I Have Ruined Someone's Life And Want To Ruin More

I managed to convince my brother to try out an MMORPG. I wanted him to try EverQuest II, but he doesn't seem to be very fond of fantasy. So I got him to try City of Heroes. He managed to become super addicted to it in no time. I feel evil. I may have ruined his life.

However, he quickly realized that the world simply doesn't change. And many of the missions in City of Heroes are simply frustrating. Why is it when I am given a mission to steal some museum piece from the Snakes or whoever, AND I steal it, the mission continues until I manage to kill the 20 different spawns in every nook in cranny in the multi-level room the item was in? It doesn't become MORE stolen because they are dead. I suppose they do this to try to prevent people with invisibility powers from having an "unfair advantage," but it sort of makes those powers less meaningful. Some of the other missions require clearing a large, sprawling zone with nooks and crannies that mobs hide in that are hard to see. You end up spending more time looking around for that one last mob than you do fighting. That's not a challenge, that's just tedium.

I have only put in six months of play time in City of Heroes since launch, and no two months were consecutive. It's largely because of missions like that. It's a terrifically fun game with a great pick up group scene, but the missions and the random nature of the maps leave a lot to be desired.

So his fun starts to taper off and he starts complaining that he wants to play a game where he can truly change the world. I mention Eve Online. He is more of a sci-fi nerd anyway. Now my brother has moved on there and developed an OCD addiction. I haven't decided if I want to return to New Eden, but if he sticks around I just may have to do so. If only to monitor his addiction and make sure he's ok.

Now I'd like to ruin more people's lives.

If you would like to try EverQuest II, let me know at festivewombat-eq2invites [at] yahoo.com. I'll reply with an invite. If you convert to a subscriber, you will get some exclusive goodies, such as a cloak that increases run speed, some potions to help you level up, and a starter deck and booster pack for Legends of Norrath. You won't even have to buy the game, since Rise of Kunark and all previous expansion packs would be given to you free!

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More Baby Space Steps In Eve

My initial impression of Eve Online was fairly poor. I think I called it a pretty screenshot in the last blog entry. That wasn't quite right, since the pictures move. It's more like a mashup of a screensaver, Excel spreadsheet, and IRC chat room.

But it's freaking addictive.

I haven't quite figured out what it is I like. I guess it's the truly sandbox nature of the game? Or the more tactically oriented (less spammy) combat? The laid back (except when I'm being blown up) nature of the gameplay?

Tactics haven't actually factored much into my fights yet: Pithi pirates seem to enjoy going up in flames from kinetic damage. But I can see that it certainly will... there are a wide array of fittings to use on your ship and an overwhelming number of options to customize your character and ship with.

The tutorial needs some work though. It's better than nothing, but it is still a little confusing. I got stuck early on when the game told me to drag an item from the hangar to my ship, or vice versa. The problem was that nothing onscreen had the word "hangar" on it, and while it said it was highlighting a button for me, I didn't see it. It turns out it referred to the "Items" button in the lower left hand side.

Then later the lady who starts the tutorial missions tells me she's sending me to a friend of hers and that she put the contact in my People & Places tab. That's fine, except I guess I got confused because I had already met a few other agents, and thought one of THEM was the new one. And so I started on the "A New Venture" mission series thinking it was a continuation of the tutorial. The first two missions were easy courier missions, but the third one sent me against an industrial that my little frigate could barely make a dent in. So I got frustrated and abandoned it, only to get a new mission that sent me against pirates. I got myself all blowed up.

Then I remembered that I had other agent contacts in the People & Places tab and I figured out that the tutorial actually continued elsewhere. Oops.

Now I have three ships: the starter Ibis ship, a Condor I made battle ready, and a Bantam for mining. I've been doing a little high-sec mining (I'm too scared to leave the safe areas right now!) to earn a little isk. I still need to finish off the tutorial missions also; I only did the first five or so. Then I got distracted exploring other aspects of the game. Oh my, this is overwhelming...

I guess I'm sticking with this for a while longer.