Coming back … again and again
Well, I've taken another couple month break from the old blog. In fact, I've taken a couple-month break from life.
I wish I could say I spent the bulk of January and February in a sensory deprivation tank a-la William Hurt in Altered States, but alas I'm much more boring than that. I spent a few weeks visiting Los Angeles and that was fun. I wasted a solid month-and-a-half being way too old to couch surf but fucking doing it anyway; I wanted to get in touch with my inner hippie.
I have also been having some familial issues, and now they are in the process of sorting themselves out. Of course I will not go into all the gory details here, but lets just say I could have a pretty good treatment for a TV drama if I cared to write it. Everybody is learning, growing, sharing and whatnot.
I do have no compunction relating my gaming experiences herein, as that is the purpose for which this blog exists. Sadly, those experiences are also rather dull.
Sucker for a sale
I spent more money than was prudent during the weeks-long gang bang that was the Steam Holiday Sale. However, I got loads of sweet games for hella cheap (to use the patois of my northwestern American home), mostly comprising games I already wanted but was too stingy to buy at full price.
The winners in the "waiting-for-a-sale-and-already-knew-I'd-like-it" category are Children of the Nile, Company of Heroes and Day of Defeat. I scored on these and I am thrilled about it. Sadly I haven't been able to play Children of the Nile as much as I want and no matter how hard I try I just suck (big-time) at Company of Heroes (though I still love it), but I went on a Day of Defeat bender for a couple weeks and loved every minute. Avalanche is my favorite map so far, though I have developed a bit of a Donner fetish.
The winners of the "impulse-buy-and-didn't-care-for-it" category are Zombie Shooter 2, Evil Genius and Killing Floor. I can't say I cared for any of these, and my reasons are various. I may still enjoy playing Evil Genius someday, but I couldn't get past the tutorial which made me want to punch things -- I believe I had issues with its rather glacial pace. I just can't get into Killing Floor for no particularly good reason (which could change in the future, however) and I outright dislike Zombie Shooter 2. If I would have spent more than $2.50 on ZS2 I would have felt completely cheated. While I don't really dislike Killing Floor or Evil Genius, if I had a second chance I probably would not bother to buy either.
Fly Safe, Capsuleer
The surprise hit of the sale was a brand new $5 EVE online account. I am happy and nerdy to say I have been glued tight to the Verge Vendor region of New Eden since around Christmas, learning the many vagaries of asteroid mining. While technically not a "new" account -- I activated a trial account I originally made in 2007 -- I have been enjoying EVE nearly every day for the past two months and feel as though I have finally "found" an MMORPG I can truly enjoy.
I put "found" in quotes, of course, because I have actually played EVE Online off-again-and-on-again since 2006; I find it a bit strange I only now have actually taken to the game. In my previous attempts to grok the game I always knew there was something about it that I like and enjoy, but I suppose until I tried being a full-time miner I didn't actually know what that something actually is. So right now that something is mining and mineral trading, which I am utterly cracking-out on. Dangling preposition FTW.
And now with the recent announcement of the SimCity-like aspects of the upcoming Tyrannis update, I will probably be hooked for at least another several months, if not longer. If you want to look me up in-game I'm Dank Fortuente and the asteroid belts of the Aidart solar system is currently my main stomping grounds.
The only other MMORPG I am dabbling in at all is Dungeons and Dragons Online, which continues to be a treat now that I can play sporadically without worrying over paying a regular subscription. I don't get to play terribly often but I have been working on a Drow Exploiter Ranger which I named Emmil Cioran. His bio reads only "ennui is the echo in us of time tearing itself apart;" perhaps "reality is a creation of our excesses" would be more a-propos to the venue, LOL.
Moving On
Well, it is nearly time for me to wrap up this post. So I will leave by saying that I am still here, still building cities and RPing like a nerdy dork, even still working on my PBBG, despite various hurdles and setbacks. I suppose I could go on for longer about my love affair with MySQL InnoDB and foreign keys, but I will bore you with that in another post. Until then blaze high -- you know I will.
Setbacks, Delays and Trying to Rise Up
Well, the inevitable has happened: I decided to push back my beta "launch" (snicker) for Project WOTAN to March, and quite possibly April or May, of next year.
I did virtually zero work on it in November as I was engaged in the cruder work of making money. Working 14-hour days out in the wilderness with bare access to electricity, let alone the Intertubes, is not conducive to making progress on an ambitious PBBG.
Even if I were able to make up the time this month, alas that is also not happening as I returned to find myself soon to be divorced, separated from my child and homeless leaving me scrambling to find a way just to stay alive. Again, not exactly an ideal situation for creating a browser game.
Rest assured, however, that unless my body washes up on a beach half-eaten I will continue to persevere in my effort and send Gungnir flying true. Of course, the inevitable mediocre anonymity the site will enjoy is not exactly a great incentive, but at least I will be able to say I finished it.
I have continued to develop my long-term idea for the project, and I am not sure if I will be able to make a MUD-for-the-web idea work; I'm not sure how well it would work even with more people (who know what they are doing) working with me. It is a dream, perhaps someday it will be a reality, but I do not believe so with this project.
Rather (long term), I am focusing on creating more of a combination of a single-player RPG and a social networking site. This was the original idea, I envisioned something maybe vaguely similar to Guild Portal. Rather than a guild organization and communication tool, though, it is a place to play and create text adventures as well as store the character(s) you use in the adventures and communicate and organize with others making and playing them.
To that effect, I am going to be setting up the main site for the project in the near future. I will need to get a VPS, and while at the lower levels they are not expensive, it is not exactly an expense I want jump right in and sign up for considering I am a very-soon-to-be homeless person. But running the game, especially how I envision it as a finished site, demand it. In fact, considering operating costs and my lack of a solid business plan, it's enough to make me hope for anonymous mediocrity.
I shouldn't underplay the business aspect of the game too much, but that is part of my extreme self-effacing nature. I actually have some really good ideas about how to make it pay for itself - none of them are original, but that also means I am picking from established practices.
Back from the Trollshaws
Well, I just got back from an extended vacation out in the wilds of Northern California. There is really nothing quite like crapping in a bucket and dodging feral pigs out in the wilderness to really bring you back to down to earth.
I also once again personally proved the effectiveness of FPS games as firearm trainers, despite barely ever firing a handgun I was pleasingly accurate. With more real-life practice I could be a fair shot. Thanks, Counter Strike.
The funniest thing was the terrain - I could have sworn up and down I was in the Trollshaws of Eriador. Minus the beech trees and adding madrone, among others of course. The cattle country on the way in also reminded me precisely of the Barrow Downs - if I were going to film a theatrical scene in the Barrow Downs, it would make a really good location.
So for the past few weeks, I have been living without the Internet but with electricity thanks to Honda and their handy generators. So I spent at least some of my off-time playing through Torchlight on my trusty laptop. And I'm still playing it now that I am back. I was never a huge Diablo/Rogue fan, but something in Torchlight really caught me.
Yesterday I logged back in to LOTRO, after roughly a two-month break. I think with the fresh perspective I understand the major drawback that game has for me - quests. WoW-style quests, I mean. I can handle "kill ten rats" to a certain degree, but elaborate quest chains and travel quests friggin' kill me.
On the same topic this is ultimately why I'm not playing Fallen Earth and why I have no plans to do so in the near future. I played through the first 10 levels or so and had my fill of the exact same style of advancement I was (subconsciously) fleeing in basically every other MMORPG I have played. Dealing with quest logs full of largely unrelated quests is enough to turn me off completely to a game these days - regardless whether I can solo them or not.
So for now I am satisfying my MMORPG cravings with DDO, which does not suffer from quite the same problems as the traditional model descended from DikuMUD. I may resubscribe to LOTRO simply out of love for Tolkien and to hang with my Landroval kinship Tirn en Taur. Money is only getting tighter in the coming months, though, so we'll see - fortunately $10/month is doable.
One thing I am still not doing is buying/playing Dragon Age. Which is strange considering that I've been waiting forever for it to come out. Basically it comes down to an EA issue for me. I don't want to be nickel-and-dimed and I especially do not want to be forced into marketing channels like Games For Windows Live. So I am going to wait and see and do more research before I start laying out nearly $100 for a semi-static single-player game I may never even have the time to really play. Oh well.