2009

Down go Leviathan and Druushk!

Most of yesterday was spent traveling to my parents place, and then traveling home afterward, a good time was had by all. I came back with a loaf of amazing banana bread that I doubt will make it through the rest of today. I spent the remainder of the day doing pretty much nothing, just exploring around EQ2 and then out of luck I remembered I had taken on a project to decorate a friends house (Pennie, from Paradise Lost on Oasis) and me being, well, me. Completely forgot to actually go off and decorate the home!

So I grabbed my little carpenter and set out to do just that. Pennie is a gnome, templar living in Qeynos and so I tried to make his home represent him. Once I get permission I’ll be posting videos of the house (I need to finish two more rooms as well). I’m excited about it. So far it’s turned out pretty well.

Later on in the evening, it was time to buckle down and FINALLY get my troubador her epic weapon. Goudia has always been a fun character of mine to play but since TSO (The Shadow Odyssey) I’ve barely played her. In RoK (Ruins of Kunark) she was my raid main, but I stopped raiding not far after I started. Needless to say, each time someone asks me if I have UT (upbeat tempo, it’s a troubador thing) I cringe a little on the inside. She’s resting at 152aa, not nearly enough to have this skill. Some day though.

Paradise Lost was hosting a Leviathan raid – as well as VP (Veeshan’s Peek) following. These raids are typically run once a month (because the guild no longer has a need to run them) and consists of 1 and a half groups of guild mates, and the rest are pick ups. It can be VERY messy, but it’s also a lot of fun. PL gets a chance to scope out some talent, and people get their updates. The way PL runs it is that they do NOT charge for updates – but when it comes to loot drops, all PL tagged characters get +250 to their roll. What this means is that loot drops, you roll /random 1000 and anyone wearing the PL tag gets +250 added onto that roll. Seems fair, since they’re hosting (and main tanking / healing) the raids.

It still gives a chance for lots of things to go wrong. We ALMOST managed a flawless victory on Leviathan but there was a wizard who had a suicide wish and kept nuking so that of course kept reflecting and they died a few times. Even though we specifically told people to just stand there and look pretty for most of the fight, letting PL take care of everything else.

There were a LOT of people around who wanted to make their way through VP, so I decided to sit out for the run, and just come during my specific fight, which was Druushk. The fight is really nothing special. There’s two rooms, one has four statues, and one has Druushk. Every so often you’ll hear a script emote about the flapping of wings, one of those four statues becomes active and whoever is stationed there must click their statue – a mob will spawn, they have to survive that, then a 2nd tank will pull those mobs over to the raid and the raid will kill them, as you’re also working down Druushk in between pulls. It works out well. We did have a few wipes at the start because some people didn’t know where their statues were, but before too long it was over, and I was sporting my new axe, having visited Barren Sky first of course.

The weapon itself is a huge upgrade over the fabled version, and it grants some very nice stats for players. This makes the third mythical that I’ve completed, I also have the mystic mythical and the illusionists completed. I’m hoping that they’re still used some how in Sentinel’s Fate, because you can’t really get BETTER then a mythical weapon, and I’d hate to see all of the work I did for this go to waste.

For those out there who think you have to join a raid guild in order to get anything done in game – don’t buy into that. It’s simply not true. You don’t have to spend a lot of money, or dedicated 12 hours a night to raiding, or anything like that. On every single server out there there is an alternative method for you to get your mythical completed, I guarantee. Some times it takes a little work, and some patience, and yes, some time, but there’s still a way.

Today is the 20th, which means Moonlight enchantments are in game – complete with a few new house item rewards. If you’ve never taken part of them before I highly suggest you take a peek, the achievements for completing them are worth it alone. Speaking of which, I think I’ll grind out some aa in the new Frostfell instances and get some questing done.

See you in Norrath!

Acts of Gamer Kindness

This year I got it into my mind that I would run a 2009 Gamers Secret Santa, asking anyone who was interested in games in any aspect to participate if they wished. I drew names to match people with their gift receivers, and kept the pricing low. I kept myself out of the draw because I didn’t think it would be fair to know who had me, and just ran it for those who decided to participate. It was a small turn out, but still enough interest to make it worth while for next year (and hopefully more will decide to partake next year, we’ll just have to see).

Anyhow. I had a few reasons for running this which I mentioned before, first and foremost simply because I wanted to bring the community together a bit. Sure, we all play video games – but behind all of those pixelated characters we’re actually people, just doing our thing. We may not be particularly interested in learning more about one another but that’s one of the main aspects to why I game. I love meeting new people, learning about them. Their life, their culture. Differences in opinion. Sharing experiences. All of that keeps me coming back for more. I wanted something simple that would be able to open up that door a bit.

As a thank you yesterday I received the items pictured above in the mail, a thank you for running the 2009 Gamers Secret Santa, and a request to “keep spreading the goodwill”. I was so incredibly touched and happy for the remainder of the day. When Spyderbite posted on twitter that people should ‘pay it forward‘ I couldn’t agree more.

Some times we forget that we have an influence over whether or not someone has a better day then they’re already having, by doing some really simple things. Scarybooster for example has been posting some ‘getting to know‘ posts on his web site, bringing awareness to other writers. I think this is wonderful, and I bet it cheered some people up immensely.

With the new year coming up, I think we should all be a little more aware of our personal random acts of kindness in the gaming world. Giving away gear for free, sending a friend something just because. Not spouting off that rude comment to someone who may actually deserve it. There are so many small things that we can do to make the gaming experience better for someone else without expecting something in return.

To all those who have demonstrated random acts of kindness to me over 2009, thank you. So much. It’s these things I remember and I take with me when I go through difficult times, and it’s made all the difference in the world.

Back to our regular scheduled blog posts! I think I’ve got enough syrup for my pancakes now..

Little Minstrel Continues On

I’ve been having a blast in the Lord of the Rings Online these past few days, things are a LOT smoother then I remember. I started off three days ago at level 19, barely remembering my way around Middle Earth, and now I’m sitting at level 25, and still exploring through the lone lands. There is a bonus to experience while the Yule festival is going on, but even without that, the experience is flowing nicely. One thing I love about questing in the Lord of the Rings Online is that the quests actually flow together. You don’t finish all of the quests at one hub and wonder where you’re supposed to be next, each quest leads to the next area, and you’ve got a clear path on where you’ll find encounters your level. I find that in WoW I’m all over the place, without the faintest idea of where I should be for my level without looking up some sort of guide. Now, this could also be seen as a bad thing, after all maybe that’s too much ‘hand holding’ in a game, but if I don’t WANT to follow the quest path, I don’t have to. I can wander off and explore, or go harvesting, or craft. There’s other things for me to do.

The quests themselves are a little lack luster, your typical kill X number of bears/boars/spiders/orcs/goblins and return them to an npc, broken up by periods of instancing. Rewards have been good enough to keep myself and Hampooj (Guardian pictured beside my Minstrel above) geared without feeling as though we’re going to die any second. Although we have died, plenty.

This is the furthest I’ve ever gotten in the game, and I’m having a lot of fun this time around. I’m not sure exactly why, nothing has changed since other times I’ve played, but as long as I’m enjoying myself I suppose it doesn’t matter. I guess one factor is that I’m exploring places I’ve never been before (in game at least) and while the quests may feel the same as every other MMO out there, I love looking at new sights.

Tomorrow I plan on spending most of my time in EQ2, as I am preparing for my Troubador to finish her mythical. That will make my 3rd completed mythical (Illusionist and Mystic already have theirs) and I’m excited. I just need leviathan and my Veeshan’s Peek kill to complete it, which should be easy enough. Of course she’s well behind in achievements so who knows if I’ll ever manage to hit 200 on little Goudia, it’s not something I’m actively working towards at this point in time.

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend no matter where you find yourself. Only one week until Christmas! I can’t believe it’s snuck up on us so fast this year.

Happy Gaming!

Changes in WAR

One of the great things about the holiday season, aside from the hustle and bustle of activities (typically involving malls and a lot of credit cards, and food) is that there’s a pretty great selection of festive activities to enjoy in game. Not only that, but a lot of games are offering a welcome back promotion of some sort. WoW offered me 10 free days, EQ2 has activated old accounts until the 31st of December, LotRO has a welcome back weekend currently running, and WAR also offered me 10 days to return to the game and check out the changes. WAR was one of those games that I enjoyed playing, but not enough to want to pay monthly for it. I love pvp and I enjoyed the thrill of battle, but there wasn’t enough ‘other stuff’ to keep me playing. I don’t enjoy pvp ALL of the time (I don’t enjoy any one thing ALL of the time, which is probably why I play so many games).

That being said, it’s a beautiful game, and I never disliked it. It just didn’t have enough ‘umph’ to keep me playing. I’m not above taking advantage of promotions to see changes, and of course I dragged a friend with me because everything is better when you’re playing with someone else.

It didn’t take any time at all to patch, and when I logged in the first thing I was greeted with (once I’d created a character) was a “changes since last time you have logged in” screen – which is a VERY SMART IDEA. I wish other games took note of this and implemented the same sort of feature. Some key notes based on the last time you’ve logged in that will show on the screen and remind you of all of the wonderful new features that you should be taking advantage of. Fantastic attention to detail, and I (as a player) like that.

One of the changes since I played last, is there’s a new tutorial area. In fact I was so out of the loop I didn’t have any idea there was this area, and figured that myself and my friend would have to create the same race in order to start together. Turns out, that’s not the case any more. The starter area was bustling with players, probably because of the new ‘unlimited’ trial that allows you to play Tier 1 for as long as you’d like. I play Order on Badlands, and Destruction on Gorfang. The highest character I have is level 12. I love playing healers, and my archmage, but there’s no way I would be able to just jump right back into the game knowing where I left off (it’s been months) so I created a ranged melee type character. Like every tutorial, the starter area introduces you to the game and puts you into WAR head first. Before level five you’ve already experienced your first public quest and are gaining reputation. I always enjoyed the fact that there were multiple methods of ‘leveling’ in WAR, through public quests, battlegrounds, and PvE (even if the pve was lacking at times).

It was starting to get late so I didn’t get very far, I think I logged off at level four or so, but it was fun. It was a little confusing and overwhelming trying to understand and remember all of the commands and what everything did, but that’s true for every game, and the fact that I play so many just compounds this because I have to remember commands and keys for not just a few games, but closer to 15 different games at any one time. Typically I go through and bind everything I can so it all matches one game, or I spend hours trying to figure out the basics (like hiding my UI so I can take a screen shot, or auto attacking).

I’m looking forward to continuing my adventures through WAR. Will I subscribe after my 10 days are up? Well. I haven’t decided yet. There’s a good chance I just might. It depends on my schedule though and whether or not I think I can justify the cost with work gaming + play gaming. In the mean time, I’m just going to enjoy.

Exploring the Lone Lands

The Lone Lands recently went through a revamp in the Lord of the Rings Online, and I was pretty excited about it seeing as I was just coming up to that zone. My little Minstrel was sitting at 19, and I had completely forgotten how to play.  Never a better time to start!

By the time all was said and done, I was sitting half way through level 21, and had also picked up new songs and skills, as well as a bunch of new gear. The most exciting part (for me) was that I finally get to make use of my appearance slots. I had saved up my plumed hat from a low level quest specifically for this moment.

My minstrel has been paired up with a guardian for most of her adventures, which has been a pretty good combination. Of course they’ve also made multiple changes to the game as of late, so things are a lot easier then they once were. Thanks to the rest experience we both had saved up the two levels pretty much flew by. On the other hand, there’s also 65 levels in game now, and since we’re only sitting at level 21, it’s still a long way off.

There are Yule Festival events in game right now too, when I logged in I managed to get a title for it, even though we haven’t made our way to the actual events yet. Those will come tomorrow, maybe. I haven’t the faintest idea of what’s actually going on in game, but I’m excited to find out.

I play as Lysthia (though I do have three crafting alts) on the Landroval server – I’m in Casualties of War if you’re looking to say hello. I’ve got a three month subscription as part of the Mirkwood promotion that I picked up, so hopefully I’ll be able to find the time to actually play. So far this is the furthest I’ve ever gotten in LotRO, and I’m excited about leveling up more. Being able to actually use my mount that I have would sure be nice.