Random things

Climbing Out of a Hole After a Loss with Lots of Games

We’ve had a rough go of things this past week. Our pup was diagnosed with bone cancer last month and given 6 months to live. Despite our best efforts to help with treatments and numerous doctor visits, the cancer spread aggressively and claimed our poor friend. I tell you this because I feel the need to justify why I’ve felt withdrawn from blogging, gaming, and everything else this past month (in addition to having traveled for work and being busy). We’re those weird animal people who consider animals family members, and love them as much as people — often more. I’m starting to come out of that hole, and glad games are here to help.

I’ve had some time to dabble in a few things. I want to briefly comment on them here in this conglomoblog then expound upon them in their own entries.

Nintendo Online

The long-awaited Nintendo Online service for the Switch is out now. I picked up the $20/year version. With it comes the ability to continue playing games online — a feature now restricted to the Online service — as well as an array of classic NES games on the Switch’s version of the virtual console. There are also cloud saves and that phone app no one will use. I think it’s a fairly limited program and the price is perhaps justified only by the virtual console.

Super Mario Party Switch

Graev and I both picked up Super Party Party. I’m having fun playing solo and with my wife while waiting for Graev to finish playing Valkyrie Chronicles 4. Once he does, we plan to play online together. I think that’s ultimately where my biggest gripe with the game comes in… there’s no real online play, just mini-game shenanigans. I’m also really displeased with the control setup because you have to use a single Joycon to play. Yes, that means no handheld mode or pro controller, which are both the best control beauties of the console. We’ll write more Super Mario Party soon.

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7 Comments
October 8, 2018
MMORPG

Can You Play More Than One MMORPG at a Time?

I just got back from a business trip to Chicago. This was my second time in the Windy City. Thankfully, it wasn’t so windy. The four days I was there were fairly mild — mostly 60’s and 70’s with 10-15mph wind. As a Southern California shorts-wearing flip-flop-card-carrying member, I did get chilly in the evenings when I would adventure out looking for food. Since I’m not really into the whole food scene or the city scene — especially at night in Chicago — I spent a lot of my time inside.

Back in the day I used to bring a laptop and play games. Even the older MMOs could run on my janky laptop. I would have loved to have WoW running on my iPad Pro or Surface Pro, but was left watching Netflix and playing old school games from GoG.

I had some time to read forums and browse around. I found a topic talking about whether or not you like playing multiple MMOs at once, or if you prefer to stay loyal to just one.

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6 Comments
October 1, 2018
MMORPG

MMORPG Group Etiquette

Playing WoW a lot lately has given me significant exposure to a range of player behaviors. From lazy to go-getter, epeen to carefree, jerk to kind soul. They’re all present and obvious to me in WoW.

This question bounced around social media, and I needed more room to respond. So here goes.

MMORPG Etiquette – What are some of your make or break etiquette rules for grouping up in a social game – Bonus – What are some etiquette rules you feel OK breaking within a group or social situation in an MMORPG?

I want to focus my response on a rather narrow scope. I think general good behavior is generally a given. Assuming people generally behave in the same way they would in a professional environment, let’s move on to social norms and other etiquette.

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3 Comments
September 18, 2018
Game Design / MMORPG

Guilds vs. Friends Scenario

Here’s a scenario from the Pantheon Twitter.

You’re in a guild that can see when you’re online, they ask you to help with something boring like grinding for mats or guild finances but your friends are waiting to play with you, what do you do?

I’m viewing this one from multiple angles.

  1. Friends vs. Guild
  2. Fun Tasks vs. Boring Tasks
  3. Why not both?

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9 Comments
September 14, 2018
MMORPG

Let’s Catch Up!

I took a little hiatus from responsibilities for the past few days to catch up on some work and other RL things. I’m back in action now, so let’s catch up on a few things!

What is Keen Playing?

I’m playing WoW, obviously. There’s a lot to say here, but I’ll try and condense it down into the highlights.

My Paladin is iLevel 340 something. I had horrible luck on the first world bosses and received no loot. My luck has also been pretty darn bad in Mythic+’s, and I’ve only found a few upgrades. I’m also carrying around a few lower iLevel pieces of gear (like 325) because I haven’t found a better item. Realistically, though, I’m plenty geared for what I want to do right now.

Raiding is going pretty well. Our casual guild fielded quite a few on the first night we raided, and had a little bit of an attendance issue the second night because of multiple RL injuries and issues that came up — I think Football didn’t help either. I got 2 drops so far, and I really like the boss fights. The setting isn’t my thing, but the mechanics are fun.

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11 Comments
September 9, 2018