to Live FREE! or Shard trying

I've been trying to stay away from subjects that are sore for me. If you haven't noticed well I've taken a little break because for a while now I can say EQ2 was going in the right direction. We're human and we will never like every single aspect of every thing in any game however, in a MMO that can change. If you have read the recent Test patch 17 we are introduced to a shardless death. There are many points I would like to expand on but I dont have all day and I still am unsure how this will all turn out.

First I would like to say the Shard is a joke it has no real effect on my gameplay with or without ONE shard. Granted you start to lose 3 or 4 you might notice a real effect on your solo play which is good. It gives you insentive to go back to get your Shard but the kicker is it's still no reason not to want to die. The debt is not noticable and will only add up if you die about 25 times but after about 50 deaths strait you'll hit around 50% debt which is a cap.. And as it stands you log out of that charcter for a few days Bamb no more debt. Once again making death a joke.

What is it that makes people like SOE want to give easy death penaltys? Why do they want to keep making it less and less obtrusive to play a game that should have RISK vs REWARD? Does no one there think about the aspect of death seriously? If they do they must be the mail room clerks or the new guy that is just trying to fit in.. I know what my gut tells me, SOE is taking out shards even after the Alchemist whom will sell one back to you for a hefty price. They are taking it out to clear up CS ties with the shard. Yeah you heard me right there are fools in EQ2 that petition for their shard even to this day. I mean why should I have to pay an alch. to get my shard back when I got 3 hours CS wait time after I petiton to get my shard back.

I know a person on Faydark that once said they petitioned a shard in the middle of antoinca at level 23. Needless to say he got it back.. My question is why? Is SOE so afraid to say no to stupid requests? I asked this guy why he didn't go get it? He said to me "because I wanted to tradeskill". Now Seriously Stats are overinflated and even if you lose one shard your stat deflation isnt that serious untill keep on dieing and not going back to the shard. So I see no reason for SOE to bow out and help people get their shards back 99.99% of the time. If you ask me this is a big blow for the Betrayel quests. You LOSE your shard for a full 3 days and it will make a newb think twice about betraying. It's a sting you will no longer recive when your betray. It shouldn't be Oh here's 2% debt at lvl 17 go kill 2 orc's or gnolls and your ok again. These are the little things that EQ2 still had some Imersion on, now they will lose that.

Now I hear their might be a bigger debt per death and debt will no longer go away when you log which it should of been even with a shard. I belive if you die you should get about 4% debt each death and death effects for about 15 minutes with debt not leaving while loged then I could live w/o a shard. However, I think their should be an option of which death you want 1. one with shard they way it is now and 1. one without with whatever options SOE will use. Hey we love choices don't we? Why not let us choose how we want to live and die? Sadly though it seems like the future of EQ2 is going to be you die and stand back up and go at it again with no serious reason not to die.

My last point is that this hasn't even touched those that are level 60. Once your level 60 it dont matter how many times you die or what %debt you get. You can't lose your level and at 60 do you really care about 10gp repair costs? I hardly doubt the effects of this new death penalty will effect a level 60 at all. At least when they have to get a shard from the Shimmering citidel would be reson enough for a level 60 not to die.

I'm not one to say OMGTHISSOSUXORIQUIT but if death doesn't have a serious bite or a bee sting then there is no Heart pumping. If my Heart doesnt pump then I feel dead already, why should I keep on playing? Don't get me wrong I'm not droping EQ2 just yet I'm waiting all of this out and if things just keep getting easy again you will see only the door on my way out.

On a good note Runneye is evil even at level 50. I've now raked in about 6 fables and tons of legendary. I do it with respect to lowbies in the zone helping them out and I don't take their camps. So now I usally only go into the two instances that have a good chance of droping mid lvl loot. Both boss mobs are around 43 Heroic and I would suggest bringing a friend becuase they are not easy even when their green.(lock out on instances is 18hrs) If you follow the story line in here the lore is quite intriguing and their seems to be tons to do so I would go check it out

Moments of Zen: Gnolls what?

Get a Room you freaks!

AAH! Turkey

While some are looking forward to Turkey or Ham on the table others may not. While some are blessed with food on their tables others aren't. While others are out thanking the world for the little things other's don't. While the whole of America sits down one more time to celebrate a past time others won't. However, No matter where in the world you are there is always something to be thankful for.

What I really would be thankful for is a half dressed bar's maid passed out on my table so I can take pictures of her Panties... Now that; that's something to be thankful for.

I wish everyone a bountiful Thanksgiving and hope everyone has a splendid weekend, I'm sure I will.

Moments of Nirvana: Gnome Monk

They do exist OMG LEWT! El Chupacabras of Norath

Raid: Overseer Ix and Broog

Well once again this weekend Our guild along with Pandonian Knights took down a few EpicX2 and it was quite fun. First we decided that Overseer needed to go so we ventured over to the Oblisk area of Enchanted lands and destroyed this Level 40 Epic X2. No troubles at all, and not a single death. He didn't drop great loot; some shield Level 35 with something like 15 wisdom. Not to shabby on Wis but the stats weren't that great overall.

Then we all ran over to Sinking Sands to try our hand at the level 52 Epic X2 Broog(sp). We had 2 well rounded groups yet, we ran into a bit of trouble here. We knew he steals all your power in one wak but our MT decided he shouldn't pull due to the fact he wont have enough power to use taunts. So our Assistant tank decided he will pull and the MT will take the hate off, which in turn confused everyone so instead of the healers targeting Broog the all targeted the MT except me.. I target the Mob because he's a single pull and I don't have to worry about adds on the MT. Needless to say everyone goes down in a matter of a minute. So we regroup ourselves and this time the MT pulls, he get power drained and Bamb of course looses hate because he has no power. We have 2 wizards and I know they have a power feed so I get the great Idea of having them feed their power to the MT.. Because if our MT can't keep hate then well lets just say were fukd.

Every one buckles down we regroup and trade our grps to make them less rounded but the tank more HP/AC savvy. We get in there and this time we loose only 3 to loss of hate but, we dug in and he went down. It was a very nice sight indeed, a nice ring dropped which had 15 wisdom. Our Healer Neguvan won, however he decided he would give to me... Which was a very cool gesture indeed...

Best part about the weekend for me, I won my first fabled fair and square. Stupid as it maybe and it will be forever before anyone buys it. Ego blast master1 for a Corcer... Does anyone even play Corcer's? I don't think I've ever even seen a Corcer much less any type Enchanter unless they are Level 15 or so.. Rarely have I ever seen one between level 25 to 50...I think there is 4 or 5 that play in the highend and one is an old friend. This class needs some looking into because as far as I can tell it's not a class to play. Mezz is under powered in EQ2, rightfully so in most cases. I didn't like in EQlive where we had a great group but had to wait for an Ench to join in order to do anything. Breeze is worthless because our power really just regens in chunks after fights so unless your fighting an epic, even then it's debatable. They can't nuke for crap in comparison to the other mages and it looks as though they can't charm much either. Don't get me wrong I'm not one to judge this class as Suck but, from an outsider that's just what I see. Maybe you will see more in PVP, who knows.

After that we had a few that needed to kill the Djin for the Carpet quest he was level 57 heroic... Easy right? Wrong! We went down faster then a juicy girl in pawning for a 100$ bill. We died here I believe 5 times and quickly I might add. He came down and ate me up every time.. I stood idly by and got raped every time for one reason or another Djin didn't like me much. I was tired and almost naked so I didn't care to wait around to figure out a new strategy. Usually I would stick it out but most were between 50 to 54 and one 56(MT). We were just getting ate up with the Cold based AOE or direct hits. We even had a DPS grp that was out of our grp to help with getting him down, but we just couldn't keep the MT alive. Looks like I need to be 55+ before I try and take him down again.

Here's to another great Raid event **cheers** hope everyone's adventure are as crazy fun as mine.

Ahh Friday

Not much to say, been busy thinking and doing so much that I'm in overdrive.. I feel like I'm about to burst but hey... It's Friday!

Latly I've been playing up a Bezerker and it feels like I'm retracing my steps as a Guardian. At level 21 there still no real differnace's. I Know I'm only 21 so we shall see when I'm 30 how things feel. I love being a no named Newb people seem to leave me alone, and I can finally hear the crickets at night... It's rather nice

Well anyway's I hope everone has a wonderfull weekend and all goes well.. Testupdate 17A is out.. Go have a look. **here's hoping I make it to 50 Armorer this weekend**

The younger years

I've been thinking about the noob times in EQ2 I've had lately and reminiscing of what was it that I would later become. This is my first Screenshot of EQ2 I ever took and I figured it suiting to this post.

I'm getting a Co-worker to try out EQ2 for their first time and was thinking about all the things she would need to know to help her out on the first leg of the journey. Here's a good place to start but, all the help in the world there wont make up for my look back on the second journey into a MMO. Most of you know that I've played EQlive extensively then quit due to reasons beyond my control..(life). Once I got into EQ2 with my wife involved it was over, we were both hooked. I look back and know I enjoyed a very big chunk of all of it.

The newbie experience in this game is astounding in an overall aspect. It's set up like a console game where you feel your the cream of the crop your going to battle for the outpost and that was something emotional to me. They had me at "Quickly now grab a weapon" The newbie island is a really well thought out; what I like to call interactive tutorial with real rewards and consciences. There are slight problems and some tweaks that could help but, overall for your first time in an MMO or EQ2 it's very fun indeed.

The problem stems from making alt's or trying out other servers and having to redo this place. It's like anything you've done before, you can do it quicker faster better, and with out any changes (expect newbie class armor quest). It soon become drab and the thought at going to island to collect shells and feather once more is not very inviting. The newbie remake experience in EQ2 is very lacking and to linear for my taste. Like I said built like a console, just like a console game the only great replay value on a lot of the games is few and far between (baring Pac-man, and Duck hunt). Granted you can get on get your profession, killa goblin say hello get level 3 in a matter of minutes and get off. Is that what the dev's had in mind? I would venture to say not, at least I would hope not. I do hope there is a bright future ahead for a great newbie experience make over as I've hear SOE is looking at changing the newbie experience.

The problem is 2 fold here and in some ways an easy fix that requires work. You don't wanna lose the newbie island because there is actually a lot of good stuff there. It will get you started on your first characters armor and loot there is also a lot of good info for those not in the know. However, there is a distinct lack of replay from the alt stand point and not everyone is going to like the Island. There is also only 2 cites to choose from Freeport and Qeynos.. Good or Evil, no one's in between. From a Lore stand point this is great, and sets up a good arena for PVP systems yet, there is a stemming problem of no one coming over to EQ2 and fixing this will help some.

I believe its more popularized partner WoW has a leg up on the newbie side because you have more choices. The fact you can choose from many different starting cites is a factor in why a few of my friends left EQ2. I'm not sure why but physiologically I believe people want to feel they belong somewhere specific rather then just be from one place or the other.. "WEST SIIIDE!" SOE decided that the Hamlets are a good idea and serve as some sort of pseudo boundary. They are small and a big PITA and it seems most flock to Willow Wood. It also makes doing newbie quests zoning here and there and back again rather gnashing.. They may as well just made all the hamlets to include the newbie area's inside the city one zone it's just a hassle otherwise.

I've posted before of making smaller outer villages starting area's for those of us that have already did the Island once. It would fit into the lore, the world is mending and people are branching out. It wouldn't take away from anything as far as I see it and would give people more of a variation. Would it not be neat to start in a small village outside of freeport that is still ruled by Freeport and under their faction but you are recall bound to that village? Like my idea of starting at Windstalker village and spanning outward into the more dangerous area's of Antonica. It would take some planning and would be useful to have them more racially and (good/evil) centric but would be sweet. It's not like the players can't be involved in building these places either (like the TS/Nek Griffen towers) Players can help build the towns that new people can come in a use as their Home and training grounds.

My main purpose to this is to drawl in a new crowd to start playing. Without newb's coming in the game will soon become a ghost town and then end up closing shop. Who else am I going to sell this newbie armor to? It seems there is so many Alt's that its almost been an age since I've seen a true newbie and we all like a real newbie now don't we?

Now after we all get to be around level 20 things grow stagnate for some. There is a lack of local quests givers other then Armor quest which is a great Idea that last till aprox level 26. I think overall AQ's are fun and have distinctive looks, even more so over the past few LU. You can start your Heritage Quests and get to rolling. I also believe that if you chase HQ after HQ doing all the sub quest and access in between will get you to 50 easy. Granted I love this stuff but what about those that are Anti-quest? Or those that have been to TS/Nek and both the Adventure paks a lot? Or those that like to make tons of mini alts but never make it to the end game? Or like EQjournal who ran out of alt spots? I guess what I'm saying here is now with DOF out I hope that the next Expantion is more of a mid level one. I want more choices from start to end game and after 4 alt's is becoming sparingly hard to become less liner and or monotonous.

I enjoyed my venture from stardom to 50 and all the inbetween adventures with my alt's, diversity is the spice of life. Such like the armor to be distinct we need our adventurers to count for us, it's what we remember.

Edit: This just in corpnews reminds us all EQ2 does have some good qualitys for newbs and queue... It takes me no longer then 3min's to log up to my charcter.

Once more into the Hive my friends

Yes once more I'm diving into 1/3 term tests, Got my Physics2 test and will be working my brain cells to the bone. As if that's not enough to stress me out, I've been looking over my priority's. I'm married I have 2 children one from another marriage and one now and they require a lot of me. I've been going to school non-stop for almost 2 years without any break. I work 50 hours a week most the time, and rarely seem to have time to blog and or eat lunch. I am a Co-Leader of a Guild, and to top it all off raid coordinator till our raid officer is up to speed. Oh did I mention I get my DiffyQ's Test tonight too. Sweet! I guess what I'm getting at here is I'm on E and need a break, seriously.

Not much I can say on the EQ2 front other then that I've been enjoying Leveling up my lowbies getting 20 on my Bezerker and 31 on my Conj. It's a real delight not really having to group at this point because it seems I get a small play window lately and hope things get cleared up with the break I get from the Holidays. I'm hopeing to start these MORE FUN Heritages and see what the effort was put into the changes. This will be the 3rd set of HQ's I've done most on my Guardian and all but 2 on my Mystic.

Keep tuned, here shortly for those of you who watch MONK on USA. In the next few weeks I appear in Monk and the Astronauts. I will post the exact date when I know it airs.

Moment of Nirvana: Necromancer?

A moment of confusion in this young Mystics ventures..

Armor and you

As you can tell, I was having fun this weekend. A lot of fun Guild ding 21, and DING 50 Mystic. I was trying to get a good screenshot of my level 50 sadly however, there was a bad corpse in the way so you will have to enjoy the frog on frog action...

This weekend was a great weekend and there was a lot to be done and a lot did get done. But, I was looking around and noticing DOF and the SOGA upgrades. While some were great and some where a little not to my taste over all I enjoy these changes. I took a paticular look into what is my biggest peve about EQ2. The Armor models, I have a 48 Armorer and I enjoy tradeskilling her from time to time. Though, I would like to give people a good product, it's hard when there is 550 other's out there doing the same and driving my prices down; that's a differnt post all together.

Lets look at Bucklers, Used by Priests up to Fighters. After Tier 3 they are all the same from the Oak buckler up to Ironwood, they look the same. taste the same, everything but the stats are the same; they all have little Trojan warriors with spears on them. Yeah! To add insult to injury they take Wisdom off the last Tier of Bucklers seriously, does SOE think that anyone other then a Priest is going to use the buckler? Ok enough about bucklers, change the look or this priest wont be getting an update to my Oak and SBS bucklers.

Now lets look at Chain Armor. Speaking from a Mystic point of view most chain is designed for scouts. Rarely is there good wisdom on the pieces and rarely do I wear it on big fights because of power. But, it's not the stats I am complaining about, I use Chain if I'm going to be in situations where I solo or know the tank sucks at keeping aggro and or I'm going to get hit alot. My chief disappointment with chain is that it's all the same from Fulginate up to Cobalt short of Dye and stats. Granted Fulginate don't look bad but, would I like to burn a few Plat. For the same look only blue? Is it really that hard for them to make Cobalt look different from the other chain, my answer would be yes it would take time and the design team to put an effort to make working armor. However, the rewards for making 50 to 60 would be much better sought after when upgrading armor other then for Blue with stats. I know before Ebon was exactly like Fulgiante in look and style and it was a nice change to make it black. Which overall I like, but then we go back to Indium(sp) which is exacly like fulginate except stats and Cobalt is blue, like Ebon only change is the tint and stats. Ok call it vanity but isn't there or shouldn't there be somewhat of a change other then level spells and stats between level 50 and 60?

From what I can tell Vanguard is exactly the same way except Indium is more of a grayish type color which is fairly nice. Sadly the overall design of Ebon, Indium, and Cobalt is exactly the same. Fulgiante has some differning style to it and actually looks much nicer then the later 3 Vanguards; pure preference alone though. I do however like the fact that the little dress on the Leggings has basically gone away since the SOGA update. I'm not sure why it was in their from a design point of view I guess I just don't like the dressings. I mainly didn't like it because Vanguard on a Female Highelf was really choppy around the waste and I know it wasn't just my computer.

Overall I do enjoy the little changes here and there nothing that a few updates wont fix as well as a good Armor design team.

SOGA! - God bless you!

Ok, today marks the first day of changes and a lot have gotten to see what we all been waiting for, fer a time now.. Well mainly me and the Soga models, I gave a brief review after lunch yesterday but today I have a few pictures to break down how I really feel and some of the changes, rather fixes to these in the future.









First off, I love my Highelf now.. Truly makes me feel like my old self reborn. It literally took me well over an hour to make him and 3 separate tries. I even made him a Woodelf for a time but sadly Quylein is not a Woodelf. The first few tries my wife kept saying he looks like a girl or is he gay? So finally when I got my second account I spent a while making him to a good spec. and it worked a bit. I haven't played him much because I just didn't have the affinity for this toon like his EQlive counterpart. Now he is of his former self and even Dinged him 28 last night and started doing some fun Groupage. It took me about 5min to find a good Highelf look and to me that is a bonus. Well during my mixed feelings about Quylein I made Glokk, he's my 49 Froglok Mystic he had; well just look and I'll explain.










Yep my Black and yellow Froglok make green...I feel like a sick vampire, or a disillustioned Darkelf. Either way my days as a Darkelf are limited, mussle tone is great but um..... Seriously! I tried to log off in ilustions both Darkelf where I'm green and Barbarian which makes me yellow and I've had no luck on Soga'ing my skin tone. Even with this minor glitch I still like the overall features.










My biggest complaint... Rather my only real complaint about the looks of SOGA is... See above.
You see he has a stick in his bum look? If not click on the picture and make it bigger, you shant overlook it then. Yes as far as I can tell this is a bug because from just looking around Woodelves, humans and Barbarian don't stand like this. This is a minor bug yet it's quite annoying if you want Soga models on. You look around with STICK BUM figures standing around is somewhat uncomforting.

Overall Good job SOE, I love it.

Sweet

I went on for lunch for about an hour and all I have to say is WoW... Much more then I expected with the SOGA. My wife dislikes most of them but hey I am glade users get a choice as to what they see...

My suggestion is to activate your SOGA regardless of weather you like it or not. (you don't have to turn the options on however, just change their SOGA looks)
Redo your character on the select screen and make them the way you like best because you have no choice on weather or not they see you like SOGA... You may just look retarded!! I re-did my Bezerker and Conjurer and am totally glad to have had a better feeling character..Sorry I love Asian looks better but that's just me.. Call it all the years under the Final Fantasy influence.

The best change of all that was unexpected by me for some reason... Armor changes, Vanguard well some of the tier's got revamped such as Ebon and Cobalt.. No longer have the GHEY dress front and back. Some of the Chain got bulkier and more drawn out and the AQ colored stuff looks better if you as me.

The only bad thing is some Races stand like they got sticks in their bums and it's quite annoying however, I'm sure it's just buggy and will be fixed...(I hope) Enjoy your Gifts.

Happy Birthday EQ2

Yes today is what I'm figuring they are calling the BDay of EQ2. Though I think an actual BDay would of been back in Beta or before when the game was first playable. Anyhow, today we get our "veteran rewards"... I think it's neat and some things I would love to have like a Pirates Flag, ARRRRR! However, I'm really waiting to get into refacing some of my alts with the new SOGA.

You see I made my alt Fighter who was designed to be a monk back before we had 1000000000000000 other monks and they were how do you say? Lacking... Well I want to make him look more like a Bezerker so to me this new SOGA system is perfect, that and my HIE will look less FEM. Not sure about how I feel on some models like the new klingon race. What's that? Ogre? hmm.. Coulda fooled me. Though I really do feel there are even more changes I like.

Well, Now I can help build up some Giffen towers and to me this seems it will be thoroughly enjoyable on a small scale. I have a few questions about it that I'm sure one day will be answered but...
1. When they open new servers like PVP and or Special server will they be required to make these tower's as well?
2. How long is the venture gonna take and will everyone get a good shot at being able to help out? Or is this just a grinding quest for 2 days of about a handful of people?
So, it looks like either way this is a neat way of implementing new things in the world that I would like to see happen on a more frequent bases.

Now Aggro has said there are Old schoolers like me, not directed at me but.. Well anyways. He said "Some like instant travel, some enjoy the old EQ style travel". I'm a little bit of both if done in the right context. Such as the old ways of EQ2 where you had to bust your ass going to the outskirts of Nek or TS; you had to quest to get to EL and Zek and then again to Feerrott, LS and EF. This was enjoyable because it seemed as if I was on a boat forced to survive in order to see land on the other side. Though I still think the GGGgoblins and an old EQ1 boat system would be more fun..!! With random mobs (Cyclops) hitting you while you can't fight back.. Ahh the good ole days. Ok back on track.

I usually don't try to take the bell in QH to Nek or TS a lot, call me cheap or call me a glutton for low level randomness. You never know what will happen from Qeynos to TS even at level 60 if you travel by foot vs travel by griff vs travel by Bell in QH. Some newbie you might meet may end up becoming your best friend but if you paid 60 silver you may have never of meet them.. I see things weird I know. Dammit, Ok to the point of this all.

I'm glad there are choices and enjoy all of them here and there but mainly I use the Griffen a lot more. I don't think it takes away from travel in the least but that's just how I see it. I think if the world was connected and we could hop from Griff to Griff it would be more realistic feeling then clicking a bell to a boat ride that doesn't exist unless you pay for it on different ticket master. If you ask me when you click the bell a boat should come within that min, you hop on it and have a short adventure to each destination.. NO insta travel from the Bell for anyone... But in order to keep old world zones from going to sparse they would have to fix the Zone system to Sinking sands... If I want to XP or mine at level 45+ why would or should I pay 60SP to get to LS when I get a free carpet ride to SS? Over all the Griff change in Nek and TS is a very good idea.

Ok now for the part I really like the fact I finally can get stat bonus for my range slot!!! I mean it took a year to figure that out? Well better late then never I always say. I just hope that they realize Shamans are ninja's too and soon after lets me throw ninja stars... Muahahah!!!(/sarcasm off)

I wish you all a Happy EQ2 Bday and hope that your Rewards are as plentiful as any supermarket give away!!

Sloginizer

As seen on MMODIG the Sloganizer is a fun tool to mess around with and since I have nothing to really say today.

SLOGAN -- MEANING

Quylein's got it all! -- I'm the Uberest.

Quylein, just the best -- Still uber

You better get your Quylein out. -- When I cast a bad AOE Nuke

Oh my goddess, it's a Quylein -- Yep yep I'm quite the ladies man

Quylein, created by nature. -- Duh! Thanks Mom

Quylein - simplified! -- Hey My Int is 147 but I'm not that simple

The Quylein community. -- If garnered by all the responces vs post's here it's very small

Share moments, share Quylein -- Not sure if my wife would like that

Be alive with Quylein. -- HEH! not in my group you won't... Quylein don't heal

Quylein extra dry. -- Thank God I'm a man

Always the real thing, always Quylein. -- And that my friends is so True

Take what you want, but leave Quylein alone! -- What my pet regularly says to Orange con Mobs

God made Quylein. -- There you have it folks.... now I can live in peace

LOL! Sorry I had to amuse myself while waiting for this LU 16 to actully hit tommorw. Untill then Enjoy the SLOGINIZER.

At my leisure

This weekend marks the first break where I was at a loss for wanting to play EQ2... No really I play EQ2 at all times of the days and have been since Dec 2004. I Couldn't explain it, both Sat and Sun which are the only real days I can spend a good amount of time were both spent lollygagen. I would get on start do do something then take a break, nap time!! Or I would just go mining because I didn't want to get a group involved and want to leave.

I spent the later part of last night in the store and was curious to see if I'm just on gaming overload or is there some outer forces working against me. I didn't really know why EQ2 has just not been fun in the past few days. I went to go see if I could find a box version of DOF and behold I found Depths of Darkhollow. It's a EQlive expantion, the latest one if I'm not mistaken and I figured hmm let me see what this is all about. I looked at the back and it reminded me of my old days in West Commons getting jumped by Werewolfs. There is this Werewolf ghost Mob on the back of this package and it hit me. I love Nek, scary for newbs and painful in a bad group funny how there is no werewolves out there yet there is a whole AP exploiting Vampires in EQ2. I love vampires don't get me wrong but where are the werewolves? Ok now I'm going off here.
I looked further down on the box and there was a cool looking Boar with razor sharp tusks splitting it mouth like as if it was more Ant like. I thought to myself that would be a cool looking ride then right in that same area I seen get a FREE mount and some free spirit shard.. I believe the shard is for mentoring as a monster. However, this Free mount wasn't intriguing at all why didn't I have to earn it. I'm still sour that I can't have a Camel mount, but still. It reminded me of how all the work I put into this game is trivialized after I'm done.

I commenced to look at why I was board with EQlive and EQ2 in the recent days and it hit me. They are giving away the game, the whole game and nothing but the game. I'm not sure if Smed is thinking of these things or their PR department. What goes through someone's head when they are trying to sell these type of arguments? Isn't this game where you should earn your Level and reward? Don't you want people to play month to month or is it the if they buy the expantion were ok mentality? This is how I envision a conversation.

PR: Lets give them a bone that they will love so they spend 29$ Chaching!!
Designer: But um sir don't we want them to continue to play our game so they can see our work and enjoy the expantion?
PR: MONEY chaching!! Who cares if we give them a mount they can sit in the NEXUS and say Oooo I'm soooooo Cool... Yeah!!
Designer: Cool sir? You just gave that Boar away that I worked hard on...
PR: Chaching Cashola!! Um... Yeah but we can make it so it only LOOKs cool
Designer: How bout we make fun content and you sell that?
PR: $$!! What? Hello Cool mount? Who cares about fun content?

You get my point and it can be uses in many cases with many Expantions or Adventurepacks. I looked into myself and looked at why I play EQ2.
1. Beautiful grafix, wonderful sceanery and a lot of quest, so many it can give you a few nose bleeds trying to figure them out.
2. Great system of fighting especially since the CU. Though I wish I could tone down clerics reactive heals.
3. Constant updates to fix the things that need to be fixed.
4. A small sense of accomplishment each quest you finish
5. Great guild, of Which Im Co-Leader with 2 others and I would hope to be able to do more with in the future.
6. .....
Ok I've, I really played up a few characters and Love my Mystic. I do enjoy doing daring things with groups that have the kachinko's. However, since I've completed all but 2 heritages I've ran out of steam. There is small content here and there that I enjoy but the majority of the What I call throw away zones, others call them Permafrost and Lavastorm I find them boring and uninvolved... Believe me I've tried.

I go to DOF and enjoy it to an extent but again I feel that the over zone of SS is like PF and LS. I am trying I really am but these places seem void of anything real. I did enjoy the faction fest in Maj'dul and had a fun time till I got waxed 2 times in 10 min by the carpet police.. I'm not gonna XP and faction where the carpet police kill me but leave the NPC alone.. It's just as much their fault. That and I'm not going to continue to pay 3gp each time I die because I have no way of protecting myself from the 1hit murdering carpet cop.

To the defense of EQ2 I did really have a lot of fun and enjoyed the quest on Pirate's perch. There was this lamp I rubbed and poof out came a Genie. I totally loved the involvement of this 10 minute instance quest.. I wish there was a group version that was more involved but the quest was actually fun non the less.

I've tried to make an alt and has be simi fun but there is only so many times you can do newbie areas Antonica, TS, Nek before you really just don't wanna kill another gnoll or griffin. I'm looking to the future of my alt and thinking of a route to take him that will differ from my Guardian, Conjurer, Mystic and the choices are quite slim.

I'm going to take a break this week and when LU 16 comes I will try it out. Maybe a break will do me good. I really do want to explore DOF much more however, at this time I've got little initiative to do anything other then mine for ebon..Woohoo fun! ... Com'on Vanguard Beta invite!!

Moment of Nirvana

NO WAMMYS,NO WAMMYS....STOP!

How much is to much and how much does SOE think they will continue to get away with?
Keep rolling that wheel and see how much fortune you will earn by the next fiscal year. I don't want to say were in the last throws of the MMO gaming world for SOE because they have some good games. It feels as if they just want to change things just to see if they can. I mean sometimes things are best if left alone when working properly. It reminds me of an old Airforce saying " Fix it until its broke". Does this wisdumb work for the entire world of corporations?

SWG has some bad mojo going on, purely my opinion but I can have it non the less. I've read around on this and decided to ask a few questions to friends of SWG players. This is my mini interview of what one of them had said.

Quylein: I hear SOE is deciding to change SWG to be more mouse active what do you think about that.

Voulma: Yes they are and I'm done. There is no way in hell I feel it's even fair they considered making the Jedi a starting class. That's just plain messed up, all my hard earned work for nothing. I understand changes needed to be made but I'm not going to be running into newbie Jedi's. Sorry it just pisses me off to much to think about that.

Quylein: I hear they are making it more like Planetside mouse shooting action. That seems to be kinda of fun. More realistic then just autotarget and autoattack.

Voulma: Yeah, but there is no more melee combat. I originaly started off wanting to be a Brawler I spent my entire time fighting things hand to hand and to me the pummeling was the fun.

Quylein: Damn sounds kinda of harsh to just throw all melee out the window. Is there anything good that can come out of this?

Voulma: I haven't seen any of this in action and don't really care to. Change is good and we are all sometimes hesitant to change. I've been playing almost since day one I've had a guild almost as long and we are going to do an official disband this Saturday. So if your asking me is there anything good coming. Nope not for me, Picked up WoW yesterday.

Quylein: Your just walking away? You said it yourself change is good why such a quick disband. Don't you want to wait and see what's going on and didn't you just get the expantion? There is an ole adage not every thing on test goes to live.

Voulma: I Love Star War and think that it was building up to be one of the best MMO's you could play. There are tons of things to do in SWG countless professions you can engross yourself into, and very fun tradeskill considering. Mind you it's a MMO that I've grown accustom to with a certain degree of change. However to me this type of change is nothing more then to drawl newb's in, not make the game better and yes I purchased the expantion.

Quylein: I was quite hostile to the CU EQ2 went through but I noticed that SWG combat update was quite sucsesfull.I calmed down and waited to see what EQ2 will become because SWG's was so sucssefull. You don't think this change in anyway will benefit the game? From what I can tell you will need to have skill to aim and shoot that seems like a cool idea.

Voulma: I would hate to say that it's not an OK idea but, with blasters yes. I do like some of the idea you can run away from a battle more safely due to human error and not just random code. But the Idea of taking away melee and it becoming all Powers and Blasters. Sorry that to me is only part of the Starwars world.

There you have it folks, something I would of only eluded to. He's only one person in the whole SWG realm though I'm sure others will share his thoughts else where. Now I'm not one to Flame SOE outright or have unfounded claims so please only take this as someone's pre-change opinion. I'll ask him more after the change to see if he kept to his word.. Over all I like the idea oh yeah and I'm gonna finally get him into EQ2 if this SWG thing dont blow over.MUAHHAAH *cough cough* ahem! yes were was was I... O yeah.

This all got me to thinking though, what if they took out all strait Melee in EQ2?... What would we all think? The biggest reason for me choosing a Guardian in the beginning was the fact I could use all weapons and wear just about any armor. I would be quite disgusted if one day they said ok in two weeks there will be only bow ability's and CA/Spells.... I do believe you can sometimes press your luck to far before it's a big mess for PR to clean up.

Such as the new LU16 update, there will be a merchant you can now buy your shard back from. Playing Mrs. Pacman has more Risk vs Reward then EQ2 if this hits live. There is only one reason I can fathom as to why they are doing this. It goes along with the same reason they let people have names like Smoochyboches Is'arizonahealer. They don't pay GM's and legally would have to under certain circumstances. Such calling a GM to make all D'kudas type surnames. My educated guess here is the only reason they are doing this is it's easier to put in shard merchant then it is to have GM's on these type of Customer Support.

Here is another thought on that. I don't know call me crazy or call me old school. Maybe it's the America physiologist saying its' bad to say Um... What's that word again... O yeah there it is NO!

Sorry but it's not bad reputation or even bad Customer support to say that is a big fat NO! For crying out loud when someone on EQ2 tells me that they have /petition a GM for a shard recovery I thought they were crazy or just fooling. He said to me nope it's his 3rd shard they will come to recover. He said to me that even if you lost it in the middle of Antonica at lvl 50 they'd still retrieve it. Maybe that is a little overstating I don't know, never did it myself. Anyhow, isn't there a way for SOE to write a rule stating that all lost shards are your problem? Maybe a little bit nicer wording. Sorry but this Shard merchant is a really bad idea for Risk Vs Reward on their already lacking death penalty. Even at 1pp this is still weakening the game some.

Free!!

Ha! I told you so Free gets peoples attention, and SOE knows it. Free Box, Free XP, Free title... and there's more!!! Man I gotta keep an eye on SOE more closely they kinda sneaky..

Well with the appending birthday of EverQuest2 they are giving out free stuff and it has me somewhat happy. I can Tradeskill like mad till I'm 60, that's about the only free XP I really like and it makes the journey there less painful.

C'mon' a Free box? I want a free Cake or a free present that you open and are suprised... But hey do we ever really get what we want on our Birthday anyway? I sure hope that all turns out really well because it's close to my Year anniversary of playing EQ2. That is what makes me happy.

You see my wife didn't like EQ1 and every time I was playing it she kicked me off. There was either the excuse to make me feel bad for playing.. You don't love me you spend no time with me or, the grafix are hurting my eyes how can you play that? So I quite EQ1 in 2003 I was SOooo Jonesing to play a MMO and was very happy that when I got a free week to play she got HOOKED! Now we are here almost a year later and I'm very happy as to how EQ2 has turned out to become IMO one of the best games out there to play. Kinks yes, Fun always no, but none the less a very great game overall.

Free Giveaway?

Everyday there is someone giving away something free. Not really free mind you but they lead you to want to know what it's all about. You see people seem to want everything for nothing and the Chicks for free. People want it all with little to no effort and yet still brag about it. As if to me you getting a free item is going to impress me somehow. Call me crazy but if I go over to the Joneses and found that all they own was given to them. I would more then likely care less about catching up with them. I do believe it's human nature to feel this way, you see someone earn it busting there asses and are of a mature mind you admire that. I do believe if your given something for free it holds less value to you. Earn it and you will take care of it, given it you will throw it away.

What I'm getting at here is a little debate over on Summoners board about LU 16. You see there are two types of people in this. The ones that like the ole command /gimmy whateverIwantnoworkincluded and there are people like me that feel if I get what ever I want then there is no point in playing. You see I played on the player ran GOD servers for a little bit and I was able to summon whatever item I wanted no work included. It was boring and lost my interest in about 1 day. Sometimes I don't think people know what they really want, and even though they may want the Screaming mace they feel that it should be a /gimmy screamingmace. These people should be banned to the WOW servers for life.

In one comment I read Maxman13 say"In other words, "normal" people can get the screaming mace too now". Which leads me to believe he did no research or even try to effectively use his EQ2 time figuring out how to do this quest. You see there is a wives tale out there touting that this quest is hard.. or Damn near impossible to complete without Uberguild_01. I say Bull shit!! Get off your lazy ass and work for it, and yes I have a real job, I even go to Collage. I sometimes get to play maybe 1 day a week on the weekends. I DID THE MACE IN 3 DIFFERENT PLAY DAYS. I spent ruffly 13 seperate hours working on it, and that's including the mess around time. I did it with my lvl 41 Mystic at the time, it's not hard nor difficult it just takes time and a good group. I'm not in an uber guild, we can just now take Antonican Epic X2. Sadly the only person with my sentiment was Jabbso.

Jabbso said "Is it just me that's getting concerned about the dumbing down of quests? HQ's in particular". I agree with this 100% there is a CONCERN which can lead to Speculation. I am only speculating that these are becoming dumbed down. I have no inside info, nor does SOE send me the IN info, my inbox consists of ADD's to EQlive and EQ2... I am only concerned because, I feel that if I busted my ass and put my time into an item I'm proud to own. Then don't squash that by giving it away to any other complaing Joeschmow. I don't really know if they are easier or not, and change is good when it makes the game more FUN but at the same time keep it REWARDING. If the only way to get SWEET item_A is to bitch enough that they make it easy then it becomes less SWEET.

What I like about the Change is the SBS, they are taking of the timer between the trials. The dialog spouts to go again right after your done, yet your not aloud to. If I'm defeated then I'm defeated; don't let the lock out bar me from going back.. This is what I feel is a break of immersion.
I don't know if this will come to pass and not sure how LU 16 will play out. However I don't wish to see let's say. Weavmaster pop, as soon as I get to the room where he's at he spawns. Some auto pop mobs are Ok but ones that are a turning point or have a reasoning should not autospawn. This is what I wish not to see but, the specific naming as a PH is alright by me.

My main concern is to change for the better and make it more fun at the same time don't make it easier. I don't need any hand outs, if your going to hand anything out hand me a free year's subscription to EQ2. So I can throw that back into the Joneses faces either that or nail my coffin shut from all the insane gimmys.