EQ2 – Page 3 – A Pixel Nomad

Restless in Life – Restless in Gaming

Well, that happened. I was looking at my EQ2 housing and remembering all of the good moments I had in the game – and since I was already subscribed through station access (since I’ve been playing EQ1 for a month or so) I found myself purchasing the latest EQ2 expansion and trying to figure out what I was doing last time I played, back in 2016. Thing is, when you purchase a copy of the latest expansion they also toss in a 120 boost, I assume so you can get right back up to speed playing with friends (or whoever is left) so of course I used it on my main character.

That was a bit of a mistake. They don’t actually explain any of the game systems or mechanics to you, so now I’m 120 with even less of an idea of what to do than before. I haven’t started ascension, and everything I’m reading says the four NPC who handle that should talk to me (but they don’t). I didn’t know about the hidden daily familiar quest in Freeport/Qeynos (why would I, there’s no feather to mark it!) or what familiars were, or how to go about getting one. I knew about Overseer thanks to EQ1, but it works a bit different in EQ2. So far I only have three agents, and three quests available to me. I’m sure that will change with time. I need to be level 10 before I can start doing the daily for THAT, which is also in the starter cities.

I ended up doing the public quest for the tinkerer’s festival again, this time in Antonica. There’s an achievement for doing it 5 times, and it’s one of the most obnoxious PQ I’ve ever done. I did get a familiar for my efforts, so that was nice.

I attempted to head into a solo mission from the latest expansion, but it took me so long to kill anything, after the first two named I gave up and called it a night. No deaths, just incredibly long boring fights. I don’t want to start characters over yet since I’ve got a whole lot of them already sitting at 100 (or 120) but I feel like EQ2 does a very poor job of directing returning players to any direction at all. My inventory is filled with items I’ve gotten in the mail that port me to what I presume are the starters of various expansions – but examining these items doesn’t give me enough of a clue as to what expansion they belong to, or which one is newest. They’re more like “hey so and so wants to talk to you! Click this item to head there” type descriptions. Not useful if you haven’t kept up with the news/lore.

That doesn’t mean I’m not enjoying my (slow) return – I am. I just also find it frustrating, and after two days of trying to break into these systems I still don’t feel like I have any direction on what to do next. I have finally figured out familiars, I have figured out Overseer, I still have no idea what I’m missing ascension wise, and I’m not completely sure what I should be working on or what I missed that was important. I do plan on continuing on, and I’m doing my best to figure things out. I’m just also slightly frustrated.

What Was I Thinking..

I haven’t played EQ2 for five years. Prior to my son being born I had also taken a few years break here and there, and I haven’t properly played in.. well, a long time.

That being said, even 15 years later, MOST of the posts on this blog are about that game. That game where I met my husband. Where I made amazing connections and some of my very best friends. Even all these years later it’s hard to give up. It’s hard to move on, and to remember that I am not that person any more, and that game has changed too.

I’ve been having an absolute blast playing EverQuest and for some reason today I thought to myself ‘well, wouldn’t it be nice to check out my old houses in EQ2’ and I should have known better. I should have known better because I spent countless hours on those houses setting them up exactly the way I wanted – and I love them so much. My favourite place in all of Norrath is my library where I have over 700 unique player written books. I spent hours buying any new book I found on the broker. Some are silly, some are sad. Written by players who have long since left the game, and some who have left this world.

It feels silly to have such an attachment to this game. It hasn’t been ground breaking for some time. It’s not talked about in any of my circles. Yet here I am. Logged in, watching chat, reminiscing. I’m vaguely contemplating buying the most recent expansion and leveling my characters up – why? I am not even sure. Could be fun! I don’t have the faintest idea about anything any more. I see they’ve added Vah Shir, and that’s pretty neat. Overseer is a thing too, which I’ve been playing in EverQuest.

Anyone else out there still playing? Thoughts?

Inflation? Just a Little..

The last time I played EverQuest 2, the level cap was 100. Now it’s 120. The year was 2017 and the items posted above I had for sale for … significantly less. Back then, they didn’t sell. Fast forward almost 4 years to the day since I played (I was playing in May of 2017) and they’ve sold for significantly more than I priced them for in 2017, but for significantly less than what market value these days is, thanks to – you guessed it – inflation.

Honestly, I took a look at 120 master spells and they’re selling for over a MILLION plat minimum. I think the cheapest I saw was 1.2 million and they just went up from there. The krono (item you purchase for a single month of game time) is at over 11 million plat each now.

It’s hard for me to fathom that sort of gold.

That ONE Game

Lets face it, we probably all have a special spot (or two) for that game. A game we want to love, that we keep installed or maybe even keep a subscription to, but we don’t actually play it. Every time we work up the courage to log in something stops us from going further. I can’t be the only one, right?

For me that game is of course EverQuest 2 (and the original can probably fall under that umbrella too). Back in December of last year me and my husband found ourselves with a few extra hours while kiddo was asleep (typically on me) in the early morning hours, and we wanted something we could play together so we returned to Norrath. Even picked up the latest expansion. I subscribed for a year. What was I thinking! It has been ages since I played any game for a year straight let alone one that has fallen so far off my radar I shouldn’t even have it installed.

We played for a few months but then a combination of things happened. As kiddo started getting bigger he was awake more hours and wanted more attention. This baby has always been pretty high maintenance and that hasn’t changed. Then we got to a point in the game where we couldn’t get any more upgrades doing content with just the two of us, we would have to group – except finding a group and having time for that when I never knew when I would be called away was next to impossible.

The other half stopped playing first. No real surprise there, we may have met in EQ2 and it will always have a soft spot for us because of that, but the game has changed, the players have changed, WE have changed, and we were looking for things that just don’t exist for us in that game any more. I trudged on, convinced I could do something myself and that I wouldn’t need groups, or that I could invent a magical group that could complete content in the 15 minutes free I had.

Silly Stargrace.

Months go by, I don’t log in. Then EQ2Wire announces they’re shutting down and nostalgia rears its head and suddenly I find myself pushing the play button. I still have a subscription until December, wouldn’t I just like to peak in and see how things are.

It might have been different if channels worked and I saw any sign of life in game – but for some reason my global channels were all missing (I believe it has to do with a bug of copying another character’s UI) and I was once again in game alone. The last time anyone logged on in our small guild of three was almost a year ago. I don’t want to play an MMO alone. I’ve got a whole steam library of single player games for that. So I checked my broker (made 2k platinum, yay!) and logged out. Needless to say I won’t be renewing my subscription this time around.

I keep trying to find a magical MMO that I can play in the few brief moments I have here and there but lets face it that probably won’t happen again for a few more years. For now I’ll continue to flounder about, pretending to play games where I get nothing accomplished in the hopes that something will eventually stick. Guild Wars 2 is a good one since it has no subscription. I have been logging in daily and getting a few things done here and there but honestly I’m waiting for the expansion to go live – mounts sound exciting.

For everyone reading – what’s that one game you keep installed and you have good intentions about but you never actually end up playing it? Let me know in comments, I know it can’t just be me.

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

Goodbye, EQ2 Wire

Fan sites are essential to video games. They draw communities together and they help to create hype for the games we all love and share. They provide players with a ‘space’ out there on the internet, something creative that doesn’t have to constantly be monitored by those who run the games.

I remember Feldon very well even though we’ve never met in person. I served with him a number of years on the SOE community council (is that still a thing?) back when it was SOE and not Daybreak. He has always been incredibly opinionated, and sometimes that didn’t go over too well – but he was always honest and true to himself and his site which I admired in a huge way. I’ve used his site countless times over the years, both when I was a hardcore EQ2 player and just to keep up on things while I was away. He brought honest and informative news to EverQuest 2 players for many MANY years in what can only be considered a thankless job.

Well, not completely thankless. A tough job though, that’s for sure.

I’m incredibly sad to see him shutting his doors after so many years. I think it will be a hard niche to fill as well as he did and I think that Daybreak is worse off for his leaving especially with the demise of sites like ZAM. I do wish him all the best and I completely understand his branching off to pursue other hobbies, we all have them even though video games may encompass a large portion.

So thank you, anyone and everyone who has worked on EQ2Wire. Dellmon, Feldon, and anyone else behind the scenes. Your presence will be greatly missed.