another life blog

Blog entries make a lot more sense when they come in a monthly basis. Not enough happens on a daily basis to really make a good entry in my opinion. So! What have I been up to in this past month? Well, for the most part, EverQuest II was on the forefront of my life. Allow me to tell a little history about my life with Verant’s EverQuest.

After I graduated from high school in 1998, I went up to University of Florida and entered into their Computer Engineering program. I wasn’t really sure about what to do with my life then, and just sorta decided on it because I liked playing games and computers. At that time, one of my good friend from high school, also attended UF for Math and something else major ~ his name is Adam Schoenfelder (and if anyone that read this, know of him, please let him know that I’m looking for him). In any case, he lived in the dorm, and I was visiting him for some reason… I think it was to get Game of Thrones from him - and that night, he was playing a MUD called GemStone III. Back then, I think I played Starcraft, Warcraft, C&C, Quake, whatever - and when I saw GS3, I kinda laughed at it. It’s a text based D&D game. You go around, talking to other people online, and get together in groups to fight monsters.

Adam got me into the game, and I wasn’t really focused on it until I figure out how to cheat easily. They allow you to “script” and I would make elaborate scripts with my mad programming skillz to do auto-rat-killing for incredibly fast experience gains. I would upgrade script with each new area I go to, and gradually, I became hooked. In a month time, my character, named Haelmistrum, shot past Adam’s. I suppose he lost interest in the game, but I went in with more feverishly than ever.

Since I can type pretty well, and I know how to talk politely ~ I made acquaintances/friends on GS3 rather quickly. Well, the only one I still remember to this day is Kritz and Sihaya. In any case, I play hard. I understand the game mechanics to the fullest, and exploit every single bit of it. I would learn where to go, what to avoid, etc, etc. I wanted to be the elite, and I make friends to reflect this. Sihaya might be upset at me for saying this now, but I kept an eye out for those who’d help me attain my goals of uberness ^_^ Of course, I didn’t “use” them, rather just rub information out of them on occasions. Sihaya was a level 200? 300? healer. So, I was literally shocked when I saw her… anyway, back then, I think that was the primary reason for making her my friend, even though I had to bring her backpacks full of cookies. (text-based cookies are delicious, I’ll have you know)

Mmm, I don’t know where I’m going with this… I’m retelling the story of me and GS3… what’s the point?! Well, let’s jump ahead to a year later. 1999 - I’m level 100+ sorcerer. Hunting the end game of GS3, and enjoying life of the uber. Well, I’m still way under Sihaya… but that’s moot, I realized then I’d never be as high as her because she heals for xp =) She can be toasty sitting about, but I can’t. So, during that time, Verant came out with EverQuest - same as GS3, but graphical! I believe Sihaya first told me of it, but I didn’t want to leave GS3 behind. But then Chris Porter started playing the game, and told me of it! I was convinced then, to try it out on E’ci or Cazic-Thule (don’t remember).

My first character on EQ was Ashlia Mistyblight. Yes, I played as a female dark elven shadowknight. I was lost at first, but using my incredible sweet skillz of polite talking, I was able to get free stuff from other passerbys, and etc. At that time, Sihaya also had a character… but I don’t recall the names, nor if she played on same server. In any case, within months, I got the game down, and I was raiding regularly into dungeons and etc. Hell, I even wrote a guide on how to break one of the most difficult xp camps at the time. In any case, I had a lot of fun, but I think nearing 2001, I decided playing EQ was ruining my life. I would stay up nights to raid Planes, kill dragons, etc. I skipped school, didn’t do work, etc, etc. I sold Ashlia for like 400 dollars I believe. Sometime before this, I also sold Haelmistrum for around 700 dollars. Yup, they’re like my little children, sold to new homes!

Months pass, and my grades improved. I don’t know when it was exactly, but with me out of EQ, Sihaya went back int GS3 for a bit. So I went back in, and started a new character as well - a warrior named Khulin? Anyway, that didn’t last long, I was spoiled by EQ. With time available to me (from where, I dunno), I went back to EQ in late 2001ish (a year and half after I stopped Ashlia). I started anew with a cleric named Kelianna. I really liked the name =) I think I did well as a cleric… people were fond of my heals, and my insanity at doing good complete heals. I also raided well, and organized CH rotations. I was in a good guild (they’re still going strong I think), and I had a lot of fun. But once again, I thought it was ruining my life, and I stopped playing once I reached the endgame of level 65.

In and about late 2003 till early 2004, when I saw the Tarutaru for Final Fantasy XI, I had the urge to play the game. Along with Sihaya, we started a couple of dancing TaruTarus - and had quite a bit of fun with it. Unfortunate, the chat system of the game is sorely lacking, and with Japanese people into the mix, it wasn’t very addictive at all. I sold the lil tarus, and stopped MMORPGs until the beginning of this month.

Since EverQuest 2 came on the horizon, and the news of it spread. I kept an eye on the game. When I saw a video of a group instancing a dragon slaying quest, I was thoroughly impressed by the graphics and the gameplay! I wanted to try it! But realize that my goal is now dentistry, and I must not falter and waver from the path. Sihaya was hooked, and got the game when it came out! Heck, she preordered it so she could get the Journeyman Boots! After its release near Christmas of 2004, I ignored the beckoning calls from Sihaya, and the game itself and concentrated on my studies. She would tell me occasionally, what she been doing on EQ2, and how much fun it is and how I can just “hop in” and “have fun” and leave! It’s not like EQ at all, where after finding a good group, you can’t bear to leave it. I didn’t believe, and ignored her calls.

At the end of January, as I was talking to someone from GameFAQs forum, they told me I should try Guild Wars. I told them, my computer wouldn’t run it well, and I’m too lazy to go to the front room to play it. That’s when something hit me… that I can bring my computer to the living room, and play games on my TV! *SHOKU!* Without a pause, I ordered a DVI>HDMI cable from EBay (didn’t work), and brought my computer to here while rearranging everything. I too, realized, “hey… Sihaya sent me a copy of EQ2. I can install it and play it! It’d be great!” On Feb 2nd, 2006 - EQ2 was installed, updated, and ready to go. I started my character, Linus, on Lucan D’Lere.

The first thing I noticed about EQ2 is how “updated” it feels. I mean, I can do a lot more! It feel the same, yet different. I can’t quite explain it. But, it was “new” to me. I didn’t know how to do talk to people properly, respond properly, cast spells, mem spells, whatever… a learning process, the first couple of days. When I got to Qeynos after a day of exploring the newbie island, I finally met up with Sihaya’s alts. The toon looked terrible, so I decided to upgrade my video card (they had it on sale for 100 bux) on 2/6/06. The amount that I played, was around a steady 6 hr per day, and I had a lot of fun. I shot through the first few levels, and got to level 18 in 7 days.

In 7 days, I found new GUI, EQ Maps, sites that had info on EQ2, etc, etc. I don’t know how Sihaya was playing the game before without EQMaps… but she got by. Hell, she got by without griffons to travel on for an entire year! To make a really long story short, last night, I dinged level 36 last night. Things I’ve done in the last 23 days that I want to remember 1) Writing a little helper guide on how to get Jboot 2) Going through Nektropos Castle and dying 7 times under Anata’s care 3) Making 32 Sage 4) Finding little tricks like making 15 gold per day at least by selling summon servant

The new Kingdom of Sky Expansion came into play just last Tuesday, and new tradeskill things were introduced. Earlier today, I wanted to buy the Tier 7 strongbox with 32 slots for my house vault, so I can sell a lot of crap all at once while I’m asleep. To my surprise, when I went to visit Fairydust to buy the strongbox, my EQ2 client locks up. The manor ATE Linus. I couldn’t get out! I realize soon after, that I locked up because the manor contained furniture from T7, and I can’t see them because I don’t have KoS expansion. I immediately started the process of BUYING KoS and DoF, but before I clicked on okay, I stopped to think. After about a minute or two, I decided to lay it on a coin flip. Head - I’d buy KoS and DoF digitally, download it, free Linus, get my strongbox, put more crap into them, auction, washup, go to bed. Or Tail - I’d cancel my EQ2 account.

It’s funny how I’m able to make these crazy decisions. I gave up EQ1 much the same way before — just one day, decided I won’t play anymore. I got tails, and EQ2 account is now cancelled. Maybe I’ll revisit the world as Linus one day — then again it wouldn’t be fun if Sihaya decide to strip the poor guy of his strapping 10 16 slot backpacks, and 2 whole platinums! Ah, whatever.

So, that’s what I’ve been doing for the past month. Mmm, I guess the Air Force making me get 5 consecutive days of pulse check was a big deal (then getting signatures and UCF Stamps… troublesome). Mostly EQ2 though. Well, and some movie, some dissection, agreeing to do a research project showcase, buying a new router, shooting gun at the gun range, etc. I don’t think I need to talk about my gun shooting experience ~ Po already covered my deficiencies quite nicely. Don’t worry, bro, for home defense, I’d get this.

I’d end today’s post with some pictures from EQ2 ~ =)

This entry was posted on Monday, February 27th, 2006 at 4:43 am and is filed under Games, my life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.