EQ RAF Ending? PWI Learning The Ropes & Love is In... Azeroth.

An early Valentines present from my sweetie-  doll's mask. He knows me too well ;)

EQ
I've managed to get my newest alt, Bunny, my monk, a nice handful of AA points. Mostly it has been Dire power leveling me with his Shadowknight so I can bank up several hundred in order to tank with his Rogue, which is the same level as my monk, 75. At times it can be a bit stressful and if I don't FD at the right times I can be run over with a huge train. Which did happen last night, and ended with me yelling " Why did you run them OVER me?!" It was fun though. I about had a heart attack when he ran back over me though, lol. Ooops. Tonight I think I'll take some video footage and post it up this week of EQ, mostly showing off the SK class, maybe a little Monk action too, we'll see. I'm itching to make another video. Maybe a monthly video featuring what I'm playing.

A huge reason we use the Shadowknight to power level the Monk with AA points is that we have our accounts linked with Rectuit a Friend. We both get a massive bonus to XP, regular and AA, especially when he is higher than I, he can also pull massive amounts of mobs and net in some crazy xp. So with the SK xp flows in like there is no tomorrow. It is nice but I also had to buy another account just to be able to have this bonus, so it isn't like it's some free deal. I needed a fourth account like a hole in the head.

With F2P coming it has been announced that RAF is going to be removed and all links to accounts cut off. Which really has a lot of people upset, myself included. I mean I did enjoy the bonus but I don't know if I would have bought it if I had known it would only last me about six months, several of those I went inactive. Was it well spent? I'd say it was, I benefited nicely from it. But in my opinion it is like a bait and switch. How will it hurt anything if they grandfather us in? Hey, if anyone else wants it let them have the chance to buy it before it goes away, which is still a month or so yet. I think they could actually get a huge amount of sales with people snapping up these accounts before the program ended. But not all is lost, Piestro has posted a reply to the subject on the forums: (Page Six)

"Hey folks,

I've just gotten back from a meeting on the topic of the Recruit a Friend program and I wanted to give you all the latest news. We understand your frustration with ending the Recruit a Friend account linkages, and are currently investigating possible alternatives to removing the linkages from existing recruit a friend accounts. We hope to have a better idea of potential routes moving forward by the middle of next week and will let you know as soon as we do.

Thanks,"

Lets hope for the best. I'd really hate to see the program removed, it is great for new players to catch up to the player base, not that it is hard but it is a really nice incentive. If it is maybe some of us can keep something out of it. I suppose we'll have to wait and see. You can read the forum topic here.

PWI
Other than EQ, Perfect World International has taken up a lot of playtime. I don't know why I enjoy this game so much but at this moment in time I really do. If it turns out to be a horrible grind in the later levels I might not love it so much but for now it is fresh and new again. My summoner is level 23 now. I have gotten a ground mount, which are only cash shop at level 20. You can buy them but they are slow and only at level 40, for in-game gold.

The economy is a bit skewed as prices can be really expensive but the higher you are the more gold you can make, as with any game. You can also buy gold through an in-game currency system with the cash shop credits. One cash shop gold credit gets you roughly 1.4 million in-game gold. Not bad really, that isn't going to buy you a lot higher up though, stuff sells for millions. It's a different type of game, it is apples and oranges to compare it to many Western games.

My level 23 pet, the Storm Mistress.

There is a bit of a learning curve but so far it has been a lot of fun. I love my class and learning things in the game, I think sometimes that is the most fun, just being a big newb and feeling like everything is so exciting and mysterious. You never know what is around the corner. The cash shop is a bit pricy, especially on dye but you don't have to buy a whole lot, I suppose you could buy XP boost (hyper stones) but right now I am not wanting to blow through the levels, most people suggest using them 80+ anyhow.

The controls are decent, combat is not complicated and I enjoy it even if it is a bit simple. The game is still really beautiful even though it has some age (I think with the recent Genesis update the textures got an update). There are some older mechanics that bother me but not enough to not play. We'll have to see how things progress as I keep playing. For now it is fun and that is what matters.

Sometimes I find myself on the defensive towards other players in PWI, thinking they were just being jerks, as well in EQ, when in reality it was just some misunderstanding. People in these games, which a tighter community, are, most of the time, not going to grief you and harass you on a regular basis. I suppose the WoW community has taken a real toll on how I perceive other players. Not everyone who plays WoW is a horrible person but we know how the community is, or the lack of it. Sometimes it can be a hard transition, to take off that thick skinned mentality. My biggest goal these days it to have fun and not let things bother me, roll with the punches and ignore the bad- in all of my games.

Love is in the air!

WoW
Speaking of WoW... Love is in the Air is here! I stayed up late last night when I saw that I could complete the daily quest before the reset, I really want that pink love 'chicken' mount. So, I'm excited about this event, lots of fun stuff to do. Plus, the faire is here and the lunar event is still going on, so a good bit to do. Thinking this afternoon I'll putter around on here with holiday events, my weakness!

I haven't been playing WoW more than about once a week lately so it was nice to log in and join in these events, these days EQ2 and WoW really out do themselves with holiday events and I really, really look forward to these two.

That about wraps it up, have a great week!