Getting what you ask for

I continue to prefer doing bgs on my horde character instead of leveling during my Questing through Vanishing Azeroth experience.

I always get pumped from being able to contribute in a bg when I'm on the lower end of the bracket. But being on the high end means you get to participate more than just being a free hk. So when I hit the max for the bracket I'm in I decided to go visit the Slahtz "Experience Eliminator".

Easter Egg side note, the horde EE's name is Slahtz, while the Alliance EE's name is Behsten. Behsten Slahtz (Best in Slots). They both wear level 19 twink gear and are level 19 themselves. They whisper things about wanting twink gear (Lucky Fishing Hat) and losing twink enchants (Nethercleft Leg Armor). I assume after players noticed his hp didn't match a twinks his health was buffed to 1100 with the recent patch. No detail overlooked by Blizzard!

I quickly realized how it feels to be gold poor again as the fee to turn off XP gains was 10 gold. A mere pittance for my Alliance characters, but a large percentage of my lone Horde character's gold. But I chucked the gold pieces to Slahtz and rejoined the queues. I went about my normal activities while in queue, and didn't really pay attention at first that I wasn't getting queued up. Queues in lower brackets usually don't go past 10 minutes and are usually around 1 minute or so.

I knew there had been a patch so I searched to see if something was going on with it. Turns out hardly anyone is queuing up for the non-xp bgs!


Cynwise writes "The only twinks in the upper brackets are now ex-twinks. I sat for hours in queue with my experience frozen and never played a game once 3.2 hit. With XP gains on, I play in under a minute. The queue times speak louder than anything I could write. If you want to twink in the 50s or 60s, you won’t play."


So either twinks don't like playing with just other twinks (as they cried loudly about in the past). Or there really isn't as many twinks around as it seemed.

Now if a twink comes into a XP bg, they can still rip through non-twinks but they risk leveling out of their bracket. I can't imagine anyone is going to bother twinking much if they can't get a bg or if the bgs they get level them out of their twink gear.

The weird part is heirlooms give players the same advantage original twinks had. And not everyone has access to them, at least not until leveling one character to max. It's like Blizzard encourages twinks with one hand and discourages them with the other.

The whole thing has left me with mixed feelings. I have actually been enjoying pvping around the levels there isn't such a great gear or spell availability disparity. I'm the last person who would want to turn off XP but there I was actually wanting to freeze a moment in time.

The queues are so bad for non-XP bgs that it isn't an option for me. At this very moment I like pvping more than question so not being able to pvp doesn't work. I don't need to be able to level in BGs but it was nice to be able to do so. I heard at upper levels in AV you really could fly through some levels, but I heard they nerfed it.

I paid yet another 10 gold to turn XP back on and immediately got into a bg. Oh well.

I didn't expect that!

Over at Nils blog he discussed the advantages and disadvantages of predictability in dungeons.

I immediately disagreed that unpredictable dungeons would be fun, because I feel the X factor is not the dungeon itself but the raiders.

Why is it when the boss strategies are published not soon after a first kill doesn't everybody zone in and proceed to win?

I thought about it some more and thought if I had unlimited time, then yes of course unpredictability would be fun.

But my reality is I have a limited amount of time that I can and want to raid each week. And if extra time has to be spent strategizing, well to be honest only a few raiders actually do that.

And unfortunately I cannot say there is room for both. Blizzard seems to have trouble creating new dungeons at the rate players want them.

Another Aion Review Review

I still haven't gotten around to purchasing the game. Gotta find it first.

This comes courtesy of Cuppycake at Cuppy Talk
Graphics: A
Immersiveness: A
Quest storylines: B
Character models: A
Animations: C
Performance: A
Polish: A-
Sound: B+
Combat: C+

A lot of "A" grades! That's good right??? Uh oh "C+" for combat. I remember Lord of the Rings Online's combat never feeling quite right. It affected how much I wanted to play the game.

Let's go down the list. "A" for graphics. From what I've seen in screenshots I'd agree, I can only imagine it will look even better when I actually see it for myself.

"A" for immersiveness. I'm not sure what Cuppy means when she says this. I like feeling I'm in another world. So if it gets an A that'll work.

"B" quest story lines. Sometimes I read quests, sometimes I don't. I always say I'm going to read every one, but usually end up skipping through the text. So if its a B I'm sure that's good enough for me.

"A" character models. I was about to say doesn't that fall under graphics. But City of Heroes has great character models, but graphics overall are used over and over again.

"C" animations. Hmm wonder what she didn't care for with the animations. If its jarring enough, it could affect my gameplay.

"A" performance. You don't want anything less than an A here, no matter how you describe it.

"A-" polish. That'll do as well.

"B+" sound. That's okay, how many people listen to chat or their own music anyway?

"C+" combat. This really concerns me, and I'm suprised it was listed last. Although she didn't say how she ordered the list if she ordered it at all.

If something is amiss with combat I can't imagine playing for very long. Because unless you choose a game to just socialize or craft, combat is what you spend your time doing.

Interesting how a game can have so many good points, but one bad point can potentially ruin it.

I really need to get the game so I can see for myself.

Blog list

As I change blog themes now and then (How blah is this current one?) I inadvertenly lose my blog links. I've been slowly re-adding ones I like. I especially prefer ones that are updated regularly.

Am I the only ones that go back to old blogs just to see if the blogger came back to blog or play wow. I used to check /afk for a long time before finally giving it up. But I quit checking Out of Mana and suddenly out of the blue it was active again. I think the blogger disappeared again. I gave up on checking Mystic Worlds quickly after she said goodbye, but I've found she's guest blogging elsewhere. Hogit had a habit of posting about once a year, so I never am sure he's really gone or not.

I was debating about having a blog list, because by always checking my regular ones, I miss out on seeking out new ones. I'm always suprised to come across some that have been around for a while.

My Aion Review Review

I don't have a copy of Aion yet (see previous post). But I think it is interesting how much your idea of what a game is can be shaped by reviews. I haven't even tried it yet, not even in a beta (or as one blogger describes open betas - "prepaid release") but I've gone up and down on whether I think I'll like this game or not.

So this is my review of Aion based on other's reviews or lack of:

1) Flight. This concerns me, as I mentioned before, exactly why is being able to get wings and fly such a selling point for this game?

I've been able to fly as far back as City of Heroes. And WoW has allowed us to fly as far back as Burning Crusade. And with both, yes it made a huge difference when you had to start out crawling across the landscape. But for me in both games, I eventually enjoyed participating in things where I didn't have to travel to them at all (AE in City of Heroes allowed me to do various missions from one entry point, and in WoW if I decide to just raid or PvP I don't really have to travel for that either.)

So I'm sorry flying is not enough to make me want to play Aion. I'm not sure who this is appealing to as a selling point - angel cosplay?

2) Age of Conan curse. Why aren't we hearing anything about endgame. Or forget endgame, why am I not hearing anything past level 10? Is it going to be Tortage all over again? Where after you get done with the instanced tutorial you uninstall the game? Or like Warhammer Online when you find the very thing you purchased the game, spent your time leveling for (RvR) is a flop?

3) It's like WoW in the beginning. This is one of the reasons why I'll purchase Aion. No I don't want a WoW clone, but I want a game to pull me in again. I know I'm setting myself up for disappointment. But I'm willing to take the risk.

4) It looks great. This is a see-saw selling point for me. WoW proved a game doesn't have to look all that great to be good. But after installing EQ2 again, I really was amazed at how awesome a game can look. At some point new players are going to try out WoW and wonder how us old folks enjoyed such outdated graphics.

5) What does Aion have? Where's the beef?!? This is where my review review falls flat. But don't blame me! I haven't read much about exactly what Aion has and what players are enjoying.

Guess I'll have to go get that copy.

The Gods say No

Initially I wasn't interested in Aion when a guildmate mentioned it around the beginning of the year. WoW was holding my interest well enough. Later I knew I wanted to try it. But WoW malaise clouded my feelings. Finally I decided to give it a go and I stopped by Gamestop to see if I could get a copy of Aion. They were sold out. The Gods decided for me, for now.

If I hadn't read throughout the blogosphere about horrible queues, so much so massively.com wrote a guide on how to survive it, I would have had a more dogged persistence to track a copy down from other stores.

Surprisingly when I logged on to WoW later, I wasn't met with a queue, but with lag. It was patch day, but usually the only delay is installing the patch. This time it took a while to log in and the lag was bad once you made it in. I went ahead and managed to do a few brewfest repeatables. Unless I'm missing something there aren't many ways to get tokens each day, so luckily brewfest is going for two weeks or so.

I don't even know what I'm expecting from Aion. Someone wrote it's like playing WoW for the first time. If that is at all true I want to give it a try. My expectations are low. Lord of the Rings Online, Warhammer Online, Champions Online, none of them grabbed me from the get-go. I have a feeling Age of Conan might have, I've read several times its 1-20 was great. But I think I was concerned my computer couldn't run it at the time. I have a better computer now. So maybe if Aion could give me that feeling even for just a few levels, I'd be happy with my purchase. That's pretty low expections.

Comment over at Spooncraft

"The biggest argument I always hear is “I cant ever leave WoW, not after the 180 days /played time I have invested on my toon”. I used to think the same way, but there comes a time when you realize that every hour in WoW you spend bored, running around in circles on your mount in Dalaran reading chat, is an hour you have wasted and could have spent discovering antoher game. When you look at it that way, your “invested” 180 days mean nothing, its just a counter of a game you used to enjoy a whole lot more. Its like refusing to sell your old car for a new model, because youve got 150000 miles on your old car."

Blog apathy

I think my previous post may have been my worst ever. I had an idea of what I wanted to blog about but it fell flat in my personal opinion. And I have no desire to flesh it out. Meh.

Pirate Days came and went. You flew down to Booty Bay, talked to someone and got and achievement. Achievement apathy.

Speaking of achievements. Brewfest has come back around. I missed getting it done last year and it is the last of the events I need for "Long Strange Trip."

Since I managed to snag a 310% mount back in the spring, the reward isn't all that impressive. But as someone who has played on and off since launch, I wanted to add this to my list of "been there, done that, got the achievement".

If I manage to get this done, I think I finally will be done with overarching achievements. Instead of having fun playing WoW and doing the world events in a lighthearted way, I felt tethered to the game, even more than the usual addictiveness.

I had already given up on chasing raiding achievements. Because obviously it relies on the raid team as a whole. I have my own apathy, having to put up with others' apathy as well and expecting that some how, some way, we're going to accomplish anything is asking too much.

So...before I played the game without achievements, then achievements were introduced and I played them for achievements and now getting the achievements aren't as much fun anymore.

I realized by "pvping" so much on my horde character I'm not even questing through Azeroth as much as I meant to. I'm starting to say to myself, if Cataclysm removes things I'd never witnessed or been a part of...so what?

And now I can just switch one of my higher level characters to horde if I really wanted to see what some of near end-game would be like. But since everyone can, I don't really think things would be any different at all. Meh.

And this feeling I have is restricting me from even trying Aion. Sure it could be fun for the first 10 levels. But I'm starting to wonder, seriously, what could any new MMO offer that we haven't already seen. What could they possibly do better, do so much better that you feel you're getting a new experience?

Does a game really want to be successful not because its at its core extremely good, but that its a shinier face on the same-ole-same-ole you're trying to leave behind?

Yikes this post is emo.

Raid Apathy

Oh wikipedia, you have everything! This graph does a good job of explaining how I feel during raids.



For Wrath I decided to get back into raiding behind the curve. My guild was already in Naxx and I was new to the guild on top of that. Overall the challenge level was in the middle (many will say the challenge level was nil) and my skill level (read armor into as well) was low. So yes I worried about how I'd do.

We moved on to Malygos and Sarth, and not to mention achievements like undying and immortal so I moved into the anxious territory.

When the guild went into a meltdown I moved over to a new guild. They were around the same progression as my previous guild, but overall they weren't as good. So suddenly I could, but didn't have to perform as well. I think this would fall into the Arousal area.

But eventually we kept doing the same stuff, not really moving forward or being capable of doing hardmodes to reach new stuff. So we never reached the Flow level. We were at Control mode, which is as much fun as this graph would make it seem.

The only thing I don't agree with is Relaxation, Boredom and Apathy.

When my skill and gear outgrow a dungeon, I move from boredom to apathy. But it looks like I should be moving over to the Relaxation phase.

When skill is high and challenge is low, I'd rather not be there at all.

Blog overlap

A break from after hours work for me and break in the various other social activities of my friends coincided so that we could finally play Champions Online together.

As I've played mmorpgs overall longer than they have (one of them introduced me to them) and more variety, their excitement exceeded mine and I envied the fun they were having. Because I attribute it to not playing them as much as I have. We plan on playing together for short periods each week. While I'm not having that much fun with the game itself, I do enjoy playing with friends. I just hope higher levels of CO start to get more interesting.

The blog overlap I mention in the post title is based on the fact I thought it was a coincidence that I was about to make a post about pvp twinking when Tobold and We Fly Spit Fires did the same thing. Of course its not such a coincidence when you factor in we've all decided to level new alts due to WoW's Cataclysm announcement of the removal of old content.

While questing is just fine for me, traveling to quest bores me quite often (even with my mount and copious flight paths). I can enter a battleground from anywhere so that's what I've been doing usually when I log on. I am not waiting until i hit max level for a particular battleground, so I spend most of my time underleveled for it. But I've found I only really only get pwned by players with heirloom items and spell/attack advantage (warlocks I'll have cleanse one day!)

First let me say I don't have a problem with twinking. I don't have access to heirlooms hordeside but I can purchase nice blue and epic items for my level. However since I'm not a greedy goblin with maxed cap gold, there is a limit to what want and am willing to purchase for a character who will outgrow it.

I still think it would be a neat idea to do like Warhammer Online and make everyone max cap for whatever battleground you're in. You'd still have the gear gap but maybe things wouldn't be so lopsided.

The problem is you can never balance things. It's obvious from even the lowly 10-19 bracket. If level isn't what separates players its gear (and professions). If it isn't gear its class. The classes you find in 10-19 are rogues and hunters. Both get benefits at their level that other classes don't. The only way you can create true balance is to make everyone the same class with the same gear, oh! and same faction.

Can you imagine a battleground full of nothing but one class?

To comment on later

Gamers or Raiders

Good question

Friday the Greedy Goblin asked "Why are you playing Now?

GG goes on to say there are things he enjoys in WoW and other things he does not (mostly to play with his GGf). On the latter he writes: "I guess we wasted lot of time of our life with boring and not fulfilling activity because of the ape subroutines in our head. This must change. The activity must be fulfilling for itself, and not because of the people we do together."

I've found myself several times doing thing in WoW not necessarily because I've enjoyed them but because of routine. I think raiding is the biggest culprit. I've raided many hours in the past not because I really wanted to but because as a healer there is usually a group looking for one. Never mind how few times the show has ever skidded to a stop because of lack of healers.

I've taken that knowledge and finally started using it to my advantage. I no longer worry about whether this group or that one needed a healer for the night. If I feel like raiding I will, but I no longer do it out of any sense of obligation. There won't be any successful guilds based on players like myself. But then again, I've never been in any guilds actually making serious raid progression. Quid Pro Quo.

Horde side

In general life horde side isn't much different than alliance for me. But every once in a while I get a quest that sends me to a cave or area I've never seen. I think that's still impressive, especially after this game has been out so long.

My whole purpose of leveling up yet another alt was to see all of Azeroth before Cataclysm. But what I realize is while I never leveled a horde very high before, I have at least rode through many of the areas while getting the exploration and loremaster achievements on my alliance character. I may not have fought quillboars but I've road past them. So I'm not actually seeing as many new areas as I expected but I am seeing a few.

I haven't had too many leveling lulls yet, however I think my leveling experience would have been vastly different without the addition of all of the extra flight paths and I cannot emphasize enough what a difference having a mount at lower levels makes. And if I'm not mistaken I'll be able to get a 100% mount at 40!

I would have undoubtedly been bored out of my skull running by foot to all of the areas I have so far. You still have to ride to the flight paths at least once (if you don't have a warlock and mage porting you around) so you still get to travel through the world, you just don't have to keep doing it so slowly.

I also have always wanted to see how pvp was horde side. It seems more alliance than horde are twinks in Warsong Gulch. Even with our lower levels and gear we're usually able to cap the flag first and if no one caps the flag three times we win by default. (I've heard that's been changed recently). And now that I'm high enough to play in Arathi Basin, I've played horde side and I can honestly say I'm not sure why we win so much in there. But it is a refreshing change.

Putting all your frags in one basket.

The first Val'anyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings was made back in June. As of last evening we're just starting at one Fragment of Val'anyr.

Is it the first one to drop for us? No. The person to get the fragments in our guild was chosen before I joined. That player wasn't able to show up very much for whatever reason and so they started giving it to another player. Well, over the past week or so I guess *that* player decided they couldn't raid and last night we had a random roll among the most consistent players recently. Of course that screwed over anyone who had contributed overall, but it's all about "what have you done for me lately".

This was met with no drama that I know of. I just don't think getting a legendary is special anymore. Now you can farm for legendaries if you are so inclined. Back in Molten Core days it wasn't conceivable your legendary would ever be eclipsed by anything. Now legendaries are surpassed by a quest reward and relegated to kill shots.

Our guild officers had a tendency to really pump up the two players who were getting the Fragments of Val'anyr. I don't know if they did something special before I joined, but they weren't exceptional players compared to any others I've known (once again really exceptional players normally don't stay in the guilds I raid with!) Either way I could tell they felt burned when these players quit with the fragments.

Players are going to come and go, most likely 5 years into this game, its the latter. Hand the fragments to whoever you'd like to have them and hope for the best. But by putting it to random made it feel like all of our healers, myself included, are a dime-a-dozen.

And people still continue to wonder why they have trouble finding healers.

Winding down subscriptions

After another evening of a buddy of mine playing Arkham Asylum instead of Champions Online with me, I decided to go ahead and make sure I cancelled before my subscription re-upped.

I'm just not enjoying it enough solo to want to continue to pay for it on the off-chance my friend (who encouraged me to purchase it by the way!) will find time for us to play together. I always like playing a game for myself instead of wondering whether I would have actually liked it or not. I would have been okay purchasing it further down the road out of a discount bin.

My City of Heroes/Villians ran out not to long ago and I don't miss it. I liked it for about a day or two after I hit level cap (powerleveling through the AE system). So I don't feel any money was wasted there.

I also made sure my EQ2 sub will expire. Such a great looking game on my newer computer! I may have been sucked into it instead of WoW if had the computer I have now back in 2004. Now it's just a game I'd like to have a sub for but doesn't make the cut when I eventually want to try out Aion.

WoW gets to keep taking my money by default. I'm torn by this. I want to keep playing but just don't feel it truly deserves the money it gets from me each month anymore. I feel like the subscription fee should be lower. In the past I paid for 6-months which was cheaper, but I don't want a long-term tie to the game anymore. I'm going to end up paying more just to have a sense of freedom.

So on the horizon I should only end up paying for two accounts, hopefully one, by the end of the year. I'm hoping it will be Aion, but it will probably be WoW.

What's special about Aion?

I've given the blog another new look, since I'm branching out to playing a different class for a while, I decided to change it if you've noticed.

I came across Hardcore Casual (Hmm I just went to get the link and realize I didn't have the right one I usually read).

Hardcore Casual (I'll call this one A) made a comment about being tired of reading WoW blogs. Basically because they aren't original. We complain about the grind, and talk about specs, etc.

Hardcore Casual A would be happy to know Hardcore Casual B has started a more general purpose blog, as I mentioned before isn't as WoWcentric.


Well anyway, this blogger really likes Aion. And then he goes on to say what he likes about Aion so much and I don't see what's so special about it.

Now I want it to be special, in a way I want another game to knock me off my feet. Of course what that would entail (time-sinkage) means I really *don't* want it, but the idea of it is nice.

As usual he mentioned wings, I just can't see switching from one game to another simply because you can fly. But I've read it enough on other sites to see it must really be important.

The other things he mentioned like being able to train skills out "in the field" and a aggro radius on your mini map seemed like nice to haves, but still nothing amazing.

Is it the look? I've seen screen shots and they are nice, but so are EQ2's.

I'm not wanting to be sold on it, because I plan to plunk down more cash to try it out for myself. But what is so special about it? That it's not WoW? Every game that has come out since WoW has that and usually ends up disappointing.

An Aion comparison

Compare the comment of a blogger Cuppycake who has played MMOs since EQ and Sai Pannell one who has never really played any MMOs.

The difference is quite striking isn't it. And I've felt how both of them do.

I felt like this back in 2004...

I've barely seen daylight since the beta started on Sunday. I've been locked up in my bedroom with the computer, only coming out to grab something to drink, or something to eat... and go to sleep. I've been so obsessed with this game, its almost sad.

And I've felt like this many times since...

I logged in and played for about 15 minutes last night, and to be honest – I did one quest and instantly sighed in annoyance.

I think I've been in a type of mourning for a while because unlike Sai, I no longer feel similar to this with each new MMO I try:

I love how this game takes you to various places. Beautiful lakes, lush forests, humble farms, grungy mines, elegant buildings in the sky, cute little villages... I never know what to expect next, and where my next Quest will take me to.

Instead I feel like Cuppycake:

Whether it’s Free Realms, EQ2, LotRO, Wizard 101, Runes of Magic, DDO, or any of the other MMOs I have installed on my hard drive, NOTHING has kept my interest or inspired me. I think I really might be getting crufty, and that makes me sad. =(

I don't know what crufty means but I think it might just describe me.

Questing through the vanishing Azeroth

I continue to level my horde character. I'm only in my twenties so things may change later, but so far I haven't found myself without quests to do.

My mount and all the added flight paths have made it easy to move from area to area doing quests that are green and easy to solo.

I always happen to see players out questing, but just like me they are usually solo. Usually no one wants to group, so I'm glad I'm able to kill stuff on my own at a reasonable pace.

As I do these quests and mine nodes, I think to myself, this has *got* to be the last time I do this. But then I when Cataclysm is released I'll make a worgen or goblin and level through the changed landscapes. That's how they pull...you...back..in!

The casual raiding scene

I've raided casually for a year. It's the only way I can raid. I quit raiding for a while because it seemed the only thing out there were 4-5 night a week raiding. But I'm able to reasonably manage the 2 night a week raiding schedule of my current guild. Even then I get tired of it sometimes.

Our guild has had trouble filling raid slots. I chalk it mostly up to summer. But I also blame burn out (guilty). AND you can get the same gear without raiding, so I've heard.

We managed to clear normal 25-man Trial of Crusader. Perhaps we'll continue to do so to the point we're geared enough to make it through Ulduar. Unfortunately I don't think our guild is capable of hardmode anything. Since we inevitably pug some slots, we always have to go through the mistakes new players make. Not to mention the ones us old players make.

Ensidia is having interviews with its new recruits and one of them mentioned how Ensidia's players don't repeat mistakes. That's the difference between clearing something months ago vs. beating your head against the same stuff.

We need the gear to smooth out the suck. ToC bosses seem to drop a lot of loot so that's good news for us. I just don't think we'll ever see Algalon. This isn't being pessimistic, even our top guild (by default, 3 other better guilds have left our server) hasn't bested him.

The casual scene is one of guilds just hoping they have enough to show up and do something for the evening. That's a low bar and lately we can't even clear it.

Champions Online

Unless my schedule syncs up with the two friends that suggested we play CO together I'll probably cancel my subscription before it recurs.

I don't think CO is a bad game, but as far as I can tell it doesn't do anything better than the other games out there. I think I could have an alright time playing with friends. But it definitely doesn't pull me in enough to want to play by myself.

I wish people wouldn't say this game is awful, but then again I can't say its great either. It's just...there, another alternative. Someone brand new to MMOs might love it. It's 5 years too late for me.

Beginner Leveling

As someone mentioned in the WoW trade channel "leveling is easy". This was in response to someone else saying they wanted to join a guild to get help with leveling. As I winded down my quests in the Ghostlands someone cried out "this is booooring". I checked their levels and both of these players were under level 10.

Leveling has never been easier, but based on my own experience as I level this new character horde side, what is missing is leveling with others. I can't remember the name of the blog, but the blogger is trying out wow on a Refer-A-Friend account and when he plays with his buddy he's having a blast. The triple xp is a blast, but from what I read the fun is playing *with* someone. Becoming more than the sum of your parts.

I wasn't able to get my twink items transferred to me, but I had some extra gold on another lowbie character that I never leveled very far and managed to purchase a twink weapon that helped make things easier. The quest givers and objectives weren't very far apart so leveling has been okay. However I didn't really start having Fun with a capital F until I decided to get a group for instances. I found out I really outleveled the first one, Ragefire Chasm, and since I'd run Wailing Caverns ad naseum on my alliance druid I had no desire to go do it. As luck would have it someone asked if anyone wanted to do BFD and I jumped on the chance. They turned out to be a higher level but gathered a bunch of other lowbies like myself. I forgot to mention I had a mount by that point and I hadn't spent time traveling by ground mount with a group of players in years. It reminded me of how awesome flight is, but how in a way it takes away from that cohesion I was talking about in a post before.

Speaking of mounts, getting one at 20 is great. The quests I would normally give up on because I look at the map and decided I don't want to run that far were made 60% more appealing. I had been copper pinching since I wasn't sure how much the mount would cost. Turns out I forgot as a paladin, mounts are free, but even if I had to pay, 5 gold is practically free.

I think I would have even more fun if playing a paladin was more active. But the nicer weapon makes things bearable. I plan on making sure I have more twink weapons waiting for me as I continue to level.

But back to leveling with people, its just more fun. I've had friend come and go in WoW. Some transferred different type servers, different time zone servers or just quit. I've done all three myself. This fourth time is changing faction. I'm hoping with the paid change I convince one of my friends to switch one of his many alts over eventually.

And my whole reason for coming hordeside? Well I left Ghostlands so I'm getting to do some new quests finally. It feels weird to enter Tarren Mill and not have the mushroom guy yell at me. :)

I don't want no scrub

I came across a post made by the best warrior in the world, pvper Serennia back in July as well as one Big Bear Butt made today.

I mention them together because both players are surprised by how few of us really know how "2play".

BBB pugged with a druid who didn't use lifebloom and a tank that spun around like a top. He was surprised in the age of so much information on how to play, elitist jerks, etc. there were people who still didn't. Once he adjusted to the fact, he'll be able to soldier on.

Serennia met the unwashed and unlearned masses at a lan cafe he had to resort playing in. As he was discovered as a Wowlebrity, he was amazed by the number of players who didn't know the best way to slot gear, etc. What was interesting is that he appreciated the fact these same players still seemed to have just as much fun as anyone wearing BiS. What is interesting to me is how each of us expect a certain standard of those around us. My guild plays at a scrub level. But when someone really bad (gearwise or stay-out-of-bad-stuff-wise) we feel pretty knowledgeable. Then someone really good steps in to help and we remember we're scrubs.

Players like Serennia and BBB play at a different level that the majority of WoW players. And those around them play at an expected level of knowledge and skill. Like the Ensidia recruit I mentioned earlier, they don't repeat mistakes. Ensidia plays at the top of the pve ladder, Serennia plays at the top of the pvp ladder. It is a very small percentage that play at that level. But being able to use lifebloom or taunt is pretty darn basic and as BBB hilariously described even that can't be expected. I'd be willing to say the majority of WoW players are sub-scrub. Appreciate them, learn to play with them, or avoid them like the plague but they are here to stay.

Faction changes, Cross-realm LFG, and cohesion

I can only think of one thing I've really wanted in WoW and they've already added it - dual specs. Actually I wanted free respecs, but dual specs works just fine. Actually with the amount I play at the moment I only need one spec...but that's neither here nor there.

Another thing that I wanted but not as badly was the chance to play horde. Of course I could fulfill that wish by leveling, but I never stayed with it. I'm giving it another go right now.

But with faction changes I can swap one of my higher level character and experience "the more mature" side. I think the introduction of blood elves blew that description out of the water, but now I have the chance to see first hand.

It got me wondering about what will that do to pvp battleground balance? Will more horde switch to alliance? Will more alliance switch to horde?

Speaking of switching, the few people I know that have come alliance side is because we have more people to run instances with. The few people that have left alliance to go horde have done it for pvp. But I haven't known anyone to do it recently other than to simply see what the other side is like, and that's my plan.

Cross-realm LFG should help everyone but especially low population realms and factions.

But I'd go on to say it breaks down the cohesion of sticking with a side and grouping with the same people, just like PvP battlegrounds changed when they went cross-realm.

I mentioned a few things I've wanted in the game, one of those was the ability to do battlegrounds without having ridiculous queues. A few years ago, queues were really bad for some sides and when they introduced cross-realm bgs, the problem all but disappeared. But then the familiar faces you fought along side or fought against started to disappear. They were still there, just spread out amongst all the other realms in the battlegroup. Chasing down or running from someone that you knew from the forums had a little more meaning. When you can't tell Legolas-Magtheridon from Legolas-Zuluhed the tiny extra thrill isn't there. Be careful what you wish for.

It will be better for those of us who hate waiting for groups. I will be great for those of us who want to log on and jump in an instance, instead of logging off after 30 minutes when you can't find one.

But comments like "I grouped with you before, you're a good tank" and "pick that mage up, I did HoL with him" and "we became friends after a series of instances together" will be more scarce.

It's the principle of the thing revisted

Few days ago I posted about how I wouldn't want to raid with someone who just hit 80.

Michael, a commenter, pointed out that he meant a brand new 80 could get geared up very fast within a week's time if they focused on it.

I don't doubt it a bit. Someone who is serious about their contribution to the raids would do exactly that.

And it is very unlikely that anyone in greens (you get blue drops as quest rewards at the very least) would show up at a raid.

Yet that's exactly what happened to me recently. Our guild was attempting a new boss and I'm not sure how this person got in the raid, but there they were standing beside me in quest greens and blues and the occasional epic.

Here's where I disagree with Gevlon (or is it Tobold?). Because unless you are exceptional (and we all have to agree we in general aren't or there wouldn't be an "in general"), crap gear will only take you so far. Since the person didn't manage to outdps anyone in the raid, not even our tanks, they certainly weren't exceptional. So they weren't capable of doing the role they came for.

If we're doing a fun run with no expectations of success, then someone can show up naked for all I care. But we were attempting to make some progress on a boss and having weak links in an already brittle chain didn't help.

What hit a nerve is they kept standing in the wrong places. Since standing in the wrong stuff or not standing in the right stuff has the tendency to make things exponentially worse, you can imagine how fun the night was.

I'm not the type of person to call anyone a M *or* S, even though I realize that's how I come off describing it. Let's just say they were more S than M. And S is easier to fix.

In the end, all I want to do is raid progress with like-minded and like-geared people. And that's exactly what Michael and the shaman's point is - badges, VoAs, etc. make that possible. Just make the effort, the loot is there.

Hopping from one to another

As a result of bad planning, or no planning on my part, I'm paying for several subscriptions of MMOs all at once. Just as Tobold asks would anyone play two at a time, I find myself paying for 3. World of Warcraft, Everquest 2 and Champions Online. I am not going to keep all 3 accounts. The idea of paying for multiple accounts while maybe not financially sound isn't that far-fetched. Family households usually have several and multi-boxers pay multiple to literally play the same game. And while I'm not going to the poorhouse anytime soon (crosses claws) I don't feel comfortable with that many accounts.

However it does let me compare the three, if not in playstyle, in how I feel about them. I want the feeling back of really enjoying an MMO. The feeling original Everquest players had, the feeling I had when I first started playing WoW. But every new game I've tried since is lacking. I call it the Flimsy Chain Armor Effect (FCAE). I think I've described it before. It's the discovery that not only do you need to kill ten rats, those rats may have something on them you could use. And not only something you can use but a set of something, and not only is it better than what you're wearing it matches! So not only will you kill ten rats because someone told you so, but you keep killing them because you have a chance to get Flimsy Chain gloves and Flimsy Chain boots! Now the Flimsy Chain set wasn't a set like a tier set per se, and it was grey - poor quality - vendor trash. Come to find out it probably wouldn't last you farther than Goldshire. The equivalent of buying something and then getting something better after you've walked a block. However first starting out in the World of Warcraft it was an improvement and no one ever gave you a quest to acquire this stuff but I did. And oh! some of these wolves drop pouches! I could use a pouch! I wonder if they drop more? It propelled me forward even without Marshall McBride telling me to go kills some kobolds.

I hadn't played a game like that before and maybe its the feeling of newness that I can never feel again even when the MMORPG is brand new.

But I try, even by going back to older games like Everquest 2. One thing I can say about it, I finally, after 5 years, have a computer that can do it justice. In the very beginning I had to set the graphics down so low I couldn't see anything when it came to going into caves. A new computer later things were better, at least I could see, but it still wasn't optimal. Finally I can play the game on its highest settings and other than the claymation skin, the game is really impressive looking. Unfortunately, 5 years ago, they forgot much of their audience, while used to using their imagination to fill in pixels, couldn't necessarily fork over the cash just to play a game made to run on computers not built yet. Champions Online uses the same claymation skin, but the rest of the world isn't as detailed as EQ2. I've heard Age of Conan rivals EQ2, but I can't imagine anything else does.

I've almost got my new blood elf the same level as the blood elf I abandoned. I have a feeling of deja vu doing the same quests over again so soon. Because of my many false starts with blood elves I think I've played through Eversong Woods more than any other starter area, rivaling Teldrassil. I can't wait to get to the part none of my horde lowbies have made it to. I don't even know where I'll be questing first, Ashenvale?

And the only reason I jumped on WoW was because I couldn't get logged on to Champions Online server. I'm not surprised by this, launches always have their set of issues. But when I talk about that feeling I keep wanting in a new game? Well Champions Online doesn't have it either. When I couldn't get on the server, I didn't even bother to keep trying. Instead I just logged off and logged onto something else. Back in the day, I would have sat their at the WoW log-in screen trying and trying. Or getting up to check where I was in the queue. That "this game is so great I can't wait to play again" is just not there and I haven't had that feeling in years. You can never go back.

Take for instance Champions Online character creator. It is great! But, since City of Heroes already had a game-defining character creator, CO's, as great as it is, isn't that much better than City of Heroes'.

Speaking of character creators. I chuckled when someone described Everquest 2's wide variety of characters - big humans, short humans, skinny humans, fat humans. I wouldn't go that far, but I get what they were saying. What is with these games saying you have the ability to change your character SO MUCH, when the changes are a so minor you end up looking like someone else as soon as you log in? I played Chronicles of Spellborn (already on the back burner) for a short bit. I spent some time as I always do creating a character and a pixel turn of a lip or eyebrow may seem like a choice, and getting to dye my armor faded blue instead of sky blue, still had me looking like someone else in the end.

At least I'm not paying a subscription for that game.

Civilians Online

Well, apparently Champions Online was hit with a nerf bat today. Yes, the day of it's release. I almost had let it slip by.

I guess players were leveling too fast (pre-orders had access to the live game earlier). This is only a problem if A) leveling slow isn't fun and B) there is no endgame.

I don't care whether there is no endgame. But I do want to have fun while leveling up.

Sleeping with the enemy

I decided to abandon my other low level character to reroll on my main's server. The plan is to get some twinkage going eventually. Since its cross faction I won't be able to use heirlooms (what a gyp!), but I still should be able to purchase some superior items that will make leveling easier.

I haven't gotten around to transferring items yet, so I just spent time leveling up in the blood elf area again. Starter areas are enjoyable. The quest givers and the quest objectives are never far apart.

Since I've never leveled a blood elf very high my goal is to reach 20 this week and buy a mount. A mount at 20. I'm curious what a difference it will make having a mount so soon. It will be hard to gauge because I've never actually leveled any horde past 20. I'm expecting it might be quite fun.

For a split second I thought about trying to get Loremaster on a horde character like I did alliance. That way I can really say I've covered the bulk of the content before Cataclysm changes it forever. But Loremaster wasn't a walk in the park alliance side, a side I've been playing for years. Not sure I'm up to doing it hordeside. We'll see.

Make up your mind, whydontcha?!?!

With my CoX cancelled, CO beta over, and I never got into Aion...I find myself wanting.

I fired up, well as slow as it takes to install it, slow-simmered EQ2 again. I tried going back to CoX, so why not try going back to EQ2? I totally missed the blog discussion about starting out in EQ2 made by Wolfshead, Tipa and others back in July. I think I would have enjoyed partaking in it.

The difference in CoX and EQ2 is you are able to reach max level really fast in CoX, but I have no clue how long it would take to level up in EQ2. I have a feeling several months if not years?

I honestly don't care about leveling fast, however I do like leveling around people, even if I don't necessarily interact with them. I like the feeling I'm playing an MMO instead of a single-player. I like leveling fast to get to the place where more people are playing. That's usually end-game. I seriously doubt I'll stick with EQ2 any longer than I did CoX this time around. I'll probably not see many other players.

So against the wishes of some on the EQ2 forum, I joined the highest populated server. I figure if starter areas are in general lonely to begin with after release, why would I want to join an underpopulated server where players are even more scarce?

In the meantime I'm also continuing to play hordeside in WoW and starter area players are scarce in the 11 million player game also. I came across just about the same amount of players - about 3 or 4 tops - running around like I was.

Right now EQ2 is giving me that feeling of progression I enjoy. Now that I've picked a dps class, I started out on a healer, I feel like I'm leveling even faster than WoW. I read somewhere you shouldn't try to level fast in EQ2 because of AA's. But the idea of turning off XP? I just can't get into it. It's something I'd regret later if there was a chance I'd ever hit level 80 or whatever the max cap is in EQ2.

The one thing EQ2 has going for it is I don't really know how fast I should be leveling. In WoW I already wish I had a main to funnel me some gold so I could twink my alt up a bit. I think I'm going to just start over on my main's server and use the neutral AH to get some cash. In EQ2 I have no idea how weak my character is. It feels fine so far, I've only died once or twice and I don't have that nagging feeling that things should be going faster.

I'll probably play EQ2 until the grind disease hits me or Aion or Champions Online is released. Then I'll revel in the newness of those two games until the shiny-ness wears off. Then who knows?

It's the principle of the thing

A comment over at Keen and Graev's blog jumped out at me. Not because I don't necessarily disagree or think the commenter is wrong, but because its things like this that cause me to not want to raid.

Background: Keen is wondering whether he should resub to WoW and is worried there is still a grind at each level to get gear to climb up to the next tier of instances.

Here is the comment someone made to Keen:
@Keen If you have heroic loot (which is i200) you can easily farm ToC and other heroics and get upgrades ridiculously quickly…maybe VoA and OBS too because they are so fast.

A fresh 80 in greens can be raiding the highest end content in a week, without a ridiculous grind. I took an ele shaman alt to the T9 coliseum 25 raid a week after dinging 80, and we downed both bosses (only 2 available at the time).

What bugged me? #1 he was on an alt and #2 he was in greens and #3 he was a fresh 80 (hence the greens).

Now he could very well be in a pug or with good friends or whatever situation, but if he showed up to a raid I was in I would want to log.

After reading Greedy Goblin's post on his blog about not needing good gear to raid well, I realize in theory I shouldn't be "elitist". But my problem is too many people like the Keen commenter feel they can show up on a character they don't play much, in bad gear and actually contribute to a raid.

Now to be honest, I would love if this worked all the time. I don't like playing much (i.e. raiding for better gear) anymore. So if I could log on in what I was wearing no matter how weak it was and get to raid that would be great. Everyone wishes they could do that! But in reality, I bet an epic, that if everyone showed up like the shaman in greens they wouldn't have downed the T9 boss. I mean even typing that I realize a T9 boss is going to require more than T4 or it's equivalent gear.

I understand that he means, since most everyone else is in decent gear by now you'd think, Keen will be able to hop in, probably not contribute much, but get to raid.

At a point Blizzard has to make this possible. Because without a gear reset and no way to get gear fast you'd be left out in the cold if you didn't do dungeons in order when the bulk of the players did.

I don't disagree with the commenter, I just refuse to believe he did much more than get carried through the 2 bosses. In other words, I think they probably could have 24-manned it.

Makin' the rest of us trees look bad

Blowing a leaf in the wind (my version of a tip of the hat) to the Tree Bark Jacket blog. Keeva has updated her already nice blog to look even better!

Her advice was key in helping me not fear Sartharion + 3.

She has 5, read it, 5 druids! I was toying with the idea of leveling up a horde druid in my "Questing the Vanishing Azeroth". So that would be 2, but 5?!?!?!

Anyway, Go take a look at what a blog can be when you do more than post your everyday rants in it (who me?)

And don't forget to update your links!

My previous Aion post...

was an attempt to see if I get what appears to be bot comments.

I got 4 comments recently all with links to selling various MMORPG accounts, but they made it sound like they were actually reading and commenting on my posts.

They tripped up when they mentioned EvE when I was actually talking about Everquest.

I'd rather read troll posts than see sales spam.

This blog isn't popular that I get so many posts I need to filter the real ones. I just see 'em and move on.

But this time I was curious enough to wonder what in particular triggers them. So far I haven't had a bite on the Aion post. Maybe it will just take some time.

WoW's toehold

As Keen fights the urge to return to WoW, it makes me realize what an even more advantage WoW has over so many other games.

Just the mention of something changing (that isn't even scheduled until next year) puts a bug in everyone's ear and instead of giving something else a try we go back to what we know. I don't have the audacity to exclude myself from this.

I'm trying out Chronicles of Spellborn (it's free now) but the idea of questing through areas that may be forever changed later had me back to WoW. And while I was playing CoS I was thinking it would be nice if the ui was exactly the same (it's pretty close to WoW's to begin with). Later I'll have the nerve to complain about games being WoW clones, if I haven't already. I'm embarrassed of myself.

To be honest I don't know if I'll go through with my "Questing through the Vanishing Azeroth". I logged onto a Blood elf that still had a Halloween costume timer running from last year. I finished a few errand running quests I had started almost a year ago before parking myself back at the inn.

My toe slipped.

Aion gets an A for Amazing!

Man I can’t wait for release, this game has so much potential!


WoW is awesome, but this game has wings.


I haven't played yet, but after receiving 4 comments in a row, I want to see what comment this generates.

By the way, my blog content is based a recent post by Hardcore Casual.

Champions Online open beta

...is over.

I had been told by a friend it was going for a week and I didn't bother to double check. It actually only lasted the weekend.

I got past the starter area, but I wasn't enjoying it so much that I was eager to play a lot. In the back of my mind I felt I still had a week to try it out. But even then that strong desire to get back in there and play during the weekend just wasn't there.

I think I know what WoW had in the beginning that is missing from many other MMOs and it seems very simple. The feeling that you are improving. The quick and early level dings made bright yellow and shiny. Your skills improving with each whack or blast in blue. Loot, even when grey (poor), being better than what you had. And as you level getting more spells or attacks.

Champions Online starts you out with decent powers (attacks) (City of Heroes, depending on which type of archetype (class) you chose could be painful starting out because your powers were so weak). But at least for the few levels I made it through, didn't give you any more powers. You don't need them, you can do just fine with the 2 you start out with, but you *want* them.

You get to slot some things, but they slot areas (?) instead of armor. Instead of taking a glove reward and putting it in your hand slot (simple enough), you get a "Primary defense" reward and put it in your "Primary defense" slot (Huh?). I get that a pair of white (common) gloves are better than (grey). But it's not apparent that a talisman is better than a shirt when they can both go in the "defense" slot.

When you level it is showy, but since you're not getting anything special by doing so its just fluff. If I had my sound off, I'm not sure I would even recognize that I leveled. The feeling of progressing is extremely important. Why do so many of us get bored at end-game? Because the feeling of improving ceases to exist, or slows to a crawl. So you should definitely give the player some idea that they are getting stronger early on, or it will feel like a slog from the get-go.

It's like Champions Online and others are copying models, but forgetting why the models are how they are.

Once more with feeling

I'm thinking about following Tobold's lead and taking the opportunity to level up through the areas that the WoW Cataclysm expansion will remove.

I never got a horde character very far, even though I mentioned many times I wanted to. Here's just another reason for me to do so. Since the expansion won't be released until 2010 and even then who knows how late into the year, I feel like I have plenty of time to get to Burning Crusade. Maybe even take it all the way to the end of Northrend, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

CoX Cancelled

I didn't spend much time mulling it over before cancelling CoX for, maybe the third time now? I played City of Heroes/Villains for almost exactly 2 months. Will I ever go back again? I can't say no, because maybe this is how MMOs are meant to be played by me. Play one, get bored of it, jump to another one, play it for a while, go back to an older one, repeat the cycle.

Extended raid lockouts

What a great idea.

As I mentioned before I logged back onto WoW for a short period to raid with my guild. They had chosen to extend the raid period for Ulduar and as a result we finally downed another boss because we had the extra time to work on it. Actually I think it was less about having the extra time to work on the boss itself and more about being able to tackle an encounter without being burned out from clearing up to that point since the time was spread out over two weeks. As a result we got a peek and a few attempts at another new boss and that's the part I enjoy about raiding.

But the main reason I think everyone is okay with extending the raid lockout is because we are intermingling it with the newer instance. The first few bosses in Trial of the Crusader are easily downed so people get loot from there even if they missing out on the loot from us not re-clearing most of Ulduar.

This is different from my days doing BWL/AQ40/Old Naxx in a previous guild. We made it to C'thun. But when Naxxramas was released there wasn't enough time to check it out, plus do BWL (which gave arguably better gear/time ratio) and wipe on C'Thun. Had we been able to extend the raid lockout, we could leave C'Thun available and spend extra time working on killing it/him/her without having to devote so much time to clearing what had to be the longest instance ever (portals must have been made with the place in mind!). Instead the only way I managed to kill C'Thun was to go back after we had all outleveled and outgeared it. Oh well I digress.

I wonder if raid lockouts will immediately apply to Icecrown? Keep in mind there are guilds that exist, like Ensidia and Stars that would lose sleep to gain an edge. Even so, I wouldn't care because I feel like extensions are so useful to the majority.

CO & ToC

Well I was fortunate to get into a WoW Trial of the Crusader (ToC) raid. I had to look up the name because I haven't been keeping up with raid dungeons anymore. I just showed up and was able to participate - hooray for people being busy at Blizzcon? It wasn't enough to get me itching to play full-time again (funny we talk of a game in working terms) but it was a nice diversion. I got to hear a few guildmates stoked about the Cataclysm expansion. I can see myself playing enough to reach level 85 since leveling through content once is usually fun, but its waaaaaay to soon to tell.

I am checking out the Champions Online (CO) open beta. As many said, it looks horrible at first. But that's the default. You can modify your settings to where it looks pretty good. I removed the comic book outline look and have something I can live with. However one thing I don't think you can get rid of is the clay look. This is the look EQ2 tried to sell so hard back when it was first released. It looked weird then and it looks weird now. The bodies you create work okay as clay, but the faces just don't look right. I guess since you look at your characters backside most of the time, maybe it shouldn't matter so much?

Additional instances cannot be launched

I was visiting Big Bear Butt's blog (I'll call it B4) and was suprised to hear, the "Additional instances cannot be launched" issue is still prevalent.

When I took my break (was it a month ago?) this was happening. I had a group ready to help me finish a partially cleared instance we "humped" (this seems to be the common phrase across servers) the instance entry for at least 30 minutes trying to get in. I joined a group doing a re-visit to Hyjal, we couldn't get in for a while but we finally did. And me and a friend were duoing some 5-mans and couldn't get in. And once I was farming sanguine hibiscus and couldn't get in.

I consider it another nail, not that I need anymroe, if after a month or so, you still can't do older instances. And, according to B4, perhaps that's how its supposed to be, they are herding us to the wrath instances. He even noted he couldn't get in Stockades easily.

I think that's unacceptable. One of the joys, at least for me, was being able to take my relatively decked out main and finish up old stuff I didn't have time or support to do with a group.

Just like B4 I take it as a given to be able to enter an instance anytime I want. I scoff at the people that complain about the weekly server downtime. Because I understand maintenance is necessary. However, when the server *is* up I should be able to partake in the activities Blizzard has set before us. I consider it a basic necessity.

Painting myself into a corner

I logged onto WoW last night, since I've already plateaued in CoX.

My current state in CoX isn't a surprise or disappointment. I knew I'd only get so much out of it before having to look elsewhere again. There are several areas of play to keep you busy in CoX, but none of them will hold me much longer:

I leveled relatively fast due to AE. I wasn't expecting a long, drawn-out leveling experience. I knew what to expect as far as missions, although I have to say I enjoyed the newer missions better. When I title this post "painting myself into a corner" I really wasn't refering to this but it does apply. AE is a really fast way of leveling, so much so that I don't believe I'd enjoy leveling another CoX character the "old" way. After sailing to America by boat once, if you were given the option to take a sonic jet, which would you choose for your subsequent visits overseas?

Task forces are a series of missions that can only be completed by the 8 people you started with. I did the Croatoa task force, one I was really looking forward to, only to find I'm still not sure what everyone was ga-ga over. It took much longer than I expected or liked it to. I have zero interest in spending hours doing a task force, if I wanted to do that I'd be raiding in WoW. So after doing some of the fastest ones (Katie Hannon, Numina and Lady Grey) we did the latter in 30 minutes or something and I had never been there before, I knew I was done with task forces.

Speaking of raids, I participated in CoX's form of a raid. They used to have one called Hami raid (you fight a big jello mold called Hamidon). I didn't bother doing that one again. But the new one (to me) is called RWZ - Rikti War Zone raid. You speed around tearing down Pylons that keep up a shield that protects the Rikti war ship. (If I'm not explaining the details right, it doesn't really matter.) Once all the pylons are down, you fight through waves of Rikti (*the* enemy in Cox) until, from what I can tell, they build the shield back up and the raid is suddenly over. I cannot imagine doing that more than two times just because I'm bored.

Another thing new to me was Invention Origins (IOs) and sets. These are enhancements you gather materials for and create (CoX's version of crafting). You can get materials as drops, purchase a grab bag of them from AE tickets, or purchase them from Wentworth's (Auction House). It bugged me a little that in order to craft not only did you have to be at a workbench, that's expected, but you had to zone either to your Supergroup base or the "University" building. Imagine each time you wanted to make a copper bar you had to zone into an instance. For someone who used to run from anvil to AH and back several times, the CoX way is bloated. Also the idea of earning the influence (gold) to purchase necessary IOs, not only do you need the materials you need the recipe for the specific IOs. Imagine having to purchase a recipe for a Frostweave bag each time you wanted to make one. The grind I saw ahead of me wasn't appealing. Like I said about WoW, I guess I'm the one changing, not the games.

I had my most fun teaming (grouping) with players. Constant advice given on the CoX forums is to find a supergroup. I fell into and actively sought out several supergroups for my various alts, none of them had more than 4 players on at one time. One Supergroup I'm in I never saw anyone after they invited me. And its not like I'm playing at some weird time. I can't say for sure, but it felt like I was either waiting or searching or trying to build my own team, more than I played on one. And I chose one of the highest populated servers. Maybe you can blame this on AE, but that complaint only goes so far.

That leaves PvP (Nope) and badge hunting (achievements). I didn't want to fall into the trap of badge-hunting, so unless there is something I'm missing out of that list, re-visit of CoX is coming to a close.

So with that, I logged back on to WoW last night. I clicked on each of my characters and could not bring myself to choose one I wanted to play. The title of my post is the feeling that I couldn't create a new character because I feel like if I'm going to play I should be on my max level character doing achievements. And I didn't feel like doing achievements on my max level character. I've painted myself into a corner and it was all my doing. Since I didn't feel right creating or playing on an alt, and I didn't feel up to jumping back onto my main, I logged off again, without ever entering Azeroth. Sigh.

Opinion or review?

Over at Keen and Graev's Keen gave his opinions on why he won't be playing Champions Online. Since it was negative, several commenters have blasted him for it.

Some of the comments immediately reminded me of why Tobold took a 3-week long hiatus from blogging. Keen seems to be a bit more thick-skinned, unwilling to back down (and he shouldn't ). He's removed some of the troll comments. Let's just hope it doesn't wear him down, because I missed Tobold when he was gone and I'll miss Keen as well if he decides to take a break because of posters more interested in arguing and disrupting things than actually making valid or interesting points. It reminds me of our current town hall meetings but I won't go there.

Keen doesn't like CO. He gave his reasons. If you disagree, why not explain why instead of saying Keen doesn't know what he's talking about. How can you not know whether you individually enjoy something or not?

Some made points that he's made glowing reviews in beta in the past only to change his mind later. He's not the only one there. This leads back to my question why so much hype surrounds games in beta, only to fall so quickly a few months in. You can't fault Keen for being pretty much like the rest of us. And as one commenter said, given how fond Keen usually seems about betas, this should really let you know how bad CO is.

To be honest, the console aspect explained by Tobold is what really has me concerned whether I'll end up liking this game or not. I still want to try it out, if only because its something new. But according to Keen, and a sinking feeling in my gut, I'm just going to be throwing some money out the window. As one commenter said, in this economy no one wants to do that.

What changes?

With the discussion of lifetime memberships and how long we stick with a game, it got me wondering? How can a game have so much hype during beta, then kinda fall flat after the first few months of release?

WoW had the hype. I remember reading an article from someone in beta. In this case the hype was justified. I remember trying WoW beta then wanting to play so badly I subscribed to another game (EQ2) because I just couldn't wait. Had my computer at the time been able to play EQ2 smoother perhaps I would have stuck with it, but once WoW was released I jumped ship.

I don't remember much hype about LotRO, but it was there. I'm sure it was supposed to be a WoW killer, but it was quickly drug out of the arena with the rest.

Now Warhammer Online had hype. Guilds were disbanding in WoW to head to WAR. I really felt it would put at least a chink in WoW's armor because WoW PvPers *always* complain about WoW PvP. And I saw the videos, they made it look decent. But I was wary. Yet I gave into the hype as the time of release grew close. I'm sure I was in one of my "I'm bored with WoW" phases I seem to swing in and out of, so I gave it a shot. I always enjoy creating a character and then the inevitable struggle of finding a name I like. It's fun to run around with everyone else as we scramble to get our bearings but then MMORPG ennui sets in as you realize you're killing 10 more rats. Then the question becomes is this game doing it better than WoW does. Is it doing it at least as good as WoW is? And with WAR if killing ten rats isn't the point, then killing 10 orc players pretty damn well be. And for me it wasn't.

But how long was Warhammer beta? What did those players in beta do that was so much fun for months, that it wasn't fun for many of the rest of us?

I'm pretty sure I'm going to play Champions Online, because all of the stuff I enjoy doing will be there and last me at least a month. But to be honest, I haven't heard a lot of hype about CO. At least there isn't really much for me to get disappointed about later.

Update: The reason why I hadn't heard much is the NDA had not been lifted as of this post. Coincidentally it was lifted the next day. Turns out there isn't a lot of hype because apparently it doesn't deserve it.

Lifetime subscription - no thanks

Tobold commented about how players are scoffing at the Champions Online lifetime subscription offer.

I remember when Lord of the Rings Online offered a lifetime subscription. I don't remember why I didn't opt in. In the end, I didn't play long enough to cover a lifetime subscription cost.

Tobold says "Once bitten, twice shy" and I think he's correct. I think Warhammer Online had the biggest hype of all the games post WoW and I don't know if I even played longer than a month. Although I shrug it off, especially since I'm not much of a pvper, looking back on what I expected, Warhammer Online was a major let down for me. But since I didn't spend more than a month or so for it, the sting isn't lasting. Imagine if I'd paid a lifetime subscription? I'd probably try to force myself to play it just to get my money's worth. Ewwwwh.

You don't *have* to do anything

I decided to make a new post in response to a comment from my previous post.

Regarding "...then what is the point in playing at all? You shouldn't have to put time and effort..."

Well that was part of my point. I'll point out there is no mention of fun.I understand it is most likely implied. But in my case, I feel like I was getting to the point that WoW was a habit instead of an enjoyable activity.

Like I said WoW hasn't changed, but I think I am. The core idea of all MMORPGs is to put in time and effort to improve your character.

I logged on the other day to spend time getting a pet. I was able to do it within a 1/2 hour. I'm okay with that.

What I think I'm no longer okay with is making a goal to get 100 pets.

You're right, you don't have to spend a year getting a drake. WoW doesn't force anyone to make goals to get 100 pets. But it is an achievement (and if 100 pets isn't an achievement yet...it will be.)

Note: As I type I realize I'm unable to express exactly what I feel is wrong with the whole thing. Not wrong for everyone - wrong for me. I think when I am able to convey it, I'll finally get why I played for so long and why I will eventually cancel for good. I'm not there yet. ;)

Visiting the World of Warcraft

I logged back on the other night to do the Wolvar/Oracle orphan pet quests. I wouldn't have even known about it if I hadn't been told personally.

I don't think the orphan quest was part of any type of meta. But I'm reminded of the hubbub over allowing players who missed doing the brewfest (and get the monthly brew quest which was a requirement for Long, Strange Trip achievement) a chance to get the 310% violet proto-drake at the end of the year long meta achievement.

I remember being annoyed that because I decided to take a break from the game I had screwed myself out of the running for one. Basically have to play the game an additional year because you'd have to drink a brew every month for a year. I thought what sucked was if I knew about it I probably would have took care of meeting the requirement. The hubbub was several players felt everyone should have known, based on reading forums, WoW insider and the like.

Since I haven't been playing WoW much I haven't been reading about WoW much either. I don't frequent the forums, check MMO champion or WoW insider like I used to. And I guess my question is, if I'm no longer a rabid WoW player does that mean I shouldn't get certain rewards anymore? It certainly feels like it.

My friend and I looked down the list of achievements, and I noticed some new Pirate Day (?) achievements had been added. I don't remember if they are part of the meta or not. But it is a one day event, and if you didn't know it and miss it you miss out. We both agreed it seems like WoW expects you to play the game all the time every day. Not only that you should be reading about it if you aren't playing it.

What is the saying "you should live and breath it". Maybe I'm coming out of a fog, because I know I was that type of player.

But I'm getting more and more offended by it lately. I don't want the feeling I'm being punished for treating this as an occasional hobby. But I'm the one who is changing, WoW is the same as it has ever been. I'm the one who is learning to adjust. So if next time, my friend isn't able to keep me abreast of WoW-goings-on, and I miss out on a new pet, or a new hat, or a new mount, it won't be that big of a deal. And to be honest, although I can't say for sure, since I actually did get a pet, I think I'm learning its okay to miss out on something in the World of Warcraft for a change.

WoWtards

If you've been reading the past month or so, you know I've been playing CoX (City of Heroes/Villians) instead of WoW. As a result I've been reading CoX forums intead of WoW.

I just had to share a few of the comments/sentiments I've noticed.

One poster lamented about how WoW players were coming to CoX and ruining the "adult, mature" atmosphere of their game. A game, I feel the need to point out, involving dressing up in tights and a cape. When did games become the domain of just adults? I admit I also get tired of the occasional kid-mentality but when I do, I can easily choose to cocoon myself with other adults, by teaming with them, guilding with them, etc. with nary a "pwnz0r" in sight. But this poster seemed to think the entire game should be insulated against kids. I'm sorry but kids make things more unpredictable, and quite often, more fun. And if a kid, immaturity and all, can't play a hero game, why does it exist?

Another poster mentioned that WoWtards are infiltrating CoX. Gotta love stereotyping! I wasn't sure how he knew it was a WoW gamer, but if you can do an instance in WoW you sure as hell can manage in CoX.

Double XP weekend

This past weekend CoX had double XP. I had been looking forward to this, not simply because of the bonus, but because I thought I would find more players outside of AE doing missions.

It didn't work out that way, other zones were still as empty as usual. And AE was still the place to get the most XP, even with missions giving double!

Even if missions gave triple or quadruple, the problem is you can't beat AE's accessability. Depending on the mission any player can join. You don't have to worry about sidekicking someone (bringing them up to your level). You don't have to travel, the missions entry is always in the same spot. The rewards - in the form of tickets are better. You can use tickets to buy exactly what you need, versus missions dropping random stuff you may or may not (usually the latter) be able to use.

I didn't count how many levels I got over the weekend, but I doubt I got a single level due to double xp from missions. AE is simply better for leveling fast. So that's where I spent most of my time.

One group in particular was amusing to me. I think I mentioned before how CoX vets are calling players who level in ae "AE babies". And yes that's supposed to be derogatory. You level up through AE so you don't know anything about playing the game. Hence you're a baby. Yeah its dumb. Anyway, I joined one team that ending up being quite amusing to me. It was a team where a Fire/Kinetics Controller (a archetype combo able to clear a mission made for 8 players solo) had us all doorsit (you don't participate in the mission, you just "sit" at the door). The Fire/Kin let us go afk if we wanted. But some of us used it as a chat room. What was funny is at least 6 of our 8 team were vets. Well the funny part is many of them had excuses for why they were leveling in ae. Apparently having one character you leveled up "the hard way" gives you a get out of ae-guilt free card.

If leveling up outside of AE is so fun, why don't they continue doing so on their alts? And if leveling up outside of AE is hard, why do they think any new player in their right mind would want to do so? For some stupid badge of honor?

I've noticed some players have taken to advertising themselves for groups as "N month vet, etc." To be honest, if it takes you 30 months to be a decent player I'm not sure that's a good selling point. Because like I've said playing CoX isn't hard. I'm not sure of what is in the game you can't learn to do at 50 that you could learn at any other level. I leveled up the "hard" way and if I had a friend that wanted to come play with me, I'd rather they be able to level up fast so that we could do whatever the hay we wanted with basically no level restriction.


They should remove XP from AE, after I get all of my desired characters leveled up that way.

What's missing

Over at Keen and Graev's blog, Keen (or was it Graev) was reminiscing about playing MMORPG and what they are missing today. He mentioned enjoying leveling and not caring about endgame and how today it is all about the endgame.

Well I think its easy to understand how he feels since he's talking about Everquest. I'm not sure if EQ created endgame. But it is very easy not to care about an endgame if it doesn't even exist yet.

I know WoW was my first game I played that had an endgame, but at the time I was playing it I didn't know really what that meant. It was fun to spend a lot of time to level up your crafting and craft an item at level 20, or spend a ton of time doing a class quest that would give you a reward at level 40. But now, why bother when it will be so easily replaced? And the reason why it is easily replaced is because we're all in a hurry to level and the reason we're in a hurry to level is because the bulk of players aren't leveling any more. They are at endgame and we want to play with them. The most fun I had in recent memory was when at one point I decided not to participate in endgame. I wasn't in a rush to level, so everything I got was valued more because I knew it was going to last longer.

Over at CoX when new players hit max and ask "Now what?" forum vets say "well the game is the journey". Weird advice for someone who completed the journey. Are they saying go run the journey again?

What's missing can't be captured again for player who has been there and done that.

If a new game is created today would developers tell us in advance the game is in the journey? Would you play such a game?

AE has ruined CoX

AE (Architect Entertainment) is the ability for players to create their own missions in City of Heroes/Villains (CoX). As a result players have made relatively easy missions with great reward - i.e. easily grindable high level mobs.

And players are flocking to these missions. Well, veterans aren't or aren't admitting to it. Veterans are the players who have played a long time and accumulated a lot of badges. At least on the forums, they've taken to calling those who have leveled via AE as "AE babies".

Perhaps rightly so, they are saying AE has ruined the game because only AE is getting action now. I agree they should make the rest of the game as appealing as AE is. But they also say those who have leveled don't have a clue how to play.

I'm leveling mostly by AE myself. I leveled the old way when I played before and let me say I'm glad there is an option to level faster. So maybe I'm not the best example, because I did play the slower way before. But I have to admit there isn't much difference.

Veterans have said they will only team with other veterans. They are checking badges. I find it interesting that a game which is surviving but could benefit from new players, has old players so quick to shut others out. They are proud the game is surviving because of them, but it isn't thriving. That's the point they fail to see.

I agree leveling via AE doesn't expose you to the rest of the game. Also you don't learn things you should by normally leveling. But my argument is how stupid are these players that can't learn L2P after they've hit max level? I swear I've yet to see much difference in fighting level 2s vs level 50s as far as group mechanics. And they have something in the game now that allows you to go back and do old content anyway.

As I hinted to in my previous post, CoX isn't rocket science. You think WoW is easy? You haven't played CoX. There are complaints that players don't know how to reach X or Y. Is it that hard to tell them "go here, then here". When I join a team and there's been something new added do I really need to spend a year playing the game to understand I need to take this or that portal? Or can my teammate say, "you need to go through this way". Ta da! Now I know, and it didn't take me months of leveling to find out.

Strategy

For the first time that I can remember in City of Heroes (CoX) I participated in a fight that required some semblance of strategy. I've played CoX off and on since it was released.

Many players I started with quit early on because there really isn't much to the game when it boils down to it. But for some what it does provide is enough. I like creating characters and getting new powers and testing them out. Once I have all the powers I get bored of the missions (same ol' maps with same ol' mobs), players that quit sooner got bored easier, those who have played non-stop for 5 years haven't. Everyone has different tastes of what they find fun.

Anyway, to put in perspective with how "easy" missions are compared to WoW instances...

I finally did a new Task Force (a string of missions that lead to above average reward if you complete the whole thing) over the weekend. The fights were like they normally are in CoX. Tank tanks, dps dpses, healers heal. No brainer. But finally there was a fight where you had (at least we had to) have a mob off-tanked while we took care of the main mob. And in the same fight we had to peel off adds. What a shock!

Its funny because something like this wouldn't be considered much of a fight in WoW, but our group had trouble at first figuring this out. And this is the very first time I've experienced this in CoX. And I've played to max level at least once.

I could just feel the difference going from the Task Force back to WoW and going into Ulduar. Speaking of Ulduar and strategy, I headed back in and our guild is still stuck on the same stuff, actually its taken a step back with us being unable to kill the things we have before.

Since we haven't progressed my gear is holding up well. Why would I need upgrades for what is now old content? There was nothing about the raid itself that makes me want to keep raiding.

I feel our guild has reached its peak. It's not the core of the guild's fault. It is summer time and people take off for a variety of reasons (boredom being mine). But having to pull in new players and having to wipe again on the same stuff is demoralizing. I think the only way it will progress now is for the bosses left to be nerfed more. I don't think it will be nerfed until the new content comes out, and then of course I imagine we'll leave Ulduar behind. I admit I'd rather quit raiding now until Icecrown is released.

Raiding is losing its allure. I can play for hours but being committed to playing for hours is becoming anathema to me. If playing a game that requires little strategy is what I have to resort to, so be it.

Mission architect a quick look back

I had what I think is a funny idea for a mission in CoX (City of Heroes/Villians). But I haven't even bothered trying to create it because I realize the odds of anyone playing it will be low.

I still may put time in to doing it, just cuz. But the number of missions players are running from AE is very low compared to the number that exist. This is my guess just based on my own experience.

The most run missions are the ones that came out right when the Architect edition did that were pegged to be "good" missions by the developers. They are the first ones to show up in the search. So those are the ones people play. Even more popular are the "farming" missions. Those are missions where you get a bunch of mobs that are very easy to wipe out with a group and you fight these mobs over and over again. The missions have no story other than "Hi. Go kill stuff".

So my reason for purchasing CoX to make missions has been fulfilled. Little did I know that I'd would care that players would actually play them. But I realize I do care and the fact that I might get 1 or 2 people max to play through them doesn't entice me to bother.

Badges

Badges are to City of Heroes as Achievements are to WoW.

You can get badges for killing a certain amount of mobs, exploring areas, completing strings of missions, participating in events, etc. The other evening I got 4 badges at one time, just by running a mission with a group. Even after reading the description I'm not sure what they were for.

I am not going out of my way to earn any badges in CoH. (Also apparently CoH is now called CoX to incorporate City of Heroes AND City of Villians into one entity. So I'll try to call it that.)

I've already heard Champion's Online is coming out in September and if it turns out to be enjoyable, I'll set CoX aside to play it for awhile.

Not sure if this is accurate but apparently there are 687 badges attainable and one player says they have 674. He's missing the most from ones involving spending a number of days logged out in certain locations and another from owning the game for a number of months. In other words, all he needs to do is pay to play longer.

And that's one of the reasons I'm not going to bother trying very hard to get more badges. I think even though I spent years playing WoW I'm not going to stick with any other game anymore for a long period of time. And it is commitment to a game that allows you to gain all of those badges and achievements points and deeds and whatever else an MMO decides to call them.

I was comparing my hero creation from City of Villains and the booster packs and it simply looks better than the original City of Heroes. And Champions Online (I'm not in beta) looks better than CoX. I haven't even played CO (?) and I feel like CoX may lose some customers. The players it won't lose are those who have spent years accumulating these badges. Then again I felt like I had a decent amount of achievements and I haven't looked back...yet.

(Speaking of achievements by the time I read about Zoltan reaching 10,000 achievement points in WoW he had already passed the threshold.)

By choosing not to chase after badges, I'm able to stick to doing what is fun and not into some time sink within a time sink within a time sink.

I have some ideas of what I want to do in CoX and once I'm done I hope CO or some other game out there will be a better alternative than obtaining 687 badges or 10,000 achievement points.

Another weekend

Another weekend has gone by where I haven't played WoW. I've promised a friend that I will play next weekend. I'll let you know how it goes.

Imagine This Part 3 : The End

City of Heroes removed the mission I was referring to in a recent unscheduled patch. Well they removed what WoW would call mobs you could play in missions who could be killed but wouldn't fight back.

Overall I think it was a good move. We have to be herded into doing the right thing because given the path of least resistance guess which fork in the road we'll take?

For me personally it was a bad move but I'll get used to it I'm sure. Contrary to what a CoH veterans might tell ya, CoH is kinda dead outside of Architect Entertainment missions. Well dead compared to WoW I guess which is always an unfair comparison. Being able to find groups via AE was much easier than anywhere else in the game.

Imagine this Part 2

Yesterday I tried to describe the type of instance in WoW that would compare to AE farm missions in City of Heroes.

AE (Architect Entertainment) farm missions are basically player-made instances set up to be easily cleared out for lots of xp and influence (money in the CoH world).

As someone commented this would be boring. And it tends to get boring! However the payout is so good I find it hard to skip a farming group if I can get on one.

I admit to being part of the problem. It is harder to find groups (or "teams" in CoH) to do anything else when you can go into a farming mission on auto-pilot and get the same reward only quicker.

When I get bored, I go do a different mission by myself. But then I want a new level, thus access to new superpowers, and farming missions is the fastest way to get it.

But the specific type of farming mission I was trying to describe in WoW terms, is actually considered an exploit by many. And I see their point. What you have to kill for xp doesn't fight back. It doesn't do anything but let you wale on it until you kill it. You don't have to worry about having a healer or tank, the main complaint is usually there isn't enough damage to finish the missions faster!

It does make me think when they remove the "exploit" will I be satisfied with doing things the slower way again?

It would probably take another post to reach this conclusion, but I wonder if that's why people are complaining about stuff in WoW being too easy. If things get so easy to a point you start wondering about why you're doing it at all.

Imagine this

Imagine an instance you could access from Kharanos, Goldshire or Teldrassil.

The mobs have zero aggro range, no attacks and only the ability to heal themselves a little.

They are clothie and clustered together throughout the instance.

The mobs wouldn't drop any greens/blues/epics but they would drop money.

The XP would rival that of any quests you could do.

Would you run that instance over and over again? Or would you do quests and other instances?

Nail #2?

I totally forgot about raiding this week. It actually slipped my mind!

I was getting in the car and for some reason thought to myself "OMG I'm supposed to be raiding right now!"

Well I hadn't actually signed up, so it wasn't like they were expecting me to be there.

I drove off and forgot about it again until now.

I think totally forgetting about WoW and then not even caring once you do remember qualifies as another nail in the coffin for me.

Blogs, forums and Jerks : Oh My!

In a suprise announcement Tobold is taking a break from blogging for 3 weeks. After the 3 weeks is over he'll decide if he wants to continue blogging again.

Hopefully I'm paraphrasing correctly when I say he's taking a break because of the rude tangents some commenters take on his blog. His main reason for blogging is to have discussion about topics he's interested in, not spend time moderating, filtering through garbage of other commenters agendas.

I'm reminded of one of Tseric's (an ex-WoW forum Community Manager) last posts before he left to do other things:

"When you can understand how a group of belligerent and angry posters can drive away people from this game with an uncrafted and improvisational campaign of misery and spin-doctoring, then perhaps, you can understand the decisions I make. Until you face mobs of psychology, you will not see my side.

Until you see some bright-eyed player coming onto the forums wanting to know what they should spec as this class, and see them shat on and driven away by petty and selfish people who are simply leveraging for game buffs, you will not understand.

You will not understand until you have to see it daily, for years...

Until you understand that many people will trod over you to get where they're going, or to get what they want.

Until you understand that so many people will agree, completely, 100% with a loud, vulgar and assertive individual, not because he is right, but because he is making a stand against "the Man"; to take no critical thought in what they say, but simply to hop on board."

Now while I read Tobold's blog with some regularity, I don't usually keep up with all the comments to his posts. I can't say exactly if Tseric's experience is what Tobold is going through but it sure sounds like it.

I've posted genuine questions on WoW forums, hoping for advice, comments, suggestions or some form of discourse by the people who supposedly love the game and instead have been met with negativity. I take it in stride of course. The suggestion is usually to go to Elitist Jerks if you want better conversation, but even that forum has been invaded by garbage you have to sift through to get anything of real use.

Like a commenter said, this is a result of "e-fame". Tobold is popular and WoW is popular and Elitist Jerks is popular and with the larger audiences you risk being exposed to a larger amount of...jerks.

I made a post previously about how EJ seems to no longer be able to keep up with the amount of unhelpful posts that make it to their forums. It is expected on WoW forums, but EJ expounds it is a "site dedicated to intelligent discussion".

I think EJ should take a cue from Tobold. I realize shutting down may not be an option, but they should revoke everyone's access. Perhaps only allow certain people to post, everyone can search and read of course, but you should have some sort of credibility before you are allowed to post. Hmm that's starts veering into free speech and the like...

(I realize this post ends abruptly, sorry for now!)

Player-made content: City of Heroes

I purchased City of Heroes so I could try out the architect edition.

Pros:

* Easy to create a mission. It's easy to create a plain mission. This gets your feet wet. This kinda leads to a con, its also easy to create a crappy mission with mispellings, omissions and the like.

* Takes time to create unique mission. It takes a bit longer to create a mission using your own custom characters. But that has always been the fun of CoH.

Cons:

* The maps are limited. Unless I'm missing something you only a few basic choices - cave, warehouse, cargo hold, bank and a few more. It is really hard to get truly creative when you're stuck to the basic maps. I did come across unique maps, but they were just modifications of the basic ones. If they somehow allow more creativity to user made maps that would be a plus.

* I didn't think about it until I was ready to create my very first mission that since EVERYONE is creating missions the odds anyone will bother to play yours is low. Yes the fun is in creating the mission, but at least for me, satisfaction is from finding out whether anyone enjoyed your creation. Now do you see why Blizzard may have wanted more than 1% of their player base to experience the original Naxxramas?

* I doubt the most creative missions are the most used. You can farm levels in CoH and the missions that allow for that are popular.

* The most popular missions are...the most popular missions. Yes it is great that the missions rated well can be filtered to the top. But guess which missions you're most likely to choose. One from the first page vs one on the 101st page. I'm sure the most popular missions are that way for a reason. But I'm sure that leaves some nuggets unearthed. No I'm not saying *my* mission is a gold nugget!

* The quickest path is a straight line. I think they did the game a diservice by allowing all of the player made creations to have a common portal. And easily accessible one at that. It is great that I have access to all of the player made missions from one access point. It is great that I can reach this access point with a short trip. I won't bother explaining why these 2 great things are horrible for the game.


How long with architect edition keep me occupied? Not long. After playing around with it to figure out how to create something I'm already a bit bored with it. Now it is just a matter of doing it all over again for another mission. That won't stay fun for long.

Essentially the boredom with creating the missions is due to the boredom of playing City of Heroes to being with. There's just not much to it. But since I don't want to play any game much anyway right now it's actually perfect.