NaBloPoMo for November 2013

NaBloPoMo is National Blog Writing Month.  It used to be run by the same folk who do NaNoWriMo  (National Novel Writing Month) but it appears to have been taken over by the folks at BlogHer.

One year, writing on two different blogs, I made it every single day then zoned it out completely Thanksgiving Day.  Crushing stuff.  To give this blog a bit more attention and thought, I’m going to unofficially try to post here every day in November.  This means I’m going to do the posting, but I won’t sign up at BlogHer and double post my stuff there, and get writing prompts.

Wish me luck!  I’m going to do it this time!

Ten Ton Hammer’s Top 6 Sandbox MMO’s to look for in 2014

In case you began your MMO life in a sandbox MMO world where you could create your own adventures and dream big, here is a list of recommended upcoming MMOs which they hope will release next year.  Of these, I am personally interested in Everquest Next (which I expect to be the best of the bunch), Elder Scrolls Online, and Pathfinder Online.

 

Rift List

I hadn’t been playing Rift but the prospect of losing my character name or having something wonky happen to her made me scoot back in.  After the server merger I went in and was greeted with a character creation screen.  Eeek was my girl GONE?

As it turned out, she had been moved to another server. It would have been nice if a message popped up saying so or if she voila was just over there. I found a snarky post on the Rift forums saying just log onto Wolfsbane and your character would be there. Relief.

I had in the meantime created a new character with the same skills and purple hair and was going to start over.  I poofed her once my real girl was safe.

This made me think that I don’t really know the game having played little, and I had all sorts of questions I should get answers to before I went further.

What are the basics of her class?

What are her skills and how are they best used?

What do I need to know about the interface to play efficiently?

What are the basics of crafting?

How do I travel between the areas of the world?

List making fiend that I am, I thought I should develop a nice Word table or something like it for myself for this and other games that will allow me to go back anytime and play, with all of those basic how to play questions written out for any game I might play.  When is the last time you played something like Morrowind or Neverwinter Nights and couldn’t quite recall the spells and you were a dead doggie, tsk.  I don’t have my list worked up quite yet but you see the beauty of it.

Neil Gaiman’s Wayward Manor

I keep forgetting you can’t embed videos here as you can in Blogger without paying for the premium version of WordPress 😦

Link, link, link   http://mashable.com/2013/10/17/neil-gaiman-wayward-manor-game-trailer/

 

 

It looks promising from this small clip.  If you’ve read Gaiman’s  excellent The Graveyard Book you know he has a perfect feel for ghosts and the adventures possible in life beyond death.

Stratics CEO on The New Stratics at their 16th Anniversary

Here’s a video of CEO  Taylor V. Smith, President & CEO of Stratics, celebrates Stratics’ 16th anniversary and discusses his discovery of Stratics, ownership transition, and future plans for the network.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8BoC7ZLy9o

He seems a bit too earnest, and his kerchief bugs me, but I’m glad to see Stratics getting a new shot at being a game site you’d want to read.  They plan to focus on just a few games.  It seems as if he plans to provide on the job training for people who may wish to use the skills they learn elsewhere later.  Web site and community management, reporting, and other such skills.

For me, Stratics had really good strategic gameplay information, and everything you wanted to know about the world, npcs, quests were available here for your game of choice.  I also really liked the developer interviews.

I believe he says in the video that they will cover the games they are most passionate about and they won’t try to be all things to all people.  Here are the games featured on their Facebook page over the weekend (and we can assume are their featured games):

Ultima Online

Wildstar

Elder Scrolls Online

Eve Online

Hearthstone

Guild Wars 2

Star Wars the Old Republic

Here is their site:    http://stratics.com/

Rift North American Server Merges and Names poofed from the Inactive

Are scheduled for this Wednesday.  I’m fine with wherever I end up.

According to Massively, they are also poofing names from inactive players so that someone actually playing can have their name of choice.  It seems very fair to me.    http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/10/18/rift-frees-up-inactive-character-names/

Naturally I logged in to see if my girl was in danger.   Since I cobbled together her name from the random name generator and my wily imagination, it looks like her name hasn’t been cloned yet.  I did a little fishing (how I love in game fishing in every game I’ve tried. I can’t say why.)  I was busy getting a shark fish and felt guilty ignoring one of those big calls to arms where you’re supposed to go running and help defeat a set of foes.  A few more fish and I can learn to cook 🙂

Obligatory Picture to Drive Traffic

Back in Action

Busy busy busy still.  My faithful spammers have not been stopping by, tsk.  I guess if I write something their little bots go crazy and rush over to spread the spamula.

Finally got back to playing WOW.  Just in time for the “Halloween” holiday Hallow’s End.  I am all over that puppy and even have all the pvp requirement ones complete.  I’ll get this whole set with ease.   The Headless Horseman “dungeon” is terribly silly and boring.  Decent enough rewards the first shot of the day.  I haven’t gotten the agility drop yet.  Have my broom!  Very cute.  I love the black cat who looks like my own cat.  And it flies on a little broomstick when you fly! Sooo cute!

I asked my brother in law about scenarios this weekend, and he went in a couple with me.  I’m not so sure if I like them, they seem pretty variable, but again the rewards are good.  I may have been on a bit of a binge and have been in maybe 8 different ones now.

My nephew says when you do Raid finder you end up doing about four of the bosses in a Raid, not the whole thing which I pictured taking 3 or four hours.  Snoozefest.  And honestly the only reason it takes so long at all is because the bosses apparently have like a million hit points.  So you’re there like a maroon with 39 other people whacking at these things forever?  I’m going to try it to say I did it, but come on, couldn’t you think of something more challenging than that?  Is my thought.