Pirate101

Keeping Up With The Gamers #MMORPG

If you’re one of those gamers who likes to taste a little bit of every game, this has probably been an expensive year for you. Whether you’re only interested in MMOs or if that extends to single player, it doesn’t much matter. There’s a lot of games out there and the costs can add up.

Right now I’m reading everyone’s excited squeals for Neverwinter, the ‘early’ release starts today – for people who decided to buy the $200 package. Needless to say, I simply can’t afford to spend that much on a game that I may or may not enjoy well into the future. At this moment I have been contemplating the $60 package, but I’m still not sure if it’s a game that I truly enjoy more than anything else I already have on my plate (that comes at a lower cost). So what is on my plate?

I did get my $60 out of Guild Wars 2, and even though I’m not actively playing that right this second I know it’s not going anywhere. I’ve dedicated more than $60 worth of hours to the game, and I’ve had a lot of fun. It will still be there when my interest leans that way again.

Wurm Online is $50 a year (until the price goes up in May). You rarely ever get MMOs for that price, and I’ve certainly got a lot of played time on my characters. I think my main is over 100 days played now. Plus you can play Wurm with in-game currency, which I do for my 2nd account. I justĀ purchasedĀ a year of game time, wanting to get that settled before the price goes from $5 EU a month to $8 EU.

My EQ account is compensated, as are all of my SOE accounts. This makes them an easy go-to choice for many genres. I’m having a lot of fun in EQ, and I still dip into EQ2 and Vanguard. Me and SOE (the company, not the people) may have had some rocky times, but they’re a solid game choice for me and have been for many, many years.

Rift is active for 30 days. I haven’t poked in yet and I’m not really sure why. I just haven’t felt the urge, even after claiming the latest expansion and a handful of other goodies.

There are loads of other games on my desktop that I could technically pick up and play at any time, and haven’t felt an inkling to do so yet. There’s Wizard 101, Pirate 101, The Secret World, Star Trek Online (I have a life time subscription to that one), and of course EVE which I still have some unused PLEX for. These are just the MMO games. There’s a whole steam library of single player games that I haven’t beaten yet, and a few that have no ‘end’ like The Sims 3.

With such a selection it’s hard for me to justify spending even more money on a game that I know didn’t exactly call to me in the beta – but – so hard to resist because pretty much all of my friends are going to be playing it. I never want to be the one left out of all the fun. So for those who ARE going to be playing today – I look forward to living vicariously through your adventures!

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Head Start For Pirate101 Begins! #Pirate101

The head start for Pirate101 has begun, if you’ve purchased one of their starter plans or set yourself up for a subscription you’ll be able to log into the game and play – the rest will be able to get into game when it fully releases on October 15th.

I played a swashbuckler in beta but wasn’t enthralled with the class, so this time around I picked a witchdoctor. I’ve only just started to make my way through the story and battles, but it’s a lot of fun. One thing that is NOT fun are players who go afk in the middle of a game or in the middle of a path of mobs and then you join in their game. Pirate101 (much like Wizard101) adds mobs based on how many ‘players’ are on the board at once, for a max of 4 ‘real’ players. That means if someone isn’t pulling their weight with encounters, you can be taking the brunt of most attacks. I had this situation happen for the first time this morning, a player decided to just sit in the middle of the very first place you happen to come across mobs. I stuck to the roads on either side after that, avoiding the first encounter and making my way to the second one.

I’ve already found a few pieces of upgraded gear and browsed through the ‘crown’ store. It seems more expensive than I am used to (compared to Wizard101), over 1,000 crowns for a single piece of gear, like shoes. Still, the combat is fun and playing as a strategy game instead of just pure hack and slash combat really appeals to me. Plus there’s boats, and boat combat. You really can’t go wrong with that!

I’m looking forward to posting more about my experiences as time goes on, if you happen to be playing and want to add me to your friends list you can contact me on Raptr (as Stargrace) and then IM me a ‘true friend’ code, they’re good for 48h each which should be plenty of time to log in.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!