(Okay, maybe not 8 billion)
Lots of pictures. :)
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Rift Part 4: Levels 33-41
Don't you love the weird levels I decide to review :).
I've been slacking a little on Rift. I tend to lose interest if I'm just questing kind of fast. That and if an Invasion comes storming through late at night, meaning it won't get completed, I tend to just log. Lately it seems there are far too many invasions where we fail just as we're almost done. Like, only need one more Rift closed or have three invasions left to kill, but instead the wardstones fall. Yeah, that's not depressing.
I have most fun when I'm with everyone. I didn't get to play with them a lot recently because of work and Easter, but the last couple of nights we've been running stuff together, doing invasions and finishing up some group quests. Instant running has been pretty fun. The bosses are hard enough, but at the same time, doable, even though me and our healer were a couple levels from yellow mobs.
I really like Chloromancer as a healing spec, but with the way I am leveling and the things I do with my group, I am finding that it has one serious weakness/flaw. If mobs are not my level, or at least in yellow range, then I cannot solo heal the instance. And considering that half my usual running mates are a few levels higher then me, I find myself seeing Resisted quite a bit. It certainly is frustrating.
Once you hit about 38, the leveling areas start to branch out. Up until then, it has been incredibly linear. There are certain areas or certain levels, and while the levels of the areas may overlap, in general, the gap has been fairly large, about 5 levels. Now, as I get closer and closer to 50, the gap seems to have been narrowed to about 2-3 levels. At 40, you can go to Droughtlands, finish Moonglade Highlands, or Iron Pine Peaks. I've also found that levels of the quest kind of jump around. You can do some quests at higher 30s in Droughtlands, but then there's a gap where you have to wait a couple levels before you can take on the 43 quests. You then journey to Moonglade or Iron Pine Peaks. Then you out grow those quests and move back. Then you go back again.
We did an instance, Runic Descent, which takes place in a beautiful garden. It's very Japanese, cherry blossom trees grace the ruins and gentle petals continuously rain down on you. There's a small pool fed by a waterfall, where the sun glistens through the trees. Absolutely stunning.
The other instances are all well made as well, but remind me of different movies. One reminded me of running around the ewok village in the Return of the Jedi. Silly stuff. A lot of the dungeons seem like they're outside, but you can't mount.
I do miss the lore of WoW, as well as the quest variation. A lot of Rift is the usual grind, and the lore is interesting, but I'm not that into it. Asha Catari, Defiant female leader, is kind of like Sylvanas. Asha was killed, then in death, was tortured by Regulos in hopes of getting her on his side. She is brought back to life as an Ascended, but not after developing a huge grudge against Regulos. She's out for revenge. That doesn't sound familiar at all. Clearly, WoW has the advantage of having a long standing lore that came from a couple games previous to WoW, and then 3 more expansions. Rift has yet to develop that strong standing. All gameplay aside, the lore of WoW is unbeatable. It's complex, interesting, and has a fine line with right and wrong. I hope Rift can create a world just as rich.
As I edge closer to 50, I begin to wonder what I will be doing. Raiding, since 10 mans were announced, is not entirely out of the question for me anymore. However, I'm not sure my laptop is up to the task; We did an invasion last night, and I could barely move during the final boss killing. It was bad.
Maybe if I lower my settings?
I kind of miss WoW's UI. I loved UI building and I miss my Vuhdo. Yes, I am reliant on addons. Oh noes!
I miss my druid and is direct heals. I do sometimes regret making a mage, simply because I'm limited to Chloromancer. I love Chloromancer; it's so fun and when I can hit stuff, it's a lot more different and unique. However, I wish I had more direct heals that Cleric offers.
I wonder if I should resubscribe. I feel like if I did, I'd find myself bored pretty fast and leave WoW quickly. I look at scenes of old WotLK days, and there was lots to do and everything was a lot of fun. Cataclysm simply doesn't have enough. Although I think they added more archaeology items. Ruh roh... Intrigue.
I've been slacking a little on Rift. I tend to lose interest if I'm just questing kind of fast. That and if an Invasion comes storming through late at night, meaning it won't get completed, I tend to just log. Lately it seems there are far too many invasions where we fail just as we're almost done. Like, only need one more Rift closed or have three invasions left to kill, but instead the wardstones fall. Yeah, that's not depressing.
I have most fun when I'm with everyone. I didn't get to play with them a lot recently because of work and Easter, but the last couple of nights we've been running stuff together, doing invasions and finishing up some group quests. Instant running has been pretty fun. The bosses are hard enough, but at the same time, doable, even though me and our healer were a couple levels from yellow mobs.
I really like Chloromancer as a healing spec, but with the way I am leveling and the things I do with my group, I am finding that it has one serious weakness/flaw. If mobs are not my level, or at least in yellow range, then I cannot solo heal the instance. And considering that half my usual running mates are a few levels higher then me, I find myself seeing Resisted quite a bit. It certainly is frustrating.
Once you hit about 38, the leveling areas start to branch out. Up until then, it has been incredibly linear. There are certain areas or certain levels, and while the levels of the areas may overlap, in general, the gap has been fairly large, about 5 levels. Now, as I get closer and closer to 50, the gap seems to have been narrowed to about 2-3 levels. At 40, you can go to Droughtlands, finish Moonglade Highlands, or Iron Pine Peaks. I've also found that levels of the quest kind of jump around. You can do some quests at higher 30s in Droughtlands, but then there's a gap where you have to wait a couple levels before you can take on the 43 quests. You then journey to Moonglade or Iron Pine Peaks. Then you out grow those quests and move back. Then you go back again.
We did an instance, Runic Descent, which takes place in a beautiful garden. It's very Japanese, cherry blossom trees grace the ruins and gentle petals continuously rain down on you. There's a small pool fed by a waterfall, where the sun glistens through the trees. Absolutely stunning.
The other instances are all well made as well, but remind me of different movies. One reminded me of running around the ewok village in the Return of the Jedi. Silly stuff. A lot of the dungeons seem like they're outside, but you can't mount.
I do miss the lore of WoW, as well as the quest variation. A lot of Rift is the usual grind, and the lore is interesting, but I'm not that into it. Asha Catari, Defiant female leader, is kind of like Sylvanas. Asha was killed, then in death, was tortured by Regulos in hopes of getting her on his side. She is brought back to life as an Ascended, but not after developing a huge grudge against Regulos. She's out for revenge. That doesn't sound familiar at all. Clearly, WoW has the advantage of having a long standing lore that came from a couple games previous to WoW, and then 3 more expansions. Rift has yet to develop that strong standing. All gameplay aside, the lore of WoW is unbeatable. It's complex, interesting, and has a fine line with right and wrong. I hope Rift can create a world just as rich.
As I edge closer to 50, I begin to wonder what I will be doing. Raiding, since 10 mans were announced, is not entirely out of the question for me anymore. However, I'm not sure my laptop is up to the task; We did an invasion last night, and I could barely move during the final boss killing. It was bad.
Maybe if I lower my settings?
I kind of miss WoW's UI. I loved UI building and I miss my Vuhdo. Yes, I am reliant on addons. Oh noes!
I miss my druid and is direct heals. I do sometimes regret making a mage, simply because I'm limited to Chloromancer. I love Chloromancer; it's so fun and when I can hit stuff, it's a lot more different and unique. However, I wish I had more direct heals that Cleric offers.
I wonder if I should resubscribe. I feel like if I did, I'd find myself bored pretty fast and leave WoW quickly. I look at scenes of old WotLK days, and there was lots to do and everything was a lot of fun. Cataclysm simply doesn't have enough. Although I think they added more archaeology items. Ruh roh... Intrigue.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
people are starting to disturb me
Let me just say that I am an animal lover. While I'm not a huge dog lover, I have 4 cats, who I love deeply. I buy them silly toys and those expensive Fancy Feast Appetizers for them. I spent a week watching my new kitten because we rescued her and were worried about her health. I also rescued my cat staying with my dad. I had to put up with my best friend freaking out as he drove us home, afraid she had rabies. I had to walk to Petsmart because my family was on a trip, to buy cans of kitten milk for her. I cried when she wouldn't eat because I didn't want something to happen to her.
And I am not a big dog lover, but I oo'd and awe'd when I saw those cute puppies on Game of Thrones, and I thought, I wouldn't mind one of them. And when Lady met her gruesome, fateful end, I was saddened by it all, hoping Ned would figure something out at the very end.
However, this recent controversy has disturbed me quite a bit. And it's only been a couple hours.
Game of Thrones is causing a little bit of hoo haa after the killing of Lady. Her death consisted of: shot of her face, shot of Neds, shot of dagger, shot of sad puppy dog eyes, shot of Ned's face, doggy yelp. The end.
This subtly violent scene has apparently caused a lot of mad animal lovers, who are enraged by the killing of this animal. Apparently, it's gone as far as letters being sent to HBO to stop the madness.
I love Game of Thrones, so I've been diligently following this story. I actually read the comments from the original EW post that reported on this, and added my own 2 sense. Yet, the more and more I read the comments the more I come to a freakish understanding. Has media desensitized us to human deaths.
Many of the arguments for the animal outrage express hate of animal killings, but seem to be unmoved by human killings.
In fact, one of the comments that sparked this whole thing says:
“[They can] sleep with as many people as they want, but don’t kill [animals]. Or I’m done!”
Comments following the post include some pretty harsh ones.
As I pointed out in my post, one commenter simply shows ignorance in how children are treated, and justifying human depictions of death with a simple:
"Dogs are innocent. People are not."
He then follows up with: "It’s more emotional for a lot of people because animals are mistreated exponentially more than kids are in the world. People are allowed to care about whatever makes them the most emotional."
I would almost respect his opinion if his ignorance wasn't so disturbing.
Other comments include some from an article about the EW article on Sodahead.com.
This commenter mentions a person who is writing/wrote a letter to HBO expressing their rage.
"I agree with the one fan who wrote HBO to complain, saying she'd rather see people killed off than the animals. I'm like that, too. While watching a movie, when characters die, I'm not as bothered as when animals suffer and die in the film. But hey, this is TV -- FANTASY TV, to boot -- so the producers and writers of "Thrones" can always pull a rabbit out of the hat and somehow make it so that the wolf didn't REALLY kick the bucket. Maybe it was all just a dream, like that entire season of "Dallas!"
I really don't understand this person. How can watching people die be less painful then watching animals. They do realize that when they eat a hamburger the animal had to be KILLED for them to eat it. And don't get me started on their delusional hopes of keeping the animal alive...
Back to EW, which has reached 250 comments in a few hours.
"The fact of the matter is a thousand thousand Ladies die every day, butchered by their masters in order to feed human beings. These people who whine about one animal or pet dying in a medieval-style fantasy television show are simply people who are far too protected from the reality they exist in. They’re sheltered from the blood and guts of the butcher shop they buy their meats from, sheltered from the septic tank their crap goes into, sheltered from the pin pricks and starving kids from where their sweatshop clothes come from. These people whining about Lady being killed are a legion of Lady Sansas who think that life is as pretty as a song, only to find out that heroes get their heads cut off and there is no such thing as justice in the end."
I don't know if PETA is going to get involved with this. Honestly, if they do, I will start respecting them less. I don't like the way they go about some things, like throwing flour on celebrities. Good motives, but some shady ways of going about it.
"I’m not really sure why its okay to kill “just an animal” and not a human. Humans ARE “just another animal”. Some humans are civilized and some humans are more savage and cruel than the most savage four legged animal. And in general animals are not intentionally cruel in their kills while humans very well can be."
I don't really know how to react to this. I think she has some good points, but at the same time, this is incredibly insensitive. Humans are cruel because they have emotions. That is what sets us apart from "just another animal" for better or for worse.
"I don’t care about the people being killed, but don’t kill the animals, it really puts me off watching programs and films when animals are killed. If any more animals are killed in the series, unnecessarily, I won’t be watching any more, it isn’t that good up till now, so it won’t be any great sacrifice."
Again. Don't care about people?!?
What is worse is that either these people are REALLY stupid, and think they actually killed the dog, or they really don't care about when people being killed. I know it's all fantasy, but I can't watch brutal shows/movies like Saw. I cringed when Will was decapitated in the beginning of Episode 1. I hate violence of a realistic nature. Silly nonsensical violence that is impossible is one thing. But maybe its scenes like that, that are the problem.
Are we desensitized by the media?
And I am not a big dog lover, but I oo'd and awe'd when I saw those cute puppies on Game of Thrones, and I thought, I wouldn't mind one of them. And when Lady met her gruesome, fateful end, I was saddened by it all, hoping Ned would figure something out at the very end.
However, this recent controversy has disturbed me quite a bit. And it's only been a couple hours.
Game of Thrones is causing a little bit of hoo haa after the killing of Lady. Her death consisted of: shot of her face, shot of Neds, shot of dagger, shot of sad puppy dog eyes, shot of Ned's face, doggy yelp. The end.
This subtly violent scene has apparently caused a lot of mad animal lovers, who are enraged by the killing of this animal. Apparently, it's gone as far as letters being sent to HBO to stop the madness.
I love Game of Thrones, so I've been diligently following this story. I actually read the comments from the original EW post that reported on this, and added my own 2 sense. Yet, the more and more I read the comments the more I come to a freakish understanding. Has media desensitized us to human deaths.
Many of the arguments for the animal outrage express hate of animal killings, but seem to be unmoved by human killings.
In fact, one of the comments that sparked this whole thing says:
“[They can] sleep with as many people as they want, but don’t kill [animals]. Or I’m done!”
Comments following the post include some pretty harsh ones.
As I pointed out in my post, one commenter simply shows ignorance in how children are treated, and justifying human depictions of death with a simple:
"Dogs are innocent. People are not."
He then follows up with: "It’s more emotional for a lot of people because animals are mistreated exponentially more than kids are in the world. People are allowed to care about whatever makes them the most emotional."
I would almost respect his opinion if his ignorance wasn't so disturbing.
Other comments include some from an article about the EW article on Sodahead.com.
This commenter mentions a person who is writing/wrote a letter to HBO expressing their rage.
"I agree with the one fan who wrote HBO to complain, saying she'd rather see people killed off than the animals. I'm like that, too. While watching a movie, when characters die, I'm not as bothered as when animals suffer and die in the film. But hey, this is TV -- FANTASY TV, to boot -- so the producers and writers of "Thrones" can always pull a rabbit out of the hat and somehow make it so that the wolf didn't REALLY kick the bucket. Maybe it was all just a dream, like that entire season of "Dallas!"
I really don't understand this person. How can watching people die be less painful then watching animals. They do realize that when they eat a hamburger the animal had to be KILLED for them to eat it. And don't get me started on their delusional hopes of keeping the animal alive...
Back to EW, which has reached 250 comments in a few hours.
"The fact of the matter is a thousand thousand Ladies die every day, butchered by their masters in order to feed human beings. These people who whine about one animal or pet dying in a medieval-style fantasy television show are simply people who are far too protected from the reality they exist in. They’re sheltered from the blood and guts of the butcher shop they buy their meats from, sheltered from the septic tank their crap goes into, sheltered from the pin pricks and starving kids from where their sweatshop clothes come from. These people whining about Lady being killed are a legion of Lady Sansas who think that life is as pretty as a song, only to find out that heroes get their heads cut off and there is no such thing as justice in the end."
I don't know if PETA is going to get involved with this. Honestly, if they do, I will start respecting them less. I don't like the way they go about some things, like throwing flour on celebrities. Good motives, but some shady ways of going about it.
"I’m not really sure why its okay to kill “just an animal” and not a human. Humans ARE “just another animal”. Some humans are civilized and some humans are more savage and cruel than the most savage four legged animal. And in general animals are not intentionally cruel in their kills while humans very well can be."
I don't really know how to react to this. I think she has some good points, but at the same time, this is incredibly insensitive. Humans are cruel because they have emotions. That is what sets us apart from "just another animal" for better or for worse.
"I don’t care about the people being killed, but don’t kill the animals, it really puts me off watching programs and films when animals are killed. If any more animals are killed in the series, unnecessarily, I won’t be watching any more, it isn’t that good up till now, so it won’t be any great sacrifice."
Again. Don't care about people?!?
What is worse is that either these people are REALLY stupid, and think they actually killed the dog, or they really don't care about when people being killed. I know it's all fantasy, but I can't watch brutal shows/movies like Saw. I cringed when Will was decapitated in the beginning of Episode 1. I hate violence of a realistic nature. Silly nonsensical violence that is impossible is one thing. But maybe its scenes like that, that are the problem.
Are we desensitized by the media?
Game of Thrones 1.02: Viewer Outrage: I should read comments more often.
SPOILERS ZOMG! But it's not a huge one.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Gamer A.D.D.
I have bad Gamer ADD.
Like real bad. And Rift is not helping my problem.
I like Rift. When I'm in a Rift mood, I enjoy leveling, closing Rifts, fighting off invaders and looking for artifacts. When my guildies are on and we do things together it's a lot of fun. But I'm becoming weary of certain things. Questing is quite the grind fest. I'm also several levels behind my friends, so we can't do much together. And while I switch between different specs to keep things lively, I began to wish I made a Cleric. Oh noes! Invasions went from being a lot of fun to being the most annoying aspect of the game.
Invasions are when Rifts begin taking over the area you're in. You have 3-5 objectives, which always include, Defending Wardstones, which are these rock formations that have health points in areas you get quests in; killing a certain number of invaders, which are groups of mobs that spawn from Rifts; and closing a number of Rifts. This is doable with about 10 or more people. The number of invasions can get pretty bad, and if all three Wardstones fall, then its game over.
I level a lot at night. I spend my days at school and my evenings trying to play, but usually caught up in homework. I stay up late and level around 9-12. It's when our shard's population dips to Low and thanks to awesome Invasions, it begins to droll out on my patience. Invasion mobs easily begin overwhelming the Wardstones. One person cannot defeat them alone, and even if I'm careful, and have the NPCs on my side, I tend to pull aggro from all the groups, which end up being over 9 mobs, and 3 of those mobs tend to be the stronger leaders. The other problem is how far the Wardstones are from one another. They're usually on opposite sides, making travel between them difficult, and leaving the wardstones up for falling. Because the Wardstones are in questing areas, I can't turn in quests. Once a wardstone falls, the mobs stay in the area, making it difficult to defeat them all.
This wouldn't be too annoying, considering that it is late, but I wish there was an off button for areas with low populations. Every time one starts, I immediately know I'm screwed. Usually, I just log off, not wanting to deal with the coming irritation. But it's not just late at night. I've had multiple invasion fails during prime times, when we've had 10-15 people in a raid, yet we still fail. It's very annoying.
Other Rift Problems
Questing is incredibly linear. No different racial starting areas, no different places to level for overlapping levels, no separate continents. So leveling alts isn't appealing at all. I don't really find the Guardian starting areas interesting either.
Remedies?
I'm at the moment downloading the Lord of the Rings Online, simply because it's free to play and running around Middle Earth sounds like it would be fun for a little bit.
I am not going to return to WoW. I have no desire to, despite the fact that I do miss certain aspects of the game. I miss the variety of areas to level and the alts I can have. I miss my druid, and I miss UI building. But heaven knows, I've done it all, and I know once I go back, I'll immediately lose interest and waste 15 bucks.
I think Rift can hold my attention well enough, but it feels tiring fast, and I wonder if I'll ever find a game like WoW, that captured my attention with it's magic from the very first moment I logged in.
Like real bad. And Rift is not helping my problem.
I like Rift. When I'm in a Rift mood, I enjoy leveling, closing Rifts, fighting off invaders and looking for artifacts. When my guildies are on and we do things together it's a lot of fun. But I'm becoming weary of certain things. Questing is quite the grind fest. I'm also several levels behind my friends, so we can't do much together. And while I switch between different specs to keep things lively, I began to wish I made a Cleric. Oh noes! Invasions went from being a lot of fun to being the most annoying aspect of the game.
Invasions are when Rifts begin taking over the area you're in. You have 3-5 objectives, which always include, Defending Wardstones, which are these rock formations that have health points in areas you get quests in; killing a certain number of invaders, which are groups of mobs that spawn from Rifts; and closing a number of Rifts. This is doable with about 10 or more people. The number of invasions can get pretty bad, and if all three Wardstones fall, then its game over.
I level a lot at night. I spend my days at school and my evenings trying to play, but usually caught up in homework. I stay up late and level around 9-12. It's when our shard's population dips to Low and thanks to awesome Invasions, it begins to droll out on my patience. Invasion mobs easily begin overwhelming the Wardstones. One person cannot defeat them alone, and even if I'm careful, and have the NPCs on my side, I tend to pull aggro from all the groups, which end up being over 9 mobs, and 3 of those mobs tend to be the stronger leaders. The other problem is how far the Wardstones are from one another. They're usually on opposite sides, making travel between them difficult, and leaving the wardstones up for falling. Because the Wardstones are in questing areas, I can't turn in quests. Once a wardstone falls, the mobs stay in the area, making it difficult to defeat them all.
This wouldn't be too annoying, considering that it is late, but I wish there was an off button for areas with low populations. Every time one starts, I immediately know I'm screwed. Usually, I just log off, not wanting to deal with the coming irritation. But it's not just late at night. I've had multiple invasion fails during prime times, when we've had 10-15 people in a raid, yet we still fail. It's very annoying.
Other Rift Problems
Questing is incredibly linear. No different racial starting areas, no different places to level for overlapping levels, no separate continents. So leveling alts isn't appealing at all. I don't really find the Guardian starting areas interesting either.
Remedies?
I'm at the moment downloading the Lord of the Rings Online, simply because it's free to play and running around Middle Earth sounds like it would be fun for a little bit.
I am not going to return to WoW. I have no desire to, despite the fact that I do miss certain aspects of the game. I miss the variety of areas to level and the alts I can have. I miss my druid, and I miss UI building. But heaven knows, I've done it all, and I know once I go back, I'll immediately lose interest and waste 15 bucks.
I think Rift can hold my attention well enough, but it feels tiring fast, and I wonder if I'll ever find a game like WoW, that captured my attention with it's magic from the very first moment I logged in.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Game of Thrones 1.02: Kingsroad
aka: I want to punch the blond-haired ppl. Except Tyrion. He's cool.
This person, who made this is awesome btw...
This person, who made this is awesome btw...
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Game of Thrones 1.1: Winter is Coming
aka: A Case of Bad Wigs
from the perspective of someone who hasn't read the books.
Spoilers!
from the perspective of someone who hasn't read the books.
Spoilers!
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