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Profile: Lord_Vayde
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UsernameLord_Vayde
Rank: 1/100Rank: 1/100Rank: 1/100Rank: 1/100Rank: 1/100
Real NameAdam Mostel
RankNovice Member
JoinedJanuary 23, 2004
GenderMale
Age(hidden)
LocationGreat Neck, NY, United States
Last VisitMay 1, 2008
Post Count42
Biography 
Quote

"Life is but a dream, death is the awakening..."

 

Most Recent Thread by Lord_Vayde [more...]

Latest Blog Entry - WTB Community Elements!
From my blog Jaded like Guild Wars: Factions [Lord_Vayde]

So I'm sitting here in FFXI (yes, I caved and resubbed) looking for a
party that I haven't found in four days now (I never said it was a
cakewalk...) and in my endless hours with nothing to do but watch
T.V., run in place, and do push-ups (Well, at least all the time spent
not playing gives me a reason to not be sitting on my ass all day),
I've been thinking about classic EQ1. In part because FFXI resembles
it so much, and in part because EQ2's sexy lure gets to me with each
passing moment of non-partied boredom. Coincidentally we're having
this exact same discussion in my linkshell chat right now.

-Anyway-

Whas on my mind right now is the community elements in EverQuest that
simply have not existed in any game beyond it. Elements that, while
sometimes inconvenient or imbalancing, I believe added an important
dimension to the game and making it much more of an online experience
than simply partying with 4 or 5 other random people to accomplish
something.

The first of these would be the auction house system. Or the bazaar.
Or player vendors. Whatever your game calls it, I don't think there's
a single game in the genre right now that does not offer this feature
in some way, shape, or form.

...what...the...yeah.

Was it really so painful to pass through East Commonlands, hit up the
tunnel, socialize with the market and bargain in real time? When was
the last time you looked at the name of the seller in WoW's auction
house and sent them a tell asking if they'd trade for such and such
item or if there were any other deals that could be worked out?

Yes, it was a pain in the ass to be in EC hawking your wares when you
could be going out and having fun, but it was also an enjoyable
experience -a t least for me. It made me feel like the world actually
had people who interacted, and a living, breathing market. Hell, you
even had the typical bazaar "thieves" that would come by looking for
anyone who was foolish enough to make a trade without checking their
bag space. That, and putting a piece of platinum on the ground
followed by the use of "Minor Illusion" was simply amazing.

The other prominent feature now lost to the sands of time would be
buffing. Yes, we still have buffs - but for what? If I, as a warlock,
can cast a shield every 30 minutes that ups my spell damage, and can
only cast it on myself...why do I even need the spell? Why not make it
a permanent state on my character? It seems pretty useless to have
durations on a lot of self-casting buffs. The buffs that we can cast
on other people in this day and age are also very limited, mostly
within our own parties - buffs that usually don't carry over after
leaving the party.

Yes, buffs were imbalanced in some regards. A mage with clarity 6 vs.
one with Breeze was obviously going to have a huge advantage, but it
wasn't like the other mage couldn't simply find a friendly enchanter,
ask nicely, and get his own c6 - I don't even remember a single
instance where I was forced to pay for my buffs, though I would always
donate. So yes, these buffs made some encounters easier - though most
were simply quality of life issues. SoW for a long journey? Clarity
for reduced downtime? The more ridiculous buffs like damage shields
and health regens always had a short duration, as should be
appropriate...but why remove the former? It promotes player
interaction, provides quality of life, and can also be an economic
trade in and of itself.

Anyway, those were the two big ones on my mind. Feel free to add more
or dispute these in your comments!

~Vayde out.

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Recent Forum Posts [more...]

    • Liquid Cooling Tubes - Potential Disaster?
    • So I just got some new RAM for my computer, it's significantly larger (taller) than my original RAM - nearly double the height. As a result, my liquid cooling tubes now touch the RAM sticks. Will the heat cause those tubes to melt, or am I safe?
    • Posted: 4/28/08 5:04 PM
      General Discussion
    • Free Veteran Trial
    • Originally posted by Harleyrider

      I also had an issue with the trial. I was going to check out the game for the first time in six months and see what my old server, Shadowfire, is like now. Downloaded the trial and patched it with no problems. I go to log on and the launchpad scans for updates. Says everything is updated, but never does allow me to actually hit the Play button and log in. Instead, the button just says Updating and never moves to Play despite the fact it just told me the game is fully patched.

      It's not a firewall issue, either. The program has access through my firewall. It's just not moving beyond the log-in screen. And if I click on the My Account or New Account buttons, it can't connect to the Web pages. But if I hit support, I'm directed to the Support Web page -- so again, it doesn't seem to be a firewall issue.

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      If you're on Vista, you will need to run the program as administrator, and perhaps in Windows XP compatibility mode (right click the shortcut -> properties). Thats my familiarity with SOE games on Vista, anyway.

    • Posted: 3/17/08 2:05 PM
      Star Wars Galaxies
    • Swg no longer for sale???
    • Originally posted by AtomicDog

       

      Originally posted by BaronJuJu

       

      Originally posted by AtomicDog

       

      I love the frustration inherant in this quote. No matter how much the Cardassians tortured Picard, he still saw four lights.

       

      I also see that this creep got his own special title for these forums. Nice to see cronyism isn't limited to the SOE boards.

       

      I love how folks have to blast back on Obraik because they have no intelligent repsonse to refute him. Of course I would be a bit terse myself if I had to continually respond to blatant attempts to flame me not on the validity of what I wrote, but due to who I supposedly was in their crazed minds.

      Oh and before you continue to make  yourself look even more foolish, try and educate yourself on what these forums on this site have to offer:

      It's not a special title for him, its called a Forum Title. Folks that actually contribute meaningful, thought out, non-conspiracy theoried, doomsday for <insert MMO> every 6 months articles to this site are rewarded. I know, call them crazy, rewarding folks to bring something useful to the site rather than hate and bashing. What a concept eh?

       

      Bashing SWG is not a conspiricy theory or a doomsday cry or anything like that. You guys try and turn it around like we are the instigators. Myself I was happily playing swg in 2004 writing meaningful, thought out posts about wanting to buy armor attachments and the latest pvp base raid. Then SOE pulled the rug out from under me. And no amount of meaningful thought out posts we wrote after that did a damn thing.

      Neither you, Obriak, SOE, or their lapdogs here will make me see five lights when there are only four. The NGE was a huge mistake, it ruined the game and set the genre itself back years, and if the housecleaning that is going on at SOE as we speak doesn't open your eyes I'm afraid I can't help you. 

      But please, continue to cringe doglike behind your handle yapping at your betters. Perhaps your masters will throw you a bone in the form of a title. I'd pursue one myself but my meaningful posts have all been deleted (like the ones in this thread) as they differ from the SOE driven agenda of this website.

      I'd rather be an honest novice than a crooked ewok any day of the week.

       

      No, bashing SOE is not a conspiracy theory, but I notice that many of the bashers will turn on any SWG supporter here and call conspiracy, claiming them to be SOE puppets or moles.

      Here is the reality of the situation - the NGE is not going away. Not in the official form of the game. I played SWG from day one, after following the game since the rumors, back when all I had on my MMORPG plate was EverQuest. Sure, I loved the game. I also had my reservations, the sandbox was new to me. I had never played UO, and the lack of definitive content didn't sit well with me.

      Ultimately I got used to it, and found my own little clique in the game. But that clique wasn't for the gameplay, but the social aspect. When the holocrons were introduced, that was screwed over. When the CU was introduced, the crafters and entertainers started to vanish. The NGE was an absolute travesty, and having unlocked my Jedi just before the CU, I was pretty pissed off.

      I tried returning to SWG in the NGE-era multiple times over the past two+ years. This in the midst of toying around with WoW, returning to AO, and trying anything and everything that was released between then and now. As much as I might have hated WoW, SWG was long gone and I had no intentions of returning.

      On a whim over the summer, I picked up a time card and took yet another trip back to SWG. This time around I took some time to fool with the keymaps and the camera, and managed to get the game to play much like the Pre-CU/CU. I'm not a fan of the classes, the lack of alpha status, or the lack of decay. I'm not a fan of levels. I think that the abilities of the professions are limited in scope, and that there is much more potential that isn't being tapped, but that has always been the story of SWG for me. In spite of what I might dislike, the fact that each class has a role means that the developers are capable of, and -have- introduced definitive content, and I dare say its more interesting than anything I've played in WoW. At the same time, its still the SWG I know and love in terms of base features.

      Are there population issues? Absolutely. I personally don't see them on a day to day basis because I am a resident of Starsider, but part of the issue with those population issues is the sheer unwillingness of the veterans who are cemented into their belief that SWG is gone, and SOE is the devil incarnate. I've brought about 10 or so veterans from the pre-CU era that I used to play with back into the game, and they've been loving it.

      The truth is that while the game has changed, its still SWG. It still has sandbox elements, non-combat classes that continue to be viable (although in different ways than before), and the current development team is miles above anything the game has had before. WoW might have more polish, but in SWG I can still claim my property, I can build my city, I can start my business, I can host my events, and I can explore the vast wilderness. I can do whatever I want to do, and the only difference now is that I'm limited within a singular class choice, and a level range. Really, its not such a big deal.

      I understand the frustration with the NGE, I understand the hatred for SOE. I know what it's like to put the $ in there, I played during the EQ Legends Server era after all. The game we all knew and loved still exists though, just with some minor modifications. For the losses we've experienced, there is also gain. Perhaps its not equal, but it is slowly reaching that point. Is it wrong for SOE to market old features that were removed as new? Absolutely. But I think that the vision is far too one-sided. While the marketing is wrong, the fact is that these features -are- being reintroduced. Its been recognized that they are what made SWG strong, and their presence keeps the game strong. The continued support of the dev team for those features makes it stronger. You don't think SOE knows that they messed up? We might never hear the apology out of Smedley's mouth (who, by the way, remains president of the Company as far as I've been able to gather - and just answers to a new boss), but the progress of the game is in a direction that tells us that neither form of the game was correct, neither pre-CU nor NGE...but a combination of the elements of both has turned SWG into something that, aside from those few issues I might have, I find more interesting and engaging than either the pre-CU or the early NGE.

      You may now proceed to have a revelation, or the much more likely event of claims that I'm the Devil's Advocate, complete with a trail of fire and brimstone at my feet.

    • Posted: 3/17/08 2:00 PM
      Star Wars Galaxies

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