New year update....

The last month or so has seen a lot of heavy real life upheaval that still continues. So needless to say gaming and this blog have been effected.

This post is a mix of all my gaming bar Eve, that's a separate post next.

I'll start off here with WoW.  I had intended in mid December to write up a massive post about my main and his adventures in the new expansion, dinging 100 and the gearing up, dungeon runs, raiding and garrison antics that make the game. But in all honesty I really can't be bothered. I'm that put out of it. I've not had a good feeling with wow in the last little while. I think it started by dinging my lock as my second 100. I found it as a massive anticlimax that made me really see the grinding nature of wow once again.  I've not felt like this since the end of Burning Crusade. Where I was into everything on all the characters I had. I enjoyed the camaraderie but dong the likes of 25 dailies on 8 characters was a worry. It took it's toll. I dont' want to repeat that time.
Take last night, I logged in with my wife to do some wow, first we've done in a good while. Within an hour I couldn't quest, I hated the dungeon pugs when they finally happened. Wow has a draw and accessibility, if it were not for the garrisons I would have quit sooner. I'm not the only wow vet feeling like this and not even waiting for the new raids is of any help.
I also feel that in general the wow players you come across have changed a lot and for he worse. I mainly mean attitudes. And how they interact towards other players. Pugs and LRF being the main source of "contention". So much bickering over so small a slight can result in so much hate being released.

When I started in wow there were three times I clearly remember.

1.  Standing by a quest giver in a small town, I was passed by a level 60 player (max at the time). What I noticed first was that he was "walking", no autorun, he was "walking".
He stopped, looked around at his surroundings and walked up to me, then said in /s chat he was new in these lands and asked where he could get a tavern for a drink.  This was obviously a role player. The first time I had interacted with a player like that. It was an intriguing moment, and an interesting conversation/experience that followed. Interaction within the game by a player that wasnt' an npc yet still acted as a cog within the game world. A far cry from any random chat these day's.

2. When I started I hadn't a clue yet I remember going about questing and was introduced to the idea of random buffing players. By crossing random players who would cast what buff they could and you would do likewise to them. Like an understanding nod or salute to a fellow adventurer. These day's your only random player interaction is "random tagged my mob", "random took my ore node/herb", random did x, y or z in a step on player to get ahead.

3. Again when low level questing running back to a town I happened to pass a road and heard combat in progress. I took a quick side glance to see what was happening. I saw a mage fighting and being chased buy a large group of spiders. He had iced them in place, blinked and used what he could to evade them but I could see he was in a loosing battle. So I took a few steps and cast a buff and some heals on him. He was then able to get out of their range and promptly sat down and munched on some mage food. I cast some top up heals and a few friendly comments were passed, he was grateful. Over the course of the next few days questing in the same area's we bumped into one another, friendly hello's and comments were exchanged. We seemed to then be on the same quests and started to party up. That was how I meet my first in game friend. We had a lot of adventures together over the years. PVE and some PVP on a realm on a faction far far away, it happens.

I guess my walk down memory lane is that random player interaction used to be a better experience.

My current guild is a great one, well meaning, fair and helpful. Unlike others, we have weathered and discarded a lot of drama.


I tried to get back into pvp to get me into the swing of wow again but that did little to snap me out of it.

I have about 2 month's of game time left, I can see myself logging in updating garrison daily housekeeping and that's it. I'll do the raids when they are released even if that's just LFR to say that I saw and did it.

I've been talking to another rl friend both in and out of wow and he feels the same, he's just marking time. I think we are both looking forward to Star Citizen coming out more than playing wow. That says a lot. I tried to rationalise paying for more wow time but I can't. This was made clear to me when I thought that I should stop spending on wow and maintain spending on Eve Online. Makes a lot more sense to me. I also have icons on my desktop for Star Trek Online, Rift and Guild Wars 2. Free to play games that I should get back into and make a go of at no other cost. They are after all free to play.

I've stopped playing Battlefield 4, and cancelled the renew on the Gold xbox live subscription. I have spent more time on Dust 514 in place of it. The daily freebies to "work" towards are a great game changer and make me want to play. Another free to play game. And one I dont' need a sub on the PS3's network to get online matches.

On an up note I've played some more Rome Total War, yeap the first one. Despite newer or updated games like it I am always drawn back to it. A true classic. There is something to be said for offline single player games. Like being reintroduced to an old friend, the Pause button.