Gaming Embarrassments is an infrequently produced continuing series of scenarios in gaming that make me feel ashamed or embarrassed to have been a part of. My first installment seemd to have sparked a bit of converasation, as the subject matter led to this. This installment however, I don't know what to expect. I believe the matter can relate to some, though the context of my experience might not be as widely shared. Regardless, it's embarrassing to have done so and embarrassing to share it! Hope you all enjoy my misery!
Originally Posted: http://clgamer.com/2011/07/gaming-embarrassments-2-the-36-hour-camp/
While it might not be the most well known fact, I used to be an insanely hardcore MMORPG gamer. I’ve sunk more time into EverQuest than I’d like to admit. I fact, I barely remember the first four years of the George W. Bush administration (thankfully.) While I enjoyed my time with my fellow guildmates in whatever we were setting out to accomplish on any given day, there were plenty of self indulgent days, which featured a group of us camping various mobs for a plethora of drops for upgrading or profits. While most of those groups were for mutually beneficial items, there were times in which a group of us would lend a hand to a single member to help further their progression.
Every X amount of days or hours, a gigantic turtle named Lodizal would spawn in the zone called Iceclad, which was one of the then new zones in the Scars of Velious expansion. For its time, a few groups were needed to fell this mighty turtle. Once defeated, a piece of a map was dropped which, when combined with three other pieces found in three other ways, would combine into the Eyepatch of Plunder, a mildly useful piece of equipment to wear, but had a self click 20% haste which, for its time, was pretty godly when an enchanter or bard were not present within the group.
While camping Lodizal would be pretty daunting in of its self, it was the easiest part, as the person camping Lodizal in my guild wanted another item that dropped from him. The hard part was camping one particular spawn that would actually skip spawns, making the camp timing erratic. Coincidentally enough, everyone that I knew who camped this map piece, was able to get it without a hitch and with minimal wait. Of course when I have my opportunity to wait things out, I have to be the one that suffers.
Turtles fight with honor!
Stormfeather – the rare timed spawn that holds the final piece to the map I need for my Eyepatch of Plunder. Back when I was on a nocturnal sleep schedule, I had woken up at 7pm to begin my camp on a Friday night. There was no raid scheduled that night, so I thought that would play at an advantage for me. Unfortunately the EQ Gods had it out for me and wanted to make me suffer in ways I had never suffered before with a video game. I don’t remember the exact respawn timer on Stormfeather, but it was either every 12 hours, or every 18 hours. Hours slowly drifted away as I listened to a bunch of music on my computer while watching Saturday morning cartoons. Eventually I had reached the point in which Stormfeather was supposed to spawn, but to my dismay, he had not.
Hours more passed by as I ran around the small island area in which Stormfeather spawned, killing everything and anything, including the snow bunnies. Even with guild chat I had started to slip into a form of insanity that I rarely experienced before or after the fact. Add to that the fact that the whole zone I was in was a snowed over ice land of white, the blandness and brightness started to play tricks with my eyes. At some points I thought I saw some miniature red drakes flying around my room, waiting for me to fall asleep so they could peck my eyes out. I’m dead serious.
24 hours into this camp and I had started to grow bored and crazy. We had a raid that night but I was excused from attending so that I could continue camping Stormfeather. The amount of caffeine consumed during this camp had added up as well, making me antsy and wanting to go do other things aside from sit on my ass and stare as a canvas of white while my fellow guildies were off killing giants a few zones away. Sometime around the 24-28 hour mark, Lodizal had actually spawned nearby, with random people asking me to help them out and leave my camp. I chose not to, as I knew a few vultures would swoop in, steal my camp and most likely only wait 2 hours to get their rewards. But patience is a virtue, isn’t it?
34 hours into the camp, I had mentally lost it. I was giggling at nothing, smiling uncontrollably as I tried to stay awake, and had no one to talk to. I’m pretty sure I was singing the Ninja Rap from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Secret of the Ooze while watching infomercials during the early Sunday morning hours. It was pretty sad. I barely remembered anything during the following two hours outside a guild leader appearing out of no where, sitting at the camp next to me and trying to chat with me, but the lack of sleep and repetition of scenery had driven me into a blank stare.
Finally at the 36 hour mark, my best friend had logged on. She told me to go to bed, but I said that it was about time for Stormfeather to spawn, and if it didn’t by then, I’d go to sleep. My guild leader had left, probably trying to call a loony bin in NYC to come pick me up, and Stormfeather had not spawned. 36 hours of being awake, losing my sanity, all for naught. I had conceded and told her that I was going to bed and if she wanted to log me in then go ahead. So I laid down for five seconds and passed out for about 15 hours.
When I woke up, I had my fourth map piece.
Apparently, Stormfeather spawned five minutes after I went to bed, which makes perfect sense since, as usual, I seem to always have the most piss poor luck with things in MMO’s. I guess I had mistimed when Stormfeather was supposed to spawn when I first started the camp, though the one or two skipped spawns didn’t help much. Needless to say the next person that camped him managed to get him to spawn within hours.
I really hate MMO’s, and I really hate the fact that I spent 36 straight hours awake, waiting for a video game minion.
I stayed awake 36 straight hours to kill this creature, only to go to sleep and have my best friend log me in and kill him five minutes after the fact. *facepalm*