WRUP: Better to have gamed and lost
Every week, just at the start of the weekend, we catch up with the Massively team and ask them, "What are you playing this week?" (Otherwise known as: WRUP!) Join us to see what we're up to in and out of game -- and catch us in the comments to let us know what you're playing, too!
This week has been crazy hectic -- both in the MMO world and in general. We've seen the news that Earth Eternal is likely heading for shutdown, listened to a lot of unhappy people talking about Star Wars: The Old Republic's space being on-rails, seen a handful of the ArenaNet team jump ship to Undead Labs, and more. Of course, all of this was eclipsed by the insane story of the week about an EVE Online player who had loaded 74 PLEX into his Kestrel, and was summarily podded by two pirates in Jita. While the pirate pair didn't get to keep those 74 PLEX, they do get bragging rights for the pod heard 'round the world -- at least until someone does something crazier, anyway.
Inspired by that news story, we decided to ask the team what the biggest thing they've ever lost was in an MMO. Join us behind the break for not only what we're playing, but what we've lost over the course of gaming. Be sure to leave a comment and let us know about your biggest in-game loss too!
Beau Hindman (@spouseaggro): There are way too many games on my plate this week. I am finally getting my citizenship in A Tale in the Desert, having a blast in Alganon (yes, I said a blast,) repairing fences in WURM Online, deciding on if I should spend a lot of time customizing my car in APB, (they need to add races or something to make them more useful) and trying to get better at Global Agenda. And oh yeh, finishing up the first hero quest in Fable II!
Most expensive thing I ever lost? Well, I deleted my entire character and all his belongings (including a house and boat) in Vanguard, as per a "permadeath" experiment I played with.
Brendan Drain (@nyphur): I've been glued to World of Warcraft this week as I finally made it to Outlands. I'm finding the zone and quest design very similar to some EverQuest 2 zones I particularly liked, which is great. I'll be trying to slow down my gaming this weekend to concentrate on work and relax a little.
To answer the bonus question, I've taken a few big losses in EVE, and every single one was because I made some kind of silly mistake. I've never lost anything quite as big as the player who lost 22 billion ISK in PLEX, but I'll never live down the time I was caught mining in a dreadnought and the enemy dropped half their capital fleet on top of me.
Brianna Royce: No games for me this weekend as I'm traveling again and packing for a move next week. I'm thrilled Going Rogue is almost here!
The most valuable thing I've ever lost? Every time I cancel WoW, I lose another few thousand gold in materials left in my mail box. Doh!
Edward Marshall: I'll be crafting and grinding faction in Fallen Earth, of course. I'll also be playing (I mean testing) Perpetuum's closed beta, and having a great time with it. I have high hopes for this high-potential indie game.
Bonus question: I was devastated the first time I was PKed in Ultima Online and lost all my stuff. It actually made me angry until thought about it for a while. After that, I never cared about losing stuff in any game ever again.
Eliot Lefebvre: This weekend is going to be packed to the gills. For one thing, I've got my brother up this weekend, and that means family functions and so forth. For another, I've got two very secret projects going on that will require a fair amount of time. And in the unlikely event that I have a moment or two of time to myself, I've recently rediscovered just how much fun Star Trek Online really can be, so I'd like to finish getting my Admiral's ship kitted out and her crew fully sorted.
As for the most expensive thing I ever lost in an MMO... when I first started playing Guild Wars, at level 10 I got insanely lucky and had a drop with a Rune of Superior Vigor. It was the sort of financial windfall that would have set me for the rest of the game... except that instead of salvaging the rune, the game salvaged a few pieces of cloth. I can't help but smart over that one even now.
Greg Waller: For me, its another weekend of WAR. No big surprise there. As for the bonus question, I don't think I've ever invested anything beyond my subscription in any MMO I've ever played, so I can't really say I've lost anything either.
Jef Reahard: Age of Conan for me, within which I'll be playtesting my guild's roleplay event system using the in-game dice as well as continuing the Khitai faction grind. I'll also log some EQII hours and nudge my rat past level 40.
I lost a name once during a server merge. Other than that I pretty much have everything of virtual "value" that I've ever acquired in an MMO. I guess losing our prime player-city spot in SWG kinda hurts, but all the old/rare stuff therein is still safely tucked away in the inventories of everyone concerned.
Jeremy Stratton (@Jeremy_Stratton): I will be continuing to quest my way through Savage Lands in Runes of Magic. I'm learning some interesting new lore about Taborea's past, and I think I'm very close to questing in Aotulia Volcano where the Demon Lord himself resides. I'm also going to try to make headway in Battleforge, even though I kind of suck at RTS games. If I'm lucky, I'll get some time in Alganon as well.
The worst thing I've ever lost was a pair of boots another player gave me in RoM. They gave me a very nice defense boost, and I couldn't replace them because I wasn't strong enough to enter the instance where they drop.
Justin Olivetti (@sypster): I'm taking a break from the mines of Moria to work on my lowbie Lore-master in LotRO. Speak loudly and carry a big stick is what I say. Also, my future self sent me back a message in time and told me that he can't decide to play Guild Wars 2, The Old Republic or sleep. He can only do two out of three.
Krystalle Voecks (@Krystalle): This weekend will see me spending some time grinding Imperial faction in Star Wars Galaxies so I can run their pilot missions, and thinking about what I'm going to re-roll once CMA is over with: probably a smuggler. Hopefully I'll get lucky and stumble into some RP or city fighting too. Beyond that, this is the second weekend of performances for Dog Sees God, so I'll also be grinding some Stage Management xp with the troupe at Jobsite.
As for what I've lost... I think the only things I've lost to MMOs were portions of my sanity (overrated anyway), and lots of sleep. I still haven't figured out who I need to petition to get all that lost sleep back.
Larry Everett (@shaddoe): I'm going to continue my saga of non-MMOs this weekend with more BioWare RPGs. I may see if I can get Dragon Age. You here me, Steam? Dragon Age needs to go on sale this weekend.
I can't think of the most expensive thing I've actually lost, but I could not find my Nightsister armguard (worth a couple of billion credits) in SWG for a day or two. I panicked and called a GM to help me find it. We did. I was relieved. Kudos to SOE's customer service.
MJ Guthrie: I will be spending time on the soccer field. After that, I will be terraforming my heart out in the Xsyon beta and trying to make some more progress on my Miragent armor in Aion. Throw in some RP goodness in AoC, then checking out Isle of Dawn in Vanguard... and I might just try to eat and sleep a little as well!
Most expensive thing I lost? Both cases were in Lineage 2. As a single item, it would have to be the top-of-the-line bow (can't remember the name of it off-hand) that was dropped when my friends decided to horse around while I was afk a moment and got me killed. They didn't even notice the bow on the ground and didn't pick it up (and hoped I'd never even notice I died). As an incident, it was when a farmer decided to train our group with a boss and his many adds while we were fighting another. Back then, you dropped more if you died by a mob, so he happily gathered drops from all of us; I lost two pieces of jewelry, a piece of armor, and a weapon there -- all top equipment. Never really recovered from that blow.
Patrick Mackey (@mackeypb): I'm going to be playing World of Tanks this weekend, some Gratuitous Space Battles, and of course, StarCraft II. My pen and paper game is resuming after a several-week hiatus, and my players are investigating the mysterious disappearance of a local hero.
The most expensive thing I lost in an MMO... well... I am going to abstain from answering this question.
Ryan Greene (@thatgaynerd): I just hit hour 90 on Dragon Quest IX, so I guess I'll be working on hour 100 or so this weekend. I'm also seeing Scott Pilgrim tonight, because midnight showings of nerdy movies are always the most fun! Beyond that, I hope to spend many more hours at the beach.
Meanwhile, I think I once lost everything on my original EverQuest monk, Batroc Zeleaper, many years ago when I failed to retrieve his corpse in time. But as I never really had any valuable gear in that game, the loss wasn't that bad!
Shawn Schuster (@SSchuster): This week I've been playing around with Wizard101 for the first time and really enjoying how unique it is. Other than that, it's Fallen Earth, World of Tanks and Champions Online.
The most expensive thing I ever lost may have been a Survivalist Dune Buggy key in Fallen Earth, due to a glitch. The key turned into a flak jacket in my inventory, for some odd reason. Luckily, their customer support fixed things quickly, so I didn't even technically lose it.
Seraphina Brennan (@sera_brennan): I'm going to go watch the best "video game" of them all this weekend: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World! Beyond that, it's another weekend of private playtesting for Wildfire Industries, so I'm pretty excited about that. Did I mention that people can also now drop their e-mails off with me, to sign up for testing the RPG when it goes into public alpha? Well, if I didn't I guess I just mentioned it now. Yay.
As for the bonus question: The most expensive thing I ever lost in an MMO? Back during The Matrix Online, I accidentally lost my copy of Neo's Insight from the game's first live event. That event was (obviously) never repeated, and Neo's Insight granted a buff of 4% Toughness that would stack with everything else you had. Luckily I had The Merovingian's Boon, which did the same thing, but I could have kicked myself for losing a copy of a very, very rare item that was never handed out ever again.
The weekend is the perfect time to kick back, relax and enjoy some time in-game. Wherever your gametime takes you, let us know in the comments what you're playing this weekend!
