Amazing graphics in this game.  I find it really beautiful visually and interesting to play – the story line etc.  Unfortunately this game is so graphic card intensive my fps rate sucks really badly!  I’m going to have to replace my graphics card – apparently when I had this PC built last summer I managed to get one of the worst graphics cards out there – the Nvidia 7300 (I have two)!  Although playing in SLI has helped a bit – but then it needs to be reset to do anything else.  So, I’m trying to limp along until next month so I can get the 8800 or better. 

Back to the game itself – it is beautiful, the questing is easy to follow, leveling is easy and appears to be fast.  No repair bill for deaths is nice as is the choice of rez spots.  The difference in the cultures is played out well – I’m playing on Bane the cultural PvP server so that has been interesting in itself.  Two-thirds of the population are hostile while your ‘culture’ is not.  FunCom hasn’t worked out a rule-set for this yet and what will happen is hotly debated in the Bane Forum.  As is PvP in general.

I do enjoy PvP in general, although I can happily pass on the gank squads that roam around – I know they’re part of the game and live with it.

I do want to try a PvE server though so I can really see Hyboria without constantly looking over my shoulder though!

What has surprised me – the juvenile behavior of so many of the ‘adults’!  Between the endless bickering, name calling and plain ol’ arguing in channels I’m extremely disappointed.  I had always thought the problem with WoW was the little 12 yr old whine factor but surprise either lots of 12 year olds are playing AoC or else its been the supposed ‘adults’ all along!

All in all – fun game so far!

Now as to WoW - it is WOW!  Yes there are 9 or is it 10 million players, but the number of different add ons you can mix and test and try – truly amazing and you can really control/customize your gaming experience – definitely love this!  My biggest complaint the first time I tried WoW back in 2004 was the default interface (a 17″ monitor didn’t help), as it felt like I had 2″ of game space and just got on my nerves in a major way.  Fast forward – a 24″ monitor and the ability to move things about – thank you Bongos and X-Perl and I’m truly a happy camper!  I had the same problem with LoTRO when it first came out, I still keep meaning to go back and level at least one toon – how can you pass up the chance to run into Frodo or Gandalf right?  I figure by now someone has come up with a good interface not the WoW default clone.

The bad part about custom UI’s - every update you have to reload the new versions – although I have heard that the Curse client will notify you, I haven’t tried it myself.  And WoW customer support if you have a problem of any kind generally blames it on the UI’s.

Since game update 2.4, I’m taking the opportunity to redo some, delete some and add a few new ones.  I rely on Bongos and X-Perl but have added a few new ones to such as  Auctioneer, Simple Coordinates, GFW Hunter Helper (all can be found on Curse.com or at Wowinterfaces) and I few others that I’m still not sure I like yet.

Fortunately the quest is quick and not to difficult.  Ran thru it rather quickly on my Warden and going to get the rest of the gang out for the two nice house items! 

We first did a test run through Plaguelands while I learned all the new fun spells – love those playing at 25 levels lower is going to be a pain  – then we hopped over to Ungaro to do a few quests.  Immediately was killed getting off the FP, by a alliance druid, and got me again half way out of camp.  Apparently he had been there all evening invisible popping out to kill and disappearing again.  Being a bit peeved when I happened upon a poor gnome killing gorillas I seized the opportunity to ‘assist’ the gorillas!

My daughter hates gnomes and I hate being ganked but I’m trying to embrace the art of gankage!  Went off and killed a few apes and low and behold!  My little gnome was back for another fight.  Killed her again then decided to go finish quests.  After killing a few things – it really came to me this was way to low level to continue so jumped on the turkey to go out to Silithis.

I really find that area depressing and lasted about 20 minutes, so headed to the Cenarian Outpost only to find this hunter’s rep wasn’t so good and got killed!  So headed back to Gatz to repair armor/sell stuff.  

As I was having fun thought a quick trip to Petopia was in order for another pet -and then off to Blasted Lands for a boar (one of my favorites to fight with).   Dinged the next level (55) right before a rolling server shutdown so called it a night.

Lots of fun!  Can’t wait to level one of my seven hunters that hight.  Right now they’re level 28 down to level 5 – I’m determined to try a variety of pets/races and see how much the racial difference count.

Good times!!! 

I’ve read that many people don’t think SOE employees should be playing EQ2 – that is plain stupid.  They need to play and be involved – I think it would make them better at their job.  BUT – they should not ever use their positions to provide or even hint at game strats.  That is wrong.  It really taints their gameplay and if they’re in a guild the guilds progress and honor too. 

I personally don’t think a players or guilds that are heavily involved on the Test server should get to claim World or Server firsts either though - they’ve had a definite advantage – like giving a couple kids the test scores and wondering why they get A’s and finish early – just not right.

Will all this affect my game play – no! I’m to much of a casual-hardcore player!!  I like to play alot but an end game raiding junky definitely not there and ever getting a world or server first – really unlikely!!! 

I do feel for the guild on my server that has been linked to some of this.  I know I will doubt their achievements a bit as I will always wonder what they’re being or have been fed.  That is sad as they may have been acting in good faith,  or just be uber-players, but they’ve been hit with the brush of suspicion and all their achievements (recently the epic weapons) is a bit tainted in my eyes.

What a great resource for hunters.  I spend more time there researching pets and then travelling Azeroth in search of just the right pet for my hunter.  Well hunters – I have a bunch!  Did I say love that class?  As I’m trying the different pet family/hunter race combo’s I’m having a blast – keeping almost all of them guildless and haven’t grouped yet (okay they’re all below lvl 30 so far), but still having fun.  I’ve tried every race so far except a Troll and Tauren.  Favorites so far for  the Horde – Orc and for the Alliance – Night Elf.  Although I am leveling a couple of dwarves, a blood elf and a draenai also.  Funny how I see so few female dwarves – that has been fun in itself.

But then again that’s why I play an MMO – for fun!!! 

So what’s wrong with that you say?  My big complaint aimed directly at SOE – why so few character slots?  I want to experience all parts of that game from all angles!!!

You can’t even do certain quest lines if you aren’t of a specific race/class – so ????  Yes I know I could go buy multiple copies of the game and have as many toons as I want but really!  Is it that hard to allow more character slots? I don’t know the MMO gaming economics or how the extra character slots would affect costs, but I really want more slots in EQ2!!!

• I want to try all race/class combinations! 
• I want to try good/evil! 
• I want to try PvE and PvP! 
• I want to try RP and RPPvP! 

Heck, I might want to try the same race/class as a male or female - I’d at least like the option without playing Russian Roulette with the existing toons! 

This is definitely one of the things about WoW that I think Blizzard got right – the abundance of character slots!  I can try different realms, race/class combinations, PvE, PvP, RP, RPPvP and explore almost til my hearts content! LOL  (A true alt-aholic will always dream up a new combo on another server - the grass is always greener right?) 

An example on WoW I’ve tried six different hunter combinations (Blood Elf, Night Elf, Orc, Dwarf, Troll, Draenai) to find the ones I liked best – currently a Night Elf and Orc are the favorites, although I’ve been toying with a female Dwarf as there are so few in game – LOL!!!!  Just trying to wrap my mind around a Dwarf – so she’s slowly progessing.  What is great – I haven’t had to kill off the others while I’m deciding which fits me best.  So the level 29 Blood Elf that I started with may eventually go to toon heaven, but for now he’s around and I can bring him out and play him should I choose.

I will freely admit, I love love love EQ2, and I hate hate hate that I have to constantly ‘kill’ a toon to make room to try another one!  I want to try the different servers and try PvP and RP and RPPvP, but with only seven slots?   Yikes it just doesn’t work!  I’m juggling two accounts now and do resent that I have to have two! Besides the fact that I have to log out of one completed to get to the other toons, which is oh so not fun – but I want to be able to try the different servers without toon death for one that I’ve put alot of time into.  Within the past two months I’ve killed at least six toons between lvl 12 and 45 to make room for others.  The higher lvl ones I really didn’t want to condemn to death, but when space is tight . . .  One Warden just missed the axe but should I want to try something different . . .

We had a discussion about this one day in the MainChat on Blackburrow and someone told me well that’s what Test is for, for you to try out toons!  I guess I got that backwards as I thought Test was to help SOE Test the game before it went live more than for me to test-drive a new toon!  I told the guy, well that might be true but if I have to put in the time to ding at least lvl 20 - what I consider a good ‘test’ of a new toon on the Test server and like it, I now have to kill a toon on a regular server and spend that time redoing 20 levels.  So, I may get to test combinations, but I still have to kill one and redo the work.

I just think there can be a happy medium between WoW’s 40-50 toon limit and EQ2′s skimpy seven toon slot!   Admittedly I don’t know what it costs for SOE to give us only seven character slots or why they picked that abitrary number.  I’m sure someone will give me a sensible and logical ‘reason’ for this some day!

I don’t know that I have any great revelations on gaming or why to game or how to or anything else.  I like gaming and always have!  Board games, card games, sports, whatever!  Moving into the video game then console and now online was natural progression.  I tried EQ1 way back on a PC that couldn’t handle the graphics and lag was awful. Combine that with learning the game and I gave up!  I tried WoW in 2005 – it didn’t work for me.  Everquest 2 I started in 2006 and fell in love.  Love the game, the depth and breathe, the variety of things to do – questing, crafting, instances – its all fun!  I tried LoTRO and couldn’t get past lvl 5, I don’t know why the game didn’t grab me at all.  I may give it another try, but just couldn’t get interested. 

My son joined me on my journey around Norrath, although we have different play styles and goals we do play and group together often. 

Then came WoW again. My daughter started playing WoW and I ventured into trying it again.   Surprisingly this time around the game did grab me – I found the ‘fun’ in WoW that everyone had always told me about.  Yes it’s cartoony, yes it’s a ‘different’ pace and doesn’t take it self to seriously, but it is a game!  I was fortune to get into a great guild with a group of fun individuals on one server and play on two others with real life friends and my daughter.  That has made a difference to my original foray into WoW. 

 So now I spend my time divided on Azaroth and Norrath wishing there was more time to do both!  I’ve been toying with downloading EVE, but don’t know how or when I would have time to play.