Tag: FFXIV

Time Flies..

Wow, it’s already almost September! I can hardly believe it. The past 10 days have been a complete blur. What have I been up to as far as gaming goes?

I’m taking a small break from WoW, mostly because there’s just not enough time in the day and out of all of the games I have available right now that’s the one I’m the least interested in. I’m sure I’ll wander back to it eventually, I always do.

FFXIV is still my main MMO this month, my bard is 86, and my husband has finally caught up to Endwalker, so we can play through it together. I’m quite excited about this.

Baldur’s Gate 3 – I’m still playing this (of course, aren’t we all) with two groups, one is my 4 person campaign (we just completed the ruins before the Goblin Village) and the other is a campaign I have ongoing with my husband. We’re in the Underdark in our campaign, and overall the game has just been an incredible amount of fun. I honestly can’t blather about it enough.

Idle Champions – yes, this idle game is still pretty high up my radar. The current season ends in 3 days, and there’s also an event that ends in 1 day. The event is Ahghariron’s Day, and while I’ve collected Lae’zel, Voronika, and Prudence, I still have a single variant that I can’t seem to defeat. I’m adamant about not spending any more than the cost of the season pass, but I really do also need to work on unlocking more Champions. The reason I can’t defeat this one is because 5/12 of my seats don’t have an alternate that I can use, and you can only use Champions who have an intelligence of over 13. It’s frustrating, to say the least.

That’s where I’m at so far in gaming, and I do also plan on going back through the month and filling in those Blaugust holes. I meant to be far more on top of things than I have been. Unfortunately, that’s just the way it goes.

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

Games – What’s Going on in August

Despite what the past week or so has shown, I DO tend to write about video games here, so let’s do a little update on that.

World of Warcraft – I’m “playing” but not really. I haven’t kept up with content or story, instead I do some pet battles and marketing bits. As much as I love World of Warcraft, and I do, the game is old and it shows. It’s comfortable, but there’s nothing innovative and I always get a little bored mid way through expansions. It happened with Shadowlands and I’m not exactly surprised that it’s happening in Dragonflight either. Don’t get me wrong, I think DF is an amazing expansion (compared to previous ones) and I’ve had a lot of fun, but it doesn’t seem to last.

Wurm Online / Wurm Unlimited – I’ve been cautious about playing much WO because I’m not exactly convinced that the ‘new’ CEO won’t completely change the game that I love and adore, so to scratch some of those WO itches I’ve been playing a bit of WU, where the Sklotopolis server is my home and I have a small deed there I’ve been working on. WO has done some great QoL changes over the years that I really wish WU would be able to pick up on, but the Sklotopolis server developers have done well given their restrictions. They can only do server side changes with the way things currently are.

FFXIV – My husband returned to this game sort of out of the blue, because two of his RL friends are playing. I decided why not, and my little bard is mid-way through Endwalker and level 86. Most of my time is still spent crafting and harvesting, but the game is lovely. I’d like to get more into housing (so far I only have an apartment) and I’m learning the markets. Having 40(60) sale slots has been an interesting restriction that I’ve been having fun working around/with.

Baldur’s Gate 3 – Like a lot of others, I picked it up just before release and then held off playing so that progression wouldn’t have to start over. I have a 4 person campaign with some friends, and a 2 person campaign with my husband. I’ve been having an absolute blast, and while I know there are some issues that hardcore D&D players take issue with, I’ve just been relaxing and enjoying the narrative. Combat did take some getting used to, but now that we’re no longer in the tutorial and we’ve been adventuring together for a bit, it’s much more fluid. I play a wood elf druid in my group campaign, and a human paladin with my husband. Probably one of my favourite games this year.

Cook Serve Delicious 3 – When I don’t want to be around people this is the game I head to. I enjoyed the previous two versions of the game, and the third one follows a pretty dark apocalyptical timeline that I wasn’t expecting, but still enjoy. I appreciate that they have a ‘chill’ mode, and it’s just been a great little game to escape to.

School (and thus homeschool) will be picking back up in September, and this time I’ll have my 7 year old son and my 5 year old daughter so spare time (and thus gaming time) will go down as I do lesson plans and all that other fun stuff. I’m also trying to dedicate a bit of free time to hobbies, so games that I can get into (and out of) quickly are usually the winners. Baldur’s Gate 3 is (right now) Tuesday / Friday nights for 2h, and everything else I just sort of rotate around. Hopefully I can continue to balance it all, but we shall see. Life doesn’t always listen to me when I ask things to go a certain way.

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

Learning to Spearfish!

I’ve been back in FFXIV for just over a week now, picking up with the beginning of Endwalker and meandering my way through the story. In my down time, I have always loved crafting & gathering jobs in the game, so it wasn’t too long before I learned that spearfishing had been revamped in 6.1 – and that I had not even picked it up prior to the revamp.

It’s a mini game that opens these days. You find a node much like you would with botany and mining, and you have to use your spear on fish that swim by. I thought the game was pretty fun, and a nice change from the regular fishing that I have all but forgotten how to do. I picked up a few hermit crabs that I needed for a provision mission, and a handful of other fish that I put on the auction house. I don’t have a lot of gil in game (probably one of the few games where I spend most of my time broke) but I’m trying to save up so that I can enter the housing market. We’ll see how that goes. My husband has also returned to the game, so he’s been working through the older expansions with a handful of friends, and I’m now waiting for him to catch up in Endwalker. Overall? It has been some nice casual gaming, and a perfect way to spend a few evenings.

A Heavy Case of FOMO

I have played FFXIV off and on since the start – and I have never been able to stick with it steadily for more than a month or two at a time. I have no idea why, on paper this is the perfect game for me. I have no issues sticking with other games (I played EQ, EQ2, and WoW almost exclusively for many years) but for whatever reason, I just can’t seem to do it. Every time I see people talking about this game I want to jump right back in. I want to do player housing. I want to explore the new Island everyone is excited about. I want to level all my crafters, classes, and harvesters. I want the cute transmog. I want to get invested in the lore.

I just cancelled my account last week. It has been open for a few months now and I think I logged in once. I have friends who actively play, and I have never been able to figure out why this game just doesn’t work for me.

If World of Warcraft would just add some player housing, I think it would have absolutely everything I want. I still continue to play and enjoy myself, but FOMO (fear of missing out) when it comes to FFXIV is *so* incredibly strong. I want to be a part of gaming communities, make friends, and expand my Twitch audience. That’s a difficult thing to do if you can’t seem to settle down anywhere.

For now I am pulling myself back and reminding myself that I do love WoW. That I do have an excellent community here. That there are people I’ve gotten to know and I look forward to interacting with each day. I need to find a way to be happy with myself and where I spend my time. It’s not like I don’t enjoy Warcraft, quite the opposite in fact. I just always wonder if the grass is truly greener on the other side (note, it’s not).

It’s Time for a Wedding

Two friends I’ve “known” for years online decided to partake in a bonding ceremony in FFXIV – and I was invited! It was my first time ever participating, and I took so many screenshots. I really needed this moment to remind me why I love these games and why I play. It’s the stories they create, the friendships – I love everything about it.

Congratulations Jaedia & Rini! You two are wonderful.

For a while now I’ve been going through the motions of gaming without actually enjoying games the way *I* like to enjoy them. I enjoy roleplay! I enjoy stories. I’m not much of a hack and slash person – and it’s so easy to get swept up and to forget about WHY you play. In the brief stint that I was on Phoenix (EU server) I saw so many people playing out the stories of their characters, openly, where ever they were. It was INSPIRING.

I wish I had better words to convey the satisfaction of this event from a purely ‘soul healing’ level. If you get a chance to participate and help some friends out this way – I highly recommend it.