Puzzle Quest Complete

Last night I completed Puzzle Quest with my level 46 druid. Fun game. The ending was less climactic then expected, but a good game none the less. I strongly recommend Puzzle Quest. Especially if you have a portable game device like a DS because Puzzle Quest is good for filling those little gaps of time. For example, last week I took my son to the dentist. I could either read magazines filled with celebrity gossip and holiday recipes or save the world from evil. Uh, easy choice. I got a few weird looks, but they're just jealous.

If we bought Puzzle Quest instead of renting it from GameFly, I'd be more inclined to play it again with a different character class. There were side quests I skipped, and I'd like to explore the spell research feature more. When they come out with Puzzle Quest 2, I'll most likely buy it. I'd be surprised if there wasn't a sequel to this game.

Puzzle Quest and LotRO Crafting

My son scored big points with me this weekend. The mailman dropped off the latest game from GameFly and it was Puzzle Quest for the Nintendo DS. Good boy.

If you haven't heard, Puzzle Quest is an addictive blend of RPG and puzzle genres. Just Google for "puzzle quest review" or "puzzle quest impression" and you'll find plenty of articles and commentary on the game. I'm playing a druid and having fun with his mix of direct damage, healing, and control spells. If a game appeals to ages 12 and 34, you have a good game. The only turn off is misclicking gems with the stylus. Frustrating to get penalized for a misclicked illegal moved only to have my enemy get a sweet four-gem combo.

This weekend after the kids were off to bed, I'd play Puzzle Quest for an hour or so. After that it was Lord of the Rings Online. Pluck is finishing up the last few quests in the Shire. Last night I was in the perfect PUG. Never thought I would put those to words in the same sentence. (Googling "perfect pug" fetches some odd results). I play a hunter, and I was joined with a guardian that knew how to tank and a minstrel that knew how to heal. We knocked out quite a few group quests. That was the best threesome since... well...

I also spent some time advancing Pluck's crafting skills. I took woodsman for him so he can make his own bows. Over the past week I've been collecting wood and hides and dropping them in the bank vault. Do you know how boring it is watching a progress bar repeat several hundred times? Luckily I have Puzzle Quest. So while Pluck processed a mountain of materials, I leveled my druid in Puzzle Quest.

Turbine lifted the crafting system from World of Warcraft, made some small improvements, and dropped it into LotRO. The only difference I see so far are mastery options and apprentice/journeyman/master levels. Nice but nothing to change the boring set it and forget it type of crafting.

I KAN HAZ 40 KWESTS?

The quest tracker in Lord of the Rings Online has a limit of 40. Forty? Really?

Yes, old news to every other gamer on the intrawebs. I'm showing up way late for this party, but LotRO is what I'm playing so LotRO is what I'm blogging.

When it comes to the number of quests available to the player at once, RPGs range from one quest to many quests. Diablo 2 was linear. You had one quest followed by another and another and another (except for a couple minor side quests). World of Warcraft's quest log started at 20 and expanded to 25 in the Burning Crusade. LotRO ups the ante to 40. What's next?

The advantage of one quest at a time is that your character IS at the center of a world-changing story. No collecting bits of woodland creatures to make Farmer Bob's stew. But I find those "big story" games too restrictive. I felt boxed in when I played Titan Quest. Like I was being led around. I want to explore a world and select from many available quests. I want to make the choices for my character.

At the other end of the spectrum are games with almost too many quests. I'm overwhelmed by the number of quests Pluck has collected in the Shire in such a short time. A 40 quest limit strikes me as exteme. I hit the quest limit in WOW a few times, but only because I hadn't cleared out the old gray stuff. How am I going to manage 40 active quests? I'll have to hold planning sessions before I play LotRO.

Then it hit me... I don't need to fill my quest log. What I have is more freedom. I can take on as many or as few quests as I feel comfortable. Tonight I'm going to try something new. Instead of grabbing every quest possible, I will take two to four at a time and focus on completing them. Not very efficient, but a self-imposed slower pace is a good thing. I don't want to fall in to my old bad habits again.

The title of the post? I have a soft spot for LOLCATS. A guilty pleasure. Avril doesn't understand it. I'm a loser, baby.

LotRO Prep - Roleplay and Servers

I'm on the fence about roleplaying in Lord of the Rings Online. The inner geek in me wants to develop and explore the story of a character in Middle Earth. The casual gamer in me wants to enjoy the game without troubling about being in character or out of character.

When I was a youngster I roleplayed in a few different gaming groups. One D&D group was heavy on the roleplaying, another D&D group was mixed light roleplaying and hack-n-slash, and the Car Wars group was all about the game mechanics and blowing up stuff. My characters ranged from pious clerics to drunken hooligans.

More recently I played Neverwinter Nights. I loved the community created mods. I joined a few RP groups online, but had a mixed bag kind of experience. Adventuring was fun, but the features to support roleplay felt clunky when compared to the flexibility of roleplaying in person.

I never roleplayed in World of Warcraft. Well. Not true. I'd drop into character for a moment or two. But more for a spot of humor than anything else. WOW doesn't feel like a RP game to me. Maybe if I ever went back, I'd give it shot for something different.

Since I'm not sure about roleplaying in LotRO, I'll put it on the back burner until I feel comfortable with the game. No point rushing it. RP will happen when it happens. I should, however, roll my toons on a RP server, so I can RP some time in the future.

According to the official LotRO Lorebook:

Although all servers are technically considered roleplay (RP) servers, Landroval has been long-considered as the "unofficial" roleplay server, so a larger proportion of actual roleplayers and even RP-oriented guilds can be found on Landroval.

So. There we have it. The only RP server. Simple decision then. I will create my characters on the Landroval server.

I hope the name "Harry Balz" is available. That was the name of my barbarian character when I was 14-years-old. Obviously joking.

Quick links to the LotRO prep series:
LotRO Prep - Intro
LotRO Prep - Race and Class Combos

LotRO Prep - Race and Class Combos

Today I'm pondering what race and class combos to play in Lord of the Rings Online. While I enjoy playing several alts, it would be silly to think I could play (or would want to play) every possible race/class combination in the game.

My plan is to start with a class that is simple to play, so I can focus on learning the game controls and mechanics. Later I will start alts so I can experience each race's starting zone and try out different classes. Over time one of these characters will hook me (hopefully) and become my main.

If you've played LotRO before, I encourage you to comment with your advice on what you'd recommend as good race/class combos for me. I know first hand that how a company describes a class in their marketing materials can be radically different than how the class is implemented in the game.

[Sorry in advance if this post rambles...I went home sick, drank much cold medicine, and just woke up from a 3 hour nap.]

If this were any other RPG and I had the same choices for race, I would start a human or elf. But this is LotRO, so I'm starting a hobbit. Simple choice really. The Tookish side of me wants to explore the Shire and roam its borders.

I'm also interested in playing a dwarf. I love Tolkien's portrayal of Durin's folk in the Hobbit. They have a rich history of hardship, greed, and revenge. I'm curious how Turbine interpreted this in an MMO.

This is so unlike me. I don't play short races like halfings, gnomes, dwarves, kender, or whatever. But in LotRO my first two choices are hobbits and dwarves. Go figure.

My choices for race in order.

1. Hobbit
2. Dwarf
3. Elf
4. Man

Selecting class is more difficult. I can start by dropping Burglar and Guardian to the bottom of the list. I never enjoyed playing stealthy types like rogues or thieves. Also, plate-wearing tanks is low on my list of likes. This leaves five classes.

Over many years of playing RPGs I gravitate towards a few basic types of characters:

• Ranged DPS (Sorcerer in Diablo 2, Mage/Hunter in WOW)
• Healer (Cleric in D&D, Priest in WOW)
• Pets (Necromancer in Diablo 2, Hunter in WOW)
• Melee DPS Hybrid (Jedi Sentinel in KotOR, Fighter/Cleric Hybrid in Neverwinter Nights)

What LotRO classes match up with those basic types of characters? I'm looking here for my info.

• Ranged DPS: Hunter
• Healer: Minstrel
• Pets: Loremaster
• Melee DPS Hybrid: Captain

Captain is limited to Man, which means my Loremaster will be an Elf. This leaves the Hobbit and Dwarf to sort out. Playing a healer as my first character sounds risky, so I will start with a Hunter instead. DPS is always a good starter. Here is the list of characters I will play:

1. Hobbit - Hunter
2. Dwarf - Minstel
3. Elf - Loremaster
4. Man - Captain

Okay. That was easier than I expected. Now, I'd like your input about this plan for race/class combos. I'll also browse the forums for player recommendations (assuming LotRO's forums are less inane and caustic than WOW's).

Quick links to the LotRO prep series:
LotRO Prep - Intro
LotRO Prep - Roleplay and Servers

LotRO Prep - Intro

Seems like everyone and their cousin (and their cousin's friend's cousin) has played Lord of the Rings Online. When the game launched, I was entrenched in a WOW raiding guild followed by months of burnout followed by summertime fun. The rain is back, autumn is here, October is around the corner, and I'm ready to dive into a new MMORPG.

Over the next week I'll explore several more prep related topics, including server selection, race/class combos, and to RP or not. If I didn't blog, I'd be scribbling notes on scrap paper as I try to sort through the random thoughts. Instead I'll drop them in this public space. I encourage anyone reading my blog who has played LotRO, to comment with advice or point me to online resources.

Here is a quick summary of what I've done to prepare for LotRO so far. You may notice two things: 1) Link is a Tolkien fan boy, 2) while Link wants you to believe he is organized, he really isn't, and 3) I'm a dork for referring to myself in the third person. Things I've done so far:

• Read the Hobbit and the Fellowship of the Rings. Again. I honestly cannot count the number of times I've read the Hobbit and the Rings since I was teen.
• Ordered the game from Amazon. I was picking up a wireless adapter this weekend and (some how) found myself in the software section. Looks like the local store has dropped their prices too. D'oh. At least I'll have the special edition, whatever that means.
• Set up a second gaming PC. Avril and her friends are busy in Second Life building what appears to be a mall next to a mansion next to a dance club next to an island paradise. Trying to share computer time would have put a strain on the marriage. Now we can both play on the same nights and both not play on the same nights. Wink, wink. Those of you have been married 10+ years like us know what that means. That's right... catch up on missed sleep. Zing.
• Upgraded the pipes connecting us to the Internet. Going from DSL to Verizon FiOS was like going from dial-up to DSL. Well worth the extra $10 a month.
• Set up my gaming area in the loft. This part I am not as thrilled about. The desk is not a computer desk, so the keyboard and mouse sit too high. The monitor (as I mentioned before) is old and small. The chair is hard wood, but I added a cushion so my butt no longer goes numb. However, I like being up in the loft. Avril is nearby over the ledge, so we can chat but have a degree of privacy. I tend to pick my nose a lot when I game... I kid, I kid.

Quick links to the LotRO prep series:
LotRO Prep - Race and Class Combos
LotRO Prep - Roleplay and Servers

3 MMO Mistakes

See here. A post over at Keen and Graev's blog about MMO mistakes. Their question is timely since I'm starting LotRO in the next week or two (depends when Amazon ships my stuff). So thanks to Keen and Graev for reminding me to reflect on my past MMO experiences before diving into a new MMO. Quoting a bit of their article:

What 3 MMORPG mistakes will you never make again? At first it seems like a simple game or perhaps an outlet for some creative thinking to create humor among those who understand commonalities in MMORPG’s. When you look deeper and really think for a moment you can actually discover that this question can cause you to think back and evaluate your play style, your experiences in MMORPG’s, and how much you have grown since you first began playing.

I posted a little mini-series on why I left World of Warcraft, so I can draw from those lessons learned.

What 3 MMO mistakes do I hope to avoid?

Focus on leveling fast. Towards the end of my time in WOW, I cared more about leveling as quickly and efficiently as possible instead of enjoying the content. I'm not talking about running an alt through Stranglethorn Vale for the seventh time. I was ignoring good content in new zones. People talk about how great the new Blood Elf and Dranei zones were... I wouldn't know... they were a blur to me. I hate to admit this but I had a detailed spreadsheet where I tracked my progress.

Try to be a raider. I don't have that kind of time, patience, or masochistic desire. Maybe skill too. Doesn't matter. I learned the hard way that raiding and me do not mix. A big, casual guild would be ideal for me. I love the small group stuff. I love difficult fights. I love joking around with friends. Not so much the killer attunements and mat farming and rep grinding and guild drama and waiting for the main tank to log in and...

Stick with doomed PUGs. I think of myself as a good guy. The kind of person that will stand by friends and family through all sorts of rough weather. But why do I put up with obnoxious, rude, and/or stupid strangers when running 5-man dungeons? My game time is limited. I need to balance being a good, helpful person with fulfilling my enjoyment needs. I should figure out guidelines for how to spot a doomed PUG and when to ditch it.

Pokethulu

Recipe for an amusing read:
1 part Pokemon
1 part Cthulhu
1 part joke RPG

See here.

My son received the Pokemon Junior Adventure RPG (or whatever it is called) as a birthday gift many years ago. We played it with some of his friends. Imagine DMing a weak Pokemon RPG for a handful of seven-year-olds. Amusing for an afternoon, then sent to the back of the shelf.

And then I find Pokethulu... which is based on that little RPG we played. While it's not appropriate for young kids, I laughed at its dark humor. It's worth a few minutes of your time.

A quote from the site:

Amid the sagging gables of old New England, evil lurks . . . and squirms, and scuttles, and purrs. Grownups are fleeing in terror, hiding behind the Elder Sign.

You're 10 years old. You're our last hope. Armed with a Shining Dodecahedron and the elder incantations to make it work, you capture the monsters and train them to use their power . . . But not for evil. For sport.

You've thrilled to the popular TV show. Now, you can play the game! Is your Shoplifting score good enough to sneak a page from your opponent's Pokenomicon? Is your trained Jigglypolyp powerful enough to defeat a devolved Fungal Cluster? This is the world of Pokéthulhu, and now it's yours to save – or conquer!

It gets darker and funnier in the PDF rules here. Check it out. Seriously. You're bored at work anyway.

Dungeon Runners Dodges The Bullet

File this one under: Did-Not-Realize-How-Much-I-Missed-It-Until-It-Was-Gone.

The good folks at Verizon should be (fingers crossed) at my place this Thursday to upgrade us to their fiber optimus prime Internet service and a wireless network. Meanwhile, I've been "banned" from the one computer in the house with connection to the intrawebs. Banned sounds harsh. More like Avril wants me to have the newer, nicer computer, which, coincidentally, has no Internet connection, thank you very much. Hohum.

Back on topic...
Fact 1: I have not played Dungeon Runners in a couple weeks.
Fact 2: I will not play Dungeon Runners in at least two more weeks.
Fact 3: While Dungeon Runners is interesting and fun, it ain't all that.
Conclusion: Suspend my Dungeon Runners account and save my $5 to spend on coffee now that Starbucks bumped up their prices.

When Avril was busy napping Saturday afternoon, I logged on and jumped over to NCSoft's account site to suspend Dungeon Runners. Or so I thought...

Instead, I downloaded and installed the long promised update for Dungeon Runners. Multiple characters. Member-only servers. PvP. Item linking. Something I want to check out. Guess how much time I spent in the game? If you guessed more than zero, you'd be wrong.

Hmmmm...maybe next weekend.

Action and Death in Ryzom

I played Ryzom again last night for a couple hours. Mumbles suffered his first death... actually his first few deaths. But more on that later.

Freedom to Build
Ryzom divides actions (skills and spells) into four categories: Fight, Magic, Harvest, and Craft. As you use actions from one of those categories, you gain experience and unlock more specialized areas. For example, if Mumbles gets enough experience in Magic, he will specialize in either Offensive Magic or Defensive Magic (or both). You have the freedom to build your character instead of being locked into a specific class.

Another attractive feature is creating custom actions. I loved playing Legos as a kid (still do with my kids) so building things out of blocks was an obvious turn on for me. You start with a blueprint, which is the basic type of action you are creating. For example, a damaging spell or an aura or a melee attack. Then you add different blocks (called stanzas) that define the action's effects in detail. To make the action balanced, you add "credits" to it such as longer casting time, usable only after dodging, or costs HP.

Unfortunately the game designers added unnecessary restrictions into the action building feature. I cannot mix and match stanzas from the Fight and Magic categories. Also, the action blueprints are too narrow. I want more freeform in how I build my spells. I want to combine healing and damaging stanzas. Perhaps at higher levels I will unlock those features. Maybe I'll do a bit of research on the intrawebs this evening.

Quick digression: My initial vision for Mumbles was a hybrid dps/healer caster. But after completing a few missions from the fighter trainer, I think going more of a melee dps/healer would be more fun and effective. I recommend anyone starting in Ryzom to go fighter first, then branch out into the other professions.

My First Death(s)
One of my newb missions (quests in Ryzom) was to find a group and hunt some big, dangerous creatures. I wandered around looking for the creatures to see if I could solo them, but could not find them. I sent a message to general chat asking where they were and someone whispered me that if I help her with some boss, she'd help me with my mission. Cool.

I join the team and see another team member is Ethic. Talk about weird coincidence. Ethic (from Kill Ten Rats) commented on one of my posts and suggested I check out Ryzom. Now here we are in a random PUG. Call me a freak, but I'm still tripping on that one.

So Ethic and me follow our team leader off into some ruins. She tells us to stop and wait while she pulls. Ummm... can we discuss tactics maybe? Nothing. Soon the leader comes running back with a pack of creeps following her. The leader runs around in circles. Ethic starts healing and I start casting some crowd control and DPS spells. No dice. I take two hits and I wake up in the camp hospital with a little XP penalty. Haha... good times.

The leader wants to try again. Why not? She found another newb to join us and off we go again. A little more luck this time. I actually completed four spells before getting pulverized. I don't think we even dropped one of the boss's minions. Ethic is wise and hit the road. I left shortly after because the leader kept ranting about all we need is more people. Sure. Good luck with that. Here's a dollar, now go buy a clue.

Ryzom First Impressions

Our family camping trip was fun but soggy in the end. The weather was partly cloudy mid-60s on Friday and Saturday. We hiked, ate smores, and splashed our feet in the lake. Saturday night the storm clouds rolled in and poured on us all night. We packed up early and wandered back down the mountain. Camping in Oregon.

Saga of Ryzom
Sunday night I created a character in Ryzom (Mumbles on Arispotle). The newbie experience is well done and easy to follow. My starting profession was mage but I'm free to dabble in other areas. In fact, I'm advancing steadily as a crafter too. Ryzom's crafting feature has more depth then Warcraft but is still simple to learn. I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, and I was crafting armor for Mumbles in no time.

Moment of truth... Ryzom is merely another "okay game" such as CoV, EQ2, etc. Ryzom has its faults (no z-axis is most annoying to me) but does enough stuff right to make up for it. I like its stylized graphics and more open character development. The community seems friendly to new players. The game's backstory unfolds in a series of well-crafted quests. The mix of sci-fi and fantasy is a refreshing bonus.

One aspect of Ryzom I find intriguing is the skill/spell editor. As Mumbles learns new spells, he gains the component blocks (called stanzas) of that spell. I can edit his current spells to change their affect, range, cost, cooldown time, etc. I can also create new spells from scratch in an easy to understand and use interface. For example, I have a few variations of the basic cold blast spell on my action bar ranging from my opening, long-range, high damage spell to my quick, cheap, almost-out-of-power spell.

I'd like to see spell editing in more games. Some people would be content using their default spells. Other people (such as me) could custom tailor spells to suit their individual play styles. I'm curious what kinds of stanzas the upper levels will bring. I'm tempted to subscribe for a month just to check it out.

EQ2 Free Trial - Final Day

In the past few posts I complained about Everquest 2's graphics and how they looked dull and the monsters tended to fade into the background. The game's UI includes a gamma setting. Smooth, Link, way to forget to adjust your gamma. The graphics weren't nearly as crappy after I bumped up the gamma.

I looked at crafting again but decided to skip it. Instead, I completed a couple more quests with my fae fury... killing orcs or some such. Then I rolled a tiger-looking monk and tried a different starting zone. Meh. Then I rolled a high elf wizard, which was fun to play and fast to level up.

I enjoy the heroic inspiration thing (can't remember what it's called off the top of my head). Essentially you get some type of bonus (extra damage, protective buff, etc.) by using skills/spells in a specific order. Adds a tiny bit of variety to clicking the exact same sequence of buttons for every battle. My guess is that it would even more dynamics in a group. Never tried that since I was apparently alone in the starter zone.

But blah, blah, blah. The game couldn't hook me and I'm not shelling out the bucks for a so-so game. Time to uninstall and defrag. So what's next on my MMO Tourist itinerary?

-Link

EQ2 Free Trial - Day 5

Not much game time over the weekend as I had a wedding and a company picnic. Avril took over the computer last night to try out Second Life's new voice feature and receive some building lessons from her friends.

I played Everquest 2 for a couple hours Sunday morning. My druid made a few more levels, started crafting, and found the main city. So far I'm finding EQ2 merely okay but nothing impressive. City of Villains was more interesting visually, but EQ2 has greater depth and more varied gameplay. I think EQ2's character and monster graphics are lacking. Say what you will but I enjoy the heavily stylized (or cartoonish) look of Dungeon Runners or World of Warcraft.

The way EQ2 handles acquiring skills/spells is a mixed bag. No running back to town to visit the class trainer if I level up in the middle of nowhere. The new skills drop onto my action bar automatically and are highlighted for a few seconds to draw my attention there. Beautiful.

The skills/spells have ranks associated with them (apprentice I, apprentice II... etc.) but I don't understand how to advance them. Maybe I clicked past an important screen during the tutorial, or maybe it's meant to be complex. Whatever. My Fury character is rolling over everything in his path, so I suppose I don't really need to improve the power of his spells.

For example, I went AFK in what I thought was a safe spot to get some water and a quick bio break. When I came back my Fury was getting hacked on by three goblins a level or two below him. His life bar was down to about 20%. I healed up, and then crushed them. A bit on the hairy side but not a problem. Um. Okay. Talk about a forgiving game.

Most likely I'll get one more good game session in before my free trial ends. I thought about rolling a new character to try a different class, but going through the Nursery starting zone again is so very unappealing. Instead I will check out crafting more and do a bit of questing.

-Link

EQ2 Free Trial - Day 2

I played Everquest 2 for a few hours tonight. The free trial limits me to playing a fae character. I would have preferred an elf or a human, not Tinkerbell's brother. Playing a fairy doesn't bother me, but the constant flapping of the wings gets on my nerves. Worse, when I went down a cave, I couldn't see very well because my wings were in the way.

I started a Fury and made it to level 7 before my daughter woke up from a bad dream. (She's tucked back into bed, so time to post before hitting the sack myself.) I enjoy the class. As I mentioned before, I like playing healer/dps hybrids.

I'm lukewarm to the graphics. Some things look nice such as when the sun breaks through the tree canopy. While the scenery and buildings are pretty, the characters and monsters look lame. They don't have much detail and they don't stand out against the background. Hohum.

The built in UI customization options get good marks from me. I can rearrange and modify almost every element of the game's UI. Players can further customize their UIs by installing various mods. With only 5 days remaining in my free trial, I can safely say I won't be going nuts tweaking my UI. I did rearrange a few things to make them fit better on the screen, but otherwise kept the default UI.

Well, it's been a long day and the start of a busy weekend. Off to bed for Link.

Vacation in EQ2

Earlier this summer I decided to play MMO tourist, dropping in on various online games that offer free trials. On a whim... well less of a whim and more like a couple bloggers I read (Tobold and Bildo) mentioned they were giving the game another shot. That reminded me that I wanted to do it too.

So off to Sony Online Entertainment to download the game. Cool, an 85 MB download. I have it downloaded, installed, and activated in no time. The sad part is I only get a 7-day free trial, but that's time to do the newbie zone and try a few classes out. The saddest part is that after I log in, I have to download the patch or the rest of the game or whatever. So the files download and download for about 14 hours.

Great. First day of my 7-day free trial and I've spent it doing nothing in game. Smooth, Sony. When I do get into the game I'll roll a Fury. I like playing healers, but the idea of playing a DPS healer is even better. Wish me luck.

Dungeon Runners

I downloaded Dungeon Runners a few days ago. The game, if you haven't heard, is a new and free Diablo 2 knock off. Less story and features. Better 3D graphics. Easy to get a group going. The humor is good... spoofs other action RPGs and MMOs. The names of items is a hoot: Recycle Paper Shirt of the Ladybug. Dungeon Runners gets a B-.

The game is so casual. I login and start running a dungeon. I open a group and people start joining me. The difficulty (and quality of loot) scales as more people join the party. Most nights I play for an hour or so, and then turn the computer over to Avril so she can do some building in Second Life.

I debated about subscribing to Dungeon Runners, but for $5 a month I figured it was worth a month or two. (Hopefully by then I'll get the whole WOW/LOTRO/Whatever thing sorted out in my head).

My character is Mumbles, a level 20 mage, and I typically play on the busiest server. I like how you select a starting class, but are free to dabble in other classes and mix/match your skills. I'm focusing on AoE damage, which works great for the groups of little critters. Not so much the bosses. I ran some ice chief boss dungeon over and over on Insane difficulty tonight. I sucked down so many potions to stay alive but got tons of loot and gold. Fun time.

Because this is a free, casual, easy-to-play game, the crowd is a bit immature and stupid. I've found many good and funny people to group with and add to my Friends list. I'm looking forward to the next build where they add a Member-only server.

-Link

Leaving WOW, Part 4

Today we wrap up my mini series on reasons for leaving WOW.

Too much repetition
I expect and tolerate a certain amount of repetition in MMOs. Grind is par for the course. Single player games have 20-80 hours of content. MMOs have hundreds if not thousands of hours of content. Inevitably there will be some repetition involved.

The Burning Crusade was a decent expansion but it didn't break enough new ground. After a few weeks it felt like been there done that. Some of the new zones and mobs were amazing. But isn't that the same wolf I saw when I started a tauren six months ago?

I like having multiple quests to choose from, but why do I get essentially the same quest every 15 or 20 levels? Repeat that for every alt. This hit me when I was collecting quests in one of the new Outland zones. I was instructed to hunt wolves for meat. WTF. Talk about deja vu. I can't tell you how many times I've had this type quest. One day I got the exact same quest (different zone, different level of beast) for my level 67 hunter and one of my lowbie alts. Besides, in December I was hunting fire giants and demons, but now I'm making wolf jerky because you want a snack. Whatever, dude.

Ultimately this is my biggest worry about going back to WOW. Every other reason I left can be avoided if I don't raid and progress at an easy pace. Will I get bored and frustrated with the same old quests? WOW is an amazing game, and I miss playing it.

P.S. Bloggers I admire have posted about the next WOW expansion. I hope Blizzard has some big announcements saved up. I'm not impressed at all. More of the same. Wee.

P.S.S. This is a shot in the dark... but I wonder if Blizzard is releasing a lackluster expansion because they're diverting their best software development teams to work on their next generation of MMO. One can hope.

Leaving WOW, Part 3

More soul-searching on my reasons for leaving WOW (part 1, part 2). The last post was about guild drama and split. The reasons I'll look at today are somewhat related. That is, they are direct results of trying to be a raider when I'm a casual, small-group player at heart.

Raiding requirements
This reason for leaving WOW is more like two in one. First, the time requirements to be a successful raider. Second, the raid attunements.

1) Being a successful raider means being online at specific times and a certain number of hours per week. Plus you need time to farm for mats, grind faction, work on attunements, and so forth. I'm a casual player and the time requirement was a deal breaker for me. I could commit to two maybe three evenings per week. I felt pressure from the guild leadership to play more and more.

2) Do you remember the original raid attunement chart for TBC? Remember how ugly and complex it looked? That was a lively topic on my guild's forum. The info we had before the expansion was raiding would become more accessible. Perfect. Great idea. As a casual player, I was happy with that rumor. Unfortunately, that raid attunement chart dashed my hopes. Blizzard basically flushed the idea of "casual raiding" down the toilet. I'm glad to hear they're fixing it now, but too late for me.

Play conflicted with RL
When I joined the raiding guild, I had to play at certain times on certain days. Before raiding, I played when I had nothing better to do in the evenings. If Avril saw a good movie starting on HBO, I could hearthstone and log out and we would watch it together. I couldn't do that part way through a Molten Core raid. Not an ingredient for happiness. It got to the point where I'd skip hanging out with RL friends week after week. I (mostly) stuck to my gaming guidelines, but I was playing more than I should and more than I wanted. I was getting burnt out, and I was missing out on a lot of life.

Obsessed with leveling fast
My first six months in WOW were spent wandering. One night after getting my mount I just wandered. I admired the beautiful scenery. Talk about inefficient use of time. Man, I miss that.

After joining the raiding guild, I was focused on leveling up my priest alt as quickly as possible. We needed more healers. So I started caring more about XP instead of enjoying the game. I bounced between zones, collecting quests, and then going to Thottbot to take the guesswork out of leveling. I started tracking my progress, recording percentage of level gained per play session.

This focus on leveling quickly turned into an obsessive bad habit. I started doing this with all my low level alts. When I dabbled with a few new Alliance characters, I was obsessed with leveling instead of enjoying the zones and quests. This was all new content (for me) but I was blazing past it as quickly as possible.

Inevitably I started feeling like logging into WOW was a job regardless if it was raiding or playing an alt. I play games to have fun. And I wasn't having fun any more.

If I renew my WOW subscription, I will have to be on my guard not to slip into old, bad habits like this one. My friend at work suggested I avoid logging out in inns so I don't get rested XP, which results in a slower progression. I'd be less likely to have this problem if I started a new MMO because the content would be completely new.

Man, reading through all that I sound like a whiner. Boo hoo. Poor me. I can't be a raider. Honestly, I'm glad to understand that now. I wish I'd gotten the clue back in November '06.

Next up is the conclusion to the mini series.

-Link

Leaving WOW, Part 1

Fifteen months in the Horde with a 67 orc hunter, a 51 undead priest, a 30 tauren warrior, a 21 troll mage, and a 12 blood elf warlock. I ran solo mostly but played 5-man instances often. I raided UBRS, ZG, MC and AQ20. I stomped Alliance in Warsong and Arathi Basin. I was a UI customization junkie. I loved WOW. She was my first MMORPG and the best game I've played.

But along the way I lost sight of what I really enjoyed about WOW. Lost sight of what made WOW a good match for me. Perhaps WOW evolved in a direction that I didn't. I left WOW in March 2007, about five months ago. I'm going to write a few blog posts on my reasons for leaving WOW. Why? I'm tempted to go back to WOW. Strongly tempted. I remember the good times too easily, but I need to remember what pushed me over the edge too... what made me cancel my account.

I left WOW for these reasons, which I'll explore in more detail in upcoming posts. I'd felt one or two of these frustrations from time to time, but it was a combination of all five a few months after TBC hit that finally did it for me.

• Guild drama and split
• Obsessed with leveling fast
• Play conflicted with RL
• Raiding requirements
• Too much repetition

Details to follow...

Goodbye Camelot

I'm ending my free-trial with Dark Age of Camelot early. I actually feel bad for doing it. I should have waited until after my rafting and camping trips to start playing.

If only we had met four or five years ago, DAOC would have been my first MMO love. I played Moirex the Druid for a few more levels last night. I found the druid class fun and an interesting pet/healer hybrid. The quests and NPCs were okay but nothing special. I mentioned in previous posts about the out-dated graphics. I have to give DAOC a C grade (five years ago it would have been an A in my book).

I could see paying $15 a month to play DAOC if I'd been playing for years and had multiple max level characters and was plugged in to the tight community. But with better quality competitors out there, I'm taking my MMO money and time elsewhere.

-Link