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.