…Aw fuck
February 28, 2011 5 Comments
I don't have any actual animosity towards this kid. I do think it's funny that so many people express such intense dislike for him. To me, he's a non-entity, and I probably wouldn't recognize him if I saw him on the street without a throng of weeping tween girls.
[Edit: WordPress gets wonky when adding pictures with captions. By wonky, I mean, it likes to chop out chunks of an intro, like this introductory paragraph that Beiber gobbled up. If my post seemed like it was starting out in the middle of a conversation, that’s because it was. Sorry about the mix-up!]
I was happily going about my weekend, doing things that I do. I got my Shadowknight in EQ progression server to 18. Was happy about that. I should have just been content with that. I should have just kept on rolling with the leveling, and continued to enjoy the social atmosphere of playing a game that actually reinforces group cooperation. I should have, but I didn’t.
When I knew I only had a bit of time for short-term play, I was jumping into EQ2. I played around a bit on a new character, and then on a level 39 alt I had, and eventually on my old 80 Shadowknight – and I just wasn’t having fun. There’s too many abilities, my old standby UI (Profit) has gone out of date it seems, and I can’t even update collection quests with it. Mostly, my issue was just too many abilities. Three hot-bars of combat abilities, and at least one of buffs – it’s absurd how much there is. The only thing that keeps me coming back to EQ2 is the housing. What SOE did with housing in that game is amazing, and the level of integration with the rest of the game should be lauded. Beyond that, the ingenuity of players to craft amazing looking homes is some of the best emergant creativity I have seen in any game.
So, my eye kept straying to that Rift icon. After my post on Friday, I was kind of curious to get the first hand experience with the queue. I still had the headstart active from a pre-order I had put with the game a bit back as a “just-in-case” measure, and as a way to ensure a name-grab. All the tweets about the game weren’t exactly pushing me away from the game, and there is nothing like that new-launch smell…
Trion.
It bit me again. I played the free progression server weekend, which lead me to remembering my fond memories of EQ2 again, and the even more-so nostalgic days of EQ. This week saw me resubbing back to BOTH games for at least the next month. I’m going to hold off on buying the new expansions for either of them until I see if I want to stick with EQ2 for longer than a month, and until the progression server actually catches up to the newest release. That said, I officially knew I had been infected by the Norrathian flu in a bad way last night. The symptoms were strong and unavoidable, and the side-effects are being felt by me at this very moment.
The reality of being a PC gamer, is that, over time, you end up learning a lot about various aspects of computer care – frequently the hard way. Whether it’s learning that you absolutely should back up everything before tinkering with a registry, or maybe you shouldn’t listen to that tech service guy who tells you to remove the quarter-sized back-up battery to reset your bios, there are so many aspects that go into maintaining and keeping a computer running smooth and ensuring a quality persistent gaming rig, without having to replace it every two years. My goal, as it relates to PC gaming and spending, is to try to only replace a tower after it’s seen three years of use at the earliest. If I can push it to longer than that, then I feel like I did a good job.
I’m not one for making “I quit” posts, or “goodbye to you all!” type stuff seeking validation in others by fishing for comments about how I’ll be missed. I like to just let things occur naturally over time, and whatever ends up being, well, is. As I mentioned in a post earlier, I haven’t played WAR in a while, and was surprised to find my sub had run out. I have chosen not to renew it. That’s not to say I never will again, or that I’m done with the game forever and all eternity, but for the time being – I’m done with the game.
It’s President’s Day today, and you likely have the day off. I, however, do not. That said, the timing coincides well with a topic that’s been on my mind since the end of last week. If you’re unaware, last week saw the opening of the Original Everquest’s “progression server” which is a new server, fresh and sparkly, with no expansions created. It is the “base” game. We also saw the start of the last of Rift’s open beta event. We had the old big daddy, the spiritual founder (okay – popularizer, but let’s not split hairs) of the MMO nation going old-school on us, and we have the new up-and comer making its self known to the world. Rift opened its doors for all to see their home, and all the slick, polished things he it can do. I had bronchitis which forced me to stay home Friday, and I happily spent my time playing Evercrack.
I’ve been having to approach the way that I play EVE of recent a lot differently. Previously, I came at the game, from a PvP standpoint, more like I did an FPS or WAR. I would go find someone, and if the coast seemed reasonably clear, I’d give the fight a go. Usually, I’d be flying in my PvP fit Rifter (a frigate), and frequently, I’d (unknowingly) be taking on a battlecruiser. The end result was commonly to my detriment. The outcome of all these 
Shadow-war 
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