Bel's Blog Bonanza - Ragefire, Nostalgia and Anticipation .

Hey folks and welcome to Bel’s Blog Bonanza, a bi-weekly feature here on MMOGames where I attempt to highlight some of the more interesting topics currently cycling through the gaming blogosphere. One of my favorite aspects of writing about games, is the interactions I have with other bloggers. In this column, it is my goal to highlight some of the individuals in this community and present their interesting take on current issues. Let us dispense with the introduction and get to the awesome.

Newbie Blogger Initiative – Talkback Challenge 3

This week sees my return to the more traditional version of the “Bonanza” but there is still a lot of awesome stuff happening as the Newbie Blogger Initiative month begins to wrap up.  This week bloggers were challenged to tell our readers “What Made You A Gamer?”.  The end result was a series of varried and nostalgic posts from the Newbie Blogger Initiative participants talking about their early gaming roots.  I even chimed in with my own background that started with a Sears and Roebuck Pong console.

• Contains Moderate Peril – NBI 2015 Talkback Challenge:  What Made You A Gamer?
• Why I Game – NBI: Talkback Challenge #2 and #3
• Gamerlady – The NBI Talkback Challenge:  What Made Me A Gamer?
• Lair of the Wolf Dragon – Talkback Challenge #3:  What Made You A Gamer?
• Mr Luvva Luvva – #NBI2015 Talkback Challenge: What Made You A Gamer?
• Murf Versus – Talkback Challenge #3: I, Gamer. #NBI2015
• Tales of the Aggronaut – NBI Talkback 3 – What Made You A Gamer?

Waiting for WoW 6.2

This week the Battle.net client started preloading content for the upcoming 6.2 patch.  With this patch comes a number of new features including the next tier of raid content, and significant changes to the Garrisons system.  As such many players are in a bit of a holding pattern as they talk about what they are doing in this calm before the patch.  There seems to be mixed feelings about the effect this patch is going to have on the current state of the game.

• Alternative Chat – 6.2 PTR Living in the Past
• Zuulzilla – Zuu’s Guide to Garrison Gold
• The Daily Frostwolf – Raiding – What to do now that Blackhand is dead?
• The Grumpy Elf – What is Our Shiny New Toy?
• Rambling Thoughts About WoW – I Saw This
• The Grumpy Elf – 6.2 Is Coming
• Blizzard Facepalm: Dungeon Edition

Anniversary of Conan

It seems that the Age of Conan Unchained celebrated their seventh anniversary and it seemed to go relatively unmarked, but two bloggers noticed.  One spent time talking about their disappointment with the new Shadow of Vanaheim content patch, and the other shared frustrations that Funcom doesn’t really seem to be promoting this game very well any more.  It has been years since I spent any time thinking about Age of Conan myself, but it might be worth looking at again during the Anniversary event.

• Age of Conan – Shadow of Vanaheim and Anniversary Celebration
• Assassin’s Hideout – Shadow of Vanaheim Review
• Pumping Irony – Conan Had an Anniversary and No One Noticed

Ragefire Server Launch

This week also saw the launch of the highly-anticipated new Everquest server, which experienced more than a few technical difficulties getting started.  Ragefire is another in a long line of nostalgia centered classic Everquest servers, this time with a series of voting based rules in place to slow down the progression.  During the week a handful of bloggers wrote about their own experiences getting started on the server, and dealing with the technical issues.

• West Karana – Tipa Stabs Again
• The Ancient Gaming Noob – Ragefire – First Night Follies
• The Ancient Gaming Noob – The Four Stages of Ragefire Login Grief

Old MMO Memories

During the week Digital Initiative made a series of deeply heart felt posts talking about his experiences in past games, beginning with Everquest.  It seems to be one of those weeks when the entire community is turning their eyes inwards and thinking about past experiences.  Tam especially talks about the sometimes bittersweet experience of forging friendships among people you may never actually meet.  He also talks about how some of these folks can end up being some of your strongest allies.  The sequence of posts are only loosely connected, but taken as a whole they provide this interesting window into our online gaming world.

• Digital Initiative – Relationships in Cyberspace and Realspace
• Digital Initiative – Remote Teams, the Wrong Way
• Digital Initiative – Interlude: Playing the System
• Digital Initiative – It’s About Ethics