Decoding Dragons

I am, as they say, excite

There is no polemic today, just a wish to start using the blog more often, in amongst all the hubbub and upheaval of moving to a new job, and a new city. So lets get some things out of my brain and onto the computer screen.

Folkmanis Puppets

While the twittersphere has been extremely enthusiastic about Squishables (and yes they are very cute), I’ve been buying up Folkmanis Puppets for the child of some very dear friends of mine. There is something innately satisfying about sending a Tyrannosaurus Rex to a toddler after they’ve visited the Natural History Museum for the first time. These puppets make fabulous gifts for kids, and you can be as geeky as you like – there are dinosaurs, dragons, bugs, a whole range of cute animals that make great ‘cuddly toys’ or actual puppets.

Folkmanis Tyrannosaurus Rex

A Folkmanis Tyrannosaurus Rex Puppet with a Volcano in the background.

Tardis Ceramic Money Box

This is a classic piece of merchandise and I’m really glad Zeon have brought out a new version of the classic ceramic tardis money box. I’m a little worried that my room will get a little too Doctor Who themed, but the police box look is so classic, and I really do need to start saving some pennies so this would be the perfect excuse.

Doctor Who Tardis

A ceramic money box in the shape of Moffat-era Tardis

Alternatively it will be a perfect present for some Doctor Who loving friend in the future, seeing as I could start saving by NOT spending £16 on this item. I’m still excited by it though!

I am very excited about the Dreamblood Duology

I am very much spoiled for choice when it comes to books at the moment. Apart from a metric ton of books for study purposes, I’ve also recently finished The Killing Moon by NK Jemisin. This is a fabulous book because the author does not adhere to the ‘European medieval’ style of fantasy. While there is sexism, of a type, and sexual violence in the books she has written in a way that takes into the account the true impact of sexuality, of violence, of the competing natures of cultures and religions where one might hold dominance.

For me that’s a huge part of why it’s important to raise intersectional issues – the task is never about eradicating problematic things from fiction altogether, but about making authors aware of the impact of their work, and getting a little sensitivity towards the wider nuances and realities. Not that NK Jemisin needs that awareness, she already has it in bucketloads, but I think the majority of SF writers could learn a lot by reading her work. While a lot of George RR Martin’s work does perpetuate seriously racist fantasy tropes, and he is guilty of using rape far to often to illustrate how brutish or ‘gritty’ his world is, the women that populate his world are some of the most interesting the SF/F world has to offer simply because he really does take into account the gendered way the characters are treated and grow up. For me, I feel that it’s that ability to regard the women as real characters in their own right and not just companions to male protagonists that makes the books interesting at all. If he didn’t, the seedy nature of what happens to a lot of the female characters would render the books even more unpalatable. (And I should note that many feminist readers have serious issues with GRRM, I am amongst them I just happen to still love the characters.)

Anyway, back to NK Jemisin. The reason I am excited is because The Killing Moon is the first book in the Dreamblood Duology, and the second book is due to be released in June. I don’t know who decided this, but I adore the idea of releasing two parts of a Duology so close together.  Is this a new approach in the publishing world? I don’t particularly care if it’s new, but I shall look for it again. The second part of the Duology is called The Shadowed Sun. I highly recommend The Killing Moon in the meantime, and you can read sample chapters from both books up at her website.

Beta would have me excited

Guild Wars 2 owns my soul at the moment, but ArenaNET seems to be magically scheduling Beta Weekend Events whenever I am busy. I can’t wait to get stuck into Tyria, but at the rate I’m going I’m going to be virtually unspoiled when release date finally rolls around. Every time I see some Charr art flash up on Tumblr I get excited all over again, and I’m actually looking forward to possibly roleplaying again. It isn’t a Jesus MMO, but it will be FUN exploring.

The Secret World I am still on the fence about. It’ll really come down to whether I feel I can justify another box cost and another subscription. Guild Wars 2 is already purchased so I can legitimately get excited about it, without worrying that finances won’t work out when release date rolls around.

Mists of Pandaria is…quietly exciting me again. For all that I’m not playing now, I can see myself picking up the expansion and pootling around with a Pandarian Shadow Priest, and that Dwarf warlock I’ve been promising myself since reading a very enthusiastic post by Cynwise. That said the ‘world’ hasn’t really excited me. What got me interested again was playing my Shadow Priest, so my interest could be extremely short lived. I’m not playing the beta, and am unlikely to.

This is just the tip of the iceberg lettuce

There are many things that have me excited, and no the least is being able to participate in geeky events and meetups in London, now that I’ll actually be living there. I won’t promise more posts, but more ideas than ever are bubbling away in draft form. One day I might even publish them.

 

I am, as they say, excite was published on May 30th, 2012, with the tags , , , , , , , , , , , , under the Meta-blog category. There are currently 1 comment on this article so far.

[The Secret World] £200 for digital items and a life time sub?

So Funcom have opened pre-orders for their new alternate universe MMORPG The Secret World. The available packages, online at least, are a bit complicated. Keep in mind that this is the latest in a slew of expensive collector’s editions and deluxe digital packs in new and upcoming MMOs. So before I dive into the details about Funcom’s pricing package, let’s take a look at the existing triple A releases.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

This was released in ‘Standard’, ‘Digital Deluxe’ and ‘Collectors’ editions, priced at £45, £60 and £130 respectively. The collectors edition had all the digital items of the Digital Deluxe, plus a few extra.  The physical items included a music cd, a book, a map, a statue, an authenticator and some high quality ‘collectible packaging’. Those ‘physical items’ were priced at a hefty £70 alone. I can’t speak to the quality of them, so take a look at the unboxing video.

Plus you have the price of the sub on top of that

Guild Wars 2

Similarly, ArenaNet are releasing their new flagship game in ‘Standard’, ‘Delxue’ and ‘Collector’s‘ flavor, priced at £50, £65 and £130. Again, the game includes all the perks of the other editions, plus a wonderful looking figurine, sound track cd, a book, and an art portfolio and prints.  I’ve already pondered this pre-order, so I won’t go into it too much. Suffice to say that to me, these items look more attractive than the physical items of SWTOR, but I think that is very much a ‘mileage may vary’ scenario.

But there is no price of the sub – however limited character slots and cash shops…hmm.

The Secret World

Ah yes. The big announcement. The package system works as follows.

The basic game (£40)

  • 3 Character slots
  • Access to beta weekends
  • early access to the game
  • Name reservation
  • xp boost
  • In-game t-shirt
  • Combat pet

Initiate Pack (£12.49)

  • Factional clothing
  • Weaponry
  • a non combat pet

The Master Pack (£50)

  • 30 days of game time
  • an additional character slot
  • 1 name reservation
  • high end beginner items (7)
  • Experience boosting potions
  • 10% lifetime discount on full priced items from the clothing store

The Grand Master Pack (£160)

  • Contents of Master Pack
  • Lifetime Sub
  • Exclusive Snake-skin Jacket

So a couple of things to note. These packs are in ADDITION to the basic price of the game. Name reservations and character slots can be purchased for the price of £8.50 per reservation/slot. So this isn’t a case of all or nothing as with the traditional collector’s edition. The Grand Master Pack is, in effect, a lifetime sub with a few extra digital items. There doesn’t appear to be any physical collectors edition in the same vein as SWTOR or GW2, and as thin as those CEs look, the major advantage for TSW’s Grand Master Pack is it’s flexibility. You don’t have to commit to the game straight away to get all the perks.

On the other hand, a lifetime sub next to GW2′s model of box and cash shop sales looks a bit empty when you consider that the game plus the grand master pack will set you back a whopping £200 in total, when the digital items aren’t that awesome to begin with. The most tempting one for me is the  combat pet and you get that with the basic game. Three character slots does seem incredibly limited, when we’re getting 11 for Mists of Pandaria – so it’s easy to see where funcom is going to be spinning their money. Charging for name reservations is an awesome idea, in my opinion, but only 3 character slots. Urgh.

 

[The Secret World] £200 for digital items and a life time sub? was published on April 3rd, 2012, with the tags , , , , , , , , , , under the The Secret World category. There are currently 2 comments on this article so far.