Hi.
You may not know me, but I go by the name Ethic. I used to play MMOs and write about them here. Somewhere along the line, I found myself with just enough time to play games for a few hours a week with nothing much to say afterwards. Same old same old, know what I mean? Thankfully, some other folks keep things going around here when I’m not feeling “wordy”.
Over the years, I have seen my interests flit about from here to there and back. TV has taken up more of my free time with Lost, Fringe, 24, Castle, Big Bang Theory, Justified and my Farscape complete series DVDs. There are some really enjoyable TV shows out there lately. After I get caught up with my shows on the DVR, I turn my attention to the PC.
On Mondays, I spend 2 hours in Lord of the Rings Online participating in “Ales and Tales” on the Landroval server. It’s an event where folks get together in different locations each Monday to play music, tell tales and generally make merry. It is my first real attempt at participating in a role play event. So far I keep to myself and maybe /dance to a tune now and then but I am finding myself a little more comfortable with the idea and I am enjoying myself.
When my wife is available for some game time, we have been playing World of Warcraft together. She already has a level 80 hunter and we did the recruit-a-friend thing which resulted in my getting closer than ever before to capping out in WoW. She has a 75 priest and I have a 75 warlock. So close and yet to me each level seems to take forever. I guess when you play 1 hour a week it can seem that way. We’ll get there sooner or later. For me, hitting 80 feels like it will be the end, but for her she can’t wait because she really enjoys the PvP battlegrounds at level 80.
Then I caught word on twitter about Everquest 2 offering their own recruit-a-friend deal. I’ve always wanted to give EQ2 a proper try but since the initial launch I have hardly played it at all. I re-activated my account and then invited my wife to play. We started in Neriak and by level 10 my wife had lost interest and I was really hating on the visuals. We talked about it and agreed to give the game a little more time and so we recreated our characters in Qeynos which visually has made a huge difference for me, not to mention the graphic tweaks I tried out thanks to advice from Scopique on twitter.
Other than that I spent some time in Fallen Earth – which I still really like but for some reason can’t play for more than a week or two at a time. There is also a couple of beta tests that I got involved in, which always takes up time because it is exciting to get a sneak peek at things coming out down the road. This weekend I hope to have a new computer set up for my wife so she can play Everquest 2 without the poor performance she has been having on her current PC.
Honestly, this year feels like the quiet before the sTORm.
– Ethic
Woot! An Ethic post. Nice to see an update. =)
It’s not a bad year though. Sure, the excitement of a new game is great, but we’ve got some decent standbys to play currently.
I am looking forward to SW:TOR, but rather because I want to see how Bioware wants to tell stories in MMOs and if it will work out. I am not that enticed by the Star Wars universe after Lucas himself ruined it for me with the new trilogy, would rather like to see Dragon Age or Mass Effect inspired worlds.
My hopes are on Guild Wars 2. :)
Neriak is a nightmare. I made the mistake of moving my Necro there for the cheap 5-room house and there’s never a day passes but i wish she’d never left Freeport.
Having played EQ1 for a decade and EQ2 for five years before I ever played WoW, and having never played any other game in the Warcraft series, I find it hard to imagine why anyone would prefer Azeroth to Norrath. I expect, though, that like a lot of things it has as much to do with which you are introduced to first as it does the actual quality. WoW will stay a game I dip in and out of when there’s something new to look at, whereas any iteration of Everquest will almost certainly hold my attention indefinitely.
As for watching TV, I gave that up the first month I installed EQ back in 1999 and, god willing, I will never watch it again.
As for
If there is one thing I’ve learned about MMOs it is to not get my hopes up.
In between new MMOs and betas, I have consistently played Ultima Online since its own beta. I am and forever will be in love with that game. The community, the depth, skilled gameplay, and the world itself are far and above anything else I’ve ever experienced (save Shadowbane, RIP).