Carved in Stone or Written in Pencil: Developers' New Year's Resolutions - Page 3

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Updated Mon, Jan 11, 2010 by Shayalyn

And finally, we conclude with some New Year's resolutions from the staff at Ten Ton Hammer. We're looking forward to an exciting year of gaming and community, and we hope you'll come along with us as we cover all the top MMOG titles (hundreds of them) and the biggest launches of the coming decade.

"I resolve to actually play through to the end game. In something. ANYTHING.

"See, a sad fact of people like us who cover games for a living--you have to play them all, or how can you really comment with authority on any of them? Add to that a family, a second job (ok, it's the primary job, but I'm getting out of the army for good this year; that's a separate resolution, heh) and you pretty much eat up a lot of your free time. Thus, some of us who can't focus exclusively on one or two titles get left in the lurch. We're a Jack of All Trades, or Classes, Master of None. Not only does it keep me largely unavailable (and unwanted!) for raiding, but in a lot of cases it can keep me from hitting the freakin' level cap in the first place. Add to that Boomjack's penchant for moving servers every two weeks, and I end up with a hundred Lvl 50-somethings spread out all over the Seventh Level of Hell's creation.

"I resolve to endgame an MMO. With or without Boomjack nearby holding my hand.

"I also resolve to get over my CareBearishness and relearn PvP again. EVE Online has really given me a thirst for blood. Well, not really the blood...it's the tears. Delicious, delectable pubby tears. I will have them."

- Phil Comeau, Business Development

"You been playin' around on me, you dawg? HUH?!"

"Last year I vowed (unsuccessfully I might add) to be MMOnogamous and play nothing but WoW. Failing that, I am ready for a new resolution this year! I vow and resolve to play every bleepin' pay-to-play MMO on the market at some point this year. I will go back and reactivate old accounts, I will try all of the new releases. Yes, I will go back to my MMO-philandering ways. I know what you're saying: "There is no way he can keep up that kind of pace, he'll surely drop dead of exhaustion." Well I'm here for you people, and this is my weight to bear. I alone must carry it. Wish me luck.

"Additionally, I'll resolve to do one of the following:

Eat more vegetables
Work out
Be more patient with the jackholes of the world
Get a gear score above 5K

"I'll let you pick which of those become reality."

- Jay "Medeor" Johnson, Contributing Writer

"One of the many potential pitfalls of working in games media is that it becomes so ingrained in your system to critically analyze games as you're playing that it can be difficult to simply log in for the entertainment value alone, regardless of the specific title involved. It's like you reach this point where an invisible switch flips in your head and you stop seeing cool particle effects and digging on the awesome flow of combat and start analyzing the design philosophy behind the minimap being placed on the left or the right hand side of the screen, or whether the inclusion of weather effects was a wise decision if it increases the latency on low end machines.

"That said, one of my goals for this year is to remind myself of what attracted me specifically to MMOGs in the first place. In other words, taking the time to log in to a favorite game simply for the sake of being social and having a blast with a close group of online friends and reminding myself how awesome these games are when taken purely as a form of entertainment. That's not to say I never play them that way anymore, but more so that I could definitely stand to do so more often.

"My other resolution is to successfully campaign to see sock slots added as a core equipment slot in all future MMOGs, regardless of genre. You may think I'm kidding, but I'm really not!"

- Reuben "Sardu" Waters, Managing Editor, Community Sites

"Each year people around the country decide it's time for a change--a change in hairstyle, a change in habits, or a change in [insert X fad of

Should the pen-and-paper thing not work out, there's always Dungeons & Dragons Online!

the year here]. Some are successful. Some aren't. Others really, really aren't and end up worse than they were the year before. In light of this, I've decided it's time for me to make a change in my life, too.

"Believe it or not, writing about online games means you spend a lot of time playing them. It also means that while Joe Schmuckatellie can hop on his character and progress, we sometimes need to play the same content over and over and over and...well, you get the picture. For me, it means that I spend to much time playing online games. In light of this revelation, I've decided to take drastic action and make a change. This year, instead of spending all my time playing games online, I'm going to do the responsible thing and cut back.

"I'm sure I'll need to find something to fill the empty void in my heart so I don't die. I could fill it by spending more time with my wife, playing with the dog, or picking up some new coding skills. Should I? Probably. But I won't. You see, thanks to my resolution last year to quit spending all my time playing pen-and-paper games (Dungeons & Dragons), I've noticed that I never take any time to play it. So this year, my New Year's resolution is to curb my online gaming addiction and get another pen and paper Dungeons & Dragons campaign going.

"I mean, seriously...how else am I suppose to find balance?"

- Eric "Dalmarus" Campbell, Contributing Writer

"This New Year I resolve to do nothing at all about a New Year's resolution, mostly because of how happy I am with how things are going in my WoW experience. I resolve this because I am so happy that I would only ruin my happiness with the game by creating constraints and additional goals. As such, I feel that the general relief from the lack of a New Year's resolution provides me with additional stress relief to go forth and slay more dragons, farm more purps, and horde more gold...not that I'm not already riding around on dragons while slaying other dragons while dragging along massive sacks of gold and laughing manically. Perhaps a good resolution would be to buy a giant murloc outfit for my dragon so it was a flying murloc dragon of doom and despair."

- David "Xerin" Piner, Community Manager, World of Warcraft community site

What do you resolve to do in order to make the most out of your gaming experience in 2010? Share your own New Year's Resolutions in our forum.