Whirly: good to go

Mike and I have been running our Hunters around in the Old Forest, Breeland - I’m getting sick of the place. We’ve done a crap load of quests in there or I’d never go back. Today we chased down Rollo Maggot for a quest, but he had nothing for us. We fought, and wandered, our way to Doderick Brandybuck - the other part of the same quest. Doderick sent us off to see Rollo. Hey punk, we were just there. Off to track down Rollo again. It turned into a death run. We ran into one of those elite trees then another, a couple of wolfs and what ever. We ran our little butts off and survived.

This time Rollo was glad to see us and sent us back to see Doderick, poop. My plan was to kick Dodericks ass if he sent us back to Rollo, but no, he was done with us. Time to leave the Forest. What’s that? A road? Let’s try that. Turns out the road takes you right out of the woods, no sweat. Plus, there was a clearing with a ton of bats. Just what we needed for another quest we were working on. We dinged 16.

I took a good long look at WoW and decided I didn’t want to play. I canceled my account again. In a fit of madness I tracked down my EVE disks, installed, and reactivated my account. At least I thought I had. I couldn’t log into the server, it kept saying the EVE server was down. Oddly, on the log on screen, where it said the server was down, it had a message giving the times when the beta server was down. Hmm, the disk appeared to be the standard and not a beta copy, who knows. I’ve downloaded a new copy of the client, it works much better.

I couldn’t find my CDs for WoW. I wanted to install it on my MacBook Pro to see how it looked before my canceled account ran out. Here is dumb thing I’ve done #5342, I purchased a new copy of WoW for $20. I installed on the MacBook Pro and patched. It looks good, but I still don’t feel like playing WoW.

I worked my Lord of the Rings Online Champion to level 16. I remembered my level 15 class quest and went in search of the guys required. The first boss was on the other side of the swamp in BreeLand. I was trying to dodge the riff raft mobs, getting to his area. Boom, there he was and we were fighting. I tried every trick I could think of, including drinking the only health potion in my inventory. I died, but so did he. I was credited with his kill and transported across the swamp to the rez-circle. I count that as a success. My attempt on boss #2 wasn’t as successful as I got over-run by his friends. I think they were his friends. I’m not exactly sure where he is, but I think I know the area, and he is surrounded by friends who will over-run you if you aren’t careful. it was late. I called it a night and camped. Tonight, I worked him much of the way through 16 while watching Casino Royal.

I signed up for Tabula Rasa beta. I know nothing about the game, but I’ve heard people mentioning it. From the web site, it looks to be a future shootem up. In the application questionnaire they had a long list of games you had to check, “played in the past”, or “playing now.” I’ve played a large number on the list and beta quite a few as well. I don’t know if that’s good or sad. I could use a break from the hack and slash genre. I never read Tolkien anyway, other than the Hobbit.

Mark and I poked around in BreeLand with our Champion/Captain combo, killing a little of this, delivering a little of that. We ran a couple escort missions, one successfully the other not. We wandered, we grinded missions, we both dinged 13. Your standard Friday night in Lord of the Rings Online.

Mike and I played our Hunters and ran some of the same epic quests that Mark and I ran Friday. We also did some wandering, traveling from Old Forest, in Breeland, to Trestlebridge Gate where we camped. We both dinged 14. It was your standard Saturday morning in Lord of the Ring Online. At 14 we received a 15% run speed increase skill. It drops when you are in attack mode, but it’s still a nice enhancement when running around, something we seem to be doing a lot of.

The Champion/Captain combo worked better in the instanced epic quests than the level higher Hunters. I’m not sure if it was our technique or just that the Champion/Captain are better as in-close tanks. The Hunters are much easier to play outside. A good Hunter fight is when the mob dies just as he arrives at our feet, within easy loot range.

Speaking of loot, I believe they have changed the loot rules in LotRO a little. We now must roll on every skin, or other crafting item, that drops. It’s an annoyance when hunting in bear country. Eventually I changed the loot rules to free for all. We are feeding all the skins to one of Marks toons anyway so he can work on crafting. We were using the master looter system in Vanguard, maybe we’ll go back to that. It’s much easier for everybody who isn’t the looter.

I have a 15 Champion in LoTRO that I’ve been soloing. He works ok, but just wading in, blades a-swinging, isn’t really my style. I’ve half way decided to stick with him. That Hunter run-increase is attractive though. I started a Hunter to see how it feels. He’s only level 7 and is a bit soft. He has a jaunty hat with a feather.

I feel like I’m missing something. Like I should be playing something else. I’ve tried playing WoW a little over the last couple of weeks, it wasn’t fun. The only thing I can think of is EVE and we all know how boring that can be. Well, it’s probably not boring at all, but I like to play in very short spurts, 15 to 20 minutes, and that doesn’t lead to grouping or long quests. I’ll think of something to get me out of these doldrums.

I received my MacBook Pro today, what a pleasure. I’ve setup a thousand Macs at work (looks like we are buying another 300 this summer), but never enjoyed it as much. It took a while to download the latest updates, including OSX 10.4.10. I installed Firefox, TextWrangler, and Synergy - so I could control the Mac and my Windows box with one keyboard and mouse. I installed a driver for my Edirol USB midi keyboard and tried it with GarageBand - it’s way cool. I guess I’m good to go. I’m going to try not to install Microsoft Office. I’m using Google Docs for most of my writing now. I use lots of different computers and Google Docs gives me access from everywhere. If I could find my WoW disks I’d install, but I seem to have lost the darn things. I can get new WoW disks for $20, I might. My one failure has been print sharing from the Windows box. I’ve done it before, but it failed on my first attempt this time. No big thing.

I’ve two stories of pick-up groups to share, compare.

I was cruising around with my LotRO Champion today when I ran into a Lore-Master with three mobs on him. I stopped to see if he needed assistance, it’s not polite to just “help” these days so I watched his health and that of the mobs. He looked like he could use a little assistance on the last mob so I chopped the mob up and moved on. He said, “TY” which I should have responded to, I just continued with my business. I was working on one of those discovery jobs where if you find all five things you get a reward. I needed to fight my way through a bunch of goblins. Every time I engaged a goblin, the Lore-Master I assisted would “help.” He helped five or six times and I finally broke down and gave him an invite. We said hi, I canged loot rules to free for all, and I continued on, it was a small area - he must have been going my way.

The Champion and Lore-Master combo kicked some goblin butt. I soon reached the area I was headed to and received my finders notice. I didn’t know what the Lore-Master was after. We were working a dead end with a large camp of goblins at the end. I continued on into the camp and we worked our way half way round. I messaged that I was done with this area and asked what he was after. If I accept, or offer, a group invite I feel it’s only right to stick around until every one gets what they need, if you can. He messaged, “I need a bow.” I didn’t know a Lore-Master could use a bow, and I didn’t know what I could do to help him acquire one. With no clear direction on what he wanted to do, I killed all the rest of the goblins and started working my way out. Once we were in relative safe spot, I messaged that, “I’m leaving this area, thanks for the help,” disbanded, bowed, saluted, and went on my way. I didn’t write down his name, though he seemed like a decent enough player. If I ever run into him again, I’ll not know who he is.

Eight years ago, I was playing a level 8 Warrior in EQ on the Test server. I was working the goblins and orcs in Misty Thicket. I was the only one in the zone, not a lot of people played on test. It was a little hard to break the orc camp with a Warrior, but I had and was scientifically timing the spawn and taking care of business. Out of nowhere a level 8 Druid shows up. I didn’t need the Druid, but it was a small camp, it was test, I invited, the druid joined. Mark and I still play together, we are scheduled to play our level 11 toons in LotRO Monday night.

Have I changed that much over all these years of playing online? Was Mark some outstanding Druid? The pace in Misty, on test, was much slower than today in the goblin camp. The population on test was so small you were forced to appreciate anyone you met. I wrote down Mark’s character name and followed his progress. On a production server, there are so many people playing, even the good ones are, at best, a minor annoyance. I love the new games. I guess I miss the slower pace of the old ones. Mark was a pretty good Druid, for a Halfling, btw.

I’ve been playing Lord of the Rings Online with the boys, and soloing a little on the side, but there’s not been much to write home about. Mike is away for a few fight-nights so Mark and I created a couple new toons, Captain and Champion. It’s my second time through BreeLand which makes things easier. At level 10, my Captain purchased his first Harold. Having a flag-guy following you around takes a little getting used to, but he helps when I fight, you’ve got to love that. I soloed him to level 11 yesterday grinding mobs. It seemed easier than the Champion or Lore-Master I’ve tried before.

I need to make a decision on what I’m going to play while soloing, which game and what character. I could take one of my level 60 WoW characters to 70. Or, I could play one of my LotRO toons. I could always go back to EVE, I never felt like I was done there. Or, look for something new. Mike and I have been waiting for Pirates of the Burning Sea, I’m not sure when it’s coming out. I’m sorry to drag you into this, but it’s my primary MMO question of the week. Now that I’m back from vacation, it feels like I should be working on something.

I purchased a MacBook Pro laptop, it’s been shipped. I really wanted the smaller MacBook, because of it’s portability, but a co-worker convinced me that 99% of the time I won’t be using it mobile and that I would appreciate the Pros other features. Truthfully, it was the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics in the Pro that pushed me over the edge. Graphics cards are the gamers Achilles tendon I guess. $1800 for the basic MacBook Pro seems crazy when you can get a laptop for under $700, but OSX is better than Windows, period. I use a Mac all day at work and Windows all night. I think I’m qualified to judge.

Mike and I been playing our Rangers in Lord of the Rings Online, and talking about our MMO future. Before that, I was gone for a month and couldn’t play at all. Mike didn’t played either. It looks like he only plays for the group now. I understand that, I find it difficult to play solo as well. I guess this whole online game thing is getting tired.

Mark has been playing his World of Warcraft Warrior during the hiatus. Mike and I aren’t ready to go back to WoW just yet. We both think LotRO has some legs. I’m hoping we can find a nice group groove, not an easy thing to find. High-impact, challenging content, that isn’t boring. That’s the dream.

WoW instances worked well for us. We went from one to the next as we progressed. It wasn’t boredom free, but we kept busy. Unfortunately, we had “our little problem”, and had to start over. If we went back to WoW we would be working the same content, we’ve already slogged through, for a year before we got to the new content. I’m kicking myself for harping on this again, but it’s one of the reasons to move on.

Maybe we could play some form of online checkers. Reminiscent of old men playing in the park. Do they do that still? Did they ever? Maybe old men playing online games will be some cultural icon of the future. People who still play UO or EQ might have reached that stage already. I may be getting too far ahead of myself here. I’m just looking for a good game to solo and group with my friends. You young whipper snappers get away from here before we go medieval on your ass. “I’m targeting the whipper snapper on the left, fear the one on the right.”

I’ve been thinking about getting a MacBook for a while. I wanted to recover from previous extravagant purchases before making another. It’s now laptop buying time, almost. Apple has just updated the MacBook Pro line and, while a little more expensive, it is within my comfort zone. The Pro line has a few advantages to my mind, illuminated keyboard, better graphics card, but the MacBook fits my intended desire for enhanced portability. I want to move all my personal computer work to the portable and maintain my desktop for gaming only.

I have experience using both the MacBook and the Pro. I’m typing this on a MacBook Pro and I also have an iBook, both supplied by my employer. Although I don’t use a MacBook regularly, I’ve used one enough to regard them highly. I’ve never personally owned a Mac. This will be my first.

Truthfully, the only reason I’m considering a Pro is the upgraded graphics, I could play windows games on it. That is a foolish reason. I guess buying a laptop is foolish anyway, I should put that money into upgrading my desktop. As you can see making these kind of decisions aren’t easy for me. They aren’t for most people. I’ve gone over these options many times with people facing the same dilemma. I’ll probably go with my original choice the MacBook, but I’ll wait until after Mondays Developers Conference just in case there is some unexpected announcement.

In Dawson City, Yukon Territory, they have a room-size Camera Obscura. “See Dawson in full color,” declares the sign outside. How could I resist full color?

This Camera Obscura is a square room with seven foot sides. In the center of the wall, with the door, is a pencil sized pen-hole, the only light source in the room. The folks who were wowed by these things in-the-day must have had patience beyond my capability. It takes a long time for your eyes to adjust to the dim light. I gave it five minutes, which was just enough to vaguely see a couple of upside down cars pass on the wall opposite the pen-hole. They weren’t in full color unless the cars were some dim blah color.

Outside, I could easily see Dawson in full color, right side up, AND in 3D. I don’t think these things are going to take off. A 45 inch plasma TV would work much better. You could hang a sign saying, “See Dawson in full color, even at night.” Plus, you could put it somewhere other than the Yukon Territory. Yup, a high tech Camera Obscura would be cool. Of course the old fashoned one in Dawson City has the Yukon River behind it. That’s cool.