So, here is my third character, Three and Some, doing her thing. Must have done some missions before with people I don’t remember, but in this one I’m with some fellows called Drake Luxus and Stone Kain, a necro and a warrior, and another warrior. I really don’t remember his name, but I do remember him to be of the extremely annoying variety. Boasting about all the time. Drake and Stone don’t comment on his bellowing, which surprises me in retrospect. Well, Stone would not, but Drake certainly would.
This mission is about freeing some prisoners from a harsh place. We come as far as freeing them, it takes a lot of killing, and then Stone dies. The warrior runs along, and Drake follows him. The irritating warrior orders to let Stone lay where he is and to move on. Surprisingly both Drake and me do as he says. But then I think the better of it. Well instructed in team play by my daughter and player friendly as I am, I always carry a resurrection signet. So I return disobediently to Stone’s poor body and res him. Don’t know if he says ‘ thanks’. Let’s hope he did. Later on the warrior punk keeps asking Stone and Drake – not me, I’m afraid! – if they want to join his guild. It must be awesome, the way he boasts about it! Stone and Drake are not particularly interested. At some point Stone and the bugger are standing still together for a long time. I see some messages they exchange – should have been whispered ones – that give me the impression this stupid hunk is trying to sell something. Stone seems to be interested, at least, he does not run away. Sure sign of the trade maniac he is to become! Even then!
Drake and me are waiting. Drake a little less patient then me.
Drake: what’s up
Three: think they are trading
Drake: come on, bro! Haven’t got all day!
When they’re finally finished trading, we go along and bring this mission to an end. The warrior is still drooling about his guild, but at last he disappears to sell his stuff. Drake asks me if he can add me to his friends list, and Stone's as well. I happily agree and add them to my list too. From that moment on we do a lot together when we are on. Not just missions, or maybe even no missions at all. Quests, we do. All the little ones.
Drake is a funny guy. Lots of laughs – lol in GW language, as in msn, as I learn later on. There’s a lot of these abbreviations I gradually learn to decipher. Rofl is about laughing to, but a bit stronger: rolling on the floor laughing.
Then there’s rdy for ready, pple for people, omg means o my god (but I only lean that late in the game), and omfg (with f for fucking). And there’s that word I hate so much: Noob, meaning newbie. Its really insulting is someone calls you a noob. I always tell pple to skip the noob talk nowadays.
Cursing and three letter – or rather 4 letter – words are censured in GW. When you type ‘shit’, as I rather frequently do, you get ----. You can put the censuring out, but then you run the risk of being removed from the game. Big GW Brother is watching you. Now, is he really? At one time I witness some Dutchees, my countrymen, using abusive racist language in the local mode. But they do it in Dutch, so Big Brother won’t hear it. I warn them about it. They give me some blunt answer. But they disappear rather shortly after that.
I’m so angry about it that I ask both Stone and my nephew if it’s really true that people can be removed. They don’t seem to think it such a big deal.
Stone and Drake use the word bots a lot. ‘Take bots?’
Obviously they mean henches, but why call them bots? I ask them. They engage in a conversation for two bro’s, about the origin of bots. Turns out to be robots. First time I witness both of them being funny. Stone never says much. As Pret once put it, he is the strong silent type. Already in those days I play a lot, and late sometimes. Though not as much and as late as it's gonna get eventually.
Drake has a habit of playing in the morning, before work. He always calls me, which is nice. Do I want to join him for a quest? I do, of course. He’s waiting for me and he says we need Stone as well. He’s gonna call him. And Stone promises to be there. But it takes a long time. Meanwhile Drake is making himself comfortable, sitting on the ground and chatting. He makes himself a sandwich, he reports. Must have been that time that he asks me about my age. Don’t know how we came to that, but to my great embarrassment he does.
T: well, it’s a bit embarrassing
D: how come?
T: pple might not want to play with me anymore if they know
D: come on! You can tell me!
And I give in. I confess that I’m 52.
D: Cool!
D: A lot more pple of your age should be playing games
D: the world would be a better place then’
D: I’m 25
D; and Stone's 31
The remark about the world improvement puts me at ease again. So now I’ve told someone on GW my age. I have ‘about’ told Pret, but not exactly. He made some ironic remark about his own advanced stage in life, and I think he had was wondering if that would not put me off, being presumably much younger that him. He lets me guess about it . I get 3 guesses.
T: 30
P: >>
T: 40
P: Don’t be silly!
That puts me down. So guessing someone might be 40 is silly. That’s not very encouraging! So he’s somewhere between 30 and 40, and I say that makes me older than him. I don’t say how much older, the ‘don’t be silly’still ringing very clearly in my ears. So I did not really tell Pret. And now I’ve really told Drake. And no doubt he’ll tell Stone, cause they’re colleagues as well as friends. That much I know already. Don’t know in what line of work yet. That comes later.
Stone still has not arrived, so Drake calls him again.
D: he fell asleep again, the punk!
And since Drake is calling the shots, like it or not, Stone has to come out of his bed and play.
II do some quests with only one of them too. There’s a quest with Drake, where finding the way is very hard, even for a skilled pathfinder as he is. So we run about a lot, first to the right, then to the left. We come across a beautiful waterfall and Drake admires the view. GW is very well crafted.
D: makes you wanna jump!
T: well, I can push you if you like
D: lol
We die a few times, because there’s a lot of nasty scarabs and spiders. Since we’re not that high level yet, we have a lot of trouble fighting them. But patiently we start anew from the resurrection place, over and over again. This resurrection place is a long way back. Its really late – well, I thought it late then, my standards have changed a great deal since then.
D; sorry, have to go. The missus has come home
T: oh?
D: now you know the way at least, so you can finish it if you want
No way I could finish that on my own of course. I wonder about Drake having a missus. Married already at 25?
I remember a quest with Stone alone too. Not with Drake, that is. But with other pple. Some high levels, 20 or something. We do Galrath, which is a very hard one. It gets you 4000 Xp, which is a lot for a quest. A mission gets you 100 Xp and another 1000 if you make the bonus. Galrath is hard, first because it’s a very long way; second, because there’s so many foes.
The first part is through a swamp filled with undead monsters. Then you go to a cave, richly endowed with foes as well. Then you have to fight your way through hordes of minotaurs, and then there’s the hard part. Galrath himself is not such a big deal. A foe with little short arms. I know, because I did it once before with Ginger. Had a very good monk/warrior helping our party then. We all died and watched him fight in awe. Comments were like ‘now here’s a real warrior fighting!’. He made it for us.
But this time it’s more difficult than that. The way to Galrath is blocked by hard to kill bandits. We make it till we get there, but then the pain begins. All of us die, again and again. Every time you die, your health and energy get lower, so the chance for success diminishes equally. The max DP (death penalty) is 60%, and we all eventually get there, but we stubbornly start over and over again. The whole way through the cave again – no foes left in there, luckily – through the minoutaur area again, and on our way to little armed Galrath once more. It takes hours, but nobody quits.
t 4 o’clock in the morning we finally make it. Stone just runs along and does his duty. I don’t remember him saying anything in particular during this quest. But apparently he told Drake about it, because when I mention staying up late with Stone Drake knows. They see each other at work and they phone a lot.
There is another long quest I do alone with Stone one night. It’s the same I did with Drake, so I should have known the way. Stone evidently does not, because he goes to the right and keeps on going, even though I tell him its not right. We get lost. We are attacked by all kinds of monsters we did not have to meet at all.
I pick up something Stone likes to have. I readily agree to give it to him, but I don’t know how. Trade? ‘Drop it’, Stone says, in his own, not very elaborated way.
I obediently do as he says. Eventually Stone acknowledges the fact that the right way may not be the right way after all, so we try the left one. We actually find the right way. We get ambushed by a lot of spiders. So we die. And we give up. That must have one of the quests I never managed to finish.
Pret sells Three a sword he found in the underworld. For me it’s expensive, but I don’t think he asked more than 3 K. I spend more than that on weapons now, though 20K is the highest this far. The sword is a vampiric one, but weapon dumb as I am, I’m not aware of the meaning of that word. On some mission or quest my companions (not Stone or Drake) ask me why my health is dropping all the time. I can’t give them a satisfactory answer, because I wonder about that too. It’s only when I’m on a quest with henches, when my health is dropping even when I’m standing still and not fighting at all, that the true meaning of the word finally comes through. Vampric means stealing blood from enemies, but it steals my blood as well.
Drake advises me to switch weapons, and only use the sword when fighting. I try that, but find it very troublesome. After all, I’m still rather clumsy in the game, or so I think. So I’m glad when I finally get another sword, not vampiric.
While Three is finding her way to the top, I start a new char. A warrior. Lawoman is finally born.
counter
Tuesday, 4 November 2008
Thursday, 17 April 2008
Ginger Pet
So Me jane is no longer a citizen of Ascalon. Ginger Pet has taken her place. Still no Doors name. You won't be surprised to hear that she has reddish hair.
She's a necro. A necro is a char with dark powers. Poisonous green skills to suck your enemy's blood. No pet, but a necro has the power to transform the corpses she, or anyone else made into an army of monsters. The downside of this is that you're very busy keeping them alive, otherwise they collapse with a big blurb.
Ginger Pet does a lot better than poor Me Jane and reaches even the end goal, the much desired status of level 20. The Guildwars world turns out to be a lot bigger than expected. After the unhospitable Ascalon comes a winter's landscape. True, the snow is always there but so is the sun. After that a tropical rain forest an a desert.
By the time I make it to the desert I've found someone to chat with on a regular basis, Pret Aporter. He's not French, as his name would suggest, and he chats the way you would expect, considering his name. Monty Python like nonsense. I love it.
In the desert something called Ascension turns out to be a hurdle you just have to take. First there are three difficult missions to be done and after that your doppleganger awaits you. One of these missions, Thirsty River, turns out to be a big obstacle, for Pret too. We are waiting together for a new chance to do it, after some total wipes. A warrior has joined us, but apart from the 'hi' after joining no further warrior messages appear in the chatbox.
Pret: he's the lonely silent type, a true warrior
Pret: let's all hide behind him when the things get going and the things get rough!
I am recruiting, but I hate it so I ask Pret to take over.
Ginger: I don't like to be on top
Ginger: of the list
Which leads Pret to make some remark about his pants. Too tight all of a sudden?
Yeah, it's like you've suspected all along, there's a lot of flirting going on in online games. Even though you can never be sure that this sexy fighter is of the gender he of she claims to be. There's a lot of boys and men around with a female char. My nephew, for one, has a blonde babe, even called something with 'blonde' in it, just because girls are invited to join groups a lot more than boys. And it's materially profitable too, because he gets presents all the time.
Anyway, Pret and me are kidding around for some time, because Pret is not the quick inviter either, I gather. When we finally head out, we fail grandissisimo again. Pret is a master at dying, or so he claims.
When I finally make it, it's not with him. It must have been with some pple who know what they are doing at this one, because when you don't, you're doomed to fail. It requires a lot of patience, because the mobs respawn every two minutes. So if you don't wait for the right time to attack, you're facing a real bunch of them.
I have already done one of the other ascension missions. That one also has a timer. Mobs keep coming up while a NPC called the Guardian is doing a ritual, and he's taking hs time for that. In the meantime you get bombed as well. So you have to split up, some guarding the guardian, others going out a bit farther to kill mobs and possibly kill the big bomber worms, while a monk is doing his best to keep everybody's health up during the bombing. Every mission has bonus parts too, but I can't imagine how anyone ever manages to do the bonus of this one. It's hard enough as it is.
The third one, Elona Reach, I don't do myself and I never will, with any of my chars. Some missions you just hate and this is one. Some players earn their living by doing missions for other pple. So you hire them and you go along, but all you have to do is chill out at the starting point, until your human hench finshes his rounds. Some players are not comfortable just sitting there, so they want to get along after all, but those hired players hate that. It's just slowing them down.
In theory you could get to level 20 without ever doing any mission yourself. Apart from the last part of Ascension, of course. Nobody but you can fight your doppleganger. This doppleganger has the same skills as you so you have to outsmart him/her by taking just the right skills with you.
It's Gingers time for the final part of Ascension. She's had one try which did not last very long - in my view - and Pret comments that at least it had taken some time. I had been chatting with him all along, assuming he was somewhere very different from where I was and only then I notice he's been standing next to me all that time.
Pret announces he's going to consult the internet, see how it's to be done. With success, apparently, for when I hear from him again he's made it to the next part, Dragon's Lair. I follow his example and find out a necro should take skills with her which drain away health from yourself. My dopple will be using them and wear herself out, but of course I will not. Even so, it takes me some time before I find myself at the Dragons Lair too. A weird, icy cave, full of just ascended pple. Tingling sounds all around.
Finally I do that one too. You have to get throug a number of regions, each with his own kind of mobs and special effects. One of those is that you find yourself lying on the ground every time the earth shakes, unable to do anything for some time. It ends with a huge dragon, that gets very pissed by the idea you're there to steal her eggs. Slaying the dragon is the bonus, but it will take a long time before I can enjoy the fine sight of her lying on the ground with her legs up in the air.
So, Ginger Pet is doing better than Me Jane, but I'm still not very happy about her overall performance. Soloing isn't easy with her. My nephew offers to give me some training. According to him I should be able to slay at least six minotaurs on my own. I am not. He has a strong monk - at least that's what he says and I'm not pro enough yet to know if his monk really is any good. Well, the training did not help much. What I learned from it was that I don't like being watched while I'm trying to do something that's supposed to be easy. Too bad I did not remember that lesson long enough.
I don't delete Ginger, but I try a monk. Tried to call her Joan of Arc, or something like that, but that name was already in use in multiple variations. I don't remember what she was called instead. Something with sister. But it turns out I do not like monking at all. It's a heavy responsibility; team members tend to get cross when they think you're not doing your job well enough. So I delete Sister what's her name and create an elementalist instead. This kind of char uses fire bolts, or icy ones, or earthly means to knock the mobs down. I call her Three and Some, because I reckon I've had about three chars up till now.
(to be continued; see earlier posts for the parts before)
She's a necro. A necro is a char with dark powers. Poisonous green skills to suck your enemy's blood. No pet, but a necro has the power to transform the corpses she, or anyone else made into an army of monsters. The downside of this is that you're very busy keeping them alive, otherwise they collapse with a big blurb.
Ginger Pet does a lot better than poor Me Jane and reaches even the end goal, the much desired status of level 20. The Guildwars world turns out to be a lot bigger than expected. After the unhospitable Ascalon comes a winter's landscape. True, the snow is always there but so is the sun. After that a tropical rain forest an a desert.
By the time I make it to the desert I've found someone to chat with on a regular basis, Pret Aporter. He's not French, as his name would suggest, and he chats the way you would expect, considering his name. Monty Python like nonsense. I love it.
In the desert something called Ascension turns out to be a hurdle you just have to take. First there are three difficult missions to be done and after that your doppleganger awaits you. One of these missions, Thirsty River, turns out to be a big obstacle, for Pret too. We are waiting together for a new chance to do it, after some total wipes. A warrior has joined us, but apart from the 'hi' after joining no further warrior messages appear in the chatbox.
Pret: he's the lonely silent type, a true warrior
Pret: let's all hide behind him when the things get going and the things get rough!
I am recruiting, but I hate it so I ask Pret to take over.
Ginger: I don't like to be on top
Ginger: of the list
Which leads Pret to make some remark about his pants. Too tight all of a sudden?
Yeah, it's like you've suspected all along, there's a lot of flirting going on in online games. Even though you can never be sure that this sexy fighter is of the gender he of she claims to be. There's a lot of boys and men around with a female char. My nephew, for one, has a blonde babe, even called something with 'blonde' in it, just because girls are invited to join groups a lot more than boys. And it's materially profitable too, because he gets presents all the time.
Anyway, Pret and me are kidding around for some time, because Pret is not the quick inviter either, I gather. When we finally head out, we fail grandissisimo again. Pret is a master at dying, or so he claims.
When I finally make it, it's not with him. It must have been with some pple who know what they are doing at this one, because when you don't, you're doomed to fail. It requires a lot of patience, because the mobs respawn every two minutes. So if you don't wait for the right time to attack, you're facing a real bunch of them.
I have already done one of the other ascension missions. That one also has a timer. Mobs keep coming up while a NPC called the Guardian is doing a ritual, and he's taking hs time for that. In the meantime you get bombed as well. So you have to split up, some guarding the guardian, others going out a bit farther to kill mobs and possibly kill the big bomber worms, while a monk is doing his best to keep everybody's health up during the bombing. Every mission has bonus parts too, but I can't imagine how anyone ever manages to do the bonus of this one. It's hard enough as it is.
The third one, Elona Reach, I don't do myself and I never will, with any of my chars. Some missions you just hate and this is one. Some players earn their living by doing missions for other pple. So you hire them and you go along, but all you have to do is chill out at the starting point, until your human hench finshes his rounds. Some players are not comfortable just sitting there, so they want to get along after all, but those hired players hate that. It's just slowing them down.
In theory you could get to level 20 without ever doing any mission yourself. Apart from the last part of Ascension, of course. Nobody but you can fight your doppleganger. This doppleganger has the same skills as you so you have to outsmart him/her by taking just the right skills with you.
It's Gingers time for the final part of Ascension. She's had one try which did not last very long - in my view - and Pret comments that at least it had taken some time. I had been chatting with him all along, assuming he was somewhere very different from where I was and only then I notice he's been standing next to me all that time.
Pret announces he's going to consult the internet, see how it's to be done. With success, apparently, for when I hear from him again he's made it to the next part, Dragon's Lair. I follow his example and find out a necro should take skills with her which drain away health from yourself. My dopple will be using them and wear herself out, but of course I will not. Even so, it takes me some time before I find myself at the Dragons Lair too. A weird, icy cave, full of just ascended pple. Tingling sounds all around.
Finally I do that one too. You have to get throug a number of regions, each with his own kind of mobs and special effects. One of those is that you find yourself lying on the ground every time the earth shakes, unable to do anything for some time. It ends with a huge dragon, that gets very pissed by the idea you're there to steal her eggs. Slaying the dragon is the bonus, but it will take a long time before I can enjoy the fine sight of her lying on the ground with her legs up in the air.
So, Ginger Pet is doing better than Me Jane, but I'm still not very happy about her overall performance. Soloing isn't easy with her. My nephew offers to give me some training. According to him I should be able to slay at least six minotaurs on my own. I am not. He has a strong monk - at least that's what he says and I'm not pro enough yet to know if his monk really is any good. Well, the training did not help much. What I learned from it was that I don't like being watched while I'm trying to do something that's supposed to be easy. Too bad I did not remember that lesson long enough.
I don't delete Ginger, but I try a monk. Tried to call her Joan of Arc, or something like that, but that name was already in use in multiple variations. I don't remember what she was called instead. Something with sister. But it turns out I do not like monking at all. It's a heavy responsibility; team members tend to get cross when they think you're not doing your job well enough. So I delete Sister what's her name and create an elementalist instead. This kind of char uses fire bolts, or icy ones, or earthly means to knock the mobs down. I call her Three and Some, because I reckon I've had about three chars up till now.
(to be continued; see earlier posts for the parts before)
Saturday, 5 April 2008
Me Jane
My nephew was right. Guildwars is great! A lot more beautiful than any fantasy world the adventure games had to offerr. With an exception maybe, but just maybe, for Myst. But the Myst world is not fluid. You get from one screen to another. There's no total view. In Guildwars you can go anywhere. explore as much as you like.
What character should I make? There's a choice between a warrior, an elementalist, a mesmer, a monk, a ranger and a necromancer. I go for a ranger. Mostly because of the pet, frankly. I call her Me jane. That's right, Tarzan. So the Doors are not an option yet.
For the time being Me Jane leads a lonely life, because I'm not ready to join any group yet. The clumsiness I foresaw is undeniably there. To become a real, acknowledged as such ranger, I have to do a test for a ranger master. Kill about five worms, coming up out of the ground at irregular intervals, within a given amount of time. It takes me ages to accomplish this (really very simple) test. First to find this master, then to do the test. I don’t know yet that to target an enemy you can just use the tab key. Don’t have to click on it. So I move around like in a frenzy, and fail the test time after time. But eventually I do make it, with a little (well, a little!) help from my daughter. Lucky for me most quests don't have a time limit.
For a long time I choose to remain in the world my ranger was born into. My nephew is surprised to learn that at level 10 I'm still in pre-searing Ascalon . Level 6 or 7 is sufficient for the real job, it seems. When I finally cross the border I realize what pre-searing comes to. The real ascalon, the big world, is a nightmare. It's the same world, but a few years later. Hordes of Charr have invaded the country, completely destroying everything on their path. In what once was my lovely green birth ground now endless red deserts and grim rock formations stretch out as far as the eye can see. Spooky darkness reigns here, apart from the occasional smouldering fire. The sun is nowhere to be seen, hidden by a thick blanket of undoubtedly poisonous clouds of smoke. And it's very dangerous here. Just as well I'm level 10, or I would not have dared to take one step out of town. Lucky for me again there's some more help available than just my pet. There are henches for rent. NPC's - non playing chars - with the same classes as normal players. They don't cost anything, but they share in your loot. And you get less XP (experience) with them around.
Me Jane does not mind, because she's still roaming about on her own. Clumsiness has diminished a bit now, but not enough yet to join a real group. So she's happily leveling, untill she discovers, to her great dismay, the phenomenon of missions. You can't do missions on your own, or with henches. You really need a group for those, if only because otherwise you'd have no clue about where you should be heading. Finding your way with quests is no problem, because of the little arrow the game designers provide on your mini map. No such arrows with missions, though. Of course there will always be players who know where to go, because they did that mission before or checked the internet. Alas for me, all my Guildwars ànd WoW life I'm doomed to remain a very bad pathfinder, so I really need other pple's skills for this.
Apart from the problem of directions missions are just too hard to do with henches. And you need those missions to get to new areas. Or you could walk there, but that would be very hazardous (although there are players who earn their living by running for pple). One more thing, missions provide a lot more XP than quests do.
So Me Jane certainly has a problem. To be frank, she already had a problem, because she's wiped rather easily. Rangers wear leather and that may look cool, but it does not offer much protection, And Me Jane's bow does not exactly impress me wih the amount of damage it does. So Me Jane has to go.
(to be continued)
What character should I make? There's a choice between a warrior, an elementalist, a mesmer, a monk, a ranger and a necromancer. I go for a ranger. Mostly because of the pet, frankly. I call her Me jane. That's right, Tarzan. So the Doors are not an option yet.
For the time being Me Jane leads a lonely life, because I'm not ready to join any group yet. The clumsiness I foresaw is undeniably there. To become a real, acknowledged as such ranger, I have to do a test for a ranger master. Kill about five worms, coming up out of the ground at irregular intervals, within a given amount of time. It takes me ages to accomplish this (really very simple) test. First to find this master, then to do the test. I don’t know yet that to target an enemy you can just use the tab key. Don’t have to click on it. So I move around like in a frenzy, and fail the test time after time. But eventually I do make it, with a little (well, a little!) help from my daughter. Lucky for me most quests don't have a time limit.
For a long time I choose to remain in the world my ranger was born into. My nephew is surprised to learn that at level 10 I'm still in pre-searing Ascalon . Level 6 or 7 is sufficient for the real job, it seems. When I finally cross the border I realize what pre-searing comes to. The real ascalon, the big world, is a nightmare. It's the same world, but a few years later. Hordes of Charr have invaded the country, completely destroying everything on their path. In what once was my lovely green birth ground now endless red deserts and grim rock formations stretch out as far as the eye can see. Spooky darkness reigns here, apart from the occasional smouldering fire. The sun is nowhere to be seen, hidden by a thick blanket of undoubtedly poisonous clouds of smoke. And it's very dangerous here. Just as well I'm level 10, or I would not have dared to take one step out of town. Lucky for me again there's some more help available than just my pet. There are henches for rent. NPC's - non playing chars - with the same classes as normal players. They don't cost anything, but they share in your loot. And you get less XP (experience) with them around.
Me Jane does not mind, because she's still roaming about on her own. Clumsiness has diminished a bit now, but not enough yet to join a real group. So she's happily leveling, untill she discovers, to her great dismay, the phenomenon of missions. You can't do missions on your own, or with henches. You really need a group for those, if only because otherwise you'd have no clue about where you should be heading. Finding your way with quests is no problem, because of the little arrow the game designers provide on your mini map. No such arrows with missions, though. Of course there will always be players who know where to go, because they did that mission before or checked the internet. Alas for me, all my Guildwars ànd WoW life I'm doomed to remain a very bad pathfinder, so I really need other pple's skills for this.
Apart from the problem of directions missions are just too hard to do with henches. And you need those missions to get to new areas. Or you could walk there, but that would be very hazardous (although there are players who earn their living by running for pple). One more thing, missions provide a lot more XP than quests do.
So Me Jane certainly has a problem. To be frank, she already had a problem, because she's wiped rather easily. Rangers wear leather and that may look cool, but it does not offer much protection, And Me Jane's bow does not exactly impress me wih the amount of damage it does. So Me Jane has to go.
(to be continued)
Saturday, 22 March 2008
Game addiction: Life after WoW
I am La, short for La Woman from that great Doors song.
I was La for the last 2 years, well, a bit less for the last couple of months, but not that much less. As for one there is the fact that every game I tried in my fanatic quest for a suitable replacement for WoW invariably got a main char with the same name. And whenever a site or programm requests a username, likewise invariably 'lawoman' appears in the appropriate bar. It makes one wonder, yes, it surely does. But it's also highly practical. I never get the annoying message 'this username already exists'. Lawoman is unique. My game friend Drake thinks it's a great name. So great, in fact, that he even advised me to delete my druid Lawoman, who never got further than level 66 because I got bored with her, and start a new char with that name. I did not feel like it. My hunter, who got to 70 in no time, was simply called Lawomen and that was just as fine with me.
She ceased to exist. As did my druid. As did all my other chars.
They all had Doors related names. Immaculate, my level 40 warlock. I would rather have called her StonedImmaculate, but that name was not available. So there were some other Doors fans around in WoW after all!
Azureforest, my horde hunter, after the forest of Azure in 'The Wasp'. Shamansblues, a warrior, a char I wanted to try out because I wondered why each and every warrior is so mighty arrogant. At least, that's what I told my WoW mates. And it certainly was one of the reasons I created a warrior, but not the only one. I also wondered if I would be able to play one. Or rather, a tank. Most warriors are tanks, and tanks are what it's all about in a team. You can run a dungeon with whatever players you like, but it will be near to impossible to make it without a tank. And a healer of course. Healers are very much wanted too.
I had not joined any group as a warrior yet and I had my doubts if I'd ever be actually ready to do so, but at last I don't need to worry about that anymore. Shamansblues shared the fate of Lawoman, Lawomen, Immaculate and Azureforest. And Idolseye, let's not forget her. Another hunter. I really had a thing with hunters. Shooting from a safe distance, while your pet is doing the dirty work. And you're only responsible for your own deeds. As long as you follow the orders of the tank, no reproach from team members will be made. When everybody acts like that, a team is a smooth machine. It feels like being in a flow, much like a double in badminton, when strategy ensures that your partner will always be where you expect him (or her). You don't even have to look.
I miss that. I miss all of woW. It looks spectacular. You're part of a real society. it's absolutely far more 'second life' than the world by that name. And that's exactly why I abruptly ended my life in that world, a couple of weeks ago. I woke up with a voice in my head, telling me to stop NOW, and that's what I did. I winded up my affairs neatly. Sold all my char's possessions, including their gear. There will have been lots of pple that day wondering why there were so many women running around naked in Stormwind. All my gold was mailed to Drake. I told him why I stopped playing WoW. He said he got it, but I doubt he really did. Otherwise he would not have suggested to play Guildwars together again . Guildwars is much like WoW, but not as great. No way!
I stopped my payment to Blizzard. Then I deleted my account. Blizzard wanted to know why. Much to my surprise there was an option 'I play too much'. WoW is a great game, but a bit too great for me''. was my epitaph. And then came the final step. The hardest one, but very quickly done. My daugther Dewi approvingly watched me clicking 'uninstall'. It took my pc 5 seconds to get rid of something that took about 5 hours to get there.
We ate out that evening, to celebrate. Everybody was happy. Me too. I felt very strong and I was very proud of myself. I still do, but even so, I do miss WoW. Almost immediately I started looking for an alternative. An off-line alternative. Because what got me hooked was the on-line character of WoW. At least, that's what I think. I've been gaming for a long time. Mostly adventures, the classical ones, with loads of puzzles to solve. Although my patience tended to run out fast when I could not find the solution quick enough. The discovery that internet, besides all those other goodies, had also walkthroughs to offer saved my a lot of money, because before that I often ended up bying a walkthrough book when desperate.
For me, the most appealing part of adventures was what i called the 'gaping effect'. Adventures mostly look terrific, you can go anywhere you like, try out anything you want.
For a while I played the Sims too, but mostly not for a long time. Creating complicated relationships between chars - like two man and one woman, or the other way around - and see how long they could last was what I enjoyed most in that game, but I got bored easily wih that.
I did not have that much experience with RPG's (role playing games). There was this very old game, so old I don't even remember the name anymore. And Diablo II was so much to my liking, that I actually bought extra Ram to make it run more smoothly. Never finished it though, the foes in the end game proved to be too strong, in spite of the loads of health potions I brought with me.
Now that I think about it, my experience with RPG's turns out better than I thought after all. A sales-man in a game shop suggested Half Life when I was looking for a game, comparable with Diablo. I was not that pleased when he automatically assumed the game was meant for someone else. Middle aged women clearly don't belong to the target group.
Now this middle aged woman admittedly had some difficulty moving around in the game. Left and right, and forwards and backwards, well, I managed to do that, but jumping! My daughter had to save me from precarious situations on a fairly regular basis.
The last game I played before I immersed in the wonderful world of online gaming was Vampire Bllodlines. Not bad, not bad at all. But when you finished it a couple of times with different chars, you're really ready for something else. And exactly on that moment my nephew told me he had discovered a great new game called Guildwars. He was very enthusiastic about it. First he thought the world you start the game in is was all there was, but then he found that was just a small part of it. 'You'll really like it', he cheered. It took me some time to get over my doubts. An online game! Diablo could be played online too, but I'd never dared to do that. I was sure my pc clumsiness would seriously show. But I ended up buying it anyway. And I was hooked. My second life had begun. Or my second?
(will be continued)
I was La for the last 2 years, well, a bit less for the last couple of months, but not that much less. As for one there is the fact that every game I tried in my fanatic quest for a suitable replacement for WoW invariably got a main char with the same name. And whenever a site or programm requests a username, likewise invariably 'lawoman' appears in the appropriate bar. It makes one wonder, yes, it surely does. But it's also highly practical. I never get the annoying message 'this username already exists'. Lawoman is unique. My game friend Drake thinks it's a great name. So great, in fact, that he even advised me to delete my druid Lawoman, who never got further than level 66 because I got bored with her, and start a new char with that name. I did not feel like it. My hunter, who got to 70 in no time, was simply called Lawomen and that was just as fine with me.
She ceased to exist. As did my druid. As did all my other chars.
They all had Doors related names. Immaculate, my level 40 warlock. I would rather have called her StonedImmaculate, but that name was not available. So there were some other Doors fans around in WoW after all!
Azureforest, my horde hunter, after the forest of Azure in 'The Wasp'. Shamansblues, a warrior, a char I wanted to try out because I wondered why each and every warrior is so mighty arrogant. At least, that's what I told my WoW mates. And it certainly was one of the reasons I created a warrior, but not the only one. I also wondered if I would be able to play one. Or rather, a tank. Most warriors are tanks, and tanks are what it's all about in a team. You can run a dungeon with whatever players you like, but it will be near to impossible to make it without a tank. And a healer of course. Healers are very much wanted too.
I had not joined any group as a warrior yet and I had my doubts if I'd ever be actually ready to do so, but at last I don't need to worry about that anymore. Shamansblues shared the fate of Lawoman, Lawomen, Immaculate and Azureforest. And Idolseye, let's not forget her. Another hunter. I really had a thing with hunters. Shooting from a safe distance, while your pet is doing the dirty work. And you're only responsible for your own deeds. As long as you follow the orders of the tank, no reproach from team members will be made. When everybody acts like that, a team is a smooth machine. It feels like being in a flow, much like a double in badminton, when strategy ensures that your partner will always be where you expect him (or her). You don't even have to look.
I miss that. I miss all of woW. It looks spectacular. You're part of a real society. it's absolutely far more 'second life' than the world by that name. And that's exactly why I abruptly ended my life in that world, a couple of weeks ago. I woke up with a voice in my head, telling me to stop NOW, and that's what I did. I winded up my affairs neatly. Sold all my char's possessions, including their gear. There will have been lots of pple that day wondering why there were so many women running around naked in Stormwind. All my gold was mailed to Drake. I told him why I stopped playing WoW. He said he got it, but I doubt he really did. Otherwise he would not have suggested to play Guildwars together again . Guildwars is much like WoW, but not as great. No way!
I stopped my payment to Blizzard. Then I deleted my account. Blizzard wanted to know why. Much to my surprise there was an option 'I play too much'. WoW is a great game, but a bit too great for me''. was my epitaph. And then came the final step. The hardest one, but very quickly done. My daugther Dewi approvingly watched me clicking 'uninstall'. It took my pc 5 seconds to get rid of something that took about 5 hours to get there.
We ate out that evening, to celebrate. Everybody was happy. Me too. I felt very strong and I was very proud of myself. I still do, but even so, I do miss WoW. Almost immediately I started looking for an alternative. An off-line alternative. Because what got me hooked was the on-line character of WoW. At least, that's what I think. I've been gaming for a long time. Mostly adventures, the classical ones, with loads of puzzles to solve. Although my patience tended to run out fast when I could not find the solution quick enough. The discovery that internet, besides all those other goodies, had also walkthroughs to offer saved my a lot of money, because before that I often ended up bying a walkthrough book when desperate.
For me, the most appealing part of adventures was what i called the 'gaping effect'. Adventures mostly look terrific, you can go anywhere you like, try out anything you want.
For a while I played the Sims too, but mostly not for a long time. Creating complicated relationships between chars - like two man and one woman, or the other way around - and see how long they could last was what I enjoyed most in that game, but I got bored easily wih that.
I did not have that much experience with RPG's (role playing games). There was this very old game, so old I don't even remember the name anymore. And Diablo II was so much to my liking, that I actually bought extra Ram to make it run more smoothly. Never finished it though, the foes in the end game proved to be too strong, in spite of the loads of health potions I brought with me.
Now that I think about it, my experience with RPG's turns out better than I thought after all. A sales-man in a game shop suggested Half Life when I was looking for a game, comparable with Diablo. I was not that pleased when he automatically assumed the game was meant for someone else. Middle aged women clearly don't belong to the target group.
Now this middle aged woman admittedly had some difficulty moving around in the game. Left and right, and forwards and backwards, well, I managed to do that, but jumping! My daughter had to save me from precarious situations on a fairly regular basis.
The last game I played before I immersed in the wonderful world of online gaming was Vampire Bllodlines. Not bad, not bad at all. But when you finished it a couple of times with different chars, you're really ready for something else. And exactly on that moment my nephew told me he had discovered a great new game called Guildwars. He was very enthusiastic about it. First he thought the world you start the game in is was all there was, but then he found that was just a small part of it. 'You'll really like it', he cheered. It took me some time to get over my doubts. An online game! Diablo could be played online too, but I'd never dared to do that. I was sure my pc clumsiness would seriously show. But I ended up buying it anyway. And I was hooked. My second life had begun. Or my second?
(will be continued)
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