everquest 2, pvp adventures

alright, so anita and i rerolled, a few times, on the pvp server nagafen, as well as on the role playing server antonia bayle. the idea is tehse were the two top populated servers, and to me top population sounded like a good thing. so on AB our first characters were repeated iterations of our EQ1 characters, grunhorn the cleric and rikriki the wizard. this got old, fast. then for some reason the pvp server seemed interesting.

and so it's been a few days and we've been playing our pvp characters, sometimes rerolling and going back to AB, but promptly returning to pvp again. for a strange reason, this pvp server seems to have a hold on me. i got onto this game with the intention of playing on AB, the rp server, but its fast becoming evident that the server with most thrill & fun is in fact the pvp server nagafen. and i wonder to myself why. there's a few reasons. first of all the chat denizens of the spam you'll be inundated with should you choose not to block it out. on the pvp server, you get alot more satisfying discussion. meaning hte idiots are shouted down, and sometimes the shouters down appear the idiots. its all too apparent. whereas on the rp servers its all more cliqueish and the channels are controlled by not who has the best thing to say but rather who's the best networked. in a way the pvp servers a bit better because anyone can come along and prove themselves as the next pvp kingpin, whereas those on those rp servers have their gear accumulated, have their recognition and skill just assumed, and they feel comfy.

now pvp isnt new to me, ive played halo, tribes, quake, and before that bond, perfect dark, timesplitters, & others. there's quite a few of 'em and they've all been itneresting, all about aim, trigger speed, and the like. and those were games i gravitated to. these are essentially games that give you thrill, sort of like that which you'd get in a sport or other real life circumstance. a real life thrill-sim if you like. but the fast paced speed was definately awesome.

but to find this sort of a game-play mechanic in a role playing game, let alone everquest, a series i've been involved with for over 9 years now, is a strange thing indeed for me. i've played a paladin, on a blue server, that is, a non-pvp server, for many years. it was challenging, the challenge being the great feats of difficulty one could undertake whilst fighting with the game invironemnt, hence the title player versus environment. but with player versus player, those environmental hazards remain, but there's a more abundant and easier to get to hazard, that of other palyers, who almost immediately at level ten can present a playing hazard to the unsuspecting player. it's a difficulty, a fear, you expect to be killed, spooted and the like. and of course being that its a new character for you the spells and abilities are unfamiliar. so you're finding yourself both trying to figure your abilities out and weather the waves of player groups and pairs making their way out to the evil grounds you call home with the sole purpose of laying waste to you for quest credit. these quests give them points which can thereby be used for purchases of items and other such things, mounts, and other items.

now some of these require guilds, but thats another thing. on the subject of "other things" anita got herself into an apartment purchase. i was given rights to enter, and i dumped all my housing crap in as well. the class i've picked is warlock, race being ratonga. before warhammer ( the real time strategy not the massively multiplayer online role playing game ) i didn't really have a place in my mind for the potential of the rat-men, but warhammer made them cool, by giving me command of generals and troops of rats and i managed to develop an affinity for them. they remained a curiosity, the spark generated by the warhammer experience, and when they presented themselves on the character creation screen, they seems the appropriate choice.

and honestly, i quite like 'em. they may have squeaky voices, and short stature, but warhammer proved even the smaller shriller types can bring about major asskicking and amazement.

couple things that bother me. random chat bitching and fights, constant incessant and annoying, and most likely perpetuated by 12 year olds or the emotional equivolent of-. constant killing by the same people, sometimes farming respawn points nabbing the same players repeatedly. this gets real bad sometimes. the distance between you and the nearest bank, always way too far away. but perhaps on the other end of it high chances for high rewards when killing people in killing fields. the guild childishness that ive seen is amazing. one guild invite, then the breakaway guild, and the drama spouted out by either party. crazy, interesting, and very pvp. pvp seems to be synonymous with immature, not sure why, but just seems to be the case. also, seems to me there's lots of parallels between eq comics and pvp mentality. suprising, interesting, but also makes sense. also, there's pvp rankings, didn't know about that, kinda interesting - only, my ranking is bound to be shit, taking into account the 10 or so deaths i went through before i learned to be paranoid hah. the thing is every zone becomes a halo map, for good or bad. its a new way to play the game. and its a halo map in addition to all the other quests and things involved. just another way to spin the game. also, finally figured out how shinies / collectibles work. right click, examine, bam they're in yoru journal. NEVER knew that, in the 63 levels of my ranger i ran solo before i met anita hah. crazy. also, continues to dawn on me how awesome it is playing a game with another person sitting right there. its just very awesome. guilds dont seem to matter as much, probably as an offshoot of having a fleshnblood person next to ya.

lots of interesting stuff. also read about my class. some say its the worst in pvp. meaning the ratios of win are next to nothing. other sources list it as challenging and good. it just seems like a neat class. it looks like i picked another paladin heh. ah well, the ones that sound good never are it ends up being. paladin? woah holy knight? AWESOME. warlock? woah folklore forest dwelling magic user? AWESOME. and then in execution... no, they suck. such a shame. such bredth for them to explore, such potential depth to develop, yet nah, shortcomings abound. shameful really. and then the types that code, just don't seem they have much in their haed to make decent decisions. more obsessed with adult swim than anything else, let me just say geek culture? sucks. im sick of it. fuck geeks. and fuck nerds too. nerds are the worst. taking something picking it apart making it have greater meaning that it really has, just destroying the fuck out of it, and at the end of the day youre left with something ugly and sick. thats a nerd for you. there's bible nerds and their's LOTR nerds, star trek nerds, and EQ nerds. i just hate 'em. and when you roll out to the convention, you run into shitloads of 'em. fucking rediculous.