Syp from Bio Break recently asked for EQ2 players to help him out by naming a few EQ2 features that people felt were ‘better’ then WoW. There were a huge amount of fantastic answers, and I decided I would show people my favorites via video, for a greater understanding of what those features are.
It’s still only my 2nd video where I talk, and I’m still learning, but it didn’t turn out too bad this time around.
Enjoy, and a thanks to Syp for posting his article!
I’ve been pondering this idea for a while now, and I’ve decided it’s time. I’m going to host a “Gamer Secret Santa” – I have no idea if this idea will take off or not, but we’ll see. I’m hoping it will be a huge success.
What it is: Those who want to participate, are more then welcome to. You can be a gamer, blogger, a member of the game industry, whatever. As long as games are some how a part of your life. I will take names / addresses, and assign everyone a ‘secret’ person to buy a small less then $20 gift for, as well as give them the address required. Send out your gift and wait for one to head your way, and that’s it. Ok, let me explain it a bit better.
What is “Secret Santa?” here’s the definition!
How:
1. Send your full name and mailing address to me at stargrace@mmoquests.com, make sure it comes from a valid email address. If you happen to run a fansite or a blog, please mention which blog you write for. If you’re just a gamer mention that too. It doesn’t matter who you are or how involved in the gaming community you are, anyone can participate.
2. On December 7th I will email you back with someone else’ address.
3. The price limit is $20, don’t spend any more then that. Be creative, make something, have it be unique to your culture or your life, if you need suggestions then please don’t hesitate to let me know. Try to keep in mind that we’re all gamers, no matter where we come from.
4. Keep your person a secret! Don’t tell anyone who else you have. If you DO happen to run a fansite or blog, then when you receive your gift write about it and let everyone know.
5. If you have any other questions, don’t hesitate to let me know below in comments, or email me.
Details: I understand that you may not be comfortable with me or one other person having your mailing address, so if you’re not please don’t feel pressured to participate. The idea is to share with one another and realize what a fantastic community we have, not make you feel on edge that you’re going to potentially run into issues.
If you’d like to participate but simply can not afford to no matter what, send me an email and let me know, I will do my best to help you out. I want anyone who’s interested to be able to participate in this event. I think some times we forget that these people we all talk to online are not just random pixels, but are actual people on the other end of those computers.
Please keep in mind that only myself, and ONE other person will have your address. It won’t become a mailing list or anything like that. If you’re only comfortable with me having it and no one else then let me know, and I’ll have your gift sent to me and then I’ll send it out to you. Anything to make sure people are comfortable and still able to participate.
YOU HAVE UNTIL DECEMBER 6th TO EMAIL ME YOUR ADDRESS – please take your time to think about whether or not this is something you really want to do. If it is, get me your address by December 6th so that I can give people some time to get their shopping done. If it’s a little late (the gift, not the address) that’s alright.
If you don’t celebrate christmas but still want to participate that’s alright too! This isn’t a religious thing, I just want to try it out and see how it works this year. There are some amazing gamers I have met from all over the world, and I think that we have a lot to share with one another.
I think that’s about it. If you can think of something I’ve missed then please let me know and I’ll do my best to answer it. If this is a completely horrible idea don’t feel shy to let me know. I just wanted to share some of the christmas joy that’s going to be flying around before too long and figured this would be a fantastic idea for people to experience it with one another.
Being a big Sims fan, I knew it wouldn’t be long before I picked up their latest expansion – World Adventures. I had heard a lot of negative comments about this expansion, mostly about bugs. Basically it allows your families to plan vacations to three locations (for a cost of course). Once you start playing with it, it’s a lot more involved. You can invite foreigners to visit and learn about their country. You can learn songs and foods from them. You can choose the length of your stay in these locations but you’ll need visa points if you want to stay for any length of time. You can eventually also purchase a vacation home in one of these posh locations.
My first trip was to China (pictured above) and not only can you visit, but there are adventures for your sim to take part in. You stay at what is known as “home base” which is basically a hostel, it includes beds, food and bathrooms as well as lots of other visitors to get to know.
You can pick up an adventure from a huge sign outside, and then you’ll want to stock up. You’ll want to take some rations with you as well as a tent and maybe a few other odds and ends. My first adventure sent me to an ancient tomb, the vacation was only three days long and cost my one sim (he left the family at home) $1600 or so.
Unlike previous versions of the sims, the adventures are like little mini quests – and I had a LOT of fun doing them. It was like playing EQ2, but sims version. My little sim had to find keys to unlock doors, wander through a tomb and complete puzzles to move onto the next stage. He had to explore tunnels, get rid of rubble, dive under water and swim through caves, all to find fame and treasures. You can earn ancient coins which are used in special markets to pick up relics for your home, and there’s a LOT to do. I did experience one bug when I first loaded up the zone, but once I restarted the game it ran just fine.
I haven’t figured out how to work the whole visa points / upgrade system yet, nor could I figure out where to purchase a tent for the adventure (my sim ended up sleeping on a bench outside the tomb for the night, he was just that tired) but I had an absolute blast playing. Of course now that the vacation is over he’s got to get back to his regular job so that he can afford the next one. I’m going to try to bring the family along next and we’ll see how that goes. Maybe Egypt.
My sim family has grown by leaps and bounds since I reinstalled windows 7. I started from scratch, with one little sim woman who eventually got married and had twins. Oy. Don’t pick the fertility goal just as a heads up.
The twins (Jessica and Emily) are growing up and are in elementary school now, since both my parent sims work and the children have school a lot of time is spent sleeping, and working on homework. Why on earth I would be amused with a video game that replicates real life I have no idea, but I’ve been playing it fairly steady the last few days. I guess it’s a nice representation of a “dream world” where you can make $1000 an hour and work three days a week.
Oh yeah, and the graphics are absolutely amazing. Every time I play I’m astounded and amused by some little tiny detail that I didn’t notice before. Like when the twins were growing up, they frequently picked their nose and squealed in delight as they flung it some where in their cribs.
Ha.
stargrace