Found this and just had to share:
Top 100 Quotes
Friday, January 25, 2008
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Anarchy Online - Updated Graphics
Just caught a glimpse of this video showing AO's new graphics currently in the works and I was very surprised. I had heard awhile back they were planning a minor upgrade, but this appears to be much more than minor.
We had played the free version for a month and enjoyed ourselves well enough to pick up the expansions and subscribe. There are some really nice aspects to the game and definitely different from current offerings. But after a few months we hit some walls of frustration and moved on.
I still have a free account and it still has a place on my desktop. Will definitely be revisiting after the update.
We had played the free version for a month and enjoyed ourselves well enough to pick up the expansions and subscribe. There are some really nice aspects to the game and definitely different from current offerings. But after a few months we hit some walls of frustration and moved on.
I still have a free account and it still has a place on my desktop. Will definitely be revisiting after the update.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
The Illusion of Power
Years ago in the early expansions of EQ1, when you upgraded your armor, it was noticeable. When you acquired alternate advancement points, it made a huge difference. Just leveling and gaining spells you didn't have before made you different. My main had become a beastlord, while my husband was a warrior. We could not duo these two in dungeons in our 20's, 30's or 40's. But we could do so at level 60. We had access to abilities at 60 that made us more powerful so that fights were much easier than they had been previously. And because of this playing at level 60 was a heck of a lot more fun than it had been at 20.
In the early days of SWG, we'd wait in line for our doctor buff and charge into lairs with a dozen mobs pounding on us and survive. But of course this was removed when devs realized we weren't paying $15 a month to have fun, but really to have balanced game play. /sarcasm off
Fast forward to current MMO's. In the latest EQ2 expansion, armor rewards are unlike any I have ever been able to obtain previously. Beyond the usual stat increases, there are also effects such as + to power and health regeneration, spell damage, and healing abilities. At first glance it was a bit exciting. My mediocre mystic might actually be more powerful! But alas, it was not to be. In order to compensate for the better armor, mobs have been tweaked up in difficulty so that if you don't have this armor on, you will be worse off than before. I'm finding as I level, that my characters become weaker.
In LotRO, while I didn't feel weaker as I leveled, my characters were stagnant. It didn't matter that I equipped purple armor much better than what I had. My survivability was the same. Stats were very soft and just didn't make a tremendous difference to game play.
The current trend is to offer just the illusion of power so we think there actually might be something to look forward to as we level. So while the dungeons of Norrath sit empty, we can rejoice in fact that all is fair and balanced. I miss being the hero.
In the early days of SWG, we'd wait in line for our doctor buff and charge into lairs with a dozen mobs pounding on us and survive. But of course this was removed when devs realized we weren't paying $15 a month to have fun, but really to have balanced game play. /sarcasm off
Fast forward to current MMO's. In the latest EQ2 expansion, armor rewards are unlike any I have ever been able to obtain previously. Beyond the usual stat increases, there are also effects such as + to power and health regeneration, spell damage, and healing abilities. At first glance it was a bit exciting. My mediocre mystic might actually be more powerful! But alas, it was not to be. In order to compensate for the better armor, mobs have been tweaked up in difficulty so that if you don't have this armor on, you will be worse off than before. I'm finding as I level, that my characters become weaker.
In LotRO, while I didn't feel weaker as I leveled, my characters were stagnant. It didn't matter that I equipped purple armor much better than what I had. My survivability was the same. Stats were very soft and just didn't make a tremendous difference to game play.
The current trend is to offer just the illusion of power so we think there actually might be something to look forward to as we level. So while the dungeons of Norrath sit empty, we can rejoice in fact that all is fair and balanced. I miss being the hero.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Disgruntled Guild Member
With all the nice people to be found in EQ2, you'd think finding a guild I like wouldn't be that difficult. There really were just a couple things that were important to me. First, there needed to be no pressure to group since with my son, frequent afk's are in order. And second, and this is a biggie for me, the guild leader and officers are regular Joe's, not bosses expecting to be treated better than other members. Nor are the regular members there just to serve the leadership and provide them and their alts with all the loot they desire. These are the people who greet you warmly when you log in and cheer you on when you level so that you feel a part of the guild community and not some peon. At least that's how I always viewed it should be.
Unfortunately, it just hasn't seemed to work out this way. The egos I witness never cease to amaze me. So there I was, sitting in Kelethin with my husband at work and my son with his dad for a few days. And I thought oh what the heck, I'll just make my own darn guild. Even if it's just the two of us in it, our status points will be working towards building something.
But I needed to find a few kind souls to group with me to get it started. Being the holidays, a lot of folks were off and Kelethin had quite a few people. Checking the zone I singled out some "nice" sounding names. I ruled out the ones like "Fuzzybutt". I sent some very polite tells asking for assistance with no obligation to remain and every single person said "Sure." Woohoo!
While waiting to fill up the group, I chatted a bit regarding my reasons for starting a guild and my future intentions, and much to my surprise everyone asked if they could remain guilded. Everyone is lower level and many brand new to EQ2. The way the guild recruitment works is based partially on the levels of the guild members, so our guild was showing up to mostly low level players, which turned out to be a boon. I received several tells from others who also just started playing so after the first week, we're now up to 12 members.
When my husband came home from work that first day I said, "Guess what I was up to while you were gone?" And he just replied "Uh oh". But he's been enjoying it as much as I have. He's making spells and I'm providing backpacks and other crafted items to help. And fortunately, they all have been the type of people who don't ever ask for anything, which makes giving even more enjoyable.
I'm sure there will be some bumps along the way. I've already received a complaint from another guild about a player taking their mob, but it turned out to be a misunderstanding. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people looking to be offended so they have something to complain about. But we'll deal with that as it comes.
There's no guarantees on how this will all turn out. But it's added a lot of enjoyment to my gaming. Happy New Year everyone!
Unfortunately, it just hasn't seemed to work out this way. The egos I witness never cease to amaze me. So there I was, sitting in Kelethin with my husband at work and my son with his dad for a few days. And I thought oh what the heck, I'll just make my own darn guild. Even if it's just the two of us in it, our status points will be working towards building something.
But I needed to find a few kind souls to group with me to get it started. Being the holidays, a lot of folks were off and Kelethin had quite a few people. Checking the zone I singled out some "nice" sounding names. I ruled out the ones like "Fuzzybutt". I sent some very polite tells asking for assistance with no obligation to remain and every single person said "Sure." Woohoo!
While waiting to fill up the group, I chatted a bit regarding my reasons for starting a guild and my future intentions, and much to my surprise everyone asked if they could remain guilded. Everyone is lower level and many brand new to EQ2. The way the guild recruitment works is based partially on the levels of the guild members, so our guild was showing up to mostly low level players, which turned out to be a boon. I received several tells from others who also just started playing so after the first week, we're now up to 12 members.
When my husband came home from work that first day I said, "Guess what I was up to while you were gone?" And he just replied "Uh oh". But he's been enjoying it as much as I have. He's making spells and I'm providing backpacks and other crafted items to help. And fortunately, they all have been the type of people who don't ever ask for anything, which makes giving even more enjoyable.
I'm sure there will be some bumps along the way. I've already received a complaint from another guild about a player taking their mob, but it turned out to be a misunderstanding. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people looking to be offended so they have something to complain about. But we'll deal with that as it comes.
There's no guarantees on how this will all turn out. But it's added a lot of enjoyment to my gaming. Happy New Year everyone!
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Bored to Oblivion
Once again I hit that mark where I start to get restless in EQ2. Kunark was a bit disappointing. We finished all content in less than three weeks. Spell upgrades were so minor that in most cases I just held on to my previous version spells rather than waste the money. No dropped armor upgrades were to be found so I purchased a crafted set. So at 80 my Mystic is only in slightly better shape than she was at 70 and I'm just not inspired to play her. Also with mob difficulty cranked up so high, it's impossible to duo any dungeons here, even those eight levels below.
So while out getting some toys for my son I took a peek at the PC single-player game offerings. I am really behind the times when it comes to single-player games. They're usually too expensive and I don't recall buying any since Civilization I (I loved that game!). I always heard good things about The Elder Scrolls series and saw Oblivion on sale so picked a copy up as a Christmas present to myself. I also saw Fear at even less cost which seemed to be more up my husband's alley so picked that up as well.
For the most part I'm enjoying it, although it's not one of those games that compels me to play for long stretches. I'm still trying to get the hang of targeting. There is no crosshair or lock on targets so I'm swinging at what's in front of me. Unfortunately, I killed one of the good guys who stepped in front of the goblin and soon thereafter I was thrown in jail. I've been arrested three times now and have since had all sorts of shady characters approach me with various offers. My poor elf, whom I thought would be a nice girl, has developed quite a nasty reputation for herself.
A few times out of the corner of my eye I'd catch my husband jumping while playing Fear. He absolutely loved it but already completed it. Another reason I hate paying for these things. That one would keep me awake at nights so I'll just stick with Oblivion.
So for now I'll be tinkering with alts in EQ2 and exploring the world of Oblivion. Hope everyone had a great Christmas! Hopefully, 2008 will bring some more MMO fun our way.
So while out getting some toys for my son I took a peek at the PC single-player game offerings. I am really behind the times when it comes to single-player games. They're usually too expensive and I don't recall buying any since Civilization I (I loved that game!). I always heard good things about The Elder Scrolls series and saw Oblivion on sale so picked a copy up as a Christmas present to myself. I also saw Fear at even less cost which seemed to be more up my husband's alley so picked that up as well.
For the most part I'm enjoying it, although it's not one of those games that compels me to play for long stretches. I'm still trying to get the hang of targeting. There is no crosshair or lock on targets so I'm swinging at what's in front of me. Unfortunately, I killed one of the good guys who stepped in front of the goblin and soon thereafter I was thrown in jail. I've been arrested three times now and have since had all sorts of shady characters approach me with various offers. My poor elf, whom I thought would be a nice girl, has developed quite a nasty reputation for herself.
A few times out of the corner of my eye I'd catch my husband jumping while playing Fear. He absolutely loved it but already completed it. Another reason I hate paying for these things. That one would keep me awake at nights so I'll just stick with Oblivion.
So for now I'll be tinkering with alts in EQ2 and exploring the world of Oblivion. Hope everyone had a great Christmas! Hopefully, 2008 will bring some more MMO fun our way.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Random Stuff
PotBS - NDA is lifted and lots of reviews to be found. Not a bad game at all and definitely a change of pace from current offerings, but not everyone's cup of tea. And that is how it turned out for me. I didn't enjoy flying ships in SWG and even less so enjoyed the ship combat here. Guess I'm a landlubber at heart. Unfortunately, the land options weren't fun for me either, so I'll be passing on this one.
STO - "I personally think that MMOs need to be a better deal. Paying $200/year is a good deal for some but I don't think that is sustainable for the category and certainly rules out a lot of people who don't have the time to get enough value out of that expense." Ok I see where this is heading now. Removed this game from my radar.
Zuroth Online - This was the game that sounded very much like pre-NGE SWG and had many vets excited. That is, until they released this statement a couple weeks ago:
"One of the main things that plague an indie developer is time, money, and developers. Currently our goals are set very high (which isn't always a bad thing) but what we currently have planned is a very, very, very big undertaking (infact though any mmo is a big undertaking, what we're going for is even bigger). This leads to not enough time and it scares away potential developers.
What we're going to do to alleviate this problem is pretty simple - scale it down. Scaling it down will require many sacrifices that you all are probably here for and are expecting (all the prior SWG people especially).
So what are a few of the changes?
- Sandbox status is gone. We're moving to a more stream lined game.
- Move to a Leveling System
Some other features are getting changed to fit with the above. But... This doesn't mean we're going to become a carbon copy of what's already out there - we're pretty sure we're going to have some unique, and fun features that todays MMO's seem to have forgotten about..
Also I'd like to apologize to all the people out there expecting another SWG Pre-CU. It's just not possible with an Indie team... But you have my word if we ever get into a position where we can make a Pre-CU like game we WILL in a heart beat. But, right now we're going to work on the game, and hopefully make a game a few people would enjoy playing."
Citadel of Sorcery - Another MMO in very early stages. Will be keeping an eye on this one to see how it progresses.
STO - "I personally think that MMOs need to be a better deal. Paying $200/year is a good deal for some but I don't think that is sustainable for the category and certainly rules out a lot of people who don't have the time to get enough value out of that expense." Ok I see where this is heading now. Removed this game from my radar.
Zuroth Online - This was the game that sounded very much like pre-NGE SWG and had many vets excited. That is, until they released this statement a couple weeks ago:
"One of the main things that plague an indie developer is time, money, and developers. Currently our goals are set very high (which isn't always a bad thing) but what we currently have planned is a very, very, very big undertaking (infact though any mmo is a big undertaking, what we're going for is even bigger). This leads to not enough time and it scares away potential developers.
What we're going to do to alleviate this problem is pretty simple - scale it down. Scaling it down will require many sacrifices that you all are probably here for and are expecting (all the prior SWG people especially).
So what are a few of the changes?
- Sandbox status is gone. We're moving to a more stream lined game.
- Move to a Leveling System
Some other features are getting changed to fit with the above. But... This doesn't mean we're going to become a carbon copy of what's already out there - we're pretty sure we're going to have some unique, and fun features that todays MMO's seem to have forgotten about..
Also I'd like to apologize to all the people out there expecting another SWG Pre-CU. It's just not possible with an Indie team... But you have my word if we ever get into a position where we can make a Pre-CU like game we WILL in a heart beat. But, right now we're going to work on the game, and hopefully make a game a few people would enjoy playing."
Citadel of Sorcery - Another MMO in very early stages. Will be keeping an eye on this one to see how it progresses.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Rise of Kunark - A New Kind of EQ2
When I'm really involved in an MMO and enjoying myself, things get a bit quiet around here. And such has been the case recently in EQ2. My husband and I returned a couple months back. We were each doing our own thing with alts until the release of Rise of Kunark. So I brushed off the dust from my 70 Mystic and he from his Berserker and we set out exploring. A little over two weeks later we hit level 80. Well dang.
This has definitely not been the EQ2 of the past which involved some solo quests, lots of heroic quests and lots of slaughter, which some refer to as grinding. Typically, the zones after level 40 contained higher and higher concentrations of heroic mobs as you leveled, making soloing progressively more difficult. This changed somewhat with the release of Echoes of Faydwer, making it a bit easier to get through those levels. Rise of Kunark is completely different from them all.
Kylong Plains - The boat ride arrives here and within view of Karnor's Castle. While the names of places from EQ1 are familiar, there is very little visual familiarity to be found. Echoes of Faydwer had captured that familiarity and nostalgia; however, Kunark has none of that. I usually love the music in EQ2 and have it turned up. The Kunark music, however, does not evoke any sort of emotion and for the first time, I have the music turned down.
Ok so on to exploring. You will be loaded up with quests on arrival and will soon notice mobs hit quite hard. There are no heroics to be found anywhere, but these are not your typical solo mobs. This is more reminiscent of EQ1 where you had to be sure to single pull, because two of these can result in a quick trip to the resurrection point. The quests flow fairly nicely here. You rarely are sent back to kill the same thing, so everything is kept fresh and new. This changes later on though.
Quest rewards for the first time have effects instead of just stats. You might find health or power regeneration on them, or some sort of buff effect to proc on occasion. The non-legendary rewards are getting tweaked in an upcoming patch. It seems they didn't intend the effects to be quite so good. This will affect about half of the items I have currently equipped. Ah well. Also, certain classes have been a bit shafted in the rewards. Nearly all priest rewards have been leather. Unfortunately, the way mitigation is calculated, you are penalized for wearing armor not designed for you. So, a chain class wearing leather actually gets hit for more damage than a leather class in leather. I've been able to upgrade to some nice jewelry, but as far as armor goes, I'm still in the old stuff. They will be adding items to the faction merchants in the future to address this.
Speaking of faction, this expansion highly revolves around faction and progressively so. Kylong Plains just has one main faction to work up and it goes up very quickly. The faction here enables you to deal with the merchants and buy advanced mounts if your guild level is high enough.
Fens of Nathsar - Once you are done with Kylong Plains, you are sent here. There are two factions here and they are kill on sight until you complete a quest. Time to start stocking up on lots of invisibility totems as you sneak your way around to get this quest done. The repetitive quests start kicking in as you must kill chickens, cats and rhinos over and over and over. Also, the two factions don't like each other either. While you are working on gaining faction with them, they are asking you to kill the other side in some quests which knocks your faction back down. I'm one of those people who hates killing things that aren't aggressive to me, even more so when it involves a faction hit. I want everyone to like me! Yeah I know it's just a game. I put these type of quests off for awhile until I realized both sides were pretty darn nasty and said oh heck with it.
Kunzar Jungle - This is your next stop and I just hated this zone. It's small and mountains are put in your way so you must travel long distances to get anywhere. It felt like a confusing maze jam packed with mobs. I honestly had claustrophobia here and couldn't wait to get out. Now you have several factions to work up and you need to do so quickly because these aggressive npc's are pathing around everywhere. There were some quests here that I actually avoided. I had been doing some quests for the frogloks. Seems the iksar think they make good slaves and can be seen threatening and taunting them in their camps. So I was sent to help some frogs escape. Then the iksar gave me a quest about some escaped frogs I was to go out and kill to send a message to the others who might be thinking about escaping. I felt sorry for these little frogs and just couldn't do it. Quest deleted.
Jarsath Wastes - We still had quests left in Kunzar but were desperate to leave so off to Jarsath we went. Ah, wide open spaces....freedom! Again you have some aggressive factional npc's in your way you need to quest for first. And again you're killing lots of chickens, cats and rhinos. By this point, I was disgusted with both the sarnak and iksar and could care less about ruining faction to kill one or the other. Just give me my reward. Your initial quests are in what was called Overthere to anyone familiar with EQ1 and finally you are sent to the Skyfire Mountains section of the zone. Here is where it is a bit tough. While these are considered solo mobs, they are all level 80 plus. These would be very difficult to solo and everyone I have come across has been in a group.
So in summary, for my play style which is mostly duoing with my husband, it's been very easy to get through this expansion. Honestly, I've never leveled this fast in EQ2 ever. Ten levels in two weeks? We play for an hour or two at night and then bigger chunks on weekends. Unfortunately, for most players though this expansion has been a bit frustrating. The quests are all chains and people are really having trouble finding others on the same step to help them. While they are considered solo quests, they are not easily soloable at all. My guildmates have gotten frustrated with having to do the same quests over and over to help others catch up and many of them don't like having to constantly ask others to help them, so a good percentage of them have given up and are playing lower level alts for the time being.
I have some mixed feelings about the expansion. I realize once everyone is 80, it won't matter. We'll just be exploring the dungeons together and heck with questing. But I really hope this doesn't turn current players away from the game. EQ2 has always had a different breed of players. Some like not having to do quests and just grinding mobs. Many like having lots of group content that didn't previously involve all these prerequisite quest steps. Adding this type of play only at level 70 certainly isn't going to be bringing in the WoW players as they will still have to get through the early levels the old fashioned way, so I'm not sure what the actual intent was. Time will tell.
This has definitely not been the EQ2 of the past which involved some solo quests, lots of heroic quests and lots of slaughter, which some refer to as grinding. Typically, the zones after level 40 contained higher and higher concentrations of heroic mobs as you leveled, making soloing progressively more difficult. This changed somewhat with the release of Echoes of Faydwer, making it a bit easier to get through those levels. Rise of Kunark is completely different from them all.
Kylong Plains - The boat ride arrives here and within view of Karnor's Castle. While the names of places from EQ1 are familiar, there is very little visual familiarity to be found. Echoes of Faydwer had captured that familiarity and nostalgia; however, Kunark has none of that. I usually love the music in EQ2 and have it turned up. The Kunark music, however, does not evoke any sort of emotion and for the first time, I have the music turned down.
Ok so on to exploring. You will be loaded up with quests on arrival and will soon notice mobs hit quite hard. There are no heroics to be found anywhere, but these are not your typical solo mobs. This is more reminiscent of EQ1 where you had to be sure to single pull, because two of these can result in a quick trip to the resurrection point. The quests flow fairly nicely here. You rarely are sent back to kill the same thing, so everything is kept fresh and new. This changes later on though.
Quest rewards for the first time have effects instead of just stats. You might find health or power regeneration on them, or some sort of buff effect to proc on occasion. The non-legendary rewards are getting tweaked in an upcoming patch. It seems they didn't intend the effects to be quite so good. This will affect about half of the items I have currently equipped. Ah well. Also, certain classes have been a bit shafted in the rewards. Nearly all priest rewards have been leather. Unfortunately, the way mitigation is calculated, you are penalized for wearing armor not designed for you. So, a chain class wearing leather actually gets hit for more damage than a leather class in leather. I've been able to upgrade to some nice jewelry, but as far as armor goes, I'm still in the old stuff. They will be adding items to the faction merchants in the future to address this.
Speaking of faction, this expansion highly revolves around faction and progressively so. Kylong Plains just has one main faction to work up and it goes up very quickly. The faction here enables you to deal with the merchants and buy advanced mounts if your guild level is high enough.
Fens of Nathsar - Once you are done with Kylong Plains, you are sent here. There are two factions here and they are kill on sight until you complete a quest. Time to start stocking up on lots of invisibility totems as you sneak your way around to get this quest done. The repetitive quests start kicking in as you must kill chickens, cats and rhinos over and over and over. Also, the two factions don't like each other either. While you are working on gaining faction with them, they are asking you to kill the other side in some quests which knocks your faction back down. I'm one of those people who hates killing things that aren't aggressive to me, even more so when it involves a faction hit. I want everyone to like me! Yeah I know it's just a game. I put these type of quests off for awhile until I realized both sides were pretty darn nasty and said oh heck with it.
Kunzar Jungle - This is your next stop and I just hated this zone. It's small and mountains are put in your way so you must travel long distances to get anywhere. It felt like a confusing maze jam packed with mobs. I honestly had claustrophobia here and couldn't wait to get out. Now you have several factions to work up and you need to do so quickly because these aggressive npc's are pathing around everywhere. There were some quests here that I actually avoided. I had been doing some quests for the frogloks. Seems the iksar think they make good slaves and can be seen threatening and taunting them in their camps. So I was sent to help some frogs escape. Then the iksar gave me a quest about some escaped frogs I was to go out and kill to send a message to the others who might be thinking about escaping. I felt sorry for these little frogs and just couldn't do it. Quest deleted.
Jarsath Wastes - We still had quests left in Kunzar but were desperate to leave so off to Jarsath we went. Ah, wide open spaces....freedom! Again you have some aggressive factional npc's in your way you need to quest for first. And again you're killing lots of chickens, cats and rhinos. By this point, I was disgusted with both the sarnak and iksar and could care less about ruining faction to kill one or the other. Just give me my reward. Your initial quests are in what was called Overthere to anyone familiar with EQ1 and finally you are sent to the Skyfire Mountains section of the zone. Here is where it is a bit tough. While these are considered solo mobs, they are all level 80 plus. These would be very difficult to solo and everyone I have come across has been in a group.
So in summary, for my play style which is mostly duoing with my husband, it's been very easy to get through this expansion. Honestly, I've never leveled this fast in EQ2 ever. Ten levels in two weeks? We play for an hour or two at night and then bigger chunks on weekends. Unfortunately, for most players though this expansion has been a bit frustrating. The quests are all chains and people are really having trouble finding others on the same step to help them. While they are considered solo quests, they are not easily soloable at all. My guildmates have gotten frustrated with having to do the same quests over and over to help others catch up and many of them don't like having to constantly ask others to help them, so a good percentage of them have given up and are playing lower level alts for the time being.
I have some mixed feelings about the expansion. I realize once everyone is 80, it won't matter. We'll just be exploring the dungeons together and heck with questing. But I really hope this doesn't turn current players away from the game. EQ2 has always had a different breed of players. Some like not having to do quests and just grinding mobs. Many like having lots of group content that didn't previously involve all these prerequisite quest steps. Adding this type of play only at level 70 certainly isn't going to be bringing in the WoW players as they will still have to get through the early levels the old fashioned way, so I'm not sure what the actual intent was. Time will tell.
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