Blaugust: Day 2

Hello!

I’m always oddly proud of these community events, even though I have nothing to do with their creation and organization ^.^

It’s so neat seeing the community come together, a ton of people all like “yeah, let’s do the thing!!”

Join usssssss

Warcraft

I am now officially a filthy casual, I guess? I’m not raiding, and miss it a ton, but my work schedule won’t let me raid with my guild, and I’ve beat this poor dead horse way too many times, and I’m sure you all know the story. My shaman, Byx, is doing the Garrison Shuffle, and last night I got the last achievement I needed, outside of Tanaan reputations, to unlock flying in Draenor.

That means the inevitable must occur. I must gird her loins (? yick), and venture forth into the terrifying, deadly world of TANAAAAAAAAAAN.

*dramatic music, thunder crashing, cat bolts under the bed*

I’ll let you pick if Byx is the ANGRY CAT or the plastic dinosaur.

I’ve been to Tanaan before on my shaman of course, but it was very similar to my first experience in Timeless Isle, where I basically ran around internally screaming for a couple days before I figured out what I’m supposed to do. Byx is geared enough to survive, and obviously as a shaman I have a bit more survivability than a pure DPS class, but I’m a baby and get scared of the BIG SCARY MONSTERS.

I also need oil. For boats ships. So, there you go.

My warlock is level 99.5, I’m still being super lazy and she is getting all of her XP via garrison missions and picking flowers/mining. I’m having a super fun time leveling my warrior, she is almost 76 and I am hoping to have her 80 or close to by the end of the weekend. Yay rest XP and Heirlooms! I now have one of every class created on my ‘home’ server, so I will probably slowly level them up as the mood strikes me. I’m not hell-bent on needing any of them leveled up, but I enjoy seeing the game from different classes’ perspectives. For those new to the party, I primarily play Horde, but am working on leveling my Alliance alt to 100, again to see the different perspective, but also for nerd points.

Pet battles are also a Thing I will be poking my nose back into, but I want to try not to overwhelm myself with my in-game to do list if at all possible. I’d rather log in and accomplish one small thing, than to log in and not really accomplish anything at all. I do game for fun, but I also like getting things done, dammit ^.^

Other games

I’m a game-aholic, I have Too Many Games and Not Enough Time, but I enjoy bouncing around from game to game as the mood strikes me. Last night I picked up a small expansion to The Sims 4 (I wish they would put them on sale….) so my Simself and her family can go camping. While I was in Origin, I wistfully looked over at Dragon Age: Inquisition, so that will probably get dusted off in the not so distant future as well.

I picked up Ori and The Blind Forest and Child of Light on the Steam Summa Sale, and I of course want to play through those games as well.

Life

Life is busy right now, the two jobs which have me working full-time hours, job hunting, back into the shark-infested dude bro waters of online dating, as well as taking classes… Oof. I’m a busy gal =)

In general, life is a thumbs-up currently. Busy is good, keeps my brain occupied with that instead of the other stuff.

Here, have some nightmare fuel!

That’s all for today folks, I hope everyone has a great day!!!

-Byx

My Favorite Zones

Today I’m feeling super uninspired, so I am gladly poaching a writing prompt from the pile that Belghast has gathered together on Anook!

• What is your favorite game biome? Games often have the same kinds of generic climates spread through the zones and levels. What is your favorite type of climate and why?

Growing up in Tennessee (for the most part) meant I was more outdoorsy than I am now. My dad used to take me on hikes all the time, our family would go camping, I spent a lot of time in the mountains and forests. Even now living in New York (state) I like to try to get to some kind of hiking trail at  least once a year. It’s fun for me, and challenging, plus some of the scenery is breathtaking. That being said I think my favorite zones in-game follow a similar theme.

In WoW, Grizzly Hills has always been a favorite zone of mine. It is lush, with the tall slender pine trees, the ground almost looks mossy and then gives way to snowy hills. The music too, gives a lot to the atmosphere. Ironically, the questing in the zone is average for me, not my favorite one to be an errand girl in. This is one of those zones where I have my little quest hubs that I go to, I know the drill, and once I do all the quests I want to, I move on.

I love this river

Another zone in WoW is the starting area for the Pandaren. I mean, it’s on the back of a huge ancient turtle, so if that in itself isn’t cool enough… It gave a great insight lore wise to their culture, as well as the cutesy humor that was a nice break from the gloom and doom of Wrath and Cataclysm. That and playing a Pandaren always makes me smile, they are cute and I can’t help it, kay?

 

I haven’t explored enough of FFXIV to call a certain zone my favorite, but I do like the city of Ul’Dah. It looks gorgeous, and it is fairly easy to get around in!

Other games follow a similar theme, in Skyrim I like prowling around the mountains near Solitude, and that climb up to the Greybeards is always fun, even though it takes an hour and a half. There is something about not knowing what’s around that blind hill, climbing up a slope that you’re not sure if you can traverse without slipping all the way down. It adds mystery and challenge to the game, as well as filling that “I have to explore!” want that a lot of us gamers have.

In real life, I live in suburbia and work in the city, so for me, exploring the untamed wilderness, seeing what’s on that hill, looking out and down across the land from atop a mountain, that’s fun for me. Being of (not so recent) import to the area, snow is still enough of a novelty to me that I enjoy seeing how different games incorporate it. Skyrim in particular does very well with the atmosphere, enough that when I’m exploring a particularly snowy, windy area, I do actually feel cold!

It’s really nice to see the immersion that comes with how a climate or zone is laid out in a game. How it may influence how you feel about the game, how you feel about the questing zone, dungeon, or raid.

That’s kind of all I’ve got in my little brain for today, off to real life things now…I’m noticing my posts are short, less than 1000 words. Personal challenge, accepted!

HAPPY FRIDAY

 

Hello There, Old Friend

Today’s Throwback Thursday post features Skyrim! I’m going to try to make this a regular installment. I had meant to do this last week, but I got ranty on everyone and postponed my topic to a different day, which wasn’t Thursday, so I couldn’t use the appropriate phrase. This is going to be a day where I post about games I don’t play on the regular, but that when I revisit them it’s a pretty easygoing process.

This game is pretty.

Skyrim is one of ‘those’ games for me. It can be set aside for days, weeks, even months at a time, and when picked back up, it is so easy for me to immerse myself in the story and quests once again. This is definitely one of those games where the muscle memory kicks in after a very short period, making it comfortable and easy to play the game after a break. I love that feeling. It’s like putting on an old sweatshirt, or curling up on the couch after a long day. The comfort, familiarity, is an amazing feeling to have in anything, especially in a video game. The music, the sights, the sounds, the glitches, it’s a very easy game to come back to.

When I first started playing Skyrim was when it was released. I made a Khajit, and she evolved into an archer/thief/assassin. I had to do some major surgery on my computer, and that save file was lost, which made me upset obviously. All that time and she was just gone.  I tried and eventually stuck with it, and leveled as similar a character as I could, but it never really felt the same. So I switched tacks. I created a warrior, heavy armor, sword and shield, more of a charge in and bowl everyone over character, and it was fun, but I missed archery. I really love the archery system in Skyrim. It’s challenging, but once you get it down, it’s fantastic. Plus the bows look very cool IMO.

One moment please, Sir. 

I of course have mods installed, nothing crazy (ie the ‘sexy’ mods or the mod where you turn all the dragons into My Little Pony’s) but instead ones that embellish and aid in questing, I have all the DLC’s, which further enhance the story. I am very much so taking my time again playing through, I ended up making a wood elf that I was going to have as a stealthy dual wielding thief, but then I ended up making her kind of a copy of my Khajit. Whoops.

Have I mentioned I’m an altoholic? Because I totally am. In every game ever.

Can you spot the housecarl…?

I think in the main storyline I’m only at the first time you talk to Parthurnax, who by the way, is a very cool dragon dude. I’m leveling up my archery, one handed weapons, light armor, and speech skills. Much like real life. I am contemplating changing gears and pimping her out in mage gear to do the Winterhold quest line, I’ve kind of always wanted to play a mage all the way through in Skyrim, but I’m wondering how I can do that without dying. Probably a mix of conjuration and restoration magic hm? Or getting a very sturdy housecarl or companion.

Here, have some more pictures because this game is so pretty:

 

This game will always have a special place in my tiny cold little heart. Even revisiting the same old quests over and over again is fun, the potential for roleplay and developing a backstory and an actual character is astounding. Sometimes I even just play to cruise around on one of the adorable fat horses and listen to the music, admire the mountains, and get dive bombed by dragons.

In other news, this morning I’m going to spend some time messing with the blog, categorizing things correctly, adding a blogroll, figuring out how to make my blog look the way I want it to. You know, normal stuff! I do like my current theme a lot though, so probably won’t change the actual look. I don’t want to do anything crazy!

I hope everyone has a good day =)

Wolves and Bastions

Morning! You get a two-for-one special this morning! I’ve wanted to write a blurb about Bastion and The Wolf Among Us, and figured I would just put them in the same post! *note*  I feel as though every game I talk about I have to write as though I’m un-officially/officially reviewing it, but I’m mainly doing this to talk about the features I like,  and maybe to get a discussion going on gaming. *end note*

What would you do, how would you react, if fairy tales all of a sudden were true. All the fables, the stories we grew up on, no matter which country we’re from? Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Beauty and the Beast. What would it be like if they still existed, were trying to cope in today’s world? I’ve always absolutely loved books like this, it is neat to see a different side of the tried and true stories you pretty much know by heart, or even to see another side of the ones that have already been rehashed in pop culture. A friend was talking to me about this game a while ago, but I wasn’t keen on buying a ‘maybe game’ at full price. I like sticking to my comfort zones, RPGs and simulation games, and I wasn’t sure if this game, which looked kind of suspenseful and dark, would fit the bill for me.

Suddenly, Steam Summer Sale! *throws money at computer*

Wowzers, this game. Just the beginning credits had me hooked. I’ve never played a style of game like this before, where it looks like a comic book come to life. I know there’s a more technical term, but my blog so I will use my words! The music was a little haunting, but catchy. Reminiscent of an old cop/crime drama show.

I’ve only played about an hour or so, still on the first chapter of the game, but man is it cool.  Combat and movement is neat, it seems to play more like a movie, with the emphasis on little-to-no-movement, focus is on story, on interactions with characters and the choices you make in dialogue. Combat was neat, depends on timing and pressing the right key to do it correctly and not get your arse beaten. The acting is good, the characters are very well animated and unique. I was completely hooked and drawn into the story after about 15 minutes.

Bastion! This is another game that is stellar. This one has had rave reviews, I played it for a bit when I first purchased it but then let it fall to the wayside as I got involved with other games. I recently picked it back up, and I forgot how wonderful it is. The music alone, I could just let that play and be perfectly happy. Add to it the Narrator, the humor, and the mystery of what happened with the Calamity (where is everyone?!), and you’ve got me hooked! I HIGHLY recommend this game, it’s a really fun, colorful platformer, and just a really well done indie game! It’s easy to pick up for a few minutes, or let myself get immersed for hours. Love games like that!

At this point in time, I am bouncing around between a few different games, so it’s always very refreshing to run across a game (or two) that holds my attention, where I don’t get bored after an hour or so.

 

What makes you try a new game, or genre of game? Recommendation of a friend or coworker? The fact that it’s on sale, and only a few dollars, so why not? Rave reviews? Let me know below =)

Make a House a Home

People joke about the end game for Wildstar starting at level 14, which is when you unlock your floaty housing plot in the sky. It’s funny, because it’s almost completely true. I’ve joked about it on Twitter,  but in all honesty, most if not all of my money goes towards my house. It was slightly more difficult than it should have been for me to save up money for my mount, which you can get at level 15. I am definitely NOT complaining about this, by the by; it is an addition that a lot of people love, even if they won’t admit it. It gives creative outlet, and I can see it being a very zen thing to do, especially for raiders.  Rough night? Too many wipes or mistakes? Go rearrange some trees, yo.

One of the features I am very much looking forward to in Warlords is the Garrison feature. If anything, playing Wildstar, creating my (albeit simple, when you see what else is out there) house, my space, has made me quite excited! I know that Garrisons won’t be nearly as customizable as the housing plots, but the feature of doing SOMETHING other than group PvE or PvP content, something other than dailies, something other than grinding professions, something OTHER than sitting AFK tabbed out in a capital city, gives me great joy and makes me very optimistic!

WoW is very much in a dry spell, I’m feeling it greatly the more that time goes by. I’m more than likely at this point switching servers, but all of the people in that guild I’m switching to are in Wildstar at the moment, and we’re all having way too much fun there, or have let subs lapse, to play much in Azeroth. Which is okay.

It is okay to like more than one game at once, shocking revelation, I know. Yeah, bold and italics.That’s right.

Not only is housing in Wildstar a good creative thing, as I mentioned above, but it is fun as all hell, much like most other things in that game! When I kill a mob, or complete a challenge, I don’t know if I’m going to get crafting materials, gear to drop, or a tent.  I can right click the tent, chair, lamp, FAB Kit (basically a blueprint for a unique building you can place on your house), whatever in my inventory, send it to a crate that holds all my goodies, then teleport over to my housing plot and maniacally cackle as my killer space squirrel sets up a triangular brown tent over a giant purple dinosaur plushie (seen below). It’s totally normal.

Here you can see there are defined places for you to set things, but anything other than that you are free to move around as you see fit!

 

Here’s an interior shot, needs some work, but I like the color scheme!

 

 

 

Aforementioned plushie with tent!

 

Here you can see the simple mode for resizing, moving, and rotating items.

 

I’ve kept this one short and sweet. My WoW-related posts might slow down as I mention other games I play and enjoy, but closer to WoD launch I will definitely get back into WoW with a vengeance! I hope everyone has a great weekend!

WoD Alpha Notes: My Thoughts Part 1

Hey all! Sorry for my brief absence, real life kind of took me over for a week and I didn’t have time to sit and type out any decent posts!

This was intended to be (thanks to Fussypants of Growing up in Azeroth) a post about the updated Alpha patch notes for Warlords of Draenor, but I’ve been neglecting my homework, so this is going to be a slight challenge ^.^ 

I am looking forward to and excited for the changes to Azeroth, I am just hoping to understand the changes a bit more this time around. When Mists was released, I was more ‘ooh Pandaren!’ than I was ‘wait, WHAT are they doing to my spells?!’  I wasn’t raiding, so that part of the game didn’t appeal to me. This time around, while I’m also not raiding, I want to understand and try to grasp as many aspects as I can, so I don’t feel like I’m floundering through the game and mechanics as I am in MoP.  I feel like this is an awkward way of writing for me, I’ve never really analyzed changes, to other classes or the game in general, and I am not 100% sure on how to proceed. But I shall give it my best shot!

Hm. After reading over the Alpha notes, I am probably just going to hash them out briefly topic by topic, with an (UPDATED) next to the ones that are, and a (no updates) next to the ones that have no updates! Cuz simplicity is king!

Shall we?

 

Talent points and Draenor Perks: (no updates)

This is a very neat system.  I really do like the new talent point system, the old one felt very rigid and regulated, if you didn’t click the certain buttons you weren’t capable of functioning. I like the way you can pick and choose more flavorful options, more AoE vs single target, survivability vs group play. It makes the game play more dynamic.  I do like the Draenor Perk addition, it might seem kind of lackluster at first to a lot of players, but they are rewarding us for leveling up and progressing by making our skills hit harder, heals heal for more, which will hopefully take some of the sting off of the ‘item squish’ that’s looming over all our heads.

 

Garrisons: (no updates)

I am more than likely (read: definitely yes yes yes) going to cover this in depth in another post, but for now, I AM EXCITE. I love ‘housing’ and this might not be exactly like that, but the idea of my own personal little fortress, with my little peons slaving away, profession boosts, cosmetic features.. Adds a very cool, fun feature to the game and I am so excited to get underway and start staking my claim!

 

Stat Squish: (no updates)

*shrug* Math. If I’m still hitting as hard on a mob as I was before, yes I’ll be sad to see my BIG CHAOS BOLT CRIT LOL be a little smaller, but meh. I’m not super freaking out about this change, if anything it will be easier for me to understand how my character is performing, without feeling like I have to go crazy with spreadsheets or get out the calculator. I’ve never been one to crunch the numbers, to see what each point of haste does to effect my spells, etc. That isn’t how I choose to play the game.  I do like that they’re simplifying all crit and haste to be just crit and haste, not separating it between spell, melee, and ranged. Less words= better, imo!

 

Primary Character Stats and Attack Power: (no updates)

Hm.. Many words, basically boils down to making it more even and balanced across the board for all classes. This will hopefully prevent certain classes from being too OP right off the bat, just because of innate or passive perks (such as intellect automatically providing a crit bonus).  Hmm there’s a lot to this, my brain is spinning now, will probably touch on this on a later post as well!

I am now realizing how huge the patch notes are (duh) and it will be impossible for me to cover ALL of them, even just the updated changes. I feel like I can’t really cover the updated changes because I haven’t talked about the first changes, so I will end this here, brief as it is. This has been a good exercise, been a lot different than my normal route of blogging, it’s given me more things to talk about, and me being me, I will no doubt finish this up in a long string of blog posts! Thank you for bearing with me, I am hoping to streamline this process in the future. Have a great week!

-C

 

Some Brief Thoughts

My mindset on WoW has shifted dramatically all over the board for the last couple days. Everywhere from me packing up and moving shop to another game, to stubbornly sticking it out, because of all the time I’ve invested in it. With the notes released yesterday morning about the stat changes, I was stuck between the middle of those. One one hand, I like the idea of the new ‘minor’ stats; Avoidance, Movement Speed, Indestructible, and Leech. This gives more… flavor… to each piece of armor you pick up. While certainly one would be desirable over the other, none of them are horrible enough for me to /table flip.

As I was reading further though the dev watercooler I was starting to get grumpy. Why? All these stat changes seemed like they were making the game, the gearing game especially, a little more complex than I particularly liked. I don’t play my tanks anymore, other than messing around on baby alts, so the tanking stats I don’t have much input on, just due to my lack of knowledge on how they work this expansion. Change is scary, I don’t care who you are. It might be varying degrees of scary, people might handle it differently, but when things change which aren’t in our direct control, we all get a little antsy. Then I realized something, as I was driving home form work last night. Blizzard has a rhyme and reason for what they’re doing. This game has been around and has been popular and known and played for 10 years for a reason. Yes, I am positive they listen to input from the community, but they are still a company that exists, as all companies do, to make money. They’ll listen to input, they’ll see stuff posted on the forums, social media, heck, they prowl Tumblr for all I know. But they are still going to do whatever they feel is best for the game, to progress their company further. 

At the end of the day though, what they’re doing, their goal, is to make dolla dolla bills ya’ll. 

My attitude has (literally overnight) shifted dramatically. I welcome this more as a challenge to me as a player, the new stat changes, the item squish, the everything that is changing. It’s a new expansion, the world is going to change, if you don’t like it, don’t play it. You are free to do that. There are certainly enough games out there to suit anyone’s fancy. I personally will probably be frolicking around Wildstar until we get closer to launch. I am however getting far more excited and jazzed up for Warlords. I think it is going to offer a lot, for raiders and non raiders, for hardcore raiders and for more casual raiders. I honestly don’t even know if I’ll be raiding, I’m not 100% sure where my warlocky bum is going to be parked when the Savage Expansion of Savagery hits. 

I am excited though. And ready. And feeling far more optimistic than I was about 20 hours ago. The wonderful thing is, as people, we can change our minds. We can take a day, revisit things, can embrace and welcome change. This has been brief, but it’s just some things I’ve wanted to get off my chest. This is always an interesting time in the game. Some people are seeing it, experiencing it firsthand now that the Friends and Family Alpha invitations have been extended, but for those of us who are viewing from afar, it’s easy to become jealous or jaded. Please just remember that this is, at the end of it all, a game, and it exists as such. So please be nice to one another, in game and out, and leave the savagery till when it’s needed =)

-C

Hey Look! A Wildstar Blog Post!

I apologize in advance for the following: Well not the picture, what’s after it!

 

 

I’ve got a fever. And the only prescription is more Yellowbell.

 

Okay. I got that out of my system. Please don’t kill me. There will only be a few more like that. *evil laughter*

 Now then.. Like most everyone else, I am playing the Wildstar head start that began in the wee hours of Saturday morning. And like most everyone else, I am enjoying the hell out of it. What keeps going through my mind, and what I keep coming back to as I’m playing it, is just how much fun it is!

 The story is great, it’s a fun premise, here’s this new planet, quick go colonize it! Oh wait, the guys we’ve been fighting this whole way are here too? Welp *loads pistols* (That’s a super short version of it, I am keenly aware)

The game play is exciting and engaging, it’s been a long while since I’ve been grinning as I frolic about, defeating these new creatures, meeting new (native) friends, making new (native) enemies. I like the telegraph system, where it shows you an outline of where your abilities are going to hit, and where to not stand when the enemy is attacking you. I chose spellslinger, the same class I played for the majority of the beta weekends I was invited to, and it’s so fun. I’m going to keep saying that word, so just bear with me! I want to try healing with her at some point, but for now I’m enjoying dual wielding pistols and pew-pew-ing FAR TOO MUCH to deviate from it quite yet!  It’s a very mobile class, I’m level 11, only got to 14 in the beta, so I’m reaching the end of my knowledge as far as the spells and abilities go until I surpass that level. 

The path I chose is Explorer- which mainly comprises of me plummeting off high places. It is gleefully dangerous.  The path has you explore the world, obviously, unlocking every nook, cranny, and cliff in each zone. You can go on treasure hunts, stake claims ( if there is a player with another path standing nearby, they get a little bonus item), and just see all there is to see.  Other options are Soldier (did nothing with this in Beta, so I have nothing), Scientist (scan stuff, didn’t do a lot with this, had a level 3-4 character), and Settler (these are the guys that everyone loves, they can create little buff stations by collecting things scattered around the area, as well as other goodies, throughout the zone).

I’m on a (RP-PvE) server with a couple friends, and I am making a lot of new ones. I’ve grouped up with random people to complete group quests, had random heals thrown at me, have thrown out random heals. Zone chat is full of the normal fresh baby MMO chatter, trolls trying to establish themselves as trolls, the RP-ers RP-ing, and people asking the same question multiple times in a row ^.^ But there is a good sense of community already, people seem far more helpful than in other games I’ve played, and there is a good sense of everyone enjoying themselves immensely!

I’m not going to compare this game to WoW. I’m sure that’s being done elsewhere, and I just don’t want to do that. They’re both MMORPG’s, have their similarities, and their differences. I’m still going to be playing WoW, but for right now, the new and shiny is new and shiny, and I am going to be frolicking in Nexus (not the dungeon, that’s what they call- oh never mind) for a bit!

 I’ll bring this to a close, with a couple more screenshots, by just saying again how much fun I am having. Little details, as well as big obvious ones, like the mini rock concert that happens when you level up, the taxi ‘drivers’ being amazingly hilarious, and the Lolli-lopp quest, make this game shine.

 

Obligatory tea party picture

“My programmer said I’d never amount to anything. Who’s laughing now, Ma?”

 I will most likely definitely be writing more about this in the future, so stay tuned! 

-C

Are You There, Player? It’s Me, (Game)

I have to start this post off by saying that I’ve been quite remiss in participating in the NBI- I’ve of course been on the forums, have been reading and have been happy about my fellow NBI Initiates’ blogs, and their progress in general. I’ve been neglecting the writing prompts, the contests, etc. Not out of any particular one reason, just due to being busy (life) and uhh procrastination. So this is my first foray into writing with a  prompt given to me by that organization!

 The topic being: Why don’t we finish our games anymore? Below are my first three thoughts on why:

• don’t have the time
• don’t have the attention span
• fear of ‘The End.’

I’m going to be working my way backwards through this list, because reasons.

For me, the last point is the most relatable.  If I’m really enjoying a game, a story, a particular character, I don’t want it to end. I actually have a couple games in progress, because of this reason. I know you can always replay a game, can see it from even a different perspective, IE play the character differently if it’s a Mass Effect/Dragon Age type game, can play with a different build, or try a different strategy. Change is scary, too. Whether it be real life, or in a video game, or any other scenario. The familiarity of the game, that added routine, the sound, the feel of it, gone.  The next game you pick up, you might not enjoy it as much. It might not be the same level of awesome. I tend to play games that are similar to each other, usually an RPG of some shape or fashion. Each one is good, is unique to some degree, but once I play and finish a game I absolutely love, I miss it. I think this is part of why I have So Many Games, because they can only hold my attention so long.

Second point! Missymojo  touched on this in her post, that we all want instant gratification. We all want to love the game, right off the bat, and if we don’t, it’s left in the dust. It’s so easy to obtain games nowadays, you don’t have to go to the store and actually hand over money, can do everything at home in your pj’s. I’ve guiltily played through a lot of games I haven’t necessarily enjoyed, just because I want to feel like I’m getting my money’s worth. Something drew me to the game, which turned out to be the only thing I liked about it.

I also pick up games due to what friends suggest, maybe we’ll start playing a game together, or we will find out we each have been playing/enjoying the same game, and we’ll group up. Then begins the intricate dance of I can only play at certain times, they can only play at certain times, do we wait for each other and take forever to finish the game together, or split off and do our own thing, totally negating our original idea of playing through it as a team. Usually, one or the other is left behind, which for me, kind of leaves a sour taste in my mouth. My friend has beaten it, has the cool achievements, etc, and I’m still derping around at the beginning or middle. There’s the other side of the coin too, where I either feel like I’m getting power leveled or rushed through the content, then when I try to play solo I have no idea what’s going on, haha.

As to the first bullet point, time; like most of us, I work full time and try to have a social life. This limits my time that I can play games, which also limits the games I want to play. If I’m not enjoying it, if it’s frustrating or I can’t get past a certain part, I’ll essentially give up on it. This isn’t necessarily the game’s fault, but more of my own. I think as a culture, we tend to embrace the New and Shiny. I know there are plenty of games sitting in my Steam library that I have uninstalled, or that are just sitting there collecting dust because of my reluctance to play them.

I wanted to use a certain game as an example for this, it’s kind of a blend of the first and last point, so I’ll just put it here at the end! Skyrim. The game has been out forever, I know this, you know this, we all know this. I got the game as a gift right when it came out, and I played through and beat the whole thing. Now you’re sitting there looking at the title, wondering where I’m going with this. There is a method to the madness, don’t worry! I had computer issues, very long story, had to reinstall everything, ended up losing my save file. So I had to start from scratch. If any of you have ever played Skyrim, you feel my pain. I made the character as similar as I could, but it has never been the same. She’s still a Khajit, still a stealthy archer, Boss Lady of the Thieves’ Guild, assassin person, bounties in various cities for absolutely no reason, I promise. I have purchased most of the houses again, but it still doesn’t feel the same. I feel like I rerolled. I am still enjoying the game, don’t get me wrong. But I’m miffed that my save file somehow vanished (I blame Garrosh) and that I have had to start over. This has given me a new grasp on the game though, when I play through some parts of it again, I understand the story more, or get an extra chuckle out of the dialogue, and I’m seeing things in a new way. It still just doesn’t feel the same though.  This has made me leery of finishing the game entirely, as I feel like even if I play through, complete everything as I did the first time around, it’s still not going to feel the same when I finish it. I won’t have that rush of excitement, of accomplishment. I’m also afraid that if I do finish it, I’ll be done with it, as in I won’t want to touch it ever again.

After all these words from me, what do you think? Is our culture to blame? Our want of things right NAO? Or are we as players too needy, too flighty, to really sit and enjoy a game for all it has to offer? 

Have a great day!

-C