I’ve found another Wow Private Server. For Wow, this one looks, and works very nicely. I’ve played it for a few hours. But I’m going to move on from Wow. I’ll get to that later.
Whitemane can be found at Whitemane.org. I was most interested in the Wrath of the Lich King [WotLK] expansion since it adds the Northrend continent, and flight in both Outland and Northrend. I found the Frostmourne experience very stable. No constant reboots as with Project Ascension. No crashes. There were a couple of funny behaviors but only a few in the week or so that I played.
The signup is a little odd. You sign up at PlayerID.me, whatever that is, and you must have either a gmail or another well known email – I forget which one. And they send a message to verify your email. No surprise. But it went smoothly.
About a year ago or so I found the Project Ascension private server and played it for a while. This server is a Burning Crusade Classic server with class changes and other innovative changes.
I like several things about their ideas for a Wow Server:
Extremely flexible class idea where you can pick and choose skills from any of the classes.
Ability to tame pets from Elemental, Dragonkin, and Demonkin as well as Hunter Pets.
Easy and free rank up of your skills.
Reasonably fast progression – at least at the time of my starting.
Good population so dungeon queue times were reasonable.
However, after a few weeks, I stopped playing. After I was able to level a couple of characters to level 70, and obtain flight in Outland, but then something changed and progression was so slow that everything felt like a grind. When I play a private server on any game, I don’t necessarily want an instant progression or boost to max level, but I don’t want a grind either. I expect a better progression than the original / retail game tho. If I were wanting a normal level of progression then I would just play the retail game. I didn’t figure out what changed at that time. So I know there are folks that enjoy the “Hardcore” experience where one death ends the character and you start over. I’m not a Hardcore kinda guy.
I have a gripe about computer cases. Well older computer cases. Something you should be careful about if you build computers, as I do.
Older cases are not designed to accommodate modern video cables, and GPU [Graphics Processing Unit] aka Video Cards. Let’s look closer.
This is the expansion slot area in the rear of the case. The mother board allows cards to be installed, the perforated plates are removed and then, possibly, cables are plugged into the expansion cards through these slots. Notice the protruding ridges above and below each slot. These ridges are designed to stiffen the thin metal strips above and below the card slots. However, they were designed back in 2012 or so before video cards were a common thing.
Here’s the situation where a Graphics Video Card is installed and one of the cables is plugged in. Notice the cable on the right. The Display Port video cable standard was available but not widely used on video cards when this case was released in 2013.
Recently I’ve found three Private Servers for Tera. If you are an MMO buff and if you have nostalgia for Tera, or if you’ve never tried it, you might find these interesting.
All of these are free of course, and they take donations for benefits. All but one provide free “Premium Buff and Bennies” such as a flying mount and Town/Village Teleport Tome, and all are easy to install. In some order they are:
Tera Classic. They just had a security breach. Not sure if they are up and running after that yet. The early Tera Experience. Starting in the Island of Dawn and with no level 70 boost – at least not gifted at the start. So this is Tera Old School and you can expect from the title.
Tera Agaia. An advanced server with a level 70 boost, and you get a level 70 set of gear as soon as you use the boost. The Story has been trimmed – maybe like some of the later releases of Tera. Very reliable. But only Three Character slots built in and no clear way to buy more, although they say so.
Tera Starscape. By far the most fun of the list here. Gives you eight character slots, a level 70 boost and then a 20 min run through the Velika Banquet gives you level 70 gear for your journey.
DDOS and Breaches
So, shortly after I tried these servers in late July, DDOS attacks began and didn’t let up for more than a week. Also Classic was Breached. I’m not sure they know who was behind the DDOS or Breach attacks. There was speculation that Kakao Games was behind it, but Krafton actually most recently owned Tera, so that makes more sense. DDOS the private servers rather than taking them to court for copyright? Well seems like a waste of time for a game that has not been active for a few years.
I played for several hours yesterday on Tera Startscape and had no problems. So looks like the nonsense is over. I’ll try Classic later and see how it looks.
So I bought it. Wrestled my way through the Microsoft Store – And success. I am playing Skyrim. Welllllll… It’s not all it’s cracked up to be TBH. The main game and story are fine, but I have some gripes with the execution. I know. I know. There are lots of folks out there that are gonna beat up on me for having these opinions. But see. I’ve played some other game before this and I’ve gotten spoiled. Let me layout my gripes. I’ll be comparing Skyrim to a couple of other games in particular.
Guild Wars ONE – released on 2005. Recall that Skyrim released in 2011.
Elder Scrolls Online – Released in 2014.
Final Fantasy XIV – A Realm Reborn Released in 2013.
So let’s talk about my gripes. And then compare what these other games did right for each of these issues.
I am looking forward to the demise of Windows 10. Just kidding. I am doing the last conversion of my systems to prepare for the demise of Windows 10 in October 2025 – No more updates to Windows 10, esp security updates, after that time. And while Microsoft says stuff about being able to install Windows 11 on “any system” recently, they are not walking back this end date for security updates on Windows 10. Yep there are other ways. But they have an end date too, and cost a few bucks a year. Not sure I want to pay for home-grown security updates. So I’m going to move all my systems to Windows 11, or Linux Mint. Linux never said anything about not supporting older processors.
To review:
The new machine upgrade I did a while ago, when a power supply died, went straight to Windows 11.
Two more recent systems, upgraded in-place, which no glitches, from Windows 10 to Windows 11. No problems.
One machine – my “mail machine” – runs Thunderbird to support about a dozen email addresses. I moved that machine to Linux Mint.
This last machine is my Network Backup machine which runs Carbonite. Linux is notoriously finicky about file sharing with Windows. This machine serves as a dumping ground for important things from all the other Windows systems and then backs them up to Carbonite. I decided that I needed to buy a less than bleeding edge system that would run Windows 11.
To Summarize: I’m using two monitors and one of the monitors does not wake from sleep without a power cycle. Most recent update is at top, in blue. The initial post is below in White Text.
Update: 17 Mar 2025 Problem seems to be with the Asrock Phantom Gaming Monitor not waking up from sleep. Setting the computer to never sleep has fixed the problem while I’m using the computer. Of course, when the computer is put into sleep mode over night, then the monitor does not wake up in the morning and needs to be power cycled to wake up. I have not done this testing with the previous monitor or graphics card. Maybe it is an interaction with the other ASUS monitor in some way. I have other systems that have two DP attached monitors – both 27″ ASUS monitors – and they never have this problem. Hum…. Maybe I’ll do a test: Replace the 32″ monitor with the 24″ monitor and see if that fixed the issue. Hummm. Eh Nope. That does not change the problem. 24″ monitor replaces the 32″ monitor and the 27″ monitor still fails to wake from sleep..
Update: Nope. Sorry. Replacing the cables did not fix the problem. This is not the whole answer. The main monitor clicked off again after I replaced both connections with Display Port. I’ll continue to try to find a solution.
Update: Fixed the problem by replacing the cable to the monitor that kept going black. The cable, which had a latch, to the primary monitor is faulty. If the cable was wiggled at the monitor, the monitor would go black. I was confused earlier when the monitor would go black with nothing being touched on the cable or monitor. Replacing the DP cable fixed the problem. BTW, none of the DP cables I saw on Amazon had latches. The pictures of the ends of those cables were shown in such a way that the latch side of the connector was not shown. Newegg, however, as far as I can tell, only carries DP cables with latches. I’m not clear on the point of a DP cable with no latch. That’s the whole point of DP rather than HDMI which has no latch option. Cable converters between DP and HDMI contain no logic, but just wires. I suggest you always use DP cables with latches and my experience shows that cheaper cables, even with latches, can cause problems.
For over a year, I’ve been using two monitors with my gaming rig. One is a 27″ 2K monitor, and one is a 32″ 2K monitor. I was using a 24″ 2K monitor as the primary, and it seemed to have a problem that caused it to Pop and then go black. The pop is apparently the speakers in the monitor being disconnected. Audio is carried over the monitor connection to speakers in the monitor.
After getting the 27″ monitor, it had the same problem.
I’ve finally tracked the problem down. I think.
The problem is apparently that Nvidia graphics cards / drivers have an issue if you connect two monitors using different connection types.
My primary monitor [ smaller one, currently 27″] 2K QHD resolution has been connected with Display Port.
The secondary monitor, which is larger since it is actually farther away, is a 32″ monitor and I used HDMI to connect it since I had a long cable to use.
I recently got a nicer 27″ gaming monitor for the primary monitor, again using Display Port. And it has the same problem – Goes black. So the problem is not the monitor. And I’ve changed computers, and graphics cards – RTX 1060, RTX 3060. Same issue. Usually just once shortly after I start a game – any game FFXIV, GW2, ESO, you name it – the monitor on display port goes black, and I usually have to power cycle it with the switch to get it going again. This usually happens just once during a session. If I shut down a game an play another one, it is likely to happen a few minutes after starting the second game.
Well I just changed the connection to the 32″ monitor from HDMI to Display Port – got a long nice Display Port Cable. And it stopped happening.
So, either the driver or at least two generations of Nvidia GPUs have a problem that if you mix Connection Types, the Display port monitor go black and usually require a power cycle to get a display again. As you might imagine this can be annoying if you are the tank and you have just entered a dungeon with a party. Sigh…
Anyway, I’ll continue to test, but it looks like this is a long surviving problem with Nvidia Drivers / GPUs over several generations.
So don’t cross the streams! Er, I mean don’t mix the connections. :ww
These are suggested modifications for FFXIV to make more in line with other modern MMOs like Elder Scrolls Online and Guild Wars 2. There are several areas that, in my view, should be upgraded to keep FFXIV more in line with a better user experience and to make the new user experience better. These three MMOS are all approximately the same age and yet ESO and GW2 have modernized, or were created in a modern way that prevented some problems that with its older design FFXIV now faces.
The Leveling Experience
FFXIV is facing a severe problem with regard to leveling. The static, vertical leveling model has gone way past a reasonable limit. The amount of work that a new player faces to catch up to the current “End Game” is too daunting to expect a casual player to invest that amount of time and effort. Also the current design of the game locks the new features – new Jobs, new Zones, new Allied Races, etc. – behind this long progression. To bring FFXIV more in line with the current state of other modern MMOs changes should be made. For years now we have heard that folks must just push through A Realm Reborn and the game will get better. Well it may get better after ARR, but you are just nearing the tree line of the huge mountain you must climb to get to that class you want to play or that dungeon you want to do or that story you want to experience. “I’d like to meet the Loporrits”. Well in a few weeks you can do that.
Many MMOs that are now, sadly deceased, have tried to address progression by making the game just much easier. And this appears to fail most often. None of the suggestions here are attempting to make the game “Easier” or “Progress Faster”. The total time to play the entirety of the FFXIV game should take about the same amount of time. After more than 10 years there is a huge mountain of game play and world out there. The suggestions here are intended to add choice not make things easier. Tera changed things to make things easier. Made the game all about End Game and then after a few years died. Anyway, after many years playing Tera that was my observation.
I’m an MMO addict. Let’s forget about Wow and ones before that. Recently I play Elder Scrolls Online, Final Fantasy XIV and Guild Wars 2. Recently I got bored and went back to Guild Wars [1], but let’s ignore that in this comparison.
Each game has lots of choices for classes and races and so there are lots of combinations to try. Some I don’t find that interesting – Cat People [Khajiit] in ESO for example just aren’t that interesting to me personally. All the races in ESO are just head changes on basically the same body with or without fur. And new classes appear with new expansions. We just got Arcanist with the Necrom expansion recently.
For FFXIV, all classes [ jobs ] are available to all races and in every character. So you don’t have to make a new character to try a new job. So there aren’t so much as “Combinations” as just all the race choices. And more races and jobs with each expansion.
For Guild Wars 2, all races can play one of any of the classes [Professions] and each expansion brings along new “Specializations” for the classes.
So what happens as a game ages. All these game are more than or almost 10 years old at this point. What happens to the games over time and what does that mean for new players.
Windy Weather 