Author: Ethic

I own this little MMO gaming blog but I hardly ever write on it any more. I'm more of a bloglord or something. Thankfully I have several minions to keep things rolling along.
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To Gank

The other day (playing World of Warcraft) I was doing some quests around Tarren Mill when a Night Elf Rogue, level listed as ?? so they had to be quite a bit higher than me, wandered in and started killing some of the local level 50 Deathguards. They had no problem with them at all so I am guessing they were level 60. This is on a PvE server so I was not worried for my safety.

I watched this Rogue for a few minutes and eventually a small crowd gathered. Soon one of the higher level Horde players attacked the Night Elf. The beatdown commenced as the whole crowd joined in. I tossed out four Frost Shocks to keep them from running away and eventually they lost the battle with us. Was quite suprised I was able to land them at all.

I reflected back on my PvP experiences in WoW and I realized I am a sort of ganker. I only participate in PvP when I am rather sure I’ll win.

For example, I was hunting with my brother and we came across an Alliance player equal to our level. They appeared to be solo while hunting some creatures and we noted they had been PvP enabled. We decided it would be prudent to remove them from the area and we did so. I felt bad some as it did not feel honorable but my brother pointed out that they *were* flagged, so it is their fault not ours.

Most every other PvP situation I have been in is when the numbers are on my side. A level 60 might be killing NPCs in the Crossroads and eventually a crowd hunts them down. I usually will cast something like Earth Shock (interrupt casting) if they are a caster or Frost Shock to keep them from running away.

In fact, I don’t normally accept duals either. Certainly not when every single time I have been challenged to a dual I was in the middle of something else. Doesn’t anyone bother to ask any more? What’s wrong with a little /tell? I have been asked to sign guild charters with no conversation. I have been asked to join a group with no conversation. Hardly anyone bothers to ask if I would be interested in helping them do something. What’s up with that?

Sorry, went off on a tangent there.

To sum up, I feel like a ganker.

On another note, my Shaman reached level 27 last night. Now we are cooking with gas.

Face Of Mankind Open Beta

Face of Mankind is an MMORPG set in the 24th century. You are invited to play out the ageless battle of good vs. evil, and witness all shades of gray in between. Role-playing and your real-life skills are the raw ingredients of game play.

This MMORPG uses the first ever player-generated mission system, and combines it with sophisticated economics and complex player politics for a new kind of online experience. Only your ability to shoot, bargain, politic and otherwise duck and deal will advance your character�s private or corporate agenda. The success of each and every mission will determine your rise to the top, or your fall into obscurity. Whatever path you take in this astonishing world, plan well: one day, one minute or a single second could bring you to your destiny as the true Face of Mankind.

Get the open beta client while it’s hot.

EQ2 Embraces The Solo Player?

EQ2 Producer’s Letter:

This generation of gamers is very different from those that have gone before. Many people out there (quite a few of the dev team included) just don’t have the large blocks of uninterrupted time that we used to. We still want to be able to come online, have fun, be challenged, and be rewarded for our efforts. Soloists and those who prefer small groups should never have to feel like they’re the ones getting the proverbial table scraps, as it were.

And:

In tomorrow’s update, expect significant solo and small group experience boosts across the board that allow for advancement that will be much more visible and feel much more satisfying.

In the following weeks’ updates, there will be a new class of creatures added to the game that present an increased challenge to soloers and small groups. Specific details will be posted in the message that accompanies the update. Soloing shouldn’t feel like a grind; it should be an exciting and fun style of play in its own right.

Also in those updates, brand new item rewards will be added for soloists and small-groupers. Additionally, some of the rewards that have been reserved solely for groups will also make their way, though more rarely, to the solo and small group encounters in the world. At the same time, expect group rewards to improve as well. The chances for some of the group-only ultra-rare drops will likewise be increased.

In the weeks following that, expect new dungeon instances to be made available for those who solo, duo, and trio. Exciting dungeon crawling is a core part of what people love the most about online fantasy games, and it shouldn’t be reserved solely for those who choose to play in full groups.

Essentially, the way it should work is like this:

Soloing and small grouping should be a way to advance at a satisfying rate. You should be able to earn good rewards that are exciting in their own right. Soloing and small grouping should also provide a chance at the great rewards that people might not expect in anything except the traditional six-person group.

This (depending on how it goes as I will be watching it) and the firesale price of the EQ2 game in stores may just be enough for me to try it. Well, not that likely.

AO For Free, Shadowlands Too?

Just got this email regarding my free Anarchy Online account:

UPGRADE TO SHADOWLANDS FOR FREE!

Special offer! Upgrade your account with Shadowlands prior to February 7th with no client fee! Notum Wars included! You save EUR 19,95 / $19,95. Subscription fee as low as $7,95 per month.

So I can get the expansion for free, but I will still have to pay a monthly fee. AO is bound and determined to get me back as a regular customer. I like what they are doing.

I am almost there. Almost.

Thoughts From Last Night

As I was drifting to sleep, my thoughts turned to my WoW session from earlier. I found a few things interesting:

1. I don’t like to solo, I hate to solo. If I had my way I would always group up with someone I know. I solo because of my schedule and the fact that everyone I know that plays, outlevels me by a large margin. Unless the game has a productive way to group up, most of them would rather do high level stuff then slum with me (in general).

2. Playing my Shaman in a group was a completely different experience than playing solo. I had to try things in a whole new way. Skills and spells I rarely used, became important. Skills I normally used a lot, became unneeded.

3. WoW still has some really odd problems. When we were fighting a group of mobs, my brother told me that all the mobs and I disappeared from his screen. On my screen he appeared to be frozen in a combat pose and his pet was not moving either. Eventually he said he was fine, but it did not appear to be any different for me. Then the mobs starting fighting nobody, so I joined in as I could tell from the text it was him fighting them. We did this for a while and then his frozen character moved some, looted mobs that were not there any more and then froze again. Later he called out for help and I noticed from his icon he was low on health. Not seeing him, I selected his icon and healed him. This went on for another 5 minutes or so and eventually things returned to normal without either of us relogging. This sort of thing is unacceptable in my book, I hope it’s not something I have to deal with again.

My Name Is Ethic…

And I’m an Altoholic. Seriously, I have toon commitment issues. I don’t play all that often, so logic would dictate I choose one character and focus on it so eventually I can get to the upper levels. In reality, I get bored after a while and start a new character.

I may find one that I can keep playing for a long time, but that is pretty rare. My current character selection window in WoW has 8 characters. Rogue, Mage, Warlock, Shaman, Hunter, Priest, Druid, and a Warrior. Highest level is 24 and the rest are around level 10-15.

The first step to fixing a problem is to admit you have a problem. This probably isn’t really a problem, but it does tend to make me cancel a game after a while because I burn out on all the low level content. So it is a problem for me.

What is the solution? Play games with only one character slot like FFXI or SWG? Well I played them both. In FFXI I kept changes jobs so the same thing happened. I burned out on low levels. In SWG, well lets just say I was never really into that game in the first place. So I guess one character slot is out.

Perhaps the problem is that I am addicted to the fast levelling the lower levels offer. I think this may be the whole problem for me. Which makes me wonder what I would feel about playing a game with no levels. Would I have no incentive? Or would I focus on something else? Is levelling really what drives my MMOG gameplay?

What can I do to fix this? Delete all my characters but one? Maybe do some soul searching to determine what is the most fun for me. Or am I making too big a deal out of this? Perhaps I need to take a break.

WoW Is Broken

I logged in, tried to check my mail. Could not get my mail – “Internal Mail Database Error”. Auction House not working. Cannot enter an instance. Cannot log out (had to Alt+F4 to get out).

Bah. Guess I’ll go out now and try playing later tonight.