Serielley's Adventures in Gaming

Welcome to 2010! A new year brings new games, new innovations, and new experiences in the world of gaming. I’m really excited for the year to come, as there are quite a few games being released this year that I have waited a very long time for. Some of them for years, no joke! Here’s my list of what I’m going to be playing this year, and I would love to hear from others about what they are looking forward to in the months to come, so feel free to let me know and discuss in the comments!

I’ve never done a “Top 10 List”, either here or at Adventaruing, and I don’t really see myself starting anytime soon, so the seven games I’m (SO FAR) looking forward to are below the fold. Follow me into the future, my friends…

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I’ve been playing MMOs of one form or another for almost seven years now, and they’ve ranged from good old text MUDs to high-end graphic masterpieces. I’ve stayed the longest with FFXI, with LOTRO and EVE Online in second and third places respectively. I had quit EVE before starting FFXI, because well… it’s EVE. Excel in Space! I started playing LOTRO once I got a PC that could handle it graphically, and I played it and FFXI concurrently, since my husband played, and couldn’t get into FFXI. When I decided to take a break from FFXI last fall, I played LOTRO full-time and enjoyed it greatly. I should add here that I’m a huge Tolkien geek, so I’m sure that had something to do with it as well.

That’s not to say that it didn’t have its problems. My main character there is a Minstrel, a healing class. I play a Hunter as well, and took them both to max level, but Minstrel was always my first love. I was excited to play through the Mines of Moria (LOTRO’s first paid expansion) when it was released last November, and because the release coincided with my getting bored and frustrated with FFXI, it was a happy fix. Then, problems started showing up once I had completed just about everything there was to offer in LOTRO on my Minstrel. I did the trait grind, I did the rep grind, I did the instance grind. The only thing I didn’t do was raid or partake in PvMP (PvP in LOTRO), since neither of those activities are any fun for me. That left me with a tough choice:

Keep logging in, working on low level characters and doing the same content I’ve already done, or something else…

My husband was talking about going back to EVE, which sounded interesting, so I resubbed there and have messed around with it for a bit. It doesn’t really fill my “fantasy MMO” craving though, so I turned back to my old friend FFXI. I’ve been back for a few weeks now, and it feels great. I don’t feel the need to grind all the time, or bust my butt to get a specific piece of eq. Some nights, I’ve just sat in my Mog House (oh, how I missed my MH) and chatted with my KnightsBrigade friends. It’s been a wonderful experience to come back and just enjoy the game for what it is, and the people that make it special instead of viewing it as a constant grindfest, which is unfortunately what my mindset was when I decided to take a break.

The additions that Squenix has made to the game have certainly helped in that regard. I am a HUGE fan of Fields of Valor, and the recent WHM update. WHM now has even more tools to do what they do best, which is keep people alive. I haven’t tried MMM yet, and I’m not sure if I’m going to. I’ve also only done the first few missions of ACP, and that seems pretty decent so far as well. (Yes, I’ve read all of the negativity towards it on the forums, but I’m not really interested in busting it out in a few hours… I’ll take my time with it.)

I’m going to take SMN to 75 next, if I’m able. SMN is one of my favorite Final Fantasy jobs, and I’ve been having more fun playing it solo for the last little while than I ever have before. Now though, I’m to the point where I really need to get Fenrir, so while I’m waiting for that to happen, I decided that I’m going to level some of the melee jobs that have looked appealing to me. So far, I’ve started on DNC and I’m really enjoying it. I’m thinking of taking it to 18 for now to use as a sub to solo NIN or other jobs with. If I like it, I may take it higher, who knows!?

Anyways… it’s good to be back. It’s good to take a break every now and then, I think. Stepping away gives you some perspective, and allows you to clarify what your goals and intentions are. It allows you to see what’s really important to you, and lets you figure out why it is that you play whatever game it is you play. Sometimes we can get blinded by the next shiny piece of gear, or the accumulation of gil/money, and we forget that we’re playing this game, taking part in this persistent world that has been created by Squenix, because we want to have fun. That’s what it all comes down to in my opinion, at least.

Yeah, I took another wee break after I came back last time. Level Sync on its own wasn’t enough to hold me. This last update though, I am seriously impressed by the changes, and I’ve been steadily playing for the last two weeks and loving every minute.

So I ask  you dear readers, what job should I level up now?

So, I have come to a dilemma. A sad, sad dilemma.

I’ve always played FFXI with a controller, all of my macros (books of them) are written to take advantage of a controller, and I just enjoy sitting back and playing the game with a controller. It’s easier on my tiny hands than using the keyboard, having to reach to hit macros, all of that jazz.

During my last hiatus from the game, hubby talked me into getting one of these bad boys for other games:

Belkin Nostromo 52te

And I love it!

It’s fairly easy to program, and the only two things I take issue with are that the d-pad doesn’t work very well, and even adjusted for a smaller hand size, it’s still a little large. Other than that though, it has seriously improved my response times, and has allowed me to become a much more efficient healer (not to mention other classes) in the other game that I play.

I figured that I wouldn’t really be able to use this for FFXI, since FFXI is configured to make the best use out of a controller since the PC version is just a port from the console. I still had my good old Logitech USB controller though, so wasn’t too concerned.

However, now that I’m playing FFXI a bit more,  I’ve run into a bit of a problem. There seems to be a conflict between the Nostromo and my Logitech controller. I’ve scoured the web searching for a fix, but it doesn’t seem like many FFXI players use gamepads like this. It’s frustrating, because if I want to play with the Logitech, I have to completely uninstall the Nostromo, make sure all of my macros are backed up, etc, then reinstall it when it’s time to play my other games.

I’ve just about resigned myself to the fact that I’m going to have to learn how to use the Nostromo for FFXI. If I have a choice, I’d rather just leave it installed so that I can play my other games as well, without hassle. Since people don’t generally use gamepads with FFXI, it’s been difficult to get a sense of just HOW people use them. Do they just create single key macros? Multi-line smorgasbords of programming godliness?

It’ll be interesting, I’m sure. It does make me wish that SE would update the UI for the game though. *sigh*

It’s really been as long as 7 months since I last posted? Wow.

Well, there’s really not too much to say about my adventaruing, since I haven’t been. My time in FFXI started dwindling over the summer due to RL and other crap, and once September hit, I just didn’t have the time. Between work, our cat becoming ill with kidney failure (and eventually passing away in November, we miss you Ryo-cat!), more work, and more work, I just couldn’t find the time to log in. Then my hard drive crapped out on me, and I never got around to reinstalling FFXI on it.

Another big reason I didn’t have the time for FFXI was my husband. I’m not saying he’s to blame, but he’s a gamer as well, and couldn’t ever get into FFXI, so we never really gamed together. Last year around this time, he got me into the Old Timer’s Guild, which is a superguild spanning many different games (WAR, WoW, LOTRO, DDO, many others), and got me hooked on Lord of the Rings Online. All through the year, I split my time playing LOTRO with the hubby, and FFXI with my friends in KnightsBrigade, and when the crap hit the fan towards the end of the summer, I increasingly felt that the time I spent with him was much more important. We’re both huge LOTR fans (our wedding bands are actually copies of the One Ring, but with a much more lovely inscription in Sindarin inscribed on them), and it’s a great game that fit into my casual playstyle much better than FFXI ever could, but more on that later on.

So yes, I’ve been playing another game. *sigh* The other man, as it were. I kinda just… disappeared from FFXI. That’s just how it went down, and there’s not really any good explanation or excuse. My friends in KB didn’t know where I’d gone off to, and for that, I’m very sorry.

Now that I’ve played another MMO in a much more dedicated way over the last few months, it’s hard to not draw comparisons between the two. LOTRO is definitely geared towards a more mature audience, and is rich in story due to its being based on the books, not the movies. The graphics are gorgeous, and you can log in, and get right to whatever it is you want to do. Endgame in LOTRO consists of raids, ranging from small 6-man instances to full on 24-man battles. The key though, is that none of them really last longer than 3 hours. (Helegrod, a 24-man, can sometimes take longer depending on if you’re going for the end dragon boss, but you can also progress through the raid using locks, which save your group’s progress, meaning you can do part of it, then go back another day and finish it.) You don’t have to spend a whole day up in Sky farming items to pop the gods, and then have to contend with another group. It’s all instanced, no competition, and is much more conducive to casual play.

FFXI is still beautiful, but the graphics are definitely dated. It’s much harder to log on and get to doing what you want, since you usually have to travel across the world, find a group, or other things. Endgame stuff… well, I think we all know how much time it takes. On my WHM, I can’t go out and just kill things for xp or gil like I can with my Minstrel (healer-class) in LOTRO. The differences between the two games are night and day.

The one thing though that is constant between the two are the people. OTG is an awesome group of people to game with, and KnightsBrigade is equally awesome. In fact, the main motivator for me to reinstall FFXI and log in tonight for the first time in months is because of KB. I miss them greatly. They’re the reason why I’ll keep paying the monthly fee to log on, even though I may not do anything while I’m there.

Even though the two games are vastly different, it really comes down to the people. MMOs are social games, and anyone who says otherwise needs to have their head checked. If you don’t have a good group of people to play with, why bother?

This all reminds me of that often posted YouTube video… which I leave you with. It’s all about the people, and the friendships. I’ve learned that lesson the hard way, and am lucky enough to come back to my friends in FFXI. So, Tahki, Bennigan, Beldin, Xenogelion, Nebion, Nashiym, Lorelai, Obaseki… this one’s for you! <3