Sunday, May 18, 2014
Thursday, May 15, 2014
Pug Stories: Family Edition
"So, you wanna run a Heroic?"
I paused on the stairs after lugging a basketful of laundry up from the basement. My oldest had that mischievous grin going, which meant she knew I would say yes if given the chance.
"Okay," I replied, hoisting the basket again, "you go login using the laptop and I'll login to SWTOR using the main computer."
Our laptop, while quicker (and with a lot more memory) than our now deceased Core Duo machine, is still slower than the i7 desktop we have, so I had plenty of time to sort some laundry and then start up SWTOR on the desktop before the laptop would be ready. Besides, we were going to Tatooine, and I was already there on the Old Man; no travelling necessary.
"One condition," I shouted down the stairs. "I'll do one Heroic with you, one with your brother, and one with your sister. Okay?"
"Okay!"
I quickly sorted the laundry into piles, came downstairs, and logged in as the Old Man. Ironically enough, I still had Reap the Whirlwind on my list of Heroics cluttering up my quest log, so I quickly relocated to Jundland and grouped up with my oldest.
When I get into a Heroic or an instance for the first time, I have an idea of what to expect. This has been honed over several years of playing MMOs, and once you understand the basics, you can figure out how a Heroic is supposed to behave. But if you've only played group content a few times, this is all new. My oldest reminded me of that fact during the cutscene, because she was fully expecting to fight one group until the surprise boss showed up.
She then provided me a demonstration of her grasp of profanity. "What do we do with this boss?"
"Nothing special, just hit it! I've got aggro!"
She's learning how to handle different bosses. When we ran through Athiss together, she wiped on the last boss, not realizing that she had to keep running even after he became visible again. It was a beginner mistake, and to be honest, I was pleased that was the only issue we had. She listens to me when I describe boss mechanics, and does what she's supposed to do.
When it was my son's turn, I took my freighter over to Taris. I figured we'd two man Fall of the Locust, since he not only had the quest still in his queue, but it was the closest heroic to the spaceport.
Then I saw the "LFG Fall of the Locust" in gen chat.
I hesitated only a second, and swiveled around in my chair. "Do you think you can behave yourself in a group?" I asked.
"What?" He looked puzzled.
"I'm going to have us join another group for Fall of the Locust, but only if you promise to behave and let me tank."
"Geez, Dad. I'm not two. I promise."
I whispered the guy starting the group, and my son and I quickly received invites. Turns out we filled out the rest of his group, so we ran over to the ship which starts the Heroic.* "Since I've got levels, I'll tank," I said.
"Got it."
"k."
And away we went.
Ironically enough, my son was far more exemplary a group member than the other Smuggler was. While I would be circling around to start a fight with a mob, the other Smuggler would crouch down and start shooting. "Dammit, I'm not ready!" I said out loud, while attempting to get aggro back.
I could feel my son's smirk behind me. "Heh."
The worst fight of the Heroic happened shortly afterward, as I was prepared to let a wandering mob walk by so we wouldn't have extra trash to fight.
The Smuggler, however, was having none of it.
He started shooting before I was even halfway to the main mob, and I had to redirect myself to try to pick up that guy's aggro. I grumbled something under my breath, but the main mob had miraculously not aggroed.
Then my son leapt into the fray, accidentally aggroing all the rest.
"Hey!" I yelled.
"I'm sorry! I thought they were all together!"
"We'll be okay, just run back toward me. They'll follow you back." I started healing him while he ran, and kept him upright until I could steal aggro back.
The mob finally dispatched, I finally said something in chat. "Wait on me first before attacking."
"We're still here," the Smuggler shrugged.
I turned around in my chair. "See that guy? Don't be that guy."
"Got it, Dad."
We finished Locust, and that was that. My son and I ran back to Olaris Spaceport, and he logged for the day.
As for my youngest, I figured that since I didn't want to run Locust again, something such as Knight Fall would be perfect. As luck would have it, she wasn't far enough along the Bonus Series to be eligible for Knight Fall.
"Well," I said, "we could just run some of these bonus series quests together so we can do Knight Fall next time."
"That sounds fine to me."
The difference between regular-ish quests and Heroics are the difficulty level of the mobs, so I ran into a different problem helping out my youngest: I kept killing mobs too fast.
"Dad, cut it out! I can't even get a swing in!"
"Um, sorry. I'll back off a bit."
I pulled another mob. "Whoops."
"Daaaaaad!!!"
"You know, I think I'll just stop attacking after a first swing."
"Good." I swear, I can still hear her derisive snort.
*I ran with the rest rather than use a speeder because I wasn't going to be a bad example.
I paused on the stairs after lugging a basketful of laundry up from the basement. My oldest had that mischievous grin going, which meant she knew I would say yes if given the chance.
"Okay," I replied, hoisting the basket again, "you go login using the laptop and I'll login to SWTOR using the main computer."
Our laptop, while quicker (and with a lot more memory) than our now deceased Core Duo machine, is still slower than the i7 desktop we have, so I had plenty of time to sort some laundry and then start up SWTOR on the desktop before the laptop would be ready. Besides, we were going to Tatooine, and I was already there on the Old Man; no travelling necessary.
"One condition," I shouted down the stairs. "I'll do one Heroic with you, one with your brother, and one with your sister. Okay?"
"Okay!"
I quickly sorted the laundry into piles, came downstairs, and logged in as the Old Man. Ironically enough, I still had Reap the Whirlwind on my list of Heroics cluttering up my quest log, so I quickly relocated to Jundland and grouped up with my oldest.
When I get into a Heroic or an instance for the first time, I have an idea of what to expect. This has been honed over several years of playing MMOs, and once you understand the basics, you can figure out how a Heroic is supposed to behave. But if you've only played group content a few times, this is all new. My oldest reminded me of that fact during the cutscene, because she was fully expecting to fight one group until the surprise boss showed up.
She then provided me a demonstration of her grasp of profanity. "What do we do with this boss?"
"Nothing special, just hit it! I've got aggro!"
She's learning how to handle different bosses. When we ran through Athiss together, she wiped on the last boss, not realizing that she had to keep running even after he became visible again. It was a beginner mistake, and to be honest, I was pleased that was the only issue we had. She listens to me when I describe boss mechanics, and does what she's supposed to do.
***
When it was my son's turn, I took my freighter over to Taris. I figured we'd two man Fall of the Locust, since he not only had the quest still in his queue, but it was the closest heroic to the spaceport.
Then I saw the "LFG Fall of the Locust" in gen chat.
I hesitated only a second, and swiveled around in my chair. "Do you think you can behave yourself in a group?" I asked.
"What?" He looked puzzled.
"I'm going to have us join another group for Fall of the Locust, but only if you promise to behave and let me tank."
"Geez, Dad. I'm not two. I promise."
I whispered the guy starting the group, and my son and I quickly received invites. Turns out we filled out the rest of his group, so we ran over to the ship which starts the Heroic.* "Since I've got levels, I'll tank," I said.
"Got it."
"k."
And away we went.
Ironically enough, my son was far more exemplary a group member than the other Smuggler was. While I would be circling around to start a fight with a mob, the other Smuggler would crouch down and start shooting. "Dammit, I'm not ready!" I said out loud, while attempting to get aggro back.
I could feel my son's smirk behind me. "Heh."
The worst fight of the Heroic happened shortly afterward, as I was prepared to let a wandering mob walk by so we wouldn't have extra trash to fight.
The Smuggler, however, was having none of it.
He started shooting before I was even halfway to the main mob, and I had to redirect myself to try to pick up that guy's aggro. I grumbled something under my breath, but the main mob had miraculously not aggroed.
Then my son leapt into the fray, accidentally aggroing all the rest.
"Hey!" I yelled.
"I'm sorry! I thought they were all together!"
"We'll be okay, just run back toward me. They'll follow you back." I started healing him while he ran, and kept him upright until I could steal aggro back.
The mob finally dispatched, I finally said something in chat. "Wait on me first before attacking."
"We're still here," the Smuggler shrugged.
I turned around in my chair. "See that guy? Don't be that guy."
"Got it, Dad."
We finished Locust, and that was that. My son and I ran back to Olaris Spaceport, and he logged for the day.
***
As for my youngest, I figured that since I didn't want to run Locust again, something such as Knight Fall would be perfect. As luck would have it, she wasn't far enough along the Bonus Series to be eligible for Knight Fall.
"Well," I said, "we could just run some of these bonus series quests together so we can do Knight Fall next time."
"That sounds fine to me."
The difference between regular-ish quests and Heroics are the difficulty level of the mobs, so I ran into a different problem helping out my youngest: I kept killing mobs too fast.
"Dad, cut it out! I can't even get a swing in!"
"Um, sorry. I'll back off a bit."
I pulled another mob. "Whoops."
"Daaaaaad!!!"
"You know, I think I'll just stop attacking after a first swing."
"Good." I swear, I can still hear her derisive snort.
*I ran with the rest rather than use a speeder because I wasn't going to be a bad example.
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
Do You Cross the Aisle?
Given my experiences in MMOs playing both genders, I found this article on Geekosystem about men who play female avatars very interesting.
I know that when I play female avatars, I pretty much play me, just with a different set of electronic bits. However, I'm apparently in the minority, as there seem to be an abundance of flirty behavior when men cross genders and play as women.
From my perspective, it's hard to say who is who on some games such as WoW, because when you're standing around waiting for the gates for AV to open you can tend to get bored and jump around.* But given the large increase in the likelihood of certain behavior, I do have to wonder whether it is done consciously or not. I'm skeptical about trying to hold male players' attention, particularly given how skimpily some female toons are dressed**, but if it is a glorified "look at me" just for the hell of it, then I consider that a bit more likely.
And considering how much "attention" my male Blood Elf bank toon got on his run from Sunstrider Isle to Silvermoon, I think it does work both ways.
*Or you could be merely wired from a few Monsters or Red Bulls.
**If you want examples of this in SWTOR, go visit Njessi's excellent blog Hawtpants of the Old Republic for her Fashion Hall of Shame, a collection of really really bad fashion choices.
I know that when I play female avatars, I pretty much play me, just with a different set of electronic bits. However, I'm apparently in the minority, as there seem to be an abundance of flirty behavior when men cross genders and play as women.
From my perspective, it's hard to say who is who on some games such as WoW, because when you're standing around waiting for the gates for AV to open you can tend to get bored and jump around.* But given the large increase in the likelihood of certain behavior, I do have to wonder whether it is done consciously or not. I'm skeptical about trying to hold male players' attention, particularly given how skimpily some female toons are dressed**, but if it is a glorified "look at me" just for the hell of it, then I consider that a bit more likely.
And considering how much "attention" my male Blood Elf bank toon got on his run from Sunstrider Isle to Silvermoon, I think it does work both ways.
*Or you could be merely wired from a few Monsters or Red Bulls.
**If you want examples of this in SWTOR, go visit Njessi's excellent blog Hawtpants of the Old Republic for her Fashion Hall of Shame, a collection of really really bad fashion choices.
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