Mystic Worlds

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.

House Cleaning

Too many icons for games I have no intention of playing again.  I don't see any point in keeping them installed.  Games I liked but declined interest or needed a break from remain.  I only un-installed games I have zero intention of playing again.

Games that got the axe:

• Star Wars: The Old Republic - tried it until level 25 and that was enough. Loved the class quests and instance content the rest was uninspired

• Defiance - what the hell was I thinking?  I don't FPS and nothing tied into the show as far as I could see.

• Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn - amazing graphics, great instanced content, fun crafting but the rest was a grind.

• Rift - too little, too late sirs.  If it takes too long for new levels and zones to come out, I'm likely on to the next thing. I might have come back but by then GW2 was out and I wouldn't have left that for Rift and still wouldn't now.

• Dragon's Prophet - all round meh experience.

• World of Tanks - what was I thinking part deux!?!

• The Secret World - knew it wasn't my cup of tea and it wasn't.

• Asheron's Call 2 - answered the age old question, can you ever really go home? NO.  At least I couldn't.

• Pirate 101 - I wanted W101 in a new theme, classes and enemies but with the same deck building mechanic.  This was not it.

Rift, SWTOR & Crafting in Real Life

I'm stil taking things rather slow.  I knew the holiday season would be very difficult with my mother having passed so recently.  We did what we could for the little ones in our immediate family to enjoy themselves.

Duoing Rift with a Buddy

I've been back in Rift for a few weeks leveling the content with a gaming friend who hadn't played before.  Kudos to Trion and how well the content stands up for the 4th time around.  I'd leveled several characters up to Perspice and it's almost as much fun now as the first jaunt.  There were still so many quests I'd not done before.  With the options of questing, doing rifts, PVP, instances and grinding, I tended to out level zones without doing many of the quests which is a good thing!  It really makes replayability rather stellar.  We're a stone's throw from level 50 and I never felt like OMG, I've done all this before. SWTOR needs to take a queue from that and make it possible for players to mix up how they level without missing "required" quest chains.  More on that in a minute.

The only thing missing from Rifts are the big crowds.  That intense level of heightened excitment is missing from the zones unless there's a zone wide event.  I wish my friend had been there to see the meyhem and madness of the earlier days.  He really enjoys rift chasing and doing the events. Regardless, we've had fun and are looking forward to doing the new level 50 content that I haven't seen yet myself.

Dabbling in SWTOR

Star Wars isn't a favorite IP of mine.  I've seen all the movies but I don't own a single one.  I wasn't excited about the game.  My only intent was to check it out and play for the first free month.  So far it's okay.  The settings aren't my thing being a die hard fantasy fan.  The questing is rather meh for me since I don't really care about the story and I'm not a huge questing fan.  I tend to mix it up with grinding mobs which isn't grinding to me.

What I do enjoy are the class quest lines, group quests and instance content (Flash Points).  For me, that's where the game really shines.  The story in those feel more compelling.  It's like playing out a part in a movie - it's fun!  My class is also diverse and interesting to play.  I've chosen Inquisitor > Sorcerer for ranged DPS, utility and healing.  She feels pretty bad ass in a group.  I've only clocked a few hours. It's something I log into as a late night diversion.

My Son Digs SWTOR

After watching me play for a bit my son decided to get a copy too.  He's also more of a fantasy person but is rather bored with Rfit.  After a few days, he came to the same conclusion - love the class quests, PVP and instances, wishes he could skip the rest.  Unfortunately, you can't.  There are necessary quest chains for picking your advanced class and getting the ship you'll need to access the higher level Flash Points.  Moreover, there's nothing that overtly leads you to these NPCs to get the quest chains.  You run across them if you're doing all the quests.  Both of us initially missed the quest to choose the advanced class.

I had to search on the web to figure out why I was level 12 but couldn't purchase the level 10 spells I could clearly see on the Class Trainer.  We weren't alone.  I found many threads and links where people were asking the same question.  My son ended up having to back track through content to get his ship for the very same reason.  I think that needs some tweaking.  Other than that, he's really enjoying it now that he's 20-something.  For me, it's still just something to do if I'm in the mood.  My money is waiting on GW2.

Still Crafting in Real Life

I'm still crafting in real life.  In fact, I had a nice little jump in activity the couple of weeks before Christmas.  It tickles me when people purchase or "favorite" the two rings inspired by my love of fantasy.  The ring called Rose of New Eden, inspired by EVE Online has done well.  The Inara Serra III ring has sold nicely when seen in person - flea market and jewelry showings.

I recently revamped my Nomadic Eclectic website to be more of a showcase.  With Etsy picking up steam for me, I couldn't see implementing the disabled ecommerce features that were part of that original theme. I moved to something designed to just give people a taste of what I'm doing before hushering them over to my Esty Shop.

That's all I've been up to the past couple of months.  Hanging in there as best I can.  I have my good days and my bad days over my mother's passing.  I've found making jewelry to be much more relaxing than sewing so I've sidelined that for the most part.  I lost the tip of a finger, sewed through another one and was accumulating more cuts and gashes that necessary.  My mind wanders a bit too much at the moment for the intense concentration needed to sew safely.  Plus I feel more creative freedom and contentment making jewelry so am sticking with it.