Hello and welcome to Battle Priestess, my blog about MMOs from a casual perspective!
I'm Moxie, a 30-something married female, Starbucks addict, and passionate-but-casual MMO player. I've been gaming since I was a wee thing and my aunt shoved an Atari joystick into my pudgy little hands and showed me how to play Pole Position. ;) I've played MMOs since 2004, when my awesome comic-book collecting, superhero-freak hubby picked up a copy of City of Heroes on impulse. I took one look at the character creator and bought my own copy the next day! We played CoH for a year or so, until one day a supergroup (guild) member mentioned a new MMO that would be coming out and would be absolutely amazing... World of Warcraft.
Now, I had never played a Blizzard game in my life. I didn't know the lore of Warcraft and strategy games had never been interesting to me. But we got into the open beta of WoW and were hooked instantly. It was super immersive, super fun, and we were extremely impressed with the "huge" feel of the world. We ended up rolling on the Garona server, where I made a Night Elf Priest named Jaelia. She still resides over there, as a tribute to those early days.
We tried EQ2 as well, due to half of our CoH guild going to WoW and the other half going to EQ2. We stayed there for a while, but came back to WoW because that's where we truly had fun. Some time later, we happened across an amazing guild on a newly opened RP server, Steamwheedle Cartel, and we rerolled again to join them. This time it stuck, and I played a Dwarf Priest named Brynne. She was the first character I got to level cap in WoW, and she continues to be my main to this day, although she's been re-named Betsea since then.
I'm a fairly casual player, mostly preferring to quest, explore, craft, and run 5-mans. I've dabbled in the introductory raids each expansion pack, but raiding is not a primary focus. I'm also a bit of a lore fiend, having read all the Warcraft books/manga and yes, I do read quests and in-game books as much as possible. :)
As much as I love WoW, I'm not a completely monogamous player. I've also played Warhammer Online, Fallen Earth, Lord of the Rings Online, and have beta-tested several other MMOs. Sometimes it seems that taking a break from a certain game can certainly refresh your perspective and it really is good to know what other concepts and ideas are out there. Plus it allows you to see where the trends are and how the MMO industry is changing and adapting.
LotRO has become my other MMO of choice. I've said it many times before, but it is the yin to WoW's yang and is a fantastic game for the sort of casual, low-pressure, community-centric gameplay that I love. I started playing LotRO waaaay back at the original launch, and played for about 2 months before WoW's siren song called me back. Originally, I was less than impressed with LotRO. It was a low-magic game with a darker, more realistic, and more serious tone, and I just couldn't get into it.
I gave it a couple more tries through the years, and finally it "clicked" in Spring 2010. Turbine has made so many improvements to the game over the years, and has really turned LotRO into a little gem of a game. I've learned that the most important thing is to judge LotRO on it's own merits, not through the eyes of a WoW-player. The gameplay is fun, the story is extremely deep and twisting, and the community is hands-down the best among any of the current MMOs. I currently play a Minstrel, Hunter, Champion, and Rune-Keeper on the Landroval server, and balance my time between WoW and LotRO the best that I can.
