Nomadic Gamer

WAR

Gaming

Why so Much Emphasis?

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After reading a number of early morning blog posts left over in my RSS reader from yesterday, I found myself wondering: Why do gamers put so much emphasis in what we and others are playing. Especially others. Why do we even care? Every day I read a post from one or more authors that includes some sort of semi derogatory remark condoning a group of players simply because of how they choose to spend their time. Or, to be more precise, where they choose to spend their time.

There are those who have made up their minds that everyone who plays a free to play game must be a certain ‘class’ of gamer. How dare they actually enjoy ‘the grind’ that comes with a lot of these games. Don’t they know that in the long run they’ll pay more for their “free” game then some people will pay for their monthly subscription?! Then there are the WoW gamers. Don’t even get me started on these people. I have heard everything from how close minded they are to how stupid they must be, simply because of where they choose to spend their time. It’s as though we as gamers have moved into certain categories and stereotypes not based on who we are, but because of where we play.You ask a fellow blogger their game of choice and suddenly your opinion of them shifts slightly.

So I ask again – why does this aspect of a person even matter. Why are we so keen to judge someone based on a persons decision to spend their free time where they wish. I have even heard people go so far as to say they do not like a particular person because they play certain games that they are not fond of. Really? Are we so shallow that we are now making character judgements based on video games?

I simply don’t understand it.

In my opinion it doesn’t matter where you play, so long as you have fun. In fact voicing my opinion about any other ‘type’ of gamer is a moot point because when it comes to how others are spending their time – my opinion doesn’t matter! It’s their time, their money, and what I think of the matter is completely irrelevant. I refuse to classify a person based on whether they’re playing EQ2, EQ, VG, LotRo, WoW, WAR, DDO, Darkfall, Wizard101, Runes of Magic, EVE, Alganon, Fallen Earth, Lineage II, Allods, Champions, STO, Free Realms, Aion, FFXIV, SWG, Guild Wars, AoC, or any other game.

Go play, and enjoy. Don’t like it? Move on and find something you DO enjoy. It’s a game. They’re supposed to be fun. There are SO many games out there and despite what others would say about them all cloning one another there are always unique factors to each and every game – you may be surprised at what you end up playing and enjoying. I implore gamers to make their own decisions about what they like and don’t like, and refuse to be classified into a category of gamer simply because of where they spend their time.

Gaming

A Little WAR

stargrace 1Comment

I spent most of the weekend away from my main PC and there for couldn’t play LoTRO with Tipa and a few other Nostalgians, but I wanted to. I was there in spirit! So instead I decided to dip into WAR for a brief bit. My account is active for the month as I was letting a friend test the game out (they ended up purchasing their own copy and have been playing it steadily since). When I logged in I was not surprised to be greated by the ‘low population server’ message that told me I would be able to move servers if I wanted. I moved my Order character over to the server CoW moved to, and I moved two of my Destruction characters over to a server whose name I forget but I have a few friends who play there. 

The highest level I’d ever gotten in WAR was 10, on multiple characters at that. Now I’m sitting at 11 almost (but not quite) 12. The game is much the way I remembered it, the public quests are bare at my lower tiers, the scenario were not too bad though. There was some intense RvR action going on and I was a little surprised that the public channels (which were implimented after I cancelled my account) were still fairly quiet. It’s really hard to do RvR battles and talk at the same time. You’re so focused on trying to stay alive or in my case trying to keep other people alive. 

I got my first taste of T2 scenarios. I’ll be honest, I don’t remember the name of it and I don’t even know what the objective was. It was a huge mesh of bodies flying and bombs exploding and it was great. I loved every minute of it. I don’t even remember if we won or lost, it was just that good. The problem with loving those sorts of things is that I know darn well after a few hours of it (or even a second and third time) the euphoria I felt will wear off and I’ll want to get back to playing ‘my’ way which involves crafting and player housing. How utterly lame, I know. 

It was still nice to dip in and play. I don’t know why everyone thinks that I don’t enjoy PvP, I actually do enjoy it quite a bit. I haven’t found ‘the game’ for me though in regards to that – I like to PvP when I feel the urge, but I also like to PvE and experience games for their other facets. Does that even make sense? 

I hope everyone else had an amazing weekend, no matter where you found yourself.

Gaming

A Horn of my Very Own

stargrace 0Comment

My little raki paladin is the proud owner of her very own unicorn horn. Perfect for stabbing those bad guys right in the face – oh wait, that wasn’t a very paladin-like thought. In any case, Kasul and I hit level 10 on the Isle of Dawn in Vanguard yesterday. The quest chains were a LOT of fun, and although we did die a few times there’s no death penalty until level 11 and that comes in handy. No doubt the temple would be littered with corpses other wise. The quests lead you along fairly steadily, and you get a LOT of nice gear. The end chains give you a cloak and then you have four bits of a charm that combine into some uber charm (that happens to be a diplomacy piece, so you can always wear it) that gives you a slight +5 stat buff to crafting and adventuring. It’s quite nice. So nice in fact that I wish there were some way to give this charm item to characters who did not / could not start on the island. 

Once we’d both hit level 10 I decided it was time to hit 10 in the other two spheres as well. I headed out to start crafting as a blacksmith. The quests lead you along to level 10 just like the adventure and diplomacy quests. Rewarding you with crafting resources and gear as you complete them. Without crafting anything extra aside from doing the quests – I also hit level 10 in that. Once I head to the mainland I can work towards level 11 and becoming an armorer. 

Now that I’ve hit level 10 in two spheres, it’s time to reach it as a diplomat. Then I’ll have my very first 10/10/10. We’ll see how that goes. 

I’ve been contemplating picking up WAR for a month to see what it looks like. I know there are already huge guilds out there but if anyone thinks they may have room for little ‘ol me some place, let me know so it makes my decision about buying it easier hrms? The last ‘new’ game I got was Guild Wars, and before that Vanguard (having decided to opt out of Conan) so maybe it’s time to add something else to the shuffle, just for a bit. I’m still very much undecided about this (and dealing with some RL issues that are making me some what restless) so I guess we’ll just see how it goes. 

I didn’t log into EQ2 yesterday, still waiting for the newest update to go live and I think it’s going to be a great one. I spent a good amount of time yesterday chattering to Ardwulf on Xfire (have I mentioned lately how much I love that little gem of a program? Well I do!) about all sorts of things. It was a lot of fun, not often that I get to just chatter away with a fellow blogger about totally random things and not have someone want to run away from me screaming.  *grins*

Anyhow, that’s enough of a ramble for today.

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