Stargrace

Keeping Up With The Gamers #MMORPG

If you’re one of those gamers who likes to taste a little bit of every game, this has probably been an expensive year for you. Whether you’re only interested in MMOs or if that extends to single player, it doesn’t much matter. There’s a lot of games out there and the costs can add up.

Right now I’m reading everyone’s excited squeals for Neverwinter, the ‘early’ release starts today – for people who decided to buy the $200 package. Needless to say, I simply can’t afford to spend that much on a game that I may or may not enjoy well into the future. At this moment I have been contemplating the $60 package, but I’m still not sure if it’s a game that I truly enjoy more than anything else I already have on my plate (that comes at a lower cost). So what is on my plate?

I did get my $60 out of Guild Wars 2, and even though I’m not actively playing that right this second I know it’s not going anywhere. I’ve dedicated more than $60 worth of hours to the game, and I’ve had a lot of fun. It will still be there when my interest leans that way again.

Wurm Online is $50 a year (until the price goes up in May). You rarely ever get MMOs for that price, and I’ve certainly got a lot of played time on my characters. I think my main is over 100 days played now. Plus you can play Wurm with in-game currency, which I do for my 2nd account. I just purchased a year of game time, wanting to get that settled before the price goes from $5 EU a month to $8 EU.

My EQ account is compensated, as are all of my SOE accounts. This makes them an easy go-to choice for many genres. I’m having a lot of fun in EQ, and I still dip into EQ2 and Vanguard. Me and SOE (the company, not the people) may have had some rocky times, but they’re a solid game choice for me and have been for many, many years.

Rift is active for 30 days. I haven’t poked in yet and I’m not really sure why. I just haven’t felt the urge, even after claiming the latest expansion and a handful of other goodies.

There are loads of other games on my desktop that I could technically pick up and play at any time, and haven’t felt an inkling to do so yet. There’s Wizard 101, Pirate 101, The Secret World, Star Trek Online (I have a life time subscription to that one), and of course EVE which I still have some unused PLEX for. These are just the MMO games. There’s a whole steam library of single player games that I haven’t beaten yet, and a few that have no ‘end’ like The Sims 3.

With such a selection it’s hard for me to justify spending even more money on a game that I know didn’t exactly call to me in the beta – but – so hard to resist because pretty much all of my friends are going to be playing it. I never want to be the one left out of all the fun. So for those who ARE going to be playing today – I look forward to living vicariously through your adventures!

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Why Own Just a Guild Hall – Why Not The Whole Zone?! #EverQuest

Why decorate a simple guild house – when you can own the entire neighbourhood! This is exactly what I decided to do for the small guild I belong to in EverQuest. The station cash store has an option for you to purchase not only a guild hall (that can be accessed through the guild lobby) but an entire guild neighbourhood. This instanced location will belong to the guild as a whole, not any one individual person, which you’re warned about before you purchase it.

Other people can enter the instance, tour the houses and poke around, but they won’t be able to purchase house plots.

So it was that I ended up with an entire area to decorate and then some. The guild halls are nice, spacious, and they come with a handful of NPC to help make your stay there more comfortable. So far I’ve not done much decorating, Oger has added some weapons and shields to the walls as well as some very nice looking paintings. We have a crafting room off of the main entrance, complete with some of the more ‘unique’ craft tables, like alchemy and even an ice cream churn. There are some extra NPC down there so you don’t have to go racing all over the place to collect items from your bank, and I really like how things are looking so far.

I’ve also set up a few houses within the zone for my alts, you can use these for storage or whatever else you would like. I haven’t gotten around to any massive decorating yet, and certainly nothing on the scale of EQ2 housing (yet) but it’s in the works and as I make some progress I’ll be sure to share pictures.

Speaking of progress -the ranger on my second account is now level 85. I’ve paused her leveling here for now, 100% of experience is going into alternate advancement. I don’t want her to be useless, so the more aa I can get the better. Plus this gives me time to work on getting my epic completed, and a few other (ie: older) quests that I want to do. My rank 5 mercenary quest is pretty high up on that list as well.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Raptr and Rift, Sitting in a Tree #Riftgame

A really great way to get me back into a game that I haven’t played in a while is to offer up some sort of free item for me to claim. I’m a sucker for those things, I admit it. So when I saw that Raptr was offering up the game for free, the expansion (storm legion) along with it, AND 30 days of game time – if you qualified – of course I went to check it out. Low and behold thanks to my previous time in Rift I did qualify. You need to be from a participating country, and already be ranked as experienced in the game. Even people who have not purchased the game could thus qualify as the first 20 levels are free to play.

The free stuff didn’t stop there though. I was also able to claim a Raptr pet, which is for elite ranked players, some shoulders, and a helm. That may have been a bit of over kill, but again who am I to say no to free things.

So now I have 30 days tacked on to my account, and I’ll want to log in and check out the player housing. Whether or not I stay after that initial 30 days is undecided. There are always so many games on my plate that unless that specific game happens to be THE ONE that I want to play 75% of the time, I tend to move on. I think that Raptr and Rift teaming up is a very neat project, and I’m sure it motivates at least a few sales. Plus it gets word about the game around again when players have perhaps not heard too much going on (although Defiance did just launch, and I’m sure Trion has been busy with that).

Have you claimed any Raptr rewards since they started regularly adding them? What do you think of them so far? Let me know in comments!

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself

Time for Faction! #EverQuest

There have been a few things I’ve been working on with Oger in EverQuest, but the two major projects have been working on the Dragons of Norrath progression (evil), along with the Trials of Mata Muram. Both are quite easy these days especially with mercenary, and the trials more so since the lock out timers have been tweaked slightly. You can now complete each one every 2 hours – 3 day lock out for completion (or winning), 2h lock out for a failure, and an overall 2h timer before you can move from one to the next. Oger and I managed to complete all 6 over the weekend which raised the base resists we are able to have by a small amount each trial. The hardest one required special spells to open chests scattered around the room and since I did’t have my spells at the time (they’re now sold in PoK, quite easy to obtain, but I didn’t know that at the time) we failed it. Returning later that evening netted a win at least.

Dragons of Norrath progression is a bit more difficult because it’s a faction grind. Faction in EverQuest can be a long and tedious task, as shown here by EQresource:

-3000 to -1999 – lowest faction points
-2000 to -751 – Scowls at you ready to attack! (KOS) (approx. 1300 point range)
-750 to -501 – Glares are you threateningly! (KOS) (approx. 250 point range)
-500 to -101 – Glowers at you dubiously. (Not KOS but very close to) (approx. 400 point range)
-100 to -1 – Looks your way apprehensively. (approx. 100 point range)
0 to +99 – Regards you indifferently. (The majority of NPC’s have this neutral standing with you) (approx. 100 point range)
+100 to +499 – Judges you amiably. (approx. 400 point range)
+500 to +749 – Kindly considers you. (approx. 250 point range)
+750 to +1099 – Looks upon you warmly. (approx. 450 point range)
+1100 to +2000 – Regards you as an ally. (Highest level of faction attainable) (approx. 1000 point range)
+2001 to +3000 – highest faction points

At the moment I am kindly faction with The Dark Reign, and have completed up to tier four in progression. I also managed to pre-loot the pieces for the final tier, completing them the previous week with Nonpoint and Xoxox who were completing the raids for another friend. These days the group tasks can be completed solo (especially with mercenary) so the faction grind is not quite as bad as it once was, but the raids still take a little bit of finesse.

You earn a few useful things for completing faction, the first tier unlocks the passive ability to increase your max stats by 10. The second tier grants 250 hp / mana / end and the third tier increases your buff slot limit by one. The fourth tier which is the one I’m currently trying to complete increases the critical chance of melee / magical attacks and heals and finally the fifth tier increases your ability to resist a detrimental spell.

I’ve been enjoying myself as we go through these older quests and factions. They’re still relevant and while I may not be able to handle doing much alone in the current content (just the way EverQuest is) at least I’m not completely useless.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Guest Post: Why I Love MMORPG

Massively multiplayer online role playing games (better known as MMORPGs) are an enduringly popular genre of video games. In most of these games, you choose a character with certain skills and play in a fantasy or science-fiction world completing quests and fighting enemies in order to strengthen your character. Other players populate the same game world and you can play with or against them. Some games require a monthly subscription fee while others are free to play but use micro transactions to fund them. The most popular is World of Warcraft, which has over ten million players despite being more than eight years old, but there are many other games in the genre.

Online gaming in general has become very popular in the last few years. In addition to MMORPGs, many people play online video poker, war games and free slots games. Sites like slots.com offer players the chance to play slots online, combining fun with the chance of winning a little money. The thrill of playing against real people as opposed to a computer is a big draw for this type of game. People enjoy a wager on sports, but the result is out of your control. With online gaming, you can take matters into your own hands.

Indeed, playing with others is one of the best things about online gaming and players often build entire communities around their favorite games. In MMORPGs, players can form teams, or guilds as they are known, of people who play together often. This gives them the opportunity to refine and perfect their tactics to enhance the gaming experience. Even when not playing, some people just log on to chat with their friends online. This is a uniquely fun aspect of MMO gaming.

Another reason why people play MMORPGs is for the feeling of progression. Your character continually progresses in terms of strength and abilities by gaining levels and better equipment. This allows you to take on stronger challenges and there is a real feeling of accomplishment when you are finally able to take down a dungeon boss that’s been troubling you for a while. This makes you feel like you inhabit your character and that you are growing together. Some people even play ‘in character’, assuming the traits and speech patterns of their avatar, adding yet another level of fun to the games.

As your character progresses, so too does the game world, with most MMORPGs featuring regular patches and expansions to the game. In this respect, there is always something new to achieve and the player feels like they are part of a large and developing world and that their choices and actions actually matter. A recent example of an expansion pack is Star Wars: The Old Republic’s first add-on, Rise of the Hutt Cartel. One criticism of this game has been that there isn’t enough to do, but now there is a whole new story to enjoy. Game reviews are coming in now, and IGN currently have a review in progress.

MMO games are big business and great fun to play, and the choices are growing by the day. Once the exclusive realm of those with high powered PCs, online games are rapidly moving into other arenas. War games like Call of Duty and Battlefield are favorites with console users due to their fast pace. MMOs are also moving into the handheld console market.

As the world moves further and further online and smartphones become standard with everyone, MMO gaming grows more accessible. There is truly something for everyone, no matter your interests. Whether it’s role-playing, war gaming, betting games or sports simulators you’re after, there is an online game for you. MMOs are great fun for so many reasons and now is a great time to get online before you get left behind.