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.
Wildstar has been getting a lot of activity lately with the rumors swirling around the potential for a free to play conversion and the recent promotion driving players to buy up unsold copies of standard edition. In the game however there seems to been quite a number of players returning to give it a second look, and others who have remained loyal are just reacting to these potential changes. As such there are a number of interesting articles worth reading this week all talking about what is going on within Wildstar.
At this same time there seems to be a similar swelling of support for Star Wars the Old Republic. Many were drawn back for the double experience week that occurred from April 16th to April 22nd. Even more seem to be considering the game with its rumored upcoming 12 times story experience event as well. From the blogosphere however came an interesting series of posts from Party Business talking about their own experiences with the double experience week event.
While it was not terribly long ago that we were talking about the impressions from the 6.1 patch in World of Warcraft, they have released the 6.2 patch on the PTR and with it has come a flurry of data mining and speculation. The patch is set to introduce a number of new features like Naval missions for the Garrisons and the “almost mentoring” Time Walking system. As such a number of folks these last two weeks have chimed in with their thoughts about the patch.
The blogosphere is still buzzing with activity surrounding Final Fantasy XIV in the lead up to the Heavensward expansion. Square Enix has been doing a remarkable job of constantly releasing tidbits of information each week, keeping folks engaged in the pre-expansion hype cycle. In the meantime the bloggers seem to be trying to accomplish their goals before the expansion hits, and generally having a good time playing the game. Over these last two weeks we have had a significant number of posts related to this game, and as such I am just highlighting a handful of them.
One of the more interesting happenings over the last two weeks is a series of blog posts from designer Raph Koster on Star Wars Galaxies. So many recent sandbox games have given lip service to being the logical successor of Galaxies, but in reading this series of posts you realize just how interesting and unique this game really was. I personally was not a huge fan of it, but I could appreciate from distance its intricacies. This dive into the mind of one of the folks responsible for this game has been interesting to read, and I am hoping Raph continues writing more about this over the coming weeks. What we have already is a significant treatise on the design of Star Wars Galaxies that is interesting for traditional gamers and armchair designers alike to delve into.
The Nexus Times: So Long WildStar .
Guild Wars 2 Crafting Guide .
The Hasla Herald: Exploring Auroria .
Analysis of Hearthstone: League of Explorers .
Dragon Nest: Choose Your Reward