Ye Olde Blah

Im not sure what gives mates but for whatever reason it seems i just cant be good at some games that i play. Not to say i should be but its rather frustrating to pour a ton of personal effort into something only to 'suck' in the eyes of your fellow game compatriots and not be worthy of anything worthwhile (guns and other such things).

what i am referring to is this place: guns4back2school.com

its not linked (to keep traffic out..) but if you head in there and check the forums and just read around a bit here and there you just may get the same impression that i get everytime im involved with that place, 'What a bunch of jerks'. Now its difficult to judge the true context of text alone, and sometimes although something was intended as a joke it wasnt made obvious or put together as you would think a joke would and you end up taking it seriously. Even still mates it just seems to really fly around there.

Ive been playing on their Natrual Selection server under the name Lougosh, cause its something else i use. Honestly its a front-row ticket to a festival of whining and bitching in complete and total absence of true teamwork, which is what the game is supposed to encourage. I've yet to aquire any sort of skill at the game (in my three years of playing it..) and absolutely no-one will give you any sort of advice. They can only muster a 'OMFG Noob' or 'Just stop sucking and you'll do fine' as a response to your inquiries. Im contemplating throwing in the towel mates and just finding something else to occupy my time, some days its just entirely too stressful to be fun anymore.

Guess this was a bit of a venting session but i feel a bit better now being back at Blah, and knowing that you lot wont usher in such responses as 'OMG Cry More NOOBZ'. You've much much more integrity than that.

Eh, I find that a lot in online gaming (which I do too much of I suppose)

Try doing any instance in World of Warcraft and you'll get that for any fuck up you do. Its just the internet mentality of everything having to go to one nerd's incredibly high standards.

Spot on, Phill.

One of the reasons I find MMORPGs less appealling than I should is because when you play an offline game for the first time, you don't expect to be good. That's not realistic, even if it does give you everything you need to be successful. However, online you're effectively playing in front of all these people and for some reason they expect you to perform for them - if you're not up to their standards they're upset, for whatever reason I don't know.

That's why I like playing games with people I know. I played PSO with some people I knew on a messageboard - and even had a few games with Sean and Wolfio I believe :D - and got Guild Wars because a mate of mine was obsessed with it, although that turned out to be a waste of money.

If you ask me, what you need is a free and popular online game that's free to play, everyone can do and can do so privately if they so wish. If only such a game existed! Well, one day it'll be Shining Online, but until then I present to you...

Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst!

It's got everything from the Dreamcast, Gamecube and Xbox versions - AND MORE! - and is free to download from http://psobb.com.

You don't even have to pay a monthly fee if you don't want to - there's a private server I use that lets me play for free. It's very simple and, if anyone was interested, I'd tell you how to set it up.

I'm playing right now and hopefully Ty will be able to join me soon. Give it a download and reply or PM me if you want to know more!

Then keep clinging onto the Shining Online hope :)

Sod it! seems you've gone for the evening mate, check your PMs eh? Cheers :)

Oh wow i'd love to join up. I played PSOBB for pay alot and it'd be great to play with the YOB crew.

I remember waaay back on DC fighting newts and winning... Till he disabled my mag :)

sounds pretty kl, i never played phantasy star.. what's it like?

and concerning the topic i think how good an online game is comes down to how good the community is, if it's the best graphics, best concept for gameplay etc. but then no-one ever helps you and you're constantly being abused and annoyed the games pointless.

gms of online games should be more strict when concerning their gaming population and give anyone who is just a prick the boot.

You're right Phill, they were ace times. I didn't know you'd played PSO BB - unfortunately if you want to play for free you'd actually lose your character, but if you don't mind playing again from scratch I'd be more than happy to accompany you! I'll send you a PM with the details in :)

QPRMan - it's an action RPG kind of like the Shining Soul games. It's got a more futuristic setting, but basically there are three kinds of characters - Hunters (swordsmen), Rangers (long-distance attackers) and Forces (magic), and you level them up by going on quests and exploring the planet Ragol. It can be quite overwhelming at first, as can any online RPG I suppose, but if you're interested in playing it I 'd be very willing to show you the ropes and get you trained up a bit. The website is http://psobb.com - have a look on there and see if it appeals to you!

I absolutely agree with you, too. Online games live or die by their community - who wants to play with a load of arseholes? Banter is fine, but the players I've most enjoyed playing with have all been polite, friendly and helpful - if there's anyone I don't like playing with I just leave the game. It's a shame but at least it means I don't put up with any crap!

Yeah I wouldn't mind. I had a level 60ish Force and wouldn't mind restarting.

I could use something to do on weekends because oddly enough, those are the only free days I have (unless the girlfriend gets out of work early then I spend it with her.)

Awesome news, Phill. Sean, Ty and I just cleared Forest 1, and we have our own team and everything.

I'll PM you the details!

I'm Fale, a Fomar. Same character I was before on the actual server.

Not sure how to reach everyone though heh.

My name is Seanibot
Thus far Newts, Ty, and myself met up in Sylvania 1, lobby 10.

Im not sure if we can trade cards being offline and all but i'll be sure to be on the lookout for you! No telling when im going to be on =/ sometimes my evenings free up and sometimes they dont at all =/

Look forward to hooking up with you =)

-Seanibot

Playing PSO brought back many memories, but it's great that I can now play it with some cool people :D

It was awesome playing with you guys last night :D We sure kicked that Dragon's backside ;)

Phill - did you get the PM I sent yesterday explaining it all? I hope so. I think Sylvania is one of the busier ships, so if set aside Block 1, Lobby 10 as our hang-out spot then we can meet there.

Our team is SOnline, so once we meet up I'll invite you and that way you'll always be able to tell when one of us is online. Add me to MSN - milonmustdie@hotmail.com - and we'll meet up and get going. I can even lend you a Mind Mag for a while to help out :)

sounds really good, especially as your all completely devastating by the sounds of things :P one question though, will it run on my quite weak computer?? i have got a graphics card, but can't run next gen games, i can run ff11 (not that i have it anymore :() so will this game be alrite to play?

Added you, Yeah I got your PM and everything is golden. I'll stick to that ship block and lobby then in hopes of catching one of you.

qprman - it's basically the same game that ran on the Dreamcast, so I reckon you'll be fine with your PC, especially if it ran FFXI. You can always set the graphics way down anyway if you have any problems, but I don't think you will. These are the minimum requirements anyway - http://www.psobb.com/guide/pregame/conf.php.

It was good to meet you in-game last night Phill - with two Rangers and two Forces onboard, Team SOnline is going to be a formidable force :D

Bit of a rant here mates sorry,

I'm sure most of you have had at least one online game in your past that to you seemed like a great time clear up until you actually got stuck in with your fellow game-mates.
Your there just trying to get your bearings and you've got at least two or three self declared experts yelling in your ears at you about how horrible you are, how your losing the game, how you should go die lonely in a corner.
For the most part that basically sums up my online gaming experiences for entirely too many years, and ive always wondered why in the hell does it have to be that way? Where are the quality experiences?

All of this is drudged up by my recent retry in the fabulous world of Natural Selection (i might've ranted about this in the past already)

Ha! I was writing up the previous in a brand spanking new shiny post and then i had a moment of clarity and decided to check to see if i had indeed done this before, and i had!
I went for another bite of the apple mates, and years after it still hasnt changed :( such a shame, its great fun with the right bunch of people.

I think ive healed inside, i feel better.. *hugs YoBlah*

I've only ever got into two online games properly: Guild Wars and Phantasy Star Online, the former because my friend played it and the latter because, well, it's PSO!

I think when I was younger I was all in favour of establishing myself in whatever online capacity I could - emails, forums, "social networking" etc. - but these days I just can't be arsed. I'm quite happy only playing Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst on my own or with Phil - I haven't even played with anyone else, don't think I will either (unless someone from here joins :D).

Of course, we all know that one game would have an amazing online community if only it would get finished... ;)