MMORPG

The Scarlet Library? Each week, when Kasul and I meet for Neverwinter, we never know quite what we’re going to be doing. Grinding quests to max level? Not really our thing. We’ve got our whole crafting operation to worry about, the endless skirmishes, the occasional dungeon – our only problem, really, is having enough time to do it all. Our free companions had reached their max level – 15 – and were not up to their jobs any more. Which was really unfortunate, because my companion was a cleric, and healing is a nice thing to have. Kasul was rocking a control wizard companion. Both needed replacing. Kasul got Dogsupial, a skeletal dog dropped from the recent demonic invasion of the city of Neverwinter. I spent my astral diamonds on Flambert, an apprentice phoenix obtained from Nightmare/Nachtmahr lockbox. We spent an off-night last week leveling up the new companions so they’d be ready for our regular adventures. ...

There's "snow" time like raid time! Why has Tipa’s storage room been transformed into a skating rink? Because she went on a raid. Yup, after many years, my ex-raiding troub who was abandoned when I quit the raiding life was back in raid chat once more. Sure, it wasn’t current content, and Tipa is not yet max level or AA, but all they really needed for the raid were warm bodies… or more accurately, warm hands. ...

This isn't how it went.... We had a bunch of people hanging out in the Lunar Wolves guild hall last night. We’ve been threatening to, someday, form a group and go DO something for months now, but with everyone on their own real life schedules and our vastly differing levels of gear and skill, we just never seem to be on the same page at the same time. But the desire was there, and soon enough we found ourselves at the bottom of the Tower of Frozen Shadow in the Great Divide. We were going to take on the Vampire Queen herself, Tserrina Syl’Tor. I was on my mage, and… wait… no… just had an EverQuest flashback. I used to camp Tserrina with my mage again and again, trying to get her robe. Even though Tsuki has a Plane of Fire robe, I’ve just always wanted to wear Tserrina’s. ...

Can you find the tank in this picture? The real slap in the face came when I won a Fae Wing Cloak. How is this even a THING? I suppose I should weep for all my unwinged brothers and sisters who now have to walk on unfamiliar ground because their wings have been turned into outerwear, but for me, a Fae, to wear one… that’s like wearing human leather boots with babyskin gloves. ...

Lolth commands you to rate this highly We continued our Neverwinter grouping experiment Monday with another Foundry episode, “Visitors from the Underdark”. The Foundry adventures are, we figured, our best chance of finding duo content. In “Visitors”, Lord Ebonrend and his family have gone mysteriously missing; our job – to find him and arrest him. If I remember right, he was thought to have gone dark in order to instigate a plot to rule Neverwinter. In Neverwinter, not checking in with the government often enough marks you as a traitor. We get to his mansion and find the place magically sealed up, but with an animated suit of armor to help us dispel (de-spell?) the shields. ...

Arkham Asylum Before we get started, I want to draw your attention to the right bit of the screenshot above. Where we see the entrance to the Arkham Lobotomy Theater. With marquee lights to attract passers-by. They sell snacks and Soder Cola at the door, and tradition has it that you’re supposed to hurl popcorn at the doctors when they make poor incisions. Commissioner Gordon had sent us to the asylum because, apparently, three of its most notorious residents – Drs Pamela Isley, Victor Fries and Jonathan Crane – AKA Poison Ivy, Mister Freeze and The Scarecrow – have not only escaped, but turned the three wings of the Asylum into their own private playgrounds. Lore scattered through the place implies that their common attending physician had been driven crazy by the three and mysteriously disappeared after giving them their freedom. ...

Computer, freeze simulation Tipa alpha six Sooooooo I log into Star Trek Online after being away for several months. With the Romulans coming, I’d better get familiar with the game again, right? My monthly stipend of Zen (cash shop currency) for being a subscriber has built up enough that I could get the three-pack of Andorian escort ships I’ve been wanting since pretty much Day One for free. Free in a sense, given I’ve been subscribing to a game that I haven’t been actively playing. But, I wouldn’t be out any additional cash. ...

Nina and Kasul at the Job Board This is a Neverwinter experiment, and it could be one that has never before been attempted. We don’t even know if the game supports this style of play, but what if… what if two or more characters always grouped, and never soloed, through the PvE content of the game? Most of the content in the game is designed to be completed either solo, or solo with a companion. Two characters (and, eventually, two characters and their companions) would necessarily make that sort of content even more trivial. But two characters aren’t enough to do the actual group content. Even if it were possible to run the dungeons and skirmishes as a duo, leveling up entirely by repeating the same dungeons and skirmishes until the next were unlocked would be a pretty dull way of playing the game. ...

Kaptain KY shows off his jerkin That pun wasn’t mine…. Anyway. Since both the good Kaptain and I had both squeezed into Tier 3 over the past week, we spent the first half hour or so of our DCUO night enjoying all The Flash’s home town, Center City, had to offer a collection of tired but scrappy group of superheroes from the mean streets of Gotham City. We took down a bunch of Paradox Reapers, strange creatures from the nooks and crannies of Time, and then their boss. No screenshots! Argh. ...

The Field Marshal and I go a-hunting I really have finished the Scars of the Awakened storyline, all the tradeskill quests, all the adventure quests, gotten the titles, loot and achievements and picked up a couple upgrades from my innumerable trips through the Siren’s Grotto solo adventures. I’m going to try and describe the zone’s story, as I’ve come to understand it. Velious was the place where the planet-sized mother of all dragons, Veeshan, clawed Norrath to claim it as her own. The Great Divide, Wakening Lands and Cobalt Scar were all wounds left by her monstrous claws. She left her draconic brood to grow and thrive on Norrath and then went to the Plane of Sky where, after many centuries, her long-imprisoned descendant Kerafrym the Sleeper, found her, killed her, and started his war against the dragon faithful that united the warring Claws of Veeshan (CoV) and the Ring of Scale (RoS) against the Sleeper’s faction, the Awakened. ...