It’s Come Back To Camelot time once again according to the Camelot Herald:

We kicked off the Come Back To Camelot campaign this morning. All inactive accounts (ones that were in good standing) have been reactivated for ten days.

To celebrate, and as a little thank you to all of our current players, the Moderately Evil Overlord and his minion (Content Boss Rob) decided that in ADDITION to the SI/RVR bonus experience, we would also activate double Realm Points and double Bounty points on Agramon Island. Enjoy.

I’m going to give DAoC a try again. I’m getting bored in CoV again.

*Update
From the Herald:

Come Back To Camelot: Boy, do I feel like a dweeb. I assumed that we were activated ALL old accounts, and you know what they say about “assume.” We activated all accounts that went inactive as of the last year, not all accounts ever – I have been told in somewhat blistering terms that “all accounts ever” would still be processing. Since this was entirely my bad, please feel free to email me (first name at mythicentertainment dot com) with the account name, if you went inactive more than a year ago. I apologize to those of you annoyed by this.

Did I mention I was playing Dark Age of Camelot again? I often go back to this one. It’s on my mind enough to post this info on the new expansion pack called Darkness Rising. Yeah I’m bored. Here is the info:

In Darkness Rising, an evil uprising threatens the land and the mightiest heroes in the Realms are called into service. For the first time in Dark Age of Camelot, players will be able to earn the right to be called a Champion of the Realm. Players become Champions by exploring new zones and revisiting altered lands while investigating the mysterious uprising to discover its sinister underpinnings. By performing this service for their Realm, players achieve new levels of advancement and gain the ability to wield class-specific Champion Weapons. Darkness Rising also introduces majestic player-controlled horses and other more fantastic steeds which can be ridden into conflict in the war between the Realms.

And here is what little info they spill on these Champion classes:

Champion of the Realm Details:

• Champion Weapons are available for all Champions of the Realms. Each class in the game has their own specific weapon, uniquely tailored to that profession.
• Advanced mounts are available to Champions of level 45 and above. Mounts include Nightmare, Unicorn, Warhorse, and the Undead Phantom steed, among others. Advanced mounts can be used in PvE and in Realm vs. Realm zones, given a unique name, and customized by adding saddlebags, armor, and barding.
• Champion Levels allow players to gain new skills and learn abilities from other classes (“sub-classing”) – for example, a fighter can learn mage spells by sub-classing.

And finally four screen shots of the horses:

This expansion pack will be available from Mythic selling for $19.99 via digital download this October or so they say in their press release. Once again I think World of Warcraft has influenced features in DAoC. Horses of course getting an upgrade or two compared to how they function in WoW. And how about Mythic beating WoW to the Hero class? I’m not sure if either games really hold my interest anymore. I do have a very strange fascination with the game Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. But that’s a story for another time.

It seems Mythic is going to beat a dying horse to death. This Mythic Press Release details how they are at work on a third retail expansion for their game Dark Age of Camelot. Here is the mandatory quoted text:

Catacombs deepens the world of Dark Age of Camelot by adding new content beneath Albion, Hibernia, and Midgard, said Matt Firor, Vice President of Development and Executive Producer at Mythic Entertainment. Instanced dungeons support a more casual gaming style by giving players exclusive play sessions for groups of all levels and abilities.

Catacombs system of player versus monster instanced dungeons will allow more casual players of Dark Age of Camelot to quickly find and adventure in exciting and challenging areas geared to their level. By eliminating the need to search (and sometimes wait) for monster encounters, in Catacombs, players generate private adventuring areas for their groups on their schedule.

New technical features for Catacombs include:

• Major art upgrade to Dark Age of Camelot player character models utilizing the EMotion FX 2 graphics engine that provides more detailed facial features, hairstyles, and skin tones as well as enhanced armor, clothing options and character animations.
• Instanced content will allow player groups to adventure in private dungeons.

New content for Catacombs includes:

• Players can explore a new underground city for each Realm based on the backstory of one of the Realm?s underground player races. Each city leads to new dungeons, catacombs, enemies, loot and adventures.
• One new playable class for each Realm.
• Content will be provided for all character levels.

As if the tedium that Trials of Atlantis was not enough. Now we get to have instanced dungeons. It just seems like that is the hot thing to have in a mmorpg these days and those boys at Mythic didn’t want to be left out.

My question is will this be enough? A november release is pushing it’s luck with entering the retail market around the time World of Warcraft will come out (I hope). Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying Mythic should put it’s collective heads between their asses and kiss it good by. I’m just wondering if this expansion and the free RvR expansion will be enough to keep the mass migration to WoW when it comes out. And I know it’s going to happen.

If Mythic should take anything from WoW it should be the way quests are done. Make them more fun. Make them more accessible to the newbs. I’m not saying for them to steal the yellow exclamation point or anything. I’m just saying do something to add on to the “story” of the game. Make it interesting to do quests that are sorely lacking in the current game as it stands today.

Well after 32 days, 18 hours, and 14 minutes of total played time in Dark Age of Camelot I finally dinged 50. I’ll update my little picture later (it still says 49) because I’m still playing. I oddly enough feel pretty happy for finally dinging. I guess I should be happy. Anyway now all I can say is “bring on World of Warcraft!”

I only hinted at what I was really trying to say a few posts ago. The post called Virtual Wolds just didn’t some it up will enough and I’ve thought about this subject for a bit. Before I start let me make you read a passage from Henry V by my bud Bill:

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition

This comes from a speech that King Henry gave to his men right before a major battle. A battle that the english army had to face a far superior french army. This speech is my favorite of all of the bards work. It just says something that is hard to put into words, yet Shakespeare was able to do it.

If you never read this one I really recommend you follow this link (scroll down to line 30) first and then come back here. This Crispin’s Day speech is even used for military recruitment over in england. And you have to admit it is a pretty powerful bit of text.

It’s rather fitting for the game Dark Age of Camelot. But it is something that just may transcend this mmorpg I play. These people I play with no longer are just buddies I have in a game. It’s become something more than that. Friends are what they all are now. It doesn’t matter what age they are. It doesn’t matter if they are male or female. Race or Color has no bearing in this friendship I share with these people.

And in a world with so many problems is this “virtual friendship” I have with these people so bad? I don’t think so. As the Bard says “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother”, and it applies to real life and mmorpg’s. And that’s good enough for me.

This post regards the mmorpg Dark Age of Camelot. I have been playing the game since after a few weeks of it’s release. I have one character that I’ve been playing since that time. Turk Shakespeare the Mercenary. I play over on the Bors server on the side of Albion. When I started playing I wasn’t very social. In fact I was pretty anti-social.

I used to tease people that played these games and got into them heavily. I joined a guild not to soon after I started playing. The guild is called the Acolytes of Destruction. I didn’t really know the people in the guild that well. I didn’t try to hard to get to know them either. I just kept to myself and did my thing.

That of course has all changed. I run the guild site (not the guild) and I happen to know a lot of the people that are in the guild. The whole reason for this post is that I had received some shit from a real life friend about playing the game. About how far I had got into it. I tried to explain that it’s not a bad thing, playing this game and getting into it.

He even commented about how it’s like a 3d chat client. Not in those words per say, but he was close enough. I suppose it is. But the thing is, I consider these guys and gals I play with all good friends. Sure there are some I don’t know so well. Sure some of them I don’t know on a real name basis. But that’s not the point. I enjoy the company of these people in this virtual world we play in.

My real life friend didn’t mean anything by the comments. I know that. He likes giving me shit and that’s ok. Given the chance he would get into as much as I have. But his comments did give me the idea to write about all this stuff.

One of these days he may get the chance. I have a second account and it’s just sitting there at the moment. So maybe one of these days I can get him to pop on and say hello to all these guild buddies of mine. And maybe, just maybe he will get into it as much as I have.

Woot (as they say)! A guild-mate named Dirkgranite Signed the GuestBook. I just had the chance to die with the man and it’s a honor. Anyway here is his head swelling (mine) comments:

Dude – Your site rocks. Is it considered sarcasm when it’s true? Keep it up.

Sarcasm is always true. I don’t care what anyone says to the otherwise. Keep it up? Dirk I’ll never quit. Well as long as I work at the hotel, that is. The hotel is my muse.

So I’m playing with this same group now for a little while and I wonder if it’s a good thing to have them see this site. They will walk away from this place thinking I’m a fucking lunatic. Places of interest for my AOD brothers would be my thoughts on the game we all play and maybe the FAQ would help as well. It will help to remember that this is a strange place. You have to watch out for the weirdo’s that it attracts.