Another Wasted Day

I think that part of waiting for a highly anticipated game, is the shear boredom of things. I have sunk low in troubled times such as these. There are only so many ways a gamer can keep himself or herself occupied before a big game release. Let's list a few shall we?

• Play another game.

Sometimes this one helps. It keeps your mind off the fact, you are still waiting for your MMO or new game to arrive. Picking another game similar to the one you are preparing to play is the best idea. It allows you to up your skills before release. More or less, it keeps you occupied in gaming and nothing else. Including keeping you away from unnecessary things like cleaning your room / house, doing laundry, or replacing the weather stripping on your back door because the rainwater from the no gutter system off your poorly built house is leaking in and destroying your door and floor.

• Endurance training

Old people, like myself and a few others that fancy themselves readers of blogs such as this one, prefer endurance training. We aren't young anymore, and quite frankly, we cannot stay up past 12am. For that matter I pulled a muscle this morning putting on a sock. So we must train ourselves to be able to keep up with you young whippersnappers. It's not exactly the easiest thing to do considering games don't captivate us as well as they used to. We have to find a totally addictive game or an activity that keeps us staying up past our pill / bed time.

• Character Creation

Before we launch full steam ahead, a good majority of us, will begin to create our characters in our minds. We will even have names picked out, so that we aren't searching randomly for a named item on our desks at launch time. (I literally have a character on WoW named Aqualibrium for that very reason.) We will make sure we have made a final decision on whether our characters will be Female or Male. We will decide if we want to start as Argonians or Redguards. We will write long roleplaying stories on our characters. We will be prepared.

• Guilds

For the more nerdy of people, we will find other people to align with. This is a tricky one. Since there is no current game to play, boredom runs rampant. I have seen only a few guilds this go around that have not 100% went to the dark side. I joined a guild before the launch of SWTOR and they were hardcore. As memory serves, they kicked me out, because I said if SWTOR releases on Thanksgiving day, I would spend my free time watching football.  I guess I got kicked out for having a life? No idea..

• Forums

Joining Forums is the greatest thing you can do. Forums often times have a lot of news and like-minded people talking about the game you are about to play. They even have some developers come in and do private interviews which is kind of cool. As long as the information doesn't violate the NDA, most websites, including this one, will discuss things from videos and other official sources. Forums are a great source of information, and should never be overlooked. I like Enjin's forum over others because its straight and to the point. You don't have to wade through a trough of useless garbage to read what you want to read.

• Writing

Sometimes you just feel like writing. I like writing because it is a form of stress relief. With a generous amount of time, you can have a plethora of information waiting for you at launch. Dust off that old Microsoft Word program you got back when you were flunking out of college, playing video games instead of going to class, and write something useful. Or don't and spend your time playing internet spades with a guy that never covers your nils! Either way, enjoy yourself before launch. Be sure to friend me on Enjin, and we shall play, oh yes. We shall.

(Original Version on ElderScrollsForum.com)
Thanks
-CB

5 Possible Events After Launch

Based off the information we are given from the Elder Scrolls Online staff, we can expect a few spring up ideas that will make life a little easier in ESO. Here are 5 ideas you can expect to spring up at ESO Launch.

1. Trade Guilds - Players can join up to 5 guilds in ESO, this means you can almost guarantee to see some Trade Guilds to spring up, almost over night. These trade guilds will most certainly have a guild store, multiple members of all levels, and even though traders are not the most violent people in the world, they will have a PVP division as well. 

2. Mercenaries for Hire - With the need for trade guilds, I would expect to see mercenary groups spring up as well. These mercenary groups will most likely join trade guilds to maintain keeps, and without any doubt, get paid generously for their service and protection. 

3. Player Auctions - Yes, we will be kicking it old school. Several trade guilds will not be able to maintain a guild keep, hire mercenaries, or PVP. They will have to turn to alternative methods. In Ultima Online there was no Automated Auction House and no trade chat. If you wanted to sell your materials and items, you had 3 basic options. Place a vendor on your door step, sell your items in populated areas, or sell your items at one of the various player auction houses. I realize that the pampered players from WoW will find this a problem. Your old school players on the other hand, find it awesome and are eager for its arrival. 

4. Guild Politics - I would expect there to be some sort of player driven political system. Even now before launch, you have guild alliances springing up left and right. This will bring the political campaign to a start. I would even go so far as to see cross faction guild alliances as well. This is great for maintaining control of a keep, maintaining guild relations and such. What does it mean for traders? Opportunity. It gives them an opportunity to capitalize off of such politics. 

5. Spies - With politics, you will always have greed, deception, and spies. Spies can be agents, or double agents for that matter. It will take a unique player to pull this off. Given the information we have received about guilds, this is an extreme possibility. They will exist. So look out. 

Have something you want to add to the list? Leave a comment below. 

-CB

These 5 ideas are mere opinion, and are based off of information given from official sources.

Comments should follow the rules of the NDA. Any information using beta knowledge will be deleted.