Just Potatoes

This week, in EQ2, I got freaked out by sharks, giggled at by crazy skeletons, ganged up on by creepy little dolls and found a magic lamp with a pissed off genie inside. I also navigated a ship safely to shore, saved a village of frog people, uncovered a demonic plot, and went beer shopping for the Avatar of Below. I’m kind of a big deal in Norrath…

I have a shark phobia, and fighting these guys is the single scariest thing I've ever done in a video game. Even the Lost Souls in Doom didn't freak me out this much...

Okay, maybe not…

I continue to be amazed at the sheer amount of content in EQ2, and how much care has gone into some of the most out of the way things!

While EQ2 has (more than) it’s fair share of “kill ten rats” quests, it also has a surprising variety of puzzles, instanced encounters, clever dialogue and secret discoveries. You never quite know what to expect when you find some random clickable thing in the wilderness.

EQ2 gives players the ability to “lock” their level and turn off experience gain, while still earning Alternate Advancement points, an interesting concept that makes it possible for the older content to remain relevant. Some guilds level lock their characters at each tier to complete all the raid/endgame content at that level before moving on to the next expansion tier. Other raid guilds utilize EQ2’s mentoring system, which allows a player to temporarily lower their level to match earlier content.

For my WoW playing friends, this would be the equivalent of a raid guild that stopped leveling at 60, did all the vanilla WoW raid achievements at the level they were intended for, and then moved on to 70 to work through all the Burning Crusade stuff. It’s a great opportunity for me to experience all the raid content that I’ve missed.

These guys would be lost without me.

My little Fury is currently level 51, and leveling quickly, despite having my Alternate Advancement slider set to reroute about 40% of my earned experience into AA points. (AA points are spent in a variety of “trees” to improve my characters abilities and statistics.) I’ll probably hit 60 just about the same time as the rest of the guild is ready to move on to level 70, which should give me some good opportunities to learn how to play my character in a group before trying to raid with her. She’s just got an insane amount of buttons, so I’m a little nervous about actually trying to heal with her. But hey, it’ll be a challenge.

I do miss my PvP (I’m a killer-socializer, according to the Bartle Test of Gamer Psychology), so I’m thinking about creating an alt that I can jam through to 80 just for the battlegrounds (if SOE ever gets them working… *sigh*). But I’m thoroughly enjoying EQ2, so I don’t plan on picking up anything else any time soon.

Choose wisely! (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, anyone?)

On the “in other news” front… Tickets for the LFG Expo in June go on sale on my birthday (March 26th). It looks like it’s going to be awesome! And it’s here in Minneapolis!! Woo hoo!

I have another stamp in my MMO passport this month… Everquest II.

After thinking through what I really want out of my gaming experience in the last post, and spending time playing single player games for a bit, I decided to give EQ2 another shot. I’d played it briefly just prior to the release of Wrath of the Lich King, during the pre-expansion lull.

EQ2 has the level of complexity that I’ve been craving, an overall decent commmunity and a fairly rich lore. I’m playing on Antonia Bayle, which is the RP server, and I was so impressed after playing for a month that I actually bought the Collector’s Edition of the Sentinel’s Fate expansion, which won’t surprise anyone who remembers that I’m a sucker for a CE…

So the Collector's Edition mount isn't the most beautiful thing I've ever seen... The graphics really aren't that bad, considering the age of the game.

In the previous post, I mentioned that I enjoyed the leveling experience and the challenge of gearing up a character. I really *want* an uphill course to climb in improving my character. While leveling in EQ2 is fairly easy, the other aspects of character development are where the challenge lies.

A few of the things about EQ2 that I’m enjoying…

• Community – My biggest issue with WoW (and other games) is that I’m a cranky old lady (though I’m known to still laugh at my 4 year old’s potty jokes, soooo….), and I just don’t have the patience to deal with trolls anymore. I can’t read chat in WoW for more than about 10 seconds before getting the overwhelming urge to poke my eyes out. While EQ2’s “1-9 chat” channel, essentially the global channel, can occasionally get a bit silly, it’s the *only* general channel in ANY game that I haven’t needed to turn off soon after logging in.
• Alternate Advancement points – This is part of the complexity of character development. AA points are akin to WoW’s talent points, and you spend them to upgrade skills and obtain new abilities. They’re received independently of your adventuring level, and you get AAs by doing all kinds of things… exploring, killing, questing, collecting stuff, etc. The AA cap at level 90 is 250 points. However, if you just level through to 90, you’ll end up with only a portion of those (someone told me around 100-120 points at level 80 if you jam straight through). In order to be good at your chosen class, you’ll want to earn as many AA points as possible. To this end, there’s an “experience slider” where you can convert portions of earned adventuring experience into AA experience. I absolutely love being able to control my journey through the content like this. It also means that if something is tough for me to do, I can earn more AA and try it again instead of giving up and outleveling it. The AA slider also lets me continue questing in a zone that I’m enjoying, when I might otherwise level out of it quickly. If I want to jam through to max level, I can. If I want to take a slow, leisurely journey through the content, I can. EQ2 feels far less linear than other MMOs I’ve played.
• Dings – So many things “ding” in EQ2. There are adventuring level dings, and AA dings, and collection completion dings, and tradeskill level dings, and the little ding noise you get when you harvest a rare crafting item…
  

  The atmospheric effects are decent, and I look forward to seeing the improved graphics in the newer zones

• Classes – I spent a couple of weeks just trying different classes, and settled on playing a fury, which is an offensive, healing capable druid. I leveled a dirge to level 20 when I’d played previously, which is a bardic, buffing class. I’d like to try a wizard, and one of the tank classes at some point.
• Betrayal – Every race and class is either good, evil or neutral. My fury is a high elf. I’m not sure what I was thinking, other than that all the characters I’d tried had gone through the starting areas for evil races so I should try a “good” character. But if I decide to turn evil, there’s no problem, since EQ2 has a betrayal system allowing the player to switch factions! The betrayal system is well thought out and a really neat feature. I’ve done some of the quests to betray, though I haven’t gone all the way yet. I love how the quest givers subvert the character by convincing them of the flaws of their current faction. I probably will betray eventually just to see that content. Imagine if you were a Horde player in WoW and could quest to convert to the Alliance, or if you were a destruction race in Warhammer and could quest to become Order…
• Chronomancy – I haven’t experienced this one yet, but there are chronomancer NPCs who’ll lower your level temporarily so you can go back and earn XP and AA with quests and instances that you’ve outleveled. There are people who jam through to max level and then use the chronomancer to go back down to earlier content so they can earn those AA points. I have yet to see anything like this is any other game. You can also “mentor down” to a lower level friend so you can quest and instance with them at the same level as they are.
• Crafting – Crafting is not something I generally enjoy. For some reason, I’m getting a real kick out of it in EQ2. Maybe it’s because you ding tradeskill levels. (Apparently, I’m a sucker for a ding?) Starting at level 10, you choose one of three general tradeskill areas – scholar, outfitter and craftsman, and get to experience crafting a wide variety of items. Every character has a tradeskill level as well as an adventuring level, and when your tradeskill level hits 20, you choose a specialization. My fury took tailoring, so I can continue to make my own leather armor upgrades.


I met Antonia Bayle at the Royal Hunting Camp, after uncovering a sinister plot to kill her.

I’m looking forward to hanging out in Norrath some more…

In the Fallen Earth help channel, the same few questions get asked over and over. (No, not “How do I make relish?” and “How do I equip the axe?” though those do get asked an awful lot.)

It’s very common for people in the tutorial to ask, “What’s the level cap and how’s the endgame?” When hearing that Fallen Earth really doesn’t have much of an endgame yet, and the level cap is 45, the response is often, “Then what’s the point?”

What’s the point, indeed…

Many MMO players are inclined to look at the endgame of a potential new MMO as a determinant of how long they’ll stay with the game. What’s the point of subscribing if you’re going to run out of content in a month of playing?

The issue with Fallen Earth is that so much of the game is about the journey, and about exploring, that people who think, “I’ll jam through 45 levels and be stuck with nothing to do” don’t do the game justice. But I’m not surprised they think that way.

When I first tried Lord of the Rings Online, shortly after it’s release, I decided not to subscribe, because I was concerned that the level cap was only 50, and there seemed very little content past that. So I know what those people in the Fallen Earth help channel are thinking. I felt that same way about LOTRO.

For anyone whose main leap into MMOs began with WoW, as mine did (not counting MUDs and Guild Wars), I think it’s hard to break away from the idea that the*real* game starts at the level cap.

In World of Warcraft, leveling characters is easy. In the past, it was far more difficult, but they’ve since reduced the experience required to level and increased the experience earned from quests. So the journey to the level cap is short and sweet for most people. And that’s where the REAL game begins. Gearing up, reputation grinds, raiding… Blizzard has focused so much on the endgame in WoW that the Wrath of the Lich King expansion didn’t provide any new content for characters under the level cap. It was solely an endgame expansion. Blizzard’s primary demographic is clearly the endgame players.

Where I find the most enjoyment in WoW, or “the point” of WoW for me, is getting a character to the level cap then gearing them up. I love the gear grind. In Burning Crusade, I spent hours doing heroic 5-man instances with guildies for badges, and grinding rep with Ogri’la, and the Shatari Skyguard. Getting to exalted reputation levels with the various factions had tangible rewards and was tough to do for the casual player. It took time. As a result, there was far more diversity in the server community.

Maliera as a new level 70 in 2007

Now, the loot grind is ridiculously easy. Not only is leveling short and sweet, but so is gearing up! The whole point of WoW, for me, is lost. I was never a hardcore raider, so I’m not lamenting that they’ve made content more accessible. I’m glad it’s accessible! I’m just disappointed in that there’s nothing really left for my style of playing. I’ve got six characters sitting at the level cap, and the most recent two level 80s (druid and warlock) were both pretty well-geared within a few days of hitting 80.

Maliera in 2010, days after turning 80, all epic'd out in Tier 9, badge gear and the robe from 25-man ToC

I enjoyed Warhammer because I was able to level through PvP (RvR), and gear up through renown, lucky bag drops and later, tokens. The gear grind frustrated a lot of people, which is why Mythic introduced tokens, but it didn’t really bother me.

So after realizing that “the point” of an MMO, for me, is leveling (with friends!) and then the loot grind, I’m starting to look at other games to see what’s out there that might still satisfy that play style…

I’ll still stick around WoW, because I love the people I’ve played with the for the last three years, but I really need something more… hmm… satisfying? Or what’s the point?

This morning…

My husband: I was thinking that we should take these sailcloth curtains with us and put them up in the new master bedroom! The whole room could be sailing themed!

Me: But then it would just be all YOU. I want the room to be a place that reflects both of us.

My Husband: Well then let’s make it… Sailing in the World of Warcraft themed! (Insert “I think I’m so clever” snicker).

/smack

My little necromancer hit 31 tonight, and I’m nearly done with Khopesh Province for a bit.

Leveling is VERY fast and easy, and hasn’t felt grindy at all. I’ve heard it slows down in the mid 70s, but that they’ve put in enough quests to level all the way to 80 without grinding too much. I feel like the pace is pretty solid. I’ve yet to run out of stuff to do. The map markers are a huge help in getting around to someone as directionally impaired as I am.

As a Robert E. Howard fan, I really appreciate the attention paid to the atmosphere of the zones. The music and visuals are great, and the most of the voice acting is stellar. Too bad there’s so little of it outside of Tortage!

I have yet to do any instances. I have the quests for the Black Castle instance, but don’t know that I’ll get in there at any point. I see constant spamming for healers and tanks for instances, so I think once I hit 50 on my necro, I’ll probably roll my free 50 as a healer.

Now my choices are to head to Cimmeria or Aquilonia for a change of scenery…

A couple of days ago, I loaded up Age of Conan again, because Funcom is doing a free two week deal for returning subscribers. There were a lot of things I really liked about AoC, so I’m giving it another shot.

I created a new character (a necromancer) because I…uhm… forgot how to play my Herald of Xotli (*blush*), and although I think melee combat is definitely one of AoC’s strongest elements, I’m enjoying being a caster.

A few notes:
– Global chat population seems split between extremely polite, more mature sounding folks, and teenage boys who probably lied about their age to buy the game. I spend most of my time with the combat tab flipped to front. I wonder how many women play the game and how that compares to other MMOs.

- Why must the “OMG WoW is so much better than this game!” crap show up in the chat channels of every other game? New players need to be restricted out of global so the trolls can’t hang out. Been to WoW, done that. Now let me play my AoC!!

- Not being able to see high level/max level characters in the starting area is a little odd. I never realized how much I enjoy checking out high level characters in a new game, to see what my gear could look like one day. I also find it encouraging that people like the game and care about it enough to reach the upper levels and still log in.

- Lots and lots of LFG… from the same people looking for the same instances. I’m not sure if that’s a sign that there’s not enough of a population to put groups together at those levels, or if people just don’t pug much.

- No obvious RP yet. I’m on the unofficial RP server, Wiccana, which supposedly has a big RP community. I have yet to see any of it, but I found this website, which has info on RP events. I’m going to scope out some of the places that RPers tend to hang out.

- Casting combat is very much the generic mage type stuff in other MMOs. My necro has only one “fatality” (combat finishing move), which is hardly noticeable. The melee characters get dramatic things, like decapitations and blood splatters across their monitors. As a caster, I feel a little like an afterthought. My next character will be a DT, I think.

- I really like the quest presentation in AoC. You enter into a conversation with the NPC, and have choices of things to say. In the starting area, all the NPCs have voice acting accompanying the quest text.

My little necromancer just got finished with Tortage last night, at the ripe old level of 22, and is off to Khemi. I’m eager to see if AoC has improved in the world beyond Tortage.

My husband joked once that I should come up with a gaming CV, so when I meet other nerds I can share my qualifications. So when I saw Syp post his MMO History, I decided to do the same here!

Hmm… I should dig out my Geek Code for kicks. I wonder if I still have it?! I bet it’s changed a lot since my “hanging out in the basement of the engineering building” days.

If you’re looking for Tiel’s website, please note that it’s been moved to runningdownwind.com