The Other Kind of Rock and Roll

Post soundtrack: “I Feel the Earth Move” by Carole King

It’s been an…  interesting week down here.  We had a little 7.1 magnitude earthquake here in sunny Christchurch early last Saturday morning, and things are only just starting to settle down (finally).  Thanks to a combination of timing and a solid building code, there was only one death (a heart attack during the quake) and two serious injuries (a man injured by a collapsing chimney and another man badly cut by glass).

Fortunately the suburb that I live in didn’t suffer any serious damage (both the power and internet remained on for me, as did the water although it was necessary to boil it before use for a few days as a precautionary measure); unfortunately, other areas haven’t been as lucky.  A sizeable number of buildings have been left damaged, especially in the CBD and the east side of the city.  Still, barring a much larger aftershock than the 3-5 ones we’ve been enjoy since the quake, the drama is all over and we’re working on picking up the pieces and getting our lives back in order.  (And we don’t need charity; we’re pretty well supported already)

Personally, I’m still kind of on tenterhooks to some degree; I wasn’t particularly anxious during (and after) the quake itself, but the steady stream of aftershocks are starting to leave me feeling increasingly shaken (both literally and figuratively), especially when they’ve been going on for days as is the case here (apparently as I write this there’s been anywhere between 200 and 400 magnitude 3 or greater aftershocks since the quake a week ago, depending on which expert you ask).

Needless to say, my pc gaming has been pretty sporadic.  I’ve spent more time over the last few days playing tower defense games on my ipod than I have playing much else on the pc.  (And doesn’t the new ipod touch look appealing? I’m seriously considering saving for one, and maybe one of the new shuffles to free up space on my touch for more games if I pick up the cheaper 8gb model.)

Touching on WoW briefly, it was interesting to see the new Gnome and Troll quest chains have finally gone live.  I wonder if that means we’re getting even closer to the Cata launch – anyone care to put money on it being under 3 months away?  Needless to say, the news of something new to do in-game made me consider whether it’s time to re-sub to the game, but after reading of Gnomeageddon’s disappointment I’ve decided to give it another month.  (I’d have to finish levelling a horde-side character to do the troll chain as well)

I very briefly logged into LotRO for the f2p headstart, but haven’t bothered to go past the store after finding that the turbine points I was supposed to have earned haven’t shown up yet.  It turns out that a number of players are in the same situation, and leaves me wondering why they bothered going ahead with a headstart if they couldn’t give players their stipend to spend before the event ended. (The word “bone-headed” comes to mind…)

My time in EQ2E has also dwindled for some reason. I’ve joined a couple of guilds (each character in a different one), but for some reason I just haven’t been able to settle into the group, and my play sessions have been generally dissatisfying. It’s probably more my solitary nature coming to the fore, but it’s still left me irritated (albeit with myself).

On my ipod, on the other hand…  Between Fieldrunners, The Creeps and TowerMadness, my TD itch is being well and truly scratched (and that’s not counting the other 6 TD games I have installed).  I’m kind of ambivalent about the Game Center functionality that Apple added with OS4.1 though; it just looks like an unwieldy version of what you can already get with OpenFeint and Plus+ (and probably a number of other social platforms offer).

Well, it’s getting late so I’m going to cut my post short around here.  I’ll just add that I’m now on twitter (like all the other cool kids), but don’t say much (in much the same way as I am IRL).

Two more links before I go: “Thirteen things I learnt from an earthquake.” and an alternate version of “I Feel The Earth Move” by Loretta Swit and the Muppets.

/wave

EQ2: To Heck With It, I’m Having Fun

Post soundtrack: “Pulp Culture” by Thomas Dolby

I know I ranted, and raved, and complained when EverQuest II Extended was announced…  (I did draw the line at throwing excrement, however – something I’m relieved about in hindsight)  But I’ve since downloaded and installed the Extended client, and have started working on a new Ratonga after reading an enlightening post on Mystic Worlds.

The post, Logic of Subscribing on EQ2 Extended, reminded me of two things that had slipped my mind.  First, it’s possible to have fun despite external limitations.  And second, it’s silly to be put off something wonderful by something (or someone) disagreeable.

Oh, and third, it’s fine to change your mind.

(Also, with the pleasure I took in leveling Mingle, the phrase “Cutting off the nose to spite the face” comes to mind)

Reading back to my throw-my-toys-out-of-the-cot post about why I was leaving, I think my complaints still hold true.  I still expect to get lost.  The lore isn’t really well explaining.  And crafting is only going to be more difficult, with the chronic lack of bag space for non-subscribers.

But I’ve started to come to terms with the RMT nature of the game – I might not agree with the prices, but I’m not the target audience for most of what they’re offering.  As it is, all the game has cost me so far has been the data to download the client (which is still streaming in the background – 12GB takes a while, but you’re no longer stuck until the download has completed) and my time.

I had sufficient station cash on my account from special offers in the past (SC is the currency that Sony uses in their various in-game stores) to allow me to unlock Ratongas (along with another couple of races I’ll likely never play), so buying that pack was a no-brainer.  I’ll probably be making my initial purchase of SC this weekend, which will raise my membership level to silver and give me an extra bag slot to play with (and I’m thinking of buying some diamonds as well, the Runes of Magic currency).

Incidentally, I’d started playing before the news surfaced on the forums today that SOE are going to be allowing bronze and silver members to purchase classes in the near future, and are considering changing the bronze chat limitations (currently limited to /say, /tell, /group and /guild) and may be allowing bronze and silver some form of access to the broker.  So that’s my biggest complaint about the EQ2E tiered-membership system fixed, and another one that might be soon.

Anyway, it’s been a nice, low-pressure couple of weeks – I’ve been playing Spellforce (a nice RPG/RTS combo from 2003, which was on special on Gamersgate), started playing Runes of Magic (which is deserving of a post of its own at some stage), (re-)started EQ2E, and briefly played Alganon (very briefly; after I was able to stop turning my nose up at it, uninstalled it and deleted the installation files, something I’m rarely driven to do).

I’m also having something of a dalliance with the idea of learning German.  (Yes, I have a foolish reason why: Perry Rhodan)

And twitter…  Well, let’s just say, I’m exploring my options.  (On that note, can anyone recommend a good twitter client for windows?)

Well, Pringlerouse awaits my attention – she’s busy with her betrayal quests, working towards signing up with Qeynos.  (Having run through 14 levels of Neriak starting quests, I’m very glad to not be dealing with their so-bad-they’re-almost-parody brand of evil any longer – I’m amazed there wasn’t a baby-eating delivery quest in there somewhere)

Oh, and a prize* for the first person to identify the source of the lyrics attached to the screenshot above.

/wave

* – 1x unopened sense of satisfaction – single owner, never used.  (Offer void where prohibited by law)

EQ2 – Moving On

Post soundtrack: Everquest 2 Main Title (Long Version)

Well, despite the appeal of my Ratonga and Froglok, my vague dissatisfaction with the game (and general disgruntlement about the direction that SOE is taking both the free-to-play version where about 2/3 of the classes are only available by subscription, and the increasingly obtrusive RMT store in the live version) have led me to unsubscribe and start looking for whatever will be my next MMO.

There was a lot that EQ2 did right, but I was just getting lost (and frustrated) with a lot of the game.  A lot of this came from the lack of explanation for some of the mechanics (heroic opportunities, for example).  The rest of it come from the fact that I just couldn’t find context for a lot of it – the lore proved to be pretty impenetrable in-game, and out-of-game resources were either ridiculously light-weight or up to 5 years out-of-date.

Still, despite the frustration (yes I could have asked for directions, but I’m a pretty antisocial player, especially in a game that’s new to me, especially one with such an established and experienced player base) I almost didn’t quit.  Watching the Ratonga idle animations, and the realistic way Ringle blinked while I was taking my last screenshots before I logged out and uninstalled (I had a pet rat when I was younger, so yes, I know how a rat blinks) was one of those moments when a game can do something so simply immersive that it makes you take a mental step back for a moment, and go “Wow!”

Unfortunately the rest of the game just wasn’t working for me.  Tradeskills are a one-trick-pony (admittedly I got the feeling I could have gotten a handle on them, but the press-one-of-six-buttons mechanic just wasn’t fun), combat is your bog-standard button-bar system (apart from heroic opportunities, which I think are supposed to have some greater depth in groups – or at least I think they did, remember what I said about a frustrating lack of information?), and why do mount items tooltips say they have a 1-day duration when they’re apparently (maybe? possibly?) permanent items?

Graphically, the game is a mixed bag.  Some of the character models (mmmmm, Ratongas) are awesome.  But a lot are dated, and generally “Meh” (all of the humanoid races spring to mind there).  Many of the monster models are also surprisingly detailed and colourful.  Which is great, until you see them standing around low-polygon terrain, looking as out-of-place as gold-foil edging on disposable paper plates.  Still, the newer terrain for places such as the starting zone of New Halaas (where the low-poly count isn’t as bad) can actually look pretty good, especially compared to the boring height-map nature of WoW landscapes – there’s only so much you can do to disguise that, although Blizz did it’s darnedest to try with Wrath, and will be giving it the old college try with Cataclysm.

The game had some pretty good music as well – the Antonica theme was particularly enjoyable (a good thing, considering how much I heard it while Ringle spent there, doing low-level quests).  There wasn’t quite the same immersiveness as the WoW music, but five years of listening to it may have something to do with that.

Ah well, back to Defense Grid (and Slay on my ipod) for the time-being, while I consider what game to try next.  Considering City of Heroes and Champions Online have trials, maybe it’s superhero time?

/wave

EQ2 – Would You Free-To-Play It?

Post soundtrack: “Gonna Make You An Offer You Can’t Refuse” by Jimmy Helms

Well, I have to admit this news caught me off-guard.  Everquest 2 will be offering free-to-play servers, going live (in an open-beta with no character wipes kind of way) next month.  Welcome to the brave new world of Everquest II Extended.

It looks like they’re following the Turbine model, with the basic game free to play (subject lots of restrictions for the base account), but instead of limiting quest access they’ve appear to be making almost everything else available for purchase.  The chart of the different plans and what they have available for each tier is an interesting look: link

So subscribers get pretty much the existing game (players who buy a full year sub in advance get bonus station cash each month, but standard monthly subs don’t), but non-subscribers have limits on character races, classes, character slots, spell tiers and equipment grades, bag slots (this one surprised me), coins (a maximum gold-per-level cap), active quests, and broker (auction house) access.

It would appear that having purchased EQ2 will have no effect on what EQ2E content you have access to, unlike the upcoming LotRO changeover.  With LotRO, you keep access to the content you already have access to – if you’ve bought all the expansions, you will still be able to play everything you can now, only you don’t have that annoying subscription to pay.  With EQ2E, the existing EQ2 players will remain on their servers and if they create a new EQ2E character it will, regardless of the status of their accounts, start off with your basic free account limitations like new players.  (Sony have said that EQ2 characters can be copied to the EQ2E servers, but they arrive with no coins and only with ATTUNED and NO-TRADE items, and are then restricted to what your EQ2E account membership tier allows you access to.)

It’s going to be interesting to see what comes from this courageous, yet potentially divisive, move on Sony’s part – will existing subscribers feel they have to copy their characters (at US$35 each) across to the new servers?  Will the free-to-play servers breath some life into the game?  And what toll will this take on the existing subscription-only servers?

And more importantly, will this influence WoW’s future directions, if it proves successful for Sony?

/wave

EQ2: Belated First Impressions

Post soundtrack: “Pretty Girl” by Hogsnort Rupert

I was going to do this post first, but after starting to write about my experiences with my ratonga’s betrayal questing I decided to postpone this until…  well, now.   Enjoy!  (Or for those who refuse to enjoy it on principle, “Be bored quietly please, so as not to annoy everyone else in the room!”)

My original idea was to give this a try after I finished off with my underwhelming dalliance with SWG, before moving onto something else (probably Fallen Earth).  That plan, after a week spent thoroughly enjoying the experience of levelling a froglok past 20, turned into me buying it online, and I’m now getting my teeth into levelling a ratonga on a new server (with the plan further down the track of levelling another froglok – I’ve rolled the monk in the image above in preparation).

Anyway, here’s some of what I’ve noticed so far (no doubt biased by four years of WoW):

The initial character selection screen is a little intimidating (especially as someone new to the game, who is used to the min-maxing expected for raiding).  19 races to choose from?  And then one of two starting zones?  (Or four zones, if you’re a neutral race, which is how you decide your alignment)  And then you have to decide between 16 of the total of 24 classes?  Consider me lost.

Aesthetically, the beast races come somewhere between awesome (Frogloks and the Ratonga), kind of appealing (the feline Kerra) and not bad (the reptilian Iksar and the Sarnak, whatever they are).  The monstrous Ogres look like big, chunky humanoid bullies, and the Trolls look suitably Troll-ish – both appropriate for their purpose.  The other humanoid races, however are…  generally meh – think of them as beginner Poser models from a decade ago.  Except for the dwarven females, who have sideburns and beards.  wt…heck?  Seriously, if I’d not been so distracted by amphibians and rodents that I’d noticed that when I rolled my starting characters, it might have put me off the game completely.  (Yes, I take my dwarven female aesthetics that seriously)

Still – frogs, rats, cats, lizards…  No playable dog-people?  (Ah well, I guess WoW has that covered)

It’s really nice the way player and npc models’ heads move (including looking up and down) in reaction to their surroundings.  You walk up to someone and they look towards your character, meeting their eyes.  That is very immersive, let me tell you.

There’s quite a difference between New Halaa and older zones.  Admittedly, the high(er)-polygon terrain (while better than the older terrain) still doesn’t look that great up close, but it’s an improvement.  The questing flow, however, (from the two zones I’ve done so far) is a lot better in the new zone – Halaa has better defined questing hubs, but the Timorous Deep isn’t quite as centralised and has a lot more back-and-forth missions.

And on the subject of noticeable, compare New Halaa’s 3-dimensional terrain to the height-map terrain in WoW.  This is one area where WoW clearly looks inferior by comparison.

It’s amazing how steep a slope you can walk up – sometimes.

Griffons look funny.  Seriously.  They’re mount equivalent of the humanoid player models.

Maybe EQ did it first, but Aion does player character wings sooooo much better.

The stealth animation and effects are nice.  The initial ‘blue’ effect before your character becomes transparent did take some getting used to, however, but now it’s grown on me.  And there’s nothing quite like an (almost) invisible rat!

And speaking of stealth:  You can activate it while moving, and it isn’t broken by out-of-combat periodic damage!  Speaking as a long-time WoW rogue, this as all kinds of awesome.  (Exactly why this is so awesome would probably escape non-rogues, and non-cat-form-druids)

And look – non-human skeletons!

Revenge of Command-Line.  Seriously, I’ve not seen the command line referred to so much in a game.  Even claiming special pre-order items requires /claim.  (Edit: I later discovered that you can actually access them from the menu bar, but I had to find it myself)

Being able to change your home city is a nice touch.  Being able to change your faction is an awesome one.  (WTB dwarves for Horde, btw)

Crafting is curiously interactive, but not that intuitive.  I need to work on it, I think.  And if you want to level your Transmuting, it would appear you need to do so in the starting zone – unfortunately no-one tells you this.  (Hopefully I can get Ringle back there to do some starter quests for the item rewards – there is absolutely zero items in the auction house that are, a) low enough level that she can transmute them, and b) cheap enough that she can afford them.)

Bag space is also taking some getting used to – especially the way each bag window can be moved independently and remembers it’s location on screen, but you have to open them independently as well.  I need to see if there’s an open-all command I can keybind.  Cloth bags up to 8 slots in size can be bought pretty cheap from a vendor.  After that it appears they come from questing (I’ve managed to get a 10-slot bag from a tourism quest of Antonica, the level 10-20 zone outside Qeynos) or crafting.

Tailors make cloth bags, which have no weight but limited size.  Woodworkers make boxes, which weight 10 units but have a larger capacity – I bought a crafted 24-slot box for Ringle, which cost a third of her funds at the time but oooooh, the space.

Storage in general is kind of odd, actually.  You have your character’s bags.  Then bank space, and you can fill it with bags that you then fill with items, or just fill with items.  Plus the bank has an additional 8 or so slots that are shared between all your characters on that server.  Then there is player housing, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you can add some more storage there (although I haven’t explored that part as much just yet).

Collections!  A nice way to give players another time sink, looking for random items around the game-world.  These look like an effective way to keep players busy – if not to complete them for themselves, then at least to sell the items at the broker.  (Spotted butterflies seem particularly profitable so far – I think Ringle has made about 4g from them)

Monster masteries – you can learn their language, and eventually (after grinding on them for long enough) earn a bonus attack against their race.  (Fortunately each race gets the same attack on the same button, so you don’t have to worry about your action bar filling up)

The game looks pretty good on a modern pc, and it’s actually possible to run it on the absolute highest of settings without too much slowdown – admittedly I did have problems with areas of high ground foliage, which I reduced in density, and reflections in water (and water in general) can be problematic.  But aside from those, the game runs remarkably well – just don’t look too hard at the humanoid player models.

All in all, EQ is turning out to be a fun experience.  Not only is it remarkably open-ended so far, I’m enjoying my characters more than any other MMO I’ve tried since WoW.  Even LotRO, which is probably more technically and artistically appealing than EQ, hasn’t gotten me emotionally invested in my characters this much.

Will it last?  I’ve no idea.  But for now, it’s good, clean, anthropomorphic fun.  Also, cosmetic armour – trés awesome, or what?

/wave

EQ2: The Ratonga Who Changed Her Spots

Post soundtrack: “7 Days to Change Your Life” by Jamie Cullum

Just an aside: I was going to write a “my first impressions” post about EQ2, but after finally finishing the series of betrayal quests I wanted to put something down in pixels about the experience while it’s still fresh in my mind.  So if you feel this post is skipping over stuff, well, it kind of is.  (I’ll try get the ‘prequel’ finished soon though, to try give this one some more context)

After getting a feel for the game, leveling a cute little Froglok to 20 on another server, I decided to give another species a try.  In keeping with my “trend of falling in love with anthropomorphic animals,” I decided to give a Ratonga a try.  (The fact I had a pet rat as a kid may have something to do with their appeal)

In keeping with my other trend, namely “How hard can I make things for myself?” I decided that not only was I going to play a rat, I was going to switch her to the side of all that is good and wholesome and pure and the like.  And having finished the grind, I think I’m in a good position to say “Ouch.”

First of all, let’s be quite honest about my motives: I’m never comfortable playing an “evil” character in an RPG.  In Fallout 3, I was the epitomy of heroism and all related virtues.  Ditto with Morrowind and Dragon Age.  In WoW I’m almost exclusively Alliance (although my dislike of the the aesthetic of the horde races, especially those awful anorexic blood elves, has some influence).

I was surprisingly comfortable being evil (or at least, evil-lite) as assassin Ringle played through the starting zone of Timorous Deep and reached the Sarnak city of Gorowyn.  The quests, while pretty straight-forward MMO fodder, had some interesting storylines that explored the very turbulent relationship between the Sarnak and the Spirocs, a race of bird-like humanoids who share the island. 

Eventually the plot within which the starter quests are framed has you contemplating whether the Sarnak will commit genocide in order to secure themselves from their opponents, giving you quests where you’re undermining the framework of Spiroc society – killing their food gatherers, and poisoning their un-hatched eggs.

Fortunately (for my peace of mind) you don’t take the final steps, and are summoned to Gorowyn where you speak with high-ranking NPCs who express concern that they do not wish to take such action, and thank you for all you have done on the part of the Sarnak.  (Indeed, you are given quests to meet with Spiroc ambassadors to try broker some manner of peace, but unfortunately they have been so badly brutalised by the conflict that initial efforts turn out to be unsuccessful.  Whether you’re able to do so later I don’t know.)

I was level 21 at this stage; my plan had been to reach 20 and start the betrayal questline to become a nice, friendly rat – the chain is initially available at level 10, but I wanted to spend a little more time being evil.  Anyway, I found I had to change my home city, as Gorowyn doesn’t have a betrayal chain.  So off to Freeport I went.

I’ll just take a moment here to comment on my experiences over the last couple of days, regarding travel between continents:  “Argh! Just Shoot Me Now!” sums it up fairly accurately, I believe.  I think the only thing I didn’t do wrong, was travel somewhere without first picking up the quest that I’d need to turn in when I got there.

I’ve been to the wrong city.  I’ve been to the wrong continent.  I spent so much time running back and forth (sometimes in the right direction, sometimes not) that Ringle’s boots have started earning frequent-flier miles.  And then I discovered that I could use druid circles and wizard towers to fast-travel between continents.  (I was aware of fast-travel via boat by now, but often had trouble finding the in-world item to use to access it)

So, my initial opinion of world travel in the game, especially in regards to new players?  /facepalm

Anyway, back to the betrayal of all my kind stand for.

I switched my citizenship from Gorowyn to Freeport, and I encountered a little piece of flavour/lore that set the scene for the location quite effectively.  Namely, I’d walk past city guards, and they would kick me and knock me off my feet.  Apparently it’s something justified by lore, but it’s really put me off the city in a major way, and made the decision to go through with the betrayal an easy one.  (Seriously, I’m normally a very even-tempered person, but that was really starting to get under my skin)

It was doing this chain where I really encountered the first problem with the online resources for EQ2 – often they weren’t timestamped, and the older resources were sometimes slightly (or in some cases, completely) out of date.  One example was this brief guide: A Ratonga’s guide for Freeport to Kelethin Betrayal

The basic details (such as they were) are accurate, and this was where I learnt about both Druid Circles and Wizard Spires as transport methods.  But the circles and spires are now usable without any need to discover them before you access them from other sites – reach one, and you have access to the entire network (yay!).  Other instances were when I was trying to find quest info for my initial character, doing the New Halas starting zone, and having my searches keep giving me results for quests of the same name that are no longer in the game.

Similar results have come from searching for guides (such as for tradeskills and classes), where mostly unusable information tops the search results.  Unfortunately it’s a case of search-and-verify, when looking for information.

And back, yet again, to Ringle’s blackheartedness.

The initial stage, becoming exiled from Freeport, was fairly straightforward.  After speaking with Ambassador Brutus, I worked through a 5-quest chain in Freeport that left me exiled, and a resident of Haven.

The second stage was the most time-consuming.  Eventually I managed to make my way from Haven, via Thundering Steppes, to Gil McMartin in The Commonlands (which was, amusingly enough) just outside Freeport.  There Ringle started the quests in the Qeynos Faction Timeline.

I decided to work through the bounty hunting quests first, as it was easier to find a single target in a zone than spend an hour looking for multiple unknown locations with a zone the was some of the sabotage quests appeared.  Once I worked out where I was going and how to get there, it was simply a matter of ‘Pick up the quest, run to the wizard spire, port to Antonica, set up waypoint, hit Stealth, and start running.’

The mobs you have to kill are scaled to your level, so they’re (mostly) not too hard – at least, not until #14, but I’ll get to him.  The first five are all in Antonica, although they’re all over the map.  Numbers six through eight are in Nektulos Forest, fortunately not too far from a wizard spire.  Nine and ten are in the Thundering Steppes.  Eleven and twelve were interesting – West and North Freeport respectively.  (I’m soooo glad Ringle has stealth)

Number thirteen was more difficult, as the zone the target is located in (Zek) is level 30-40, and the wizard spire is some distance from his location.  Needless to say, death occurred – Ringle’s.  Fortunately the target is a lot easier to reach when you travel by boat, which I tried next.  Then came number fourteen.  And he wiped the floor with me, and repeatedly.

After the last death, I decided to go back to ‘grinding’ the last few faction that I needed – luckily there’s a very easy, high-faction, quest that’s not too difficult.  After maybe half an hour running Extracting the Defector, Ringle reached ‘amiable’ and then it was off to Qeynos to do the final stages of the chain.

Now, I don’t know whose decision it was to have you start to prove yourself by picking up garbage off the main highway out of Qeynos, but it…  Well, it makes for an interesting start to the process.  The quest-giver describes it as an act of humility, which I guess is accurate.  Then you donate a gold to charity (it’s ok, they give you back a receipt that you can sell for about 85 silver), and it’s on to one last combat mission and ding! citizenship.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I can catch up on Ringle’s crafting – and see if I can pick up some dangling quest starters so she can get into the swing of things as one of these new-fangled hero people.

And maybe, just maybe, I’ll be able to work out how to get there.

/wave

A Tourist In Tatooine

Post soundtrack: “A Fool Like Me” by Jmdee Beat feat. Tassel & Naturel

I was going to do a long post about Star Wars Galaxies, having spent a week playing the trial and mostly enjoying myself quite a bit.  But now I’m more interesting in a post about Everquest II, after spending a week playing the trial, and enjoying it so much I felt comfortable buying a copy.  Oh, and I (briefly) tried playing WoW in anaglyphic 3D.

Anyway, at the top of my list of things to talk about is SWG.  While the population of the game is a shadow of what it was at it’s pre-NGE peak, as someone who’s something of a fan of the Star Wars universe (and who usually levels sans company), it was kind of a fun game to finally visit – sadly I was unable to play the game at the time due to a resistance to the idea of paying a subscription to play a game (an objection to which it would appear I’ve overcome) and the lack of a credit card at the time.

I left before the 14-day trial ended because, sadly it just didn’t quite live up to my expectations in many, often rather subtle, ways.  A fun game, just not quite as much fun as I wish it could have been (and I doubt there will ever be another MMO set around the classic trilogy time period, with the focus now on the Old Republic).  Some of the issues were simply because of the age of the title – the UI is pretty dire in many ways, and some design choices just aren’t fun or don’t make sense.  (The in-game auction house was pretty awful – and not just because of the lack of things being sold)

The much-vaunted character customisation was indeed pretty impressive – sadly it was a little underwhelming when I didn’t really see any other players, to see what they did to make their characters different.  (It would actually have been great if they’d done something similar to droids, and allowed some degree of freedom in customising your companions – especially the ones you assembled yourself…  Ah, well, what might have been…)

Anyway, much of the game was fun, of course.  Space combat was a blast (quite literally) and, although grossly simplified from the days of X-Wing and Tie Fighter, was a lot of fun with a gamepad.  That is, apart from some bizarre respawn issues that left a couple of missions impossible to complete single-handed.  However that might simply be leftover from the high-population days where there were enough players to nullify that particular issue, or a bug, or maybe I was playing it wrong – I don’t really know.

Ground combat was pretty straight-forward, but it never really left me feeling I was in danger (unless I accidentally pulled an elite at the same time as my intended target).  It actually reminded me of Star Trek Online, only without the ‘assistance’ of your NPC crewmates.  (Admittedly that comparison could be due to the very small number of third-person sci-fi shooters I’ve ever played, giving me a very small pool of titles to compare it with)

Questing…  Well, that felt kind of tacked-on.  And considering that SWG was originally very much a sand-box game, perhaps ‘tacked-on’ is accurate.  (Incidentally, the ‘chronicles’ system, which lets you create – and sell – player-created quests using items dropped by npcs might have been interesting, if there were enough players to keep the system running.)

Unfortunately I didn’t get past Tatooine, so my screenshot folder is very salmon-hued.  And just as the landscape was all one colour, the droids were ridiculously lacking in variety as well.  Actually, I think the way droids were implemented (and the lack of variety among them, in-game) were one of the things I was least happy with.  (And not just because there were new-trilogy battle droids everywhere – ‘expanded universe’ only gets you so far, in my book) 

I think what killed the trial for me, was the number of times my planned sessions ran head-first into server downtimes and maintenance.  In the seven days I played, the server was already down for maintenance on two nights I tried to log on, and went down while I was playing on a third.  (It’s kind of an un-written rule, as far as oceanic players of US-based MMOs go, that any server downtime is timed to minimise the effect on US players by shifting it to NZ/Aus prime-time)  While it might just be bad timing on my part, the fact that I ran into it 3 days in the week I was trying to trial the game was really frustrating, and constituted this camel’s final straw.

Ah well, SWG was then uninstalled, and I decided to give EQ2 a try.  About 36 hours of downloading later, it was installed.  (Have I mentioned lately how much I really dislike streaming software installers?)

EQ can wait until next post, though – I should know better than to start writing at 2AM…  So, enjoy this little teaser of an upcoming post subject while I go throw myself at my bed.

/wave