Stargrace

11th Anniversary

11 years. That’s how long I’ve been writing here at MmoQuests. When I first started it was to collect my stories of EverQuest 2. Over the years I’ve added a lot more games to those posts, and I’ve written a total of 3,028 (3,029 with this one) articles. That’s not bad, for 11 years. If you had of asked me if I thought I’d still be writing here, 11 years later, I probably would have laughed. Shrugged. Not known the answer. I’m proud that I’ve managed to keep the blog going for that long.

Things have changed a lot in that time. I volunteered for SOE (back when they were SOE). I wrote for a video game magazine. Wrote for video game web sites. Got to travel to California to interview some wonderful people. Started working for Carbine Studios. Worked for NCSOFT.

Things have changed a lot for me in my personal life, too. I moved across the country. I got married. I’ve got a little boy. I grew up, in other words. Despite the fact that a lot has changed, a lot also stayed the same. I still have a ton of passion for video games. I know a lot of the same gamer’s. I still write as frequently as I can, which lately is once a day, but that’s still pretty new. I’m making up for lost time.

I’ve never written for an audience, I’ve always just written for myself. I get comments here and there and they’re absolutely wonderful when I do, but whether or not I get a comment doesn’t decide if I’ll continue writing and I think that’s been the one thing that has kept me going. Writing is just something I do, whether you enjoy it or not, whether you take a minute to read it.

So here’s to 11 years and here’s to 11 more. It’s been absolutely lovely.

Kindness

I meant to write about this a few days ago but I hadn’t gotten around to it and I want to apologize for that because it’s something I should have posted right away.

Many times now I’ve attended an event on the Sklotopolis server and commented about how RNG was just not my friend. No big deal, but after a while it does weigh on you to see people who play for only a short time show up and win some of the awesome gear.

When I went and checked my mail a few days ago I had a surprise from Wreck, an alliance mate and friend of mine. He had gifted me a complete set of black drake, created by Densetsu. I was speechless! He told me he had taken it upon himself to collect bits and pieces of drake to help create sets of gear for veteran players who had not won any. I am incredibly humbled and thankful for the gear, it looks fantastic and stands up very well to the trolls that are hanging out around my deed lately.

I know I haven’t written much about Wurm lately, but I’m still playing (just not as much as I used to, I haven’t the time at the moment). Deed work still needs to get done, animals fed, chores taken care of. I also streamed a bit of it last week while I had the chance. My merchants need to be restocked, so tonight I’m copying out recipes to send to Zuca (my merchant holder). Enchanted tools and weapons will have to wait, but I’m glad for whatever time I can find.

I know I’ve said this multiple times before, but if you’re looking for a friendly server please do check out Sklotopolis. The folks there really are some of the best I’ve met.

(The Not So) Secret World Legends

I played The Secret World when it first came out, but lets be honest here, I am a big cry baby, and I frighten easily so I never got very far. The game is terrifying. The genre makes me imagine ghosts and goblins and zombies and all sorts of evil creatures popping out of my kitchen sink or bathroom shower.

Still, it was unique. The story telling has always been top notch, and the combat (while confusing) was interesting.

When Funcom announced they were remodeling TSW into Secret World Legends, I was intrigued. I didn’t really know what would be changing, and I didn’t understand why they were doing the change even though it was explained a few times, but it DID fire up my interest again.

I figured I’d give it a try, this time with my other half and a few friends to keep me from all the evils. It’s easier to handle the genre (for me at least) with protectors near by!

Not much has changed in the revamp. Weapons and combat work differently. Classes do basically the same thing. Things don’t hit as hard. There’s people everywhere. The tutorial changed slightly but was still very much the same. Last time I played I just barely made it out of Kingsmouth to Savage Coast, and this time I’d like to actually get somewhere. I transferred over the few meager belongings I had and so far I’ve managed to complete the tutorial (again). I may even sign up for patron for a month or two if me and the other half decide to stick with things. We’ll have to see. For now I’m attempting to download the game client to my laptop to see if it will run. I have my doubts, but it would be nice.

Anyone else playing? Feel free to add Arysh to your friends list. As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

The Family That Games Together..

Ah, steam sales. I’ve seen Tabletop Simulator in a few humble bundles, but I’ll be honest, I didn’t really know what it was. I never went to the store page and never checked it out.

I regret that.

During the Steam Summer Sale one of my goals was to find an easy game or two that me and my other half could play together. See, right now my little one doesn’t sleep very well when alone. So I’m often parked in the bedroom watching over him (well, providing a warm body really) so if / when he wakes up he doesn’t freak out and he’ll just drift back to sleep. Otherwise he’ll scream and I have to go rescue him. Anyway. Both husband and I are gamers, but I’m restricted to my laptop and whatever runs on it. I love games like chess and wanted some easy games we could play together but that I could also easily step away from should the need arise.

Tabletop Simulator is all of that, and so much more.

I remembered a game from my childhood called Pass The Pigs, and I wondered if there was a version on tabletop. Turns out, there is. So I passed my free hour or so of gaming time before bed playing. It was glorious. There are a LOT of other things / games you can do with Tabletop Simulator too. People use it for D&D, they use it for RPG, they use it for games. You name it, someone is using it for something. There’s a bunch of fancy paid DLC but there’s also a workshop of 15,000+ other things to check out. There’s the default games, and just so much content. You can play alone but where it really shines is with friends. After one evening playing I just can’t stop raving about this little gem. I can’t wait to see what we play next.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself (and if you have any tabletop simulator suggestions, please drop them in comments below!)

Steam Sale! Oh, and Questing

It’s been a while since I got excited about a steam sale. I normally see them and completely pass them by. I set myself with a tiny budget this year ($20) and waited for it to go live. Like most steam sales, their system wasn’t able to handle the masses of people swarming the sales, so I only had a chance to look briefly, but I already saw two games I want to pick up. They’re not especially popular games, and one came out in a bundle not too long ago (but I missed out on that).

Shoppe Keep, and Junk Jack are the two games I decided to go with. I’ve got quite a few more on my wishlist, including Colony Survival (looks fun!) but they’ll have to wait. I haven’t actually made the purchase yet because at the time of writing this Steam is still pretty flooded, but I’ll get there eventually.

In the meantime I logged into WoW and did my daily quests. I didn’t get anything fancy, but I did unlock another rank of my DPS artifact weapon and I got a piece for my holy weapon. I’ve been trying to collect resources, but it’s slow going when all I really have time for are those daily quests. I need them to progress my class hall quest too where I’m collecting shiny rocks. At least I think that’s what they are.

Anything tickle your fancy from the steam store? Plan on making a purchase or two (or three?) what games? Let me know in comments and as always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!