Oh-nos! Anne failed her STR Check!
Hey DDO & DDOcast fans!
I failed my Strength Check this week and took 1d10 damage from an evil moving box this week. My cleric told me to rest as much as I can while my back heals. This means no pushing, pulling, lifting, driving, typing nor mousing (too much) until the swelling goes down. Sadly this means no DDO nor DDOcast for me this week. We have a lot of things lined up, but we’ll just have to save them for the following week, and present them to you live on Sat, Feb 11th.
Thanks to everyone who’ve already wished me well! And thanks to everyone for understanding, we’ll be back soon enough with your favorite DDO news! How could we not with U13 just around the corner this Feb 22nd!
In the mean time, enjoy this little cartoon by our friend Stan! over at http://www.10x10toon.com
Sincerely,
Anne
Festivult Jester Build!
Now with Simulated Drunken Stupor!
The jester is drunk and he trades cookies for coin, hard to say what class that is so its pretty much up to you. I went with a Wizard with two levels or Arty up front
My thinking is since the jester wears robes, I want a robe wearing class. I like the idea that as an artificer he makes goodies, and it gives me haggle as a class skill which seems appropriate. Wizard will give him access to the majority of the cookie spells. I went for pale master and be a zombie Festivult Jester which looks just a bit like a drunken stupor that you find the Jester in, but also because I just like pale masters a lot.
Mechanically, artificer-wizard is probably a little weaker than rogue-wizard. You miss out on evasion and a few skill points. What you gain is a nice starter weapon with the repeaters, access to rune arms as spell enhancing weapons, a tiny umd bump, and more spell points. In either case you get UMD and trap skills which are a nice side line for a caster. While evasion is unquestionably superior in end game, the cross bow and rune are are simply a lot of fun and make playing a low level caster a breeze.
More…
Annual X-mas Wizards of the Coast Layoffs
Rich Baker @ Wizards Community BlogToday, Wizards of the Coast eliminated my position. I have unfortunately been let go, after more than 20 years of employment with TSR/WotC.
Rich was at the forefront of Wizards of the Coast’s range of Forgotten Realms and core Third Edition D&D accessory books, and author of several novels set in and below Faerûn. He also answered questions about the Forgotten Realms at the Wizards website’s forums – see the below external links. He also headed design on the 4th edition D&D iteration of the Dark Sun Campaign Setting, along with numerous other credits for that edition of the game.
Also rumored to be let go was Steve Winter who joined TSR in 1981 as Games Editor.
Right on schedule WotC:
- Dec 2000 WotC Layoffs @ TheForce.NET
- Mar 2001 WotC Layoffs @ Salon – WotC Center in Seattle Closed
- Sept 2002 WotC Layoffs @ RPG.NET
- Jan 2003 WotC Layoffs @ The Seattle Times
- Dec 2005 WotC Layoffs @ Steve Jackson Games Forums
- Dec 2008 WotC Layoffs @ GameGrene.com
- Dec 2009 WotC Layoffs @ ENWorld
- May 2010 WotC Layoffs @ ENWorld
- July 2011 WotC Layoffs @ ICV2 (Also on ENWorld)
You can follow the Dec 2011 Layoff discussion at ENWorld’s Forum.
Nearly an annual trend ever since Hasbro acquired Wizards of the Coast in 1999 and it looks like there are not many of the old D&D guard on the permanent payroll.
Festivult Cookies & Cakes for Dec 2011
Hey DDO Fans and DDOcast Listeners,
Here are the list of cookies and cakes for this year’s Festivult in December 2011. I’ve included the whole list, including the five new ones and the updated ones (only two really). Enjoy!
DDO Tutorial Videos!
From of Hikaro of ThePCGamingVortex, great for new players! You can subscribe to his channel here!
DDO Store Has a new Look!
New looks and new features!
- Add to Cart buttons have been added that will allow you to add items to cart without leaving the current page.
- ’Quick Buy’ has been added to enable instant purchasing of a single item, eliminating the need to go to cart to confirm.
- Recent Buys are now on the Store homepage so you can quickly locate your personal favorites.
- Category arrows are now in the Browse menu to visually indicate that a sub-menu will appear when clicked.
- List View is a new viewing option that allows you to view over 7 items at a time when browsing.
DDOcast on G+
DDOcast does have a G+ account, but that could all change in a moment’s notice! Still, you can find it here: http://profiles.google.com/ddocast
Got caught by the Google+ name police: To use Google+ features (including Picasa) you have to be an individual not group nor multiple persons. You also have to use a real name if you get caught violating naming policies! And Google will ask for photo ID validation. (You can read more on Google+ Naming Policies here.)
Why: apparently Google says their naming policy cuts down on spam and phishing via social networks. So we thought it was worth the effort to work and keep a G+ account for DDOcast.
What does it mean for DDOcast: we’ll have to operate this G+ account under a single name. We decided to do this under Sig’s name. He does have another personal account though and really the only way you’ll tell the difference is by the profile icon.
How we will use G+: we’ll still post DDO news items and DDOcast announcements! so don’t worry about that! We’ll do that for as long as we can! We’re hoping that Google+ will have a way for organizations to have G+ accounts, but that also may mean that we’ll have to provide proof of “Doing Business As”.
The Caveat: Should G+ change its policies to say “no, you can only have one G+ account” then this will explain why we aren’t posting here! You can find our Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/DDOcast and our Twitter Feed here: http://twitter.com/#!/ddocast And of course our web site at http://www.ddocast.com
Here are our personal G+ accounts, though we can’t promise talk about DDO if you follow us! +Anne Trent and +Sigfried Trent
Day 3: PAX Prime 2011 Media Mix
A picture is worth a thousand words. Enjoy!
Day 2 PAX Prime 2011 Report: Expo Hall Adventures, Interviews, and Artificers
Day 2: Expo Hall, Uber Mice, Interviews and Boardgames!
In the morning we left to have brunch at the Hurricane Café at Keith Baker’s Eberron meet’n’greet along with Marcy Rockwell and her hubby, Alex. I’m really a shy person, so I didn’t talk much and Sig was far more interested in food! Marcy formally introduced us to Keith, who is a really nice guy and very talented. I’m very glad to have met him; maybe I’ll have more courage to talk next time. We set up an appointment with Keith to interview him later that day, and then quickly left to take Marcy to her book signing at the Turbine/WB booth.
We wandered the Expo Hall looking for new games and boy did we find games! After all, we had to make up for lost time due to yesterday’s camera machinations.
- Desus Ex, which is now on sale on Steam
- Borderlands 2
- Fire Fall
- Orcs Must Die
- Batman Arkham City
- Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. SKYRIM! OMG SKYRIM!
- Guild Wars 2
- Gotham City Impostors
- Bioshock Infinity
- Prey 2
Sig also walked away with an Uber gaming mouse that looks like it could double as a futuristic death weapon. This one is called Cyborg R.A.T. 9 gaming mouse by MadCatz. This mouse is rated the best mouse by Maximum PC magazine because of its highly customizable body and programmable buttons. Sig got it for that same reason why MaxPC loved it.
Following that, we had a quick interview with Keith Baker who was just fresh from viewing Artificers and the Lord of Blades raid in the DDO section of the WB/Turbine Booth with Fernando. We also caught Marcy Rockwell signing her new book, The Shard Axe. While at the Turbine boot we saw a few people running the Crystal Cove test to win a DDO Lifetime Membership prize. It’s a 4 Player contest and the winners all get the Lifetime Membership. After Marcy was done signing her books at the booth, we met up again to do a quick interview with her.
We got to touring more of PAX areas, which took longer because it’s spread out over all floors of the convention center, the convention annex across the street, the Sharaton hotel to the west, and the Paramount Theater to the north.
Most notable area was the Paramount Theater: this year PAX did a smart thing for its main attraction events and took over the whole theater. The city actually blocked out a whole street just for the line for events at the theater. A freaking whole street just for A LINE! People tell me that the wait was up to 2 hours just to get in for these crazy super popular events.
The Convention center’s Annex is actually another building across the street and was taken over by Halo Fest and Table Top games run by Wizards of the Coast. Halo Fest is amazing! They turned a single floor into a museum of Halo and mini lecture hall. And of course there were kiosks where you could play all versions and variations of Halo. Wizards took over 2 floors and dedicated one to Magic: The Gathering and the other to D&D. In the afternoon, we played a D&D encounter and The Legend of Drizzt Boardgame.
Floor Six of the convention center is where we found PC-Consoles-Tourny-Freeplay in addition to Mini-Dealers/Expo Hall and the PAX 10 indie games booth. I was really looking forward to trying out all the PAX 10 games, but I twisted my ankle trying to avoid crashing into other people. We did find a strange booth called “Church Games,” which I think is a religious gaming group (I think I’ll leave this one to Sig to explain).
Somewhere along the way I sprained my ankle, and decided to call it early and head home to play some video games. I was kind of sad to miss my friends I had planned to see at PAX, and I really wanted to take a look at the Guild Wars 2 panels and attend the party. There’s always next year though!
Artificers & Update 11 Dungeons and Dragons Online News
By now you’ve probably heard that Artificers will not be free nor “earnable” through favor for VIP account holders. This is true and Fernando did tell us this during our interview with him. I can totally see why people would be pretty annoyed by this and feel like they are being strong armed into paying for something they would otherwise expected to get for free (such as the Monk class or Favored Soul). Now if you are budget minded, then waiting 3 or more months for a new toy while others play for it will suck a lot of the fun out of the thing and leave you feeling cheated.
Sig himself didn’t like this idea, and he too knew fans would be up in arms about it. Design wise, it makes sense that Cannith favor would unlock the class, but making it unavailable when the class comes out is not a good call in his opinion – at least not long term.
I have to be honest with you though, I will be buying the Artificer when it comes out and had planned so before I won my Lifetime membership. When I heard the news, I wasn’t annoyed personally, but I knew many DDO fans would be. Both Sig and I have Turbine points saved up and the 1K points that we’ve gotten for a couple months have been great. We’ve easily gotten our money’s worth in points and it’s nice to unlock on all servers.
I also have to say that knowing both Tolero and Jerry now works for Turbine really changes things for me. There are fans of DDO working as employees of Turbine. Jerry and his wife are expecting a new baby. Knowing that the money I spend on DDO will go to them in some way and that makes me really happy. Also meeting the talented developers makes me want to give money to them, so I can see what new stuff they can come up with. Heck, if I had enough capital I would invest in Turbine.
There’s a saying: “Its OK to not like things, just don’t be a jerk about it.”
Overall, I would say if you don’t like it let them know and why, but don’t be a douche bag about it. Tell them what you were expecting as a DDO VIP player. Heck, tell them what you were expecting as premium or free player. But don’t forget to tell them what you did like about what they’ve done in the past and why you liked it. Perhaps if you ask nicely enough, they’ll do it again.
Stay Tuned for Day 3 Report!
Okay I think I’m done for now. I’ll do another write up tomorrow on PAX, for now I have to take some meds and put ice on my ankle.
DDOcast PAX Prime 2011 Schedule
Hey #DDOcast Listeners! Here’s our Schedule for PAX this year!
Friday, Aug 26th:
- 10:30am – 11:30am >> PAX Keynote w/ David Jaff
- 11:30am – 12:00pm >> At the Turbine Booth Hanging out while Marcy Rockwell signs her new book, The Shard Axe!
- 12:00pm – 1:00pm >> Interview with Fernando Paiz on DDO on the WB/Turbine Booth #932
- 1:30pm – 2:30pm >> IGN: GameScoop Live Podcast
- 2:30pm – 3:30pm >> Roam the Expo Floor & Look for new games!
- 4:00pm – 6:00pm >> DDOcast Meetup @ Taps Bar & Grill on 6th & Pine
- 7:30pm – 8:30pm >> Movin’ On Up: How to Make It in Video games Journalism
- 9:00pm – Late >> Warner Brothers/Turbine PAX Party!
Saturday, Aug 27th
- 10:00am – Noon Brunch with Keith Baker!
- 12:00pm – 1:00pm >> The Agony and Ecstasy of RPG Writing
- 1:00pm – 2:00pm >> Guild Wars 2: Designing a Cooperative Experience
- 2:00pm – 3:00pm >> Irrational Games
- 3:30pm – 4:30pm >> The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- 3:30pm – 8:30pm >> Play a game with anyone
- 9:00pm – Late >> Arena.Net GW2 Party @ their new pad!
Sunday, Aug 28th
- 10:00am – 12:00pm >> Roam the Expo Floor & test out new games!
- 12:00pm – 1:00pm >> G4, X-Play
- 1:30pm – 2:30pm >> Pitch your Game Idea
- 3:00pm – 4:00pm >> D&D Through the Ages
- 4:00pm – 5:00pm >> Gaming is a Lifestyle
- 6:00pm – 8:00pm >> St. Andrews Bar & Grill @ 7406 Aurora Ave
- 8:00pm - 9:00pm >> Try and record DDOcast Episode 231