Otherwhere Gazette » Games

A Game Tie-in Book With a Difference

27 May 2013 Your Remarks

If you’ve been following OG, you know that I am a fan of the MMORPG Guild Wars 2. Not too long ago, I came across a book set in the Guild Wars world, and was quite happy that I bought it. The book is , and it’s unlike most game tie-ins that I’ve read. Rather than telling a story about characters that you’ll never meet in the game, and dealing with events that really don’t have much to do with your game experience, Edge of Destiny tells a large chunk of the backstory of the world as you find it in Guild Wars 2. It also introduces us to a group of characters, at least one of which you’ll have the chance to not only meet in the game but even take … Read entire article »

Good news for Sims fans! [Updated]

23 May 2013 Your Remarks

I just noticed today, EA/Maxis is announcing that the next version of the Sims franchise will be available sometime in 2014. The Sims 4 page has just a bunch of simlish and a sign-up for updates right now, but at least now we know that it will be coming, though not exactly when… it could be January or it could be December 2014. I would imagine that means that Island Paradise will be either the last or the next to the last expansion for Sims 3. Just my luck, they always seem to bring out the best expansions right before they introduce the next version, and Island Paradise has me quite intrigued. Update: According to The Sims Wiki (which has been reading websites I was unaware of), the release date is “early 2014.” … Read entire article »

Back to School With Sims 3 University Life

16 March 2013 Comments Off

The good folks at EA/Maxis have unveiled their latest expansion for the Sims 3, and this one is well worth the investment if you want your sims to get ahead in life (I have met people who like to make their sims’ life miserable, to which I say, whatever floats your boat).  lets you send your Young Adult sims to college, finally. A university expansion was one of the first for Sims 2, so I don’t know why they waited this long to make one for Sims 3, but the wait is now officially over. Sending your sim to college has some really nice benefits. If you do it before they enter a career, they can start many careers at a higher level and salary, depending, of course, on their grades. Straight … Read entire article »

Guild Wars 2: An MMORPG With Several Nice Differences From Other Games

15 February 2013 Comments Off

Once again, I’ve been exploring the world of MMORPGs, and found one — thanks to some friends in SWTOR, another MMO — that has some really nice features that I haven’t found elsewhere. The game is Guild Wars 2, and at first glance it might appear to be the usual fantasy adventure game, hacking up monsters and bad guys either as part of a quest or just because they attack you while you’re on your way to a quest. However, GW2 has some really interesting ways of doing things. First off, there is no monthly fee. Yes, you read that right… no subscription fee. You buy the game (currently the  is a little over $50 on Amazon), and from then on you can play all you want with no charge. That right … Read entire article »

Wizard 101: A Family MMORPG Worth Playing

3 January 2013 Comments Off

Okay, I am betting that a lot of kids got computers from Santa this year, and parents are looking for games that their younger children can play relatively safely. Allow me to give one option: Wizard 101. I was introduced to it by my late friend who occasionally wrote here as DanaWheels, because of her disability it was one of the few MMORPGs she could play (more on that later). The setup is pretty simple… your child — or you, if you like — are a student wizard at the Ravenwood Academy of Magical Arts, located in Wizard City, a floating island in what’s called the Spiral. You belong to one of seven schools of magic to begin with: Fire, Ice, Storm, Myth, Life, Death, and Balance. When you set up … Read entire article »

Play As A Jedi — Or Sith — Soon To Be Free To Play **100th post no prize award**

20 August 2012 Comments Off

Unless you’re fairly new to the world of MMORPGs (as, honestly, I was up to a few months ago), you’ve probably heard that Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) is introducing a free-to-play option in the fall, likely some time in October. Given that I’ve become disappointed with the way Star Trek Online (STO) was handling some of their revenue-generating enterprises — let’s be honest, those servers do cost money, so even free-to-play games have to cover the bills somehow — I decided to give SWTOR a try, and I’m very glad I did. First, a quick word about the SWTOR free-to-play option. In order to encourage people to subscribe, they’re placing some limits on free players, including restrictions on character choices, on-planet transportation options, and mission choices. Since SWTOR is … Read entire article »

Star Trek Online: Turning A Non-MMORPG Player Into A Believer

20 April 2012 1 Remark

As you can tell from the headline, I’m not a big fan of MMORPGs. Maybe it’s just cause I’m a loner, but I never got into the whole online gaming thing. However, I am a big Star Trek fan, so when I saw that Star Trek Online (STO) had gone to a Free-To-Play format in January of this year, I decided to give it a try. And STO has won me over, at least to their game. STO is set 30 years after the events of Nemesis, and once again the Federation is at war. Romulus, the capitol world of the Romulan Empire, has exploded, leaving the Romulan and Reman peoples scattered and in disarray. The Klingons decide to break the Khitomer Accords (again) and once again become an enemy of … Read entire article »

Be A Superstar With Sims 3 Showtime

12 March 2012 Comments Off

I’m a Sims kinda guy. I bought the first version within days of it hitting the shelves, because it was put together by the same people that did SimCity, another perennial favorite of mine. I’ve had every Sims base game and expansion pack for PC since then, except that I think I’m missing one “stuff pack” for Sims 3. So, this last Tuesday (6 March), I visited my local software store and grabbed the latest expansion for Sims 3, called Showtime. All Sims games seem to add magic somewhere along the line, but in Sims 1 and 2, the magic was what you might call “real” magic, able to make changes to sims, either the caster or another sim. Showtime adds stage magic, as in illusions (with one exception, explained below), … Read entire article »

Get your game on at BoB

11 January 2012 Comments Off

If there’s one thing geeks enjoy as much as, if not more than, reading, it’s gaming. And gaming online is a big business (just ask the folks behind EverQuest). But some of us enjoy a bit of an old-school touch for our online gaming. Enter the Band of Brothers Simming Association. This is a set of “sims” (individual games) that run the gamut from an 18th-century Royal Navy ship to Star Wars, from the Civil War to Battlestar Galactica. And of course, the ever-popular Star Trek ship-based sims are heavily represented. Band of Brothers differs from other gaming associations or fleets because they don’t try to run things from the top down. Requirements for a sim to join Band of Brothers are very light, and the leadership of BoB doesn’t dictate how … Read entire article »

The Dark Lord’s Daughter

21 December 2011 1 Remark

Kate Paulk, author of and ConVent is a sick and twisted individual, and I say that with all affection as she’s a friend of mine. Her, rather odd, sense of humor (she’s an Aussie what do you expect?) led her to write a Pratchett-esque send up of evil overlords inspired by, what else, the video game series created by Sir Terry’s daughter. Have a snippet of this work in progress: I’d just about finished sending servants — mostly goblins and orcs, with a few trolls — and their children through the Tower Gate to the Watcher’s Peak Gatehouse when Daddy’s magic caught me by the neck and threw me into the Gate. I was in that horrible nothingness where there isn’t even up or down before I realized what he’d done. My body … Read entire article »

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