It sounded too good an offer to miss but sadly instead it turned out to be too good to be true. The item was soon amended to confirm that the offer applies not to "everyone" but to "inactive accounts". Still not to be sniffed at and we do have three or four SOE accounts that haven't been logged in for a while so I came home from work eager to see if they qualified.
The first thing was to find EQ2. Hmmm. No icon on the desktop. No folder on either of the hard drives. No results on a windows search. Oh dear. Must have been on the drive that died. Never mind. Could do with a nice, clean install. Let's just download it again.
That went amazingly smoothly. For once SOE seem to have all their goblins in a line. Going from no EQ2 on my system to in game and ready to play took maybe two or three minutes. The streaming download is a real godsend in situations like this. Of course, since I'd also lost all my client-side preference and character files and settings, if I actually wanted to go out and kill anything I'd need another half-hour to set up eight or ten hot bars but at least I'd be in game, in character doing it.
Fortunately I have copies of all those files elsewhere when I can be bothered to copy and paste them. For now I just needed to be able to check my mail and /claim to see if any of the accounts qualified as "inactive".
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| And not before time! |
Which they don't. I don't know how long it takes for an account to drop off SOE's radar but it must be more than a year because it was back in October 2013 that I last logged most of these in, hoping to get a free level 85. There was a lot of confusion over that at the time. Some of the accounts were able to make a Heroic character and some weren't. There was some discussion of it at the time, particularly over at TAGN, but I'm not sure anyone ever figured out exactly what criteria were or weren't being met.
So, no free All Access and no bonus xp potions for me. Sad face. Except wait...what's that clangorous, echoing chime? Why. it's none other than the sound of the three F2P accounts that refused to allow level 85s a year ago deciding that they might have been acting outside their authority. Ding!
On balance I think I came out ahead. Certainly would have taken a lot more than a couple of two-hour xp potions to get those characters to 85. Of course, it's a moot point since I'll almost certainly never play them but hey, free level 85s!
The nudge to log back in to EQ2 was timely because these days you only get your 500SC and your five bonus Legends of Norrath packs that come with All Access if you make the effort to turn up in game and claim them. Since I've been playing either EQ2 or Everquest fairly consistent as my minor MMOs for the past year I'd been managing that pretty seamlessly until ArcheAge and our holiday arrived together and knocked me off my stride. I think I may have missed the September stipend but I got October's with just a day or two to spare. Won't be making that mistake again. I hope.As for ArcheAge, something odd has happened there. I was trucking along happily on an hour or so a night, knocking off my quests and slowly drifting up the levels. Then I ht the 2000 Labor Point cap for F2P and since then I haven't wanted to log in at all.
I don't want to bother with Labor Points and all the stuff that comes with them yet. I just want to quest and roam around. Unfortunately I find it hard to enjoy doing that when I can feel five LP disappearing into the void as every fifth minute ticks around. I gave myself a little breathing space by salvaging all my old armor but the points-meter soon filled up again. Until I come up with a plan to drain it ArcheAge may be off the menu.
Just as well, really, with the next installment of GW2's Living Story arriving next week and Altar of Malice the week after that. Probably don't have time for much ArcheAge right now anyway.
Too many MMOs. Too much fun. Nice problem to have.
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I logged in to see if I qualified... though I was pretty sure I wouldn't as, even though I don't play I still end up logging in about once a month or so. Anyway, I got in and then realized I didn't know how to check if I had all access or not. After 10 years I have so many unclaimed promotional items that I would be buried in XP potions if I got around to claiming them all.
ReplyDeleteBut when I do come back and play, boy will I be ready!
Yep, I wasn't really expecting to get anything so the 85s were a nice surprise. As for xp potions, I used to have scores of them but once the post-92 leveling curve arrived I was very glad I'd saved them. Every level is a hell level at the top end now, in terms of the amount of xp needed that is, not the entertainment value.
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