The Site
Nothing exciting happened to the site itself this month. The scheduled post notification, which still uses the “new comment” icon most of the time, is still annoying. I haven’t quite gotten around to looking at the blogger feed in the side bar just yet. So all I have is that at some point this month I passed the 4,000 post mark.
Quantity… has a quantity all its own…
Also, I still have some storage space left, which a concern given the number of screen shots I upload.
One Year Ago
I was feeling a bit of the summertime MMO ennui blues.
Project: Gorgon was off with another Kickstarter campaign. Would the third time be a charm? (Spoiler: yes.)
Need for Speed: World shut down, so I said farewell to Palmont.
Derek Smart began what would become is crusade against Star Citizen, detailing why he felt we would never see the game that was promised. It could have ended there, but RSI responded in a way guaranteed to turn it into a fight and took away his Rear Admiralty. Game on!
In Minecraft I was learning about not falling off of things, bringing light to dark places, and accumulating materials. Also, sheep stole my mine cart.
I was mucking around in War Thunder for a bit. It is a pain to return to the game because there is always a huge update required.
Over at Daybreak, there was a vote up for the EverQuest progression server Ragefire about speeding up the unlock of Ruins of Kunark, as well as talk about raids and such.
On the EverQuest II side of the house, there was a beta for its first nostalgia servers. I avoided the beta but was there when the servers went live… for the big surprise, the return of the Isle of Refuge, adding to the nostalgia experience.
And while that was going on, it appeared to be the end of Smed at Daybreak.
In New Eden my alliance, TNT, handed over its last system in Deklein. We then lived in Tribute.
The Aegis expansion hit… but there was a delay between that and other bits of what we now call Fozzie sov to be deployed. But entosis link modules were finally able to take sov as the month rolled along. So we started to learn by doing.
There was a plan in the Imperium to bring in care bears to mine and rat in order to raise ADMs so that our now much reduced space holdings would remain secure.
At one point Mordus Angels managed to claim some sovereignty in Pure Blind! Can you imagine? Crazy times!
Meanwhile, in the cash shop… erm… New Eden store, more skins were being rolled out. Or, rather, the same skin on more ships. The blog banter of the month was on about attributes, and I was bitching about never having enough jump clones.
On the Azeroth front, Blizzard said they would be announcing the next World of Warcraft expansion… right after the Q2 quarterly report was released, which raised some suspicions in me. What would the subscription numbers look like if they felt they needed a big announcement to distract from them?
And I finally got my copy of Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls from the Kickstarter… only two years late.
Five Years Ago
Google+ was already starting to become annoying.
I tried Civ World. I didn’t like it.
In EVE Online, the results of the emergency CSM Incarna summit were released with CCP basically saying, “Ooops.”
I hit level 50 in LOTRO, got into Eregion, and actually saw the door into Moria. Only a couple of years had passed since I bought the expansion. Gaff was ahead of me, as usual. Meanwhile, Isengard was in beta, but nobody was supposed to talk about it.
Getting lost… rules.
EA, BioWare, and their new Origin service got together and combined my accounts without bothering to mention they were doing it in advance. Just another day at EA as I understand it. Customers come behind their own convenience. Still, I was interested in their authenticator and how it stacked up against others. Can you actually buy those yet without getting the CE?
Speaking of authenticators, SOE made one available as well that looked just like the Blizzard model. But they cannot be swapped, one for the other. I got the official line from VASCO on that.
And on the SOE front, they announced that they were going to revamp Freeport, which I took as a waste of time. (Plus, of course, Qeynos got shoved off until later.) I am still not convinced that either revamp was worth the effort of the time spent downloading the assets. But I am not sure Beastlords were either. They seemed pretty broken when they launched.
The instance group wrapped up our last adventure in EverQuest II Extended. There were a number of way the game wasn’t right for us. It wasn’t just the ugly mounts.
The pending closure of Star Wars Galaxies led to interest (and concerns) about SWG emulation.
But PlanetSide 2 news was coming. I think they are in closed technical alpha at this point.
I started playing Need for Speed: World, a driving MMO. It wasn’t a bad game with the right music playing.
Zynga helped reveal the two faces of Tobold.
And World of Warplanes was announced, which got me wondering if this might not be a spiritual successor to Air Warrior of old.
Ten Years Ago
July 2006 was some sort of barren wasteland for related news.
Microsoft was talking about a device to challenge the iPod and denying they would ship an XBox 360 with an HD DVD drive. Being on the mark half the time is pretty good for them.
EA was trying to retain people by giving out more stock options while Take-Two Interactive was being investigated over stock grants.
The ESA announced they were downsizing their yearly E3 conference.
The Civ IV – Warlords expansion came out on Windows and Super Dragonball Z launched on the PlayStation 2. Woo hoo.
Featured Sites of the Month
For this month’s featured MMO Blog I want to bring your attention to:
I have my own EVE Online picture blog, but Mark726 at EVE Travel goes way beyond that, finding the various attractions in New Eden, documenting them, telling you where to find them, and how dangerous the journey might be.
Then of the “other” site of the month, I want to point you at is:
Connor has been running MMO Fallout for over seven years now. He covers MMO news that doesn’t always make the big news sites. It is not unusual to see Massively note MMO Fallout as an initial source for a story. If you want to know about what is up with Jagex or NCSoft or some other non-headline grabbing companies, it is a site that should be in your feed.
Most Viewed Posts in July
- WoW and the Case for Subscription Numbers
- Titans Down in Okagaiken Trap
- The 7.0 Patch Looms
- Pre-Ordering WoW Legion at a Discount
- The Pokemon GO Phenomenon
- LOTRO Headed for the Grey Havens?
- Alamo teechs u 2 play DURID!
- Cross Country to Frostfire Ridge and the Bloodmaul Slag Mines
- Last Moves Before the Big Move
- Defeat in the North and New Destinations
- Pointed Towards Delve
- Last Minute Garrison Gold Grubbing
Search Terms of the Month
orcs fucking
[What I get for using the phrase “more fucking orcs” in a post I guess]
دانلود بازیهای پورنو برای
[This is what the Ayatollah said would happen]
where is darkrai in pokemon emerald
[Nowhere, as it happens]
eve online on kindle
world of warcraft legion will suck
[There is always somebody…]
origin unifies your gaming life
[Unity is over rated]
EVE Online
It was time for a change of direction in New Eden. After a strong start to the month, where we bagged some titan kills, The Imperium gave up its war in the north, postponed the reconquista indefinitely, and set its sights on Delve, the traditional place for Goons to invade.
And then we spent the rest of the month packing our stuff and hauling 41 gates/13 jumps south through hostile territory.
EverQuest II
I wasn’t expecting to play much in Norrath. My account was set to lapse soon. However, the Race to Trakanon server came up and I used my last few days to get to level 10 and collect a “one for every character on your account” mount as a prize. Worth the effort to me.
Minecraft
I have spent some time in our Minecraft world, but I haven’t had a real project to focus on. so I built another base with a giant structure along the great rail loop. I am thinking about trying to build some sort of city skyline in the near distance along the rail line, with lit up windows so if you take the rail line at night it will look like… well… a city skyline at night with windows lit up. We’ll see.
Pokemon GO
Since I do not actually have a smart phone, Pokemon GO hasn’t really been much of a game for me, personally. And yet it is everywhere. It is something those birthday cards that list out what was going on during the year you were born will mention decades from now. As to whether or not it will survive as a game, I couldn’t tell you. But it has gotten to much press to be forgotten now.
World of Warcraft
There was the roll up to the 7.0 patch… and after that I sort of lost interest. The game is in a strange spot for me, as I am somewhat interested in playing, but not so much that I want to get out and do things with my level 100s. When I have played, it has mostly been with lower level alts.
Coming Up
Considering what an empty month August can be, with so many people on vacation, there are actually some things coming up.
There are the Olympics, provided anybody is going to show up and compete.
There will be a chill Blaugust event according to Belghast. Sign up today!
WoW Legion pre-launch events will be kicking off, and people who pre-ordered the expansion directly from Blizzard will have access to the new Demon Hunter class on August 9th. Scrubs like me who got the 20% Amazon Prime pre-order discount will have to wait until the box shows up on or around the expansion launch date.
And then there is the big WoW Legion expansion launch on August 30th. Will the servers be ready for it? How long will the queues be on opening night? How many people will show up?
In New Eden we should be done moving to Delve and ready to attack the region in force. Lots of player groups in the area likely to oppose us.
Plus we will have to see how Pokemon GO fares as time wears on, school starts, and gyms are taken over by increasingly higher CP Pokemon.
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