I haven’t written many “year in review” posts – but I do love the idea of them. If you asked me now what I was doing last January I couldn’t really tell you. Things fly by in life and gaming and I do want to capture what I was playing, talking about, and interested in when it comes to games and this blog. That way, in future years, I can go back and see what the year was like for me and gaming. In fact – I think I will put some effort into going back into prior years and do that as well. I really am curious. For this year I will be breaking it up in chunks (calendar quarters) because I don’t love long blog posts. Small, digestive bits and 11 days to complete them!
January 2017
- Post Count: 7
- Games: World of Warcraft: Legion Expansion
- Themes: Cleaning up old blog drafts, keyboard turning
Mood/Content: Positive AF! January had me levelling up my third character to max level in Legion. I had committed to myself to try and shed myself of the keyboard turning label (only to fail at it). I was away on vacation (Grenada) and upon returning caught up with my three max level characters (Druid, Rogue, Paladin). My “Blogs that feed” Sidebar broke with a WordPress update and I started looking at solutions to fix it. I Killed another pesky 5 posts from my drafts folder but not before talking about them a bit. I started noticing that they had given substantial benefits to alts in WoW – so much so that in a week I had caught up on gear with my Paladin compared to the months I “worked” on my Druid. I discussed how I play games – I insert my real life persona into the character – and wondered if others did the same – did people become the characters in the video games they play, or did the characters become them? FInally I mused on about how Tuesday is a big day in World of Warcraft because things reset and there is a list of chores / fun things to accomplish. WoW had become quite scheduled for me.
February 2017
- Post Count: 8
- Games: WoW, SWTOR, Mass Effect (original Trilogy)
- Themes: Digital Currencies, Time Management
Mood/Content: Having fun! I started paying closer attention to how much time I was spending gaming by installing “Rescue Me” – this was a free app that measures where and how you are spending your time on your computer. Not just gaming, but other, unproductive things like Social Media (etc.). I ended up uninstalling when I realized that ignorance is bliss. I accused Blizzard of manipulating their currency (rightly so) as there is an unlimited supply – they can create as much demand as there is – which should actually drive prices down, not up. Especially because there is no cost to creating a WoW token. I lament even today that I didn’t spend my few hundred thousand on gold on them when they were 25,000 gold each – now closer to 200k. Since it is not a real market, or currency, there is no threat of bubble like Bitcoin. I made fun of Blizzard for not reporting subscription numbers (again, and anymore) and using ‘MAU’s and other, opaque metrics to explain how they are making billions.I stopped playing WoW in Februrary – without fanfare or an explanation. Truth is that I realized with the mid-expansion gear reset and slow trickle of story content I might as well wait until Blizzard “finishes” the expansion and is on hold until the next one. That way I can just quest and get top end gear and see the story to fruition. I now understand that that is now, so I will probably do that in the new year. I reviewd my history with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and started playing it again – no doubt because of the new Star Wars movie. Much to my surprise, I LOVED it, and actually subscribed to get the full benefits, expansions, and experience. I also recognized that as a subscriber I saved around 25% of my gaming time in efficiency (quick travel, speed, etc.) which made being a subscriber even better (and more important). I visited Hoth for the first time in game but really, it was RE-visiting as I loved Hoth as experienced in the movies. I connected how fun it was to visit these places from the movies long before they happened. I finished off the rest of the “original” story content from SWTOR and funny enough it took almost exactly 24 hours. By the end of the month I was done with SWTOR – I needed a break – the story content is heavy and time consuming. I still have 7 or so expansion content modules to run, and I am interested to see the story through. I will revisit in 2018. I got into fights wiht EA again over a banned account for a cancelled credit card they won’t let me fix or pay for, and I replayed the Mass Effect Series in anticipation of the launch of Andromeda. Those games did not age well and the power of nostalgia for Mass Effect ruined Andromeda, really. It was sad that the memory of the games – which, in replaying, were pretty bad as standalones – outstripped meaningful judgement on the new entry.
March 2017
- Post Count: 7
- Games: Mass Effect: Andromeda, The Secret World : Legends,
- Themes: My Blogroll, a second Vacation, eliminating the use of the ‘R’ word
Mood/Content: Cold but happy. February was the start of a campaign in Canada to get rid of the “R” word from our vocabulary, through the #nogoodway campaign. Gamers use that word far too much and I spend a lot of time with people with developmental disabilities and it’s time to get rid of it from our slang / everyday use. I went on vacation and needed stitches on the first day. I pre-ordered and started playing Mass Effect: Andromeda, and was frustrated that most of the negative reviews for the game were centered around the Alt-Right rallying against perceived liberal themes in the game instead of the game or content itself. Not to be outdone the hard left also complained that it was basically a glorification of colonialism. Yes, faces were tired. I finally fixed my Blogroll, which remains my favorite part of blogging – reading other people! I wrote a good piece (Skeptics Guide to Mass Effect Andromeda’s Plot) to help people understand the nuance and depth to what was going on – instead of just reading “fake news” plot holes posts. I fell in love with slow playing Andromeda and really taking in all the sights, sounds, and experiences. And finally, The Secret World Legends trailer dropped and finally, was going to hopefully address some of the longstanding issues I personally had with the game as a faux MMO.
I spent my winter in three big games, and loved all of my time in each of them. What a way to start the year!
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