drow, Dwarf, and Tiefling).

The fighting is based on left/right clicks on the mouse and also activated abilities making the game more "action-y" than other MMOs. The videos that have been released make it look very basic, though, despite the emphasis on action-based combat. I would assume that once players are in control, you will see a lot more sleek-looking dodges, evades, and ability rotations that all competitive and serious gamers will love. This remains to be seen in the hands of real people and not demo garbage from E3/PAX.

But lets get into something more personal, PvP. At first glance, the game looks like PvP just doesn't fit in here. But I say nay! Well, there's not a lot of info on this matter except that it will be there...eventually at least. Yes, PvP has been a question asked by many towards the devs, but they has said something that excites me more than it disappoints me. It's the fact that they admit that PvP would be an after thought if they put it in the game for launch and it would suck balls. Yeah, they basically summed it up by saying that. The PvPers are picky and Cryptic Studios is well aware of that and they would rather have PvP implemented intelligently into the game after the PvE content is 100% complete. So we won't see RIFT shit where PvP just got thrown in there for shits and giggles and then they advertised it as being the most amazing thing ever when really it was just "Oh yeah, you can queue for this warfront and play our broken shit".

So what's left? Well, what's it going to cost?

Nada. Zip. Nothing. Not a damn thing. Time? I guess everything costs time, basically. So whatever time you put in is equal to money. That's the cost.

Yes, there is a cash shop. Before everyone throws their hands up and goes "UGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH" it's not that bad. Remember, PvP isn't even going to be there at launch. On top of that, the kewl weapons you can buy with real money are still level specific. While I never will agree with paying for better shit, It's just how business models are now-a-days and I have to deal with it.

I still have yet to pay for a single item from a cash shop in Lord of the Rings Online or Guild Wars 2 or League of Legends, so I don't see myself doing it here either. But what's better is that I said Guild Wars 2 had value because it wasn't a sub based game. I paid $60 and got my money's worth from it and still can be if I choose to at a later date. Neverwinter will be free to download the client and free to play and because you can group with friends or go solo or bring npcs along with you, who cares if Joe Shmo bought the uber-sword of winningestness? He can have fun in his little dungeon, and I'll have the challenge in my own. Plus, user generated dungeons have mobs that drop the same xp as the actual game and the loot chest rewards at the end of dungeons are based on the amount of time it 'should' take to complete. So if your dungeon only takes like 5 minutes to do, you will only get like 5 minutes worth of rewards, as oppose to a stupid ass crazy long dungeon where if you complete it, you can get a lot more. From what I've read, it seems that an hour is what the dev's consider a full dungeon from The Foundry.

This, though, is great for guys like me who are limited on time. If I'm up after work late at night and I'm like "alright, well I guess I can do something for 30 minutes" I can find a dungeon that is advertised to take that long and do it. Sure, it won't be an epic 1 hour or more adventure of crazy shit, but at least the game is giving options and not forcing me to raid for 4 hours a night to MAYBE get that epic chest piece I just need to have to move to the T2 "Dungeon of Same Scripted Bullshit"

So yeah, I can safely say that Cryptic Studios have moved their chess pieces very carefully for this one. They still have a lot of strong pieces, but they haven't quite put the queen in check, yet. We'll see what's up when this game releases in Q1 this year. From there, we'll see if PvP complements a solid game concept or ultimately adds a broken piece of content that will turn away potential customers.

Public Quests - Where to Next?

Public Questing has certainly become a fan favorite of the MMO genre over the last 5 years or so. The idea that the player can just go and do these objectives that aren't the same "talk to the guy with the icon and bring a jug of cum to the whore in the capital city that is just one building you can even go into." Maybe that was very "uncalled for" hostility towards my feelings on theme park MMOs, but grouping systems outside of dungeons and raids have been evolving to be a feature that AAA MMOs have to at least address in some way or form now. Let's dig into the evolution we've seen over the past few years...

Warhammer Online used this as a huge selling point, and we ate it up. PQs were quite simply fun to do. Grouping in a way that didn't feel like you were forced to socialize. Yes, it sounds stupid in an online game, but there are in fact a lot of gamers who play MMOs as a single player experience with other people around as well. Think of it akin to Demon's Souls. Public Quests allowed someone like that to accomplish group content with no prior interaction with a single player. On top of that, it was a good way to level and maybe even meet other players and get some decent loot or at least cash. Brilliant concept, but implemented with some gaping holes in the design. Despite the number of players in that PQ or in that zone, the quests maintained difficulty meaning that a player could get past the first stage, but after that they were limited on options. As the level race progressed and as the population died, the mid tiers suffered heavily from this backlash as few players maintained the option to do PvE content.

Skip down the road and we come to the game that took the best PvE concepts and through them all into one game, RIFT. RIFT had, well, rifts. Whereas PQs in WAR were static events that repeated in the same spot with the same events over and over again, rifts were randomized in when and where they would appear. The concept of stages stayed the same, but rifts also had difficulty scaling, which was not seen in WAR either. While there were specific group rifts and raid rifts that were considerably hard in difficulty to even attempt, there was tons of content for a single player or several players who were solo in the same area to do and have fun doing. Unfortunately, rifts became repetitive to a fault early on in the game's life and I feel that the awesome encounters of different types of rifts happening at the same time was missed. The beta phases unfortunately scaled back the difficulty of the rifts and mobs overall so that a rift fucking the entire questing zone up was less of a pain in the ass. I may be alone on this thought, but I had more fun trying to free my quest hub from control of other-worldly creatures than questing itself.

That brings us to our current day and age with Guild Wars 2. Now, events certainly have gotten this feature to a point of distinction. Guild Wars features a wide variety of events and scale of events. All of them are very accessible to a single player and most, with the exception of the dragon and world events maybe, will scale to be doable based on the players participating. I truly believe that the temple events were the culmination of perfection, particularly Balthazaar and the shear scale that the event had to take. What made it good, though, is the fact that you and a small group could go and focus on one part of the map. It took mass coordination across the entire zone, but still allowed the single player a chance to be apart of something greater without forced grouping. The voice overs and flow always felt right and ArenaNet's ability to "instance" zones with players caps made sure that tons of players weren't doing the same exact thing and creating a lagfest in one zone. Events in Guild Wars 2 are so good, but only because it's how Guild Wars 2 was built. Say what you want about the game since its still relatively fresh, but because of the design and flow of Guild Wars 2, events are built into the game play so well, but I don't see it translating to other games the way it is here.

The genre is moving in two distinct paths, similar to how it moved at the beginning on the 2000s. On one hand, you had the sandbox world, and on the other you had the theme park world. Theme park ended up winning out. Sorry to say guys, but Everquest still exists, Star Wars Galaxies doesn't. But right now, we have the free-to-play market that is instanced to an extreme that is unprecedented and the pay-to-play market that is trying to hold on to the ideals that paying $15.00 a month justifies the updates and content their game offers. Companies are starting to shy away from not only the pay-to-play model, but MMOs themselves. The market is dwindling. Star Wars: The Old Republic I think really threw the genre into a shit hole. It has since gone to the free-to-play world, as has most pay-to-play games released. So how does this affect our public questing systems?

PQs will need to evolve to a different point, I think. I can't help but look at other online games (from different genres) and not feel like they would be ideal to bring into the MMO genre, if done right. Let's have a look at MOBA style games like DOTA and League of Legends and throw PvP into the mix. Yea, there was RvR PQs in WAR and PvP rifts, but they sucked. Straight up, no joke, no lie, FUCKING BLEW. But don't instance that shit, make it just apart of the world. If you make a game with factions, throw something different in the mix than doing the same crappy quests and siege warfare as your excuse for PvP. Figure out how to bring back sandbox, give the player options on approaching their game, and not make it so overwhelming that someone logs in and says "what do I do?" Being dropped on your head like it was a decade ago just doesn't cut it now. Kids don't have the attention span to figure that shit out on their own.

So what we can determine from all of this:

PQs are sweet, keep adding them.
They can get really repetitive, so switch it up.
Don't punish the kids without friends, they don't like it.
Give them a purpose and an awesome reward, people will eat them up.
Try different concepts other than 'stages' and shit.

and on another...

STOP ADDING FUCKING SIEGE WARFARE AND JUST SIEGE WARFARE AND SOME STUPID SHITTY 5V5 INSTANCE INTO YOUR DUMB ASS MMORPG AND THINK YOU'RE PVP IS FUCKING GOOD. IT'S NOT SO STOP DOING THAT. ADD IN SOMETHING ACTUALLY WORTH FUCKING DOING THAT DOESN'T FUCK YOU BECAUSE YOU DON'T PLAY WITH THE ENTIRE COUNTRY OF AUSTRALIA ON YOUR SERVER.

Sorry, but I feel that any time I talk about MMOs, I have to get that out there so hopefully some developer reads it and goes "oh, ok" and fucking grows an imagination.

Taking a Step Backwards

It seems that I'm beginning to come across MMORPGs that are trying to hearken back to the founding days of the genre. Concepts of "perma-death" and "full-loot" are being thrown around like candy as a feature that is supposed to answer the call for everyone's blood lust to take effect.

Let's get something clear here, for all of you developers who think that this is the way to go for your game...

It's not the right direction.

This was something that was acceptable back in the day. This is something I would've been interested in 10 years ago, but games have evolved since then. I've evolved since then. When I was a preteen and games are what my life revolved around, particularly games about getting in people's faces and putting them down, then a title like this would be much more accepting from me. Given the audience of today and the fact that someone like me isn't just a 10 year old anymore, I don't see how the hardcore formulas used in games a generation ago will be a success in this day and age.

The guys who makes these games always advertise the good old days, right? I'm 22 now, have a career, have a family, and am continuing my education. I'm that generation that remembers what Ultima Online was like. I'm that generation that remembers when games like Runescape allowed you to kill anyone, anywhere. The formula today is different, or rather it needs to be looked at differently. The PvE market got huge from Everquest and then from the titan of online gaming World of Warcraft. Hardcore PvP mechanics and perma-death ideals were reserved for people who would joke and say "haha, let's go play Diablo 2 perma-death for shits and giggles."

That's the market you are trying to gain? A market who thinks that perma-death games are basically a joke and nothing more? Do you even care about the substance your game offers? Look, you're competing with socialized Facebook games right now and games that offer the joy of progression without the threat of losing EVERYTHING just because you had to.

Now, what I will do pick out two key things that would give you a formula for success. First being that choice in gameplay is something that has to be done. I already went pretty deep into this when I made my post about being skeptical of the Elder Scrolls Online game coming out this year. By choice in this instance, though, I point in the direction of what Runescape was a little more than 5 years ago. Yes, the wilderness in that game has since returned to what it was, but the point is is that the game has similar concepts to the hardcore titles that are trying to be successful. You die and lose your stuff. You kill someone and can loot their stuff. There is a penalty for attacking someone who did not instigate a fight with you, ensuring your loss of all items instead of keeping your top 3 "best" items in terms of value. The game built lore into the game to differentiate the casual aspect and the hardcore PKing aspect. Both types of players existed in the game for years. It wasn't until the wilderness fell victim to Jagex's anti-real world trading schemes that the fun ceased to exist.

That's how you create the foundations for a community to exist outside of the game. If anyone was involved in the clan world, through Tip.It or Runescape Community or any of the other major fan sites, they will tell you that there was something to be said about was brought to the table when you felt invested in being apart of a group who was "war" essentially with other imaginary groups that didn't officially exist within the game. This, too, harps on my argument that if you provide the tools, the players will create the community. You don't need to force-feed features onto a player to make things work in your game. Grouping is something a player should choose to do, not be forced to do.

My second point is to at least provide some means to separate Realm vs Realm from PKing. I don't give a shit who you are, the second you add in "siege" warfare, you eliminate the entire reason to solo PK. Yes, you get more renown points like in Warhammer or Lord of the Rings Online if you were solo, for instance. But if you can't make huge monetary gains at the chance of risking your own value, then going on your own really isn't the smartest decision. This is something that full-loot games have right, but so so wrong as well. If there is not food chain, then there's no reason to eat.

You probably just went "Huh?" Let me drop some knowledge.

The olden days of PKing were based around the food chain of combat. High end crafting items were needed to make the best stuff. People would try to gather these items. Other people would try to gank the gatherers and PK them. These solo PKers were hunted by teams, usually what you would consider a "group" in today's standards. The teams were hunted by small clans of players and the small clans were hunted by large clans, which were hunted by rival large clans. There was a chain that gave a reason to kill other players and risk being killed by other players: money. Risk vs reward was never so brutally evident than in these cases.

But you can't just have this happen anymore, at least not like the old school ways. There needs to be a separation. Adding in realm warfare automatically implies no full loot. There may be some stupid gimmick drop like random gear that you would get off an NPC, basically, or some stupid token crap to try and get the "PvP" gear set. Even the recent releases like Guild Wars 2 follow this boring and mundane addition into the world. There needs to be more than just RvR and instanced battlegrounds for your game to have meaningful PvP.

Keep the siege warfare, by all means. It has its place in the game world a lot of people enjoy it when it has a real purpose in the game (sorry Guild Wars, but WvW showed how flawed the concept was when it expanded to 1 week. If we wouldn't a game of time zones, I could have stuck with Warhammer).

Keep battlegrounds and match-making. It provides even level competition that can be coupled with real world prizes and can really bring in the MLG crowd to compete on bigger stages. This is really a concept that no one has tapped into effectively and could become a cash cow with the right gameplay features.

All I'm saying is give me something else. Give me a zone with full loot. Give me a game where crafting matters because of supply vs demand of item drops on death. Give me a reason to hunt players. Give me a reason to risk my gear that a new player would oogle over to try and gain more pixels. Give me the tools to stroke my E-peen.

But for the love of God, do not make the game revolved around just one of those, especially just the last one. The game will suck, if it even gets the backing to be released. You have to compromise with the fact that while I still want to play like I'm 12 years old and compete on a consistent nightly basis, I can't. Some days I have to work 12 hours straight. I have fit sleep in there somehow, as well as exercising, taking care of my home, spending time with my family, and trying to further my career. You could argue that I'm just one less customer out of millions. True, and if that's how developers really feel, then I'll stick to writing to blogs about baseball card collecting and the right and wrong moves the Yankees make.

But if not for me, do it for yourself. If you want to succeed in this gaming market, you will heed my advice.

A Decent Addition to Any Playlist

In a pop culture filled with crazy personalities and songs that are accepted, yet more controversial than anything we listened to in the 90s, it's nice to see a new song from Boston legends Dropkick Murphys that has not lost the touch that many love them for. Rose Tattoo is a single that is an immediate addition to my playlist, and it should be on yours. The message is clear, especially for any of you that have ever wore a tattoo to represent someone that was close to you. I know that my wife in particular has a rose tattoo for the memory of her grandmother, which makes the song that much closer to my own life. If you want a great song to listen to for years to come that isn't just another watered down pop tune, check it out and go get your own rose tattoo!

The Sophomore Slump (AL)

We've all heard about sophomore slumps. The first time around was so good, but the second just couldn't recap the magic. It happens in almost any form of entertainment. How many times did you or your friends come out from watching a sequel at the movie theater and declare, "It wasn't as good as the first!" Music, movies, books, and especially sports all fall victim to the sophomore slump. Baseball in particular is notorious for identifying players who have fantastic rookie seasons and then can't seem to adjust.

It's not as simple as the player themselves. They proved that they were good enough in their first season, but scouting reports and advanced analysis can really start to hurt the second time around. Making adjustments and settling in is something the rookies of last year would like to accomplish this year and continue their success. The question is whether or not they can.

Mike Trout

The AL Rookie of the Year and runner-up in MVP voting falling just short of the historical achievement made by Triple-Crown winner Miguel Cabrera. Trout hit crazy good and played an extremely impressive center field, making arguably the most memorable catch in 2012 against Baltimore. Trout hit .326/.399/.564 last season in 139 games with 129 runs and 30 home runs. However, the question of success for Trout is hoping his career does not turn into his first taste of the majors in 2011. People soon forget the first 40 games of Trout's major league career when he was called up. Trout looked like a completely different player hitting for a mere .220/.281/.390. While the sample size is much smaller and his minor league numbers are all fantastic, there is proof that Trout has struggled at the major league level, even if it was only 40 games after getting called up from AA. If Trout even comes close to 2012, the Angels are in the playoffs. However, Trout will benefit from the addition of Houston to the AL West, since he will playing against essentially a minor league experienced team.

Yu Darvish

The man is getting a museum dedicated to himself in Japan. What else needs to be said? This was Darvish's rookie year by all accounts and it was a decent rookie year at that. Darvish finished 16-9 with a 3.90 ERA in  29 games and 191.1 innings. He definitely was the best starting pitcher for the Rangers. His ERA is near the 4 run range, which isn't a terrible thing considering the Rangers had a very potent offense last season. If the Rangers don't put up the same amount of runs as they have the past few years, Darvish might see his win total drop a bit. But to improve on the first year, if Darvish becomes a 200+ inning pitcher and pulls out 18 or more wins, he can go from a Rookie of the Year candidate to a definite Cy Young competitor. Just as with Trout, Darvish may be able to get a couple more wins from within the division if everyone picks on the Astros.

Yoenis Cespedes

Everyone saw the youtube video. Many were interested, but not willing to pay much. The Oakland Athletics after trading away their top pitchers and seemingly scrapping for talent suddenly signed the Cuban defector to a 4 year deal worth $36 million dollars in March. Cespedes was apart of the big league and revealed raw talent early on, but struggled against breaking pitches, as everyone expected. Suddenly, the kid began making adjustments mid-season and became possibly the biggest piece on a A's club that was never supposed to leave the cellar of the AL West. Playing in 129 vital games, Cespedes hit .292/.356/.861 with 23 home runs. Given that Cespedes has already shown that he can adjust from being a raw fastball slugger to competent hitter, I would expect the most out Cespedes in his sophomore season. If he cuts down on strike outs even more than he did mid-season, Cespedes may even be an MVP candidate next season, dare I say. The problem, though, I believe lies in the Athletics team rather than with Yoenis. The AL West got power and weaker at the same time. The Angels are more frightening on paper this year than they were last year, but the A's can easily stay ahead of the competition with Cespedes leading the offense.

Matt Moore

Matt Moore's rookie season wasn't perfect, by any means. But a weak lineup in Tampa Bay will make it seem that way, as well as being in the same starting rotation as Cy Young winner David Price. With James Shields going to Kansas City, Matt Moore will depended on to build on his first full season with Rays. His win record is good for a back-end rotation rookie at 11-11, but his ERA finished at 3.81 which is pretty good. Given Matt Moore's track record in the minors and in the majors now, his 3+ ERA seems a fair number to bet on. If he can repeat last year if the Rays can score more runs with Longoria staying healthy and the possibility of Wil Myers joining the club and being an impact player, then watch out for Matt Moore coming back with a vengeance in year #2.

Will Middlebrooks

He took over 3B for a Red Sox team that was dealing with a war of words between manager Bobby Valentine and veteran players. It ended with the defining hard-nosed Sox player of the last decade, Kevin Youkilis, being traded to the White Sox, the biggest signings only a year removed of Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford being shipped to the Dodgers as well former ace pitcher Josh Beckett, and Valentine being fired at the end of a horrific season. Despite the terrible ordeal that Red Sox fans witnessed, Will Middlebrooks played a pretty solid game for his debut season. He only played in 75 games for the big league club, but hit .288 with 15 home runs. Not bad by any means. Middlebrooks only really played for about half a season last year and a sophomore slump seems possible, but he could be a very established infielder on a Red Sox team that needs a new identity given the tragedy the team has faced over the last couple of dismal seasons. Middlebrooks could end up being that cornerstone player that sees the Red Sox rising from the depths of the AL East to make a World Series run, but I predict a solid year of production while the Sox still try and figure out what they are all about.

A Pause for Concern

Upon the announcement that the next Elder Scrolls game would feature not just multiplayer capabilities, but actually be an MMO, I was skeptical. Hell, most everyone was. The only information that seemed to be out there was that it be the same old shit with some Elder Scrolls lore.

Recent news since late Fall, however, when the developers invited many press and guild community leaders to test an Alpha build of the guild, has shown that there may be more promise to the game after all. From a more personal standpoint with ideas that I have thrown around, it seems Zenimax Online Studios heard my conversations with friends about what features the next great MMO would have to feature. It's no secret that PvP has been a focus of mine for years and years and having an entire region that was the stage for an entire game itself previously left me in awe. Being able to utilize any weapon and armor combination despite there being classes and 3-faction PvP that would hopefully be a true successor to DAOC was enough to convince me that this is the game I need in 2013. If there is one game I need to buy, its this one.

That is, until I took a step back and had a second look.

I realized that while the game might be a fix temporarily, this won't be the game that holds my attention for years instead of a few months like the games from the last 5 years have. The reason for this as I am beginning to realize is that there is no choice. There are no real customization options to the game, deep down. I know every single person reading this just got a dirty look on their face. So, let me just ask the question you're thinking right now...

What the hell am I talking about?

Let's all recall our own experiences and the many AAA MMOs that have been released over the last decade. You start up the game, pick a faction, create a character, start off with a little cute tutorial, then go town to town in order to progress through the game. Finally you reach the end of gaining levels and if you want to further your gaming experience, you grind out instanced fights until you reach that elite status you always dreamed of having and wait for new content. Is this exactly how it is for every game? No, not exactly. Some games don't actually have factions and everyone is on the same side until the PvP that got thrown together at the last minute comes into play.

Let's dig deeper still, before I answer that question you all are still dying to hear. You always hear about how your experience in any game now is totally different from the guy next to you. Games like to tout off story options and fancy features that let you decide which story path to go down. How many times have you and your friends ended up picking the exact same options? Pretty often, I'd imagine. Really sort of lessens the personal feel of the story when you are completely aware that every other person is doing the same thing you are. Is this something games are likely to just stop doing and move away from? Probably not. Elder Scrolls Online will be more theme park than sandbox. The way that the devs and how things I've read from the alpha test have gone show me that the game will have a linear feel and not be the sandbox MMO the game probably would have been if it was released 10 years ago before the advent of WoW. Am I saying this will be WoW? No, not at all. But no matter how bad Guild Wars 2 and now ESO wish to be their own entity, they are trapped in their own pigeon hole by what the MMO world expects the games to be.

So after all this is put together, what am I getting at? Let me ask you some simple questions:

Why are you forced to be a part of a faction?
Why are economies becoming less important?
Why is player housing and player content not being looked at closer?
Why can't you truly choose how you want to play?

The problem I see with every MMO that has come out and is going to come out recently is the same thing. Solid gameplay, by any means, with no substance. There's no real investment. Honestly, how many of you like being invested in a game because you have to? When the game design requires that in order for you to have fun, you have to grind instances and treat the game like a job instead of an escape from reality.

Games that I have felt invested in were games that had a community driving the game towards something that was bigger than the game as a whole. The game should give you the tools to make your experience truly unique and the it should give the players the opportunity to play for something more than a carrot and stick mentality. Yes, I understand that the Elder Scrolls has its own lore to follow now, but that just means that the lore won't be able to provide that experience. That truly unique experience.

Elder Scrolls Online will launch and receive rave critical reviews. Tons of people will play it and the game will make a lot of money. The question is how long until everyone gets bored again? It's a good thing MMOs are still be churned out every season, because that's how long I see a player making it through any newly released titles.

Let's Talk Some Hot Stove Baseball

Justin Upton probably won't be traded to the Yankees. Even if he does, I feel the price would be too steep after seeing the rumored Seattle deal was that nixed by Upton and his no-trade clause. The Yankees would have to give up someone big as well as prospects to make room for the payroll that Upton would bring and also still have to deal with a 3 year contract worth over $38 million. Not exactly working well with the original game plan of reducing payroll and contractual obligations.

But, either way, the analysts seem to assume the most likely trade includes Granderson. This doesn't make sense to me given the plethora of outfielders that Arizona has on their roster. To an extent in the National League, I prefer to have Upton's statistics with  .280 batting average and 121 strikeouts over Granderson's .232 average and 195 strikeouts. Yes, there is the disparity between 17 home runs from Upton and 43 home runs from Granderson, a career high and his second straight year of 40+ home run seasons. But even in a situation on the Yankees, if you have Upton slotting in behind Jeter (because you know Gardner is going to stink it up initially and Giardi will like him to be hitting 9th), then you have a pretty good shot at Upton scoring far more than 100 runs (which Granderson also did, mind you, but 43 of them he drove himself in on). If Cano can continue to hit .300 and 30 home runs for what could possibly be his last season in pin stripes, then the Yankees line up, to me, looks a lot better; even minus ARod for half the season, it still looks pretty solid to compete in the AL East. The other option is of course Ichiro and Jeter batting first/second in the line up and Upton slotting in behind Cano and pushing Teixeira down the line up. You figure the line up would project as so with last years stats as comparison:

1. Jeter, SS, .316/.362/.429 with 99 Runs/58 RBI/15 HR
2. Upton, LF, .280/.355/.430 with 107 Runs/67 RBI/17 HR
3. Cano, 2B, .313/.380/.550 with 105 Runs/94 RBI/33 HR
4. Teixeira, 1B, .251/.332/.475 with 66 Runs/84 RBI/24 HR
5. Ichiro, RF, .322/.340/.454 with 28 Runs/27 RBI/5 HR in 67 games with the Yankees
6. Youkilis 3B, .235/.336/.409 with 72 Runs/60 RBI/19 HR
7. Nunez DH, .292/.330/.393 with 14 Runs/11 RBI/ 1 HR in 38 games with the Yankees
8. Cervelli/Romine/Stewart, Any offense is a god send here
9. Gardner, CF, .259/.345/.369 with 87 Runs/36 RBI/7 HR in 2011 with the Yankees

The alternative line up that I can see is where I said you would bat Ichiro lead off and bring Jeter down to the 2 hole

1. Ichiro, RF, .322/.340/.454 with 28 Runs/27 RBI/5 HR in 67 games with the Yankees
2. Jeter, SS, .316/.362/.429 with 99 Runs/58 RBI/15 HR
3. Cano, 2B, .313/.380/.550 with 105 Runs/94 RBI/33 HR
4. Upton, LF, .280/.355/.430 with 107 Runs/67 RBI/17 HR
5. Teixeira, 1B, .251/.332/.475 with 66 Runs/84 RBI/24 HR
6. Youkilis 3B, .235/.336/.409 with 72 Runs/60 RBI/19 HR
7. Nunez DH, .292/.330/.393 with 14 Runs/11 RBI/ 1 HR in 38 games with the Yankees
8. Cervelli/Romine/Stewart, Any offense is a god send here
9. Gardner, CF, .259/.345/.369 with 87 Runs/36 RBI/7 HR in 2011 with the Yankees

I believe that both line ups can be effective and I honestly like them more than having Granderson's power. However, nothing is certain and Upton could continue to sputter much like his brother has or Granderson might have a career low in strike outs while still hitting 40+ home runs.

Baseball is funny like that sometimes.

A Pointless Reason

Holding on to that last bit of reality of the life I knew with the optimism and hope is simply no more. It's not even an object to look back at because the only option left is to move on. My accomplishments are nothing I should fret at considering the point in my life I am at. Not very many 22 year olds own their own home, have a family, have a career, and are continuing their education on the verge of earning a bachelors to seek greater employment in the future. Indeed, it seem silly considering my spouse as well will have a fantastic career upon completion of her own education and together we will form a potent spousal combination where money will become almost a non-issue. Our kid will have a future that will be littered with opportunity and he probably won't even realize it until he is out on his own just like I didn't.

What's the problem then?

If things are going so well, what's the point of blogging about your family?

Does anyone actually care?

Simply put, with all of the dots connected together, there is really no time for anything in between. Hobbies, passions, motivations, and overall fun are no longer in my schedule it seems. Is the cost of a family harder on the wallet or the mind? You see, I'm an avid collector. Hoarder is occasionally thrown out there, but I don't consider finding needs for many objects hoarding. I have an established collection of baseball cards and memorabilia and a fair amount of passion for the game of baseball. On top of that, I'm finding hockey taking the void of what I consider my number two sport over football and am seeking to build a foundation of hockey collections.

All of my collecting hobbies aside, there was a time when video games mattered more than my homework. While those days are long since dead now, the need to compete on virtual worlds still burns within my soul. Many days have been invested in lives I created in MMORPGs and the occasional fast-paced first-person shooter, but my overall indulgence in the industry and the technical aspect of gaming is where my time is truly spent now. Because of this, I feel as if the video game industry and the MMORPG genre is failing to meet expectations with a lot of credit going towards a lack of innovation and scope on the part of developers. But that is another post for another day.

But what of sports themselves? Well, the hockey lockout just ended (finally) and we should have a season starting soon and I follow baseball year-round. While I have my favorite teams and players, just as everyone else, I do follow the sports as a whole.

So really, as an introduction, I'm Shady Sourz as per my online alias. Hopefully this blog can be related to for others who are in the same position as myself and need something interesting to read. Thanks for reading, and I'll be posting updates as often as possible.