Gaming – Page 399 – A Pixel Nomad

The Half Way Mark #GW2 #GuildWars2

At the half way mark, my elementalist is sitting at a comfortable level 40. Last night as I was running around trying to get my daily done, I embraced a few facts about the character. While it may have been alright for my guardian to romp around Tyria wearing gear 10 levels lower than her, if I want to stay alive on my elementalist, my best bet is to upgrade her gear every 5 levels or so. Not a big deal at this stage of the game, gear is barely a silver per piece. So when I realized I was wearing level 18-24 gear at 39, I went and upgraded every single piece.

It made a huge difference in my ability to survive, which in turn makes a difference in my attitude as I play. Dying over and over again is not really fun.

I haven’t been quite as dedicated with my crafting this round as I was with my guardian. I’ve chosen to go the artificer / huntsman rout because an artificer is what I need to create the legendary staff I want one day, and huntsman was next on my list of “crafts I want to have maxed” – I have plans to max each of the crafts (slowly). With the guardian I made sure not to move on to the next zone until I was finished with the tier I was crafting, but this time I haven’t bothered to do that. Maybe I should. Actually now that I think about it, that was a much smarter way of completing things since I personally have more than enough time to farm components.

I really want to get into some dungeons, but I’m not sure where people go to look for a group. I also have no idea what a lot of the abbreviations I see in Lion’s Arch stand for. Fractals are another event I’d like to get into but finding a group for that has also proven to be difficult during my play times. I’m sure I’ll get to experience all of these things before too long!

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself! (Also, this weekend will be filled with Neverwinter beta goodness, so expect a few posts about that in the upcoming days)

Actual Sunlight

I first heard about Actual Sunlight on a tech article in a local newspaper here in Ottawa, so I decided to check it out for myself. It’s a story about depression, a topic that’s not exactly popular for us gamers to discuss. Rather it’s something we all keep under our hats and then someone dies and suddenly we’re compassionate and wondering where things went wrong.

The game is very blunt and harsh, and there’s a lot of text to read. As you get further into it you see how beautiful it is, how thought provoking, and deep. It doesn’t play anything like your usual game, so if that’s what you’re looking for you’re going to be disappointed.

“I know what you’re thinking: Why keep getting up, day in and day out, even though your life is going nowhere?”

Actual Sunlight is a short interactive story about love, depression and the corporation.

The game puts you in the role of Evan Winter, a young professional in Toronto, as he moves through three distinct periods of his life. The story is linear, unavoidable and (hopefully) thought-provoking. You experience his perceptions, fall under the consequences of his decisions, and meet everyone who didn’t change him.

One thing I really liked was how much I could relate to the game because I am Canadian. There were quirks and quips in there about Rogers (one of the major ISPs) and the Toronto newspaper and the local highways that resonated with me because I’m familiar with the area. It’s very rare that I ever play a game that has such a profound sense of ‘I can relate to this’.

You start out waking up as Evan Winter, and yes, there are a lot of male-centric comments throughout the beginning but I sort of shrugged them off and continued on with Evan’s day. You get up, walk around the apartment and read everything in the various rooms. You can interact with all of the items. There are transcripts of doctor visits, and up-to-date technology like an ipad, gaming system, etc. Each one brings you a little further into Evan’s life. Eventually you take a shower, try to get some food, and head to work.

All the while you’re contemplating suicide.

Like I said above, the game is nothing at all like your usual game, but I think it’s important that we have these sorts of games available to us. They can teach us all something. While games are for fun and enjoyment, they can also be used to keep us grounded and teach us different ways of thinking about things, which I think Actual Sunlight does a good job of. It touches on one of those subjects none of us is comfortable with, and puts it into a video game.

Looking Beyond the Surface #MMORPG

Every so often someone will write an article that really bugs me and no matter what I do, I just can’t let it go. Today I came across one of those articles over on ‘Emerald Tablet’ – called ‘My pickup group – Vanguard‘. Imaginary or not (and whether the whole thing is a joke or not), the fact that another gamer has posted nothing but a list of stereotypical negatives about gamers irks me. It does nothing to help or promote anything positive what so ever. So I thought I’d write a rebuttal of sorts.

What you see: Terry – a twenty-eight year old guy, living in his grandma’s basement, out-of-work and lives and breathes the game. He is so highly organized and knowledgeable you ask yourself why he is living in the basement, without a girlfriend, and no job?

What you don’t see: Terry takes care of his ailing grandmother, his parents died in a car crash. He has no other family besides her and he uses the game to try to reach out to people in the only method that he knows how. He contemplates suicide more often than any one person should admit, and this game is his refuge.

What you see: Jeff Jefferson. This kid is twelve-years old, and his mom has found that the recent MMO is a cheap and proficient babysitter. While mom is off getting some at the bar, the group is getting their fill of Jeff who constantly begs for money, equipment, and cheats.

What you don’t see: Jeff’s Mom blames him for her recent divorce. She’s constantly tired, works her ass off, and has no time for him what so ever. She can’t afford to buy him the things he wants but she’s trying to do her best. He’s 12 and at an awkward stage when he’s not quite a kid and not ready to grow up. He misses his dad. He doesn’t understand half of the things that happen to him yet so he just pretends he does.

What you see: Wanda, a forty-five year old, divorced over weight mom of six who has no apparent income and often complains her kids have no shoes, socks, or pants, yet she is playing twenty-four — seven on the game with a rig that would make Jeff Gordon blush.

What you don’t see: Wanda was beat by her previous husband until she was hospitalized. She finally managed to get the support she needed to move on with her life but it’s not as easy as some people think it is. She has no life skills because she married at such a young age, and she is so out of touch with life around her that she clings to whatever gives her some sense of purpose and pride. She cries herself to sleep every night.

What you see: Mike, the thirty six year old bachelor, who is tanked by 5pm on three cases of beer.

What you don’t see: Mike was sexually abused by his father, and uses beer as a way to forget everything that has ever happened to him. He acts obnoxious as a way to stay in control and keep people at a distance. His last girlfriend cheated on him with his best friend, right after he was going to propose to her.

Those people we’re grouping with are human beings, with thoughts and feelings. They’re not just pixels on a screen. They’re not perfect, and they’ll make mistakes. Just like everyone else in this world.

Completion of the Living Story (So Far) #GW2

I’ve slowly been leveling my elementalist, and having a pretty good time of it. There’s a few differences of course, she’s MUCH more fragile than my guardian. I’ve had to adjust how to take on encounters (they involve a lot more kiting and a lot less bam in your face) and I’ve had to get more help in doing my personal story. She’s level 23 so far, leveling has been a bit slower than I had expected as well. Of course that probably has more to do with the fact that I’ve also been playing Wurm Online, and EverQuest, and did a dungeon with my 80. There are only so many hours in a day after all!

One thing I did manage to complete was the progress so far in the living story that has been going on. It’s quite interesting, there are refuges all over Shiverpeak looking for help. It was a bonus that I’m a norn and happened to be exploring through that area to begin with. There’s a fantastic guide and general information over at Dulfy.net so I won’t get into the specific details, but needless to say I managed to return all four of the lost refuge items, kill 150 of the invaders, and aid 75 of the refuges by building signs and lighting campfires, oh, and returning lost mementos. You get a title for helping out 75 refuges (volunteer), and you get a child’s drawing in thanks for helping kill 150 invaders. The drawing can be consumed for karma, so I’ve been hanging onto it because next weekend we’ll be using some guild buffs that increase the amount of karma you get when you consume an item. I’ve been stock piling all of my karma items for quite some time now, so I’m excited to see how much I may have saved up. I’ve been hoping to get a nice pile for when the elementalist eventually hits 80 – she will get there, eventually.

Have you completed the living story that is available yet? What did you think of it? Do you enjoy these sorts of little mini quests? Let me know in comments! As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

Spring is in the Air #WurmOnline

Spring is in the air, and with it comes less time for gaming. So I decided to let go of one of my three deeds, and just keep two of them. I gave up the deed furthest away from my ‘home base’ – Les Reveurs. It was a great deed with a lot of fantastic spots to mine silver and gold, but honestly I’ve got enough on my plate when it comes to wurm online. Two deeds shall suffice.

I’ve been working on my Vynora priest throughout the day, making sure she gets her 5 prayers in (more if servers reset), and working on soul depth as well as other mundane tasks. Farming, animal husbandry, etc. I’ve managed to breed a few 5 trait horses, now I’m just waiting for them to grow up. I made the decision not to keep any horses that have less than 4 speed traits, so I went on a ‘glue’ spree and ended up with a lot of meat to work cooking as well as bits and bobs to work natural substance (the skill required to make dye).

I have a few new neighbours, at each deed. One I’m not too fond of because they decided to place their deed right up against mine, making for a very cramped feeling. It’s just a respect thing, to give your neighbours room to expand, unless you’ve talked to them before hand or they’re your RL friends who you can clobber.

The other neighbours I know very little about. They’ve settled at the base of my mountain deed, so I see them in my local fairly constantly. I do have quite a lot of space up top so I’m not too concerned about them ruining things, so long as I can still access the tunnel that lets me climb up to my place. I see them calling for guards a lot, so I expect they’re fairly new with minimal fight skills. I sent them a tell yesterday letting them know I live behind their deed, and welcoming them to the area in case they needed anything.

My characters have also since received their new affinities since my foray onto the Chaos server. Faralithe gave up her mining affinity to Stargrace (I killed my alt, in other words), and received short sword. A pretty useless affinity. Arysh gave up her hammer affinity (which was completely useless) to a PvPer and in turn received – meditation!

I couldn’t be more pleased. This makes perfect sense for a priest, and I’m looking forward to the extra gains as I level her up the path of love. Speaking of, Faralithe managed to answer her 4th question correctly today, so she has gained the refresh ability. Something very useful that even free to play players can take advantage of.

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