We’ve made it over the crest of the hill and are now looking down the nice smooth incline (or steep drop, pick your poison) of the tail end of the month of Blaugust.
A toast! Er… close enough, little one.
My blog title today also got me to thinking, what happens when your MMO heroes/heroines are of retirement age? Do they ever age? Are there special homes for ye olde heroes?
Think shuffleboard, but with swords.
Or do your heroes even age? Are they immortal, only gaining in experience and power? You would think there would come a time when their power peaks, when they cannot get stronger. Do they then turn into the villains young heroes fight, as is the case in a lot of in-game lore?
I’m asking too many questions, aren’t I?
See what I did there- man I’m clever huh!
runs away
In real life news, this week is the last week at my current job, and I start my new one next Monday! I’m really nervous/excited/terrified but I know I’ll be fine. I just have to make my brain shut up.
I hope everyone has a great Tuesday! Also, I’ll be taking blog post prompts, so if you have an idea, leave it in the comments or tweet it at me! ❤
For my second post today (I know, I know, I can’t believe it either) I’ll be using a prompt by one of my best friends Caff (@thingwhatwows on the Twitters).
She asked me “If you had infinite time, which game would you play?”
The answer actually came to me fairly quickly and easily, and it was Skyrim.
This game swept me away the first time I play it, and every time I log in, I lose hours to it. You can create so many varieties of characters, and even the ones I have created similarly (I tend to play stealthy archers) play along different paths in the game. Some focus more on The Thieves’ Guild, some on The Dark Brotherhood quest line, even others go straight into being a Dovahkiin and into the main story line.
SO PRETTY
Even after so many years, The game is still gorgeous. Sure, it has its graphical errors, like all games, some more humorous than most, but this is one game that I keep coming back to over and over again without fail.
There are so many of the aspects I still haven’t explored to this day. I haven’t maxed out all the skill trees. I haven’t really played through the entirety of the game as a mage or a warrior. I haven’t unlocked all the achievements, or broken successfully out of a jail (I get nervous OKAY).
BEAR HELLO HI BEAR
Writing this, I want to start up the game and play, AND IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT CAFF ❤
I have really been enjoying the hell out of Guild Wars 2 lately. The thing I’m enjoying the most is exploring the different zones as I quest. Well, let me backtrack. GW2 doesn’t have questing in the sense of talking to someone in a quest hub, going out, killing 10 rats, then returning and getting loot. GW2 has a very dynamic way of getting your character experience as you move through a questing zone.
Gendarran Fields is the zone I am currently in/exploring
The hearts are called Renown Hearts, the light blue diamonds are called Asuran Waypoints (used to quick travel around the map for a small in-game fee), the orange squares are Points of Interest, the gold arrows are skill points, usually you fight someone or have to solve a small puzzle, and the red triangles are my personal favorites, Vistas. Vistas usually involve a lot of jumping and climbing and a little strategy. They are usually located on the top of small mountains, or along the face of a cliff. For each little map icon you fill in, you earn experience, as well as for exploring new zones.
Filled in Renown Heart with a discovered Asuran Waypoint (little down arrow next to it is showing me it’s below me in elevation) and a Point of Interest below Dragon’s Rising.
The Renown Hearts are usually along the lines of “help such and such person with A Thing”, for example clearing out a mine of hostiles, or helping different NPC’s out. There are tons of group events that can pop up when you trigger them (talking to an NPC that runs up to you and asks for help), or can happen on their own. These are really fun, and really make the world feel alive. Helping someone out at the mine? Oh no, you’ve made the boss of all the hostiles mad, time to fight him!
Other than gaining experience in the zones you have a main story quest. This quest is tailored to your character, and reflects upon decisions you make in character creation. For example, for one of my faults when creating my Norn, I chose the option that she got blackout drunk one night and couldn’t remember anything, but it couldn’t be too bad, right? Wrong-o. Apparently she went for a joyride with a Charr warband member in some fancy army vehicle, and they lost it. So I had a quest chain where I was working my way through a zone, embarrassingly talking to NPC’s who told me that I was shouting at trees to fight me, and riding all over the market place in this mechanical vehicle. Hehe, oops.
TL:DR summary: The ‘questing’ in Guild Wars 2 is very dynamic and smooth, and I am finding I am rarely bored. Sometimes lost, but never bored.
Interested in joining Blaugust? Can even look forward and start planning for next year!
Yesterday my Mom and I went to the fair! I had to work (my last shift yaaaaay) but then after I zipped home, changed my clothes, and went over to her house and off we went! It was a pretty warm, muggy day, and was kind of threatening rain, but we were bold and sassy and didn’t take umbrellas. The rain held off, and we had a lot of fun, as we usually do.
The county fair here is huge. It’s allegedly the world’s largest fair, I’m sure it’s not, but it is pretty darn big. There’s the usual gambit of farm animals: cows, sheep, goats, chickens (no birds this year though, there’s an avian flu going around I guess), draft horses, rabbits, etc. This year there was a new addition of llamas and alpacas, and I’ve decided I need an alpaca as they are super inquisitive and adorable. They remind me of giant bunnies.
It’s funny, I’ve been to horse barns enough in the past that the smell doesn’t really bother me, and walking through the larger animal barns (alpaca/llama and cattle) didn’t bother me, but the pig and sheep barns were more odorous. They didn’t smell bad, I could just notice the smell more than the other barns. Noses are funny.
PEEGS
The cows, sheep, and pigs are all from local farms, they have competitions and 4-H type things. There is nothing cuter than a little girl in pigtails dragging a stubborn sheep down a hallway. Another girl was spraying her pig down with a water bottle, as it was pretty hot in the barns. There were boys breaking up goat fights, and it was just neat seeing all the little kids running around pointing excitedly to the animals, and then I would look at their parents, who looked tired as hell.
Much fair food was consumed, I had a hot dog, an ice cream cone, and of course deep fried Oreos! My mom and I always visit this one vendor that sells taffy sticks, and I got my allotted cinnamon, peppermint, and creamsicle sugar sticks. Oh, and also Kettle Korn, because of kourse. SEE WHAT I DID THERE HA.
After the fair, I came home and was pretty full of energy, so I settled in for a little gaming. I leveled my Mesmer up to 26, and got her through the second personal story arc.
I’m bad at dye. Also it’s a little chilly for that midriff-baring shirt, dear.
I’m really really enjoying Guild Wars 2. The Mesmer is a really fun class, and I’m constantly blown away by not only how pretty the game is, but how immersive it is. It has a flow to it, how you explore and get renown and experience. I almost don’t feel like I’m questing as much as I am exploring and just adventuring. Help someone out? Oops I leveled. Climb a mountain or traverse a jumping puzzle up a cliff face? Yay I leveled!
Oops I missed a post yesterday but oops yesterday was really busy so GET OVER IT.
Everyone over it? Good ❤
Today is lining up to be another busy day, but I am also excited because we are almost at the halfway point of Blaugust! I’ve been really bad about being able to set aside time each day to read up on my friends’ blogs, but once every few days I browse through, and you are all doing amazing, so please give yourself a big pat on the back and a large slice of cake ok? Okay.
I haven’t been getting as much game time in as I would normally want. Being busy is good, but I also crave my downtime. A lot of the lack of gaming has been due to my home internet being kind of wonky, but I don’t really have the time to sit on hold with my cable and internet company to figure out what is going on. Maybe next week.
When I have been gaming, I’ve been logging into Warcraft to do my Garrison chores, then switching over to Guild Wars 2 to run around on my Mesmer. I’ve been really tempted to dive back into Diablo 3 for the next season, which starts in a couple weeks, so I might mess around in there a bit to get my bearings.
I kind of want to try a new game or two and write about them, but lol time. Speaking of time, I’m out of it for the moment. I will see everyone later, have a kick ass day!
But uh, coffee first. Yes.
It’s not too late to join up! Or start planning for next year!
Alternative title: On the 12th day of Blaugust, Belghast gave to meeeeeee
tomato hits her in the shoulder ow okay sorry
I realize my title only pertains to those readers who actually blog, but maybe the readers can answer a question too. When do you prefer to write and post your blogs (I usually write and post simultaneously, I usually don’t hang on to the draft and look it over before I click “publish”) and those that are our valued readers, is there a certain time of day in which you tend to most check your blog feed?
I tend to blog better and my words flow better in the morning, when the coffee is still installing and I’m kind of still slightly asleep. I find this takes a lot of the pressure and fear away from my brain, as I’m more focused on DRINKA-DA-COFFEE than I am ‘Hm I wonder which word I should use..’
Sometimes I end up going back and wonder what the heck I was writing, but I think that’s anyone really >.>
Lately though in the mornings, I’ve been caught up with preparing lunch for work, giving the cat attention, or logging in a game for a few minutes while I sip my coffee. I’ve been posting at night, and especially for Blaugust, I’m finding that it is in the back of my brain all day poking at me to just write the post. I feel restless until I sit down and actually start flailing away at the keyboard.
Thoughts?
As always, feel free to join up or read more here!
Unfortunately, not much to say. Other than today was a day that had its highs and its lows. I’m very lucky in that I have an amazing group of friends that are by my side no matter what, even if that requires tough love from time to time =)
I did manage to sneak in some game time, did the work thing (ugh) and then a quick grocery trip, followed by some cross-stitching and then a little Guild Wars 2.
Ha, it’s funny how I’m treating this ‘blog every day’ thing like almost a journal…
“Dear Diary, today I did not punch anyone in the face.”
I’m hoping for the second half of the month to take on more prompts. It can be kind of a challenge, taking an idea someone gives you, and spitting out a response or story to it. Most of the time, challenges are fun ^.^
I’ve touched briefly on the topic the last few days, but I am back and adventuring in Guild Wars 2. I decided, like I usually do, to roll a new alt to remember and re-familiarize myself with the game and its mechanics. I decided on a Norn Mesmer, the Norn being almost a Viking-like race, very tall and strong, all about battle and ale. The Mesmer is a caster class, but as you can see in my header image, that doesn’t mean she has to use a traditional ‘magic user’ weapon! One of the things I really like about GW2 is the fact that different weapons give you different abilities, and while there is always the “best” combination for the class, it really allows you to customize your play-style however you prefer.
More exploooooring! FIND THE TINY MESMER ^.^
Your character has 10 abilities, the first five are dependent on whatever weapon you have equipped. Two-handed weapons take up all five slots, main hand/offhand combinations take up three and two, respectively. The next 5 slots are your utility slots, the game provides you with a healing spell first thing (thanks game!), and others are unlocked as you level up. You earn points as you level (can’t think of the name oops) that you can use to unlock more spells and abilities to fill in these extra slots as you go. It really allows for a lot of individualization, or a lot of ‘flavor of the month’ builds, which the original Guild Wars was infamous for.
The game has been updated since I last played, which happens when you don’t play a game for a few months, haha. The UI is more streamlined, the tutorials are a bit better (they popped up when I created my babby Norn, Katla), and the different panels are easier to navigate. Character screen, PvP screens, inventory, etc.
The Mesmer class basically uses spells and illusions to confuse and damage foes. I make clones of my character and can click on abilities to make them damage my enemies. With the great sword I can summon two clones, I have a position-able AoE ability, and also a push-back effect.
That’s all for now, folks! I’ll be posting again later today in order to play catch up for missing a day ^.^
Slight difference in my awesome blog title today, as it can’t be day 9’s post since it’s day 10. OOPS.
I would say something along the lines of ‘Oh my day was busy, I was caught up in other things, but that would kind of be a lie. I did have time yesterday to write up a blog post, and I didn’t, and that’s okay! I’m not going to beat myself up about it, at all. Some days I have nothing to say, some days I have too much. Some days I want to post, some I don’t. Sometimes it’s a combination of all of those factors, as well as others. I have a great number of good friends going through a lot right now in their personal lives, and me being a sensitive soul, it’s effecting me more than I probably realize. It is definitely not their fault, it is entirely my own, but again, not going to beat myself up.
The pet battle bonus experience event ends a minute after midnight tonight, which is probably like three in the morning my time, but I got some pets leveled up a lot more than I would have otherwise, so I’m not going to go crazy trying to eek out as much experience for the little dudes and dudettes as I possibly can. I managed to get some housework done, got some social needs fulfilled, and got some game time in as well =)
My little Norn Mesmer is level 12, and she is so much fun. I managed to level up a couple alts a few levels in Warcraft, as well as the aforementioned pets up a few levels.
The work week kicks off for me tomorrow, second to last week at both jobs while I get amped up to start my new job at the end of the month!
Teeny tiny baby Charr catte. She’s there! On top of the ruin, there’s a beam of light with a floating map… ZOOM IN GUYS
I’ve jumped headfirst back into Guild Wars 2, and it’s a ball. Guild Wars was the first MMO I ever played, and I always get a huge nostalgia hit whenever I log in to GW2. I chose to run around on my Charr Guardian first, as she is more of a tank-like character so I could probably afford to be a dummy for an hour or so as I remembered what the heck I was doing. Muscle memory hasn’t failed me though, as I quickly remembered which keys to hit, if not what specifically each ability does, haha. I briefly checked on my other characters too, but today I haven’t had much time for gaming, it will have to wait for tomorrow and Monday.
Scaredy-cat
Also I had forgotten how preeettttyyy this game was. The music, the ambiance, the noises your character’s ability makes… It’s funny how you get so used to a certain sound and look and feel, and when you go to something completely different it shocks you.
Anyways, I’m off to level my baby mage and some battle pets, I hope everyone had a great day!
It was so popular on Twitter, I couldn’t help myself….
LockandBolt 
