Mystic Worlds

Aging Gamer with Less Time

As the years go by, I find that I have LESS time to game, which is the opposite of what I was expecting. Being an empty nester and established in my profession, I had it in my head that I’d be able to game more as time went by. Instead I have a high pressure job and multiple entrepreneurial ventures depleting my energy and gobbling up my time. I also keep telling myself that I want to finish writing one of my false-start novels some day too.

The myriad of things pulling at my strings makes me more particular about the games if any, I play. There are always a dozen things I could be or should be doing; that treading water in a game I don’t REALLY ENJOY is a thing of the past. The more games I try, the more disappointed I become but clearer about what I’m willing to spend time doing versus what I’m not.

Existing the EQN Landmark Adventure

Over the weekend I submitted a Support Ticket to be refunded my Trailblazer purchase for Landmark. I was not unhappy with the building tools. I was not disappointed with game mechanics. What I didn’t anticipate was that the world would be so full yet feel so empty. All the claims taken but I don't see a living soul. There are very FEW player structures. There are no NPCs yet. It’s mostly you, yourself and your claim. All the great builds on YouTube, linked in the forums, posted on Reddit and the alike, represent a very small portion of the claim population. For the most part it’s crickets and dead space.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I wasn’t motivated to start a new project after completing my claim. I made templates of the individual structures, the whole structure and all of the custom objects I created Since the most recent patch I could tweak it with the newly added recipes which includes plants and trees but it wasn't enough of a temptation to for me to log into LM. It had the opposite effect.  I felt more strongly that without “game” elements, Landmark wasn’t going to be something I’d do very often and decided to wait for EverQuest Next.

EVE FW, EQN Landmark, Hearthstone, Star Citizen

EVE Faction Warfare

I definitely should have considered that I play EVE in spurts before joining Faction Warfare. I have more moments where I’m not looking for an adrenalin rush, than moments where I am. I haven’t played in a couple of weeks. Work and getting my shop ready for spring and summer having commandeered much of my free time, I don’t have the availability needed to get involved with pre-planned activities in EVE. My free time, mood and temperament seem to be counterproductive to participating in long term gaming commitments.

I must be doing it wrong! Before disappearing, I was still struggling with knowing for sure when it was safe to make the first hit in FW. Several times I had the advantage, having seen the ship on the scanner as I was nearing the area. However, they were not in my overview because they were cloaked and by the time I checked the pilot info to see their status, they’d started the engagement. Once I was saved when another friendly arrived. Another time, I just barely escaped.

EQN Landmark Beta

Across several mini sessions I’ve completed my first build – exterior and interior. It was fun. I enjoyed creating custom props much more than building structures. I think the template tool is great but I’d prefer if it, and all of the tools, handled micro voxels versus the manual way I have now discovered people are making them. My issue is that your ability to manipulate custom props is limited - rotate (some) and scale (not at all).  So once I create an object comprised of micro voxels it's difficult to turn that into something else or re-use it beyond the base micro voxel.  I dont have the patience for it.

My current assessment is that while I enjoyed constructing my claim, I had zero desire to knock it all down and start over – make something else. The world feels too dead, barren and lacking in visible player life to inspire me to “hang around”. Most of the time I played EQNL, I felt like I was in an offline building sim not a sandbox that supported other players. I saw what others had created when I passed by but VERY RARELY did I see actual signs of life. Sure it’s alpha but I’ve done many and this is the first one where it feels empty.  And yet, all the claims are taken. :-\

Without the usual MMO PVE traps and tropes, I think players will be online in spurts to farm and build. Cooperative building and new biomes will bring people back in numbers for a bit but I don’t expect to see constant hordes of players online in these zones. Consequently, I don’t know if it will give me what I need to sustain an interest. I will certainly build a “home”, maybe small town or street when it goes live and put my favorite templates on the market. But at this point, I’m not seeing what’s going to make me stick around for a long period of time other than checking in every so often to tinker with new templates.  Good thing it's free to play. I won't need to make that stay subscribed or unsubscribe decision.