Posted on Google Plus recently

Blizzard TITAN MMO Leaked (sorf off) (Oct 21 2011)
https://plus.google.com/110873640795387924972/posts/TGoKPSeBLJC

Mists of Pandaria: shrinking verticals for players to meet on a fair ground (Oct 23 2011)
https://plus.google.com/110873640795387924972/posts/9PFXdS9W6Gv

Why MMORPG must get rid of the avatar health pool increase if the genre wants to survive (Oct 13 2011)
https://plus.google.com/110873640795387924972/posts/7Tkev41SfxB

Blizzcon predictions for World of Warcraft? (Oct 20 2011)
https://plus.google.com/u/0/110873640795387924972/posts/DWQMdvnnJ1U

Comments on Google Plus.

World of Warcraft subscriptions continue to fall

My opinion about it on Google Plus and the interesting discussion following up:

https://plus.google.com/110873640795387924972/posts/PPoZFDMNhQJ

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic versus World of Warcraft?

I took yesterday Dark Messiah of Might and Magic on Steam "Today's deal", gave it a go for nearly 2 hours and already have much more fun than with my World of Warcraft leveling/grinding past experience. Released in 2006, a year after WoW, the game is categorized as an Action/RPG and have a single and multiplayer feature (that i haven't tested yet). 

Blasphemy! Why compare it with WoW then?

Like many I don't consider WoW as a "social" virtual world/MMO anymore. See for example Wolfhead Online post about it (even if his interpretation can be a little far fetch, he has strong points). Like Blizzard states, WoW is just a game and there's nothing really more to it. We should then feel welcome to compare it to any other game.

Dark Messiah belong like WoW to the fantasy RPG genre but not the WoW "Heroic" (cartoony shiny spectral poneys anyone?) but the Dark subset which looks more "mature" (few good looking women at last :D !). 

What i really liked so far is the way my character progress and fight. He has abilities trees and gain new skills like in WoW but i now get the *Action* part of Action RPG :

- i am doing the parring/dodging myself not a stupid dice roll i have no control over like in WoW where you grind stats in a non challenging way to increase the probability of being successful lazy. I also can kick an enemy and take the opportunity to counter attack. 

- i *aim* at the foes both with melee and range weapons; meaning some kind of skill is welcomed, not just repeating the same keystrokes cycle on a locked target

- i can use the world against the mobs (destroying structures above them for example, throwing objects...)

- my aggro range is not just a simple distance check but depends on my ability to be hidden in the environment; You have a stealth meter adding an infiltration dimension.

That said i'll eventually miss the connection feeling you can have in a true MMO. Fortunately it looks like good Action MMORPG may come quickly. I just hope that after all this WoW years enough gamers will have the envy to be challenged and to actualy *control* themselves their characters.

Dark Messiah has been developed by Arkane Studios in Lyon France and also based in Austin Texas now (he he /wave Alachia).

How a gas worker without a telescope search and discovers four new exoplanets

I love this true story because it's such an astronomical example for the case for Open Data. 

Full story on Gizmodo

News on Slashdot

I haven't look at the datasets and search process but I suspect it could be possible to develop "serious games" feeding on these huge databases to accelerate findings and involve people who are not necessarily knowledgeable in the field.

Blog resolution 2011

I'm not a natural writer, always thinking in an wild hyperlinked fashion and having a hard time writing in a constrained linear form. That said I believe the exercise could be useful. This will be a low traffic blog aiming at one post per month (maybe per week). The background and aim of the blog is described in the about page.

Other blogs/mircoblogs attempts:

• "Snippets Log" (Snippets of comments, opinions, definitions that i stumbled on while surfing and that i find interesting or want to keep a trace of).

• 'Memo pad' : tech stuff (IT howto or updates on projects i'm working on)
  
• Pro'Am (r)evolution (not updated anymore and merging the theme with this blog)

You can also find me on Twitter.

Feel free to comment or to improve my English (I'm French).