Petition to Companies Who Create Games

I would like to start a petition to all companies that make games… can you please stop releasing anything for a year or two so I can catch up with what I currently have on my plate?  Let me look at the list of games I have barely touched and would like to play through so everyone can understand how screwed I currently am:

**But first… I have a message for my wife:  Honey, if you are reading this, please stop now and go shopping for a new outfit, or shoes or something.  I know you conceptually know that I have far too many games, but if you ever see this list I’ll never be able to convince you that I *NEED* to buy a game like Borderlands 2 when it first comes out…  so go buy something please.**

Now that I have that out the way, it is time to share my shame with the world!

Games I would like to play and own but have barely touched:

Guild Wars 2 (first character is almost 80… but I want one of each class…. well, except for a warrior)

Borderlands 2

Transformers: Fall of Cybertron

Diablo 3 (actually I have played quite a bit and have a max level character but I would love to play more)

Orcs Must Die 2

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine

Assassin’s Creed (All 4 of them, barely played the first one and loved it.  Just need to go back)

Binding of Issac (played the crap out of it but haven’t had time for the Wraith of the Lamb expansion)

Dead Space 1 & 2

Mass Effect 3 (maybe 1/3 of the way through by best guesstimate)

Dragon Age 2 (again, maybe 1/3 of the way through)

X3: Albion Prelude

Fallout: New Vegas

Skyrim (barely touched the main story-line but played a ton of side-quests already)

Batman: Arkham City

And that’s just the PC games… here are a few others I own that I want to find time to play on Xbox 360 or PS3:

La Noire

Alan Wake

Final Fantasy XIII

Red Dead Redemption

Wow… now that I look at the list, I wish I’d sent myself out shopping before I wrote it.  And these are only the big name games that I haven’t played.  There are a bunch of great indie games and other odds and ends that I want to play as well.  I seriously need to either get a great paying job that lets me play video games all day (they exist right?) or I need to hit the lottery so I can stop working and have more free time for gaming.  I mean, the alternative would be to stop buying new games when they are super cheap on Steam… and who has the willpower for that?

Please tell me that I’m not the only one… I would suggest starting a support group for people who compulsively buy games even though they don’t have the time to play them… but that’d only leave me with even less time to play Borderlands 2… or Guild Wars 2… or Orcs Must Die 2… or some other game whose title ends it 2…

Anyone have a time machine I can borrow?

I really wish I could go back in time to when I was just a kid and could play games all the time.  Although I’d want to take my current Steam collection back with me so I don’t have to play those old games that existed back then.  And maybe a Flux Capacitor based VPN so I could connect to the current Guild Wars 2 servers from back then.  And probably my broadband internet connection so I’m not stuck on dial-up.

Ya’ll can keep your Facebook though… don’t need to hear your political views, whining about your ex-husband/boyfriend/girlfriend or 18 daily pictures of cute cats, thank you.

Back on topic… Currently most of my time is devoted to Guild Wars 2.  I have an Elementalist that is level 21, a Guardian who is level 41, and a bunch of level 1 alts that are holding names for eventual characters I want to play.  I’m not sure that I want to play the Guardian though for a few different reasons but I can’t put her down.  It’s partly because the current prices for selling Gold for Gems is really quite low and I have a feeling that this will adjust upwards in time, so I’m trying to make as much money as I can to buy as many gems as possible.  This means leveling up since the money gets better and better the higher you get.

That’s not to say that I’m rushing through content…  actually, I’m only about 2/3 of the way through my first 25-35 zone and I’ve completed 7 or 8 zones so far!  I’m really really having fun, and the guardian is a ton of fun to play.  What follows is my own attempt to decide whether or not to play the Guardian or play something else.

Pro

• Does great damage with a 2H Greatsword
• Able to support others very well with Staff
• As a Norn, switching to Wolf form is EPIC
• Already level 41 and the higher zones seem to have better event chains which are a blast

Con

• Melee is a quick way to die in many fights with Champions and Bosses
• Support doesn’t get nearly as much credit in events or especially PVP where only kills matter
• Only real ranged option is the Scepter whose damage is meh

I’m thinking that I’ll stick to the Guardian for now, but I am starting to get the shakes to roll an alt.  I love that there is no subscription to GW2 and I don’t have to feel bad on the 21st when Borderlands 2 comes out!

Thoughts on Guild Wars and the Hall of Monuments now that I’m “Done”

After dragging my feet for the last couple of HoM points, I sold off  almost everything I had of value to make the final push for 30/50 last night.  I kept almost logging off to go to bed but then someone would respond to buy something or post in trade that they wanted something I had… needless to say, I sold the last items I need to go over the top to a character by the name of Armen The Guide.  He made my night so much that I dumped a few random odds and ends I had on my that I wouldn’t be needing anymore.  I dashed over to get my Destroyer weapon created, and then trimphantly strolled into my Hall of Monuments to place the final weapon on the stand.

I can’t remember the last time I felt so accomplished for playing a game… and this is one of the huge successes that ArenaNet has made.  I think the Hall of Monuments is pure genius on ArenaNet’s part.  Reward the hell out of your existing player base and try to give them a good incentive to buy your new game.  I also have to give them serious credit for not using this as a cash grab to entice people to buy the transmutations for the HoM weapons.  I just read the other day that they will be free to transmute but they’re still working on exactly how that will work.

It also has massively increased the number of people logging in to Guild Wars numero uno.  I have all of the expansion packs for Guild Wars but barely played more than a few missions of each.  The idea of the game always appealed to me, but the learning curse after a few missions would always piss me off and I’d bail.

My biggest criticism for this game is that without reading the wiki (and I mean really digging in to it) it’s really easy to have a completely awful build or just completely not know that you can upgrade weapons or armor in certain ways.  I’m really hoping that they fix this as much as possible in Guild Wars Part Duex.  I’ve always hated that for many MMO’s you have to constantly alt-tab out to a wiki to have an real clue on what you should be doing.

The mood in Guild Wars is certainly exciting… everyone is trying to get the last few points for either 30/50, 50/50 or some other random stopping point they have decided on.  There are many stories of people logging in and dumping all of their accumulated wealth on random bystanders or guildmates.  I know that the original Guild Wars will stick around for a bit, but many people (myself included) don’t expect to play the orignal very much in the coming future.  The closest thing I can associate it to is being on a server at the very end right before they pull the plug on a title.

I plan on logging in to Guild Wars just prior to Head Start and maybe even before the proper launch just to see if anything crazy is going on… I fully expect something exciting to happen, but I guess we’ll see.

To anyone that is still listening…..

I got 30/50!!!!!

 

On that note, it’s almost 2AM here and I need to be up in a few hours for work.  I know I have been slacking on the posts, but partly that is because I’ve been kind of bored with the games I have been playing… Guild Wars… grind to 30/50 took forever and a few times I almost gave up.  Star Trek Online?  When they said that small Fleets wouldn’t be at a disadvantage… they lied.  Grinding Fleet Marks and committing all of my duty officers to the dark pit that is our Starbase… How do they honestly expect a smallish fleet to really compete?  Oh well, time for bed… at least I met my 30/50 goal finally!  Now if I can just make my “post semi-regularly, and not just once a month” goal………

Putting this Starbase Together with My Bare Replicator

When Star Trek Online was announced I followed it very closely.  When Perpetual went the way of the whales I thought a probe had wiped all traces of a Star Trek MMO from our little world for good.  Once Cryptic picked up the rights, I was overjoyed and couldn’t wait to play in my favorite fictional universe (no pun intended).

It was just a few months before I got married and I decided to purchase a lifetime membership, partly just so I didn’t have to worry about paying a subscription that could be considered “extraneous” expenses that could be cut from the budget.  This was prior to having a shared bank account with my wife, so it was quite easy to slide this purchase through.

I know a lot of people were scared when STO announced that it was going Free 2 Play but I was actually excited.  I knew I would get “free” points every month to buy what I wanted without necessarily paying anything at all.  I have tossed my share of cash in for extra C-Points (or Zen after Thursday) but it is a nice surprise when my total goes up on a monthly basis.

I’m looking forward to starbases

I can’t wait for Starbases

Are the Starbases here yet?!?!?!?!!?

While testing Starbases on Tribble I found that the large fleet I was part of wasn’t going to cut it.  While we were getting all of the donations we needed for the next tiers very quickly, it was all being donated by the same one or two people.  I haven’t played much in several months and never really got to know any of the people in the fleet so I decided to break my ties and start hunting for a new fleet.

I hate finding new fleets/guilds.  There is usually an existing group of people that you have to get to know or fit in with.  All of the established guys that group together.  There’s already a go-to person for everything and you just end up hanging on and almost mooching off of what is already in place.  I didn’t want that, especially when Season 6 drops.  I want to feel like I helped to make our Starbase. Even if it isn’t “easy” and takes some time, I want to feel like it wouldn’t have happened without my help.

So after hunting around on the forums and talking to a few different guilds, I found a newly formed guild to join.  Starfleet Temporal Investigations Agency is still small but we’re growing.  I really like the excitement and energy I am seeing just in the first few weeks of our existence.  I think that the launch of Season 6 is going to be an exciting time for us and can’t wait to see what the future seasons bring us.

Annoyed with your current Fleet’s crazy rank structure?  Sick of feeling like Drone 373 of 498?  Joining a new fleet is one of the more exciting things I have done in a long time and I highly recommend you give it a try yourself.  If you’re interested in joining us, check out our site. 

If you need a laugh, check out our recruitment thread on the STO Forums. 

Need some good BBQ, check out this place.  

Need a good blog that isn’t mine to read?  Try this one or this one or dat one.

Need something not listed above?  Sorry, can’t help you… I’ve exhausted my quota of links.

So close, but so far away….

When it comes to Guild Wars, there’s one thing I hate more than anything else… and not being able to jump is a close number 2…

NO AUCTION HOUSE…. <rage>  I am currently extremely close to getting 30/50 on my Hall of Monuments… I literally just need a few armors and a Destroyer weapon.  In between farming the final materials for my Destroyer weapon, I’m trying like heck to sell off all of the stacks of crap I have accumulated in my bags.

I could just go dump it all on the Material Trader, but in many cases would be getting far less than they are worth.  So if anyone needs me, I’ll be sitting in Kamadan selling off stacks of Iron, Wood, Bone, Alchohol and sweets… hopefully it’s a good night and people are in the buying mood!

I didn’t bother with screenshots from today’s playtime since it’s all been the same… inventory open, trade chat up, rear end of character at all times.  Come on Guild Wars 2 and your real Auction House!

Will you just shut up and get to the screenshots already?!?!

I have struggled with two things while creating this blog.  The first thing I have struggled with is just posting on a semi-regular basis…  I’ll mean to post something and even have ideas, but then I’ll get sidetracked and put it off for a day (or a week).  Another thing I tend to run into is having an idea of something I want to write and  just before I write it, I see someone else posting almost the exact thing I was thinking so I just drop that idea altogether.

The other problem I tend to have is the dreaded Wall of Text… I don’t always have screenshots handy when I’m typing up an article on an iPad (which is a very unique experience I highly recommend you try at least once).  I also tend to run in to issues actually having relevant screenshots anyways.  I tend to get involved in whatever game I am playing and I don’t even think to hit the Print Screen key often enough for it to matter.

I have been trying to remember to look for a tool that will help me and ran across this post by Valerian.  So I grabbed Chronolapse and with just a couple small tweaks to the default settings I have been collecting screenshot upon screenshot upon screenshot.  Only issue I have is remembering to stop the autocapture before I have  a bunch of screenshots just of my desktop.

So for your viewing pleasure, here’s a bunch of random screenshots jumbled together.  I’d try to make up an interesting title like FrankenScreenshots, but then Massively would likely love the idea and call it BlenderizedScreenshots.  I’m just a wee little blog, so I’m sure it’s just a coincidence… it’s not like anyone talked about this idea to a bunch of people or anything.

I’m really not cranky about it and I could be completely wrong.  On the offhand chance that I AM right however… would’ve been nice to throw a little blogger a bone link.  A link on Massively’s website… oh the traffic I would see…. on second thought… maybe I really don’t want that kind of attention just yet.  I’m lying… I want the attention.  Ok, somehow a screenshot heavy post turned into a wall of yammering.  Screenshots are go!

Secret World Beta

Yeah… skimpy armor is one thing, but just forgetting to button your shirt?

Creepy looking dude…

Matrix creepy dude… ok, let’s just play the game.

Topless creepy guy?!?! Ok, maybe I should have played the girl after all!

Puppet guy was a good time. Crazy as hell!

Almost felt like Left 4 Dead MMO Edition. Big guy was cool looking though!

Could you please get your Bioshock out of my Secret World?

I know that not all women in a game world have to be half naked and hot… but do we really need to model NPCs after women seen on PeopleOfWalmart.com?!

Guild Wars

Little bit of Guild Wars PVP – Look so much better in Avatar for than in my dress robes…

Yeah.. I’m not so hot at PVP… but at least I took them with me and got the capture!

Hmmmm… dead again… go figure.

Winning! = less times I have to run this for the skill I want to buy!

Mass Effect 2

Ya’ll kill them yet while I hide here in my cool medieval armor?

Double your refreshment, Double your enjoyment… oh just shoot them in the vaguely head-like area and move on!

T-100 really has been eating his Wheaties!

Hey… you think he saw me?

Yes Harbinger, run away like a scared little girl…

Only thing that would have made this better is if the Shep would have mooned him!  Or shown him that he’s number one… 

I didn’t realize Shep was soooo smooth. I guess you have to be a Jack of All Trades to save the universe…

War of the Guilds Part Deux

 

 

ArenaNet finally announced the launch date for Guild Wars 2!  August 28th is the big day… and I am quite excited to play for real.  I have dabbled with the Beta a little bit, but I find it hard to invest much time on characters that are just going to be wiped.   Teaser trailer is below… quite excited about the running/jumping part of the video.  Not sure if that’s the jumping dungeon I’ve heard about or not, but it looks interesting.

Also of note is that there will be one last Beta Weekend Event running from July 20th-22nd.  I’m debating about taking that Monday off of work.  I have missed all of the cool BWE end events since I am the Eastern Timezone and it is hard to stay up until 3AM when I have to work in the morning.  Ok, let’s be honest… I’m starting to get old and it’s hard to stay up that late anyways.

Nerd Time Addendum

I managed to get a couple hours of game time in last night and finished up Mass Effect 2 again.  Now I just need to do the Shadow Broker and Arrival DLC’s.  I hear the Shadow Broker is excellent and I’m excited for Arrival to lead me in to Mass Effect 3.  I’m taking a few days off work next week to get projects done and just relax, so maybe I’ll find time to finish up Guild Wars HoM and get rocking on ME3!  Oh, and of course get my projects done… of course.

 

Nerd Time (or lack thereof)

So the past few weeks have been quite busy for me.  June is always a busy busy month that is better off forgotten, but oh well.  Between my “little” brother’s high school graduation party, wedding I was in, work trip, accelerated  programming class for my degree and trying to get a house ready to sell, yeah… not nearly as much nerd time as I would prefer.  So what gaming have I gotten done you ask?  Uhm… yeah… not that much to be honest, but here we go.

Guild Wars

Still 24/30 on my Hall of Monuments.  Been playing my Monk to get him past a few more Factions missions so I can buy him the Kurzick armor.  Beyond that, I really just need cash and a little Asuran faction on my Dervish and I’m done.  Here’s the last few things on my to-do list:

• Get 2 more common minis.  Will wait for another month or so until three of my characters get their 2nd year birthday gifts.  Hoping I get a couple I don’t already have.  Or I’ll buy them.  Either way… 25/30
• Get 9k more Asuran Rep to hit Rank 5 and purchase Asuran Dervish Armor for 3 Armor Statues… 26/30
• Few more missions in Factions for the Monk and then purchase Kurzick Armor… 27/30
• Craft Primeval Armor (don’t want to grind any more faction and it’s not too pricey) now 5 Armors…  29/30
• Craft a Destroyer Weapon – dun dun dun… 30/30!

Mass Effect 2
I picked up Mass Effect 3 but haven’t played it yet.  I went back and purchased a couple pieces of DLC I didn’t have for Mass Effect 2 so I’ve played a mission here or there to finish ME2, but not in a real big rush here.

Krogan – The race of cranky old men… sooo good.

Diablo 3

Then the only other thing I’ve really done much of is playing Diablo 3 with a buddy.  We just hit 50 and started Hell earlier this week.  My Barbarian is 51 and we’re having a really good time with it.  Diablo 3 is very much a boring game for me to play solo, but with a buddy… tons of fun.  Especially when I die horribly and respawn right in the middle of awful things and by the end of the battle I end up naked.  He laughed.  I laughed…. and then paid my repair bill and moved on with life.

This Barbarian is far more awesome than my current build but approximately the same level of broken-armored-ness

Star Trek Online

0 play time.  Well, I take that back… I logged in and promptly fell asleep at my keyboard a couple night ago… does that count?  I really don’t know what I’m going to do when Star Trek Online pushes out the Season 6 update which will include fleet bases.  Just not enough time in the day it seems…

Hopefully I can finish off 30/30 HoM in Guild Wars before then… would help free up gaming time but going to require a lot more Guild Wars gold than I currently have.  I also need to find a fleet to STO with… current fleet was fun when I played, but they are very much based in the UK and I missed most of the fun events due to my work schedule/sleep schedule.

I have heard that there are new Duty Officer reinforcement packs for sale in STO that have the chance to drop all kinds of random stuff, even including a transport!  Sounds very cool, and a really nice homage to Heretic who will be greatly missed.  I haven’t purchased a single lockbox key yet, but I will be picking up a few of these whether I get the ship or not.  I think this is a really great way to give the lockbox cash that Cryptic and PWE so love to see, but also gives us players something of value at the same time.  Now I just wish they’d finally get around to making a Duty Officer app.  Everyone wants one.  I know even Cryptic wants to do it.  What would it take?  Sell the app?  Done.  Here’s my money and thank you very much.

Anyways, on a personal note, does anyone know of a fun fleet in STO that doesn’t mind a guy that plays passionately for weeks on end, and then goes on hiatus and plays something else but eventually always comes home?  Really want to try to find somewhere to land so I can have some Starbase fun in the near future!

Things to Do When the Video Card Dies

No, my video card is just fine.  If it wasn’t you’d be able to hear my wails of pain from halfway around the world (which a couple of you are it seems!)  This little corner of my blog will be a semi-maybe-once-in-awhile-reoccurring topic where I review things outside the world of video games.  Well, some of them will be video game related, but it’s not actually playing the game so give me a break.  So without further rambling I present “Things to do when you can’t actually game whether it be from video card deaths, or even just the dreaded 8-5.”  **[See, my first title was much shorter!]**

I’m a bit of a podcast junkie and listen to roughly a dozen podcasts regularly with a few others that I’ll catch an episode or two here and there.  Like everything else in my life it seems I have a rolling backlog but I try to keep up… honest.  The podcast that I’ll discuss/review/heavily criticize this week will be further shameless self-promoting… but if you’re reading this, I don’t know how I’d be promoting my own blog by talking about my own blog in an article about a podcast.  (If that made your brain hurt than good.  Writing it made my brain not so happy either and I’m okay with making others share my pain)

Anyways, back on topic.  This week’s podcast that I listen to in the car or at work when I’m able to do mindless enough things that I can actually pay attention IS…. Too Long; Didn’t Listen!

The podcast is hosted by Dodge and Syp (Justin) who do a really good job discussing two topics per show pertaining to the MMO industry in general.  I listen to a couple other podcasts that Dodge is part of and also read Syp’s columns on Massively and his blog BioBreak.  It’s always interesting to read other people’s thoughts and also listen to discussions they have with their co-hosts.  These two definitely don’t disappoint and are one of the few podcasts not based on a specific game that I always make sure to catch.

Since I have a large amount of podcasts that I listen to regularly, the fact that their shows are only around 40 minutes is generally a good length for a podcast.  Short enough to not take forever to listen to, while being long enough for them to cover topics in a fairly thorough manner.

They are always asking for their listeners to send in topics, so I sent them a link to my article a couple weeks ago about the FrankenMMO challenge just to see what they thought.  I’m pleased to say that they didn’t utterly hate my idea and featured it as one of the questions in yesterday’s show.  Needless to say, I was slightly nerdcited to listen to their thoughts and maybe even a little bit of praise for this here blog writer (woot!)

Anyways, check it out.  It’s always a fun listen and they are two fairly goofy guys so it doesn’t seem to ever turn in to a rant-fest like some podcasts sometimes do.

If you are looking for something slightly more Rant filled… or even just a little on the sarcastic side check out Riknas Rants.  This is a fairly new blog but I’ve laughed more than a few times reading the most recent few posts that he has.  Also the blog seems to be less about a specific game and more about the MMO industry in general.  Translation:  Not just another blog gushing about GW2!

Wait a second… I’ve gushed about GW2 a few times… great… now I’m just attacking myself.  Fantastic.  Well, time to go and see if I can make some progress towards the last few Hall of Monuments points I need… the last few are by far the most painful and definitely EXPENSIVE!