Tag: EQ2

If I Only Had the Time.. #EQ2 #EQ #Rift #VGD

If only I had the time. That statement haunts me even to the moment that I’m typing it out. I think we live in a glorious age where there are just SO many incredible games to play – and I just don’t have enough time for them all. It’s impossible. What am I up to these days? Well.

EverQuest: My main game at this moment in time, and has been since the progression servers launched. I am no longer playing on a progression server but have returned to my home of Drinal. I have a 90 necromancer and an 89 soon-to-be 90 enchanter. My second account is active (for now) and I’ve been playing a bard who just reached level 80 yesterday. I’ve been exploring House of Thule in all its glory, and working on my 1.0-1.5-2.0 epics. I haven’t explored much of the previous expansion (Underfoot) yet but I’m looking forward to that. EverQuest just has SO much content for players (12 years will do that) and I’ve been having a wonderful time. I’ve been doing crafting as well, and have made a few friends. I’ve stayed in my casual guild so far, but that may change in the future. I’ve been doing anniversary events which are around (along with Fabled spawns) until April 26th. For those who say you can never go back – I say yes you can.

EverQuest II: I’ve done little to nothing since DoV released. I’ve obtained 1 flying mount and done a few public quests for gear on both the troubador and the warden. I did do the chrono portal quests that were released as a tribute to EQ1, but aside from that EQ2 has barely been on my radar. I keep wanting to go back but I can’t find (aside from housing and crafting) what it is I’m looking for when I play. For now I’m still drifting.

Rift: I’ve got a level 21 as my max level character at the moment, along with a handful of crafting alts. I haven’t really touched the game that much, I’m still in the starter area. I have decided to sign up for a 6 month subscription because I know I will be back when time allows and the $10/m deal was just too good to pass up. When I’ll actually have the time, I just don’t know.

Vanguard: Yes, still playing. These days I’m mostly doing diplomacy quests or crafting and not that much adventuring. It’s not a bad thing, it’s a time restraint thing. If I had more time I’d play more. This is still one of my all time favorite games.

The Sims Medieval: Love it. Need more time to play it. My kingdom is doing well. I have a tavern, a market, and I created some sort of spy outpost along with NPC to run them all. I haven’t played anyone but the monarch yet, but I’m excited about switching and seeing what other personalities I can uncover.

If I had the time I’d also be brushing up on the handful of games that I’ve got collecting dust. STO comes to mind, Wizard 101, Guild Wars, Dragon Age II (which I bought and haven’t even installed yet on my PC), Free Realms (both PS3 and PC versions), LotRO (which I have been neglecting badly), Magicka, Minecraft, and Recettear. How can we NOT be amazed by the fantastic games we’ve got available to us.

What is your game of choice at the moment? I expect my game-play to also decrease significantly over the next little while. My birthday is coming up, and with it a new Kindle (replacing my sony pocket e-reader) and a new Ipad 2.0 (replacing my ipod 1st gen), I also picked up a kinect, and have been having fun with their work out programs. PLUS spring has finally started, and I expect to be out and about with my camera and a good book – well, as soon as all this rain lets up of course.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Details on Destiny of Velious #EQ2 #EverQuest2

You won’t be able to pre-order from Sony until the 18th but that hasn’t stopped game stores from opening their doors. Here are the product details given from Gamestop –

The latest addition to the monumental MMORPG franchise, EverQuest® II Destiny of Velious presents an unmatched all-in-one compilation pack loaded with the groundbreaking EQII base game, seven thrilling expansions and three exciting adventure packs. New and veteran players are transported to the legendary Great Wastes of Velious, where towering dungeons, dangerous beasts and epic storylines provide the ultimate MMO experience. EverQuest II Destiny of Velious launches its adventures into the sky delivering impressive new features and gameplay, including flying mounts. Following the events of Sentinel’s Fate, the twin Swords of Destiny, Soulfire and the Qeynos Claymore, have been drained of their powers, setting the stage for the destruction of the EverQuest universe. The prophecy known as Age’s End begins to unfold in the legendary continent of Velious and it is here where the war for Norrath will arise. For there to be any chance to save Norrath, the Swords of Destiny must be restored. Norrath’s guardians who undertake this burden will be tested by labyrinthine dungeons, the harsh Velious tundra and powerful creatures. To succeed would mean ultimate glory. To fail would mean annihilation.

  • Standard of the Dain Cloak – Animated glowing hammer cloak
  • Four Different Velious Portal Paintings – Paintings with teleportaion powers
  • 30-day subscription for new accounts
  • Flying mounts – Soar high above Norrath and explore EQII like never before
  • More than 1,000 new weapons and items – Customize your character and in-game home in thousands of ways
  • Over 300 new quests – Follow the EQII storyline through the fabled lands of Velious
  • Ten instanced dungeons – Crawl your way through 10 dangerous dungeons
  • Four new Heritage Quests – Live the legacy of the EverQuest franchise and gain memorable rewards
  • One massive contested dungeon – Good or evil, be the first to conquer the all-new contested dungeon
  • Two overland zones – Journey into incredible unknown lands
  • Four raid instances – Group up with 12-24 man raids for desirable loot
  • A new Signature Quest line – Immerse yourself in EQII lore and get the goods
  • Over 30 new creatures – Battle dangerous and fantastical enemies
  • More than 100 new armor sets – Gear up in powerful armor sets

I’m curious to see how flying in Norrath works. The world has always been pretty ‘flat’ to me, having been guided on rails by the flight paths for a very long time. I don’t really see myself flying over many mountains so much as flying into invisible walls of geometry. I don’t have the faintest idea how this is going to be implemented either, whether we will be able to fly everywhere or only in specific zones.

I do see that there is no mention of public quests in the product details, but I have heard that those were going to be added in some way. Until the NDA drops and people start talking I suppose we’ll just have to speculate for now.

Also, the part that says “To succeed would mean ultimate glory. To fail would mean annihilation.” – some how I don’t think Norrath is going to be totally annihilated if one or two people fail at anything within this expansion. Although that WOULD be a pretty awesome consequence.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

Oh Give me a Home, Where the buf– Gnomes, Roam! #EQ #EQ2

Enough posts of doom and gloom – anyone who has followed me for the past 6 years knows that it’s not my typical style of writing, and I really don’t enjoy it. Today I want to talk about one in-game aspects that I absolutely love and wish more games would incorporate – housing.

Out of the games I have played EQ2 and EQ have some of the best player housing. Note that I said of the games I have played because I realize there are a few other older ones that have done it quite well too. I really like the fact that players can “own” a little piece of the game and personalize it; beyond their player characters. Even if you’re not really interested in housing chances are you’ve at least attempted some decor and have a storage space set up. Or gotten a friend to decorate for you.

EQ2 and EQ even take this one step further by allowing you to display trophies that you’ve collected in your battles. Turning weapons into house items that can be mounted on the walls. Trophies of raid encounters that you can display in your guild hall. I don’t like LotRO’s housing as much as I do EQ2 and EQ simply because they don’t really let players be creative. They allow you to “hang” furniture on hooks which are set out in specific locations across the house. Sure, it’s customizable in what you actually put in each spot but don’t expect any unique home creations that way.

Yesterday I felt the housing bug creep up on me. It’s the one thing that I can’t seem to find in any other game I play to such a satisfying degree. Could I play EQ2 JUST for the housing? That seems a little silly to me. I meandered around EQ1 looking at all of the homes that have gone up since House of Thule has been live. Wow. Some amazing creations by some talented players. I saw everything from wedding chapels to garden gnomes to GIANT garden gnomes. Walled in yards, fountains, a lot of wandering house pets, I saw it all.

Couple that player generated content with the books that EQ2 added some time ago and you have yourself one very vibrant role play community. I absolutely love these player written books, I must, since I own over 300 of them written by various authors. We need more of this stuff in our games. That’s what helps separate our Single player RPG’s from the MMO’s and gives them life.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Yesterday Was Huge

I can’t remember the last time I had such an eventful day gaming so I’m going to go through each game one by one and my thoughts on them. The ones I’m playing, of course. Pictured above – my new home in EQ1! Doesn’t it look awesome. I need to purchase more trees for my lot, but so far I’m incredibly happy.

EverQuest (1): House of Thule went live and with it came a level cap increase (90) which of course also means new everything. Player housing was also released, and it’s just great (refer to my video yesterday for details). I spent a good chunk of time playing with my housing, and since I have the collectors edition I also had a lot of neat things to claim, including two paintings for the home, two mounts, and a few mercenary contract items. The down time was painless and I’d say out of all the updates yesterday the smoothest. I spent the morning watching the SOE Ustream event during the down time, and really appreciate the time and effort everyone put into it, especially since some had been at the office since 1am.

EverQuest 2: GU 58 went in yesterday. Some 5 room homes were given balconies which look really dang cool. I find it a little amusing that a 5-room home now has more item space then a T1 guild hall. I was a little put off by the fact that you can now purchase a 200 item expander from the market, as opposed to the 100 item expander (that don’t stack) crafted by players. $12. After playing both EQ2 and LotRO which have fairly elaborate markets, I feel that turbine does a MUCH better job on their price points. I really enjoy the new currency tab but wish it was shared across all characters so that I wouldn’t have to keep putting currency into my shared bank for alts. The new mount tab is also nice – but I still wish we had a quest item tab to clear out even more inventory space. The update had a number of bugs that still had to be worked out, and there was down time this morning for that. I haven’t tired the new zone yet, but new content is always good.

WoW: The game changing update 4.0.1 went in yesterday. The game didn’t come up until 9pm EST and then of course I had to disable every single AddOn I had until they’re updated. I like the changes to talents although it requires me to re-learn every single character I have which is not exactly fun. My single target dps is up on the shadow priest, but down in AoE damage. It felt odd to play her. I’m considering going holy instead of discipline, but I haven’t really decided yet. I went from 21,000 hp to 29,000 hp which was a nice change. I love what they’ve done to the talent window, the UI changes in general are nice looking. The graphic updates are quite nice. Azeroth is being plagued with earthquakes, and it’s giving me incredible bouts of vertigo, but a neat live event for the onset of a cataclysm.

LotRO: While there isn’t a huge patch going in right now – there is an incredible sale where you can purchase some quest packs for 75% off – and what’s more is if you actually quest through these packs you’ll make the turbine points back. Even though I have VIP access until February, I’m going to pick them up because – well, it’s just a fantastic sale and I know I won’t have a VIP account forever. The sale only goes on until midnight tonight, so be sure to take advantage of it. My Minstrel hit level 32 yesterday doing a few skirmishes, and I’m really excited about exploring further.

Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!

Why so Much Emphasis?

After reading a number of early morning blog posts left over in my RSS reader from yesterday, I found myself wondering: Why do gamers put so much emphasis in what we and others are playing. Especially others. Why do we even care? Every day I read a post from one or more authors that includes some sort of semi derogatory remark condoning a group of players simply because of how they choose to spend their time. Or, to be more precise, where they choose to spend their time.

There are those who have made up their minds that everyone who plays a free to play game must be a certain ‘class’ of gamer. How dare they actually enjoy ‘the grind’ that comes with a lot of these games. Don’t they know that in the long run they’ll pay more for their “free” game then some people will pay for their monthly subscription?! Then there are the WoW gamers. Don’t even get me started on these people. I have heard everything from how close minded they are to how stupid they must be, simply because of where they choose to spend their time. It’s as though we as gamers have moved into certain categories and stereotypes not based on who we are, but because of where we play.You ask a fellow blogger their game of choice and suddenly your opinion of them shifts slightly.

So I ask again – why does this aspect of a person even matter. Why are we so keen to judge someone based on a persons decision to spend their free time where they wish. I have even heard people go so far as to say they do not like a particular person because they play certain games that they are not fond of. Really? Are we so shallow that we are now making character judgements based on video games?

I simply don’t understand it.

In my opinion it doesn’t matter where you play, so long as you have fun. In fact voicing my opinion about any other ‘type’ of gamer is a moot point because when it comes to how others are spending their time – my opinion doesn’t matter! It’s their time, their money, and what I think of the matter is completely irrelevant. I refuse to classify a person based on whether they’re playing EQ2, EQ, VG, LotRo, WoW, WAR, DDO, Darkfall, Wizard101, Runes of Magic, EVE, Alganon, Fallen Earth, Lineage II, Allods, Champions, STO, Free Realms, Aion, FFXIV, SWG, Guild Wars, AoC, or any other game.

Go play, and enjoy. Don’t like it? Move on and find something you DO enjoy. It’s a game. They’re supposed to be fun. There are SO many games out there and despite what others would say about them all cloning one another there are always unique factors to each and every game – you may be surprised at what you end up playing and enjoying. I implore gamers to make their own decisions about what they like and don’t like, and refuse to be classified into a category of gamer simply because of where they spend their time.