Thursday, March 31, 2011

Enjoying The Simple Things (WoW)

A new beginning.
Recently my son asked me if I would return to WoW with him to play together. I pondered on it a bit and thought it would be fun and I know I'd enjoy it. The new quests are fantastic, almost like playing a new game. The game is perfect 1-60. So, why not? For now we have a warrior and priest duo.

I have absolutely no interest in end game in it's repulsive state. However, the game is probably one of the best when it comes to the leveling aspect and we are enjoying ourselves immensely. We're sitting around 19 and are mostly just playing when we are both on.

Simple and fun. That's how I like my game play. Doing dungeons in these low levels, it's been a really enjoyable. Deadmines, a cinch! He tanks and I heal. Even if people are stupid- we know what we are doing and we can pull things off. We have enough tools now to keep things in check. I really wish end game was this simple and enjoyable. It makes me sad because it's almost like looking to 85 as the end of something great. Right now every thing is still so simple and fun. Maybe together we can keep it this way, even at 85? Even if we never get there, together, its still a wonderful time we're having.

Hogger goes to jail...
We went Alliance, his choice. I always miss that faction on occasion. I can transfer some money over from the Horde, I have buckets of gold waiting to be spent! We are just in one of our alt bank guilds and it sort of is annoying not having perks, so we may join another. Another sad story of being in a small guild. Maybe we'll make some friends along the way.

My son is really having fun. He loves many of the new quests and laughs a lot at the story lines and fun little mechanics added in, I even find myself laughing. He's even had me doing a little WSG and we've had fun with it. I'd almost like to make a 19 twink, where things are simple and fun- though it's not fun to be on the other side of the fence, non twinked and getting splattered. I don't see myself having enough character slots for this anyhow, already I've had to delete some characters.

Home sweet home.
We're still on Silvermoon. SM is home to us, the first server we started on when WoW was fresh and new.  Even if we're on the alliance it seems that Walk the Plank is pretty much dead, which is very sad and disappointing but expected. I have popped onto the Horde for a little on and off but not too much.

So yes, I've returned to WoW and it's just to enjoy the simple things. I remember many wonderful people I've met, many fun times had, epic moments, sometimes wanting to scream sometimes laughing till my sides split- and I plan on holding onto the best moments and not letting my perspective slip. Right now this is more rewarding than raiding with any big guild or winning the best loot- just playing with my son and having fun. Friends and family, if you have those to play with, are the true 'epics' in this game.

-kaozz

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Mythos Beta


Mythos (EU) open beta is heading our way... Finally! I found an email in my box, this week stating the date for open beta. I for one am excited, it was a game I had the chance to play years ago and I always hated the fact that it was gone. It's a very cute, fun and entertaining game.

Anyhow they have a neat video I thought I'd post up, sign up for open beta here. (Don't let the first glance fool you that's April not December).

It's also the European version, I haven't heard anything about the US release lately so here's to hoping that the EU will open to us, (US players) as well. From what I hear beta testers in the OB have been able to access it without an IP block. I suppose we'll hear more closer to the date. If you want to check the US site (Red Bana) you'll not  see anything new from before last summer. Have they dropped the ball?  Just some interesting little bits I thought I'd pass along. 





-kaozz

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Soaking Up The Scenery

Sometimes it's nice to explore or just soak in the scenery in whatever MMO you happen to be playing. So many lovely places to seek out. I decided to 'pack my gear' and head to some of my favorite places in Forsaken World. Whats your favorite place to trek to, even for a short visit, in an MMO? Enjoy the 'snapshots'!

City from afar.

Mysterious manor.

Protective city walls.

Star gazing at the constellations.

Life in the harbor.

Silent city.

Captivated at the park gates.

A cozy little corner of the woods.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Choices


Things are going along nicely in Forsaken World, I finally hit 35 and trained for the pet tamer job. I'm hoping to get a nice blue pet but so far I've not gotten anything to write home about. Pets come in three different types, white (normal), green (above normal quality) and blue (superior quality).

Other than getting all giddy about taming my own pets, I've been doing some instances which have been going quite smooth, for the most part. There is always something to do in Forsaken World. I think that's a reason I like it so much.

I've been waiting seven days on a ticket I put into support and I am a bit peeved that it's still sitting there. I don't know how the customer service is with Perfect World Entertainment, but so far it's not too impressive. It feels like being left to the wolves, not a feeling I like very much. I think that would be the one big complaint I really have with the game so far.

Well, that and not having much choice on some things. I don't like games where they give you too much choice. For instance Champions Online gives you far too much, to the point where you could really gimp a character easily. I like playing a set class and having certain abilities and roles. I just wish we had the option to dual spec at least. So many times, lately, I get thrown into a group with two priests and it kind of is annoying because we both over heal, or the other wastes mana topping people off at a mere 10% health while I conserve letting my big heals hit when players are lower or my HoTs get overwritten.

I've even read that certain classes like the bard and vampire are getting asked to heal. Many of the players that created these characters are not going to want to heal. I think a role check needs to be input so players have some choice at what role they want to fulfill.

However, there are many games out there that add lots of choices and some that don't offer enough. Do you prefer having lots of choices in your games when it comes to play style? Or would you rather have things more defined?

-kaozz

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Crits & Giggles

Dur...
Just... Wow. Those big red X marks are from an add-on that is used to mark healers in PvP. Does it take the fun out of PvP to actually find the healer on your own? This makes me a sad panda. I don't know if I should laugh or remember I have a healer and cry...

Screenshot or it didn't happen!

Dude, just pick up your losses and re-roll. Yes, it was really listed on craigslist. I had to take a shot of it before it was removed~ And yes, it's gone now.

Enjoy your weekend~
-kaozz

Friday, March 25, 2011

Nothing Is Perfect

Priest 30-39 set.
Lately I've been trying to accomplish a few instances in Forsaken World, for upgrades, and it's been a mix of hit and miss, lots of misses. I'm a smidgen away from 34 and I still needed several pieces of my gear for the 30-39 bracket. You can either get shards from bosses (and random world elites of your level bracket, not as easy since they are a bit rare) or you can get gear and weapon drops off bosses. It's been very a trying process this week.

A lot of groups have either fallen apart right after the first boss or just left me to get beat down by ten mobs while wandering off trying to skip trash. It's classic 'Why no heals, healer!' Umm, maybe because I'm dead? You know the drill. Bad tanks running off while the group is getting slaughtered, people aggroing adds, and the one every healer loves-standing in the bad stuff. Lots of ignorance. Still when you get a decent group with nice players it makes a world of difference.

There are a few things that make bad groups, well, really bad. With FW having a very similar LFD system as WoW, it's not as in-depth, it's simplified. As a healer or tank you don't have a choice to heal or tank, unless there is another class that can preform. As a protector or warrior, either can tank, so one could tank the other could dps. At least one will tank and if neither is specced correctly... One still tanks. A DPS priest? You're still going to heal and you're not going to do very well with long cool downs and lacking heals from the spec. There is no option to choose to go in as X role, you just queue. Which is fine with me, I planned on healing, but it becomes annoying when someone is required to tank but they don't want to so a dps steps up to and it's really hard to heal them and the group as damage splashes all over the place like some killer tidal wave. It can really, for lack of better word, suck. 

If I get off base, forgive me. I'm trying to fend for my son's pet rats. My cat, Tut, is trying to paw at them and I have to keep shooting at him (not directly) with a nerf gun to get him to leave them alone... *THWONK* Run, kitty, run! He's back already, thinking its one big game... Ahem, sorry.

To top it off sometimes groups won't get a healer for certain events, better carry some potions with you to heal yourself! Or maybe you won't get a tank! And if some jerk wants to join an instance and leave when the boss doesn't drop their item... Well you cannot randomly recruit another member. Some instances are timed so it makes this hard. To make it worse you have a set daily limit to doing these instances, some are only once a day and others go up to five times. But if you get five bad groups who want a level 39 filled group or they are leaving [Lowbie dps wanting a free ride?] you get the short end of the stick, for the day.

I suppose that is the way the cookie crumbles. I really enjoy this game but the community is a bit ignorant, at times. I was so mad, one day this week, I told a person "You rape the English language." They had it coming after rude remarks to the tank, in 'leet' speak, through the whole instance. At that point I decided to just try one type of instance per day (without Dire) and pick up my losses if it wasn't any good, just go on my merry way until I could join with my tank later. Which today I got lucky, not a perfect group but it was fairly decent, scoring three blue items (YAY). With the robe I won, I was in a group that doubled up on priests, and the other  priest won it but she kindly let me have it when I asked if I could get it, since she had one already. Very kind of her, I really needed it!

My point is, you will have bad groups in every game. I guess I'm just happy that I'm not being spammed by recount, on top of all the problems I've had! You have to move on and get past them if you are going to enjoy a game, pace yourself and don't let things get you down. It does make me appreciate the simplicity of WoW's LFD system. I do miss that. I miss being able to spec whatever if I needed a change. Ah well, nothing is perfect! What drives you nuts with groups? Ever have one of those days where none of them go right?


-kaozz

Thursday, March 24, 2011

DAW




Scary Booster has claimed this week for Developer Appreciation Week. It's a nice, positive thing to do, while I don't always agree with developer choices I do have a great appreciation and love for the hard work they put into the MMO games, even those I don't play.

Instead of just throwing it out there to what I am or am not playing I just want to say thanks to all of those developers and teams out there for working hard and putting together all of these wonderful online worlds. From the small indie games to the big dogs, the little guys trying to make their dreams come true and the big guys trying to make things better and better. It's all impressive.

We have so many wonderful games to choose from these days. I remember when the variety was very much lacking. Now if I tried every single MMO, well, I just wouldn't have time to do anything else! It's nice seeing games get better and better, more impressive with more options. While the last few years things have been a bit slow this year seems to be changing and developers are trying to be more innovative. It's still nice to see some of those games hitting over a decade, others creeping closer and still more interesting games are on the horizon.

We complain about being bored and stagnated and some of us (guilty!!) hop from game to game like one changes clothes. Maybe it's because there is now such a large variety of games out there where we can do this, the grass always looks greener on the other side. I'm glad the options are there, it's nice to visit different games and widen one's perspective.

I'm a lover of MMO games, if I didn't have such as passion for them I'd have quit writing long ago. I have much respect for developers, and the teams that work along with them, just for doing what they do!

-kaozz

EQ2- Time Traveling


EQ2 has an event to celebrate the EQ 12th Anniversary. There are portals to the 'past' where you can kill Quillmane and other classic mobs, even Fippy Darkpaw. The rewards consist of house items and things like replica models. There is even a title for completing all the portals, Time Traveler.

This, unlike many other events, requires a group. The players are scaled scaled to the instance upon entrance and though some classes may be able to solo this, most won't be able to. The mobs in each portal, that I peeked into, were yellow three up ^^^ linked together at that.

I hate to say it but I am probably going to pass on this event. I love events like this but not playing the game as often as I use to, I just don't feel like hunting for a group. Most of my friends, and most of my guild, on this server, wandered off to RIFT. So, I'm a little bit disappointed about the event, no big deal though.

It's a very cool event with some nice rewards and it is nice to see fun events like this popping up. Check out EQ2 Wire and ZAM for more info on the event.

-kaozz

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Postcards From Eyrda (FW)

Partners in crime!
One of my favorite views, so medieval.
My little pony <3
Moonlight.
Mount up!
Beware of dragons!
Hangin' with my 'dawg'.
Got a monkey on your back?

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Do You Enjoy Your Second Job... Err... MMO?

It's cold on the outside looking in.
"It’s the kind of game you can play for 20 minutes before you got to go out to dinner, but it’s also one that you can geek out on all night. It’s just a very accessible format that gives people a chance to enjoy a game rather than work at a game.” -Max Schaefer, CEO of Runic Games

I am hyped about the idea of a Torchlight MMO! You can read his whole interview here. It got me thinking, these days I've found so many MMO games to be less enjoyable than I use to.

I like that idea (quoted above), a lot. I'm so sick and tired of grinding at MMO games that feel as if I am working a job and paying them for it. Don't get me wrong, I'm not some lazy gamer and I do love a challenge, but so many games today are leading many gamers to think that gaming requires many failures before you can really enjoy the silver lining. You must jump through hoops and research content before being able to enjoy content. The joy of actually learning them [encounters] IN-GAME, that's all in the past!

I read blogs and listen to friends tell of how they almost got kicked from guilds they love [in WoW] because they are not up to par or how they spent many hours just trying to down one boss. I think one that really hit me hard was reading Larisa talk of her guild and how her guild basically benched her. Very cruel, I'd not have been able to join back into a guild that tried to toss me out on my ear so easily.

Am I making a big deal out of this? I don't think so, I think it's something people should pay attention to instead of blindly paying for subscriptions. Pun intended! I think it's time gaming companies take responsibility for enforcing this type of play. Causing communities dissolve, players to be more elitist than ever, pumping out more and more time consuming dead end games and expansions. Once the expansion is over with and we're onto the next, all that time spent ditching the so called 'baddies' who were once your friends, or heck, prospective friends, all that time wasted studying boss mechanics... What does it amount to? Memories with friends, enjoying yourself, or just a lot of stress you can't remember so clearly?

How about if you're very casual but you do enjoy doing a little grouping and raiding on weekends, but you're having a hard time keeping up without being made fun of? So you're a little older, your reflexes are slow, you can't join us, you just hold us back.  Or maybe you have Asperger's Syndrome and you can't focus or communicate to do this boss fight flawlessly. Perhaps you just are bad at timing things, we like you and all but you hold us back. You don't have time to read up and watch countless videos on boss fights, sorry we need someone more dedicated. The sad thing is, well, in WoW guilds who don't comply to this growing trend, they tend to struggle. Is it the players fault or the developers? Have we become so elitist we disregard people this easily because game mechanics make it necessary to do so?

I just think players are so use to things being how the developers want, they just fail to realize you can go out of the box, try different games, find better communities to fit into. We can debate the whole hardcore vs casual thing until we are blue in the face but you can't pull the rug from underneath customers, offering both types of play then changing your mind and expect them to be happy. You can't make fun of a play-style or game difficulty and exclude it once you made it so mainstream. Can you? Thinking back, wasn't it a designer who started the whole 'welfare epic' thing? Really classy.

We have families, jobs, obligations, and time constraints, so treat players like they amount to something without slamming the door in their faces for having a life. It's just like a re-run I see over and over and I guess I hate seeing people struggle with a hobby, struggle to be happy with it.

And so I close in saying- With great power comes great responsibility. Leading game designers have the power to set respectable standards for MMO games instead of causing players to look like addicted, lifeless, tools. If these games are our outlets, a place to unwind, a hobby, why so much stress?


-kaozz

Monday, March 21, 2011

Entertaining (RIFT, FW)


Hope everyone had a nice weekend, mine was pretty laid back and entertaining, besides a brief migraine. I poked into RIFT, briefly, and saw the new coin lock system has been implemented. I expect many people have already heard about all the hacking of RIFT accounts. Mine was fine, the main reason I logged in was just to check.

To top it all off a player was the one to catch the security breach, joking that he could log into a gm account to prove it. So, Trion swoops in, follows up and saves the day. Saves the day? How about being on top of things to begin with? Harsh, I know.

Now that is an appearance outfit!
On a better note I hit 31, almost halfway to 32 now, in Forsaken World. Yay! I don't feel very far behind, I think they highest player is only in their mid 40's, currently. I am still enjoying the game a lot. Its got bit of a learning curve, getting to know how things work and how to make money. With there being two types of currencies, one to players and one to NPCs, it can get confusing. It's not something to cry over though.

While I do wish the game had player housing, I suppose I would just end up 'playing house' too much and slack off on leveling. There is so much to do in the game, plenty of daily quests for: Faction, coin, xp instances, guilds, tradeskills and so on.

Hitting 30 granted us the ability to buy mounts, except we're too broke and a tad shy of having enough faction. Before long we might sink some into the CS for mounts. Holding off, for now. We also gained access to some cool pets and soon, at 35, we will be able to tame more neat pets.

When we can, Dire and I, we make sure to do the Gods Trial instance. If you use a double xp scroll, well, it's amazing xp. It's also a great place to level pets, they gain xp at a crazy rate. This instance has one boss and if you have a sub-par group if can drag on but it's not too bad. Just sort of dull but the great xp makes up for it!

We've had some good groups and lacking groups. Sometimes people are just plain stupid or ignorant. That's just how it is with MMOs. Sometimes I'll just call them out, other times I just ignore them. It's nothing horrible though, mostly just ignorance. It's not like the random WoW groups of people blatantly being stupid and rude just because they can. Sometimes you will get a great group of people and the group is so enjoyable. I really like the instances, it's a breath of fresh air compared to what I have been doing for the last few months. The instances are fun, simple but not stupidly easy and nice rewards are to be had. They are not too time consuming, something I really embrace.


There are also many daily events (hit the U key to access the window pictured above), if you catch them at the right time you can net some really nice rewards. While I am not big on the idea of stuff being available only certain times of the day, they are available, most of the time, twice a day on different days. I try to do a few a day, even one if I can.

I even managed to snag some free zen for the cash shop. On the home page, under billing, there is an offer wall to earn zen. Some of these sites are total scams, I got nothing for many of them. Others award right away and others take 1-2 days. It can be time consuming with the hit and miss rate and it's not something I'd do all the time. I did want to see how much I could rack up and I got enough to get a statue (sell for gold) and a lovely appearance outfit, I had to have it!

The game isn't perfect. It is quite laid back and enjoyable though. Some people hate click to move games- use WASD, I do. I also click, at times, sometimes it is a nice change. The autoroute system is just great, run a quick afk or tab out while running to that quest turn in. I absolutely love it. Sometimes it runs me into walls though! There are things like characters bugging out and not being able to invite or receive invites. When this happens, you can click on the friend's name in the friend (F to open) list and click update. Seems to work every time. There are other annoying little things but I try to look past them. Overall the game is a really great game for being FTP, it's very smooth and polished and better than many subscription based games. Content isn't blocked off and throwing a few bucks into the game, here and there, funds something you enjoy. You're not mindlessly grinding on mobs either, questing is centric in this game.

I'm pretty happy these days with my MMO choices, who would have thought going to a free to play game would be what is keeping me so entertained.

-kaozz

Friday, March 18, 2011

EQ2 Brewday Party



Yesterday evening there was a community event on the Freeport server in EQ2, the Brewday party. Community events are always fun in EQ2, lots of people gathered around, talking, messing about and just enjoying a fun little event. 

It's something that a lot of MMO games don't do so I always try to attend them. Plus sometimes Amerys ( EQ2 community manager) sometimes hands out little treats and this time we got a Fungi Illusion Clicky (little mushroom man), it was too cool! I thought I'd just share some cool pics I took. It was a  neat event, as always!

Waiting outside for the event.

Everyone is ready to party!

There was some swimming..

 Cool hats and cloaks could be bought from a vendor.

Hangin' out.

Group pic!

Havin' a brew!

Fungi time!

Time to kick back, too much partying!


-kaozz

Thursday, March 17, 2011

RIFT 1.2 Thoughts



So, the 1.2 patch hit RIFT today and I really like the additions. I wanted to briefly touch on the automated Looking for group tool. Very nice, though it has taken me some time to get a group as support. I wanted to try the bard first then work on the chloromancer. Something I noticed right away, something was missing, queuing for multiple roles! In a game like this, multiple roles make this game shine, I think this is something the developers need to implement. Other than that, I'm very happy to see this in Rift.

Appearance slots! You can also hide shoulder slot items, I noticed today, kind of cool. Right now the appearance slot thing is sort of, well, okay. This will really be great higher up though for characters that want to wear a certain item but they've outgrown its use. I look forward to that day, for now I barely have anything cool saved up. In WoW I still have my S1 Gladiator's set, one day I will be able to run around in it again...A girl can dream!

The appearance items on the clothier merchant, beside the dye merchant, in Meredian, offers gear that looks like starter gear. The only thing is, anyone, and I mean anyone, can use it. You can look like a plate wearing newbie! Nothing spectacular, which has me wondering why it is selling for plat instead of silver. I am still pretty bummed about that, I'm just a poor newbie still anyhow.

These two additions alone really set the game in a good place. Who doesn't like appearance slots?! And same server queues seem like a good idea, though on my server.... I think it will be pretty dead in certain level ranges. I'm on a low pop server.

I hear some of the dungeons (higher up) had some reworking, aka, making them easier. Plenty of tears and sobs over this. Hold on.

/whips out the worlds smallest violin...


Anyhow, that is about it. Wanted to make some comments while they were fresh on my mind. Safe adventures all!



-kaozz

Where I Am (RIFT, EQ2, FW)

Wandering around.
RIFT
I've not written much about RIFT lately. I suppose after the initial first area, the part of the game I enjoyed so much sort of evaporated. I mostly leveled to 19 from invasions and rifts, I find them to be the best part of the game, the most fun. Heading to the new area I noticed nobody was engaging in rifts and most of the invasions, well, I had to run away from them because nobody was around.

Another thing that sort of got to me was the travel. By the time I left the city gates to get to my destination I was already bored from the travel time. I'm sorry but making people travel on foot isn't going to make a game seem bigger. If you want a cutting edge MMO, don't leave in the most tedious aspects! I suppose I just got a bit bored with questing and not seeing much action in the new area. Maybe it's being on a lower population server, I'm not going to over analyze it.

All in all it's a really fun game and it has a lot of potential but for now it's just sort of losing it's sparkle for me. So I'm just going to let it go for awhile and pick it back up later.

My Hero, carry me from quest to quest!
Forsaken World
What has been keeping my interest mostly? Forsaken World. It's really been a lot of fun and I'm a smidgen away from 27 now. There are lots of daily quests, tons of quests in general and lots to do on the side. Groups are easy to get in and out of and not too complicated. While I notice some of the boss mechanics are changing a bit, more awareness required, it's still pretty fun.

I really want to get to 30 for new gear a permanent mount and the pet trainer skill. So, I'm looking forward to that stuff and enjoying the game along the way. I wasn't sure how engaging the game would be, upon starting, but it's really a game with a lot to offer, and free at that! If it had a subscription would I still play it? I really think I would.

Dire really likes the game a lot, it's his main game these days. He seems to enjoy the protector class a lot and tanking with it. We're pretty close in the same level range, which is good as I don't want to level too far ahead of him. It's a great game for him to get in and out of quickly, do a group here and there.

EverQuest II
I'm mostly playing around on the EQ2X server again, as I am letting my subs go for everything next month. Since a free game is getting most of my attention there really isn't a need to sub for anything next month. I do really enjoy all of the fun stuff EQ2 has to offer so it's nice being able to pop in and do the events. I am glad the option is available for this reason.

Recently I figured out how to 'break out of my house' and put some neat stuff 'outside' my house. Basically you need a teleporter set and you can do this with the houses that show an outdoor area. It's not frowned upon by SOE, but it's also not supported. I've made a little cottage but have plans to do more as I get more items. It's looking neat and I am having fun with it, thus far. Other than that I'm just messing around with Brew Day quests and taking my time.

Some pictures below of the outdoor area. It will be a work in progress for awhile. Feel free to visit it in-game though. Sable-EQ2X- (Freeblood Lair) located in South Qeynos. {To break out of the Freeblood Lair all you need is a set of teleporters. You do not need to change any layout files, like needed in other houses. You simply stand on the patio/deck area zoom the camera out all the way and spin around the invisible wall. From here you can place a teleporter below. Pretty simple!}
Hall leading to the patio.
Looking down off the patio at the outdoor area.
My little beachfront cottage.
Up close.

Looking up at the patio.


----------------------------------
That's what I've been up to, where I am now in my games, I just have to play what feels fun. I hate to let RIFT go, so soon, but it will be there in the future. I'm having fun and cutting down on some subs in the process so it's all good :) Oh and don't miss the EQ2X event this evening- 6:00 pm PDT (Freeport Server): Brewday Party!

-kaozz

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Happy Birthday EverQuest!


EverQuest is twelve years old! While I don't always have an active subscription, the game is one of my favorite MMO games of all time. It's such a huge world full of lore and excitement, friends and wonderful memories. I still play, still enjoy the game, it's still special to me. EQ has come a long way from how it started and has evolved into something classy and special.

I remember being so awe filled with the game, it was so engaging and like nothing I'd ever played before. While I've played tons of MMO games this one always holds a special place, I always return home. I've made some terrific friends within Norrath over the course of playing, more so in any other game.

I could go on and on about EverQuest all day, instead let's toast to another great twelve years! Cheers to you EverQuest! Thanks for the memories, may there be many more wonderful times to be had!

Keeps tabs on EQPlayers for what's happening for the celebration.

-kaozz

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