Because the internet needs another gaming blog.

Once again I’ve ignored the cries of loneliness from the stack of games on my desk that I’ve promised to play “at some point or another” and went out and bought Bioshock.  Another game to play was really the last thing I needed, and I had even planned to stage my own personal boycott against the game because of its ridiculous copy protection scheme (please, please, please, stop the stupidity!), but when the game box jumped off the store shelf and followed me up to the checkout and blinked its puppy dog eyes at me, I just couldn’t resist.

Surprisingly enough, I’ve even managed to play it a little, and it’s certainly lived up to my expectations so far.  It’s been a long time since a first-person shooter has been interesting enough to keep me playing past the first couple hours.  I’m really liking the setting and atmosphere of the game; it does a way better job of being creepy than the predictable and ultimately wicked-annoying Doom 3.  Other than that I won’t go into any more details of the game, partly because I’m still not that far into it, and I also don’t want to risk ruining anything for anyone who might be reading this.

So that’s one more box added to my shelf, and the prospects of me playing all the others on that shelf have lessened a little more.  It looks like all those boxes have formed some sort of self-help group, and I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before they jump out at me, pin me down, and force me to play through them.  Hopefully they won’t get too upset when Half-Life 2: Episode 2 is released.

It’s been a busy past few days in-game.  Davyydeous went on his first raid with the new guild, hitting up the Halls of the Seeing.  This was my first time in this zone and I quite enjoyed it despite our inability to clear it.  We were missing a number of key raid members and were low on healers but decided to give it a go regardless.  It was actually going fairly smoothly until we met our match in the Elemental Warder.  We just didn’t have the healers or the DPS to finish him off despite coming quite close a number of times.  I have to say it was quite refreshing to be on a raid where we really had to be on our toes, and were actually challenged.  I found a lot of raids I went on with my old guild had become too routine, not very challenging, and ultimately not incredibly fun.  Anyway, the experience was a good one, and I’m looking forward to settling in a bit more with the new guild.

After what seemed like a million runs through Obelisk of Blight (probably more like nine or ten), Davyydeous finally got his class boots, Strongbear’s Steelskin Feet. I’m embarrassed to say that Davyydeous had been wearing Xegonite mastercrafted up until now.  It was the worst piece of gear I had and I’m quite happy to replace it.

Ordeth in the meantime, joined a group in Klak’Anon and ended up getting a nice robe, the Clockwork Spidersilk Robe.  I’ve really come to like Klak’Anon and will probably be spending a good chunk of the next little while in there with Ordeth.

Finally, as mentioned previously, my Mystic Elrahir has been getting more and more attention from me as of late.  He’s now level 47, close to dinging 48, and eagerly awaiting the arrival of his Maj’Dul carpet.  I finished off a number of Heritage Quests that had been sitting in his journal for some time which netted a fair amount of experience.  Elrahir also ventured into Klak’Anon in what was probably my first heavy duty healing experience with him.  Up until this point my healing has been restricted to the duo group I have with my wife’s Monk.  Needless to say I was a little nervous, especially as we went deeper into the zone and started running into mobs that were still red to me.  All in all I think I did quite well and we managed to avoid any major wipes.  The one big difference I noticed between Elrahir and Davyydeous is that I really had to pay attention when healing.  I couldn’t let my eyes wander at all.  Hmmm, maybe that’s not the class for me then.

I also just noticed that I have access to the Legends of Norrath game within EverQuest II, so I’ll try to check that out real soon.  Hopefully I don’t get addicted to it and start buying boosters for it.

Davyydeous has joined a new guild after being the victim of the “too many plates, not enough table” syndrome.  My previous guild started as a casual raiding guild with a laid-back, no requirements approach to raiding.  This was a great fit for me because I wanted to raid but had limited time to do so because of the birth of my daughter.  I still managed to get into a few raids, get some gear, and even get some material for this site.

As time passed, the guild became more focused on the higher-end raids and the “casual” part of the guild disappeared from the guild charter.  As such, the guild split in two, with those not able to attend at least 50% of the raids in one camp, and the raiding team in the other.  This, unfortunately, was a necessary step towards progression in the Echoes of Faydwer raids, and spelled the end of my raiding days with the guild.  Even though I’m now able to dedicate more time to raiding, the raid force already had enough established plate fighters in addition to the main tank and main assist.  In fact, I was told that about four of the plate fighters would need to leave the guild before I got a spot on the raids.

Needless to say, we parted ways and I began my search for a new guild.  Actually, I had seen the writing on the wall quite some time ago and had already begun an informal search for a new home.  So how did I go about my search?

Obviously, after being on the Kithicor server for a couple of years, I already had a basic knowledge of a good number of guilds.  I also used the official forums to check out who was recruiting and what sort of classes they needed, in addition to using the in-game guild recruitment tool.  I found that this was enough to give me a good list to work from.  At that point it became a matter of checking to see if the guild and I would be a good fit.

With respect to the guild itself, I was looking for one that was casual, but raid capable.  I can’t, nor do I want to raid every day.  Furthermore, even if the guild only raids two or three times a week, I wouldn’t be able to guarantee I’d make every single one.  Basically, I wanted the option to raid, but not the requirement.  While this may seem like a lot to ask, I found quite a few guilds with that very philosophy.

There were other things I looked for as well, mainly if the guild had a website with forums.  I’ve found this to be a great community builder in the past, not to mention a good way to keep in touch with your guildmates while you’re stuck at work, not like I’d know anything about that.  Visiting these websites gave me an opportunity to create a first impression of the guilds I was looking at.  It’s easy to see right away which guilds are casual (well, it was a struggle, but we finally battled our way through Labs!), and which are hardcore (Deathtoll pwned yet again in record time… yawn).  More importantly however, I find it helps give a window on to what the people in the guild are like.  Do they like to have fun, or is the game a business to them?  For me, I’m all about fun, and once I had narrowed my list of guilds down further, I started sending tells to the officers in game.

I think it’s essential to have a good conversation with an officer before joining a guild, because in the end, it’ll save a lot of time.  I asked a lot of questions, such as what their raid schedule was like, what they raided, was it mandatory, what kind of atmosphere is in the guild, etc.  I wanted to get a sense of what the people were like because more important than anything, I think, is getting along with those you’re guilded with, and having fun.  I wanted to find an atmosphere that I could be comfortable in.  I’ve been known as something of a joker (I like to think I can be funny), so I needed to find a guild that liked to laugh and have fun.

I eventually found a guild that I thought would be a good fit for me.  It met all my requirements, and I thought my discussion with the officer went quite well.  I’m now on a two week trial to ensure that we’re good fits for each other.  So far things are going well and I’m happy in my new home. 

This whole process however, has me somewhat discouraged by the apparent lack of need for plate fighters.  There are a lot of them in the game, and not many raid slots available to them.  This has only pushed me further to get my Mystic and Coercer leveled up so that I’ll have an easier time finding raids to join (hopefully).  That’s life as a tank I suppose, there’s never any around when you need one for an instance, and far too many when you’re running a raid.

The Rampant Coyote of the Tales of the Rampant Coyote blog, one of my most favourite stops on the internet, posted an entry listing what he feels are the 16 Essential RPGs.  Reading through the list left me feeling nostalgic.  I own nine of the sixteen titles listed.  Of those nine, I’ve only played four through to their end: Fallout, Diablo, Final Fantasy VI, and Deus Ex.  For the remaining five, and in fact, a few other titles in the list of sixteen, I kept wishing I had played through them back in the day.  So, inspired by the Rampant Coyote’s list of 16 essential RPGs, and my previous post where I said EverQuest II keeps me from playing other games, here now is my list of Gaming Regrets.

1. Baldur’s Gate II
I loved the first Baldur’s Gate and rushed to the store the day its sequel was released and installed it as soon as I got home.  I put hours upon hours into this game and loved every second of it.  I’m not sure, but I think I was getting towards the end of the game when I mistakenly wiped out my “games” partition on my hard drive in an ill-fated attempt to install Linux.  My save games were gone.  I’ve re-installed and tried to play BGII again on numerous occasions throughout the past few years but I never end up sticking with it despite my love for the game.  I’ve got the discs right here within arms reach, and at this very moment I’m planning on installing it yet again.  Until I play through it though, I’ll regret the day I blew away my save game.

2. Ultima
I’m ashamed to say that while RPGs are my favourite games, I’ve never played any of the Ultima’s.  Many years ago I picked up the Complete Ultima VII but strangely never got around to playing it (I was probably playing Doom or Quake along with the rest of the world).  Ultima VII is widely regarded as the best of the Ultima’s and I do hope to get to it some day thanks to Exult.

3. Falcon 4.0
I had always wanted to play a flight simulator; something about them really appealed to me.  In hindsight, it may not have been the best idea to choose Falcon 4.0 as my first.  The manual was thicker than a phonebook, and for someone who had never played a hardcore simulator like this, the game was pretty intimidating.  I eventually was able to take off without too much difficulty, fly around and even shoot at some things, but for the life of me I could never manage to land my plane.  The best I ever did was an extremely graceful twenty bounce landing well beyond the runway.  I wish I had stuck with it though, back when I had more time for these things, because everything about that game, especially its dynamic campaign, just seems really cool to me.

4. Planescape: Torment
I never ended up buying this one and now wish I had based on the high praise it has received from many people.  To tell you the truth, I don’t even know too much about the game, save for the fact it emphasizes the story over combat.  I’ve always enjoyed a good RPG story so I’m really feeling like I missed out on this one.

5. Chrono Trigger
For a while the Super Nintendo was my gaming platform of choice.  The SNES was littered with lots of Japanese style RPGs, of which I played many.  I remember Final Fantasy III (or VI, whatever) and The Secret of Mana being exceptionally good games and I played both through to the end.  There was a lot of hype around Chrono Trigger when it was released and I had every intention of picking it up, except at the time, it cost more than I could justify paying for it.  I told myself I’d pick it up as soon as it came down in price, which it never did, at least not in any of the stores I went to.  Eventually I moved on to the PC and buried my SNES in the closet, never having played Chrono Trigger.  Every now and then I’ll come across people singing its praises, and it’s definitely a game I wish I had played.

6. My Super Awesome RPG
While I don’t dabble in code very much any more, I like to fancy myself as a hobbyist programmer.  I’ve taken a bunch of evening programming courses at a local college just for fun, but most of that knowledge has been directed at various business applications, etc.  Since I was a kid though, I’ve always wanted to program games.  I remember copying the code from COMPUTE!s Gazette into my Commodore 64 way back when, in the hopes it would turn into some wonderful game.  They never really did, but I did it all the same.  Now, I look at my bookshelf here and see a very impressive library of Java and C++ books, many of which are focused on games development.  However, like everything else, I just haven’t had the time to dedicate to them.  I did create a little program in Java once that read in a tiled map and you could control a little guy with the keyboard and have him walk around that map, but that was it.  I’ll try and finish it up and have it released within thirty years.

I’m sure I’ve had other gaming regrets, but these are the ones that stick out.  Not finishing Baldur’s Gate II is definitely the biggest for me, and within the time it’s taken me to write this post I’ve made up my mind that I’m going plug away at it once more during the times I’m not playing EverQuest II.  It may take me five years, but I’ll finish it some day.

… you can’t play anything else.  This was a comment made on episode six of the Shut Up We’re Talking podcast.  More and more I’m realizing that this is the case with me.  I’ve always been a gamer, starting with the Commodore 64, through a few different consoles, along with the PC.  I imagine that I would be quite embarrassed to know just how many games I’ve bought throughout the years and equally shocked to know how much I’ve spent on them.

It’s probably fairly safe to say that before EverQuest II, I bought, and played, at least one new game every month.  Nowadays I play EverQuest II pretty much exclusively with the odd game thrown in every so often.  Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean I don’t buy any other games, I just don’t play those other games that I buy.  In fact, over on the right side of this page I’m lying to you.  Under the heading “What I’m Playing” I have listed The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.  I haven’t played that game in months.  It’s a fantastic game, and I’ve loved what I have played of it, it’s just that when I get time to play on the computer, it’s the EQII icon that I click on my desktop.  I’ve got a whole stack of games like Oblivion, games I’d love to play, that just can’t beat out the lure to EQII.

Even on the rare occasions that I do play something other than EQII, I spend more time thinking about what I could and should be doing in EQII.  First it was getting my main character to max adventure level, then it was maxing my tradeskill level, now it’s maxing out my secondary tradeskill.  You get the picture.  Not to mention doing the same for my alts.  It really doesn’t leave a lot of time for any other games.

So why is that?  Obviously I enjoy EQII; I wouldn’t be playing it if I didn’t.  The content plays a large part in that.  EQII, and any other successful MMO, has a lot of content.  There has to be something new and exciting for you to do in order to keep your subscription.  I’m sure it’s not the same for everyone else, but personally speaking, even though I’ve been at max-level since September 29, 2006, there’s still lots of quests I’ve yet to complete and many instanced zones I’ve never even seen.  It feels to me like my goals are constantly changing.

The first “big thing” I wanted to do was kill Darathar, and after working away on the quests leading up to him, I felt a great amount of pride, anticipation, and a little bit of fear as I watched him fly overhead and settle down on the Isle of Refuge.  Were it a single player game, with Darathar dead the credits would roll and it’d be game over.  Instead, my goals shifted, be it killing Godking Anuk, gearing my character, or working on tradeskills.

While single player games usually cast you as the hero destined to save the world, I find MMOs feel more epic, even though you’re just one among thousands of potential heroes.  The reason I say this is in single player games, it’s more or less a given that you’ll eventually kill the big evil guy at the end.  With MMOs, there’s no guarantee you’ll even see the big evil guys.  In EQII specifically, not everyone will have the opportunity to kill Darathar, Anuk, Tarinax, etc.  So, if you do get those opportunities, it feels extra special.  I know first hand the work it takes to get to these encounters (well, still working on Tarinax), and it really does give you a sense of real accomplishment that I don’t think a single player game can provide.

The social aspects of MMOs also help to keep pulling players back to them.  I can’t count the number of times I’ve had a blast playing EQII just because of the conversations that took place through chat or Ventrilo, regardless of what we were actually doing in the game.  The fact my friends, and especially my wife, play EQII is also a strong pull.

So that’s what keeps bringing me back to EQII.  The fact that it makes me feel a part of the world like no single player game can.  The world is constant, yet ever-changing.  Heroes come and go, new challenges await.