Tag: FR

Information Overload

Alright, first of all WOW what a week and it’s only Wednesday. I’m feeling 95% better and after having health issues for over a month this is a HUGE deal. It’s fantastic, I’ve been so excited and energetic. Now I just have to keep it up. I’ve been following E3 updates on twitter as well as G4 Tech Tv live, and while personally I’m not a console gamer at all (even though I do own a wii, PS3 and DSi) I am excited about a few things. Kingdom Hearts, Golden sun, a new mario (or two, even though I personally did not like mario galaxy) and who didn’t think the video of The Last Guardian just looked fantastic. Then there’s Natal, and all of the other motion sensor toys coming out, and the new PSP Go. While twitter was filled with some very bitter comments, I tried to keep a positive outlook (as is my way) and remind myself that these are games.

Tipa reminded me that The Dares would be performing in Free Realms across all servers, live from E3 last night, so I quickly made my way into game and ported to her on server 4. It was PACKED. It was the first time I ever experienced lag in Free Realms and we met up with some other bloggers / twitter users which was absolutely fantastic. We danced the night away, and I even picked up one of the concert tshirts for $1 because come on now, you just have to. On the down side while twitter said they played a full set at E3 they only played one song in game, and it was cut short each time, though they did repeat it twice if you stuck around. Still, having friends there made it a massive amount of fun and it was only too easy to see how popular Free Realms had become.

I did spend some time in EQ2 but I didn’t play. I loaded it up on my laptop and hung around in the guild hall chattering to Wpus, Ultann, and Kasul while they went and did all the hard work (mostly crafting and writs) for the evening. On the PC I continued to play Sims 3, I know how embarrassing. Giving up my MMO of choice for an evening to play something as fun silly as Sims. I tried to get to sleep early, the guild is VERY close to level 40 and three more amenity which is just amazing. Ultann has been belting out the writs like they’re being removed from game in the next update (they are not, that was a joke folks).

Thanks to one very kind Kasul I am now holding a copy of Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura which is an RPG that came out in 2001, that follows the Steampunk genre. I had never even heard of it before but when I entered in NeoSteam on GamerDNA this was one of the games they suggested I may enjoy, and it just so happened that Kasul had a copy of it kicking around. Not being an avid gamer myself until these last few years, I’d never even heard of it before. He also sent a copy of Morrowind: The Elder Scrolls III which I’ve never played (despite the game sharing my last name of ‘Morrow’) so I’m looking forward to getting both of those installed on my PC. Sure these game may have seen better years, but I still play EQ happily and that game is 10 years old, so why not.

One last note before I head off to get the morning chores done – have you taken a look at these amazing tinker-themed housing items from EQ2? Holy WOW. I love the selection and any little gnome boy or girl is going to just fall in love with the set. Especially the wall dividers how amazing do those look?! The team has lined up some fantastic goodies for GU52 and I’m really looking forward to it all. I hope everyone has a fantastic Wednesday, in a week and a half the Medieval Festival will be taking place and barring any horrible weather I’ll be there taking pictures again this year – I’m SO excited.

Happy Gaming!

Weekend Gaming

Have you ever had a heart attack before? If you have, then you know how I’ve been feeling the last 8 days. There is a certain satisfaction in knowing that I actually am NOT having a heart attack or anything at all that will seriously harm me, it’s just a great deal of pain. On the health front, things are improving! What we are pretty certain I have, and have been having in little ‘episodes’ for a while now is something called “Esophageal Spasm” it’s not a condition I really have to worry about in the sense that it does not get any worse, it’s just this chest pain and it *typically* passes as it has before, this time it was a little more intense and seems to be taking its sweet time dying down. I’m just happy to be feeling relatively normal again. Last week I went in for three blood tests, an EKG and xrays. They all turned out negative which is great. On the down side this esophageal spasm deal is hard for doctors to actually figure out and notice because there’s only a few ways of figuring out if that’s what you have. Thank you those who wished me well, I appreciate the kind words. I’m sorry for having ranted about my health issues for so long the last little while, but those are the breaks when it comes to this being my personal web site.

On to gaming!

I played a little EQ2 yesterday afternoon, ran Najena’s Hollow Tower where the caster cloak FINALLY dropped for Wpus – it has an 800 dmg proc when you cast hostile spells, which is great. Proc gear can really boost your dps. Afterward we headed to Crypt of Agony to see if we couldn’t get the range item (fabled) to drop for Ultann. While the zone was fairly nice in the number of legendary vs. treasured chests we got, we still haven’t seen that item (nor have we seen the Cardiocutter which I have been trying to get for my bard). The guild has been inching closer and closer to level 30 which means we’ll be able to purchase a new guild hall. I’m excited about that. Right now we’re inching our way through level 28, which seems to be going exceptionally slow.

Wpus, Ultann, and I have been thinking about trying out a PvP server in Eq2 for a short while. While I do enjoy PvP (or at least I did in WAR and WoW) I’ve never actually tried it in EQ2. I’ve never thought EQ2 was a game that was built for PvP. It’s nice to have a change though, so maybe I’ll have something new to report on that front.

I also played some Free Realms yesterday, I play an hour or two here and there, nothing steady. Exploring along this way I’ve come up with quite a few thoughts about my game play and why I enjoy this sort of game.

I have not reached level 10 in any one skill yet, I think my highest is a few level 9’s, and I haven’t unlocked everything yet. I have not done any combat at all in Free Realms to date. I imagine I will eventually. I enjoy the mini games (even if the mining and cooking ones mimic each other) I do not enjoy pet training that much because drawing the same symbol over and over is frustrating for me. I use my wacom tablet to play instead of my mouse since I’m left handed and if I’m going to be drawing something over and over I’d rather be comfortable doing it. The tablet also comes in handy when I’m playing the mini games that require me to line up the little gems / food bits for mining and cooking.

I bought my cat Princess a little pirate vest, and I’ve been contemplating purchasing a dog but I haven’t crossed that road yet. I’ve turned in a lot of tickets (I had about 400 saved up) and got some really nice level 20 gear for when I finally make it there.

For those people who have already hit level 20 in multiple “jobs” I wonder how much exploring they did, or how much they played. I’m constantly discovering new things and I have about four pages of collections unlocked. There are LOTS of sections of the map I haven’t been to yet (in fact I think I’ve only been to the center of the map and none of the outlying places) and I’m looking forward to exploring more. I can certainly see how those who want to could rush past the bulk of the game to hit level 20 in all of the jobs but I personally think they’d miss out on so much. There’s just so much to explore and discover.

I didn’t get any W101 gaming done yesterday, but hopefully I’ll get some time in today and manage to inch my way closer to owning a house. I think right now I’m about 2,000 gold away from purchasing one. Still no idea what sort of home I want though. I’m excited!

I hope everyone else had a fantastic weekend, and that this week is also great. Monday the 18th is a holiday here in Canada (Victoria Day) and if all goes well I’ll be taking a trip out to Upper Canada Village for some photography (I know, planning weekend trips when it’s only Monday is a bad idea). We’ll see how it goes!

See you in Norrath!

Taking it Easy

Still just taking it easy while I try to recuperate, yesterday was ok until after dinner. In the mean time all I want to do is feel better and it’s been a pretty long week. Hopefully that will happen before too long.

I did play a little EQ2 in the afternoon, I started my thuuga quest on both the mystic and the illusionist. Got as far as the Fens of Nathsar quest that sends you out looking for named before I called it.

You may have also noticed that I have added a small 2 line advertisement to the “relic gems” page of this site at the top. It’s not flashy or too intrusive (I hope) and the ad pays for 6 years of this site. If for s0me reason you do find it intrusive and annoying, let me know and I’ll see what I can do. I’ve never wanted to have google ads or anything of the sort on MmoQuests, and I’ve declined more then my fair share of requests in the past. This one was different in the way it was presented to me as more of a ‘sponsorship’ then a full blown ad. I don’t want people to feel as though I’ll be covering the site with ads now, or that it is something common for me. I’ve enjoyed running my site ad-free for the last four years, but of course there is a cost (and bills) to be paid. This is just a tiny method for me to be able to continue. Edit: That ad is only staying up for 6 months, as well.

Moving on!

I did explore around more of Wizard 101 last night, my little life / storm wizard inched her way to level 19 and part way to 20. I managed to earn a few more house items (pictured above) including a palm tree and a scroll that I placed on my desk.

One thing I love about wizard 101 is their subscription plan. I don’t get a chance to play that often so I declined getting the $10/m subscription. What I can do is purchase crowns and then use those to unlock the zones for my account that I need, when I need them. Since it could potentially be months before I need a new zone this works out better for me personally in the long run. If you do end up spending a lot of time in Wizard 101, then I can certainly see how adding a subscription is a better idea, especially if you go with their family plan and you play with your children or even if you just want to have two accounts.

I’m still saving up for my first house, drooling over all of the items out there both merchant sold and dropped. I’ve been having fun adding to my collection and I don’t have the slightest idea what sort of home I want to own. Since I only have two worlds open to me right now (and I’m not even sure where the housing turtles are) my choices are limited. I may just hang tight until I can buy one of the REALLY big homes, or just buy a smaller one. I’m still trying to decide.

This weekend is one I’ll be spending inside (sighs) again. I hope everyone has a great Mother’s Day tomorrow – and before I forget if you’re playing Free Realms and are interested in cool items you can claim then don’t forget to take a peek over at Free Realms Insider who have all sorts of awesome codes that you can enter for free goodies. This weekend they’ll be giving away codes for roses in celebration of Mother’s Day, and there are all sorts of other neat items that you can claim.

New Servers up on Free Realms

It’s always nice to see growth in games – and as I took a peek at Free Realms today I noticed a choice of 6 servers rather then two. Hopefully I’ll have some friends kicking around as well if the chat servers are fixed that is.

Anyone know how the server system works? Can you see your friends online on other servers? Can you change server mid game? Or are you required to switch to join your friends who may happen to be on another server? Let me know, thank you!

Why Play Free Realms?

Perhaps a better title for this post would be – why am I playing since I plan to explain why this game appeals to me (and maybe you the reader, too). I’ve been gaming for 7 years now, not a great length of time but I’d say every single MMO I’ve played has revolved around one ‘main’ feature with little sub components tossed in. It’s not hard to guess what this is, either. EQ, EQ2, VG, LotRO, WAR, even Wizard 101. These games all revolve around a ‘hack and slash’ motive. Killing the ‘bad guys’ and leveling up by defeating encounters. Yes, there is also some crafting in there, some housing, card games, and other unique bits to each game but the main focus has been and will continue to be leveling up through defeating various encounters.

After years of playing hack and slash games I find it VERY refreshing to find a game that I (so far) enjoy, that does NOT revolve around hack and slash if I do not want it to. I can still get cool outfits, I can still feel as though I am making progress through ‘levels’ I can still explore and see every bit of the world without having to fight a single thing if I choose. No, it’s not my ideal game obviously but it’s a start. It also gives me a much needed break from the other titles that I play.

I have had comments in the past that ‘blame’ it on me being female, and adverse to blood and guts but I don’t think that’s what it is. I’ve done my fair share of ‘pwning newbs’ and raiding, I’ve cackled and felt the thrill of the chase in BG’s and Scenarios. I can appreciate those aspects of games – but there’s so much constant fighting. I’ll admit it, it gets to me after a while.

Sure, you may find that Free Realms is not challenging enough. You may think it’s aimed for small children based on the bright colours and cheerful atmosphere, but that doesn’t mean you won’t find something on some level that appeals to you just like I have. After 7 years of taking down dragons and running over orcs, goblins, skeletons, elves, and any other manor of creature I am more then ready to lay down the sword from time to time and find a new way to explore.

Sound Crazy? Maybe.

This does not make me any less of a gamer (at least, not in my opinion). I don’t want things easier, either. That’s not what I’m saying. I’m just feeling glad at the idea that I don’t have to bash someones brains in and steal their weapons in order to progress through an MMO and explore a world.

Plus, my cat Princess (pictured above) looks awesome in her new pirate gear. You’ve got to admit.