Tag: mmorpg

Xanapus on EverQuest

On By Michel McDonaldIn EverQuestLeave a comment

I started playing a game called EverQuest way back in January 2002 because my cousin was addicted to playing it, and I guess he just really wanted me to play it too because at the time we were reconnecting, and I think he just wanted to get me into something he was into. So, for Christmas 2001, he bought me the base game at Fry’s Electronics in Burbank. I came home from my visit, and I didn’t install it immediately. I installed it a couple days after New Year’s Day in 2002 and I believe there was a free trial, so I tried that, and I just didn’t get this game. I don’t know what it was about it, it just didn’t click for me. When the trial was about to end, I came back to give it another try and I actually started to like it, so I paid for a month and figured I would just try it out for a little while, and then the addiction hit and I played this game until 2008, but continued paying for it until 2009.

The reason I quit playing was because I had become so bored with the repetitiveness of the game. I was literally playing this game all day and ignoring everyone around me. I would stop playing just to watch my shows, and to eat food and to go to the occasional movies and whatever. But then I would go right back to playing. The guild I was in was pretty much a raiding guild, so I was expected to be in the game every day at a certain time to support other guild members who needed to do their epic quest or progression or whatever it was they needed to do. I would occasionally get support for myself for my epic quests, so I couldn’t expect anyone to help me unless I was going to help them, and that meant I had to help everyone else with their thing if I wanted their help with my thing.

Around the time when I quit playing, they had introduced new expansions and they were slowing my computer down so much that I wasn’t able to play as much. There was too much lag and in some cases the lag was so huge that the game would crash as soon as I got back into the game. I had to click a button in the character selection screen to send my character back to their hometown just to be able to get back into the game. I don’t see that option anymore, but I don’t think I need that option now anyway.

My character is level 85, but I believe he was level 65 which was the maximum level before I quit, and I think what had happened was they added a feature with a new expansion that allowed me to upgrade my character to level 85 for free, and in fact I had upgraded 3 characters to level 85. I upgraded my wizard, my warrior and my shaman. All 3 of those characters were useful for everything I needed to do in the game, and they were also sometimes useful for helping other people who needed those classes for their quests or just little fun groups.

Here I am 15 years later from the last time I played the game with a brand-new laptop that I received for Christmas. I wondered if this new laptop would run the game, and it does, so I figured I will come back and play for free since that is now an option, but I want to start over with a new character to sort of help me relearn how to play the game since it has been a long time since I played. But I didn’t have any open character slots available, so I started on another server with another Xanapus character, but this time he is a Necromancer.

So, I started playing this Xanapus on December 30th, and he is already level 60. I actually got him to level 60 in 1 month, and now that I have pretty much learned how to play the game again, I decided to go back to my wizard Xanapus and do some of the things I’ve been doing with necromancer Xanapus. They have a quest system now with a quest window and achievements that they didn’t have when I played. They actually introduced it when I quit. I got to level 60, and I also had earned quite a lot of AA points before going back to wizard Xanapus. So, when I’m not playing the wizard, I have my necromancer in the Bazaar selling stuff I had looted as well as food that I had made to get my baking skill up. Basically, I spent way too much platinum on baking, so I don’t have any money for spells, so I have to sell stuff for spell money lol. But I figured I’d rather go back to the wizard anyway because I had so many years invested in that character.

I’m back in the game, but I’m the only one in my guild. There are, I don’t remember how many, but probably around 300 people in my guild, and I seem to be the only active one. There were some officers who still played up until December 2022 before I started playing again. Who knows, maybe I might see them in the game, and we might play together for old times’ sake.

Anyway, I’m having fun again, but also at the same time not ignoring anyone. I can bring the laptop in the living room and play on the couch for a few hours doing quests for achievements and then stop playing and let my necromancer make some coins.

My Necromancer Xanapus character is on The Rathe server, and my Wizard Xanapus character is on the Xegony server. If you are in the game and you see me, say hello.

My Elder Scrolls Online addiction vs. EverQuest

On By Michel McDonaldIn EverQuest, Games, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I have had this game on my PlayStation 4 for probably 5 or more years, and I played it here and there over the years, but I never really got into it because I didn’t really understand the mechanics of the game.

Last month they introduced the 10 year anniversary of Skyrim and I bought it because I had played Elder Scrolls Online, and I wanted to see what Skyrim was like. It’s basically the same thing, but not an MMO.

The introduction of the 10 year anniversary of Skyrim made me decide that I wanted to at least try to play Elder Scrolls Online again to give it a chance, but my problem was I had too many quests going and I was kind of confused about what I was supposed to do. So I thought, let me go to Coldharbour and finish that quest which ended with me killing Molag Bal. Then it started Cadwell’s Silver, then Cadwell’s Gold which are basically the other factions. But I hadn’t finished my factions quests, so I went on a mission to finish that. It was all so confusing to me, but now I get it.

My necromancer character Ilren.

My website’s name Xanapus comes from a game very similar to Elder Scrolls Online called EverQuest, which I played for about 6 years. ESO is similar to EQ, but also very different. Like we had to download maps for EverQuest, Elder Scrolls Online have their own maps already in the game, and they have markers on the maps that tell you where everything is so you don’t have to guess. They also give you more information like what you have completed on that map, and it has a zone guide.

EverQuest didn’t really have a quest diary or journal like this when I was playing. You literally had to print the quests out and write on the paper to check things off on the quest list to keep track of your progress. I literally have a notebook with hundreds of pages in it lol. Elder Scrolls Online keeps track of everything for you, and even tells you what to do next. And they mark things on your compass which gives you the direction of the person you need to speak to or the item you have to loot or the direction of the place you need to go to.

One thing that I really love about Elder Scrolls online is that I can use a game controller. I wanted to use a game controller so bad with EverQuest, but I could never figure it out with game controllers that I bought for PC way back when. They just never worked for me and were a complete waste of money.

I still have EverQuest installed on my computer and I see that they have a quest Journal now. It’s a bit different from Elder Scrolls Online, but at least they have one. The map is pretty much the same as when I last played the game, but I did notice that they have more continents because they have so many more expansion packs than they used to.

Also the thing that really bothers me about EverQuest is that they disable most of your gear if you’re not paying a monthly fee. Elder Scrolls Online has a monthly fee service that allows you to play all of their expansions, but if you don’t pay for it, they don’t disable your gear. In order to play the expansions, you have to pay for them, which I honestly don’t mind. I’d rather not have a monthly fee. I bought 21000 Crowns which are normally $149.99 for $89.99 during their Christmas sale and I used the crowns to buy some expansions.

Another thing about EverQuest is that you had to buy spells, then memorize them to put them into your spell book, then you had to add the spell gems to the spell gems slots. With Elder Scrolls Online, you just buy your spells with skill points and those spells upgrade the more you add skill points to them.

And I love that I’m getting epic gear for rewards and I can upgrade those epic gear items to legendary with crafting if I had the components. In EverQuest you had to do so many quests and crafting for so many hours, days, even weeks or months to get 1 epic and it was a weapon. In ESO all my gear can be epic or legendary, not just my weapons.

Oh another thing is that the quests are always your level, no matter what level you are. In EverQuest if I went back to do a level 4 quest and I’m level 50, I don’t really get a good reward because the reward is a level 4 reward. Which makes it feel like you’ve wasted so much time. No matter what level I am in ESO, the rewards are always worth it, and if they’re not, then I can deconstruct the item to get the materials for crafting.

I’m not trying to mansplain, I’m just really excited about playing this game and I just wanted to talk about it. I don’t have anyone to talk about it because no one I know plays this game.

The Elder Scrolls Online for PS4

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games, MMORPGLeave a comment

the-elder-scrolls-online_7v2r

I have wanted to play this game for such a long time, but it was one of those $60+ games that I could never afford. I saw it used at Target for $40, but I thought I would wait and see if it goes on sale, that’s usually when I buy games.

I got lucky because “The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited Premium Edition” was on PlayStation’s Black Friday sale. It’s normally $99, but I only paid $40. It was a good thing I waited.

MMORPG games are my absolute favorite games. It’s a game you can play that practically never ends. There is literally never a time you will find “Game Over.” There is always something to do, like fishing, baking, blacksmithing, brewing etc., and there are hundreds of quests.

I’ve been looking for a game just like EverQuest that I could play on the PS4, but there aren’t any games like it, or so I thought. The Elder Scrolls is exactly what I was looking for.

Here is my character. I’ve only played him for a few days and he’s already level 8. Yes, I named him Xanapus. What did you expect? I am Xanapus all over the internet lol. He is a sorcerer, because I love playing sorcerer’s.

xanapus

The edition that I bought came with 6000 crowns, which is basically what they call the currency that you buy with real money to buy in game items. I bought some costumes and a new mount and a new pet. They gave me a Imperial horse and a crab pet, but I wanted to have an alternative for when I was tired of looking at a crab all day lol.

I am having fun so far. My first night playing, someone came up to me and invited me into a group. I don’t normally do that when I’m on a solo quest because I want to finish my quest when they want me to do what they want to do. But I joined her group and she told me that she was BAKED! LOL I thought that was funny. She was running around the game not knowing where she was going or why. Plus she kept saying “Awww you’re so cute”, which had nothing to do with what she was seeing on the screen, apparently she bought a new pet lol. I’m just like ok, I want to finish my quest now lol.

I’m very happy that I finally got a good deal because I’ve been dying to play this game. It’s a lot of fun and I look forward to seeing what happens next.

What more is there to say?

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

What more is there to say?

Before I discovered Twitter and Facebook, I used to blog up to 6 times per day.  With Twitter I can sum up my thoughts in 140 characters and with Facebook even more.  That took the fun out of blogging which is why I don’t blog as often as I used to.

I’ve come to the point where I honestly can’t think of anything to say, even in a 140 character tweet.  Yesterday I was bored and said this:

“They say if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all, but something is better than nothing.”

I think this was directed at myself because I don’t say much anymore.

Lately all I do is sit here looking at all the wonderful and sometimes snotty things other people say in their tweets and/or Facebook updates and think to myself, why didn’t I think of that?  Why can’t I think of anything to say anymore?

Today I was bored and said this:

“When you don’t get any mail you think “No news is good news.” But sometimes it’s nice to get SOMETHING, even if it’s just coupons.”

What’s the point of even having social networks anymore?  I become friends with people and never say a word until their birthday and then all I say is Happy Birthday.  I’d love to read more books or play one of my MMORPG games, but I can’t even get into those because I’ve become bored with them.  Is the problem that I’ve just become bored with everything?

I’ve been playing The Sims Freeplay on my phone a lot more than I used to play it, but only because I have something to accomplish and I’m guessing when I accomplish all of my tasks I will get bored with it again.  What I need is something to be excited about.  I remember playing EverQuest for sometimes 16 hours a day every day for 8 years until I became bored with it because everyone in my guild left to either go into another guild or to play the newest game.  I also started playing other games, like Lord of the Rings Online, but I had nobody to play with so I eventually got bored with that and the same thing happened with EverQuest 2 and DC Universe Online.  MMORPG games are more fun when you have people to play with.

Well it seems that I had more to say than I thought, but that seems to be all I can think of for now.