Month: June 2016

A History Of Games

Me Vs. Myself and I

nbi_2016

I know with certainty that I have most definitely written my personal gaming history down on this blog somewhere, but can’t seem to find it. I was going to link to that and then tell you all to peruse my archives for my more recent history. Seeing as how I can’t find that definitive gaming history post, here’s the TLDR version:

I was born in the 80s. Early memories of Nintendo, Atari, Colecovision, and the Atari ST. I owned a Sega Genesis, Game Gear, and Saturn before jumping ship to Sony’s Playstation and have owned all 4. Have owned a PC since the late 90’s. I’m not a Master Race-r, and enjoy consoles as much as I do my $1500 computer. I just happen to be able to do a bunch more with my PC, and I recognize the pitfalls and advantages of both. Either way, I’m a gamer through…

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Growing Up Gaming

Many Welps

Pokemons.jpgThis post is in response to this weeks NBI 2016 writing prompt.

When my family moved closer to the rest of the extended family, I got to know my cousins better. They were around my age and we liked the same things. We would have sleep overs and watch Pokemon, talk about digimon and play with action figures.

Growing up I never had cable. While other kids were watching Cartoon Network I was watching PBS. So it’s not really a surprise that when Saturday Morning Cartoons were still a thing, I was glued to the TV.

Our Saturday morning cartoons were Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Spider-man, Batman, and Power Rangers. I was always looked forward to Pokemon and Digimon the most.

One day they showed me a Gameboy Color with Pokemon Blue. My 7 year old mind was blown.   Not only could I catch whatever Pokemon I wanted, but I…

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Solo raids continue

Micki's Delirium

I finally had some time to play, so I decided that it was time to do another solo raid video. I’m running Maidae, who is a monkcher this life, and I’m starting with the easier raids, working my way up. Monkchers used to be really op, and really easy to play… but then they got nerfed, and now you don’t see a whole lot of ppl playing them anymore. This is my first monkcher build, and imo she’s doing pretty good. I’m sure she doesn’t have as much dps as the old monchers did,  but with my thunderforged bow I have been able to solo some raids. This time I attempted and finished The Chronoscope EE. Turns out it wasn’t as challenging as I thought it was going to be. It was easier than The Fall of Truth eN. Check out the video below.

Note, this wasn’t a zerg run…

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Tabletop for one: the social pillar

The Long Shot

With things at the Cragmaw hideout having gone swimmingly for Jindra the dwarf shield fighter, she (and i, by extension) was feeling pretty good about a career as a solo adventurer. Using stealth, patience, tactics and a few tricks, the tough ex-soldier was still alive, brokered a deal between a goblin tribe and a growing village and had a pocket full of gold coins. She’d hit 2nd level and spent some time in Phandalin.

Phandalin

Hanging out in the common room of the Stonehill Inn, she learned from gossipy barmaid Elsa that the town’s orchard keeper, Daran Edermath, is a former adventurer. It occurs to me that maybe he might have a clearer idea where Cragmaw Castle is located, where Jindra’s friend Gundren was taken captive. Adventurers get around and know stuff, after all. Knowing that it’s “20 miles northeast” is pretty vague, so any chance to narrow down the specifics…

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Summer Oxymoron Sale

Me Vs. Myself and I

summersale

Is it just me, or is the title of this year’s Steam Summer Sale a little bit of an oxymoron? They’re promoting picnics and outdoor activities in the advertising, yet all of the games that are on sale would encourage one to stay indoors. I just thought it was kind of funny, not really a big deal though. I’m a sucker for a sale as you guys probably know by now, and not just counting this particular sale, I’ve come up on a metric shit ton of games in the past couple of weeks.

Somewhere a few weeks back, the daily deal was on Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin (the 64-bit version of the game). As of now, I own every souls game besides the latest (Dark Souls III). I really need to make it through some of the older ones before picking up 3, and it’s…

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Parenting Gamers

Gaming Conversations

Kid GamingFather’s Day was this past weekend, and I’ve only recently become aware over the past ten years or so how tricky these types of family holidays have become. In the “good old days”, I used to find a suitable greeting card for my parents, and possibly try and do something nice for them (like pick up my room) in order to show my gratitude and love towards them. That was pretty much as complicated as it got. Then came social media, and it became an even greater expression of appreciation to share your feelings towards your loved ones with your entire sphere of influence and beyond.

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NBI 2016: 6 Features I Want in My Perfect MMO

Many Welps

nbi_2016.jpg

This may have been last weeks NBI 2016 writing prompt, but it’s been a busy week and not a lot of writing has been done here. I really need to stop telling myself I’ll write tomorrow, because that doesn’t happen.

Thank you Faeldray at Lair of the Wolf Dragon  for coming up with the prompt.

1. No Mini Map

One thing I notice myself doing a lot in RPGs and MMOs is spending more time watching the little arrow cross the mini map when traveling than actually looking at the character and scenery in front of me. I think ESO’s compass bar to show you which direction the objective is really helps to limit  map starring.

2. Training Skills By Using Them

I’ve always liked when skills have to be used to make them more powerful. It makes more sense  that if my character never uses a skill then…

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Early access bites games in the butt, period.

Bio Break

I have made no secret that I am not a fan of this “era of early access” that we seem to be in, both in MMOs and general gaming. It’s starting to bite games in the butt and I think that studios are blind to the damage it’s causing in their pursuit of the almighty dollar.

Let me first say that my feelings on the matter are not directed toward the trend of increased open development and communication on behalf of the studios. I actually think that’s pretty great and I’ve been enjoying seeing the studios more open about the development process and fostering a stronger community through it.

But this early access thing? It’s gone from being a sporadic fad to having its own section on Steam, which means it’s now entrenched and The Way Things Are Done. And I can’t see anything but more negative than positive arising…

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DDO: Hankering after Eberron

GamingSF

I was reading a Q&A blog post written by Keith Baker yesterday. He’s the original creator of the Eberron campaign setting for Dungeons & Dragons (first released back in the 3rd edition era). This is my favourite setting, the one in which I’ve been running a campaign. It is also the background setting for Dungeons & Dragons Online the MMORPG created by Turbine. Reading the Q&A had me wanting to play the game again but, sadly, I’m too quickly reminded of its faults.

Hat design is not a DDO strong-point Hat design is not a DDO strong-point

To be fair to the title it has some very positive points. The approximation of the 3rd edition D&D rules is *very* good, adapted for real-time combat and MMO tropes such as the combat role trinity (tank, healer , damage dealer). The character creation and progression system is amazingly deep and complex while offering a great ‘template’ system to allow MMO players who are…

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