Benie's Games Blog

I have had it with how hard Wildstar has gotten on me. It’s down right ridiculous now. And.. well, I felt it was time to finally swallow my pride and do what I’ve been avoiding for many, many years of playing an MMORPG; joining a Guild.

I went to Illium, and to the Guild Register (as I was told this is also where you go to join a Guild) and asked. Immediately I got a PM telling me about how good their Guild is. And that’s when I was having second thoughts. This felt so pathetic and low, especially asking people “how do I play my class” and not taking their advice, as it requires me to fucking learn. I just want to play the damn game!! If I wanted to learn, I would go back to school!

Finally, though… I decided now is the time to hang up my soloing crown and join the guild “Beyond the Event Horizon”. It’s a nice name, I’ll give it that. And they seem to have a well-structured Guild (even giving me buffs).
Most of them seem friendly and eager to help, which is always good. Others… well. Meh. Whatever. I didn’t come here to judge people, I came because I’m fucking desperate and need help. I really do. And I felt it was better off to join a Guild than to ask a bunch of random people in Zone Chat. This isn’t like Guild Wars 2, where I was able to receive help without needing a guild.

This guild also does raiding, PvP, and stuff like that. So I got a “jack of all trades” guild. However, I feel I can’t always rely on them to help me level. I wanted to join a ‘social leveling Guild’ that would also help newbies. But I feel I should stay here, and just hope for the best. Maybe we’ll get along… or they’ll kick me out because they can’t stand my guts.

I joined their forum too, and signed an application to the ‘best’ of my abilities. Though it was more in the lines of “Yeah, I’m a soloer”. They claim nothing will happen to my status. I can only see what happens. Personally, I feel they should kick me out due to using the word “desperate” a lot. They’re going to feel… used. :/
But they wanted me to be honest. And honest I was. If I stay in their guild, then that’s good. If I find myself not in it when I log in… then I will know what happened and not even bother questioning them.

If the second thing happens, I may just consider quitting Wildstar and going back to Guild Wars 2 (or maybe even ESO if I get the issue fixed). It’s just too difficult on me. I want something that won’t fucking punish me for sucking at trying to kill something.

Server Maintenance (Wildstar too does it)
First server maintenance since I joined Wildstar. My Dominion Stalker is now Level 18, becoming my new ‘main'(which is a first for me. Will explain this later). Was doing a quest involving killing Exiles when I got this strange popup. I at first thought “Uhhhhh… did I do something wrong?” when I saw the title about ‘Message from Wildstar’. It was a notice, warning me of maintenance in the next 30 minutes. Also said it would be done in three hours.
So I’m thinking “OK, three hou– wait.. 30 MINUTES FROM NOW?!?!”, which is 3am my time. Wow, that’s early for maintenance! Here Blizzard waits until 7-8am and does it.

So I had 30 minutes to wrap things up, and I tried my best. It became 15 minutes and I got another message. Finally getting everything done within a 3rd 5 minute warning message (just enough to teleport back to my house).

Within 3:02am, I lost my connection to the server. Yet on the launcher, it shows the servers are still online. Odd.

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My thoughts on Illium(and meeting the Dominion)
To “serve the Dominion without question” makes me feel I joined the Horde in WoW. Though they don’t seem like a bunch of bloodthirsty savages.. well, except for Mondo Zex (who is a Chua, but he’s just insane). I still like him though. He’s hilarious at times.
The Dominion see Nexus being their “birthright” and stuff like that. But whatever, I’ll take their awesome capital city over the Exiles’ anyday. The city of Illium looks streamlined, freakin’ beautiful and easy to navigate. So.. SO much better than all the Horde cities combined (even the Blood Elf capital city). It actually makes me feel proud to serve the Dominion.
It doesn’t feel intimidating with big ass buildings and shit. I just really like the feeling of it. It makes me feel I’m at peace (that and the major lack of players that play Dominion).
Even the Player Housing is different (different default music).

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‘Deathclaws Pad’
I actually did my best to look away from the whole “gold sink” statement I made in one of my previous blogs. I’ve also learned how to place objects. Here I’ve been thinking I had to left click it in the Crate. Instead it’s right click. Then when placed where I want, I go back to the Crate and hit the green Place button.
Also the Edit Mode basically allows you to move/remove/resize/rotate existing objects that you have placed. Very cool.

Speaking of such, I’ve actually did a lot of work on my ‘Home of The Future'(what it’s called). Every plot is filled with a random thing. I even got my own personal crafting station. So really, it isn’t really much of a “money sink” as I thought. Especially when I can get a 24 hour buff that not only increases the amount of XP I gain, but how much money. I went from having no gold to 15g in just a few levels.
So yeah. The player housing feature is really, really cool.

And I feel I barely even scratched the surface of its potential on how useful it’ll be for me.

(Warning, overuse of the word “sick” detected in this post)
Oh look, another “WoD sucks” post. Except this one is quite sick for me to write. This is another HeelvsBabyface video, of his “AZ CHATS” thing. It’s titled “Is WoD actually a HUGE success ??”

So anyway, his discussion was about how some still hate Blizzard and WoD and stuff (and hopefully about how much money they’ve lost from our subscriptions).
The sad part… they are NOT hurting. Not even the fucking slightest. How? Those WoW Tokens. Even though they cost more than a subscription, Blizzard.. being the intelligent bastards they are, have figured out people will break down and buy these game tokens!

It’s so simple too. Say… John(generic name FTW) was tired of paying for the game, yet he remembers that he has a ton of gold (from soloing dungeons/raiding/being successful in the AH, etc…). John ponders and is all “You know, why do I have to pay for a subscription, when I can use the gold I have to pay for it on the Auction House and play for free?!”
John still needs a subscription, but he has discovered the WoW Token allows him to not have to pay his normal $15/mo bill. He can literally play for free.

Yet… why should I care? If people, like John, want to play the game, that keeps the game living longer, right? But what they don’t tell you, someone else is paying real money for those WoW Tokens and throwing them on the Auction House. So our friend John, can play for free. Now, do you see why this is evil?
Also, it’s giving Blizzard the green light to continue making sub-standard content. And I personally feel we should never give in to this kind of evil (yet also brilliant at the same time) business practice that they’re doing!

Granted… I almost did. 😛 See, Bellular had this video about the Garrison and the followers, then mentioned how you can get the ‘Stay Awhile and Listen’ achievement on multiple chars to get the Tier 3 Inn.
Having wanted to get that tier for quite sometime, I was REALLY tempted to get a WoW Token. The very thought of playing for free, I really liked. Yet as I said above, it’s only technically free as someone else bought it for you, for more money than a subscription.

Heelz also said in the video, that the Second Quarter earnings will be coming in a couple of weeks. And from what he found out, they look promising(to Blizzard). He predicts subscriptions are actually going to rise(due to the WoW Token). He also says that Activision-Blizzard is going to be making a shit-ton of money. He mentioned about them getting “bumper profits”. This is above their expectations of around 128.6%.
And this money isn’t just from WoW, but from their other games (Hearthstone, Heroes of The Storm, Starcraft), and don’t forget Overwatch (the game I never got to test).

What’s fucking worse, and this makes me the most sick. They.. LOVE soloers. Now how is that “worse”, you ask? It’s the fact how easy it is to make gold from soloing dungeons, raids, and doing soloable content such as sending followers on missions. You can make at least 5-7k a week by doing that. I have proved it could be done. And Blizzard, loves this. Because they know, people are going to use that gold to buy these fucking WoW Tokens on the AH to keep their subscriptions going!
They’re literally using what the #1 thing that I loved doing in WoW(soloing old content), to make a profit… and they’re getting away with it! Fucking EVIL! D:<

This is an update in the pursuit of getting my money back. I got a few emails from ESO, one to send the Game Consultant Report, and I’ll be “sent to a more advanced team to look into the problem”.
Why do I have to do it again? They should have the report when I originally made the ticket. So it forced me to reinstall. But this time I took the time to fully upgrade my GPU drivers (there was an update I had missed), and I also told it to install DirectX and Visual C++ 2010(the very thing plaguing me with Skyrim).

Got it done while I was playing Wildstar. Tried to launch, once again that ‘granny2.dll’ is missing. So I re-submitted the report.
After I got done, I saw another email from them. Someone named Brad helping me. He’s telling me to run this “MSinfo” program that would help to determine any system files that could be missing. So I got that done. Hopefully this is a step in the right direction.

Green Man Gaming on the other hand… I’m really doubting I’ll ever get my $15 back. They responded in a way of saying “Well if you’re not having an issue with the key, you’re stuck with the game! Please tell us if there’s anything else you need.”
I… I couldn’t believe that response. Basically they told me to just keep talking to their(ESO) tech support. Just wow. This is truly going to be the last game I buy from them.
I did respond, saying “isn’t that a bit bias?” (as in only to give a refund if the key is bad). I even did an entitled “I’m an unhappy customer, I feel I demand a refund!” response (just didn’t phrase it like that).
I also asked if maybe this is something I may had overlooked with their strict Refund Policy. They seem to really, REALLY hate handing out refunds. Maybe because too many people take advantage of them and they’re losing money over it. I dunno.

If this all boils down to being stuck with a game I just can’t play (and getting no refund), then… I dunno. Then I’m fucking stuck with it! There’s no other option! It has literally suffered the same fate as Skyrim (as being unplayable).
All I can really do is pray ESO’s Tech Support manages to help me and get this apparent missing .dll, so I can fucking play their game. But even that, I’m having my doubts.

What I’m actually worried about, is both Green Man Gaming and ESO are able to help me nearly at the same time. I would have to choose; $15 back, or playing ESO

I don’t know what it is, but I can’t seem to find any fun or joy when questing in Wildstar. There’s just something about it that I just can’t put my finger on.
Maybe it’s the fact I still can’t read the freakin’ quest text, or the game’s questing really is a bore.

But I think it’s the way questing is done. It seems similar to the way Guild Wars 2 does it; it uses a bar and a percentage. Plus, combat just seems.. a bore. There’s no really exciting combat moves. And it feels like me just spamming a few buttons until the mob dies.
Having a mob explode into chunks can be somewhat satisfying. But for the Warrior, there’s no *CLANG* sound when getting a Crit. Again, it feels… dull.

The second thing I find boring (and also irritating) is the gear system. At the very start, upgrades are good. But as you progress (even when getting off the ship), you’ll run into issues where you have to literally make a choice on what is more important, such as a shield or more Assault power. Or having no Assault power and go with Crit.
I was told how gearing doesn’t matter until you hit 50. Then why does every single one of my chars feel.. weak once hitting Level 10 and past it? I feel like I’ll never get to 50 at this rate, due to either falling asleep due to how boring the combat system is, fed up with these constant “bad” gear upgrades, or forced to run away due to my health.

At Level 13, it actually gets really hard for me. This is when I constantly mistake a Prime mob for a regular one. Primes are almost impossible to solo (especially ones that require a 5-man group). Usually, they will kick your ass. But when in a dimly-lit area(like a cave), for myself it’s quite hard to make out the red glow of a Prime.

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EDIT: Decided to nuke my Warrior and go with a Stalker. So far… he is freakin’ awesome. His name? Deathclaw Spinehorn. My Warrior was named Deathclaw, but this guy is perfect for that name. Nothing like going all Wolverine on one’s ass. And being a Draken is a perfect race for it.
What I love about the class isn’t just the quick DPS, but his Backstab ability. Some mobs, when done at a certain angle, is an insta-kill. I can take out several mobs that are close together with this attack. Holy shit that’s OP!! I LOVE IT!! 😀

He’s Level 7 as I write this edit, which is older than my Warrior. My ‘main’, Benie theNOOb, holds the title of highest char (that I own) at Level 15.

They say that if you lose one sense(like the feeling of my left hand, where I can’t type as well), your other senses are more sharp. And mine is my impatience… wait, that’s not a sense? DAMNIT!! I wanted to use that!

Anyway, their tech support finally responded with very “useful” advice. Wanna hear it? Too bad, you’re going to. They said to check if I have all updates, and my GPU drivers are updated. That is helpful, IF my issue was that. And so they told me to “contact Windows”.

They’re literally ‘handing over’ the tech support I’m supposed to be receiving from them, to an even shittier tech support company. See, I was on the verge of cussing them out. They can’t debug their own game, so they tell me to tell Windows. That is just… I can’t think of a word. There is no word beyond “retarded” that would fit them. Maybe the word is unknown.

But I kept my cool, and basically said ‘YOU ASSHOLES!! I WANT TO PLAY NOW!”.. no, I didn’t say that. What I said was basically asking them to please do something. I told them that I have all Windows updates and GPU drivers are fully updated. And also to “respond quickly”.
I actually hope they respond faster than Green Man Gaming. I would really like to tell them to cancel the refund request. But if I continue to get stupid emails like that, they’ll leave me no choice but to proceed with getting my $15 back.
But you’re probably saying to yourself “I wouldn’t give them the chance, my opinion” and I would understand that. But the game looks too awesome to just let go. Plus.. that first person view, man! It makes me feel like I’m going to be playing a Multiplayer version of Skyrim.

Mainly, I hope (and pray) this would finally be a non-crashing Elder Scrolls game with those graphics. But if I see that annoying C++ error again in this? Hope not to.

Really can’t believe this mess, though. For the first time, I see this game so freakin’ cheap. That alone should had raised red flags (even though Green Man Gaming has nothing to do with ESO).

First off, I’m quite injured IRL since yesterday evening. Was doing my normal walk and I tripped and fell on the sidewalk. Got pretty scraped up. Quite painful. But I’ll believe I’ll be OK. I can still type, but very slowly.

But despite my injuries, I managed to get to Level 15. Haven’t bought a mount yet, as .. well, I have the hoverboard. I also got my Player Housing again. Something that’s really bugged me, is the fact I have to spend a shit-ton of gold to replace the empty lot where the house will be.
I asked in the active Zone chat of why is this a thing. Was told “You don’t HAVE to replace it”. The trick is, and I’m shocked but also a bit ticked, that I can literally build my own custom-made house on that plot.
This is very awesome, but it’s also a gold sink. Hell, the entire thing is. Everything’s so expensive. But this is why they literally throw money in your face when leveling.

The only good thing about this whole Player Housing thing, is it’s all optional. Though you do get special buffs for having nice furniture and stuff. But… ehh. Don’t care.

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In other news, Green Man Gaming finally responded to my request… only to completely misread my ticket completely (thinking I had an issue with the key). I had to explain that it’s not the key, it’s ESO. I tried to explain in more detail of what happened. Hopefully this time, they get what I’m saying.
I also hope I don’t have to wait another two days for a response.

And free playtime ’till August 30th! Don’t even have to set up a subscription service. I was hoping I could get a better deal if I went with the Standard edition and got this upgrade, but the price difference is the same as the difference between the Standard and Deluxe editions ($16.05). So no cost-cutting for me, sadly. :/

ESO’s Tech Support has also responded (around 6:30 in the morning)… but a bit too late. However, I’m still waiting for Green Man Gaming to get back to me of that ticket to get my $15 back. I’m starting to get worried that I may not get a refund due to the sale expiring.
Due to this… I.. might give ESO another chance. Since the money has been spent (and I can’t close the account).
I’ve responded, asking “Why should I give you guys another chance?”, telling them how I felt. Yet also asking why was I missing the .dll, when I wasn’t. Mmmm.. dunno. Maybe ESO might be possible for me after all.

Anyway, enough of ESO. You’re here because I got the Deluxe edition. I have access to all chat channels now. And with the Deluxe Edition, I got the added ‘bells and whistles’… mainly I wanted the hoverboard. 😛

I had to ask several times, how do you go about claiming the rewards. I had thought I have to find a mailbox (as in WoW, rewards are sent like that). Finally I got my answer to check my account thingy, and there it was (with the other things I got). Was having a bit of an issue with claiming the hoverboard.
Basically, it’s similar to Guild Wars 2 (in terms of the rewards). Everything I got is bound to one character and that’s it.

Also, I deleted my char (my first one). And he’s sitting there crying because I’m about to delete him. I’m all “Don’t cry you big baby, I’m going to recreate you!” In the character select screen, I discovered I could had picked my race/class/path even in the Free Trial. It’s not like WoW and Guild Wars 2, where there’s class options on the right.
Here, there’s a button where it shows “Race”, “Class” and “Path” respectively. You click on them, and here you can select who you wanna be. Clever. So I chose once again to be a Human. But an Engineer with the Science path (as it would make sense as an Engineer).
I didn’t like the Explorer path. Felt too much like Guild Wars 2’s Vista bullshit. Jumping puzzles are not for me. I could had picked the Assassination path, but I felt that would be too harsh on my DPS.

The Engineer is kind of like a Ranger or Hunter, having pets (robots) that can help them. However, not always. My bots don’t seem to hold aggro as much as I want, forcing mobs to be in my face constantly. Don’t like that. However, I’ve been able to take down Elites (“Superiors” in this game) using the power of my bots (as they do pull the aggro off for awhile).
Also, I’m not in the same place as I was when I left the Arkship. It doesn’t matter, though. Just different quests and a different environment.

What a GREAT way to start the game.. more like being unable to launch due to a missing .dll. The file in question is ‘granny2.dll’. I looked around and saw there’s a way to repair. So I ran it, tried again, and again the .dll is missing came up.
I went into the folder it’s supposed to be in, and saw the file. It was the same size from the website I saw. So there should be nothing wrong.
I tried deleting it, and running the repair again. It re-added the file. Launched.. SAME FUCKING ERROR!!!

What the hell is this “granny2.dll” file anyway? From what I read, the game uses a game engine called “Granny 3D”. That sounds so… old. So I’m forced to use the game’s tech support. Their only option to get help, is emailing. No phone number. No live chat. Just email. Boy, did I really scrape the bottom of the barrel here.

I’m forced to wait a day until they respond, with a broken game. This is just lovely. Just lovely. I wonder what the outcome will be. But I do know this. If it involves me having to reinstall again, I will do it. But if that file is missing again… I’m getting my $15 back from Green Man Gaming. Not paying for a broken, confused launcher.
I’ll instead buy Wildstar.

EDIT: Ohh… this just got better. I thought of asking my issue on the forum. Login seems to be different here. So I tried to register. It’s asking for an Invitation Code. What the fuck? I need an invitation… to join a forum. Seriously? I was not even given a code to join the forum when I set up my account.
I’m about ready to say “fuck this” and get my money back!

EDIT2: I’ve decided. Fuck this shit! I don’t see an option to disable my account, so I’ll just let that sit there. I have uninstalled the game, and in the process of (hopefully) getting my $15 back (assumed I have to make a ticket with them).
If I don’t get my $15 back, it will be the last game I buy from Green Man Gaming.

Still waiting for them to respond to my ticket. It’s been two hours. I have a feeling this is going to take up to three days until I get a response.
Anyway, I wanted to take this time to say I actually feel more upset than pissed. I was so hoping this thing would be my kind of MMO (due to it having all of Tamriel in it, and the awesome First Person camera). This could had been the ultimate ‘Single Player game’ for me. It just seems it wasn’t meant to be.
Maybe it’s best (don’t see how though).

The afternoon has come, and I began setting up my account. Immediately I was getting an issue of setting up my display name. As soon as I set it and went to check if it’s available, the page goes back to the login page everytime. Was about ready to go complain, but I kept playing with it. Finally I got it.

Being forced to enter my birthday in the European format to JUST freakin’ login was a bit of a pain. Got the code in from Green Man Gaming with no problem, and I’m now downloading. VERY slow compared to Wildstar. It’s 32GB.
Now this isn’t what worries me. There’s three things that do.
— First thing, had just got my account setup and email authorized. They still have their subscription service (called their ‘ESO Plus’ option). It said how you’ll “have access to expansions” if you go subscription. That alone infuriates me.
— Second thing, when it said I could get the client from my control panel. I do, and below it.., it showed “The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited Public Test Server“. I see how to ‘log into the PTR’. It felt as if… this is my only option to play. Thank goodness it’s not, and it’s just an optional thing.
— Third and forth things, these are on the launcher. I saw ‘Experience Boosters Now Available’. *facepalm* Pay to fucking Win? Really? Feel it may be soon time for a refund of that $15, due to that.
Checking it out, it’s part of their ‘Crown’ system. Basically, similar to the Gems in Guild Wars 2(except on the website and not ingame). Yet it also claims “ESO Plus™ members receive a monthly allotment of Crowns”. And since this ‘ESO Plus’ thing costs money…
Also, there was this ‘Train your mount’ screen. Does this mean all FTP mounts are going to go the speed of snails, while someone that has ESO Plus, runs by me like a fucking racecar while on a horse?

Why… does “Free To Play” mean “Make awesome things cost a shit ton of money” to developers?! Why? Why must there be greed in this world? All it does is hurt, not help.
Well, I’ll see what other ways they’re blocking fun (as it doesn’t cost money) in about… 15 or so hours (if this download ever fucking gets done).
Also, if you close out the client and bring it back up, it has to verify. And this takes time as well. So I would say this download would possibly be done by sometime near the end of the day. It feels like I’m downloading GTA V again.

EDIT: Holy shit it’s done! At around 34%, it suddenly went really fast to about 67%. Just did my walk, came home and it’s sitting at 100%. Cool! Time to see what this game is like in FTP.
Be making another post of my initial thoughts, like character creation and stuff (once I get done talking HTML and the future of these blogs with angry).