August 2008 Entries
Something of a different show this time. We've had a number of excellent suggestions for show topics over the past few months, most of which we've simply not had time to fit in, what with the self-impose one hour show, and us rambling on far too long about news and games and such. This time we get very Radio 4, launching into an epic one-topic ramble. Van Hemlock: Guilds (Ep15): In which we look at the ins and outs of that age-old staple of the MMO, the Guild. Featuring in-depth interviews with the leaders of Guild...
Like much to do with The Tuesday N00b Club, our initial foray into the rather harsh world of Ranked GvG Combat happened sort of by accident. It was to be one of our semi-regular internal guild Scrimmaging Nights, you see; a carefree evening of friendly bashing each other's heads in in the comfort and security of our guildhall. I generally like these; no consequence PvP on a strictly among friends' basis, where we get to try out some of the less useful skills and builds, using a wealth of skills which aren't terribly potent in a PvE environment, and...
After the heady joys of the British Summer, its back to a more normal kind of show, with the usual sniping, barracking and ill-informed opinion, and general rambling about, like, games and stuff. Its all a bit strange really, but what with Real Life, Work and Actually Playing some of these games, I'm increasingly finding that it has become easier to bang out a podcast, than write a blog post lately. The podcast stuff all takes place at weekends, for a start, whereas the blogging is generally a get-in-from-work-exhausted activity. I also end up doing all the 'Hey!...
After a whirlwind world tour, and a couple of dings, it was back home to Stygia again, to find ourselves at last, ready for the big black pyramid that had been bothering me since I got out of Tortage. You can't really miss it, giant squatting monstrosity visible from clear across the zone, and so obviously a Den O Evil that it was something of a relief to actually be eligible for all the lead-in quests involved. There's actually two instances in that neck of the woods, and we decided to warm up with a go...
I'd always shied away from the whole Meeting Online Friends in Real Life thing in the past, being that sort of person that revels in the cosy bubble that online anonymity provides. You hear stories about that kind of thing, often of The Crying Game Variety, but all sorts of other Urban Legend grade mishap too. Still, the ongoing Poddessy I seem to have embarked on is doing a lot of positive things to my long-withered and gnarled psyche, so the idea of meeting Internet Folks at a highly specialised horticultural gathering in the south of England wasn't quite...
So I swallowed my Stygian pride and am now a world-wandering mercenary. I was hoping to get all the way through Khopshef Province without having to go elsewhere to level, but I'm an explorer at heart, so it was always going to be an inevitable thing I guess. Its an opportunity in disguise I think, and an opportunity to spread The Good News to ignorant foreign savages! Its quite interesting to learn how much the two alternative zones, The Wild Lands of Zelata and Conall's Valley, differ from the Stygian adventure zone, and its more than just the...
Well, the attempt to go weekly almost made it! Its a surprisingly tricky business, actually. Not the rambling, of course, and regular listeners will have come to understand exactly how much preparation goes into one of our regular "efforts", which when all is said and done, is basically the pair of us sitting in a pub, nattering about online gaming, only without the pub. Its the technical side of it all that seems to throw up the most monkey wrenches, and it has taken a number of weeks for my Cohost and Producer to put together the necessaries...
The spreading of the Good News continues, and after a bit of 'normal' MMO play in Age of Conan, my own personal story picks up again, at level 30, with a very sarcastic seer chap on the docks of Khemi taking it on himself to supervise my ascent to glory, fame, and hopefully no small amount of lamentation of the women! Being left to one's own devices for a whole ten levels is a bit of a jarring break, to be honest, after the rather personal attention of the first twenty levels in Tortage. Personally, I don't mind...