Java is Down...

My wife and I both work in IT oriented fields... We tend to field many 'help' calls from our customers and co-workers. It amazes me how much people have come to rely on internet technology and how much we have learned as a culture about IT tech and lingo.

Case in point: My wife calls and asks for some help drafting an email response to a question she has received from someone. The person asking for help claims that they can't connect to 'Java' and wants to know if 'Java' is down?

At first we both chuckled at this.. But the more I thought of it, the more it occurred to me that the person asking the question was pretty savvy for a non-techie. They knew their browser was looking for a 'Java' resource but couldn't find/load it. Since everything tends to be 'connected' to the internet these days, their first step in diagnosing their problem was to determine if the resource on the internet was down...

Humorous, yes. But at least they were tryin'. That's not too bad in my opinion.

Venril Sathir must Die

Ok... My guild has been working VS now for a few weeks and the general consensus is that this fight just plain sucks. If you haven't done VS yet, I won't spoil it for you, but it is a real treat. Forget most things you know about named fights or raids in EQ2. This one is an exercise in micro management (power, curing, and healing) with a little bit of luck tossed in for extra flavor.

The message I have tried to deliver to my guildmates is that this takes a very well practiced and finely polished team to pull off successfully.... and yes, I know there are some uber myth'd out pickups that have pulled this off without having worked together as a team before... But chances are, if they have their mythicals, then they have been through fights like this before and know their business well.

So despite a good turn out last night and everyone in an optimistic 'go-get-em' mood, VS still spanked us. Repeatedly.

I tend to be more of a 'listener' on voice chat. I try and pickup player tones and moods to understand how things are going. Last night was a good example of this... You could quickly hear the tone of the raid change from 'we're gonna get him' to 'omg do we HAVE to pull this SOB again!?' This to me was clear indication that people were not having fun and frustatrion was setting in.

There are several problems with this raid. First and foremost, the fun factor in here is a big fat 0. The fight is just a stressing, taxing encounter that can very quickly take it's toll mentally on you. The other big problem here is that the zone is completely devoid of anything else to do. If you are doing a VS raid, you will zone in, take out 4 trash mobs and then get spanked until you figure the fight out and get it right. There is nothing else to do in the zone. No chances for drops, or updates.. nada. You just zone in and flail for as long as you can take it.

Contrast this with the Leviathan fight which I found to be fairly entertaining and fun. That fight is typicall spread acros two raid events. The first is a farming run to gather fluids to use on Levi. A second raid is then run to actually finish Levi off using the fluids gathered in the first run. The mechanics of this fight are unique and can make for a good time. The raid stays occupied, challenged, and interest level is maintained. Leviathan also has a fun factor associated with it. There are milestones in here that give the players a sense of accomplishment.

Trash cleared... check
Rotate players through for fluid farming...check
Clickies clicked...check
Levi killed...check

All in all - there is stuff to do that that rewards players along the way. It isn't a frustrating luck ridden encounter.

I like challenges just as much as the next person but when the challenge involves micro managing stats, or hoping that luck is on your side and then dying repeatedly when one of a hundred little things goes wrong... That is not fun...

Venril Satir, you must die.. And you will very soon. The sad truth is, it won't be fun for any of us.