What goes here?

It seems like so many people have been writing “2007 in Review” posts over the last couple of days.  This morning, as I sat down to make my first post in a week, I debated doing one myself.  But then I started to wonder, “What all would I have to say?”

The answer was, “Not much.”  Still, the thought came to me that if I happen to still be doing this site one year from today, it might be kind of fun to look back and compare how 2008 compared to 2007.

With that in mind, here is my 2007 in Review… to the best of my recollection.

January 2007- I was entering my 3rd month at my new job in my new city.  I still was not overly happy or comfortable here and, if memory serves, I was sick then too with a very similar ailment.  I was playing EQ1, but my guild that I really loved was in the process of imploding… mostly due to frustration over low raid attendance.  Late in the month, The Harrowing would end up calling it quits and, with that, I would log off of EQ1 for what may have ended up being my final time.

February 2007- With the closing of The Harrowing and the cancelling of my EQ1 account, I dove back into Star Wars Galaxies.  For a while, I was having more fun in that game than I had experienced since launch.  People seemed to be returning to the game and my guild was very active running events.  I tried to keep tabs with some of my friends from The Harrowing to see what they might do next and even got a few of them over into SWG for a short while.

March 2007 through May 2007- Still mostly just playing SWG and trying to find my peace in a new city.  Around April, I began feeling dissatisfied with SWG again due to the lack of new content entering the game.  With more than a year since the last expansion and no new expansion even in the works, the game was becoming stale and repetitive.  In late April/early May, I finally cancel my SWG accounts.

May 2007- Mostly out of boredom and a need for something to do, I begin the first version of this website over on Google’s blogsite.  I didn’t have much to talk about with regards to games except to retell old experiences… which was fine since I was mostly writing it for old game friends and old friends from home to read.  It was also during this time that I started reading other people’s blogs and starting to feel a growing interest in checking out EQ2 once again.

June 2007 to October 2007- During this time, I moved over to WordPress.  I continued writing about nothing in general… mostly just rehashing old experiences in EQ1 with some SWG stories mixed in.  I waxed a bit about upcoming games and bashed on Warcraft a bit, but I seriously began wondering if my online gaming days were coming to an end.

October 2007- I reactivated my EQ2 account for the first time since launch month.  After a little searching, I found one of my original EQ1 guild leaders over on Unrest and began that friendship once again.  He got me an invite to his guild and I found a home that is very similar in many respects to the old EQ1 guild that I had the most fun with.  A few minor frustrations aside, I am really glad to have found these people.

November 2007- I really began diving into EQ2 and, for the first time ever, enjoyed a new game without looking back and trying to find reasons to compare it to EQ1.  During the winter months, I kept my eyes on games like Tabula Rosa, but just never really found my interest heading anywhere else.

December 2007- As I near raiding level, I realize that I am about to enter into a new area of EQ2.  In a strange sort of way, this is what I have been working towards for the past 2 and a half months.  I find that I have mixed feelings about what lies ahead.  If I end up not enjoying the raiding game in EQ2, I wonder if the game will continue to hold interest for me.  I am a (casual) raider at heart.  I enjoy the climb through the game… seeing new places and having new experiences, but I absolutely love raiding.  It isn’t the lure of items that draws me to the raiding game but the excitement of a difficult encounter and the feeling of besting it beside friends and comrades.

As the final hours of 2007 tick away, I wonder at the coming year.  When I look back on 2008, will I still be playing EQ2?  Will EQ2 turn out to be another SWG… a game that can only hold my interest for a month here and there?  How will the games being released in 2008 fair in the marketplace and what will their impact be on the current games?

When I first stepped foot into the world of Norrath in November of 2000, I had no idea that 8 years later, I would still be walking her lands… if in an altered future version.  I had no idea that I would still be playing any MMO 8 years later.  Looking back, it is pretty amazing to see the progression that MMO’s have gone through… and frustrating in some ways as well.  There have been trends of movement in game design that are both good and bad and, as we move into another new year, I can’t help but wonder what the future might hold.

Warp speed… for a snail maybe

Well, the Christmas week of vacation has come and gone and I am now back at work… for a whole day before we close for New Years.  Odd.

Last week, I both accomplished a lot and nothing… if that makes any sense.  I am still sick, so 3 weeks and counting.  Christmas Day, the sickness took a turn for the worse and, well, let’s just say that I wasn’t full from Christmas dinner for long.  Of course, as if that weren’t bad enough, I was traveling on Christmas day… 2 hours each way.  The drive back was so far from enjoyable that I can’t even describe it.

I am still coughing like a man possessed, but at least I can now keep food down.  Eating it makes me feel sick, but it stays in place.

So, other than the great illness of 2007 and a day trip home on Christmas day, I didn’t do much the last week.  I played some EQ2, but my definition of “playing” seems to vary drastically from so many other people.  I didn’t do some made push to 80.  In fact, I didn’t even try all that hard to level at all.  I ended up making a couple of levels, but those just came as a by-product of the actual playing that I did.

I honestly have no idea where I was when I left off last week, so here is just the run-down.

I got to explore a few instances in Fay with some friends.  I got to do some exploring in Kingdom of Sky.  I finally got to do some of the storyline in the Splitpaw Saga… even though it is all gray and I don’t get the rewards.  The actual doing was still very enjoyable.  I spent a TON of time harvesting nodes for crafting.  I leveled my carpenter to 47, my jeweler to 40, my armorsmith to 37, my provisioner to 27, my woodworker to 29, my tailor to 25 and my alchemist to 23.

My dirge is now level 67 and just about 20% from 68.

I moved from the Qeynos 3-room house to the big Hall residence and busted out some rare carpenter combines to try to reduce the status.  I did a little decorating… although I know that much of it will be replaced as I can make higher and higher level stuff.

I also finally completed my Hadden’s Earring HQ quest.  Yeah… I hung on to that one for a while, but I really wasn’t much in the mood to figure out Nektropus Castle.  Once I got moving in there though, I really enjoyed the zone and the story.  I discovered a couple of other quests there that I’m going to go back and do for fun… probably when I head back to do my Mask of the Deceiver HQ.

I also finally got help and finished my carpet quest… and have already realized that I hate the thing.  Back in EQ1, one sure way to annoy me was to cast levitate on me.  One sure way to get me to leave a raid was to require levitate as a buff for that raid.  I understood that it was necessary at times.  I also understood that the constant bouncing made me sick to my stomach.  Being on the flying carpet mount seems to have the same effect, so after riding it once, it is now in the bank.

Tonight, I will not be going out for New Year’s Eve.  I probably wouldn’t even if I weren’t sick still.  What I am is 36 and going out just really isn’t all that fun anymore.  I am not sure if my martial arts studio is holding classes or not this evening.  My thinking is that they probably aren’t, but I’m going to call and see.  Even though I should wait until I’m well, I will go tonight if they are on.  After that, I will probably spend the rest of the evening back in EQ running some Kingdom of Sky quests with a guild buddy who actually shares my interest in playing the game for the fun of it rather than the need to be max level with all the best gear right this very second.

That’s really it… a week’s worth of silence summed up in just over 700 words.

I didn’t figure anyone would want to hear about the “getting sick” part in much detail though and that is truly what occupied the majority of this past week.

Happy New Year, all… and if you are one to go out and celebrate, do so safely.

Looking forward

I kind of like what Darren did here.  I would like to do something equally cool with this site, but truth be told, I have no clue where it is going from one day to the next.  It’s just kind of how my brain works I guess.  However, in the spirit of the idea, here are some ramblings.

I don’t really make gaming goals.  I’m not sure why exactly.  A game is just a game to me.  I have some things that I would like to accomplish in a game and some milestones that I would like to hit, but I don’t really consider them goals.  To me, the very word “goals” smacks of some yardstick with a date stamp on it saying “I need to accomplish X event by Y time.”  I am more into a casual approach than anything.

However, if I were to set some goals, they would be something along the lines of… reach level 80 on my dirge and settle into some level of comfort playing him rather than the current feeling of obligation.

That’s really it game wise.  There are no games scheduled for 2008 that I am looking forward to or even watching at this point, so my 2008 gaming will probably be either a continuation of EQ2, a return to SWG, or a hiatus from MMO gaming completely… which would mean a hiatus from gaming.  I’m not a console gamer and I have discovered since entering into the MMO realm that I have a hard time going back to a single player game.

Personal goals for the coming year…

The main one would revolve around being able to get into and stick with this martial arts class.  So far, I have pulled 2 major muscles, broken a couple of toes and gotten very, VERY sick.  I missed every class this week because I am still fighting this cold.  Because of Christmas next week, they are only holding classes on Friday.  I had BETTER be well by then.

Beyond martial arts, I also practice Yoga and I would like to get a bit more serious about this.  It is something that I really enjoy and it does wonders by way of calming me at the start of the day and then unwinding the tension at the end of the day.

I would like to spend more time writing.  This site got me to writing some again, but I used to spend more hours a day writing than I did just about anything else.  Now, I’m lucky to get in a solid half hour.  Writing is a hobby that I have enjoyed since I was about seven years old and it is driving me crazy that I have let it fall to the curb.

I would like to travel more.  For the last dozen years or so, my “vacations” have essentially been me taking a week off from work and sitting at home.  Money has been part of the issue, but there has also been some hesitation at traveling alone.  I have always thought that trips were more enjoyable if they are taken with someone, but they can be fun solo events as well… and solo trips would definately be better for the soul than sitting in an apartment for a solid week.  Depending on where it is held, my first excursion into traveling again might just be SOE Fan Faire this year.  You know… baby steps.  Start out by heading to a gathering of ‘my people’ and see where the road leads.

Finally, and probably most importantly, I really hope that I can make myself be a better brother/uncle/son/friend this coming year to the other people in my life.  I tend to lose myself in my own little corner of the world and then forget to reach out to others and see how they are doing.  When I hear from them, it is like a light just went off and my brain says, “Oh yeah!  I’ve been meaning to get in touch with them.”  I would like to shock them for a change by being the one to initiate contact.

That’s really it.  Not a very impressive list, but it is what it is.  I’m writing it now because I’m not sure how much I’ll be posting for the next 8 days or so.  I am going to try to sleep as much as possible over the next couple of days and force my body to heal.  Christmas morning, weather permitting, I will be on the road at 5 AM.  My sister, her husband, their 2 boys, my aunt and uncle and 2 cousins are all converging at my father’s house and I am going to do my best to get there.  It will just be a day trip and I will be driving back that night, but it is just something I need to do.  Most likely though, I’ll be pretty worn out from the suicide trip and spend much of Wednesday sleeping and recovering.  As for the rest of the week through New Years, I’m not sure what all I’ll be doing.  Mostly trying to get my protesting body to stay well and healthy I’m sure.

Anyway, if there are no posts here for a few days, I hope that everyone has a safe and happy Christmas surrounded by friends and family.  If you are traveling, I hope you will stay safe and warm and that the road you are on will see you promptly to your destination.

The Longest Day of the Year

When I was a child, no other day of the year extended quite as long as Christmas Eve.  The promise of nice shiney new loot lay just out of reach of time and seconds took hours.  It was the day of heightened extrasensory perceptions of mother-folk when longing glances at the tree led to tentative steps forward followed by a shrieking, “GET AWAY FROM THE TREE!!!”  She could be in another state and she would still know if my grubby mits touched a single package under the tree.

Today, as a grown-ass man of 36 hovering between maturity and outright retardation, the ‘longest day of the year’ has been demoted from Christmas Eve to, well, today.  Why you might ask?  Because, today is my last working day of the year.  Today is the day when the last 11 months of patience and hording my second week of vacation time finally pay off and where, as of 5 PM today, I am off until January 2.

And I have NOTHING to do.

The boss, who has been here much longer than I have, took great pleasure in rubbing in the fact that he had 1 more week or horded time than me and began his vacation last Friday.  One of my co-workers, who didn’t quite have enough time, took today, Monday and Wednesday off.  It is down to just me and two other guys.

And we are all bored.

We have engaged in such time worthy activities today like digging up old badge photos of others in the building and creating mock-up WANTED post office posters and hanging them up all over the building.  We have completely torn down everything in the boss’s cubical, rehung all of his furniture upside down, and replaced all of his decorations upside down.  The guy who took today off… his cube has been sealed with wrapping paper and filled with the last 3 months of paper shred.  The microwave in the break room has been rigged with a left-over disembodied head from Halloween.

In short, we have done all we can think of to amuse our immature asses…

And it is only 10:15.

Any ideas that can keep us going until 5 are likely to result in real property damage.

In order to forestall anything that could result in our arrest, I tried to plan ahead a bit.  I brought my personal laptop up here this morning along with a small library of DVD movies… Army of Darkness, Office Space, PCU, Nothing to Lose and Oh Brother, Where Art Thou.  The problem is that I had forgotten that I had loaded up that laptop with LINUX some months back, so I am currently reloading it with XP.

In the meantime, I have done my normal daily surfing of my various favorite websites and blogs.  It seems that there are a number of recurring themes going around right now… one of which are lists of top 10 MMO’s you have played.

Personally, I haven’t played 10 MMO’s, so I’ll just list each that I have played in order of enjoyment and state why they fall where they do.

1. Everquest.  This was my favorite MMO to date.  Mostly, my enjoyment of EQ came pre-Luclin.  I felt there were too many elements introduced with Luclin that changed the dynamic of the game.  Also, it was the release of Luclin that really changed the EQ community.  Prior to Luclin, most guilds got along well enough with each other unless they were in competition to monopolize Sleeper’s Tomb, but the release of Luclin really brought the concept of guild blocking to the forefront and the community began to fall apart.

2. Dark Age of Camelot.  I didn’t play DAoC for long.  The release time was just inconvenient for me.  My EQ addiction was still running too high for me to really get into DAoC.  What I saw, I really liked and enjoyed and I wish I had given it more of a change.

3. Original release of Star Wars Galaxies.  Yes, original SWG had some major issues, but the game structure was truly unique and the customization options for every aspect of the game was so far ahead and beyond anything we have seen before or since.

4. EQ2.  This game would rate higher on the list, but I am still kind of new to it.  I played it at launch and thought it was terrible.  The improvements over time have vastly improved this game though and I think it is starting to near where it should have been at release.  The community is strong and, for the most part, quite mature and friendly.

5. SWG CU era.  The combat upgrade was something that many people were looking forward to.  Combat in SWG had gotten out of hand.  Armor and buffs had reached a quality to where nothing in the game presented any dangers any longer.  The hardest creatures in the game could be soloed by a newly created toon with zero skills… so long as they had armor and buffs.  However, the CU took things a bit too far in the opposite direction.  It also introduced the really crappy particle effects and light shows for special moves that really have no place in SWG.

6. Vanguard.  I have never looked as forward to a game as I did Vanguard… and never been so supremely disappointed.  I think the game is stunningly beautiful and the game play is decent.  However, aside from the diplomacy game, Vanguard didn’t really introduce anything new and the bugs and problems were off the scale.  I honestly couldn’t see how the released product could have possibly represented the 6 or 7 years that went into the game.

7. SWG- NGE era.  SWG was floundering.  The CU was supposed to help repair it, but instead, it caused SWG to sink even further.  Something drastic had to be done.  The NGE was something drastic.  Unfortunately, it was also an incredibly bad idea.  In my opinion, the NGE did nothing but turn SWG into a console game with crappy controls, a crappy interface, and more bugs than you could count.  The NGE removed all of the elements that made SWG truly unique and good and kept all of the elements that made it a bad game.  It replaced all of the good with more bad and just turned SWG into a very poorly designed FPS game.  Post NGE and to this day, the only elements I still find enjoyable in SWG is the space game and the robust player housing system.

8. World of Warcraft.  This game only makes the list because I have no more games to put on here.  I hated this game.  What I appreciated about Warcraft was the polish, but nothing more.  The graphics made me sick to my stomach, the hand-holding gameplay made me feel like I was playing some game designed for a pre-school classroom, and the community made me feel like they weren’t quite ready to start pre-school and that the game might be too advanced for them.  I tried it.  I gave it an honest run.  In truth, I was looking forward to this game nearly as much as I was looking forward to Vanguard.  I followed the development of it from the day it was announced until the day it was released.  I picked it up on release day and spent my free month trying like hell to find even 1 thing I liked about the game.  I never did and I am very happy to say that I no longer even own a copy of the game.

And that’s all I’ve got.  I never tried AC, AC2, UO, LOtRO, or any of the other initials.  Nothing else ever appealed to me.  I wish that I could say that I was looking forward to something like Conan or Warhammer or any of the others that people are anxiously awaiting, but there isn’t anything on the horizon that holds any interest for me either.  Hopefully EQ2 will hold my interest for a while yet or it will be increasingly difficult to think up inane topics for this site. 

Well, shoot.  Writing this out didn’t kill nearly enough time… only about 10 minutes.  It may be time to go sabatoge someone else’s desk.  With the number of hours left in this day… no one is safe.

Progress happens one funeral at a time

I admit that I haven’t read the full articles and, as a result, really have no idea of the implications, but any time I hear or read that a company is going to introduce a system for sanctioned buying and selling of in game items and money for real world money, I get pissed.

I realize why companies are interested in it.  The buying and selling of virtual goods for real world money is a huge business… and I am constantly amazed that it is.  Why is it huge?  That can be answered with 1 word.

Laziness.

People are lazy.  They don’t want to level, so they buy a pre-leveled character.  They don’t want to work and save up money for a certain item, so they buy the item or the money to buy it.  It all comes back to instant gratification.  People don’t want to play.  They want to have it all and have it all now.

Companies need to find a way to put a stop to this type of behavior.  Instead, they are sitting back trying to find ways to get their hands on some of the money being made by those already doing it.

If this system ends up going into effect and lands across the boards, I will be done with MMO’s.  One of the draws of gaming for me is the work involved in building a character.  The more work I invest in the character, the better he becomes.  All RMT’s do is turn it into a “He with the biggest bank account wins” type of deal and I outgrew that shit in high school.  Personally, I can’t understand why anyone would want to pay for a game that they aren’t going to play and then pay even more so they don’t have to play it to greater degrees.

People work awfully hard at being lazy.