Twas the Day of Solstice and all through the net

Snow Colored Pixels on MMOGs they did set

Old Ascalon Covered in Wintry Delight

Inspired many to engage in a snowball fight

Then skating in SL at the Winterfest Inn

An axel, a flip, and even a spin

Then on to the ski lift, a ride to the top

For Heroes and Villains ski down the big drop

Lets do it again! Once is never enough!

But this time we’ll skinny ski in the buff

Laguna Beach winter looks more like Australia

But Christmas in There, hey what can I tell ya?

For Winter Solstice comes a visit from Santa

Who warms me up with a Flaming Banana

The daytime is short and so is this verse

Happy Holidays to all in the 3D Metaverse!

Virtual Society albatross18, christmas, cityofheroes, event, guildwars, secondlife, There, virtualmtv, winter solstice, worldofwarcraft

I have not posted here in two months because I have been playing Nightfall, the third chapter of Guild Wars. Guild Wars, in my opinion, has now reached a point where it has surpassed the rest of the MMORPG genre behind, reinventing the way we play online.

Guild Wars has always been an oddball in the genre. The only time you meet people is in towns, which has a cap of 40 players. Out of the towns its just your team of up to 8 and a lot of bad guys, or in PvP just your 8 and the opposing 8. Caps of this sort really lower the bandwidth and server side work needed to keep the game going. They pass the savings on to you in the form of no monthly fees. Three million players worldwide play.

In the past, when you did not have enough other players to fill your team, you could “hire” computer controlled henchmen to fill up the squad. It has always been possible to play the game solo with henchmen, but at a certain point it gets too hard and you start having to sit around and find a team.

Nightfall adds “heroes” whose powers and weapons are totally customizable. You can have up to 3 heroes on any mission with you and have some control over their behavior. Other games have allowed “pets” and “minions” etc., but no other game has ever allowed this much control. What it adds to the game is a new dimension of play. Picking the right heroes and powers is just as important as actually playing, and leads to a lot of fun.

You can still play with other players, and there is a dedicated PvP game that many enjoy that is not forced upon you, but for the individual player, it is now possible to solo the game if you want. I have soloed, using heroes and henchies, every mission in all three chapters of the game.

The only negative of the game is that it is possible to play each chapter in about a month. On the positive side, there is no “grind”. The highest level is 20 and it is easily reachable. Want to play again? Roll a new character in a different profession (there are 10 to choose from) and have a new experience in game play.

Virtual Society guildwars, mmorpg