The Generosity of Players

Well, I was logged into Eve again, and this is how may day went:

Log into vent. Hey, there's a ratting channel, lets go see if I can join them.

"Hey guys. This is my second day in 0.0 and I was wondering if I can join you for some ratting?"

"Not too sure. We're only ratting six belts, so there won't be much to go around for more players right now. But hey, we'll join up with you later with some alts or I'm sure other players can help you out."

"OK, I'll just hang out here and chat with you guys while I figure out what I'll do."

...hockey chit-chat ensued. GO SENS GO!!!

"What kind of ship do you have Bel?" ..Bel is my usual nickname I go by in most games.

"Oh...a Caracal."

"Ohhhhh...ummmmm..."

"Yeah, I know. I really suck at Eve right now...hence the reason why I'm in 0.0, to make some cash for upgrades. Empire just wasn't cutting it in terms of cash flow."

"Well...we can fix that up. I have an extra Ferox that I can give you..."

/boggle

These two corps members then went on getting modules, the ship and giving me a whole bunch of advice about training and ratting and, well, other useful information that I've already forgotten. I was literally beside myself as they handed all of this stuff to me...speechless as it were.

When everything was equipped, I took her out for a spin and it was very nice indeed. I tried to do ratting on my own, but I had to bail out of the fight because I didn't want to scratch the new paint too much.

My second day in 0.0 and my corps mates remind me why I like MMOs so much. I'm keeping names out of this post due to the nature of Eve, so they'll probably never see this....but thanks guys.

D out.

The Journey

OK, so Eve continues it's love/hate relationship with me. Man, playing that game reminds me of a girl I dated in high school once. She's very pretty and is a great dancer, but sometimes she'll kick you square in the balls.

I opted to start communicating with my corps again (yes, I've been kinda silent while I figure this game out) and start the journey to 0.0...an area of the game which I haven't experienced yet. The corps officers immediately wanted me on vent and catch me up on things...which was really nice. They answered all of my stupid questions and even gave my sorry/poor ass some cash for supplies for the next month or so.

I did some equipping for the journey and started my first journey in 0.0...and I was very nervous for the trip, despite the corps telling me that the path is all clear. I mapped out the path and off I went, each jump I checked local for anyone who wasn't green or blue to me. With all of the talk about 0.0 that I've heard over the past year, I honestly thought that I'd be blown up after the first jump. Suffice to say that I made all jumps into 0.0 without incident and now I'm ready to experience Eve in a different way...at least, that's what I'm hoping.

Not too sure how much longer I will last in Eve given the MMOs that are coming out. PoTBS is a definite right now, and it's coming out in June I think. Let's face it, Warhammer will be a Q1 2008 release (at the earliest). Conan hasn't pushed any of my buttons at all...yayyy, I can chop off heads and it looks good, but what else? Oh yeah, their magic system is very interesting. Gods and Heroes is a possibility but again, the only thing I see right now are the animations and that ultimately won't sell me long term....and honestly, I'm still suspicious of the minion system. Who knows who will be on top of my play list at the end of 2007...it's interesting to speculate though. My guess is PoTBS, Eve and LoTR right now.

D out.

Vanguard, LoTR, EVE...and a partridge in a pear treeeeee

OK....sorry about the partridge thing, I'm feeling a bit punchy this morning. A couple of things before I go completely nuts here. Apparently, I'm still playing Vanguard...I have no idea why, I just am. If you're looking for me in the Hilsbury server, look no further because I moved to the Gulgrethor server a couple of weeks ago. I've joined a guild as well and am now a level 19 Ranger, name Belmirus. The game has improved by quite a bit since my review three weeks ago. Vanguard still isn't quite there yet though and probably won't be "there" for another 3-4 months. I'm going to keep playing though. I'll probably do yet another review (....jeesh...), maybe at the end of the summer or early fall.

LoTR Open beta for those that pre-ordered is just around the corner and I'm really excited to fully start this game. One thing I'm not looking forward to though, is going through levels 1-15 again. When the open beta hits this week, this would be the third time going through those levels and repeating that content...so...yayyyyy. It might be slow going for those levels because the exploration drive just isn't there after the second time for me. Once that's done, watch out. I think I'll end up making a Captain as my class because, well, being a Captain of Gondor is just too cool to give up on. I figure LoTR will be a nice casual break from Vanguard's style, but I have no idea which game will win out in the end. LoTR has a head start due to it's polish, but Vanguard is making some headway in that category...but it still has a long way to go. I have a couple of friends playing Vanguard right now, and one of the bad things about LoTR coming out is that I don't want them to get too far ahead of me in Vanguard. Bah....damn you 2007...why must you be so full of MMO goodness...(/emote Darren shakes fist in the air).

With more LoTR news, this article seems to be making the rounds. It's quite a long read and the the amount of effort put into this article is amazing. The article is about Turbine's recent announcement that basically says that those living in North America will not be able to play with any friends they may have in EU. From a purely selfish point of view, I'm kinda "meh" about this...simply because I don't regularly play with anyone from the EU. From a community PR point of view, I can see how this would be a big deal...especially for guilds that have members around the globe. I'm still munching on the details of what he asserts in the article...and I may comment on them later. The article is definitely worth the read.

Eve Online has now rolled out Revelations 1.4 and voice chat is one of the big features. I must admit, I don't play Eve anymore...I canceled about a month ago (...there just isn't enough PvE stuff in there IMHO, or I just plain suck at the game...one or the other). I'm sure all those in Eve are adjusting quite nicely to the new voice chat feature. I know I'll be heading into Eve again in the future, so this will be a nice addition to look forward to.

So...that's it. Oh, Silent Hunter 4 is still progressing...so I think this single player purchase was worth it. There are lots of bugs in the game right now though. Oh....and the manual SUCKS! There are sooo many undocumented details in this game, it makes me sick. Example: Did you know that you could not load torpedoes while you're in silent running mode...me neither! I can only say that WWII would have turned out a lot different if sub commanders where given this stupid, wimpy manual to fight the Axis with. My thanks to the community over at Subsim for all your help so far...great bunch of guys over there.

D out.