Category: MMORPG

MMO’s and me: How my next month or two is going to go..

Published January 3, 2013 by Leprekawn

Some time ago I gave up World of Warcraft for a variety of reasons. The highest on my list was a personal insult of RNG vs You problem of not getting one recipe for a stupid achievement I didn’t need but I sure as hell wanted.

With Guild Wars my interest in subscribed online gaming has moved into Free to Play and I’ll give you money for amusing things I want idealism. To date I’ve put cash money on starships in STO, locked chests in GW2 and an occasional costume DLC from CoH or DCUO. Acronyms are probably boggling you at this moment. I’ll clear them up farther down for your digestion.

I have a range of itches that form gaming habits as the year rotates. Strategy empire-building games, space combat, superhero, fantasy dungeon marauding and treasure collecting. My interest shifts and follows a fairly well structured path I’ve failed to note. Here in the mid-winter I tend to drift a bit. Poke around and see what’s out there. For your benefit you’re going to see some posts about various MMORPG’s that are F2P and worthy of my interest. I’ll talk about some other games too, sure.

DLC – DownLoadable Content (Usually for money.)

F2P – Free to Play (No box cost)

B2P – Buy to Play (Box cost, no subscription)

STO – Star Trek Online

GW2 – Guild Wars 2

CoH – City of Heroes (offline and no longer in service: for the record)

DCUO – DC Universe Online (my fallback Superhero interest approach)

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Star Trek Online: How I spent my Winter Holiday

Published January 3, 2013 by Leprekawn

During the last week of December I made a cursory recommendation to a coworker regarding STO. In hindsight I thought maybe I should eat the porridge I’m going to serve and play the game for more than 5 minutes during beta several years ago.

So it being Free to Play and me being something of a Star Trek fan I set my download for Friday night and started in Saturday, December 22nd. At no point in the following week would I have told you with a straight face that “I liked the game”. 66 hours in, it became rather apparent that whether or not i could vocalize my appreciation, I found something there worth my time.

STO breaks the traditional quest model a little with allowing you to phone in your completion, saving you a lengthy trip back to Spacedock or Planet 12 or wherever you need to go. Space is big and reading your mission text carefully is necessary to know where you’re going. All the missions are level adjusted to your character so as you move along you’re constantly fighting klingons and romulans and borg within your reach. Missions are a nice variety of exploration, combat vs the local antagonist (I killed a LOT of Orions Raiders) all with a mild level of puzzling built in. At one point I had to help a Ferengi put his replicator back online by routing power in a necessary order.

For all my time playing I only got 1/3 the way through the second mission ‘Episode’ arc, involving Romulans, and can easily guess I’ve got another week of just solid story mission progression. Each arc having a theme, i’m looking forward to the Borg arc.

If you like Star Trek, don’t mind the massive multiplayer nature of MMO’s and have a hankering for space combat you should give Star Trek Online a chance. It’s only available on PC and for Star Trek there aren’t a lot of alternate options out there.

Addendum –

There I was.. midweek.. sitting at my computer exploring some cluster on the edge of space at 2am. I beam down to a planet that some colonists had commented on strange detections. I’m scanning a plant-pod and look up to see the rocky formations that form shaded areas. The abstract nature of it all just kicked in. “Oh yeah.. i’m playing Star Trek.”

Strange new worlds indeed.

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Squire

Published November 20, 2012 by Leprekawn

I’ll never know how he found his way into my possessions. Half a rusted lantern and a tatter of penant were all there was and yet the ghostly spirit hounded me.

I noted to make time to try and communicate with it someday, should it prove to be a manifestation of spiritual energy and not a hallucinatory emanation from the Mad King.

Cohorts within the Bubblegum Brigade coerced me to join them in assaulting the Mad King’s private sanctum. I assured them it was a bad idea, that nothing good could come of this and yet they insisted. I won’t say I regretted the choice though I won’t admit I enjoyed it either.

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Four Days of Mild Hell

Published November 19, 2012 by Leprekawn

I was sick. Like: Sinus pressure so bad I can’t sleep til 2am when fatigue takes hold and I spend the day numbly blowing my nose and largely oblivious to what’s going on around me.

And of course the obnoxious pain was just enough that I spent four days parked in front of my computer. Mental note, Chlorox the keyboard when I get home. Did I check my email? No. Did I answer my phone? No. Did I post to Facebook? No. What did I do then? Guild Wars 2. Something like 40+ hours in four days.

Highlights from the memory reel. Warning, this is in no particular order or by any means complete.

Made 10g

Spent 11g

Cleared 7 dungeon wings

Cleared Arah Story mode

Cleared Twilight Arbor Story mode

Started leveling a warrior

Started leveling an elementalist

Deleted elementalist

Made decision to reroll warrior with different color skin

Made five bags

Remarked at how I now have 104 item slots on my mesmer

Decided to play more of my mesmer after 40-odd hours of my guardian

Completed exploring Orr

Found an Exotic

Found some rares

Sold all of them

Took part in the weekend Lost Shores event

Promptly got bored of the Weekend event and went back to regular questing.

Met an awesome friend

FB’d awesome friend

Made myself semi-famous with “Dungeon 101”

Dungeon 101: Don’t Stand in It, Don’t Stand in Front, Try not to Suck

Nearly rolled a second guardian what cause I like them so much more than Warrior.

Finally found a staff I can stand looking at for long periods of time.

Got an exotic sword for my guardian what glows blue at night.

Finally learned how to tell time in Guild Wars 2.

With that being said, I was rather sick. What would I have done instead? Played a crapload of Pokemon. On account of some technical hurdles I restarted my game. I wasn’t far in. But when I really wanted to play Pokemon I couldn’t focus on fine details or long-range strategies. Yes, we’re still talking about Pokemon.

I’m feeling better now and hope to have better focus on what I’m doing for the next while.

Edit: I’ve added a new category, MMORPG. Now you can filter based on even more criteria and largely avoid my Guild Wars 2 rambling.

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Published September 19, 2012 by Leprekawn

I stopped in Vanjir’s Stead briefly, having just come East from Demon’s Maw. Provisions were high on my list and as I prepared to trek North, back above the treeline, I chatted briefly with the few Norn dwelling there.

Seemed Ice Wurms were causing some trouble at the edge of their stead and they were paying well for people to see about dissuading the abnormally active beasts. A task I assured them I’d look into as I headed North. I was searching the edge of Dredgehaunt for anything of note as necessitated by my membership with the Oder of Whispers.

How I let them dispatch me to the mountains again I’ll never know.

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Skritt

Published September 18, 2012 by Leprekawn

I’ve seen Skritt in many places.

I’m no Durmand Priory researcher so I keep my ramblings to a minimum. But I’ve begun to think they followed the Asura. Anywhere I find Asura I’ve also found Skritt. The number of them vary but the presence is unmistakable.

What confuses me is the varied nature of their hostility. Some are cutthroat merchants. Most are aggressively territorial.

I wasn’t terribly surprised then as I crossed the Rootangles and neared Ruins of the Unseen. The area was rife with Skritt activity as they swarmed out of their burrows and attacked anyone within sight.

When it was done, I was told by a nearby Asura that this happens often as a side effect of his research. I didn’t inquire on his research, Asuran theology is heavily mixed into their academic teachings and I wasn’t in the mood for another debate on The Eternal Alchemy.

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Lornar’s Pass

Published September 17, 2012 by Leprekawn

It should be noted I don’t like Lornar’s Pass. I hate it in fact. If the biting winds didn’t chill to the bone, then the sheer drops from thousand-foot passes makes travel extremely treacherous. Nestled between Grawl, Dredge and the nested Griffon’s, there aren’t a lot of safe havens to make camp if that wasn’t bad enough the lowlands are rife with wurms. Larger than what you might see in Queensdale which alone makes me long for warmer climes.

I’d tell you why I was there but I can’t recall at this time. I’m sure it will come back to me.

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Caledon Forest

Published September 17, 2012 by Leprekawn

To call it a forest is to extend the dotted line around your understanding of the term ‘Forest’ and move it back a few leagues. Caledon is more of a coastal swamp with occasional dry hills crawling with whatever climbed out of the deeps in the Sea of Sorrows.

It was there I met Lithiaria, a mesmer like myself. She was struggling with grubs the size of a Kryta Hound. I was looking for something I wasn’t sure about so I stopped briefly to help her. It didn’t take long for her to request my company while she assisting the various people living in Caledon. Roughly three days passed while we battled Nightmare Court, giant spiders and Skales. I was still looking when we took some brief time to camp out at a fort in the middle of the forest and rest briefly.

I met a trader, moving west into Metrica Province, who was able to trade me various items I needed to finish my tailoring project, the Masquerade. It cost me greatly, but I feel a price worth paying. We’ll see how the long-term amusement holds me.

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Published August 30, 2012 by Leprekawn

I stood there. I watched as blood seeped from my wounds, as life faded from my eyes I knew intimately. My skin paled, blood drained from the cheeks and the eyes closed offering an end to the sudden and rapid decline.

In a flash it was gone, shattered into a myriad array of glass-like splinters that vanished into the air.

This is going to be a long day.

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Personal Journal

Published July 19, 2012 by Leprekawn

I had the dream again.. I was standing in a desert, sand as white as snow and sparkling under the noonday sun. My mouth parched from thirst, my feet sore from walking, my mind tired from the journey.

In the distance I could see a city who’s name I knew not. Surely, this was the Crystal Desert yet no cities were known within it’s depths.

And it ends as quickly as it begins but I’m left with a terrible thirst each time.

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