LootBot3000

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Hi, I’m Exeter and I’m an alt-aholic.

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Well, recovering alt-aholic.  Sort of.  Yes, I’m was once one of those guys that bought a Station Pass subscription for an extra $15 bucks a month *just* for the extra character slots and had a second account so that I could experience the nerdy awesomeness of two-boxing. However, once I started to look at and play other games, I swore off my alt-aholism.  Never again, I boldly proclaimed!

However, since doing a backflip-cum-bellyflop return to EQ2 a couple of months ago, I was doing my best to stick to two characters: my swashbuckler (Exeter) and my dirge (Ballads).  That is, until last night where it seemed like everyone and their brother’s pet poodle were playing melee and melee support classes.  I was up to my elbows in assassins, swashbucklers, brigands, dirges, troubadors and rangers and many, unlike me, were able to advertize that they had their epeen “mythical” class weapons.

Tanks and healers, however, appeared to be in short supply.  My hamsters started galloping and the gears started spinning.  Before I knew it, I’d sent a /tell to someone looking for a healer for an Anathema group, “I have an 80 Inquisitor.”

“Kewl. Name?”

“Hellsgard. brb”

While the group was a tragic example of why relying on pick-up-groups is a dicey proposition, I got a buzz from being able to simply switch to another character and fill a role.  So add Hellsgard to the list of toons that I’m going to be playing regularly.  But that’s not all.  Once I started winding down for the night, I started poking around on the character creator, deleting old unplayed toons and re-rolling some others.  Before I knew it, I had a shiny new illusionist and defiler.  I’ve also got a mid-level guardian sitting on my roster, so I’ve got myself a decent stable of characters to goof off with when I’m bored.  So, I’ve not only fallen off the wagon, but am currently being dragged through the mud behind  it.

Now if only I can resist the urge to delete/re-roll and actually see some of these characters through to the end-game, I won’t have to feel silly about my obsession with having as many alts as possible.

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!

Next on the docket, it’s Darathar!

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

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

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.

It’s been nearly two weeks since my last post. Why?  It’s because I’ve fallen back in with my old crew in EQ2 after being on hiatus for the better part of a year.  No doubt, the ease with which I’ve jumped back into things is largely due to the fact that most of the people that were part of the guild before I left are still there.  However, I found myself mucking around on a new character (a ratonga brigand) on a different server and I still find myself enjoying the game.  In fact, after trying nearly every North American title that’s been offered in the past 5 years I can confidently say that  EQ2 satisfies my MMO needs like no other game out there and I’m pretty sure that it’s because EQ2 was my first MMO experience.

When I look back on things, my adventures in Norrath have been among my most memorable gaming experiences, ranking up there with Ultima VII (the first computer game I purchased) and all-night sessions of AD&D.  Returning to the the game after nearly a year long break, I’d half expected to feel like I was so far behind the end-game that I wouldn’t want to play anymore.  Yet despite the fact that a whole expansion (the fourth for EQ2) worth of content has passed me by, I’m still having a great time working through content from the Desert of Flames expansion as I quest and kill my way through the game with my level 61 Dirge.

At the moment, my goal is to run through all of the quests for the Peacock Club to earn my tier six epic weapon, Dark Fury Sabre of Anuk.  For those unfamiliar, the questline is a long one and, at least in the the early stages, involves a lot of ‘clicky harvesting’ to get updates.  It isn’t the most exciting way to earn a decent weapon, but at least the story line is fun to follow.  I would have skipped it, knowing that it’ll be obsolete a few levels after I get it, but I’ve heard that a future patch to the game will introduce appearance slots for weapons!  Now all I have to do is finish this quest, go back and get the tier five epic, Prismatic Swiftblade of the Scale and I’ll have a rave glowstick for every occasion!