D’Alana T’el Sindari

Anyway, I figure I’ll start writing this post now since I’m currently sitting in position six-thousand-and-something in queue waiting to get into Star Trek Online, which is something I haven’t seen since the early days of the original game’s launch. Seriously, a 6000+ queue in the middle of a week day? Congratulations STO for garnering the unprecedented level of interest for your new Legacy of Romulus expansion.

After all, I’m here too, aren’t I? I’ve logged in a few times here and there, but I haven’t played STO in earnest since…summer of 2011?

Returning to the game has always been on my list of things to do, especially since it went free-to-play. In a way, STO has a special place in my heart because blogging about my shenanigans in it during the early days is what originally got this blog off the ground. It was always so tempting to jump back in.

After a point, however, a game simply matures and leaves you behind. It’s been almost two years since I was seriously active in STO, and so many things have changed — from the ground combat improvements to the Duty Officer system. Never mind that STO has one of the most unique gameplay mechanics out there in the MMO world when it comes to space combat, which takes time to get used to and master. That’s the feature I miss the most when I think about STO, but I knew if I went back now, I’d be eaten alive.

Which is why I figured this would be the perfect time to rediscover the game again — I’ll be rolling anew with a Romulan. New expansion, new race, new character, new ship, new everything — it’ll be my chance to relearn the ropes and start from scratch.

Who knows how much I’ll be able to play nowadays, but I’ll be taking it slow, approaching this game once more with fresh eyes. I’m a newcomer again, a cadet, a clueless noob. There are a couple decisions I’ll repeat this time around though, and that’s rolling a tactical officer in an escort ship. Sorry scientists and engineers, you guys are cool too but damage dealing is just so fun in this game, I don’t think I could go any other way.

Anyway, after writing this post and mucking about online and on Twitter, looks like I’m finally at the front of the queue. Wish me luck and see y’all in game!

Our Secret Monday group is officially moving onto Elite dungeons now. Last time we were able to clear through Elite Polaris and Inferno, and last night we were able to clear Elite Inferno again with one group and Elite Darkness War with another.

Inferno team: Syp, Rowan, Sctrz (off screen in this particular cutscene…my apologies!), Thermic, Laeyn

Darkness War team: Tententacles, Pid, PaganRites, Thermic, Laeyn. There’s probably a joke in here somewhere. A kungfu master, an astronaut and an Egyptian god walk into a bar and…never mind.

Who knows, maybe next week the Knights of Mercy will venture into Elite Ankh. Hold me!

And last but not least (the feature I’m sure y’all are all dying for), what I wore for TSW Monday:

Look at me! Look at me! I’m a daredevil skydiving construction worker! Yeppers.

Battle Bards episode 3 is now live and up for your listening pleasure!

This week’s theme is a fun one. Syp, Syl and I (because Dodge was unavailable again…I’m starting to think he’s just making excuses to avoid us!) talk about our choices of MMO tunes that sound “spooky and magical”.

What does that mean exactly, you ask? Well, apparently it’s many different things. That each of us had such varied opinions and definitions as to what constitutes as spooky and magical is what I thought was so great about this episode’s discussion, plus we got to talk about music from so many different games.

For me, my mind immediately went to tunes that are more haunting, evocative, and ethereal, a view which certainly isn’t universal but I suppose is what “spooky” means to me, and that was how I chose my songs.

So sit back, have a listen, and let me know what you think of our choices (shown below). I’d love to know what MMO tunes are spooky and magical for you.

Listen here

• Introduction to the spooky & magical theme (with a bit of Danny Elfman for flavor!)
• The Secret World: The Siren Song (feat. Alyssa Munaretto)
• World of Warcraft: Dalaran (composed by Russell Brower)
• Lord of the Rings Online: Ride of the Nazgul (composed by Chance Thomas)
• RIFT: Stillmoor (composed by Inon Zur)
• Guild Wars 2: Halloween Theme (composed by Maclaine Diemer)
• Lord of the Rings Online: The Hollin Gate (composed by Chance Thomas)
• A short discussion on why we do this podcast
• Ultima Online: Yew (composed by Joe Basquez and Kirk Winterrowd)
• World of Warcraft: Ashenvale (composed by Jason Hayes, Tracy W. Bush, Derek Duke and Glenn Stafford)
• Stinger music: Allods Online alternate theme

Case in point — here, enjoy a picture of a wild-eyed horse in a bloodstained sweatshirt sitting next to a well-dressed man in a helicopter, gawking at one another as it crashes. Yeah, this one is probably one of the more bizarre screenshots I’ve ever taken, even for TSW…

Last night, we hit up Elite Polaris. After foiling our last couple of attempts, the Ur-Draug finally succumbed to the awesome might of the Mercy Templars (plus one Lumie):

A spontaneous run of Elite Inferno also yielded favorable results. The place gave us a lot less trouble than I expected, but then again I’m also more familiar with this dungeon than any of the others. It happens to be my favorite instance, not the least of all because of the stunning visuals.

Er, wait. I didn’t mean those kind of visuals. “So sorry” indeed! I do swear this is a PG-13 blog!

And of course, no TSW picture post would be complete without the “What I wore for TSW Monday” feature.

Laeyn was ninja-ing around last night in the spiffy Assassinatrix uniform, with the glowy-eyes effect from the glowing lunar draug mask:

Here are the MMOs I’m currently playing:

• quite a bit of Neverwinter
• some World of Warcraft
• a little Defiance
• weekly dose of The Secret World
• a light smattering of Rift

I used to tell myself I’m a horrible juggler and that trying to play a whole bunch of games at once never works out. Indeed, given the choice I’d prefer to be able to give an MMO my full attention, do things like reach level cap, explore the entire world, finish “everything” before moving on. The “hardcore completionist” way of doing things has always been a better match for my own personality and play style.

But since the year started, game time for me has pretty much been reduced to about 2-3 hours a night on weekdays and I’ve long come to the realization that doing “The One Game” thing isn’t going to fly anymore, especially with so many new releases that look so fun and amazing, and many older titles I still want to stick with. So…unless I win the lottery or learn how to bend time: A limited gaming schedule + MUST PLAY ALL TEH GAMEZ = everything I play must become “casual”.

The great thing is the majority of MMOs on my list now are subscription-less, and are completely adaptable to my current schedule. TSW Mondays are enough for me to do grab enough AP/SP to advance each week, and I’ve always thought Defiance is the perfect game to jump in and out of if you only have an hour or less of free time. Even in WoW, the one MMO in which I’m participating in even a semblance of an endgame, is now a lot more suitable for the more casual player; through LFR I’m still able to raid and not have the encounter take up my whole night.

It does mean I don’t get to play as much of one game as I’d like each week, but on the other hand I get to experience everything I want to — remember how I almost gave Neverwinter a pass, and looking back now I see what a shame that would have been. I’m glad I didn’t; it’s been a lot of fun so far. Cramming it into an already full gaming schedule felt like a crazy thing to do, but it was totally worth it.

Five Templars walk into Elite Polaris…

My decision to hop aboard the Neverwinter train came as a fairly recent one.

To understand how it came about, you have to know that in our family, I’m the one who keeps up with the news in the gaming industry, reads the reviews and blogs, researches the games and decides in the end whether to get them or not. So it’s not uncommon for my husband, even though he’s an avid gamer, to be completely clueless about what games are out there or what’s coming out, because he’s perfectly happy just letting me fill him in and playing anything that I play.

It definitely helps that we have very similar gaming tastes. I’d like to think I’ve always chosen well and that I know the kind of games he prefers and never had to push my luck or his self-respect with anything like Hello Kitty Online. The most important thing is that we get to play together, and bless him for trusting me enough to follow me into whatever MMO world I want to explore.

But still, I almost made a faux pas with Neverwinter. I’d gotten my hands on a beta key earlier this year, played a few days of the beta and liked what I saw, but when “soft launch” came this week I took one look at the sea of games we’re already swimming in and said to the mister, “Maybe we should pass on this, or at least wait until after the open beta when we can both play free at our leisure.” His answer: “But why?”

In retrospect, I suppose I should have foreseen this; that as someone who prides himself on having owned the original Dungeons and Dragons basic boxed set, my husband would be hard-pressed to pass up anything attached to the franchise, let alone an actual MMO based in the Forgotten Realms city of Neverwinter. So he promptly went ahead and bought us both each a Guardian pack, which is how I found myself in front of my computer Saturday morning downloading the client and trawling the multitudes of D&D name generator sites for ideas.

Ultimately, my husband ended up rolling what he calls a “classical cleric”, while I rolled a Wood Elf Great Weapon Fighter. Because if there’s one thing I like more than elves, it’s elves wielding big honking swords.

Alistara Arborshale

It was pretty much all we played this weekend. I can already tell Neverwinter is not going to be as deep as some of the more involved MMOs I’ve played, but it’s still very engaging for a story-based online game supported by lots of dungeons and opportunities to play with friends.

The important thing is, I’m enjoying it; but apparently Neverwinter has gotten its hooks even deeper into my husband — which is incredible, for he is usually so even-tempered and takes a judicious attitude towards new games. I’d say 60 bucks, which is the usual price I’m used to dropping for a brand new game anyway, was definitely worth it for the chance to see things a little early and play with the gang of usual suspects, not to mention the items and perks that come with the pack.

Anyway, it’s only been a couple days and I still feel so green, but I’m slowly discovering that there’s a lot more to Neverwinter. Every hour, I still get surprised when I stumble across new game mechanics or systems that I didn’t know existed, while continuing to be impressed by how much is already in place. I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface, or looked into the Foundry. As I only reached level 15 yesterday, I’m looking forward to a whole new world still waiting for me.