Tag: WoW

Games I’m Currently Playing #EVEOnline #GW2 #WoW #WurmOnline

gw813I’ve got four games on my plate lately, and I can’t help thinking about what each one adds to my over all ‘wants’ out of an MMO.

First, I’m still playing Wurm Online. Sandbox game where you can shape the world around you, but the game requires a LOT of time and dedication and that time only rises if you incorporate things like animals into game play. See, animals need food. Grass eventually becomes packed, and thus animals can starve. Also everything in-game aside from your personal inventory can decay. If you take off for a week it’s not that big of a deal, but any longer and your virtual items in game are going to suffer. Lately this has been more and more of an issue for me, feeling ‘tied’ to a game is a good way to make me not want to play it. I shouldn’t feel like I’m going to lose my time investment if I have to step back from playing for a little while. Still, this game just reaches out to me and it’s held my attention far longer than I would have thought when I first started playing.

Second I’ve been playing Guild Wars 2. I think this game is fantastic, especially since it has no subscription in order to enjoy it. Buy the box, and play it like a single player game if that’s your preference. Of course then you get to level 80 and realize that there’s no way for you to do dungeons unless a mass of your friends are playing OR you PUG them. Plus these are not your typical dungeon where everyone has a role and can act on it. There are no tanks no healers you’re all just bodies and it can be a whole mass of confusion and a lot of deaths. It’s a game where (imo) there’s a lot of ‘go go go’ constantly happening. There’s very little relaxing I can do, if I want to harvest I’m going to have to engage in combat, there’s typically always a mob or event going on by every node I come across. Beautiful lands, with a lot of puzzles and vistas, and yes I could work on zone completion in the cities, but it’s still not the quiet I look for.

I’ve recently resubscribed to EVE Online using some plex I had stored up. EVE scratches my sandbox urges as well as the quiet time I look forward to, or exciting ‘go go go’ time if I feel like it via PvP and missions. It’s almost the perfect game for me, except as much as I love EVE I’m not a giant fan of science fiction – so I still prefer to have a fantasy genre game on my plate. Today I’m making a run out to my PI planets to collect all the goods I’ve been stock piling, and then I’m going to put a few more manufacturing jobs active before I begin doing some missions. I’m almost able to finally fit the heavy missiles on the Tengu that I want to use, but in the mean time it’s back to my old ship until those are ready.

Finally I’ve decided to resubscribe to World or Warcraft. I know, an odd choice when I’m playing two sandbox games and a non-subscription game, but WoW is like a comfortable sweater to me. It’s ultra causal and you’d never wear it out of the house, but it’s great for those sleepy cold days where you’re huddled down not doing much of anything. In other words it fits the ‘relaxed’ bill that I was looking for above. I can solo some dungeons if I feel inclined to do so, I can PUG dungeons and raids (which I frequently do), work on alts, craft or harvest, etc. It’s not new or innovative, but some times that’s just not what I want. Plus pet battles are just plain fun.

There are other games I still dive into here and there, like Vanguard, but I’m not currently playing them on a steady basis, so I didn’t count them in this post. There’s also a bunch of single player games I’ve been enjoying such as Sim City (March 5th can’t get here fast enough!), The Sims 3, Triple Town (a cute puzzle game from Steam), and Skyrim. Of course there are always a handful of games I wish I were devoting more time to, too. Those include The Secret World, Pirate 101, and Lord of the Rings Online. Sadly, there are just not enough hours in the day to play them all.

What games are you playing lately? Share below in comments! As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

2012: Game Year in Review (The Year of the Wurm) #WurmOnline

January: I fell in love with Wurm Online, and my readers dropped to the lowest I’ve ever seen them. Turns out that even though I adore playing this game, very few people like to read about it. Not a big deal, since I write for myself, but it was still an eye opener.

February: My nomadic gamer senses kicked in, and I played some Vanguard along with Wurm Online and Eve. SOE was going through their first phase of ProSiebenSat.1 talks, and it was messy. I took part in the awesome Kyklops killing on Deliverance, which just reinforced how much I love Wurm Online.

March: Guess what! Still playing (and posting about) Wurm Online! A little Vanguard in there too and some Rift when they had a free weekend going on (but it couldn’t pry me away from Wurm).

April: Completely Wurm filled – along with the awesome DAW (Developer Appreciation Week) hosted by Scarybooster. I contemplated trying out the epic servers, but never did.

May: Celebration opens in Wurm Online, and I drift to Diablo 3 and World of Warcraft. Both games much neglected shortly after.

June: Back to my nomadic self. I spend some time doing dungeons in Vanguard (Greystone), play some EQ2 and get an award for the housing hall of fame, and I even manage to start playing some Guild Wars in preparation for GW2. There’s even a little Glitch in there, along with (of course) Wurm.

July: Sims 3 eats up a chunk of the month, along with EVE, and World of Warcraft where I’m counting down to Pandaria. Guild Wars 2 beta is in full swing and I’m slowly becoming addicted.

August: An odd month for me. I dip my toes into The Secret World and enjoy the game quite a bit but find it too dark for my tastes. Most of the month is spent in GW2, GW1, Vanguard, and World of Warcraft. Me? Play too many games? No such thing.

September: The nostalgia bug bites me and I head back to EQ1 to see if the planes of power gods are up. I start a new character, and am still playing GW2 but the novelty is starting to wear off because I’m max level and don’t like to dungeon grind.

October: I pop into GW2 for the Halloween event, and was disappointed. I play a few hours of EQ2 during the weekend, and I join a guild in EQ1 (that doesn’t last long). SOE Live also takes place and there’s all sorts of news and announcements going on.

November: It’s NaNoWriMo month and my posts show. I get a little Sims 3 time in, get completely bored of WoW, try some EQ2, and then re-discover Wurm after leaving in the summer.

December: I barely write. There’s only 8 whole posts which is my lowest month since I started the site in 2006. A lot of stuff not gaming related went on, most of it not fit for this blog. So. Here’s to 2013, and a better year.

A Little WurmOnline, NaNoWriMo, Sims 3, EQ2, and WoW

I made my 50,000 words for this months NaNoWriMo, but it was a very difficult run. I would start a story, get interested with it, get bored of it, and then write a new story. I even gave up for a week or two. After some consideration I decided there was no reason for me to give up and so I started again. I’m very glad that I did. I’m not really sure why this year was so difficult compared to others, it was my 5th year attempting it so there really no surprises, but it seemed like everything hit this month, and I really felt it so maybe that’s why.

Of course in between writing I still played games. Wurm Online being my main choice these days as far as MMOs go – but I’ve also decided to pop back into WoW now that 5.1 has come out. I’ve been playing a little EQ2 (have you seen the incredible new house they added that’s a ship? Much love) and I’ve been playing some single player games like Sims 3. During the black Friday sale EA had some fantastic deals on their Sims franchise, so I picked up the last expansion I was missing, and now all I’m missing are three “stuff” packages that I don’t exactly care about getting. The base game was going for as low as $9 which was really great to see.

TODAY is the last day to register for the 2012 Gamers Secret Santa. I’ve gotten over 150 replies so far from interested parties, and I’m really happy that people are still interested in this. I’m also doing a card exchange this year, so if you’re interested in exchanging your address for that, please email me!

What has everyone else been up to this month? It feels like it went by so quickly! Before we know it, Christmas will be here!

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

Never Gone For Long #WoW #WorldofWarcraft

I know, I know. It’s been almost a WEEK since I’ve written anything! Does that mean I haven’t been gaming? Nope, of course not! I just have not been in the mood to write about my gaming sessions, and so I took a little mini vacation / holiday from updating MmoQuests. As always I am back, and with stories to tell.

My priest has been slowly gaining gear (and ilevels) in order to participate in the LFRaid encounters that are going live tomorrow (Tuesday, October 9th as I write this). Right now I’m sitting at ilevel 465, and you need 460 to be able to queue. Getting there was quite easy. Heroic mode gear is (mostly) ilevel 463, although WHY on earth a heroic dungeon that requires ilevel 450 to enter it gives quests that only reward ilevel 440, I have no idea. I suppose it helps balance out some of your old gear, but honestly the quests should be rewarding gear equal to the zone.

Anyhow.

Combine those dungeons with some player-crafted bits (a robe, gloves, and off-hand that I crafted myself) as well as the trinket from Brewfest and archaeology, and I was set.

While I’m talking about it, let me mention how much I SEVERELY dislike having a cap of 1,000 valor a week with a hard cap of 3,000 valor. I also dislike how dungeons have been set back to the ‘old’ way – which is to say you get 60 valor the first time you do a dungeon for that day, and then 30 valor every run after. It used to be 60 valor the first 7 times (ie: a week) and then 30 after that. So people who couldn’t log in every day but could spend one day a week playing could get all of their valor and not have to worry about missing a day.

Not only does valor have these limits, but in order to purchase valor gear you’re going to need faction. That means doing daily quests, and each day you don’t log in and do the 2912392328 dailies that are waiting for you is one day further away from your gear you are. I’ve been working on faction with the Tillers, Anglers, and Golden Lotus – the others can wait.

I played a monk for a bit, but nothing heavy. I think she’s sitting at level 17 now. The guild managed to earn 600 in every craft and that unlocked heirloom pants for our members (all 4 of us). I was quite pleased, even if I am broke now because most of the crafts were ones that I handle on my alts. Worth it? Yes, it sure was. I love those heirloom pieces.

Speaking of the guild, we’ve managed to some how climb our way to level 15, and part way through. I couldn’t be more pleased. I know that experience comes MUCH faster since some nerfs, but for the past year or so I had zero hopes of us ever reaching beyond level 5 (which we sat at for a good year). It’s nice to know that with the change, smaller guilds are able to provide at least some of the perks (the others that come from guild raids etc are still well beyond our grasp).

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself! Also a happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow Canucks, I hope your turkey is as delicious as mine was!

How Does Your Garden Grow #WoW #WorldofWarcraft

It took me almost a week, but my priest is level 90 (finally). I found leveling MUCH slower than previous expansions, although others I’ve spoken to have said that they found the experience quite quick. I felt that 87 was the ‘hell level’ and the last 50% before 90. It took me almost 2 hours to get the last 20% I needed.

Once I dinged I was in for a surprise. A map covered in blue ! because there are so many daily quests to complete. With the removal of the traditional ‘wear a tabard in a dungeon and get xp’ method of gaining faction we’re now expected to complete dailies. There are dailies for everything, some of the more popular factions you’ll want to work up are the Golden Lotus (lots of gear and neat recipes), the Cloud Serpents (very neat mounts), and of course, the Tillers.

Tiller faction is quite different from regular faction. First of all, you get to garden, which is really neat and fun. It works almost exactly like Wizard101. You have plots that require tilling, and you plant seeds. Once they’re in the ground you’ll probably get a random event like the need to weed, spray bug spray, or kill vermin. Leave the seeds to grow for 24 RL hours, and when you return you’ll be able to harvest the plant. I’ve been growing carrots (pictured above) to use for my cooking. In fact I’m at 595 cooking right now, tomorrow I should finally reach 600. You start out with 4 harvest plots and as you work up faction you’ll gain more plots. An NPC came by to weed a portion of my garden today to reveal another 4 plots, and I can now plant 8 different plants a day. I believe the max is 16.

You’ll occasionally harvest a ‘gift’ item to give to an NPC, or you’ll find one while you complete your daily quests. These can be turned in for a bit of faction with a particular person. As you earn faction with them they become more friendly with you and you’ll get some more rewards and you’ll open up more quests. It’s quite interesting and I can’t help but think that if WoW simply gave us all our own personal homes along with this garden method, players would be incredibly happy. Well, some of us in any case.

I also managed to get my archaeology to 600. It went a lot faster than I had expected, especially once I could fly. A lot of areas where archaeology opened up were phased portions of zones, and there were no mobs around. Needless to say, I’m having a blast in MOP so far. There’s a LOT to do, and if you’re not much for dungeons or raids you can always try a smaller 3-person scenario. There are neat rewards for each as well as achievements. Between dailies, gardening, crafting, dungeons (regular and heroic), scenarios, pet battles, and then all of the other little tid-bit things that capture my attention, I can see that my alts may be taking a back seat for a bit. I have 4 other level 85 characters that I’d like to level up some time (if for no other reason than to allow them to access the panda city) and I haven’t really felt an urge to.

What do you think of the latest WoW expansion so far? Let me know in comments!

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