General Musings

EQ2:  Just had a double XP weekend.  Every xp type was doubled, so using the AA slider to convert combat xp to AA xp made for some interesting gains — quests in a level range to normally give 5-6% were giving 22-35%.  I am not complaining in any way…. I set my sliders pretty high since AA seems to come so much slower than leveling xp.  If anything, I am complaining I only got to play maybe 3 or 4 hours over the weekend 😦  Still… I got almost 40 AA’s on my warlock — enough to get her the Shadows endlines.  I only wish I’d had more time to play on my inquisitor — I only got about 15 AA’s for that character, but would have loved to get a lot more.  Such is life.

EVE:  I took a break for the weekend to focus on EQ2 instead.  Fortunately we’re at the beginning of the month, so I’ll be able to make up the difference on my PI quota well before the end of the month.  The downside of having the PI quota though, is that I don’t really log in for fleet/gang ops, since I know I’ll be spending 45+ minutes each day doing PI, so I just don’t bother otherwise.  Add in that in my region of space an new alliance is taking over, so the jump bridges aren’t back in place yet, so getting to where the action is is a little tough right now and. . . well, there ya go.

LOTRO:  I got a 1 week beta key a few weeks ago, and it was fun enough and didn’t feel overly restrictive in the F2P area.  I got an email the other day saying I could log in for the head start today, but when I click the link in the email it errors out.  Not really confidence inspiring, especially given the buggy state of their points store while I was in the beta.

DDO:  I keep forgetting to log in for my Tuesday night guild run, and I’m focused enough on EQ2 right now that I’m not really playing at any other time either.  I have been working a little bit on my monk, and also I started a Rogue/Ranger with the plan to use the “Exploiter” build, but as an Elf using scimitars, rather than a Human using Khopeshes.  I’ve got it to level 6 now (1 rogue, 5 ranger) so in 1 more level I get to take my Tempest prestige class.  Perhaps I’ll even start dual-wielding then.  Up until now I’ve been enjoying the high armor class I’ve got from having a good shield.  I’m told that the “sword ‘n board” style is actually fairly comparable to dual wielding up until about level 12 anymore, so. . . .we’ll see.  Now if only they could steal EQ2’s broker system and the Profit UI’s market functions for it.

Free Realms:  My kids love this game, so I bought them a 3-month sub back at the beginning of the summer.  They went home about a month ago and it hasn’t been touched since.  Which is kinda odd, becuz I actually do find it a relaxing escape every once in a while, but…. too many other games to play and things to do, I suppose.

SWTOR’s Hype: Hopefully the game lives up to it, but from what I’ve seen from their press releases and from people blogging about it, there are going to be a ton of unmet hopes/dreams/expectations.  I don’t really think it will be fair since it seems that so many people are building it up in their own minds as the “WoW Killer” and when they find it’s going to be “just another MMO” I think there will be a lot of backlash… and for no reason other than people worked themselves up, not becuz the game won’t be fun.  It just won’t be exactly as they dreamed.  I know I’m looking forward to it, and as a result I’ve tried to avoid the hype lately.  I’m trying to go into it without any preconceived notions about it being the next best thing.

Warhammer:  I have the “unlimited trial” installed, but I forget it’s there.  And frankly, I haven’t even gotten any character up to the “cap” for the trial yet.  I don’t know why, I don’t feel like anything’s “wrong” with it, and I LOVE the public quests.  I guess it just doesn’t feel like anything sets it apart from any other fantasy-themed MMO.

And there ya have it….. random musings on the MMO scene.