About this Blog

I've played various MMO's since I first played Everquest in 1999, just after the game launched.  I'll probably always play MMO's, though my goal is to not become as addicted to any given MMO as I was with City of Heroes.  After City of Heros closed in November, I avoided all MMO's for nearly six months (Second Life is not really an MMO).  I had considered eventually trying out Guild Wars 2, but when the time came I tried out several free MMO's instead.

That time came about two weeks ago.  After a week-long The Hobbit/Lord of the RIngs marathon session, I was in a real high fantasy mood and really missing my old EQ shaman Jalia McMarrin.  I was ready to dabble in an MMO again.  I did some research on free-to-play MMOs, and I tried several, including Vindictus, Allods Online, Scarlet Blade, and Neverwinter (open beta at the moment).  I also downloaded Everquest, the original game that got me hooked on MMOs.

I have a blog about my time in City of Heroes, perticularly the last three months of the game, and I have a small Second Life blog, but I wanted a blog to cover all the other games I play.  That's what this is for.  One of my earliest MMO characters eventually became my main EQ character, a barbarian shaman named Jalia McMarrin.  I've used the name Jalia since in other games -- in Dark Age of Camelot, in Toontown Online (Jalia Jamb), in City of Heroes (my first level 50 was Jalia, and one of my best level 50 scrappers was Jalia).  I have a Jalia in Neverwinter and in Scarlet Blade and in Vindictus, and now I have a new Jalia McMarrin in Everquest.  But the original was Jalia McMarrin, my shaman.  In Everquest, Shamans are a priest class that heal and buff and generally use blunt instruments like hammers -- thus the name of the blog.