So far this morning I have patched :
Everquest
EQ2
Rift
The Secret World
Vanguard
As I write this I am patching:
Lord of the Rings Online.
I was already patched and up to date on:
GW2
Regnum
The Missing Ink
DCUO
I would patch the following, but for various reasons I can't right now:
Fallen Earth (on a dodgy portable hard drive I no longer trust)
Dragon Nest (on a USB stick I can't lay my hand on right now)
Argo (waiting for supposed new "global" version)
Apart from TMI, which is a beta, those are all MMOs in which I have characters that I care about and that I am still theoretically leveling up and/or working on. It's not an exclusive list, either.
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| Taken 2013 - could be 2003 |
All this activity was prompted by Syp, who re-started his monthly "What are you playing?" poll last month and just posted the
results. I completed the poll and was shocked by how few MMOs I'd logged into even once during February. That, compounded with Wilhelm at TAGN making the
disturbing observation that guild leadership in Rift passes automatically if you don't log in regularly, determined me to make more of an effort to drag myself away from GW2 and get out and about more. (Virtually out and about, that is. It's bloody freezing outside!)
While all the others were patching away in the background I spent an hour and a half in Everquest. I started off doing what I almost always do when I log back in after a few weeks or months away, namely wander round Plane of Knowledge randomly checking vendors for bargains.
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| Now this is the kind of change I like |
It's at this point that I usually realize I am so out of touch I have no idea what a bargain looks like any more, so off I go into The Bazaar where I open the /barter window to see what people are buying. From there it goes to looking in my bags, then comparing my gear with what's for sale to see if a new wave of expansion trash drops has completely out-dated whatever I'm wearing and that's how a morning passes.
This time I did at least kill a few Sand Giants in Oasis, which was hardly much of an ask for a level 84 Beastlord, but hey, Sand Giants = plat pinatas. Challenge not required. And speaking of pinatas, after EQ it was on to Rift.
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| Eeny, meeny, miny, mo... oh sod it, kill em all. |
All my level 50s there (and yes they are all still only level 50 and likely to stay that way) are in those New Lands of which I have yet to learn the names, or care. Couldn't face that so I woke up my warrior in Meridian and had him bounce around on balloons for a couple of minutes, after which I lost the will to live and logged out.
Kudos to
Kaozz for keeping it up for a couple of hours. I wholeheartedly agree that Rift is going in a terrible direction. The attitude of the Dev in the
linked thread appears to be "last year it was easy and you all got what you wanted. Well, we'll soon put a stop to
that!" If his approach is in any way representative then I think all hope is already lost.
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| Dignity? What's that? |
Patching technology appears to have plateaued at a highly acceptable level. Everything went very smoothly and quickly. (Well, not always
quickly. Nothing happens when it comes to LotRO - it's still patching as I write this, although to be fair to Turbine I haven't logged in for over six months). Keeping all these MMOs patched up shouldn't be a problem but playing them obviously will be. Nevertheless, I mean to give it the old Innsmouth Academy try.
For now though, it's back to GW2. Dailies to do, dragons to loot, and most importantly fun to be had. So. Much. Fun.
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It's true that patching is super smooth these days - and yet I always whine when it happens to be patchday and I totally forgot! :P
ReplyDeletePatching LotRO, does that mean you still play sometime? I hit level 41 last night and am veeeery sloooowly fighting my way up right now. the early lvl 40ies seems particularly badly paced and I have a hard time knowing where to quest. I'll stick to Angmar for now and switch to Forochel at 45. Hated Misty Mountains.
There's no real chance I'll play LotRO seriously again but I do like to log in now and again and ride around enjoying the scenery or listening to concerts outside The Prancing Pony.
DeleteI'm too far behind now ever to catch up even if I wanted to. I topped out in the low-40s first time round and I agree it felt like wading through waist-high mud at that point. Even coming to the snow zone (Forachel?) didn't entice me to carry on and I don't feel the need to try again.
Hmm yes, I certainly feel that too. but then, I am under no illusion that it would take a new expansion and level cap before I could ever get close to anything on par with Lotro longtimers. and then I don't intend to play Lotro as exclusively. oh well.
Delete"For now though, it's back to GW2. Dailies to do, dragons to loot, and most importantly fun to be had. So. Much. Fun."
ReplyDeleteWell, in my opinion, any MMO that has 'dailies' is already an epic fail. I thought GW2 was trying to NOT be a skinner box, but I guess I was wrong :(
The problem with dailies, for me at least, is this: intellectually I detest them but emotionally I really enjoy them. They're the MMO equivalent of donuts, with the huge advantage that indulging in them won't kill you.
DeleteThe thing about GW2's dailies specifically is that they happen as you are playing normally. They're just a checklist of things that you'd likely be doing anyway that you get some extra xp for as they tick off in the background. I do choose to do specific ones because it gives my session a certain loose structure that's comfortable, but most of the time dailies that aren't the ones I'm supposedly doing complete in the background as well.
As for what GW2 was "trying" to be, I think we can consign most of that to typical pre-launch hype. What it most clearly is becoming is a high-quality, traditional MMO with a few (very few) new twists. Since I like the traditional MMO model well enough I'm not overly disappointed. The next hype train will be along soon enough.
Excellent reply! :)
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