Multiverse Episode 19 – There be Gold here!

Last Friday we knocked out another episode of the Multiverse and it was one of our best shows yet! Gavin joined us as a guest and remained connected until the very end! Chris and I debated the virtues of gold buying and discussed some of the other interesting topics that came up this week in the news. Most importantly, “what is the point of MMOs?” Participation in the chat room was exceptional! We had our biggest turn out yet and hope to have more in the future. Join us live when we record this Friday at 7:30 PM EST.

The Multiverse – Episode #19 – “In Defense of Gold Buying (and the Point of MMOs)”

Intro:

* What have we been playing/up to this past week?
o New writers at Game by Night
* Thank you to Merric of Casual Stroll to Mordor for the 5-star review. *Sorry, I forgot to mention this during the recording. I’ll get you next time, Merric!

Roundtable:

* News:
o Symantec analyzes stolen accounts.
+ 44 million of them! Wayi – 16 million; Ncsoft – 2 million (60,000 from Aion); WoW – 16,000.
o Sony announces new Star Wars MMO.
+ Free to play with a subscription option to access more content. Browser based, mini-games.
# Syp reports, “Players will socialize in hubs, meet iconic Star Wars characters, and head off together or solo for a variety of activities, including spaceship battles, tower defense, card games, droid programming and speeder bike racing.”
# About 20 mini-games present at launch.
o Bioware claims SW:TOR to contain “50 novels of content”
+ ““The thing that has been a challenge for us on Old Republic is that people tried to convince us these limitations were canon – that they were to be respected, you know? That you could not, in fact, put interesting bits in an MMO because that was now sacrilege.”
* Main Topic: What is the point of MMOs – why do we play, what keeps us playing, and, really, what is the point? How do we feel about Bioware’s feelings that standard MMOs are pointless and what does this mean for TOR?
* Debate: Is it time to accept gold buyers?

Host Segments:

* Chris’ Blog of the Week: Not a blog, but a column! The Game Archaeologist.

Close:

* Shoutouts:
o Check out the new Vagary! We’re going to E3.
* Contact us at: multiversepodcast@gmail.com