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Copper Ice, Blogger, Nerd
Year 1 Review

Year 5 Review

The time has come for the year 5 review of my blog. When compared with other yearly blog reviews this is the most disappointing so far. I have at least been honest with myself and I hope this blog post will help me become the gamer and blogger that I want to be.

In my year 4 review I made a point of not setting myself any goals with the notable exception of completing the second half of Final Fantasy IX and writing a part 2 blog post to go with Final Fantasy IX Part 1, written back in February 2022. I had every intention of reaching this goal but I still haven’t played the second half of this amazing game, let alone complete it. I know that nobody reading this will care, but I am genuinely disappointed in myself that I didn’t find the time to do this.

There have been 18 posts since my year 4 review, of which 11 have been oriented around World of Warcraft. The remaining 7 posts are not about new games to my blog and as such I haven’t completed any game in at least a year. It is clear that my blog lacks variety which means I too am lacking variety when it comes to playing video games. I am finding this realization quite depressing and it has me questioning whether or not it’s right that I continue to call myself a gamer.

Lessons learned

I can’t continue to play MMOGs (Massively multiplayer online games). I have been intermittently thinking this for a long time now. Playing MMOs is somehow preventing me from being the gamer I want to be, perhaps because it is difficult to reach ‘the end’ of an MMOG and feel as if you have completed it. More importantly than that I believe my mental health may be suffering because of how monotone my gaming has been over the years.

Moving forward

As before I am not going to set myself any specific goals. But I would very much like to see posts about games that are new to my blog and add to my embarrassingly short list of completed games since I started blogging. Completing Final Fantasy IX at some point would also make me feel a lot better.

The blog still looks great and is perfectly functional. The only evolution it has seen in the past year is the removal of sharing buttons on each individual blog post and the removal of the Twitter logo from the top right corner of the header. Nobody really followed me on Twitter and with the changes to Twitter (‘X’) I do not want to use it anymore.

What do you think?

If anyone would like to provide feedback and/or suggestions for my year 5 review, please feel free to do so. You could leave a comment or contact me by any means.


My Whereabouts

My Whereabouts

It has been more than 3 months since my last blog post and as such I want to explain my whereabouts in a rare non gaming related personal post. Although there is gaming element, this post will mostly be about my personal circumstances and will involve sickness, mental health and visits to A&E (accident and emergency).

May is usually the best month of the year for me. As well as there being 2 public holidays in May for England and Wales, I always take the first 2 weeks off of work. In that time I usually get a lot of gaming done, catch up on any outstanding projects and generally put my feet up. This year however, my mother got sick with a chest infection, which when combined with her age and being a heavy smoker made her feel like at times she could not breath and was scared enough to ask me to take her to A&E. While there my mother was given some oxygen and started to feel better but refused a scan and intravenous fluids when she found out there was a 6 hour wait to see a doctor about her condition. It was already around 1am by this time and she decided to discharge herself from hospital. A few days later, my mother got scared again and again asked me to take her to A&E. This time the department didn’t seem to be as busy but there was still a long waiting time, however my mother was more cooperative and had all of the various scans and tests the doctor wanted, she was given saline solution (for dehydration) and antibiotics intravenously. I spent about 4 hours with her before going home as it was clear she would be spending the entire night. The following morning my mother was given a prescription for antibiotics to be taken orally and I collected her from hospital. Understandably she was exhausted, but after a few days rest my mother recovered and got better.

I do not blame my mother and I would do it all again if needed, but as you can imagine this completely ruined my holiday and what’s worse is that just as my mother recovered, I got sick with a chest infection which I presume I contracted from my mother or another patient at the hospital. By this time my holiday was over and I had been back at work for a few days. Being younger and a non smoker I never felt the need to go to A&E, but I couldn’t work and ended up taking 4 days off of work sick after getting a prescription for antibiotics from my local doctors surgery. To be honest, I was a bit foolish, I returned to work too early and really struggled in the days that followed, but I managed and made a recovery.

As for my whereabouts in June, after such a disappointing time in May my mental health had suffered. I recall speaking to my friend Jason about how futile various things are and I even talked about the ‘endless rat race’ and how difficult it is to escape. These are things that have always been this way for us and the vast majority of people, but for some reason rather than just trying to live with it the best that I can I was feeling what I perceive to be injustices more acutely than usual. Even though my mother and I had returned to good health in June, for the most part I wanted to seclude myself as much as possible and I struggled to see the good things in my life, falling into a fairly deep depression. I tried to help myself and took 2 days off of work before a weekend to have another chance at accomplishing what I wanted from my holiday in May. It helped and I started to put things into perspective and remind myself not to take things for granted, to count my blessings so to speak.

I was ready to make 1 or 2 blog posts at the end of June and began planning a ‘WoW: May/June Update’ post. On the 27th June however, while working, I started to feel a lot of pain in my side, I couldn’t concentrate and started to shake and felt cold. I finished work early and immediately had a fever. This was the beginning of a urinary tract infection which lead to damaging my kidneys making them only 30% effective, causing me to be hospitalized by staff while at my local doctors surgery. I spent 3 nights and 4 days in hospital undergoing tests and receiving treatment. Following that ordeal I needed to visit the hospital and spend the day 3 times for tests and treatment. Altogether I was sick from work for over 4 weeks, returning to work just last week. During the month of July there were days where I couldn’t stop being sick and couldn’t hold down any water, it got so bad that I had sores on my mouth and on my tongue from the dehydration. Most days I had a fever and would occasionally hallucinate. Once or twice I was deranged, which when I think back is kind of scary to me, that I could briefly lose all sense of logic and reality. I didn’t eat and I could barely stand up, everything was difficult. While it may be true that I nearly died when I had a pulmonary embolism last year, this July is the most sick I have ever felt in my life, and I have still not completely recovered.

While it is true that I am feeling much better than I was, I still feel tired and fatigue easily. I am spending an enormous amount of time in bed, finding it difficult to stay up or do much physical activity. My last blood test results show that my kidneys are 60% effective, which is much better, but the doctor I spoke to is concerned that they haven’t completely healed by now. Yesterday I had more blood taken for another round of tests, hopefully the results will show some improvement.

The one surprising thing is that even after all that has happened in July, my mental health seems to be OK. I am thankful that the worst of it is over and thankful towards the people that took care of me, especially my mother. I have started to speak with Jason again and can hold down a decent conversation for a few hours and have even started to game occasionally. It’s highly unusual for me to be sick as often and as seriously as I have been these last couple of years, leading me to conclude that there are some changes I need to make in my life so that I may lead a healthier lifestyle which I hope will help me avoid a repeat of what has happened. One change I have decided is to avoid playing MMOGs (Massively multiplayer online games). This is something I have hinted towards in various posts since I started blogging. I want to be a gamer who isn’t afraid to put down a game and move on to the next one, something which I find difficult to do when I am hooked on an MMOG. I believe this change will help with my mental wellbeing and also make it so I can more easily dictate when I play games, rather than having to play specific days and times to suit other people or in game events. Another benefit of this change should be that moving forward this blog will feature more single player and/or a greater variety of games, rather than monthly updates.


WoW April Update

WoW: April Update

Yet another month without playing Classic Wrath of the Lich King, but to be honest it has been a month without playing my hardcore character either which remains ‘alive’ at level 42. Instead I have been playing ‘normal’ classic era with my rogue which I preserved at what I thought would be the end of vanilla classic and my warrior on a second account.

I am especially pleased with my warrior as pictured above. I have collected the entire Chain of the Scarlet Crusade set along with other matching items, including Tabard of the Scarlet Crusade. It’s not a particularly powerful or useful set and all of the items will have been replaced by the time my warrior reaches level 60, but it looks cool and it was fun collecting the items and using them, even if just for a short while. A nice thing about taking my time and leveling my character in this way is that I get to enjoy some of the more unique items in the game, such as Ravager which drops from Herod in the Scarlet Monastery. It has a unique chance on hit ability which sends your character in a sort of whirlwind, mimicking one of Herod’s abilities and attacks all nearby enemies. It’s not necessarily good, but it is fun.

WoW April Update Ravager

Almost 3 years ago in my WoW: June 2020 update, I mentioned that one of my goals was to rank up in PvP (Player vs Player) to rank 8 (Knight-Captain). The pressures of raiding and preparing for the raids got in the way of that goal and I gave up on it. This month however I have taken part in a lot of PvP and have managed to exceed rank 8 by obtaining rank 9 (Knight-Champion) with hopes of reaching rank 10 (Lieutenant Commander) in a week or two. To be honest, it’s a lot easier to rank up than it was 3 years ago and it’s certainly much easier than it was back in 2004/2005. I have an old screenshot from 2005 when I had a standing of 10 on my server which meant that only 9 other people acquired more than my 230k honour that week. I was really proud, it was quite an achievement back then. Right now however because the population of the classic era servers are relatively low (although it appears to be growing) it’s quite easy to achieve a rating like this. Here’s a screenshot of me having a standing of 5 with just shy of 130k honour.

WoW June Update Honour Standing

It’s still an achievement to be proud of, being the old man that I am, I have found it ‘hard graft’ getting this far. Below is a screenshot of the end of an exhausting 52 minute Warsong Gulch match which ended with Alliance winning 3-2. For any readers who do not know, Warsong Gulch matches very rarely take this long and are usually over within 15-25 minutes.

WoW 52 Minute WSG match

With luck I hope to exceed my record of reaching rank 10 (which I did twice) back in 2005. The ultimate goal would of course be reaching rank 14 (Grand Marshal) but I think that is highly unlikely, even if the server population is low. I also have my sights on Sul’thraze the Lasher for my warrior which is made by combining Sang’thraze the Deflector and Jang’thraze the Protector, both of which are found in Zul’Farrak.


Video Game Gambling

Video Game Gambling

Right now there are a variety of different game developer/publisher business models in the gaming industry, some of which I find objectionable and/or unfair where as others I find ludicrous and frankly dangerous such as ‘video game gambling’.

When I started gaming as a child in the 90’s there was only 1 business model. Companies would develop and publish a complete game which would be sold to consumers via a retail outlet. The cartridge or disk or even cassette would slot in to your console/computer and you would either find it to be a good game or a bad one. Either way the game would be complete and while I wouldn’t necessarily say it would be bug/glitch free, through necessity it would be a polished product. Today all modern games consoles and computers utilize high speed internet connections allowing developers to release updates/patches after their game is released to the market. I don’t mind this and actually support it as long as the game is complete and that the updates are forthcoming and made available fairly quickly. More and more often however games are released incomplete or with significant flaws that any tester would easily spot and report before the decision is made to release the game. This leads me to believe that either there are games which undergo no QA testing or that a game is released that way intentionally to meet deadlines and to ‘cash in’. I think that it’s OK when independent game developers do this when they freely admit that their game is in its BETA phase and sell it at a discounted rate. This manages the expectation of the gamer who will one day expect the complete game but will in the meantime have the opportunity to help steer its development through feedback and testing while at the same time financially supporting the developers while they finish the game. Despite my misgivings, I do generally approve of this way of developing, publishing and selling games.

Subscription based games are another business model I generally approve of. My only reservation however is that it seems a bit strange to purchase a game only to then not be able to play it unless you pay a subscription. Should you cancel your subscription you can no longer play the game, even though you bought it. Right now for example you can buy the base edition of World of Warcraft Dragonflight for £39.99 but you will not be able to play it unless you subscribe and pay at least an additional £9.99 for 1 month of play time. There is something about that which doesn’t feel quite right, I kind of wish the subscription was say £11.99 and you didn’t need to buy the game or that by paying £39.99 consumers would get say 3 months of game time included but will need to pay £9.99 a month thereafter if they wish to continue playing. Even the ‘heroic’ version of WoW Dragonflight costs £54.99 and doesn’t include any game time.

What I don’t much approve of is ‘micro transactions’ which are ‘items’ or services usually sold within the game client. A lot of the time it’s harmless cosmetics such as skins or objects which merely change the way your avatar looks and gives the player no competitive advantage. I have no problem with that and encourage it. When games sell ‘items’ or services which give a player an advantage over players who do not pay it becomes a ‘pay to win’ game which I personally do not find fun and is why I struggle to enjoy games such as EVE Online and Magic: The Gathering Arena. Usually however, pay to win games are free and there is a means in which to ‘grind’ and eventually obtain whatever advantage a pay to win gamer has. To be fair I do not wish to be excessively critical about games which allow you to play for free, but most of the time they’re not for me. EVE Online is possibly the only exception because it wasn’t always that way and I have many fond memories playing it.

By far the worst micro transaction and game business model however is what I am calling video game gambling. These games are the same as pay to win but the player doesn’t actually know what they’re going to get for their money. Instead players hope they will get lucky and get what they want from an in-game pack or ‘loot box’. One person for example spent more than $100,000 which is nearly £80,000 or €90,000 on their Diablo Immortal character shortly after the launch of the game. I also hear that the FIFA games are no better in which players will buy FIFA points that are used to buy ‘packs’ which hopefully contain the players they want for their football squad. What’s worse is that the FIFA games aren’t even free to play, right now FIFA 23 is on offer and is £27.99 down from £69.99! I learned from a friend not too long ago that Diablo Immortal and other games which do this are actually banned where he lives in The Netherlands and some other European countries. He also told me that an Austrian court has said that these FIFA packs constitute as gambling and has ordered Sony to issue refunds. Usually I don’t like it when the state steps in to tell consumers how or what to consume but in this case, bravo! Gambling is dangerous, it’s addictive and can destroy peoples lives and in my opinion has no place in a video game.

Years ago I did a study about gambling and the effects it has on people. While doing so I found out that a manager of one of the local shops near where I live killed himself in the shops stores room because of his gambling addition, leaving his wife without a husband and with martial debt she was completely unaware of. Please, don’t be that guy, if you have a problem seek help and check out this Gambling Aware website. It might just save your life.


WoW March Update

WoW: March Update

The time has come for me to give an update of my adventures in World of Warcraft. Since my last update my interest still has not returned for Classic Wrath of the Lich King but I have continued to enjoy Classic Era World of Warcraft in a number of different ways. My ‘hardcore’ rogue has reached level 42 and I managed to acquire a mount. Embarrassingly, when I reached level 40 (the earliest time you can acquire a mount) I did not have enough gold and needed to spend the next 2 levels focused on making as much gold as possible to obtain one. I don’t think there is anything worse in WoW as having a level 40+ character without a mount. With each level the stakes get higher and I find myself increasingly anxious and nervous about dying because if my character dies I need to delete it. To try and offset any potential upset or disappointed I decided to create other hardcore characters, a level 16 warrior, level 12 mage and level 11 hunter. The logic behind this is if I die I will be able to console myself knowing that I do still have other characters to play but, to be honest, I am not sure it will help now I am over level 40.

WoW March Hardcore Characters

I have also been enjoying ‘normal’ Classic Era WoW and have started to play my level 60 rogue a little bit by using it to ‘boost’ a low level character on a different account through dungeons and some other content. This isn’t an efficient way to level a character but I am finding it fun to ‘multibox’. Blizzard have strict rules for multiboxing, and rightfully so. They are to prevent people from using 3rd party software or hardware to mirror commands across multiple accounts. I have seen people do this and it has given them distinct advantages, especially in a PvP setting. I however simply alt-tab between two WoW clients and use basic follow command macros. Below is a screenshot of a level 32 warrior on my second account.

WoW Copper Level 32

Classic Era WoW has started to see more and more players return to the game, probably since the launch of Wrath of the Lich King but increasingly because of the hardcore community. Don’t get me wrong, the servers have a low population, but it’s slowly starting to creep up again. There are a few large guilds who raid regularly and a small number of players who PvP. For now it’s enough to keep me interested, besides, I am used to playing the game on my own. Moving forward I hope to continue to level my hardcore rogue and enjoy Classic Era WoW in my own way and perhaps make new friends since my old friends in Inspired have moved on. Kyra and Akiki however, people I have played WoW with since 2019, have decided to give hardcore WoW a try so I will be keeping tabs on them. Hopefully they will enjoy it at least as much as I have.


EVE Online Dominix

EVE Online: Dominix

Since I started to play EVE Online again I have been completing a lot of level 4 security missions with the Dominix battleship. Level 4 security missions provide steady and reliable streams of income while being a relaxed and relatively risk free activity, especially when using the Dominix. By comparison to other battleships the Dominix and the modules below are relatively cheap but do require a lot skill points. This way of fitting the Dominix however should still work well if the tech II modules were replaced by faction or tech I modules which would mean far fewer skill points will be needed but it will take a little bit longer to complete most of the missions. I should add that your account will need to be ‘Omega‘.

Low Slots
Large Armor Repairer II
Multispectrum Energized Membrane II
Reactive Armor Hardener
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II

Mid Slots
Alumel-Wired Enduring Sensor Booster
Alumel-Wired Enduring Sensor Booster
Omnidirectional Tracking Link II
Omnidirectional Tracking Link II
Large Micro Jump Drive

High Slots
Drone Link Augmentor II
Drone Link Augmentor II
Drone Link Augmentor II
Drone Link Augmentor II
Drone Link Augmentor II
Drone Link Augmentor II

Rigs
Large Semiconductor Memory Cell I
Large Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Large Auxiliary Nano Pump I

Drones
Hammerhead II x5
Ogre II x1
Salvage Drone II x5
Warden II x5
Garde II x5
Hobgoblin II x5

Cargo Hold
Mobile Tractor Unit
Targeting Range Script x2
Optimal Range Script x2

For ease I have created this Dominix fitting on the EVE Workbench website. From there you can import the fitting using the game client, you may wish to then make a copy and remove the tech II modules/drones you can’t yet use and replace them with the tech 1 variation. If you find it works out and you enjoy using the ship, perhaps you can then consider training your pilot to upgrade your ship with tech II equipment.

The idea behind this fit is to use sentry drones to destroy enemy ships up to around 200km away. This is achieved using 2 sensor boosters and 2 tracking links with targeting range scripts and optimal range scripts along with 6 drone link augmentors and a large micro jump drive. This Dominix fit includes a strong armour tank and an assortment of different drones should you find yourself in a position where enemy ships are too close and too fast for the sentry drones to track. Also included is a Mobile Tractor Unit (MTU) and salvage drones to assist with loot and salvage. Below is a step by step guide on how to use the Dominix and a video of a level 4 security mission I did with it.

 

CAUTION: Be ready to return sentry drones and use the MJD to get back to the MTU if someone shows up to destroy it. Check local for known hostiles before using the MJD away from the MTU because there will be a window of vulnerability until you can use the MJD again to get back.

Other than requiring a lot of skill points there are a few other drawbacks, one being is the speed of the Dominix. If the mission has acceleration gates that are more than say 4 or 5km away from where you arrive it can be painfully slow to get to them. You can solve this by using the Dominix Navy Issue which has an additional mid slot for a propulsion module, this will however drastically increase the cost of the ship and you will lose the drone optimal range and tracking speed bonus of the standard Dominix. Some missions also require you to loot something from the wreck of one of your enemies which makes the MTU a vital piece of kit for some missions rather than an optional extra. If you really don’t want to use an MTU one possible solution would be include a fast frigate in the frigate escape bay and use it to abandon ship to collect the required item and jettison it next to the Dominix before boarding again. This does however pose a new set of risks so it might be prudent to simply return to the mission site with a faster ship.

I hope this guide is helpful to someone. It really is a nice and easy way to play through level 4 security missions and make some easy in game currency. In my previous EVE Online post I have found that if you are committed it is possible to use this ship and be completely omega self sufficient without spending a penny of real money. If you do decide to give the Dominix a try using my guide, please let me know how you get on or if you have any questions for me. I would love to hear from you.


WoW February Update

WoW: February Update – Hardcore Challenge

After I wrote my last WoW update a few weeks ago, I was not sure if I would be writing another one, but then I found the ‘Hardcore Challenge‘. As I feared, my interest in Classic WoW did not return, at least when it comes to Wrath of the Lich King. What I have found however that there is still a partially active Classic ‘Era’ WoW community. Classic Era is a permanent version of the vanilla level 1-60 game, if there are any regular readers of my blog you may remember one of my favourite blog posts back in May 2021 at the end of vanilla classic, when I decided to pay to have my main character (Mithril) copied to exist on one of the classic era servers for reasons of nostalgia. I have always been happy with this decision, now more than ever. What’s more is that the classic era community has really taken off with a player driven ‘Classic Hardcore Challenge’.

Classic hardcore is relatively simple in that players are challenged to level their character without dying. If your character dies you delete it and try again (or quit). There are other important rules such as only entering dungeons once within certain level brackets and that you can not trade with other players or your other characters through the mail. The idea is that your character is completely self sufficient in every way. You can’t even join a group in the open world (with the exception of before entering a dungeon). This is moderated by a very clever addon which must be active at all times to monitor your progress and will provide you with a verification key for when you reach max level so that your character can enter the ‘Hall of Legends‘ and take part in the hardcore end game content if you so wish.

My first classic hardcore character died at level 10, which is a bit embarrassing. She died trying to do one of the first rogue quests, Snatch and Grab in Elwynn Forest. It was a silly death which could have been easily avoided, but I learned a lesson from it.

WoW Classic Hardcore Level 10 Death

I shrugged off the death, deleted my character and remade it. I have reached level 27 so far, that doesn’t sound much, but playing within the rules of the classic hardcore challenge has made me slow down and take my time. It has completely changed the way I play the game in order to survive and thrive without the assistance of anyone. Not even the auction house. I am very nervous about joining groups to enter dungeons, because I will be relying on them to play sensibly and not get us all killed, however I did manage to complete The Deadmines at level 24.

There was a problem which occurred yesterday where there was significant server lag, possibly a result of how viral the hardcore challenge has become recently. There have been times where people have died on flight paths or during transit between continents or even due to the server lagging or crashing entirely. This happened to me which I was able to successfully appeal with this short video proving what happened. If it wasn’t for my quick thinking to start recording what was happening I am sure my appeal would have fallen on deaf ears.

Moving forward I think I will continue to play classic era, at least for the time being. I don’t know if I will necessarily continue to play the hardcore challenge as a rogue or if I will try a new character entirely, but for now playing Wrath of the Lich king is unlikely for me. What’s important however is that I don’t burn any bridges, that would be foolish, especially as the Inspired guild playing through Wrath of the Lich King has always been good to me and I very much enjoyed playing through Wrath of the Lich King the first time around.

If there are an readers who are interested in trying the WoW hardcore challenge, I encourage you to do so, it’s really fun. But be warned, read the rules very carefully and consider the possibility that you will fail the challenge. If you think that it will upset you too much, perhaps the hardcore challenge is not for you.


WoW January Update

WoW: January Update

Because my last WoW update was so late it doesn’t feel like enough time has elapsed since I wrote about my WoW experiences. It has however been a somewhat eventful month with the launch of phase 2 for Classic Wrath of the Lich King which includes the iconic Ulduar raid and heroic+ dungeons.

I have to say that for while now I have been struggling to stay focused and interested in Classic WoW. I thought Wrath of the Lich King might keep me hooked until the launch of the next expansion, but no matter what I try I can’t find any motivation or enjoyment from the game. Hopefully I will find a way to start enjoying Classic WoW again, and soon. It’s not nice playing a game just for the sake of it and it’s not good for the guild I am part of. At this stage of the game I should be putting in 100% effort and trying my best, as it is I am kind of dreading logging in. Regardless of these feelings I have managed to raid with my guild and successfully defeated most of the the bosses in Ulduar and made a recording of us defeating Yogg-Saron for the first time. The only one we haven’t defeated yet is Algalon the Observer who is kind of considered to be a ‘bonus’ boss for when players successfully complete a quest chain.

I have been awarded a few items from Ulduar, however none of the items I have been given so far are BiS (best in slot) or in high demand. This is a good thing in the short term because I would hate to be given sought after items before someone else who is more motivated and more likely to put the item to good use and derive enjoyment from it. For now I think I will avoid raiding until I know for sure that I will start enjoying the game again and be motivated enough to see the phase through to the end.

As for the ‘new’ heroic+ dungeons, they are kind of fun but also serve as yet another step away from the Classic WoW experience. Heroic+ dungeons, like a lot of other things, weren’t part of the original Wrath of the Lich King expansion. I have completed a few with my warrior, Copper, but got bored of them rather quickly. I think I might have enjoyed the retail version of Mythic+ dungeons with no ceiling and a weekly reward, but I guess that would have been a step too far away from Classic WoW.


WoW December Update

WoW: December Update

I have been chilling out a lot more than usual recently which is why this December WoW update is about a week late, but they say it’s better late than never! Thankfully it’s been a really good month in terms of there being no guild drama, at least there hasn’t been any that I am aware of. There are also some new players in the guild who so far seem to be nice. I am starting to feel better about the guild but I still think it is wise for me to stay distanced and keep to myself.

For the last 2 weeks I haven’t played WoW at all, I wanted to take a break over the Christmas and New Year period. In part this is because I have gotten a little bored with the current content, but also in part because I have been feeling a little burnt out. I am sure it is the same for many people but for me in order to raid in WoW I need to make a number of sacrifices which can sometimes become a bit of a pain. Taking a break not only frees up my time to do other things but also means I don’t need to make special arrangements or compromise on other aspects of my life for a while, which makes a nice change.

As before I have been consistently invited to raid with Mithril, my rogue, and have had the good fortune to have been awarded even more loot. I now need only 1 item to have fully BiS (best in slot) gear for phase 1 of this expansion which is something I never thought I could achieve. The only item I need for now is Envoy of Mortality from Kel’Thuzad in 25 player Naxxramas. The BiS items I have been awarded are:

Chestguard of the Recluse
Heroic Key to the Focusing Iris (Favor of the Dragon Queen)
Webbed Death
Leggings of the Honored (I actually got this a few days ago in January)

My protection warrior, Copper, is still kind of redundant. I am very rarely asked to help and ‘tank’ but I was able to attend 1 raid and a few dungeons. As before I hope I can find a way to be useful with Copper, I think that there might be more opportunities when more content is released in Phase 2 and beyond.

Copper WoW December Update

Phase 2 for Wrath of the Lich King will be released later this month in 2 or 3 weeks time bringing with it a ‘new’ raid, Ulduar, which features a fairly unique first boss called Flame Leviathan and the expansions first legendary item, Val’anyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings. I am looking forward to start clearing this content with my guild, from what I remember some of Ulduar was pretty tough so it should be more of a challenge than everything in Wrath of the Lich King so far, which is a good thing.


EVE Online Dominix

EVE Online: Omega

Earlier this month marked the end of an experiment but perhaps not the end of a return to EVE Online. For me one of the downsides of EVE is that it is technically a ‘pay to win’ game where if you spend money you will have an advantage over anyone who spends less money than you. With EVE I agree with this but only to a point. Your account can be ‘alpha’ where you’re playing the game for free but there is a limit to what ships, modules and skills you can use along with a few other limitations. Or your account can be ‘omega’ where you’re paying a subscription but there are no limitations. This I agree with as it helps bring new players in to the game and allows existing players to play the game in some degree if they can no longer afford or justify a subscription. What I don’t like however is that it is possible to spend money on PLEX (Pilot’s License Extension) which can be sold for the most common in-game currency, ISK (Inter Stellar Kredits). ISK can then be used to purchase almost anything, including skill injectors which will allow a player to instantly have their character learn skills. This system technically makes it possible for someone to achieve what I have in a matter of minutes and is largely why I decided to stop playing EVE because I felt it watered down my accomplishments and gave my goals less meaning.

The pay to win system in EVE is not all bad. It makes it possible for players to buy PLEX with the ISK they ‘earn’ by playing the game and can make their account omega without spending a penny. In theory therefore, and I imagine a lot of players do this, you can keep your account omega and have access to everything in the game without ever paying a subscription. On the 20th November, as an experiment, I tried to do this for 1 month. By using some of what I accrued when I played EVE a few years ago, I bought 500 PLEX for 2,557,500,000 ISK (a little over 2.55bn) and used it to upgrade my account to omega for 30 days which ordinarily would have cost me £15.99. This gave me 30 days to ‘earn’ at least that amount of ISK by playing the game without selling or losing any pre existing assets to keep the experiment fair.

After 30 days I managed to acquire 2,071,893,920 ISK which means I was short 485,606,080. I am disappointed that I did not reach my goal, but it’s not a complete loss as I did get the majority and I learned a lot along the way. There are many ways a player can make ISK in EVE Online, I decided to complete level 4 missions using a ‘Dominix‘ battleship. It’s not necessarily the most profitable way to make ISK but it provides an easy and stable income by combining bounty payments from destroying enemy ships and mission rewards. There were days, especially in the first 10-14 where I didn’t play EVE that much because of other commitments. I believe if I played more I would have easily of reached my goal and could technically do this every month keeping my account ‘omega’ without spending a penny. But to do so I would have to make a more significant commitment and think of EVE as almost like a second job and not necessarily do what I want to do within the game as it might not be profitable.

Quite a few times I wanted to spend some ISK or stop doing level 4 missions to try new things or explore the EVE universe but didn’t feel I could because I ‘needed’ to Raise 2.55bn ISK. I did however find some time to explore ‘Pochven‘ space also known as ‘Triglavian’ space and took this cool looking screenshot:

EVE Online Pochven Space

Right now I don’t want to try my experiment again but I do want to continue to play EVE and try out new things. If there are any readers who are interested in trying EVE Online you can use this referral link which would give us both rewards if you decide you like it and want to subscribe. If you do subscribe or even if you want to continue to play for free as an ‘alpha’ pilot there is a generous and helpful streamer called Tamiyacowboy who has played the game consistently for more than 10 years. I have learned quite a lot from him and from some members of his community. If you ask he might even allow you to join him which is something he let me do today as a salvager whereby I used a salvaging ship to both salvage and loot the wrecks of enemy ships he destroyed during his level 4 missions.

I would love to hear from anyone who decides to try EVE. Please contact me and tell me what you think about the game or ask me questions. It’s an amazing game but can be quite a lot to take in for new players. As such I am more than happy to help and explain things the best I can.


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