There and Back Again, a tale of MMO fatigue.

My Red Dead Redemption fever was cured after several weeks of playing.  It was the first time I’d ever really attempted to play a solo RPG, much less one on the console.  I didn’t get to see the credits roll but it was definitely a fun ride.  What really sold me was the open world, in which I could break away from the linear storyline at will.  I also jumped into the multi-player side every so often to get wailed on and ganked by higher level players.  No tears though, such is the nature of PVP.  I got good at the re-gank. You know, where you kill each other over and over, each racing back from resurrection hoping you got there first, so you can kill them when they arrive. LOLZ    That and stealing other player’s horses – that shit never got old!!

Played EQ2 using 3-Day Consecutive Sub Plan
After RDR, I did two rounds of EQ2 using the 3-day sub payment model.  As always, I wish I enjoyed the questing more.  I might have re-subscribed for the PVP which was actually entertaining, except for two things.  First is a regular complaint from me – the graphic animations are over-the-top in an intrusive way.  In group fights, I can never tell what the hell is going on because of the game’s particular style of doing combat animations.  I’m just pressing buttons in the order that makes sense.  I can’t actually tell what’s landing because the combat zone is completely cluttered with animations. And yes, I've played games with lots of combat animations but there's something about EQ2's that clutter up the screen in a fashion that the other games don't.  Hard to explain - they look like they happen in a 2D space so that they're all stacked over each other, not actually occurring "over there" where that player is that is executing the move.  Strange.

Second is that damn interface!  I don’t know what was going on.  Every time I entered PVP, my hotbars were all scrambled, including the keybindings and there’s no time to figure it out with people racing to kill you.  When the PVP session is over and I materialize back in the PVE world, it’s my normal setup so I can’t FIX the damn problem.  I was never a fan of the EQ2 interface and wished it was more open so modders could do more with it along the lines of how customizable the WOW interface has become.  Anything I didn’t like about the WOW interface was replaced ages ago. 

Considered other MMOs but Returned to WOW
After my last consec-sub ran out I returned to WOW.  I considered W101, AOC, ROM and EVE.  In the end, it was the long history, variety of existing characters, access to gold, access to high level crafters, instant PVE with LFG tool, instant PVP with Random tool and the ever present player-base that makes WOW the easy choice for a player wanting a casual return to the MMO scene.

When I returned, I thought I’d two-box 70s but I-just-couldn’t-do-it.  I could not force myself to level anything to 80.  The Tri-box was also abandoned because I couldn’t muster enough interest to box through TBC either.  I closed all accounts except for one and picked up the abandoned Death Knight.  It was a character started by my son, finished by my nephew and left sitting shortly after it reached max level.  I can see why.  My nephew isn’t mature enough yet to do anything beyond the 5-mans and with everyone wanting Gear Scores and Achievements before allowing you into a group, he can’t get very far.  Besides which, the DK is rather complicated to play. You really have to understand the Talent Trees and choose a good spec. His spec was all over the place and he had every single spell on the hotbars.  Insane!

Playing a Death Knight
I’ve always enjoyed PVP.  All of our initial characters went from 1 to 70 on PVP servers. It wasn’t until I decided to multi-box that I went PVE.  The DK was sitting in moderate gear with no professions.  Grrr!!  I researched some PVP builds.  I tried Frost/Unholy, Unholy/Frost, Frost/Blood before settling on Blood/Unholy.  Since I often find myself guarding ALONE, more on that in a second, there's an advantage to being able to hold out until help arrives when under attack.

With better gear and more +hit and + expertise, she’s do very well in the damage department.  As it stands, I’m alive way more than dead and am always in the top 40 to 50% on damage.  I’m always higher in the Honorable Kills stat than over all damage.  When I get heals, she’s something special.  I can survive crowds of people trying to get me off their healers, kill the healer and then kill them.  Good times when that happens.  She won’t burn up the DPS charts but she’s self-sufficient, in that she has self-healing and can do moderate DPS.  I find Alliance often lacks healers so being able to heal myself is very helpful.

I shouldn’t be surprised but I am, that after all this time you still have to BEG ALLIANCE PLAYERS TO DEFEND in BGs.  If you can’t run willy-nilly killing red-dots or zerging your way through it, many Alliance players can’t cope.  Sure, chasing people down the road appears fun on the surface.  However, doing that and leaving nodes completely undefended is idi-fucking-otic! 

On the positive side, at least 1/3 of the time a good group arises and I have a blast playing competitive, hotly contested rounds of PVP.  In the time that I’ve been on the DK, I’ve upgraded all of her gear to PVP epics except for 3 slots – weapon, gloves and belt.  Two will come soon enough.  Unfortunately for the weapon upgrade it’s PVE or Arena, neither of which interest me at the moment.

Picked Two Gathering Professions
I’ve done all of the professions I’m interested in multiple times at this point but I always feel like the chars should have them.   On the DK I picked herbalism and skinning.  I know mining is probably more profitable but I have a miner at 300 on the same account.  I started cooking and fishing but not sure I’ll finish those when the same char that has mining has those too sitting at 300.  While I prefer for each character to be self-sufficient, I'm not sure that preference warrants the additional grind when I don't know how long I'll stay.

P.S.

On the most recent Van Hemlock podcast he mentions that they might try the EQ2 F2P.  If they do, I'd give it try with them.  There's something that I do like about EQ2 perhaps a regular group would fix or detract from what I don't like about the questing.

Comments

[Winged Nazgul]

Now might be the time to finally check out Atlantica Online. Big patch coming tomorrow with the long-awaited Tactical Battle System and Housing:

http://www.massively.com/2010/08/16/massively-takes-turn-with-atlantica-onlines-new-patch/

[Saylah]

I'll check out the link. Seeing your name reminds me of the good times we had as a guild in Warhammer Online. Dayum that was fun while it lasted. :-)

[Saylah]

Wait - what? That's what Atlantica Online looks like?? I'm totally confused as to why I never tried it at all. I must have had it confused with something else when you were playing it and blogging.

[Julie Whitefeather]

Welcome back to wow. Fran has convinced me to give it another try and I have been playing a gnome warrior with mining and engineering. I would be interested in trying EQ2 if it weren't for being cast into what Tipa calls the free to play ghetto.

Julie

[Winged Nazgul]

LOL, probably not. The graphic styles in Atlantica are very diverse ranging from Ancient Sparta/China to Steampunk Wild West.

[Akely]

I have a hunch this will backfire terribly for SOE. People like me, and Saylah perhaps, will end their subs and go free to play instead. Because lets face it, the sub servers are full of achievement oriented players. The free to players will probably have a lot of more players who just wants to play casually and have a little fun.

[Blacknimbus]

If you want to really give something new a try, you might apply for a Beta key (or hunt around for one online) for World of Tanks. Goofy name, but I'm enjoying it....and I was never a big PvP fan at all.

[Winged Nazgul]

Yeah, I'm also in the World of Tanks beta and having fun. Not playing it too much at the moment to prevent burnout come release but this is one title I'm really excited about.

Don't really think this will quite be Saylah's cup of tea, however.

[Saylah]

As it happens, I saw a video of World of Tanks when I was searching for the recently released GW2 game play footage. I don't think it would be my thing.

As for EQ2, I think a saving grace could be that players who do copy over still have their mains on the original live server. Some may keep the sub but play with friends on the F2P servers too.

I wouldn't call them ghetto servers. LOL Reduce functionality, but that's assuming that everyone on those servers is and remains F2P which might not be the case. The only thing restricting items and access is your payment model. For people who just want to dabble, try new classes and be very casual, there's likely to be a steady stream of bodies in the lower levels again. This could be appealing to a P2P player.

In all honestly, what you may find is a nice mix of both on the "free" servers. For example, I immediately thought of moving my main to have her there parked. I'd roll new chars with the Hemlock group if they go there OR I'd could dual box for free!! If that's enough entertainment, I would sub the main at the normal price to give me access to whatever I want/need via the main but the boxed-chars get a free ride. win-win.

[Republic Monetary]

Ugh...I got burned out of WoW and I just can't bring myself back to playing it again. Maybe if it went to F2P I'd reconsider (which I hear they are considering) but I'm just tired of it. Even the new expansion isn't enough to lure me back.

[Saylah]

The fact the it's lobby PVP - wait around anywhere you like until one pops, is what makes it quick fun. I usually do an hour or so then log out.