Mystic Worlds

I AM

I’ve had a few careers in my life – developer, instructional designer and performance analyst. I’ve been fortunate enough co-author three books that were published back in my technical hay-day. I’ve been a wife. I am a mother. I am a grandmother, aunt and entrepreneur. I still aspire to be a published fiction author. And I’m a gamer.

Gamer – of all the monikers I’ve worn over the years, this is the one that was kept in the closest the longest. It’s not something you speak of loudly when talking to co-workers. You definitely don’t strike up a conversation about it with strangers unless you’re at a geek event. For many years, even family members outside of our household had no clue. And yet, gaming is such a huge part of my personality and lifestyle. Gamer is the moniker that identifies me best outside of family oriented titles. Gaming has been present from an early age for all of my children - they are gamers too.

Kthxbai Guilt

I haven’t blogged much in recent months. Between work and my entrepreneurial adventures, I started feeling guilty about spending the time. Isn’t it bad enough that I occasionally squeeze in gaming when I could be doing any number of other more productive things? To turn around and spend more time on the subject blogging about it, seemed excessive. *smile* I’m not Catholic but I do self-guilt really well.

I’ve decided to throw the gaming guilt hat out the window. I can’t work 24/7 and even if I could, it sure as hell wouldn’t be healthy. I game. I enjoy gaming. DAMMIT, I AM A GAMER. So what if I like blogging about gaming too. Games, MMORPGs in particular, have provided me with a lifetime of precious memories. I’ve forged real life relationships with people I wouldn’t have met otherwise.

MMO Love Affair

I’ve been a serious MMO player since Asheron’s Call. I wasn’t blogging back then however. Blogging didn’t start until Asheron’s Call 2 but I didn’t keep that blog alive after AC2 was shut down. Consequently, I only have a few pictures from AC2, my first MMO love affair.

A couple of weeks ago I was watching my daughter make personalized monogram name plates for a customer’s nursery when an idea hit me. Wouldn’t it be cool to do something similar using my game characters?? I raced through my blog’s archive and picked out a few favorites and asked her to do a full word collage of them.

GAMER - Loud and Proud

I gave her pictures from the MMOs I’ve played. AC2 to GW2, minus the minor forays into F2P games, my most beloved characters are represented. Knowing that I’ve played just about, it not every, AAA subscription-based MMO that’s hit NA, it’s telling which games didn’t make the cut. Notably missing from the line up – Vanguard, Age of Conan, Star Wars, Pirates of the Burning Sea and Lord of the Rings Online.

Of the ones I selected, every picture has a story. Every image brings a smile to my face. I can recall exactly what I was doing and why for every pose. It’s easy to tell which games I preferred by the number of pictures I selected versus other games represented. I LOVE how it turned out!

I can’t wait to hang this in my home office. When I look up and see it, I’ll be transported to happy thoughts. I’ll breathe a little easier and exhale a sweet sigh. I don’t know about you, but I could use more moments like that in my day. If you or someone you know might be interested in having one done, I’ve posted buying options on our Etsy shop.

GW2: What's up with dusk substituting for nighttime?

What the hell happened to having a bonafied nighttime in MMOs? Have I lost my mind, or didn't WOW actually get dark in Vanilla??? From my recollection, we only have EQ2 and LOTRO that present a full on night cycle in the AAA MMO arena. I don't know what started the trend of dusk substituting for darkness but I AM NOT A FAN. No one followed AC2's lead with actual seasons which was A-may-ZING!  Can we at least have nighttime!?!

GW2 in particular, should have opted for an actual night cycle. There are things I've encountered in Tyria that only happen at "night". If you visit the Ascalon Settlement at night, and go to the area with the vista, you'll see the ghosts of fallen soldiers. How sad and simultaneously facinating.  This was wicked cool the first time I ran across it.

I'd already done the vista and hadn't seen the ghosts but happened to go back to the area to farm and it was "night". I was like, "Wait a second, these people weren't here before. What gives?" Tilting my camera upward I realized it was nighttime. "Ah ha!"

It was neat little suprise but made me wonder all the more, why the hell don't they make it, you know, DARK since it's night? I find this trend annoying and disappointing.

Related articles

GW2: Solo but not Alone

GW2: Choosing my 1st Alt

Asheron's Call 2: Can you ever really go home again?

You either loved or hated, Turbine's Asheron's Call successor, Asheron's Call 2: Fallen Kings.  I was in the LOVED IT crowd.  AC2 was the first MMO that captured a piece of my heart and soul.  I'd dabbled in EverQuest, AC1 and Horizons.  I was awaiting Middle Earth Online, which eventually became Lord of the Rings Online, with baited breath. But AC2 became my first virtual-world-home, from the day it launched until the servers went dark.  It was the first time I experienced forming virtual world friendships that transitioned into my real life, in permanent and lasting ways.  It was the first online game I played with my son, who'd just turned 12.

Fathers and Daughters.  Mothers and Sons

I realize that my vivid memories and affection for AC2 are very tightly connected to my emotional state and circumstances in 2004.  I'd been diagnosed with cancer.  I'd had one operation and was awaiting the pathology report for a second opinion.  It was the longest 3 weeks of my life.  The swing between fear, despair, hopefulness and being in lots of pain was difficult.  I felt my daughters would be "okay" if the worst came to pass.  I was worried about my son, so quiet and shy. Who until he was 6 years old, didn't speak to anyone but me, his father and our youngest daughter.  A child so sweet, I had to explain to him several times that he couldn't go into other people's yards on his way home from school and take their flowers to bring home to me.  Oh my, he made my heart melt.

Rift - Delicious Visual Delights

I really missed playing Rift while I was down for the count with a stomach virus.  I imagined all the fun I was missing.  Mostly, I don’t want to fall too far behind the guild instance junkies. Broken record here but I think the Rift dungeons are some of the best of any MMO I’ve played.

My first day back in the game it was pretty quiet in guild chat.  I finished up some quests in Scarlet Gorge (levels 26 – 30) and even though there was plenty of content left and I enjoyed the whole Red Dead vibe, I decided to move on to Scarwood Reach (levels 30 – 35).

The next evening, more of the gang was online and we did King’s Breach with two non-guildies. Evening after we ran through Foul Cascade for a couple of people who needed.  I started out as I always do, as main healer.  Half way through our "mage that night but often our tank" suggested that I could go DPS off-heal and he’d go Chloromancer if I wanted to ride the wild side for a bit.  Even with two members who hadn’t done the instance before and a few mishaps we were victorious – meaning, COW’s don’t wipe.  Well of course cows don’t wipe… err… uh, you know what I mean.  Forget it – stop laughing!

 Scarwood Pie  

When it’s time to move on to another zone I’m a bit worried that the game will drop the inclusion of having a living NPC community in the area, much like World of Warcraft does after Southshore and we’ll go back to being out in the middle of nowhere fighting over who cares what.  But no, Rift did not fail me.  I know – I’m a broken record on this subject but for me, this is what makes the questing relevant!  

People trying to survive and thrive in an area – living their lives under the threat we’re trying to combat is the story.  I don’t need your long quest text, 20 minutes of voice-over or lore off in some wiki outside the game, all of that should be additive - extra.  My surroundings and what I’m doing within them should tell me most of what I need to know about my life in your virtual world and why it matters.

Scarwood Reach might creep in as my favorite zone with its Eliam fields (farmlands) meets Darkshire (Tim Burton quizzically creepy). Trion packs a lot of variety in each zone.  There’s even an outpost that reminds me of the area surrounding Saruman's Tower from Lord of the Rings, equipped with hollowed out tree trunks and large root structures that you enter to harvest, quest or whatever.  

Be sure not to miss the Fight Club esk repeatable quest that was a hilarious diversion.  I remember when Asherson’s Call 2 added a gauntlet-like solo instance you could match yourself against on a daily basis, to see how far you could go – each mob was progressively stronger.  It can take me a while to settle down to questing when presented with such delicious visual delights and diversion.  And although I don’t personally do overt RP, RP chat is alive and thriving on Faeblight.  Mo’ spice.  Mo’ sugar.

Getting All Beau Hindman - Immersion Run

I don’t care what Rift has borrowed from other games.  I’d like to see a modern MMO that hasn’t.  It’s like getting your mother’s favorite recipe and adding your own twist.  Whatever they’ve done, it’s taken me back to my golden days of MMO adventuring minus the icky stuff that has since been improved.

I found myself feeling all Beau last night while I was out harvesting.  I felt so immersed in the moment; I wished having a graphical interface wasn’t necessary.  I just wanted me and the game in my view.  I took matters into my own hands.  I closed down the UI, turned off all name plates and pushed in the camera close in my character.  I attacked what attacked me or looked like it might, relied on my instincts to know how I was fairing in a fight and when I could use what abilities.  If I died, so what, it’s not like there’s perma-death.  *Smile*

I completed my harvest run in this manner, even through encounters where I had multiple mobs one me and survived them all.  Yea for being a keyboarder and not a mouse-clicker.  *Snicker*  It was exhilarating, fun and I felt so much more a part of the game, I got why Beau likes to do his full immersion projects.  I’m going to harvest like this more often. 

I’m back in the groove and closing in on level 35.  I’d love to make up some ground this weekend and hit level 38 so I can do the next instance with the members hanging out in the early 40s waiting on the rest of us folks.  Rift and COW have made a main healer out of me and I like it!

Asheron’s Call 2, the Love of My Life

The Online Gamer’s Anthology podcast released a two-show look at Asheron’s Call (AC1).  Listening to the shows brought back my most treasured MMO gaming memories.  I only played AC1 for a few weeks.  I played Asheron’s Call 2 (AC2) the defunct sequel, from release until just before the servers were shutdown.  Here are some of the elements of the game that made it so special to me and my son.

During the time that I was playing AC2, I was spending a lot more time writing.  This game provided many inspirational ideas for fan fiction. I made a horrible mistake by canceling my web hosting service before preserving the hundreds of pages I’d published.  At the time I was so angry with Turbine over the handling and eventual closing of the game, that I wanted nothing more to do with the whole thing.  Hindsight – I definitely cut off my own nose on that one.