Shut up and take my money

 Hex the MMO.

Artifact Card from Hex

There are a lot of games on Kickstarter that look awesome and as such the people behind them are trying ever harder to catch the attention of us gamers so we pick just their project to invest in.

And I wont deny that I have gotten a lot more cynical since the huge influx of Kickstarter project post started flooding my Facebook wall a year or so ago, but I will still claim that when you have a game that is awesome. You do not need stupid sales acrobatics to get the funding needed.

Hex is currently on Kickstarter and with 20 days to go it has already doubled the pledge it put up and I am really happy about that, but I hate, hate, hate the sales pitch video they have created. For me it takes away from the real purpose of telling us about the game and just goes into cringeworthy clown and circus territory. I was sold at TCG + MMO, I don't need to see Cory Jones having a fake kidney removal. I get that you are trying to show your passion for the game, but it just takes away the focus from what I am really interested in, namely the gameplay. (I must admit though that handing out the phone number at the end of the video was cool. Cool and possibly very stupid, but still cool). But really, will you just shut up and take my money?

Anyways, enough whining, lets have a look at why Hex: Shards of Fate has me excited enough to create a long rant post about their marketing video.
According to Cryptozoic Entertainment (who btw is behind the WoW trading card game), this is going to be a whole new genre. A cross between traditional TCGs and MMOs where you battle your opponents with decks build from cards you either buy in booster packs or more interestingly find when exploring dungeons with your avatar.

And cards are not the only treasures you will find during the PVE aspect of the game. No, there will also be items that you can equip your cards with and gems, that can be used to complete change how the cards work.

Excited yet? Great, but there is more. Cryptozoic Entertainment promises that there will be features like Guilds, Auction House and of course PVP battles.

Imagine doing TCG style raids with your guild to get a chance of a really rare card or piece of equipment.

How about doing an early solo dungeon run and getting a best in slot item, which you can then turn around to sell, enabling you to buy the one card you are missing for the perfect deck. Sounds pretty awesome to me.

Oh and then of course there is the whole part about tournaments where you can compete with other players.

The actual TCG gameplay looks fun and easy to learn (yet hard to master) so hopefully both veteran card players and newcomers will find it enjoyable.  Here is a gameplay video of a Hex battle.


You can read more about card types here.

Hex is a super smart concept. If it becomes succesful Cryptozoic Entertainment has a true cash cow on their hands as they can keep developing cards that can then be sold onto poor addicted collectors like yours truly. At 2$ per booster pack they are looking at a real nice income if the concept of Hex takes off. And I hope it will. I like the idea and as people who have played and enjoyed Puzzle Quest will agree to mixing genres often makes for really enjoyable gameplay and allows for a bigger marked than staying tied to the traditional game genres.

If you think Hex sounds interesting then it might be worth throwing some money after it at Kickstarter. Many of the packages they offer gives you extra value for the money you put in and all of the packages will give you beta access.

If you are on the fence you can wait for the game to be released in September 2013 and you can check back here once in a while as I will certainly add updates when I have had a go at the game. Also make sure that you check out the official Hex Site for more information. 

Temporarily demoted to casual gamer

When I was a student I had oceans of time to game. I would spend at least 5 hours a day in front of the computer engrossed in my current favourite timesink.
Now I have sadly had to grow up a bit, get a real job, sort paperwork and bills, shop for groceries and cook dinner and it all takes time. Oh yes, it doesn't help that being pregnant has changed me from a 2 a clock "just one more turn" night owl, into a woman with an aching back who falls asleep at 8 PM in the evening like clockwork.

What this means is that I have despairingly little time to play games. So what do you do as a hardcore gamer when you do not have enough hours in the day to actually emerge yourself truly in the newest RPG game that you have been waiting impatiently for, forever.

Well you turn to casual gaming at least for a little while just so you can get at least a taste of the magical world you love so much.

For me right now the casual game of choice is World of Warcraft. I know this might give hardcore raiders a sour taste in the mouth, but I promise I am not there to join your LFG raids in my half green half blue gear.

I just do Pet Battles. Pet Battles are quick, fun and gives me a sense of achievement that can be obtained with approximately 30 minutes of daily basis, moreover the pet battles are turn based so if the potatoes starts boiling I wont wipe my group out just because I have to leave the keyboard. Even better noone will be complaining at me when I return 40 minutes later because my pregnancy brain set in and completely wiped any memory of playing WoW and instead dragged my attention to one of my newly installed tablet quiz games.

Another awesome thing about Pet Battles is that I get my urge to do Youtube videos satisfied. I am recording videos showcasing the Pet abilities of each of my collected companions and recently I have started creating videos from the PTR giving people an idea of the upcoming Elite Battle Pets. Like this fight against Gorespine.


When I start having more energy and hopefully when I get a baby who sleeps through the night and takes frequent naps during the day, I will get back to hardcore, many hours in a row gaming, but for now Pet Battles really does fit my tight gaming schedule very well. What is your favourite casual game?

The Repopulation - A light at the end of the tunnel for MMORPG crafting fanatics?

I woke up this morning wanting to write a rant about the sad state of crafting and player driven economy in MMORPGs today.
While doing research for my blog post I stumbled upon a gem of a game that I have somehow managed to overlook.
The Repopulation is a scifi MMORPG that market itself on being build on the same principles as UO, Vanguard and more importantly Star Wars Galaxies.

People who know me, know that I loved SWG. It was the first MMORPG I really got into and it was the first one I actually payed for. I was a Weaponsmith, the best on my server (at least if you ask me ;)) and I was for some time the Weaponsmith Correspondant as well. The reason I was dedicating so much time to SWG was because it allowed you to stand out. If you dedicated yourself to a profession, if you spent time building up your business, you could become famous. Years after I quit the game due to Sonys rewamp of the basic game mechanics I still found people mentioning me and my weapons on the official forum. And I loved it!

 Anyways, The Repopulation promises to give you the same opportunity to first of all just be a crafter as your main role and also that you can specialise yourself in a certain niche, making you the go to crafter for those particular items. The game is currently in the Alpha stage, but it still looks as polished as many big titles out there and much, much more interesting. The Repopulation will be free to play, but with the option to buy the game and with an item store.
You can currently support the development team financially in order to get a headstart when the game launches. I advice everyone to check out the crafting video and other gameplay videos from the game and join me in the OMG, OMG, OMG SWG has been resurrected dance.