I always play a female. 

I started this little rule of mine to avoid the FEMALE cybergirls.  I can handle the little boys, it's the girls that I wanted to avoid.  Back in the early days of EQ, it was a big problem.  I don't know how many times with a male character, some RL woman attached to me because I was extremely helpful in game.  I am not guiltless in the matter either.  I liked the attention.   However, it always went awry.  It is extremely real to women.  It is not a game.  I have grown past that, but then I got married and decided to continue the tradition.

So, I always played a female character. 

What I found is that there are a whole load of perks to playing a female.  Not the least of which is the fact that a father like myself never has to explain absences from the game, because they don't think I'm a father.  They think I'm a MOTHER.   I never hear the "WTF? WE NEEDED YOU LAST NIGHT, WHERE WERE YOU?" and I never have to answer "At my son's Pop Warner football practice, DUDE!"  They honestly do not care. If you are helping they are thrilled, if you are not they are equally fine. 

Interesting side effect wouldn't you say.

 As a funny side note:  My 8 year old son started playing my main (while I was dozing on the coach and against policy)  the other day and asked a guildie to duel.  My 8 year old ripped him apart rather easily.  The guy thought he got whooped by a girl.  He actually got whooped by a child.  He was ok with it when I apologized and told him what happened.

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/setview/features/loadFeature/1344/gameID/2

This is what I saw.  Thanks everyone.

Yep, thanks.  That's what I saw.  I guess I'll dig around in the forums here on the site.

I was actually a little worried about myself.  I thought I might have dreamed it .  Having dreams about developers is probably some sort of warning sign. 

I'll look at that.  Thanks.

I saw something about the graphic and engine change coming with Kunark.   As I remember it, they said there would be much smoother gameplay and reduced resource requirements.

My gaming desktop computer is pretty solid (3.0ghz Core2Duo with 3 gb PC-8400, Raptor SATA Drive, and an 8800 Ultra), so I shouldn't have any worries there.  But I was wondering about my laptop(2.1 ghz Pentium with 1 gb memory and integrated graphics.) I was able to seamlessly play LOTRO on my laptop, but I never was able to play EQII on it in the past.  I was hoping when Kunark comes out I will finally be able to play EQII on my laptop.

Anyone have any links I could look at that will point me to the changes to find out?

Thanks in Advance.

Hi,

I'm a long time MMO'er.  I've played basically every one since EQ LIVE (before it was called live.  April '99) to some extent.  The last one I played is the most fun one since EQ--The Lord of the Rings Online.    Great game, but my wife never liked LOTRO so she wouldn't play. (she claimed the screen motion made her sick.  gotta love pregnancy excuses)  Recently, I  stopped playing LOTRO because my wife is about to have our 3rd child in about a month.   Now, my wife might dislike LOTRO but she loves EQII.  And I like MMO's, in general, more when she is playing them with me.  That brings me to the crux of my post. 

Our daughter will be 2 1/2 monthes old in November and the cruise phase of child-rearing starts. That gives us from 8 to 12 months before the chasing begins.  My wife would like to join me for some EQII at about that time.   So,

I am looking for the newest or best comunity EQII server to start on when Kunark comes out in November.  I do not like picking up old characters.  I like starting fresh.  Besides, my old characters are on the PVP=Exchange server so unless I want to spend $1000 to re-equip them, I might as well forget it.  I would like a fairly new server to start over on and my wife wants to be able to solo again so the PVP servers are out.  Give me a clue-in on servers.

Thanks in advance for your post.

Originally posted by The-Raven

IMHO twitch combat is the only way to go with PvP or PvE.

• It would make the games more realistic.
• It stops unattended combat macorers in PvE games.
• It gives lower level characters a little bit more of a chance when getting ganked by higher level characters.  
• It means that "gear" is not the "one button kill" deciding factor.
• Twinks - less of an annoyance because gear is not the #1 deciding factor in a fight.

I would love to see twitch based combat in all the MMOs.

 

On your second point. It doesn't stop macroer's at all.  It just means Macroers will have an enormous advantage in combat.

On your third point.  It doesn't give lower level characters a little bit more of a chance.  It gives lower level players who are good at twitch combat a better chance.

On your forth point.  Fine, youa re right.  Gear is not going to be as much of a factor.  Now, the deciding factor is who is better at twitch combat.

On your fifth point. Twinks are now much more of an annoyance, because you can't depend on your levels, gear, and friends to avoid the ones bouncing circles around you with their BFG and their nostromo gamepad.

The point of all this is that now the deciding factor in everything is not:  your level, armor, character type, or # of friends.   Its how fast your punch a bunch of buttons on your keyboard or how fast you can punch 1 macro on your gamepad.  I think why you like the idea of adding twitch combat is becasue you are good at it.  PERIOD.

and finally, 

The point of a MMO is to play something you are not.  A max-level character with all the max-level gear SHOULD be able to wipe the floor with a lower level character-- Even if the player is a 45 year old stay at home mom playing while her kids are sleeping.      

Ok, so they are fixing the game engine.   They are fixing the Lore. . . .Throw in a new map and we've got a completely new game. 

Seriously folks.

If you enjoyed the content while you leveled, then what are we talking about here?  Yes, I understand that the upper levels are a little screwed up.  I stopped at level 26 with my first character.  I stopped at level 31 with my second character.  I am now on Level 15 with my third.  My first chacter started in bree.  My second character started in Ered Luin.  Now, my third character is starting in The Shire.  I have played a Captain, a Minstrel, and a I am now playing a Guardian.  Three different characters, three different zones, three different deed sets.  I haven't even tried trade skills.  I haven't even looked at them.

There is so much content in this game that to call it boring because your Uber Level 50 Hunter with all epic and all his  Legendary Traits has nothing to do is just plain stupid. 

But I don't think that is what is going on.  I think you bashers are just mad because there is no such thing as "Uber" in this game. This game is a story not a second life. 

And that's what you really want, a second life.

Have fun, enjoy.  When not fun anymore, go do something that is.  

Zorvan,

I never thought about it, but it does provide a very good justification for anti-copyright activities.

These are the kind of laws that will provide the seeds for the final democratic changeover in China.   Although you can't argue too much with the purpose behind this one, the authoritarian nature of this order will eventually pull down the Chinese Government.  The middle class will have a new chance at "Tienamin Square" sooner rather than later.  I think this time it will turn out way different.

One of the problems is that the american kids playing get their first look at a foriegn culture.  What they see is:

1. Opportunistic

2. Unhelpfull

3. Silent

4. Pushy

Thats a real good first look at the Chinese.

"When they now try to make the game Mainstream-Friendly, the only thing it'll do is kicking the Core gamers out of the game, while the Mainstream will still be WoW/LotRO."

You people are really missing out with your constant attempts to try to "credit" the success of Lotro to "wowification."    The reason the success of Lotro is the immersiveness. 

To say Vanguard is unsuccessful because the player base hates WOW is another missing of the point.  Vanguard is unsuccessful because the developers are lazy.

Steve

The attention to detail of the story of the Lord of the Rings is what makes this game special.  I protected Fatty Bolger from a bunch of birds at Crickhollow.  That is what makes this game so immersive.  I saw a patch note that they changed the floors of Bag End to tile, because it was a tile floor in the books. 

Compare it to Vanguard. 

Vanguard - no polish, stability issues, stupid broken quests, no bug fixes ever.

LOTRO - detail, fun game play, the fastest patcher I have ever seen, smart quests with a good story, a new way of thinking about fantasy gaming, for example;  moral, dread, hope, defeat, victory. 

LOTRO is the "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" of the gaming industry.  An absolutely brilliant way to tell a story.

To those who don't know who Fatty Bolger is, read the books.   If  you can make it through the first 20 chapters or so, <snore>  you will fall in love. 

I don't even know what we are talking about. 

"Stability issues"  4 or 5 months into the "LIVE" game. 

Gameplay that is "not fun."

Vanguard is the biggest mistake in the history of the MMO genre.   There is only one word to describe what happened, "Lazy."  With the fun factor that LORTO brings to the table and the new games coming out, no one is ever going to try it.  It is impossible to salvage now.  You people who are playing are the only people who will ever be playing.

The fact that they are making their team goals answerable to the gaming public illustrates how lazy the management is.  If the management had made the teams answerable to them, this would have never happened.

This article is the illustrates the economic trends that have the most far-reaching implications in the post-internet world.  This illistrates the chances of ever starting an internet service company in the U.S. or E.U.  It shows that there is no future in WWW 1.0 company of any kind.  Look at the exchange rate of 6 cents for every gold piece and you'll see what I mean.

The advent of WWW 2.0 is because 1.0 doesn't work and will never work again in an industrialized country.

 To Shannia,

I respectfully disagree.  This writer should not be fired, he should be promoted to editor.  The NY Times could use people with his insight.