Mystic Worlds

In only 58 minutes

At 1:46 PM on Saturday I was happy.  Comically stressed, rushing and laughing on the phone.  I was preparing to record a segment for the NPNM podcast's 100th show.  I was agreeing log into Rift at 9PM ET to check out the 1.5 patch with a guildmate.

58 minutes later a daughter and I were on foot racing through the hospital to the emergency room but it was too late, my mother was dead.  No warning.  No goodbyes.

Patching... Re-installing... Hoping for a weekend drive by.

I’ve been catching up on my favorite MMO blogs the past few days. It’s all making me very nostalgic.  I have a large amount of wonderful gaming memories linked to MMOs.  I know EQ2 is pretty sweet this time of year.  For my money, that game does holidays the best.  I’ve probably been dropped from my guild not that I did much with them.  I was so wrapped up in my furniture and custom home decorating shop.  Dare I install it on my current gaming PC???  

I haven’t even checked out the new Rift content.  But-but-but there they have trick-of-treat candy needed for crafting certain items that can only be harvested this time of year.  I could farm some if time allows over the weekend…  But-but the new Rift Chronicles are fun I’ve heard…  Maybe I can sqeeze in a weekend drive by.

Patching Rift…
Re-installing EQ2X…

 

The MMO Gaming Community

I love my MMO gaming community. It's millions strong but still feels small at times. I've yet to meet anyone in person but over the years, I've exchanged phone numbers with  a few and consider them friends.

What inspired a post this morning was an email from Tiny Speck about their new game, Glitch which came to me via Warrender / Winged Nazgul. It's been FOREVER since we've played the same game! It made me smile, that knowing the sorts of very particular things I tend to enjoy, he thought this might be a fit and had an email sent.

Unfortunately I'm too busy right now but will keep it on the list. I'm not overly social. Don't do much social media but I do consider myself part of ONE and only one, online community - MMORPG gamers!

I love fantasy/scifi games but it's also the community members like Tipa, StarGrace, Kinless, sometimes emo _Heartless, Capn John, The NPNM Sisters, Warrender, Bhagpuss, Gillian & Mike from my AC2 days, Sarazan, Ludo, Eagel and my other Casualties of WAR guild mates, the crew at Massively, the GBTV folks and countless others who make the gaming experience more special.

The gamers themselves and the community, are an integral part of my gaming history. They add the extra seasoning I love even though when it comes to leveling, I still prefer to solo. *smile*  Yes, I know - some forms of madness never die.

BTW I've evolved to Facebook. Better late than never.

Waiting for Rift Solo Dungeons, Reckoning and Buttons

Gaming Drought

The evenings of sitting around watching each other play Fable 3, Red Dead Redemption and Halo have long since ended.  None of us play The Sims much anymore.  And although my son and I are still subscribed to Rift, we’re not actually playing.  I tell myself that I’m waiting for the next content update and Trion’s introduction of the first solo dungeon.  It’s not that I like Rift any less – not it at all.  I just have too many other irons in the fire.  

I have 30 minutes here-n-there to play something.  Unfortunately, that sort of short AND sporadic availability isn’t conducive to MMO end game – STILL!  That reality simply sucks because the whole MMO gaming experience up until end game IS VERY conducive to it.  I like Rift’s events but I’m not drawn overly much to the rewards and if you can’t accumulate enough tokens during the events scheduled and fixed duration, you’re ass out anyway.

A couple of weeks ago I pre-ordered the Xbox 360 version of Reckoning, the RPG from 38 Studios. Reckoning is the pre-cursor to their upcoming MMO code named, Copernicus.  This is the IP where famed Sci-fi author, R. A. Salvatore, is writing the lore.  It looks REALLY GOOD.  I’m excited about the RPG as an opportunity to play something again with my kids.  Well - they’re not really kids anymore; they’re in their low to mid 20s and gaming is the one common thread across their ages and genders. We are all gamers!  I include my two teenage nephews and pre-teen in that bunch.  I also baptized them into gaming, and drag them along for every excursion.

Rolling Along

I continue to be extremely busy at work and at home.  I still haven’t played anything in the past several weeks.   On the weekends I catch up on gaming news via my favorite videocasts and podcasts.  I’m very excited about the upcoming content updates for Rift.  Most especially, I’m chomping at the bit for the solo dungeons being introduced by Trion.  As it stands, I might have 30 of 45 minutes here and there to play which doesn’t lend itself toward participating in group content.  Sitting at max level in Rift, all I’m really interested in is doing the instanced content.  I’m over questing and instanced PVP doesn’t appeal to me enough for it to be a steady activity.  I’d love to do the Rift raids.  However, there’s no way to ensure one is taking place when I actually have time to play.  The ability to match my wits against solo scripted instances is something I’ve wanted for YEARS.

Crafting in Real Life

It’s been several weeks since I’ve played Rift.  I didn’t stop playing because I like the game any less.  I initially stopped because gaming ceased being enough to hold my attention.  I was sick, worried and stressed to a point that not even my love of fantasy could hold me.

I had a distinct craving to create.  I tried working on a few of my stories but my writing felt flat and uninspired.  I toyed with the idea of returning to EQ2X and my furniture and design shop, which remains one of the highlights of my gaming adventures.  I was close to re-subscribing until I decided that I should create something in real life – at least give it a try.  I wanted to make something that would exist even after I’m gone.  Yes, my thoughts had turned rather morbid at the time.

Rift: Solo Instances! Solo Instances! OMFG Solo Instances!

Panting... Hyperventilating... I might pass out.  The thing I enjoyed the most in AOC was my personal destiny quest.  If I could have done only that for progression, and come out into the open world for social and crafting, I probably would have played to max level.  But since it didn't and I didn't like the zones much after 20s, I bailed.

Rift coming out with solo and duo instances is something I've wanted in MMOs for years!!! Some of us really enjoy testing our own skills against boss encounters.  Hollahback multi-boxers.  Trying to solo instances is one of the major reasons I tried multi-boxing.  I will SO be duo-boxing this content when it arrives.  I need to stop thinking about it.  It's making me lightheaded.  I think I'm going to faint.

Holy shit - solo instances in my MMO.  *swoooooooooooon*  

Rift: Ship Travel and ORVR Island PLEASE!!

I Breakout My Tinfoil Hat with GBTV

Episode 25 of Game Breaker TV’s Sanctum videocast, discussed new zone photos leaked by players who inadvertently found them on the PTR.  The picture that got my blood pumping was a large ship sitting at the end of a long dock.  OMG I love ship travel.  Even after fast travel options were implemented all over EQ2, I still used the ships.

Party Over Here

When I played WOW, I was in the camp of wanting something more to do on the boat rides.  I loved riding them, used to run around inside and often went AFK chillin in a cabin.  I always hoped that Blizzard would implement Goblin Gambling Casinos on the boats.  It would have been fun on PVE servers and a riot of excitement on PVP servers.

My tinfoil hat hope is that Ember Isle utilizes ship travel as its access point and is an open world PVP zone on all servers.  Booyah, bring on some WAR RVR/PVP with open world control objectives.  Wouldn’t that be a sweet combination?  Traditional PVE, raiding, instanced PVP, dynamic rift content AND open world PVP objectives. I see wonderful options for even more content diversity.

I Will Wait, I Promise

When I came back from my brief hiatus, several guild members provided expensive mats to craft accessories, off-hand items and runes in order to boost my base stats to meet the T2 requirements. I’ve only recently started doing T2 content.  Being late in the leveling curve in our guild means I get most of the Cleric drops.  As a result, I’m already dripping in T2 purples without any heroic farming efforts on my part.  Thanks Casualties of War guildies!!!  

As much as I’d love to see the raiding content, I don’t have the time or interest in being that precise about my gear.  I’m also over doing quests for now – mad dash to finally hit 50 burn out.  Finishing my crafting professions and dabbling in PVP is what I do when there are no guild runs going.  I still enjoy it and don’t mind the very slow pace at which I’m approaching Rift.

At times, I am fatigued with closing rifts and ride past them.  Other days, I feel an urgency to jump in and kick ass everywhere and crush all who oppose us.  It would be wonderful to have yet another flavor of content to do in spurts as my time allows.  I can see it now… Hop on a boat to Ember Isle and join my faction against its enemies WAR style.  Bring it.  I’ll wait for it.

 

Rifting the End Game. WTF Happened in New Eden?

Not Gaming Over Health Reasons

I haven’t blogged in a while because I haven’t been gaming.  Over the past several weeks I’ve had health concerns that were leaning toward a very scary place – again. Thankfully, after weeks of tests it doesn’t appear to be cancer.  An outpatient biopsy this Friday will hopefully confirm that it’s just an unusually large hemangioma on my liver.  They’re not a health risk and normally go undetected.  Mine just happened to form in a spot and develop to a size where I was experiencing pain, discomfort and a persistent state of nausea - not fun.

I'm still dealing with the symptoms but the overwhelming panic and depression over it are gone.  I feel much more in the “clear”.  Even knowing it will have to be treated, it’s several orders of magnitude away from liver cancer. For people who spoke to me here and there, in game or email, sorry.  It was just easier to say I was busy with work and stuff than explain when there was still so much uncertainty. Crossing my fingers for the biopsy results.  The doctors feel confident so I do too! 

Update 7/1: Biospy went fine.  Had a decent 4th. Have consult for results on Friday 8th.

 Update 7/8: BENIGN!!!!!!  Dodged a bullet.

Hit Level 50 in Rift

I returned to actively playing Rift again last weekend.  In two days I hit level 50 – FINALLY!  I’m such a scrub.  Most of the Casualties of War guild members have multiple 50s at this point.  They’re such a great bunch.  The night I hit level 50, they organized back-to-back Tier 1 dungeon runs to help me upgrade my gear.  My accessories, staff and shoulders were all replaced.  I cringe at using LFG tool to do some runs but I might have to in order to catch up.  My one good experience was quickly followed by a bad one.
 

Quiet – Not Gone

I’ve played less Rift in the past week.  Some of my family came in town weekend before last through this past weekend.  It’s been fun catching up and enjoying the weather that has been a little less humid. A couple of days after the completion of the world event, I hopped back into my usual nightly Rift schedule.

First PUG – Omen of things to come?

The first evening that I logged into the game DeSarazan, a guild member, asked me if I wanted to join a PUG for the dungeon under Lantern Hook.  I was a bit skeptical having given up healing instances for random players half way through my years in WOW.  I’d only done LH once before and didn’t get much of a chance to see it because we raced through hit so quickly.  I decided to give it a try and hope for the best.

Wow, I might have to change my tune about not healing PUGs.  This group was on it!  We ran through the dungeon twice in an hour – might have been less.  We had just one wipe.  It happened on the 2nd run where the tank was too enthusiastic about the success of our first run and attempted to pull too many groups.  We re-grouped with no issues, complaints, acquisitions, etc.    If fact, the tank said that he was at fault for pulling too much so he’d be more careful.  After that it was 1-2-3-over.

Ding 46

The next evening I dinged level 46 from a combination of finishing out some quests with DeSarazan in IPP and doing a guild run of King’s Breach.  I’m not one for remembering all the intricacies of instance encounters until afterwards.  Once people die then I remember, “Oh yeah, we needed to do… on this boss.”  It’s one of the reasons I don''t tank, a role that is usually the person leading the group through the content.  It was a bit of an adventure being the only person who’d done KB before.  We had deaths here and there and a wipe or two but what’s a little vitality loss among friends.  Along the way three of us leveled and got nice loot.

Rift Still My MMO of Choice

That was the last evening that I played.  Work, family and the holiday have kept me busy.  I’m also dabbling in a new hobby that I’m hoping I can turn into a side business some day, and clip some of the shackles keeping me bound to Corporate America.  It’s likely that my MMO gaming will slow down a bit during the next few weeks but when I sit down to play, Rift is still my MMO of choice and the only one I’m subscribed to for the foreseeable future.

P.S.

I've slowed down on taking screenshots because I can't figure out why they're so dark.  Adjusting the gamma in the game and/or my PC display settings makes no improvement.  Fixing it afterward on every picture became too time consuming. More importantly, I felt they did a disservice to the game's graphics which are so beautiful.  If anyone has any ideas of how I can fix this problem I'd appreciate it!!!