February 2010

What Were They Thinking?!

It was bound to happen sooner or later. Karen and Adam (who you guys may already know from Journeys with Jaye and Epic Slant) caught me off guard and asked if I’d be willing to guest on a podcast of theirs, View from the Top. Having never done a single podcast in my entire life (although I have lots of experience talking to myself, and the cat) I decided to face my fears of public speaking, and give it a shot. After all, what was the WORST that could happen (Princess could take the microphone and reveal all of my secrets). This was no easy task for me, but Karen threatened me sent Sith Lords after me held the cat ransom convinced me that no harm would come from it.

Please head on over to the link above and give it a listen. Also don’t forget to submit a question for their next shows, even though I have no intentions of ever doing another podcast, they do a fantastic job at answering!

Thank you again Karen and Adam for having me on the show, it really was a blast!

It’s 3am, What Should We Do?

Last night was a great night. It’s been a while since I had one quite so amusing. To start it off I was a guest on ‘View from the Top‘ a podcast about everything to do with guilds. It was my first time and I was exceptionally nervous, but I had a lot of fun in between my mindless rambling when I was just having a regular conversation with people who are passionate about games. It was suggested (and has been a few times) that I start my own podcast, and while the idea is appealing on some strange level, I just don’t think I’d be any good at it. I simply can’t find the appeal to anyone else listening to what I have to say (reading is another matter).

Afterward I was on quite a rush, almost like that feeling you get when you take down a raid encounter. It was midnight, and I was wide awake. As luck would have it, so were Calreth, Wpus, and Ultann from guild. I haven’t seen all of us logged in at one time in months. Literally. We decided to head to Shard of Hate which is a level 80-88 x4 raid zone in Nektulos Forest, and try our luck. With five of us (Ultann was boxing his inquisitor). That’s how my small casual guild works, and I love it. We knew there was no way we’d get that far, but it was still going to be epic to try.

Try we did. We actually managed to defeat Dreadlord D’Somni with just the five (four) of us. That in itself is not exactly scream worthy – but – this particular encounter has one very (annoying) unique feature. He rushes any mages, randomly, and of course they being the smushy classes that they are, die. Well, our small group of four quickly became a group of two, because two of our guild mates happen to be mages. That doesn’t mean they didn’t play a role! Wpus relogged to his berzerker which meant we now lacked power regen, and Calreth played interception. My mystic mythical allows me to click every 5 minutes (soon to be 10 after SF, thanks for changing that after 2 expansions SOE.. sigh) and regen power to the group so long as there is dps being done to the mob. Calreth would stand near the entrance of the zone and the named would go running off after him. We’d have a few glorious seconds to quickly try to regen some power and prepare for heals while Calreth sacrificed himself for the greater good of the guild. Over and over again.

This gave me enough time to re-cast my mythical, and try to feed us some power. I’ve never had such a glorious battle before. It was amazing. Those are the moments I personally treasure in EQ2.

We figured there wasn’t any way we were getting any further, so we decided on a spur of the moment decision to head to Deathtoll and continue our adventures there. Of course Deathtoll is like taking candy from a baby once you’ve managed to four person an 84 x4. Sadly, my eyeballs started drooping at around 4am, and we had to stop our adventures after killing the gnome and his books. So many books. The hovercraft didn’t drop either, but it was still fun.

Sleep? Bah. Who needs it.

If You Mess With One of Us…

While it may not be widely known yet, it’s only a matter of time. Anyone who messes with Tipa and becomes her arch nemesis, even in the blogging world, must incur the wrath of her entire guild.

Syp, consider this your first and last warning!

Those of us at Torrent Knights don’t take kindly to one of our own being picked on. Unlike you, Tipa comes with an arsenal of friends that she doesn’t have to pay for an evening of company.

Bring it on.

Making a Game Feel Like Home

I’ve been working on my Norrathian Museum for a few years now, and one of my favorite features (which is also relatively new) is my library of player-written books. Lots of players collect the lore books that are scattered throughout Norrath, but I really do pride myself on being able to collect books written by other players. It’s just one of those ‘things’ I do in game that makes the game more ‘me’ – does that make sense?

The collection as of today consists of 249 books, written by various authors from all over Norrath. I try to post a random story once a week to this site so I can share some of the pieces of work I’ve collected, and eventually I have high hopes of even posting every single one of them. We’ll see how that goes. Perhaps I’ll start a second smaller site where I can post them all.

The point is – every game needs something that pulls a player in, and some times playing with your friends really isn’t enough to keep you there. It’s with these little tiny unique customization options that developers add to their game that make a game feel like home, and EQ2 has that in spades. Being able to decorate your home to a ‘theme’ of your choosing, whether you’re a druid worshiping nature, or an ancient warlord who thrives on blood, or a necromancer who studies death in all its forms – that is an example of what makes a game a home.

What are some other examples of how games make players feel ‘at home’ within them?

Nomadic Gamer