Some time ago, I took Everquest out for a trial run, but I never really got into it because the controls felt alien to me… I mean, pressing H to hail an NPC? Typing words to talk to an imaginary being through the internet? Preposterous, right?

I’d been conditioned by the Eq2/WoW-era RPG to demand an experience that was similar to itself, to the point that I’d never really given the first Everquest a proper run-through because of its naturally different style of play.

I want to rectify that due to my current situation. Right now, there are a couple of AAA free-to-play MMORPGs I’ve not tried, and with my current need to conserve my money, it seemed like a good idea to go and revisit Everquest, especially since I actually have quite a bit of Station Cash on my account that’s doing nothing there.

At the same time, I’ve set EVE Online on an 11-day training regimen, even though I have only four days left on my sub. Whether it trains past day four is beyond me, but at least I’ll have a better inkling of what my plans are when I come back.

In addition, I want to try another genre I’ve yet to actually experience: the superhero game. I’ve downloaded DC Universe Online for a run, and I’m going to make an ice character for use.

My SC will go more to Everquest, probably, mostly because DCUO doesn’t seem to have housiing. Hopefully, I’ll enjoy Everquest and DCUO and, perhaps, even a bit of LOTRO, even without spending for anything with more money than I’ve already invested.

At the very least, some new and old games will get their time in the spotlight.

My thanks to Kaozz of ECTMMO for reminding me of the Everquest F2P transition that’s happening.

Recently, I learned that I would need to find a new job in order to pay my bills and to fund the adventures I write about on this blog, as well as any site revamps I would have liked to have done.

I’m a bit miffed that, from a full-time job, my pay would be delegated to a per-article-when-needed status, but I can’t help that. The economy’s tough, and the project I was working on needed to get money to start properly. What I can change, however, is the feeling of helplessness I feel from being newly unemployed again (or perhaps underemployed).

I will be getting my final paycheck soon, and I want to make the most out of the time prior to Skyrim’s release by making sure I have enough money to purchase Skyrim without worries while engaging in games that interest me, writing about playing games, and finding a new job.

That said, I have readjusted my plan of action for the coming weeks.

I will temporarily halt my plans to have a custom website theme made for Games and Geekery.

I will take the yearlong cheaper hosting offer that was mentioned by @G33kg0dd3ss before

Prior to the release of 11/11/11, I will be job hunting, and I WILL find a job before Skyrim.

Instead of subscribing to EVE Online, I will resubscribe to World of Warcraft for one month. An explanation will follow below.

Upon finding a new job and receiving my first paycheck, I will subscribe to EVE Online and consider continuing a subscription to World of Warcraft. I may also play LOTRO during this time.

Now, I’m somewhat emotional at the moment, and the WoW thing is a spur-of-the-moment decision, but I decided to find something that allowed me to follow a storyline, however, themeparky, just so I could enjoy playing without stressing too much. EVE is a sandbox game where I have to make my own long-term decisions as to what to do or where to go, so there’s more pressure there to do well than in WoW. If I can find a casual guild on an Oceanic server, I’ll be set, and I won’t have to worry about enjoying myself for a month or so.

That said, I’m weighing my options regarding the job thing, but if you guys know of anyone looking for a video game news writer, I’m more than ready, willing, and able to apply.

Cheers!

Stream of consciousness post stemming from a few days of play. I wanted to write more, but I’ve been unable to do so due to my ISP keeping me from accessing Games and Geekery, and only Games and Geekery.

My plans for being in New Eden did not involve being shot down by NPCs because of sustained radioactive damage from a bloody rock that I couldn’t maneuver away from quickly enough. But it happened, and so I must accept it.

My plans for being in New Eden involved Planetary Interaction, PVE Mission Running, and an attempt at getting the necessary skills up to pilot a Dominix in the future with drone capabilities. Sadly, Trial players can’t actually train all the skills necessary for PI, and so I must accept it.

I want this game to succeed for the very reason that makes it niche: it is a world where the interactions make the game richer and more varied, where the systems are complex, and where the questions you ask yourself are as important as the choices you make.

What I’ve realized is that this is a game where the metagame is as important, if not doubly so, as the actual game. It’s also one of the most complicated, intricate webs of learning I’ve ever become entangled in.

Folks who want to do well must invest money into subscriptions over a long-term period, or at least enough to make enough in-game money to purchase PLEX to continue a subscription. To make the most out of your experience, the social aspect of the game involves not only finding a good corp, but finding a good corp that shares your timezone and general core values as a player or human being.

Skills get trained over the course of minutes, hours, and potentially, days. Knowing what you want to do is paramount, but when you start out, everything seems viable, and the way you train yourself in the beginning can only be good for the long-term survivability of your pilot as it takes minutes to begin.

Beyond a certain point, you have to start making big decisions. Do I take the cheap ship out and make less money from an activity, or risk losing a more expensive ship for a greater gain? Do I train the shorter timed skill first, or the more important skill?

Perhaps the one thing that made me appreciate the game, even in this short term I’ve been playing, is that there are fundamental hidden questions in everything you do in EVE Online.

“Do you give in to baser instincts in the name of new experiences and ‘fun’?”

“Do you treat EVE as a game, as a test, or as a business?”

“Do you sacrifice your core values for virtual goods and does it affect you on a personal level?”

I like asking myself these questions, and I like that it makes me think philosophically. I do believe I would like to devote more time to exploring this game on a subscription basis. My only concern is finding a AUS/NZ corporation to join that fits my schedule, and figuring out if I get to keep my free 21 days if I subscribe immediately,

In any event, I guess I’ll be looking at virtual stars in addition to LOTRO and Skyrim for the time being.

Yes, I'm milking a cow. It's a fresh perspective.

Just so everyone knows and can keep track, Civrot Stillwater, my Warden on the Landroval server, is actually my third Warden. I have two wardens on the Elendilmir server that I have left alone and have completely burned out on due to my experiences with the Esteldin/North Downs area.

Civrot, however, is taking a different course of action by moving through Evendim and skipping most of North Downs other than to complete book quests once hitting the right levels. I can get there immediately through some fast travel skills, and am generally inclined to believe that this may be the time when I can really get into the game and enjoy the character.

Strangely enough, I have not purchased a house, even though I love housing. I’m saving the money to purchase tradeskill goods for alternate characters that can help the main in various ways, such as through making food or jewelry or shields.

This fresh perspective gives me hope that I can actually stick with LOTRO for a while, even though I want to play EQ2′s expansion and Skyrim eventually. Since I can go without subbing for a while, I don’t see many issues there. All I need is to unlock everything I need to do, and I should be set, and that feels liberating to the extent that I want to go and play more.

Have any of you ever felt this way about a new perspective? Let me know, alright?

It’s been a month since I’ve written anything on Games and Geekery.

A part of me felt burnt out by writing because of my previous work, a part of me enjoyed the company of people in Google+ and the discussions there, and yet another part of me simply didn’t know what to say.

In the month between posts, I’ve switched jobs, played three or four MMORPGs, and returned to LOTRO. I had this great idea for a weekly series, and I’m still developing it, but it’s lost steam.in my head because work is requesting that I focus my attention towards writing for them, leaving me with little energy for stuff beyond playing games, working, and thinking up of new ideas.

Still, it’s a better position that I’m in today, than I was a few months ago.

—————–

Speaking of LOTRO, I feel blessed that I’m in a kin that has people from the blogosphere. I’m a member of The Council of the Secret Fire on Landroval, as both a low-level Warden and a Guardian, and even if I’m not experiencing the goodness of Mirkwood or Isengard yet, Discussions are light, people are helpful, and no one has asked me to powerlevel to join them in Isengard.

I think that’s a big thing for me. I don’t feel pressured to make the most out of my day-to day. I can let the one-month sub lapse, and I’d still be able to play with all the basic stuff I’ve managed to unlock during my time playing four characters. I’m enjoying my time, playing when I can, and it feels good.

I’ve even made a game out of progressing the characters through the same content. The obsessive compulsive tendencies I have lead me to try to make faster runs through the 1-20 content. As such, what once took me two days, now only takes me five hours to complete, and with a smattering of deeds to go with it.

The one thing I hate about momentum, however, is that eventually, you stop. LOTRO is like that for me, in the sense that I always lose steam when I hit North Downs, Esteldin and the immediate surroundings.

I’m going to try to see if there’s a  way to focus on the story and skip that content entirely just so I can see something new. I do believe Skirmishing will be an important factor in that endeavor, which I hope will give me more new content to enjoy.

In any event, I still remember the one reason why I got to play this game, and that’s because someone took a chance on me and helped me get a copy of the game and an account set up when it was still subscription based. I’m still thankful for that day, and happy that Ethic was there for me.

I was supposed to finish a post about quests in games, but I’ve been putting it off because I’m bothered by something I chose to do and want to stick to.

It’s simple really: for one month, I would play one free-to-play MMO for a maximum of 10 hours weekly and spend absolutely nothing on video games by completing single-player PC games I’ve yet to finish. There are primarily two reasons for doing this: the first is to gradually get used to not playing MMOs so that MMORPGs feel new and vibrant again, while the second is to save money as I’m dreadfully close to running on empty.

This started sometime last week when I began playing LOTRO again on the Landroval server and made my final purchase for a month: Brink for the PC.

Here’s what happened since then:

Instead of buying games, I bought other stuff. I purchased a Kindle version of Patrick Rothfuss’ The Name of the Wind, then grew so obsessed with reading it on my bed that I convinced myself that I HAD TO HAVE a tablet to read the Kindle book on. $360 later, I became a Samsung Galaxy Tab (which my parents shelled out for after I explained my case) owner.

I got a new job.

I forgot I had started a no-purchase order and tried to buy The Witcher 2, but checked with my bank and found out that I would go over my limit if I bought it online, and in dejected response I spent $55 on junk food and assorted goods (Tablet accessories, dinner at a restaurant by myself, and a massage at a spa) within the span of three hours after finding out I couldn’t buy the Witcher 2 with my e-credit card.

Any halfway sane person can see that there is something inherently askew right now with my self-control mechanisms. I realize it, but I am having difficulty maintaining the restraint necessary to keep myself from doing stupid things like the above, which not only cause me to spend on myself unnecessarily, but also cause my parents to accede to some half-baked whim on my end.

I think my MMO burnout is a sign of something worse: that I have gotten so burnt out with doing things normally that I’m obsessing over the rush I get from spending money and watching a download meter rise on Steam. It’s not the game that I want; rather, it’s the purchase behind a game or other object that gives me pleasure, and that’s a scary thought.

Times like these, I either need a counselor or a support group, and I’m not sure I can afford either at this rate.

Many years ago, when I was in high school, I had a teacher who used the term, “Following the bovine herd.” She usually said this when one student did something stupid or distracting, and caused other people to be distracted or follow in the same vein… such as when one person is looking outside through the window, and other students see that one student and start looking for what he’s looking at.

In other words, following the bovine herd means you’re doing what everyone else is doing because you’re a cow and not a free-willed human being.

Some days, I feel like a cow because of that statement, because I don’t know if I’m thinking freely or being induced into doing something by external stimuli.

For instance: LOTRO has gone free to play. It was a good game when it was subscription-only, but at one certain zone, I always seemed to get bored and stop playing.

People are now trying out LOTRO in its free to play incarnation, and I am so very tempted to do so myself, mostly because I’m looking for something to do.

This goes against my leanings, however, as I do not like item shops in general, and would have to redownload the client and make room for it on this computer (I deleted LOTRO some months ago). Worse still, if I wanted to hang out with the bloggers on Landroval, I would need to actually start from level 1, with fewer amenities than I had when I was playing in subscription land.

Of course, I’m not saying my fellow blogging brethren are cows (They most certainly are not!). It’s just that, I keep remembering my former teacher’s saying when I think about going back to LOTRO for a short while, and it makes me want to say, “MOO.”

Image source

But this is no hobbit’s tale by Bilbo Baggins, no, this is simply a story about my brief return to the world of Azeroth and my subsequent journey back to the lands of Middle-Earth. I started up WoW again so I could play with a friend, only that intention ultimately fell through and I found myself simply going through the same motions I went through every time I gave World of Warcraft a shot, going back all the way to its launch. In fact, my feelings for WoW mirror that of most other MMOs, even Lord of the Rings Online (in the beginning, that is) and I rarely found myself subscribed to one of these overwhelming time sinks for more than a month before I grew weary of the grind. LotRO changed all that with the release of the Mines of Moria and unveiling of the Warden class, single-handedly revitalizing my interest in the genre, and so I’m here to talk about the differences between WoW (now that it’s fresh in my mind) and LotRO and why the latter still has my loyalty.

I should probably get one thing right out of the way, while I’ll harp on World of Warcraft as much as the next guy I do not consider it to be a terrible game, far from it. It should go without saying that many of the best features of the modern MMO stem from the design philosophy over at Blizzard, though these features are often mishandled, and as such WoW is at least owed some grudging respect. Still, having not played the game for a couple years my memories were fuzzy and with the looming Cataclysm on the horizon now seemed as good a time as any to give it another go. Why then have I given up after a short month, without having even broken the low 30′s? Well, I always thought it was because I didn’t like the setting and the story, but I now know it is far more than that.

(more…)

I found out through Twitter, Ark’s Ark, and Massively that LOTRO is going free to play in the Fall.

I find it to be an interesting move, but I still wonder what it’s going to cost to restructure the game into a F2P sort of deal in terms of manpower and whatnot.

Let’s look at this from a couple of different viewpoints:

1. We have no idea how they’re going to structure their content in order to make it F2P. Presumably, expansions will cost Turbine LOTRO Points (Turbine DDO Points are a separate pool), and there’s a good chance that certain content updates or sideways upgrades to the game will cost Turbine DDO points.  So Cosmetic/Housing stuff + Exp Potions and stat boosters for sale would be ideal.  Add to that maybe additional bag space, special mounts, and character slots and that’s a lot of options without compromising the game’s overall theme.

2. There ought to be an influx of new gamers giving LOTRO a try from AROUND THE WORLD: I’m assuming their servers can handle it, but it’s still a valid point to think about.

3. This feels pretty much like a Warner Bros. move and not a Turbine move: To wit, I don’t think LOTRO was doing badly at all (I could be mistaken though), so to perform a seemingly drastic change like this can either end badly or end really well. Is Warner gambling with Turbine?

4. Will they lessen the people working at Turbine if this fails? —> This is my biggest concern. I want Turbine to succeed as a company, but I get the distinct mental image of a guy in a suit in a stockholders’ meeting saying: “Harumph Harumph… I know nothing about the MMO business, but I heard so much buzz about Allods Online when it came out that maybe we should do this free to play thing in our other game harumph harumph.”

If this plan of action fails, it’s going to be the people at Turbine who are going to lose jobs, and I sure as hell don’t want that.

5. It’s a brave new world out there.

More info and thoughts on the matter can be found on Doc Holiday’s LOTRO blog.

UPDATE: Ark’s linked post above now has an awesome table summarizing most of the salient points of what you can and can’t do as a player. It should be one of the LOTRO websites, but hell, I can’t open the webpages now for some reason. Check it out.

Parasite Eve 2 Cover Art

When I was a kid, there was a certain tradition I had during Christmas that I did for around five years straight till the PlayStation 2 came out. On Christmas Eve, I would play a Parasite Eve game from start to finish by Christmas day. For the most part, I played Parasite Eve 2 when that happened, and each victory run through the game would make the game progressively more difficult.

These days, I don’t do that anymore. I seem to not even have the compulsion to finish a game when it gets boring. However, I do miss the days when I’d spend playing the same game over and find myself getting better at playing it or seeing a new monster come up in a different place.

With the advent of MMORPGs though, I have to wonder if I still want to go through the same content, knowing very little of it will change unless I choose a different starting point. Everquest 2 has tons of different places to go through to progress, though going through the older content would be time-consuming and probably not as fun as would be expected. LOTRO doesn’t have that luxury since there’s a certain amount of railroading through specific zones. WoW… well, I don’t feel like talking about WoW as I could never bring myself to really level up a new character past a certain point.

In any event, that brings me to a point of reflection: what makes you replay games? Do you have any traditions associated with it?