Little bit of history

I woke up one early Summer day, in June, the 6th as I recall. I rolled out of bed, jumped in the shower, and found my Dad sitting out in my Mother's van waiting on me to go to Walmart with him. It was the year 2001, I still remember my Dad's excitement for the release of a game called World War II online. It was strange because my Dad had never been excited about any other game release, nor would he ever be excited for another. You see, my Dad was a business man turned history teacher. He owned his own restaurant for much of my young life, he struggled to keep food on the table while he worked and went to school for his teaching degree. History is really the only hobby he had at the time. Everything revolved around his degree, and for that level of intensity for him to be excited about a game, was thrilling to me.

We headed out that morning to purchase a game. That's a strange concept these days for kids. Now you can just visit a website, enter some credit card information, buy any game you want, and download it. It's even getting now where console kids don't have to leave their houses for a game. When you think back to the long-long ago, to the before time, you need to realize how far we have come. The other day I was reading about how a part of cannabis called (CBD) can heal people with Tonic-Clonic seizures. This treatment was unheard of 20 years ago because of fear. We live in a technology world. Every day, that old saying "Technology ain't what it use to be," is growing ever more clear.

World War II Online's release, was the last time I had played a game for 15 hours straight with no breaks. Until this weekend that is. Although I have had my moments of game marathons, I have always taken a break in between raids, or in between PVP matches. Sunday morning at 5:51am, I sat down to play Elder Scrolls Online, when I stood back up, it was 4:32pm. I had to get some laundry done for work the next day, so I took advantage of that fact, filled my water, and grabbed a few pizza rolls for the road. I sat back down at 5:00pm and played again until about 10:00pm or a little after.

By the time I was done playing for the evening, my back, elbows, butt, hands, feet, neck, all ached, as if I were the one actually swinging the sword, and not my character. I had truly been to battle, rode a horse, hopped off the horse, jumped back on the horse, sometimes involuntarily. I had to decipher German phrases. I had to recall beta experiences to make it through a few quests that were in German too. I grouped, I died, I crafted, I explored. It was a full day. I did find some money loopholes, and I plan to experiment more with those when I reach max level.

I guess you could say I had the full experience. Though, I did not have the full 44 hour experience like some of my apparently unemployed friends did. How those guys made it 44 hours to level 50, without an IV of Red-Bull I will never understand. They must be a lot younger, and must have a lot better computer chair than I.

My experience was good. Like with many other games bugs are many at launch. The game doesn't officially launch until the 4th, so there is still time to hammer out those broken quests, and fix the secondary weapon bugs, where you switch to the other weapon involuntarily in the middle of a fight. There is still time! Right Right!

I leave you now with only one phrase.

As the late, Vipper von Vipperson would say, "Never go full carrot."

-CB

What to Watch For

ESO is soon to launch into Pre-Release in just under 12 hours. We are all going into this thinking we know how we want to play. Whether we want to skip dialogue, or listen/read to every sentence an NPC has to say. Or whether we want to get into PvP as soon as possible, or explore the PvE content as much as we can. Thinking you'll be a crafter? You'll probably be pulled into a different direction. Even your play style for your class. Throughout the PTS beta, nearly every of my preconceived notions on how I want to play has changed.

As skill information leaked (prior to me joining the beta), I made what I thought was going to be an epic build as a sorcerer wearing medium armor and using a two-handed sword. I carefully balanced magicka and stamina usage, as well as balanced out the skills on my weapon swaps. I stuck to this build as long as I could, and eventually figured out that it was going nowhere. After seeking out the advice of others on how my class could beat boss Mannimarco (who has since been nerfed) I realized I had gone in such a direction that my character could be much, much better. After some tweaking, adopting as much advice into my build as I could, I was able to beat Mannimarco. While this seems to have nothing to do with the game economy or making gold, there is a lesson to this story. The lessen is that the wisdom of the experienced can prove to be invaluable. All you have to do is listen.

(This was my character a few hours after fighting Mannimarco and had time for a breather, and the time to take a selfie evidently)

Time is a precious thing. We here at Tamriel Gold Goblin have been saying for ages how time is money. Truth is, money is money. Time is just another currency that we take to the bank and exchange for money (gold). Saving time doesn't always mean saving money. First, you need to spend time learning and understanding before you get the best exchange rate of time for money (gold). Not everything can be read online, some things need to be experienced.

Between level 1 and level 10 I found I was mismatching gear because that is just what I was picking up. If you know what kind of gear you want (light, medium, heavy, or a combination), ask your guildmates and party members to keep an eye out. The same goes for weapons, and this advice isn't limited to levels 1 through 10. If you can get gear for free, perfect. If you can get gear without you or a friend paying a guild store fee, awesome. It's a win-win. Plus, come launch and pre-launch, how many guild stores will you even have access to? Not many.

"Vendor Trash" is typically considered common gear that isn't worth taking the time to sell to players. This is such a dirty word on new servers and for new characters. On the last character I created, I was still using level 4 gear on a level 10 character. Why? Because I hadn't come across anything better. Loot tables may not always be balanced, and nothing is guaranteed. Everyone needs better gear, even what others may consider to be trash. Find something you think is useless to your build? Post it in party and guild chat. If someone wants it, sell it to them for a bit more than the vendor would offer. They get gear, you get gold.

There are also a number of items you will NOT want to vendor. Some of the immediate ones I can think of are Racial Motif Books, Soul Gems, Green, Blue, Purple, and Yellow crafting materials, Blue, Purple, and Yellow Provisioning recipes, Racial Style crafting materials, and treasure maps. Each have their own value, even if its only that you'll end up buying them at some point. Racial Motif Books and their crafting materials are super important to anyone crafting weapons or armor. The books unlock styles, and the materials are used for that respective style. The rarer the style, the rarer the material. The colored crafting materials and recipes are also harder to come by, and are essential for top of the line gear. Soul Gems go like hotcakes in PvP. If you haven't heard, these are needed to resurrect yourself and others in both PvP and PvE. Most bosses in group dungeons prevent you from resurrecting yourself, so it would be nice if your group mates had a few to spare.

So, you think you know what craft you want to do (or have decided not to craft anything). Well, you're wrong. Even if you're already in a guild that has all the crafts covered by various players, you're going to want to gather materials for a craft you're not doing. Namely Alchemy and Provisioning materials. These are consumables that restore resources and temporarily enhance your character. While potions and food drop and can be bought from NPCs, the crafted quality is superior to any drop or vendor item. Some Alchemy and Provisioning materials are rarer than others, and all recipes call for specific ingredients. Anyone crafting these items will always have a shortage of certain ingredients. By picking these up from level 1, you will (eventually) find someone who wants to buy them, or find a crafter that can use them to make you something you want.

In terms of which armor to use, or to craft, there are a few things you should consider (or reconsider). Light armor is designed for magic users, medium designed for stealth, and heavy for tanks. Be sure of which you want to use. Making the crafting switch could cost you months of time in researching traits, and tons of gold in new crafting materials. If you aren't 100% sure (pretty much anyone who wasn't playing PTS in my opinion) then keep your crafts available by researching some of everything. Eventually you may want to respec your skill points towards a different craft. And so if you research some other gear, the time sink will be lessened. There is the trade off of wasting time and energy in performing the research. In my opinion though, it is worth it, even if you think you are 100% sure of what craft you want to focus on. In terms of using armor though, I recommend going all in on what you think is best. Switching what armor you use is a relatively painful process.

Prioritize your expenses. The main things you will need to save gold for are bag/inventory upgrades, and buying a horse. At some point you may also want to re-spec your character. These are the three big sinks of gold. Start saving your septims, and decide which you are saving for. If you have the Imperial Edition, you start with a basic horse. There are even better horses though, and you are allowed to have more than one. I myself would save that even better horse for late game. A budget would also help to manage things like wayshrine fees and vendor purchases. Setting a budget on things like these will help reduce your spending and help you save for those major purchases.

And finally, the most important tip I can give you for your first character: Loot Everything. Especially in the tutorial areas of Cold Harbour. Cold Harbour can leave your character fully equipped and enough gold to upgrade further as soon as you leave. You'll also learn which types of containers provide which kinds of loot, and begin to recognize them from a distance.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to head over to the convenience store to stock up on supplies, attend a guild meeting, finish upgrading my computer, then take a nap before I hop on ESO tomorrow. I hope to see you all in game.