March 21, 2011

Question About A Gaming Scenario #MMORPG

I wanted to hear peoples thoughts on this scenario – so if you have any ideas to share on it, let me know please!

You’re in the game of your choice. You hear someone advertising on channels that they’re buying a 30 day game card and paying the current in game currency for it. Obviously this person doesn’t have the means to purchase the card themselves, for whatever reason. The reason doesn’t really matter. Someone offers to purchase the game card for them via a legit method (ie: directly from the company themselves, a store, or a reputable web site that sells game cards, there are a lot of them out there). The in game currency they receive for purchasing the game card for the person has not been purchased or acquired through unconventional means (ie: they’ve earned it themselves just fine).

Sounds a little like EVE Online’s method of selling pilot licenses, right? Except that not all games have an in-game item that represents a 30 day time code. Do readers feel that this exchange of goods is an acceptable transaction, or is it cheating some how? Does it break a rule of trading real life money for in-game currency even though you’re trading a time card for in game currency?

From my own perspective – since the game card as well as the in game currency are both obtained through legit means, I consider it player B being helped by player A who can’t afford a time card. Of course that’s not really taking into account the question of whether or not you should be playing video games that you can’t really afford to be playing. I’m just wondering how everyone else sees this issue, since lets face it, it’s rare that our views are all the same.

Let me know in comments!

Decisions Decisions Decisions #EQ

Alts always seem to cause me the most joy and the most grief in every game I play. I enjoy working on them, but every second I play an alt is a second I’m not playing my main – whoever that is at the time. My main rises and falls as often as the sun or moon and it took me a long time to come to grips with the fact that it’s simply how I have decided to game. I used to get upset with myself for being ‘behind’ the curve and the conversation of “if I had only focused on one character” comes up more often then I’d like to admit.

The dilemma: I love my necromancer, but she’s a fairly new character in creation. I moved from Luclin to Drinal to play with friends and had no characters there so she was created. While I love the character because she is more ‘uber’ then my others I also the shortest history with her. She is well geared, has her epic 2.0, over 300 aa (finally), 300 tailor, etc. My old main used to be my enchanter who I have huge history with. However she’s well behind the times in almost every aspect. I did spend a bunch of time yesterday updating her gear and she no longer sucks quite as much as before, but she was mid-way through her 1.0 and while she does have 300 in jewel crafting, she has only reached 200 in the rest of the crafts. The other problem is that enchanters sort of suck, game wise. In fact they are so rare and perhaps so un-needed that their levle 76 aura is actually an xp bonus (I kid you not) for anyone who groups with them. 5% for rank 1, 7% for rank II and 9% for rank III.

What’s a girl to do? Stick with the better geared-well-created character or attempt to make up for years of neglect on the character with history. Something tells me I may be giving this scenario too much thought.

The dilemma: I have two active EQ accounts and I’d REALLY like to box more consistently, but during my last phase of playing I moved all of the characters from account B over to account A thinking I either 1. wouldn’t be playing any more or 2. wouldn’t be boxing any more. I regret the decision now but what’s done is done and I don’t want to pay $25 to move the characters back. So my only option is to start over on my 2nd account with fresh characters. What to create is always an issue for me. I THINK I have settled on a druid – the same druid that I moved off of the account initially. Providing nice backup heals, transportation, and group buffs I think that the druid would be a great match no matter who I am playing off of my main account. However. I also have a 50 bard that I wouldn’t mind playing, a little more difficult to box with the selection of casters from my main account but not impossible. Offering fantastic methods to pull and great group buffs. Argh the choices!

The dilemma: Housing! How could I have a complex choice to make in housing? Well this one is quite simple. I just am not sure what sort of house I want to design. Do I want to build from scratch like some of the other creations out there I have seen or should I stick with the simple “this is a house, this is a yard” feature that any player can create by default. From the start I wanted to re-create my EQ2 Norrathian Museum – however, a LOT of items within EQ are simply not able to be placed even though they may be ancient relics of days gone by. The point to my museum is of course to show off objects that perhaps not everyone has seen or collects. In EQ this includes every single weapon in game, but not a lot of other bits. I don’t really want a museum filled with weapons.

There you have it, my decisions of this morning. Have any suggestions? Feel free to let me know!

Be sure to check out Scarybooster’s blog this week (well, all the time actually, it’s a great read) for DAW: Developer Appreciation Week. Or, why not do one better and participate in the event and show your love for game developers. With so much negativity floating around the gaming community it’s always a refreshing break to show a little love.

Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself, I’ll see you in Norrath!