Re: USAGE: Everquest (was: USAGE: Internetese deviancy - the definite article)

On Tue, Jul 27, 2004 at 04:02:59PM -0500, Mark P. Line wrote:
> Umm, it looks like we might almost have a quorum on Everquest.....
>
> How many others here play EQ or some other MMORPG?
Well, I don't really play EQ anymore.  My wife does, and my account is
still active, but it usually gets used for a bazaar mule (a character
set up as an automated merchant in the bazaar, selling items that your
other characters have acquired through their adventures - a common way
of making in-game money).  Sometimes my wife will play two characters at
once on a raid, which is an interesting skill.  I've witnessed someone else
playing *three* at once, and very well; fascinating!

I do, on the other hand, play City of Heroes (a superhero-themed MMORPG)
quite a lot.   Here again we have two accounts, and my wife uses hers
quite a bit more than I use my EQ one, but I still play far more often
than she.  One of my characters in CoH is the superhero character for
whom I created my first conlang, lo these many years ago (I'm 36, btw).

She also occasionally plays Star Wars: Galaxies, but although I have
enjoyed non-MMO Star Wars-themed RPGs like Knights of the Old Republic,
Galaxies didn't interest me very much.  My wife's interest is declining
as well - many aspects of the game are well-conceived, but the
amount of content is pretty low; there's just not that much to do.  Plus
much of your character's past skill advancement has to be abandoned in order
to learn new skills, which I think is a bad idea.  The goal is to keep
characters from getting too "ueber", but you wind up feeling as though
you've wasted a lot of time (beyond the real-world sense in which
playing such a game is considered by many to be a waste of time in the
first place :)).  At this point she only signs on to socialize with the
folks she met there, so it's basically a fancy (and expensive) chat
program.  So that account will probably be dropped in favor of one in
World of Warcraft when the latter game is released this fall.  I am
also looking forward to the Matrix MMORPG.

-Marcos