Exeugi

I'm not 13

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Uh, hi?

Cloverfield still owns, fyi.

Kyrsten

Early in our relationship, I asked her to play whatever I was playing with me. While she had dated a gamer before me, he was an ass and "showing her how to play" consisted of him taking the keys and doing the first few bits of the game for her with no explanation, and then leaving her alone to play by herself while he did whatever with his higher level friends. This of course was no fun for her, and she was very surprised when I not only offered to teach her to play Neverwinter Nights, but to also make a character and play *with* her. After Neverwinter Nights, we moved to Dungeon Siege, and had a really good time there as well.

The trouble with EQ2 was that she KNEW it would be a huge time sink for her, and that she didn't want to spend all day in game repeatedly while nothing got done in the house. I offered to take on whatever else I could to help free up her time, but she was still hesitant about getting into the game since she knew how large it was just from seeing me play.

Then I told her about kerra (my wife adores cats), showed her my kerra berserker... next thing I know, we were sitting together for about 3hrs while she ran a newly created cat all over the newbie island. I explained the basic interface, answered questions, but mostly just cheered her on. I installed the trial later that week while she wasn't using her PC, set up a station pass for her, and woke up the following morning to her happily slaying mobs with a newly created fury.

She now has a 70 fury, 70 coercer, and a 20 necromancer.


Once she's playing:

*Let her pick her class, race, etc.

*Keep "helpful" comments to yourself for a while. Don't sit there and tell her what to kill, where to go, that there's a shiny over to the left, how to pull a mob, what quest to get next, etc.

*Be willing to play *with* her, even if it means mentoring down and hitting T1/T2 shit for a few days.

*If your character isn't a good duoing match for whatever she picked, roll something that is. You want this to be FUN.

*That being said - help her gear up, Spend some coin or craft a bit, and get her some decent stuff. Stack the odds a bit in her favor if you can.

*Stick with the Default UI, at least until she's comfortable with things. Custom UI's tend to be visually busy and can really overwhelm a new player with a lot of information that doesn't make much sense.

*Her PC - be damned sure it is capable of running EQ2 at a decent resolution with relatively nice graphics settings. No one likes 5 frames per second @ 800x600.

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Dirge / Defiler / Guardian

Xasia

I play EQ2 with my baby , and to be honest if it weren't for him I wouldn't play at all. We don't play often because we have other (i.e. better!) things to do, but we play periodically. Here is what works for us ...

If she's a girly-girl, I think what causes some women (who are girly-girl types, such as myself) to like EQ2 is its cutesy elements. For example, having different cute outfits to wear, getting to customize your character's look and hair is fun (and you can even change it pretty much whenever you want), getting to have a house, buying house items and arranging house items. Its like RPG Barbie! lol ... The other part I like is the holiday stuff, getting unique holiday items after short quests. Those are MY favorite parts about EQ2. It has Sims-y elements, which I think helps it appeal to "the masses" which I guess is EQ2's goal.

I don't like being imprisoned at the computer for long periods of time. I really hate XP grinding and I won't do it, I don't really like raiding and grouping is fun if I'm in a big group (5 or 6) and on ventrilo or TS with fun, talky people is optimal ... somehow that makes it fun for me. More social. (I think most women are like this, but I don't want to generalize because I know some chicks are more techy and guy'ish than others.)

I hate stalking mobs (camping!!) with a PASSION!! It is such a friggin waste of time. Usually what we do when stalking mobs is I put my character on AF and I do something else, either tab out to another window or literally leave and do something else until the mob pops. Sometimes my boyfriend will play both our char's at the same time to get through a quest or to get XP, usually while I'm asleep.

I think that this method may work for those who want to get their wife or girlfriend to play: accommodate her as much as possible and take away the crappy elements of EQ2 that make her uninterested in the game. Also to be realistic in expectations, if you think she is going to be into playing it as much as you (every day for hours or however often you play) you will be doomed to disappointment. But you can maybe get her into it as a casual player.

Kampfer

My wife tried eq2 first didn't like it etc etc. I think it was all too overwhelming. Let her try wow and she got hooked. It is alot easier for a new person to pickup and learn. So we both played for 2 months and got toons to 40 with mounts etc. Then I reactivated my eq2 account and she tried making a toon on my account and she didn't have any problems at all playing eq2.

So start her on 10 day wow trial yea I know wow sucks etc etc but it is a great MMO trainer IMO. It will teach her the basics of how to play etc and then she will really love the housing etc in eq2.

I just picked up with my lvl 25 pally and duo'ed with her coercer up to 70 in a matter of 3 months or so.

Any by all means when/if she does try eq2 for gods sake don't put her on a pvp server.

Ily

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Roll the dice, see if I'm getting drunk!

Laodaron

What a retard. Ily, I'd play with you 24 hours a day, gorgeous.

Thelounge

I think she meant eq2, perv...

But I do second the play with Ily 24 hours a day thing.

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"Voy a navegar, al puerto del alma, cruzando el mar, hasta que llegaré"

Laodaron

Oh. Well, I'd love to play with her....she's beautiful....
But EQ2....I'd love to play THAT with her, but only when she's on her toon on her computer, so we can cyber.

Ily

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Roll the dice, see if I'm getting drunk!

Laodaron

Did you go down the Cyber line, or the hot line? and did you get either final ability?