LootBot3000

April 21, 2009

Here be Dragons!

Filed under: EQ2, Games, MMOs — Exeter @ 12:23 pm

When it comes to massively multiplayer games there’re those that dip their toes in the pond and play an hour here or an hour there, and those that dive right in immersing themselves in their games of choice, making it a hobby in its own right.  I’m most definitely in the later category.  Sure, I’ve dabbled in Fallout 3 and I still routinely slaughter Christian Turks with my Hin-Jew Celts in Civilization 4 (the two largest empires in my current campaign), but, by and large, when I’m able to game, I fire up EverQuest 2 and start putting virtual pointy objects into gnolls, orcs, beasts from the void … or dragons.

Ballads, my Ratonga Dirge went on a pre-Tier 8 dragon-slaying spree with a couple of guildies relatively recently and while both of these dragons would have been far too difficult to handle had my cohort not been well geared and mentored down, nevertheless we had an absolute hoot.  After each kill, I decided to take a few screenies to mark the occasion.

First up, Cyenadros, Lord of the Sanctum!

eq2_000006a1Next on the docket, it’s Darathar!

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After bagging, Darathar I returned to my benefactor, the Red Lord, Nagafen who gifted our intrepid adventurer with the Prismatic Swiftblade of Scale!

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Dragons beware, the indefatigable Ballads is taking the hunt to you with his Glowstick of DOOM!

April 20, 2009

Vegas, Baby! Vegas!

Filed under: EQ2, Games, MMOs — Exeter @ 1:08 pm

Okay, I’m a total fanboi for pretty much anything set in a post-apocalyptic world and by all accounts (ie. mine), the Fallout franchise can officially be called “the shit” when it comes to games set in a world gone bananas.

Fallout was a winner with me from the moment my water-chip hunting self rolled into Junktown, struck a deal with McGyver and squeezed off a couple of rounds into that lardass, Gizmo.  And when I strolled into New Reno’s Golden Globes in Fallout 2 being offered the opportunity to become a big, bright, shining star, I said, “aww, hell yeah!”  To be honest, I was a little skeptical when Bethesda purchased the rights to make a sequel, but a few annoyances aside, Fallout 3 has delivered and both of the downloadable add-ons have only made me belly up to our new RPG overlords at Bethesda, bowl-in-hand, begging Oliver-style for more.

Bethesda: “More, you say? Vegas good for you?”

Me (channeling my inner Liz Lemon): “I want to go to there.”

While we can apparently expect more of the same, Bethesda itself isn’t going to package this newest addition itself. It’s being farmed out to Obsidian, the folks that seem to make sequels not suck.  Of course, there’s not a whole lot to chew on at the moment other than “Fallout”, “Obsidian” and “Vegas”, but I’m looking forward to this new installment becasue I think that Obsidian has enough talent and experience to tease a good story out of a setting that doesn’t wrap itself up in all kinds of awesomeness only to leave you saying, “Huh…” at the end.  Forum warriors are already proclaiming its “success” or “fail” status.  I love teh internets.

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On the EQ2 front, void shard harvesting is in full swing and paying off in spades both for my character and myself.  Getting the upgraded gear is sweet, but the best part was a marathon session this weekend where I cobbled together the most awesome pick-up-group ever and did a whirlwind tour of most of the instances from The Shadow Odyssey expansion.  The tanking was groovy, the heals were spot on and the DPS was high.  From Deep Forge to the Anchor of Bazzul to the Caverns of the Afflicted, we had a ball and I had almost 20 void shards to show for it, almost enough to buy my tier 2 chest piece, before we all collapsed for the night.

In fact, I’ve had a lot of success with pick-ups lately who were both competent players and quite nice to have a chin wag with in voice chat.  Here’s to hoping that this week is as successful as the last.

April 7, 2009

Digital animal rights alive and well in WoW!

Filed under: MMOs, TL;DR — Exeter @ 9:23 am

Ahem! Friends, Azerothians, countrypersons of a non-gender specific nature.

Every day hundreds1, if not bajillions2, of World of Warcraft’s digital baby seals are senselessly and unnecessarily winked out of existence on the ice fields of Northrend as a result of Blizzard’s so-called “server maintenance”.  However, even more reprehensible are the cruel and barbaric methods employed by Horde clubbers who slaughter seals for “fun”, “???” and “PROFIT”, 95% of whom are “camped” and killed when they are just seconds old!3

If you were to grind your way to level 70 in World of Warcraft, without killing innocent animals of course, and you were able to witness this virtual cruelty, Undead characters notwithstanding, your heart would break.  Newly spawned seals hacked to death by Troll hunters or “dotted” by Blood Elf warlocks and left to die on the ice.4 In the past four months since the release of the Wrath of the Lich King, gadzillions5 of baby seals been clubbed, munched, slashed, hacked, burnt, shot, frozen, /dance’d on and teabagged all subsidized by The Stanglethorn Ripper and Enemy of Nature, Hemet Nesingwary!6

Please help us show Nesingwary and the rest of Azeroth that we will no longer stand for this inexcusable and unnecessary hunt.  Click here for details.

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1 Azerothian Wildlife Welfare (A.W.W.) conference. Keynote speech by Ingrid “Cheap Date” Opendrawers.
2 Killinger the Den Watcher’s former ice-tentmate, Crazy Sal.
3 Arch Druid Lathorius’s mum who invited us up for a cup of spiced wine and a bowl of soup, but actually only had cold tea and teething biscuits to give to us. Her cat “Mr. Cuddles” was awfully annoying, rubbing himself on my leg and scooting across the area rug on the floor. Supposing that Mr. Cuddles had an unfortunate and inconvenient disease of the sphincter that could only be cured by a rare salve that was all the way upstairs in the medicine chest, we ended Mr. Cuddles’ suffering by administering a potion, rendering Mr. Cuddles irreversibly unconscious before I wrung his little neck. Arch Druid Lathorius’s mum was grateful for the assistance.
4 Ibid.
5 Teh Interwebz.
6 Screw Nesingwary tbh. I kinda lol’d at the teabagging though.

This posting has been a paid message from the People for Illustrious Treatment of Animals (P.I.T.A.) and the Fishmongers and Fileters Society (F.F.S).

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