May 2010

Sony E-Reader

stargrace May 15, 2010 6Comments

I’ve always wanted some sort of e-reader. I’m a huge fan of books and while I can constantly be found dividing my time between a few (and sticking with the ones that catch my attention the most) they don’t exactly leave a lot of options for me as far as storage goes. I’ve got bins of books stashed away everywhere, I’ve got books piled on the floor, on my desk. Cats of course love to chew these books. Bad kitties. Anyway. The point is I’ve always wanted an e-reader, but never actually purchased one.

Until yesterday.

I now have a 5″ Sony E-Reader, and I absolutely love it. It can read a variety of document formats which was really key for me, it means that I’m not restricted in where I get my books from. As if that were not enough I found out that the city library actually allows you to download e-books so long as you have a valid library card. There are SO many books available from that option alone, and I just about danced around the house I was so excited. A lot of the book choices are things I already own or have read previously, but just about the entire selection of library books is available. Today I’m headed to the library to get my account fixed up, as it’s been 8 years or so since I’ve actually used it and I need a pin number associated with it. If I have one I don’t have the faintest idea what it is. One would think that I should just get books from the library in physical format if I’m headed there anyway, but again I come to the issue of space, and kitties chewing them up.

Of course the first thing I did was try not to get upset at the number of books that are available for the US vs. the ones available here in Canada. Blasted copywrite laws. I also checked a few stores for any free book deals that may be going on, and I moved my ipod books over to the e-reader, including Bram Stokers Dracula which I had never read before. I love being able to read on the ipod, but it’s just a little too small for me. The e-reader is the perfect size and is made specifically for reading, the screen and little details all incorporate that use. I had contemplated getting an ipad, but I don’t think I need one since I already own the smaller ipod version, and the e-reader was far cheaper. It’s small, fits in my purse, and can easily be brought anywhere with me. I’m looking forward to being outside reading without having to worry about bringing a big bulky book around with me, and I’m excited about making some book purchases in the future.

If anyone else has some suggestions on where to get free e-books (or even paid ones) please don’t hesitate to let me know in comments below!

Gaming

In the Mean Time..

It’s been quite some time since I’ve written about games other than EQ2 on this site – but that doesn’t mean I’m not playing them. I had been making most of those ‘other’ types of posts over at NomadicGamer since the site needed a few posts and because they fit within the topic a lot better. Hopefully my readers here don’t mind that everything is not EQ2 related this week.

What I’m up to in games

EVE Online: My main account is (at the time of writing this) exactly 5 days, 8 hours, 3 minutes, 1 second away from flying a hulk. WOW. I’m incredibly excited. I’ve dreamed about flying a hulk since I first started playing EVE and now that I’m almost there it is a very surreal feeling. The down side to this is that I’ve failed 6 hulk blueprint inventions. Using this site to figure out the math pretty much explained how hulks have the lowest success rate. I’m hoping to keep plugging away at it and maybe invent one just before I can fly it but I’m not holding my breath. In the mean time I’ve been running missions for CreoDron so that I can work with a L3 agent, I’m .15 standing away which is pretty nice. My second account is having a blast flying her new Dominix, it’s a battlecruiser and I just managed to fit some 350mm compressed coil guns onto it. Yum. Now I’m working towards all of the drone goodies as my ship is mostly a tank while drones do all of the damage work. Yesterday Kasul helped me fit a new imicus that I bought for scouting (probing). I’ve never been all that good at probing, but I’m not going to get any better if I don’t try it more often. I’d like to scan down sites for the hulk to mine. I need 26 hours of training in order to fit the cloaking device, but aside from that it’s the first ship that I’ve actually completely fit, and properly. My 2nd account has four ships that I use. The Dominix (battlecruiser) for my missions, the Vexor (cruiser) for missions that don’t allow battlecruisers (I hate those missions, just saying), the Imicus for scouting, and the Iteron V for hauling. I like the set up so far, and I’m having a lot of fun with it. I really enjoy the Dominix a great deal too, great ship.

World of Warcraft: I’ve been playing this game off and on since release and it’s always amusing to me to hear everyone talk about it. My highest level character just reached level 64 yesterday (woot), my priest. Everyone talks about having multiple level 80 characters, and how easy it is to get there but for me it seems like the slowest thing in the world. I’m having a lot of fun with it, working my way through the Burning Crusade and little bits into Wrath of the Lich King. Neither expansion is something I’m all that familiar with and it’s all brand new. Of course much like I do in every game I play, I’ve been crafting as much as I can. My tailor (the priest) just reached a skill level of 350 yesterday, and chose a specialization in mooncloth. Once I reach level 65 I can obtain the Grand Master rank, and continue on. Even though some people argue that crafting in WoW is simple, I really enjoy it. It’s nice to have the objectives of the crafting mini game change compared to what I’m used to. The actual ACT of crafting is not the mini game in WoW. Obtaining materials and recipes is the mini game, and even then only because I make it so. It doesn’t make it any less interesting to me, and I’m really enjoying myself. I have five characters, the 64 priest (tailor / enchanter), 58 DK (used mostly for farming, mining / herbalism), 43 hunter (farming, skinning / mining), 40 shaman (jewelcrafting / inscription), and a level 8 druid (alchemy / herbalism). I’m excited about inching my way to level 80 because I’ve always wanted to be ‘end game’ even though it was constantly out of my grasp. No guarantee that I’ll make it this time around either, but I’m hopeful.

EQ2: I still log in, check the broker, search for new books, and craft. Decorating is a little slower, but I still have a lot of fun with it. I think I’m just waiting for Halas to come out so I can see if it affects my game at all, and see if I get excited about it again. Breaks are not bad things, and I’m enjoying my time away from EQ2 right now. There’s a reason I term myself a nomadic gamer after all!

There are other games on my radar like Age of Conan (I picked up the game for $7 from EBGames), Dark Ages of Camelot ($10 with all expansions from – you guessed it, EBGames), Fallen Earth, Champions Online, Wizard101, LotRO, and DDO. I also still have my subscription to Darkfall, though I haven’t been playing it lately and I own Guild Wars which I keep meaning to play again and just never seem to get around to it.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself. I hope everyone has a magnificant weekend!

Gaming

Not Exactly Excited

stargrace May 13, 2010 12Comments

While the choice of gems in the above picture may not exactly be something you’re into, we all love free things! EverQuest II has a very short promotion right now where players can claim these items from the station marketplace for no cost – and you can’t really complain TOO much, since they’re free. This is a pretty good marketing tactic, although I’d rather have a choice of free things to claim that’s just me. Players who have perhaps never opened the market window before will be drawn to do so. Those who were not even aware of it existing suddenly have a reason to peek at the other goodies that are located in there. Will it increase sales? Probably.

There is another promotion much like this one taking place on the days around the release of Halas, an ice cat that will be ‘free’ in the marketplace for players to claim. That one I’m quite excited about, even though I haven’t shown much enthusiasm for Halas in general.

Why am I not excited about Halas?

It’s a starter zone, and I can create no more characters thanks to the very strict “7 or 12” character limit depending on your subscription plan.
I have no motivation to grind aa since I have everything I want on my main character, and SOE scrapped the idea to add an extra 20 aa so that players could finish out their lines.
Halas is great (starter zone) and with it comes two new raid zones. Except I no longer raid, so that means for players like me there is very little about this update to get excited about. A starter zone and raids. No mid-level content.

I think that I’m simply in a phase right now where I’m bored of EQ2. I’ve been playing other games (EVE and WoW) and content doing so. No, I’m not leaving EQ2, I never do, but it’s been a while since I’ve taken a break from it and I’m embracing the idea while I have it.

There are a few things I would love to see implemented that would refresh this burnout feeling I have but number one would have to be:

Allow players to gain thousands of aa even if it’s for meaningless goals. Examples of these would be removing the racial abilities and character traits and allowing people to grind aa towards them. Things like Enduring breath, extended food, drink, poisons, and potions. Allowing characters to select more then one craft default. Allowing us to grind aa towards innate run speed. Silly little things that we all know are just a meaningless grind but keep us motivated and working towards a goal. Currently, in EQ2, if you are not a raider, once you hit level 90 (unless you’d like to constantly grind battlegrounds) the only thing left to do is create a new character. What happens when you’ve created all of the characters you possibly can.

Perhaps I’m a little bitter this morning, but in the mean time EQ2 is simply on the back burner for me. Though I did add another 6 books to my player written book collection, which was fantastic. 326?! Yes please!

Gaming

Making A House A Home

stargrace May 10, 2010 0Comment

It’s not that surprising that like a lot of players out there, when I’m not out adventuring or doing old quest chains (which is what I tend to do a lot of the time) I enjoy decorating. Making “my” own personal space in the game, even if it is just in an instanced home (or guild hall) that 99% of the player population will never see. It’s something I pride myself on (as anyone who has been a long time reader of this blog knows) and something that I greatly enjoy.

Lately I’ve been working on making the guild hall on Antonia Bayle seem more like a home, and less like a massive empty hall. While Oasis hosts my T1 hall (Dragon’s Flight) Antonia Bayle is home of my T2 guild hall, Torrent Knights (random tangent, whoever decided to create the guild “The Knights Torrent” a month or so ago, I’m flattered, but dislike that our names are so similar). The T2 hall is GIANT compared to the T1 hall, and while I do enjoy it quite a bit it also means a LOT more space to work with to try and design it into something.

Downstairs has been fairly simple, there are a number of smaller rooms clustered around one ‘central’ room, sort of like bedrooms. Each one has been designated to the founding members of TK (who also happen to be members of Nostalgia for those who remember from EQ1) so that entire floor is mostly taken care of. The ‘entrance’ is pretty self explanatory, and I’ve set aside a room for a library. We’ve also got a crafting area, and other NPCs set up like broker, banker, etc.

That still leaves one entire (rather large) side of the hall to decorate, and I have not decided what to do with this portion yet. I also have to keep in mind that there are a few other people who use the hall, so it’s not just about what I want to see, but what would everyone enjoy.

Coming up with these plans and ideas for decorating is something that really pulls me into a game, and makes it my own. In order for a game to have ‘staying’ power, I really need these personal little touches to draw me in. Something unique, so that I can call it my own.

How about you?

Gaming

A Huge Thank You

stargrace May 9, 2010 1Comment

Last week I spoke about how I had finally managed to reach my lofty goal of obtaining 300 player written books. Not only that, but thanks to the wonderful community, I have (as of the time of writing this) not only reached it, but surpassed it by 21 books. I suppose my next goal will be to reach 400+ books, or perhaps even 500 as time goes on. This project started out fairly small but has grown by leaps and bounds, and I just wanted to extend an enormous thank you to everyone who has helped me out by adding a book (or two or three) to my collection. Even those who simply put their works up on the broker so that others may purchase them.

Thanks to these player created works of art I have been able to travel through all kinds of Norrathian history, and read about their experiences. It is one thing to read the lore of the game as written by the developers, and quite another to read it as written by a player.

A giant thank you to everyone who has donated books to me over the past little while, you know who you are. If you’re interested in reading the books for yourself, PLEASE don’t hesitate to head to North Freeport on the Antonia Bayle server, the mage tower (bottom floor) where the magical housing is. You’ll find my Norrathian Museum there under the name of Ellithia.

Thank you all again.

For a complete list of the books I currently own, please feel free to check out my “Player-Written Books” section, I update it daily.

Sony E-Reader

In the Mean Time..

Not Exactly Excited

Making A House A Home

A Huge Thank You

You Missed

Personal EVE Economic Update (October)

Expensive Month (preparing for fun)

Locked Out (again)

What’s Going on?