EQ2 – Page 4 – A Pixel Nomad

What’s Your Favourite Type of Crafting?

I love crafting. It doesn’t matter what game I play, chances are I’m going to get involved. That doesn’t mean I like every type of crafting though. One of my least favourite crafting methods is the one you find in World of Warcraft, where you click one button to combine, and wait around until everything in your inventory is used up. It feels very hands free, and it’s meant to be that way. The ‘hard’ part involves collecting the resources, usually through combat (if you’re going to collect it yourself) and adventuring.

My absolutely favourite way to craft, was in Vanguard. Crafting was its own sphere, and did not rely on adventuring at all. You could do work orders where you were given the supplies you needed and only had to purchase the vendor sold components, and this was the ideal way to level, saving your hard earned harvests for actual useful items. It was difficult, complicated, and you would take pride in your creations. Through the use of powders and dusts you could customize every piece a bunch of different ways, and of course you could make pieces more rare than others. One of the best things about this system for me personally was that it wasn’t timed, like it is in EQ2. In EQ2 I feel like I have to constantly sit at the craft bench and not step away to answer the phone or go get the door, because my craft will fail. It’s a timed mechanic, and while I enjoy the process of crafting, I dislike being so tied to the desk as I craft. Sometimes I need to step away.

Crafting in WildStar is complex, but I feel it leans too much on the side of RNG rather than skill. I don’t like having to compete with RNG, because I typically (always) lose. ArcheAge crafting matches that of World of Warcraft, where it’s just a finger click to combine items in your inventory, so long as you have the materials available. There is a bit of RNG as you have a chance to “auto upgrade” an item as you craft it, but the system isn’t complex by any means.

So what are your favourite methods of crafting? Would you prefer to buy from crafters and not create your own items? Players who choose to harvest and sell those goods to crafters can make a nice amount of money in a balanced game, spending the money they earn from selling craft components back on crafters for their finished goods. Of course if you’re like me you have to DO ALL THE THINGS and so you’re both a crafter and an adventurer.

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!

Wurm Offline & the EverQuest 2 Expansion #WurmOnline #EverQuest2

I was hoping to get some time in Wurm Online over the weekend, but that was not in the cards. The game has been down for a few days now, dealing with various issues. Hopefully things get fixed before too long but we’ll just have to see. I hope my animals survive and I hope the impact on players is minimal but because Wurm Online is a ‘living world’ I’m not sure what we’ll see when we’re finally able to play.

It has been kept pretty quiet, but the next expansion for EverQuest 2 releases this Tuesday (tomorrow). Tears of Veeshan. I’m excited, but not nearly as much as I have been in the past. I’m looking forward to new crafting quests, and a signature line or two. I’m not really excited about the zones or overland quests themselves after having played through the content in beta, but I think some of that is because I’m already tired of being level 95. The new aa choices don’t excite me since I prefer the almost unlimited choices of EQ1. The 10 year veteran reward is also looming, I believe I have less than a week to go before I can redeem it. This year it is a shadowknight or paladin mercenary. I wish there had been more choices. Not everyone needs a tank mercenary, and not everyone likes to adventure. Still, it is better than nothing, and I congratulate the game on making 9 years. It surprises me some times that I’ve been playing for that long.

There’s a lot of exciting game related things going on lately. The release of the PS4, the XBox One, the new games coming to those consoles, the expansions for EQ2, the information released at BlizzCon, and numerous other game related tidbits that have been released lately. It’s a good time to be a gamer (but perhaps not a good time to be a wallet).

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

It’s Not Always Fair #MMORPG

As we all learn sooner or later, some times, things are just not fair. This carries over into the MMO world too and can sometimes be a harsh lesson.

Take Wurm Online, for example. A player was banned for cheating not too long ago. Typically this is a zero tolerance policy, if you’re banned for good that’s just the way it is. However, this particular player who was banned happens to be popular on YouTube, and brings new players into the game, so after a few months, they allowed the player back. Other players who were banned were not allowed back, and it was decided that the popularity of this one person was worth any backlash from the loyal player base that they may incur.

Fair? No, of course not.

On a lesser degree, there’s extra-life coming up. Some groups who are quite popular with social media are receiving extra attention from the games that they’ll be streaming, where the little guys who are not quite so popular, are left behind. Even though everyone is raising money for the same cause. This happens quite frequently. I’ve been running my blog for over 7 years now but it’s not a “news” site, it’s just me writing about my adventures in whatever game I happen to be playing. As such, I don’t typically qualify for contests and prizes to give away to readers. Maybe once upon a time, but things have changed as more and more news sites have been created.

Am I a little bitter? Yes, I don’t feel that it’s fair. So what can I do about this feeling I have? Well. The best thing to do (again, for me personally) is to move on and ignore it. Know that I’m doing the best that I can, and as always I’m not doing doing this for any special reason, I write because I love writing. Raising money for extra-life has been a trial in patience this year. I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who has donated and supported me, but it has been much more difficult than previous years of fundraising (this is my first year doing this particular charity, but I have raised money for NaNoWriMo in November and other events over the years). I understand that money is tight, but a small part of me wonders if it’s because with the popularity of Kickstarter and humblebundle, we now “expect” that a reward and prize comes with our “donations”.

Anyhow, just some rambling thoughts this morning – back to our regularly scheduled blog posts!

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!