It’s OK To Like (Even Love) an Unpopular Game

My absolute favourite game of all time, is Wurm Online (or Unlimited, either one). Wurm Unlimited has “mixed” recent reviews, and “mixed” all reviews. There’s not even 1500 reviews total of the game. I have 2,399 hours on record on steam (so that’s Wurm Unlimited, and doesn’t count any Wurm Online hours). I could talk about the game for hours, and while I may not be playing right this second (I come and go in my Wurm obsession) it is one that I constantly suggest people try out, and will them to accept.

I rarely succeed.

The thing is – it’s perfectly OK to dislike or like this game – or ANY game out there. I know the reasons people don’t like Wurm. The outdated graphics, the incredible grind, the dislike of Club Code, the bugs and other issues. The unbalanced PVP. I’ve heard them all – and still this game owns my heart, as far as video games go.

I’ve never gotten mad at someone for not liking this game because I don’t expect everyone to like it. If you don’t like it, it’s quite simple – don’t play.

Please. Don’t waste your precious time on this earth playing a video game that you’re not having a great time in. Move on to something else. There are TONS of games out there catering to all sorts of gamers. Keep searching and trying to find the one that calls to you – and it doesn’t matter if everyone else is playing it or if no one else is playing it what matters is what YOU think and how YOU feel when you play it.

Shawl Progress

I took a few days off from knitting. As much as I enjoy the cold fall weather, my hands have been giving me some pretty bad aches and pains, so I’ve been trying to get them feeling a bit better before I did very much more. My shawl is slowly coming along though. It’s worked in two sections, first you knit the center panel which is just plain knit stitch with a few knit-front-back and yarn overs that increase the size of it slowly and leave a really nice boarder along the wingspan, then after I’ll be doing some lace work, a fan pattern. Since I’m working with worsted yarn instead of lace or fingering it should be a nice good size, and since it’s an amazing 100% marino from Malabrigo it feels like I’m knitting with clouds in my fingers.

This is the first time I’ve knit with a “good” yarn, a fancy one. I’ve stuck to brands from Wal-Mart or Michaels or Knitpicks ever since I started knitting because that’s what I could afford. There’s nothing wrong with those yarns, you should knit within your budget – this stuff was an amazing gift from a friend and I had been looking for the perfect pattern to use it on. I’m hoping to be able to wrap myself up in this oversized shawl in my reading corner with a good book come winter. It will depend on when I actually finish knitting it though, of course. I think the longest part will be knitting the center as I’m doing now. I’m just over 50% of the way through. I am restricted to knitting nights and during naps because my son is in the “oh that’s fascinating!” stage of life where he wants to play with everything, including pulling and eating yarn. I know I’ll get there, it will just take some time. In the mean time, I can’t help but squish and play with this yarn and go on and on about it. It’s just that beautiful.

Player.me

3 years ago (give or take) I joined Player.me to reserve the user name and then pretty much forgot about it. I didn’t add anyone to my friends list (it’s more of a follow list than friends) and I didn’t pay too much attention to it. The social part of the site tends to be filled with toxicity, and while there are groups they’re not functional in any sense of the term because only the owner of the group can post, with everything being open to the world (even your own posts). I was never that enthralled with the site because it felt like they were trying to “do all the things” but not really good at any of it.

Then this week they announced Player.me Create (I’m not sure if that’s what they’re officially calling it, but lets say it is). It’s a built in system that lets you design and customize overlays for your game streams. Everything from alerts to labels to the frames. You can add your own graphics, and have control over everything from the colours to the fonts. You can browse they’re pre-created overlays and then customize those, or use them out of the box. You can also keep track of multiple overlays, and splash screens like intermission or stream is starting. It’s simple to use and you can import the URL to your layout to a streaming program like OBS or Xsplit without any hassle.

I think this is a FANTASTIC service. I played around with it a bit and @scopique also made a tutorial video on how it works which you can watch here. It makes creating a uniform overlay easy, and whether you’re new to overlay design or an expert, you’ll be able to create something for your stream that you’ll (hopefully) like.

I’m not set on the design I’ve chosen for mine yet, but that’s alright I’m sure there are others I can play around with too. There are a TON of different overlays you can choose from, and I imagine they will add the option for paid overlays with time which is fine so long as I can also continue to use the ones that are free, especially the ones I’ve already set up. As I was discussing with friends on discord I would find it frustrating if they suddenly made those pay to use.

So if you haven’t been to player.me lately, stop by and say hello. I’m there as Stargrace, as always.

 

The Couple That Games Together

My husband and I used to game together, but over the years he decided that he didn’t want to play MMOs because they used up an enormous amount of his free time, and he focused on his steam library (over 500 games) while I continued to play. We’ve played most MMOs together in one form or another, briefly. It made me sad when our duo was suddenly a solo but of course I supported his decision.

I started talking about WoW a few days ago with him, trying to decide what I wanted to do in game, what character I wanted to play, and he said out of no where that he missed playing MMOs with me and that when he gets back from depot in 3 months he would like it if we played WoW together.

I was stunned! He was incredibly excited about it and started talking about his old character and how he’d like to faction transfer from Alliance back to Horde. It was such a great discussion, one I have really missed. Even though actually playing together is some time off, we’re both looking forward to a few hours here and there in Azeroth together.

For most people this wouldn’t be such a big deal, but gaming is how we met each other. We don’t always share the same tastes, but thanks to him I’ve tried branching out and playing games I wouldn’t normally find interesting, and vice versa. I love that I have a partner who games, and I think it would be very difficult to be in a relationship with someone who didn’t share that passion of mine. Some things I know we don’t need to share, my husband is no knitter and doesn’t share my love of fiber, just like I am not a huge fan of some of his passions – but we support each other and we inspire and motivate each other. Having him express that he missed us gaming together and that he wanted to pick it up again when he comes home was like a big warm hug wrapping itself around me.

I’m so excited!

Decisions Decisions!

At a year old, my kid still doesn’t sleep through the night very well if he’s left on his own. He wakes up frequently and cries. Dealing with a cranky kid is no fun, especially when you’re parenting solo, and so I’ve taken to hanging out in the room with him (his crib is in my room anyway) while he’s sleeping. That means for 2 hours a night (before I go to bed, basically) I have “free time” – but limited time because I don’t want to wake him up.

Thankfully I came up with a temporary solution that seems to work. I have a rocking chair, his change table (a wooden table basically with shelves) and my laptop set up. A lamp nearby with a light blocker so that the light shines for me but doesn’t interrupt him. I’ve tried many other things to get him to sleep better, less blankets, more blankets, white noise, a routine, the only thing I haven’t tried is letting him cry it out, and I’m not comfortable with that. Anyway. That’s not the point of this post. The point is that I finally have a little niche for me, so I can spend two hours a night feeling a little more like a human being, and a little less like a walking milk bag (remember, milk comes in bags here).

With that extra time (that’s not extra, but lets just dream here) I’ve picked up WoW, knitting, blog posts, some anime, and doing my Inktober entries. It is absolutely amazing how good I feel after a little bit of a baby break. I love my son with all of my heart, but you start to wonder whether or not you’re actually a person after spending 24/7 attached to them for so long. Once our family is settled again (three months down three to go) I like to imagine that we’ll move on to the next round of challenges but at least I won’t be solo parenting them all.

With my decision to return to WoW came the decision on what the heck I should do in game. I’ve returned and I have no clue what’s going on. I did pick up the new quest I was presented with but the zone it sent me to seems woefully overpowered for my character. I’m sitting at a lowly 871 ilevel, and mobs are just busting me into the ground. With glee.

I created that warrior I wanted to, a happy gnome named Petites. She’s sitting at level 3. Do I continue with the gnome? I have two level 110 characters, both on different servers. I have a handful of other level 100 characters that I’ve never gotten to 110, do I work on that? Perhaps some old achievements? Pet battles? Collecting mounts? Titles? Farm coin? Work on crafting?

You see the issue? Returning to the game is all fine and dandy, but feeling like I have no idea what’s going on (because I don’t, even though I’ve only been gone for three months) is annoying. So if you have a good resource for me to read on what I’ve missed and what’s going on with the story (and have it match up with what the heck my character is doing) I would greatly appreciate it!

Hmm. Just realized I also have a 100 druid I’ve always wanted to get to 110.. and a shaman.. and a pa– OK OK there’s never a lack of things for me to do in game, but I am so indecisive.  Someone help me out here.

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