Tuesday, March 15, 2011

This is the end..beautiful friend..

A long weekend has just passed and I must have logged in to EQ2 about two or three times. Each of those was pretty much just for 30 minutes to say ‘Hi’ and chat to friends. I think it’s safe to say that my predictions were correct; Velious has killed the game for me. I was worried this would happen. I quit EQ1 on the same expansion and although I didn’t let myself be influenced by that as EQ2 is a very different kettle of fish, but it’s weird how it’s happened again. This time round though, I doubt I will be quitting altogether. It is just Velious that I am struggling to get my head round, so I expect I’ll still be hanging out with my Bro in tier 7 and up (more about that in a bit) and helping / grouping with guildies. Having said that I’m not so sure how many of them will need any help as it won’t be too long before all of them have way out geared Volt by doing their public quests and grabbing that armour. Not that this bothers me, I won’t be around so much and my equipment etc only bothered me when I needed it to clear content. Now I have made the decision to not get so involved in Velious and its raid side of things, I’m not really that bothered about getting myself kitted up.

That brings me on to my main gripe with the new expansion and I have mentioned this before. I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone but the most experienced raider with the toughest of raid groups cannot do the Velious content with their Tier2/3 raid gear from the Sentinels Fate expansion. Why let your players gear themselves up to the third best set of armour in game and way better than many of the player base has then not let it be good enough to start with the most basic of raids in the next expansion. That just seems crazy to me. ‘To me’ is the important part there and it’s what has made me realise that I am no longer a hardcore EQ2 player. It used to be that even with my limited play time, if I spent that time correctly and wisely I could quite easily still operate at the level of semi-hardcore raider. But now just to get started raiding I will have to spend a long time doing PQS, instances Just to get gear good enough to start trying to raid effectively. Not a bad thing really I guess as the best stuff is usually a good reward for the hardest obtained content, but the point is, it doesn’t suit me and the time I have available. I simply do not have time to do all that to get myself ready to raid. So, it’s time to hang up my bashin’ boots and move back in to the category of ‘casual player’ and maybe even in to ‘extremely casual player’. It’s sad, but EQ2 is very much a social network for me now, and very little else.

So, how have I been spending my time? Well, like I said I have had a few sessions in EQ2 (none in Velious) and I have spent the ones where I actually got in to something constructive, with my Bro. We had a riot the other day starting the cloud questline series in Tenebrous Tangle and then on in to The Barren Sky. I haven’t ever done this questline on any of my toons previously, so really enjoyed helping out the critters in TT. We managed to get all the part of the quest done in Sanctum of Scaleborn along with some other quest completions there, then headed off to The Barren Sky in ‘cloud session’ number 2. Oh, whilst I remember, flying my mount through Barren Sky and TT was pretty damn cool. After doing the first few quests in BS, we both called it a night. I’m looking forward to continuing this. Much much better fun than that Velious tripe.

Other than that it has been family time. The weather mostly over the long weekend was rubbish, but we got a few rays of sunshine on Sunday and made the most of the time by heading out for a walk and some lunch. Saturday morning was a particularly pleasant morning for me. Normally my little one ensures that I’m awake by about 0700hrs, if I am lucky, 0800hrs, but that particular morning when she woke very cutely shouting for attention, I looked at the clock and it was 1015hrs. I was overjoyed at my lazy lie-in and virtually skipped out of bed refreshed and happy. I walked out of my bedroom and all that changed when the smell hit me. Yup, my late wakeup call had forced poor old pooch to crap all over my hallway. Couldn’t help but feel sorry for him though, he looked all sad as I was cleaning up. Breakfast was pleasant. In other news, I’m going to be self flagellating later. Sounds weird? Well I deserve it. What did I do? Not spend any time on my novel this week. Gutting. I reckon I’ll be heading over to my writing pad more and more though now that EQ2 is enjoying its swansong for me.

Before I go, much sympathy and heartfelt wishes to those who need it in Japan and beyond. I am truly truly shocked at the devastation and incomprehensible suffering our fellow humans are having to go through over there. I wish you all luck in finding all your loved ones well and for those who don’t I wish you all the support and enough strength to get through day to day.

Whilst all this is going on, spare a thought for the Haitians. Over a year on and being a third world country they have seen no improvement in their lot. At all. The government continues to be corrupt, recent elections last year were twisted beyond belief and the local communities in the camps still are having to physically fight so they can get their water supplies for their family. Yup they get about half a bucket of water a week. If they are lucky. On top of that the lack of water means they are drinking waste water and with that comes Cholera which is hugely infectious. With already around 4000 dead from the epidemic, the estimates are that this will rise about 100,000 before it fizzles out. Bringing the total dead from the earthquake disaster and the aftermath to around 400,000. Apparently over half of which were below the age of 16.

The simple and undeniable fact is that Haiti offers nothing to the international community other than a bit of tourism and the smallest smallest amount of natural reserves which mainly go to its own economy anyhow, and as such the country is largely being ignored. If Haiti found massive oil reserves tomorrow, you can bet your bottom dollar things would be different. The billions that were pledged in relief have not arrived because those pledging the money are only doing so for clearance contracts and construction/infrastructure contracts from the Government, who you can bet will bleed those deals dry and the populace will suffer a thousand fold while the corrupt Government decide who can make the most money from who. It is the poorest country in the western hemisphere with half the country’s wealth belonging to the top 1% of citizens. Ask yourself what their chances are of a decent life in the next 20 years.

Be well.

2 comments:

  1. Sorry to hear your fears about Velious have been confirmed mate :(
    Still, at least you had an unexpected lie-in. It's so great when that happens (just not often enough when you have little 'uns!)
    All that stuff in Japan really puts things into perspective though...

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  2. Aye, but I'll still be logging in to hang with you and to help guildies :)

    And, yes..definitely.

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