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.

I AM

I’ve had a few careers in my life – developer, instructional designer and performance analyst. I’ve been fortunate enough co-author three books that were published back in my technical hay-day. I’ve been a wife. I am a mother. I am a grandmother, aunt and entrepreneur. I still aspire to be a published fiction author. And I’m a gamer.

Gamer – of all the monikers I’ve worn over the years, this is the one that was kept in the closest the longest. It’s not something you speak of loudly when talking to co-workers. You definitely don’t strike up a conversation about it with strangers unless you’re at a geek event. For many years, even family members outside of our household had no clue. And yet, gaming is such a huge part of my personality and lifestyle. Gamer is the moniker that identifies me best outside of family oriented titles. Gaming has been present from an early age for all of my children - they are gamers too.

Kthxbai Guilt

I haven’t blogged much in recent months. Between work and my entrepreneurial adventures, I started feeling guilty about spending the time. Isn’t it bad enough that I occasionally squeeze in gaming when I could be doing any number of other more productive things? To turn around and spend more time on the subject blogging about it, seemed excessive. *smile* I’m not Catholic but I do self-guilt really well.

I’ve decided to throw the gaming guilt hat out the window. I can’t work 24/7 and even if I could, it sure as hell wouldn’t be healthy. I game. I enjoy gaming. DAMMIT, I AM A GAMER. So what if I like blogging about gaming too. Games, MMORPGs in particular, have provided me with a lifetime of precious memories. I’ve forged real life relationships with people I wouldn’t have met otherwise.

MMO Love Affair

I’ve been a serious MMO player since Asheron’s Call. I wasn’t blogging back then however. Blogging didn’t start until Asheron’s Call 2 but I didn’t keep that blog alive after AC2 was shut down. Consequently, I only have a few pictures from AC2, my first MMO love affair.

A couple of weeks ago I was watching my daughter make personalized monogram name plates for a customer’s nursery when an idea hit me. Wouldn’t it be cool to do something similar using my game characters?? I raced through my blog’s archive and picked out a few favorites and asked her to do a full word collage of them.

GAMER - Loud and Proud

I gave her pictures from the MMOs I’ve played. AC2 to GW2, minus the minor forays into F2P games, my most beloved characters are represented. Knowing that I’ve played just about, it not every, AAA subscription-based MMO that’s hit NA, it’s telling which games didn’t make the cut. Notably missing from the line up – Vanguard, Age of Conan, Star Wars, Pirates of the Burning Sea and Lord of the Rings Online.

Of the ones I selected, every picture has a story. Every image brings a smile to my face. I can recall exactly what I was doing and why for every pose. It’s easy to tell which games I preferred by the number of pictures I selected versus other games represented. I LOVE how it turned out!

I can’t wait to hang this in my home office. When I look up and see it, I’ll be transported to happy thoughts. I’ll breathe a little easier and exhale a sweet sigh. I don’t know about you, but I could use more moments like that in my day. If you or someone you know might be interested in having one done, I’ve posted buying options on our Etsy shop.

Back in WOW: The Entrenched Gorilla

While it needles me to find myself back in WOW, that’s what I’m playing.  I enjoyed my stint in W101 and even spent some quality time doing the PVP Arena.  Balance + Death + trickles of Storm are a fun combination to play in a team.  My only suggestion for KI in regards to PVP is please set a timer for when the match should end as a draw.  I was in a 2 v 2, where the system had matched two Life players against two Balance players that went on for 2+ hours!  OMG that’s way too long for a match.  Everyone was complaining but didn’t want to be the team to throw the match.  We would have been more than happy with a draw after 60 minutes!!!!  Trying to avoid the long drawn-out matches I started doing 1 v 1 and those can easily reach 45 to 60 minutes too. Yikes.

This time last year, I was doing a tri-box experiment in WOW.  My objective was to 5-box TBC content that I hadn’t seen - almost all of the instances.  When multi-boxing, a good percentage of 5-box teams are all of the same class or at least 4 of the same class.  My plan was to have a Paladin tank and 4 shadow priests.  Not an obvious choice, I did some research that showed Shadow Priest were workable because of their mana and health regeneration talents.  Fights that required burst damage could however, prove tricky.  The only caster classes I was interesting in playing were Priests or Warlocks.  Although I have a Druid, Boomkin isn’t a spec that’s ever appealed to me.

Ultimately, I decided on priests to avoid soul shard and pet management times 4.  Mage was also an early consideration.  I put a Mage in my trio but I quickly learned that I can’t stand Mage play-style.  And I do mean, I HATED IT!!  You couldn’t pay me to play a Mage as a main, that’s how much I dislike the class.  The plan was to ditch her ass in Outland for the Warlock.  I kept the Mage in the trio even once I realized how much I disliked it, as an option for certain encounters.  That decision necessitated she be moved off being a main account, to being included as a bundle so she could be swapped out as necessary or shelved altogether.  I transferred her to the account with the 70 Druid and Warlock.  Those three on an account would give me nice flexibility in slot 5.

Vacationing in Wizard101

Hello Dragonspyre
A post by Ravious on Kill Ten Rats brought back fond memories of Wizard101.  It’s funny how things turn out.  I expected to dislike Marleybone because of its perpetual nighttime but it ended up being my favorite zone by a landslide.  I was sure I’d adore Mooshu because of is bright zones, flowered landscapes and oriental styling but it was the zone I detested.  It also was taking too long to complete and felt significantly more repetitive than the previous zones.  I eventually gave up and unsubscribed.  The bad press coming out about Dragonspyre, the next zone I'd hit, didn’t help.

With nothing else on my horizon and an urge to play something, I decided I’d rather give my money and micro-transaction purchases to KingsIsle than the Robber Barons of Allods.  After re-subscribing it only took two short playing sessions to finish off Mooshu and depart that zone forever.  What I liked about W101 still stands.  I can jump on and only do a couple of quests or take on some instanced bosses when I have more time.

Bosses everywhere
A lot of new content and features have been added since I last played.  For one, every fight in Dragonspyre is like a mini-boss encounter.  I was VERY surprised the first time I stepped off the side walk to pick a fight.  No matter, I’ve adjusted my short deck accordingly and I’ve yet to die or use paid Henchman.

Wizard 101 - Downtime Friday April 24

Wizard101 Downtime
Wizard101 the game will be offline on Friday April 24 from 3:00am to 4:00am Central US Time. During this downtime you will not be able to log in to the game, and players in the game will be prompted to log out.

The website will also be unavailable during this downtime. Thank you for your understanding while we continually improve the game and the website for all our players.

Wizard 101 - Player Housing on Test Realm

Woot, news from the Wizard 101 Community Management staff...

Test Realm Opens to Preview Housing in Wizard101

To our Subscribers and players who have made a Crowns purchase in the last 30 days, we invite you to test out some of our new features on the Wizard101 Test Realm.<br /><br />

We will be looking to you to test out the following additions to Wizard101:

• Housing - Housing and housing item vendors can be found in all the worlds of the Spiral. Decorate your house or your Dorm room!
• Voice-overs have been added for Marleybone, MooShu and Dragonspyre
• Tips will appear to alert you to any items you have received as a reward.
• Run Speed modifiers can be found on Crowns items and as boss drops.
• Markers can now be placed that will allow you to recall back to a marked location.
• New messaging for Dungeons when you enter and if you log out while inside.
• New messaging for Quest drops such as 'Collect Armor'.
• Boat and Balloon rides are now optional.
• Friend Requests show more information about the character.
• The ghosts have fled from Firecat Alley and Triton Avenue to be replaced with different creatures.

If you see any issues with these or other features on the Test Realm, please use the Bug Report button in the game to let us know.

For more information on how to participate in the Test Realm, please see our Sneak Peek Page.

Wizard101 – Balance + Death = Traps + Feint + Leech Heals = Talent Respec FTW

The recently deployed Training Points reset micro-transaction feature inspired me to play Wizard 101 over the weekend.  I knew that I would drop Storm as my secondary and choose Death in its place.  I wasn’t sure what I wanted instead of Fire but I was certain I didn’t want it.  After gnawing on my choices for a long time – normal behavior on my part, I decided that Balance and Death would be best complimented by Ice for me.

Balance has my wonderful traps, de-buffs and reliable damage.  Death would bring Feint and damage with leech heals, two of which I always purchased as Treasure cards into my main deck.  Ice brings more reliable damage than Fire.  Like Fire, Ice also has the potential of capitalizing on a spare Element Blade after I’ve cast Spectral Blast.  I’ll equip a Fire wand to get a 0 PIP damage boost from the other EB buff versus using an Ice wand.  I dropped Fire because of the elevated failure chance and to stop the extra work of buffing them with + Accuracy cards.  Ice also brings a nice 50% damage reduction shield - Tower Shield.

W101: Training Points Reset Arrives!!!

If you’re like me and haven’t been keeping up on the recent patches this little bit of news might have escaped your notice.  The game patch released on April 13th added a Training Point reset option.  O-M-F-G!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  This is a new lease on life for fans of Wizard 101.  Thank you so very much!

Selecting secondary and tertiary magic schools when you’re very new to the game is difficult.  You don’t even know the abilities of your primary school, let alone choose a complimentary secondary school of magic.  Moreover, you don’t know enough about your preferred play-style and combat strategy to make such choices.  Unfortunately, until now those choices were permanent. 

I agonized over my choices as I do in all games.  I played the ones that were of interest to me to level 10 and then created my main character.  For my secondary, I used the knowledge gained from testing the various classes and asked around.  That’s still not enough to make those choices that early in the game.  It was MANY levels later when my personal combat style emerged and when it did, I knew that I’d made the wrong choice for how I preferred to play.

Wizard101: Downtime April 16th @ 3AM Central

Just received via email from KingsIsle Community Management...

Wizard101 the game will be offline on Thursday April 16 starting at 3:00am Central US time and lasting for approximately one hour.

During this time players will not be able to log in to the game, and players who are in the game at that time will be prompted to log out.

During this downtime we are addressing the issue with players who found their Crowns items were not granting the health bonus that they previously gave.

Thanks to all our players who alerted us to this discrepancy.