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After a Decade Diablo II is Still a Great LAN Game

I know Diablo II was released ten years ago and even the expansion was released nine years ago but it is still worth another play through. Lets be honest when was the last time you played Diablo II? I would not be surprised if you played it sometime in the last year or at least the last two. With Diablo III coming out it some time in the future (knowing Blizzard far distant) it is worth a look back on this popular game.

Diablo II is a great go to game for LANs. Having played through it so many ways with so many charters you can get through the game pretty fast. Most people still seem to inexplicably have it on their computer. Even if no one already has it someone probably has it on CD and it does not take much space or time to get it on your computer. Now there are so many games out there and with protection so only one player can use the game on one PC that trying to get a game to play at a LAN can be a mess. Even if everyone has the game getting the right version can be a hassle and lets face it you never have a game everyone has. Diablo II seems to not have any of these problems.

Another great thing about Diablo II is the cheats. You will need a program to cheat but when you get it the sky is the limit on the kind of things you can do even from the begging of the game. Even my brother in law who never cheats has played through this so much he does not care and he will cheat. If we have a few hours before Thanksgiving and we use some helpful cheats my brother and brother in law and I can make it through the whole game before dinner.

I will admit there are some drawbacks to the game. I recently started playing it again after reminiscing after seeing the latest Diablo III trailer. To be honest I played it for about a couple weeks and got tired of it. If you do not cheat it takes to long to play and if you do then it is to fast and you cant limit your cheating its addicting to keep adding insanely overpowered items or improving stats. This is one reason why the game is great for LANs though, it’s OK to run through the game quickly at a LAN. With lots of new games being released and only having a short time to play together learning a new game is tough but Diablo II people already know how to play.

One other advantage that Diablo II has is that it has a nostalgia factor. Having video game night getting out the old school NES is lots of fun. Diablo II is the same way. There are lots of memories there. The best part of finishing the game is getting to play the cow level who could forget that? It is also a nice way to get yourself ready for Diablo III.

Overall I would not play this all the time but Diablo II still makes a great game to play with your friends every now and then. Even after a decade it makes a great LAN game.

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Become a Great World of Warcraft Guild Leader

To become a good World of Warcraft guild master or leader is very hard to do. You have so many things that you have to do and have to be able to do them well. I was a level 32 when I first started my guild known as Stormwind EMS. Now with this guild we have had good times and bad times. And the good times seem to out weigh the bad. Once you have a guild established if it is a good guild, it belongs to the members not just the leader. Although the leaders have the right to run the guild how they see fit. But if you make a bad choice you will hear about it.

Every Guild wants to have a large number of members. And what you can do to achieve this is by allowing any level or race in your faction to join. There are two factions: The Horde, and The Alliance. Sormwind EMS is on the Alliance. Once you get a group of people who play as the guild leader it is up to you to socialize with them and help them. Let them know what type of guild you would like to be. And see to it that they stick to what you want. Once you start seeing that some player are willing to keep what you wish reward them by promotions.

One of the many issues with the guild is access to the guild bank. And here is where the problem lies. You invite a member to the guild, they have access to the bank. They take everything they can and then they leave the guild. This is very annoying but some people do it to guild after guild. Because they do not tale the proper steps to protect their bank. Which includes lowering access for lower ranking members.

One of the more fun sides of being in a good guild is the fact that there will almost always be someone willing to run what is know as an Instance. The Instance also known as a dungeon is an area where only people who are in your group can get into with you. You can run these together as a guild for quest or loot or just to do something as a guild. With my guild we run once a week. Usually on Saturday.

One of the things that is most important to the guild is the willingness to help other members of the guild. If you have members helping members it is all the better. But if you are still very small I suggest inviting lower levels and helping them. They will in return help other lower levels. It can be seen in my guild a lot. If you want your guild to be successful helping is the key.

One other note, you have the option of setting a guild message that every member can see. I used to hate when I would see “Deposit as much money as you can as fast as you can into the guild bank” and then in return you do not have access to remove what you deposited. If you need money for a certain item like another bank tab. Put that in your message as well. This way when new members join they will see why money is being asked for.

I hope this little guide has helped provide you some things to think about when trying to start a new guild. If you follow your best judgment and are willing to provide the time you could become a legendary guild leader with an awesome guild.

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Borderlands Review: RPG + FPS = ?

A First Person Shooter, Role Playing Game? How fitting. The only way to turn the most anti-RPG audience (360 gamers) toward the genre is to combine it with what they love most (shooters). RPGs are known for their deep stories, fantastic elements, romanticized themes, and -most importantly- their character progression and development. Here’s the problem- Borderlands has barely any of that.

In reality, Borderlands for the 360, PS3, and PC is a glorified FPS with dungeon-crawling and looting. The majority of the budget was put toward the graphics and the rest was put into advertising the ill-conceived FPS/RPG concept. Control-wise, the game is heavily geared toward the shooter market- which is fine for the 360 version, it was made for the run amp; gun genre. Unfortunately, the game suffers on the PS3 thanks to its crippling shooter controller. The analogs don’t have that trigger feel, nor the same response time- making it the inferior version.

The four starter classes are the bare-bones equivalent of a budget RPG. Would you like to be a Soldier or a Siren? How about a Hunter? Maybe a Berserker? No? That’s cool. Turn the game off. They have their differences, such as how Hunters are great at sniping and using their pet birds to kill enemies. As you level up your character new skills are opened and they gradually become able to kill more and more. As an interesting tidbit, most 360 players completely ignore the Siren class because it forces you to play as a female character- a classic suicidal feature for 360 gamers. Of the four she has some of the best abilities, most of which pertain to making her melee attacks more powerful, raising her critical rate, and adding effects to her attacks. Too bad the gender-biased 360 audience will never embrace poor Lilith…

If you find yourself bored with playing alone, the game does support 2 Player split-screen co-op, as well as 4 Player online support. It’s a nice addition and makes the game feel less mediocre. While multiplayer is nice and does offer one on one combat to boot, there’s one more fatal flaw that overshadows its benefits… the story.

The story in Borderlands is so paper-thin and dull that it shames the plot-driven RPG genre. When constructing any Role Playing Game, your first and primary objective is to craft a memorable story. Borderlands has you rolling your eyes and sighing in boredom at every turn. Anytime that some glimmer of interest appears, its quickly polluted by the rest of the games idiocy.

If nothing else, the FPS features of the game are up to par and will likely please fans. On a pair of consoles where online play and graphics are all that matters, Borderlands fits right in. It provides the depraved FPS audience with a slight departure from their used to- while also giving them the shooter elements they love so much. For $60, it’s a decent buy for FPS fans that like to pretend they play and enjoy a lot of RPGs (Marvel Ultimate Alliance and Mass Effect aren’t RPGs). For people that are looking for a true RPG experience, save your money and buy a DS.

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RuneScape: Getting Paid to Smith

RuneScape is a Massive Multi-player Role Playing game that has been very popular in the last few years. With the recent addition of the grand exchange, RuneScape is a changed world. After discussing initial moneymaking strategies and a couple quests to jump-start the skills, I will deal with the next step, what I used to get my smithing from level 30 to level 48.

After raising about 50k from the aforementioned strategies, I did a little RuneScape market research. Iron ore cost 95 coins, coal 186, iron bars 216, and steel bars 606 coins. I believe iron bars are at 227gp and steel 616gp now. So I will crunch the current numbers.

The first formula, the cost of a steel bar is 80% coal and 20% iron ore. It takes two coals and one iron to make a steel bar. So out of the 467gp, 372gp is spent on coal. That is pretty close to eighty percent. Using that formula, I was able to calculate with accuracy how much material I would need to make the steel bars without a shortage of either coal or iron.

The second formula was this, if a steel bar sells for 616gp and it costs only 467gp to buy the raw materials (assuming I buy the iron rather than mine it) that’s a profit of almost 150gp per steel bar made. And since steel bars are in high demand from players who don’t want to take the time to smelt them, they should sell within a few minutes. Steel bars give 17.5 points of smithing experience to smelt and 37.5 to hammer out. So I’m basically trading 37.5 points of smithing experience for 616gp, which will buy 2.7 iron bars. Hammering out iron gives 25 points of smithing experience per bar. So if I take the 616gp and buy 2.7 iron bars, 25×2.7=67.5, for a net profit of 40 points of smithing experience per sold steel bar.

Eventually, I had 300k, which I invested in iron bars. I made chain bodies, plate legs, and plate bodies, which I withdrew in notes. Then I went to the armor shop just east of the center of Varrock, where I pulled off a short cut to sell them all for the maximum price.

The way the shop works, like any shop in RuneScape, is that it will pay a lot for items if none are in stock. As the stock increases, the shop will pay out less. I find it does not make sense to sell any if more than 11-13 of the armor is in stock. So what I do is log out and transfer to another RuneScape world. I look for RuneScape worlds with less people in them. When you sell a lot of an item in a RuneScape shop, the number in stock will decrease by one about once a minute. Basically, RuneScape eats the item. So if there are fewer players in a RuneScape world, there is less of a chance somebody cashed out on armor. I find that usually if one iron item is well stocked, it is plate bodies. Hence if I make 100 plate bodies, I will usually make 140 plate legs and 140 chain bodies. I sell until there is 11-13 of each in the shop’s player stock, then switch to another RuneScape world and wait the 25 seconds or so for RuneScape to transfer me. Usually, for every six to eight coins spent on bars, the armor will return a coin. But it’s better than no return at all.

So between the Knight’s sword quest and smelting steel, you can be well on your way to becoming an accomplished smith in RuneScape.