It’s 3am, What Should We Do?

Last night was a great night. It’s been a while since I had one quite so amusing. To start it off I was a guest on ‘View from the Top‘ a podcast about everything to do with guilds. It was my first time and I was exceptionally nervous, but I had a lot of fun in between my mindless rambling when I was just having a regular conversation with people who are passionate about games. It was suggested (and has been a few times) that I start my own podcast, and while the idea is appealing on some strange level, I just don’t think I’d be any good at it. I simply can’t find the appeal to anyone else listening to what I have to say (reading is another matter).

Afterward I was on quite a rush, almost like that feeling you get when you take down a raid encounter. It was midnight, and I was wide awake. As luck would have it, so were Calreth, Wpus, and Ultann from guild. I haven’t seen all of us logged in at one time in months. Literally. We decided to head to Shard of Hate which is a level 80-88 x4 raid zone in Nektulos Forest, and try our luck. With five of us (Ultann was boxing his inquisitor). That’s how my small casual guild works, and I love it. We knew there was no way we’d get that far, but it was still going to be epic to try.

Try we did. We actually managed to defeat Dreadlord D’Somni with just the five (four) of us. That in itself is not exactly scream worthy – but – this particular encounter has one very (annoying) unique feature. He rushes any mages, randomly, and of course they being the smushy classes that they are, die. Well, our small group of four quickly became a group of two, because two of our guild mates happen to be mages. That doesn’t mean they didn’t play a role! Wpus relogged to his berzerker which meant we now lacked power regen, and Calreth played interception. My mystic mythical allows me to click every 5 minutes (soon to be 10 after SF, thanks for changing that after 2 expansions SOE.. sigh) and regen power to the group so long as there is dps being done to the mob. Calreth would stand near the entrance of the zone and the named would go running off after him. We’d have a few glorious seconds to quickly try to regen some power and prepare for heals while Calreth sacrificed himself for the greater good of the guild. Over and over again.

This gave me enough time to re-cast my mythical, and try to feed us some power. I’ve never had such a glorious battle before. It was amazing. Those are the moments I personally treasure in EQ2.

We figured there wasn’t any way we were getting any further, so we decided on a spur of the moment decision to head to Deathtoll and continue our adventures there. Of course Deathtoll is like taking candy from a baby once you’ve managed to four person an 84 x4. Sadly, my eyeballs started drooping at around 4am, and we had to stop our adventures after killing the gnome and his books. So many books. The hovercraft didn’t drop either, but it was still fun.

Sleep? Bah. Who needs it.

If You Mess With One of Us…

While it may not be widely known yet, it’s only a matter of time. Anyone who messes with Tipa and becomes her arch nemesis, even in the blogging world, must incur the wrath of her entire guild.

Syp, consider this your first and last warning!

Those of us at Torrent Knights don’t take kindly to one of our own being picked on. Unlike you, Tipa comes with an arsenal of friends that she doesn’t have to pay for an evening of company.

Bring it on.

Making a Game Feel Like Home

I’ve been working on my Norrathian Museum for a few years now, and one of my favorite features (which is also relatively new) is my library of player-written books. Lots of players collect the lore books that are scattered throughout Norrath, but I really do pride myself on being able to collect books written by other players. It’s just one of those ‘things’ I do in game that makes the game more ‘me’ – does that make sense?

The collection as of today consists of 249 books, written by various authors from all over Norrath. I try to post a random story once a week to this site so I can share some of the pieces of work I’ve collected, and eventually I have high hopes of even posting every single one of them. We’ll see how that goes. Perhaps I’ll start a second smaller site where I can post them all.

The point is – every game needs something that pulls a player in, and some times playing with your friends really isn’t enough to keep you there. It’s with these little tiny unique customization options that developers add to their game that make a game feel like home, and EQ2 has that in spades. Being able to decorate your home to a ‘theme’ of your choosing, whether you’re a druid worshiping nature, or an ancient warlord who thrives on blood, or a necromancer who studies death in all its forms – that is an example of what makes a game a home.

What are some other examples of how games make players feel ‘at home’ within them?

Enter to Win a Copy of Sentinel’s Fate!

I’m running a contest! That’s right. You can win yourself a key to access Sentinel’s Fate when it goes live on February 16th – it’s easy to enter and not only that but I have 1 Collector’s Edition key to give away as well as 8 regular retail keys. The keys will become active on the 16th when the retail version of the game goes live.

To Enter:

Email me: stargrace@mmoquests.com with a description of your favorite EQ2 memory. This can be as long or as short as you want, in any format that you want (ie: a story, a poem, just a little paragraph. Whatever you feel inspired to write). With it, attach at least ONE screen shot. This can be a screen shot of the memory that you’re talking about, just a character shot, your favorite image that’s been burned into your brain, whatever goes along with your story.

That’s it, that’s all there is to it! It’s so simple even my cat Princess could enter if she wanted. Trust me, when she’s not busy getting into my video recordings, she’s busy pounding away on the print screen key.

Please keep in mind that this contest is ONE ENTRY PER PERSON – so make sure it’s your most precious EQ2 memory! I’ll be taking submissions from now (February 8th) until the 14th – and I’ll announce the winners and email the Sentinel’s Fate keys on the 15th – just in time for the release on the 16th. PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU ENTER FROM A VALID EMAIL ADDRESS as that is the address I will use to contact you about your prize! I’ll also be announcing them here on MmoQuests.

Questions? Comments? Please feel free to leave them below, or you can email me at the address mentioned above.

Good luck, I’ll see you in Norrath!

P.S. Just because you may not have ever played EQ2 before does NOT mean you can’t still enter! You can! Be creative, perhaps your favorite memory of EQ2 isn’t of you PLAYING it at all. I’m open to creative ideas, so don’t let that stop you from trying to win yourself a copy if you want to start playing!