Sardu (Page 7)
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Have you contacted SoE's tech support and given them the above info at all? Chances are they may simply come to the exact same conclusions you have but then again this isn't my 'area of expertise' so to speak. For what it's worth though, I've had so-so results with Linksys hardware in the past as well, so currently use a Netgear router which has worked just fine for quite a while now.
Otherwise, are there any other SoE titles you think you might be looking at playing either now or in the near future? Since they all basically use the same launcher / patcher that might be something to consider were you thinking of giving the new TCG a try, or if PotBS is using their launcher and you're looking to play that game.
Beyond that, if you're happy with what you have now and it's working just fine for any other gaming needs, even though I do consider EQ2 to be one of the best MMOs currently on the market I could understand passing on it to save yourself some headaches since it's all supposed to be about the entertainment / enjoyment factor, not 'punching skunks' just to get to that stage.
Haha - my bad :P Yes, it was indeed the "gentleman" I meant to begin with.
Yes, it's all true - video games are directly responsible for wars fought throughout thousands of years of human history.
The dehumanizing of people living in other countries? Surely it's all video game related and has NOTHING to do with things like the recent headline of the New York Daily stating "The Evil Has Landed" re: the arrival of the Iranian Pres. for a public appearance he was invited to attend.
If anything, Scott Jennings is the one living in the dark ages.
I've played Eve off and on for periods and have been in a similar position re: the training plateaus. It's interesting that you mentioned the resources / security thing as well, as more often than not I spent my time escorting miners and keeping pirates at bay as best I was able. As far as the long training times can go though, they do seem to have a way of suddenly stacking up on you all at once. You hit those points of A) wanting a better ship but B) if you don't invest training time in weapons upgrades, shields, afterburners etc you may not be able to get much use out of the ship once obtained.
I've been playing Guild Wars quite a bit again - the Eye of the North expansion is exceedingly well done and adds a *lot* more content beyond just the main storyline. The dungeons are a great addition as well as things like the Norn Fighting Tournament. The tournament in particular is even just a really great means of fighting 1v1 with different classes to test out the effectiveness of new skills or builds. At any rate, it seems there's been a distinct void of reviews or post-release articles on GW:EN so I'm always interested in hearing what other people think about it.
On the chance you end up playing EQ2, I'd also suggest picking up / playing the Legends of Norrath game. I've never been all that into card games per se, but I've been having a lot of fun with it. And otherwise, it's hard to resist jumping back into EQ2 knowing that Kunark is just around the corner (I'm an old EQ player who started 'that' game when Kunark was released, so I can't help but want to check it out)
At risk of sounding even remotely trollish, I don't think you *can* discuss the quality of games that Blizzard produces without at least brief mention of the funding involved. By that I'm not just talking about the profits from WoW, but the fact that Blizzard is owned by Vivindi which has proven to be a massive boon for their development funds. For what it's worth, the main reason Vanguard didn't launch well is all due to lack of funding that would let the project continue to be developed.. everything else that follows is symptomatic of that one basic fact.
Things to keep in mind with the launch of WoW that secured it's success beyond development time and funding:
~The polish of the game is extremely debatable to me. Having played both WoW and EQ2 at launch, EQ2 was the more polished game by leaps and bounds. What I'm looking at here are things like server stability, and the many many game-breaking bugs like the Warrior's broken 'Charge' or the Mage's 'Blink' dropping you through the world. Much of the content in EQ2 changed with time, but it was all there at launch. WoW continues to simply exclude content with launches, adding them with patches later on which is what gives them the 'polished' reputation. Me? I'd rather have a complete game at launch vs. subscribe for 6 months to see the content I thought I was paying for to begin with.
~ Blizzard plays things in a "safe zone". WoW was built on an existing IP... an IP that was a successful RTS which for the most part is a paint-by-numbers genre of gaming (aka it has a basic formula that's rarely deviated from). The only up-coming game announcements consist of existing IPs ala Starcraft 2 and a WoW expansion. Both safe bets all around. Until Blizzard releases a 100% new IP I can't give them much more credit than Bungie for Halo 3 should their future releases be successful.
I agree that currently there are no other games either released or in development that will genuinely 'compete' with WoW. I don't see that changing even in the next 3ish years necessarily, apart from potentially Guild Wars 2. For what it's worth GW has a massive user base and I'd venture to say that ArenaNet has not only pushed the envelope for stable, polished releases but also in terms of what can be done to create a beautiful game world that can run on low end systems without making a 'cartoonish' game in the process. Not enough info is out just yet to really say for sure either way, but GW2 does have the potential to move into Blizzard's spotlight more so than any other game currently.