Category: Gaming

The Power of Words

This player written book was donated to my library this morning. It was one of the most beautiful books I’ve read, and even though it’s not EQ2 related specifically (the story that is) I wanted to share it and remind everyone about the power of words, and just one more reason why I think these player written books are so wonderful, little tokens of memories spread throughout Norrath.

Thank you for allowing me to own this copy and to share it with others who visit the library (which you can find on the Kithicor server, in the North Freeport mage tower, bottom floor under the name of Ellithia).

Aion Beta Weekend – Round II

There’s no way my little screen shots do this game justice, and I realize it’s been said numerous times now but let me state it again – this game is so pretty. There are little nooks and crannies everywhere, and while I realize that how a game look does not mean it’s going to be amazing, it is certainly nice to have something that appeals to me on a very basic visual level.

As if the graphics were not enough there is also the music. The music in Aion is compelling and draws the player into the game. I realize that EQ2 has combat music, but it is nothing like the combat music of Aion. It’s breathtaking, and every time I fight something I want to be on the edge of my seat making sure I don’t miss anything. That doesn’t mean it’s for everyone, but I certainly had a blast. Now if my character would just duck out of her combat pose a little faster.

It was not quite as crowded as I would have thought, and this time around there was a choice of two servers. I created a mage instead of a priest, and felt as involved in the process of character selection as I did the first time. Again, the quests are nothing new and if you’re looking for an innovative game you’re not going to find it in Aion but it does offer polish. Lots, and lots of polish. The world looks beautiful, you can customize the bits you need. Again I’ve said this before but it’s taken the aspect of MMO’s I really dislike (lack of jumping, point and click) and given players options or removing them all together.

While learning about my heritage in game and talking to an old woman I decided to take a break and try to regain some mana. My character promptly pulled a magical carpet out of her bags, levitated it a few feet above the ground, and took a seat. No more sitting on the cold ground looking as though I must have some sort of stick shoved in an uncomfortable location (I’m talking about you, Vanguard).

Since I’m sure there are a large number of sites who will be covering the beta weekend I’m not going to go into much detail about the quests, the combat, and the specifics of the game. I’ve been reading the stories and they’re interesting and make me laugh. I can’t pre-order it here in Canada (that I’ve found at least) so I’m going to continue to follow along the beta weekends and see how it goes, I hope everyone else who has been playing has found it just as enjoyable!

A Request for Books, and other Ramblings

It’s begun. I put out a plea on both Kithicor and the Norrathian Homeshow forum looking for writers to help fill up my library. I’ve also been advertising it in channels though I’m not sure how well that has gone. I attempt to purchase what I can from the broker, but the written books are few and far between making this difficult. Plus I don’t have unlimited funds, so if it’s over 50g chances are I’m not going to buy that particular book (especially if the inside is blank). When all is said and done I hope to have one impressive library. We’ll see.

Yesterday was one of those nice relaxing lazy days. I had intended on working the grotto quests a little more with alts – but that didn’t happen. I suppose it’s not such a big deal, I had done the quests three times each with various characters, but the house items are simply amazing and I of course always want more. I barely used any in the museum home, I figured I can save it for my other houses (yes, of course there are always others).

The guild of three plus one attempted Crucible last night, but I was starting to feel very ill, so I had to leave once we’d completed the shard quest (which was an easy 15 kill). There was nothing I could do about that except to offer up my apologies. I felt really bad. I did manage to duo Obelisk of Ahkzul with Ultann in an attempt at getting the healer shield to drop but of course after farming it for months and months, we saw the sword that drops regularly.

We only had two deaths and they were foolish ones so I was very happy. Ellithia fell through the floor on the way to the center of the bouncy room, and Arysh died once due to some unwanted aggro. For only two of us in the zone (three if you count the fact that I boxed) it went very smooth and I was happy to get my shard at the end. I tried to search the vendors for a shield but alas the void merchants only hold two for priests, and neither of them have heal crit. Figures.

Today I hope to continue to work on the library, I’d like to get the 2nd portion of the home completely finished, so that all I have left to work on is the bottom portion, which is a living space and not that important to complete. I’m really happy that so far the entire museum has only taken 300/600 items, and I don’t lag in it at all, something I was worried about. Of course I’d love to add more L&L pieces as well as heritage quests, we’ll see how that goes. I’m also wishing we could give our homes names, instead of Ellithia’s Estate, it would be neat to be able to name my home ‘1st Regional Museum of Norrath’ or some such. Foolish dreams I know, but I still think it’s neat.

Aside from all that – (don’t act so surprised) decided to create another character, a baby fury. I do have my 80 warden on Najena, but I was getting the urge and so my arasai was born, level 23 and counting. I spent far too much coin gearing her up, Kithicor is insanely priced.

On the plus side it’s also heavily populated, there are raids going all of the time (Sunday night is Mythical Night, where about 50 people obtained their mythicals) and there are always WoE raids going and other adventures. I still haven’t gotten my mythical on anyone yet, though I’d like to try. We’ll see how it goes.

I hope everyone had a fantastic Father’s Day, and a great Sunday in general. No doubt this week will bring around some amazing adventures, and I’m looking forward to hearing about them all.

Norrath Grotto Live Event

If you happen to be a housing buff (or even a quest-o-holic) then there is no doubt that you had heard about the 5 new grotto that (as of yesterday) appear in Norrath the 20th of every month for players to explore and quest in. If for some reason you were unable to partake in the event this month – don’t worry, there will be another one next month, same date. When I started working on these quests I had so many questions shot my way about it that I put all of the information I knew into a player-written book, made 10 copies of it, and sold it on the broker for others who did not want to spend the time to look it up. Surprisingly enough, I sold out. Of course I also advertised the books on the channels too.

The grotto appear in Antonica, Darklight Woods, Greater Faydark, Enchanted Lands, and Nektulos Forest. Each zone has a collection quest associated with it, as well as one regular quest (aside from Darklight Woods, which has two). Each zone has a merchant with 10-15 house items for sale that use the tokens you receive from completing the quests. If you do not collect the purple shiny in the zone, you will only have a 39 minute lock out and you can go back in and complete the zone again for another house item. I am not certain if this is intended. The 2 day 12 hour lock out only sets once you have collected the purple shiny.

I have never seen so many house items at once before that I wanted to have. They were absolutely beautiful. I ran through the quest on three of my characters for this month and decided that would be more then enough for me. I love the work that must have went into an event such as this, and the giggles of pleasure from watching everyone and their new house items. There were sea shells, coral, flowers, vines, trees, grass, illusions, 20 charges of temporary mounts (that lasted a day each, fantastic for those lowbie alts since the quests scaled and were quite simple). There were plushies of every shape and size, and all of it for a very limited time only, until next month. What a fantastic idea.

I don’t think people understand the scale of the content that gets added to EQ2 every single month (or two). We have huge massive updates on a steady basis that give players not only basic bug fixes and updates to things like graphics but incredible zones, house items, gear, and even the more unique like player-written books. I think a lot of us take advantage of the fact that we expect these updates to happen – but they should NOT be expected. We pay our monthly fee and while there are those who may say the developers of the game are obligated due to the fact that this is to keep subscriptions, it’s simply not true. This content is something that is extra, and done amazingly well in EverQuest II.

On that same note, there is also the guide program in EQ, EQ2, VG, and the EQ that’s on the mac (the name escapes me right now). How many other games have a guide program, where a group of volunteers are set to interact with the player base on a daily time frame, giving away goodies, providing role play opportunities, and other games that can reward players. The time and effort that goes into these games is astounding and every once in a while we all need to sit back and appreciate that effort. I know, I know, we pay $15/m and that’s a lot of money and we should be getting everything for free and how dare anything break in the game without us the players the game would be nothing. I’ve heard it all before. I even agree with certain aspects. That doesn’t mean we can’t be thankful and appreciate what we’re getting as a player base. I hear often on 70-79 players ranting about how no one listens to them, and about how they feel ‘screwed over’. I think this opinion is slightly misguided, while individual players may feel as though no one listens to their specific set of unique problems, over all, things are not that bad.

Sorry, I got carried away there and started ranting. You certainly don’t have to agree with me, but if I’ve learned anything over the past five years it’s to be thankful, both in game and out.

The grotto quests are amazing. So amazing that I spent my time in game yesterday doing nothing but that, and decorating the museum I posted about yesterday. It was one of those nice calm relaxing days that are typically so rare. I ended up crawling into bed with a book at 9:30, and watched ‘Pretty Woman’ until I fell asleep. I couldn’t have thought of a more perfect way to spend my Saturday if I tried (except maybe down in San Diego, I’m so jealous of all of you who are headed to Fan Faire)!

Have a fantastic Father’s Day, everyone. I’ll see you in Norrath (and Telon)!

Home Sweet Home (Norrathian Museum) WIP

I’ve been working on my ‘Norrathian Museum‘ off and on for quite some time. The screen shots don’t do it justice, so if you’re on the kithicor server please feel free to stop by the Magical Academy Housing in North Freeport. Character name is Ellithia. It’s in the mage tower, bottom floor. I’ve worked really hard on this and I’m exceptionally pleased with how it’s turning out.

Ideally, the library will be filled with a combination of player-written books and ones that I’ve quested for. It’s a little bare right now, but it gives me a goal. If there is anyone who wants to add some of their writing to my library, please don’t hesitate to make a character on Kithicor and mail me with your name, I’ll send you a notebook and some coin in return, then all you need to do is mail it back to me when the story is complete, you can delete the character right after.

It is still a work in progress, but the main floor is completed now, and the majority of the upper floor. I want to add tables and chairs to the library area, as well as a living space downstairs for Ellithia (the owner of the home, my mystic). She has a little bedroom tucked away, didn’t need much space for that, but I’d like a little kitchen, and perhaps a bath, we’ll see.

The garden picture was taken at night so it’s really hard to see, and looks far better in the day light. With the new grotto quest rewards (which I’ll go into more detail about tomorrow) the outdoors in any home will lack for nothing.

A silly way to spend my time? Maybe, but I had an absolute blast decorating.