My first view of Gilneas

My very first sight was of Prince Liam Greymane giving orders to his troops. I soon learned that the city of Gilneas was under attack by rampaging Worgen and that I was needed to help in its defense. I was given a quest to go kill some Worgen, so off I went with staff in hand.

Worgen's attack

After I had dispatched some baddies, I was tasked with gathering up some crucial supplies by locating several boxes scattered throughout the surrounding area. I also had to rescue some frightened citizens from their homes. After doing all I could to help the situation here, I was sent on to the Military District to receive further instructions.

The king wanted me to find a man named Darius Crowley, once considered a traitor, but now needed to help fight off the invaders. Along the way I found my class trainer and received a new spell – Arcane Missiles. This spell is a little different from the version prior to Cataclysm. With the new version you must cast another spell before Arcane Missiles will be available. I found it to be a bit annoying after being used to casting it whenever I wanted.

King Genn Greymane

I found Crowley and some of his men guarding a wounded man. They needed help holding off the attacking Worgen for two minutes so that they would have time to bandage him. So, for the next two minutes we fought off several waves of Worgen. There were plenty of them but they were easy to kill. Even so, two minutes seemed a very long time. After the attack was over, Crowley sent me to a basement where a stash of big cannons were hidden.

My fate awaits

See that guy in the picture above? Josiah Avery is the man responsible for turning me into a Worgen. He attacked upon my arrival, and before I could kill him, he had bitten me. Lorna Crowley and her two dogs came to my rescue. She then gave me one of her dogs and had me find and kill invisible Worgen. The dog was able to smell them out, so he led me right to them.

The rescuers

After that, they needed someone to lead a large group of Worgen away from one of the main gates, so the King gave me his own horse to attempt the deed. It was quite the ride.

Ever feel like you're being followed?

Upon complete of that crazy ride, I soon learned that I was bound to repeat it again. Crowley had his cannons in place and needed help getting the enemy in range of them. I jumped on the horse with him and away we went. I was tasked with throwing torches into groups of Worgen, which would get their attention so that they would chase us. It was a very fun exercise.

Now that the enemy was in front of the cannons, it was time to see the fireworks. Crowley ordered me to take control of the cannons and kill 80 of the attacking Worgen. I was able to turn, raise, and lower the cannons so that I could aim them at large concentrations of the enemy. I also had a great time doing this.

Cannons standing ready

Unfortunately, the cannons could not kill them fast enough, so we were ordered to fall back to the cathedral that was behind us. They soon broke through, however, and we were attacked on all sides. This is where it turned bad for me. The bite I received from Josiah Avery was a Worgen bite. It quickly began to affect me and I soon turned on my friends and attacked them. The last thing I saw before blacking out was of Worgen flying in from the windows to kill everyone.

I had become a Worgen.

Human no longer

I was impressed with the Worgen starting area. I was very engaged with what was happening around me. Everything I accomplished was fun to do. The mad dashes on horseback and the firing of huge cannons enriched the experience and pulled me in. I had a great time. I hope the good experiences continue as I delve deeper in Cataclysm.

Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime posted on the forums to announce that they have changed their mind and that posting with your real name will not be required. A huge cheer was voiced by many in the community.

Personally, I wish they had kept the plan in place. I think it would have resulted in a much more civil and productive discourse about the game and I think that was what Blizzard was trying to accomplish.

Naturally, people are up in arms over this for a variety of reasons. The biggest reason is player privacy. If another player does not like what you did in-game, or did not agree with what you said in a forum post, they are now armed with your real name and the potential for harassment is greatly increased.

My biggest worry is for female players. We all know what female players go through with the crude remarks, verbal sexual abuse, and general idiotic in-game stalking. Now imagine those idiots having that woman’s real name. In theory, the potential of some crazy love-struck guy could track her down in real life is very possible.

I am not sure what Blizzard’s real motivations are for this change. Are they tired of the official forums being a repository of the lowest common denominator? Do they think a more civil discourse will ensue once people are required to use their real name? I don’t know, but it sure is going to be fun to watch the outcome of this one. The Real ID system gets turned on just before the upcoming Cataclysm expansion.

As a side note, parents can opt their children out of using RealID. You can find instructions on how to do that right here.

I started my online gaming career in Ultima Online, but Everquest was the game that really hooked me.  EQ had no instancing at all when it launched.  In fact, I don’t think instancing had been invented yet in any form.  In my opinion, this is what made EQ so great.  If you wanted to go adventure in Lower Guk, you had to go to the same zone as every other player.  You didn’t have the entire zone to yourself.  You had no choice but to interact with other players.  This allowed for the making of friendships (and enemies) that lasted for years.  The social and guild drama brought on by no instancing made the community unique and more aware of itself.

The downside of static content is that zones can get overcrowded.  You may be relegated to camping one small area for hours at a time because the zone is full.  Sometimes people would start lists and you had to wait your turn before getting a group.  Doing that, however, caused even more socialization and communication between players.  It also pissed off a great many players.

The addition of instancing greatly changed the social dynamic of online gaming.  If you want to go crawl a popular dungeon you simply went to the zone and entered your very own instance, where the only people in it are your group or guild.  You have run of the place to do exactly as you wish for as long as you wish with no interference from anyone.  This naturally speeds up progression and ease of advancement.  It also prevents the waiting in line for a spot in the zone.

The downside of instancing is that it removes much of the player socialization that you see in non-instanced games.  Players, for the most part, stay within their guilds and rarely to speak to non-guild members.  I found this to be especially true in World of Warcraft.  Unless I was in a group or a guild, I would have sworn that every player was deaf and mute.  It was also much more difficult to find long lasting friendships in games like these.  Most everyone stayed to him or herself because they could. Reliance on others is at a minimum.  I think this greatly diminishes the social possibilities in a game.

So both have good and bad points to them.  Everquest is the greatest example of a game with static content (although later updates added instancing), while World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online, and others go the instancing route.  As much as I prefer static content, I know that we will never see a full static content game again.  Humans, as a whole, are incredibly lazy, and games that utilize instancing will always draw more customers.  The games are easier, you don’t have to interact with others as often, and let’s face it, most players think everyone else sucks.

For good or ill, instancing is here to stay.  Any game that uses only static content will fail miserably.  There will not be any going back to the good ol’ days where we walked uphill, both ways, with 1000ms lag, to the zone of our choice.

The article also asks if it is possible to play just one MMO exclusively for an entire year.  I think that is becoming ever more difficult to do because I think people get bored more quickly with the MMO games that they play.  There are so many options available to the online gamer that if one gets even slightly frustrated or bored, it is easy to move on to the next thing.  Add in the fact that the Sony Station Pass allows you to play many different MMO’s, and the difficulty increases even more.

I played Everquest exclusively for over four and a half years.  Once all my friends and I moved onto Dark Age of Camelot when it released, that was all she wrote when it came to new and mysterious experiences.  Even though DAoC was brand new, we now had a good idea of how these games worked.  We understood the dangers in an MMO game and we knew how to, for the most part, avoid them.  When we moved on to World of Warcraft, we were hardened veterans and very few things surprised us.  Our MMO virginity was long lost.

The article also suggests that people should blog about their gaming experiences.  Since I am blogging about the games I play, I can easily say that I echo those sentiments.  It is fun to write about what I do in-game and I hope others either get some enjoyment or some information from it.

I loved Everquest dearly, but my days of playing a single MMO for a year or more are long gone.  I now bounce from game to game in an attempt to keep boredom a bay.  Vanguard is my main focus, but some friends are going back to Everquest, so I will join them for some adventures every now and then.

So no, the nostalgic feelings I get are only that – feelings.  It is impossible for them to be anything more.  The games have changed, our knowledge of them has greatly increased, and getting older plays a large part in it for me. My nostalgia manifests itself in this blog at times and in the banner graphic of this blog.  It is a shot of Surefall Glade, where my EQ character first came to life.

I will always cherish my early days in Everquest, but those magical times must live on only in my memory, because they can never be re-lived again.

–Wolfen