Conan, Day Three

[pyat]

DAY THREE: SCORECARD
Jeweled Thrones Crushed under My Sandaled Feet: Zero
Lamentations of Women Heard : Zero.
Rowboats Stolen: One
Number of Converts Recruited into Impromptu Apocalypse Cult: Zero. But working on it...

Other Highlights...

Housecats Threatened with Hellfire: One


Bottles of Rancid Wine Purchased: Three


Mysterious Women Glimpsed by Moonlight: One.

I went on two solo quests, which involved delivering a bottle of healing potion from a healer to a spy on an island, and returning to her with a message. At this point she tried to recruit me to pick herbs to heal some grotty NPC I didn't care about. I decided to get down to serious roleplaying, and stood in the town square, warning everyone of the coming Volcanic Apocalypse. Whenever a new player came through the gate, I would try to attract their attention with a dire warning along the lines of:
"Do not trust the town crier!"
"Doom!"
"Death is coming to Tortage!"
"Turn back to the jungle, this city is doomed!"

I didn't get any nibbles, though a 65th level guy with a small army of monsters offered me a guild membership, which I declined.

Comments

[firesign10.livejournal.com]

It looks like the cat is crouched in a puddle of glowing lavender pee.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Proof of its demonic nature, and also that I've scared it!

[relee.livejournal.com]

LOL I think that's the selection highlight. In modern games it manifests as a spinning magical circle of arcane tracery, invisible to mortal eyes but apparent to the player.

[pvenables.livejournal.com]

It's good you're making your own fun in that game-- probably more interesting that way. :)

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Definitely. I'm not impressed by the other players at all, thus far.

[pvenables.livejournal.com]

And you aren't likely to be either. I played WoW for a fair bit and never really saw anybody or anything that made the game an RPG. I've taken to calling them MMOGs as opposed to MMORPGs for that reason.

[relee.livejournal.com]

You need to play on the right server for WoW. There's not very many roleplayers and they mostly gather on a particular RP server. Which one they gather on changes over time, as people get hoity toity and move to a different RP server, and their followers follow them, and then they try to get away again.

Last time I was around the RP server was Emerald Dream, but that has probably changed in the year or so since I played last.

There were three types of RP I saw on World of Warcraft. The most obvious was Bar Roleplaying, where rival gangs of roleplayers would take over the various NPC bars in the city of Stormwind (the human city) and roleplay Bartenders and patrons while shouting on group chat what rare alcohols they had imported from the far corners of the game world. There was at least four bars in Stormwind, maybe more. I know there was a Dwarven Bar, a Human Bar, and at least two Wizard Bars though. One of the Wizard Bars was haunted, so it didn't get used very much, 'cause non-roleplayers kept coming in to do the ghost busters quest.

There was also the Lion's Pride Inn and Whorehouse, where most of the sex roleplaying on World of Warcraft happens. It's the first inn that human players get to visit, in Elwynn Forest. Very quaint with a lovely pond in back.

The third kind of roleplaying was guild roleplaying, where you joined a guild who had organized internal roleplaying that was consistant between the players, but not consistent with other roleplaying guilds, and often contradicted the setting of Azeroth.

I remember one time I was playing a Paladin and I was on my way to the Cathedral of Light to pick up some new spells, and there was an RP vampire attacking a woman by the fountain in the Chapel District, and I had to focus to prevent myself from White Knighting and ruining their scene; I mean, obviously she was in on it and they were doing it for fun, but doing it on a roleplay server in front of the cathedral of light where every paladin and priest in town will visit regularly? Geez. XD

[pyat.livejournal.com]

The solo quests seem all right, but anything that requires talking to another player has mostly thus far been akin to talking to high school kids on the bus...

[waiwode.livejournal.com]

Best scorecard ever.

But ... I'm not sure you're doing it right! :)

Doug.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure you're doing it right!

Thank the gods for that! :)

[elvishefer.livejournal.com]

You're addicted!

[pyat.livejournal.com]

I can quit anytime I like! Though, it takes 10 minutes to log out because my computer is old...

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

I'm reminded of a cute little exchange over on SLU (http://www.sluniverse.com/php/vb/general-sl-discussion/30519-more-bloodline-twatwafflery.html), wherein our heroine is IM'd by a random stranger. ("Bloodlines" is a rather pathetically lightweight attempt at paint-by-numbers roleplaying. Originally typed as "pain", which suggests certain possibilities for a reworking of That Machine in The Princess Bride)

Amazing how many diversions a brain can come up with, if it's actually meant to be doing something else entirely.

[lee-in-limbo.livejournal.com]

I rather liked that cat, but it never responded, no matter how many times I poked it. I also couldn't get the busty blonde to take me to her room, which is probably just s well. The fact that the even bustier brunette wouldn't mess about with me either was depressing, but what can you do. I got to see blood drip down the screen, which I suppose is some kind of consolation to somebody. Personally, if I had to choose between boobs and blood though...

Incidentally, I really liked the combat system for this game, It was more involving than the fighting mechanics in World of Warcraft. It reminded me a bit of the combat system in Lord of the Rings Online, but better implemented. LoTRO was much prettier though. Not as many huge breasted NPCs however, so it probably balances out.

Lee.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

I must admit, the brunette (Tina?) is remarkably busty, even for a computer game, where it is impossible to make a flat-chested avatar.

The combat system is cool, though I'd love a sort of "tutorial" scene early on to help explain the defences, etc.

How far did you get in this game?

[lee-in-limbo.livejournal.com]

We never completed the Tortage sequence. We were close to finishing, but Dawn was really frustrated with an escort quest we were trying to complete out in that underground temple at the back (NW corner?) of the island. Between her lack of love for the look of the game and the fact that she really didn't enjoy the caster class mechanics in that game, she basically wanted out, and I wasn't digging the game enough to protest. We've drifted back to World of Warcraft since then.

Lee.

[relee.livejournal.com]

I'm really enjoying these reports of yours. <3

I don't know if you'd want to, and I hate to distract you, but you might be interested to know that Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach has just changed their fee structure (Like, yesterday) so that they have the option of subscription or free with micropayments for neat stuff.

You might enjoy the game... Probably not but I'd enjoy reading about you playing it, and it's a few years old now so it has much lower requirements than Age of Conan.

http://www.ddo.com/

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Oooh, no. I don't have the freetime for Conan, nevermind another one. :) But... I bet I'll check it out anyway.

[relee.livejournal.com]

You can try it AFTER Conan then. <3