EQ2 Wire shutting down

Feldon over at EQ2 Wire is retiring the site after nine years of showcasing the news - both positive and negative of EverQuest 2. 

Wish him a wonderful life in his new ventures.  His voice will be missed in the EQ2 community.


After 9 years, it is time for me to call it quits on this EQ2Wire News site.
I feel I have always put players first, and that choice has repeatedly cost me support I might have otherwise gotten from the EQ2 team and Sony Online Entertainment. At the last SOE Live, I was jokingly branded “chief shit-stirrer” by the Community Council for my constant vigilance of issues affecting customers, and my frequent and often uncomfortable requests for accountability.

Read more >>  http://eq2wire.com/2017/09/09/eq2wire-aug-13-2008-september-8-2017/

Gorowyn City Festival = July 1-7

From EQ2 Wire:


Come visit the shores in Timorous Deep for the Gorowyn City Festival July 1-7!

Spend City Tokens* on local specialties, generic festival goods, appearance clothing, or food & drink.

Make sure all your characters have finished the Gorowyn Postage Collection, speak to Kella Swampfoot to assist with festival quests, and achieve 244 seconds or less in the local Aether Race to earn the Wind Warden title.


Gorwyn is the "red marble" City Festival.  It won't be available again until December (or on the broker if you're lucky!).

Red marble Dividers, column,mirror and counter

 -------------------------------------

WHEN: 12:01am PT on July 1st – 11:59pm PT on July 7th

WHERE: Timorous Deep, on the dock, /way 2339, 80, 1441 (the merchants are found at /way 2388, 21, 1349)

QUESTS: Special Delivery, Special Order Crafting, Special Order Gathering
 
ACHIEVEMENTS: Delivery Ahoy, Harvesting Hoopla, Kella Caffeinated, Requisition Acclamation
 
MERCHANT ITEMS: EQ2 Traders | EQ2 Furniture


--------------------------------------



** City Tokens can be earned doing the quests during the City Festivals OR doing Writs at any time.

The Proof of the Pudding is finally done!

Yes. It is done!  Proof the Pudding tradeskill questline in Everquest 2 is complete on all nine tradeskill professions!

Top row =Sage, Woodworker, Weaponsmith

Middle row = Alchemist, Carpenter, Provisioner

Bottom row = Tailor, Jeweler, Armorsmith

This signature quest is from the Rise of Kunark expansion (2007ish - ouch!), with a great reward.  Mastercraftman cloak 1.0 and Earring of Solstice.  There are multiple steps to get to this quest (rep grind with Bathezid's Watch in Fens of Nathsar for one).  If you are level 72+ and can get the adventure quests that is much faster.  Many of my crafters are below 40, so had to do the crafting grind after completing New Lands, New Profits from Taskmaster Greeblentus in Teren's Grasp. (I've only completed the rep with Bathezid to 40K+ on one character to access heirloom recipes for the gang.)   

Now with EQ2's latest expansion, Kunark Ascending, this quest line is a requirement, so I figured I might as well get it done!  I hadn't intended to do ALL 9 professions, but found it wasn't quite as bad as many made it seem and was going to be needed anyway so why not.

So, turned on Netflix and crafted away!

This is the crafting center where many hours has been spent.  Having this set up - crafting stations, depots full of materials and fuel, and the house published for speedy travel back in forth from the writ giver in Bathezid made this much easier.

Once that grind is completed, a chat with Danelak Hosfoak, (must be level 80), one more crafting task for him (trade skill specific), and then it was off to Neeta Cabbageleaf in Rivervale.


You can craft items for your alts and put them in your shared bank as they'll be classed as Heirloom.


 Much crafting left to do, as the gang works towards crafting level 100 (Provisioning, Carpentry and Alchemy are done!) as well as ALL of the new Artisan Tradeskill lines in Tears of Veeshan, Altar of Malice, and Thalumbra still to do.


Here's a wonderful guide to Proof of the Pudding on EQ2.Wikia
http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/The_Proof_of_the_Pudding

Winter around Norrath

It's actually a graphical glitch, but it coincided with the change of weather in real life, so thought these were quite appropriate with the approach of Frostfell.

Antonica:

Nektulos Forest

Back in Everquest II

Interesting year for MMO's, in my humble opinion.  

World of Warcraft did an excellent job with the latest expansion, but something - I don't know what - just kinda fell flat for me.  I stopped playing at the end of September.

Fortunately The Secret World had just ended it's month long challenge and the Samhain event was right around the corner.  So, kept busy with the gang there. But I'm sooooo ready for new content in TSW and it looks like there won't be any until 2017.


For some reason, I decided to go check my EQ2 characters (I haven't played since 2011 and not seriously since 2009!), but logged in anyway.  EQ2 always keeps your houses, and I can dabble with redecorating for hours.  There are some amazing houses and talented people that come up with wonderful ideas - EQ2 Design Gallery,  EQ2 Decorators,  EQ2 Designers,  EQ2 Traders - show many of the creative genius in EQ2.


It was surprising - yes I know time flies...., buuuut, Star was approaching her 10th birthday in December.  She was still level 70 (that's how long ago I played her!), so I thought why not see if I can get her to 100 before she's 10, just for kicks.

Little did I know, I'd get sucked back in - very happily - to my first MMO and the one that has always been the benchmark against which all others have been measured.  The amount and quality of content still amazes me.  There are apparently over 8,000 quests, crafting, achievements, collections, battlegrounds, live events, 'guide' events, a customizable UI (that newer games still can't touch), 26 classes, 21 races, 9 crafting professions (3 secondary), in game games, and so much more!

So did I resub, oh yeah!  Unsubbed from WoW (I'll likely go back at some point - found of those characters too!), but I think EQ2 and TSW will be it for awhile.  Although I did promise that I would go do the past year of SWTOR and spend some time in ESO at some point in 2017.


Since mid-October I've been "organizing" the gang and adding a few new faces - sos I finally have ALL crafting professions (tradeskills) represented.  I found out, I had somehow at some point, purchased extra character slots so have 14 total, so saved some names/races/class combos, but I'm only concentrating on the nine that are crafters too.  Some person in general chat mentioned they had 23 characters! Yikes!! But as they're are achetypes, but each class does play somewhat differently, I may work towards one of each. Maybe!  I actually want to reroll a character on the time-locked (progression) server to experience the game as it unfolded.


Kunark Ascending launched today - the 13th expansion - aimed towards the level 100 characters.  It's received rave reviews in Beta, so hopefully it will be a good thing.

For my gang, back to leveling and crafting.  I have an instant 100 character slot, but as I haven't actually played the 73-100 zones, I'm going to do that first.

It feels awesome to be back in Norrath!

EQ2 Extended

I Alpha tested EQ2X (Extended) Sony's free to play (F2P) model, which was fun shop the Marketplace with an unlimited wallet of Station Cash (SC).  So, I bought a mount, appearance gear and ginormous bags - fun spending other people's money, even virtual money.

 
So, I jumped in the beta version, and have put a few hours in so far at the 'FREE' bronze membership level. I rolled a half elf Templar in New Halas, a class and zone I'm unfamiliar with so thought it would make it more of a 'new game' feel.  I will admit it's great seeing the lowbie zones full of people.  Having 7 to 14 instances open of New Halas, pretty cool!  Will this taper off in the coming weeks?  Good question.

The streaming seems to be quite good, as I've had very little stuttering or slowing of the game - watching the weird little dinosaur march is different.  I've even upped my graphics to maximum quality (see photo below), which is like playing in slow motion at any time, but what a gorgeous world! 

Moonlight Enchantments

Now I've been playing EQ2 on and off for a few years now, and I don't know when this was added - Moonlight Enchantment .  I just happened to notice the dot on my map a few weeks ago and promptly forgot about it until someone mentioned it in Level 1-9 chat (the equivalent of WoW trade at times).
So, I had to investigate. 

Ah ha! 

This is were the pricey house items (exotic plants, seashells and sand) for aquarium building comes from!  I did not know this before and I've been spending quite a bit of plat buying plants, etc.!

Needless to say the 20-21st will be booked on all characters for the foreseable future.

I did pick up the unicorn mounts on two of my characters - 20 charges each - to replace their regular mount and as an alternative to the dire bear.

 

Falling through the earth

Bithia fell through the acorn lift in Faydark.  

I expected her to crash to her death, but she floated down.

and right through the world. 

I've never seen this in EQ2, but have done this a few times in Wow.

Apparently transporting her to a safe zone was the start the Fae start area.

Return to EQ2

I'm an ardent fan of Everquest2 (EQ2 or EQII).  I've dabbled in other online games and PC and console RPG games (favorites being Baldur's Gate and Champions of Norrath) over the years, including playing EQ the original. But life, time commitment and my PC at the time, it wasn't a wonderful or long lasting experience.  (I did give WoW a try before EQ2, but that's a whole 'nother story - took three times to get hooked on WoW-crack!)

Qeynos viewed from Antonica

My official start date playing EQ2 is December 6, 2006 according to Sony.  It doesn't seem that long ago, considering I've still never max leveled a character (highest is right at 70 with 20 levels to go!), but I'm one of those that considers the journey more fun than the destination, i.e. raiding isn't my thing!  Casual raiding with the guild, yes I can do that. Hardcore, bleeding edge, have to be first in the new content has no appeal.  The years I've spent in EQ2, I've created, leveled to the 30-40ish range a few character then sent them along to toon heaven, which I'm sure is some sort of MMO ADD.  I like to jump around and have never considered one character my 'main' over the others.  The main is whichever I'm enjoying playing at that particular moment!

Freeport from the Commonlands

My adoration with EQ2, has been sporadic at best after the first year. New MMO's came out that I had to try - LoTRO, Warhammer, AoC, Free Realms, Dragonica, All Points Bulletin to name a few.  Along with a few F2P games, many other beta trials, Wrath in WoW; PC games, and adding another console (Xbox) to the mix.  That's just the gaming part of an already very busy life (married with children and running my own business).

During my wandering to new games, I've popped in an out of EQ2 when I could or felt the urge. I pay annually for my favorite, so its always there. An online security blanket, much your favorite well worn clothes that you always go back to when the new stuff loses it's newness!

Fortunately, I'm in a wonderful guild on the Blackburrow server that has patiently allowed me to exist in my flaky attendance. The teasing is always gentle, with my erradic playing. But it's wonderful to have such a welcoming and forgiving group to come back to.

Being back has been an adjustment.  The world has changed again with new zones (I've never completed all of Kunark, let alone Shadow Odyssey and now Sentinels Fate).

• More world events, - monthly city festivals, Tinkerfest coming up, lots of fun world things to do if you have a mind too.
• More new factions than I even know of at this point
• Changes to the AA (achievement abilities) - specing my characters has been a bit of guesswork and some Forum reading, I'm still not sure I've got them right, so we'll see! 
• New player housing - I love the housing in New Halas, but was surprised with the addition of housing in the mage tower and guild halls in Freeport - took forever to find that (no easy task on Qeynosians btw!). 
• Insta-travel with spires and druid rings everywhere, not to mention the World Bell.  It's much easier in many ways, although I don't want to be one of those "back in my day we had to walk all the way to ...".  I prefer to look at the new travel options as just that - options.  I can still chose to take the boat, griffon, or hike across Antonica/Commonlands - which I do often!
• Battlegrounds - w00t!  I do love PvP, and have a warden on one of the PvP servers, but BG's sound fun. Okay truth, I tried one, we won. I died once but hadn't a clue what I was doing - lol!

So, I'm re-learning Norrath, as well as my characters, Star the Kerra monk; Nixia, the Ratonga beserker; Bithia, Wood Elf warden; Sithi, Arasai brigand and Tazneem, Dark Elf conjurer.

To this day, I still wonder why my first two characters are tank class?  I'm more of a DPS/healer type, but I'm determined to get Star at least to level 90 before the end of the year!

The oldest, Star and youngest, Sithi 

(well she gets to be until the urge to roll a new one strikes)

 

EQ2 Again

I couldn't resist getting the next expansion for EQ2 (EverQuest 2), even though I haven't played EQ2 in over a year. It's still my first love. 

So, I jumped on my Ratonga first. Found her in North Qeynos, standing in front of her loom where she's been for a year. Yes it made tons of sense to me at the time, roll a Berzerker (plate wearer) Ratonga, i.e. small, and then make her profession be tailoring!  /wrists - oh well.

(In her green/red appearance gear)

She was my second character, the evil one to my Kerra Monk's good side.  Being one of my first characters and not alot of thought as to 'why' I made her a Bezerker, so a plate wearer and choose as a profession - a tailor.  Hmmm.  I've enjoyed playing her, even though I don't think I'm that good of a tank.
Now level 44, she was my first betrayal questline, betraying Freeport, then rep grind to get into Qyenos.  I still find it humorous some of the guards in Qeynos still don't like her.  The Freeport-Qeynos betrayal (back before it was nerfed) was one of the harder ones, especially compared to Faydark or Neriak or even Freeport now - they're cake!  Just killing the NPC before being beaten up and thrown in jail - took me 2 or 3 levels to do.

Sick so playing at a minimum

Go figure, gorgeous weather and I somehow have the flu or a cold - wtf!!!!  I'm so not thrilled it's scary.  Drinking TheraFlu as I'm out of those tongue tabs and not willing to get dressed enough to look human and go to the store.  Argh!

All I've done today is read blogs (you can spend so much time reading other people's writing - lol!)  I've accomplished zero.  I guess after I force down this TheraFlu I should find something to eat.  

As for WoW - 

The third Druid is finally 20, yeah!  So they can all group together again, although there is still 6 levels between them - its closer!  

Sithi dinged 71 questing in Northrend came back to SW and forgot I was PvP flagged from there so got killed by a DK and pally in the harbor - I'm still getting use to the UI and the PvP flagging just isn't as obvious as I'm use too!

I did the questline that starts from kill Van Cleef with my DK and the druid that hadn't done it - dumped the hunter (didn't check that she could do it too - drat being sick!) and did that questline for the umpteenth time!  Now the hunter needs to do it again - I think I'll wait until another character needs it as well and do them both at the same time.  The hunter, Treja, has been thinking of a new pet (she has a boar - Moira), but hasn't picked one yet.

I haven't even been doing any $$ on the AH the past few days - brain function is not there!

EQ2

I logged in for a few minutes last night.  I love this game!  Absolutely love everything about it, except SOE's lack of character slots!  A max of seven just doesn't work for me.  I want to try a different server, but the thought of AGAIN killing one of my carefully crafted characters to do so - not going to happen!  So, I log in, realize I don't have an interest in playing my two mains (both tanks go figure!), or leveling the others at this moment, so log out without doing anything.   I do have access to three accounts (two closed at the moment), so could play one of them on a different server, but haven't yet.  

Why I haven't been /gkicked this past year speaks for the quality of those people.  They're all wonderful and kind and fun to play with. 

My subscription comes up on May and I'm not sure if I'll renew or not.  I've always paid EQ2 annually, sooooo . . .    I guess I have some decisions to make this month!

I guess being sick is giving me full license to be whiny!

Find a guild

Gildor over at the Hunter's Mark posted this and I thought what a great idea for those looking for a guild - Looking for Guild.net.  Right now its only available for WoW and Warhammer.  

I've been fortunate to have been in a few fabulous guilds with some exceptionally fun people (Broken Souls, BWL in WoW), (Granata, Ungrim in Warhammer), (Avalon, Blackburrown in Eq2) to name a few.  

Right now I've been playing the guilded characters so infrequently I'm surprised I've not been /gkicked - lol!   Oh well, RL tends to interfer with endless game time - so many characters are guildless and it's suiting my playstyle/time I have to play at the moment.

If you're looking for a guild though - check out that site!   

Alt-a-holic or the buffet player

How many alts is too many?  

Is alt hopping ADD?  Lack of commitment?  Inability to complete something?

In Wow you can have a maximum of 50 characters spread across servers with 10 maximum per server. As I have been three-boxing, I now have access to 150 character slots.  The mind boggles at the sheer possibilities of class combinations, professions, mini-groups, etc.  LOL!

I've honestly been having fun with this and have even been leveling characters other than my beloved hunters.  Last night was a shaman and mage on on Azuremyst Isle (I really think Bliz did an excellent job with the Blood Elf and Draenei start zones - a redo of the others would be great!!!).  

Tonight . . . hmm.  The level one druids? The three hunters working the Defias Gang chain quest?  The 'locks are needing some love too.  Two-box the DKs?   Lol time will tell when I log on!

In EQ2, I've always felt Sony was a bit stingy holding you to a mere seven character slots unless you 'upgrade' to a Station Account.   Seven is definitely not enough!  The argument is you can make more on test or on the EU servers.  Personally, I've found that to be a lame reason.  I've toyed with going back and boxing EQ2 as I really love that game, but the whole character slot issue always grinds me.  If you have 10 or 12 classes you should be able to make at least that many per server.  JMO though.  

You can't really try different servers in EQ2 with the limited character slots.  I've killed off a few that were close to max level, just to try a different class.  I hate that!  I mean EQ2's  PvP is a major commitment and if you don't have the character slots to play . . .  the same goes for the RP servers they sound so interesting, but do you wipe out years of work on characters to start over?  /sigh   I wish Sony would loosen up on that!  I'm seesawing between cancelling my account and up the other two - how is that for split personality - LOL!

Part of my buffet/alt issues (I'm polite I know I have issues!) are - 

• I've really discovered over the past few years of playing MMO's that I like leveling and questing.  I want to read the quest, some have lots of lore or humor.  Just the npc's what they say I find interesting.  Finding those Easter Eggs is a hoot!
• I like crafting (EQ2 trumps WoW, but I can tolerate WoW's as its light years better than Warhammers!) and have tried every profession in every game.  Some I enjoy more than others but all fun.
  
• I love exploring - developers made these huge worlds with all the backstory and lore, yet so many just pass through without even seeing it (or caring I imagine)
  
• I like PvP whether its RvR, world raids or scenario/battlegrounds - I'm not much of a ganker, so unless someone's being a real jerk I tend to live and let live, I don't embrace red is dead.  
  
• I like RPing (in my mind - I'm not sure I can type in the action that I'm thinking I'm doing - if you know what I mean). But creating a personality for that individual character (mine all seem very distinct!) with each's personality reflected in gear, housing, pets, mounts, skills, places to quest, etc.  Why else would a ratonga from Freeport want to live in Qeynos?  Why does my night elf insist on regular vists to Darnassus?  Why is my gnome banker fretting to get back to Ironforge (she's been touring Stormwind, Darnassus and now The Exodar)?  I know weird but so it is.
  

Alts vs Mains

First I hate calling one a 'main' and the rest alts.  Whomever I'm playing at that moment in time is the main.  Whether its a level 2 or 20 or whatever.  It's the focus and the 'main' at that time!

But how do you know you  have too many alts?  When they blur together?  LOL!  When you need a spreadsheet?  When you're playing a character and don't have a clue who it is?  I don't know.  Some people bound to one character and max that one, then start over with another and max it.   I'm too ADD I guess - I jump from a hunter to a mage to a hunter to a lock to  . . .  with relative ease and lots of enjoyment.

But in all honesty I do use a spreadsheet for WoW to keep track of skill levels on crafting, also on the secondary professions - who needs mageweave for bandages and who needs wool.  Who's done cloth turn ins, etc., what spec each is, etc.  Plus the number of hunters I have (it's a closely guarded secret as it's an embarassing number) keeping specs/pets/gear needs straight a spreadsheet is almost mandatory.

In EQ2 there are collection quests, heritage quests, etc., along with crafting and skill levels - so a spreadsheet (okay a few spreadsheets) keeps them in order. 

Warhammer with its (IMO crappy crafting and no housing, etc.) I've never bothered organizing the gang.   

I guess we each have to find our joy and entertainment in the MMO worlds we play in - if you're bored and not having fun time to find that joy again!    This is why I don't condemn anyone for their play style unless they're abusive or nasty!  If you want to sit in Goldshire and b.s. all day or never level past 10 or level to 80 in ten days or less your dime!  Just have fun doing it.  

Me - I'll be running a couple of characters somewhere on Azaroth or Norrath - finding the obscure places for them to visit and taking screenies and just entertaining me!  

What is PvP?

As the title says it - What is PvP?  

Technically we could say any player to player action (including trading, grouping, buying/selling, duels, chatting, etc.) is PvP.  BUT we all tend to think of PvP as the act of combat with another player or players.

Now we get to the crux of the problem, defining PvP in the context of combat.  

The Old School, "we've been gaming since people threw stones at each other - ugh ugh - therefore 'our' knowledge is vast and  . . .  type", will often loudly and abusivly state that PvP only exists in games such as Ultima Online (UO) or Dark Ages of Camelot (DA0C) or and sandbox-type game that allows player driven/inspired/controlled PvP.  Anything else is weak and pathetic or unworthy of being classes as PvP.  

I often read on forums and other blogs that if it's not full on looting and/or with massive death penalties when you lose a fight it doesn't count.  Anything else is carebear or isn't 'real' pvp or just for nub/scrubs.

The opposite side is the whining in most games from those that just got ganked, about the unfairness of it all.  You did roll on a PvP server right?  Well then stfu!  I accept the risk of playing on a PvP, and do go from gleefully happy when I win, to angry time to log when I've played poorly or been killed numerous times (ala Hillsabrad on a bad day!).

The debate rages even within a specific game -

  WoW has the never-ending argument about PvP -  is it arena's (what's your rating hmmm?) or battlegrounds or only world engagements actual PvP? 

  Warhammer has the same problem in 'are scenarios ruining the RvR or are scenarios legitimatePvP'?

Personally, I enjoy battlegrounds/scenarios - they're defined areas, defined goals, everyone knows why they're there and it is a competition - albeit sometimes quite uneven in numbers, skills, etc.  But the fact that everyone there is there for the reason of fighting makes the rules simple and understandable - kill or be killed period!  No one can complain if 20 guys mow you down, duh why'd you stand in the road?  All classes abilities can be used, althoug some scenarios/bgs favor certain abilities (ranged vs melee).

Do I think the BGs/SC's could be dramatically improved -yes!  I didn't have the opportunity to try the pre-BC battlegrounds, and think adding questing, more goals, a bit of pve stuff in Alteric Valley would breathe life back into them.  The saving grace with Warhammer's scenarios - they're timed.  You know win/lose its all done in 15 minutes.  If you want longer protracted fights - there is the RvR lakes with the mix of pvp/pve.

The RvR lakes are fun when actual PvP is happening (versus PvE taking undefending keeps).  Epic battles with 3 warbands on each side are all out mayhem and quite exhilirating!  

The reason I prefer structured PvP is, I have a hard time (as much as I love world PvP) killing someone that I can clearly see is out questing, etc., or basically minding their own business.   If you're near our towns, cities or areas you don't belong I'm going to kill you if I can, send out a request for help if I can't!

But, I've tried and have a hard time trying to embrace the 'red is dead' mentality!  I can't take it to heart.  I've been on world guild raids when we're killing everything in our path (those are fun!), but I like a fair fight and will defend myself even if a much higher level is killing me, I'm going to put up whatever fight I can!!!  

I just don't get a whole lot of joy to gank someone many levels lower than me!  I have done that, but rarely.  My shadow priest once dotted 3 guys 20 levels lower.  I'm not sure if they noticed but it was funny watching them fall over dead - lol!  I felt bad about it later, but it was funny.

A gnome one time hiding by our graveyard in Warsong Gulch dotted us as we're rezzed  . . . none of us noticed until we fell dead before we were midfield.  Finally someone did and we killed him.  I'm sure he had a huge laugh over that.  It is funny in hindsight!

Admittedly though, nothing is sweetier though then beating the guy who tried to kill you - especially if its two or more of them!!!  I had a pally/rogue duo attempt to take out my death knight one day in Un'Goro.  I was leaving them alone, but they felt the need to try and kill me.  Oh well.  It was really fun watching them run every time after that they saw my little gnome on the horizon - lol!!!

I was very happy the day my hunter developed a good strategy to deal with death knights.  I don't always win, but I'm not in the 'oh crap a DK headed my way' mode anymore!  Pallys - argh!!  I know I'm going down and running doesn't help!

My attitude is so different from many people I do play with friends, family, guildmates, as they will ride halfway across Azeroth to kill someone.  I've done that but generally as payback only!  You gank me, I'm going to try to grief you into logging out - lol!!   A mage attacked me on Hellfire one day, killed him 3x, then chased him and killed him again.

I did a brief stint through AoC (Age of Conan) when it came out on a full pvp server.  Basically you're flagged all the time.  It was fun in general as you didn't know if the guy next to you might all of sudden take a swing at you.   I even rolled on the racial based (forget the name know) where the three races were pitted against each other.  It was interesting, except for the fact we could be in the same guild, yet grouping I could kill their race, they couldn't heal me - weird.   The bad part (for me) was the roving bands of gankers looking for easy targets - usually a solo player or many levels lower.  That mentality I just don't get!  But then again I don't get human gang mentality picking on one person either.   Not very sporting to have 4-20 players whack one guy!

I've also tried PvP on EQ2.  Well I've not dinged 20 yet as I'm a basic chicken in that game.  I keep wanting to give it a really good try, but I have been playing EQ2 so infrequently as it is, I would just be dead - alot!   The people that play PvP with the way you can lock xp, just cause he's a 18 doesn't make him a 'real' 18!

LoTRO's PvMP (player vs monster player) is alot of fun.  It's a separate zone called the Ettenmoors. were you either play your own level 40 character called a freep (free person) when in the Ettenmoors zone. Or you play the evil side a monster or commonly called a creep.  Playing a creep is available at your level 10.  You start with a level 50 creep.   You can skill up by PvP, there are quests you can complete, objectives that can be taken, ganking going on, all in a rather pretty LoTRO backdrop.

It is different but entertaining.  Playing a worg or uruk'ai really brings out the urge to kill the good guys - lol!!!

If I could be queen and have the perfect PvP game -

1. Everyone is flagged at all times except for the start zone
   
2. There are zoned level differences as far as killing goes - 4 level up to level 20,  10 up to 40, free for all after that
   
3. You can not be killed while taking/turning in a quest - 30 second immunity
4. City guards have high aggro range and are epic+3-4 people to kill them not killable by a solo person
   
5. Townspeople if they see/detect the opposition will react and guards will come
   
6. Looting partial with 60-80% of goods/money only or random stuff drops into a chest/gravestone
   
7. Mercenaries (npcs or pcs) could be hired to guard you on the main roads
   
8. Killing your own kin/race, etc., would class you as a rogue available for higher xp/rewards for killing the rogue
   
9. Wanted posters could be offered for gankers
   

Anyway, now that Darkfall is out and full PvP loot is back in action, the early reports have been pretty positive.   I'm giving it a month to smooth out some of the wrinkles.  The aches and pains of AoC and Warhammer have made me a bit cautious.  I'm not sure I get Darkfall, the game as a concept so we'll see if it stays in the game rotation or not!  I understand the skill versus level base, but I guess I'm more objective based.  The objective to just run around and kill others will eventually become boring - I would think.  More research is needed apparently!!!

Done rambling . . .  GAWD that was disjointed!!!