So life goes on with nothing new to play. As I am writing this I am waiting for Rappelz to complete updating just to try something new. I can’t say I am looking forward to yet another “free” game that sells in-game stuff for actual money. But as always I allow myself to be positively surprised.

Also the one month anniversary day for my third tour of duty in PlanetSide. Last time I wrote something here I was going to find an outfit to play with. And soon after I stumbled across someone from AoJ who got me invited into the outfit he is playing with. Well actually he contacted me when he noticed my name in-game (presumably one of the many times it showed up in the wrong end of a ‘someone was killed by someone’ message). So I ended up in the biggest Terran Republic outfit of the Werner server: Outcasters. Likely I wouldn’t have needed to actually getting an invite, since they seem to sign anyone up. But it helps to fit in when you actually know someone, if only a little.

I think I played with the Outcasters, last time I played PlanetSide, but left for some reason and instead joined MoX. This time around it seems like a good deal tho. While not exactly the most structured people around they do usually have an outfit platoon running. And usually someone who has a clue will be in charge too. And of cause being on TeamSpeak does help making the experience better than some random platoon. Even if often most of the commands end up being given in-game anyway. Since not everyone is on TS.

Still it is soon time to see if I want to spend money on PlanetSide. I doubt SOE will grant me with another month of free game time once this month is over. But right now I have nothing else I am paying to play. And I do have some good times from time to time. So odds are pretty good I will do at least one more month.

But something does loom on the horizon. I have a weak spot for limited editions of stuff. And today the temptation became too much. I had to have it even if I am not sure I wanna play the game. The precious item I am speaking of is the Lord of the Rings Online – Collector’s Edition. I finally broke out my trusty VISA and bought it the Dutch online store bol.com. Turns out it was cheaper place to buy it and I didn’t even need to call on a native to figure out the store. Still at a price of 249.99€ it is no bargain even if everyone else have jacked up the price after the game launched.

The upside of buying this edition is I can look forward to another game I can play really casually. The box includes a lifetime subscription. So I won’t have to consider if I want to continue spending cash on it. Instead I can just log in when I feel like and not feel bad for wasting cash on a subscription I am not using… I already wasted the cash in one go. Water under the bridge now =)

1. I found out it didn’t seem I was going to like the game anytime soon since I don’t enjoy any of the content
2. Age of Judgement (the guild I was playing with) closed down in Vanguard due to lack of interest.
3. I was charged for the second month (I had misunderstood what I had three free months of. Turns out it was the vgplayers site).

After those events I decided it seems I was paying for a glorified chat channel where I only really talked with one person. Any popular instant messenger will do that for free!

I did flounder around a little with remaining members of AoJ and joined some random guild. And it turned out to be as fun as most other random guilds I have been in: as in it wasn’t. Lots of members that did little together.

So I cancelled my subscription… Or I tried to and found out it didn’t work so I made a support request on it. That worked! I figured I’d try to motivate myself to play and see if I could find something enjoyable. But so far my appearances has become scarce, to say it at least. But with vacation time coming up next week I can maybe to one last stab at seeing if it is worth keeping a presence in that game.

In other news I finally was entered into a beta a couple of weeks ago. It is one I have been accepted to participate in for over 5 months so I can’t say I was very motivated to do much for. And I’ll just say that so far I have not been positively surprised by how they handle people who are actually playing the beta either. I guess community and information management just isn’t a strong trait with these guys. And from looking at the game it seems like it would take a miracle for the game in itself to become any serious contender in the already stuffed MMO market.

Since I also cancelled my WoW subscription again (the guy I was playing with didn’t have time) I have a bit of a hole in my MMO participation sheet. A beta I am not too interested in is all I have to show right now. I’m so far out I am considering Entropia Universe and PlanetSide again! Open beta of The Cronicles of Spellborne should be soonish tho. So with a bit of luck I can move into trying that before I do something stupid.

But anyway! Not much has changed since my last post except I had to move out of the PvP servers of EQ2. It was simply too frustrating and offered me no real rewards (with the exception of having the nice people of SDA around to chat with). So onwards I went to what is laughingly called a RP server. Now I knew it wouldn’t be all that much in character chatting and stuff like that. But at least people do tend to be a bit more mature on RP servers, and it seems that is the main reason people choose one anyway. At least from the replies I get when I joke about the lack of any real RP.

Gameplay-wise the game changes a bit when you don’t have to look over your shoulder all the time to see if you can get another kill before the gank-squad arrives. The game really lives up to it’s name. Lots and lots and lots of quests to complete. It’s quite a bit stressful really.

The good thing about that is that since the quests are – like in most other games of the type – so cookie-cutter you don’t really have to read what they are about. And only rarely does it matter if you do (in some instances locations are only hinted in text and not in your journal). So I am generally trying to adopt a strategy I call ‘chaos questing’. Basically I get as many quests in an area as possible and then start killing stuff. That works because no matter what I kill I’ll usually progress some quest.

The bad thing is if you level too quickly you end up with a lot of uncompleted quests. That is bad if you like to complete things before moving on… And I do. So I spend a lot of time getting old quests done so I have some room in my quest journal again. And usually I have to do that alone because the quests end up being so far under my level I hardly get XP for them.

The strange part about this is that often the monsters are still quite a challenge for my Guardian. I am not really sure if that is because I have – once again – selected a weak class. If I have gimped it somehow. Or if I simply suck at playing it.

Oh well… I am almost at level 40 now. And I am beginning to question how long I can keep playing this game. It’s not really a new thought since I have been playing it on and off for the last month or so. Having several days in a row where I couldn’t be bothered to play it.

I’ve been considering joining a guild. But it seems most of the recruiting guilds are just interested in being large. And there really seems to be very few guilds that state their interests to be anything like what I would like… Not that I am surprised when it is a main stream game like EQ2. It’s just like WoW in that respect – even if it is a RP server.

But there is light ahead in the tunnel. I’ve been selected to a beta. When exactly it gets underway is a bit of a mystery (it’s been delayed). But with any luck it should be any day now. Of course I can’t talk about it – or even mention the name – due to the NDA. But I’m hoping I’ll be motivated enough to keep a journal of it I can post once the NDA is lifted (or possibly get permission to post).