Time for another New Attitude…

This week live from Everfrost. 

We discuss gaming in an essay entitled “Thugs in the Global Village”, Sleeping with the fishes…the dead ones, Better Moats and Gardens, a few words from John Smedley and more…

This week coming to you live…sort of…from Everfrost.  Before we get to how I ended up sleeping with the fishes lets talk about gaming. Pull up an iceberg as Mirala and I from The Old Guard discuss the weeks events. First lets discuss a guy from the real world called Marshal Mcluhan…

 Thugs in the global village…

Today’s man of the moment is a guy named Marshal Mcluhan…he probably never set eyes on the internet let alone an MMO. Why is he here? Because he is one of the first people to think about the world in terms of a “global village” - and that is exactly what we have today when we play an MMO or even just log on to the internet.  I can log on and talk to friends around the world, sit down and have a chat and a cup of virtual coffee, all without ever having left the convent.

But virtual or not, any time you have a lot of people together in one place there will always be a few thugs.  I am sure you know the type - the sort of people who enjoy making others miserable.  It may be in a raid or it may simply be someone who stumbles upon your corner of the virtual world. These are the people who seem to have the need to boost their ego, or at least validate how authoritative their opinion is by putting others down. I first encountered people like this in the business world.  Some of put downs I have encountered  include the following…

“I don’t think you understand all the issues here”

To which I occasionally reply, “I have been on the job 25 years, have 126 I.Q. and two masters degrees…please do enlighten my poor feeble mind.”

The internet, whether it is in a forum or a game, is rife with people who will “deign” to stoop to your level and deal with you. This isn’t half so bad as those who fire something at you like “grow up” or “don’t be so juvenile”. Usually these are the sort of comments that are fired off by an irate 12 year old.  One of my all time favorites is someone in a raid with a group of 45+ year old women and fires off…

“dude lrn 2 ply!”

This is usually followed by a veritable litany of advice proffered by someone who has a difficult time understanding why others can’t meet his or her high standards when gaming - all directed at someone who JUST WANTS TO RELAX AND HAVE A GOOD TIME WITHOUT GETTING ALL HYPER ABOUT IT.

In the end, I think one of my grandfather’s friends found the best way to deal with it all.  He had a sign on the back of this tiny German car, a convertible, that he would drive around just for fun. The sign read “Illegitim non-carborundum”  - which translated mean (or so he claimed) don’t let the child of unmarried parents” get you down - or words to that effect.

Ah Marshall Mcluhan we hardly knew ye. Your global village has been invaded by virtual thugs.

In the news…

Game Update 42

Game Update 42 had some great additions to crafting.  One of them is a mannequin that you can set up in your home to display armor.  A friend of mine on the Najena server was on the first night update 42 was online telling me things like “50 more crafting writs to go…” before she could make one for her Freeport home.  Another of the new crafter recipes is a great new tree for your home. It will be a great new addition to my garden – the new recipes are level 60 and 62 so if, like me, you haven’t reached higher than level 42 carpenter you will have to make some high level friends to get one. Or, if you are on a server like Najena, have about 6 plat floating around doing nothing.

Over at Livegamer.com they are telling us that EQ2 players are scheduled to have the services of livegamer.com (which I talked about in a previous column) available to them beginning March 31, 2008.  It looks like the transition from Station Exchange is just around the corner.  John Smedley had a few words about it. Here are some excerpts:

“I wanted to give you all more background on why we have made this decision. When we decided to begin our groundbreaking Station Exchange service, it was because we felt it was important to take a step in the direction of turning what had always been an illicit side of the MMO gaming market into something that would give people desiring to participate in that kind of activity a safe and secure way to do so. It was also our belief that by providing a legitimate alternative, we could cut down on the farming activity our players loathe and the large impact illicit virtual item trading has had on our customer service group.” - John Smedley

“We’ve been fighting this battle with these criminals for a long time. It’s clear to us that the systematic way in which these farmers conduct themselves has made this a top issue for us, both from a customer satisfaction standpoint and in the economic impact that this kind of activity has caused.” - John Smedley

The same message had a bit about virtual item trading and the future of the MMO market:
“We believe strongly that secondary markets such as virtual item trading are here to stay in online gaming. The growing number of players participating in this market tells us this. Games designed from the start to incorporate such activities could be a lot of fun, and while I don’t think this is ever going to be something the majority of people participate in, it will continue to be part of a lot of people’s gaming experience. If we can get rid of farming, or at least substantially reduce it over time, I think a lot of other people’s objections will disappear. There will always be those who believe that the game play should be pure. We respect that point of view and there are many here at SOE who play by that philosophy. But we also want to keep an open mind to the trends we see developing, so we can create the best gaming experience for all types of players. This transition to Live Gamer should be a pretty seamless one. It will only be occuring on the existing EQ II Station Exchange servers. We will not be converting other EQ II servers.” - John Smedley

You can find the full text of what Smed had to say here:

 Links:

You will find a great story on crafter epics over at mmoquests.com here:

Look for a story entitled Crafter epic…the good, bad and ugly by Stargrace

Not having reached level 80 myself (30 more levels to go thankfully) I will let someone who has done the quest tell you about it.  But I will give you the same SPOILER WARNING that West Karana.com handed out if you don’t want to know about it. Me? I enjoy crafting and it gives me something to work toward.

Game Update 42: if you want to find out everything that changed with game update 42 you can find them here:

Better Moats and Gardens…

This week Better Moats and Gardens discusses lofts. I spoke at length with Bregdania and Mirala about lofts. Bregdania showed me the ropes so to speak to get me started. The rest was a matter of experimentation.  Above right is my own finished loft in the basement of my 5 room home in Gorowyn.  This works well in homes with particularly high ceilings like Gorowyn and Neriak.  Let me turn things over to Mirala briefly…

“Neriak houses have tall celings and a ledge around them - great place for a loft. Gorowyn houses are tall as well; they would be great for lofts.  The Gorowyn Houses are really tall. The rooms are deceptive. They look small until you start puttin’ stuff in them. For those houses you need the steel lanterns and the other ones that have really long chains.” - Mirala, The Old Guard, Najena Server.

In the case of homes were there are no cross beams (such as in the three room houses in Freeport) you can start by putting up some extra walls. I used Ferrite Cupboards; a gift from my friend Bregdania. The floor of the loft can be made two ways.  The easiest by far is to use sandalwood platforms. They can be raised by holding down the “control” key on your keyboard and turning the wheel on your mouse. The only problem with this, is that sandalwood platforms are invisible from underneath.  This problem can be solved by placing carpets over the top of the sandalwood.  Not every carpet can be seen from underneath mind you. I carpeted my loft with “ornate coalition rugs”. They can be seen from underneath and their pattern forms a ceiling for the room beneath the loft. What is more they are cheap to make or buy.

The other option for make a floor is to use rugs and raise them off the floor with the method described above using the “control” key.  Keep in mind, again, that not every rug will work. So far I have only found two rugs that you will not sink through when you raise them; canvas rugs and oval broadcloth rugs.  If there are others, I haven’t found them yet.

 I paid my friend Bregdania a visit recently to take a look at the finished loft in her Freeport home.  As you can see from the picture above, not only to the three rooms  have a space with cross beams to support the floor already, but it is conveniently located at the top of a stair case. Add one small step along the wall and your in business. And yes, the tiger, tiger burning bright is me.

Knocking about Norrath…

This week: Sleeping with the Fishes…the dead ones.

“I know why I am cursed. I know why I still walk the ice…I killed my crew to keep my treasure safe. There. I said it. But just saying it doesn’t help. I need to make amends. I need to quiet their souls. And there’s only one way to do that. Here I’ll tell you a secret…” - Daelic Coldbrew

This week on knocking about Norrath, an introduction to Everfrost - the hard way. This how I ended up “sleeping with the fishes - the dead ones” as you can see above right.

I have been spending a bit of time in Everfrost lately.  It started by my going there for harvesting materials for crafting. Then I came upon the ghost pictured above, one Daelic Coldbrow.  Daelic can be found at (waypoint -420, -21.3, +37.58). From the dock at EverFrost jump in the water. Avoid the sharks or you will end up “Swimming with the Fishes - the dead ones. Swim straight for the shore and then follow the shore line off to your right. You will come upon a small opening in the side of the cliff. Swim on in and you will find Daelic. Avoid the middle of the water because there is a beast with a bad attitude that hangs around the bottom of the water here. I never had a run in with the beast however - not even when trying to do so.

Daelic will tell you a short sad tale:

“Curse these fanged seas! They trapped my ship, locked her up tight. They took my crew and my treasure. They took my life. Curse Prexus for ever making them! Ah, well. It is hard to stay angry after so many listless years. After all these endless days, I would gladly trade all my gold for a grave.” - Daelic Coldbrow.

Daelic sends you back out to the oceans around the Everfrost docks in search of what he claims are “his bones”. What you are looking for are 15 “soggy bones/sunken bones” you will find on the ocean floor. As you can see above, be careful, the waters here have A LOT of sharks and not all of them are friendly.  Take the bones back to Daelic and he tells you that it was all a ruse. Like a bad guy in front of Perry Mason, confront Daelic with the fact that the bones belonged to his crew and he will fess up. 

He admits to killing the crew to protect the gold. Now of course - now that he is dead, he feels guilty. He will have you go in search of root of the world tree.   Head up the ramp to your left and you will find a tunnel. You will find along the way some “ice frights” (ice covered skeletons) to fight. They are relatively easy to take down.  In the tunnel you will find big guys made out of ice. Unless you enjoy being driven into the ice like a tent peg (or are significantly over level 50) leave the glacial constructs alone and give them room and they will leave you alone. Walk down the tunnel and along the right wall you will find a fissure in the wall - as seen above right. This leads through the ice wall. At the other end of the fissure you will find a valley.

This valley is the tricky part. If you have an invisibility totem, or are able to turn yourself invisible, now is the time you use it. The valley is filled with some guys who make Mr. T look like a cream puff. Head off to the tree. All you have to do is get close to it. You can even feign death at the base of it (I did), and you have finished your quest, got a choice of some nice rewards and a good bit of achievement experience from discovery as well!

So that’s it for this week friends. Until next time…

See you online,

Julie Whitefeather