Stargrace

8th Annual Festival of Unity – Antonia Bayle

I am excited. One of my favourite things in EverQuest 2 has always been player driven events. At the end of August, one of the largest is taking place, the Festival of Unity. This will be the 8th year in a row that the festival has run, and it is because of dedicated players that this event is able to happen each year. I have been writing about the festival here on MmoQuests for years now, and last year posted a video of the opening ceremonies. It’s a fantastic time to just wander the crowds and take in all of the excitement. If you’re any sort of roleplayer you’ll feel right at home – and even if you’re not, but have been interested in what it is all about, there is no better time.

The festival runs August 24th until August 30th.

While I was looking through my old posts about the festival, I came across one that discussed one of my first raids with my mystic. Right now she’s a defiler, and her name is Stargrace not Misako, but I betrayed a few times and renamed when I moved servers (also a few times). It brought back such a rush of memories. It was the year I first met “Kilanna” – a woman from Australia who has been an amazing friend of mine these past 7 years. I’m still friends with Lader who I mention in the post, too. It just got me thinking.

Video games are pretty amazing things, no?

New Content

When I logged into EQ2 after some downtime, I noticed players were talking about a new quest chain that had been added. In order to obtain the quest you first had to have completed the signature line in Tears of Veeshan, which rewards you with a fabled mount. I had just barely completed that quest with my swashbuckler, Jacquotte, earlier on in the morning, so I was all ready to go.

The quest brings about years and years of story and lore that we have been participating in. It’s called Age’s End, and I have no idea what the reward is. The entire signature line to this point has been solo but the final quest we were presented with today ended in a x2 raid (12 person). Since so many people had been doing the same quest, we had a lot of people looking for groups. I decided why not, and joined in.

The first raid mechanic is pretty simple. You have to break some crystals while a giant dragon (Kerafyrm) flies around breathing on your raid. Dodge out of some red circles on the ground (meteor) and run out of the room (or out of line of sight at least) when the dragon shows up. There’s a few adds while you deal with the protectors of the crystals, but nothing too bad.

Then things got tricky. The first boss you need to defeat is Roehn Theer. Problem is you’re probably doing this in a pick up raid. If anyone besides one person hails the NPC, everyone will lose their quest progress. Fun stuff, right? So after we defeated the crystals, hailed the NPC, and then of course a few more players hailed the NPC, and low and behold we were told to defeat the crystals again (after having spent an hour or two doing that part to begin with). The next mechanic involves picking up a staff from the ground so that the raid can survive a giant AOE at 80% from Roehn Theer, but our bugged out instance decided not to work properly, and so that never happened. Everyone eventually got frustrated and left.

I’ve heard of a few raids clearing it, but honestly I was disappointed that a signature line (until now) that was completely solo suddenly required a x2 raid, and not only that but it was a hard raid, riddled with bugs. These types of roadblocks, especially concerning lore, are never fun. You already need to be a subscriber (it should open up to non subscribers after two weeks I believe) to do the content. Still, I met some new people, remembered why I hate voice chat, and did get to see some awesome lore before we failed. It wasn’t all bad.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Do you Play Multiple Accounts?

When I posted yesterday I mentioned that I had started playing EverQuest 2 again – and of course it took a grand total of three days before I decided why not, and subscribed my 2nd account, too. I don’t box in every game that I play, but there are a handful that I do. I started in EverQuest, and now find it hard to even play that game without boxing. It’s mostly because of the large amount of downtime you experience as xyz class. Once I had gotten comfortable boxing in EverQuest, I started boxing in EverQuest 2. I’ve had my two accounts for a number of years now. Another game I tend to box in is EVE Online, though I haven’t subscribed for a while (don’t even tempt me). In EVE my reasons were simple, I wanted one account to haul ore, while the other one mined. This saved me a lot of time trying to load and pick up canisters of ore.

I have tried to box in WoW as well, but I have never been very good at it. I don’t know if it’s because I needed more practice or what, but I just never got the hang of it. I’ve also had two accounts in Wizard101, so that I could complete battles easier / faster when no one was around to group with. The older I get (har) the more difficult I find it is to find ‘like minded’ players to group with. Plus some times I’m just not feeling that social, but I don’t wan to be held back in content. I have a small exclusive group that I play with but our hours don’t always match up and we all have busy lives.

I think it would be nearly impossible for me to box in WildStar unless I grew another set of arms to be able to move my characters outside / into telegraphs and adjust. There’s just so much action and movement going on that I would probably find it stressful and annoying. That’s not a bad thing, some games are better experienced by not boxing. There are also times I just don’t want to box, and prefer to focus on one character at a time.

So, how about everyone else? Do you tend to box in your video games or do you focus on only one account at a time? Let me know in comments!

Memories

I can’ t speak for everyone here, but I know that personally, my time is way too valuable to be playing a game I don’t enjoy. If it’s not fun and constantly makes me feel negative or paints things in a negative light, it’s time for me to move on. I understand us gamers can be a pretty passionate bunch and some times it is perceived as us feeling negative about a game when in actuality we’re just really really passionate, but I also think there’s a way to convey that passion without getting all up in arms. Unfortunately not everyone feels the same way.

I suppose I’m feeling a bit nostalgic these days. Blame it on age. I long for the days where we all had an MMO ‘home’ and didn’t jump around from game to game. I have recently started playing EverQuest 2 again – even though I had stopped playing for a few years. It’s a comforting game and a few of my friends still play even with the lure of other shinies in the distance. I envy them and their dedication.

I wonder some times what things would have been like had I just stuck to one game. What if I was still playing EverQuest as my only game of choice? What character would be my main, what would my gear and aa look like. I don’t regret the fact that I play so many games because I have met some lovely people, experienced many game components, and have had fun in each and every one of them, but still. There are those days where I can’t help but think back.

Lets Indulge

I know it’s hard to believe, but some times I just don’t feel like playing an MMO. There are a handful of games that I absolutely love to indulge in, and my latest is a game called Flower Shop: Winter in Fairbrook. It’s a dating / farming simulation game – I know, I know. Laugh away. These visual novels (also known as otome) don’t typically include a lot of actual game play, but a well done one is fantastic and can keep me entertained for hours.

The one I was playing before this was Magical Diary (also on steam), which is where I first discovered that I really enjoy these types of games.

Is there a game that is a bit off of the beaten path that you enjoy playing? I have a small handful of friends who also enjoy these types of games, but it’s not exactly a popular genre in my circles which can make finding these gems difficult. Have you ever tried a genre that you had never heard of before and then found yourself completely enthralled with it? Let me know below in comments!

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.