How much is too much?

I know it's been awhile since I've posted anything, but I wanted to get an update in before I let too much time pass and no one read the blog anymore. Anyways, I started wondering today, do I have a problem? About a month-and-a-half ago, I had a job interview for a subtance abuse counselor position. One of the questions was "What do you think the most important part of the 12-step recovery program is?" Okay, so with my new B.A. degree in Psychology in hand, I absolutely blew the question. I couldn't remember the 12-step addiction recovery steps and fumbled my through with some jibberish. Needless to say, I didn't get the job; however, I went home and looked at the 12-step recovery program. The first step is the most important, of course, because it is "Admit to yourself that you have a problem." You can't begin to recover if you don't believe you have a problem. Anyway, so enough of the psycho-babble for now, I started to wonder today as I was counting my characters in World of Warcraft, and the numerous other games that I play, if I really do have a problem. The number of characters shown over at http://combatengineers.enjin.com/profile/828566/characters/index/page/1only shows you my guilded characters within World of Warcraft. I'm working on adding my Rift characters there (I think there's around 5 there) and also my City of Heroes characters (somewhere around 15 or 20 total characters there). My Everquest 2 (4 or 5), Vanguard (1), and DC Universe Online characters (2) are not listed either. And that's just the MMOs. I also play numerous XBOX 360 and Playstation 3 games and dabble around on a 3DS every now then. Granted most of my game playing time is devoted to World of Warcraft, EQ2, and NCAA Football 2012 but I do play the other games now and then. So, I may have a problem. But then again, I do not think it's a bad one either, and it's definitely not a mental illness (A mental illness has to cause a negative effect on my normal daily activities, and I am very capable of fulfilling my daily activities and do not neglect my children in favor of gametime ;-) ). Some studies have shown that games can improve brain function, and I can definitely use some improved brain function. Everyone has a hobby, and everyone has different ways of having fun. So my hobby is gaming and I just happen to have fun when I sit down at a computer (or a console), log into vent, and play games with people that I get along with very well. And if you've got a problem with that, I've got two words for you.....

City of Heroes Going F2P?

So, my good friend, Steady over at Steady's Gaming Blog, let me know that City of Heroes was going Free to Play in the upcoming issue 21. City of Heroes was the first MMORPG that I had invested enough time to get a character to the level cap. Don't get my wrong, my first MMORPG that I played was Everquest Online Adventures on the Playstation 2, but I never got to the level cap there or any subsequent MMO (Star Wars Galaxies, Everquest, Everquest II, etc). until I found CoH. At around level 5, my wife and I found a home with the Moonbase Gamma supergroup, which eventually evolved into the Combat Engineers gaming community, that I'm still a part of today (yes, I know, those people are crazy for keeping me this long!).

Anyways, I later started playing World of Warcraft, got addicted, and moved more away from CoH, and devoted most of my game time towards World of Warcraft (yeah, like that's worked. I still try every game known to man, and I still keep coming back to WoW). So, to make a long story short, I may come back to City of Heroes, depending on what content is being offered for free. I don't think I'm willing to pay another monthly subscription (with Rift, WoW, and now Gods and Heroes [see next blog post, coming soon]), but if I can still play my level 50 and access new stuff, finish off certain badges, etc, and maybe level a new character as well, I may be coming back.

Now, as with Steady, I share his concerns. Will this new F2P model ruin the game with an influx of new people farming characters to the level cap, without learning to play their character, and then attempting to play the end-game and ruin PUG groups in the game completely (they're already dreadful enough as it is)? The game already has a problem with paying subscribers farming their toons to level cap and then attempting the end-game content without knowing how to play their character (hence the current state of most PUG groups). Don't twist my words here, I'm not against farming levels completely, and I've taken part in and benefitted from the practice as well. However, a person that farms a character from level 1 to the level cap without learning how to play said character should not then attempt to jump into any end game content. Learn to play the character. Run some of those missions you missed along the way, learn about the powers that you have and when you should use each one. Find out with enhancements work best with your character. Find some friends and run some task forces and once you feel like that character is your in-game persona that you know like the back of your hand, then maybe dabble in the end-game content. Hopefully, these new F2P players will grasp that concept, but if it's anything like some of the current subscribers, it's kind of doubtful. Granted, I can still play with my current Supergroup, but most of the people that used to play it actively, have moved on to another game as well (usually WoW).

-Ashton

It's Friday! Welcome to Weplaywow.com!

Okay, so in keeping with my promise to give you all the answer to the "something big" that was coming Friday, here it is. It's 12:41 am where I live, so it's Friday. Lately, I've been trying to recruit some of my friends and family into playing World of Warcraft with me (consider it a real-life recruiting for the in-game world type of thing). Yes, I know, I play games way too much, but I just want to spread the addic...ahem...joy.

Anyways, onto the point of this halibaloo. I would usually get my family members to play for maybe 5-10 minutes at the most before they would say that they didn't understand the game at all. I left it at that for a while until one family member said that they would like to play the game more, but they just didn't understand it and became easily frustrated. I asked around to the other people, and I kept getting the same response. The in-game WoW tutorial just wasn't cutting it for these people and they were becoming frustrated and giving up on the game very quickly, although they enjoyed the possibilities that the game could bring.

So, after several months of research, work, and monkeys (don't ask, there is just always monkeys involved in everything), We Play Wow was developed. It is the most in-depth beginner's guide (well, actually guides) and one-on-one help available. Actually, there isn't anything else like it. Trust me, I looked and looked and even the monkeys couldn't find anything.

"Wait", you ask, "You're asking us to pay you to teach us how to play World of Warcraft?" No, I'm not, actually. Here is what my program will provide you. All of the programs include the following: a beginner's guide to GameSpeak, a customized (yes, I personalize each one of these things) guide to World of Warcraft developed specifically for you (I e-mail you and you e-mail me letting me know what it is you are wanting to learn and I then create a guide specifically tailored to your needs every single time), bi-weekly to tri-weekly meetings (some would call these classes, but I would hardly call playing WoW school), and basically just about anything else that you could ask for this type of program. Trust me, if you e-mail me with a question, I will answer it (and no, I won't charge you extra money to answer your questions, all that's included).

This product isn't for everyone. Actually, it's not for people that already play World of Warcraft. It's for those people who want to play, but having a hard time understanding the game. I taught my own mother (who was one of the ones who could only play for 5 minutes before quitting) using this course and she is no longer a 5 minute wonder. I know there's going to be jerks out there saying "Everyone can play WoW. It's so easy." No, my friend, it's not. Not for people whose last video game was Pac-Man or Tetris (both very awesome classics in my opinion. And trust me, the in-game community for the most part, is less than stellar in their empathy and helping attitudes (spend 10 minutes in trade chat and you'll see what I mean).

I'm not charging you for doing stuff that World of Warcraft is already doing, the extremely low fees that I do have are for the time investment that I personally make for every individual person. You're not sitting with millions of people watching a recorded webinar. You're actually talking with a real, live person, one-on-one, and working together in-game as well. No, I'm not charging you to play the game with me (trust me, I'm not that desperate for a social life), again, the extremely low fees cover the cost that I incur for the services that I provide (the guides, creating accounts on World of Warcraft, the ventrilo voice-chat server, etc).

Again, this product is not for everyone. But if any of what I said applied to you and you want to get started playing World of Warcraft and actually enjoying it, head over to www.weplaywow.com and check out what we have available.

-Ashton

Update: Final Fantasy XI Sub Cancelled

I promised everyone an update on my time spent in the XBOX 360 version of Final Fantasy XI. I tried playing my Hume a few more times and did not have any luck at all. The initial quest was simply "go find this guy in this maze of caves, but I'm not going to give you any directions or anything. Oh, there's a map sold by this guy down at the dock, but you don't have enough money for that yet. Oh, and you'll need to equip your weapon as well, because if you don't, well you'll die" basically. I couldn't find the guy even after trying to find an online walkthrough for the quest. So, I decided to try a different character. I created an elf this time and started in San 'd Oria (I think that's how it's spelled, but I can't remember). This time, it was a bit easier. I was able to do several of the starting quests and even levelled up to level 5. However, the quests were all of the "Kill X number of Y" variety, and being the type of person I am, I got really bored with this type of quest. I simply didn't have the patience anymore, and WoW was calling my name again (Yes, I know WoW does the Kill X number of Y thing too, but at least I get an interesting story to go with it). So, I have cancelled my FFXI sub and doubt I will go back.

Tired of the WoW Clones

Okay, I'll admit it. I love World of Warcraft. But, I don't want to play it all of the time. I also don't want to try every new MMORPG that comes out and find out it's exactly like WoW. It really pisses me off, especially when I pay money for it. I recently played a beta version of a game (I can't say which one, cause that would break the NDA, of course) and literally everything was exactly like World of Warcraft, except with a different storyline. The thing that they proclaimed set it apart from other MMOs was very similar to WoW, but with more choices. Granted, I didn't pay any money for it, but I probably would have, had I not played the beta. It seems like every new fantasy MMORPG that is coming out is copying WoW, using the excuse that they are taking what worked with WoW and adding their own elements in. The problem with this concept is that most of their "new ideas" are very small elements of the game and the game comes off looking very similar to World of Warcraft. Don't get me wrong, because like I said, I like World of Warcraft, but I don't want to repeat the experience every time a new fantasy MMO comes out.

Square Enix wants your next-born child to play FFXI on XBOX 360

Admittedly, I probably should have known better. I've played the PC version of Final Fantasy XI and was not too impressed with it. In fact, I never got past the starting area in the PC version. However, I thought maybe the console version might play better with the way the controller moves the camera and everything. Well, two weeks after buying the game I still didn't know. I should've read that the game required a hard drive and then realized that my 4GB 360 Slim didn't come with a hard drive... So, yes, that's my fault there, I'll admit that.

Fast forward to last night after I've purchased the hard drive I needed to play (this is the only one that works without unauthorized work-arounds that may damage your system, by the way). The link for the hard drive is below this post.

Okay, so the PlayOnline viewer installed in under five minutes. Good to go, right? No, not so fast. Now you have to register. This shouldn't be a big deal, should it? Apparently, Square Enix had to make this part extremely hard. Apparently, Square Enix thought that the way other games let characters enter information was just too easy...

Their not-normal cursor icon further complicates the process because you don't know which end is the right one to use. Secondly, if you don't have a keyboard attached to your controller (as I don't), you're in for some additional pain. You have to highlight the field you want to type into, then press the Y button to select the field, and then the X button to open up the keyboard to use. Then once you're done, you have to press the B button to close the keyboard and then start the process over with the next field. Okay, fast forward about 30 minutes later and I've finally finished the registration process. I thought since I downloaded and updated the PlayOnline thing that I was ready to get into the game. No, sorry, I still have to update the actual game portion of the game. It says I have one hour remaining, so I go do something else for an hour.

Now I'm back and it says complete and press X to continue. I press X to continue and now it's updating again...Now, I'm officially frustrated. Now, I have about 5 hours remaining and it's bedtime. I leave it on to update and when I wake up in the morning, it says I'm good to go. Now I have to obtain a Content ID (FFXI's version of character slots). I choose 3 for now, since they're all free for thirty days and create my male Hume. I choose Bastok and load into the game. I watch the short intro and do the initial dialog with the NPCs and find my first mission to go into the Bastok mines and get the report from the Overseer. There's a map, but it's not easy quest-finder mode-enabled like World of Warcraft. I get to the mines, and now I have no clue where to find the Overseer. I search for a while and still haven't found him. I also find out that I'm no match for even the low level "Ding Bats" in the mines (although the name does make me laugh) and without a weapon I die very quickly. I log for now, but I still want to give the game a little longer. I plan on finding a strategy guide for the quests and missions that I can not figure out on my own (I admit it, I'm not the hardcore type, I like help) and also getting a weapon in-game. If you want to try out the game, get some headache medicine (and make sure you aren't susceptible to high blood pressure) and click the link below:

Levelling up in World of Warcraft

Okay, I levelled my Worgen to level 60 (no, it's not the level cap, but it's still pretty high) within two weeks of the Cataclysm release date. I know it's not a hardcore feat like doing it in 24-48 hours, but for the casual gamers, this is more than ideal. Everybody continues to ask me how I did it. Well, I spent a lot of time playing (before work, after work, and when I should have been sleeping) for one. But I had some help. There's a guide out there (well, several actually) that helped me find the quests that I needed to level up in the most efficient way possible. My wife and I started playing are Worgens at around the same time and we had devoted similar time to them. I used the guide and she didn't. Results? She's only at level 20.... She continues to ask me why mine levelled up faster. It was simple, I wasn't spending too much time running around and getting and turning in all the quests and then going to the same area and basically killing the same mobs that she was. This guide gives you the most efficient way to pick up the quests and then turn them in, so you're not basically repeating yourself over and over again and you level up much quicker. There are also other guides available that help with professions, achievements, and dailies. There is a purchase price for the guide, but for the quality of these guides, the price can't be beat. Yes, there are other free addons out there that help with levelling, but none are quicker or better than this one. I also guarantee that there is no virus or tracking software with the guide. Click the link below to head to the guide's website.

Ultimate WoW Guide!

MapleStory?

Okay, I decided to try this one out after seeing a posting somewhere about their new mechanic class. I wasn't too interested in the class, but I had heard good things about the Free-to-play MMO from others before, so it just gave me an excuse to try the game out. I never really thought I'd be interested in a side-scrolling MMO before, but I thought I should at least give it a try. Well, apparently I had a Nexon account somewhere down the line (I probably have too many gaming accounts to remember them all) and I couldn't remember my password (apparently I got the username right) and I didn't have access to the original e-mail address I signed up with anymore. So, what's a guy to do? Create a new account with a new e-mail address, of course! Well I did that and they were supposed to send my password activation link immediately. I check my e-mail and spambox and no, they're not there. I click re-send e-mail, still no luck. I wait for a day and no, they're still not there. I click the resend activation button again two more times and wait for another day. The next day, all four activation e-mails show up in my inbox at the same time. WTF? Okay, so I sign in and download the game. The initial download for the installer takes about 3 minutes for my high-speed connection. The download for the game from the installer takes about 2 hours (which is pretty good, considering it's an MMO). So anyways, I finally get in and create my character. Apparently I don't get to pick a class (job) until I reach level 10, which I am not sure I like this arrangement just yet. I'm up to level 6 and so far, I'm still semi-interested. I had to redo how the hotkeys work (never assign a power to the "Shift" key on a Windows PC, stupid freaking Sticky Keys). I'm going to at least keep playing it until level 15 or so so I can get an idea of what the game is like once I have chosen a class. Keep tuned in, and I'll let you know my progress.

Share mission with group? Nope, not in DC Universe.

I have to say, I really like playing DC Universe Online. The fact that I can save iconic superheroes throughout the game and the fact that iconic superheroes talk to me throughout the game makes me get all giddy inside. I also like the fact that levelling up seems to go much quicker in this game than in other MMOs. But, here's the one fact I don't like. It's not very group-friendly, and it's supposed to be an MMO. All of the inside missions pretty much require a second person to complete at the correct level (Right now, I've been completing them solo at about 3 levels higher than the suggested mission level). This would be okay if I could simply share the mission with my friends. Nope, the DCUO powers that be said that they don't need that feature in this game. So, pretty much, my friends can help me complete the mission, but they really have no extra incentive to do so. Yes, this has left me basically playing the game by myself, because I simply didn't want to group up with others I didn't know in the game. This is a pretty basic feature in most MMOs (the ability to share missions or quests, that is) and for some reason, Sony forgot to put it in there. They can't claim ignorance, because this isn't their first foray into the MMO world (Everquest, Everquest 2, Vanguard. Do any of those ring a bell?), so I really can't find a good excuse as to why they did this. Post your comments below and let me know what you think about this lack of a feature.