EverQuest

Every time I get an urge to play an explorer MMO, I fire up EverQuest, log in to my rogue, the original Tipa Tanglewood, put on hide and sneak and shroud myself in stealth, and head in a random direction, certain to see something I’ve never seen before, even having played the game for ten years. I was exploring the lands of the Seeds of Destruction and got to chatting with some of my old friends (hi, Carlysle and Netura!) and somehow found myself heading to a group in Valdeholme in the Serpent’s Spine, yet another Entirely New Zone for me. ...

It’s a gray, rainy day today, perfect time to stay home and game a little. Could be a perfect time to level up a few alts in City of Heroes. Zubon of Kill Ten Rats uses the new Architect system to design the perfect opponents for his new characters and bring them to level 20 in a single mission. Ogrebears has some issues with SOE’s partnership with ZAM.com to give that third party website more access to the game data than any other website, ever. It’s not so much that they have been set above EQ2i, LootDB, EQTraders and such, but because that it seems poorly designed and incomplete. ...

Yes, this is the Daily Blogroll MY OWN BLOG didn’t want you to see! I’m kinda tired of Free Realms. Not the game; heck, considering my computer now refuses to run Lord of the Rings Online for long, I’ve been spending most of my gaming time in Free Realms. Beau is having fun playing. Pete at Dragonchasers took a 75 degree turn and went from being marginal about the game to a fan in just three short days. Syp of Bio Break is still dubious, but what does he care – his wife is Tinker Bell! ...

WK’s own Neriak correspondent, Nashuya N’Hamsha, interviews local residents about the new 51/50 server. EverQuest dev (and write for the EQ Dev Blog) Clint Worely announced yesterday that all the votes were in – the new EverQuest server type has been chosen. The original poll had several suggestions, including a new regular server, a PvP server, a special rules server and even another progression server similar to but improved over the previous progression servers, The Sleeper and The Combine. The most unexpected option was one for a new “51/50” server, where all new characters would start off at level 51 with 50 AA and presumably some decent starting gear, probably the common Defiant armor that has been dropping since last summer’s “Living Legacy” event. ...

We’re still in Wednesday, aren’t we? Since Free Realms launched way back last Tuesday, I’ve been running a day behind. FR has had a bunch of launch day issues, it’s been anything but a smooth launch. Friends lists disappearing, paid-for member access being revoked, Station Access members still not given memberships… Even though SOE had a cracked-wide-open closed beta, it still choked on the onslaught of live players. But it’s up, running fairly well, and when the hiccups are cured, should be able to get on with unleashing hordes of ninjas and wizards on the world. ...

Ya know, I debated whether or not to post this for awhile… and then I went ahead and did it anyway.

After hours of agonizing labor pains, SOE popped Free Realms out last night, just before midnight in California. They were just half an hour from having to have their launch party in Fairbanks, but they technically shipped it Tuesday, despite it being Wednesday in four-fifths of the world. Despite the late hour, the server was bustling with new chefs and brawlers. It doesn’t look like Station Access members are considered members in Free Realms yet, or maybe it’s just me. Look for me in the game, my character is Tipa Tanglewood. Speedy custom name approval FTW! ...

Will EverQuest 3 be going cartoony? Free Realms looks great and I know I’ll be playing it for a long while, but I came into this genre playing EverQuest (if you don’t count Nexus: Kingdom of the Wind), and I’ll leave it playing EverQuest, so now that they have Free Realms out of their system, what’s next for our my favorite franchise? One of the things I liked least about EverQuest 2 was that EverQuest still existed. Here I was in EverQuest with several high level characters, and I had to start all over? A lot of EverQuest players said, well, if I have to start over anyway, I might as well do it in World of Warcraft as EverQuest 2. Because they still had EverQuest, you see, for their Norrathian fix. ...

I’ve renamed the Web Log to the Daily Blogroll, just because I like the name better. Also, in the Shameless Self Promotion dept, look for the last Adventures in Monopoly scheduled for later today. There’ll be more adventures with Dire Bear, Scottie and Car, when they have another story to tell. It’s server merge time in EQ2 again. This time, the US PvP servers Nagafen and Venekor (RP) will merge after Fan Faire in June. Most PvP players seem okay with it, but some are taking it really hard. ...