November 2008

This Just in – Grimwell Throws Like a GIRL

stargrace November 13, 2008 3Comments

What happens when you add a bunch of alcohol, pie, dancing halflings, 52 players, and one very fine looking community manager to three rooms together? Pillow fights of course!

Last night at 5pm PST one of the (many) birthday bashes took place on Najena. Each server will be having their own party so be sure to check here to see when your server is having theirs. I thing events like these are really important to communities, and it’s not just because we all got some cool prizes to take home. The rooms were decorated wonderfully and there were people (quite literally) everywhere. 

We were even granted a special treat when the famous bard herself, Tipa, stepped up to the piano along with some background singers and sang her rendition of screaming cats happy birthday to Norrath. What a delightful experience!

There were items people could click throughout the room ranging from drinks, to throw pillows, to throw pies. A wishing well sat in the center of the main pool where people could harvest goodies. A word of caution though, you do need to have a fishing skill in order to harvest from this pool. 

Grimwell played out his part well, especially for someone who has to do parties all week on multiple servers. He interacted with the players and switched forms every few minutes, keeping things interesting. Gee, I wonder which illusion the players liked the most? 

Everyone gathered together at the end for a photo opportunity. I spent most of the evening wandering around taking screenshots (just over 50 of them) to remember the occasion by. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and I’m glad Nostalgia had fun too. 

I wanted to hang out a little more, but once Grimwell left I was reminded that I still had 1,000 words to write for NaNoWriMo (22,635 words total now) and then by the time that was done I had time to watch a little tv and then it was bed. 

Less then a week to go until the new EQ2 expansion releases, happy birthday!

W101 and EQ2 Birthday Bash

stargrace November 12, 2008 3Comments

Continuing along the Wizard city quests yesterday, I was pretty amazed at how big the world feels. I’ve never been particularly good at remembering where areas are, and I found myself getting lost often, or getting sent to areas I’d never even heard of before. I have one quest that sends me out to located these little tiny men scattered all over Wizard City. I’m stuck on the one in the shopping district. Or maybe it’s Triton, I can’t remember right now. As my life / storm combination progresses, I’ve learned a few things. Number one, I really need to make a deck for playing with friends. I’m not sure if there’s any way to do that or if I should just switch out some cards. My typical deck is perfect when it’s just me. It includes only a few heals, and a lot of attacks. I haven’t had any issue with it now that I hit level 10, things have been going pretty well. Until I group up with a bunch of friends and I’m left searching my deck frantically for a heal to toss out on them. 

Wizard 101 is so very different then every other game I’ve played (for a number of reasons that I’ve hid on here and there) that it’s actually made me change how I think about games in general. Their completely open grouping concept (which is not really grouping at all so much as jumping into battles with up to three other people) means that if you’re looking to get those harder encounters done you will either want to have friends online to play with, or be quite social. It’s very common for people to spam group invites, and for the most part I decline them. I accept of course if they are someone I already know – or if I happen to be doing a battle and they seem to know what they’re doing which was the case yesterday. After I cast a group heal on everyone (it was needed) one of the players expressed their thanks and we finished off the encounter fairly easily. I don’t enjoy being spammed with friend invites just like I don’t enjoy being spammed with group invites in any other game, but I’m more talkative in this game, and when I’m in the zones I know people have paid to gain access to, I’m a little less cautious about who I make my friend because I know they at least have enough of a grasp on the game (or their parents do, either way) to have invested some coin in it. 

Aside from changing my tactics on interacting with other players, I love the way this game makes me think about my next move. When I’m not thinking about my next move I’m thinking about the moves after that. Can I survive a round or two of trying to gain pips so I can pull out some uber card next? Do I let the giant cyclops whump me because I neglected to fill up on health and mana ahead of time? Exactly how long can I play the mini games before I need to blink (there’s one I’m completely addicted to in particular). 

Another amusing point to me is the fact that on more and more blogs these days I’m not reading about WAR, or EQ2 or any other popular mainstream MMO – I’m reading about Wizard 101. Now, that has a large amount to do with my choice in reading, I know. I subscribe to quite a few blogs via google reader and then tend to snoop the comments on the more popular blogs (you all know who you are) and read the blogs of those who have left comments. 

On a completely unrelated note – TODAY is the EQ2 anniversary party on Najena at 8pm EST (That’s 5pm PST). Tipa, consider this your official reminder! I’d like to see as many Nostalgians show up as possible (yes, all five of us) though I completely understand if people have other things to do. I’ll be there as (of course) Stargrace, hopefully I can get a few good screen shots in to write about tomorrow. 

No worries about me missing out on any ‘other’ game time. That’s what the laptop is for.

Continuing Through Wizard City

stargrace November 11, 2008 2Comments

I decided to subscribe to Wizard 101 for a month, and see if I wanted to continue to play it after the month was up. So far I’ve been playing pretty frequently, I really wish Xfire recognized it. As it is now, I set my status on Xfire by hand and load it up on the laptop so I can still talk to people while I’m in full screen. I reached level 8 in W101 by doing the wizard city quests (the ones I had available at least) and a handful of the Halloween events. I’ve got a slightly better grasp on things now, watching where other people are attacking so that I can either help them or move on to the next encounter if their hit is going to kill it. My little Angela is a life / storm wizard, so while I don’t have an amazing amount of damage dealing cards, I do have a few. I’ve had a few good and not so good experiences wandering around wizard city and finding others to play with. One not so good was a Halloween tower, one of the more simple ones. I think it was Malfi I was with. Two of the other people decided to just sit in on the card playing rounds and do no moves at all. We would have beaten it if it were not for that. 

I bought myself a dragon companion, and have been playing in Fire Cat Ally for most of the morning. The game is simple enough that I can do other things while playing (or sit and watch the cool spell effects and listen to the little imps I have cackle gleefully as I vanquish another foe) and the only thing I find more addicting then W101 itself, is the mini games you use to replenish your health and mana. 

I haven’t really been in the mood to play EQ2 lately, I just don’t have the time to sit for 2-3 hours in a row working on something in particular. I have been playing WoW for short bursts (an hour here and there) in between trying to keep NaNo going. I’m up to 18,565 words now and the story seems to be slugging through this section, or maybe it’s just my moods. I’m just barely on track with being able to finish on the 26th if I keep up with my 2k words every day. Since the 30th is our last day I’ve been trying to give myself a little more leeway, but it hasn’t quite been working out. 

For the first time ever, I am not excited about EQ2’s next expansion. I can’t exactly say why. I’m just not feeling it. I played in the beta and I didn’t feel it then either. Instead of saying ‘wow this is amazing’ I spent my time saying ‘Wow this is it? Why is it so empty?’ The one overland zone was a lot of empty space and then groups of mobs spread throughout and very little ‘stuff’ to me personally. Of course every one will come up with their own personal views on it. I have pre-ordered the retail version (I wanted the bear) and I’m sure the crafting bits will entice me, but we’ll have to see about the rest.