For the past two nights I’ve been pretty brain dead at the end of the day. Thousands of people were just laid off, with more to follow between now and the end of the year. It’s never pretty on either side of the fence. Many of my co-workers are literally in tears over the losses and the multi-year peer relationships that are quickly coming to an end.
I don’t have that kind of emotion tied up in this particular event, as I only have three peers that crossed over into my personal life this time around. I left that mass cumbya behavior in the puddle of tears I left at Lucent, over the same type of situation. Even though I wasn’t on the receiving end there either, doing it to people – some you like, some you don’t, but all have bills to pay, is equally as painful.
So I needed “something” to do late in the evenings but I wasn’t up for much. Here’s one of the big things that EQ2 has that WOW never did – lots of space and opportunities to piddle-around with things when you want to play, but not really “play”. First thing I did was just explore and being new to the game, there’s a lot for me to explore. Now I can explore in WOW too but in EQ2 exploration earns me Achievement (AAs) points which are similar to Talent points in WOW. Right off the bat, there’s a lot more to be gained from casual exploration in EQ2 – a.k.a. you’re more handsomely rewarded for that particular behavior and play style. You also earn AAs through quests and XP gain, but dinging a whole one for entering a primo zone is quite the cha-ching. I racked up 4 AAs in this fashion.
Casual harvesting is another way to pass the time. Everyone can harvest everything and it seems to work out just fine. Not only will I be gaining the components I need the next time I craft, I can sell off the types I don’t need AND harvesting has the chance to discover a rare item. Cha-ching, I got 10g worth of goodness just meandering along the beach of somewhere I don’t even remember the name of.
Completing collections is another very casual pursuit with nice rewards. I floated my way around (forgot the name) that little starter grove behind the Inn where the humans start. The place was empty and I found about a dozen collection items that I still didn’t have yet. Completing collections reveal additional spells, traits, etc. that enhance/upgrade your character.
Crafting low-level or stock items is another option for casual play. You can use the abilities that speed up the process while only casually paying attention to the production cycle. I started out one session doing that to use up my low level components to make spare drinks and food for myself. For the T2 items that I want to sell, I switch over to the abilities that will increase the duration, thereby yielding a higher quality item for me to sell. Either way, I can do it while reading chat, watching TV or listening to a podcast.
Each of these activities is casually done. The pacing is at your discretion – no sense of urgency, no need to group, no grinding/killing, no questing and no fighting, yet they all lead to rewards that will upgrade your character in one fashion or another. That’s a lot of options when you don’t want to exert a lot of energy, don’t have the time to arrange a formal group or you don’t want to grind mobs. And it still leaves the Legend of Norrath card game that I haven’t tried and playing the Auction House market.
WOW certainly wins in my book for the adrenaline junkie experience. I’ve not seen anything, in any game, anywhere that compares – yet. Even the first Trident in EVE being attacked and blown up, doesn’t compare to 40 people downing a legendary boss in WOW. Unfortunately, for all their attempts at casual game-play, it’s actually the shallow lanes of the content and watered-down make it easy for the masses approach to said content, that inhibits their ability to have “real” casual character progression. It’s sad and too bad. For people like me, that true lack of casual character progression is a shortcoming that could have kept me there much longer and in a happier state of being, while I was there.
I’m a broken record, I know – someday there will be WOW + EQ2 and I will be in MMORPG heaven. Then again, with 8m+ people already playing, perhaps they don't really care and why would they?
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