Turns out, its not so F2P after all.

Yeah, I guess I didn’t understand that whole quest pack unlocking mechanic.  My brother tells me that without shelling out, everything in our level range becomes a grind alone.  Basically at this point, to continue playing Lord of the Rings Online, I would have to pay somewhere in the neighborhood of $15-$20 dollars.  For the next half dozen levels – and then I’d have to shell out more.  Rinse and repeat. And if I were to start from scratch, I could play to level 20 or so, and then I would have to start paying just as I would if I kept my current characters.

Maybe I’m a bit jaded by EQ2X’s system and the way it parses things.  If I wanted to keep my character there – it would be a $35 flat fee.  If I elected to start from scratch, as I have, it will cost me nothing.  I know this is in some way apples to oranges.  But I don’t think quests are an optional component of the game these days, as much as I wish they were, or were at least reduced in quantity and magnified largely in quality.   Bag size, number of character or storage slots – thats helpful but not necessary.

I wish I had some great gameplay or design updates for you today, because I’m really in the moot to mash one out on the keyboard here.  Unfortunately, inspiration is lacking.  Anything you all out there want to discuss?

I spent the weekend on my wife’s uncle’s farm, which is nice for relaxing to an extent.  On the one hand, kids can be set loose to run free and not get into too much trouble , and there are a plethora of adults on hand to watch over them, so I got to nap a bit and read a bit.  On the other hand, cramming 30+ people under one roof, even if it is a big farmhouse, can get hectic and stressful at times, and game playing time is all but nonexistant.

So I basically logged in each night to take some turns in The Reincarnation, and  contribute what I could to the war effort, and last night I spent a few minutes playing with my Champions Online characters since the free week was almost over.  I also ducked into APB to find that reports of its demise were greatly exaggerated, but that they were also not doing anything to help themselves in that regard – some of the patch notes are head scratching to say the least.  It was an ugly throwback to the early days of Vanguard patch notes, where one could find patch after patch going by with no solution to game killing issues, while changes to the game that were not warranted were implemented to further fuzzify the mudification.

Tonight I’ll probably be back to Fallen Earth (its time to raid Oilville after a rather disappointing roam through the Junk Fortress) or EQ2X to push my Warlock higher up the chain and hopefully make a decision on what character number 2 will be.  And tomorrow we will start the grand journey of free LotRO – though I’m not sure how that will work since I have banks stuffed full of crap that I probably won’t have access to unless I pay up…

Even with all that, I still wanna buy a Station Pass.  How sad is that?  I’d like to play my main characters in EQ2 rather than starting over again, and I’d really like to roam the Star Wars universe a little more in Galaxies.

Mainly though I just want that weekly group going.  How about it?  Anyone want a regular, once a week group activity night in EQ2X or LotRO?