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SotNW Receives Angel Wings and School Costumes I Everquest CCG Tournament Weekend
Pirates Pre-Order Pending I Return Home to Vana'diel Campaign

MMORPGAMER
Issue #89 Zombified Tarutaru
October 25, 2007

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Welcome to MMORPGamer.

This week I've got info from Pirates of the Burning Sea, which I haven't covered yet here, as well as some info for SotNW, EQ, and FFXI. Without further ado, your column:


  SotNW Receives Angel Wings and School Costumes

Sword of the New World: Granada Espada

Paws's much appreciated coverage of Sword of the New World: Granada Espada continues this week as the game's cash shop expands. Players can purchase gold from the game's website to buy the new items in-game.

Below are a few shots of the new costumes featured in the update, as well as the decorative angel wings. Also available in the shop are items to improve your stats, speed up experience gained from slaying monsters, increase experience from using stances and skills, open up new dungeons, and give players a chance to gain a special UPC card for Irawain.


  Everquest CCG Tournament Weekend

Everquest

This weekend, Sony is hosting a Legends of Norrath tournament. Legends of Norrath, in case you aren't aware, is a collectable card game affiliated with both Everquest and Everquest II. It's playable in-game and out and this tournament will be offering rewards for both the card game and the MMOs.

Every participant automatically gets a prize for entering the tournament, and the players will vie for differing amounts of Oathbound Booster Packs and a seat at the World Championships. The winner there will get the grand prize - unannounced currently - and the title of the year's Legendary Hero.


  Pirates Pre-Order Pending

Pirates of the Burning Sea

The nautical MMORPG Pirates of the Burning Sea is going to be available for pre-orders on October 23rd. For those that pre-order, here's a list of features and gifts:

  • A "Pre-Boarding Party" invitation that allows players access to the game 15 days before launch and keep their characters (of course, there's a level cap of 20 before release).
  • An in-game blue and yellow parrot "Captain's Best Friend."
  • A unique sword to fit your selected fighting style.
  • The game's OST (in the box).

  Return Home to Vana'diel Campaign

Sword of the New World

Square Enix announced yesterday that their campaign entitled "Return Home to Vana'diel" is back. The campaign enables former players of Final Fantasy XI to return to the game and recover their characters.

Both Content ID deletions and account cancellations are reversible in the deal. It's hardly surprising that this returns shortly before FFXI receives its next expansion. For more information on getting your character back, visit the official site.


  Letters From the Crypt

A Return to MMOs for Mac?

Jake,

You asked for my favorite event in an MMORPG, and though it's been awhile since I've actually played one, I can still remember a lot of events quite clearly. Sorry, but I will be talking more about the past than anything current. I started my MMO career with the North American release of Final Fantasy XI for the PC. Having never played one before, my first few hours in the game had my head spinning with the interface and what I needed to do.

I was lucky though, I was part of a general Final Fantasy message board at the time that had been following the game prior to release, so I was starting out with around seven other people that I knew. We all learned the game together and would do quests as a group. As with many MMOs, the drive to level hit as we learned more and got deeper into the game. I clearly remember our largest event and one of our last major Linkshell events: the Rank 4 mission through Delkfutt's Tower. Fourteen of us easily plowed our way through the tower, but it was a ton of fun to do. We had self-imposed a level cap on our LS of level 40, so that we wouldn't get out of range of people. This was one of the last events that we did like this before lifting the cap and watching people soar past it. I never made it to end game stuff in FFXI or later in WoW either, but this kind of stuff was highly enjoyable.

So now with the next FFXI expansion coming and with WoW having gained so much more content, I'm tempted to start playing something again, but I just can't bring myself to do it. I've been able to play so many more other RPGs since then, so I just don't know. Thoughts? Advice?

- Michael "Macstorm" Cunningham

Jake

I love hearing about how people get into MMOs and how their first experience works out. My brief foray into FFXI made my head spin so much I had to quit. It'll be a while before I pick that up again.

From what you said about that tower event, I'm sure you'd love WoW endgame. There's a ton of content to explore for the casual and hardcore alike. Since the majority of players play at the level cap at this stage in WoW's lifecycle, there's a disproportionate amount of events to find there.

If you're thinking about returning to one of those two and have an urge to experience endgame content, I would recommend starting up with WoW again once patch 2.3 hits. The patch includes changes to make the leveling curve steeper, enabling you to get to endgame much faster than before.



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All this FFXI talk makes me wonder whether I might enjoy it if I just struggled through all that unfamiliar interface. Hmmm...

Thanks to Mac for his letter and to Paws for her help with the SotNW info. Since there was only one letter in response to last week's topic, I'll throw one out that's a bit more pressing.

SotNW just released more stuff to buy with gold bought from their own site, and Blizzard is working hard at stopping gold sellers in WoW. I understand that SotNW is free to play (with merchandise being the only profit), but I wonder whether the advantage of real-world money should be mirrored in all MMORPGs. What's your opinion on gold selling and the effect of RL money on MMO economies?

Getting ready for Halloween,
Jake Miller (mail me)


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