Clutter Quests

A lesson I am just learning in Runes of Magic is being selective on the quests I undertake. Unlike other MMOs where a bag full of quest parts is no big deal, every space in your backpack in RoM is valuable.

Of course, if you don’t mind paying diamonds for extra bag space then quest clutter is no big deal. I am trying to play as lean as possible, spending diamonds only where absolutely necessary. With that in mind, this morning I deleted every quest I had that I didn’t know exactly how to finish it, and subsequently deleted all the clutter that fills my bags with these rods, gems, furs, and unknown stuff.

I just picked up an entire bag full of space.

Starting from here out, I won’t just grab every quest that comes my way but be more selective on what quests I start. Then finish those quests in a timely manner.

So move away from the Clutter Quests that fill your precious bag space. Run lean in Runes of Magic.

My Avatars in Runes of Magic

Here are my two main characters in Runes of Magic: Salbador and Kerrikins. Salbador is an 19th level warrior and a 7th level wizard, while Kerri is a 17th level cleric and a 7th level rogue.

I have been finding the game a refreshing change from my bland EQ II experience and look forward to becoming 60/60 with them in the months ahead.

For Salbador I have recently bought a giant chicken mount that I call, “Little Joe.” and Kerri has a white horse (no name yet).

If played correctly you really never need to buy anything, but it is sure fun to have a few diamonds to get the mount, the extra bags, or the perk in magical bonuses with items, armor, and weapons.

Controlling the Gold Spammers

I have found a new home in the game of Runes of Magic. The game is everything that I need to fill my MMO void with adventure, character advancement, equipment, harvesting, crafting, and pure fantasy. And for the most part Frogster has done a wonderful job at delivering this service — I have even bought a mount and some nifty extras to support their cause (and mine).

What I cannot fathom however is why they allow the gold spamming to continue. They make it sound like it is so difficult to control, when in reality we all know it is not.

They need to control both the trading of coin and its delivery service. if they curtail either one sufficiently, the gold spammers will leave simply because it is not profitable to stay around.

They have done some minor measures but here is a few ideas I think they could implement to squash the gold sellers.

Hire Interns to monitor key points: Every day at the same spots I see gold spammers hawking their products. How hard would it be to have a couple of interns at Frogster map out those areas and just monitor them one after another.

Control key phrases: Another obvious control would be to limit various phrases from being written in whisper, world, and say channels. Just take a look at their verbose statements with undue +++++ or ======= or GOLDGOLDGOLD and you can imagine it wouldn’t be too hard to do.

Implement a faster way to flag potential spammers: I say implement a procedure where if 100 or maybe 200 players indicate that a character is a spammer that they are kicked from the game. After being kicked they are out of the game for an hour. Sure, you could get some viral community response to kick unruly players — but is that bad either?

I just can’t fathom why they haven’t done more to these gold spammers.

Its like a community watch group going to the police and telling them there are hookers on X corner every day and the police saying, “oh ok. well we’ll look into this.” and nothing is ever done about it.

I am sure others have ideas on how to control the gold trade as well. I would love to hear them

Quote for the week:

There’s nothing noble in being superior to your fellow men. True nobility is being superior to your former self.

A Year of Monday Night Games

For over a year I recorded brief details about my Monday night games with the guys. Nothing outrageous, but for me it is interesting to see how games come and go, my friend Wade joins and leaves, and the waning interest in Civilization only to be reborn over and over.

04-19-10 I had JOE on a new Computer (dual core AMD with 2 gigs RAM and a 7900GS video card). Great fun all around even though my empire fumbled throughout the night with bad luck, barbarians, and horrible financial problems.

04-12-10 Getting a little old again. May give it a rest for a bit. Should we play something other than Civilization?  The computer Joe uses is so old and it lags the game too much.

04-06-10 New month and same fun. WADE did not show this week because of his leg. Tried to show Joe Runes of Magic but he was not interested as he is always with everything new I want to play.

03-30-10 New game with same results, but still fun. Wade can be so dangerous!

03-29-10 Looking forward to our game tonight! Must destroy WADE!!! Joe can only play the ROMANS.

03-16-10 New game and having fun. No game next week because of our anniversary.

03-09-10 New game without raging barbarians but with 9 opponents. Great fun. I am winning!

03-02-10 Wade came back again. First game joe lost, second game I lost, third game I won.

02-23-10 WADE HAS RETURNED

02-16-10 we played a bit of Monster Fandango and found some issues. We then played Civ. Today is the release of the new expansion for EQ2. Will I like the expansion?  I stayed home for two days so I can play it. . .

02-01-10 Didn’t play test BB II—must force myself to play it next week to test. Joe got his ass beat twice in Civ – he sucks.

01-25-10 Showed Joe – BLOODBATH II – then played Civilization IV the rest of the night. Next week I want to create characters. And play through a couple of rooms.

01-18-10 Probably will skip this week – Diablo though fun is just too much clicking. Might just end up playing Civ again next week or the week after – no sense getting together if we are not looking forward to it.

01-12-10 Played another night of Diablo II – killed Diablo and now on to the real expansion.

01-04-10 Played Diablo II again. Joe does not return to work until the 18th, which I am sure will postpone our game for a couple of weeks.

Got to Act III of the game. Maybe Next week we will play test my new game engine.

12-28-09 Played Diablo II – jow starts work next week and I fear the game night will be over . . .

12-21-09 Still fighting Hitler – Mussolini is in the mix as well. Still a tough fight.

12-14-09 Tonight we finish up Hitler and destroy him?

12-07-09 Going to hopefully play tonight with Jow (Joe’s nickname) – Huge world, Raging barbarians, and 1 AI aggressive (Hitler). Will report tomorrow for what happened. [[Great game = Hitler is on the run]]

11-23-09 We played a game with Wade over the internet – Wade got mad when Joe attacked him he said without provocation. Joe had warned Wade a number of times about his encroachment, but Wade said he never saw them.  He kept calling and swearing at Joe — I laughed my ass off!

11-16-09 Wade never showed. Joe and I are in another pitch battle and its going to be tough. Fun as always.

11-09-09 Going to try and bring Wade and Joe over to play. Not sure if I can get this third machine working correctly.

11-02-09 Played and had great fun until the game cheated

10-19-09 Going to play tonight but the war is almost one – mop up is going to be tough.

10-12-09 Last week we had fun. Going to try and continue the game this week.

10-05-09 Going to try and start playing again – this time a new era in civilization where it is King of the Hill. No AI just us three, fighting it out for supremacy.

09-21-09 got together last week and had fun – that is what is important. Will try and organize it again tonight.

09-14-09 Not getting together with Wade this Monday, but may do something with Joe – still up in the air. Looked at playing the old Empire game, but the graphics are just too old and no multiplayer support ( I thought there was)?

09-09-09 We may try and get together to see what Champions has to offer. Maybe get into a board game or something. Maybe go to dinner with Wade? We got together and went out for burgers at Culverts. Had a fun time and talked with Wade.

08-31-09 No game once again – the era is over.

08-24-09 No game. Sadly the era is over – thinking of doing n RPG or board game in a few weeks.

08-11-09 No game once again. We are taking a breather from the game. If we ever return to it, Wade won’t be in the equation – he knows too much about the game.  Is Civilization finally over?!?

08-03-09 How quickly fun turns to boredom. I have ended the group and will not get together for a few weeks. Feel sort of sad that this present era of gleeful play is over.

07-20-09 We are going to have a blast tonight in a match that has been going on for 3 weeks. Can’t wait until tonight.

07-13-09 Rousing game with Wade and Joe.

06-29-09 Last Monday of the month. Will play Civ IV old save if Wade gets over, or a new game with Joe. Remember PLAY what you want to play and not what Joe wants.

06-22-09 Not playing today or maybe this week because I don’t feel good. I may be coming down with the flu.

06-15-09 Sadly it seems that both Joe and Wade want to put nothing into these weekly forays – they are completely comfortable about doing nothing new week after week. Maybe I should just shrug and do the same.

06-01-09 Moved on to Diablo II for a couple of months. After that, maybe we will return to Civ IV.

05-25-09 After some initial problems, got the game running on all three machines. Had fun although our ages are quickly showing on this click fest. Tried a new mod – it’s OK but not terrific.

05-22-09 Going to start playing Diablo II.

04-23-09 We are now playing on a Mod called Thomas’ Wars and Wade brings over his PC to help. Real Nice! Very fun!

03-27-09 Set the TASK in motion and made my own map last night – curious how it fares with the guys.

Quote of the week:

For more than a year I changed my signature at work on a weekly basis to reflect a new and thought provoking quote. Recently my company changed its email policy to forbid quotes or any personal reflection.

Thus, I am going to take my quotes to a place where they are not censored. Each week I will present one of my quotes that I had at work and a year from now, I will travel into new grounds with a fresh saying.

Without further discourse here is my first inspirational saying:

“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, then to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory or defeat!”

~Teddy Roosevelt

New Episode of EQual Perspective

Check out the EQual Perspective tab for a new show.

Brenlo left Sony — The sky is falling!!!

Runes of Magic and CSR

What I don’t understand about a company that offers a commodity 24 hours a day and every day throughout the year, is that they don’t work on the weekends?

This seems to be the case with Runes of Magic’s Frogster. Correct me if I am wrong!

If you offer a service continuously, then you need to have support continuously. There is no more “normal” business hours when we are on a global economy.

Nothing is more frustrating to a consumer than having an easy problem that can’t be fixed because the company doesn’t believe in working on the weekends.

This is all about my issue with secondary passwords — something that should be able to be reset via the web. period. Just as the primary password can be reset, so too should the secondary.

Now I have diamonds I cannot spend, because I forgot my password (which is my fault) but shouldn’t be something I need to wait 4 days to fix.

Don’t Forget Your Secondary Password

When I started playing Runes of Magic, it asked me for a secondary password. Two passwords? weird . . . but OK,  and I typed something in. Never did I realize that when you buy anything with diamonds, it asks for that darn silly thing.

Worse, one of my new big complaints with Frogster is that their website and support is horribly slow.

So now I am sitting here waiting for the email on how to reset the password. Strangely you can easily reset your primary password at the drop of a hat, but there is absolutely no way to reset your secondary password.

So as a word to the wise, do not forget that PASSWORD!

EDITOR’S NOTE:  I had the bad timing of trying to reset my password on the weekend.  First thing Monday morning Frogster responded to my support issue and reset the password.  Remember to give them your account name and server — that helps expedite the process.  Although I still think that they should have weekend hours, I will say that they were fast and courtesy in dealing with my issue.

Falling Through the World

Does anyone have any help on how to fix a glitch in the game Runes of Magic where the character enters the game falling through space?

No matter the settings or device driver I use, I can’t escape from this weird glitch.

Luckily the odd result only occurs on my satellite computer and not my main console, but it is still irritating. Worse, I am getting no help from their Support Services

EDITORIAL NOTE:  I eventually fixed my problem by deleting the entire game and re-downloading it again!  What a pain in the arse — why can’t Frogster have a command or a button that does a complete file check?  Much easier. . .