Five days after EQ2 celebrated it’s 6th birthday, I was looking inside my very own Mistmoore Estate which happens to be the 7 year veteran reward. For those who are wondering how that math works out, for earlier expansions EQ2 used to give away 90 days of account age but they’ve since stopped. Even though I had just moved my Norrathian museum from the Freeport Mage tower to Halas – I decided that the elaborate arch ways were too much to pass up, and if any of my character houses were going to be in a grand estate, it would have to be the museum. I packed up all 400+ player written books along with the rest of my worldly possessions and set off to move yet again.
While the house itself is quite amazing there are a few design flaws. Number one, it’s literally bigger then the tier 2 guild halls that you’ll find in home cities. The ceilings are so incredibly high that this will most certainly pose some issues for me as I decorate. I’m pretty sure I’ll be lowering the ceiling on some rooms via floor tiles – aside from the main entrance where the cathedral like arches work quite well. When EQ2 housing was given a brief revamp and homes received an extra 100 item count – the 7 year veteran reward was not included in that list. 600 items is the max you can place by default. Granted, you CAN purchase the player-crafted expander which allows you 100 more items and there IS the item from the station marketplace that expands the item count by another 200 items (and this stacks with the player-crafted) bringing you up to a whopping 900 items but for a home that is gigantic by any standard this is still not quite enough.
Still, a free home (and rent free at that) is a free home, and I’m quite pleased with it. There are people who are unsatisfied with this veteran reward as it offered nothing to those dedicated gamers who do NOT enjoy the player housing aspect of EQ2, and I can understand their position. Personally I tend to take the rout of ‘we should be thankful we got anything at all’ and I won’t turn my nose up at it.
The decorating process thus far has been quite slow. I’ve got the main entrance almost completed as well as the starts of my library if for no other reason then unloading those 400 books. What a pain to place, let me tell you. Once I get a little more completed I’ll post more screen shots and a video – so until then, happy gaming. No matter where you find yourself!
Remember that episode of Friends where Chandler wants to quit the gym so Ross goes with him as moral support, and in the end neither of them quits? Well, that reminds me a lot of video games. We constantly (as gamers) hear from our friends, blogs, and other web sites all of the nitty gritty aspects to games that makes them unappealing. Yet we keep playing them. We complain about mechanics, developers, decisions, and everything under the sun – and yet we keep at it. Of course there are reasons for continuing, it’s not all doom and gloom, but I think one of the major ones is that it’s simply habit. If you’ve been playing a particular game for five plus years it’s REALLY hard to just stop. Suddenly you’re left with ‘free time’ where that video game used to be. So you fill the gap with another game. A few months down the road and you’re back to your old game wondering why it was you ever left in the first place. Or perhaps you’re one of the stronger type who don’t ever return, finding that the grass really IS greener on the other side.
