17
Nov

oolite

   Posted by: admin   in Uncategorized

One of my favourite computer games of all time was Elite, written by a genius called Ian Bell. This game was available on pretty much every eight bit computer platform back in the 80’s and was truly epic. The Elite universe contained eight galaxies, containing 256 planets each. The concept was simple, fly your craft from one system to another, trading in legal and/or illegal substances to make money. You could also complete missions in some versions allowing you to transfer important people from one planet to another. Another important aspect was avoiding or fighting pirates, who wanted to steal your cargo!

Oolite is a modern take on Elite, it is opensource and absolutely free. Originally designed as a project for the Apple Mac, there is now a Windows Version, and it is truly amazing. Many subtle improvements have been made to the original came play, the universe has been expanded and best of all, you can download 3d model addons for new craft, including many ships from Star Trek and Star Wars.

The Mac version needs Mac OSX 10.3.9 or better, and the Windows Version likes at least a 400 Mhz processor to run well.

Have fun Captain!

http://oolite.org/

17
Nov

Goa / Warhammer - A success story?

   Posted by: admin   in MMORPG's

Warhammer: Age of Reckoning has the potential to be a truly ground breaking MMORPG. Designed by Mythic with the backing of EA, and with designers that worked on the fantastic MMORPG Dark Age of Camelot, surely we are in for an incredible experience with WAR? Not so it seems if like me you are an EU subscriber. Like DAoC before it, Mythic gave the EU licence to GoA, and it seems that GoA are making as much of a hash of WAR as they did with DAoC.

Warhammer went live on September 18th, and for GoA subscribers one problem has occurred after another, and it seems things aren’t improving. For many years, DAoC subscribers complained to GoA that the Flash Website used for account management was unusable in many browsers and that navigation on the flash site was poor. GoA for reasons best known to them took the decision to launch WAR, using a similar site and similar accounts system. On Many forums, older subscribers have questioned this decision, but have yet to receive an answer as to why this has happened.

Another issue was that people who ordered the Collectors Edition of Warhammer, where promised access to the open beta before launch, due to miscommunication, this didn’t take place. It seems that communication between GoA and its retailers was a problem too. Some people didn’t get their Collectors Editions until well after launch. Yet another unfortunate incident occurred during this period, when discussions on forums got quite heated, and a Senior Customer Service Rep from GoA, lost his temper and referred to subscribers as having “Something Wrong with them”, and as having “Psychotic Tendencies”.

GoA have also chosen to use the notoriously laggy and unreliable “OpenTransit” network to handle server traffic, which seems somewhat odd as they have spent years blaming OpenTransit for lag problems on DAoC.

Possibly the most worrying mistake so far, occurred recently when many accounts where changed, apparently by mistake, to have their subscriptions automatically renewed, raising the possibility that people who have cancelled their accounts, may still be charged. This problem has been ongoing for three days and GoA has yet to send an email out to warn their subscribers. Strangely, exactly the same mistake was made by GoA three years ago, with DAoC subscribers, leading to many people being charged erroneously.

As long as Warhammer in Europe remains in GoA’s hands, it is difficult to see how it can possibly become the success it should be. It is a truly outstanding game, but is let down by GoA treating their subscribers as a second class, in a system where US subscribers are obviously more important. Sad really.

Related sites:

http://www.war-europe.com

http://www.warhammeralliance.com 

http://www.freddyshouse.com