All-in-all, this has been a very good weekend. Damien came down on Friday to stay for the weekend. We ate at Outback and hit Circuit City, then came back here and played video games. Saturday was fairly busy. Erin defended her thesis (me, Damien, the twins, and Jamie were in attendance) then we hit Moggers (I love Moggers) with her committee. The age and background differences lead to a lot of interesting conversation. After that, Damien, the wife and I ran back to the apartment, she took a nap and me and Damien messed around on the computers some more. Around 3:30 we bolted for the art show, more on that in a minute. We were there until a little after 5 when the awards were given out. We then rushed home for Dungeons and Dragons. Damien opted to play, which kinda surprised me. The entire gang was there, all seven of them, so the addition of Damien and everyone actually playing, left us with little space at the table. We played until around 3:30am...3 people had dropped off at various times through the evening. There was Taco Bell in there somewhere, it was good and the world rejoiced. Then sleep. Sunday, Damien finally convinced me to try World of Warcraft, more later...or lower. We had Footers and watched Cool Hand Luke (Lushbaugh let me borrow it). Good food and a great classic. Damien left shortly after it finished, around 5:30-6:00. Me and Erin have been playing EverQuest since. Together we raised 15 levels between 3 characters so it was fairly productive. She is off to bed now, and I you are reading what I did after that. :)
There was really not a lot of art there, but the majority of what was there was quality work. All five of the pieces I submitted made it to the show, which kinda suprised me. I pulled 2 seconds, one in Photoshop and the other in Illustrator. Without being too arrogant, I honestly think I should have pulled the first in Illustrator. The guy who one had a lot of really great work, but I don'think his Illustrator project was one of them. I think he won out over me possibly because this is his last time competing, or because the rest of his work was really good and he was entering for Best of Show. I am not pissed or bitter or anything, just a little dissappointed.
World of Warcraft... I still don't know what to think about this game. As far as looks go, it was far more graphically advanced than EverQuest as a whole (last few expansions could rival it), above StarWars Galaxies (which was really nice for the time but it is past its time), and maybe slightly above EverQuest 2 (at least what I remember of it). I was dissappointed at the real world feel of it. Everything seemed bright and shiney to me, and the realism factor was about three steps above a sub-par anime . Meaning, everything fit together really well and things existing in the environment seemed to belong in the environment, but I also don't think that Invader Zim would have looked too out of place running around with Gir planning really dumb take over the world ideas. Now don't get me wrong, I like cartoons. Invader Zim happens to be one of my favorites, we own all the episodes on DVD and have a plush Gir toy. But it just seemed off to me. EverQuest 2 did not sit well with me for exactly the same reason. The character models also left a lot to be desired. When I created my warlock, I could not help but get flashbacks to the first time I played Morrowind. Here I was playing what was supposed to be one of the better games out there, and the character models seemed subpar to the rest of the environment. The play was simple enough to grasp. I know it will get more complex as the character progresses, but I did not get that initial steep learning curve to start play, which is always nice. I pity people who start EverQuest now after 10 expansions, way too much to learn. Of course, this will probably change after a few expansions, but that is very hard to get around. I also like the fact that the leveling could done with the classic grind, but they also reward you well for quests with some quests being worth while for the experience alone. Being away from a really good macro system (SWG), it was also nice to see one in this WoW. I also like the idea (idea becaue I have not played with it) of the modules system. It is a step above and beyond what you can do in either EQ and if I where to pick the game up I would really get into that.
All-in-all it has just made me want to play EverQuest more. I am glad I demoed WoW. At least now I can see why people would want to play it, before the only thing that looked appealing was the the module system. I wish they would add something like that to EQ. But I don't think just don't see me ever taking WoW seriously enough to jump on board. I do still have 9 days of my demo to see, but with every moment playing it making me want to play EverQuest, I just don't see that meaning anything.
