The Journey, Not the Destination: A Story of an MMO/PvP Love Affair [Archive]

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Firam

02-16-2007, 03:50 AM

Why do you play video games? Why do you play MMO’s? Are you there for the glory of battle? The epic raids? The pride of showmanship as a master tradeskiller? The satisfaction of a long quest line completed? The thrill of exploration? The new worlds, visually impressive, waiting for you? The challenge of a fast paced dungeon crawl in a duo/trio? Do you enjoy the camaraderie and added element granted by VOIP gaming? The adrenaline rush of the true PvP hunt? What keeps you coming back? Really. Think about it. That’s what matters here. We all invest something of ourselves in the games we play, the characters we develop, the relationships we foster. The monetary cost is low, essentially non-existent, when you compare it to most other forms of entertainment. A monthly subscription for EQ2 equates to the cost of a movie and snacks. Two hours of visual/aural stimulation. How many hours a month do you play EQ2? =) The draw of MMO’s has always been the rich worlds with (relatively) neverending content. We take so much more away from these games. We also put so much more of ourselves into them. And really, is there a “right” way to play? Of course not! How many forum posts do you see pitching one style of play as the True and Blessed path, while deeming the lowbies as “noobs,” the raiders as “no-life losers,” or the PvPers as immature “l33t geeks.” We stereotype because it’s easy. We stereotype because we’re insecure. We stereotype because we have nothing profound to say about something, so we fill the void with nonsense, assumptions, and invective. The only right way to play is the way that you enjoy. And if you aren’t enjoying yourself in a game you need to change the way you play, find another game, or find another way entirely to spend your time. Because you don’t belong here. You don’t belong in a world that exists solely as an escapist fantasy to hide from your issues in real life. If you’re more stressed or emotionally disjointed after walking away from a game session, you did something wrong. What about me? I started playing console RPG’s in my early youth. Nintendo. Super Nintendo. The classics. When my father bought the first computer for our family in the early 90’s, I quickly moved on to text based MUD’s on a local BBS. Dial up. (Cable internet wasn’t even in its commercial infancy yet.) We measured our bandwidth in baud. We bought newer modems so the text-lag (!!) wasn’t so bad. We took up collections for the SysOp so *he* could upgrade his modems, to the same end effect. We had occasional BBS events, where everyone would meet up and we’d hang out for the afternoon. A dozen or so guys (and a few gals), from middle school age through late 20’s. Good times. And that’s when I fell in love with PvP. It was a game called MajorMUD, on the MajorBBS software. It was a very traditional MUD, and caught my interest immediately. I had been a gamer before that, but this was a new landscape, a new paradigm, a new direction in my life. I started playing via a Windows Telnet connection, plain black and white text box, and mastered the manual text commands to control my character. It was an after school hypnosis. A chat room with an RPG attached to it! Then I found about about scripts, and scripting software. Essentially a text-based GUI telnet program that color-washed the formerly blinding black text in full (16!) color glory, added shortcuts for key commands, and offered the ability to customize a script, a complex series of if-then statements, to automatically run your character for you when you weren’t there. I dove into it. I took basic scripts that I found online, tore them apart, made them better, made them bulletproof in PVE and PVP, made them faster and smarter and more efficient than anyone else on my BBS. [Later in life I ended up as a CompSci undergrad at a major engineering school in the Northeast… mostly because of that early spark. I ended up never using my degree, but I don’t regret a minute of the ride. =)] The PvP was incredible, somehow even more immersive than any FPS or MMO I’ve played since, and all of it rendered in beautiful… text. The race of your heart as you picked someone’s footsteps up on track (I played a ninja). The anticipation as you closed in, moving through room after room in cardinal-direction linked world maps that you had memorized and could run through in your sleep. The pause in breath as you snuck into the room with your mark, slid silently past them, and waited hidden in the next room, ready to slide your katana through their shoulderblades as they innocently attacked mobs. The chase, the killing blow, and the treasure trove of loot that followed. Literally heart-pounding. Incredible. I once snuck into a series of dragon caves that were way too high for me (PVE-wise) where a much higher level mage player was hunting. I sat hidden at the entrance, watching him move through the room, and knew that he wouldn’t be back for a few minutes. I ran around, dragging the angry dragon mobs back towards the entrance, where they would pile up at a magically sealed tunnel barrier. Snuck back into the room and hid, waiting for him to saunter back in. He ran into the room and his auto-attack setting engaged the dragons before he could do anything; I set the backstab in motion and he was dead in the first round of combat. I ended up dying to the dragons as well, but used my stealth to beat him back from town and collected the bounty… all items and coin dropped when you died for any reason (imagine EQ2 PvP with that kind of ruleset, heh). I was literally shaking IRL the entire time. I’ve never been physically affected to that extent by any game since. It was fantastic. He was furious. He ended up finding out where I lived, drove to my house in a drunken stupor a few days later, and threw a half full beer bottle through the back window of my car. I couldn’t prove it was him (although one of his friends later admitted giving the directions), the cops in my rural town were dubious (and a little amused) when I gave them the story, and nothing ever came of it. Good times. =) MajorMUD satisfied me through my middle and early high school years… and then in ’99 something special happened. This was revolutionary. This was jaw-dropping. The atomic bomb of RPG’s exploded onto the scene: EverQuest. The graphics were right up there with the other games of the day, far eclipsing the ¾ top down blandness of Ultima Online. The gameplay, buggy at first, was intense and immersive. I was reborn again into a new, even more unescapable, life as an MMO fanatic. Addiction doesn’t even being to describe it. I started off as a lowly woodelf ranger, quickly found my place as a darkelf necro, and spent the next year tearing up Norrath with Xenober, Jabobtik, Laner, and Kibaner, the dual fine-dagger wielding skeletal lawnmowers I trusted as my pets. I had found solace and confidence in my skills as a soloist, daring to take on harder and harder challenges. I would fear kite 2 and 3 mobs at once, just to satisfy my need for that edge of the seat gameplay. Dungeons were my playground. I remember the early days of Guk. The beginning of the farming era. The birth of real-money item sales. (I saw peoples auctions on the web listing $200 for a lowly Oracle Robe… and people were paying it. Absolute madness.) Around L40 or so I got bored of soloing and explored new challenge as a guilded player. The social aspect of MMO’s finally hit home and the game went on a new arc for me. The arrival of Kunark brought the Iksar as a playable race, and I rerolled as a monk. I had grown tired of a seconday role on raids, and the prospect of being the puller, the raid leader, the man with the plan, was too much to pass up. I fell in love with the class and everything it represented. It wasn’t until late in the Velious expansion that I found myself in the uber-guild on my server [I had been a bit of a brash loudmouth on the forums in my necro days, and it took a lot of convincing to get around the stigma I had created around myself], and by that point, I was ready for action. I started low on the totem pole in an already well established guild, and still remember in perfect detail the night that our lead monk asked me to help pull north Temple of Veeshan. I was finally there. I became a student of the intricacies of Sneak, Feign Death, and tag pulling. The thrill of raiding took on a new edge, and set me even deeper into my addiction. My college classes took a backseat to the nights (and days, and mornings) of EQ. The Planar raids, Sanctus Seru, Temple of Ssraeshzra. It’s been years since I’ve played the game, and I can still walk through those zones in my mind. Does anyone who played an EQ1 monk remember the distinct lack of 2H weapons around that time? I do. I also had a guildmate who was close with a dev. I sent him stats on a proposed weapon that I had made up for Emperor Ssra’s loot table and told him to pass it on to his buddy. Two weeks later it was in game as Caen’s Bo Staff of Fury… stats exactly the same as I had requested (!!) with the exception of the proc (they gave it a lifetap instead of my DD, thank god!). I looted my Caen’s staff a few weeks later and have never felt more satisfied over any piece of loot since. No one but my friend and I knew the origins of the weapon, and I treasured it more than you can imagine. …the child-like wonder of that first night we did Vex Thal, being one of the few world-wide to have seen the zone at that point… methodically pulling our way through a zone that was buggy and difficult... weeks later stepping through the portal and knowing that I was the first one on the server to gaze at Aten Ha Ra in all her glory… nervously sneaking behind her with our raid force huddled off in a corner, engaging Stonestance, and testing her combat abilities while everyone looked on… I died before she got her flux or blind off, that was a neat surprise for everyone later on, heh… I was a senior in college by the time the Planes of Power expansion came out, and my grades were falling. The computer science curriculum lent itself well to a web-based approach to my classes, and I rarely attended. Submitted just enough homework and projects to get a C in the course. Twice during my years of undergrad I just lost interest in a class entirely, and stopped caring or trying early in the semester. I took the F by default and grudgingly re-took it the next year. I was on a full-ride Navy ROTC scholarship, and had to explain my grades to an advisor without sounding like a hopelessly addicted gaming freak. I didn’t let anything on. I had literally slept through high school and graduated with honors, why should college worry me? However, by senior year it was time to face reality, so I said my goodbyes to my guildmates and put what I could of my academic life back together. The withdrawal was worse than I had anticipated. I would be sitting in classes, daydreaming of EQ, still very much in the world that I had given so much of myself to over the last few years. Real life friendships slowly mitigated that psychosis (and I very much believe that MMO addiction is just this) over time, and eventually I tore myself away from the game entirely. No more stopping by forums or browsing my old guild’s web site, no more emotional attachment, no more nostalgic yearning. I graduated with a 3.0 and set off into the real world with my new career as a young Naval officer. (continued...)

Firam

02-16-2007, 03:53 AM

The forced hiatus from MMORPG’s actually lasted the entire two years of my first tour. It was a unique experience for me, living life entirely outside of a virtual world. I still thought about online gaming periodically, especially during the winter of ’04 when EQ2 was unleashed upon the world. Then, during the 30 days of leave that I took before transferring to Japan (my current duty station), I fell off the wagon. I had the better part of a month to relax and enjoy my “joblessness,” and I picked up a copy of EQ2, telling myself it was just on a trial basis. Just a temporary fix. How wrong I was. How laughably, tragically, wonderfully wrong. Playing off my penchant for the class in EQ1 and my love affair with feign death, I started a bruiser. I found the server that my old guild had re-started on, and set off there as a solo brawler. Living in Japan, I was in the wrong time zone to raid with them (I’d leave for work in the morning right as they were prepping for raids the night before), but I was back home with many of my old friends from years before. I’ve always found it truly comforting how old friendships in MMO’s can stay strong, even in the absence of a real name or face to put with the player. The addiction set in again, almost instantly. The NIN lyrics were almost synaesthetically pulsing through me… the needle tears a hole, the old familiar sting, try to kill it all away, but I remember.. everything Heroin has nothing on MMO’s. Do you consider yourself an EQ addict? Think of the feeling, the physiological change that comes over you when you get home after a day or work or school and click that EQ2 icon on your desktop. The old familiar sting, indeed. Anyway, the new Norrathian landscape before me offered so much content that I really couldn’t take everything in (and still, on my 10th or 12th character, haven’t seen all the lower tier instances). I was playing a class that at the time was one of the more overpowered soloists, and ground my way through the levels with a fervor. I was always a power gamer at heart. The overall game play had the same immersive character development that I knew from EQ1, but the graphics, user interface, and basic combat system was changed just enough to make a good thing better. I won’t call it perfection, because it’s not, but it’s the most polished product on the market right now. Learning to master my class, a class that was once so familiar to me years before in another life, was a newfound joy. The basic mob pathing code that made feign death pulling so viable in EQ1 was now gone, but there was so much more to enjoy about the brawler now that I quickly forgot about what originally drew me to the class. The tier-based architecture is one of the best things they’ve done with the game; it adds so much flexibility and opens the door to literally infinite future content. SOE could keep updating the game engine and probably keep the game going for 10 more years if they play it right. If you think that’s unrealistic, consider the fact that EQ1 is fast approaching the 10 year mark… =) After taking my bruiser to 70, mastering him out, and gearing up with the best non raid gear I could find (or the few tradable things I could buy off the broker), I began to grow bored of the game. I passed my time by soloing all of SoS, PoA, and most of the claymore quest line. I had turned my bruiser into what my necro once was in EQ1… a project to show off to myself just what I could do with a single character and a lot of determination. At his peak, he was soloing the 71 and 72^^^ mobs at the top of PoA... with mostly legendary gear. And then, the big nerfs started to hit… bruisers lost most of the subtle tools that made them powerful. I was struggling to accomplish the same feats that were so easy just weeks before. My alts were no longer fun to play either, the shadow of my bruiser’s former power hanging over the entire experience like an unshakable shroud. Combined with my real life job restrictions (being at sea 60% of the time puts a rather unfortunate damper on your play time), I took a break from EQ2. And then I rediscovered PvP. The game that had grown so stale for me suddenly bloomed with new life. I reveled in the joys of adapting to the dynamics of a gaming environment that was so familiar yet so different. Everything good that you’ve heard about EQ2 PvP is entirely true. (And 90% of the bad stuff is honestly just exaggerated frustrations.) I had found my heaven. Armed with a brand new computer, I cranked the graphics up to max and basked in the glory of an environment that was so graphically and tactically different from what I was used to. It literally was like playing an entirely new game. I won’t tell anyone that they should switch from PvE to PvP. I won’t tell you that you’re missing out on something if you don’t have to worry about dying to an actual thinking, adapting, scheming player on the other end. Because, honestly, you’re not. If you’re enjoying the PvE environment, then don’t leave! I will say though, if you have become bored for any reason with the game that you’re used to, then come on over to Nagafen and try EQ2 again, for the very first time. Purely in the code it may be a PvE game with a PvP ruleset dumped on top of it; but in reality, the execution of that turns everything into a completely new experience. Try a scout, try an enchanter, try a tank. Play something that you never thought about before. I’ve been through a larger spectrum of alts on Nagafen than in any game before this, and it’s never a chore and rarely gets boring. Get through the pain of the early levels and build up a character that can farm your alts some plat to gear them out. It makes so much of a difference. My time zone and limited play time was once a curse, but now has actually turned into a substantial boon. I’ve joined a guild of Brits and met some of the finest players I’ve ever had the pleasure to share my time with (/wave Monged). I’ve discovered that Ventrilo is the most important (and enjoyable) third party program you’ll ever download, period. I got some of that heart-pounding thrill of the hunt back… and it’s been gone for too long. Far, far too long. As I type this I’m sitting here in my stateroom in the late evening hours, floating around on the seas in this fine warship, pondering the Ultimate Question… and I think I’m most of the way there. So what’s your answer?

Greenion

02-16-2007, 04:21 AM

hehehez, great post.How wrong I was. How laughably, tragically, wonderfully wrong.ROFLZ!

rejester

02-16-2007, 08:28 AM

Great post. Awesome read.Oh yeah.GO NAVY.<img src="/smilies/e8a506dc4ad763aca51bec4ca7dc8560.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />Been in almost 8 years myself. What boat ya on?

Firam

02-17-2007, 03:56 AM

<cite>Greenion wrote:</cite><blockquote>hehehez, great post.How wrong I was. How laughably, tragically, wonderfully wrong.ROFLZ!</blockquote> Yeah, you never really know what you're missing until you jump back in, headfirst, blindfolded and screaming. Sometimes the water isn't that cold <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

Xova

02-17-2007, 06:40 PM

What a fabulous read. I enjoyed every line of it! Thanks for sharing. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

CresentBlade

02-17-2007, 07:26 PM

WOW.Good read/write.

Skill

02-18-2007, 05:44 AM

Wow, this was a really good read. Thanks for taking the time to write something so interesting. I'm with you on EQ2 PvP. I love it. Keeps getting better and better. Been on Nagafen since launch, never looked back. Rolled Alt after Alt, eventually deleted all my PvE chars. Love the constant thrill of never knowing what's going to happen next. Once you go PvP, there's no going back.

Valdar

02-18-2007, 10:43 AM

A very enjoyable read, thank you.

ckl

02-19-2007, 12:42 PM

It was a good read up until the point where you describe UO as bland and start waxxing poetic about Evercrap 1. I stopped reading after that. I don't know how you can write about pvp and mmos with only having UO in one line of it, and then describing it as you did since you started playing text-based MUDs. Substance is greater than style, and to me UO trumped EQ in every way.I had many shaking, exhilarating experiences with pvp, thievery, and down-right disreputable acts in UO, similar to yours in that MUD of yours. It's too bad you didn't have them in UO, too. But to each his own, I guess.

Firam

02-19-2007, 01:09 PM

<cite>cklab wrote:</cite><blockquote>It was a good read up until the point where you describe UO as bland and start waxxing poetic about Evercrap 1. I stopped reading after that. I don't know how you can write about pvp and mmos with only having UO in one line of it, and then describing it as you did since you started playing text-based MUDs. Substance is greater than style, and to me UO trumped EQ in every way.I had many shaking, exhilarating experiences with pvp, thievery, and down-right disreputable acts in UO, similar to yours in that MUD of yours. It's too bad you didn't have them in UO, too. But to each his own, I guess.</blockquote> I was comparing EQ's graphics to UO's. Not the gameplay, not the PvP, nothing but the graphics. Go back and re-read it; you seem to have gone into a snit after skimming over something that you didn't take the time to fully digest. And yes, it was only one line because while I had friends who were into it, I did not play UO. Therefore I did not experience anything but occasional interaction with the graphics. Thus the comparison (which holds true as originally written). I didn't have anything against UO, I just happened to never get into it based on my timing. Also, I'm sorry you seemed to have such a bad experience with EQ1. Perhaps you should heed my advice about not playing games you don't enjoy, or the part where I opined about giving others sh*t about the things they do happen to enjoy. Why are you an EQ2 player anyway? Did it stop being "Evercrap" when they made the game easier and more mass-marketable? Did that do it for ya? Was it the improved graphics? Can't be that.. you said it yourself. Must be the substance, I guess. To each his own, was that what you said? =) It's also unfortunate that you stopped reading halfway through because of your inability to step outside of your misplaced aggression and actually read for comprehension. I spent a few hours (including editing) writing this up [it was 7 pages in MS Word when I was done] and I wrote it partly for me and partly for everyone else to read... it'd be a shame if all that was wasted on even one person over something so paltry.

Leorange

02-20-2007, 10:32 AM

It sure was no waste to read totally, not at all. Thank you for sharing. Might I be so blunt to try and answer your question: Why? For myself offcourse. I just hope it wasn't meant retorical <img src="/smilies/2786c5c8e1a8be796fb2f726cca5a0fe.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />I have two reasons in mind: <ol><li>I don't like the Game Over screen.</li><li>I wish to stay on top of developments, IT wise, worldwide. The Gaming industry is as much serious as Movie, Internet and Mobile Communications are. I want to know what's happening, changing, coming. Live the future. </li></ol>My History (1980s - 2002) The first time I was asked 'Where do you want to go now?" by the Commodore 64, and I answered "Left", it replied "There's a wall". I lost my interest in textbased adventures at the spot. But as said, I appreciated your insight into muds a lot. I myself went from my dads Pong! to a Philips G7000 console, C64 and via Win 3.11 all the way to Windows XP and PlayStation untill I found out about MMO games. Yes, I experienced 'multiplayer' on an Unreal and CounterStrike basis. But to have an unlimited amount of people in one virtual world.. whoah! I switched. To start MMO(RPG) I had to have ADSL and no 14k modem with lag. (2002) Once I got that, I had to find a free fee-less try-out game (Free? yes, I'm Dutch you know). I thought to have found one I could play f o r e v e r when I made an avatar on Project Entropia. It's a game where real $ money is transfered to ingame money - and back! - and they also have ffa PvPzones. Imagine the 'fun' of winning a battle there! (2004) When that game both went up in expences and down in quality compared to the 'fully supported newcomer' Everquest 2, I switched. I still have that avatar, my house and more there I can't say goodbye to, since the game is still developing. (2006) When EQ2 finally made a pvp part, I switched again. Afterall it was the whole Lucan-vs-Queen that had me attracted rp-wise in the beginning. Now this game is what it had to be when it started.I won't leave EQ2, since the game is still developing. (2007) I even started an (again, free) avatar on Second Life, since the game is still developing. It's dull, hehe, no pvp. I know I can't do all. I missed UO, I skipped WoW, I don't play Vanguard. All kinds of reasons for that, but it would only expand this post speech. So, to sum up my 'Love to MMO and PvP: It's the people from over the entire planet whom I can meet easily, the unpredictable development of gamecontent, the low fee per month, the ongoing plain fun with new friends and the occasional adrenaline rush that forms my answer to your question, what keeps me coming back. To MMO, to pvp, to you. I look back at my life, and it rocks. Heh.. for the occasion I'll quote Aerosmith: I don't wanna miss a thing! <img src="/smilies/ed515dbff23a0ee3241dcc0a601c9ed6.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> grtz,Vivi Anne, also on her Journey. <ul><li>Bit Off topic:</li><li>A plus to these MMO G's is we seem to have deleted the Tower of Bable effect.. We all speak English nowadays. Yay! ..I have to say I liked the manner you perfectly use the English language in this lengthy thread to express your feelings and opinion. This not being my native language, however having been well educated on outstanding european schools, I admit I still learn from a lot of you people, from USA, UK, etc.. Your message came over. "Gone into a snit" lol.. It was all the way, what shall I say?; in French: Touché!</li></ul>(edited for lost paragraphs)

Firam

02-22-2007, 07:35 AM

<cite>Leorange wrote:</cite><blockquote><ul><li>Bit Off topic:</li><li>A plus to these MMO G's is we seem to have deleted the Tower of Bable effect.. We all speak English nowadays. Yay! ..I have to say I liked the manner you perfectly use the English language in this lengthy thread to express your feelings and opinion. This not being my native language, however having been well educated on outstanding european schools, I admit I still learn from a lot of you people, from USA, UK, etc.. Your message came over. "Gone into a snit" lol.. It was all the way, what shall I say?; in French: Touché!</li></ul>(edited for lost paragraphs)</blockquote> MMO's are to the younger generation what international business is to the middle aged (kind of =p). English is not the most spoken language, but it's truly become the common language of the world. As an American who travels abroad a lot I'm always pleasantly surprised at the fluency of different cultures and the ability to communicate with most Europeans and Asians. Particularly Japanese, they take English every year throughout their schooling starting from a young age... and in fact the younger generation speaks it much better than the elders. They tend to lose it as they age and don't use it. My guild is 90% European (mainly UK), and every person who's a non-native English speaker can still get their point across pretty well. It's kind of amusing on Ventrilo sometimes, I'll act as the "translator" between the Brits and the French on some of the phrases because I'm the only one who doesn't speak the language with a heavy accent and can understand them both. <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

Miroma

03-17-2007, 08:19 AM

Skillet@Nagafen wrote: <blockquote>Wow, this was a really good read. Thanks for taking the time to write something so interesting. I'm with you on EQ2 PvP. I love it. Keeps getting better and better. Been on Nagafen since launch, never looked back. Rolled Alt after Alt, eventually deleted all my PvE chars. Love the constant thrill of never knowing what's going to happen next. Once you go PvP, there's no going back. </blockquote>"No going back".. so true hehe. Just can't beat the thrill of a good battle, and mobs can be figured out and killed systematically pretty easily!

MaldekTM

06-22-2007, 12:53 AM

Faerdal is a lifer

Daemondred

06-22-2007, 02:52 AM

Great thread excellant read /tip hat

Firam

06-23-2007, 01:44 AM

holy crap it's Maldek... how's it going man? haven't seen you for years =) are you playing EQ2 still?

Eluzay

06-23-2007, 03:25 AM

<cite>Firamas wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>cklab wrote:</cite><blockquote>It was a good read up until the point where you describe UO as bland and start waxxing poetic about Evercrap 1. I stopped reading after that. I don't know how you can write about pvp and mmos with only having UO in one line of it, and then describing it as you did since you started playing text-based MUDs. Substance is greater than style, and to me UO trumped EQ in every way.I had many shaking, exhilarating experiences with pvp, thievery, and down-right disreputable acts in UO, similar to yours in that MUD of yours. It's too bad you didn't have them in UO, too. But to each his own, I guess.</blockquote> I was comparing EQ's graphics to UO's. Not the gameplay, not the PvP, nothing but the graphics. Go back and re-read it; you seem to have gone into a snit after skimming over something that you didn't take the time to fully digest. And yes, it was only one line because while I had friends who were into it, I did not play UO. Therefore I did not experience anything but occasional interaction with the graphics. Thus the comparison (which holds true as originally written). I didn't have anything against UO, I just happened to never get into it based on my timing. Also, I'm sorry you seemed to have such a bad experience with EQ1. Perhaps you should heed my advice about not playing games you don't enjoy, or the part where I opined about giving others sh*t about the things they do happen to enjoy. Why are you an EQ2 player anyway? Did it stop being "Evercrap" when they made the game easier and more mass-marketable? Did that do it for ya? Was it the improved graphics? Can't be that.. you said it yourself. Must be the substance, I guess. To each his own, was that what you said? =) It's also unfortunate that you stopped reading halfway through because of your inability to step outside of your misplaced aggression and actually read for comprehension. I spent a few hours (including editing) writing this up [it was 7 pages in MS Word when I was done] and I wrote it partly for me and partly for everyone else to read... it'd be a shame if all that was wasted on even one person over something so paltry. </blockquote>rule 1 never upset the uo fanboiz (I am a uo fanboy of pre trammel uo in extreme) rule 2 never compair UO and EQ1 in a pvp thread in any context, eq1 pvp was/is a joke rule 3 never feed a UO fanboy after midnight, you wont like the results rule 4 never get a UO fanboy wet signed, UO fanboy of pre-tramel ID number 4213

MalkorGodchyld

06-23-2007, 04:34 AM

Outstanding post dude...nice change of pace for the forums. Been out of the Navy & away from Japan for a yr now myself = <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Marius Darkchyld ~ Retired 70 Defiler Llfe or Death ~ 35 Warden

blazerpuppies79

06-23-2007, 04:10 PM

<cite>Firamas wrote:</cite><blockquote>The forced hiatus from MMORPG’s actually lasted the entire two years of my first tour. It was a unique experience for me, living life entirely outside of a virtual world. I still thought about online gaming periodically, especially during the winter of ’04 when EQ2 was unleashed upon the world. Then, during the 30 days of leave that I took before transferring to Japan (my current duty station), I fell off the wagon. I had the better part of a month to relax and enjoy my “joblessness,” and I picked up a copy of EQ2, telling myself it was just on a trial basis. Just a temporary fix. How wrong I was. How laughably, tragically, wonderfully wrong. Playing off my penchant for the class in EQ1 and my love affair with feign death, I started a bruiser. I found the server that my old guild had re-started on, and set off there as a solo brawler. Living in Japan, I was in the wrong time zone to raid with them (I’d leave for work in the morning right as they were prepping for raids the night before), but I was back home with many of my old friends from years before. I’ve always found it truly comforting how old friendships in MMO’s can stay strong, even in the absence of a real name or face to put with the player. The addiction set in again, almost instantly. The NIN lyrics were almost synaesthetically pulsing through me… the needle tears a hole, the old familiar sting, try to kill it all away, but I remember.. everything Heroin has nothing on MMO’s. Do you consider yourself an EQ addict? Think of the feeling, the physiological change that comes over you when you get home after a day or work or school and click that EQ2 icon on your desktop. The old familiar sting, indeed. Anyway, the new Norrathian landscape before me offered so much content that I really couldn’t take everything in (and still, on my 10th or 12th character, haven’t seen all the lower tier instances). I was playing a class that at the time was one of the more overpowered soloists, and ground my way through the levels with a fervor. I was always a power gamer at heart. The overall game play had the same immersive character development that I knew from EQ1, but the graphics, user interface, and basic combat system was changed just enough to make a good thing better. I won’t call it perfection, because it’s not, but it’s the most polished product on the market right now. Learning to master my class, a class that was once so familiar to me years before in another life, was a newfound joy. The basic mob pathing code that made feign death pulling so viable in EQ1 was now gone, but there was so much more to enjoy about the brawler now that I quickly forgot about what originally drew me to the class. The tier-based architecture is one of the best things they’ve done with the game; it adds so much flexibility and opens the door to literally infinite future content. SOE could keep updating the game engine and probably keep the game going for 10 more years if they play it right. If you think that’s unrealistic, consider the fact that EQ1 is fast approaching the 10 year mark… =) After taking my bruiser to 70, mastering him out, and gearing up with the best non raid gear I could find (or the few tradable things I could buy off the broker), I began to grow bored of the game. I passed my time by soloing all of SoS, PoA, and most of the claymore quest line. I had turned my bruiser into what my necro once was in EQ1… a project to show off to myself just what I could do with a single character and a lot of determination. At his peak, he was soloing the 71 and 72^^^ mobs at the top of PoA... with mostly legendary gear. And then, the big nerfs started to hit… bruisers lost most of the subtle tools that made them powerful. I was struggling to accomplish the same feats that were so easy just weeks before. My alts were no longer fun to play either, the shadow of my bruiser’s former power hanging over the entire experience like an unshakable shroud. Combined with my real life job restrictions (being at sea 60% of the time puts a rather unfortunate damper on your play time), I took a break from EQ2. And then I rediscovered PvP. The game that had grown so stale for me suddenly bloomed with new life. I reveled in the joys of adapting to the dynamics of a gaming environment that was so familiar yet so different. Everything good that you’ve heard about EQ2 PvP is entirely true. (And 90% of the bad stuff is honestly just exaggerated frustrations.) I had found my heaven. Armed with a brand new computer, I cranked the graphics up to max and basked in the glory of an environment that was so graphically and tactically different from what I was used to. It literally was like playing an entirely new game. I won’t tell anyone that they should switch from PvE to PvP. I won’t tell you that you’re missing out on something if you don’t have to worry about dying to an actual thinking, adapting, scheming player on the other end. Because, honestly, you’re not. If you’re enjoying the PvE environment, then don’t leave! I will say though, if you have become bored for any reason with the game that you’re used to, then come on over to Nagafen and try EQ2 again, for the very first time. Purely in the code it may be a PvE game with a PvP ruleset dumped on top of it; but in reality, the execution of that turns everything into a completely new experience. Try a scout, try an enchanter, try a tank. Play something that you never thought about before. I’ve been through a larger spectrum of alts on Nagafen than in any game before this, and it’s never a chore and rarely gets boring. Get through the pain of the early levels and build up a character that can farm your alts some plat to gear them out. It makes so much of a difference. My time zone and limited play time was once a curse, but now has actually turned into a substantial boon. I’ve joined a guild of Brits and met some of the finest players I’ve ever had the pleasure to share my time with (/wave Monged). I’ve discovered that Ventrilo is the most important (and enjoyable) third party program you’ll ever download, period. I got some of that heart-pounding thrill of the hunt back… and it’s been gone for too long. Far, far too long. As I type this I’m sitting here in my stateroom in the late evening hours, floating around on the seas in this fine warship, pondering the Ultimate Question… and I think I’m most of the way there. So what’s your answer?</blockquote>omg dude you're a drug addict

Image_Vain

06-23-2007, 09:07 PM

I like to roflbbqroxerpeoplesboxerslikeyourmomsbasementegole go!!oneone!!111two!!!!!!!bbqolmao!!!pwnzerstheowne rslolroflylmfao!!!!!! imho tbo ty ttyl

Firam

06-27-2007, 05:44 AM

Ssslick@Nagafen wrote: <blockquote>rule 1 never upset the uo fanboiz (I am a uo fanboy of pre trammel uo in extreme) rule 2 never compair UO and EQ1 in a pvp thread in any context, eq1 pvp was/is a joke rule 3 never feed a UO fanboy after midnight, you wont like the results rule 4 never get a UO fanboy wet signed, UO fanboy of pre-tramel ID number 4213 </blockquote> I've always been of the opinion that (licensing violations notwithstanding) Mogwai should be a playable race. =)