Gaming – Page 324 – A Pixel Nomad

A Different Type of Progression Server

I love progression servers. What I don’t love is how they immediately become a place for bots and armies of bots. I don’t mind if people box one or two characters, but when you’re botting (ie: using 3rd party programs to play the characters for you and to synchronize casting / attacks) 10+ characters it becomes a bit crazy for other players, especially when you’re on a progression server trying to recapture the essence of how the game was 15 years ago. I know there’s a difference between boxing and botting, and it’s mostly botting that becomes a hindrance, but regardless, Daybreak has decided to try to thwart these issues by releasing a “true box progression server“. They’re not going to prevent you from boxing if you really want to do it, but you will have to use a different setup than normal. You’ll only be able to play on one EverQuest account from your computer.

Other changes will also be implemented on this server including raid instancing, and content that unlocks every 90 days rather than by a vote. Daybreak’s goal is to encourage people to make friends, form groups, and to join guilds – this was all key back when EverQuest was first starting out (back in the days before mercenary and bot armies).

Will I be playing? I’m not sure. I have wanted to game but haven’t been able to settle down lately, which is proving to be an annoyance. I have a lot of ‘stuff’ going on in real life which I’m sure is the reason that I haven’t been doing a lot of gaming and I haven’t managed to settle down with a single game for years now. I miss those days and have even thought about challenging myself to stick with just one MMO for X number of months (single player don’t count) but I doubt very much I could manage.

When does this new progression server release? The server should go live December 9th – and you do have to have an All Access Membership in order to play on Phinigel as it’s being called. I believe my all access goes until July, so who knows, maybe you’ll find me there after all.

ArcheAge?

[47/50] It has been ages since I played ArcheAge, but a friend has recently returned to the game and of course the best way to get me hyped up and playing, is to be one of those friends. Of course not owning property has always been one of the things stopping me from playing, and the ease at which you can lose said property. Plus, I’m not really that big on PVP.. why do I want to play again? Oh, right.

Friends.

[48/50]

[49/50]

[50/50] With that final screenshot, I complete my IntPiPoMo of 50 screenshots for the month of November! A very bright and colourful month here at MmoQuests. A big huge thank you to the organizers, and I’m looking forward to participating next year, too!

Missions, Missions, and more Missions

[44/50] EVE Online is probably one of the most beautiful games I’ve ever played. Pair that with the amazing soundtrack, and it’s no wonder I can relax so easily while playing. I’ve been working on fixing my Caldari State faction, which is really not an exciting task, but I need to get it done so that my R&D agents keep working with me.

[45/50] Working missions does send me out to some pretty beautiful locations.

[46/50] Now all I need to do is figure out what ship I want to work towards next. Maybe a drake? I prefer building the ships myself when that’s possible, but I haven’t really looked at what I want to fly since I obtained the Tengu. Or maybe instead of any of that I’ll start mining again, it has been ages since I’ve really done that, which tempts me to start up my second account. I do have a plex just sitting around collecting dust.

The Tickle of WoW

[41/50] It has been a while since I played WoW in any capacity. I let my account lapse a few months ago and moved on to other games. I really haven’t enjoyed the past few expansions, and actually spent most of my time going back and doing old raids more than anything else.

[42/50] The lure to play is still there. I really enjoyed pet battles and I really liked going back through older content. The problem was (and always has been for me) garrisons. Splitting the population into these instanced homes where no one ever talks to or sees another actual person in the game world. With the ability to access brokers, bankers, and crafting, there was no reason for me to step outside and mingle or interact with anyone else and I absolutely did not enjoy logging in simply to do my garrison quests out of obligation. I’ve never belonged to a very active guild, and it feels like it would be too late in the game to get involved these days. Plus I’m pretty particular when it comes to guilds, finding one that’s a good fit (both for me and them) is a long process.

[43/50] I’ve resisted the call so far, but we’ll see how long that lasts. Legion has some exciting things coming with it, and I was tempted to pre-order because the level 100 boost could come in handy (I already have a few level 100 characters, so I’ve seen the content) but if I’m not even playing there’s no reason to get it RIGHT NOW and I’m sure I’ll still want it when we’re closer to release.

More Steam Screenshots – and Steam Sales

[36/50] We’re winding down for IntPiPoMo – and I’m so glad I got the opportunity to participate, because I have revitalized myself with some amazing screenshots I forgot I even took. Each one comes with a memory of whatever game I happened to be playing. It’s wonderful.

Yesterday the latest Steam sale started, and this time they’ve removed a lot of the hustle and bustle that you used to see from it. There’s no more “vote on what goes on sale next!” type of deals, nor are there any “this deal is only around for 2 hours and then it will be new sales!” deals either. Instead, what you see is what you get. I found this to be both good and bad. Good, because now I no longer have to wait during a sale to see if a 50% off game will drop to 75% off sometime throughout the sale, and bad because I also have a lot less hype for things.

[37/50] Even with the new version of doing sales, I still ended up making a few purchases. To begin with, all of the DLC for Tropico 5 along with two expansions I was missing were on sale for 75% off. There were 11 DLC in total that I didn’t own and I love Tropico 5, it’s an awesome game, very relaxed.

[38/50] I didn’t buy any more games (yet) but I did add a few more to my wishlist. Don’t forget you can always add me to steam! Anyway, I added Life is Feudal to the list, along with StoneHearth, two games I’m very interested in but just don’t have extra funding right this moment. Life is Feudal of course being the more exciting of the two for me at least.

[39/50] Then I spent a bunch of time looking through the activity section of my steam. I love this, it shows me what everyone is up to, what purchases have been made, what items are hot on wishlists this year. Don’t forget to add a wishlist guys, you never know!

[40/50] There’s four days left of November, and 10 screenshots left to post – so I think I’ve done pretty well on IntPiPoMo. Even with my sporadic blog posts. It even encouraged me to write a bit more than I normally would have. With NaNoWriMo going on this month, and holidays coming up, I know everyone is pretty busy. One thing I’ve learned from working at home, is how to manage my time to make sure that “all the things” end up getting done. Of course this year I also had to let some things slide (Gamers Secret Santa, I’m looking at you) but I know it was for the best.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!