Sorry, not THAT kind of site
stargrace 
2008
Since Mythic seems to be so good about fixing things….
I was reading Ogrebears site today (thank you google reader!) and came across this post which really didn’t surprise me, and it’s not the only post like this. One key aspect to ALL mmo’s is community. Some of us find that easier then others. Lets say you’re not a member of CoW (there are a few out there, right?) and you pick up WAR and start randomly playing. How interested are you going to be playing a game where no one talks. This means you can’t ask advice for your class. You can’t easily see guild recruitment messages, you can’t ask someone ‘hey have you seen so and so? I have no idea where I’m going here..’ — you COULD ask these things in says, tells, or in a group, or on the scenario channel, but not out wandering around.
No one talks. Even in the scenarios I’ve been doing, I rarely see any messages at all except maybe ‘hold this place! Work some defense!’ or other brief messages along those lines. There’s just no public channels for people.
Since plenty of other sites talk about how Mythic is ‘on the ball’ about fixing any and all issues that come along (ie: experience boosts for PvE, for low population servers, bug fixes etc) how long will it be before they notice their game has no welcoming community for the new player. This WILL be a turn off for people.
Put yourself in the place of someone completely new. It’s a lot different when you start the game in a prearranged guild, or are playing with friends. Not everyone plays the same and some times it takes a bit to get warmed up. The game is so dang lonely at times, you’re left wondering if you’re playing a different version of the game then everyone else and these characters running around are not characters at all but some form of elaborate bot.
I’m a huge advocate of community being key to any mmo. How much better would it be if folks could put out a “hey I need some help at this PQ” or “Hey we’re getting our asses handed to us in keeping this keep, can we get some help” and actually being able to bond with people outside of their own guild. How are you even supposed to know what sort of player a person is unless you stumble into a group with them and give them more then a second glance as you’re doing a scenario or taking a keep?
Worried about the amount of spam? Well there’s already LOTS of spam out there already and we’ve all found ways to deal with it. Seeing general chatter spam is a lot better then seeing nothing at all.
The Start of a Great Weekend
First of all. Why is a skin care site ripping my Mmo blog posts? As far as I know it’s been years since I talked about the maintenance of high elf skin compared to that of a wood elf. Seriously. I forget whose site I was reading, but I noticed they had a little legal disclaimer at the end of their post, so that any bots trying to take the article would be taking that portion along with it and people would at least know there the original site was. I’d hate to have to do that, but I’m starting to think maybe it’s a good idea.
Last night, for the first time in a very long time, I worked on RoK quests with Stargrace (who’s been in the 70’s forever now and I had no intentions of leveling her again since every time I did a quest it made me want to gouge out my eyes) and actually didn’t feel the urge to get sick. This is a huge deal to me, I was actually having fun working in Kunzar Jungle, and got some upgrades. I made a list of ‘easy to obtain’ upgrades that I’ll eventually have to get. I also splurged and bought a few masters that were relatively cheap. I’m not sure why I had the sudden urge to start playing her, but I’m happy none the less.
I wandered around doing faction quests for Kunzar Jungle, trying to make the zone a little friendlier to me. I had also not gotten any of the sokokar posts, and couldn’t use the druid ring, so I got those taken care of. Have I mentioned yet how swell it is to have a druid porter in the guild hall? Well, it is. When we made the decision to get one of those rather then another craft item or a different transportation sort, it was specifically because the druid rings port you a wide variety of places compared to the other methods. There’s also a new druid ring in Darklight woods. There’s Antonica, Commonlands, Darklight Woods, Kelethin, Kylong Plains, Kunzar Jungle, Steamfont, and Butcherblock. The rings may not port to the overrealm, but the antonica druid portal is right beside the wizard spires.
I noticed SOE snuck a few ‘changes’ into various encounters when they added GU49, and people are not too happy. For one, that last name in Veksar. He spawns two or three adds (I forget the exact number) in his encounter during the fight – and people typically used to mez those each time they spawned, because he also has a nasty AoE that goes off and needs curing RIGHT away. There’s plenty of damage going on in general. Well, now those adds can not be mez’d, and there were some saying they couldn’t be stunned, or rooted, or stifled either. Aside from that encounter, there’s a Veeshan’s Peak encounter that was changed significantly too.
Re-learning an encounter is not that big of a deal – but not telling people the encounter has been changed is slightly frustraiting and a waste of time for those who didn’t know about it. You head to the encounter thinking everything is the same as always and then 10 seconds pass and you’re thinking to yourself, woah, something is different.
Last night Najena also had some server issues, something I haven’t seen in quite some time. We crashed twice, and channels messed up for a while. No idea what the cause was, but it was fixed within the hour at least.
Safe travels and happy blogging to everyone, happy turkey day on Monday for those fellow Canadians celebrating too!
Giving Away Stuff
As it turns out, I have 3 spare codes to give away from Beckett MOG Issue #15 that I purchased. I have 1 EQ2 house item code, and 2 WAR codes.
You can read about the WAR item here, and you can read about the EQ2 item here for those of you who don’t have the faintest idea what I’m talking about.
So first three people who leave comments (1 item per person, sorry no need to be greedy) asking for either the WAR item or the EQ2 item get them. If no one wants them I’ll figure out something else to do with them. Make sure when you’re filling out the comment you leave a valid email address (it’s not displayed) for me to send the code to.
Edit: Down to 1 WAR item left, the EQ2 house item got scooped up fairly fast. I’ll see if I can’t snag a couple more.
Edit: Gave away all the codes – congratulations those people who got them! If I get any more I’ll be sure post here.
Enjoy!
Everyone Starts Somewhere
3D rendition of my wood elf illusionist – Stargrace.
Believe it or not Stargrace actually has a history behind her. At least in EQ2 (and I mean the character obviously, and not my rl persona). She’s got a sister, Arysh D’Verilex – who’s a Teir’Dal.
Stargrace is possessed by an evil spirit, Silhouette (who happens to be a Teir’Dal coercer, the opposite of the illusionist). Which is why no one ever sees them together. Stargrace shuns the Teir’Dal connection in her family, and that’s where Silhouette comes into play, since she’s all for promoting the family name and doing Innoruuk’s work. I actually played all of this out when I was on Antonia Bayle (roleplay server) but it’s been ages since I’ve added to the story any. It’s difficult now that I’m not on an rp server, as people tend to snicker and point if you attempt any such thing on Najena.
Anyhow, nice way to spend a Friday afternoon. Enjoy the long weekend those who are celebrating turkey day (all my Canadian friends).