Massively Speaking Episode 165

I've noticed the listen here on this link for the last little while has never worked.. is something wrong with the site?

During the podcast there was an email about not needing Origin for SWTOR, is there an official announcment along those lines. As far as I knew any version even a hard copy bought at a store, here's a link for the FAQ. Theres a question specifically about that. I'd be happy to be wrong but I just wondered if there was anything official.

http://www.swtor.com/info/faq
(7th question)

Huh. I was installing Fallout: New Vegas as I listened to this. Hopefully I don't encounter any game-crashing bugs or frustration like I did with Fallout 3.

Corn you say?

The internet is for corn.
The internet is for corn.
So grab your husk before it's dusk
For corn, corn, corn!

Sean, you were talking about going back to old games like Allods Online and Free Realms so I was wondering if you've ever tried Vanguard: Saga of Heroes?
I've been looking for something to play while I wait on the next wave of MMOs(TOR, GW2, Secret World, ArchAge, etc.) so after trying just about everything else you can think of, I decided to give this "dead" MMO, Vanguard, a try.
Well, so far I love it! It has a very open, sandbox feel to it.(no instancing, you can build your home in the actual world, build ships to sail the open sea, crafting, diplomacy card game, etc) It does look somewhat dated but the environments and world design are very nice and detailed. I read the history behind it and I understand why it's servers have been narrowed down to just 2(1 US server that many Euros play on, too) but it's still a great game! It just seems that people aren't aware of it or have dismissed it as a "dead world".
My problem is that I really don't like to sub to 2 games at once and with SWTOR coming out soon(I have my CE preordered) I don't know what I will do about Vanguard...
Should I cancel my ToR CE and support a small game like Vanguard and be a part of a more exclusive(and more mature) community or should I just cancel my sub and switch when ToR hits?? I'm torn.
Anyways, if you ever have time on a future podcast to discuss this kind of dilemma that I'm sure many players face, then I think it would be very interesting fodder for the show.

I am a huge fan of Guild Wars 2 so far, but the only thing I know about the lore is from Rubi's rants and musing (And a little of Shawn's, in Guild Cast). I'm not sure how I feel about not knowing the lore of things in GW2. I never would have imagined that the undead (or possed or falled) bosses in the MMO would be old characters from the last one on my own.
On the other hand, I think I may be more interested in reading GW lore after I've started playing GW 2 already. Then I can have "aha" moments where I look back and realize why things mattered. Besides, my character doesn't know most of this stuff unless someone tells them, right?

BTW, I am glad Massively Speaking offers a streaming button on the website. I know they are called "pod"casts, but I don't own an iPod, have iTunes, or have any desire to participate in either. I listen to internet radio shows while playing games like Minecraft or while soloing in an MMO. Gives my mind something to focus on while doing repetitive tasks. I hate it when I go to other sites ( *cough* Guildcast *cough*) where I have to wait for the file to DL before I can listen. Plus I don't have to remember to delete it when I'm done.

Good show, but now I'm back to building my mega-skyfortress on the giant floating peninsula in 1.8.

Technically Dungeons & Dragons is just a rules system. The lore depends on what setting that the Product or GM is using. In this case, Artificers have been a part of Eberron since the beginning and the setting has often been mistaken for steam-punk.

Great show folks. Enjoyed it very much.

Regarding the lore of Tyria and knowing that from GW1 vs being exposed to it for the first time in GW2; This is likely going to occur for quite a few folks - I suspect GW2 will have considerably more players attracted to it than GW1 did for one thing.
However, ArenaNet absolutely MUST be aware of this already, and I suspect they are planning on introducing "new" players to the lore of their world in GW2 without requiring them to have experienced any of that lore from the first game. No doubt there will be moments in the game that will have a different feeling for folks who played the first game, and I'm certain the DEVs will plan out moments for loyal fans, just not to the point where they would risk alienating their potentially much larger player-base in GW2.
Hopefully it will be a popular enough game, and interesting enough world that many other folks will take the time to do a little "catch up" reading as I have done so they can share in a deeper appreaciation for events and places in the world.

Have to agree about Free Realms and Clone Wars being fun. My wife and I were playing some Clone Wars for a bit and the mini games are quite fun. I wish CW was a little more open like Free Realms but hey. Definitely loaded with kids and my wife daily gets several "will you be my online girlfriend" requests randomly all the time. Fun games though!

Thanks for the link on GW1 lore. Like author of that email I'm big into the lore of whatever game I'm playing and am very interested in GW2 although I've never played GW1.

Regarding recommendations for other general MMO podcasts... The other one that I listen to and greatly enjoy is The Multiverse by Ferrel of Epic Slant and Chris from Game By Night: vagary.tv/multiverse. Those guys put together a really enjoyable and fun show. There's no swearing (though innuendoes are something thrown around) and it covers general MMO news (but both hosts are currently primarily playing Rift). They've also started a side show focused on guilds and guild management that's part of the same feed.

@Shawn

You were mentioning different podcast and you mentioned Scott Johnson from 'The Instance'. I'm not sure if this was mentioned earlier, but Scott has created something similar to what 'Virgin Worlds' used to be. It's called FrogPants Studios. There are over 20 different podcasts ranging from the WOW podcast 'The Instance' to movie reviews like 'Film Sack' and The Movielicious' to wood working and my favorite 'TMS - The Morning Stream'. I anyone is looking for good quality podcasts, they should check it out. http://frogpants.com/
I just thought I'd mention it.