I got the six

Another year in the books and the blog’s still going, so here’s the obligatory cake for y’all.

The good news is that, despite my inkling that it might happen as early as two years ago, I haven’t turned my back on MMORPGs completely after all. As a matter of fact I’ve been playing the heck out of Black Desert Online since December, which has only slowed down a bit during the past few weeks.

I’ve taken a break from sailing and bartering for the time being, but am still grinding away for the infinite HP potion every now and then. I’ll also make sure to do the preparatory quests for Land of the Morning Light’s release, which is slated for June 14th.

And of course: checking in on my workers, as one does

As much as I’m looking forward to the new continent though, what I’ve come to realize is that BDO’s, like any other long-running MMO’s, biggest strength is the enormous wealth of content, systems and progression opportunities that are already there, as well as the countless iterations and (hopefully) improvements that all those things got over the years. I mean, the game was already quite good at launch, but by now it’s absolutely awesome and, in my opinion, one of the best there is.

Now, the anticipation for a game’s release can feel really great of course, and the craving for something new and shiny is always there in the back of my head. Still, when I look back on which MMORPGs I’ve played at or shortly after launch during the past few years…well, there’s pretty much only New World and Lost Ark, both of which disappointed me greatly.

I guess from now on I’ll take more of a wait-and-see approach towards new titles, while continuing to play stuff that’s had time to cook and already proven itself. Well, at least unless a game comes along that I feel I just have to play right away for whatever reason.

Still prefer this one over any of the alternatives

Diablo IV is not one of those games, in case you’re wondering. Even if I were to ignore the many good reasons not to buy it – like the fact that Kotick’s still in charge of the company, or the game’s steep price tag combined with a rather expensive cash shop and paid battle pass – I would still nope out for the time being.

Think about it – even Diablo II and III, which were made by “Good Old Blizzard” (anyone remember those times?), each needed a big expansion and many more patches to become as great as they are today. Why would it be any different now? I mean…worse? Sure, that may well happen. Better? Not bloody likely.

And, again, there’s already so many great games out there that are evidently good, polished and content-rich…

I like desert zones in general, but this in particular hits all the right notes for me

Yep, my rekindled enthusiasm for Genshin Impact hasn’t waned yet. I guess my playtime is split about 50/50 between it and BDO at the moment, which feels just right [Edit: Actually it’s more like 40/40, and 20% Hunt: Showdown]. The new (to me) regions, The Chasm and Sumeru, are really great; exploring those while questing and fighting along the way is tremendously fun.

I’ve even managed to get the character I talked about last time by investing only half of my available gacha currency, so I’m still sitting comfortably at 5 bucks spent for a full month of entertainment, with a handful of ten-pulls left over to boot. Take that, Bobby!

He’s… tougher than he looks

So, yeah, still playing, still blogging (well, occasionally). Good times.

I’ve also been watching a lot more basketball this year, starting right after Super Bowl. In years prior I only tuned in for the playoffs; turns out it’s much more satisfying to watch those when I already have a feel for what’s what and who to root for. Also, being there (kind of) when LeBron became the all-time scoring leader felt more special than I’d thought it would.

I’m even considering watching next season right from day one, but I’m afraid following the NFL and the NBA at the same time might be just too much (and pretty expensive too).

Either way, chances are the blog will remain primarily gaming-focused. What can I say, when it comes to sports I prefer doing it myself or at the very least watching. Talking about it – not so much.

Anyway, enough rambling. Year seven, here I come. Groovy gaming guaranteed!

High Five!

You know the drill by now…

Gosh, has it really been another year already? I’ve heard many people say that the whole Covid stuff kinda slowed their perception of time down, what with them being at home a lot more and so on. For me though, if anything the past two years seem to have gone by even faster than those before.

Anyway, this here blog is half a decade old today. Time to pop the champagne, no?

I’ll rather have a Corellian ale, but thanks!

On the face of it, yeah, absolutely. As I’ve said before, I really had no idea where or for how long this would go when I started, but I surely wouldn’t have bet any money on still being active five years down the road – if you’re willing to call one or two posts a month “active”, that is.

Because here’s the thing – I can’t help but admit that my enthusiasm for blogging has declined even more since my last blogiversary. In that post I talked about how there were no MMORPGs I really wanted to play at the time. Well…since then I’ve tried New World, which wasn’t for me, and Lost Ark, a game I had high hopes for but turned out to be a huge disappointment after the first thirty hours or so. Man, what a treadmill.

I don’t need to be playing MMORPGs to have something to blog about though, right? True. But, as I’m only now starting to realize, I need to be reading other blogs to feel a motivation to write myself, and that is something I haven’t done much of lately either. I still regularly read my handful of go-to blogs (you know who you are) because they’re just entertaining no matter the subject. Anything that’s solely focused on MMOs and/or isn’t compulsory reading for me has fallen by the wayside however, and that includes MassivelyOP.

While this might not sound like much of an issue it’s pretty big for me. I’ve visited that site religiously since I stumbled upon it, which was in 2011 I believe, back when it was still under AOL’s umbrella. I helped to kickstart its rebirth as MOP, and I’ve even applied for a writing job a couple years back (which I obviously didn’t get, but given how things have developed that’s definitely for the best). The site meant a lot to me for a long time, is what I’m saying.

I didn’t make a conscious decision or anything, I just…stopped, and only after a while I realized that I had, and also that I don’t even miss it all that much. Of course that’s actually not very surprising when I think about it, what with them predominantly covering a genre I’ve become pretty jaded and unhappy about. That some of the writers themselves, especially the boss lady, seem to feel the same way doesn’t help matters either.

Anyhow, I’m rambling. My point is, I’m discontent with the state of the MMORPG-genre, I’m by and large not interested in reading about it anymore, and as a result I have a hard time finding motivation or inspiration to write about anything myself.

That said, I haven’t covered everything I’d like to say about Hunt: Showdown yet, so I’ll get at least one more post out of that.

Also, to end this on a more positive note, I have no intention to quit for good. Posts may well continue to be few and far between for the forseeable future, but if nothing else I’ll try and show signs of life at least once per month.

So despite all of the above chances are we’ll still share another cake a year from now…

Year four – more Other Stuff than MMOs

No blogiversary-post without a cake

We’ve circled the sun yet another time and I’m still posting (somewhat) regularly around here, so go me I guess.

Still, the blog’s fourth year has been a weird one, and for once COVID-19 wasn’t the main culprit to blame. I mean, sure, after a while masks, distancing, lockdowns and all that shit started to get to me just like everyone else, and I can’t say I’ve been my usual, upbeat self during these surreal times.

The main reason for my change in gaming habits and, as a result, my blogging is something else though: there just isn’t any MMORPG I’d really like to play right now.

It’s not that there aren’t any good ones available, quite the contrary. And, as Bhagpuss accurately notes, there are currently more new and promising releases waiting in the wings than we’ve had in years. I am definitely keeping an eye on Swords of Legends Online, and I’ll most certainly at least try it out when it launches. I also still log into EVE Online every now and again.

There’s always stuff to shoot in space

My enthusiasm for the MMORPG genre as a whole is at an all-time low however. Of course many things have changed during the 20 years since I started to play Ultima Online, and as far as I’m concerned definitely not all of them for the better. Yet after thinking quite a lot about it lately I’ve come to realize: it’s not the genre, it’s me.

I definitely still love the RPG part of the acronym, and I have no qualms regarding the O being in there either. No, it’s the MM aspect that’s become more and more of a turnoff for me.

Guild drama (and drama in general), bad pugs, trolls, people trying to tell me what I can and cannot do with my free time… I could – and probably will – write a whole post of its own about why having other players around is much more bane than boon to me these days.

Peace and calm…yeah, this is much more like it

I guess that’s why I still very much enjoy playing Genshin Impact, which has been my main game – and, at times, my only game – for eight months straight now. It pushes almost all of the buttons that made me addicted to MMORPGs in the first place – exploration, character progression, combat, getting to know a foreign world and then becoming a part of it, and now even housing – without the “baggage” of having other people around. Sorry folks, but that’s just how I feel right now.

Of course there are downsides to playing in self-imposed seclusion too. I’ve argued myself that other players are what puts the spice, the adventure into online games, and I still stand by that. As much fun as I’ve had playing Genshin, Warframe and a handful of other games this past year, I certainly don’t feel like I’ve been on any real adventures while doing so.

Surprisingly, though, I can kinda live with that. As I’ve come to realize it can actually be quite soothing to know in advance that any given play session will most likely not turn into an adrenaline-filled frenzy.

Home is where the heart is

However, I started this blog to write about my gaming adventures first and foremost. You know, about stuff that really excited me when it happened, that I feel the need to preserve and also show to other people, to maybe help them understand why I like to sit at my desk and play these games so much.

It’s probably no surpsise, then, that I’ve published less posts during the blog’s fourth year than any other. Even my first year, when I was still finding my footing and nothing I did had any regularity or plan to it, saw 34 posts published, compared to just 29 within the past twelve months.

Will that change again? Most likely. I’ve been fed up with MMORPGs in the past, and I’ve always come back. I do like having those adventures very much, after all.

Until then my posting cadence will probably remain on the lower end. But don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere.

Time flies when you’re having fun

As per tradition: moar cake!

Hard to believe, but today marks this here blog’s third birthday.

Had you asked me back then whether I thought I’d still be writing blog posts three years down the road…I really don’t know what my answer would have been.

One thing I do know for sure though. Had you told me at the time that I would publish 187 posts with a total of 156 thousand words, and still no end in sight, I’d called you crazy. But here we are.

The main reason, of course, is that it is a lot of fun. Much more so than I would have imagined. It’s also an ongoing learning experience. When I compare my first couple dozen posts with more recent ones it’s almost as if someone else had written the former. It’s remarkable how quickly human beings can learn stuff that’s rather alien to them and become at least somewhat proficient just by doing it over and over.

Along the way I’ve even learned a bit of HTML-code – I didn’t want to, but WordPress made me – which may come in handy…or not.

What didn’t happen was blogging becoming my true love and/or main driving force. Towards the end of Blapril Bhagpuss said that he’d rather write about games than actually play them, at least at the moment. To me actually playing the games is still much more important, and I wouldn’t want it any other way. After all the desire to chronicle my gaming adventures was and remains far and away the main purpose of this blog.

Speaking of which, this third year has indeed been quite an adventurous one, not least due to the release of ArcheAge Unchained in October. Sucker for sandboxes that I am I’ve been deep-sea fishing, building a family empire with friends, trading, making music and generally goofing around quite a lot since then.

Warframe was last year’s new addition to my gaming library, and a really great one. While it’s obviously neither an MMORPG nor a sandbox it has a surprising number of gameplay elements on offer that aren’t just about killing stuff. I’ve built a custom gun, went mining and fishing, composed deadly tunes, played Guitar Hero In Space and tried myself at parcours.

The third game I’ve spent a lot of time with was EVE Online. I went back to nullsec, experienced my first Keepstar-kill, saw a faction Fortizar blow up and went to fight inside wormhole space. In April we would have finally made a trip to Iceland and attended the EVE fanfest too, but of course that didn’t happen. Maybe next year.

Finally, about a week ago Lakisa asked me, quite unexpectedly, about an MMORPG we hadn’t been playing for a couple of years. Honestly, I’d had heavy-heartedly made my peace with the fact that I’d never play it again some time ago, what with the reboot it got in 2017 that, in my opinion, was totally uncalled-for and ‘improved’ an outstanding game very much for the worse. Turns out, though, that the original version can still be played and even has a couple handful of players.

So yeah, we’re back.

Looking stylish as ever…

Don’t be surprised to read some stories about a supposedly dead game around here in the near future. Year number four, here I come.

Lighting the second candle

I started this blog two years ago today.

Have another piece of cake. It’s been a year, you must be starving

As is tradition for such an occasion I’ll now look back upon the past year and also throw some statistics at you.

I published 83 posts since the blog’s first birthday, which is quite an uptick from the first year’s 34. The main contributing factor was Blaugust Reborn of course, which ‘made’ me publish 31 pieces during August alone. At the end of that month I had gained a lot of experience and also made a resolution: to post at least once a week going forward. Except for rare exceptions I managed to do that.

The wordcount per post went up from 691 in 2018 to 1061 in 2019, but I assume that’s mainly because I published a couple pretty short posts last year, especially during Blaugust, while more or less maintaining my usual post length this year up to now. We’ll see what happens if/when Blaugust comes around again.

Since I also wrote the obligatory end-of-the-year-review on December 31rd I’ll only include posts from 2019 in the following overview of topics.

I love how she almost looks like a pirate ship with the advanced crafted gear

From December to April I mainly played Black Desert Online. Building an Epheria frigate was a huge goal I pursued and eventually accomplished, which also prompted me to muse about long term goals in MMOs in general.

Another topic that occupied my mind was combat in MMORPGs, specifically how it needs to be designed to be enjoyable for me personally.

Just one of about five billion memes making the rounds

An article on Kotaku about Anthem’s development was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me regarding the sorry state the AAA gaming industry is in right now, and I felt the need to vent some steam in two posts about those issues.

It’s not all bad though, as a couple of new non-MMO releases managed to entertain and delight me a lot. There’s still hope that the big guns of the industry – looking at you, ActiBlizz and EA – won’t manage to fuck up our beloved hobby completely after all.

Can you spot the swarm of tiny specks that is our fleet?

A couple weeks ago my EVE Online corporation joined the nullsec alliance NC Dot, which rekindled my love for that game once more. I’ve played it a lot since then, and also utilized that newfound enthusiasm by finally starting to write down my whole history with the game. Parts one, two and three are published by now with more to come.

Even more spaceships. What can I say, I like spaceships

After reading a lot of good things about it I decided to make use of the currently running discount and bought Stellaris. A very long time ago I played a little shareware game called Planets with a couple of friends, and Stellaris kind of reminds me of it. Well, except that it’s like 500 times more complex. I still meet up with some of those guys online from time to time, mainly to play a few rounds of Battlefield or some other shooter. I hope to get them on board (no pun intended) and try out Stellaris with me. Could be fun. I’ll probably write about it too once I’ve digged a bit deeper into it.

And that’s all I have for you today. Keep blogging and keep reading, good folks. I know I will.

My blog’s first birthday

Yeah, I missed it by a couple of days. Oops. 🙂

Have a piece of cake anyway

On June 6th 2017 I wrote my first (and second) blog post(s). I had been reading fellow gamer’s blogs for quite a while and been thinking about writing myself more than once, but never got around to it until then.

I didn’t have a specific plan in mind, just that I wanted to write about things that interest me and occupy my thoughts. My target audience: myself, first and foremost. As I said in my first post, I want to capture and hold on to events that delighted, fascinated or just amused me. If anyone happens to stumble upon my musings and finds reading them worthwhile I’m all the happier of course.

The first year yielded 34 entries, almost one entry every ten days on average. This is of course much, much less than most bloggers produce. The main reason for that is my pretty high personal threshold for what’s interesting enough to be written about. While I like to read about fairly mundane things (if it’s done in an appealing way) I very often deem stuff that happens to myself not worthy to write down. I just can’t imagine myself or anyone else being interested in reading about how I did my dailies in Path of Exile for the umpteenth time or that yesterday’s EVE Online fleet went largely uneventful. But maybe I’m just not as capable an author as the good folks whose blogs I always like to read, no matter the contents.

If I do write about something I usually use a lot words though. If WordPress offers a total wordcount of all posts combined I can’t find it, but I’d estimate that I wrote about 800 – 900 words per entry on average, which would sum up to about 29.000 words. That’s not as much as it sounds (an average novel clocks in somewhere between 50k and 100k), but if you had asked me 15 months ago if I’d be willing to blog almost 30k words within a year I would probably have declined politely but decisively.

It seems that I don’t want to talk about stuff very often, but when I do want to talk I like to be thorough (Lakisa would probably use the word ‘exhaustive’).

Unsurprisingly the majority of posts were about the games I played. 13 were at least in part about EVE Online, 10 about Black Desert Online, 4 about Overwatch and 2 about Path of Exile, which more or less reflects the time I spent playing these games during that year. 8 were about broader gaming topics like player-made music, randomness or toxicity in multiplayer environments. I haven’t talked much about non-gaming topics at all yet, but maybe I’ll get to that during this second year.

I’m really glad to have started this blog. Writing is a lot of fun, lets me practice my English and, most importantly, preserves events and experiences I might forget about otherwise. A big Thank You to all bloggers who inspired me to do this, to Lakisa for reading it all and encouraging me, and to everyone who also takes the time to read it. Cheers!