catmao1601

The Tattered laptop: Eleven ways to ring in 2011

The stockings might be stretched and frayed from being stuffed with presents, and the Frostfell tree might be shedding all over your Halasian home, but that doesn't mean the celebration is over! While the holidays are winding down, things are hopping in EverQuest II. If you're looking to dodge those post-holiday blues, look no further! I've composed a list of fun things to do in EQII in the work of the month of January, and all are doable no matter what your level.

Read below for a glance at 11 for '11, and ring in the New Year in EverQuest II.

1. Frostfell. There's still some time left to participate in all the events, and while the decorating might be over, it's always wise to stock up for next year. Make sure to cease by Gardy Ex-Gifter every day for a chance at some nice gifts. My personal favourite is the Santa Glug plushie that I placed in our guildhall. Also, scoop up some purple shinies from the Winter Wonderland, and then be sure to head in to the Icy Keep instance for some token farming. One of the new rewards is a pleasant appearance helmet, which my guildmate Philly is sporting in the screenshot toward the finish of this column. in the event you still need more holiday cheer, make sure to visit the EQII Wiki for all the details on Frostfell quests and activities.

3. Geocaching. I dare you to find another MMO that has geocaching! What's geocaching you ask? It's fundamentally a fun treasure hunt, using GPS clues to uncover the location of whatever's hidden. In EQII, it involves watching this visual clue and using the hint to find the chosen location. It's a smart adaptation of a fun real-world activity, and to sweeten the pot, the event organizer is offering 100 plat and 1000,000 status (which is also 10,000 guild status). you can read all the details and updates on this thread in the official forums. I saw the video and was immediately stumped, but I'm hoping one of the Massively readers figures this one out! nice luck!

2. Velious Beta. in the event you haven't signed up for closed beta yet for fate of Velious, be sure to head to the official site and register your accounts, which takes about 30 seconds total. Beta begins on January 5th, and electronic mail notification starts today, so don't delay if you'd like to help test out one of the most highly anticipated expansions EQII has had yet. I'm looking forward to test driving the flying mounts!

4. Child's Play Cloak/Burnai pet. Whether you love or detest the Marketplace, you must admire SOE's work to make use of it for charity. The company has a history of being supportive of worthy causes historicallyin the past, like Curt Schilling's ALS charity. This year, SOE is once again supporting Child's Play with two purchasable in-game items: the Cloak of the Snowfall and the Festive Burnai pet. (I'm modeling the cloak in the very first picture in this article.) Both are nice items, and in the event you stocked up on Station money in the work of the recent promo, you almost certainly have plenty of money to snag one or even gift a couple to friends. SOE has raised thousands of dollars historicallyin the past thanks to the support of the players, and I'm sure this event will continue that trend. Hats off to the community!

5. EverQuest II's very own Ice Palace. How plenty of times have they seen those impressive ice hotels in Sweden and thought, "Wow, I would love to see a place like that, but crikey, that must be icy!" Well fear not, because one creative player, Kathy, has constructed EQII's very own Ice Palace! It's got all of the eye-catching beauty of the traditional ice hotels and not one of the frostbite. Keep in mind that every part of the palace was designed and hand-placed by her (no use of the layout editor that plenty of pro-decorators use), from the basic structure down to the tiniest icicle. She's finishing up the first floor decorations and then announcing her address so you can cease by to visit. meanwhile, check out the screenshots of her incredible work!

7. Moonlight Enchantments. Every 20th of the month, the mushroom rings become active, and players can visit several small grottoes around Norrath for a tiny AA, some shinies, as well as a chance to farm tokens for some unique housing items. If you've never checked this out, or if you're like i am and you tend to accidentally miss it each month, be sure to mark your calendars. For a great visual guide to all Moonlight Enchantment rewards, visit EQII Decorators.

6. Update your EQII Maps mod. in the event you have been using it, you might not have updated it in some time. and in the event you haven't been using it, you need to download this handy custom UI. EQII Maps has been such a helpful map interface that it was actually adopted by the development team, and plenty of of the map skins and POIs have been added as part of the default in-game maps. But there are still several instances and zones that are not covered by the default, so this is one of those "must-have" UIs. It's easy to put in and even simpler to update.

8. City Festival. This is another every month repeatable event that I always tend to miss, but I'm making a resolution to participate in more festivals this year. January's festival already started, but you still have a few more days to cease by, and the host city this time is Gorowyn. I can't wait to get my hands on some of the red marble tiles for a decorating idea I'd like to attempt. As always, Naimi at EQ2 Traders has a great guide to all the rewards.

9. Catch up on lore, yes, even Freebloods. I'm as guilty as somebody of spam-clicking through quest text, and yes, I feel guilty about it afterward. But although i am sorely lacking when it comes to absorbing lore in-game, I do like to peek at the lore out of game, on the official site, and on the forums. EQII has always had a powerful lore community, and the lore team has obliged historicallyin the past with in-game lore quests and even the big lore puzzle leading up to the release of Sentinel's Fate. It's increasingly difficult to write lore for places and characters that have appeared in EverQuest, but trying to fill in the gaps and sew up the loose ends is half the fun. you can head to the official site to read more about the Freeblood race and keep your eyes out for more Velious lore that's bound to come out very shortly.

10. holiday picture Challenge. Today is the last day for this fun forum challenge, but it's definitely worth trying. Send in your in-game screenshots for a chance at some nice prizes. Winners will receive a Robe of Fesitve Tidings as well as a red Community Present, which can be placed in your house. Winning entries might even be featured in an upcoming video collage. Even in the event you don't submit an entry, head over to the forums to check out some of the other entries and relive all the fun of Frostfell.

11. Tour select EQII dungeons with the new MV Guide! That's right -- beginning this Friday, you can watch me showcase various EQII instances through Massively's livestream video channel. If you've ever been curious to see what group instances are like at the high levels in EQII, now is your chance! I've hand-picked a group of guildmates, chosen for their prowess in battle and their keen problem-solving skills. OK, I  picked them for their charming persona and their knowledge of the zones. Actually, I had to bribe them with coffee to convince them to play with me. Anyway, I'll be recording on alternating Friday mornings and Saturday evenings, and I will feature one instance each show. We'll field your questions, chat about EQII, and supply plenty of laughs, so make sure to watch for more details on Massively this week, and tune in on Friday for EQII.

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If they were claiming it today, I'd  laugh because they clearly haven't played the game lately. certain the original designer set out to create a WoW clone, but as you all know, that was the  first thing that I put a cease to when I came to QOL. they made  a few changes which re-focused the game by itself strengths,  than trying to position it to compete with WoW or any other game for that matter. In truth, WoW copies features from a bunch of games that came before it. and you would be hard-pressed to discover a fantasy MMO game that didn't draw from WoW and every game that came before. This whole thing about Alganon is merely due to the fact that the original designer did in fact set out to create a game that was a bit  much like WoW. and given WoW's popularity and numbers, when you begin to look at those similarities, that's the first game that comes to mind, not all the others that  much do the same thing.

What would you say to anyone who claims that Alganon is a "WoW-clone?"

From the onset, making the game free-to-play was always my aim because I already knew that was the direction that the MMO industry was going in. So when they could finally accomplish that, it removed the final barrier of entry to the game. That helped boost our numbers  a bit, and we're still growing in leaps and bounds. Yes, the game is truly free-to-play because you don't must buy anything to play it. You do get to a level (30 I believe) where, in order to have an edge, you must purchase some items. But in the event you get to level 30, then it must mean that you're having fun. At which point purchasing an item or five in order to progress isn't such a huge deal. Also, this level cap is not an artificial one. It goes back to how the game was originally designed and is not something that they wanted to mess with at this point in time as that would  open up a whole other can of worms.

How did going free-to-play effect the game? Has it helped much? , you've gone "freemium" -- do you think the game can still truly be called free-to-play?

Leadership, focus and a plan. Having a flag also helps. Seriously though, when I came on board, I took one look at the previous dev plan - and trashed it. From that point onward, I made it clear what our goals were going to be. Those being :

The team has been rolling out patch after patch -- what's the secret to getting a team to buckle down to create fixes?

•finish the game
•fix what's broken and in so doing release patches as often as possible
•implement only features that were fundamental to the game in its current generation
Basically, although I don't do any programming on Alganon, I run the team the same way that I run mine. I work with them to come up with achievable goals and  let them do their jobs without any interference. Then I track those goals regularly to see where things are. If there are issues along the way, they work through them and within the scope of what they're doing. fundamentally, they're not flailing all over the place and being tugged from one thing to the next, implementing (or even removing) things on a whim. There is a plan and they stick to it. All cold ideas go on a list that stays on the backburner.

Alganon basically has a few of the prettiest landscapes,  for its technique requirements -- what do you owe this to?

The music in Alganon is brilliant. How important do you think music and sound design are to generating a more "professional" or "major studio" feel to your indie game?

they out-sourced all of the content for the game and the HeavyWorks guys who worked on them did an excellent job with the terrain landscape.

Be honest -- would you  be under the umbrella of a bigger corporation, or do you enjoy your independent status?

Music is a  important aspect of any creative medium, interactive or non-interactive. I don't think that the quality of the music lends itself to whether or not it makes the "indie" game feel more like a major studio or professional production. it is  part of the asset creation routine, and as such, goes hand in hand with the content. you can have the best music playing in the background of a crappy game and that definitely doesn't make the game's overall production feel any more professional.

While larger corporations are the necessary terrible in our industry, you couldn't pay me enough to go work for any of them at this point. I was five times on the ground floor when most of what is currently happening in the industry began to formulate to where they are today. Being an indie affords guys like me the luxury of individuality, but let's face it, most indies don't have five pennies to rub together. I  don't happen to be one of them, and that is due to the decisions that I made plenty of years ago when everyone was laughing at me for sticking to my type of games. Look where they are today. Running around with the "indie" brand like it was a badge of honor is only significant in the event you actually have something to show for it. So yeah, i like my indie status and I won't trade it for anything in the world. Except maybe for a seriously obscene amount of dough, because let's face it, anyone can be bought for the right cost.

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