WoW – Page 70 – A Pixel Nomad

Forever Wandering Through Games

How long has it been since you stuck with a single MMO for at least a year? I remember when Tipa used to put out a challenge to people to stick with a single game for a year, and almost no one could accomplish it even when the choices were much more limited, let alone these days where there are games for every genre you could possibly think of. Sure, we may play one game at a time, or two games, or have some combination of F2P & subscription, but more and more I notice that we are ALL becoming nomadic gamers, bouncing between games when the mood strikes (or when that new shiny pops up on the table).

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s just something I’ve noticed over the years. I would love to be one of those people who stick with a single game for any length of time but I simply don’t have that in me any more (for a few reasons). One reason would have to be the price point. Money fluctuates throughout the year and my game choices will change based on that. A good example is EQ2. My subscription expires the 2nd week of July, so I find very little motivation to log in and play right now as I know I won’t be re-subscribing (baby on the way, I simply have to re-allocate my funds for a bit). I’ve never really enjoyed playing games with a sub as a F2P player, not because I think F2P is “bad” but because I’d rather have access to the entire game. Speaking of – why doesn’t Trion offer some sort of bulk subscription plan that offers access to all of their games, much like station access? Rift and ArcheAge would certainly be two games I’d love to check out more of, but I’m not sure how I’d feel about the F2P options (especially in ArcheAge where owning land is tied to having a subscription). Offer a package deal and those subscriptions become a lot more favorable. I blame Belghast and Bhagpuss for my sudden interest in Trion games, both of them have been posting about Rift / ArcheAge on their blogs. I was interested enough that I updated glyph though I haven’t actually logged in (yet).

Speaking of EQ2, a new server opened up yesterday. It’s the Isle of Refuge, and it runs just as all the other servers in the EQ2 line up do, except the majority of items can be sold / traded and don’t have the heirloom tag. There’s a great write up about it over at EQ2wire, and the server reminds me a lot of Firiona Vie, the RP server over on EQ. There are a few other rules to the FV server besides that but it was one that stuck out to me. Why Daybreak has added such a server I have no idea (nor does anyone else it seems if you read through the comments on the article) but it’s nice to see things are not completely stagnant.

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

Making Goals, Achieving Goals

I like having goals in games that I play, whether they’re goals I create myself, or goals the game creates for me. One of the goals I had for myself in WoW was to reach ilevel 700 on my main (who at this time I consider my priest) before Legion released. I consider myself to be a pretty casual player, I don’t group up very often but I spend a fair amount of time in LFR or searching through custom groups for something that catches my fancy. I’ve never done a mythic dungeon (let alone a raid) and while I did do a lot of PVP at the beginning of Warlords, I’ve since stopped. This meant that reaching that magical number was a goal that I wasn’t sure I could accomplish.

Except today I managed to do just that. It probably would have been sooner had I bothered trying to get groups for Kazz but I didn’t even know about that raid (blush) until a month or so ago.

My gear is of course a hodgepodge of stuff. A few set pieces (Felfume) some Kazz loot (trinkets, neck, cloak), and some empowered baleful from Taanan Jungle. While I’m out and about on my own my priest is usually spec’d as shadow – but when it comes to grouping or raids, I’m currently in disc. I’ve been playing a priest main for years now, and I’m excited to see the holy changes that are coming in Legion, it’s been a while since I’ve tinkered with that specific spec.

In the meantime as we wait for Legion I’m doing the typical “prepare for Legion” things. Milking my garrison while I can, collecting appearance gear in my bank / bags for when transmog changes go live, doing world events for tabards, and playing the alts here and there. I’ve also been working on my pet collection, I’m up to 551 now, but I want more to be level 25, and at least rare quality. Alts come in handy for this, I can earn enough tokens in a day to turn a few rare and to also level up a few levels just by doing the garrison pet daily. I know I could grind out the levels on the pets that I want at 25, but I have a feeling I would get bored of that pretty easily. At least this way I keep myself interested.

That’s one of the hardest parts about waiting for an expansion – keeping interested and busy. Since I’m such a casual player to begin with, it hasn’t been that hard this time around, but I AM very eager for Legion to release.

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

What am I Playing? What are You Playing!

It’s that time of the year where people seem to be floundering in their usual game of choice, torn between the beautiful weather outside and hiding away inside to avoid the heat. I tend to be a restless gamer no matter what I’m playing, so it’s not really a surprise that I find myself all over the place.

In steam games I’ve been bouncing around between mindless clickers like adventure capitalist and the usual (Wurm Unlimited) with a brief stay in minecraft story mode. I have only completed the 4th chapter so far, and I love every second of it. I also installed skyrim thinking I’d finally get a chance to play through the entire game, but I haven’t gotten up the nerve yet. I’ve played it quite a bit (never to completion) only to have a computer issue that would cause my saved game to become erased, so I’ve started playing numerous times and then during the last incident finally gave up and said enough was enough.

I’ve also found myself playing a good amount of World of Warcraft and Sims 4. WoW is of course a nice comfortable game that I find very easy to fall into and I’m really excited about Legion. I love the friendly hype I’ve been seeing, and I hope more people return even if it is just a temporary visit until they get bored of things again. Sims 4 recently released a pack called Dine Out, and I’m having a blast with it. I’ve been playing my legacy family which is now on the 3rd generation and working towards the 4th. It’s the furthest I’ve ever managed to take a legacy family and I have high hopes of making it all the way to the 10th (eventually). Of course now that I’ve said that I’m sure I’ll start having issues with my PC..

What has everyone else been playing? Are you also bouncing around from game to game looking for something to hold your attention? Or are you outside, enjoying that bright object in the sky? I’ve seen a lot of folks playing The Witcher 3’s latest expansion, not my sort of game at all but I’m glad to see others enjoying themselves! As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

Changes Coming (Pre-Legion)

Last week I finally got into the Legion beta, after trying to get in since I heard about it. I eagerly downloaded the beta server and then was promptly unable to play because of some technical difficulties with a patch they had just rolled out. Such is my luck. Eventually later on in the day I was able to log in without facing a multitude of disconnects and lag, and what grabbed me right off the bat was not any of the proposed changes coming in Legion, but the changes coming before Legion hits. The ones that are now on the PTR for testing (with no live date in sight, but with Legion only months away, it’s only a matter of time).

Of these changes my absolute favourite is the changes to the transmog system. Instead of carting around appearance gear or storing it forever in void storage (which has a hefty fee if you ever want to remove the item from void storage) there’s a slick new interface that’s account wide. I absolutely LOVE this change, and I think it will really make a difference in how often I get to change my characters appearance from their typical gear. Not only does it take armour into consideration but things like tabards and shirts will also be account wide. The changes to this single feature (so far) outweigh everything else I’ve seen. In true blizzard fashion they’ve taken a system that’s already around in other games (Diablo3, GW2) and added their own design features and perfected it for World of Warcraft.

One of the changes that leaves me with a less than happy taste in my mouth is the changes (and removal) of glyphs. A few are still around, but characters no longer have a glyph panel and instead these are built into your spells. The problem I have is that it doesn’t seem that Blizzard has thought it through as far as the inscription craft class goes which of course I just swapped my 2nd main character to. Instead of making glyphs, inscription will make a consumable item that’s used by players once a week to help do more DPS to a specific boss.

Eh?

Of course I’ll reserve my overall judgement for when it all goes live (nothing is set in stone) but it leaves me with a sour taste in my mouth. I guess there was some heavy debate over scribes making too much money with their glyphs and this is some sort of retribution and balance to that. Perfectly understandable but I’m still kicking myself for having just picked up the profession. On the other hand, I have enough alts that I have pretty much one of everything, so it’s not a huge deal.

I’m very excited to experience the rest of the changes, I think it’s going to be a great time for gaming in World of Warcraft.

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

Most Anticipated MMORPGs of 2016

As is the norm each year, there are lots of potentially legendary games to look forward to this 2016. However, one genre promises to blow the rest out of the water. Backed by huge crowdfunding campaigns and some daring indie campaigns, the MMORPG genre is fully loaded this year. This piece takes a look at some of the most promising of the lot.

Star Citizen

This game has received truckloads of money from crowdfunding so you should ordinarily know what to expect from the developers. Apart from this fact, the proposed features of this game are enough to leave you salivating. Star Citizen combines multiple genres together in a bid to unleash a new era of MMORPGS. You still need the best bingo sites as can be found here on bingosweets.com to get your bingo fix but Star Citizen covers everything else from first-person shooting and sophisticated space combat to high level economic and social simulation. There is something for everyone. Industry watchers call it the Swiss Army Knife of video games. We agree!

World of Warcraft: Legion

There is a lot of attention on World of Warcraft this year as it had a lukewarm year with the last release. This is supposed to be a big year for the game or we could have the final days of one of the pioneer MMORPGs unfolding before our eyes. Legion is an expansion that will tell us if Blizzard still has enough in its locker to keep the World of Warcraft franchise working. From some of the promised new features on Legion, there is every reason to be cautiously optimistic.

Black Desert Online

The magnificent environment and intriguing characters are not the only things offered by this beautiful game. The game has already launched in South Korea and will come to the rest of us soon. This game takes a unique approach to sandbox MMORPG. With Black Desert Online, you are guaranteed to enjoy a really wondrous experience where you can choose your own paths to play. It promises to better GTA on that front!

Albion Online

Albion Online mixes the political scandal and brutality of EVE Online with a fully packed fantasy world. The game can be played seamlessly on both computer and tablet. It gives you and your friends the chance to build a kingdom in a literally cutthroat environment where dying means starting completely from scratch.

Warhammer 40K: Eternal Crusade

Warhammer: Age of Reckoning died quickly and many felt it was the end for the title. That was before Eternal Crusade was announced. Set 40,000 years after the original, the game has lots of new features but it is still largely about the fight between Ork and man. Eternal Crusade brings something different to the table as it is a tactical squad-based shooter where you will fight a persistent war against other groups for territory control.

The MMORPG will light up the year and we can’t wait.