Tag: Gaming

[EQII] It’s Tiiii– Frostfell!

I’m not always a huge fan of in-game events when they correlate to real life holidays, because I feel like some folks always get left out, and sometimes those holidays are not happy times and the emotional reminders can be a lot. One of those exceptions is EverQuest II and their celebration of Frostfell. I have loved Frostfell since it first became a thing way back in 2005. The Frostfell village that many of us love came to be back in 2006, and each year the event tends to grow with a new quest or two, and some new crafted items.

Each day from Dec 3rd to 15th you get to claim a free gift, but before I could get to that, I ran around Freeport collecting shines. The closet (the portal you take to get to the Frostfell instance) was in the same place I expected it to be, though the zone itself does look slightly different from when I saw it last. I picked up a large number of crafting books from Frostfells gone by, and then spent the next hour running around the zone harvesting. Frostfell has its own crafting components.

I received a blue-striped sentient present as my daily gift from Santa Glug, and then spent far too long crafting Frostfell items to decorate whatever house I feel like focusing on. There were also shiny collection pieces strewn across the zone, so I picked those up when I spotted them. I did also pick up the few quests that were scattered about, but I haven’t completed them yet. It was nice to see the zone active, there were people running around all over the place collecting their own frostfell goodies.

I haven’t decided which character I want to play and focus on – a recurring theme in pretty much ALL of my gaming history. I am fairly sure I’m going to use a level 130 boost on a coercer, which is my absolute favourite class to play. I do have a level 120 coercer already, but I’d like to create on the Maj’Dul server. Antonia Bayle has been my home for many many years, but I’m looking for a wee bit more population these days. I have two characters over on Maj’Dul, a level 100 illusionst, and a 120 shadowknight. I need to make a choice ‘soon’ as the next expansion, Rage of Cthurath, launches on December 10th! Exciting times.

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

[EQII] Guess Who is Joining the EverQuest II Content Creator Program

It was because of this post over at Inventory Full that I even learned about the content creator program to begin with. Now, I haven’t actively played EQII since 2021 but I do have quite a long history with the game.

  • Met my husband in game (we’ve been together for 15 years, married for 9, and have 2 children)
  • Went to San Diego to interview the team for Beckett MOG (back when magazines were a thing) some of those folks are still around!
  • I have more than 500 blog posts about that single game, more than any other game I’ve ever written about – plus various videos kicking around YouTube.

One of the options when you sign up for the program is that you can mark yourself as a returning player, so that’s what I did. They ask you about your current content creation (which I admitted did not currently involve EverQuestII, but did involve other MMORPG and has been done on a fairly steady basis for a large number of years) and all of the basic questions that you would expect. It did take some time to hear back, the program is just rolling out and things are still getting set up.

One question my husband asked me, was WHY I would sign up. Why did this interest me. Aside from my long history with the game, I’ve been looking for a little extra motivation & inspiration when it comes to content creation. I oftentimes talk about how easy it is to lose yourself in parenthood and just be “so and so’s wife, so and so’s mom” without an identity. I’ve always loved sharing games I’m passionate about, and I’ve kept this blog up through all of the trials and tribulations, writing about those games. I wanted a little more motivation to go beyond the blog. I think this will help.

There you have it, the latest person to join the EQII content creator program. I hope to post some great things over time. If you’re looking for me over on socials, here’s my carrd.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Bring on the Cozy Games

There’s a lot of arguments lately over whether or not cozy is a genre, or just a feeling people get that encompasses a whole bunch of different games, and I always wonder why it can’t be both. I don’t have the energy to argue about it all so I will just say that these are in fact games that are cozy for me. Latest acquisition? Tiny Book Shop.

This game is adorable, and makes me feel happy when I play it. Plus it promote actual books, and I’m a big fan of that.

Tales of the shire I haven’t actually played yet. I’ve heard good and bad about this one. I did have high hopes for it, but the initial comments were not especially promising, so I decided to give it a bit of time and play a bit later.

Then we have my usual suspects. RimWorld is one of the coziest games I know, but for a lot of people the game creates a huge amount of stress. I don’t play it on the most difficult mode and that probably has something to do with it.

Date Everything is another newer game, and it’s hilarious. Highly suggest picking this one up for anyone looking for something a bit different to play.

Wobbly life is not actually a cozy game of mine, but it is one for my kids, so I play along with them. Personally this game drives me crazy but I’m glad they’ve found their own ‘thing’ to enjoy.

Euro Truck Sim 2, and Wurm Online round out the list of my usual cozy suspects. I can’t wait to dive into either of those, especially if I’ve had a difficult day.

So what constitutes as ‘cozy’ to you? What games top that list? Let me know in comments, and as always, happy gaming no matter where you find yourself.

Blaugust Day 1: Introduction

No idea what Blaugust is? Go read about it first (TL;DR I post every day for the month of August, and I’ve been doing it as part of a community for years now).

I don’t really post a lot of real life things here on my blog, keeping it to my hobbies (art, gaming, fiber arts like knitting and spinning, cross stitch) but every so often something creeps up and I talk about it. There’s no real explicit reason for this secrecy except that I’ve got young kids, and my husband is a first responder, so privacy is something we very much value. I figured for my first Blaugust post, I’d do a little bit of an introduction for anyone following along.

I’m a mid 40’s mom of two young kids, and like I said my partner is a first responder who tends to work very long hours. In between homeschooling and tending to the kids (who have complex needs) I like to play video games, read, knit, and things along those lines. When I was younger (not even much younger, but let’s say pre-children) I was not a very nice person. I have a temper – and I’d like to think that it is since having kids that I’ve morphed into my final form, who I am pretty happy with, overall.

I love animals (sometimes more than people) and I try to make an effort to let others know I’m thinking of them or that they’re important. I tend to retain weird information about people but rarely let others into my private circle. I have lived all over the world. My father was air force, and we were posted to Germany when I was 7. I have lived (and driven) from one end of Canada to the other. While most people I speak to have lived in only a small handful of provinces, some even living in their home province for their entire life – I love that I’ve moved so much. I have a very well rounded idea of what I like as far as a ‘home’ goes, and what I don’t like. That idea has grown and evolved over the years, especially after we had kids.

Because my partner is a first responder I find it difficult to keep tabs on some people. My hours of availability are sporadic, which carries over into my gaming. I’m not a night owl, and tend to game EU hours despite living in Canada. I do try, but I’m not very good at reaching out. The first responder side of things can be stressful. My partner has seen and dealt with situations that no one should ever be exposed to. He has saved more lives and helped more people than most will ever know. He has given so much of himself over to this job. I am incredibly proud of him, despite not saying it nearly as frequently as I should. Again, privacy issues. The stories I have could fill numerous books.

I feel awkward when I’m talking to people. I overexplain situations and give far too much information (like I’m doing here, in this post). I have maybe two close friends I speak to on a daily basis, and everyone else I’d categorize as acquaintances. I think I am probably not worth the time. Did I mention imposter syndrome? Well, stick that up there too.

As far as gaming goes, I prefer the meta game to the actual game. In World of Warcraft (my main game of choice) that means gold making. I have been playing since it released, in some form or another. I take breaks here and there, but I always return. I love collecting things, and old world content – but I also love the QoL changes that have happened over the years, and thus any form of ‘classic’ is just not for me.

I also love RimWorld, and Wurm Online, my two other most played games. Wurm is very niche, but has a dedicated and passionate player base. I’ve been playing that as long as Warcraft. RimWorld is single player, and I love it whether it’s modded or not. That game just speaks to my soul.

I’m a very prolific reader, preferring most evenings to curl up with a book instead of any games at all. I’ve recently started diving into audiobooks in the morning while I post my auction house stuff in WoW. I don’t think it will ever surpass reading for me, but it’s a neat way to explore books.

I think that’s about it for now, this post is already far longer than I intended it to be (yep, I ramble). I hope everyone enjoys their own participation of Blaugust, no matter how many or how few posts you manage to eek out. Let’s have a great one! As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

Unique Ways to Level

I am not a fan of traditional leveling methods in most MMORPG. Since I mainly play World of Warcraft these days, that’s what I’ll be talking about. After running through a story or quest chain once, I’m pretty much done with it and I don’t want to do it again unless I absolutely have to. So over the years I’ve found other ways to level my characters, whether it’s purchasing boosts or through pet battles.

At the moment I have 11 level 80 characters (almost all of them leveled through timewalking, minus my main) and 27 characters at level 70 (almost all of those were leveled up with pet battles). When a legion trainer pops up who is repeatable (especially snail race) I know it’s going to be a great time to level a character (or two).

With the release of The War Within came a new race – the Earthen. This race has a bonus to exploration, and it didn’t take long for people to take advantage of that. The addon above (Dystinct Earthen Skyriding) allows you to level from 10-70 within a few hours time. It does take some time to get used to the method, you do need to use the fancy dragonflight and not just basic flying. You also need to spam a movement key as you fly for a lot of the discovery to actually register. Nothing to do with the addon.

I created a warlock since I don’t currently have one at 80 and I would like one – it took me 15 minutes to do their starter tutorial (I died, was rushing things) and then I was off, flying around Azeroth. After two hours of flying, I was level 42. It took me approx 1-2 minutes per level. I could probably shorten this time significantly as I become more familiar with the addon. For example, it doesn’t warn you before you fly over top of faction cities, and 6x (so far) I was shot out of the air by alliance guards. Not ideal. Instead of trying to get back to my body in a hostile land, I would just talk to the ghost and continue on my way.

It’s a really fun change of pace, and then once I hit 70 I have the option of doing more timewalking (if I’m not sick of it by then) or I can wait for a legion trainer daily and grind out some pet battles. Last night I managed to get from 70-80 on my mage with that method. Sure, she doesn’t have any gear, but that’s not a big deal as I have a lot of warbound stuff or I can just craft her some. Most likely I’ll just leave her at 80 without gear as I don’t really play that class, at all. I just like having an alt army available, if I need one.

I did also set 10 characters aside who are forever parked at their covenants, doing the covenant table twice a day. This is mostly for farming pet tokens and reputation, nothing fancy. These characters don’t really have a purpose, I don’t “need” 65 characters, but it’s nice to have, fun to level, and you just never know.

Have your own unique way of leveling up if you’re not in the mood to quest? Let me know in comments, and as always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.