Author: Ethic

I run this little MMO gaming blog but I hardly ever write on it anymore. I'm more of a bloglord or something. Thankfully I have several minions to keep things rolling along.
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It’s A Trap!

[World of Warcraft] I spent some time today getting my Rogue to level 24. Two levels in the last two days played, not bad for me. I only got two new skills so that was somewhat lame; an improved skill of one I already had and a new skill to detect traps.

My brother and I went through Shadowfang Keep and the Meteor Shard dagger (that Inhibit and I had tried so hard to get a few weeks ago and failed many times) dropped on the first try. Sweet dagger too. The most enjoyable part of going through Shadowfang Keep this time is that we stealthed through all the way to the end. Was a challenge for me at level 24 to not be detected, but I did it. Great fun.

I also spent some time travelling on foot, running from Sun Rock Retreat through Ashenvale and down to Crossroads. Then back to Ashenvale, over to Sludge Fen, back to Ashenvale and finally over to Orgrimmar. That was a lot of running around, but I was able to clean up several quests that had been gathering dust.

At one point, I was running along a mountain ridge between Ashenvale and Sludge Fen and all of a sudden it got very dark. I walked over to the edge and looked down on Demon Falls Ridge or something like that. Looked really creepy. I wondered what that area was all about, but I was not ready to jump in there unprepared.

I also recently found the schematic to make mechanical squirrel pets. I was hoping I could make some decent money selling them but so far it seems a poor seller. Too bad, I think they are kind of cool.

All and all it was a very fine WoW weekend. Indeed.

Up next: Ravenholdt Manor – Rogue Quest

Mapserver Disconnected

[City of Heroes] I swear I get disconnected from the mapserver at least once every gaming session. Often it is 30 seconds after I log in, more often it is when I zone into (or out of) a new area or mission. I don’t have any disconnect problems with any other MMORPG. Anyone have any ideas? I have tried everything I could find in the CoH forums and nothing helped.

It’s enough to make me say goodbye to CoH again. If there is anything I hate in MMORPGs, it is server problems. Even if it is something on my end of the connection. If I can’t fix it, I can’t play. If I can’t play, I won’t pay. Simple as that.

Busy Super Hero, No Time For You

I think it is funny when you are playing City of Heroes that as you go up in levels, you stop saving citizens if the badguys aren’t worth your time. You see a crowd of greys picking on some lady, taking her purse. You think, “No XP there, sorry lady!” and run along figuring that some junior Super will be along shortly. Certainly she can wait a few more minutes.

Sad thing is, fighting a mob of greys is about the only time you feel like a Super Hero. One or two punches and they are all down for the count. Boom baby. Run through a dangerous part of town and you are suddenly made of glass. That just ain’t right.

Return To Warcraft

[World of Warcraft] With the weekend filled with plans away from home, I did not have any time for online gaming. When I finally got home tonight I decided to spend a little time back in WoW. It felt good to be back.

I levelled my Undead Rogue to 23 (that’s him in the title above) and for a change of pace I played a female Night Elf Druid up to level 5. The Druid is on a totally different server than my normal server. I started her on a Role Play server. I don’t normally play female characters so this may be interesting. It was one of those cases where I had a character already envisioned in my mind and the name I came up with did not feel right as anything other than a female. I don’t really plan to play the Druid too much, but I just wanted to try something different tonight.

On another note, well wishes go out to my good friend Inhibit. He’s been fighting off illness for a little while now. Hope you feel better soon, bro.

City Of Heroes Court Victory

In a March 9 order, U.S. District Court Judge R. Gary Klausner agreed with NCsoft that some of Marvel’s allegations and exhibits should be stricken as “false and sham” because certain allegedly infringing works depicted in Marvel’s pleadings were created not by users, but by Marvel itself.

The judge also dismissed more than half of Marvel’s claims against NCsoft and Cryptic Studios, including Marvel’s claims that the defendants directly infringed Marvel’s registered trademarks and are liable for purported infringement of Marvel’s trademarks by City of Heroes’ users.

Important quote:

The judge dismissed all of these claims without leave to amend, meaning that Marvel cannot refile these claims.

Read the rest.

Super Day 10

[City of Heroes] The static group rides again. We did a few missions in the Hollows and one in Atlas Park. The XP flowed like cool tar, slow. At the end of the night I had three more bars than when I started (1/3 of one level). *yawn*

My brother commented before the third mission that he was done after we finished it. Asked why and he said he can’t take much more of that game in one setting. He said it is too repetitive. He is right on that point, CoH does feel very repetitive, always has to me. I had hoped the static group would make up for that, but it is starting to make itself rather obvious.

When you compare to other games like World of Warcraft, you can really see the intelligence behind the design of the quests. It certainly hides the repetitive nature of the game better than CoH.

Is there more to CoH that shows up in later levels? It certainly feels like the missions are all mostly the same. Kill all the guys indoors or kill 10 outdoors. Sometimes they toss in something to destroy or someone to rescue, but the motions you go through in each mission is exactly the same. Need more variety.

Migration Day

[Asheron’s Call 2] I was finally prompted to migrate my billing from Microsoft to Turbine last night. What a relief. It is my opinion that Microsoft held down both of the Asheron’s Call games, keeping them from being the best they could have been. AC2 is really going through an upturn in quality design decisions, but I wonder if anyone will come back. The expansion pack coming soon is adding a lot to the game, but is it enough to tempt many people to give it another try (or try it for the first time)?

I also joined the Beta Rewards Program, so bring on those MEO and DDO betas!

Static Teams, Pickup Groups And Solo, Oh My!

I’ve really enjoyed the static group we have been running in City of Heroes. Heck even a static group of two is good fun. Doing this has caused me to ponder my gaming habits lately.

I really enjoy gaming with other people. I have fooled myself into thinking I prefer to solo by using many justifications. Bad pickup groups, odd schedules, having a wife and kids that need me to drop everything sometimes, etc.

I started playing Asheron’s Call. That was my first MMORPG. My brother came over one day and installed the game on my computer and forced me to make a character. Once in-game, Inhibit wandered over and helped me get started. Shortly after that, my brother and Inhibit spent many a night taking care of my low level guy, teaching him the ways of the world. It was great fun. Not only did we adventure together, but sometimes we just gathered on the top of a building and talked for hours. We role-played on the spur of the moment, someone would just break into it and everyone else would follow the lead.

Eventually we moved on to Anarchy Online. Still had lots of fun. My brother played a lot more than I so he gained levels much faster than I. Then it was just Inhibit and I that could play together, but soon after he was too high level for me as well. The fact that I like to make a character of almost every class doesn’t help, it really slows me down.

We moved to Asheron’s Call 2, Final Fantasy XI, City of Heroes and then to World of Warcraft. I always tried to get the static group thing to work, but it never did. For some reason, it has worked pretty well this 2nd time into City of Heroes.

So naturally I wonder if we could do the same in World of Warcraft. That is still my favorite game but the server instability pissed me off one too many times. I’m pretty sure Inhibit won’t go back there any time soon, and that is ok because we are still having fun in CoH. But someday down the road, maybe we’ll go back to WoW and give it a try.

Not having my static team around last night, I logged into WoW for a little bit. I do miss the game, that is for sure. However, it feels like level 22 is at least a year away from 60. Some level 50 Alliance players attacked a town I was in and a few level 50 Horde fought back. I joined in the fight but was not of much help. It was fun, and made me wish I was near 60 so I could have actually done something. For the most part it was just miss, miss, miss. I just can’t bear the thought of leveling from 22 to 60. Certainly not solo anyway.

I feel like I cannot tolerate gaming solo any more. I just sit there in game and hope someone comes online, or I logout and go read a book. I think I am anti-social in-game because I never seek people out or ask them to group up. Sometimes I get random invites to join a party and instantly I think of all sorts of reasons not to join them. I might have to log out soon! How dare they invite me without sending me a tell first? One of my friends may log on in 5 minutes and then I’ll want to leave! They probably don’t know how to play!

What is wrong with me? What is my fear of grouping with people I don’t know? Isn’t that the point of an MMORPG? I used to think I like to solo and that the games should cater to my wishes, but now I wonder if that is bringing about the downfall of what is *really* fun about an MMORPG. I mean people *do* send blind invites all the time now. When I have been in a group, nobody talks. It’s like a bunch of people soloing in the same spot or something. People in a group often only think of themselves, not the team. That is part of what makes our static team so good, we compliment each other’s abilities so well.

Where is the line? If a game is going to require grouping to encourage the social side of things, does it make sense to use lengthy quests to force grouping? Is it worth it to make classes unable to solo in order to force grouping? I certainly demand to have the option of doing something fun and worth my time while solo. I simply would not play a game that had no solo option. The game should have the option to solo, but make it a lot more fun to be in a group. Make it easy to join and to leave a group. Do not make any class that is a “must have” in a group, but don’t make any class worthless to a group. Is this even possible? Is it completely wrong? I don’t know, it’s just what my experience is telling me at this particular time in my gaming evolution. Don’t force grouping, encourage grouping by making it a lot more fun than playing solo. Fun.

The Streak Ends

Our City of Heroes static group marathon is over. Nine days. I knew it wouldn’t last forever, but oh the glory while it did!

Anyway, I had some work to do tonight, my brother was busy courting the ladies and Inhibit had some early work in the morning so we just ended it right there.

I am sure we will get together again in the future, perhaps tomorrow, perhaps the day after, but it will never be quite the same. It was great while it lasted boys!

Oh the drama, hehe.