Working As Intended

I’m going to be moving out of my apartment! I’m hoping once the move is finished and I have internet access, I’ll be writing more. Life has been busy trying to update all of Forest Stalker, my guild’s site and other projects I have under my belt. So stay tuned!

About two weeks ago I logged in to my guild’s Ventrilo server to see what everyone was up to, nothing special. I found out that a handful of my guild mates had downloaded the 10 day trial of Dungeons & Dragons Online (DDO), and were enjoying it a lot. For those that are unfamiliar with Halcyon Affinity (HA), we’re categorized as a “hardcore raiding” guild. To give you an idea on how crazy we are, we rushed to level 50 in Vanguard: Saga of Heroes and had the first full raid-ready squad, consisting of 24 level 50 individuals. We also had other accomplishments such as finding the most quests, NPC discoveries and first max level in adventuring, crafting and diplomacy.

My trial is now over, but those 10 days were some of the best days of my MMO career in 2007. It has the MMO aspect, where I can adventure for as long as I want with friends while combining the classic Dungeons & Dragons paper and pen rules. D&D is known for being a slow game, being turn based and rolling your favorite set of dice. DDO flips this around, keeping many of the paper and pencil rules while keeping everyone on their toes with the fast action game play. In most dungeons, if you run forward without looking around you are going to die from a trap, no questions asked. You may be tough stuff in your typical MMO, but in DDO a blade the size of a cow swinging down at your character is going to in fact kill you (or make your barbarian pal fall to their knees). You need to keep your eyes peeled (along with having the proper skills, such as Spot in this scenario) while being quick on your feet. Mobs are not dumb, they are going to try and find their buddies and obtain flank. They’ll do just about anything to get that +2 attack bonus!

All in all, while I do not plan on continuing my DDO subscription (or start it, technically) at this current moment in time, I do suggest checking the game out since it has had time to fix many bugs and spread the polish love. Though I currently am investing time and energy in another MMO, a healthy handful of my guild mates are continuing their adventures until Age of Conan beta begins. Yes, these so called “hardcore” players are spending their free time rolling virtual dice and telling epic tales in the taverns of Eberron. Do you really think they’re going to quit when there are dragons to slay at the level cap (currently 14)? Everyone has some sort of goal or mark they want to reach in a game, and I think being able to say you slayed a dragon in Dungeons and DRAGONS is a pretty good one.

I warn ye, the people who are going to have the “mostest” fun in this game are people who play the game like a D&D session. That means playing with 4-6 people you know, whom like D&D/Fantasy games, and have voice chat. Because typing “Are there any girls in the tavern?!” isn’t going to have the same effect as shouting it with a smile on your face.

That’s right. My site Vanguard Rangers, once an affiliate of Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, has expanded its horizons. Now being hosted by the UberGuilds Network (yes, the folks that host the Fire of Heaven message boards), the can only grow. It’ll cover a handful of games that have Ranger (or Ranger-like) classes. Currently I’ve added Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures to the roster, with more coming soon depending on how large their existing communities are. I’d love to have a section for EverQuest (yes, the first one that got many of us addicted), but there is an already existing Ranger community that is doing quite well (that I actually visit on a near daily basis). No need to step on toes, not yet at least.

The transfer was fairly simple compared to some horror stories I’ve heard of (Traldan’s VGTact going from phpBB to vBulletin rings a bell). I’ve spent about the last two days cleaning out the database and reconstructing the site. It wasn’t the hardest task in the world, but it took a lot of focus and time. What do you know, two things I lack the most!

So there you have it, a small update from me. Now I need to get back to work on two other websites I’m helping design! *sigh*