/AFK – July 12

At some point, I'm sure we're going to strike out and find our fortune in gold as well

I’m writing this to you from the sunny state of California, where the temperature in Sacramento is a billion degrees and everyone goes out in asbestos bikinis.  We decided to up and surprise my wife’s family for a week, which in retrospect was asking for a world of hurt trying to navigate a baby and everything it needs thr0ugh the airport system.

• Looking for impressions on Aion?  Pete and Keen are your resident lecturers today.  Take notes!
• Rivs runs down a list of what he thinks makes a good MMORPG player, but he misses one important quality: access to lots and lots of pie.
• Learn by being led or learn by watching?  Two equally fascinating glimpses into figuring out how to take on difficult boss encounters.
• Cryptic released the Champions Online system spec info.
• The esteemed Prof. Beej wants to know why we have to choose sides in the geek wars at all?
• There’s a problem with WAR’s end game? Huh.  Who knew.
• Psychochild claims that more MMOs punish those who group than not.
• Grouchy Gamer makes an audacious prediction for Blizzard’s “Cataclysm” — that they’re going to sink all of the old world content under the ocean, once and for all.
• Thulf takes a break from Warhammer to deliver an excellent Aion review.
• Hudson’s reentered the world of DDO, and has found it to his liking, yes indeed.  And that’s even while he is a total noob.
• All in the name of science.  Weird Science.
• Werit sees a serious problem with blogging about TOR — after it launches.
• Is Turbine sounding a little too desperate for players? PVD says “yes”.
• Frank peers into the Force to see if he can discern the truth about healing classes.
• Despite not being fans of the game at all, MMOCrunch scored an interview with Cryptic about Champions Online.
• Syncaine misses the old days…
• I want to pump my hands in the air and shout, “Fighting Fantasy RPG RULES!”
• Elder Game gives an in-depth look as to what happens to the dev live team after a MMO launches, with World of Warcraft as exhibit A.
• Grimnir tracks the fate (and in come cases, present home) of many of us ex-Warhammer bloggers.
• An all-Aion blog, Aionic Thoughts, compares and contrasts between WAR and Aion, making the case why the latter will work as a PvP game when the former faltered.
• “Common MMO Myths”, Epic Slant?  Then where’s Bigfoot?  WHERE IS BIGFOOT?
• Five things I need to know about Champions Online — only five?
• Crispy Gamer takes an extensive tour through the new DDO.
• Is TOR’s voice-over production the biggest ever done in the HISTORY OF MANKIND?!?  Well,  let’s not get carried away here, but it is pretty dang big.