In Memorium – CoH – Triumph

Continuing my series of City of Heroes characters, server by server …

Triumph was a server we didn’t do a lot on as a pair — except for one very successful duo:

If at first you succeed, then try, try, again the same way. Having had a blast running Psi-clone up to 50 as an Illusion Controller, I rolled up Kitsune-Chan, also an Illusion Controller, except with Radiation as the secondary instead of Empathy.  She was a kitsune Fox Spirit, and so convinced she was the Prettiest One There Is (with plenty of Illusions to back that up).

She was one of the two long-term characters I selected Super-Speed for as a travel power.  There was a lot of visceral thrill to SS (and a Stealth buff), but zones with a lot of vertical movement were a real pain in the butt.

Margie rolled up Ex-Terra, a Spines/Invuln Scrapper.  Aside from the whole fun of Illusion, the AoE of Radiation and Spines both made them extremely formidable.  We dinged to 50 with them with very little trouble.  They were a great pair.

I eventually rolled a somewhat different Kitsune over on Victory.

It’s kind of weird that we had a level 40 pair on Triumph but never really did that much more on the server.

I did make one last effort at the whole Rad Blaster thing with Allie McGordo (an obvious variant on the various Al McGordo’s over time), a Rad Corruptor who eventually made it up to 21 with her companion, Widow Shade. I think they eventually suffered the death of disinterest that most of our Red-side alts suffered.

I have no idea what kind of Controller Mrs. Soccer Mom was.  She only made it up to Level 12 with her counterpart from Margie’s side (Mr. Soccer Dad).

I was always fascinated by Grav Controllers — at least in the “pull in a huge object from another dimension” aspect of their powers.  Molly Magpie was a favorite for her name and costume design, and I soloed with her for a while, but soloing a Controller is a PitA, and she never got beyond 11.

The idea of a Living Egyptian Statue (Stone Tank) with a Pharaonic headpiece named [“They Call Me”] Mister Thebes was way too fun to never write up, but a boring character to solo beyond 6.

Yore was an Axe Tank. I never did anything with him, but I loved his look.

Honorable Mentions to Warbolt, Amethyst Crown, Mister Drake, Unchained Lightning, Panda Attack, and Captain Antares.

Molly Ivins on “City of Heroes”

Well, not actually. But it very much fits.

“Keep fighting for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don’t you forget to have fun doin’ it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cat, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin’ ass and celebratin’ the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.”

— Molly Ivins (1944-2007), “The Fun’s in the Fight,” Mother Jones (May/Jun 1993)

Exit the Heroes

I haven’t played City of Heroes since the announcement it was going down. It was too painful.

Tonight, around 10 or so, Margie said, “Do you want to play CoH, just one last time?” Or something like that.

And I hemmed. And hawed. And …

… well …

… um …

… yeah.

And so we thought about Rita and Runt — could we race up three levels, 47 to 50, in a couple of hours?  (It would have been three hours, in fact.)

But … I wasn’t feeling scrappery.

Hamidon in Atlas Park

We got on instead as Positive Force and Ms. Crackle, a pair we’ve been comfortably pleased with, and were ready to go do some missions …

… when we discovered Victory had a big party going on at the big hill in the middle of Talos.  Big party meaning “The Ghost Ship is stuck there, and there are at least three Monsters spawned at any given time, amidst some dozens of heroes fighting them off.” Yikes.  And, yeah, fun.  We played with them, and then swapped out with some other toons (Velorio, for me). It was lots of intense action fun … until Jade Spider appeared at the top of the hill, doing 1700 hp psychic attacks beyond the borders of the block, and wiping out pretty much everyone around. Repeatedly.

Hrm. Not fun.

We decided, eventually, to sign on with some of our 50s and see what was going on over on Champion.  Nostalgia time.

On with Torchy and Hildy.  And ended up on Talos Hill again, but only for a Rikti Invasion.  Got on teams, and then league, and, when that was done, went Monster Hunting.  Cleaned out two of them from Croatoa — Eochai and Jack in Irons (badges!). Back to Adamastor in Talos.  Couldn’t find Lusca in IP. Took out the Kraken in Perez (oh, Perez — how long ago it was …). Heard about action in Atlas …

… which is where the GM / Devs were lobbing Arch-Villains and Monsters.  We swapped out to Psi-clone and Amorpha, and spent a good hour and change taking on (with scores of our fellows — Atlas 1 and 2 were full up, and Atlas 3 was pretty busy) Drop Ships and Avatar of Hamadon and Lord Recluse and Seed of Hamadon and most of Recluse’ gang and the mad gods from the Shadow Shard and Babbage and … yeah, actual-real Hamidon showed up, too.

“Slip on that Wedding Ring, boys — use it or lose it!”

Eventually the GM had to move to another server. We did a bit more stuff (monster hunting on Monster Island in PI), hopped off to do this and that, but eventually …

Exit the Heroes

… got back on with Psi-clone and Amorpha She had the Peregrine Island bank mission, so we decided to go out that way. Because they were our truest, bestest duo.

And, as the big red messages kept popping up about the 30 minute, 10 minute, 5 minute count-down, we did our damnedest for the people of Paragon City. We went toe-to-toe with Carnies and Malta, foiling a bank robbery, disarming bombs, and subduing and arresting miscreants.

And as we dashed to the next mission, in one final leap, the screen froze, Butch-and-Sundance-like, on Psi-clone and Amorpha, heroes together through time and memory.

-Fin-

The chunks of memory taken up by this game, over the last 7+ years, is amazing.  Geography (every nook and cranny of the Hollows) … Opponents (when faced with mob X, target individual Y) … Group fun, PUG frustration (or exhilaration), friends, family … The Transcendence Trial (in the true meaning of the latter word) … SG leadership (and all the drama attendant thereto) … new rules, improving Quality of Life, added zones … events and arcs and stories and that huge Level 50 DING …

Many thanks to the Devs and all the creative talent behind the game. I was there from Issue 3, and never regretted a single dollar spent. It was a life-enriching experience and a pleasure.

Many thanks to the folks we teamed with here and now and there and again … Scott and Kevin and Lorne and Doyce and Kate and Stan and … many more I’m not remembering, I know.

Many thanks to Doyce, for hooking me on this particular opiate — I could quit any time, right? But I hated ending cold turkey. I appreciate the “first taste”, the companionship, and the encouragement.

Charity at Home is unamused by the final message (that locked up her machine).

And many thanks, of course, to my faithful duo partner, Margie. It sounds weird, but it’s non-trivial playing a game like this with your spouse. There are endless challenges, leadership quibbles, tactical considerations, and, of course (for us) figuring out all of that with multiple alts across multiple story threads and game issues.  It was occasionally challenging, but also always engaging, which is just what makes for a great marriage. Whether it was a game or not.If not for her, I wouldn’t have played nearly as much. And, with her, playing was so much more than just a game.

You always remember your first car. Your first job. Your first SO. Your first house. Your first Doctor. Your first … well, you get the idea.

City of Heroes was my first MMORPG. And while it wasn’t (and won’t be) my last, it will always hold a very special, fundamental, place in my heart.

Office with no view

So, playing stuff on so many servers, we’ve had lots of bases.

But without a doubt the Consortium of Justice base on Champion was the most elaborate.  And my (personal) favorite part was Psi-clone’s office, back in one corner — a desk surrounded by crates and potted plants and stacks of books and gorilla racks, with a lovely view down the hall of an energy unit.

Ah, the glamor of leading a supergroup …

(I used to enjoy going in and adding some small element to the tableau … one more stack of books, or a bottle, or a brain in a jar, or …)

Dear NCSoft: I Hate You

Okay, it’s childish, I know. And rude. And probably not good for my mental or moral health.

But I am still really, seriously, sorely pissed at NCSoft.

Since the announcement about City of Heroes closing down, I haven’t played the game. At all. Simply … couldn’t.

In the past few days, though, I’ve been running around taking screen caps and staring various memorial pages. And I look at all the characters  created — ones I ran up to 50, and ones that were along the path — and it just freaking chaps my hide.

Margie got on tonight (as she was doing her own screen caps) and saw she had a toon that was just short of dinging 50. So she finished it up. She was working on it as I came back from my NaNoWriMo Write-In.

And it was, like, I want to do that. I want to play with these characters, in this world. I want to fiddle around with the combinations we created, enjoy the array of power sets, the different story arcs …

And, of course, I could … until Friday. Sometime … Friday.

Or not, since I have other things I need to do between now and then, and, of course, why freaking bother when it’s all going to go away when the plug is pulled?

(Note: one could consider this a microcosm of the moral / mental considerations of what one evaluates of the reality of the Afterlife. If there is nothing beyond this world, is there a use in going on?  If there’s no CoH after Friday, is there a use in playing the characters? Discuss.)

I try not to wish ill of people, because, as Spider Robinson said, “Vengeance is counterproductive, always. Not to mention the fact it gets your soul all sticky.” But given how the game was terminated, without explanation, at a time when it seemed from all indications that the game was doing okay — not spectacularly, but profitably — and in a way that basically left the fanbase hanging and the dev all out of jobs … I really do wish, sincerely-truly, that anyone in any management position in NCSoft who had anything to do with this decision finds themselves unemployed very, very soon. And stays that way for quite some time.

Yeah, I know, kind of a weak beer curse. But it is, after all, only a game.  But I also am just really frelling pissed at those (I’ll assume) guys, for taking away something I enjoyed, something I (and others) were willing to continue to spend money on, something that’s been a part of my life (and my life with Margie) since almost 8 years ago.

Oh, yeah — if they all suffered a bout of explosive diarrhea, at a maximally inconvenient and embarrassing moment, would be nice, too.

Rrrg.

(Yeah, and, btw, life is too short, and I have no need to ever spend any money ever again on any product from NCSoft — and will, of course, be more than happy to advise others likewise. Eat Hamidon Goo and Die, NCSoft.)

In Memorium – CoH – Virtue

Continuing my series of City of Heroes characters, server by server …

For some folks, Virtue was the server, and it was almost always pretty crowded.

Margie and I never got into Virtue as a pair, mainly because of the crowds/lag.  I think we did some Red-side gameplay, but that was about it for the two of us.

For me, though, it was the Server of Many Solo Toons.  Since what you want when you’re PUGging is a crowd, it seemed the logical thing to do.

On the other hand, since it is a soloist server (for me), I don’t have many in-action screen caps, just (as of today) selection screens.

If there had ever been a solo toon that I would have gotten up to 50, it would have been Miss Crackle.  Smiling and happy as the day is long, she was an Electrical/Energy Blaster (thanks to her hi-tech suit), and was usually pretty welcome in most PUGs.   I got her up to (the magical) 47, with no pictures. Crikey.

 The third there is Molly Morningway, a Fire/Mental Manip Blaster (35). Her backstory was, essentially, she was Harry Dresden’s apprentice, Molly, taking on his mantle after his death, complete with fireballs and Jedi mind tricks, plus his trenchcoat, hat, and a set of chainmail from her mom.  I always enjoyed fire blasters (cf. Torchielle), and while she was a bit more difficult to PUG with (fire’s AoE can make for some exciting times), I still enjoyed it.
 

Lady Zebra was a hoot to play. Taken from a character I wrote up for a NaNoWriMo comic book tale, she was a cranky alien speedster who just happened to look like a terrestrial zebra.  She was a Martial Arts/Regen scrapper (44), and I loved playing her.  The MA kicks done with hooves looked great, and while I usually played supporting roles in duos with Margie, Lady Z gave me a scrapperly outlet when I was feeling in the mood.  I also had a series of tell macros that made a lot of bad combat-related puns that centered on horses, hooves, stripes, etc. Again, a hoot.

Again, one of the very few characters I ever took Super-Speed with — the necessary fit with the character, but a pain in city zones with a lot of vertical to them.

(The one action kick with her above is, sadly, when she had “normal” boots, before the hooves pieces were available.)

Alas, we never got a horse head costume piece, so she had to wear as long-faced a helmet as I could dig up.

Unlikely Ally was another fun concept — the Demon cast out to this world to do good deeds. I loved have a max-height hulked out guy with monster demon wings (a Fire/Fire Tank, I think) on the front lines.  Never got him past 14, since soloing tanks is a bore, but I really liked his look.

Another concept that never went far was Fr. Frank, a Catholic Priest turned Adventurer.  He was, of course, an Empathy/Sonic Defender (18), though, sadly, about the time I rolled him people decided that having Healers on the team was passe. It wasn’t easy cobbling together something that looked like priestly gab, but I was pretty happy with it.

Honor the Flag was another tank — Super-Strength/Invuln — but she got a decent amount of play. Never got her past 19, though, so she’ll be forever hanging out in Faultline.  Got a lot of complements on her uniform, which I thought was fun but nothing special.

These two were relative latecomers.  Tyger-Tyger (“… burning bright …”) was a Fire/Fire Scrapper, which was fun, but I just simply rocked out over this guy’s look (the armor covering up some of the seam weaknesses of the tiger / fur skin.  He made 27.

Woe Nelly was someone I just had to roll a toon for after I thought of the name.  Basically a fear demon, she was an Illusion/Rad Controller.  She made it to 24.

Honorable Mention (built but never run up to 20): Ice of the Tiger, Rose Spectre, Winter’s Darts, Falcon Roja, Molly Mae, Mister Ravenous (another), Scritchy-Scratch, Selene, and Professor Puissant, Truly Unstable, The Blue Shield.

In Memorium – CoH – Freedom

Continuing a server-by-server look at the alts I played in City of Heroes …

In the midst of much drama llamaing, a group of us got together on the  Freedom server and created the “Hostess Heroes” — a series of snack food-inspired characters:

Bear Claws, Ginger Snap, twinkie Kid, Brownie Points, Cheesy Poof, Bazooka Josephine, Mmm Pie, Just Desserts, Oreo of Justice, Fig Neutron, Otter-Pop, Chunky Style, Creme Puff, Divinity Chu, Hot Fries, Pixie Stick, Pork Rind, Die Meiserzinger, Mooon Pie, Staypuft Marshmallow, J A W Breaker, Thin Mint, Kracker Jaxs …

And a few others, including Ho Ho, my Invuln/Axe Tank.  I was convinced that someone would register a complaint over the name, if not the concept, and I’d come back to find myself as UnnamedHero02347.  But nobody every did.

I also learned that Axe was a horribly, horribly slow power. Yes, great at knockdown, but, damn!

Margie played Princess Peep, a Rad/Rad Defender (the yellow woman in the pix above). She was awesome.

We actually had a regular team night (Mondays), and did a fair number of adventures together.  Things petered out just shy of 30, with changing participation and social circles on- and off-line.

Margie and I also created a pair of Cheetos Cheetahs, including my Chester Cheetah (teamed with Margie’s Chesty Cheetah). We never played them much, but they were still a fun concept.

The HH group, after all the other players fell away, became our default SG for additional toons on Freedom.

Maitre D’mon was a demonic French chef (Zombies/Poison Mastermind).  I loved the name. He was part of an abortive CoV counterpart to the Hostess Heroes, named, of course, “Devil’s Food”.  Margie rolled a number of characters for that, including Brussels Sprout (in the pic above, front right) and Frozen Leftovers. She also created a Zombies/Force Field Mastermind named Day Old Shelf who she ran up to 50.

Two throw-away concepts — Margie rolled up a character named Zestra (after a briefly widely-advertised sexual stimulation gel), while I created Satisfied Partner to go with her.

Kwai Havok, a Dark Melee/Willpower Scrapper I wish I’d done more with, noteworthy for both an awful name and being another Dave clone (with a ponytail, no less).  He teamed up, into the mid-teens, with a version of Margie’s Copper Mountain.

For the record, there was an Al McGordo character (Rad Controller) on this server, too.

In Memorium – CoH – Champions

The first in a server-by-server retrospective of City of Heroes characters …

Champions was my first, best server.

Well, I’m not sure if it was first. But it was the best. It’s where we got invited to supergroups first, the Freedom Phalanx — and eventually created our own, the mighty Consortium of Justice, part of the Alliance of Champions coalition, which I eventually became an officer in, and which was tons of fun until we got overrun by drama llamas).

But I digress.

Champions eventually became our secondary server, if only because we’d pushed to 50 those who were going to be.  But it still had some of my earliest (and best) alts.

These are their stories …

Psi-clone was, of course, my Mary Sue.  Hell, I even dressed like him (without the little eyeball logo on the breast pocket, of course) — or, rather, he like me (hey, I have tan slacks, red shirts, and tweed sports coats — go figure).  An Illusion/Empathy Controller, he was my first to hit 50, and he was the head (and chief financier) of Consortium.  Graeme Thorne was a venture capitalist who woke up to find himself with these strange powers; his heroic origin was a mystery (to be revealed in a to-be-completed novel, an extrapolation of the various RP tales I wove around him).

He was someone I ran in enough circumstances that he had a wide set of costumes — his suit, his shirt-sleeves (the most common), his “Indiana Jones” gear, and (for Halloween) his Golden Age awfulness.  (There’s a full-blown Silver Age suit that the PR Department worked up for him. You can get a glimpse of it below …).  After the Terra Volta Trial, he started suffering from added mutations (the glowing eyes, for one).

I loved the Illusion Controller set, and actually ran another hero up to 50 in it. It had damage, control, and pets — who could ask for anything more?  Oh, right … Confusion.  Pure comic gold …

I loved the character so much, I created a version of him in Champions Online. Not the same, of course.  Just a mind blaster, really, in that one.

 

PC ran around mostly duoed with Amorpha, Margie’s Dark/Regen Scrapper.  The two of them were pretty much unstoppable forces of nature — A could stand toe-to-toe with pretty much anyone, while PC kept things under control and cleaned up the riff-raff.  She served as second-in-command of the CoJ.

The fellow pictured there is not Psi-clone, but actually a villain — Mister Thorne — a Soldiers/Pain Mastermind, as I recall.  Yes, he looks a lot like PC.  Yes, he ran the Consortium of Injustice on CoV.  Yes, there was story there …

He was teamed (for all we ever ran them, i.e., not much at all) with Undone. We got them to 17 before getting tired of them.

Torchielle was my fire blaster (Fire/Energy, though the latter was used solely for a “go away!” knockback attack and a couple of buffs). She was the daughter of an energy-based heroine and a dragon, and spent her career dealing with both parts of her heritage (her cloak was from Uncle Fred — literally; and, of course, she eventually manifested dragon wings).

She eventually became (after dinging 50) a local college student, but still active in the hero biz.

Torchy was a classic example (to me) of how you could have a female heroine that wasn’t running around in tights or a bikini.

Torchy usually duoed up with Hildegard, a Fire/Mace Tank.  They were truly an awesome team — Hildy would tank a massive number of bad guys into a corner of the room, Torchy would buffity-buff, and BOOM all those great AoE Fire Blaster powers on their butts.  That just plain old never got old.

Lynn Calodo was a solo toon, a Dark Melee/Invuln scrapper, all gothy-goth and whappity-whappity and with an odd origin that involved winery technology and Crey Industries.

Fazenda was a stage magician who was aided by a Orion-esque energy harness, that let her fly (originally teleport, but that was the world’s most annoying power) and throw energy bolts.

For quite some time she had some odd costume quirks, including an illegal/obsolete set of fishnet stockings before they were available, and a slit skirt that was slit the wrong way.

She was an Empathy/Energy Defender, and teamed up with Araware, a sentient sand creature (and Spine/Dark Armor Scrapper). I always loved Energy Blast, but it was incredibly annoying to whomever you teamed with, due to the knockback.

They were unique in that they were part of Lorne/Mal’s “Storm Knights” SG.  Two of the last active members, in fact. We kept the rent paid …

Velvet Jones was a reformed villain, actually pulled in from an old tabletop RPG game I had.  She’d been just plain “Velvet” there, but that name was taken, so I added “Jones” (not knowing that there was a Saturday Night Live “Velvet Jones” character of a very different nature).

She was a Super-Strength/Invuln Tank, and she usually teamed up with P-siren, a Bubbles/Mind Blast Defender and former Russian spy, also based on the same tabletop game.  Unfortunately, the two of them ended up with bupkis DPS, which eventually brought them to a grinding, non-entertaining halt in the mid-30s.

For a time, though, they were our mains, part of the Freedom Phalanx SG, and so involved in all sorts of very social activities (ah, those were the days).

We eventually recycled the character concepts in much more recent play (Velvet became a SS/Willpower Brute, much more her style), but they never got out of the teens, level-wise.

Velvet was another toon with a lot of costumes — her garish super-hero one above, but a full-body suit (both in black stealth mode, and in more Christmassy colors), as well as a trailer-trash cowboy boots / jeans / tube top, as I eventually rerolled her in. Margie played around a lot with costumes for P-siren, too.

Mr. and Mrs. Azure were a pair designed around humor.  Based on Mr. and Mrs. Blue in the (vastly underrated) movie Undercover Blues, they were actually time travelers, back in modern days to have fun. They enjoyed witty banter and various supergroup/team channel hints that they knew something about the ultimate fate of anyone that they happened to be around.

He was a Martial Arts/Super-Reflexes Scrapper. She … fought crime. [UPDATE: She was a Grav controller]

Mister Ravenous (Super-Strength/Invuln Brute) was a favorite of mine.  When City of Villains came out, he became one of my lead villains in the CoI (“Strength in Numbers … Profit in Cooperation”), a War Wolf gone rogue.  He was impeccable in speech and dress, and had a deep stack of pre-programmed tells all of which had to do with eating his opponents.

Amusingly enough, his suit was always subject to various clipping gaps — which made it look like he was ripping out the seams, which was excellent.

His duo was with Margie’s Charity at Home. Their relationship was unnatural, but Platonic. They eventually made it to 23 before we got tired of Red-side.

There were multiple Al McGordo characters over the years.  The idea of the cowboy who happened to get too close to the radioactive remains of an H-Bomb test was too good to leave alone. It was always about Radiation in one form or another — Rad/Rad Defenders, Controllers, that sort of thing.  He was generally a solo character, never going too far in levels, but I just plain old love the name …

A version of him ran a bit with Christmas Present, one of the best uses of that particular strappy costume I ever saw (Invuln/Ice Tank).  Margie enjoyed pulling her back out on a regular basis to play, eventually getting her to 19.  (Note the last pic, with a copy of Margie’s UI layout.)

Eliza Dee was a Crey experiment who broke free and went off to the Rogue Isles to be on her own, violent, ownsome.  She was modeled after Galatea (the Power Girl variant) clone of Supergirl in the Justice League Unlimited cartoon.  (Galatea was the statue that Pygmalion brought to life; “Pygmalion” was the title of the Shaw play that was adapted as My Fair Lady, with the name of the crude woman brought to civilization of “Eliza Doolittle”).

Anyway, she was a SS/Invuln Brute, who ran around a bit with Margie’s Bacchante, but never amounted to much.  She actually got rerolled on another server, a bit more effectively (to be posted about later).

Unchained Path was created after the CoV costume parts became available hero-side.  She was a Kin/Ice Controller, which meant that she basically slowed the entire bad guy group down to zero.  She had some very angsty, tragic, monastic-obsessive story line, but, ultimately, she was so good at locking down bad guys, in so many ways, it almost became boring.  She hung out with Idzuna, a katana scrapper. They got up to 20.

Looking for Another Game: Half-Life, er, Black Mesa Source

I used to be a big First Person Shooter game lover, once upon a time (before I started gaming with Margie, in fact), starting with Doom, then Quake, and culminating somewhere in Valve’s Half-Life series.

So when I was at loose ends re games, and Les shared this article on Google Plus, it looked like a great thing to try.

Some fans of the original Half-Life (1997, fergoshsakes) have created an remake of Half-Life called Black Mesa Source. Essentially they took the original plot and graphics, and recreated it all on a much more advanced (contemporary) graphics engine.  What’s funny is that they matched what I remembered of the game, pretty much — until I looked at this:

Whoa. That’s some remarkable updated graphics. Funny the tricks the mind plays on you.

The game can be downloaded from here. It operates under Steam, though it doesn’t get updates through it or anything.

It’s pretty remarkable, and I’m having lots of good fun with the fear and (now that I’m up against soldiers) paranoia. Plus, I’ve quickly become used to “Oh, crap, they’re making sure I’m fully up on ammo and health … it’s all about to hit the fan, isn’t it?” moments. Plus, I’m remembering how much I hated the non-combat puzzles, but that’s (half-)life.

Still love that FPS game style. It’s not an MMO, by definition, but it’s a good way to kill time solo.

Kudos to Valve for not pitching a fit over this and letting folks enjoy it.

A WoW Weekend

This was our weekend to play around with World of Warcraft a bit, as a couple.

Margie’s key impression: “It’s Disney LotRO.”

Which has a lot of truth to it, except, of course, that given the order of release one should instead characterize LotRO as “Tolkien WoW”.  That said, there are a lot of similarities between the two games in terms of engine and screen layout and mechanics and all. The art style in LotRO is a lot more realistic, and the Tolkien-based storyline lends a bit of panache to the proceedings, but …

(Margie is suggesting I give LotRO another try.)

So Les and I leveling up characters to 15 in two decent-length sessions were one thing. When Margie and I tried it, we ran into immediate problems with limits on Starter Edition (F2P) accounts. The main problem being: Starter Edition characters can’t initiate groups. So if you have two Starter Edition people playing, they have to play as solo characters running around together. Which makes mission completion more lengthy and complex, and creates real problems when you (virtually) turn around and you can see where the other person is.

Only the fact that we were in the same room made it feel viable.

I’m sure Blizzard has good reasons for the restrictions, given the attacks and hacks and exploits that Black Hats have had, but it did make it more difficult.

Also, we have problems in Panderia, with both of us phased separately on the same server, making it even less viable for us to play together.

That led to a decision Friday evening to go ahead and upgrade my account to a paid subscription — $20 gets the Battle Pack with a couple of expansions in it (handwaves specifics), and a month of play. With that, I could take on the “mentor” role that Les did for me, and we figured at a minimum we’d get $20 of entertainment for the two of us.

Well, one fly in the ointment. Blizzard / Battle.net immediately charges your card, but doesn’t immediately make you a subscribed member. They claim it can take up to 72 hours to validate that you aren’t an Evil Spammer or Despicable Gold Farmer or something.

So we spent Saturday and Sunday doing awkward paired solos, running a pair of humans up to 8 or 9, and then a pair of night elves up to 11.  It was only on late Sunday night that I was able to invite Margie to a team (though some of the other features had kicked in before then).

Net-net, I had a good time, and I think (glances her way) that Margie did, too.  The starter realms seem to be fairly linear in their quest paths, but it seems there is plenty to do after getting out from that.  The biggest problem I see if we move forward is figuring out which of the very kind guild offers we’ve received from various friends to take advantage of.

Meanwhile, now that I’m a paying player, I’ve been able to formally invite Margie in (using a different email addy), which means that I can take advantage of those “recruitment bonuses” that Blizzard is offering. Which means rerolling the toons Margie was already playing, but that’s just a weekend’s worth.

So, for the moment, WoW seems to be on the play list.  Still other games out there we want to try, however.

Looking for Another Game: More WoW Thoughts

So I’ve been playing more WoW (solo) whilst pining away for my wife who’s on a business trip.  After Les duoed with me to 10 with a Pandaren, I did some solo play with different races (Gnomes, Dwarves, Draeni, Worgen, and Night Elves) in an array of classes (hunters, warriors, druids, rogues, paladins).

Each of the races I tried has its own starting zone, and its own story (apparently influenced greatly by which expansion set they came out with, or when they were last revamped by another expansion).  The result are some very highly flavored starting zones that not only give you plenty of practice with the mechanics, but give you a strong story and sensibility for the race in question.  The starter area missions don’t drift radically from the standard “go hunt/kill X things” / “go gather X items” / “go take a message to X over in the next town” types of things, but they do mix them up pretty well, tend to  group the missions nicely (there are very few “jog 30 miles over there, find something, and bring it back to me” / “that was great, now go bring back three more” sorts of missions), and wrap them up in as much story text as you could want.

I haven’t gotten into any crafting/auctioning yet (is that actually available for F2P players?), but I’ve done the (borrowed pretty straightforwardly by LotRO) resource harvesting.  Not so much my cuppa, but the money’s good.

The screen layout of trays gets pretty darned busy, especially since the tray icons are so small (and there are smaller ones beyond that).

Though non-instanced for the most part, I’ve not had significant problems with interminable waiting for things to respawn, so far at least (LotRO had more problems with that, as I recall).

I’ve resigned myself to having to loot, but at least there’s now an autoloot option in WoW. Though, unlike many other interface options, you have to turn it on for each alt.

Though I’ve not played with any of them, Les mentioned any number of helpful UI mods to help tailor the interface to the game.  Definitely some room for research there, if this is the (a) way we go.

I like the WoW graphics, for the most part. I can understand folks wanting highly realistic stuff, but the more animated feel of WoW is fine by me.  I’m less sanguine with the “everyone dresses almost exactly alike for the first Nteen levels because they take the same missions and get the same costume rewards” feel to the costuming (even at 15th level, Les and I looked like a brother-sister combo whose grandparents had bought them matching outfits for Christmas …). By the same token, it’s a shame when you find something you like, then have to change it because it’s obsoleted by newer, better loot you picked up.

Based on Les’ and my run through the training levels (through 15) on Panderia, I’d say the game certainly is duoable. Looking forward to see what Margie thinks of all this.