Adam Miller

First of all, thanks to all the people who voted this past week - this was Fantasy-Matters' first poll of all time, and it turned out great.  The winner of the what to read next poll was Robin Hobb's Assassin's Apprentice.  I'll be heading out to a local bookstore later today to pick it up, and from what I've heard, I won't be disappointed.

Thanks again!

I’m not sure I can really consider myself a ‘gamer’.  I play video games a lot, that’s not in question.  In fact, I probably play them too much.  The part that makes me question my gamer-ness is my unwillingness to try new games.  I get stuck.  I played Total Annihilation (Gamespot’s Game of the year 1997) as my game of choice until I started playing World of Warcraft in 2005.  I got stuck on WoW for much longer than I’d like to admit and then Supreme Commander came along and I’ve been playing that ever since I found it.  I play other games, sure (Company of Heroes Online and C&C Red Alert 2 etc etc), but not for long, and I even when I do, my heart is always soon back on one of my old standbys.  Because of this, I’m not often tempted by new releases.  A game generally needs to be out for a while before I’ll hear about it and try it. That’s why it seems so strange that I’m excited about the new Star Wars themed MMO from BioWare. 

Well, I'm in a bit of a pickle: I am going to finish my current book in a couple days and I don't currently have another fantasy/scifi book on my 'to-read' list.  I'm looking for suggestions.  Here are some details :

• My favorite books of all time are The Dark Tower series by Stephen King
• I've read The Lord of the Rings through 4 times.  I love them as well.
• I have a personality flaw - I won't read a series before it's complete, so the Kingkiller Chronicles is out until book 3 is complete
• Recently I've read The Fionavar Tapestry and really enjoyed it.  I also read The Lies of Locke Lamora (before I realized it was in a sequence... arg...) which I enjoyed, but thought was a bit too grisly for my taste.

Comments are shut down on this post -- please comment on this forum.  I appreciate your input!

One of the more maligned attributes of MMOs like World of Warcraft is the ‘trinity’ system of gameplay.  Under this system, each player’s role is divided into one of three categories, namely Healer (keep your pals alive), Tank (absorb the enemies’ damage) or DPS (“Damage Per Second” - blast your enemies to smithereens).  Many players feel that this is a very limiting setup -- they feel pigeonholed into one role and must continue casting a single set of spells or stabbing over and over until any particular encounter is over.  This ‘key-mashing’ can become boring and frustrating to long-time players and can lead to all sorts of complaints.