Grimwell - EQII Hardcore Challenge

 

” Put your money where your mouth is! ” some might say when one refers to themselves as harcore.  Well, a community manager from EQ2 does such a thing.  Grimwell, the Senior Community Manager for the Everquest 2 team over at Sony Online Entertainment, has decided to live a “permabanned death penalty” association concept. Grimwell has started a character, give him 9 deaths in mercy and then after that 9th death, poof goes the character.  I giggle a little bit when I think of something you work pretty hard for go away permantly and instantly…but the idea intriques me a bit.  In fact, it has me fully interested…. in fact, the more I think about it, the more I’d like to try it.  The only real thing holding me back is that the in-game monetary investment associated with it.  Hell, if I’m running around in a situation like this, then I’m ensuring I have the best equipment available for my level, adept III and higher everything, the whole nine yards.  Otherwise, is some crap treasured gear, I may die unexpectedly, or may have lived through an encounter if I were better equipped.

Nonetheless, you can follow his adventures…  and if you’re interested in doing a community experiment on this, keep me informed, I may join your efforts.

Grimwell talks about it here

GOOD LUCK CRAIG!!!!

Monday Fundays - 12/10/07

SOE Studios, San Diego, CA 

I hate Mondays….   so much.  I wish it were possible to start the week on a Tuesday.  But I guess if that were the case, I’d just end up hating Tuesdays… not that I really like Tuesday’s much more than Mondays anyway, but….  who’s on first?

Gimmepie was born last night; a Sarnack Assasin, the newest addition to the family.  I guess I’ve been living in a dark crusty and stinky dungeon the last couple of years.  Why hadn’t I tried this amazingly top DPS class before?!  Talk about one extreme to another.  I normally play my Templar where rather than having trouble killing a mob, I have more trouble trying to stay awake as I nickel and dime the little f’er to death.  The Assasin, on the other hand, just plows through the mobs, totally DPS heavy.  The only holdback in an all out annihilation to all of Norrath is the refresh timers of some key combat arts. Otherwise, I’d be soloing Veksar (Ok, that’s a little over the top, but you get the drift). 

In simply a little over 2 hours, he went from out of the womb to Level 15/8 and I’m really having a good time in Timorous Deep and Gorowyn.  After playing in the Kunzar Jungles, it’s easy to relate as the 2 zones look relatively similar.  The only downside I’ve seen so far is just the mental strain of only seeing 9 people in the zone as I can only feel sorry for the development team on this zone as it just doesn’t feel like it’s getting its due exposure in the expansion.  I did /who all last night to see the number of Sarnaks on the server at that time and pulled up 63.  Just didn’t seem like alot, even for the Unrest server.  Although I did see an 80 on it…..that crackhead.

In other news… you know I can’t post without bitching about something.  This expansion is kinda tearing our guilds apart.  Statistics and numbers are one thing, but I wonder if this is something SOE can monitor.  It’s beginning to be a real issue.  I can’t think of how to resolve it.  I mean you can’t “Make” another guildie do something they don’t physically want to do.  But with all of these solo quests, it’s seperating the “hardcore” from the “casual” players in our guild.  Level 80 players are farming groupable instances and groing impatient, while also ignoring the lower 70s players as they continue to struggle on the quest grinding as they play catch up.  And unfortunately, because of the lack of incentive for a higher level to come back and retrace his/her steps, we personally have not seen an overly abuntant number of assistance in the guild to level 70s… which really means a longer time to wait around for a raid force to develop.  It’s going to be interesting to see where this goes…it’s a growing issue in our guild.

Some pretty amazing items coming out of these groupable instances.  A large number of differing legendary items on the loot table means alot more variation on drops.  Which is fine for the “wow” factor as it’s pretty diversified, but others searching for that specific item may have to spend a little more effort and time to obtain it.  I won’t yet touch on the ROK fabled items yet without providing detailed information, but if you have access to the shipyards in Jarsath Wastes, I’d suggest taking a minute to run over there and check out some of the new ROK relic items…they are simply amazing.  Oh…  but you’ll have to do those faction quests before you can do so…

This week looks more of the same.  Dardores is at 78 3/4 and not really in a hurry to cap 80.  I’ll probably spend alot more time on my Assasin this week, as I really do like him alot.  Ahh…  on a secondary note, I can’t say for certain, but I really do seem to see a large increase in quest experience on this low character. I can’t give a true opinion yet because he’s so new, but definetely seems like I’m cranking through these levels.  As I get into the 20s and have to try to pick and choose where to go, it will most likely slow down, but I am really enjoying him at this time.

AverageJoe Gets Listener Mail

 

Someone from somewhere sent me an e-mail today, and after a little back and forth, he agreed to let me use it as a post on the blog. 

“Dear AJ, (I guess he mean AverageJoe…even know my name ain’t Joe)

Long time reader, first time responder.  First, I should tell you that I really enjoy your blog.  Your commentary on Everquest 2 is great and I also look forward to reading your articles.  But I must say that I found your article  Everquest II, Life Expectancy narrowing…. pretty hard on SOE.  I know you think you know alot about what goes on back behind the scenes, but it’s not all cake and icecream.  The guys on the Everquest II team work very hard at everything they do.  Not everyday, but every year.   Every game has issues.  I dare you find one out there that doesn’t. 

Please realize that this team is learning as we do.  There’s never going to be a system that can truly test every single aspect of the game fast enough and release quickly enough to be able to be efficient unfortunately.  They are learning things sometimes soon after the top tier playerbase is.  Sometimes it’s just a hit and miss.  But do remember this.  They have been quick to correct and resolve anything the community feels in completely unacceptable or unfair.  This is proven time and time again. 

So, as I know that you like the game alot and have much passion about it, please take into consideration the employees behind the scene for are also working passionately to create an enjoyable escape for you and your wonderful community of friends.

Thanks for reading and continue to crank out all the wonderful news you do, it doesn’t go unappreciated.”
Rather than answer his in a personal mail, I feel obligated (and approved) to answer him via my blog entry.  John..  I could not agree with you more.  I am hard on SOE for what they do.  Not because I want to see them defeated, or torn down, or jumping off of buildings…but simply because I feel like it’s our job to push them.  If there was noone pushing them from all different angles, there may not have been some of the wonderful major changes in the game.  If we didn’t provide emotional feedback, they might have completely missed out on our thoughts and feelings on the game that’s important to gamers like you and I.  In fact, I think it’s imperative that we provide this feedback…and even more in the open.  Because a joint effort from the community speaks louder than I voice.  It’s that reason, amoung others, that I outcry so bluntly.  It’s not that I’m a bad person, or I hate everything SOE… I hope those guys know how much I appreciate them, I do try to tell them on a constant basis…  But I also want them to succeed….overly succeed.  And that’s why it appears pretty harsh sometimes.

John….thank you for your e-mail, I really appreciated it and thanks for the opportunity to respond back..in public viewing.

To the rest of you, if you want to e-mail me with your comments or questions, or whatever, feel free to at eq2phrogger @ hotmail.com

Have a great weekend.

AJ ~   /lol

Phrogger’s Fizzlepop Fridays - 12/07/07

The sun rising over Jarsath Wastes - 12/07/07

Hey Hey Hey!   It’s that time of the week again.  It’s time for another installation of Phrogger’s Fizzlepop Fridays!  We’re stocking up on the eggnog for the holiday season.  Fortunately, I no longer have to stock up on Rough Fire Emeralds as I finally have all 26 Templar 70-80 spells Adept III and banked as I level to 80.  At 78, I took part in my first Maiden’s Chamber group last night.  An exciting level 77-80, but familar layout-type zone instance.  The named encounters are pretty innovative, but from the 5 named we killed in there, we saw 3 wooden chests…  very very uncool.  Again, no loot specific to Templar again…. in fact not one that I could even use.  This is getting so damn frustrating.  I know there’s set armor out there for me, and I am sure I’ll eventually obtain it, but to sit through an hour and a half and get nothing…nothing at all…   well it’s just a let down.

Nonetheless, I did gain a good bit of exp from the AA exp and the adventure exp gain, so all was fine.  To see some guildies I haven’t seen in a couple of weeks was great, conversation was a blast.  I came out with a good bit of debt too, as we just could not kill the last named in the zone.  It’s a really interesting zone, particualarly because it was my first time in there.  It reminded me so much of Obelisk castle and a good escape from the norm of solo questing.  I look forward to killing that guy at the end.  I wish I could remember his name…  not that I could spell it for ya.

There’s talk of Bellywhumpers…  Cover your eyes if you don’t want to read this..  But seems that there’s some talk that we need to max that faction in Fens with the Bellywhumper camp.  Specifically because there could be some connection with the faction camp there and Kurn’s Tower.  What’s even more speculative is that Kurn’s Tower could be an important zone playing into the Epics…that we have yet to know about.  Why’s it a big deal?  Well because currently, you have to really grind your ass off to max that specific faction (well most factions really).  Doing more than 40 faction writs will take you to max faction.  Downside, time investment and lack of knowledge if this speculation is true.  Upside.. it’s not crowded over there yet and you could go ahead and get it done with before it gets crowded, if it’s really going to be necessary for a portion of your Epic OR it’s required for Kurn’s Tower access.

Either way, it’s going to be something worth following over the next few months to see if these are connected in anyway.  And if they are going to decide to raise these faction reward status from +500 to +800-+1000 as most of the Jarsath Waste repeatables are a little higher per faction writ as Bellywhumper.  But..  we grind on.  Have a great weekend and stay safe… GL and Happy Hunting!

Everquest II - The End of PVP Locking!

 

 Chinese Plat Farmers rejoice in this new PVP Change

Want some REALLY juicy drama tonight, or even over the next few days?  Why don’t you log into an Everquest II PVP server, spend 20 minutes leveling up to level 10 and go grab a case of beer.  The (10-19) Chat Channel is going to very very crazy tonight, so make sure you get in early, before it fills up.

Why? , you ask?   PVP is taking a momumental change in the next couple of days as PVP kills will force you to gain experience from a kill, even if you have your adventure experience turned off.  Talk about a ton of crying babies over this.  And these people are not sane, they have no suttle way to conversate… so this is going to be an instant nuke to all of these people.  PVPers are going to be pissed!!

News of GU41 on test have been out about an hour, and there’s already a 7 page post about it here .  It’s only going to be worse as this hits the servers.  And to be honest, I’m watching from the sidelines giggling my ass off.  Simply because there’s some 10 yr old kid camped in the Peat Bog at level 12 whose only job in life is to ruin my 31 yr old life by finding out wherever I am and gutting me…. and he gets joy from it….  no he really does…   he humps me when I die…   Ok…  This is making me upset….  I’ll post more later     /grumbles  stupid f’in kid.

Everquest II GU41 out on Test - 12/06/07

 

From his home to yours, John Smedley would like to thank you for the success of Everquest 2: Rise of Kunark 

GU 41 is now live on test, and quite a bit of news coming from it.  From Frostfell to a signficant PVP change, as always…there’s a little drama following SOE around.  Read up on everything in the changes here .  Otherwise, continue on to see the meat of it.

Frostfell

That’s right, Frostfell is again here.  And again, like Halloween or whatever the hell name they made up for it, there’s no new event.  Same ole same… so the only thing you cannot forget to remember to do is visit the elf Gardy Giftgiver every day to get your reward  It changes everyday and last year he gave out a couple of music boxes that played the tunes from some of the old EQ1 zones..  Definately a must have if you are a dork…  I mean EQ1 lover and collector of house items.

Achievement Profile Saver Doohicky Thing

Apparently, the Achievement Profile saver is now coming into the game.  Though it doesn’t sound like it’s going to necessarily be as easy as it sounds like to aquire.  It’ll be interesting to find out exactly how it works, but what we do know is that only higher level crafters will be able to make the “no trade” item  (though commissioned for non-tradeskillers) and that you can store multiple profiles but only one per device, so….ya ……you can have multiple devices in your home.  So that will be pretty neat, assuming it’s not very hard to acquire the shards for it.

Casting Change —- Finally

It was so damn annoying to cast beneficial spells with a mob targeted and get the error message, but looks like they are going to change it.  Sure, it might be one less keystroke, but it will definetely reduce the annoyance factor and F1 and cast, rather than just casting with a mob targeted.

Lava Walkers Rejoice

Walking through lava (in most cases) will not be as deathly as it once was.  Though there seems to be some exceptions to the rule.  I guess you’ll never know if you don’t try it.  I remember playing Super Mario Bros and telling my little brother that if he jumped in the lava he’d get 10 free men….  jump in the lava in Norrath and received 10 free Plat!   It’s true It’s true!

Harvesting Change!

That’s right, we finally get something we want!  Harvesting while under attack will no longer interrupt and say you can’t harvest that while fighting.  I sure hope that also includes Shiny…  I know we’ve all been standing next to a shiny, unable to grab it because of the possibility of a MOB agro, and then kick yourself because you can’t get to it.  I am SOOO loving this change!

PVP….  Finally takes a reach around

I know this is going to completely blow up the PVP forums.  I know you guys are flaming right now, I am scared to even go to the forums right now.  Killing another player will ALWAYS…ALWAYS!…. reward experience now even if exp is disabled………..   WOW!   I may consider playing PVP again within the next 6 months now!

So not alot of meat involved in GU41, but some really small major changes with PVP and a couple of other things, really looks like most of this is pretty good.

Some small class changes and item tweaks are being made, and some changes to some small quests are also being made.  Again, you can see all the changes listed here
 

Cyberbullying and Everquest II

 I don’t think she appreciates the  comment either….. 

Something that’s creeping up on the Online community is the new communication technology to harm others virtually, simply being called Cyberbullying.  Now we’ve all either been a bully or been on the receiving end of it, probably on a constant basis, I know I have. 

Have I been on the end as a cybernerd being a victim of cyberbullying?  I’m sure I have.  I’ve also been on the other end of that spectrum.  You have some uneducated weirdo that goes on a tangent and completely loses his cool threatening you and promising to find out where you live to come “visit” you.  We’ve all seen this sometime in our online encounters.  It’s mainly become a nonexistent issue.  But more as of late, people are jumping on this bandwagon to monitor and stop it altogether, raising a new awareness of this issue.

As a very hardcore user of the online gaming industry, I welcome this initiative with open arms.  The ability to control someone’s use of words and actions simply cleans the airwaves and disgards the individuals that connect on a intelligent basis.  I’ve always been for that push and I sincerely hope that it presses on to monitor and control.  For my well being yes, but also for the future of my children.  Online predators is one issue, but when you also take into consideration the psychological result from online encounters these days, there has to be some sort of mediator involved to ensure a safe environment.

I bring this issue up because of the lack of Customer Service considering the “no rules” discussion chat channels in Everquest II.  The foul language and crude discussion topics that scroll through the lines of text is at some times jaw droppping, even for a rugby player as myself.  The calling of names, constant bashing of others, and the lack of tact is a small number of things that need to be monitored in the game.  SOE claims something as simple as /report will send a message for a GM to look into the issue further, but clearly, by simply looking at a chat channel on any day of the week, will simply see that this is not being done.  The lack of control only leads to a full blown anarchy-like environment with no fix in sight.

So I really hope the initiative to stop Cyberbullying continues and streches into the MMORPG market.  I would personally like some sort of control in my game and I would also like to have my children as safe and as free from negative online encounters as much as possible.

A Pregnant Faint Spell

I know we joke around alot of here on my blog.  It’s all mostly poking fun and exaggeration, I am sure most of you are aware of that.  Normally we talk about gaming, but I wanted to let you in a little on a peronal matter of ours here at our household.  Some unfortunate news over the last few days.  Well if you didn’t know, my wife is pregnant (30 weeks as of yesterday).  She’s due in early Febuary, and we are pretty excited about the noobie.  We have decided not to figure out the sex of the child, as to be a little surprised when we finally see it.  It’s been an experience so far, but last week, something dramatic happened that’s kinda changed our “happy go lucky” mentality. 

My wife works at a Christian Bible private school, where she works with the infant and 1 yr olds there.  She really enjoys getting out of the house a couple days a week, and the additional spending money…particularly here around christmas.  After a morning prayer, she had a faint spell and fell and hit her head.  After reviving, we decided to see a neurologist to access if any issues are arising.  The doctor said that he felt confident that everything was okay, but that he’s like to monitor her heart for a 24 hr period.  Well last week she did that and it takes about 3 or so days for the results to come back. 

This morning the doctor called her and said he’s like to discuss her results with her.  Normally, I’d assume if there was no issue, he would simply let her know everything was fine, but because he’s called her in specifically to discuss the results, I worry a little. 

So if you are a religious type, say a little prayer for my wife and ask God to assist us as we tackle on another notch in life.  It could simply be no issue at all, but we never know.

Thanks in advance and have a great day!

Everquest II, Life expectancy narrowing….

 

 John Smedley’s always into the latest Tennis Shoe fashions….

I just LOVE drama.  And there’s been plenty to go around at and against SOE studios.  From the rumor that Scott Hartsman will be leaving Sony Online Entertainment, to the issues that plaque the Everquest II servers, there’s more mud flinging here than at a Nicole Ritchie vs Paris Hilton cat fight.  Let’s put on our moonsuits and jump on in…  don’t mind the mess…..cause if you played Everquest II for any amount of time, you know it’s just part of the game.

Stability and overcrowding are destroying Everquest II’s most popular roleplaying server.  For almost a month now, players of the Antonia Bayle server have had to live with sporadic downtime, lag issues, rollbacks, zone hanging and a plethera of additional problems.  With no end in sight, the simple request from players to trasfer off the server has been falling on silent ears.  It’s a wonder anything gets done over at SOE studios besides Grimwell’s delivery of Donuts and Coffee to the corporate office.  How about some response on this?

Want a group to clean out some of your quests from the Rise of Kunark expansion?  Go play another game, because Everquest II is not your home for group play anymore.  Nooone wants to help you, unless they are on the exact same step as you are on a quest.  Sat in a guild group we threw together and for 30 minutes we sat there trying to decide on what quest we all had in common.    This quest oriented expansion is the most dissapointing pieces of junk I have ever seen.  The raid encounters are reported to be overly too easy, the loot is mediocre, and the storyline is more than nonexistent.  It’s amazing what millions of dollars of development kicks out….  You should have just bought Smedley another pair of goofy Tennis shoes and just called it a day.

Constant teasing of upcoming changes and mechanical implentation by SOE is now finally considered “The boy who cried wolf”.  Guild Housing and Arena updates…  Game Balance and mentoring fixes, there’s tons others.  And now the Epic Weapon introduction and AA switching item and ever so nonexistent, it’s a constant promise with no follow through.  It’s rediculously embarressing as a company to just flat out lie or mislead it’s playerbase to keep them hanging on by a string.  It’s been done for years now, and I’m personally glad to see more players starting to catch on to their tactics.
Quest rewards are all fubared, you probably have already heard this one.  ROK quest rewards are offering different rewards for different classes.  Which sounds like a great way to offer specific quest rewards tailored to each class.  Oh, but it of course didn’t end up that way.  In fact, the quest rewards that are supposed to be given to that specific class are actually doing it 180 degrees, meaning that the rewards are the opposite of what you want.  What’s even better is that SOE has done nothing to fix it, and we continue to level through it, with no upgrades with quest completions other than a few accessory items.  Way to tear it up SOE…  you guys continue to excel at your job   /sarcasm off   What a waste of time…especially considering you cannot go back and redo these quests.

Want to take that to another level?  Apparently this is a known issue to the development team and they plan on shutting us up by offering additional rewards from the faction merchants around ROK….  if you grind your faction that high…and we’ve already talked about the quest grinding issue, but if you REALLY want those items, you’ll grind and grind and grind….then hop over to another zone and grind and grind and grind those quests.  It’s a wonder I still give a hoot about this damn game. 

Have you finally turned back on your EQ2 combat music?  Remember the “excitement” that they had about the hard work they did to differentiate the combat music encounters?  Ya, I will not say anything too much about it.  Just go back and listen to it….  It’s nothing more than repetitive, stale music….basically the same crap we had originally.  Needless to say, just a letdown on every end.

Let’s see……  World of Warcraft moves over to even a more friendly solo quest based game, allowing you to EASILY level up to max level on a character to close the gap between level 1 and max level…..   Then……   Vangaurd implements this same idea……. and Then…..  here come Everquest II implementing the same ideals and mechanics.  Hey man, be innovative, do something against the curve.  People enjoyed playing your game because you WERE different.  You were doing things YOUR way, and now you are nothing more than a sheep following a herd who being shepherded (is that a word?) by Blizzard.  Not only are you following the herd, but you are following it with nothing more than ongoing problems and issues.  More and more, you are making a uniform MMORPG environment, and you don’t need that.  If that ever happens, and you become truly “WOWERIZED”, you will lose every bit of your playerbase because you are nothing more than a game like World of Warcraft, with bugs and issues that have never been fixed. 

You’re in-game Legends of Norrath spam messages are nothing more annoying than the little moron spamming his level 20 master for sell in the level 70 chat.  It’s one thing to generate revenue from your ad spam on your website, your launcher, and in Legends of Norrath, but it’s another to interrupt our gameplay with your spam in the game.  You are now nothing better than the plat spammers.  To be honest, I’d rather see their message of cheap plat, than to see your useless message about incorporating another GAME RUINING item reward that gives you GOD MODE for 2:00 minutes with a 2:30 cooldown on it.  Go spam someone else…

Where’s my Frickin’ Plate Armor!

I’m asking myself the same thing Cameron.  And even more to that, where’s the freekin’ Templar plate gear?  I want some crazy rediculous stuff… with lasers…   *pew pew*  Seems every quest reward is chain or leather healer gear.  Unfortunately, it seems that the only rewards I am keeping is the accessories…since I accessorize everything!  /hand flip  This forces me to further my quest to raid status so I can equip myself in something descent.  I don’t worry much about it, in fact, I have still yet to upgrade a spell besides my Character Trait Level 75 Master 2.  Don’t tell anyone would ya?  But amazingly, it’s still not affected my output or soloability (is that a word?) much.  I’ve still been able to solo pretty efficiently….well as good as a Templar can I guess.

This weekend brings me to the crossroads, whether I should go ahead and grind on up to 80 starting instances, or continue on my questing journey and close out the Kunark Jungle and progress into Jarsath Wastes.  The only think that really pushes me to instance grouping is the loot.  Because I know.. that if I continue to do these foul solo quests, there’s a damn good possibility that I will not find an armor upgrade at all.  Honestly, I do not think I have kept one quest reward in my armor slot as of yet, and I’ll level 77. That means that I’ve been going on the same “armor” gear since level 70….which is, without lack of a better word….>pretty damned crappy!

I’ve seen some of this UBER Tier 8 (T Templar Legendary Gear and I am really looking forward to getting my hands on it.  Will be very useful for me as I continue to progress my character into supreme domination of all other healers.

I just hope I don’t end up with goofy pants and a fat ass….what you think Adam?