Monthly Archives: July 2019

GameNotes July 30, 2019

Our daily posts shift starting today to a once a week GameNotes regularly scheduled post on Tuesdays, which should be crammed with all things game-y.  While it has been fun writing a post a day as a personal challenge, once a week is more realistic, and better than the one post a month I had been squeaking out for awhile.

Later in August, I do plan a World of Warcraft Classic Diaries series wherein I’ll follow one Alliance and one Horde character on their adventures while they level from 1-20.

They will be each a different class, and no, I won’t really do healers.  I will pick the classes in advance so I can read up in all the Wow Classic Class guides that are coming out, how to best play those characters in Classic.  I want them both to be the best they can be.

Thanks for hanging in there with me this month, may your adventures in imaginary lands be wonderful.

ESO: All The Things

I’ve four characters in Elsweyr, because I liked it so much.

With the first one, I tried exploring every inch and doing all the quests and dungeons I came across.

At some point, I felt bogged down, so I brought in a second character to only do the Abnur Tharn questline.  She was zipping along till she couldn’t beat a boss in Rimmen.  Hmm. back to the Ali’kr Desert to get from 40-50, then try again.

With a third character, a warden, I thought I could try again going methodically through Abnur’s quests and any delves, side quests or whatever to see if I could avoid the bogged down feel of Character One.   not much progress there.

Fourth, I got a new character slot, and couldn’t quite go necromancer, but I did make a black cat khajiit very much like Kamira and my own beloved black cat.  She’s not moving forward either.

 

You may recall I was loving the Ali’kr desert area with several characters before Elsweyr arrived.  I’m sort of dropping back here to go forward with these.  partially because I have the furnished Sisters of The sands apartment, which is currently my favorite home in the game.  It is just so comfy, cozy, well lit.

All the homes I own are:

Flaming Nix Garret

Snug Pod

Sisters of the Sands Apartment

Gardner House

Mathiisen Manor

Grand Psijic Villa

Sugar Bowl Suite

Golden Gryphon Garret

Mara’s Kiss Public House

The Rosy Lion

Saint Delyn Penthouse

Ebony Flask Inn Room

My main décor efforts go to the Mathiisen Manor in Auridon.  Whatever cool new thing I can make goes there (though I haven’t crafted much in the past month).

Next, I’m slowly decorating the various Inn Rooms.  I travel to these so much, they could be more welcoming.  I use things I might not use anywhere else in these.

I wanted the Gardner House in Wayrest for so long because of it’s location.  I’m disappointed in how dark it is, and how little it looks like it’s splash screen.  Lighting this place up and making it homey is three on the décor list.

Splash Screen Gardner House

 

Furnished Gardner House

 

Lastly,  I’ve worked out a progression/completionist plan for my “main characters”  one for each of the faction areas.

They’ll go back home, complete their maps, then move on to the next area their characters would naturally go to and complete those.  For instance Glenumbra/Stormhaven/Bangkorai  with my Breton Templar.

A set of “secondary characters” will do the same with Morrowind, Summerset, Murkmire.

It’s good to have a plan, right?

Last Chapter Cryptogram Answer for the July 21st Puzzle

I hope you enjoyed this week’s Cryptogram.   Here’s the answer:

FBV UIROYDSIF WENITOD TX FBV DTEFBZVDFVNX OTRDF RNV OENSTED ONVRFENVD. SX DTWV ZRCD, FBVC ROF URNVIC DVXFSVXF, CVF SX TFBVND, FBVC DBTZ R NVWRNYRUIV MVANVV TP TNARXSLRFSTX.

 

THE BLACKSILT MURLOCS ON THE SOUTHWESTERN COAST ARE CURIOUS CREATURES. IN SOME WAYS, THEY ACT BARELY SENTIENT, YET IN OTHERS, THEY SHOW A REMARKABLE DEGREE OF ORGANIZATION.

From World Of Warcraft

GameNotes

Opportunity city!  Icy Veins is expanding their coverage of World of Warcraft Classic and they’re hiring writers!

https://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/44683-recruiting-writers-for-wow-classic/

I momentarily envisioned my name in lights, but they want serious class design writing, and such.   Never fear, I will be writing about it here.   Picture heavy with captions such as “Horde be like…”   “Alliance be like…”  to help you get a feel for the contrast, as I play both sides against the middle.  I am so bad.  I could have all my Horde characters be healers.  har har har.  They’ll never suspect as they flop hither and yon in the throes of death…

Ahem (cough) I wouldn’t do that.

 

Feedly

 

I’ve got a ton of blogs on my blogroll now and no nice snippets.  I started off trying to just click each looking for new posts.  I didn’t get far on the list, so I’ve become a Feedly person.   It is a quick way of catching up, though in most cases you don’t visit people’s blogs so they don’t know you visited.  Kind of sad.  I find I’m a bit obsessive about marking All As Read.  I even went through this morning and scrolled through the 500 or so of IGN’s post to mark it.  Next month I’ll comment more so people know I stopped by and liked what they wrote.

 

I came across this talk on Fashion in Games on Gamasutra.

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/344467/Video_Why_fashion_in_most_games_sucks_and_why_you_should_care.php

I like much of what she says, and would like to see her ideas play out in games.  That said, it made me think of the many LOTRO blogs which compile outfits.  They’re so gorgeous.  And, they make me want to play the game to get that outfit, which is one of Kit’s points, I think.  It’s a way to draw people in.

https://withyfashions.wordpress.com/

http://materialmiddleearth.blogspot.com/

https://wanderingarda.wordpress.com/

 

While we’re on the topic, an article from Kotaku in which people who ‘know fashion’ rate some fashions from popular games.

https://kotaku.com/video-game-fashion-reviewed-by-people-who-know-fashion-1756950307

 

Unrelated, and now old news, but https://www.wowhead.com/news=293942/blizzard-co-founder-frank-pearce-to-leave-the-company

I’m unfamiliar with him, and I read all the speculations of doom attached to another founder leaving.  It may be he just wants to spend more time with his family.  That happens a lot!  What I find concerning is that the timing of these higher ups leaving in recent times has been not long before Blizzcon or the release of a new expansion.  It always makes you feel as if they know something that’s imminent that they’re dodging!   I wish him luck in any case.

 

Throwback Thursday: The Greatest Adventures

Video games exist in their own universes, telling a story, inviting you into an adventure.  I wanted to list my favorites of all the in-game adventures we’ve had.  My husband and I played all but one of these and more together.  Typically he “drove” or moved us around, while I wielded guns and wrenches against an onslaught of bad guys and monsters.  I always take it personally when my character is attacked, so in addition to providing all the screams, my self-preservation instincts kicked in plenty and got us out of tight spots.   These games formed us both as gamers.

These are my personal favorites:

 

Tomb Raider

The adventure of any lifetime in rambling trap filled tombs.  Wild leaps to safety or death, enemies galore, and something I always love, endless ammo.

 

 

System Shock 2

We weren’t familiar with the first game, so we trusted The Good Doctor Polito, and were shocked indeed by Shodan.   I think we played more than once and tortured over the stats we should pick, making this unlike anything else we had played.  I loved hacking those doors, under considerable pressure as The Many crept up behind you.   The whispers of those creatures, heard in advance of their getting to where you were (insert screams here).   It was so scary I remember us trying to hide on a bunk bed once, holding our breath, hoping they wouldn’t notice us.

 

Alone in the Dark

Apparently we wanted to be scared more, scream more (truthfully it was always me) so we picked up this haunted house exploration story.  The graphics seem very blocky today, and I’d loved to see them modernize the game.  The story, the music, and a couple of sequences of things crashing through windows  were almost too much.   A mystery to be solved,  finding of clues and objects as you went.

 

Oblivion

One I played on my own.  I really could have used my husband in the Ayleid tombs, which just were too scary, again ambient noises being the thing.  I had to listen to cheery, upbeat music any time I went in one.  This was my introduction to the Elder Scrolls, I hadn’t played Morrowind or any others then.  I found the world to be rich and life like, just incredible.  I loved going in bandit lairs to loot their goodies.  I eventually had all the houses and they were filled with weapons and armor and alchemy ingredients.  Except for the initial shack, those places were beautiful.   I had favorite npcs to sell loot to.   I’d wander all over the countryside exploring and picking flowers.  I didn’t want to close all of the Oblivion Gates or finish the main storyline because it was such fun to loot those.  I had a crush on Martin so I wouldn’t finish the main story line and leave him to his fate.   I know many like Skyrim best, but Oblivion is still my favorite.  Another game that needs to be remastered for modern computers.

 

Star Wars Dark Forces

This we played together.  What a great game for being immersed in a Star Wars adventure.  We developed all kinds of strategies for creeping out quick to draw fire then pulling back and making the bad guys come to us.  That’s one thing about a single player game, you can save often and re-do a fight or move, learning as you go.   With this one, I recall we’d just go around the next corner to see what was there, let’s just look at the next level, then go to bed.  One a.m. blam! blam! blam!

WowNotes

Apparently the Auction House isn’t open for business today!  Pretty floor!

 

Give me an F for Futility Rewarded, I got the Ley Line Puzzle!

 

I always make my Drenai Shamans, and I don’t particularly enjoy Shamans.  There are parts of Bloodmyst Isle where I’m always getting crunched.  Enter my first Drenai Warrior who is handling everything.  Why I haven’t sent a tougher type character over there before to smack those spiders and all else?  Whap whap.  She’s got this.

I went on a little binge and killed off a few more long standingly low level characters.  Tsk so hard when you use up 50 slots.

 

Kum’isha the Collector Collects no more!  I haven’t been to the Blasted Lands for a long while.  Why do they do these unnecessary things?

Edit:  We can all calm down, it turns out instead of being over in his spot waiting to give you treasure hunt quests, quest objects drop from  various mobs in the area, then you bring those to him.  it’s all ok.

 

I’m a gardener, I notice these things…why are Star Moss Flowers pink in Vol’dun?  Blue in Alliance territory?  Grrr.  Pink, Pink Pink, gimmee Pink.

 

My Mage is now in Vol’Dun (not disturbed by flower color as she’s a Tailor).   She really needs gear upgrades, so she hit up a few World Quests while there.  A little daunting to have all these Horde folk lined up waiting for a boss re-spawn, and there’s my little Alliance mage, la la la.  Awkward.

I sent my Paladin to Nazjatar with an ILevel of 311.  I thought she’d die immediately, but she had no trouble at all.  Did they run through with a Nazjatar for Weenies nerf?  Now she’s in business.   Maybe I’ll choose a different Ally for her.   The one I have–those shouts of his.  Bleh.