1. Going to Live and looking for matches wasn't great. BUT playing single-player while leaving myself open to matches produced a stream of opponents. Guess its easier to be found rather than to go looking? Dunno.
2. Given *where* I am I'll have to say I'm pretty happy with my connection.
3. I lost most all the time; I stink. But the two wins I got were quality - nothing like beating someone with Dan Hibiki.
I haven't played Dungeon Runners (aka "Diablo and Search for the Grail get drunk and make a game") in a while, so when I decided to update it, I noticed they've got something new coming to the test server soon-ish. Okay, this is new, I thought things came to a stand-still a while ago! So, a little searching on their forums produced this from back in May...
------------------
I know we've been MIA recently. As for me, my absence from the forums and community is purposeful. I've got a real problem with speaking the truth on things even when I shouldn't. That can get me into trouble sometimes. Let me share what I can.
Our new microtransaction system is done. Our new website is done. Lots of new content is done. They've been ready for over two months now. We're waiting for permission to deploy our recent changes.
You see, after the failure of Tabula Rasa, major changes have happened in NCsoft Austin. As of now, there is no game development happening in the Austin offices. The DR team is the only game development team still working for NCsoft in Austin. I use that phrase loosely because we're currently in a holding pattern. Let me clarify that. We are sitting on our hands while upper management figures out what to do with us. It's this "figuring out what to do with us" that I can't elaborate on too much.
Rest assured that we're working as hard as we can on getting a resolution to our situation. The development team wants to get back to work. Really we do.
So, why can't we release our updates? We have no QA resources. The local QA team was fired / relocated to Seattle to work on other games. Since we have no QA resources assigned, we are not allowed to deploy any updates. It's my opinion that we should utilize interested players to test our updates before release. However, in the current climate, that's not gonna fly yet.
My last posting was that we were waiting on more information. Well, as you may have recently read, our US CEO has changed positions -- with a new CEO coming in from HQ in Korea. This change has caused all manner of delays in getting the status of DR resolved. As of last Thursday, our communication issues with HQ have been resolved. We are finally making some tangible progress in finalizing the future of DR.
We've been asked to provide more information to Korea about our plans for the game. We did so as of Friday afternoon. I expect we'll hear more about what's being decided next week. Although, there's no guarantee. These kinds of things can take quite a bit of time to turn around.
Is the future of Dungeon Runners certain? Nope. It's possible that we could all get fired and the game could be shutdown. However, you don't want that. And the development team doesn't want that. And upper management for NCsoft West doesn't want that. We have a plan that we're trying to implement... and we need to convince the deciders in Korea that this plan will work.
What's that plan?
1. Make Dungeon Runners a streaming download that can be played directly from a website. This is complete already.
2. Change the game from a monthly subscription to a microtransaction model. This is complete as well.
3. Make the game playable from within Facebook. This is on the way.
If we can get management to give us their blessing on our plans then we will be able to move forward. It's killing us that we haven't gotten movement on this yet. We really feel that progress is being made on the decision from management.
I will post an update at least once a week on where things stand.
My apologies for being MIA so long.
steve
------------------
Which is interesting since Dungeon Runners was originally slated to be free with micros instead of free-mium with ads like it currently is. I had applauded NCSoft, on both counts, for trying different revenue models, different games, and for just producing a different game than what's normal. DR is humorous, casual, and has free-form character development (ie, no preset ****s) which I find to be pretty neat.
I like the upcoming changes, particularly the Facebook integration. I might have more than a few friends I'd play with. Likewise, I hope they work that particular change into Exteel as well. Giant mechs go boom! :)
Magic the Gathering - I like this so far. For the price of a starter deck or so I can just futz around with Magic: The Money Sucker and have fun. Granted, my real cards go a little unloved as a result, but I rarely play anyhow. Bonus? Online play. Haven't tried that yet; still getting whipped around by the computer.
Puzzle Fighter HD - fun enough. More of a "play with friends" title for me.
Worms - same as Puzzle Fighter. I loved that game on PC, though :)
And needless to say, I'm looking forward to playing Mark of the Wolves when it comes out. Hopefully the don't try altering the graphics... SNK games need their pixilation! Its part of the style!
1. My new video card (MSI Radeon 4670 w/1g ram) is in. A nice little performance boost all around. While not revolutionizing my gaming or anything, I have seen gains in Demigod, City of Heroes and Left4Dead. Its a LOT quieter too - instead of getting a lawnmower starting up when I turn on my PC, its nice and quiet. Likes Windows 7, too.
2. Plants Vs Zombies. Fun game. Silly game. Go download the demo.
3. EA Sport Active. My brother got this from Costco. Monday I tried a workout and it murdered me. Only got halfway done before going "oh to hell with this." Today? After some recovery I started the 30-day Challenge program, selected low-intensity, and made it through. Hot, sweaty, tired, but made it. I like it more than Wii Fit. Worth noting because...
4. Had my follow up physical. Weight is down, good. Bad cholesterol and blood sugar went the wrong direction. Doctor has ordered 150 minutes of exercise per week. Also, a childhood friend, "exercise induced asthma" has returned. So, got an inhaler, got a plan for exercise/diet, and *hopefully* will have better results next go 'round.
Games are great and fun, but so is having a good quality of life when I'm older!
Its horribly out of sync, though.
I like the looks of it, myself. I gave my iPod Nano to a friend, so I'm in the market for a media player again... hmmm...
Nice to see that competition with the DS, DSi and iPhone is keeping Sony moving.
I don't know why,but I've got no real interest in E3 this year aside from hoping NCSoft shows off something concerning the new City of Heroes expansion or Guild Wars 2. Truth be told, E3 seems to be hording all the news; all the goodies are being saved for announcements. You may have noticed I've been pretty darn quiet lately, and honestly, this is likely why.
Egad... no news is boring!
I'm not saying there's nothing interesting going to happen. I'm just saying that, for once, I don't seem to have much anticipation or anticipation.
On the plus side, I've ordered a new video card, and will soon have a Radeon 4670 with 1g RAM to replace my GeForce 7900 GS with 256 megs RAM. For under $100. And for the record, 1g is how much RAM I think the PS3 should've come with because of Blu-Ray.
I just reinstalled DMC4 on my fresh install of Win7RC. Have you played the PC version? Its great, and I defintely felt like I got my $40 out of it. HOWEVER, its got two issues I didn't have in XP Professional:
* Dumb thing wants to install DX9. If you start installing and it seems to, well, stall, this is it. Wait it out. Go get a sandwich.
* Showstopper! When attempting to play the game, SecuRom gives me this: http://www.securom.com/message.asp?m=emu&c=2500
I have no such software installed. I don't know if Windows 7 has anything giving it a false positive or actually includes such tools (using Windows 7 Ultimate, so its possible), but right now I can't play the game as a result.
Just a word of warning. I've already contact Capcom's support, and hope to hear something back or at least warn them that there will be machines that won't be able to run it due to this DRM goof-up. DMC4's implementation of SecuROM is fairly benign otherwise - never had stability issues, got good performance, and only had to keep the disc in (no calling home). Here's hoping they fix this soon.
In the meantime? Thank you, Brad Wardell, for not putting me through this when I reinstalled Demigod :)
Today has been a busy-ish day!
* Done laundry
* Been cleaning/reorganizing my bedroom, including moving my computer and 360
* Backed up my computer
* Upgraded from Windows 7 Beta to Windows 7 Release Candidate
* Re-installing programs
I am a little annoyed at myself since I cannot find my Adobe Premiere Elements 4... while not totally in love with it, the fact is that program cost me $100 means I would like to know where the devil I put it! Also, since I'm running the 64-bit version of W7, it can benefit from all 4g of RAM I've got. Naturally, I really need another harddrive, preferably a fast one, but oh well. Also looking for my various games like Left4Dead, Demigod, etc. Otherwise, my most important apps like Firefox and OpenOffice? Good to go :)
This morning I weighed myself, and came up as being 209.8lbs. I've been trying to get under 210lbs for maybe two years now. This was the "just get to hear for now" weight my doctor set for me. Ideally I should be under 200lbs. Quite a bit under (190-180lbs would be great, 170lbs fantastic). Obviously I've still got a ways to go.
So, please, take a note from your "elder" and not let yourself get into such a position of being overweight like that.
Love you guys, and would prefer not only for you guys not to hear I had a heart attack while walking up the stairs, but would greatly prefer not to hear it about you, either.
Only casual play, mind you, but I'm loving it. I als had my first multiplayer game today. It took a while to start a game, but once it did? Nice. No lag, played smooth, and except for people quitting on the losing team it was great.
Not sure how to communicte in it. Anyhow, you'll find me here...
http://pantheon.demigodthegame.com/25850
I'm playing with Oak, usually focusing on Raise Dead Ward and Surge of Faith. When I get to it towards the end I love Last Stand and Soul Power. During the match I followed either reinforcements or other players (usually Assassin-types), dropped my flag, and joined into the frey as support. I've also made sure to help keep our Citadel upgraded, and have even locked a portal flag once or twice just so we didn't lose it.
Great stuff :D
Log in to comment