As happens every week, prepare yourself for video and six scenic screenshots from my past week of MMO play. This week I’ve got a pair of videos, each with a tale associated with it.

The first (a regrettably silent film), shows myself and the Shortiez taking on the last threat in the long quest chain in Permafrost known as the ‘Statue Quests‘. Each one is obtained by clicking on a statue in this great room with a table and huge horn in the center. We did the last one this past week, ending with The Horn Sounds. Unfortunately we had to do it four times over because killing the four giants that spawn only counts for one person as quest completion. Lame. Sauce.

The other video is kind of a weird one. I meant to take a screenshot during an Arathi Basin match, and hit the video capture button instead. What I got is a sort of madcap caper flick as I try to defend a flag, get assaulted by a Paladin while futzing with my UI, and basically witness the end of the match (the 1800 resource howl). It’s actually pretty funny … check it out.

Read more

Weak sauce this week, and I apologize for that, but whatchagonnado? I played plenty this week but have no video evidence to back it up. Instead, I’m going to offer you the usual sextet of screenshots along with a unique live-action video.

Enclosed, Scary Door-style, is a short clip from a session of the Shadowrun tabletop game … probably circa 2004? This slice of gaming bliss is one of the things I just freaking love - me and a bunch of my friends around a table with some dice. To give you a sense of who is who, when the camera settles down we have the following: directly in front of the camera to the right (the elbow) is Kathleen, further along the table is her husband Brian, at the far end is Ben, out of sight to the left is Alan, directly left of Alan is my wife Katie, and I’m behind the camera.

To set the scene a bit, they’ve just come back from an extended period away from Seattle to find that things have gone badly. Their apartments and vehicles are bugged, people have been ‘checking in’ with acquaintances, and Katie’s character’s mother has gone missing under strange circumstances. That’s about all you need to know; they’ll sort of work through some interesting ideas over the course of the video.

Let me know what you think of this randomness; Hope you’re looking forward to a good weekend.

Read more

This week my video highlights surround the still-in-Beta title Mythos. I have been really crunched, mentally, as I juggle my last weeks of Slashdot with ramping up to full power at Massively. The in-and-out quickplay of Flagship’s Mythos, as a result, has been the perfect way for me to get some happy-fun-time in. I have to say: I’m liking Mythos a lot more than I ever enjoyed Dungeon Runners, another F2P Diablo-clone I’ve played quite a bit of. I’m not sure I could tell you why exactly; I really like the art aesthetic in Mythos, for one. My little Gadgeteer Gremlin dude, with his flintlock rifle and smoking cigar, is really evocative somehow. Today I’ve got three videos for you. Two are random combat snips, and the third is a more lengthy combat encounter with a boss - Zuriel the Kindler of Discord.

My random screenshots for the week touch on my time in SWG gathering screens for a Massively guide. They also cover some Alterac Valley sessions with my rogue, and the (to me) hilarious shot to the right of my baby Belf hunter standing over some dead spider-dudes.

Story of the week: I’ve been enjoying playing with the Hunter as an easily alt-tabbed distraction. As weak sauce as they are in PvP Arenas right now, they still are the kings of PvE soloing. I’m in Suncrown Village, on the edge of the Ghostlands, killing Nerubis guards. There’s one elite in particular, Anok’suten, that I have to down. To my surprise, he’s actually still an elite. I was under the impression most overland elites were taken out of the game a while ago. But I figure I have three levels on him so - what the heck, right?

I sic my kitty on him, and he immediately calls another guard to aid. I pull the guard off the cat, and immediately go back to helping him burn down the elite. At this point a patrol spawns in on me (I saw a warlock leaving the area as I approached, must have been her kills). So me and the cat are now taking on an elite and three guards. The result is as you see there: four dead, a ragged hunter and pet, lots of sparkely loot piles. And people say Paladin is EZ mode.

Read more

This week the Friday films are all about traveling. First up we’ve got a quick clip of Jacob’s Ladder, my faithful City of Heroes character, as he makes his way through the troubled streets of Paragon City. Then there’s a pair of clips from the first night Blizzard opened up the Arena server (on the 1st). It was bedlam and chaos as people waited forever to get into Arena events - mostly PvPing each other to pass the time.

The last clip comes with a story. In it you’ll see Grodin, my Dwarven Paladin, fighting with Arakkoa in Hellfire Peninsula. I shut off FRAPS’ video capture just a second before another birdman rushed my character. He was joined by one of those blasted owls, and the fight was really on. I held my own for a bit, took out the birdman, but it was quickly obvious I was going to lose to the owl. So I did what any self-respecting pally would do: I bubbled and ran, down into a cave I’d partially cleared out along the chasm’s floor. Unfortunately as I ran I managed to pull another Arakkoa. I healed a bunch but I was OOM and I was sure I was done for. At this point I was quite a ways away from the owl’s spawn, so I backed up some more hoping he’d de-aggro and leave me alone. All of a sudden there was a burst of light, and I was at full health and mana. I whipped out the big guns and dropped both of the mobs in no time flat.

I realized, as I stood there over the corpses, that I’d dinged. And not just any ding - an exploration ding. By backing up just that bit farther I’d gotten the XP gift for finding the Den of Haal’esh proper, leveled up, and had my health/mana restored. Hilarious. An instant from death and I’m saved by a lousy 1000 xp or so. Priceless, and one of the many reasons I play these games!

Read more

Sooooo I’ve been enjoying FRAPS quite a bit of late. My Flickr account has been steadily getting more interesting in the last few weeks as a result. I’ve decided to start doing some more video just for kicks, (I did pay for the full version after all) and now my YouTube account is starting to feel some love as well. I certainly play MMOs enough to have one bloody interesting thing to show you each week and thus starts my attempt at a regular post: the Friday Film.

Notice: The Friday film is intended to be a brief glimpse into my gameplay over the past week. It is not intended to amuse, frighten, or inform anyone but myself. By watching the video you indemnify me from any comments along the lines of “Boring”, “Teh Suxx0r”, or “L2P”.

Today you get two videos. One’s an ancient file I’ve been keeping around for years now: video of my first character dinging 60. Good old Grodin. The other video is the actual clip from this week, of the Shortiez EQ2 group battling a pack of wolves in Permafrost. My wife Katie (Caimia) dings 53 during the course of the battle.

Enjoy. Have fun. Tolerate, citizen.

Read more