Free Candy For Everyone

I fear it’s happened again. I hit 70 with my Shaman and my interest in playing her has dropped off. I’ve always been a huge fan of leveling characters. Getting to the next level, seeing what new skills I get, knowing there’s an area I couldn’t get to yesterday that will be open to me tomorrow, these are all aspects of progression I enjoy. But now that Myrendra is 70 all that’s left is getting better gear.

At this point we grind reputation, we grind honor, we farm instances all as methods to the same goal of better gear. This new gear let’s us enter new raid instances, and that’s about the only thing I find at all interesting about this whole process. Sure I’d love to be geared out in fantastic purple epics and riding a super l33t flying dragon but I don’t really want to grind hours every day to get the gold and such required. Grinding doesn’t equal fun.

I’ve started another alt. Of course I have. Heh. I’m still playing my Shaman, but only to run instances with people. The social group aspect is always fun. Running through a dungeon and trying to down things that are a challenge keeps me thinking and on my toes! That’s fun. But running around on my (super slow) flying mount and gathering herbs for hours? Nah, I can’t do too much of that. That’s not playing, that’s some sort of job and the one I have is more than enough of that. There are still dungeons I haven’t been into at all and I’d really like to get around to those, but not if the entry fee is hours of repetition. In the meantime, you’ll find me leveling another druid. Or maybe a warlock. Or maybe…

I’ve been playing a bit of WoW and been busy leveling my Shaman. My Mage hasn’t been getting much play time. I still play most Sunday’s with the group I originally started with, the former Crazy Cattle. But the more they change the game, the less I like the Mage.

She’s not quite dead yet, but she is just not nearly as much fun as some of the other classes. It’s funny, I tried all sorts of different classes and kept coming back to the Mage. She’s the first character I took to 70 (and for now the only one, but that won’t be true for long) and I just couldn’t get enough of lobbing giant fireballs around. But it feels like the other classes are all getting more and more buffs and mages are just getting more and more fragile. It’s just not so fun anymore.

I keep up on my Druid and abandoned her in the low 60s for my Mage. But now she’s looking better and better. With all the great loot and buffs to feral druids she’ll be viable as DPS or a tank. It just seems like she has more options than my Mage. Plus, if need be I can re-spec her as a healer and everyone loves a healer. So why would I play my squishy Mage anymore?

We’ll see what happens. I’m closing in on 70 on my Shaman and still having a good time. But for grouping with my old school group I need something on that server and I just may have to revive my Druid for something a little more viable.

(And I really don’t know why all my character’s names end in A, that is totally weird.)

Once again, I’m trying to play too many games and I can’t keep up with them all. Every night the big question is “What games am I going to play today?” I know, it’s a tough life.

Today, the answer was Culdcept Saga. I played the demo in December and was fascinated by this bizarre fantasy board game/collectible card game hybrid. I picked the game up yesterday and so far I’m hooked. My only complaint is that matches take so very long. If you lose, you might have just wasted over an hour playing a game that you’ll have to fight all over again. Well, I assume you have to replay it if you lose. I’m haven’t lost one yet since I figure that would be a bad idea.

In addition to that time suckage, I started Rogue Galaxy last week, a really cool PS2 RPG that I’d been wanting to try for a while now. Combat is real time, which is not something I really like in my RPGs, but the other mechanics are cool enough that I’m enjoying it anyways.

On top of that, I’m still playing World of Warcraft. Sunday nights are still the time for the Crazy Cattle to get together and run 5 man instances. Yesterday we actually ran the final two 5-man dungeons in the game that we hadn’t visited yet. We hit up The Black Morass and The Arcatraz. I feel as much of a sense of completion as I’m ever going to feel with this endless game, I suppose. You’re never really done, so finishing up a certain chunk of content is pretty darn good.

And lastly, I’m still leveling up another WoW alt with my LucasArts co-workers. I’m just about to hit level 53 with my shaman Myrendra. It’s looking like I’m actually going to get all the way to 70 with her, which is sort of a surprise to me. I thought we’d have lost interest long before now. But leveling is just so quick, and we have such solid group attendance that it’s been going well.

Too much to play! I have GDC coming up this week and a vacation next week which will keep me from playing any of these games for a while. Time to get more Nintendo DS time in, I guess!

Maybe I should call it my old job. But I’m back to playing way too much World of Warcraft and I’m not sure how I feel about it! I mentioned before that I’ve started up a new character with my co-workers. Well, despite the fact that all of us have been playing this game for a long time, some people must be playing it for hours and hours everyday. I come home and have to play! If I don’t they’ll all get too many levels ahead of me.

I just hit 45 on my Shaman and I’m actually really enjoying playing her. I’ve never been a fan of melee classes but the Shaman is a good mix of spells and melee. I’m specced enhancement, so I’m just a crazy damage machine. I throw down, I tell ya!

But sometimes I just want to come home and relax, maybe play a bit on my Xbox 360 and call it a day. But if I do I’ll find everyone 3 levels ahead of me and that just won’t do!