I was thinking about some of the things we know about Star Wars: The Old Republic. It’s going to be a subscription game. It cost a hell of a lot to produce — perhaps more than $100 million. And yet they think they’re gonna have no trouble making their money back even if they have less than a million subscribers.
It’s no secret. I can do the math. They’re gonna be bleeding their subscribers absolutely friggin’ dry in the Bioware cash shop. But that’s okay! That would have really bothered me a couple years ago, but now — I’m buying space ships in STO and pets in Wizard101 and heck, EQ2 is even taking the bloodsucking thing to a whole new level by adding a new Vampire race to their cash shop.
So yeah. Totally there. Wave of the future, folks. Onto the blogroll.
Wizard 101
Daily Blogroll 12/2 — Rift-tease Edition
There’s a Rift Beta event this weekend, and that’s about all you’ll ever hear of the beta from this site at least. To call their license agreement secretive would be an understatement. In Rift, you start out dead, and then are sent into the past to, I guess, prevent the events that led to your death from occurring, or something. Best let them explain it:
Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, the survivors from the desolate future of Telara have resurrected champions and sent them into the past to prevent the dystopia caused by the Bloodstorm and the blindly faithful Guardians. Join the techno-magical Defiant in their fight to change the course of history!
Play to Win! Escape to Freemarch and you could be eligible to win an NVIDIA Geforce GTX 460 video card! Terms and conditions apply, click here for details. In-Game Prize Packs will be given away to ten (10) select players who complete the objective!
So, there you go. Log in, escape to Freemarch, and you could win a video card, or an in-game prize pack. You will never, unfortunately, be able to tell anyone in game WHERE you got that prize pack, because as far as future history is concerned, this beta never happened. The first rule is: You don’t talk about Rift Beta. The second rule is: YOU DON’T TALK ABOUT RIFT BETA! (Thanks to Amanda Rain for the Fight Club ref!)
Blogroll juiciness after the break!
WoW: Killing you is just Arthas’ way of saying “hello!”
I was grinding my way through the Howling Fjord quests in World of Warcraft today, just minding my own business, keeping an eye out for stray turkeys to kill (I don’t know why, @Longasc hinted that I should kill them). I’ve been staging a one-gnome assault on a nearby village of giants; I’ve fought their … Read more
Wizard101: Gardening 104
It’s been a busy day at my Wizard101 garden, on the test server. I was tending my plants and harvesting when, after a 5xp harvest from a Honeysickle, I unexpectedly leveled to rank 2. That meant I could train up in the advanced bug be-gone spell and get rid of the persistent insect infestation that … Read more
Wizard101: Gardening 103
It has not been a happy day for the Boomshrooms in my Wizard101 garden on the test server. Rank 2 bugs have moved in, and are buzzing around it, disturbing its rest. The Boomshroom is a difficulty 2 plant, even though it is only rank 1. I guess that means the bugs it gets can’t … Read more