WoW – Page 69 – A Pixel Nomad

Just Trying to Fit In

Playing video games in a lot of ways is still like high school to me. There are cliques everywhere, and being the awkward introvert that I am, I find it really hard to fit in any place. I know a lot of people, but don’t dig down into personal stuff about myself, and we (“we” meaning the folks I know on various social media platforms) never seem to play the same game, and when we do, we never play at the same time. Then there’s the whole “I’m awkward” thing. I don’t really feel that I fit in and I never have. People used to ask me if I wanted to do stuff, but me being me, after so many declines they’ve stopped asking. Trying to find a guild to fit in is a futile effort. I normally end up creating my own guilds with a tiny selection of ‘closer’ friends. Eventually we all move on to other games, having never grouped up or done anything together.

There are exactly three steady played games of mine where this isn’t an issue. One is Wurm Online. I’ve been in the same alliance for years now, and we get along pretty well. People come and go, but the core always remains. Today someone who merged with our alliance mentioned in chat “you guys are weird” – and I said yes, we were, but that I wouldn’t trade it for anything. It’s completely true, too. My Wurm Online alliance is completely comfortable, and I really treasure the people in it.

The second game is EVE Online. I’ve been in a guild there for about two years now if I recall correctly. I don’t play as often as I’d like to, and my time doesn’t always (ever) match up, but when I’m on and members of the fleet are on I feel comfortable. I don’t end up grouping up very much – but the fleet is alright with that, and they haven’t kicked me out. I like that. I like that they understand.

The third game would be World of Warcraft, and this isn’t because I already have a well established guild or friends playing. Nope, this is because of the LFR mechanic. Blizzard doesn’t let me feel left out of anything. I don’t feel like I’m missing out on something because I’m too awkward to fit in with a crowd. I did join a guild, but they’re completely anonymous to me and go about their own thing. They also never kicked me while I wasn’t playing, which I appreciate. I see friends on my bnet list doing their thing, and I sometimes wish we could all group up and play together – but I know that’s just not how things go for me. I’m always going to be that socially awkward girl who declines invitations but still secretly wishes she got them.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

Do You Need Combat in your Games?

Spurred on by a conversation on twitter with Belghast and Adrel I started thinking about the games that I play that I enjoy more than others. Two immediately came to mind, Wurm Online and the Sims franchise. Both are games that (due to my play style) have very little if any combat – and I love that about them. Yes, arguably you can combat as much as you want in Wurm Online but that’s not how I tend to spend my time. In the Sims games there’s almost never any combat, not in the traditional sense. Of course there are ways to encourage combat if you want (you can make enemies and start fights) but for the most part the game is pretty peaceful. Then there’s all of the visual novel games that I enjoy playing, games like If my Heart Had Wings, and Dandelion – Wishes brought to you. Mindless games I enjoy just because like Cook, Serve, Delicious. Building games like Cities: Skylines. These are the sorts of games that entice me the most and I suppose until I sat down and looked through my games it’s not actually something I noticed before.

That doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy combat in games, too. I do. Diablo 3 is pretty much nothing but blowing things up. The thing is I get very bored of those games very quickly – just like Belghast tends to get bored of games that don’t have combat in them (per our conversation earlier). I think that in the majority of games I play I spend my time equally between combat and no combat depending on the game. EVE Online is a good example. There’s combat, and I do combat via missions, but a lot of the time I’m running delivery missions or I’m mining or I’m doing industry things that don’t involve any combat at all. The same can be said for EQ2 and WoW, sure, there’s combat, but a lot of the time I’m harvesting, decorating, or crafting and none of that (at least for me) involves any combat at all.

Do you have a preference or are you about equal in terms of combat vs. non combat gameplay? Would you tend to fall asleep if one or the other aspect was missing from your game of choice? Let me know in comments!

Lost, Again.

Remember how just last week I was talking about video games that do a poor job at introducing you to what you’ve missed while you’ve been away? Well, World of Warcraft is another game that I’ve recently returned to – and I have no idea what I’m doing. I mean, I know how to play my character, I understand garrisons, that’s not the issue. I was around for that stuff. The issue is what I do with everything else going on.

So lets start with what I know. So far I know that they’ve added navel battles since I last played. These are like garrisons – on water. Plus you can lose your ship, and you can gear them up so of course when you lose them you lose all their stuff, too and then you have to start all over again. When you do the tutorial they do a great job of explaining about how much you suck. Thanks Blizzard!

The next thing I discovered was Warlord’s version of Timeless Isle – except it’s not as much fun, it’s much more pressure, meaner, and harder to get around. With that being said, I did get a pair of 675 shoulders last night, so that was swell. When I quit I was wearing 640 gear, and the new stuff is a big upgrade, plus I can upgrade it twice more. I haven’t figured out how that works yet, but I’m sure it’ll be revealed in time. The zone is awkward, the roads are narrow, and my map is FULL of stuff going on. Unfortunately most of it happened to be complete before I got there, and unlike Timeless Isle where people usually helped one another out, this place seems like a complete free for all.

Then there’s the Timewalking dungeons. Those reward various 660 pieces of gear, and for barely anything I was able to upgrade almost my complete set of gear to 675 from the vendor in Shattrah. I’m on my way to doing 5 dungeons, I just need one more. They’re fairly painless but not a complete cakewalk, one of the ones I went through ended up needing three replacement tanks since none of them were able to control their aggro. Happens, and I didn’t vote anyone out, but the rest of my group was less patient than I. Speaking of patience, the NPC who sells the Timewalking gear is currently completely covered by players in mounts with vendors, on purpose to be obnoxious so you can’t purchase anything. Isn’t that fun? There’s a quest to complete 5 timewalking dungeons, and so I did that and managed to get an ilevel 695 robe, yay! Now my ilevel is 666… that seems.. appropriate?

That’s where I’m currently at. I imagine I’ll do some LFR before too long, maybe on the weekend (though that has always been a poor day to do raids from my experience, best day is typically Tuesday when they re-set) and continue working on being able to fly in Draenor. If you want to group up or just add me to battlenet, you can find me as Stargrace#1783 – I’m playing horde these days, my alliance characters over on Argent Dawn have taken a back seat, and I’m playing over on Area 52.

What else do I need to know about recent changes? Have any tips / hints / tricks / guides to direct me to? Go ahead and leave them in comments as always!

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

The Tickle of WoW

[41/50] It has been a while since I played WoW in any capacity. I let my account lapse a few months ago and moved on to other games. I really haven’t enjoyed the past few expansions, and actually spent most of my time going back and doing old raids more than anything else.

[42/50] The lure to play is still there. I really enjoyed pet battles and I really liked going back through older content. The problem was (and always has been for me) garrisons. Splitting the population into these instanced homes where no one ever talks to or sees another actual person in the game world. With the ability to access brokers, bankers, and crafting, there was no reason for me to step outside and mingle or interact with anyone else and I absolutely did not enjoy logging in simply to do my garrison quests out of obligation. I’ve never belonged to a very active guild, and it feels like it would be too late in the game to get involved these days. Plus I’m pretty particular when it comes to guilds, finding one that’s a good fit (both for me and them) is a long process.

[43/50] I’ve resisted the call so far, but we’ll see how long that lasts. Legion has some exciting things coming with it, and I was tempted to pre-order because the level 100 boost could come in handy (I already have a few level 100 characters, so I’ve seen the content) but if I’m not even playing there’s no reason to get it RIGHT NOW and I’m sure I’ll still want it when we’re closer to release.

Lets Talk AddOns (Again)

I love games that allow players to create 3rd party addons to help enhance game play or solve UI issues I may have. In many games I prefer to load just one overall addon that takes care of everything for me, but that isn’t always how things are done. Take WildStar for example. I use a number of individual addons there, and it works out great. Sometimes people wonder if addons make games too easy, or if they’re technically considered cheating. For example in WildStar there’s an addon that lets you relax when the simon says games are going on. Those are the challenges that flash a pattern of colours like a bop-it and you need to match the pattern. The addon responds automatically, saving you a lot of potential frustration.

In EQ2 I use DrumsUI. I used to use Prophet, but it stopped getting updated. Now, Drums hasn’t been updated in quite some time either, but it’s still a working UI, and it does everything I need it to do (which is replace the entire UI for the game). I could get by using the default stuff, but after so many years it’s just not comfortable and it feels outdated.

In World of Warcraft I use ElvUI and like all addons and mods out there, some people love it and some people hate it. This UI mod has a bit of a reputation because so many players use it and it’s seen as a ‘n00bs’ UI of sorts. Despite the negative connotations that I see floating around, it works for what I need it to do as a causal gamer. I also discovered HandyNotes which is by far the most amazing addon I’ve seen so far (especially with WoD).

HandyNotes updates your map and mini-map with every named, treasure, collectable (toys, pets, etc). As you collect the items (or kill the bosses), the icons vanish from your map. This is especially handy if you happen to hunt for achievements that require you to collect everything under the sun. Now, again this addon is not going to be for everyone. Some people really love the discovery and they don’t want any help at all – but others (lets say, completionists) want the ability to finish off these items, and that’s where this addon really shines.

I also have a few pet addons, deadly boss mod because it’s awesome, and an auction house addon here and there. Nothing all that fancy, but it suits my play style.

In games where addons are an option, my decision is usually to always go with one (depending on their availability and how easy they are to install). I like to have the option, even if it’s not for everyone.

Do you tend to use any addons in your games? Would you rather not have the ability to? Let me know in comments!