The 3rd kind of player…

I played Everquest2 from early internal Beta (friends and family). I had read every word from the developers, for two years leading up to being invited.

When they finally lifted the NDA on October 17, 2004, I decided to share my feelings about beta over at Druids Grove. I had always read their site, and being a druid in EQ and other games…well that was a comfortable place to post. Read more

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Diablo has real staying power!

Although I love online RPG’s, every now and then I like to lose myself in a stand-alone game. Just me and my PC. Sometimes you don’t want to chat, raid, LFG, or do tradeskills. You just want to hack your way through a bunch of skeletons in Diablo! Read more

Windows Live writer - a non review…

So I am creating this in BlogJet because after several attempts to download Windows live writer today, using the “Windows Live Installer.exe” – I gave up.

I finally went and downloaded the Windows Live beta version directly from one of the miriad of Microsoft sites. Honestly it’s like the blob…trying to find files on thier site. You would think that the world’s leader of software would have more user friendly sites..but that is a blog for another day… Read more

(A moss snake kicks YOU for 1!)

When I first started this game we all call EQ back in March, 2000, I wasn’t sure what class to choose. I looked at all that were available to me at the time, and a wizard struck me as one that might be neat to play. I never thought I would actually get as involved in the game as I did, so it really didn’t matter much to me. So, I created my little dark elf wizard and off I went into this massive world we call Norrath. Read more

Where have all the statesmen gone?

A politician looks forward only to the next election. A statesman looks forward to the next generation.

-Thomas Jefferson

I don’t intend to get into political debates between Republican/Democrat, or Conservative/Liberal here.

Depending on the topic, people could label me any of the above or even moderate and libertarian at times. In other words…I AM NOT A LABEL. I am a person. Read more

Pope Benedict - You just gotta love him.

I was heartbroken when Pope John Paul died. Like many catholics, I was apprehensive about our new pope.

After his visit to the United States, I was suddenly in love with him. Watching him interact with people, I could just feel his concern and genuine warmth. Read more

Diablo 3 — MMORPG?

I am a huge fan of Diablo and Diablo II. I still play both of them on a regular basis. I have been reading “rumors from around the net”, that Blizzard may be coming out with a new MMORPG based on the Diablo series instead of Warcraft.

If they do, I hope they have Wirt as one of the vendors. (maybe you have go rescue his leg before he will buy and sell from you)

I always thought, the Diablo world would lend itself to a very nice game. I look forward to visiting Decard Caine for his sage advice.

(Perhaps we will find out in October, when Blizzard hosts Blizzcon.)

If they are making Diablo3, I hope it is a bit more difficult than WoW. I want more long term objectives, titles and ingame housing.

I would love to see less use of instanced dungeons. Give me a good ol’dungeon crawl. I want trains to the zone, shouts for groups, contested spawns…all the things that communities are built on! Make it so you can only group with people of the appropriate levels. I don’t want all the content simplified by having older players ‘Run you through” all the content. I want the armor we wear to be earned, and paid for in the deaths.

For now we can only hope!

(to be held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California on October 10 and 11.)

The quest for a better blog editor….

So it’s only been one day since I decided to start a blog, and I have already decided that the so called WYSIWIG editor that comes with Wordpress is sorely lacking.

So I tried using Microsoft Word, but that makes the formatting all wacky when you import or cut and paste it.

I went to the Wordpress site, and found some helpful articles and tips there. They suggest using a desktop blog editor.

I am trying Blog Jet tonight. Will also try WindowsLiveWriter. Will let you know what I think.

What makes us keep coming back to EQ?

I recently started playing Everquest again. When my friends heard, several of them came back too. Suddenly, there was our old play group, hunting and questing just like we have for over nine years. There have been many improvements and changes to the game, but that is not what calls us back.

I started thinking, “What is it about this game that makes us want to play it?”

 

I asked my friends and other folks I grouped with. At first I got the usual responses. “There is lot’s of content.” “Lot’s of quests.” Etc.

 

While it is true, that Everquest has considerably more content and quests than any other game right now, I don’t think it’s why we go back. I think it is the community of EQ that makes it special. Something about EQ, encourages a closeness that no other game I have played can imitate. You need other players. You want to be with them for safety and camaraderie. The longevity of the game, has led to real friendships forming.

 

SoE added something called fellowships. A mini-guild of sorts, where nine people can chat, and port to one another. It’s a nice touch, but honestly most long time players formed their fellowships years ago. I know that we did. We had a core group of friends. We all laughed, made our own chat channels, grouped together, helped one another.

 

We had real life BBQ’s and events, we shared our births, deaths, marriages, and daily problems. This group of ‘on-line gaming friends’ became friends in real life. We live all around the world, but I am closer to most of them now, than any of my so called real-life friends.

So I guess, the reason I come back to EQ…is it’s like a comfortable old pair of jeans. It is one of my old friends.