Divinity 2 - Happiness is...

No "Kill 10 x" quests.

That is right. Not a SINGLE one. And to top it off, I really enjoyed that the game calculated how many of a certain mob it wanted dead in the background, and only told you when the quest was done. I had many quests stating things like "This mob is terrorizing the town, put an end to it...", yet, I never knew how many I needed to kill before the quest was complete...

It has been about 20+ hours so far into the game, and all I can say is...

THANK YOU

Stay tuned for a little report...coming soon.

Funcom - Silence is golden *Redux*

Oh my. Not two months ago I had a post about how discussion of Age of Conan by Devs and Game Director, Craig Morrison, has been slim to none.
Also, the fact no new information on the next patch has been presented, and when it would arrive on Testlive had really broken my resolve. I ended up leaving the game (even though it has been an all time favorite for me).
Luckily, that has changed, as the new patch is in the first iteration on TL (patch 1.06 which includes a guild renown system, new T3 content and more)
Of course this has been on the servers for several weeks now, as it is another of the "Funcom Super Patches", where they try to bring the kitchen sink in with their updates. Too many changes equals months of nothing new going into the game (as an example, for Christmas? ...totally ignored in Age of Conan...when they at least had a small event last year and even one for Halloween this year).

Anyways, all we know is this "super" patch then leads to an elongated period without any new patching or content.

Craig in an infinite wisdom of some sort, decided to update everyone on how things are progressing. This is all well and good. But, along with this, he drops some bad news in with the notice about the chance of PVP Towers being dropped due to time issues. As well, the timeline for the new update is...when it is done. No news is good news? NOT!

Basically the letter is a loss, as nothing shared equals anything of quality.

Now, this of course starts a storm on the forum and we know how this sits with current players.

The fun really begins when Craig decides that he just does not understand why people are so overzealous in their attitude about the letter, and blogs about it. Of course, the damage has already been done, and I think based on this blog post, Craig knows that something is not right.

I explain in the comments on his blog that it is really simple.

We as players do not need you to "sell" us the idea of a great patch, as we are already customers, and all the "political" speech does not help us understand why there has been no content updates or fixes to the game for months now.
We would actually just prefer info on when the patch is hitting TL, if a new iteration of the patch is ready and when it will go to TL, and then finally, tell us WHEN it will go live. If you do not know when it will go live, then just keep us in the dark or discuss something else.

The letter still feels like a "sales" job, and with Craig doing so many interviews and having to be a salesman, I mean, he must think the player will fall for the same thing.

But, I think we know that longevity is not a strong point for Age of Conan now, so they must keep a steady stream of new players rolling in to have any chance of succeeding. Then when they finally get around to patching, they need to hope players who left (ME!) will come back and see if the game is what we thought it was going to be.

But, stop selling the game, and the patch. Quit making Super patches, and send out smaller fixes...oh, and stop dropping promised features and slowing down the game...

Then  maybe you wouldn't have to blog again about how people react to stupid news.

Their mistake - Divinity 2

So, this weekend, my mail ran rather late on Saturday. I decided to wait and check the box on Sunday morning. To my surprise, my pre-order of Divinity 2 was there.

I know this title hit gold quite a few weeks ago, and  was slated for delivery on January 5th, but it looks like my distributor (who I will not name, to eliminate any issues here) screwed up and sent it too early.

I plan to not argue about it, as I loaded this bad boy up. My Sunday was a major win.

My thoughts about the game still hold, and I hope to get a little more in depth after I get further in the game.

With hints of Oblivion, Witcher, Fable 2, Diablo...I have so much to like here. The game is NOT without issues, but the issues are far outweighed by a great bit of storytelling, awesome voice overs and action like crazy.

Like I said, more as it happens.

Hope everyone had a great weekend also. Now, back to work for me.

Cheers

Tis the season...

That I hope everyone is having a holly, jolly.

Recuperating from a great Christmas with family. Catching up on movies (how far behind am I? I watched Wolverine...yea, not much of a movie watcher. Tonight is the latest Harry Potter...lol). Also, had my own Christmas miracle and found out my Mom has been released from the hospital and is on her way back home to Michigan (as she was stranded in Rhode Island with her issue). Now, just praying for a safe flight, seeing as Al Qaeda tried to down a flight to Michigan...ARGH.

Played my butt off in Divinity 2, which I SO, SO cannot wait for. This is truly the type of action RPG I have been wanting. Witcher, Oblivion, Diablo and Guild Wars all rolled into a Fable 2 like package. LOVE it.

And have yet to log back into EQ2.

Yea, EQ2 has officially kinda disappointed us. Downtimes, issues with claim items, learning curves, gathering all have added up to a game we want to like, but will probably let expire after our 60 days are up.

Age of Conan is actually already calling us back. We sure do hope they get patch 1.06 in before the end of January.

Otherwise, time to sit back and have a relaxing weekend, with some shopping, some dining and family time...as that is what it is all about.

Cheers and Happy Holidays

Lord of the Rings Online - And so it came to pass...

Well, my little verse on LOTRO was just posted over at Scaryboosters blog today...a little piece I like to call

"An LOTRO bedtime story…"

Basically since we had our major power outage this past weekend, I really did not get much time to play. But, I made every effort I could to log in on the first day of the free schedule that LOTRO offered, which started on the 17th of December.

And it was dismal. Thus, my little Christmas verse above.

I continue to try and find the love people have for this game, but I just do not grasp it. So many problems pop up (and not "bugs" per se, but concerns over how they decided to make the gameplay, visual quality, etc...), that for me, it is near impossible to even make it through the tutorial.

Is it the lore that people love? Because as an MMO, the gameplay leaves a lot to be desired. As to that "lore", it is weak, thanks to a delivery system for quests being encapsulated within small boxes of teeny fonts.

Speaking of fonts, on a 1080p display, it truly is too small for the normal human eye to read comfortably. You had the capability to change the UI size, but all of the fonts stayed at their set small teeny size 8 levels.

Models have made no progress to be better, with molded faces, painted on outfits and strange rubbery movements (looked like playdoh constantly being stretched) causing me to have fits over how ugly I looked.

Speaking of movements, what is with the broken hip running that makes the characters look like small Mechs running around? Jumping looked silly and running animations were terrible. As well, combat animations were stiff and unbelievable.

All of this would have been fine if gameplay held up, but I really got tired of the quests almost immediately. A game really needs to grab you from the beginning and LOTRO just did not cut it. The tutorial was just oh so, and I felt compelled to log within the first ten minutes. Even the music started to lull me to sleep. The same bits of tinny lutes or horn sounds just was so blah.

I came in with an open mind this time, and played for hours...but, when those hours were spent trying to get a decent playable UI, framerate (one of the few things that DID improve some was performance...but, the popping textures issue still exists) and screen size...I lost all interest when I was told to kill some Midges, and after their deaths, I could not even see their bodies to loot them.

I just do not get it.

So, it is with stockings hung by the chimney with care, I tossed my box of LOTRO heartily into the fireplace with a flare...

I bid you, Goodnight, and good luck trying to pretend that this game is even worth the title of MMO.

Everquest 2 - Why must you hurt me...

Just a quick little note.

Today serves as the third issue my wife has had with Everquest 2 since we started playing...not quite a month even I think.

Login servers went down, and we were locked out. Thus we played something else.

Things are not looking up in the EQ2 arena of gaming. Sucks too, as we always have a blast when we do play. But, I already gave Funcom lip for their less than stellar development of Age of Conan...yet here is a game going on 6 years with continued problems and bugginess.

Now, we debate if our 60 days will be it. Time will tell. For now, just a little /rant needed so I can get that little issue off my chest.

Later

Power Restored

In case anyone has missed it, North Carolina, my home state, had a very nasty snowstorm. Dumping 3 foot overnight, this is quite the record (at least for as long as I have lived here).

This started early Friday with power flickering through the day, so not much got done but work, and a few hours of LOTRO for my upcoming major re-review for Scaryboosters blog.

Several things happened. I lost power early Saturday and have officially been out until today (Tuesday 12/22). Been a cold few days, with us finally moving to a hotel late Sunday.

My time in LOTRO was short lived. But, I did learn something, and when my post appears on Scarybooster, I will share the LOTRO love.

For now, I am just trying to get warm again, booting up PC's and working on getting water running properly and the whole shebang.

Tough camping weekend, but we are alive and that is what matters. My son (who is 11) was a major trooper and has proven to me that in the face of adversity, he truly has the wherewithal to hold up. What, with a week long trip to Michigan and Rhode Island (basically the Eastern half of the United States during my mothers illness) and then no power thus losing access to his PC and Xbox or TV...he instead worked with us and learned how to entertain himself quite well.

Anyways, hopefully back to gaming soon. Luckily, what little time I did have on a PC, I loaded up the new Divinity 2 demo for the PC, and have finally found my action RPG to replace my love of the Witcher with.

I pre-ordered that bad boy.

Later all.

When MMO's Disappoint

Out of all genres of gaming, one seems to consistently have the buggiest and most unreliable code and support.

That would be MMO's.

Last night we did not play our normal game of EQ2 with the family. My wife actually was the one who did not want to play. I decided to ask why she was not into it (as her main complaint she stated she was "Tired"...and men, we all know this is DEFINITELY not the time to ask questions...but I did it anyways).

Her real reason I found out is because EQ2 disappointed her.

Originally this started when we enabled each of our accounts. My son and myself all had these goodies in our claim window. My wifes account was missing quite a few claimable items. So, while my son and I had cloaks running us 25% faster than normal, here was my wife trying to keep up.

I sent this into support, which took about 4 days to handle the issue. But, it was fixed...luckily.

So, we went on our merry way. This past week was exciting as we all were working on the new quest/achievement that EVERYONE gets...the Level 20 quest in 14 days.

We all started at the same time, same day and made all efforts to complete this. On Wednesday night, my son dinged first. I dinged 20, and we all saw a window pop up congratulating us with gold and a trophy and our first real title.

My wife dinged 20...and nothing. We looked at her history, and looked to see if she had the title.

Nothing.

The frustration was just too much for her I think. She even logged in before supper for about 10 minutes and tried to enjoy the game, but finally said that EQ2 disappointed her.

This is one of the reasons she refuses to log into LOTRO, another game with bizarre issues. The laggy hitching issues we always had, no matter what we did (and I ALWAYS have top of the line equipment and keep my systems pristine and well cleaned of junk, yet, we always had this ongoing issue) irritated her. The fact the game had little niggling problems like animations and ugly models. Combat felt unresponsive and the UI just did not seem consistent...she decided she would never play again.

Look at Age of Conan. Still a buggy mess after the multitude of patches. We finally got to the point that during most of our gameplay, if we would run into a problem, we would just laugh and say "We were funcommed again". We also realized that this became more rampant as we reached higher levels. Thus, it was easy to say goodbye to a game that we all loved.

I understand MMO's are large code bases and there are just too many angles to consider when finally launching and running your game. But, when titles like WoW and EQ2 which have been out for years and years still have stupid issues that are unexplainable...how do you tell the standard game player, like my wife, who has played many single player RPG's, or even Guild Wars which consistently ran and displayed no major bugs that would make you want to quit...and help them understand "This is normal".

But, I also need to ask. Why should it be?

I know a lot of people will rant and rave with the stupid comment of "It's only a game". Yet, what would YOU do if you logged in one day and find out that an expansion you payed for was blocked off from you...for no reason, and that content was unaccessible? That happened to ALL of our accounts in EQ2 yesterday when I saw that my login screen which always said 9/9 addons, said 8/9 addons. And when I log into all our accounts management and see that each of us do not have access to the Shadow Odyssey pack, and SOE wants us to pay $20 to have it? Oh brother...another duel with Customer Support.

My wife finally did end up saying she will play again this weekend, but for last night, she had been hurt by a game she was really enjoying.

Why should she even have to feel this way?

Everquest 2 - Thinking of the starter zones.

I did a little tweet marathon on Twitter on what I felt like when I was in each of the starter cities or zones in Everquest 2.

Each area gives me a feeling of something I have read or watched in a movie or on TV in the past (or even visited...hehe).

Here is a reprint of that tweet-a-thon, along with reference links in case you have never heard of the stories, etc.

Qeynos is very easy. It feels very Germanic and Renaissance like. When I am in Qeynos, I feel like I am at a RenFaire.

Kelethin of course is VERY high fantasy, and almost feels cartoon like with it's huge mushrooms. Harry Potter? or Fairyland?

Neriak is a dark world, and it totally feels like the Drow races of Dungeons and Dragons fame. Drizzt comes to mind.

Freeport is old, and feels like a thieves zone. I think of Thieves World or Fafhrd and Gray Mouser.

Gorowyn is very Barbaric, and makes me feel like Conan and Hyboria.

Can you think of variations on this? What do you feel when you visit these starter zones.

And Cheers!

Lord of the Rings Online - Is it me?

Or is it something else? Something more within the game itself that keeps me from thinking it is worth the time or effort to even load up on my PC.

Well, this weekend my decision about LOTRO has been made.

Has it really made progress since launch. Or is it the same old crud I always just wanted to rip my hair out about.

Next week, Scarybooster will be out of town, and needed some bloggers to help him out as he gets his animal change to a cross between a transvestite and a beetle, with lion legs and crows feet (for eyes...). I offered my assistance for a post, but, I needed fodder for my post. Well, Turbine was kind enough to hand me a free weekend (Source) for me to take for a spin, and see if all the time I have been away has mellowed me.

I actually have become kind of easier to please in some arena's. For example, I do not HATE Warhammer Online as much as I did at launch, and they have made progress. I was able to go back to EQ2 and I am having a blast.

But, as many who read my blog know, my LOTRO hate is something more...something seething under the surface, waiting to make me feel all Hobbity in that Turbine special way (i.e: I will ALWAYS feel like I have a full diaper as I run around in their world...)

It's preciousss iz nots so preciousss to me'sss

*Hrmmm*

Anyways...

What was it about LOTRO and this deep seated feeling of gut wrenching horror that drove me away? The forced grouping to complete major quest lines? The horrid performance that made uber hardware feel sluggish with all the hitching? The need to kill so many bears and wolves and boars that the genocide of these creatures became the all encompassing mission? The fact my guy had a size two waist? The fact my female avatars all had hands as large as their heads? Where was the fun and glory of most MMO's? Why did I feel like it was always a "been there, done that" kind of rat race for that next kill 10x quest?

As you can see, I have a lot that I am asking of LOTRO. I did not enjoy the crafting at the time, but I have changed since those times. I also understand the grind concept, and as long as I have my team (the family) the grind seems to disappear. Who knows...maybe grouping may even be fun?

So, this weekend, LOTRO is back on my list of "Try it again" games.

I need to know "Can we ever go back?"

Age of Conan - The giveaway saga continues...

First you offer a free, unlimited to level 20 trial for players (a free game for the best part of the game)..

Then you offer the game box on a magazine cover in a most Eco-Unfriendly way...oh, yea...just for the cost of the magazine...you get AoC retail...FREE.

When will the pain end for Funcom..

Committing Heresy - Dragon Age

Discuss -

I just do not feel like loading up Dragon Age right now.

As a matter of fact, I almost dread it. I seem to like it once I am in, but something holds me back from starting it in the first place. As I look over icons on my desktop, the last game I want to load up is Dragon Age.

Thoughts? Ideas how to get past this (since I already dumped the cash on it...). And I most definitely did not hate it...but, something else makes me falter at the double click...

Cheers

Age of Conan - The odd conundrum...

Every time I leave for a couple of days, some weird Age of Conan news strikes (both bad and good), and this one really takes the cake.

Located here at Fileplanet is a Free Trial, for unlimited usage.

You guessed it, another free trial that never ends. As the page states,,,"Play the first part of the game for free FOREVER!". First WAR and now Age of Conan.

Now, here is where it gets...odd.

First, this offer is "limited", thus, people can only sign up for this until the end of the year. So, why create new files and a new system to lock players into a certain number of levels, and say they can play free FOREVER, but then offer it for only a limited time? STUPID Funcom logic is my guess. But, we also all know...this will change. We are assured, that come next year, this offer will be open to EVERYONE. So, if you are NOT a Fileplanet subscriber, why bother signing up now.

Second, you must PAY for a subscription. "WHAT!"

To play Age of Conan's free trial, you must PAY for the FREE trial. WTF? More logic from stupid people who have NO clue.

Anyways, this is at least a good sign, and I will wait until 2010, so I can start an alt...hehe.

Also. Wonder how that kiddy MMO is going for Funcom. More on that soon.

(EDIT: Well, whaddya know. Looks like they did not try the stupid idea above for very long. Now open to EVERYONE who starts a trial before..Jan 1st, 2010)

On the road again...

As many may have gauged by this frequent blog title...we travel a bit.

We are off for the weekend as we head to Concord North Carolina and to the Great Wolf Lodge.

Our family is hooked on this place, and it is also birthday weekend.

I turn a MASSIVE 47 years old, and my son hits the 11'sies. (We have a two day stretch between our B-Days)

So we make it a weekend of fun this time. But, I will be back next week with some more reporting on the EQ2 adventure.

Everyone have an awesome weekend...I will!

Everquest 2 - Modeling is fun

Yesterday, a small Twitter discussion was had over the quality of the models in EQ2. I, of course in my infinite wisdom, decided to compare the models of LOTRO to EQ2, which started a small storm of "EQ2 models make my eyes bleed" as one person put it.

There is no doubt that when it comes to models for games, EQ2 and LOTRO are just not winners anyways. Especially with us coming from Age of Conan, it is hard to compare their realistic and gorgeous models to any other on the market.

Take The stock models of Clay that EQ2 provides. Those are truly ugly to look at.

Luckily, thanks to an alternate model system, I feel the EQ2 visuals of their models get a boost in quality over LOTRO.

As someone pointed out, the females do have an issue with standing to attention...yet, they visually are more appealing.

Another thing of note is thanks to a lifelike skeletal system, the run animations for EQ2 models and their fighting animations are truly much better. Hand motions for emotes are good, and armor at least looks like it is worn instead of painted on.

LOTRO suffers from some issues of oversized hands, a multitude of ugly female faces (which from my understanding are much better on NPC's than the characters which is just wrong), and males with size two waist...which all detract from the visual quality.

Men also have a terrible issue with beards looking like they are also painted on. Here is a perfect example of the size two waist, painted on spandex armor and painted beard. I really dig the "That 70's show" Ashton Kutcher hairdo also.

But, all of this does not matter if the animations look good...which we again run into an issue where all of the models look like Mechs when they run (they twist at the waist which gives the sensation that they are robots), and combat looks to be done at 30FPS in a 60FPS+ game.

These are all personal beliefs, and would finally all not matter if the games are fun. EQ2 has so much to do, and keeps you occupied that a majority of the time, thinking about how your model looks becomes a moot point...

We are having fun.

LOTRO never did this for us in our household.

I have in the past really griped about LOTRO, so everyone knows my views. I will just leave with what my wife says when I ask her if we should go back and give it another try...

"I am sorry, but I want to feel and look pretty while having fun. LOTRO offered me neither of those".

Everquest 2- Getting to grips

If there is one thing Everquest 2 does NOT do for the player...it is hold their hand.

Coming back, there is a lot I remember, and more is coming back to me. But, some things leave me wondering where to start.

The abundance of things you need to do while leveling is truly insane. From XP for levels to the AA system, crafting XP, to leveling up each type of skill (for example, if you do not cast certain spells enough, you do not level those abilities within themselves...yea, I know...convoluted).

But, this must be what makes the game FUN. Also, I am thinking that EQ2 is the best game for future Alzheimer's patients, as the number of things you must remember, and how it makes the brain work, is phenomenal!

We are close to finishing a new achievement the game gives you, the race to level 20. Finish in a week and you get a special prize. I am level 15, the wife 14 and my son...16. Yea, he is rocking.

As to my son, he has started an alt already. We who have played EQ2 know the alt addiction that can happen in this game, as the classes are so varied.

He is playing a Monk as a secondary right now. Figured that kung fu stuff would rock his world.

So far, the game is running great and we are having a blast in Antonica (that region really brings back memories). We have started on the writs for the guild to help level her. We are level 27 and have a long ways to go. We are almost level 20 in crafting and then we can start the work orders there as well.

Great to be back in Norrath.

Everquest 2 - Old accounts enabled

Just seen someone mention this on Twitter. So, I went to check it out on the wifes old account. It was enabled and available for 25 days...so, we can grab all her cash and items and put them in the Guild bank.

Love it when they do this for EQ2.

I have some more info coming soon and some screenies are starting to pile up. Hope to post those soon.

Cheers.

You Take the Good, You Take the Bad...

You take them all and there you have...EQ2.

Wow is all I can say. Talk about blasting through some hours. I think we accumulated about 4-6 hours of EQ2 yesterday. Myself, the wife and son took times to log in, quest, level up, gather resources, craft, get shinies and play with the UI to get it all set up.

We re-enabled the Guild, Simple Complexities, which should be a blast working on leveling that up...

As you can see...we had so much fun.

But, as I sit down today, I want to give that good ole..."Hey, I am back. Lets talk about YOU for a bit and where you are in your life" talk to EQ2.

The Good

I am so glad you have kept your same style. You feel familiar to me, and that helps me get to feeling all funny inside. You know, that good funny feeling as I remember those old times.

But, I do see you have been working out some. What is this cool new "achievement" feature that keeps standing out to me. Yea, I know the other girls are doing it, but hey, you do it very well.

I also see you have been working on making sure you are more serious about running well. The way you use those multiple cores and moved those shadow maps to usability on the CPU or GPU...well... it makes me all giddy.

Also, thank you for all the presents you gave me with that "Complete Collection". I really appreciate that.

The Bad

I just wish you would change your clothes a little. You continue to wear some old fashions. That UI is just dreadful. There are some new items I see, but overall...it feels so "80's".

I just had to think of you with an alternate model still, as I really like those better than your original looks. Clay modeling is so passee`.

You still feel a little confined to me as well, but I know that cannot change. Luckily I forget how boxed in you make me feel...so I will accept that.

BTW, you really have gained weight. And do you realize it took me over 30 minutes to load your DVD, and I STILL see you gain another whopping 4.6 GIGS of patching. That sure does NOT feel so "Complete".

The Ugly

I am sorry, but why should I feel so slow and like my system will crash after playing with you. I have today's latest tech, and other games we should not mention (Yea, you know, that...other guy...named Conan), well, he doesn't run like that. And I mean...really...he is TWICE your size!

But, I tell you what. I will accept those "Bads" as the "Goods" make me feel happy inside.

Lets go play now.

Simple Complexities LIVES!!!

All I gotta say.

Hmmm...Seems we are a Level 27 EQ2 guild. Better get to work and reach 30 with our super group.

Woot.

What is this? Two posts?

And in one day?

ARGH...the insanity.

Anyways, first a heartfelt thanks to everyone with their grats on the game to play. I really feel invigorated again.

Also, as you may notice...here I go again, with the redux of the website. So, be prepared for the changes as they happen. Longasc, in my previous post, commented that maybe I need to kill my single game focus...and he is right. My best stuff was when I was looking at gaming in general, and I really enjoyed the commentary and of course...the comment-ary (uh, you know...people's comments?...lol).

Anyways, another thing lately is my playing focus for games has been with the family. Thanks to all of us having the same likes in regards to RPG's, Renaissance periods, and Fantasy overall...I am looking to focus on how everyone in the family is about the games we play.

We have added my son as an avid gamer, and he is doing an excellent job. The fact our 11 year old RAIDED in Age of Conan should give a clue on how well he is doing.

So, from time to time, I may actually talk to them about adventures we do within games, to get their point of view instead of mine and blog about that.

Should be fun.

This takes me back to the subtitle of my blog. The "Simple and Complex" part will always stand...as that is what it is all about. Gaming can be as simple or as complex as life can be, so this works.

For now, my subtitle is in between the RPG. It seems to fit where I am in the genre (single player and MMO games...in between a rock and a hard place maybe?) and makes me think of discussing the games more so than "scratching the surface". There seems to be more to playing games now that brings about emotion and feeling toward the genres.

Anyways, thanks to everyone who reads my ramblings. You know, I think I need to bring back my RSS feed and stuff. Lets see how that goes. Also, working on a header image. Should be fun to break into the Photoshop skillz again...hehe.

Cheers

And the winner is?

Everquest 2!!

That is right. After much deliberation, the family has chosen it's "interim" game, and that is EQ2.

Originally it started as trying to decide what to even do. I had been feeling kind of down with life in general thanks to my Mothers condition, Christmas not being a grand affair this year due to going broke helping my family, I was just not in the mood AT ALL to play anything. Things started to pile up on me, where I debated about playing the Xbox 360, but my sons Xbox goes and dies. I wish for him to have the system, and I was not really in the mood yet to play it, so I handed mine over to him. (I have also been unimpressed with the RPG collection available on the 360 anyways).

I logged into various games, like WAR and DDO. Yet, they just did not grab me. But, then I was graced by a star. A ...Stargrace if you will.

Over at MMOQuests.com, I saw her post, a little piece, a simple video explaining what she liked about EQ2 compared to WoW.

Then the nostalgia hit.

Since I have been playing MMO's, only 3 have kept me occupied and happy enough to play them for extended periods. Guild Wars has kept me for years and years, but I have played it so much, it just does not call me now. Age of Conan is the longest subscription MMO for myself (and my wife), but as we have seen, Funcom just has NO clue how to run a game, and I needed to talk with my wallet for a while (I will return, but probably not until a lot happens change wise).

Then came Everquest 2. The 3rd longest game we ever played, and we had a blast. Just like any MMO, after an extended period of time, everyone needs a break, and after 8 months we had moved on.

But, now we have a difference. Our son.

So, after watching the little piece by Stargrace, I suggested it to the wife. She actually seemed interested, and we thought it may just be the two of us again. Last night, I loaded up the demo to see how it felt. During that time, my son watched and asked about the game. Since he has a growing interest in MMO's, well, we let him in. As he saw and heard all of the things we could do...decent combat, gathering and crafting (which he enjoyed doing..), housing (which he really liked) and SHINIES!!....he was sold. So were we as we watched him play. The music lulled me in to that nostalgic feel, and the game instantly became familiar to both myself and my wife (who was slightly napping, but as my son started to play, actually woke up and interjected with her own commentary and suggestions...lol)

The second selling point is what is called the "Complete" collection. You get all of the game...every expansion, every addon AND 60 days of gameplay (not just 30)...all for 20 BUCKS. WOW, what a deal.

This helped us make the next decision...start from scratch...EVERYONE.

Both myself and the wife have higher level characters. But, one thing is for sure. EQ2 was never about the race to level, but reaching the things to do AS you level. The wife has already started discussing gathering and crafting, I started discussing housing....well, you get the idea. The game is NOT just about questing and killing.

So, we should be able to enter Norrath by Monday!!

Now, who thinks I need to change the title of my blog?

What is a "Knee Jerk Reaction"?

This letter from Craig Morrison on some ideas to help alleviate issues with Casters in Age of Conan.

Basically the change is to take casters and remove their usage of Stamina potions (from certain caster classes) to help balance their skill in PvP, due to their capability to use stuns or roots, and run away to blast the melee player.

This of course takes zero account of PvE...but PvE be damned, so that the melee players will be happy in PvP.

As an added bonus, all CC skills like the stuns and roots will not be usable except in closer quarters...thus eliminating the other issue of cast to root from far away, then blast the melee player.

So, instead of maybe bringing the power of the melee class more in line with the caster, they instead will gimp the casters to thus make it more "fair" to PvP melee.

I am all for balance, but this is the classic example of "Knee Jerk" if I have ever seen it.

If you check the forums, you can find hundreds of threads (I do not exaggerate) of major discussions from players on how to fix the balance. All are better than this move, which shows ZERO skill on Funcoms part, and really truly shows us...Funcom has no skill at developing a game or how to cater to the players needs.

The worst part is this move takes two classes, the Heralds of Xotli and the Dark Templar, both caster classes as well, and lets them keep their stamina pots AND mana usage.

In so many words, I present the two new OP classes.

Anyways, enjoy the thread linked above. Seems there is a major divide on who likes it and who doesn't. Take a wild guess who does...