A Week in Review

It has been a week now since ArcheAge went live with its headstart program followed by an official launch open to all players.  There has definitely been a few hiccups along the road but there has also been hours of enjoyment to be had.  This is the most fun I've had in an MMO in quite some time and I'm looking forward to that trend continuing.

The Hiccups

So every game isn't without its flaws and ArcheAge is no different.  Certainly I feel like some things could have been handled differently but for the most part the past week has been pretty smooth.  The biggest issue currently plauging the game is the queue system.  

Servers are jam packed full of players and you can expect to be in queue as either a patron or a non-patron for several hours over peak game times.  A lot of players have found sneaky alternatives to getting in game and staying there to avoid the queue system.  This is what is destroying a lot of people's experience at the moment.  As players manage to beat the AFK timers and remain in game, the queue isn't properly rotating people in and causing there to be a continuous queue throughout all hours of the day lasting for several hours.

Trion has announced that they would be opening up additional servers as well as fixing some of the AFK cheats players are using in an effort to fix the queue times.  Once the queue times are fixed and assuming populations keep on the uppity up there is a lot of potential for a lot of good time ahead. 

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PvP Happened

So here I was minding my own business doing some questing in Ynystere zone in ArcheAge when this guy ran past me, stopped, came back and said "LMFAO, you're on my guild's KOS."

Here's the dialog and actions that ensued:

Spliff: LMFAO
Spliff: You are on our guild kos.

Me: Guess that makes you too much of a pansy to attack me.

Spliff: I personally don't care and I would stomp you so please fuck off tyvm.

Me: Clearly
Me: Running off talking shit works well for you, keep it up.

Spliff then said he was coming back for me.  A few minutes later I saw him right as he stealthed to jump me.

I killed him, effortlessly.

Me: Bitch

Spliff: Play a class that isn't gay
Spliff: If you were melee you would get stomped and you know it

Me: I'm a healer dumb shit  (My class is an oracle which is a healer with some archery abilities)

Spliff:  You pathetic fat cunt

Me: lol so noob

Spliff: lol so blocked
Spliff: enjoy kid


This was pretty entertaining way to begin my morning in ArcheAge.  I'm really loving this game and how open it is to do things like this.  If you don't like someone, kill them.  If you talk shit, be prepared to defend yourself.

Spliff is a member of the guild United We Stand on the Salphira ArcheAge server.

Below are the screenshots of the chat log

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AA Day 1

The first day of AA has been a blast!  A few blips here and there with server issues and such but overall relatively smooth.  I've had a great time getting started with this game.

Day 1 Overview

There was a mad dash to get your housing location, lots of questing, some dungeon running, a bit of "stealing" and a whole lotta PvP ensued!  Be sure to check out my ArcheAge live stream to get in on the action.

Housing Dash

So one of the first things a lot of people wanted to do was place stake their claim on the vacant land.  Player housing is a huge part of the ArcheAge experience and having your piece of land is going to get this party started.  You have to get to level 10 to get the quest for your scarecrow which is the first thing you can place that claims a piece of land.  So you can imagine, everyone rushed to level 10, which only takes about 30 minutes if you know what you're doing, got their scarecrow and rushed to their coveted land spot.

I was lucky enough to get my farm and an actual house laid out on a nice spot overlooking the water!

Questing

As with any new MMO launch, there was a lot of questing to do.  For the most part questing, even with the absurd amount of people online went fairly smooth.  A few hiccups appeared at some key bottle neck quests in which there is a single item to update it yet a hundred or more people needing to get it.  In some cases, lines were formed.  In other cases there was just a riot of people gathered around the item all spamming their buttons hoping they'd win out on this spawn.

A tip:  Skip quests like these and come back.

Dungeon Runs

The first dungeon is available at level 18 and can be run multiple times.  You only need three players to do the dungeon and don't necessarily need a healer/tank if you can work well with your teammates. I was able to run the dungeon several time getting some key pieces of gear. Dungeon gear is highly coveted and not replaced with any haste.

"Stealing" and a Whole Lotta PvP!

This is the bread and butter of ArcheAge.  I'm working on putting together a video of a major heist/PvP event we took part in late last night.  One of our guild members was exploring the mountains and came across a dense forest of player planted trees that were about to be ready for harvesting.

We grouped up as many of us as we could and made our way out there.  We intend on grabbing as many of these trees as possible.  While out there, we ran into the people who planted this forest and they warned us not to take their trees.

Well, we're a bit stubborn and didn't listen to them.  We flagged ourselves for faction PvP killing and took them out.  Little did we know, they had a group of 25-30 players from the opposite faction hiding in the forest waiting to harvest the trees.  They rushed us and we had ourselves a nice little skirmish.

While being vastly outnumbered, we were able to steal about half of the trees they had planted (which was A LOT) and got ourselves a lot of kills in the process.  It was quite funny how afraid they were to come down and engage us while we just kept chopping away at their trees.  They were afraid we would win and they would lose out on all of their trees.  The odds were ever in their favor as they boasted numbers in a ratio of 3:1 compared to us, yet I feel we came out the victors with getting kills and bringing in a boatload of wood for our guild mates to use for crafting.

Come Join the Fun

It's not too late to join the head start for ArcheAge and if you're still not sure, the game goes live on Sept. 16th and is free to play.  Be on the look out for video from the little skirmish we had and here's hoping to some more lively battles in the future!~

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ArcheAge Head Start!

ArcheAge head start begins tomorrow at 10 am PST.  Can't wait to get started!!

If you're still undecided on whether to play or not I'll be streaming my entire head start game play live on Twitch.

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Access Deined

With the launch of a new MMO in the coming week I thought it would be a good time to review some account security tips.  Not to mention, I am currently battling for ownership of my SMITE account that I recently discovered was stolen.  So this article is going to throw out mostly reminders but maybe even something new for some people on how to keep your accounts safe.

First and foremost, DO NOT use the same password for your game accounts as you do with your email accounts.  This isn't just for game security, this is for your livelihood security.  A lot of people use their email accounts for online banking and other such financial services.  If someone was able to gain access to your email account, there is a lot of potential damage that could ensue.  I would even go one step further and suggest making a specific email account that you use JUST for gaming.

Security question/answers, use them!  These may not always be huge helpers in keeping an account secure but the information there can come in handy when trying to get your account back.  So use this feature (most of the time it is mandatory) and make sure you use unique answers that only you know the answer too and remember them!

Use a secure browser such as Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome (there are others those are the two that I widely use).  It is also important to keep the browsers updated to the latest versions.  While you may not see much difference after browser updates, the updates are generally security related and will help keep the browser secure.  A side tip is to activate the browser's phishing filter.  While most phishing scams are easily spotted, perhaps some slip through.  This filter will help keep you safe.

A lot of companies now are offering the use of some sort of authenticator. Use them!  They may be a mild inconvenience from time to time, but in the long run, it is virtually impossible to get your account hacked with one of these devices tied to your account.

And there you have it, some simple steps that will keep you in the game while keeping others out of your account.  Take a moment to utilize and update any security features you have, you'll be happy that you did when you hear of someone's account being lost.

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What's Your Destiny?

Just gotta get through the weekend and then Destiny will finally be upon us.  This is looking up to be a great title from Bungie and I know a lot of people are super excited for it, myself one of them.

One great aspect of the game is it doesn't really matter which console you get it for, the experience is going to be best suited for that console.  What does that mean?  Most multi-platform games are designed for a specific platform and then outsourced to a third party company to get it tweaked for the other consoles.  This usually means that there is some compromise, either in graphic quality or even game play features.  Not with this title, Bungie has been developing it entirely in-house for all 4 platforms that it will be releasing on day 1.  So the PS4, XBOX ONE, PS3 and XBOX 360 will each be granted a version of the game that was designed and tailored specifically for that system which should provide the best experience possible for each console group.

I personally will be getting this on the PS4 and am looking forward to some more restless nights.

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New Artwork

Had a request for a forum signature and an image to upload to ArcheAge for cloaks n such.  If you haven't done so already, check out the artwork tab for all my pieces and feel free to contact me for requests.

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