Anti-climactic

  I am going to start out with a warning: This Follows No Logical Order. If you are looking for a coherent post, do not even attempt to read this.

So here it is folks, the 100th post. I've been putting it off for a while, because I couldn't find something worthy enough of what I thought, in my own little head, the 100th post should be. Should I post about LotRO? Sims 3? Prince of Persia? Some other game I've never posted about? What about D&D? That made a promising couple of appearances, right? I even took some screenshots of a few games in preparation of this momentous post in preparation (I was trying to map out my post, but it never panned out. I could throw them all at you, without any context. In fact, I'll do that, to confuse those readers who only scan).

In all fairness, I suppose I'm having a hard time coming up with something to post because, in a way, I've been reconsidering my gaming habits as of late. Most of you mature people, especially my father, will probably rejoice at that statement. Its not that games have lost any of their appeal. Quite the opposite. They still intrigue me, but with work and becoming an 'adult' (blech, as if anyone ever wants to be one of those), my free hours are becoming increasingly precious, and when the choice comes between gaming and taking care of housework (because, newsflash, owning a house takes much more sweat equity than an apartment), unfortunately, housework has been winning as of late. Except today, when the weed-eater wouldn't start, so no yardwork for me today yay!


I'm also finding that my eyesight is getting older at a frustratingly exponential rate, and reading a book is much less stressful than raiding. I am the last member of my immediate blood family who does not have some sort of corrective eye wear, and the stubborn part of me refuses to get my eyes checked out of the fear that I might need something and my bastion of perfect eyesight will crumble away. Not sure if bastion was the right word there. 

 There's also the whole, unspoken but totally felt every day, nagging guilty feeling known as, I-was-an-English-major-so-I'm-obligated-to-read-books thing. I am running out of unread books on my shelf. This is a good thing? That, and it's NaNoWriMo. Not that November's ever helped before. Haven't finished a thing yet. Yes, I am writing a book. Slowly. Every year I promise I will have a book done by the next Christmas. It never happens. I am a liar, I suppose. Not that anyone cares. If anyone's still reading at this point I applaud you for for your persistence, and mourn the thought that if this is entertaining to you, you are more starved than I.

Thunderpig!

Regardless, I am still a gamer, there is no doubt about that (or there might be, and perhaps this post, this very blog, is nothing but my own attempt to self-validate a worthless, time-consuming and destructive habit). It is the nature of life, I suppose, to move away from things, to change and grow and move forward. Am I becoming one of those gasp! casual gamers? Stars above forbid. Heaven knows I'd be healthier if I wasn't convincing myself that sitting before a computer for multiple hours a day was a good thing. My rear end is testament to that, if nothing else gave it away before now. I have gained twenty pounds since my wedding day, and looking back, I know exactly what did it. Heck, I knew what was doing it as it was happening. I was knowingly being self-destructive. While I may not be any heavier than I have ever been (I am at my top weight, but I've been here lots of times), the thought that I can do better, I'm just not, is frustrating.

However, with Sims 3 taking up more of my gaming time as of late than the dungeons of LotRO, and with DnD relegated to a once-a-month-if-that thing, and with console gaming pretty much non-existent out of courtesy to my husband, and Lore-mastering with Squid dropping dramatically due to her college schedule, I find myself with little other than casual games left to fill the tiny gaps in free time that beg for entertainment. Especially since the book I'm struggling through at the moment keeps putting me to sleep. Why is it always the fifth book in a series that is the most boring???

Thoughts of starting a family are beginning to loom on the horizon, and with those thoughts come conflicting reports. Most people with children agree that with babies comes absolutely zero time for video-games, but a few have said that nap-time and nursing make for the perfect time to raid. Erm, who is right? Picturing myself breast-feeding while raiding is awkward.

I have always wanted to picture myself, my future self, as some sort of bohemian earth-mother with a lush garden in a wild, woodsy setting and naked children romping about in the yard, chasing each other with sticks. That dream doesn't leave much room for any type of video games, whether raider or casual. Honestly, how many women could get up in the morning, practice some yoga, indulge in a quiet cup of tea, cook breakfast for the family, spend time each day taking care of them and the house (which includes the never-ending mountain of laundry, which has a daily respawn), and then end each day with 3+ hours of gaming? I don't believe there are enough hours in the day. Something has to give. I just wish it wasn't this.

Perhaps that's why coming to grips with starting a family is beginning to wear on me. I want children, I believe God put me on this earth to be a mother, (now for the inevitable-) but, I also enjoy gaming far too much to simply drop it. Is it an addiction? I know many games are developed and marketed for their addictiveness, usually because continuing to play them also requires that you continue to pay for them.



Maybe this is me learning to deal with my stupid sense of leet-ness. For a long time, I was a casual gamer in full, and the thought of stepping into a raid was some lofty, unattainable thing. Then I was introduced into raiding by a very dear friend, and became aware of how much of the game I was missing. I also, as a by-product, learned my class better. Then, over time, I found myself looking down on people who did not raid. "Look at them, ewww. The soloers. The casuals. The non-raiders." (S'funny, I never said "Eww, the rp-ers.") Now I find myself without time, even without children, and I am being forced back into solo/casual mmo-ing. I am what I once was, and what I, more recently, placed myself above. Is this being put in my place?

I am ending my hundredth post here. No climax, no point, no solid ending. Sorry to disappoint.

Also sorry that you were expecting something in the first place.


 

The End of Winter, the Birth of Something Unexpected

I have had my second age bow for almost a year. Well, I had it. I finally crunched it last night because of a very unexpected gift from a dear friend. I was able to craft my first 1st age weapon last night using something I never thought I'd hold - The Symbol of the Elder King. It still needs a great deal of work, and it makes me sad that with the expansion coming out just right around the corner (literally, it's Monday) that the bow probably won't last long before I crunch it it as well for a level 75 piece. It would be nice if the weapons actually leveled with you so you could hold on to them, but that would take too much grind out of the game I suppose and then people would have less of a reason to continue playing lotro.

Any way, not that any of you care, my imaginary readers, but here is the last look I ever took at Winter's Breath, and the first happy look I took at my new 1st age (who is yet without a name. Suggestions? Still not to the last reforge).

Elfstone at Sunrise

My Elfstone castle, glowing in the misty dawn.

The minecraft multiplayer server was finally updated, so I logged in today just in time to see this. Sometimes I love this game :)

Sly Cooper Returns!

One of my favorite game series has always been the Sly Cooper games. Well, let me back up a bit. If you've gathered anything, it's that I have a fondness for platformers in general, but Sly has always had a place in my heart. There's just something about that slinking raccoon that makes me smile. The trilogy of games were all released several years ago for the PS2, but were just recently re released on one disc for the PS3. My wonderful husband got it for me as a surprise gift, and for the past few days I've been reliving the stories I enjoyed so much back when I first played the games.

You play as Sly Cooper himself, a dashing raccoon thief, and sometimes (more often in the later games) his cohorts. The games are cel-shaded, but the series is one of the few games I have found that manage to tie the uniqueness of the graphics together with a reasonably sound story. 

Granted, the game series is geared towards younger audiences (throughout most of the dialogue this is readily apparent, but there are odd snippets here and there that lean towards an older listener), but that doesn't mean the average adult gamer can't get a kick out of playing the series.Some sections of the game can be fiendishly difficult, and with the 'one death and you have to start over' rule, this only intensifies the feeling of having to get it right the first time. There are some power-ups you can collect to temporarily override the one-death rule, but at the most you have two or three chances to get it right before you have to start over again. The other games have different versions of this, but as I haven't gotten to those games yet my memories are still a bit hazy. Stay tuned though, because when I get to the second and third games I will be sure and post more!

They don't make them like they used to....

I have officially decided that the creators of Lotro do not make locations, instances, and fights like they used to. Take, for instance, the instance of Ost Elendil in Annuminas:

This is quite possibly one of the prettiest and most regal locations I have ever seen in the game. The strategy for completing the instance is interesting as well, and I can't think of any other place in the game that requires the tactics needed to beat this area. Granted, at level 65 in a level 50 instance, the mobs weren't too much of a challenge, but like several of the old instances, this will all change in the fall when instance scaling is released. I know I am thoroughly going to enjoy running this and all the other old instances, but this time at level 65.

And yes, I know I could run the current instances at their intended level of fifty, but I am too lazy and skeered.

The Whispered World

Almost a year ago, my husband and I discovered a website for an upcoming adventure game. Adventure game? Here? In this day and age? Isn't that genre dead? Obviously not, for we stared at the screenshots from the upcoming game in gleeful anticipation. It was beautiful, it seemed. We were going to relive our childhoods through a game genre that supposedly died out years ago. I mean, look at this screenshot. It looks amazing. Think of the possibilities.

So, when we realized that the game had finally come out and was available on Steam, he bought it without a moment's hesitation. Yesterday, while he was at work, I decided to finally test the waters and try the long-anticipated game out. This is what I found:



Apparently, they put all of their talent into the artwork, and not so much into the voice acting. I guess the good old days of Broken Sword and Monkey Island really are gone. The game was developed in Germany, and so I watched a gameplay clip on youtube of the game in its original language, and to be honest, it was much better. Granted, I could only make out about half of what they were saying, but at least my brain wasn't threatening to melt just from the sound of Sadwick's voice.

I will probably keep playing the game, if only to support the people who are trying to breathe new life into a once great genre. Maybe it will get better and everything else will outweigh the negatives. Maybe this will encourage someone else to make another adventure game, if only to say "I could do a better job than that." I mean, that's how progress happens in societies, right? Someone does something, then their jealous neighbor down the street one ups them? Maybe this is just the nostalgic wishful thinking that had me hoping this was a good game to begin with. Ah well, we'll see. I'll keep playing, and maybe things will turn out okay. I mean, I have only seen the content of the game as far as the above video (because at the time, that's all I could stand).

The Spring Festival: A Maze-ing We Will Go

Just north of the city of Bree lies the festival grounds, a sprawling expanse of tents and stages full of merry-makers and feasting. A race track for skilled horseman encircles the tents, testing the unwary with hedges and ditches. But on the southern side, near the grounds, stands the Hedge-maze, and to those blessed with strong internal compasses there is a series of challenges to be completed.


 The simplest challenges of course are timed runs, where you must navigate the maze within a certain time limit. Each successful run opens the challenge to run the maze faster and faster. On the sillier side of things, occasionally chickens wander into the maze and it is up to the player to catch them all before they escape.

There is also a challenge by the Inn-league, assuming you have completed the pub crawl and been initiated, to find the "artefact" and use it. The artefact turns out to be a huge keg. I saw no danger in it, until as I was approaching the keg a hobbit lying on the ground warned me in a slow slur, "No. Go away. S'bad fuh yew." Slightly confused, I poured myself a tankard and downed it in one long draught. Instantly my vision blurred and I was told to make it to the end of the maze within two minutes.... or else. Or else what? I was so drunk I couldn't even walk properly, and began hobbling my slow way toward the exit. I confess, I didn't make it. I collapsed within sight of the exit and passed out. When I awoke, I was hundreds of miles from Bree, in Forochel, stranded on the middle of an ice-berg, and missing my pants. However, I am never one to be turned away by something so simple as that, so I made my way back to Bree and tried it again. And again. And again. I believe I mentioned before that the maze is for people with strong internal compasses. I am not one of those people. Finally I made it and was rewarded with a replica of the artefact for my own home, which produces the same effects - extreme drunkeness, a hangover the next day in some far-off place, and missing pants.

Not all who enter the maze emerge safely though, even if they never take one sip from that horrible keg. Several elves entered the maze at the start of the festival and have yet to emerge, so you are charged with locating all the elves and making sure they are still... alive. Thankfully, they are all fine, and some defiantly refuse any help at all. One of the elves I found to be a bit...strange. He claimed that he was "just so distracted by each and every leaf" that he could not find the time to leave. I kindly suggested he move to a desert where there are no leaves to be distracted by. Heaven help him if it ever rains.


A dwarf standing outside the maze takes great pleasure in the fact that the elves are lost, and he gives what I found to be the most light-hearted of all the challenges - to post confusing signs throughout the maze so that the poor elves remain lost. I posted his signs for him, and he chuckled and clapped his belly in mirth, his deep laugh rolling across the festival grounds as I walked off towards the dance-arena.


The maze challenges are fun, to be sure, and can provide you with about ten leaves or more in the space of thirty minutes, if you manage to complete all the quests without any failures. I also remember the maze as being the first festival activity I participated in back when I started the game over a year ago now. Ah... memories.

The Spring Festival, day one

Just a few days from now will mark my one year anniversary with lotro, and I find it fitting that my 'birthday' falls in the Spring Festival. I love the festivals in the game. Each one holds different activities to try, and while some are simple, some require a good amount of skill and practice.

One such activity requiring a bit of effort is the horse race. There are two race-tracks in the game, one in the Shire and one in Bree, and since the advent of the new, improved horse races back in the winter festival, I have made it a point to practice riding on the race-course every time I go to my house in Michel Delving (what? It's on the way, and since I am such an avid collector of horses, I figured it wouldn't hurt). When I first tried the race-tracks back December, I failed the races more times than I won them.

However, as a result of my practice, I ran the Spring race today with Indrabar, and received my Spring Fest Horse Token, which, when combined with other items, will allow me to trade for a spring horse. Yay!

 My only wonder now is if Turbine has added a new horse to the Spring Festival, as they did in the Winter Festival. Just in case, I went ahead and ran the Bree race too and received a token from there, so, provided I can get the other necessary items and the money, I will have at least one (and possibly two!) new horses in the near future. Now I simply need to get my other characters up and ready as well so I can have Spring horses for them all!



Stay tuned for a rundown of the other events in the land of Middle-earth during the Spring Festival!

Dear Turbine

*note* I was going to post this on the Lotro forums, but somewhere in the process of writing it I lost my nerve in the face of angry apathetic devs and the ever-present trolls. Maybe if I ever find my courage I'll put it there...

I've been here almost a year, and for a while, something has been growing in the back of my mind, bothering me.

When I first started playing lotro, I was amazed at the depth of the lore, the attention to detail, the high level of immersion in another world that this game gave me - compared to other games. I quickly fell in love with the game and over the past ten months have devoted countless hours to wandering the fields and hills of Middle-earth.

However, the farther east I wandered, the less impressed I was with what I was seeing. Yes, the views are still fantastic. Yes, there is still a certain something (something I don't know quite how to describe) that will hold my attention. But something has also been lost.

Perhaps it is the lore - the quests began to seem less unique, I suppose. Perhaps it was the players - the higher in level I moved, the farther it seems I was from other enraptured, wandering souls and suddenly I found myself in the company of power-hungry players only interested in the quality of their gear or their personal stats.

When I gained Kindred Reputation with the people of Bree - I really felt as though that meant something. I had worked tirelessly, serving the people in so many ways - and finally, I was rewarded. The Council of the North, however, or the Galadhrim, or even the Lossoth - while I may know these people, know what they supposedly stand for - I do not have the same connection for them. I have not yet reached Kindred with any of those, but when I do, instead of a grand sense of achievement, I instead fear a feeling of "so what? I finally finished a long grind and can now ignore this facet of the game. Yayyyyy." Turbine, this is not how I should be feeling after leaving an area.

I will still play, Turbine. And chances are I will still love LotRO, but please, remember what you have left behind. Remember the Shire and the hills of the Lone Lands. Not all players are interested in leveling at lightning speed and running high-risk instances. I don't consider myself a RPer, perhaps I am just full of whimsy and wanderlust. There are many facets of the game you as devs have not touched for reasons totally unknown to us players since the launch of the game. Why is there still only one hobby? Why is the housing system made up of code over fourteen years old when the game is only on its third year? Why is the crafting system horribly unbalanced?

I started playing LotRO because it was different from all the other MMO's I had seen out there. Why did you feel you had to change, Turbine? Why must you become like all the others with your new content that pushes forward - raises the cap, raises the bar, the intensity, for what? Three days or less while the die-hards run everything and suddenly, they are all at level cap again and bored. Do you work just to please them while the rest of us run at our own pace? Just because we are not first does not mean we should be ignored.