Gaming – Page 344 – A Pixel Nomad

Ding – 70 and Beyond

Like I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve never actually reached level 70 in Diablo 3 before – until today, that is. Yes after finally sticking with it, I managed to inch and crawl my way through ‘master’ level rifts and bounties until I dinged 70 on my crusader. I even did a few public runs, and joined up with some others who were leveling. 65+ went much slower than the previous levels, and I realize that now that I’m 70 the game has just begun. I tried spending my bloodshards in the hopes of getting something good, but alas I was only rewarded with.. well, garbage that I ended up salvaging for crafting supplies.

Still I’m glad to have my first ever 70 character, and I’m tickled that they’ll roll over to a regular character at the end of the season. That gives me time to work on paragon points, which I also have never had before (obviously). I also want to create my first hardcore character, of course they probably won’t be my last, considering I die enough on non-hardcore things. I’m thinking of going with a demon hunter, but I know a lot of people prefer the wizard. Undecided, in any case.

I spent a good part of my weekend leveling up, so I took a break last night and played some Sims 4. Of course I also caught a cold, because why not, so I’ll keep this post nice and short so I can get back to resting up. As always, happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!

Lets talk about Forge

I have never been a huge video game streamer, but I do enjoy streaming from time to time. Unlike a lot of people I watch, I don’t enjoy voicing when I stream (usually, there are of course exceptions). I like to watch other people play games that I’m not currently playing, and it’s just a neat thing to have in the background. Especially if they’re doing something that I don’t typically ‘do’ like raiding, or FPS games. With that being said, I find most streamers who voice, annoying. I’m not interested in their colourful language, low cut tops, or anything specific about a random streamer. I do of course enjoy the commentary from people that I know, but when it comes to strangers I’m pretty specific. I know, that’s pretty harsh judgement, but that’s what I look for when I’m watching someone else play a game. I realize that my opinions are not the most popular out there and that’s alright.

Anyway. The issue I have with most streaming methods is that they require so much ‘stuff’ to be running, typically resource hungry, and always frustrating to set up. There’s twitch, where you need a 3rd party program such as xsplit in order to stream, then there’s hitbox, there’s the steam streaming application which is pretty simple but people on steam have to request to view your stream and it’s not easily accessible to the public, and there’s a handful of other video game streaming options out there.

A bunch of friends of mine started talking about Forge some time ago but to be honest I was getting tired of the work involved with streaming and I sort of tuned them out. Finally on a whim I decided to take a closer look at it – and instantly fell in love. It’s exactly what I was looking for in a video game streaming program – as well as exactly what I wanted to use while watching videos.

The entire program is sleek, simple, and clean. There’s sound from your game but most microphones won’t work – and honestly that suits me just fine. It doesn’t require a lot of PC resources to run, there’s no distracting UI or chat interface, and even though it’s still in early access at the moment and is invite only, they have a great selection of games already available for broadcasting.

I love that I don’t have to do anything in order to broadcast except start Forge. It collects snapshots and allows you to post short (30 second) clips about your game play session, and it’s mostly to watch ‘live’. It tweets out when your broadcast starts a few minutes in so that if there are issues with you disconnecting you’re not spamming your twitter followers. Have I mentioned how much I love the UI? Let me say that a few more times. It’s probably the number one feature that I adore. After two days any videos you have are purged, leaving behind the 30 second clips, screenshots, and montages. You can find my profile here, if you’re looking to follow – if you’re looking for an invite, let me know and I can send you one (need to know your email address).

I know I’m a bit biased as one of my friends is working on their community team, but honestly after so much frustration with trying to get other streaming processes to work, this one is just a real pleasure. Highly recommended.

Diablo 3: Season 2

I never really got into Diablo 3 when it first came out, even though I purchased the expansion, it was more out of habit than any other reason. I enjoy the game, but playing alone typically bores me and I gave up before too long.

Now that season 2 has begun I decided it would be the perfect time to start over, since your character is temporary. I created a crusader this time around, having never played one before. My main character before this season was a witch doctor, who I enjoyed playing but only got to level 43 or so.

At level 8 I got to explore whimsydale for the first time. You used to have to collect items to spawn a way into the zone, but now you can get a treasure goblin that opens a portal for you. I didn’t know about this until it happened, and I was surprised to get beaten to death by unicorns and teddy bears. It was fun, bright, and painful.

I managed to do a few campaigns with friends which made all the difference in the world, and after only a few hours of playing over this weekend I’m sitting at a comfortable level 43. I’m hoping to finally make it to level 70 for once, since I’ve never reached it before. It helps that this game is basically a loot pinata, there’s treasures falling from the sky no matter what you do. I tend to play on ‘Master’ mode, which means the game is a challenge, but not too challenging. I can’t access the higher difficulties since I’ve never had a character of the required level.

I see a lot of people are already 70 and working on gear sets. I don’t have a clue what this even entails, but I’m sure I’ll get there eventually. I typically stream my game on my forge account, which I’m also having a lot of fun with. I’ll go into more details about forge in tomorrow’s post. I hope everyone had a lovely weekend, and as always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Trying to Focus

I’m still having a lot of fun in World of Warcraft, but I’m finding it difficult to focus and decide what I want to work on. There’s still just so much to do. I enjoy working on achievements, but I also enjoy running dungeons and raiding. Then there’s my garrison, and working the menagerie and my fishing shack to level 3. Then there’s crafting, I still need 15 points in tailoring to reach 700. That’s just my main character, I still don’t even have any other characters at level 100 yet, and I have a lot of them (im)patiently waiting at level 90 for a bit of action.

What’s a girl to do?

I’ve been running the Valentines daily instance but so far the mount hasn’t dropped for me – or anyone else in my instance runs. I knew it was rare, but I don’t think I figured on just how rare it is. I did manage to pick up the new pet that’s available this year, along with the toy that goes in your toy box (am I the only one who giggles every time I say that?) but I don’t really have much more use for the tokens so the instance is all I tend to do.

I’ve also been trying to figure out which spec to focus on. I’m a disc / shadow priest, and I seem to spend equal times between both these days. It’s frustrating to gear up for each, especially when they each have their own enchant requirements. For now I’m thinking of swapping my PVP set of gear into my DPS set, so I can at least enchant it with DPS enchants, and keep my heal gear with heal enchants.

I’ve also been thinking of leveling a warrior up and trying tanking in an experiment. I’d like to do a weekly post where I talk about my encounters as a tank, and invite friends along for the crazy ride while I learn how to play. I could invite people from my friends list to run instances with me since it’s cross server, and hopefully it would go a bit better than a complete pug where people would grow frustrated with my antics. Why punish myself this way? Well, it’s just something I have always wanted to learn. Something I’ve talked about on this blog before in fact. We’ll see if it goes anywhere.

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend, and happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Heartbreak Games (Formerly SOE)

I’ve been trying to figure out what I was going to write in this post for a few hours now, and nothing seems good enough. I can’t find the appropriate words to convey just exactly what I’m feeling. I’m hurt. Angry. Frustrated. Stunned. Of course this has to do with Daybreak Games letting go pretty much everyone I ever liked from the company formerly known as SOE. Currently known as Heartbreak Games to many of us.

I owe the people of SOE a lot. Back in February 2009 they flew me out to San Diego (my first time there) to interview their EverQuest, EverQuest II, and Vanguard teams for Beckett Massive Online Gamer. It was hectic and exciting. I was barely there for 24 hours. I had lunch with Christie (Kiara), Alan (Brenlo), and Aimee (Ashlanne). None of them are with the company any longer, and neither are the other people I met. Tiffany (Amnerys), Lydia (Zatozia), heck most of the teams I interviewed are no longer there either. It would have been easier for me to have asked who was staying, instead of who was leaving.

Out of all the messages I saw from those who were being let go, none were angry. None were spewing hatred at their fate. They were all thankful. They were sad, of course, but they assured everyone they would move on to better things. That they had gained so much from their jobs. They had bonded with friends that were more like family. As I read comments from people who had been there for 6, 12, 14 years and no longer had a job, it made me think about how much these people had affected lives outside of their own. Outside of their workplace. It made me think about all of the good they have done over the years. How thankless their job could be some days.

I hope they realize just a fraction of the good they did. I wish them nothing but the best in their future endeavors.