2023. A look ahead.

Photo by Jess Bailey Designs on Pexels.com

2022 was a weird year for me. I faced a number of health challenges, which really put a damper on my gaming. Also, when I did have the time to play, I played an absolute boatload of RimWorld, which cut into my MMO time. Nonetheless, Elyon did come up as one of my most played games on my Steam Replay. You can see how I felt about that over on MassivelyOP.

It was not a great year for my MMO gaming. That’s what I am trying to say.

So what is on my plate for 2023? I am going to play a whole bunch of tiny F2P MMORPGs on Steam to write about on MassivelyOP. I also intend to revisit some older games and write about them here and there. Likely candidates for the old game tour are EQ2, LoTRO, DDO, and Ryzom. Maybe Istaria as well.

Yes. Ryzom and Istaria are still out there.

I hope to get on a schedule of weekly (plus) posts on this blog. I am also going to work on some other blogs and possibly a podcast about my other hobbies, as well as working full-time at my new job starting in February. I may have overfilled my plate, but I seem to do better with a full plate, at least in terms of mental health, so that’s what I am going to do.

Elyon: Another One Bites The Dust

Players in NA/EU have until December 7 to enjoy Elyon before it gets tossed into the MMO graveyard. Sad, as always. Sad, but predictable.

Not MMO: RimWorld is the worst best game ever

Or is it the best worst game ever? Really, it could be either. All I know is that it has mercilessly consumed over 1200 hours of my life, and I still haven’t completed any of the potential “end game” conditions. Not even the somewhat easier ones I added through mods. I have gotten damned close but the horrors of the Rim are always one step behind. And one step ahead.

I said it is not MMO, but like everything else with RimWorld, there’s a mod for that:

As with Skyrim, it is the modding community that lifts the game to glorious new heights, even though I enjoyed hundreds upon hundreds of hours playing each of those games in their plain vanilla state.

So, why am I writing about RimWorld again on my MMO blog? Friends, I was so close to getting to the crashed ship. I sent my rather large colony there in waves. That was my mistake this time. I had one caravan wait for another that was struggling, and then both caravans starved instead of one. I tried settling down to scrape some food together. That did not help. Some colonists starved anyway, and that triggered others to go into a murderous rage. It was a spectacular failure.

That is all.

Over a year away? Already?

I feel a little like Rip Van Winkle waking up after a hundred years. I’m back, but I am really out of touch. I have spent most of the last year working from home on a contract basis, dealing with my son’s first year of school with his severe ADHD, and playing RimWorld with whatever time I had left. That wasn’t a lot of time either.

But now I am getting back into the MMO scene. I recently got ELYON (does it have to be in all caps? Is that a thing?) and downloaded Lost Ark.

I had been debating getting a founder’s pack for Lost Ark, but then time got away from me. Now I am contemplating a starter pack. I will probably give it a try first as I still haven’t even logged in and ARPGs are really hit-or-miss for me.

Elyon doesn’t seem to be doing too well. Ten or fifteen years ago, it would have done fine. Maybe not great, but fine. With the new range and scope of online multiplayer options, a run-of-the-mill MMORPG just doesn’t cut it, especially if it gives you the distinct feeling that you need to keep your arms and legs inside the car at all times and remain seated until the ride comes to a full stop. That’s not a dealbreaker for me, but I totally get why other people would not dig it.

Elyon does have a small furry race. If you know anything about me, you know I am a sucker for the small and the furry. (I am not a furry in real life, but I play one in MMORPGs.) I feel like my Chua in Wildstar was about as close to a character that represents (graphically) who I am on the inside that I have ever had.

I will be writing more about that elsewhere soon, I am sure.

Anyway… HELLO! What are you playing? What should I be playing?

The Black Desert Transfer is NOW.

As of February 24th, 2021, Black Desert Online will be published by Pearl Abyss instead of Kakao, so if you want to continue your account, you’ll need to do a transfer. You can do that HERE. There are instructions for Steam users HERE. The transfer period runs January 27th, 2021–May 31, 2021.

Kakao Cash will not be transferred, so get in there and get it spent before February 24.

I have done it. Just follow the directions and you’ll be fine. Happy Transfer!

2021 Gaming Plans

It’s coming up on that time of the year when people do their retrospectives and set new goals. I am going to skip the retrospective and get on with the goal setting.

Play more, write more. If I am going to write about games, it would be helpful for me to play them. If I am going to play games, I might as well write about them.
Try something new every month. A new game, a new class, whatever it takes to keep things fresh and moving along.
Give DC Universe Online and Champions Online a fair shake. I have started both, but they are both just sitting on my hard drive waiting for me to come back to my little newblets.
Persuade my husband and mother to give video games a try. I have been trying to do this for a few years now, but maybe this will be the year.

I hate to commit to anything more than that, given the unpredictability of life, the universe, and everything.

Black Desert Burn Out

I was excited for the release of the Hashashin class and the second season, but by the time I got to the end of the first season, I had burnt myself out. I just can’t make myself do it right now. The last part of the first season was intense for me, so the thought of grinding it all out again just does not appeal to me at all. It’s like eating a gallon of chocolate pudding; at first it is delicious and seems like a good idea, but at some point you lose your taste for it. By the end, there’s nothing you want less. It’s all tummy ache and regret.

To everything there is a season (server) [BDO]

I have spent a great deal of time playing on Black Desert Online’s first Season server. That’s the Mystic I have been playing in the picture above. The season will end on August 26, and I still have so many things left to do. It seemed like I had plenty of time when the server started. It turns out I also have a family and obligations. The time just melted away. I probably won’t achieve all I wanted to before the lights go out on the first season, but I have hit a new high level and a new level of gear with my seasonal character, so I will count it as a success when she is converted into a normal, non-seasonal character.

And then it will be time to start preparing for the next season. There’s a new class, the Hashashin, being introduced at the same time. He’s some sort of desert assassin. Pre-creation for the Hashashin class and new seasonal characters starts on August 26 with the release of the class and the new seasonal server on Sept 2. I will be one of thousands of Hashashins on that server. The seasonal server seems to be the way to go to grow a character up in a hurry.

(Source: https://www.blackdesertonline.com/news/view/4196)

The Big News Edition

Phantasy Star Online 2 has launched on Steam. This is great news for people who found the Microsoft store frustrating. There’s also a major overhaul coming in 2021 called PSO2: New Genesis. It will be a stand alone game, with the original PSO2 remaining in operation as well. You can read about it here.

Final Fantasy XIV also had some big news. In addition to the new 5.3 patch (which I haven’t really investigated yet), if you own the Starter Edition (the base game), it will be upgraded on August 11 to include Heavensward. The free trial will also be upgraded. This is a great time to try to convince your friends and family to come check it out with you.

Over in Black Desert Online, the Summer Season server will be ending sooner than originally announced. The new end date is August 26. The second season will coincide with the release of the new Hashashin class on September 2. Pre-creation for the new season characters and the Hashashin class will start on the 26th. There are generally some rewards for precreating characters, so if you’re interested in being a desert assassin, you’ll probably want to jump on that. You can grab the details here.

None of those links are affiliate links or anything. It might have been nice if they were, since I am currently unemployed and could use a little cash. Strangely, being at home all the time with my family hasn’t freed up a lot of time for writing or gaming. We are adjusting to this new normal now, accepting that it is here to stay, so I hope my family will back off and let me do things other than pay attention to them 24/7.

With the gaming time I have managed to scrape together, I have been playing Black Desert. I have really enjoyed playing on the season server. Having a deadline to do what you’re going to do in game adds a new facet to the game that I like a lot. I am playing a mystic, so this is a new class for me as well. If you’re looking to jump into the game, you could try out the season server– it is very much geared toward the growth of your character, and your character will convert to a regular character at the end.

It might be just as well to wait for the new season, though. I will be rolling Hashashin for the next season server. So will everyone else. That’s how new class releases work.

My husband is calling and the kids want dinner. Back to real reality.

2020 might not be so bad after all…

No, no, hear me out…

Sure, there’s a crazy pandemic going on and every time you turn around some disaster is happening somewhere, but on the other hand, Phantasy Star Online 2 for PC is almost here, Blue Protocol looks like it is shaping up to be something I’d like to play, and New World will almost certainly maybe perhaps release before the end of the year (if it doesn’t hit the August date they’ve announced.)

I have been cynical about the hype around upcoming games in the past. And, as you may have just noticed, I am still extremely skeptical of announced release dates. PSO2, however, is not a new game and its track record in Japan speaks for itself. It’s a game people have waited years for. Blue Protocol looks gorgeous and the gameplay videos I have seen from the Japanese closed beta appear promising. And I preordered New World based on the alpha last fall; all the changes they’ve announced just make me more sure of that decision. We should get at least ONE decent game out of those three, and that will be more than we’ve gotten during some years of the Great MMO Drought.

Then there’s Greymoor hitting The Elder Scrolls Online. And, although it is of little interest to most people, EverQuest has two new progression servers debuting on May 27th. (I subscribed to All Access for 3 months to play on Aradune. That’s right. I gave Daybreak money on purpose.)

See, 2020 does have a silver lining. A very thinly plated silver lining, but that’s better than nothing.