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Thanks, Suckers.

6 Jan

I am pretty tired of hearing about people bitch and moan about the Freeblood race that EverQuest 2 added late December. Get over it. There are very good things about these marketplace items that very few people seem to want to admit. Number one they sell. The first day these little blood suckers hit the marketplace I saw over 50 people on my server alone eagerly opening up their wallets to buy them. Even though you can wait a few months and get one for free from having a subscription! Impatience is great. I do not even play on a role play server, can you imagine how nuts they must have been over there? Is that not the biggest role play dream to be some sort of sparkling freak of nature. If you hang out around the Inn in West Freeport on Antonia Bayle or Lucan D’Lere server you know what I am talking about.

The fact that these things sell means that the game gets a little extra support. If you have money to blow on this sort of crap then why not go ahead and open up the wallet and buy everything you can. You are supporting your game and hey that is a good thing. I do not want to see my monthly fee go up from 15 bucks so if you go and spend some extra money they will not raise those prices and the game will  keep on running for a little while longer.I do not care who is or is not playing a vampire race. It does not help me do a dungeon faster or sell gear or raid. It is like appearance armor on your skin instead of your weapon or gear.

I just do not see why this is such a big deal. When my guild goes and raids Hardmode fish we don’t ask if anyone is a vampire race and make sure everyone buys it first. You do not have to buy it at all you can ignore the whole thing and play one of the other 19 races available. That is right, EverQuest 2 has a whole bunch of other things that you can play if you are too poor to pay to play this one. what about the little extras? Well that is just how business works. We have a big expansion coming in February and I am sure there will be lots of neat things in that. Everything else is just little extra things that they can make people pay for. We pay every month so that we can play what is already in game, without anything new being added. Then we pay for the expansions. If you want the new stuff you have to pay a little more. Games have been doing this for a very long time now and I think that players just got lazy thinking that all of this should be free all of the time. Nothing is free. So thank you suckers who are paying for all of this extra crap. I can keep playing a game I really like and ignore the store like always.

Why It’s Important to Feed your Server Hamsters

22 Mar

SOE Server Hamster Battlegrounds have yet to be up a full week since they were released and I’m not surprised. This is how the story goes.

Servers share databases. They are “clustered” together. There are a few servers that share a cluster with the “new” battleground server. You know what servers these are. These are the servers that experience incredible lag, lost connections, and missing characters each and every time the battlegrounds are running especially on weekends when the battlegrounds are at their peek. So far the battlegrounds have been brought down each time these issues occur but not until more then two or three days of issues has gone by first.

Angry? Yes. More then just a little. I feel that this is unacceptable. Sentinel’s Fate was an expansion that came out in February (when we are used to expansions releasing in November, that makes it three months later then usual already) and here we are almost into April and still experiencing horrific issues. I was unable to zone without it taking more then 15 minutes (I am not alone in this issue before you start ranting that I need a better computer stfu) and once I did manage to zone into an instance my entire group would get dropped to character select where our characters would all display a ‘server is down’ message and only show four of our characters instead of the full list. If we attempted to log any character in we were told that our characters could not be found and then spent 20 minutes attempting to patch and re-enter the game.

This lasted the whole weekend until Sunday night when battlegrounds were brought down and then suddenly all was well and we were able to zone again. Sony has been fairly quiet about the whole issue only posting when they have to despite the huge outcry on forums everywhere. Lets not even get started on the fact that battleground gear is better then a lot of pve gear forcing players to participate and comes with its own set of problems aside from the ones that affect the pve servers.

This is just another indication to me of how Sony wasted resources and time developing something (and not even developing it fully before pushing it public) that does more harm then good. I may be alone in my thoughts on this but some how I don’t think so.

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If You’re Going to Wave it, At least Know What You’re Talking About

25 Feb

Ya know what, I don’t mind when people brag about their characters, or even when they talk shit. What bothers me is the people who talk shit who really don’t have the faintest idea what they’re actually talking about. Take a look around in game, you know who is talking out their ass? It’s not the number one guild on the server. The number one guild on the server never feels the need to be so blunt because guess what; everyone already knows that they are the number one guild on the server. They don’t have to prove themselves to anyone.

The people who are waving their tiny little epeen’s around are the number two and three guilds on the server. They’re the ones who are in competition with one another and want the whole server to know it. They’re the ones you see in public channels flogging one another for what kill they got first, or how many people they managed to raid with, or who did what drama last.

Again, I don’t mind when people do this. It’s a natural competition and when you organize people into teams (guilds) there are going to be winners and losers.

What I don’t like, is that guy who has never set foot into a raid in his life, has barely been in an instance before, belongs to a guild of one and all of the sudden he’s telling you how to play your class. You know the type, you head to an instance with the much dreaded PUG (pick up group) and there’s that ONE person who thinks they know it all. No mind if they’re wearing gear that’s five years old and can barely swing a sword, they don’t have to even play the same class as you to know how to play it better. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been playing your character since the dawn of time they will always find a way to one up you. It happens. If you’re going to talk shit and act like you are the guru to every game imaginable PLEASE at least know what the hell you’re talking about before you do it. I have a lot more respect for those people. Does it make it right? It doesn’t really matter. You can’t exactly argue with them because at least they know their stuff. It’s not that difficult a concept to grasp. If you don’t actually know what you’re talking about then just take a seat and let the big boys play. No one will think any less of you for it.

Battlegrounds? Srsly?

29 Jan

The news in EQ2 lately involves the latest brilliant idea (I use that term loosely) to implement battlegrounds in our beloved player vs. environment game. I don’t care if you’re playing on a player vs. player server (which have been merged recently if that gives you any indication of how popular they are) EverQuest 2 is a player vs. environment game and always has been. I laughed out loud when the announcement came out because it was mentioned as some sort of new invention – it’s not! We already HAVE battlegrounds, they’re called arenas. Except they’re BETTER then battlegrounds because you can mentor down and participate in them, you don’t need to be level 80+ and you can play OTHER CLASSES aside from your own. You can even take on the traits of a completely different race (these are little pets that you can also place in your home after, they’re called arena pets) and play in the arenas that way! Why is sony wasting resources working on a FAILED concept instead of trying to develop something new for their game. I just don’t understand.

It’s not that I’m against pvp either I think it’s incredibly fun to hunt down your target and smash them into oblivion, I just don’t see how this is going to bring any good news to EverQuest 2. One fear a lot of players have is that because this is NOT a pvp orientated game classes will need balancing. This will in turn affect how they play in pve. Unless you keep a completely separate set of skills and spells available for pvp and leave the pve game alone, people are going to get upset.

Lets take this one step further. Lets look at the classes in game. How the fuck is a templar (who has the DPS of a wet towel on a good day) going to be able to compete against a scout. How is the run speed and stealth of a scout going to affect all other classes. Another factor is that in game spells (heals and mage types) take TIME to cast. Combat arts can be instant and some of them can even be cast on the run. You’re telling me a priest is going to have time to stand around for 10 seconds to cast a heal while there’s combat going on? Pvp is (supposed to be) fast paced, there’s a reason heals over time are instant casts, or a two second cast time.

We haven’t really learned how this ‘new feature’ is going to fit into Norrath. I mean the overall picture. What will the rewards be for taking part in pvp and how is THAT going to affect the pve crowd? We were told there will be gear rewards. Will this compete with raid gear? Will it be better then instance gear? Will players give up their instances in order to pvp because items are better? Will it reward cash or maybe even crafted goods? All of these things come to mind. What sort of gear are we going to be looking at, will raiders automatically gain the upper hand?

If sony thinks they’re going to win anyone over for adding this feature they’re in for a painful surprise. I feel pretty damn confident in saying that people who are playing EverQuest 2 are not actually looking for pvp. Those people are already playing a pvp game. I also feel pretty confident saying that no one is going to leave their pvp game in order to play EverQuest 2 because while they are adding this one aspect, the game is simply not built for it.

Sony, get a fucking clue. Concentrate on what you’re already GOOD at. Stop trying to chase down dreams that don’t make sense to your loyal player base. It just doesn’t work that way.

Want to tank? Then BE one

13 Jan


There’s almost nothing that pisses me off more then coming across a tank who doesn’t want to actually BE a tank.

It’s really quite simple people. If you roll a tank in an MMORPG then there are certain guidelines and rules that just make sense. If you roll a tank you’re expected to tank. If you’re more of a solo player like you may find in SOEs EQ2 then you might not be used to tanking for a group and that’s fine but speaking out and saying “Oh I just don’t want to tank” or “well I’m not very good at being a tank” is stupid. That’s like a priest joining up for a 5 man run in WoW as a healer and suddenly saying they don’t want to heal, they just wanted to get into a group faster.

Here’s one perfect example of how NOT to be a tank. Lets call this person Joe. Joe applies to a raid guild on one of his characters, but he has three other characters that he also plays. He applies for an off tank position. He joins the guild and is welcomed, he has friends there already. Throughout the course of his recruitment he only plays his healer, unless specifically told to get on his tank.

WRONG WAY TO BE A TANK

If you apply to a raid guild as an off tank then the first thing you should be doing is proving that you can actually tank. Show everyone that you enjoy the character, want to actually play the character, and make yourself available to your guild mates. None of this pissing around on a healer. When your recruitment period is done and you’ve secured your position then by all means dick around on whatever character you feel comfortable on. Your guild mates want to see what you can do and how passionate and dedicated you are, how about you throw them a bone.

Here’s another great example of a tank that doesn’t really want to act like a tank. Lets call this person Bob. Bob is a main tank to a fairly prestigious guild on a populated server. Bob needs a particular zone for a piece of gear, a zone that’s run every weekend on off nights but he decides he’s too good to actually attend those raids. Without this piece of gear he’s asked to sit out on raids during the week and he gets his nose all bent out of shape about it. He decides to cry on the forums about how he needs this zone instead of taking the initiative and organizing the raid himself. Seriously? You’re the main tank of a guild and can’t handle organizing a little 12 man event on your own without having your hand held? Go pick another class to play, a tank is obviously not for you.

I doubt I’m the only person who has ever come across these types of people, they’re everywhere. Don’t wuss out and roll a tank because they’re needed or popular, or because their class is unbalanced unless you plan on actually taking charge and acting like a tank. That doesn’t mean you have to know everything there is to know but you should certainly be making a progressive effort to better yourself as a player. Hell everyone should be (not that we always get our way).

There’s nothing more frustrating to a group then joining up and having to spoon feed their baby tank step by step. You can fake your way through most zones even if you don’t know anything. It’s all about attitude. See an add headed towards the raid and no one is jumping on it? Then take that step forward and pull it off of a healer or mage before they wipe. That’s your job. It’s not a passive one and you’ll earn far more respect by asserting some authority then by whining in the corner.

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