2009

Maybe You’re Just Not That Good

Alright. I typically refrain from making these types of posts on my web site because I’ve always taken a ‘my web site is not for controversy’ stand. However, this thought has been filtering around in my mind for quite some time now, and it has to be said.

VERY often in games you’ll hear the phrase “must have y piece of gear” (where y equals some random piece of ‘uber’ gear whatever that may be at the time). Since I spend most of my time in EQ2 I’ll use that as an example. In the 70-79 channel you will hear no less then 10 times a day that people are looking for those who ONLY have their mythical. Not only that, but you will hear numerous people exclaim that unless the entire group has said piece of gear, you will not be able to beat it.

My question to people who say that or think that way is – did you ever think maybe you’re just not that good at the game, and THAT is why you require those pieces of gear in your groups.

There are VERY FEW zones that MUST have a particular piece of gear to complete. There are so many other factors that come into play, and the very basic one is PLAYING WELL. I know I use the example of my group mates very often, but that’s what it comes down to. We beat every TSO instance except for Palace and one of the Guks BEFORE any of us obtained any raid gear (T3+) or mythicals. Sure, we died. We died a lot some times. We still did it, and what’s more we did it as three or four people, boxing. We did own master spells, we worked very hard on getting our characters as well geared as we possibly could within our means. Saving up coin, sharing between us when we could, buying spells for one another, using the research assistants.

Imagine what a whole group could have done. We defeated Ravenscale without mythicals, wearing T2 gear and instance drops. It’s not impossible (now Ravenscale is childs play). Sure, we weren’t about to take down Varsoon any time soon (hah) but we tried zones over and over until we found a way that worked for us. Some times that involved switching characters around, or using means that were not conventional (we used charm in the guks for example) and it sure wasn’t easy – but we have NEVER ever said – oh, you must have T3+ and a mythical and 200aa before you can come with us so we can defeat this encounter.

I think some times people have an over glorified picture of how good they are at something. Especially in video games because the game itself causes you to think you’re amazing. The NPCs shout your praise, and you’re framed as the hero. Lets face it, some people are just not any good. They don’t know their character, they haven’t done any research, they don’t know what spells to cast and when – and that is what will hold you back.

Next time you see someone LFG who doesn’t have their mythical and isn’t decked to the gills with raid gear, think of giving them a chance and taking them along with you anyhow. Do mythicals and great gear make things easier? Of course they do. A LOT easier, but what ever happened to the thrill of taking down a really difficult encounter as the underdog. Not everyone raids or wants to and you can argue the fact that “good” players will have their mythical, but that’s not always true. There are a lot of really bad players who ride the coat tails of guilds and have better gear then anything I’ll ever see. Just like there are some amazing players who are wearing mastercrafted.

Lets face it, when it comes to Fallen Earth and the combat in that game, I’m horrible. I admit it. I’m really bad and it will take me a very long time to feel like I’m any good at it. Some times, we’re just not that good, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

A Mix of Games

Yesterday morning I was heading into Aion to get some work done, but alas the game was down for patches. So I decided to turn to Fallen Earth – which was also down for patches until 5pm EST. Dang it! With all of my regular choices down, I had a few options still. I could log into EQ2 which I haven’t really felt the pull of lately (sorry!) or play someone off line. Dragon Age has been taunting me and begging me to play – but something with an even stronger pull, was Sims 3.

I love the sims. I played Sims before I was into any other video games at all. Before I got into MUDS, MMOs, consoles, etc. Sims was the game for me. I even played the Sims Online and started doing online radio shows as my persona “April Love” in the wee hours of the morning. It was fun, though I burned out fast.

Since I recently reinstalled windows on my PC everything from my previous games was wiped. I decided to start over fresh, and I simply had a blast with it.

It’s fun to take control of a world that resembles real life. Why? I’m not exactly sure. It just is. Where in previous versions of the Sims my biggest pull was creating and designing houses and very little actual game play, this time around it’s different. The story pulls me in, the choices I can make and the direction I can set my little Sim off to.

It was a great way to spend the day, and one that I wasn’t expecting. I hadn’t played Sims 3 in quite some time, but EA also released a new expansion (the first) for Sims 3, so I was excited about that. I haven’t decided if I want to pick it up yet, but chances are I will. I don’t want to mess with tradition after all!

Hope everyone has a fantastic Thursday, no matter where you find yourself.

Exploring Fallen Earth – First Impressions

I managed to get myself a 15 day trial to Fallen Earth – a game that numerous bloggers in our tight knit community have been talking about for the past few months, but I had not found the time to play. Actually this is my 2nd 15 day trial as I didn’t even manage to log in for the first one. Thankfully I didn’t have too long of a patch to get back up to speed, and within the hour I was in game at the character selection screen.

A few things to keep in mind as I write about this game. First of all, the genre is completely new to me. I’m not a fan of zombies, or anything post-apocalyptic. In fact you could go as far as to say that it scares me pretty bad. I’ve also never played a first person shooter before, or in fact ANY shooter game besides duck hunt for the nintendo, and I’m not even sure that counts. I do love using ranged attacks in my ‘general’ MMO choices, rangers, casters, healers who stand at range, etc but for ‘most’ of my MMO choices there’s no aiming involved. Nor do a great many of them have complex weapons, and I certainly don’t have to (typically) swap out my crossbow for a two handed wooden board. Until today.

There were a few commands I wanted to learn right off the bat. No, not how to attack – but me being me, I wanted to know how to free the mouse so I could view the face of my character for screen shots. Turns out that command is alt + holding down the right mouse button. Want to get rid of the UI? Alt + F10 will do that for you. These are things I couldn’t figure out right away, as the tutorial was trying to explain to me that I would need to swap weapons, scavenge corpses, and – oh hey is that a dead body over there? I wonder if they were carrying anything.

Some people break for shinies, I now break for corpses. Plant, animal, person, it matters not. If it’s not moving (and some times even if it is) chances are I’m there trying to glean something off of it.

The story line was great, and once I got through it and started watching the ‘lifenet’ video that your ‘clone’ (character) starts watching once they’ve revived I just about had an accident I was laughing so hard. I loved the humor in such a dark themed video game. If you’re not a fan of blood, guts, rotting things and gross icky stuff then this game probably isn’t for you. If you can look past that (which I am currently doing) you’ll find out just how much of a gem it is. As an example the first thing you’re sent to do is grab an axe out of some corpses head to use. Hey, he’s not going to be using it after all.

I’m still level 1, but again this is ‘one of those’ games where you don’t want to pay attention to what level you are. Exploring quickly became a big deal to me as I was sent out after chickens and ended up.. well I’m not quite sure where. The community was great and friendly, and it wasn’t THAT crowded when I was wandering around, which probably helped. I’ve played barely two hours into the game, and I’m already loving crafting (more about that later, I haven’t even really started and I know I love it). Will I play past the 15 day trial? Not sure yet. It’s a money and time thing more then a unsure about the game thing at this point.

Playing? Let me know who your character is and I’ll add to my friends list. You can find me there as Ellithia, and no doubt I’ll have a LOT more questions as time goes on.

Do you have a favorite way to get around?

Most MMOs have modes of transportation, if not through personal mounts then at least through some other means. EQ2 has had both forms of transportation (plus a few extra) for quite some time now, and every so often a new graphic pops up. For TSO it was the dire bear, RoK was the worg, and so on. They even took it one step further, and you can right click many of the mounts in your inventory and turn them into house items, adding a collection to your home or guild hall. Want to build a stable and show off your collection? Now you can. Especially since you’re probably only actually using one (or two) of the mounts that you’ll gain over the years.

So which is your favorite? Are you one of those players who simply goes by speed (faster = better) or do you have to actually enjoy the graphic of your mount (since you can’t hide them)? Is it more important to you to look fashionable as you meander from zone to zone, or could you care less? Do your bards (who are famous for having their speed buffs) have mounts too or do you just rely on their own skills?

Pictured above is Petites, my halfling templar, proudly riding her unicorn. It’s not the fastest mount out there, but doesn’t she just look fantastic riding it?! The little halo over her head is from a LoN loot card that I managed to win when LoN first came out and she wears it well if I do say so myself!

A lot of my characters own mounts, and I don’t go for what’s fastest (even if I could afford them!) but I do care about what they look like. Maybe that’s odd, but it matters. I don’t need to get to a portion of a zone at the speed of light, it’s all about looking good while I do it!

So, what about everyone else out there, what sort of mounts entice you?

Making time to Game

Some times it’s hard to find time to get everyone together in game, especially since we’re all busy with life and whatever it happens to be throwing our way. As such, I pretty much spent no time in game this weekend. It was refreshing, not because I don’t enjoy games, I do, but because I play games all day during the week for work – it was just nice NOT to be playing games on the weekend. Instead I went and visited my folks (who live about 45m south of me), went out and did groceries, headed to a fantastic Santa Claus parade that lasted a few hours, and bought a new LCD TV for the living room that’s just really nice. I even managed to play some Fable 2 on the Xbox which is something that barely happens because – you guessed it – I’m playing MMOs.

When I did manage to catch a few minutes in EQ2 I was planning out what I wanted to work on. Did I want to hunt down achievements, or concentrate on completing aa and letting those achievements come naturally. Who would be next to gear out, what instances did I want to complete. That sort of stuff. Ellithia (the mystic) is as geared as she’s going to get except for a few jewelery / ranged item bits. She’s fully mastered, has her mythical, and is wearing T4. There’s not a lot left I can do on her aside from finishing off her aa (she’s got three to go). Then I figure I’ll work on Stargrace, who can use some gear upgrades (she’s wearing a combination of T4 and T1 at the moment, as three T3 patterns sit in my inventory) and could also stand to finish off her aa. Next? I’m not really sure, but I’ve been thinking about my swashbuckler who is on my 2nd account. She has a few pieces of T2, most of her masters, has NOT completed her fabled epic yet, let alone the mythical version. She was working on that before I transferred her from Oasis to Antonia Bayle. Sounds like a good project to me.

I also have a few crafters I’d like to complete, Goudia (the trobuador alchemist) has been 80 for a number of months now and I’ve never completed her crafting epic. No real reason for that aside from the fact that I’ve done it so many times already I just wasn’t in the mood.

So as anyone can see, there are LOTS of things I COULD be doing in game. Now I just need to find the time to do it.