Mystic Worlds

Apartment Life – New The Sims 2 Expansion Pack

I’m all over this like white on rice.  This is what will slack my thirst until the WAR Headstart.  In case you missed it, I’m going to be out of town on business during the Open BETA.  *Cries hysterically!*  My family remains proud members of the TS2 fan club.  We own all of the expansion packs bar none.  Granted, I don’t play so much anymore.  The whole alone in an RPG doesn’t work long for me these days.

I’m as excited about AL as I was Open for Business and Seasons because it eliminates the laborious efforts I was taking to simulate playing in a connected community of autonomous Sims.  OFB stopped me having to find ways to work and make money from home without resorting to cash cheats.  My storylines always revolved around a home-based business.  Seasons stopped me needing to download and use re-skinned flower models that looked like vegetables so I could have a garden or simulate a farm.

Warhammer Passes the Acid Test

I’ve been thinking a lot about WAR since playing in the Preview Weekend Event.  I’m excited about the Headstart and release.  It’s not a perfect implementation – what game is anyway?  I’m ready to get started for real and burn some face in RVR.

I’ve never had such a hard time deciding on a class which is a very pleasant problem to be debating.  AOC combat and stellar graphics aside, WAR is definitely most fun that I’ve had since falling in love with WOW.  It’s the first to combine the other things I look for in my MMO of choice.  If this were a PVE focused game, I’d be playing the Warrior Priest for sure.  It’s not, so I have to consider that I’m not the best at doing fancy foot work with a melee class against other players, especially hardcore PVPers.  I found that I could really rock the class in the PVE scenarios but was getting busted up in PVP.  Some of it could be attributed to the sluggish combat and the Righteous Fury doesn’t regenerate fast enough to really heal during the focus-fire onslaught brought to bear on healing classes.  My swings were slow and not landing, hence I couldn’t heal myself let alone others in a pinch.  I'm sure part of the issue was my own lack of skill but I think there are game mechanics that should and will likely be addressed.

Warhammer Online – May Require 2nd and 3rd Look

I let my nephews come over to play some of the WAR Preview Event.  Our plan has always been to move from WOW to WAR together.  I don’t play with them anymore per say and my son’s not here either but they still have an interest in changing games when WAR releases.

The deal was that I’d be playing during the daytime and early evening.  When I logged to do the usual weekend chores, they could take turns playing.  The oldest is 16 and his first impressions were, and I quote, “It sucks.”  He went on to explain that it looked just like WOW but the classes weren’t as good – animations, graphics, spells and abilities.  The younger one who is 12 thought it was, "Okay".  I tried explaining why WAR looked like WOW.  The oldest wasn’t hearing it and the youngest didn’t really care about why it looked like WOW, he just thought it was a rip-off.

WAR Preview Weekend: Sunday Plans

Not sure what to do on my last day of the WAR Preview Event.  I believe it runs through tomorrow but my upcoming work-week will preclude me from playing.  If this weekend hadn’t been the WAR PE, I would have actually worked.  I’m not sure I feel like trying out classes that I doubt I’d ever play, specifically the melee classes that I haven’t tried.  I could try out the other healers to be sure I have the one I’d like to play, if healing is the profession I choose.

My chief concern and indecision is because I don’t want to repeat the content too much.  Yes, the early levels go by very quickly and I’ve purposefully not read the quests so that I can do so for the first time during live.  However, I’m less inclined to repeat the content I’ve seen so far without being bored by it.  The content isn’t bad.  There are the usual collection, delivery and kill x rats, interspersed with more original mechanics.  But original only feels original the first few times you do it, so I don’t want to wear it out.  I still want stars in my eyes when I start playing my main in the live game.

WAR Preview Event Surprises – Some Good. Some Not.

I started the Preview Event (PE) with some well laid plans.  My primary goal was to try the classes I had an interest in playing and select a main character from among them.  I’ve never played the bad or evil side in any MMO not because I need to play a pretty race.  It’s because for whatever reason, the designer’s vision of those racial zones are dirty, poor, creepy and dark, as if evil doesn’t prosper in daylight.  Sure, I get the metaphor but I don’t like those types of zones, not even the heavily shades ones attributed to most elf like races which I do enjoy playing.  I almost always end up running my elf characters to some other starter zone.

Do Gamers Want Revolutionary Games?

I don’t know where this idea started, that gamers want revolutionary games.  *Looks around the room*  I’m a gamer and I don’t recall that request ever crossing my lips.  I play games to have fun.  Playing MMORPGs is a hobby for me – another form of entertainment.  I go to the movies for entertainment.  I dine out with friends as entertainment.  I play RPG-type games now and again too, as a form of entertainment.  Never in my life have I thought, “Damn, what I need right now is a revolutionary movie to go see!”  I honestly don’t get where all of this is coming from.

Warhammer Online Preview Weekend, Here I Come!!

I’ve finally caught WAR fever!  I can’t wait to login to the Preview Weekend that starts on Friday.  My indecision regarding which class to play as my main is the biggest culprit.  I’ve been reading my favorite blogs, roving game site class guides and watching way too many YouTube videos, in search of my new darling.  I’ve changed my mind so many times that I’ve resorted to a prioritized list of classes to test drive during the preview event.

I’m going to be out of town on business during the Open BETA through the first day of the Head Start so I want to be able to hit the ground running when I start playing.  I’m not in a hurry to level but much like Age of Conan where I spent two weeks re-rolling until I found my favorite class, I expect to have to try several classes in WAR as well.  Why?  I’m finding the variety and slight twists on traditional classes plus choosing a faction enjoyably problematic.

Virgina, There is No Other WOW

I’m going to turn my reply to a comment submitted by RomaGoth into a post.

Roma said…

In a non-related question, what does one do when he has (2) level 70's in WoW, (1) level 60, and is ready for a change? I tried LOTRO a few weeks ago and enjoyed it but stuck with WoW for awhile longer. Now I am not sure anymore if I want to keep playing WoW at all. I have 2 pieces of the FSW set for my 'lock, and my hunter is maxed out in mining/skinning to help make me some money. But I really feel uninspired. It doesn't help when things like last night occur either (we wiped 4 times in Shadow Labs and finally gave up after 2nd wipe on Grandmaster Vorpil). Is this all there is at 70 if you don't really raid? Battlegrounds for welfare epics? Mind-numbing grinding for primals? More mind-numbing dailies? Uggh. It begins to make me wonder why we are always in such a hurry to level our toons. Nearly three 70's later, I am ready for something different. The thought of grinding primals, battlegrounds, or running the same instances over and over again just does not appeal to me anymore. I know the expansion is coming out later this year, but will it not be the same content, just in a different setting?  Sorry to hijack your blog, but I am having a really hard time right now deciding what to do. I will probably play LOTRO just for the different content, and I always liked the lore.
I completely understand why you quit WoW, Saylah. Funny thing is, you played it a lot longer than I did (2+ more years than me I presume).

I’ve been playing WOW since BETA.  I made my official adieu to World of Warcraft this past June.  I hadn’t really played WOW for months prior but I count the official end as when I canceled our last remaining subscription.

I think it’s hard when you outgrow a game that you love.  Sometimes I find myself missing our family’s board game obsession.  I don’t miss the games as much as how playing together as a family felt.  Two in college and the third heading off to the military, we are more fragmented by location now than we’ve ever been.  Leaving an MMO is like leaving a best friend because of all the social aspects of the game.  Even for a solo player like me, you can’t help but interact when you’re playing online with thousands of other people.  Then there's hitting level 10, getting your mount, your first cool spell or ability, getting your 51 point talent, first 5-man, first raid, first blue and first epic!!  For these things and more, departing a game like World of Warcraft is on a whole different scale for many players.  Why?  It’s very simple really, there is no other WOW to go to.

WAR: Lookin for My BETA & Head-Start Codes from Amazon

Edit: Changed title so people didn't mistakenly think I needed codes.

Last night I emailed Amazon to ask about my Collector’s Edition BETA and Head-Start codes.  I woke up this morning to find all the information I needed in my email.  It’s customer service like this that keeps me a very loyal Amazon customer.  I’ve been shopping on Amazon for years and buy most anything from them even when I know it’s through a third party.  You can’t beat their online consumer experience and support.  Anytime I’ve had a problem, even through third party, Amazon has resolved the issue even if the other party was unresponsive.

Like Age of Conan, I’m not so much interested in playing the BETA because I don’t want to burn out any sooner than necessary.  I didn’t bother with the AOC BETA I had and I’m thinking about just waiting for the Head-start which is what I really wanted.  The only reason I’m even thinking of doing the BETA now is because I spent the first 2+ weeks of AOC rolling various classes before I selected my main.  The combat in AOC being so different, I wanted to try the melee classes before picking my standard Mage.  As it turned out, I preferred the melee style much better and ended up choosing to play a Bear Shaman.

EQ2: Disappointed in Steamfront Mountains

I was EXTREMELY disappointed to see that the Steamfront Moutains zone is basically the same as Butcherblock Mountains, with some Gnome gadgetry sprinkled around.  The look of the zone is almost identical – dry and rocky, with small caves and canyons.  Many of the core mobs are the same– spiders, bears, foxes, etc.  Imagine my disappointments, when the day before I was so excited to finally exit the zones I’d done several times during the course of trying to find the right race, class and EQ2 server rule set.  I didn’t play much after I realized it was going to be more of the same. I used an invisibility illusion to ride through the zone to uncover most of the map and get some exploration XP then logged out.