Once a week for the last 3 weeks I have been playing Portal 2 with my friend Jamie. Developed and published by Valve Portal 2 is effectively a puzzle game where players place portals on surfaces in order to either teleport through them or to redirect various game mechanics to help them reach the end of a level. I must admit that I am not very good at puzzles so was to some extent carried by Jamie in the games 2 player cooperative mode which we completed earlier this week.
In the cooperative campaign Jamie and I played as robots ATLAS (blue) and P-body (orange) who have an array of funny but also at times sweet emotes. We were given instructions from GLaDOS, a sort of sinister yet funny artificial intelligence. It’s clear to me that Valve wanted this game to be both humorous and challenging, even the end credits were funny. Ordinarily I wouldn’t play a game like this, but I enjoyed every minute of it and was kind of sad when it ended.
Honestly the main reason I enjoyed playing Portal 2 was because it was nice to play a game with a friend. I have always found it difficult to make friends and I am usually wary when taking the necessary steps to cultivate a friendship. I have however known Jamie for a number of years now, she has shown me nothing but intelligence, kindness, understanding and seems to accept me for who I am without being judgemental. I have mad respect for Jamie and hope very much we can play some other games together soon.
I don’t think I will be playing any more of Portal 2 (which has a single player campaign) but I have a feeling this might have kickstarted more cooperative gaming with Jamie and given time perhaps with other people as well.
Today I completed Final Fantasy VII which is a game that does not require much of an introduction. Developed by Square (now Square Enix after a merger with Enix) Final Fantasy VII was released in 1997 for the PlayStation. As a schoolchild I had heard about Final Fantasy VII but did not think much of it until one day I was helping a school friend choose some games to buy in our local video game shop. I mentioned that I heard good things about Final Fantasy VII to which a stranger in the shop overheard and replied telling my friend and I that it’s the best game he had ever played. My friend bought the game but to be honest we didn’t get on well with it. Initially we found that the game slow paced which required a lot of reading and learning of the game mechanics. We were juvenile and probably thought reading and learning was something we did at school and didn’t want more of it. But I was intrigued (and didn’t have any new games of my own) so asked if I could borrow it.
In the weeks that followed I fell in love with the game. I was hooked on the story, learned most of the game mechanics and found much of the soundtrack simply exquisite. At school I bragged about how good the game is and how quick my school friend and I were to judge. This lead to him wanting his game back and me begging my mother for a copy of my own, something I still have to this day. I don’t think I would have been given my own copy if my mother could have known just how many sleepless nights would follow. It’s like reading a good story book which plays music at you and also has a puzzle on every other page, preventing you from reading on until you complete it. The story takes you through a wide range of emotions as you get to know the characters and whats at stake. Final Fantasy VII will make you smile, laugh, get angry, relate… even cry. It is quite simply one of the best, if not THE best story in a video game that I have played. I even grew to like some the ‘bad guys’ such as the ‘Turks’ featured below.
The soundtrack, produced by Nobuo Uematsu, is simply a masterpiece. Widely celebrated by many Final Fantasy VII fans but also enjoyed by a lot of people who never played the game. There are countless covers, some of which have been performed in an orchestral setting. Hip hop artist Raheem Jarbo released an album called ‘Black Materia’ in 2011 and remade it in 2021. I listen to them now as I write this post. A somewhat mediocre anime film, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children was produced in 2005 and is a sequel to the Final Fantasy VII story. While I find the film not exactly bad but also nothing particularly special, the soundtrack (once again produced by Nobuo Uematsu) is excellent. As well as a film there have been other games such as Dirge of Cerberus and perhaps most notably Final Fantasy VII: Remake which I haven’t played yet. Combined with all of the fan art out there it really shows how much Final Fantasy VII means to people all over the world.
Needless to say I became a fan of the Final Fantasy franchise and have been interested in any other game developed by Square, especially Front Mission 3. It feels great completing Final Fantasy VII again after all these years and I have added it to my list of completed games. I still need to complete the second part of Final Fantasy IX and I am considering playing through Final Fantasy VIII, but whatever I do next it will be hard beat the experience of playing this jewel of a game.
After my EVE Online: Hurricane post I realized an important part of my alpha clone experiment was the Thrasher, specifically when used for running tier 0 (tranquil) abyssal deadspace. Abyssal deadspace is perhaps one of the most profitable activities in EVE Online for a solo player. While a tier 0 run offers the lowest possible reward (and difficulty) it can be highly profitable if they’re completed quickly and frequently. Perhaps more importantly tier 0 abyssal deadspace runs can be completed cheaply by inexperienced players who have characters with low skill points.
The key to the Thrasher fit below is to have the small projectile turret skill trained to level 5 so that small artillery specialization can be trained in order to use 280mm Howitzer Artillery II guns. By grouping all 7 guns together we can take advantage of the high strike damage, which in my case is close to 1,600, allowing me to frequently 2 shot or even 1 shot some enemies. The power grid and CPU requirements are also high so having both the power grid and CPU management skills trained to level 5 is important.
High Slots
280mm Howitzer Artillery II
280mm Howitzer Artillery II
280mm Howitzer Artillery II
280mm Howitzer Artillery II
280mm Howitzer Artillery II
280mm Howitzer Artillery II
280mm Howitzer Artillery II
Medium Slots
5MN Y-T8 Compact Microwarpdrive
Small Clarity Ward Enduring Shield Booster
Small F-S9 Regolith Compact Shield Extender
Low Slots
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Rigs
Small Projectile Collision Accelerator I
Small Ancillary Current Router I
Small Ancillary Current Router I
Cargo Hold
Phased Plasma S x3000
EMP S x3000
Fusion S x3000
I could improve the damage output by using implants and/or faction ammunition but I believe using standard ammunition without implants is good enough and helps keep the costs down. It’s also possible to remove 1 of the small ancillary current router rigs in favour of upgrading the small projectile collision accelerator from tech 1 to tech 2. This increases the cost of the fit and also puts greater strain on the power grid, making the skill point requirements more demanding.
Captain Benzie demonstrates how effective this ship can be by completing some electrical abyssal deadspace runs in 3 – 4 minutes. I however have expanded it to include gamma and firestorm deadspace by using different ammunition. EMP for electrical, fusion for gamma and phased plasma for firestorm.
This really is an excellent way to get into abyssal deadspace content and is an ideal way to earn some ISK (the main in game currency). Even if you’re not very interested in abyssal deadspace it’s still worth having this Thrasher just so you are able to complete many of the daily challenges for some of the more lucrative rewards. Yesterday for example 2 of my challenges needed to be completed in deadspace. It took me an hour to complete the challenges and I was given 35,000 skillpoints which I think was well worth it.
Recently I have discovered the Hurricane battlecruiser while playing EVE Online. It all started with me experimenting with how much can be achieved by an alpha (free to play) account in EVE and if it possible to have as much fun as a player who has an omega (paid for) account. The short answer to this experiment is yes an alpha account is just as fun as omega and is in some ways even more fun.
One of the main limitations for an alpha account is that you can only train 5 million skill points but you can exceed this with skill injectors acquired either on the market or by completing various activities within the game. Right now my alpha account has 5,874,733 skill points, the excess 874,733 points has been acquired by using skill injectors provided by the AIR career program and daily challenges. It’s also worth mentioning that if you are able to upgrade your account to omega, any alpha skills trained in this time are retained if you return to alpha. Another limitation is that some skills, ships and modules are completely off limits to alpha accounts, but there are still a lot to choose from, including the Hurricane and Hurricane Fleet Issue battlecruiser.
With optimal alpha skills my Hurricane fitting hits for around 1,700 damage with an overall DPS (damage per second) of over 360 which is more than enough for most combat sites and level 3 missions (the highest an alpha pilot can do). Below is a screenshot of the numbers and the fitting I use. Tech 1 or fleet issue modules can be used to reduce the skill requirements.
High Slots
650mm Artillery Cannon II
650mm Artillery Cannon II
650mm Artillery Cannon II
650mm Artillery Cannon II
650mm Artillery Cannon II
650mm Artillery Cannon II
Core Probe Launcher I
Medium Slots
10MN Y-S8 Compact Afterburner
Multispectrum Shield Hardener II
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Low Slots
Shield Power Relay II
Shield Power Relay II
Tracking Enhancer II
Tracking Enhancer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Rigs
Medium Core Defense Field Purger I
Medium Core Defense Field Purger I
Medium Core Defense Field Purger I
Drone Bay
Warrior II x8
Cargo Hold
Sisters Core Scanner Probe x16
Phased Plasma M x2500
EMP M x2500
Fusion M x2500
It’s possible that I could further improve the damage output by using implants, faction ammunition or by replacing the core probe launcher for a heavy missile launcher. But I think this ship is far too ‘overkill’ already and really doesn’t need it. It is worth mentioning that the Hurricane does allow the use of 1 command burst module but these are purely for omega accounts. I think if there is someone who plays with an omega account and is interested in the Hurricane, fitting a command burst module of some kind and/or using faction ammo would probably be a nice addition for running level 4 mission sites.
Captain Benzie, a content creator for EVE Online beautifully demonstrates the Hurricane and basically uses the same fitting as I do in his YouTube video below.
This is I think the pinnacle of EVE Online for an alpha account. There are of course other battlecruisers and even battleships available, but they will in all likelihood require a significant change in how I ‘spent’ my 5 million skill points. That I suppose is the ultimate alpha limitation, changing to a different set of skills for a different set of ships can be difficult, unless of course you create a new character/account. There is the Hurricane Fleet Issue which is generally a better ship in all areas, the reason I choose not to use this is because as I have already stated the standard Hurricane is an ‘overkill’ at a fraction of the cost of a Hurricane Fleet Issue. The Hurricane fully fit costs around 90 million ISK (the main in game currency) where as the fleet issue costs well over 200 million which will generally only serve to make you a more tempting target. But having said that, if you have the ISK and you wouldn’t be too upset if you lost it, go for it!
Since my previous blog post I have been playing several games, most notably FRONT MISSION 1st: Remake. Today I completed the second campaign having already completed the first last week. I have therefore added the game to my sparse list of completed games since I started blogging. Readers of my blog might remember my blog post for Front Mission 3, probably one of the best games I have ever played. If you did you would understand when I say that I was really excited when I learned the first Front Mission game had been remade, especially since to my knowledge it was never released in Europe and I have never had the opportunity to play it.
Front Mission is set about 70 years in the future where two of the main world powers are the USN (United States of the New Continent) made of the unified North and South American countries and the OCU (The Oceania Cooperative Union) which is an alliance of the nations of South Asia, South East Asia and Australia. Between these powers is the fictional Huffman Island, located in the pacific ocean where a war is fought between the USN and OCU. In the first campaign you follow the story from the perspective of OCU’s Captain Royd Clive and his squad where as in the second campaign you’re given the opposite perspective with the story from USN’s Lieutenant Kevin Greenfield and his squad.
As with Front Mission 3 the overall story telling is excellent, but it would have been nice if there was more of a story for each of the members of your squad. You can talk to them between missions and can get a feel for their personality, but there isn’t much of a story for most of them. This however is a particularly harsh criticism since this is a remake of a game that was originally developed in 1995 for the SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System) and the contents of the game could only fit on a cartridge which stores no more than 8 megabytes of data. The combat is turn based strategy and you have an opportunity to customize your squads wanzers (large mechs used in warfare). There are also arenas which enables you to test your wanzers and their pilots in combat.
Front Mission 1st: Remake has a lot of replay ability. I have found that once I have completed a campaign it’s possible to play through it again and keep the skills developed for each of the characters and keep the ‘stock’ of collected items. There is also new equipment available when playing through a second time with a variety of different difficulty settings to keep things interesting. While I am tempted to play through the game a second time, for me the most satisfying part of games like this is the story.
While I might not play through the game a second time, I am really excited to learn that Front Mission 2 and Front Mission 3 are also likely to be remade. This is simply a dream come true for me, I have always wanted to play other Front Mission games and the fact that one of my favourite games of all time will probably be remade with better graphics and so on gives me goose bumps.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.