The Angry Raider

I’ve been having an incredible time in EverQuest II lately. Grabthar reached level 53 (just shy of 54). He’s wearing the level 42 Frostfell armor, which should hold him over until he reaches the upper 50s. I’ll start doing tier 7 dungeons when I’m 60 and get to the Kingdom of Sky content.

I think what I love the most about playing EQ2 is the fact that I’m a complete and total newb. I still have so much to learn about the game: the lingo, the mechanics, my new spells and combat arts, the zones, the dungeons, itemization, quest lines, raiding, my epic quest chain, my class armor, my role in x2 and x4 groups, and so much more. In World of Warcraft, which I’ve been playing for 4 years, I know all this stuff already. I can min/max just about every class in WoW, I know all the powers everyone should be using for every encounter, and I know exactly what gear everyone should be using for their spec. I’m not making a boast about my vast intellect when it comes to WoW; the fact is, four years and thousands of hours spent doing anything will make you an expert in it.

I should have gotten a master’s degree instead.

Last night my brother (52 warden) and I did the carpet quest in Sinking Sands. We didn’t expect to finish it, but a 63 necro guildie came and helped us finish off the last two 54 ^^^ bosses. Getting the carpet was a watershed moment for us. It’s the first “high level” thing we’ve done, we spent several hours farming the mobs in Sinking Sands and thus got tons of great drops, and riding around on that carpet feels like we’ve made a huge accomplishment, even though for most EQ2 players it’s old hat. And that’s what makes it so great: even though the quest is 3+ years old and everyone’s done it on all their alts, it was new to us. There’s still so much “old” content that’s brand spanking new to us, and since everyone who plays loves the game so much, they’re just as excited as we are when we do the content.

I know I’m rambling a bit in this post but what can I say, I’m having a blast. I can’t wait to see what’s next.

I love back stories for characters. Whether they’re short-and-sweet to describe the motivation of a character, or long and detailed with complex relationships, I love them. I write back stories for all my characters, and I often write them for other people’s characters as well. In fact, when I played City of Heroes, people paid me in Influence for writing their character stories.

One of my favorite backstories belongs to Avenger Grabthar Thrakazog the Treasure-Hunter of Freeport, aka my shadowknight in EverQuest 2. His biography is short and sweet, borrowing heavily from the style used in the Conan books:

The trials of Grabthar’s life can be found in the scars and bones of those to whom he has laid waste. Come and sit quietly while he regales you with stories of destruction and devastation. If he deems you so fortunate, perhaps you’ll live to share his tale!

This biography is viewable to other characters and it’s also on the character profile page at the EQ2 site. Grabthar doesn’t have a complex back story like my other characters do; instead, I let the reader of his bio infer what has happened in Grabthar’s relatively young life.

I don’t like to describe a character. Instead, I let the character do the talking, or as in Grabthar’s case, a narrator who has intimate knowledge of the goings-on. I have a fire/fire tanker in City of Heroes named Choking Hazard. This is a rough recreation (from memory) of Choking Hazard’s original back story, which I wrote when I created her:

Choking Hazard was just a normal girl in a normal town until a freak accident infused her with the power to control fire. Realizing that she had a unique capability and a responsibility to her fellow citizens in Paragon City, Choking Hazard decided to leave behind her party girl past and dedicate her life to protecting those in need.

As soon as I completed the intro zone, I rewrote her bio:

Gah, being a super hero is soooo hard. I shouldn’t have let those guys at the bar buy me all those drinks. Who knew one of them would be a Vahzilok scientist! I take a shot of one little weird glowy drink and bam, now I can control fire. So my sister gets all up in my face about “you have a responsibility” and “the things you blah blah blah.” I saw that movie too, you know! Sigh. Well, here I am, saving all of you, wondering exactly what you mean when you say I’m hot.

That’s quite a difference. The first bio gets the point across nicely, but it’s as generic as any other description of a super hero. The second bio is more interesting and shows the personality of the character, breathing life into just another avatar.

World of Warcraft doesn’t have a facility for sharing character biographies or back stories, but that doesn’t stop me from writing them. I’m more true to the source material with WoW (and EQ2), since I prefer my fantasy to be less lighthearted, leaning more to the dark and sinister, which fits in with WoW’s lore:

I slept for ages. I sought neverending solace and peace with my own people. I did not support aiding the humans and their plight. In our time on Azeroth, we stood alone for eons. The humans were merely one tiny piece of an eternity; they would extinguish themselves as quickly as they had arrived.

Wicker’s story is in my head. It doesn’t infuse his activities as much as I would like (I don’t play on an RP server), but sometimes I try to do what Wicker would want rather than what I want for him. That way, the other players on my server can only speculate as to my motivation. Will I kill that tauren druid? Or let him go? Will I help humans in need or watch them die? Will I target orcs as much as possible?

Of course, how my character acts in the game is completely under my control, so if I do something socially rude–watch your human die as you try to fend off multiple mobs–I will most likely be called (reportable) names. The key is finding the balance between what you want for your character and respecting the other people playing the same game as you.