My MMO History

I get nostalgic every now and then and look back at how I ended up here and playing WoW. I thought it would be fun to have a little walk through time with the characters I've had in the past and in past games. These are just the games I stuck with past the free trial month. There are others that didn't even get played much past character creation. These all hold a special place in my heart as characters I developed and enjoyed.

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Everquest
Emjia the Wood Elf Rogue

First MMO character I ever made. My brother was the one who was really into EQ. He was a big tough monk that was raiding and doing all sorts of neat things. My brother got myself, my sister and even my mother to play EQ. He never did play with us very often though as we were just noobs.

Emjia mostly sat in the wood elf city of Greater Faydark and worked on her alcohol tolerance. She would also get good practice on her safe fall skill by repeatedly falling from the tree house city.

She pretty much was the worst rogue ever. I didn't care too much about what weapons she had or armor she wore. I wanted it to look nice. This outfit in the picture my brother put on me because he thought the outfit I had purchased was too risqué for his sister to be wearing.

Emjia's favorite past time was exploring places she didn't belong with her druid friend Jayras. Jay was excellent for his spells to make us run faster and my sneaking was perfect for dragging our corpses out of really bad places.

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Dark Age of Camelot
Goldie the Celt Bard

DAoC was the game where I truly fell in love with the MMO genre. Again it was my brother who started playing the game and got me hooked. My mother preferred EQ and my sister pretty much had stopped MMO gaming by now. Here though I decided not to play even on my brother's server. I never saw him anyhow and I liked Hibernia and it's pretty green landscape the best.

Goldie was a much better bard than Emjia was a rogue that is for certain. Goldie did have a peculiar and irritating habit of striking up her lute to run away anytime things got even a little scary. She would always come back to resurrect your body though. In fact, she had such a skill at getting away her guildmates came to rely upon it.

It was in DAoC I forged many friendships that still last until this day. The group of people I ended up joining lived not far from me. We met in real life for the first time in 2002 and get together several times a year still to this day. In fact, I'm spending new year's eve with these folks this year. It was these friendships that really made me get what was so cool about MMO's. I was officially hooked.

It was also here that I met a large Firbolg Hero by the name of Jharod. You may know him better as Keste. How this man and I came to be together I am not certain. He was convinced I was a guy playing a girl toon due to my potty mouth. I felt strongly that he was a grumpy old man due to his impatience with my dumb games. Some how these prejudices faded away and we found love. He came up from Texas to visit me for the first time in 2002. Moved permanently to Michigan in 2003. We got married in 2006 and now we're expecting our first baby in May 2009. Isn't that just a sweet story!

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Star Wars Galaxies
Goldy Lhim the Twi'lek Entertainer

Star Wars Galaxies was a game that was a giant roleplayers sandbox. If you could imagine it, you could build it. This was the basis that Goldy flourished in during her time in SWG. The game itself was kind of bad. Today I consider the game unplayable with all the changes they've made. But way back when, this game was fun and really allowed me to use my imagination.

There weren't set classes you had to be, you built your own class. Goldy was a master dancer and a master doctor. She truly considered herself an entertainer more than a physician. Entertainer is not to be confused with call girl. Got it? I was a married Twi'lek!

Goldy built Lhim Entertainment and created numerous events for everyone on her server (or anyone wanting to come visit from other servers). Everything from simple parties to elaborate competitions. Some of my favorite hosted events were the talent shows, murder mystery dinner theater, beauty pageants, & great kauri race.

Goldy's name became synonymous with events and she quickly became a very popular person on the server. She would be hired by the Alliance Party to host balls or the Imperials to stage an event to cover their attack on Alliance bases. She was often requested to officiate wedding ceremonies, have a slumber party for a small group of friends or to host parties for a particular city. Holidays were big party times where Goldy would host costume parties or holiday parties complete with games and prizes. People would donate time, money and crafts for any event Goldy was wanting to host. It was really amazing.

Unfortunately this kind of fun could only last so long. The game went through several changes that were large and often would make my game time less enjoyable. In the end Keste and I left because it just wasn't the same game anymore and we weren't having fun.

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Final Fantasy Online XI
Mejia the Mithra Thief/Ninja

Admittedly we did not spend long in this game. I thought it great fun and loved the complex chains groups could build together with their special moves. Taru-taru were simply adorable and my character had a tail! I was much better at the rogue lifestyle this time around.

Apart from that this game was a very uphill grind to get anything done. Money was always tight and when we reached higher levels it got close to impossible to find a group because all the higher levels were Japanese players who've already had the game for a year. While not a horrible game, it just didn't fit our casual style and we gave it up.

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World of Warcraft
Goldy the Night Elf Druid

You may know Goldy better as Aratria, my recently outed secret druid. First character I made when we started playing WoW and first character to make it to level 60. I don't need to go on as to why we played (and still play) this game. If you're reading this you probably already understand.

We have quit WoW on and off throughout the years for different reasons. The first big reason being we hated the end game raiding. Keste's work schedule didn't work out well with myself and the guild. Just silly things like that. The last large break was due to the lure of LotRO which I simply had to try.

We're back now playing Desdarii and Keste and don't have any plans on leaving anytime in the foreseeable future. Besides I'm back to having a tail again!

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Lord of the Rings Online
Goldenstar the Hobbit Minstrel

The last of the MMO's we've tried in some time. I'm a big time Lord of the Rings nerd and simply had to give the game a try. I was apart of the early beta and Keste and I each purchased a copy of the game upon release. The idea of being a hobbit in Middle Earth was too great for me.

Goldenstar was a typical hobbit. She was named after a flower as females are and would never be caught with shoes on. I did any and all of the food achievements that would give me titles like "Goldenstar, Champion Pie Eater" simply to keep with my Hobbit roots.

The game itself was well done from a lore perspective. Exploring the Old Forest and hanging out at the Prancing Pony had all the little nooks and crannies you would expect if you've read the books as many times as I have. It may not be as immersive for those who just saw the movies but Keste said he too enjoyed the atmosphere the game created.

We gave up the game around Christmas time last year when we found real difficulty finding groups and active guilds to finish leveling. All higher end quests required groups to complete and we simply were having a bugger of a time getting any help. It was odd too since we were a tank/healer combo.

We decided to return to WoW and we had a lot of catching up to do since we had missed almost a year of the Burning Crusade expansion. We promised not to do that again for the Wrath so we didn't always feel so far behind!

Miscommunication

I logged off a little irritated last night because of strange misunderstandings that spun out of control and caused a guild member to abandon a raid and leave the guild entirely. Honestly, I was stunned and confused as to what was happening. What was even worse was discovering that I had unwittingly played a part in causing this falling out.

Our guild has two pretty solid 10 man raiding teams. Both these teams were successful in Burning Crusade. We’re still waiting on some folks to get to level 80 or get some gear and hope to start up the teams again in the New Year. Until then the guild has been hosting some 25 man BC raiding events as well as some 10 man Naxxramus runs that include a little from both teams.

I did sign up for the Naxx runs but opted out of the first because of the overload of interest. I was lucky enough to attend the second run when someone had to work. From what I understand, these raids didn’t cause the problems.

The problems stemmed from the lack of participation in the 25 man raids that were scheduled. Specifically lack of participation from the raiding team of which I am a member. I know a couple from my raiding team had signed up but the majority of us didn’t for varied reasons. Most of the reasons I think stem from it being the holidays and a rather busy time of year.

For my part, I had declined the invitation from the get go to let the raid leader know not to expect me. I generally do not enjoy 25 man raids. Since they were doing older dungeons, I assumed it was just a guild run for fun to look in some of the dungeons we had missed. I personally wasn’t interested in it and would rather spend my evening working on random tasks or running a heroic or two. It was a personal choice and one I thought I was free to make.

This is where the misunderstanding came in. Because so many from my team had declined to attend these 25 man raids, the belief started that members of this team were rather snobbish in that we wouldn’t run raids with the other team. I don’t know why one would jump to that conclusion but that’s where it went. The claim that one raid team doesn’t like the other raid team is complete false.

I believe Keste and I compounded the problem because we declined the invite and then would be online doing other things while they raided. It was probably viewed that “we could be with you guys but would rather do anything else”, which honestly wasn’t the case. Keste and I like to do things together and he chose to hang out with me. Had he wanted to raid he would have been free to do so.

Misunderstandings just get worse when the offended person refuses to speak up to the people doing them harm. I had not heard a peep from anyone that my behavior was adding to this vibe. I say adding as I’m just one piece of the 10 people he was accusing of this activity. Had I been asked why I’m declining 25 man raids when I am online and available I would have explained. As things were I didn’t see a reason to explain as to why I didn’t want to attend a level 70 “for fun” run which is what I believed them to be.

Instead the poor guild leader got horrible accounts of the villains who weren’t playing nicely with others. Luckily, our guild leader was willing to listen to the other side and agreed that folks like me had a right to opt out of the raiding runs. Our refusal wasn’t out of competition, anger, spite or dislike for the other team. In fact, I didn’t view the runs as the “other team”. I thought it a guild run and open to anyone within dungeon level. It never crossed my mind that not attending would spark such feelings.

I sent everyone on the other raiding team a rose and a letter letting them know that I do like them and would be willing to run any dungeon with them. Hopefully it is received in the playful manner that I sent it and clear up any doubts about my loyalties to my guildees as a whole.

For the person who left, I did apologize to the officers on the forum for my involvement in causing him to leave even if I wasn’t aware I was doing it. I also offered to speak to him directly to apologize to him for the misconception and try to explain my absences from the 25 man raids.

People just need to learn to speak up and to the proper people when they have an issue. Goodness knows people hear it from me when I have an issue! Perhaps because I am so vocal it makes miscommunications like this harder for me to grasp.

I’m a big bundle of out of control hormones these days but at the foundation I believe I am a pretty logical person. If you have a question or issue with me, please do not hesitate to talk to me about it! It is way better than assuming the worst and ending up feeling like you need to leave the guild over it.

Merrymaker the Second!

I had missed pretty much all of the end game stuff in Burning Crusade with my druid, Aratria, so I had counted her out on the Winter Veil achievements. Specifically due to the Fa La La Ogri'la achievement. She had never even started the chain of quests to open Ogri'la.

Luckily, I wasn't the only one who had skipped this and Saturday Dumadin got a group of us together to complete those group quests so we could open up Ogri'la. It didn't take much time at all.

I have to take a little time out to complain about some of these achievements from the view of a druid that Desdarii just didn't have to face. For one I didn't own a flying mount. I was the flying mount. So to complete Fa La La Ogri'la, I had to go and purchase a flying mount. It was painful and felt wrong. Not to mention I planned on buying my epic flight at level 77 (still level 76) so my slow arse was constantly shot out of the sky. Good to note that you can still get the achievement if you fall off your reindeer. Just make sure you have a lot of holly.

Another druid issue I had is with the With A Little Helper From My Friends achievement. I was not allowed to shift forms or I'd lose my gnome/elf costume. As if it wasn't bad enough that I was a undergeared level 76 pvp noob entering the battleground, now I can't take advantage of my different forms! I ended up getting frustrated dying so often. I was a quick and easy target being 4 levels lower than most.

What did I do about it? I cheated. Sorta.

Not that I found myself super helpful to begin with but after four runs of Alterac Valley and only 1 honor kill to my name I decided to go the cowards route. I found a safe place in our base where action would be close by and I shadowmelded to soak up my fellow's honor kills. Sure I was found by the Horde a couple of times. I was in ghetto stealth and 4 levels lower than everyone else. I wasn't winning any hide and seek competitions. If found I would go into Moonkin and try to earn my keep. I wasn't trying to jinx the alliance, just get my junk done.

Doing this though ended up being the only way I saw to get this done without going absolutely crazy. It worked and though it still took several runs I was making at least some progress in each instance and completed the achievement. I feel a little bad for going about doing it this way but I have a feeling I'll get over it.

Anyway thanks to Dumie and friends I was able to have a second Merrymaker in my roster!

Merrymaker!

I made it! I am now known far and wide as Merrymaker Desdarii. I guess I didn't anticipate this title going before my name.

The pvp portion of these achievements wasn't as annoying as I had anticipated. It was still very very annoying. I certainly didn't have a fantastic time each time I joined a battleground and lose my costume 2 seconds later. I didn't learn about it being easier in Wintergrasp until I had finished it. I complained and whined but I made it through it.

This is my 4th title so I'm feeling pretty happy with myself.

Happy Winter Veil!

I wish every one a very happy holidays and hope you and your families are safe, happy and healthy!