Mystic Worlds

Tera Online: Early Impressions Part 1 of 3

For the past few weeks, I've been playing Tera Online 1 to 2 evenings a week as a static duo with Sarzan, who is by the way, starting to blog on Spicy Funyun. For me, the idea is to surf F2P games until the next big surge of enthusiasm for GW2 aka an expansion, as filler. GW2 is my home for the foreseeable future but an alternative would be nice.

Despite having a list, of which Tera Online wasn't even included, that's where we've landed first.  I don't remember how that happened.  *Smile* Going in, I knew Tera Online wasn't targeted to players like me. I'm no FPS gamer. I've played a few in my day and have enjoyed them but I suck at them. I'm a die hard keyboard gamer. Me and PC games go way back.  Me and controllers, not so much.  So I can't blame the game for aspects that are awkward for me merely because I prefer to do most things with the keyboard. So I'll skip my opinion on those aspects for the most part.

It Ain't no Tyria

I don't know when I'll see the likes of GW2 Tyria graphics and detail again in another MMO.  It's incomparable, inspiring and stunning.  We do pay dearly for all this pomp and circumstance.  Large body combat can be an agonizing slide show. For me culling just added insult to injury.  Even so, gaming in Tyria's lush world that always feels alive, reminds me why I play fantasy games, in particular, MMOs.

Tera is somewhat of a generic fantasy MMO environment.  The art style feels a bit dated coming out of GW2.  It's not on the level of realism like Age of Conan, nor is it stylistic like Allods. Don't get me wrong, the graphics are "nice" but they're not really special.  There are elements that appeal to me. So far I've seen shire-like areas, woods and germanic style locations I'm partial to as zones. The human city is slightly industrial in a way that gives it a whisper of steampunk.

Beyond Aesthetics

For questing you have your bears, pigs and boars clustered in groupings that are all too familiar and doing nothing new - same old pathing and static behavior.  The zones themselves are very reminiscent of Runes of Magic.  If ROM wasn't your cup of tea, Tera won't impress you much either.  It doesn't feel like developers have come to terms with the sheer variety of choices we have now in the MMO space and that merely decent or "okay", isn't going to get you monthly subscribers anymore.

You will encounter some NPC and mob types I've not seen anywhere before, with details that are very nicely done. However, so far, it's back to questing in the wilds ala EQ1/2, WOW and the rest of the old guard.  This questing in the wilds leaves me flat.  I'm left wondering why I'm supposed to care what these creatures are doing out here amongst themselves?  The answer is I don't. For me, there's no sense of urgency in that questing model.  I don't bother with the quest text.  I'm merely a schlub grabbing tasks and managing a "To Do" list.

All that said, there are aspects of Tera that shine, such as the classes and other reasons that kept me moving past the starter area. Check back on Wednesday for part 2 of my early impressions and Friday for the conclusion.

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GW2: Back on my Honeymoon

Rift Dimensions: Quick Peak

I purchased the Rift expansion a few weeks ago thinking I'd jump right in to level and build houses. That's now how it panned out after playing for a bit. Rift is still gorgeous. My cleric is still a fun class but it doesn't hold up to my experiences in GW2, which feels like Rift evolved and then some. I'm not unhappy with the purchase or having done a 6-month subscription. One of my nephews has taken a liking to the game. 

This one in particular enjoys player housing and hence, was on my EQ2 account a bit but finds that game too daunting for a 10 yr old. The travel alone confuses him - moving from my houses spread across different racial zones plus the prestige ones was always confusing to him. Rift he gets and likes having a max level character. Combined with the new player housing, it's becoming his favorite. He asked me to make him his first starter house - the basics. A place he could call home and then decorate as he learned the mechanics and discovered new items.

Becoming Niche Gamer

Losing Steam in GW2

I've lost a good bit of steam in GW2 after hitting max level and completing my selected crafting professions. I've done about half of the PVE instances and a few Fractals. Unfortunately, I'm finding my biggest obstacle to enjoying the content is time. Either I'm not willing or unable to spend 2 hours in a single session completing one piece of content. I enjoy the GW2 dungeons but I don't have the time to wait for a group to form and then finish the run.  With the primary come-as-you-are-for-as-long-as-you-can content completed, also know as leveling, I'm feeling like a fish out of water.

Clearly, my tastes and lifestyle have changed.  I left hardcore raiding several years ago and since that time, I've played games that I've enjoyed but few have stayed the long course since World of Warcraft. I can't be kept happy with a gear grind.  I just don't give a damn about having the best of the best, if it requires a massive time sink.  What does sustain me and get me to grind is decent crafting that has a profitable consumer market and player housing.  I understand the shortage of games with player housing. What I don't understand, is how so many games get the crafting and economy mix wrong.  

Beyond the gear carrot, player housing, crafting and a vibrant economy are the other sticky activities for MMO players.  How is it that AAA fantasy games I've played since WOW have gotten it wrong?  I found Warhammer crafting just a touch above useless except for making consumables for yourself, and even then not great.  Rift's is further up the scale than Warhammer but honestly, not by a whole lot.  You could craft or not and be just fine, which is cool for non-crafters but leaves a hole in the post leveling activity for many others.

Rift Player Housing Envy

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Rift. The class selections and soul system were real highlights. I enjoyed the dynamic events and LOVED the questing areas. I found crafting lack luster and was one of the only games where my max level character didn’t max out her profession. That aside, I thought it would be quite a while before another game topped my time in Rift. 

Guild Wars 2 quickly dispelled that idea. Tyria, in and of itself, is stunningly beautiful and feels alive. I don’t know if it’s possible for me to embrace traditional questing again, where I have one and only one, avenue of completing quest objectives and leveling. Not to mention that it bumped my previous favorite class of all time, Rift’s Cleric, to second place. I love me some GW2 Guardian. She’s pure questing bliss. Solo or group, it doesn’t matter; I adore this class’ versatility.

I’ve been sitting at max level for quite some time now in GW2. For the most part, I’ve only played my Guardian. I have a level 6 Necro but can’t count her. Since hitting max level, I’ve been doing 5-mans here and there but mostly finishing out my professions which is rapidly coming to an end as well. I have no desire to farm for legendary anything and the long WvW queues are not conducive to my play schedules. I want to be in Tyria, I enjoy it so much but I don’t want to force myself to find things to do just cause. I need my grind-worthy content and carrots.

Journey Back to Gaming

I took a long break from gaming and blogging after my mother passed away. What initially brought me back was the desire to level from start to finish with a gaming friend.

RIFT STILL FELT FRESH

Our game of choice was Rift. A long time WOW player, he hadn't joined the crush of adventurers when the game launched. The character I created would turn into my third to have made it into level 30 content, third cleric and second to max level.

Although the excitement of highly populated zones was gone, Rift's leveling content holds up exceptionally well. The options are diverse and the content so dense, that I never felt bored from having done those levels before.  For me, Rift’s PVE game ranks right up there with the behemoth, World of Warcraft. 

A RETURN TO WOW

After a few weeks being at max level again, my excitement started to wane.  We ran chronicles and quested in Ember Isle, one of the most beautiful zones I’ve ever seen.   However, with no new levels to  be gained, my interest fell off.  I decided return with my friend to WOW and see what I’d missed by leaving shortly after reaching end game in The Burning Crusade.

As expected, leveling content was good, instances great, crafting worthwhile and an active economy.  It also didn’t hurt to have a wealth of alts to choose from all of whom had decent trade professions to help me along the way.

Although I can't imagine WOW ever being my full time MMO again, I see why and how, many long time players return after completing the leveling experience in other games. You can't rely on keeping your player base at max level by being as good as or comparable to WOW. You have to be BETTER THAN and MORE DIVERSE THAN whatever I came from before. Otherwise, why should I restart the end game treadmill in your game, when I can return to another game where I may have a staple of characters, trade-skills, long time guild mates and in some cases, player houses and guild halls at my disposal?

Many of the so-called WOW tourists aren't that intentionally. I think they want to invest in a new game but get to the end/top and realize they've done this all before and a new skin on isn't enough to keep them around.

UP NEXT IN GAMING

Guild Wars 2 will be my main MMO home for the foreseeable future. Other than time commitments, I know I will be there for the ride to max level. I knew from the beta that I enjoyed Rift enough for a jaunt through and was excited for the launch. The enthusiasm I feel for GW2 is leaps and bounds above what I thought of Rift before launch. I can hardly stand the wait much longer.  ANet please don't break my heart. I need GW2 this summer!!

Rift, SWTOR & Crafting in Real Life

I'm stil taking things rather slow.  I knew the holiday season would be very difficult with my mother having passed so recently.  We did what we could for the little ones in our immediate family to enjoy themselves.

Duoing Rift with a Buddy

I've been back in Rift for a few weeks leveling the content with a gaming friend who hadn't played before.  Kudos to Trion and how well the content stands up for the 4th time around.  I'd leveled several characters up to Perspice and it's almost as much fun now as the first jaunt.  There were still so many quests I'd not done before.  With the options of questing, doing rifts, PVP, instances and grinding, I tended to out level zones without doing many of the quests which is a good thing!  It really makes replayability rather stellar.  We're a stone's throw from level 50 and I never felt like OMG, I've done all this before. SWTOR needs to take a queue from that and make it possible for players to mix up how they level without missing "required" quest chains.  More on that in a minute.

The only thing missing from Rifts are the big crowds.  That intense level of heightened excitment is missing from the zones unless there's a zone wide event.  I wish my friend had been there to see the meyhem and madness of the earlier days.  He really enjoys rift chasing and doing the events. Regardless, we've had fun and are looking forward to doing the new level 50 content that I haven't seen yet myself.

Dabbling in SWTOR

Star Wars isn't a favorite IP of mine.  I've seen all the movies but I don't own a single one.  I wasn't excited about the game.  My only intent was to check it out and play for the first free month.  So far it's okay.  The settings aren't my thing being a die hard fantasy fan.  The questing is rather meh for me since I don't really care about the story and I'm not a huge questing fan.  I tend to mix it up with grinding mobs which isn't grinding to me.

What I do enjoy are the class quest lines, group quests and instance content (Flash Points).  For me, that's where the game really shines.  The story in those feel more compelling.  It's like playing out a part in a movie - it's fun!  My class is also diverse and interesting to play.  I've chosen Inquisitor > Sorcerer for ranged DPS, utility and healing.  She feels pretty bad ass in a group.  I've only clocked a few hours. It's something I log into as a late night diversion.

My Son Digs SWTOR

After watching me play for a bit my son decided to get a copy too.  He's also more of a fantasy person but is rather bored with Rfit.  After a few days, he came to the same conclusion - love the class quests, PVP and instances, wishes he could skip the rest.  Unfortunately, you can't.  There are necessary quest chains for picking your advanced class and getting the ship you'll need to access the higher level Flash Points.  Moreover, there's nothing that overtly leads you to these NPCs to get the quest chains.  You run across them if you're doing all the quests.  Both of us initially missed the quest to choose the advanced class.

I had to search on the web to figure out why I was level 12 but couldn't purchase the level 10 spells I could clearly see on the Class Trainer.  We weren't alone.  I found many threads and links where people were asking the same question.  My son ended up having to back track through content to get his ship for the very same reason.  I think that needs some tweaking.  Other than that, he's really enjoying it now that he's 20-something.  For me, it's still just something to do if I'm in the mood.  My money is waiting on GW2.

Still Crafting in Real Life

I'm still crafting in real life.  In fact, I had a nice little jump in activity the couple of weeks before Christmas.  It tickles me when people purchase or "favorite" the two rings inspired by my love of fantasy.  The ring called Rose of New Eden, inspired by EVE Online has done well.  The Inara Serra III ring has sold nicely when seen in person - flea market and jewelry showings.

I recently revamped my Nomadic Eclectic website to be more of a showcase.  With Etsy picking up steam for me, I couldn't see implementing the disabled ecommerce features that were part of that original theme. I moved to something designed to just give people a taste of what I'm doing before hushering them over to my Esty Shop.

That's all I've been up to the past couple of months.  Hanging in there as best I can.  I have my good days and my bad days over my mother's passing.  I've found making jewelry to be much more relaxing than sewing so I've sidelined that for the most part.  I lost the tip of a finger, sewed through another one and was accumulating more cuts and gashes that necessary.  My mind wanders a bit too much at the moment for the intense concentration needed to sew safely.  Plus I feel more creative freedom and contentment making jewelry so am sticking with it.

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…

 

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.

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.