So, the EQ2 devs today came out with a real gem.  Apparently the petition system is down in game while the backend gets a little overhaul.

Notwithstanding all the jokes that could be made on whether the petition system actually does anything when it is working, it makes you wonder what happens if you were to try to use the petition system without knowing that it was down.  When you realized it was broken, what would you do… /petition it?  We’ve got a mind-blowing paradox here, folks.  The next thing you know, Sony is going to give dividing by zero a shot.

Cuil (pronounced cool), has been launched by a two professors out of Stanford today.  They hope to directly compete with google by offering a couple new ideas:

1. Search webpages based on context.  After the original search, offer the users a few categories to refine their search to get to what they really want
2. Bring more information to the user – Index more web pages than google and do it faster

I tried a few searches on the website.  It seems to be okie; it is hard to determine if the site is effecient or if I am still biased towards how google organizes things.  To be fair I will give cuil a try for a week or so and see how many times I have to defer to google to find what I need…

The fellow EQjunkies and I will always have a soft spot for EQ before those horrible expansions were released (everything past Velious).  I have often wondered how things would be like if I could go back to the original EQ today and relive the experience.  The EQClassic project has given all of us that opportunity.  Their goal is different than the regular progression servers: they will never release an expansion beyond Velious, they will only use items available in the game when the expansions were released, they will only use the old graphics models, etc.

EQClassic is a 100% volunteer project, so remember that as you are waiting for the official release and things to be worked on.  That being said, EQClassic presents us with a truly unique opportunity.  If you are interested check out their website and here is the info about the alpha beta test from their website:

Send an e-mail to ScottyCEQC@gmail.com with your answers to the following questions;

1. Are you capable and willing to be on the IRC server?

2. Do you have any experience with being in an alpha, or some sort of environment where you are testing software? If yes, please explain (briefly) what you did there.

3. What time periods would you be available through (Please also say what time zone you are in, we have people from all over the world here)? In addition, how much time would you consider being able to spend testing? Be careful when answering this question; you and I both know that you won’t be spending 6 hours a day, every day on this… unless your name is Tongpow. You don’t need big chunks of time every single day to devote; what we’re looking for with this question is a realistic estimate, so don’t give unrealistic numbers that aren’t true.

4. What experience do you have playing the game during the classic era?

5. Why do you want a return to the classic EQ world?

6. What is wrong with this situation:

“You and tongpow make two new halfling characters, and decide to test out conjuration skill ups by casting the spell “Dance of the Fireflies”. The spell description says it is usable at level 1 for druids and level 15 for rangers so you level your ranger up to 15, while he stays at level 1. You both cast the spell and it fails, giving the message “You can’t do that yet”.”

7. Is there anything else you wish to add that you think may be important?

Lastly, a few things I wish to stress;

Remember, this is completely a volunteer project by everyone involved. Do not come expecting it to work like a company. All of us here are here because we enjoyed the game as it was, and that is what we want to be recreated. Everything being done here is accomplished in the free time that is being given to this project by all the awesome people involved. So please remember that we want a fun productive environment for all involved so we can reach our end goal.

As I write this blog post from my iPod Touch, I have to wonder when MMOs will begin to use mobile devices as a way to interact with the virtual world.

Blizzard has already gone on record saying that they would like to develop a way to track your auctions mobilly, as well as developing a way to communicate with your guild when not logged into the game. Imagine how sweet a mobile version of Vent or TeamSpeak would be… the possibilities are there, some crafty developer just needs to take the first step.

1999: Myself and the other EQJunkies were brought into the world of Norrath (EQ1) when we were merely sophomores in high school. I’ll list our current game names to make things easier…

1. Xailia – Wizard
2. Greldor – SK
3. Landuran – Druid
4. Myclawz – Monk

We slowly played more and more (I remember going from level 14-16 in a week and thinking it was a big deal) until we were all addicted.  We continued to play for about two years.

2001: We took a break to play this awesome new game one of our friends was talking about, DAoC.  Holy Crap – what a waste of our time.  I think we all tried that for maybe a month or so.  When we jumped ship, we fell right back into EQ1.  Eventually we needed another break from EQ1.

2002: We took yet another EQ1 vacation and tried out Final Fantasy Online.  In all honestly, I actually liked a lot about the game, although it had one major flaw: most of the player base was foreign.  MMOs at this time were hard enough, we didn’t need a language barrier in between us.

2003: We came back to EQ1 and started getting into raiding (Order of the White Dragon on Bristlebane).  We changed guilds a couple times before settling on one (Dozekar).  We raided for a few years until the release of EQ2.

2004: We all bought EQ2, played it for awhile, but it just didn’t stick.  For me, there really wasn’t that much wrong with it other than the fact it wasn’t EQ1.

Late 2004: Landuran jumped ship for WoW, the rest of us gave it a shot.

2005 – 2007: All of us except Landuran went back to EQ1….we eventually got Landuran back into EQ1.  We started a guild (Meiyo) and began raiding again.  As we progressed through GoD we eventually lost our desire to play and gave WoW a serious try.

2007 – 2008: Most of us played WoW for about a year, until about a month ago when it got boring and repetitive (and to easy).  We jokingly got Landurn a copy of EQ2 for his bachelor party, and so here we are…playing EQ2 again.

Ultimately, nothing will top EQ1 in my mind.  It was a hard, challenging, fun game.  In its heyday nothing could top it.  The MMOs now are built for mass appeal – they are easy with quick rewards.  EQ rewarded those who put in the time and suffered through things.  Hopefully EQ2 isn’t as easy as WoW; luckily – I don’t think is possible.

So, what is your story?  Have you moved around from game to game or stayed with the same one all the way through?

Today I decided to start a new type of blog post: Ask EQJunkies.com (similar to Ask Slashdot) – a post looking for comments from the community.

Today’s topic: Creating your own guild vs. joining an existing guild.

Both have their benefits and their disadvantages.  Here is my brief list:

Benefits of starting your own guild:

1. Control over guild membership and officers
2. Control over guild bank
3. Control over the type of guild (casual, raiding, etc.)
4. Good feeling from investment in the community.  Doing writs for the guild is helping you build upon your investment
5. Sense of ownership

Disadvantages of starting your own guild:

1. Timesink
2. Managing drama and guild members
3. Managing guild bank
4. Convincing people to work on guild progression
5. Managing website, vent server, etc.
6. Not many players at the beginning

Benefits of joining existing guild:

1. Can jump right into a well oiled machine
2. immediate access to guild status benefits
3. Large group of players to play with

Disadvantages of joining existing guild:

1. Don’t know many of the members
2. Most likely limited or no access to guild bank
3. Have to work your way up the ladder to gain trust of members
4. Have to break into potential cliques
5. No sense of investment or ownership of the guild

These are just a few things that come to mind for me – after weighing all the pros and cons, the EQjunkies decided to make their own guild.

Did I miss anything?  What have you done in the past?  We would love to hear your story!