You Don’t Have to Drink to Play EverQuest… But It Helps…

I was following up some bad idea that involved comparing the number of eBay auctions posted for various MMORPGs… primarily SWTOR and WoW… and the type of items listed when I felt I just had to throw EverQuest into the mix.

EverQuest turned up 755 items, though you get anything related to EverQuest II as well, including one odd item on the first page, an EverQuest Players cocktail shaker.

Makes the elixir that'll fix yer problems...

You can see the auction here while it lasts.

My first question… as when I saw EverQuest Zippo lighters or that Free Realms suggie thing (one company’s April Fools is another’s reality)… was “Why?”

Why can't I get one in game?

Who would make an EverQuest Players cocktail shaker?  Was it created in celebration of something?  A game milestone? An expansion launch? An admission that most of the community team had fallen off the wagon yet again? (Which I am pretty sure was when that snuggie idea came up.)

Unfortunately, the description on eBay is not very forthcoming.

Everquest Cocktail Shaker Set.

Items are made of metal – the Shaker says “EverQust Players” on it.

No other writing can be found on any of the items – no paperwork is included neither (I do not think it had any).

Item comes in a black box with foam molded to support and protect it.

CONDITION – New, but Box has Damage.   Please see pictures. The items are in excellent shape, they were never used and were for the most part kept inside the box and protected.  The bottom of the box is in good shape, but I do see the box has a very small dent near a corner, but the top part of the box is the worst of it, it has a blown out corner.  Otherwise, this lot is a good one, the metal cocktail set is in unused, new condition.. it’s just the box that is questionable.

Glad to know it is made of metal I suppose, but I wonder what the story behind this particular metal vessel really is.

Anyway, if you are a real EverQuest die hard, you have six more days to bid!

(And shiny though this item is, the listing appears mercifully free of reflecto-porn.)

What Google Has Been Telling Me Lately – Spaceship Edition

Nobody at Google actually tells me anything… except that they seem hell bent on redesigning their UI across all of their apps so that they all match Google+.  I am, frankly, not a fan.

But indirectly Google tells me things via the search results that get directed here.

Sometimes that can be viewed as just a message about the search terms in which this site ranks highly.  Often those are the very obvious.  Variations of the name of the blog tend to send people here.

And odd mash-ups of past topics also show up from which I am sure I could build my own version of The Road to Popehat. (Which I sort of do in my monthly summary most months.)  I think searches like “Tom of Finland Harry Potter” would certainly get me started, as does “one does not simply cat tank into mordor.”

Some of these searches can be oddly specific, such as “swtor email in use,” which I am sure is somehow related to account creation.

But sometimes my site ends up not only ranking high in a search, but that search is apparently at least mildly popular.  And from those I can derive different, more specific messages from Google.  Currently Google is sending my three such messages.  They are:

When is Hulkageddon V Already?

Easily the most popular search terms bringing people here revolve around Hulkageddon V.

People want to know when!

Hulkageddon is a player event in EVE Online when some players get together and blow up the ships of other players who, for the most part, would rather their ships not be blown up.

I put up a post about this right after the event was announced back in early November.  At the time it contained all the information available and a link to the forum thread where future information would be posted.   Two and a half months later, the post still has all the information available, and people seem to be getting impatient about it.

Of course I cannot tell if the people searching seek to actively participate in Hulkageddon V or if they just want a heads up so they can take an in-station skills break while it goes on, but there is clearly some desire out there for more information.

People Still Want to Play Star Wars Galaxies

Search terms around SWG emulation started showing up regularly the day after SWG went dark.

Connection to SWG Lost... Forever

These terms bring people to a post I did about SWG emulators that are out there.

All I can really say is that there is clearly some interest out there.  The fact that such searches have been going up noticeably as the first month of SWTOR draws to a close might be a message, but the sample size is so small that any conclusions would be unsupported.

Civilization II is Still Popular

I do not appear to be alone in my love of Civilization II.

A simpler time...

Back in October I finished up my tale about getting Civilization II to run on 64-bit Windows 7.  Things were quiet after that, but around mid-December there was a spike in searches on the subject, and Google has been delivering people here based on Civ and Windows 7 based search terms ever since.

Does This Mean Anything?

Probably only that there are a few people out there interested in a couple of topics about which I have written.  Google sends between 600 and 1000 people to the site based on search results.  These three just stand out in that variations on these terms have topped this list for the last month or more, and have kept those three posts on the Top Posts list on the side bar.  That list is usually just the home of what I wrote over the last week, that post about the guild name generator, and various Pokemon related posts.  People love their Pokemon.

Anyway, that is my read on what Google has been telling me of late.