so Guild Wars isn't that bad. in fact its downright fun. i played it awhile before. when they released it they had a free weekend. ive got a couple characters going. the furthest along is the japanese theme. its called a monk slash elementalist. pretty cool class. can heal everyone. can nuke bad guys. so thats pretty versatile. lots of abilities without being overwhelming. apparently if you hit control and space you can tell people what to hit. the graphics are still pretty good. definately better than everquest. and youve gotta love the free to play aspect. nearly everything is instances. the towns are basically shared. the bulk of the world is instanced. which means youre not gonna run into people much. which i think is kinda nice. you can choose to have people around if you want. but there's no constant spam channels when you're in different zones. you can control multiple people at the same time. my level twelve i think monk elementalist has a group of mercenaries. theyve been available since low level. theyre kinda nice. dont have to get people. just click on people and start a mission. good stuff really. anita's been watching me play it. she's been into it as well.
at this point i really don't have any gripes. all i could say is maybe level 20 is the cap. if thats the case im nearly halfway there. well im over that now im 12 already. i wouldn't have expected to have gotten the levels so fast. but its cool. items drop on the ground instead of having to be looted off creatures. combats fast paced but still challenging. i often find my hands full as a healer. but at the same time there is a sense of ease. the third person view is a bit awkward. and basically you get around by clicking on things. there doesn't seem to be any autorun. thats definately a minus. also with the radar system its pretty easy to attack stuff. once youve got the target nearest mob key located life gets easy. you basically smack that and it faces you towards whatever's nearest. then by hitting the space bar your guy charges right to it. catch is that can make him run a long distance. mob homing beacons kinda takes away the challenge. at least the breakneck challenge thats in everquest. but perhaps thats more of a tedium that people came to enjoy. i guess you could say everquest was difficult in ever way, and like Dellmon says, "and we liked it!" it really is true. you won't find any Everquest if you're looking for Guild Wars. but if you aren't hopped up on some hardcore MMO you can enjoy this.
i did notice that they have guilds in guild wars. how surprising is that. they've got an arena system. groups take on each other. at my level you can observe the fights. im kinda concerned at how fast im leveling. if it keeps up like this im gonna be at the cap too soon. and we all know what happens then. some form of aa's. and everybody knows aa's basically suck the lifeblood of a player. and that's no good. but for now the games good. how much entertainment it'll provide remains to be seen. but for now im happy. ive got something to look forward to with that game. a pleasant experience that is gonna be able to be replicated. so i guess thats the best position a game could really hold. that which doesnt annoy you all to hell. one which promises to be fun in the future. i can't say everquest still has that claim. guild wars is undiscovered content for me. i can't believe EQ guild leaders used to force you to keep playing it. trying to keep people in line with loyalty and shit. what utter brainwashing. everyone should stay clear of everquest guilds. and they should stay far away from everquest raiding. in fact once they hit the level cap they should stop playing altogether. there's just not any point to continue. but that's that really. Guild Wars is my current game of choice.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Friday, November 20, 2009
the everquest facebook group
i found myself looking through the facebook group today. it seems pretty active. people post every couple days. and its got a large membership. it just reminds me how good the community is. and i definately miss it. but i have been cut out of it. getting removed from your guild for inactivety kills it. i had a word with the guild leader. the guy even went so far as to say i wasnt meant for the guild. that just tells me alot. a guy takes a break and gets told nonsense. i have some opinions about staying in the guild and get told im a renegade. maybe the guy feels like he's way more important than anybody else. i dunno i think i contributed. i definately did my characters worth. and definately helped figure out a couple events. i made my fair share of friends. and definately did my fair share of helping people out. i pulled more weight than some of the less serious people. but then to be told that i was not of the calibre was hurtful. ive lead guilds in the past. i lived that game. for anyone to try and tell me i wasnt the right stuff was heartbreaking. mainly because i thought that these people were cool. but they exposed themselves for the types of people they were. youre just a number in a guild like that.
its kindof funny because that guild was known for being a family guild. but i guess it just shows when you get the treatment yourself. i just kinda shows that you can't trust online connections. i just don't think that i could ever make that decision. makes me wonder if the leader was a fool like the people at the convention. that woulda been a shitty situation. after all the people i did meet were kinda weird. wouldn't be surprised if the whole guild was kinda like that. i mean i did meet some cool people. but the game aged really badly. and you'd try to make connections but you'd get backstabbed alot. my class wasn't really needed either. its a gaming organization after all. how seriously can they take it. you can't play the game constantly forever. perhaps thats the kindof commitment some of these things expect. but if thats the case thats unrealistic. we need to have lives of course. i played that game for 9 years straight. if thats not a commitment i dont know what is. and i definately dont appreciate being told i havent played enough. it was a pain in the ass to near nonsense like that. i put in my time and got the boot. i'd even heard of players keep the tag. but apparently i didn't fit the credentials. it was all very shady. and then when i spoke up about it i just got shouted down.
basically facing possible public humiliation i was asked to back down. the guy in tells told me an earfull. bottom line is i was asking for a grandfather tag. it wasnt the biggest request in the world. i wanted a retired-friend tag. and they wanted me to do all sorts of bullshit to get it. get someone else to call me a box. i just wanted to maintain my ties with the community. but i felt like i was trying to fight for something illicit. and thats kinda what made it weird. i think players dont really appreciate the community. especially those in high places. to those guys we're all numbers. but what about the friends you make along the way. are those flukes? do those not factor into the grand scheme? it was all kinda heartbreaking to have that happen. but that was that. the last few friends i had on the server in that guild. and me considered to be not worth being inside. maybe it had to do partly with the fact that my class sucked. maybe it was because my opinions were so strong. but when someone invests nearly a decade into something what do you expect. constantly denied leadership oppertunities. booted outa guilds for inactivety. its just not the kinda shit im used to. wasnt getting the respect i deserved. in my time as a leader i never woulda done stuff like this. but times change.
i respect the people who continued to play. most of them have deeper networks of friends in the guild. and i respect the leaders for being able to keep the guild going this long. but at the same time i dont like how they turn their cold shoulder to me. kinda made me feel like shit. i guess you could say ties to the people were strong. and getting denied the strongest connection to them sucked. these're people who got me thruogh some tough times. while i was locked away in my parents house. trying to get over the death of my friend. trying to build communication with my parents. trying to orient myself in the world. those weremy formulative years. and the character i played was one that stuck with me since 2000. i guess you could say i got tired of waving friends goodbye. but thats the nature of everquest. if youve played a decade youve seen alot of people come and go. you cant really come to rest on those relationships. youre left playing with strangers. whichs tough when you still see old players still around. youre left scratching your head. but these are real bonds you make with real people. and just like it sucks to lose those in the real life it sucks to lose those in the game. i guess you could say there's alot of loss i experienced in everquest. and it was tough. it really was.
when you play with people for years you build bonds. taking your guild through tough content builds character. its just rough to lose that network. after getting to know everyone through teamspeak. discussing guild stuff on the boards. working as a team on raids. shooting the breeze on the offtime. its a lifestyle. and these were the people you spent your time with. to lose that network can be painful. but its something ive gone through a couple of times. it has alot to do with how i played the game. i'd quit because i felt like i was getting to into it. and that had alot to do with the shunning i got from the parents. its like gaming was kindof not cosher. but there was also the whole getting over the trauma thing. a friend had died. and my life had been off track for awhile. from the first day of college i had cut my hair. and basically the shunning began. before that there were alot of restrictions placed on me. religious freedom was stripped. and before that the place i loved was taken from me. i guess you could say i had so many things taken from me that i stopped wanting things. and all that frustration got turned inside and it became destructive. that was the only way to deal with any of it. my parents didnt talk. despite their psychiatry degrees. it was rediculous.
but online i was a paladin. i'd get on my dwarf and kick ass. and i built a network of friends who were all good at their class. together we'd do amazing things in the game. eventually it grew into guilds. and the joy of success was infinately greater. its through alot of this that basically alot of my character was built. it was a lifechanging experience. being in charge of real people taught me alot. at first it was intimidating. but eventually it became second nature. i became a carrier of the torch. i knew the game inside and out. and i knew enough to coordinate things. that became my strength. i became known for being able to organize raids. pickup raids that were able to take on tough content. that was pretty cool. something i had done since i was a kid. although i got alot better at it over the years. i guess that was the thing with it all. it was a constant in my life. even losing countries and friends. and it brought me to alot of great places. it taught me alot of great things. and built me into the person i am today. it built me into a better person. and i guess you could say im thankful for that. but today its just not what it used to be. i know too much i guess you could say. i can see right through it. maybe my world is music today. maybe thats where i need to put my efforts.
there was a time that i loved raids. id make up maps and discuss tactics. i hated the cheat sites. to me it was great to make up the tactics ourselves. that was what it was really about in my opinion. thats how someone plays the game the way it was designed. i loved getting 60 people together to try and figure out the tactics. and part of me definately wants to try it again. knowing everything i know now it should be easier. but then of course there's the fact that my character sucks. the warriors take the boss mobs. the shadowknights do the kiting. there's little left for paladins but straight up tanking trash. the shadowknights having distinctly more powerful aggro spells hurt. that meant that they could take aggro if they wanted. aggro spells are weak enough to be chained. its viable as far as manas concerned for a shadowknight to tank everything. and that was kindof a low blow for paladins. if they have the aggro they have the mob. and what was too powerful for them to tank the warriors could. in a way that kindof removed the need for paladins to tank on raids. only the particularly plucky ones could take aggro. and that'd of course perhaps involve the taunt button. either that or lazy shadowknights. but if you were in a competative setting you'd lose aggro. and that was kindof disheartening.
see i was the competative kindof player. the game really mattered to me. and being involved mattered to. i didnt wanna be one of the guys on the sidelines during raids. i wanted to be involved in the fun of it. a place where i could really just try out my abilities. paladin stuns are largely unused on raids. not to mention that the stun component doesnt work. youre just left as poor dps and poor heals. to me thats kindof shitty. our tanking is there. but its only useful if shadowknights or warriors are absent. and any self respecting guild has warriors and shadowknights. so as long as a guild recruiters doing their job youre useless. i guess the point is i moved too far away from roleplay in that game. i moved too far into strategy. and i realized all too well how useless i was. i might as well've been a warrior. but even then i might've not been happy. shadowknights are probably the ideal class. with greater aggro than a paladin they get the trash. without the stuns their group time is challenging. and with feign death they can actually solo tough stuff. paladins on the other hand dont get dps. while we do get slay its nerfed. only certain mobs in certain places. shadowknights would have broad use abilities. plus the fact that they get a pet. paladins have haste but click haste is widely available
so at the end of the day we were just useless. our heals would get trumped by clerics. not to mention the reserve healers. druids and shamans would back up the clerics. both capable of keeping a group up. paladins of course couldnt do that. the heals were penalized. and then we couldn't tank 'cause the shadowknights would trump our aggro. and our dps was too useless to be useful. call in the zerkers. the monks. the rangers. the wizards. the rogues. our dps just didnt compare. not able to dual weild. lower skill caps. less offensive aa's. bottom line was everything we cuold do someone else could do better. although one thing was we could effect alot of areas of the raid. in one event. we could tank a mob. we could heal a man. we could help kill something. we could kite something. and perhaps in that sense you can see the fun of the class. they gave us alot of things to do. and when things are stretched thin you get a chance to do them all. but if you have ten of every good class. there's just no need to have a paladin. and when you already have three paladins why recruit a fourth. having those three in the first place is questionable. a fourth'd just be a loot hog. a raid space taker. someone depriving the raid of one more berserker. and i think thats the thing with paladins. we just arent needed.
i guess thats the thing thats hard to swallow. after 9 years with a paladin, i found myself useless. i just wanted really needed anymore. my dps was trumped. my aggro was trumped. my tanking was trumped. my rooting was trumped. my healing was trumped. the only crumb they tossed us was the fast heal. but it just locks your abilities. its penalized all to hell. there was no advantage to being a paladin anymore. the slay undead just never came up. the majority of events werent undead. so for the majority of events we just were useless. to me thats just a waste of class. but not only that. a snub to anyone who played it. people who had ties to the class were fucked. and those who just wanted to play a paladin were forced to choose to quit or continue un-fun. i quit more than once. i'd always get drawn back. the raid dynamic is just too fun. the combination of abilities is great. but when you have better we're useless. i guess you could say paladins have the most fun in underdog guilds. the type of guilds that you may not necessarily win with. those're the ones that you'll have the most work. i guess you have to pick the right guild as a paladin. because otherwise you're just setting yourself up for heartbreak. for sitting on the sidelines and being bored all day. i actually want to play the game not watch it.
so here i sit just not sure what to do. do i start a new character? do i just put away my 9 year investment? do i just throw all that away? ive tried a couple times and im not sure i can. the furthest i came was my cleric. but theyre definately one dimensional. same with wizards really. in fact i dont think any class has as many facets as the paladins. except maybe the shadowknight. which im still not necessarily interested in playing. i like the good character. its a shame they just made it not fun to play. at least not in super competative guilds. if you ever become a super competative player you have to change class. but otherwise you might find fun in the class. you have to find a shitty guild that needs you. understaffed but willing to try. short on healing and perhaps short on tanks. perhaps short on dps too. thats where you could make a difference in every event. the guilds where it comes down to the wire. i guess you could say if i play i need to be with storm spirits. its funny isnt it how it comes full circle. but storm spirits is a box guild. many old timers but too few men. always space in raids. and theyve even got a new loot system to try out. if i want to be a tank the warrior would be best. trash tank would be the shadowknight. dps the wizard. healing the cleric.
but paladins do it all. and i guess you could say the variety makes it spicey. there's alot of things you can get up to with a paladin. its kindof like the bard of the tank world. not bad. ive rooted shitloads of mobs. ive pulled for raids. ive tanked boss mobs. ive healed events to help make them possible. i have the ability to add various things to various aspects of the raid. in that way paladins are awesome. we're involved with pretty much every part of the raid. which kindof is why paladins make great raid leaders. they're familiar with the clerics. they know how to kite. then there's the adds. and even pulling. plus the boss mob. they know all about tanking. so paladins really know it all. and i guess you could say its hard to move away from that. you just have a very organic knowledge of raids. i guess it helps to think of paladins that way. you have variable things to various aspects of the raid. youre kindof the swiss army knife. your only drawback is your lack of ability to add anything substantion to any one part of the raid. but you can at least participate in every part of it. and in that sense you get to have fun. you basically enjoy many parts of the puzzle. youre healing with the clerics druids and shamans. youre tanking with the shadowknights and warriors. and you dps with the monks wizards rogues berserkers and mages. plus youre kiting with the rangers bards and shadowknights.
its kindof funny because that guild was known for being a family guild. but i guess it just shows when you get the treatment yourself. i just kinda shows that you can't trust online connections. i just don't think that i could ever make that decision. makes me wonder if the leader was a fool like the people at the convention. that woulda been a shitty situation. after all the people i did meet were kinda weird. wouldn't be surprised if the whole guild was kinda like that. i mean i did meet some cool people. but the game aged really badly. and you'd try to make connections but you'd get backstabbed alot. my class wasn't really needed either. its a gaming organization after all. how seriously can they take it. you can't play the game constantly forever. perhaps thats the kindof commitment some of these things expect. but if thats the case thats unrealistic. we need to have lives of course. i played that game for 9 years straight. if thats not a commitment i dont know what is. and i definately dont appreciate being told i havent played enough. it was a pain in the ass to near nonsense like that. i put in my time and got the boot. i'd even heard of players keep the tag. but apparently i didn't fit the credentials. it was all very shady. and then when i spoke up about it i just got shouted down.
basically facing possible public humiliation i was asked to back down. the guy in tells told me an earfull. bottom line is i was asking for a grandfather tag. it wasnt the biggest request in the world. i wanted a retired-friend tag. and they wanted me to do all sorts of bullshit to get it. get someone else to call me a box. i just wanted to maintain my ties with the community. but i felt like i was trying to fight for something illicit. and thats kinda what made it weird. i think players dont really appreciate the community. especially those in high places. to those guys we're all numbers. but what about the friends you make along the way. are those flukes? do those not factor into the grand scheme? it was all kinda heartbreaking to have that happen. but that was that. the last few friends i had on the server in that guild. and me considered to be not worth being inside. maybe it had to do partly with the fact that my class sucked. maybe it was because my opinions were so strong. but when someone invests nearly a decade into something what do you expect. constantly denied leadership oppertunities. booted outa guilds for inactivety. its just not the kinda shit im used to. wasnt getting the respect i deserved. in my time as a leader i never woulda done stuff like this. but times change.
i respect the people who continued to play. most of them have deeper networks of friends in the guild. and i respect the leaders for being able to keep the guild going this long. but at the same time i dont like how they turn their cold shoulder to me. kinda made me feel like shit. i guess you could say ties to the people were strong. and getting denied the strongest connection to them sucked. these're people who got me thruogh some tough times. while i was locked away in my parents house. trying to get over the death of my friend. trying to build communication with my parents. trying to orient myself in the world. those weremy formulative years. and the character i played was one that stuck with me since 2000. i guess you could say i got tired of waving friends goodbye. but thats the nature of everquest. if youve played a decade youve seen alot of people come and go. you cant really come to rest on those relationships. youre left playing with strangers. whichs tough when you still see old players still around. youre left scratching your head. but these are real bonds you make with real people. and just like it sucks to lose those in the real life it sucks to lose those in the game. i guess you could say there's alot of loss i experienced in everquest. and it was tough. it really was.
when you play with people for years you build bonds. taking your guild through tough content builds character. its just rough to lose that network. after getting to know everyone through teamspeak. discussing guild stuff on the boards. working as a team on raids. shooting the breeze on the offtime. its a lifestyle. and these were the people you spent your time with. to lose that network can be painful. but its something ive gone through a couple of times. it has alot to do with how i played the game. i'd quit because i felt like i was getting to into it. and that had alot to do with the shunning i got from the parents. its like gaming was kindof not cosher. but there was also the whole getting over the trauma thing. a friend had died. and my life had been off track for awhile. from the first day of college i had cut my hair. and basically the shunning began. before that there were alot of restrictions placed on me. religious freedom was stripped. and before that the place i loved was taken from me. i guess you could say i had so many things taken from me that i stopped wanting things. and all that frustration got turned inside and it became destructive. that was the only way to deal with any of it. my parents didnt talk. despite their psychiatry degrees. it was rediculous.
but online i was a paladin. i'd get on my dwarf and kick ass. and i built a network of friends who were all good at their class. together we'd do amazing things in the game. eventually it grew into guilds. and the joy of success was infinately greater. its through alot of this that basically alot of my character was built. it was a lifechanging experience. being in charge of real people taught me alot. at first it was intimidating. but eventually it became second nature. i became a carrier of the torch. i knew the game inside and out. and i knew enough to coordinate things. that became my strength. i became known for being able to organize raids. pickup raids that were able to take on tough content. that was pretty cool. something i had done since i was a kid. although i got alot better at it over the years. i guess that was the thing with it all. it was a constant in my life. even losing countries and friends. and it brought me to alot of great places. it taught me alot of great things. and built me into the person i am today. it built me into a better person. and i guess you could say im thankful for that. but today its just not what it used to be. i know too much i guess you could say. i can see right through it. maybe my world is music today. maybe thats where i need to put my efforts.
there was a time that i loved raids. id make up maps and discuss tactics. i hated the cheat sites. to me it was great to make up the tactics ourselves. that was what it was really about in my opinion. thats how someone plays the game the way it was designed. i loved getting 60 people together to try and figure out the tactics. and part of me definately wants to try it again. knowing everything i know now it should be easier. but then of course there's the fact that my character sucks. the warriors take the boss mobs. the shadowknights do the kiting. there's little left for paladins but straight up tanking trash. the shadowknights having distinctly more powerful aggro spells hurt. that meant that they could take aggro if they wanted. aggro spells are weak enough to be chained. its viable as far as manas concerned for a shadowknight to tank everything. and that was kindof a low blow for paladins. if they have the aggro they have the mob. and what was too powerful for them to tank the warriors could. in a way that kindof removed the need for paladins to tank on raids. only the particularly plucky ones could take aggro. and that'd of course perhaps involve the taunt button. either that or lazy shadowknights. but if you were in a competative setting you'd lose aggro. and that was kindof disheartening.
see i was the competative kindof player. the game really mattered to me. and being involved mattered to. i didnt wanna be one of the guys on the sidelines during raids. i wanted to be involved in the fun of it. a place where i could really just try out my abilities. paladin stuns are largely unused on raids. not to mention that the stun component doesnt work. youre just left as poor dps and poor heals. to me thats kindof shitty. our tanking is there. but its only useful if shadowknights or warriors are absent. and any self respecting guild has warriors and shadowknights. so as long as a guild recruiters doing their job youre useless. i guess the point is i moved too far away from roleplay in that game. i moved too far into strategy. and i realized all too well how useless i was. i might as well've been a warrior. but even then i might've not been happy. shadowknights are probably the ideal class. with greater aggro than a paladin they get the trash. without the stuns their group time is challenging. and with feign death they can actually solo tough stuff. paladins on the other hand dont get dps. while we do get slay its nerfed. only certain mobs in certain places. shadowknights would have broad use abilities. plus the fact that they get a pet. paladins have haste but click haste is widely available
so at the end of the day we were just useless. our heals would get trumped by clerics. not to mention the reserve healers. druids and shamans would back up the clerics. both capable of keeping a group up. paladins of course couldnt do that. the heals were penalized. and then we couldn't tank 'cause the shadowknights would trump our aggro. and our dps was too useless to be useful. call in the zerkers. the monks. the rangers. the wizards. the rogues. our dps just didnt compare. not able to dual weild. lower skill caps. less offensive aa's. bottom line was everything we cuold do someone else could do better. although one thing was we could effect alot of areas of the raid. in one event. we could tank a mob. we could heal a man. we could help kill something. we could kite something. and perhaps in that sense you can see the fun of the class. they gave us alot of things to do. and when things are stretched thin you get a chance to do them all. but if you have ten of every good class. there's just no need to have a paladin. and when you already have three paladins why recruit a fourth. having those three in the first place is questionable. a fourth'd just be a loot hog. a raid space taker. someone depriving the raid of one more berserker. and i think thats the thing with paladins. we just arent needed.
i guess thats the thing thats hard to swallow. after 9 years with a paladin, i found myself useless. i just wanted really needed anymore. my dps was trumped. my aggro was trumped. my tanking was trumped. my rooting was trumped. my healing was trumped. the only crumb they tossed us was the fast heal. but it just locks your abilities. its penalized all to hell. there was no advantage to being a paladin anymore. the slay undead just never came up. the majority of events werent undead. so for the majority of events we just were useless. to me thats just a waste of class. but not only that. a snub to anyone who played it. people who had ties to the class were fucked. and those who just wanted to play a paladin were forced to choose to quit or continue un-fun. i quit more than once. i'd always get drawn back. the raid dynamic is just too fun. the combination of abilities is great. but when you have better we're useless. i guess you could say paladins have the most fun in underdog guilds. the type of guilds that you may not necessarily win with. those're the ones that you'll have the most work. i guess you have to pick the right guild as a paladin. because otherwise you're just setting yourself up for heartbreak. for sitting on the sidelines and being bored all day. i actually want to play the game not watch it.
so here i sit just not sure what to do. do i start a new character? do i just put away my 9 year investment? do i just throw all that away? ive tried a couple times and im not sure i can. the furthest i came was my cleric. but theyre definately one dimensional. same with wizards really. in fact i dont think any class has as many facets as the paladins. except maybe the shadowknight. which im still not necessarily interested in playing. i like the good character. its a shame they just made it not fun to play. at least not in super competative guilds. if you ever become a super competative player you have to change class. but otherwise you might find fun in the class. you have to find a shitty guild that needs you. understaffed but willing to try. short on healing and perhaps short on tanks. perhaps short on dps too. thats where you could make a difference in every event. the guilds where it comes down to the wire. i guess you could say if i play i need to be with storm spirits. its funny isnt it how it comes full circle. but storm spirits is a box guild. many old timers but too few men. always space in raids. and theyve even got a new loot system to try out. if i want to be a tank the warrior would be best. trash tank would be the shadowknight. dps the wizard. healing the cleric.
but paladins do it all. and i guess you could say the variety makes it spicey. there's alot of things you can get up to with a paladin. its kindof like the bard of the tank world. not bad. ive rooted shitloads of mobs. ive pulled for raids. ive tanked boss mobs. ive healed events to help make them possible. i have the ability to add various things to various aspects of the raid. in that way paladins are awesome. we're involved with pretty much every part of the raid. which kindof is why paladins make great raid leaders. they're familiar with the clerics. they know how to kite. then there's the adds. and even pulling. plus the boss mob. they know all about tanking. so paladins really know it all. and i guess you could say its hard to move away from that. you just have a very organic knowledge of raids. i guess it helps to think of paladins that way. you have variable things to various aspects of the raid. youre kindof the swiss army knife. your only drawback is your lack of ability to add anything substantion to any one part of the raid. but you can at least participate in every part of it. and in that sense you get to have fun. you basically enjoy many parts of the puzzle. youre healing with the clerics druids and shamans. youre tanking with the shadowknights and warriors. and you dps with the monks wizards rogues berserkers and mages. plus youre kiting with the rangers bards and shadowknights.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
i tried logging in again
i tried logging in again but i couldn't do it. i made it to the plane of knowledge but literally after saying hi to one person i was on my way out. there's just something about that game that really just makes me want to get the fuck off my computer. when i did a /played i came up with 400 days. most of those days weren't done by me. dind has been a box for a couple years now and before that i used to use him as a bazaar drone but that still is a large number. i did play the fuck out of that game. you could kindof say i uncovered every secret. i really did love that game but of course thats exactly how you can destroy something for yourself especially when the coders are putting in continually less effort and content for the players to mess with. honestly its a shame because the people who run the game now have turned it into something that i just can't even stomache any more. there used to be a time that i felt that everquest was pretty much the best thing out there. but at this point i'd rather play a wii and the catch is i never play wii. honestly its a shame because when they had that game right it was done very well but over years they've managed to remove most of what was good.
when i went to the fan faire i guess you could say alot of my drive to play went down the tube. it was there i realized what kinds of people were spending their lives playing this game. i mean some seriously dense people that were just outright embaressing to be around. these were the butts of nerd jokes the ones that you just can't help but take notice of when you're around and apparently these guys were the ones that really wanted to come to the convention. it was then that i realized what everquest had become basically home for the fanboys and fangirls but an unhospitable place for anyone else who was either genuinely interested in the game not for the inane collecting or the tedious tradeskilling but mainly for the breakneck speed fun. it was those sorts of players that seemed to be dying off. and instead of that most of the people in the room were just honest to god roleplayers. that just shocked the shit out of me as i never anticipated such a fluffy set of players on this game. but such was the case and i just had no idea that so many people on the boards and online were like this. it just kinda made me not want to play everquest anymore like some sort of terrible secret that just sortof consumes you when you become aware of it. the fantasy was shattered and the reality was horrifying.
the one thing that i did notice was how cool the devs jobs really were. i mean these guys got to make things for a living. they were world builders coders paid to color things and write storylines and create a fantasy world for players to play in. its gotta be a very rewarding job as your creations are actively messed with and then feedback is given to you. in another way it could be a thankless job and those sorts of players that started to populate the convetion could likely be the cause of many headaches. i mean these were literally idiotic people those who werent very smart at all and all felt they knew alot about the game which really is not a good sign especially given how little they really knew. i mean it has to be probably one of the most frustrating jobs out there. these guys were reduced to tech support even though they did such an amazing job building worlds as well. the same people who took the brush to the canvas would have to field answers to complaints and i can't help but think that that sort of treatment would have dire effects on their will to be creative and pour their best work into this game. the developers of this game have a high turnover rate some going to new games others staying within the company but i can see how people couldn't last long at that job.
i will say this though there was a time where everquest had the right type of player and during that time there was a sincere interest in just plainly playing the game and enjoying it for what it was. over time though those players naturally lost interest and those that were left were some obsessive bastards that felt everything in the game could be changed given enough whining. the attitude of these kinds of players is just disgusting. having lead raids and guilds i wasn't used to any sort of toleration of nuisance and nonsense in-game but when it comes to devs they don't seem to have any such method or reasoning to shield themselves from the idiots. in fact they perhaps feel like its the job that they're being paid to do. i guess thats probably one of the most depressing aspects of the job of an everquest developer. just watching the demographic change and have something that was once good be drained until it was white. it reminds me of how in england in certain cities large muslim populations displace the locals and it causes lots of stress as patrons move out of town and then family businesses shut down and that transition process is just painful to see. but a wise person can recognize that its just the next batch of peoples turn as those originals have had their day and should find greener pastures.
when i went to the fan faire i guess you could say alot of my drive to play went down the tube. it was there i realized what kinds of people were spending their lives playing this game. i mean some seriously dense people that were just outright embaressing to be around. these were the butts of nerd jokes the ones that you just can't help but take notice of when you're around and apparently these guys were the ones that really wanted to come to the convention. it was then that i realized what everquest had become basically home for the fanboys and fangirls but an unhospitable place for anyone else who was either genuinely interested in the game not for the inane collecting or the tedious tradeskilling but mainly for the breakneck speed fun. it was those sorts of players that seemed to be dying off. and instead of that most of the people in the room were just honest to god roleplayers. that just shocked the shit out of me as i never anticipated such a fluffy set of players on this game. but such was the case and i just had no idea that so many people on the boards and online were like this. it just kinda made me not want to play everquest anymore like some sort of terrible secret that just sortof consumes you when you become aware of it. the fantasy was shattered and the reality was horrifying.
the one thing that i did notice was how cool the devs jobs really were. i mean these guys got to make things for a living. they were world builders coders paid to color things and write storylines and create a fantasy world for players to play in. its gotta be a very rewarding job as your creations are actively messed with and then feedback is given to you. in another way it could be a thankless job and those sorts of players that started to populate the convetion could likely be the cause of many headaches. i mean these were literally idiotic people those who werent very smart at all and all felt they knew alot about the game which really is not a good sign especially given how little they really knew. i mean it has to be probably one of the most frustrating jobs out there. these guys were reduced to tech support even though they did such an amazing job building worlds as well. the same people who took the brush to the canvas would have to field answers to complaints and i can't help but think that that sort of treatment would have dire effects on their will to be creative and pour their best work into this game. the developers of this game have a high turnover rate some going to new games others staying within the company but i can see how people couldn't last long at that job.
i will say this though there was a time where everquest had the right type of player and during that time there was a sincere interest in just plainly playing the game and enjoying it for what it was. over time though those players naturally lost interest and those that were left were some obsessive bastards that felt everything in the game could be changed given enough whining. the attitude of these kinds of players is just disgusting. having lead raids and guilds i wasn't used to any sort of toleration of nuisance and nonsense in-game but when it comes to devs they don't seem to have any such method or reasoning to shield themselves from the idiots. in fact they perhaps feel like its the job that they're being paid to do. i guess thats probably one of the most depressing aspects of the job of an everquest developer. just watching the demographic change and have something that was once good be drained until it was white. it reminds me of how in england in certain cities large muslim populations displace the locals and it causes lots of stress as patrons move out of town and then family businesses shut down and that transition process is just painful to see. but a wise person can recognize that its just the next batch of peoples turn as those originals have had their day and should find greener pastures.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
everquest: why i hope i never play a paladin
well anita broke my laptop. she knocked a bunch of water on it and it's dead. so im on my old laptop now. aka hers. i forgot that this was my main laptop before. the one i'd been using for awhile was my box pc. so i got on EQ and was amazed by the graphics. i loaded my character and did a few /whos to see who was on. there were familiar faces but after a hello i got off. i dont know what it is but i just can't play that game. and it's a shame because it looks beautiful. spahz's been playing with dind for a bit. i hit the played on dind before i got off and its over 400 days. you can thank bazaar time and box use for that. dind was started in 2000. and its interesting to get on and see him still around. i guess its probably would ben would find if he got on his character. he's the owner of the shaman i used to group with. i took control of him after he left. storm spirits is still continuing and thats cool. in my own way i played my own role in that continuation. daer still is visibly tagged on vg's site. that was always an interesting turn of events. spahz is trying to get me to get the expansion. im just not sure. i think im just sick of the game. i mean i played the shit out of it.
the last time they had a guk revamp for instance. i farmed the fuck out of those fbss's. that set me up real nice in the bank. but i never needed to use the cash. in a way that was kinda like the final aa. see everquest is fun in raiding. but just standing around its hell. and my class is just a bore. get aggro of stuff and then just spam stuns. i probably like pierce more. the cleric heals are more clutch. but then with the mudflation that becomes easy too. so the only enduring challenge is dps. and the only challenging dps is caster. and the reason why is their abilities are active. rogues monks and the like have passive dps. which means the player can't influence it much. but with a caster you have to have a strategy to your ability use. and to me thats a bit more appealing. thoughtful gaming over thoughtless gaming. i dont know what it is but i can't play that character. maybe its the game maybe its just the character. i have yet to figure it out. but i did enjoy my cleric. over on fv. and anita did enjoy her wizard. in my opinion those are some of the more fun classes in the game. i dont understand why they would code in boring classes. aggro is not really hard enough to gain to be a challenge. at a certain point any additional ability is futile.
i guess the point is it should always be useful to do something. i can understand that the knights are tailored to be a certain kind of unit. but everquest doesnt do that very well for the paladins. penalized for being a heavy. also penalized for being a healer. and the healing is penalized against the heavy. and the heavy is penalized against the healing. paladins have alot of penalizations. they may have an array of abilities but its painful to access them. and if it isnt painful to access them they may be ineffective. this is all derived from the context of the game. firstly from the peers. other classes can more or less seamlessly do their job. you don't see the pains they have to go through that equate ours. and secondly the pains of ours become the pains of the raid. and because of that raids choose not to have us. its almost in the raids interest to go with the seamless class. the warrior tank. they basically make most content possible. without them events suddenly become impossible. the monopoly on tank roles by warriors has always irked knights. this is where their hybrid abilities penalize their tanking. i have always thought the penalization should come through dps. tanking ability should be a level playing field. but with the current setup tanks are encouraged to be warriors.
if a tank isnt a warrior they face much difficulty especially in raid tanking roles. the penalizations directly effect their ability to tank which directly effects the scenario the clerics have to remedy. without enough ability the wrong tank can put the healers in an untenable situation where success is impossible as mana leaves too fast or heals don't hit their mark and the tank dies killing the raid. from a leader standpoint this has always been a pain. more or less if youre a knight and youre participating in a raid your armor will never see much use on the boss mob. the only action youll see is on the trash mobs that basically fill the gap between you and your goal which don't individually hold any importance and generally make knights feel unimportant. i suppose you could blame the coders on this. trash mobs should not be worthless and if they had importance knights would have more importance. if the trash wasnt just a means to keep you from the event but also perhaps part of the event then those knights become useful. but ive always thought the strengths of knights never undid the penalization of tanking which in theory they are supposed to do. warriors always outdo knights. and this is a flaw because knights are tanks beyond all else. hybrid healing is a toy and not a dependable ability.
the penalizations on hybrid healing make it hard to rely on. your mana will drain fast, your target will be healed for very little, your cast time will be very long, and you wont be able to sustain a player during an event if they are taking sustained damage beyond your penalized heal capacity. these abilities are not balanced around use but more cut back due to overlapping abilities of the class. because of this i dont think coders often think about how usable many of our abilities really are in the game world on challenging content which arguably is the most entertaining content as challenging content remains challenging for longer especially if its cutting edge. as a raid leader i was always frustrated by the uselessness of my own class and the usefullness of my own boxed cleric. its really humiliating when a character you have built up fleshed out with aa's camped all the augs for, recieved many favors for, and put many hundreds of hours into ends up being less effective than a character whom you have only played a day or so of played time with easily attainable gear and novice level skill on the widely accepted current content of immense challenge at that given time. this is one of the main reasons i lost interest in investing time in a poorly designed class.
the last time they had a guk revamp for instance. i farmed the fuck out of those fbss's. that set me up real nice in the bank. but i never needed to use the cash. in a way that was kinda like the final aa. see everquest is fun in raiding. but just standing around its hell. and my class is just a bore. get aggro of stuff and then just spam stuns. i probably like pierce more. the cleric heals are more clutch. but then with the mudflation that becomes easy too. so the only enduring challenge is dps. and the only challenging dps is caster. and the reason why is their abilities are active. rogues monks and the like have passive dps. which means the player can't influence it much. but with a caster you have to have a strategy to your ability use. and to me thats a bit more appealing. thoughtful gaming over thoughtless gaming. i dont know what it is but i can't play that character. maybe its the game maybe its just the character. i have yet to figure it out. but i did enjoy my cleric. over on fv. and anita did enjoy her wizard. in my opinion those are some of the more fun classes in the game. i dont understand why they would code in boring classes. aggro is not really hard enough to gain to be a challenge. at a certain point any additional ability is futile.
i guess the point is it should always be useful to do something. i can understand that the knights are tailored to be a certain kind of unit. but everquest doesnt do that very well for the paladins. penalized for being a heavy. also penalized for being a healer. and the healing is penalized against the heavy. and the heavy is penalized against the healing. paladins have alot of penalizations. they may have an array of abilities but its painful to access them. and if it isnt painful to access them they may be ineffective. this is all derived from the context of the game. firstly from the peers. other classes can more or less seamlessly do their job. you don't see the pains they have to go through that equate ours. and secondly the pains of ours become the pains of the raid. and because of that raids choose not to have us. its almost in the raids interest to go with the seamless class. the warrior tank. they basically make most content possible. without them events suddenly become impossible. the monopoly on tank roles by warriors has always irked knights. this is where their hybrid abilities penalize their tanking. i have always thought the penalization should come through dps. tanking ability should be a level playing field. but with the current setup tanks are encouraged to be warriors.
if a tank isnt a warrior they face much difficulty especially in raid tanking roles. the penalizations directly effect their ability to tank which directly effects the scenario the clerics have to remedy. without enough ability the wrong tank can put the healers in an untenable situation where success is impossible as mana leaves too fast or heals don't hit their mark and the tank dies killing the raid. from a leader standpoint this has always been a pain. more or less if youre a knight and youre participating in a raid your armor will never see much use on the boss mob. the only action youll see is on the trash mobs that basically fill the gap between you and your goal which don't individually hold any importance and generally make knights feel unimportant. i suppose you could blame the coders on this. trash mobs should not be worthless and if they had importance knights would have more importance. if the trash wasnt just a means to keep you from the event but also perhaps part of the event then those knights become useful. but ive always thought the strengths of knights never undid the penalization of tanking which in theory they are supposed to do. warriors always outdo knights. and this is a flaw because knights are tanks beyond all else. hybrid healing is a toy and not a dependable ability.
the penalizations on hybrid healing make it hard to rely on. your mana will drain fast, your target will be healed for very little, your cast time will be very long, and you wont be able to sustain a player during an event if they are taking sustained damage beyond your penalized heal capacity. these abilities are not balanced around use but more cut back due to overlapping abilities of the class. because of this i dont think coders often think about how usable many of our abilities really are in the game world on challenging content which arguably is the most entertaining content as challenging content remains challenging for longer especially if its cutting edge. as a raid leader i was always frustrated by the uselessness of my own class and the usefullness of my own boxed cleric. its really humiliating when a character you have built up fleshed out with aa's camped all the augs for, recieved many favors for, and put many hundreds of hours into ends up being less effective than a character whom you have only played a day or so of played time with easily attainable gear and novice level skill on the widely accepted current content of immense challenge at that given time. this is one of the main reasons i lost interest in investing time in a poorly designed class.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Torchlight
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/11/diablo-for-loners-the-story-behind-indie-hit-torchlight.ars
and there's like this new game thats like diablo, did you ever play diablo? you said your brother set you up with it or something. its a computer game. so you know what it is. exactly so you said that you played it. anyway, there's this new game that came out that's like diablo. and it's like basically a fighting game. and it's supposed to be pretty good. like really good, there's alot of buzz on it. they're even trying to turn it into an MMO which's pretty unique. usually they dont turn a game into an MMO a week after they made it. but basically it was designed to be an MMO, they just made it first person. It looks pretty cool. like the graphics look pretty cool. But I think it'll probably be a boring game. Because when I played Diablo it wasn't even all that good. Like it was famous and it sold really well, but I mean it's just like not that fun of a game. All you do is click on shit continually. And it just gets kinda boring. Diablo is like a medieval game. It's like fantasy and you find a cave, and it leads to hell. Like deeper and deeper and deeper into the ground there are demons and other monsters. And it's actually pretty cool. Really bloody of course. And then they made a sequel. Where basically you had to go through different lands and stuff. It was actually a pretty fun game. Like people would get really into it. One of the main reasons was definately the way they made the graphics look. Because like... it was just really well done. Like if you just hear the story of the game it sounds really kinda stupid. But once you play it it's like not really about the story. It's more about fighting through different bad guys getting better armor and stuff. And you kill bigger and bigger bosses that're all really difficult. And then they use ancient names for the devil and his helpers and stuff. Like I guess you could say it's really biblically influenced. Which's kinda like being influenced on folklore and stuff. So of course there's always like a blacksmith. 'Cause in fantasy games there's always a blacksmith in your medieval town. They'd fix your gear. And then of course there was a merchant who you could sell stuff too. All pretty basic stuff. All stuff that'd been done before and has been repeated. But the reason why it was so cool was for alot of us, it was the first time we'd seen it. Like... it was, i guess you could say, a window into dungeons and dragons. Like that game has influenced so much of my life without ever playing it. Like with Everquest that game is based on Dungeons and Dragons and Lord of the Rings and Beowulf. And what's really cool is fantasy literature is really a young genre. Like when Tolkien when he put out The Hobbit started it. And then in the 70's, about 30 years later, they started Dungeons and Dragons. And then of course in the 80s they started making computer games. 'Cause thats when the computers were first powerful enough for them. And basically like, there was just this explosion of game making. They explored like every type of subject and game. And eventually the computer became complex enough for them to do dungeons and dragons stuff on the computer. And then thats when games like neverwinter nights and stuff like that started coming out. Nintendo of course had Zelda. And in 1999, right on the edge of the 2000s, Everquest came out. Basically in the years before that, the past 10 to 20 years, there was this genre of game called MUDs that was popular. And basically what they did was take the MUDs style, and give it graphics, because it was text based. And the thing is, they borrowed from two major things. The MUD. But also the Dungeons and Dragons setup for how you play games.
But anyway, we've got Dungeons and Dragons, which's like the 1970s. And then we've got MUDs in the 1980s. And finally, we get MMOs in the 90s. And this is the LATE 90s. Everquest. 1999. And when it first came out it changed the entire industry by creating an entirely new kind of game. See they weren't the first to do it and they weren't the last to do it. But they did it the best. And that's why even today Everquest is still popular even though the graphics are from 1999. Now World of Warcraft used the same model that Everquest invented. In fact there are so many things from Everquest that you really feel like you're playing an updated version of Everquest. But World of Warcraft did was, they took that early success from Diablo, and their Warcraft games. Those were at first single player and then multiplayer but only through the internet to about ten people. And so those were really popular games and actually another game from that company Starcraft is still popular today. Over in like Korea and stuff. So anyway they've got this massive group of fans from this old genre of game. And Everquest meanwhile is pioneering MMOs noone else is really doing it. And so, what Blizzard does, they're the company that owns Warcraft, is they decide to take their game and put it in this new genre that Everquest is doing really well in. It's like the equivolent of like, Lord of the Rings on film. You know how that was just rediculously popular. People already liked the story from the books. So film was invented and its a cool thing to do. And they took something that was popular before, and they put it into this. And they made a shitload of money. That's exactly what Blizzard did with Warcraft. While Everquest is good, the story behind it is weak. But Blizzard had a good story for Warcraft. Basically when put into the same arena as Everquest, Warcraft won. But here's the thing. There was about five years where Everquest dominated MMOs. They had the most subscribers, they made the most money every month. And that was because up until that point, they destroyed their competition. And there was this game called Age of Conan, which was way better graphics than everquest, and it completely failed. It was popular for a few months and then it died. And its interesting because MMOs only work if you have thousands of people playing it. The less people that play, the shittier the game becomes for everyone that plays it. So in that sense you could make the sweetest MMO ever, but if you can't hold your players, you're done. Your game will suck if not enough people play. So the question is how do you make sure you always have thousands of people on your game. Well as a general rule these games try to give you shitloads of things to do. Alot of people will talk about how playing an MMO is cheaper than going to a bar. And that's very true. Because all you're paying is 10 to 20 dollars a month. That's basically like one day at a bar. Or, if you play an MMO, you get 30 days, nonstop, of a game, where you actually come across more people, than if you were at that bar. So thats one of the reasons why that game was really popular. But there's alot of aspects to this whole thing. If people play games too much they can damage their eyes with the screens. If they play games too much they can destroy their work or social life. And more than one person has killed themself because their life was so shitty because of an MMO. So this is like one of the controversies of the genre today. It's really kindof a weird thing because people get married through these games. Some of these people move in with people they play games with. Some of these people only have friends through their game. In alot of ways, regular Dungeons and Dragons with pen and paper is alot healthier. Because you're not like straining the fuck out of your eyes. And you're not like talking to a computer instead of a person. So that keeps people in reality. But its very true that these games can definately suck people in. After all thats what the game makers want. If they dont have a couple thousand people always in the game, the whole thing becomes boring to everybody.
So it's kindof an interesting thing all of this. I played one of the MMOs for 8 years. So i know all about MMOs and all that stuff. To me its like a sub-culture. It's not even a regular gamer anymore. It's its own class of gamer because you're completely different. And it's probably pretty addicting to alot of people. It's probably like a drug. It's kindof like alcohol. It's not good for you but people like to drink it. Drink too much and it can destroy your liver. And with gaming, game too much and you destroy your eyes. Not to mention the effects on the rest of your body. Because you're not movnig when you're playing a game. So not only are your eyes being strained, but you're like losing muscle mass. You might be building clots in your arteries. There's lots of things that can happen to a body that isn't used in the ways its supposed to. That's where like, things like LARPing come in. Live action RPG. Or Renaissance festivals. There are people who make their money completely from renaissance festivals. Either juggling or sword fighting, horse riding. Some people make swords. Or armor. Some people make clothes, and jewelry. All of the medieval crafts are things that people can do to make money at a Renaissance fair. And there are people who actually buy these things on a regular basis too. All of this is part of the fantasy fan-base. There's entire jobs and communities of people who live with fantasy. And so for someone thats maybe played computer games that're fantasy based, maybe they weren't necessarily cut out for computer gaming, but they love the content of fantasy. That's how you get into stuff like folklore. The band Sigur Ros wouldn't have written a single song if they weren't into fantasy. The band Led Zeppelin wouldn't have written their best record if it wasn't for fantasy. And Peter Jackson would never have made that film trilogy if it wasn't for Tolkien. And of course after the movie came out then an MMO came out too. In a way computer games give people who have day jobs the chance to lead a double life. But they're not the best way to experience fantasy. Deviant Art is full of people who make pictures and things based on fantasy. Elfwood, is a website like Deviant Art that is dedicated entirely to fantasy. And these have thousands of new things every day, every day of the year. The communities are huge. Fantasy has even brought about new religions. The Neo-Pagans, definately have become more popular because of things like Lord of the Rings. And Neo-Pagans are just a broad category, of people of various different faiths, who are trying to ressurect dead religions. there's the Bardic religion, which in everquest they have a class called a bard and that's based on that religion. The religion came first and the class was made after. Also, druids, in Everquest, there are Neo-druids today, the people who used to live in England, before Christianity came. Nature-loving religions. Religions that have to do with many gods. That have to do with respecting the earth. These people lived in harmony with the planet for many thousands of years. It's only this Industrial Revolution which's been endorsed by Christianity which's destroyed so much. And it's interesting because Tolkien wrote about the industrial revolution. His whole point was: Industry can be bad as well as good. All of the modern conveniences we have today come from factories. Factories are ugly looking things that spit out polution. He didn't like that. And his views, that were put into his book, have had massive effect on the world today. It took a World War for him to realize how bad technology can be. It's just really cool that we have that whole movement of people today. You should check out this documentary called Darkon. It's all about the LARPing thing I was telling you about. It was pretty cool too.
and there's like this new game thats like diablo, did you ever play diablo? you said your brother set you up with it or something. its a computer game. so you know what it is. exactly so you said that you played it. anyway, there's this new game that came out that's like diablo. and it's like basically a fighting game. and it's supposed to be pretty good. like really good, there's alot of buzz on it. they're even trying to turn it into an MMO which's pretty unique. usually they dont turn a game into an MMO a week after they made it. but basically it was designed to be an MMO, they just made it first person. It looks pretty cool. like the graphics look pretty cool. But I think it'll probably be a boring game. Because when I played Diablo it wasn't even all that good. Like it was famous and it sold really well, but I mean it's just like not that fun of a game. All you do is click on shit continually. And it just gets kinda boring. Diablo is like a medieval game. It's like fantasy and you find a cave, and it leads to hell. Like deeper and deeper and deeper into the ground there are demons and other monsters. And it's actually pretty cool. Really bloody of course. And then they made a sequel. Where basically you had to go through different lands and stuff. It was actually a pretty fun game. Like people would get really into it. One of the main reasons was definately the way they made the graphics look. Because like... it was just really well done. Like if you just hear the story of the game it sounds really kinda stupid. But once you play it it's like not really about the story. It's more about fighting through different bad guys getting better armor and stuff. And you kill bigger and bigger bosses that're all really difficult. And then they use ancient names for the devil and his helpers and stuff. Like I guess you could say it's really biblically influenced. Which's kinda like being influenced on folklore and stuff. So of course there's always like a blacksmith. 'Cause in fantasy games there's always a blacksmith in your medieval town. They'd fix your gear. And then of course there was a merchant who you could sell stuff too. All pretty basic stuff. All stuff that'd been done before and has been repeated. But the reason why it was so cool was for alot of us, it was the first time we'd seen it. Like... it was, i guess you could say, a window into dungeons and dragons. Like that game has influenced so much of my life without ever playing it. Like with Everquest that game is based on Dungeons and Dragons and Lord of the Rings and Beowulf. And what's really cool is fantasy literature is really a young genre. Like when Tolkien when he put out The Hobbit started it. And then in the 70's, about 30 years later, they started Dungeons and Dragons. And then of course in the 80s they started making computer games. 'Cause thats when the computers were first powerful enough for them. And basically like, there was just this explosion of game making. They explored like every type of subject and game. And eventually the computer became complex enough for them to do dungeons and dragons stuff on the computer. And then thats when games like neverwinter nights and stuff like that started coming out. Nintendo of course had Zelda. And in 1999, right on the edge of the 2000s, Everquest came out. Basically in the years before that, the past 10 to 20 years, there was this genre of game called MUDs that was popular. And basically what they did was take the MUDs style, and give it graphics, because it was text based. And the thing is, they borrowed from two major things. The MUD. But also the Dungeons and Dragons setup for how you play games.
But anyway, we've got Dungeons and Dragons, which's like the 1970s. And then we've got MUDs in the 1980s. And finally, we get MMOs in the 90s. And this is the LATE 90s. Everquest. 1999. And when it first came out it changed the entire industry by creating an entirely new kind of game. See they weren't the first to do it and they weren't the last to do it. But they did it the best. And that's why even today Everquest is still popular even though the graphics are from 1999. Now World of Warcraft used the same model that Everquest invented. In fact there are so many things from Everquest that you really feel like you're playing an updated version of Everquest. But World of Warcraft did was, they took that early success from Diablo, and their Warcraft games. Those were at first single player and then multiplayer but only through the internet to about ten people. And so those were really popular games and actually another game from that company Starcraft is still popular today. Over in like Korea and stuff. So anyway they've got this massive group of fans from this old genre of game. And Everquest meanwhile is pioneering MMOs noone else is really doing it. And so, what Blizzard does, they're the company that owns Warcraft, is they decide to take their game and put it in this new genre that Everquest is doing really well in. It's like the equivolent of like, Lord of the Rings on film. You know how that was just rediculously popular. People already liked the story from the books. So film was invented and its a cool thing to do. And they took something that was popular before, and they put it into this. And they made a shitload of money. That's exactly what Blizzard did with Warcraft. While Everquest is good, the story behind it is weak. But Blizzard had a good story for Warcraft. Basically when put into the same arena as Everquest, Warcraft won. But here's the thing. There was about five years where Everquest dominated MMOs. They had the most subscribers, they made the most money every month. And that was because up until that point, they destroyed their competition. And there was this game called Age of Conan, which was way better graphics than everquest, and it completely failed. It was popular for a few months and then it died. And its interesting because MMOs only work if you have thousands of people playing it. The less people that play, the shittier the game becomes for everyone that plays it. So in that sense you could make the sweetest MMO ever, but if you can't hold your players, you're done. Your game will suck if not enough people play. So the question is how do you make sure you always have thousands of people on your game. Well as a general rule these games try to give you shitloads of things to do. Alot of people will talk about how playing an MMO is cheaper than going to a bar. And that's very true. Because all you're paying is 10 to 20 dollars a month. That's basically like one day at a bar. Or, if you play an MMO, you get 30 days, nonstop, of a game, where you actually come across more people, than if you were at that bar. So thats one of the reasons why that game was really popular. But there's alot of aspects to this whole thing. If people play games too much they can damage their eyes with the screens. If they play games too much they can destroy their work or social life. And more than one person has killed themself because their life was so shitty because of an MMO. So this is like one of the controversies of the genre today. It's really kindof a weird thing because people get married through these games. Some of these people move in with people they play games with. Some of these people only have friends through their game. In alot of ways, regular Dungeons and Dragons with pen and paper is alot healthier. Because you're not like straining the fuck out of your eyes. And you're not like talking to a computer instead of a person. So that keeps people in reality. But its very true that these games can definately suck people in. After all thats what the game makers want. If they dont have a couple thousand people always in the game, the whole thing becomes boring to everybody.
So it's kindof an interesting thing all of this. I played one of the MMOs for 8 years. So i know all about MMOs and all that stuff. To me its like a sub-culture. It's not even a regular gamer anymore. It's its own class of gamer because you're completely different. And it's probably pretty addicting to alot of people. It's probably like a drug. It's kindof like alcohol. It's not good for you but people like to drink it. Drink too much and it can destroy your liver. And with gaming, game too much and you destroy your eyes. Not to mention the effects on the rest of your body. Because you're not movnig when you're playing a game. So not only are your eyes being strained, but you're like losing muscle mass. You might be building clots in your arteries. There's lots of things that can happen to a body that isn't used in the ways its supposed to. That's where like, things like LARPing come in. Live action RPG. Or Renaissance festivals. There are people who make their money completely from renaissance festivals. Either juggling or sword fighting, horse riding. Some people make swords. Or armor. Some people make clothes, and jewelry. All of the medieval crafts are things that people can do to make money at a Renaissance fair. And there are people who actually buy these things on a regular basis too. All of this is part of the fantasy fan-base. There's entire jobs and communities of people who live with fantasy. And so for someone thats maybe played computer games that're fantasy based, maybe they weren't necessarily cut out for computer gaming, but they love the content of fantasy. That's how you get into stuff like folklore. The band Sigur Ros wouldn't have written a single song if they weren't into fantasy. The band Led Zeppelin wouldn't have written their best record if it wasn't for fantasy. And Peter Jackson would never have made that film trilogy if it wasn't for Tolkien. And of course after the movie came out then an MMO came out too. In a way computer games give people who have day jobs the chance to lead a double life. But they're not the best way to experience fantasy. Deviant Art is full of people who make pictures and things based on fantasy. Elfwood, is a website like Deviant Art that is dedicated entirely to fantasy. And these have thousands of new things every day, every day of the year. The communities are huge. Fantasy has even brought about new religions. The Neo-Pagans, definately have become more popular because of things like Lord of the Rings. And Neo-Pagans are just a broad category, of people of various different faiths, who are trying to ressurect dead religions. there's the Bardic religion, which in everquest they have a class called a bard and that's based on that religion. The religion came first and the class was made after. Also, druids, in Everquest, there are Neo-druids today, the people who used to live in England, before Christianity came. Nature-loving religions. Religions that have to do with many gods. That have to do with respecting the earth. These people lived in harmony with the planet for many thousands of years. It's only this Industrial Revolution which's been endorsed by Christianity which's destroyed so much. And it's interesting because Tolkien wrote about the industrial revolution. His whole point was: Industry can be bad as well as good. All of the modern conveniences we have today come from factories. Factories are ugly looking things that spit out polution. He didn't like that. And his views, that were put into his book, have had massive effect on the world today. It took a World War for him to realize how bad technology can be. It's just really cool that we have that whole movement of people today. You should check out this documentary called Darkon. It's all about the LARPing thing I was telling you about. It was pretty cool too.
Monday, October 26, 2009
EQ2sday
So EQ2sday's on. I miss this show hah. It's a great one. I met the guy who runs it, he's a good guy. Just general all around good samaritan in the community. And their show is always pretty interesting to listen through. Generally the guys joke about stuff in a generally positive way, and it's really engaging and stuff.
And then lately there's this thing I've got going where I like to go in reverse order. So whilst there's many shows I haveyet to listen to, as I've been busy with one thing or another, I'm starting with the most recent podcast this time, to go from the latest back. And it's great. What more do you need to convince you this things great, than the fact that I listen to a Game podcast without playing the game at hand? In fact listening to this podcast literally makes me want to game.
Plus, Dellmon is an old EQ player, so there's this general shared knowledge deal that I completely get, and keeps the show interesting to me as a non-EQ2 player. Now like I said, I've played EQ2, but it's never stuck. I've tried it alone, and I've tried it with Anita. But even with PVP research, as well as regular server playing, I just haven't been hooked on the game like I ever was on EQ1.
Another thing Dellmon likes to talk about is Allakhazam.com. That's a website that I have used for years, with my guilds in EQ1 I would get myself involved with raids and there is much information on those on the site. Plus when I was working on my Epic with my Paladin, Allakhazam.com was again a great resource for information regarding that quest. Allakhazam.com is generally my favorite website with everquest information, and it is probably the best EQ1 website out there.
But the thing is, quite honestly, there are few things as great as curling up and setting up to listen to an episode of EQ2sday. This is generally some serious entertainment for me. So I am very pleased right now.
And then lately there's this thing I've got going where I like to go in reverse order. So whilst there's many shows I haveyet to listen to, as I've been busy with one thing or another, I'm starting with the most recent podcast this time, to go from the latest back. And it's great. What more do you need to convince you this things great, than the fact that I listen to a Game podcast without playing the game at hand? In fact listening to this podcast literally makes me want to game.
Plus, Dellmon is an old EQ player, so there's this general shared knowledge deal that I completely get, and keeps the show interesting to me as a non-EQ2 player. Now like I said, I've played EQ2, but it's never stuck. I've tried it alone, and I've tried it with Anita. But even with PVP research, as well as regular server playing, I just haven't been hooked on the game like I ever was on EQ1.
Another thing Dellmon likes to talk about is Allakhazam.com. That's a website that I have used for years, with my guilds in EQ1 I would get myself involved with raids and there is much information on those on the site. Plus when I was working on my Epic with my Paladin, Allakhazam.com was again a great resource for information regarding that quest. Allakhazam.com is generally my favorite website with everquest information, and it is probably the best EQ1 website out there.
But the thing is, quite honestly, there are few things as great as curling up and setting up to listen to an episode of EQ2sday. This is generally some serious entertainment for me. So I am very pleased right now.
Friday, October 23, 2009
talking about EQ
EQ needs better levels. And less boring Classes. Paladins are too boring to play. Like, their only point is heals. Which gets old. Very old.
maybe part of it is how i kinda used to play it to kkinda ignore alot of the problems in my life at the time, which in a way made me grow to hate the game.
and then there's the whole catch-up deal you've got to put up with when you play. like if you're got for a long time, you have to churn out some levels, some aa's, and other crap.
the fact that this new expansion is like, to do with my character's background and all that is kinda cool. like it makes me want to check it out and shit. and the screenshots make it look like they've made better looking levels again which is kinda cool.
then there's the whole matter of guilds. every time you come back there's the issue of whether or not you should join one, then there's the whole like... issue with basically how much time you spend and then all of a sudden it turns into a job again. i guess thats the thing, being able to tell a mile away whether or not its something fun, or hard work that just kinda has not one iota of fun.
and then there's always the latest class of the current xpac, whoever's benefitted most from their abilities. currently seems to be wizards, who im hearing double rogues and zerkers hah.
maybe part of it is how i kinda used to play it to kkinda ignore alot of the problems in my life at the time, which in a way made me grow to hate the game.
and then there's the whole catch-up deal you've got to put up with when you play. like if you're got for a long time, you have to churn out some levels, some aa's, and other crap.
the fact that this new expansion is like, to do with my character's background and all that is kinda cool. like it makes me want to check it out and shit. and the screenshots make it look like they've made better looking levels again which is kinda cool.
then there's the whole matter of guilds. every time you come back there's the issue of whether or not you should join one, then there's the whole like... issue with basically how much time you spend and then all of a sudden it turns into a job again. i guess thats the thing, being able to tell a mile away whether or not its something fun, or hard work that just kinda has not one iota of fun.
and then there's always the latest class of the current xpac, whoever's benefitted most from their abilities. currently seems to be wizards, who im hearing double rogues and zerkers hah.
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