So yesterday I go on the Lord of the Rings Online website for the heck of it. I was following that game pretty closely right up until it launched, then I played the beta, was bored out of my mind, and passed it off with a definitive "meh." Yesterday I thought, "You know, maybe they're doing something new with the game now, they've had a year to work on it."
Turns out they are doing something: They're selling the game for ten bucks. For that, you get the full game and get to play for a month. Also, the monthly price has fallen from $15 to $9.99.
So I bought it. I know, I know, I was just talking about how heavy I was into City of Heroes. You know what? I still am. I'm not giving that up, and I'm still playing EQ on Wednesdays with my friends, believe it or not.
I didn't drop the money on the game honestly believing that I'd be sucked into it. MMOs have a hard time doing that to me anymore. It was just... you know, *ten bucks.* Why not? At these prices I'll take the plunge. If I feel guilty later I'll skip my coffee for a few days. I'd even be willing to throw down for Jess, Josh, and Randi so they could try it with me. I could do that and *still* not be paying as much as I would for a normal game off the rack at Gamestop.
(Actually, I wouldn't even need to do that, come to think of it. They've got a free trial of the game rolling right now. Hmm.)
In other news, work is going exceedingly well. It seems at the moment, here in the office, I can do no wrong. Go me.
Anyway, lunch is over. Will write more later.
30 June 2008
23 June 2008
Lovin' It
So, today begins the "divided days" work model that I was talking about to most of my readers. If you haven't heard, let me bring you up to speed: As of today, I spend the first part of my 8 hour shift out at one plant location, then I wheel across town and spend the second half of the day at the other. It takes about ten minutes to walk from where my office is out to my car, then ten minutes to drive from point A to point B, then ten more to walk in to my other office. So I kill a half hour with this transition every day.
This has the very agreeable side-effect of making my days seem really short somehow. Instead of one goal that's 8 hours away, I have two goals that are four hours away each. I still spend the same amount of time working day to day, but it really doesn't feel like that somehow. Hmm.
Anyway, possibly playing EQ with four players has been the topic of discussion for the last couple days. Me, I'm all over this. I love it when the four of us game together.
This has the very agreeable side-effect of making my days seem really short somehow. Instead of one goal that's 8 hours away, I have two goals that are four hours away each. I still spend the same amount of time working day to day, but it really doesn't feel like that somehow. Hmm.
Anyway, possibly playing EQ with four players has been the topic of discussion for the last couple days. Me, I'm all over this. I love it when the four of us game together.
20 June 2008
Gift Idea
I want to give plenty of warning on this. My birthday's still a couple months off, but the long heads-up is probably going to be necessary in the end.
I want only one thing for my birthday. I will accept it from anyone.
Somebody figure out how to get the theme from The Office onto my phone as a ringtone. Sounds easy, right? It ain't. I have no 'net or texting service on this phone. I do, however, have bluetooth file transfer capability. The answer to this problem will likely have to do with getting the ringtone file into the phone via that method. How, exactly, I have no idea.
I could probably solve this one for myself, true. But I don't want to. I'd rather someone figure it out for me and call it my birthday gift. My phone is a Samsung SGH-D357 if that helps.
I want only one thing for my birthday. I will accept it from anyone.
Somebody figure out how to get the theme from The Office onto my phone as a ringtone. Sounds easy, right? It ain't. I have no 'net or texting service on this phone. I do, however, have bluetooth file transfer capability. The answer to this problem will likely have to do with getting the ringtone file into the phone via that method. How, exactly, I have no idea.
I could probably solve this one for myself, true. But I don't want to. I'd rather someone figure it out for me and call it my birthday gift. My phone is a Samsung SGH-D357 if that helps.
12 June 2008
Take a deep breath...
Now that I am calm, I guess I should clarify my entry from yesterday a bit. I've had the chance to think back on my experiences with EQ now and "remember the good times", as it is said.
Thinking back on it, the ratio was about 80% suck and 20% awesome. It's that 80% that gets my ire up, makes me really angry when I think about it. I know it seemed like I was aiming all of my anger at Josh and Randi. I think they were under the impression that they were the only ones I played the game with, and that therefore I was blaming every bad experience I ever had in the game on them. If it felt that way, I apologize. That was not my intent. Quite the opposite, in fact. J, R, you two are the only ones I ever really enjoyed playing with. You guys comprised most of the 20% up there. Admittedly, not when I was being powerleveled--that was boring and stunted my interest in the game rather badly--but everything else was great.
EQ is a touchy subject for me, that's all. I sincerely apologize for taking my anger out on you two. You didn't deserve that.
Thinking back on it, the ratio was about 80% suck and 20% awesome. It's that 80% that gets my ire up, makes me really angry when I think about it. I know it seemed like I was aiming all of my anger at Josh and Randi. I think they were under the impression that they were the only ones I played the game with, and that therefore I was blaming every bad experience I ever had in the game on them. If it felt that way, I apologize. That was not my intent. Quite the opposite, in fact. J, R, you two are the only ones I ever really enjoyed playing with. You guys comprised most of the 20% up there. Admittedly, not when I was being powerleveled--that was boring and stunted my interest in the game rather badly--but everything else was great.
EQ is a touchy subject for me, that's all. I sincerely apologize for taking my anger out on you two. You didn't deserve that.
11 June 2008
Eating Counted Crows
This morning I find myself both abashed and pissed off. Prepare yourself, you are about to read a post full of petulant whining about something really dumb. If this does not interest you, stop reading now. You have been warned.
Josh and Randi made a point to me last night. It took me a full night and a morning to realize it, but when I was told last night, "Sure, Jason, we'll play City of Heroes with you! You pay for our accounts and we'll commit to a couple nights a week," that they were making fun of me. I'd made a similar offer a couple months ago regarding EverQuest. So, point taken, having it fired back at me in this manner does make it sound like a decidedly stupid thing to say. I concede that, and I apologize.
Since we're slinging mud here, though, I would like to take this opportunity to at least attempt to defend myself.
People (not just J & R, but a lot of people I still talk to from back in the day) think that I'm unnecessarily hard on EverQuest. While it's true that I rant about them, really the outdated graphics and sound don't bother me in the slightest. The somewhat repetitive gameplay is expected and embraced by me. A guy I used to play with and now work with, James, was the first person to call it. He guessed I just had sour grapes because I wasn't able to keep up, because I just didn't have it in me to put in ten hours a night. He's right. Oh MAN is he right.
I have absolutely nothing but poor memories of EverQuest. Everyone else I knew had a great time with it, but I never did. It caused friendships to turn rocky and girlfriends to leave. It caused me depression. It caused me to, when I tried to catch up with the people around me who were also playing, to go for long stretches (I think the longest one was a week) without a shower or sleep. It caused my parents to send me to counseling because they were certain I was about to kill myself at one point. (I wasn't.) I seriously can't think of a single time I ever had fun playing it. It caused me nothing but grief.
The fun of that game was supposed to be playing with your friends, either the ones you had in real life or the ones you made in the game. That's what I wanted out of it. Play with my friends. Except, I never got that. As I said, I didn't have the stamina to devote every ounce of my free time to the game. Everyone I knew who played outpaced me in a hurry and I couldn't play with them anymore. *They* all could play with one another, of course, and I'm sure had a million laughs in the process. I got invariably left behind. I was told they didn't mean for it to work out that way. The prevailing theory the whole time I guess was, "Well, we can keep playing. Jason'll catch up." But of course I couldn't. Catching up implies leveling at a faster speed. How in the hell was I supposed to do that?! Put in more time than them? They were already playing ten hours a night and every single available minute of every weekend! How do you top that?
I remember this vididly: At one point, this problem was realized and everybody was really sorry. "OK, here's what we'll do. We'll make a set of characters and only ever play them together. If someone can't play that night, we won't play those characters. We'll go back to our mains." Great. Perfect plan and I was overjoyed to hear it. Finally I'd get to play the game with my friends and have fun. Imagine my surprise when, after logging off one night and skipping a night to do something else (I think my family was having a cookout or something, I can't remember), I logged back on the following day to find everybody fifteen levels higher than me.
What the hell? And what was more, nobody could really offer an explanation on that. It was like, "Well, what were we supposed to do, wait on you?" YES, DAMNIT! YES! THAT WAS THE WHOLE FUCKING POINT! I would have waited on any of them if they'd been gone that day, so why am I denied the same courtesy?
So, after a couple more attempts at that plan with the same thing happening, I gave up on it. Instead I started asking to be powerleveled. By now, the game was well and truly dead for me, but I thought I'd at least strangle all my options before giving up the ghost permanently. Leveling was slower in the high end. I thought maybe if I could just get there, I'd be able to play enough to keep up. And, hey! At least I'd be playing with my friends again, if only as a miserable toadie. That was better than nothing.
The trouble was, by the time I started asking for this powerleveling, everyone else was unbelievably high level. So I needed a lot. This is where my reputation as an EQ moocher arose. Pretty soon people were putting me on ignore lists and making up excuses when I hit them on AIM asking about it.
In the background of all this, by the way, I had about four girlfriends, all of which dumped me primarily because I was an EQ nerd. The friendships I had (ok, to be fair, they were more like acquaintances; I never have had many real friends) that didn't involve the game had long since whithered away. And, as I mentioned, I'd slipped into a severe depression and my parents were sending me to counseling and considering more penetrating therapy.
Finally, I decided I'd had enough and hung EverQuest up for good. I moved on to other games, tasting of many different flavors, trying to find one I fit in on. A few have been close. I actually managed to max out on Star Wars Galaxies, for instance. Only took three years. (For reference, most people could accomplish it in a couple of weeks. Don't ask me how, I have no idea.) Shame I'm married and have a life now, it might have been worth it to see what it was all about. Hang out with my guild, do the high-end content, all that stuff. See what I missed in other words.
Just recently, as my current friends know, Sony offered me some free EQ time to come back and try the game out. Sweet of Sony to do that to me, make all that mud in my head resurface. But, you know? I'm older and wiser, and the friends I have that still play have more structured lives. I figured maybe it would be different this time. So I reinstalled it, made a character, and once again Josh and Randi made new characters. The agreement was once again struck. "Ok, we're only going to play these together. We'll level up at roughly the same rate and have good times and be friends and it'll be fun." Superb. Except... when I logged on for the first time, there they were, one of them already ten levels over me. What was more, they were all twinked out in high level gear that they'd gotten from their other characters. Wow, guess *I'll* be useful in this group, huh?
We played one session. I got to level 8. I had fun but I got the distinct impression that they didn't, which bore out because I was never asked to play again. A few days later Josh mentions it in passing, saying something to the order of, "Yeah... your guy's still level 8 or so, huh?" That was all I needed to hear. I'd been left in the dust once again, even though we'd agreed to try and stay roughly the same level to start.
(I heard later that they were waiting for *me* to invite myself into their playtime, which tastes like pure bullshit to me. HELLO!? You two have a slew of max level characters to play, you have a guild to look after, you have other time commitments I don't have. EverQuest is your house now and you wanted me to invite myself in?! Yeah right, I don't buy it.)
So, when I said I'd play if you guys were footing the bill, I was only being half-serious. Half, because the only way I'd ever let someone push that shit down my throat again is if they were paying or if I was somehow otherwise getting it for free. That game has done nothing but abuse me and it's left some serious scars. I will never again spend another fucking dime on it.
Rant over.
Josh and Randi made a point to me last night. It took me a full night and a morning to realize it, but when I was told last night, "Sure, Jason, we'll play City of Heroes with you! You pay for our accounts and we'll commit to a couple nights a week," that they were making fun of me. I'd made a similar offer a couple months ago regarding EverQuest. So, point taken, having it fired back at me in this manner does make it sound like a decidedly stupid thing to say. I concede that, and I apologize.
Since we're slinging mud here, though, I would like to take this opportunity to at least attempt to defend myself.
People (not just J & R, but a lot of people I still talk to from back in the day) think that I'm unnecessarily hard on EverQuest. While it's true that I rant about them, really the outdated graphics and sound don't bother me in the slightest. The somewhat repetitive gameplay is expected and embraced by me. A guy I used to play with and now work with, James, was the first person to call it. He guessed I just had sour grapes because I wasn't able to keep up, because I just didn't have it in me to put in ten hours a night. He's right. Oh MAN is he right.
I have absolutely nothing but poor memories of EverQuest. Everyone else I knew had a great time with it, but I never did. It caused friendships to turn rocky and girlfriends to leave. It caused me depression. It caused me to, when I tried to catch up with the people around me who were also playing, to go for long stretches (I think the longest one was a week) without a shower or sleep. It caused my parents to send me to counseling because they were certain I was about to kill myself at one point. (I wasn't.) I seriously can't think of a single time I ever had fun playing it. It caused me nothing but grief.
The fun of that game was supposed to be playing with your friends, either the ones you had in real life or the ones you made in the game. That's what I wanted out of it. Play with my friends. Except, I never got that. As I said, I didn't have the stamina to devote every ounce of my free time to the game. Everyone I knew who played outpaced me in a hurry and I couldn't play with them anymore. *They* all could play with one another, of course, and I'm sure had a million laughs in the process. I got invariably left behind. I was told they didn't mean for it to work out that way. The prevailing theory the whole time I guess was, "Well, we can keep playing. Jason'll catch up." But of course I couldn't. Catching up implies leveling at a faster speed. How in the hell was I supposed to do that?! Put in more time than them? They were already playing ten hours a night and every single available minute of every weekend! How do you top that?
I remember this vididly: At one point, this problem was realized and everybody was really sorry. "OK, here's what we'll do. We'll make a set of characters and only ever play them together. If someone can't play that night, we won't play those characters. We'll go back to our mains." Great. Perfect plan and I was overjoyed to hear it. Finally I'd get to play the game with my friends and have fun. Imagine my surprise when, after logging off one night and skipping a night to do something else (I think my family was having a cookout or something, I can't remember), I logged back on the following day to find everybody fifteen levels higher than me.
What the hell? And what was more, nobody could really offer an explanation on that. It was like, "Well, what were we supposed to do, wait on you?" YES, DAMNIT! YES! THAT WAS THE WHOLE FUCKING POINT! I would have waited on any of them if they'd been gone that day, so why am I denied the same courtesy?
So, after a couple more attempts at that plan with the same thing happening, I gave up on it. Instead I started asking to be powerleveled. By now, the game was well and truly dead for me, but I thought I'd at least strangle all my options before giving up the ghost permanently. Leveling was slower in the high end. I thought maybe if I could just get there, I'd be able to play enough to keep up. And, hey! At least I'd be playing with my friends again, if only as a miserable toadie. That was better than nothing.
The trouble was, by the time I started asking for this powerleveling, everyone else was unbelievably high level. So I needed a lot. This is where my reputation as an EQ moocher arose. Pretty soon people were putting me on ignore lists and making up excuses when I hit them on AIM asking about it.
In the background of all this, by the way, I had about four girlfriends, all of which dumped me primarily because I was an EQ nerd. The friendships I had (ok, to be fair, they were more like acquaintances; I never have had many real friends) that didn't involve the game had long since whithered away. And, as I mentioned, I'd slipped into a severe depression and my parents were sending me to counseling and considering more penetrating therapy.
Finally, I decided I'd had enough and hung EverQuest up for good. I moved on to other games, tasting of many different flavors, trying to find one I fit in on. A few have been close. I actually managed to max out on Star Wars Galaxies, for instance. Only took three years. (For reference, most people could accomplish it in a couple of weeks. Don't ask me how, I have no idea.) Shame I'm married and have a life now, it might have been worth it to see what it was all about. Hang out with my guild, do the high-end content, all that stuff. See what I missed in other words.
Just recently, as my current friends know, Sony offered me some free EQ time to come back and try the game out. Sweet of Sony to do that to me, make all that mud in my head resurface. But, you know? I'm older and wiser, and the friends I have that still play have more structured lives. I figured maybe it would be different this time. So I reinstalled it, made a character, and once again Josh and Randi made new characters. The agreement was once again struck. "Ok, we're only going to play these together. We'll level up at roughly the same rate and have good times and be friends and it'll be fun." Superb. Except... when I logged on for the first time, there they were, one of them already ten levels over me. What was more, they were all twinked out in high level gear that they'd gotten from their other characters. Wow, guess *I'll* be useful in this group, huh?
We played one session. I got to level 8. I had fun but I got the distinct impression that they didn't, which bore out because I was never asked to play again. A few days later Josh mentions it in passing, saying something to the order of, "Yeah... your guy's still level 8 or so, huh?" That was all I needed to hear. I'd been left in the dust once again, even though we'd agreed to try and stay roughly the same level to start.
(I heard later that they were waiting for *me* to invite myself into their playtime, which tastes like pure bullshit to me. HELLO!? You two have a slew of max level characters to play, you have a guild to look after, you have other time commitments I don't have. EverQuest is your house now and you wanted me to invite myself in?! Yeah right, I don't buy it.)
So, when I said I'd play if you guys were footing the bill, I was only being half-serious. Half, because the only way I'd ever let someone push that shit down my throat again is if they were paying or if I was somehow otherwise getting it for free. That game has done nothing but abuse me and it's left some serious scars. I will never again spend another fucking dime on it.
Rant over.
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