plaguelands.com/played, a prelude
Seriously, I’m starting to abhor this class and everything I encounter along with it. Exactly what class is fueling me with this tenacious rage? No other than the paladin class. I wanted something different and I sure as hell got different. I can’t tank nor taunt my groups to any worthy victorious dungeon battles. I eye my experience bar and I’m halfway to level 55, exactly just what in the hell is my flipppin’ problem? 14 days played and I’m still level 54 grasping for 55, give me those experience points, ah that’s it.. not enough, I need more, die ogres, you and your butt fugly twin ogre sisters die a thousand times over so I can achieve level 60 already and get it over with. This experience isn’t nearly coming at a fast enough rate… I need to min/max more effectively…
You know what, I can’t take it so forget this efficient spreadsheet play. Sure, my friends can grind yetis in the same hot spots for days on end, but I can’t help myself, my playstyle is drastically changing, I’m turning into an explorer more so than what my friends used to know my style more along a catassing achiever.
[My definition of catass is someone who not only plays a lot, they vicariously live in a virtual world and it consumes every waking or available moment of their lives while highly isolating themselves and neglecting reality. Origin.]
This eternally damned paladin, I kill mobs like some slomo and my will is busted, maybe I am actually not a good player. I lack the moxie needed for leading and forming instance groups and what little motivation I have left is withering away. I notice my former friends whom I considered to be family in EverQuest steamroll past my pathetic existence and conquer a new hardcore barrier leaving me behind. Leaving me with what I used to despise at one time when I knew no better. I always said if it came to this point in my playing career it was best to not play at all.
/who… /who… again.. the same results… I shouldn’t bother and I can’t believe the frustration, funny and sad wrapped up in one.
As usual, another generic day played and I have no guild or regular crew at my call and while I do have some supposedly friends on my list half of them are catass traitors who don’t even have the nerve to share in the camaraderie and debauchery we once shared and the other half that remain might as well be npcs. 300 plus days played invested or wasted for that matter in Norrath and Azeroth and this is the high ground that I stood on, if there was only a word I could ues to describe this, it doesn’t exist. I suppose we all have too move on sometime. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I miss my priest, I was considered one of the best priest on the beta pvp server, probably because I was horde and there were only five or so priests that were considered decent since priests were so sparse.
I look back on it all now and I’ve been hardcoring my way through the World of Warcraft for a full year, the time is a little after the game has hit desktops and I find myself brooding and pondering about my playing past. I scour my thoughts and find myself traversing from the Plane of Time into Elwynn Forest and Westfall in some sort of jacked up time warp. I travel all the way back to the first phase alpha when a nefarious webmaster sent me an invite to be one of the founding members of Kali Compton. Such a long time ago and those bridges have long since been burned. I only wanted as many beta slots I could get my grubby paws on anyway, after all who I thought were once my friends were far more important than some egotistical douchebag. If he only knew beforehand that I was in European guild for two years, albeit my last year I loathed waking up far too early in the morning just so I could raid the latest and greatest foozles. I’ve played both horde and alliance sides thoroughly and I’m past burnt out, I’m afflicted with some subconscious lobotomy, logging on out of some sick habitual addiction that shouldn’t be condoned. I need rehab from this insanity.
I’ve been back in the thick of slaying pixels for almost three months and I’m having a great time. Before these last three months I vacated and took a year off from my old playing habits, I was out of control. I still played casually, up until that one day came and I finally cancelled my last account. It was like quitting my one pack a day addiction which was killing me inside. I was finally free, but I missed the passion I once felt for the mmo genre. Looking back I was obsessed and in may ways I still am, considering I take the effort to divulge my the scans that ignite my brain stems for anyone who wishes to read them here, but for my longtime readers I am sure they have seen the decline from my posts about mmos until recently once I started playing again.
I don’t think I could have picked World of Warcraft back up if it weren’t for random chance I never saw coming when a real-life friend prodded me into starting a character to play alongside her. This was the same person who used to berate me for playing EverQuest whenever I glimpsed into her sight. A twisted fate of irony and I got some revenge. We ended up playing together and I was hooked all over, we were having a blast. I made another character on my original server so I could play when we weren’t tearing it up, we were casual newbs, but I liked it. Eventually her boyfriend didn’t like us playing together, but I didn’t care about their sorry drama and the thoughts of even flirting for that matter didn’t cross my mind at all, by now I was enamored with my hunter on the other server, the hunter is more my style and I had reactivated my own account for three months rather than play on one of my friends who worked a lot. I might as well just give it a shot and see what happens and when that times comes if I should cancel or continue. It could be both.
Repeating the inevitable grind - It was bound too happen, but at least I can approach it differently this time around.
About this entry
You’re currently reading “/played, a prelude,” an entry on Plaguelands
- Published:
- 02.21.06 / 6pm
- Category:
- Everquest, Journal: /played, Mmog, Rambles, World of Warcraft
Krones my friend, you smell like burnt toast. Not the regular white bread toast but the healthy wheat and honey oat kind you can get at Subway (Eat Fresh tm). I’m sorry to hear of the downfall in fun that World of Warcraft has had in your life. Heck any MMO. I often wonder what Everquest, with their 1 million expansion packs, would be like if I just started playing today. I’m pretty sure it would be a pretty cool experience.
But… the reality is I see you and I in the same sinking boat. We are taking on the water of the boring quest grind, apathy, and distaste and all we have to empty the boat is a shot glass. Sometimes I wonder if it would just be better to sit back and throw a few back instead trying to save the boat.
But I’ve got friends that I NEED and WANT to play with. What may be an old hat for me is completely new to them and I owe it to them to hang around and level with them. Sadly though, I’ve fallen off the World of Warcraft boat for a while because Eve Online is treating me like a slave master with the whip the size of Texas. I’m really enjoying it. So, I’ve got to keep going.
I was gonna post this on my site in answer to your question, but now’s a great time to say it. World of Warcraft’s level system really irks me. I know it’s “easy” to level (unless you’re a paladin apparently), but the ease of leveling cuts both ways. You see, not many people have all the free time in the world to play the game. I’m one of those people who can’t devote even 2 to 3 hours a day to the game because of things that are going on in the horrid “real world”. Well, horrid except for my wife that is. (awwwww) Because of my lack of playtime, I have become the one that everyone passes on their way to 60. I was 32 when a friend of mine (EL POWER GAMMA) started playing WoW. It took everything in my power to get him to play. Once he started playing, I helped him level a bit and showed him the ropes. It took him a month to out level me and get to 60. A freaking month. Once he was there, he decided he wanted his Shadow Craft armor. He spent 80 hours alone (I’m thinking more, but that’s all he’ll admit too) to get his set of armor. The next week, he quit the game because there was nothing to do and real world commitments had kept me out of the game. He felt he had no one to group with. I’m stuck at 57 with my priest and feel there is no hope that I’m gonna get 60.
It’s that kind of thing that will turn you off of a game. It really is sad that my friend had nothing else to do once he hit 60. He didn’t want to raid 24/7 so he found nothing else to do. He left (along with 2 other RL friends) and has only logged in once since that time.
Now let’s talk about another type of “experience” system. I started playing EvE online because I was reading Ethic’s posts on Kill Ten Rats. It sounded new and exciting. The more I read about the game, the more I wanted to play it. I finally broke down and installed the 14 day free trial. I’m glad I did btw. What sets this game apart from any other MMO that I’ve ever played is that the game is completely skill based. Sure Ultima Online was “skill based” but not like this game. In UO your skill would deplete over time if you did not use them. Eve’s skills are there for life. Secondly, it doesn’t matter if you’re a UBER-GAMER or a casual-gamer, you both earn skills at the same rate. Online or offline, you skills go up at the same rate.
I honestly find this refreshing. Sure it makes playing all day “pointless”, but that’s only what appears at first. See, in the game, there are 2 things that are important. Skills and Money (ISK). Without either, you couldn’t do much. So, if you want to play all day, you can easily make more money than the casual gamer. This puts you far ahead in your ability to purchase new ships, skills, and implants. It’s really important to have the cash to get things you train in.
On the flip side of the ISK part you have skills. No matter how much my uber-gaming friend plays from now on, I’ll always have more skill points than he will. He can surely train in different skills and be able to fly more ships or use more technology, but I’ll always have the most skill points. Yeah me! The ONLY way he could pass me is if I left the game for a long time and didn’t set new skills to train. Then he could easily catch up or pass me. With this skill based system, CCP has REALLY created a game that will draw you in. There is no powerleveling. There is no, flying through levels and not having anything else to do. From what I’ve read on their forums, it would take YEARS to train all skills in the game. YEARS! MULTIPLE YEARS! So, if you get bored with one tree of skills, there will always be something bigger and better to try. And with the new expansions they continue to add to the game (FREE FREE FREE FREE), new skills are introduced. CCP has their act together and any new MMO out there should really consider this system. I honestly think it will keep players with their game longer. Isn’t that the point of a MMO?
So, Krones, I’m glad you have found new life to the game. I hope that I do as well. As you know, we have recently started a guild on a PVP server and that is fresh and new to me. Fun Fun. The only thing that really pisses me off about the game is a level 60 hunter camping the horde outpost in Ashenvale and ganking us as soon as we fly in from the Flight Path. It kinda sucks to die over and over and over and over, but that’s ok. One day I’ll be 60 and that biznich will be beheaded by my sword of doom +52 to penis strength. I guess we’ll just have to continue to push each other into playing more and keeping the faith. I know that it’s not easy paying or even playing more than one game, but I thoroughly enjoy EVE and hope to keep playing. I’m always there to help you get on your feet. (Since there is only one server that everyone plays on, we’ll find each other easily.) Btw, that goes for any Plagueland’s visitor. Just look up Guyder and shoot me an Evemail. =)
9fingers lying on the floor
I was burnt toast for quite awhile, now I’m just stale potato toast. Gnomergan Subway: Eatflesh. 9 rotting fingers on wheat! Mmmhm’
Friends burning their toast out is disappointing, always in the rush, clamoring onto the goal of reaching the buttery end only to burn themselves out in a fire instead, more journey and less destination, but hardcore achievers can’t help their achieving catassing ways. Before I burnt out for good and took my vacation prior to retail I did invest a lot of time into the beta phases and despite my post’s somber tone as if I were giving an AA speech, it wasn’t all saddening times, in fact the exact opposite. Heal me!
I’ll dip into Eve out in a couple of months or towards the summer if nothing drastic surges and somehow cockblocks me. I’d like to dabble so I can write about my crazy space buccaneering misadventures, but I don’t think I see myself playing Eve in the long term. I like the fact that players can meaningfully progress without having to invest a crazy amount of time, and it would indeed be like some refreshing elixir as you say, shots please! Still the downside hampers my enthusiasm, it sounds like a lot of the cool shit involving corps will set you back a lifetime before you can actually feel involved with such strict recruitment policies. Yea, like you said, I can’t blame em’, I would probably do the exactly same thing or suggest it if I were already established in one of the better outfits.
I need to grind out some levels so I can flee and heal myself while you guys are the ones stacking up the gank deaths. I’m almost there, only about ten levels back, not too far behind! squaaaaaaak!
Yeah, ninefingers, you whore. I haven’t seen you on since early Saturday AM, when you said you’d be back “in a bit.”
Whore I am not my friend. I give it away free!
As for joining a Corp, I have a funny story. Last night I was with a group of people that were trying to get into Ars Corp and a member of the Corp. We were in dangerous space and were killing rats (NPC Pirates) and had no trouble from any PKs. Fun fun. While we were going through one astriod belt, I just happened to click on a floating storage container in space. It had the words -TOG- on it. T. O. G. Hmm, that sounds farmilar. I pulled up the ingame corp search system and typed in “The Older Gamers”. Sure enough… they play the game.
http://www.theoldergamers.com is for players 25+. They have MANY groups: WOW, Battlefield 2, Battlefield Vietnam, Counter Strike, Call of Duty 1 and 2, Guild Wars, Eve Online, EQ2, and on and on and on. If you are 25 and older, I would HIGHLY suggest finding them out. They’re a good group of people and usually fairly mature. Good to know you’re not dealing with some pre-teen haxor.
So, I may join them. Dunno, but I’ll definately see where I can end up. Krones, being “useful” in the game is as simple as logging on. At the very lowest level you can kill rats, transport goods, and mine. Mining is boring, but it can make you the $$ you need for ships. I just got skilled in Industrial Ship skills, so I have a HUGE ship that is so as hell but has a HUGE cargo hold. I find me an astroid and turn my ONE mining laser on and then alt tab over and play world of warcraft. Sweetness!
NNNNNNNY
I propose we start our own corp called the theoldestgamers and restrict odd ages and only recruit even ages. I was born on February 29th, a leap year, so I’m really pushing the age of five year mark. Not surprised? well it does radiate into my writing. I’m kidding, but I always love using that as an excuse for my constant prepubescent behavior.
How long does it take to fill up your new pirate ship and how often do you have to tab back and forth? If I do try out EverQuest II, and I do want to try it out, more so than Eve, be awhile though, I’d play on the pvp server.
Depending on the “SIZE” of your deep drilling laser of doom, it varies on time. Since I can only have 1 laser on my BIG ship, it takes a LONG time to fill. That is where mining with more than one player makes the most money. They have more mining lasers, can mine faster and you can fill up your huge ass cargo hold fast.
EQ2 wasn’t that fun for me when I played it, but I heard it has changed so much. Who knows, but right now I can only divide my time between WoW and Eve. Too bad I’m not doing too well with WOW. =(
NNNNY