Wednesday, October 31, 2012

GW2- ACT4- The Mad King Returns (Spoilers)





Act 4 is here today! I just had to pop in when I heard this part of the event was the same as the first GW, basically simon says. I'd have to say this was my favorite part of the event. If you haven't logged in to check it out, do so before the day is out! Don't forget to loot the chest. This event starts in Lion's Arch, where the lion used to be. Pretty sweet, lots of fun.

Sit!.... Some of us sit.

Mad King didn't tell you to sit! /facepalm?

Gather around :)

Yes, we do, but you didn't tell us to!

Chest, reward from event.

Everyone battling after the chest, lol

Chest contains a witch hat... Though I don't like being bald, cool hat still. 

I prefer the horns. LOVE the moon, so sad it will be gone tomorrow!


Happy Halloween!




Hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween- In game and out! One of my favorite holidays, the whole month is Halloween for me! Working on some decorations today, around the house. We found some really neat stuff, lots of tasty treats. Now I'm looking for something spooky to watch tonight, with a small gathering of family. I like to try to make times like this fun for my son, he's 16 now, time seems it flies by these days.

My pug, Gizmo, has been very sick over the last few days, with meds and a vet visit he's much better today! So I haven't gotten a lot done in my games recently. I still have stuff I want to putter around in my games with today, as far as holiday events. I am thinking of checking the GW2 ACT4 out, just to see it. EQ2 has a lot of fun stuff I need to work on too and there are a few things left in WoW!

Anyhow, that's it for today, sharing some pics of my decorations and goodies. Be safe, boils and ghouls!

We found this wicked jack-o'lantern and had to have it! Isn't he gleefully evil looking?! 

My mother got us this creepy dude, one cat tries to get to him, the other tries to get away from him!

OM NOM NOM- Treats!

Cauldron complete with evil black cat, yes, he is evil. He chewed up my headset and phone charger this week. Evilllllll.

Gizmo and I wish you a happy Halloween :) He wasn't well here, was so worried about him.

Monday, October 29, 2012

Eye Candy

Panda ghosties!

I can has pets?

Trick or treat! Gimme candy... or my pet might lop your head off... 

Running around in some old content, decided to run MC for fun over the weekend, had to get mah key.

Soaking up the scenery, ha! I get off course sometimes... 

Running some old BC content, with Dire. He's in there somewhere.

On our big, mean horde mounts!
 
How did the Prince of Stormwind get here?! *Eyes Riko and his gang* Nice to see the stories overlap- H vs A.

If you've had a laugh at the 'socks' storyline, on the Alliance, you'll love Riko's story- on the Horde. I laughed so hard. Both quests (Horde and Alliance) equally entertaining. Riko is a trip.

Just a fly on the wall, a funny Halloween gift from a shop in SL. 


Sunday, October 28, 2012

GW2- Halloween- Act 3





Well, Act 3 rolled out finally. Dire and I logged in a few minutes early, in anticipation. Very cool cut scene, got a few pics (pictures at the bottom).We partied up and headed into the instance for this act, on our own. At our levels it took a full party, after we died many times he got sick of repairing, trying to find a group, have several fall apart, finally Dire logged. I don't blame him, he's tired and works a lot. So I decided to try it with some strangers. I was excited, I had to complete this!

This event requires you to have a group. Why not just make it like the other events, thrown into this with a group of random people? The art was nice but if you're not good at jumping, you'll not enjoy this. I'm actually not too bad with jumping, I enjoy it most of the time. However, I do sometimes have hand/wrist issues and today my hands are stiff today from the cold weather and I had a really hard time jumping around on some of the platforms. Not fun, not cool.

We did it, I managed to catch up, hold my own, throw some heals. I think I did a good job, rezzed up party members when they died. Mad King Dies, chest spawns, I'm kicked back, somehow, off the side. I couldn't get back to chest before party disbanded, thus the game kicked me out of the instance. I felt like someone had kicked me in the face, all that for nothing? I did get some points and chattering skulls, yippy. Maybe nothing good was inside, maybe something great, who knows, I just logged out in defeat. (It can be ran multiple times, no thank you, I've had my fill)

Final thoughts? I don't think I will be logging back into GW2 again for a very long time. Dire was disgusted as well. I can say was this wasn't fun, it was tedious, wrapped up with pretty graphics. Sure, just a holiday event, but this is my bread and butter, stuff like this keeps me playing games, or in this case, pushes me away. Well at least it was pretty to look at, right? /Rude to you, Mad King. I prefer the old you, from the old game :( At least you rezzed me after you killed me.

For those of you who missed it, you're better off. Here's some pics for those who wanted to see what the big deal was about. A five second cutscene.


















Saturday, October 27, 2012

GW2- ACT2- Shadow of The Mad King




Yesterday Act 2: Shadow of The Mad King released. This act released at more of a decent hour for NA, I was surprised and jumped in about an hour after it had released. A friend of mine started playing recently and sent me a text about the event. I wanted to see how things were going to ramp up. *Spoilers below*

This act offers a new scavenger hunt, to my dismay it seems to go up in levels, where you will need to travel. I was able to finish the first part with a character in the 20's, but only because I followed higher levels in, I am sure it is possible with the second act, but I predict many deaths in trying to do so. The first part was mighty hard at level 22, many traps on the last part (ACT1) killed me instantly, I had to make many tries, eventually I completed it. The first reward is a book that straps onto your back (pictured below), very cool and the appearance goes for any class, I love it on a caster class, which was why I did it on a lower level. The second book looks the same but instead of having a faint green glow it has orange flames coming from it.



Other events include PvP objectives. These are holiday PvP events with holiday related objectives on special maps. I participated in a few, they were fun. This was my first time really doing much with PvP, your abilities change within this realm, the scenery was lovely and it had a real holiday feel. If you're a fan of PvP then you'll probably enjoy these special maps.

There is also a jumping map, you can access these areas by finding a door outside any major city. I ran outside of the human starting area and found one very quickly. Once in you can access where you want to go by speaking to the NPC inside or by stepping on the teleport pad to travel into the labyrinth.



I have not yet tried the Mad King's Clock Tower, which is the jumping puzzle. I hear it is tough, timed, and have heard a lot of complaints about it this far. If you want to look at it before trying it out- this is a good video. I plan on trying it today, I hear there is a limit to how many times you can do it (per hour/day), so keep that in mind. It looks fun and is neat for those who really love the jumping puzzles. For those that have bad coordination, yes, this just might be your worst nightmare. *breaks out the ol' wrist brace*

My favorite part of this event was the labyrinth. You will want to stick with the group(s) of people while in here but it is fun. I enjoyed getting caught up in the event running around with the pack. It is a nice feeling in an MMO to be surrounded by people working together, all on our own accord, at the same time. There are pumpkins to carve, candy corn to mine, treat bags to be looted, and bosses to kill. Tons of mobs all over too, glow in the dark skeletons, mummies, all kinds of creepy critters. Decent loot while you're in here. I hear there are diminishing returns (anti farming loot mechanic A-Net added into the game), I didn't have the problem at 25, my bags were too full... everytime I turned around, so it may be [mostly] higher levels that run into this problem.



In the labyrinth you can get exotic mad king gear. My bud got an item at level 6, so it seems anyone can get it.  The instance scales you up to level 80 upon entering, so all levels can participate. I was a bit dismayed that this mad king armor does not have a special holiday skin, it has a recycled skin from 70-80 exotics. Not a huge deal, I suppose you can always dye your armor black and orange like I did ;) Give yourself your own holiday makeover!

Other than that, there are random events popping up, besides the doors there are more quests to kill baddies, escort NPCs and so on. I headed to the human starting area and found many of these going on. Once again very fun, very festive. I had a lot of fun getting caught up in the fun, with all the people participating. It has an epic feel, all of these activities. I think it really made it feel special because everyone worked together for the event, these events had a very large scale feel to them, you don't feel alone yet you don't feel forced to group either. Very good balance.



If you're looking for more special holiday rewards, this really isn't the event for it, IMO. It focuses mostly on experiencing the events and gambling if you want halloween skins (cash shop). That doesn't mean you still can't enjoy this event. It is gorgeous and fun. Not a huge incentive for some but once you get caught up with the event it really starts to be enjoyable. Was it my most memorable MMO holiday event? Not quite, it was decent. I wanted to make sure I did give it a fair chance and try it out. It is definitely one of the most scenic, gorgeous, events I've seen in any MMO. The art team really outdid themselves.

It isn't over yet though! Act 3 Starts tomorrow, from what I hear- if you want to see it then make sure to get the times right! I'm not sure if it is an opening for the act or the whole deal that is one time. I'm not big on things like this, I think this excludes players even if that isn't your intent. Not a good thing, not good business. Sure, it's just a game, you don't have to be there, but if you play I'm sure you want to be there. If you can't, then I guess it's tough luck and a huge damper to something you may have been looking forward to. There won't be any second chances, as of now. You can find the time, on the official site, here.










Friday, October 26, 2012

Ding... Again





I've really enjoyed Mists of Pandaria, though I have not yet played a character all the way to level 90. I suppose this has to do with me really enjoying the changes to many of the classes I play, causing me to hop around and play around with many of them instead of focusing on one. This has also changed who I've wanted to work on, some classes being more fun than others, also just wanting a change in general. Most of the time I dread class changes but I really was pleasantly surprised with this expansion.

I thought I'd level the Druid up first, which is a lot of fun, but I'm probably going to work on her secondly. I've been puttering around mostly on my Horde lock and she just hit 85 last night. Demonology is a lot of fun to play with, I've just been plowing through the levels. 80-85 is now so much faster. I leveled through them with my DK before the patch hit, and it is now a blur! I ended up clearing all of Uldum and getting loremaster of Cataclysm then hitting 85 shortly after. I've never finished that zone because I had remembered the Harrison Jones questline being bugged for a while and never tried it again past my first 85. It was nice to finish all that up. Plus, it is my favorite zone in Cataclysm.

I look forward to leveling through MoP with the lock, I really enjoy these zones, the lore, the art and the music. I suppose I should have just stuck it out with my other classes getting them to 90 then worrying about alts, but it's all in fun. I'm enjoying the lock very much and think sometimes it is better to just play what is fun more than worrying about all the rest.





Thursday, October 25, 2012

F2P- Hurting Good Games?



Oh you want to charge me to turn off my helmet graphic? Please. Stop. Talking. My wallet is crying out in pain.


I play a lot of MMO/MMORPG games, it's my hobby, my passion. I absolutely love them, love trying new games, visiting different worlds, it's often fun being nomadic. With so many going F2P it is even easier than ever to get into your favorite games to poke around here and there, check out seasonal events or visit with old friends. It is great, but to a point.

I'm just about to the point where I'd rather keep handing my fifteen bucks a month to a company that has everything upfront. Sure, offer me a cosmetic item or a sparkle pony for a flat rate here and there, if I don't want to 'pony up' the bucks I don't have to, if I want to then there it is plain and simple, cosmetic galore. What I'm tired of is getting to the point where I may as well sub to these free to play games if I want to play them seriously. Then on top of that, constantly getting bombarded to pay for more things. I'm a generous player, the kind companies want to keep, I'll pay a sub and I'll buy fluff to support a game I enjoy. I will gladly support a company I respect, a company that puts out a game I love, as long as you don't take me a fool and try to bleed me dry. 

Lately I feel as if most games that go F2P are just gateways, a glorified free trial. Often you'll end up paying far more than you would with a regular subscription. For instance, everytime I log back into EQ2 and acquire new gear, I need to sub again or buy unlockers to even use the gear. Or how about wanting some cool halloween stuff in GW2, I must buy chests for the coolest stuff, why not log into a game where you can complete the events within the game for all the rewards? I've read SWTOR will charge for the option to hide your head slot item. Are they mad? That's the one that stuck out the most to me.

I am so at the point where I do not want to support these mad schemes for money, ones that drive good games into the ground while exploiting the playerbase. I'm sick of it. Give me a game that charges me a monthly fee, offers me everything, no: greedy chests, goblin tickets, lockboxes, whatever random money sink chance game it may be, with your- unholy- less than one percent chance. Give me everything up front and let's be done with it. You know what I want, I know what to expect, we're all happy. That's how I now feel, after going 'round the MMO revolving door and being smacked, one too many times, in the face, by F2P.

I have said in the past that the first Guild Wars game was a great example of F2P, while you do have to buy the boxes (expansions), you're not locked out of content or updates past those. You don't have to keep buying stuff beyond character slots or cosmetic fluff. I really liked how this worked, it felt like a really good deal. Thus I thought GW2 would be a dream, until they changed the whole cash shop feel. Pets? Only in the shop. Holiday items? Cash shop. It ruined it for me. They did try to rectify the whole Halloween fiasco, but I won't trust A-Net for a very long time, not as I once did.

I suppose what I'm saying is that I am so tired of companies using F2P as an excuse to get even more money out of players. Throwing respect and trust out the window. Some games don't even offer the subscription route, thus leaving players with very few options. I have been, in the past, very excited about so many F2P games and transitions. Since seeing so many go the way of focusing on sucking every last red cent they can, making my cherished games turn into some kind of sideshow, charging me to see all the sites- I don't even feel like logging into many of them anymore.

A lot of these games end up going free to play and only adding new content to the cash shop, content updates few and far between, but those cash shop updates make it weekly or monthly. That just kills me, being so blatantly obvious in the fact that the game is just a cash cow at this point.

HEY WE ADDED A NEW FEATURE! You already pay a monthly subscription, you already bought the expansion, well some of you, but we're going to charge you for this too! *Glares at the new everQuest appearance items.* I can't even log into EverQuest for free and feel like I'm getting a good deal buying the options. I'd rather throw my monthly subscription at them, but I still see the cash shop as a major focus on all new developments besides expansions. I do have to say SOE is very good about adding expansions and content on a regular basis- At least with the EverQuest games. SOE has stated they want to add more to crafting within EQ2 instead of adding those things into the cash shop, maybe their direction will change in due time, maybe in more of their games.

Currently the only game I feel I can get away from most of this is WoW. So many companies try to copy WoW, but I think they are copying it for the wrong reasons. In the past I had wished it would go F2P, at this point in time I hope it does not, not for a very long time. If games like RIFT and TSW hang in there with subs and don't bombard the cash shop with craziness, I can see them staying stronger games than most.

Sometimes it works. Sometimes companies get it right. Then you get those that take advantage of players and letting it get out of hand, all the while stripping the fun things out of the game and into dollars. Does F2P make your game look like a joke? Do cash shops? I think it's all in the way it's all handled. A bad transition can hurt a good game, damage a valued reputation, that's my honest opinion. While F2P has saved many games, I think some companies get blindsided and forget the most important thing, respect. Respect your community, respect your customers, respect your game. You let any of those go and it's all just a big joke, you're out of luck.

It's really hurting my nomadic spirit. Seriously, I feel so jaded lately. I hate that my stance on F2P has changed, I was all for it. Now I'm not so sure. Let's just do the dirty deal once a month, I pay you, you give me my fun and we forget it ever happened- until the next month rolls around. Hows that?







GW2- More Goodies?




It is always good to see when a company listens to their customers, takes their feedback and concerns into consideration, even going so far to do things to keep them happy. Especially when it relates to our wallets. Yesterday Arena Net put up a post stating changes to the black lion chests were incoming. It seems even if you don't win directly you'll be able to use some of the materials, obtained in the chests, to create the Halloween skins.

What about those people who vendored the massive piles of this stuff? Ah, I guess they're out of luck, I even got rid of some of mine, what little I had. I'm glad to see this was addressed and the chance to obtain these items is now higher, though it concerns me that this even went live. But, we're all human and we make errors. It does put the company in a different light in my eyes now, I will be more inclined to check in on future events. I seriously hope they learned a lesson and realize people are willing to spend money on the game, we just don't appreciate being taken advantage of with a holiday event.

I'll be seeing if I have anything to at least make one combine, lets hope so. I also hope that my chosen character isn't too low to participate in the rest of the acts, lets hope everyone is able to participate! More to come with the future acts. In the meantime we can enjoy higher chances for cool stuff and the lovely Halloween atmosphere!

Below is the update from A-Net... Don't go making the combine yet though! It hasn't gone live. Keeps tabs on the Halloween Event forum to see when it goes live.


“Our Halloween celebrations are in full swing, costume brawls are aplenty and the Shadow of the Mad King is falling across Tyria. Because we are as excited as you are, we will add another opportunity for you to get shiny Halloween goodies.
You will be glad to hear that we are adding recipes to the Mystic Forge that will allow you to throw stuff you get from the Black Lion Chests into it to get a special Halloween chest (no key needed for this one). These chests will include Halloween specific loot and give you a second chance to get one of the terrifying, rare Halloween skins. Here is the recipe we will add:
You need 1 Candy Corn, 6 Mystery Tonics, 1 Boost (any), 1 Boost (any) to get a Mad King Chest.
We hope you like this gruesome addition, we will let you know immediately when they will be in the game – enjoy the celebrations!”
(edited  by ReginaBuenaobra.6953)




Search

Blogroll

Blog Archive