Complete Heal

Over the last few days, I’ve been grinding away (if you can call it that in EQ2) and am now 30% from level 60. My guild Combine Syndicate just finished the T6 raid content and unlocked their characters for a three week leveling trip to 70 where we will experience T7 raid content together. We plan to stay at T7, with locked characters, and experience all of the content in a “progression” mode until it’s down and then we will move on to T8.

Although I’m having a great time in EQ2, the pending pre-select, early entry and launch of Aion is hard to resist. I love playing games at release. There is just something about everyone on a level playing field entering a fresh new virgin world that is very appealing to me. I’m also a sucker for amazing graphics and Aion delivers on that point. I think if I give Aion a chance, I could really get into the game. At the same time, I’ve been around the block long enough to realize that game play is what really matters and community is what keeps my attention over the long term. To a certain extent, it’s a shame that I’ve grown up and have more limited play times these days. I’d love to spend all day playing Aion and EQ2 and lots of other titles. I could seriously play these games all day long. I just love playing MMOs.

I’ve got about a half dozen major MMO’s installed on my main gaming machine right now. I’ve got four gaming machines set up in my office. I’d love to be able to play more games – there just isn’t enough time. For me to get out of these games what I want to get out of them, I have to narrow the field down a bit and focus on one or two titles. I dread having to make this choice. For example, I’d hate to have to abandon ship on Aion to keep up with the leveling and raiding schedule an active raid guild in EQ2 requires. At the same time, I don’t want to play Aion for a few weeks, get burned out and toss the game in my stack of johnny come lately wasted titles only to realize my opportunities in EQ2 have passed. At the end of the day, I just need to remember to play for fun and for all of you out there that have lots of time – don’t take it for granted. Game while you can. Oh yeah, don’t ignore RL either. By the way, does anyone want to buy a barely used PS3, 360 or Wii? My consoles are collecting dust. Long live PC gaming.

Updates may be a bit slow over the next few days as like many of you our family is celebrating Christmas and the holiday season. Let me first wish all of you a wonderful holiday. One of my first MMO memories was in a game called Asheron’s Call. It was the first title released by Turbine – creators of DDO and Lord of the Rings Online. Asheron’s Call was a fantastic game and it came out around the time EQ was released. In fact, the game is still running today. I think Ultima Online, EQ and Asheron’s Call are the oldest major MMOs still running. Pretty wild. Anyways, one of the early items in AC that was coveted was the Hoary Mattekar Robe. You had to hunt this mob that was only in game around the holidays. Eventually, I think they put him in the game full time but he was a special deal in the beginning. Here is is below in all his glory.

I played a Tank Archer in Asheron’s Call. Originally I played on the Leafcull server with a group called “Forward Artillery.” The leader played as Kira Argounova and was a designer at Epic where he helped make some of the Unreal games. Anyways, our crew consisted of me, Kira, Takashi Kimura, Jonas and a guy named Reiko Youngblood. I haven’t talked to most of these guys in years but they were great players and even better friends. I hope they are all doing well in whatever they are doing today. I know Jonas went on to raid with Fires of Heaven in EQ and I think he’s playing WOW somewhere today. Back to the robe…

So you had to find this special Mattekar and hope he dropped a hide. If he did, you could turn it in and get one of these. I remember going to this mountainous area which was covered in snow. After running across several regular mattekars I found the Hoary and he dropped this hide. The hide was so rare, people in towns took notice. Remember when rare items meant something? Take World of Warcraft for instance where everyone is in epics with big shoulders and glowy weapons. Who is the successful player. Everyone? I don’t know, I still think there is something to be said about risk vs. reward and having to work for things. Maybe I’m old fashioned. That’s it for today. Hope you all are enjoying your holiday with family in friends. Shut off the computer – enjoy some time off.