2011

City Festivals, Leveling, and other Games #EQ2

stargrace February 1, 2011 1Comment

Looking over the ruins in West Freeport (can you spot my trusty billy in the shot?) I wonder when they’ll finally rebuild. It’s been a really long time now and I think Lucan needs to hire better city workers if they can’t repair a simple building.

This week the Kelethin city festival is going on which I am quite excited about. They’ve added some new housing items to the festival and I’m eager to check out the doors available. Remember each city festival only happens twice a year so if you want to stock up on your favorite item now is the time.

These past two days I’ve been leveling a new swashbuckler. I have one on a second account but decided it would be nice to have on my main account. I’m currently level 73 I believe, thanks to the awesome leveling powers of Ibeogur, a guild mate (berserker). It also helps that I have 120% bonus due to other level 90 characters, and typically have an experience potion running. Of course once again the argument of ‘why are you rushing to the end!’ comes into play, but I actually have characters at all tiers, and some I quest with some I craft with and some I just want to do current content with. It simply depends on my mood. I also deleted a 90 dirge not that long ago, growing bored with her lack of progression. I may end up recreating, I haven’t decided quite yet.

What has everyone else been up to? Playing your game of choice? Holding off for something else to release? Personally I simply can not wait until Sims Medieval releases. I’ve been playing games from the Sims franchise for years now and I don’t expect this to be any different. Dragon Age 2 is also another big title I am waiting for, but I haven’t pre-ordered it yet. I think I will pick that one up at EBGames when it comes out. Then of course there’s rift at the end of this month – and oh what a slow month it is!

Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!

Godking Weapons and other Musings #EQ2

stargrace January 30, 2011 6Comments

I barely played the Rift beta this time around. The game releases (at least for pre-orders) in less then a month and I really didn’t want to get any more burnt out than I may already be feeling. I also feel that a lot of the changes lately tone down the ‘unique’ feeling that the game gave me in the first few  betas. That, coupled with the fact that the flood gates were let open for a server stress test and I simply wasn’t in the mood to deal with the masses meant that I spent most of my weekend wandering around more familiar paths.

Pictured above is my character in Maj’Dul (along with billy, her trusty doll) working with Ibeogur on the Godking (also known as the Peacock Club) quest chain. On this particular step I’m required to kill sweepers who each have a key belonging to one of the three factions, court, blades, and truth. After I’ve collected all three I do a little mini instance relating to them all before I can move on to the next step. I really love the quest chain and it was fun to mentor down and avoid the orcs in Maj’Dul as someone else was working on the Hand of Fate which changes the mobs you may encounter in the city.

The weekend was filled with much more then that though. Guild mates and I decided to run around Wailing Caverns and Fallen Gate on newly made characters, earning a handful of levels. I started up a new swashbuckler, named Jacquotte Delahaye. The phrase “back from the dead red” just struck me as too amusing not to use.

There was also a lot of instance running going on which was a refreshing change of pace compared to my usual slack. Guild mates and I ran through Erudian Research Halls (also ERH on Antonia Bayle, it seems like every server has their own short forms), Cella, Conservatory, and one more instance that I can’t recall at the moment.

An interesting thing happened with one of the members in group, a dirge. They rolled need on a dirge master that dropped – and then someone in group called them out for it and asked why they were rolling need, they’ve been mastered for months. The dirge admitted that they had the spell already, but that they always roll need on anything from their class. While I do not appreciate this concept at all – they also told the group that we could random 1000 for the master in question and he would give it up. I just wish it hadn’t of required someone else calling the player out in order for him to have this change of heart.

On that same note, while they were discussing the subject another party member mentioned that they always roll need on all shinies, whether or not they actually need them. Because they do need the coin from broker. I’ve been pretty strict in my ‘I only roll need if I need it’ intentions, and some times I won’t even roll need then. I don’t see this changing any time soon no matter how bad I may WANT the money that comes from winning an item. It just does not sit well with me morally for whatever reason.

I hope everyone else has had a fantastic weekend, no matter where you find yourself. I’m also downloading Magicka right now from Steam, looking forward to giving that a try. Happy gaming!

Friends Stop Friends From Going Down the Crapper #EQ2

stargrace January 28, 2011 10Comments

A friend of mine was showing off his home this week and mentioned that the bathroom was tribute to his feelings about the game, that any time anyone used the toilet, the waste would just get sucked into the void never to be seen again – for those who are not familiar with the game the center of the toilet bowl is actually a “void” house item, that players can click and it transports you to the Moors of Ykesha. It spins around in dizzy circles which doesn’t show up very well in the screen shot.

When asked WHY he was still playing if he felt this way, he gave me an answer that I’ve heard too many times (and have in fact used it as my reason for playing as well). It’s the friends we make and the friendships we have that cause these games to be their most enjoyable. The problem is that this day in age there are so many games it’s very rare that we all meet up again some place if we do decide to move on from where we once all “met”. There is a certain fear associated with leaving ones game of choice and thus leaving behind friends. If I can not convince friends to come try a new game with me, it’s very rare that I will actually leave for it, even if the game I’m currently playing is a wrong fit for me on every level. My friends can make the darkest days seem brighter, and the stories I tell about game play happen not because of what I’m doing in game per say, but what I’m doing with friends in game.

Would you play and continue to play a game that you didn’t exactly enjoy if you had a bunch of friends playing with you? Would you over look the blatant faults because friends make it all worth while? I certainly would (and do) – I’m just curious if others feel the same way. Let me know in comments!

Also happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself and woohoo it’s FRIDAY!

BiblioNorrath #EQ2

stargrace January 27, 2011 1Comment

I was reading through the EQ2players forums yesterday and came across this post regarding BiblioNorrath – a site dedicated to recording the titles of all the books and scrolls available in game. More recently they’ve started adding the titles to player-written books, and so I decided to volunteer my collection of titles for the project. I’m still just on the cusp of owning 400 books, but I know I’ll get there before too long. The site itself is quite wonderful, you can use this as a check list of books you own compared to which ones you still need to obtain, and it’s a wonderful way for players to share the player-written books that they’ve collected on their servers.

I’m quite proud of my personal collection (obviously since most of my posts this week have revolved around that) and I was only too happy to share it with everyone else. If you’re interested in books at all I suggest you check out the site, register for an account, and start tracking!

Also, anyone check out the super neat announcement yesterday regarding housing? Multiple homes? Yes please!

Thoughts, comments? Let me know below!
Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself.

Thank you For the Donation #EQ2

stargrace January 26, 2011 4Comments

Yesterday I logged into game and found 7 books waiting for me in my mailbox. No note attached, sent by one “Mctavish” – I sent back some coin and a thank you note for the donation, and that brings my player-written book collection up to 397 books. THREE books away from hitting my goal of 400. Hopefully beyond, as time goes on. Sadly the majority of my books at the moment are (for lack of a better word) indisposed. When I moved Stargrace back to the Antonia Bayle server her house failed to move with her, and so now I am in the process of once more bugging Customer Service for help in the matter. They’ve already confirmed that I will indeed get the house back (I was incredibly worried I would have lost all of those books) but it’s a matter of time and patience. Once I have the museum back up and running players are more than welcome to come visit and read the books that I’ve been collecting.

If you’re interested in making a donation (wouldn’t it be neat if a dev or two read this cough cough and sent a one of a kind book!) please feel free to mail stargrace on the antonia bayle server. If you need a blank book just let me know and I can send you one.

Once more it’s things like this that keep me playing a game. Friends, and the community. Random acts of kindness that cause me to pause and think “huh, that was very nice of them”, and make me want to keep playing.

On a side note – if you’re interested in the finer aspect of player housing, be sure to /join antonia_bayle.homeshow, it’s a cross server channel dedicated to all things housing related. There are also lessons taking place which you can find a schedule for on the EQ2 forums under the Norrathian Homeshow: here. It looks like they’re doing some fantastic lessons on how to use the layout editor for various things, so if you’ve got the time I would really recommend checking it out. There are some finer details about the program that really make using it a lot easier, like how to tweak settings and prevent some of the bugs from occurring (bugs like, everything flipping around every time you place it, which believe me is incredibly annoying). Hopefully others find it as helpful as I have found it to be.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!