2010

You Don’t Have to be a Fan to Realize this is Gutsy #WoW

I know that over the next little while there will be a slew of WoW posts on various sites as players live through the shattering taking place. Pictured above is the newly designed Brill, and Orgrimmar has had a drastic face lift among other places in old world Azeroth. A lot people I know simply don’t like World of Warcraft – and that’s ok. There’s lots of things not to like which can be said for pretty much every single game out there. That’s why choices are good.

Even if you don’t like the game what so ever – it’s hard to deny the fact that Blizzard is doing something pretty gutsy with their game. They are revamping (basically) the entire world (which is huge). They’re raising the level cap, and adding more dungeons and raids which is something every game seems to do during an expansion. They are adding two new races, and they’re doing it all at once.They’ve had some incredible live events leading up to the expansion that players can take part in. It’s one thing to have a cataclysm take place before your character arrives on a world, and completely different to physically LIVE through one.

Last night when I logged in there was a cinematic explaining the shattering. It was probably the most incredible thing I watched all day, and it made me want to purchase Cataclysm on the spot. THAT is how you release an expansion. What blizzard is doing is enticing old and new players to try out their expansion. When was such a ruckus madeĀ  over a 6 year old game? When were we THIS excited? Normally this sort of chatter is reserved for new games that we’re all attempting to get into the beta for. Even if you don’t play WoW and dislike it with every inch of your being, I bet you’ve heard about what’s going on, and maybe, in the deepest, darkest corner of your mind you’re wondering what it would be like to play again. Not that you’d ever admit it.

Just like I hate admitting that Blizzard is doing something right. As one of the very few subscription-without-cash-store games left, they are proving to people that they’ve still got it.

Am I excited? Well. I haven’t played in a month and I decided to subscribe (for a month so far) so that I could check out the changes. I stick by my thoughts that WoW simply doesn’t offer enough to me to make it my main game of choice, and the community is absolutely horrid, but I’m willing to put up with that at least for this massive event.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

WRU Posts?!

Just as a little heads up, I AM still around, but as I mentioned, I’m writing on MmoQuests significantly less this month. NaNoWriMo is taking up a lot of my time and I’ve been organizing the 2010 gamers secret santa, as well as dealing with all of the other joys of life that come along this time of year.

No worries though, I expect my enthusiasm for MmoQuests will be renewed sooner rather then later, and you’ll find my usual plethora of posts.

I’ve been back to playing EQ2 – actually participated in a raid last night which is something I haven’t done in quite some time. I’m also playing EVE (very casually) and Perpetuum. I’m still playing FFXIV and since they’ve extended the free trial by yet another month it looks like I’ll have access for a bit longer yet.

As far as non-mmo games go, I’ve been exploring Fable 3 quite extensively, I’m on a mission right now to complete as many quests as I can. One involves singing garden gnomes and you simply can’t go wrong with that.

I hope everyone else is doing well, no matter where you find yourself. Happy gaming!

Creating Memories With Housing Items #EQ2

As I’ve been redesigning my Norrathian Museum one very strong thought has been persistent. These are not simply housing objects being placed. These are memories. EQ2 does something with their housing that I think some players take for granted. Sure, there are carpenter made items for every day pieces of furniture (chairs, tables, etc) but there are so many “nick nacks” that a player can obtain in game and for each one, a memory. Take the screen shot above for example. Each of the enchanted replicas is actually the boss to an instance in game. They are obtained from the daily chronomagic quest and there are around 32+ of these miniatures. Each instance (at least for me) holds a memory. There are the guild hall trophies that come from defeating raid encounters. There are the heritage quests that can be clicked and turned into a housing item. Those ones are even more unique because they hold the memories not just of your adventures in EQ2, but EQ if you happened to have obtained them there.

Each one of the artifacts that makes up my museum came from a special encounter in the game and for that reason alone I treasure my player house more than any other single piece of gear that I’ll eventually out level. I have worked harder collecting the items for it then anything else in game. It’s quite literally an entire history of my character laid out in housing items. 6 years of game time. Every lore and legend weapon, every book, every statue has a history attached to it.

That is what makes housing in EQ2 so special.

Agent of Antonica #EQ2

It comes as a surprise (at least to me) that I’ve never managed to reach 250 aa (alternate advancement) on any one of my characters. The reason behind this is quite simple, I have 12 characters and I’m constantly switching between them all instead of focusing. Not to mention that 7 month break I just took. I’ve settled on a main (more or less), my defiler. She is currently sitting at 228 aa, and I’ve taken it upon myself to finally max that out. My reasoning is simple – when the next expansion comes in February I don’t want to still be working towards this expansions current cap.

While I technically could simple grind out these points via combat experience transferred into aa, I’ve decided I’d rather quest my way there and work on a few achievements at the same time. I’m attempting to complete the quest achievements for all of the shattered lands zones. Pictured above is Ellithia (the defiler on Oasis) hanging out in Antonica while I try to contemplate the prospect of doing 50 quests within the zone. I didn’t even know Antonica HAD 50 quests.

That’s the problem with the older zones. While Darklight woods, Halas, and Greater Faydark are all teaming with quests and reaching their objectives is quite easy, Antonica and Commonlands haven’t been revamped in quite some time. The quest rewards are sub par, and knowing where to go to even get quests can be a hassle.

Still, there must be at least 50 quests for me to do, or else it wouldn’t be an achievement, right? I’m looking forward to the challenge. I find it slightly amusing that I need 50 quests in Antonica where quests are sparse, but I only needed 10 quests in the Overrealm (TT, Barren Sky, Bone Mire) which has recently received an influx of new quests. I also only need 20 quests in Everfrost which was revamped not too long ago. Ah well. Hopefully it doesn’t take me too long to complete them. We’ll just have to see.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Can It Be? I Actually Miss Raiding #EQ2

I picked up a pair of new pants for the defiler this week and needed a few more seals in order to purchase a red adornment fr them. I was invited along to clear trash and easy named in Perah’Celsis’ Abominable Laboratory, other wise known as labs. One thing became vividly clear to me. I actually miss raiding. I miss working together in a team of 23 other players to take down a goal that is “larger than life.”

The problem with raiding is that I simply don’t have the time to devote to it. After two hours of doing the same thing, I get bored. I can’t stay up late every night working on an encounter and some nights I simply don’t want to log in at all. As a raider these things are expected of you, because if you don’t show up and do your part you’re letting down 23 other people.

It was a lot of fun none the less. Maybe I’ll get back into raiding sooner or later, but for now, I’ll just have to be content to watch from the sidelines.

Nomadic Gamer