Actually Elfson (my formerly lvl 18 bard) had a horrible weekend. I
looged on early Super Bowl Sunday, not having much to do before my
friend's anti-superbowl party.

About 1 bub above lvl 18, I have grown very tired of Oasis (It is the
easiest xp in the game, but gets real boring). I hit the friends list
and see an enchanter I like is in S karana. I've never gone there
(except to get to Paw) so I ask her whats up and if she wants her theme
song (our way of asking if she wants to group).

She says sure, so I fire up Selo's, hold my stick (errr drum) and run
off. AHHH... a bards life is good as I get there quite quickly (even
stopped to help three newbie groups on the way).

She binds me in arena, and leads me to the second most impressive
treehouse in Norrath. We are joined by a rogue and a druid. Intersting
group, nice balance if nothing else. (I am the lowest lvl, they are 19,
21,21). After a hour we ralize this area is WAYYYY too crowded, so we
decide to go give Guk a try. No one in the groups know the way but I
(calling on that old map I made for my troll's run from Grobb to Paw
back in April). Lake is no problem, even get the group all sing "Come
sail away" on the boat. (I love getting the messages to stop spamming
the /ooc channel). We are joined by a monk and shaman we know (the
druid and rogue are first time groupies for us).

Zone to Rathe mts. Load time is taking a while (Uhoh, thats not good).
Sound kicks in, I hear combat (ugh...) Screen appears with a named
cyclops. Before I can hit a key, "You have been slain by XXXXXXX.
Loading, please wait."

Two others in my group suffer the same fate. "Well at least Elfson can
run us back quickly, well sort of fast since he doesnt have a drum."
Rest of group doesnt know the way so they just hang out at the Rathe
zone. We arrive (safely this time). I lead them to the feerot zone
(Druid disbanded when she died to the cyclops, not a word said, with
only a few wrong turns (its been a while, shoot me!). In ferrot we
get seperated, but they all seem to know the way, so I just wait for
them near the Innothule zone. Being nervous about Bouncerz, I hit the
f9 a few times, zoom way out so I can see a good area me. Apparantly
bounerz can cast invis on themselves because I was being hit before he
appeared on my screen. Hit, Hit, Bash (stunned), Hit, Hit Hit.
"Loading, please wait"

Well at least I'm getting good at making this run... For some odd
reason the shaman deicdes to go scout Guk for himself and is slain
pretty deep in Upper Guk while I am running back (and didnt bind himself
outside Guk). He was a decent player and a nice guy, so I have no
complaints.

Finally in Guk (woohoo!!!). e find the scryer room empty and uncamped
(Lucky break for a change). I fire up Elemental Rhythms (no one in
group knows if elemental or purifying is better for the camp). The room
begins to respawn and we easily keep them all down (no scryer yet). A
troll and dwarf (red to me from equipment I'd guess warrior and cleric)
walk into room and look around, then leave (more on them later). We are
in the midst of a heated battle (Shin shaman and some gaz stuff, little
Elfy is taking a pretty hard beating, but the group is doing enough to
keep me alive). ALl of sudden troll and dwarf deposit about 5 more
frogs on our heads (we were on the altar fighting, not in the path of
someone trying to flee to zone).
"Loading, please wait."

Getting cocky running through the lake, I activate the bandit camp (all
green to me, but they manage to beat me down to a bubble of life before
I zone. Heal up at the Rathe zone, then zone into Feerot. Long load
time (not again!), I hear a weird sound, and as my screen comes up I am
treated to a scythe armed spectre swing his final shot at me.
"You have lost a level! Welcome to level 17. Loading, please wait."
At least I got to see spectre up close, they are pretty darn cool.

After another long run, I rejoin the group in Guk. Still in scryer room
(he was killed by a high level while they regrouped). Too many of them
spawn on us at once this time. We all die.
"Loading, please wait."

Zoning back into the Rathe Mt zone. I get the all too familar long load
time, sounds of combat, and screen comes up with real nasty critter
(cyclops this time).
"Loading, please wait"

I look at the clock. Its been 6 hours, I've lost almost half a level.
And realized how much I disliked this. /g Once we get corpses, I'm
camping, sorry to bail. Talking to the enchanter I tell her that I'm
definitly taking some time away from the game but to look for my cleric
on Thurs as I won't bail on my regular group (for now).

I thought about it for awhile yesterday (took a road trip to New York
with some friends to eat at WWF: new York and see FAO Shwartz, Central
Park, etc...) At some point this game has stopped being fun for me. I
like role-playing my bard, I liek meeting and talking with people, but
to be honest the down side of the game has tipped the balance for me.
There are too many bugs, too many people, too many "You KSing fgth!!!!"
shouts, and too many bad decisions by Verant.

Maybe after a week with no barding my mind will change, but I doubt it.
In the last two weeks, I've found myself spending time browsing through
my local game stores looking for a good RPG I may have missed. (I won
Torment, and haven't found anything yet to take its place)

I am not saying this to bash Verant, to try to get you to quit or try to
get you to convince me to keep playing (I have neglected too much RL for
this game). Verant as a whole did a great job with this game. Perhaps
thats the problem, it is so tantalizing close to greatness that its
short-comings glare so brightly. Most of the people playing are fun,
polite, and enhance the experience. However they only make the
obnoxious players a little harder to ignore.

Well until Diablo II makes it to the shelves, "See you around"
--
We now return to the non-stop rock.

Matt DeBarger