July and August

August 1, 2020TheRoyalFamily Leave a comment

July was pretty simple. Pretty much did the same thing as usual: ESO, Dragalia Lost, a bit of STO, Granblue Fantasy, Pokemon Masters, and so on. That’s the thing: when you have so many games that are every-day-games, you don’t get much chance to play other games. But, I did manage to fit a couple more in.

First, V4. It’s Nexon’s new (to the West anyways) mobile MMO. Yes, you can play on PC, but it’s obviously built for mobile. I won’t be giving a whole review in a post, because it doesn’t deserve one. It’s terribly boring, especially on mobile. Basically just auto and press buttons when they show up. Not terribly deep, nor engaging. I dropped it after three days. The story is nothing at all. Extremely generic. And the mobile aspect limits one of the few good things these Korean grinders have: character customization. It’s relatively limited here, though compared to some other games it’s still decent enough. But you still end up with some soulless character, no matter what you do. Oh well, it’s free to try out if you want.

Next, I got Destroy All Humans. I loved this game on PS2, and was quite excited for the remake. And the excitement actually was justified. I am going to do a full post review, once I finish it. It’s not a perfect remake, but nothing ever is, and the good well outweighs the disappointments. From the sales figures we can estimate, it looks like this sold even better than originally, so there’s a decent chance the superior sequel will also get a remake (and I’ll finally be able to finish it – a game-breaking bug/scratch prevented finishing the PS2 game).

For the next month, I’ll continue on my present course. I have a new character in ESO that I’m leveling, a High Elf healer, so that will take some effort. I’m getting better at Bang Dream, though I might have hit a skill plateau. Granblue Fantasy has daily missions for the next little bit, as part of their summer celebration. STO will have its summer Risa event starting next week, so I’ll be participating in that (the ship isn’t the one I wanted, but what’re you gonna do?). I of course need to finish Destroy All Humans. Pokemon Masters got a major update, which actually significantly changes how you interact with the game, so I’ll be keeping up with that too.

I think I’ll also make a list of the games I’m keeping up with for the near future, what I’m planning on playing, what I’ve dropped, and so on. That seems like something that might help me keep focused.

Daily Games:

ESO
Dragalia Lost
Granblue Fantasy
STO
Pokemon Masters
Bang Dream

Games playing until finished:

Destroy All Humans

Games to play when I feel like it:

Cities Skylines
Stellaris

Dropped games this month:

Games I should look at again:

Blue Reflection
Atelier Ayesha
Splatoon
FF12
Tales of Zestiria

Spending, with Games-As-Service

July 31, 2020TheRoyalFamily 1 Comment

Today over at Massively there’s an article regarding MMO end-of-service issues, as regards to player spending for virtual items. It’s particularly about STO, which got my attention, with the person who wrote in talking about how they’ve spent a lot of money for a rare ship, which ship will of course go away once the game shuts down.

This is of course a thorny issue. All games will eventually end. But, traditionally, you buy the game itself. In a lot of MMO’s, among other games, you can buy in-game items for real money. Sometimes a lot of money. But still, the game will go away someday. In a game you actually own, you can at least look at the item in your inventory, or on your character. But if a MMO, or gacha game, or any other sort of game where those items are stored on an exterior server, dies, that’s it, poof goes the item.

The article was more talking about emulators and stuff, so the person who bought whatever could potentially continue enjoying their purchase. That’s not what I’m going to go on about, though. I’m more talking about the very idea of in-game purchases, and my philosophy on these.

The way I see it, it’s not “is this item worth the money?”. It’s not. It’s just a part of a game. It’s not real. No, the real question is “will I enjoy the game enough in the future to justify spending the money?”. Of course, I take the actual whatever into consideration when making that purchase, since being without can potentially change the answer. But I look at the game itself as the product. Will I get $X of enjoyment in the future from this game? Does the publisher deserve $Y for providing this game for however many hours I’ve played it? Will I play for Z hours in the future?

Let’s look at a couple examples. First, ESO. That is a buy-to-play game. However, there are also in-game purchases, as well as a subscription. I have no problem buying games themselves – I do it all the time (even ones I have no intention of playing any time in the near future!). But paying extra, when I can play just fine for free? This, however, is one of those times where not making the purchase would have made me not have nearly the enjoyment I’ve had otherwise. I got a sub, which includes an infinite craft bag among other perks. But without this craft bag doubt I’d still be playing the game – crafting and gathering is a big part of how I play. It’d be a serious pain without it. In fact, even at the beginning it was, which is why I subbed very soon after I started. I haven’t bought any in-game items otherwise, though. (I did buy both expansions, but that’s different.)

For a negative example, let’s look at STO again. At the anniversary this year, there was a big ship pack being sold. Very big. All the hero ships from the shows, with new end-game versions. Some of these were lock-box-only before. But being such a big ship pack, it was expensive. Years ago, I would have bought it, no question. But this year? I decided against it. I didn’t think that I would enjoy the game in the future to the tune of $150+. Or maybe not even $30. With the way the game’s going, I thought it’d be best to stick to f2p for now.

Purchasing in-game items as in-game items is a losing move, I think. You absolutely will lose them. I guess it’s alright if you think of said items as perishables, like food: the food will go away, but the immediate benefits are worth the cash. I mix this approach with what I said above when it comes to gacha. No, buying these rolls isn’t worth it, in-and-of-themselves, even if I get exactly what I want the first time. But the act of rolling is fun, in a sense (I imagine it’s kinda like what gambling feels like, though I’ve never done that), and I do generally figure that I’ll get further enjoyment of the game worth that amount, even if I don’t.

June/July Update

July 1, 2020TheRoyalFamily Leave a comment

Whelp, things didn’t go as planned.

Didn’t even touch my Switch after I put it back. Haven’t gotten any new games in the past month, or played any of the ol’ backlog. Just kinda coasting on what I have.

Did get some of the DLC for Stellaris when it was on sale. These are things that really change the base game. Actually take it from boring nothing to something almost good. Almost, not quite there – that’s just a flaw in the basic game, I think. Even ran a game as techno hivemind zombies. Didn’t turn out well for me – turns out zombies don’t need to trade, which really kills the energy production for some reason. No energy means no research, which means no good ships, which means enemies have an easy time beating you up. And techno zombies don’t do diplomacy either, so you just take, or give up, territory. And wars last until one side or another is destroyed. Whoops. And building tall still isn’t fun, either, since AI’s always spread like a plague, which takes the fun out of exploring, or doing anything really. Like I said, just short of being a good game. Still compelling for a run or two, though.

Spent a lot of time on my mobile games. Bandori scratches the “anime game” itch quite well by itself. I’m still not good at it, but I’m almost good enough, and am getting better. Dragalia Lost is still going, and enjoyable for now (no June Bride banner…I’m not mad, I swear). Pokemon Masters…well, it’s compelling, if nothing else. There’s a post in that, which I might actually get around to writing.

I did do one thing that I am sort of proud of (in a game). One of my Cities Skylines games from like a year ago went kinda poorly. I had tried to be clever, but that didn’t turn out well – I had done basically the worst things possible. Some months ago I tried various tricks I’d learned to try to fix the situation (I find fixing problems in this game is almost the most fun to be had). They worked, a bit, but ultimately weren’t enough. The other night I was looking at it again, and decided that, as sometimes happens, I just needed to rip off the bandage and have a fresh go at the main issue. Fortunately that didn’t involve too much destruction, but it was a more involved than I anticipated. But it worked! (I’d go into more detail, but without screenshots, there’s not much point.)

As for the current Steam Sale…I don’t think I’ll get anything. Like the past several big sales, there aren’t any great sales, compared to the random normal sales throughout the rest of the year. Why buy now? Especially since I’ve bought some more expensive Japanese shelf plastic…being a weeb can get expensive.

I played a bit of ESO this month. The Greymore expansion came out in May, but I didn’t get much time to play then. The main draw for me was the Antiquities system. It took quite a while for me to really get how that worked – while the systems themselves are pretty easy to understand, accessing said systems is unclear. The big breakthrough for me was finally grocking that I could do the same antiquity multiple times – and indeed have to, for it’s a grind in itself. It’s a compelling loop, and mostly enjoyable (it takes a bit too long to find the dig spots once you’ve narrowed down the general area, as the glow effect isn’t obvious until you’re almost on top of it).

For the next month? I’m sure things will continue on as they have been. I don’t see gaming things going much differently. My patience with Pokemon Masters is wearing thin, though. I’ll stick it out until the anniversary in August, though, as if there’s any improvements coming, that’s the time. Summer events in various games are starting, which is exciting.

What Do I Want In a Game’s Story?

May 12, 2020TheRoyalFamily 1 Comment

Yesterday ESO made a news post that deals with how they came up with the story for the new expansion. One bit really got my gears moving (highlighting the part that stuck out to me):

“It all starts with the Creative Director, Lead Designer, and myself. They provide guidance as to the type of story they want to see (political, Daedric, Dragons) and the kinds of places they want to go in the world (Elsweyr, Western Skyrim, whatever). Then, I start creating short pitches, exploring the kinds of themes and plots that might be fun and exciting and could only take place at the intersection of those initial ideas.”
-Bill Slavicsek, ESO’s Lead Writer

As you can tell from the top picture, I have my preferences.

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I tend to like smaller-scale stories in my RPG’s (much like Syp). Sure, there’s room for the big, world-saving stuff. But in general, I like to focus on the more local problems in games. This is why I love side-quests so much: the quests are almost always about whatever is bothering the local npc’s at the time. Sure, the world might be ending, but what about the dingos after my baby?

Politics is usually bigger-scale than that, but not necessarily by a whole lot, in RPG terms at least. But those are the stories that I want, myself. I look at my favorite games, and my favorite parts of other games. Deus Ex? That’s all about politics (and even throwing some real-world stuff in there, too). Fallout: New Vegas? You’re just voting for who’s going to run Hoover Dam, in essence. Witcher 3‘s best parts were about all the political infighting (and outfighting); I really wish the world-hopping and -saving were entirely excised. And the second game didn’t have any of that mumbo-jumbo. Heck, I thought the politics parts of the Star Wars prequels were the good parts, not boring at all.

Basically, I don’t like existential threats. I’ve long been of the opinion that, if a fictional antagonist is an existential threat to the protagonist (or their goals), then an equally weighty solution is necessary. Basically, a BS villain requires BS to take care of them.

My favorite (most hated) example is Eureka Seven AO, the sequel to 2005’s Eureka Seven. It’s a mecha anime that starts out as a monster-of-the-week show: nothing special, but I still liked it. But at one point a new villain comes in. This villain just shreks everything; not a step above the previous monsters, but a skyscraper. This continues for several episodes, until the show basically gives the protagonist a literal Plot Gun: the only way to resolve the threat is to erase it from the story entirely (and I’m not talking about a self-aware Deadpool way).

Now, obviously not all bbeg’s in fiction are this extreme. But I am constantly being asked to believe the people that started out pretty normal are supposed to be fighting entire armies, empires, or gods, by the end of the story. Even in sci-fi. This just strains my suspension of disbelief. Such stories can still be entertaining in themselves (being awesome is awesome!), but they have a harder hill to climb in terms of story, for me.

Now, what would I want, if I were one of the bigwigs at Zenimax, choosing the story for a new expansion? I’d just focus on what the preview quest hinted at. Not the stuff with the witches and vampires (that could still be a part), but on the political enmity between western and eastern Skyrim. Why doesn’t the Jarl of Solitude recognize the Skald-King as legitimate? What would it take to get him on-side? Or is he a jerk who’s planning on taking over the whole place (Skyrim, not Tamriel)? What about the civilians: what are their attitudes toward the whole situation? That’s what I want to see.

The Month Past, and the Month Yet Ahead

April 2, 2020TheRoyalFamily Leave a comment

It’s the official beginning of April (the 1st doesn’t count), so here I am, to describe what I did, gaming-wise at least, last month, and what I hope to do this month.

As I mentioned before, I got a Switch. A new system naturally means new games. And, as I mentioned before, I got them: Splatoon 2, Hyrule Warriors, and Breath of the Wild. I also got the cheap standard-style controller, just for fun, which turned out to be the right call, as it’s what I mostly use (I also play on TV, always, so far).

Started with Splatoon, which is a fun game, but not really my speed. I’m not all that into competitive shooters in general, nor console shooters. Once I got access to the noob roller, though, things started looking up, but I was kinda frustrated by the lack of coordination between the competitive, coop, and single-player modes. So I only played a little bit of that.

Next came Hyrule Warriors, which was a game I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. I know it’s not really cool to like it, but I did. In fact, it might be my new favorite Zelda game; it’s definitely up there, at any rate. Not just for the cute girls, either, though it does have that.

Speaking of cute girls, isn’t BotW Zelda very cute? This is a seriously fun game. Also frustrating sometimes. Like, why even have those stupid forced gyro sections (remember how I got the cheap controller?)? But still, very good. /v/ has been crapping on this game since day 1, and there are some valid criticisms there, but it’s an extremely good game.

Granblue Fantasy Vs. came out on Steam. So I got it with the Season 1 pass. $80, and it doesn’t even come with gacha game codes. Bad move, but I guess it was to prevent cheaters. Even with the simplified controls, it’s too much for me sometimes. Even in the single-player modes. I’m just not a fightan’ game guy, no matter how much I want to get into the genre.

Also did the normal stuff in the various gacha games. Granblue Fantasy had it’s 6th anniversary celebration practically the whole month, which included a ton of free rolls; those turned out pretty well for me. That anniversary event was good too; it disappointed a lot of people, but I thought it was quite good – I think it was just got overhyped, over practically nothing. (Also, fujos and yumes mad that the brute got the unit instead of the bishi.) Dragalia Lost is currently having it’s 1.5 anniversary celebration, which is cool I guess.

As far as MMO’s go, haven’t really done much. ESO is seriously on the backburner for me – too many other games I’m actually excited to play right now, rather than the inertia that drives my MMO playing.

As for next month, I plan to finish BotW. Not 100% it or anything (I’m not going to be posting videos of me doing cool stuff – I can barely handle the basics!), but I’ll finish the game to my liking. Then it will be Fire Emblem Warriors. After that, who knows?

February in Review, March Anticipated

February 29, 2020TheRoyalFamily Leave a comment

Pretty boring month, I’d say. At least for gaming, for me. Only two posts the entire month!

What did I even do?

Murkmire event in ESO. In anticipation, I got my newest character (a Nord nightblade) all the way through the faction story, up to the point where the faction stories merged. I’m not doing Coldharbor again. But did the event enough to get the slime pet. Murkmire is an interesting zone, but very small and short, with not a lot going for it. And the event itself is bloody boring. I actually haven’t logged on in a couple days, it’s that boring.
Started playing Fallout Shelter again. I mean, it’s not like there’s a lot to do there, so no real time commitment there. I played it when it first came out, and stuff has changed. I was inspired by MATN’s playthrough; I’d otherwise completely forgotten it exists.
Princess Connect had its anniversary event. Well, not so much “event” as “free stuff!”. Which is fine; I don’t even know Japanese, so all the events are pretty much the same for me. But I did get the units I was shooting for, so that’s nice I guess.
Granblue Fantasy also started its anniversary event. I know a lot of people were disappointed in it, but that’s mostly a failure of expectations: they were expecting something EPIC!, but we got just a normal event. Fine by me: every character (except maybe the main character) acted exactly as they always do, the setup is something that isn’t out of place, the events flow as they should, and it actually resolves one of the plotlines that should have been taken care of a long time ago.

In Star Trek news, Picard continues to be bad, perhaps even getting worse! I haven’t written any reviews (or even put mini-reviews on twitter) because I really don’t care anymore. It remains watchable to me, but that’s a rather low bar: I only drop a show like this if it actively makes me not want to watch, even if it’s otherwise a good show (and Picard isn’t). While the end of ep 5 did quite annoy me, it was just emblematic of nuTrek, so I couldn’t say I was surprised.

As for next month, I actually have a goal! I’m going to finish one game off my backlog. I don’t know if I’ll go full-in on #MabyeInMarch, since I haven’t been feeling like playing a game where I need to follow a guide to not miss a bunch of stuff, which is very possible in Radiata Stories; also, the gameplay is really clunky in that game. And, I can’t really play next to my computer, which is a turnoff. But I’ll try to clear some game out of my backlog, for sure! Mabye…

IntPiPoMo: The End

November 30, 2019TheRoyalFamily Leave a comment

It’s the end of November, which means it’s the end of IntPiPoMo. I said at the beginning that I wouldn’t have any problems making the goal of 50 pictures, since screenshots count. Well, unfortunately I almost never post from the computer where all my screenshots are, so I only count 29 entries in the past! Can I do 21 in one post?

Of course I can. Should I? Probably not! But I will anyways!

I figure most of these will come from Star Trek Online, not only because it’s the game I’ve played the most, but because it’s one of the most screenshot-worthy games I’ve played. Well, at least for the purposes of IntPiPoMo: I have a bunch from, say, ESO, but most of them are just of amusing dialogs, so I don’t really count them.

*Just two admirals shooting the breeze…and the poor adjunct that has to stay and watch…*

*Some people have interesting names for their ships.*

*Found some ERPers on Old Risa, and I decided to have fun too!*

*The mission creator was pretty limited, but with some creativity could still create good art.*

*Don’t talk to me or my son or my son’s spider ever again*

*This really deserved to win the screenshot contest, if I might say so myself.*

*Even little ships look big from down here.*

*No one could insert any innuendo into this picture at all.*

*Kinda want to know what happened here, kinda don’t.*

There we go, that should make 50, and then some. Kinda sad I had to make a make-up post like this, but on occasion it’s fun to go through the old screenshots to see what I was thinking about back when.

October Review, November Plans

November 2, 2019TheRoyalFamily Leave a comment

It’s the start of a new month, and the easy thing to do is talk about last month, and what I’m going to do this month, so I’ll do that.

Last month’s plans are here, but to summarize:

Do dailies in most games.
For ESO
- Finish Ebonheart Pact questline
- Start Summerset Expansion (mostly for jewelry crafting)
Do Halloween stuff in the various games that have them.
Get and start Atelier Ryza

So how did I do? Pretty much what I thought I would. Star Trek Online had another TFO event (Kobayashi Maru rerun), which I’ve been doing. I had 14 TFO daily tokens saved up from previous events, so I was able to start right into the dilithium pickups. Usually I wouldn’t bother, but getting several days’ worth in less than ten minutes a day is pretty compelling. The rest of the games have just been logging in for the bare minimum, mostly. Dragalia Lost event dailies have required a lot more effort than I’d like, mostly because the rewards-per-action are ridiculously low, compared to what the daily is asking for.

In ESO I did indeed finish the Ebonheart Pact storyline. It was a bit more involved than I thought, requiring finishing a sufficient amount of the main quest. And it also turns out the the three main quests merge to one last zone (which is the worst zone in the game, imo: Coldharbour), and then you can finish the main story too. So I did. Then I figured, while I’m here, I might as well start the Aldmeri Dominion questline, since that was my supposed original questline. I figured I’d just do the starting zone, since that’s usually pretty short, then get into Summerset proper. Well, again, plans changed. That first Altmer zone is pretty compelling. Or at least the Queen is. Couldn’t just abandon her. But I also wanted the jewelry crafting stuff. Turns out, you just need to do one quest to get the jewelry writs, which I had long fulfilled the conditions for. Popped in, did that, went back to the Altmer quests. Finished the second zone, on to the third.

Halloween stuff, did that. Not too much to say about the gacha Halloweens, since they were mostly in the early parts of the month, at least for the new stuff. ESO’s Halloween has proven longer. There’s more to do, just for the dailies. Gave up on doing FFXIV’s Halloween – I wasn’t going to get to that game anytime soon, and I’m not subbing a month for a day, a week tops, in content.

I did pop into Astellia Online’s free weekend (pt 1). I didn’t hear about it until it was half-over, and was just planning on trying the second free weekend. But then ESO servers decided to crap out, so I was left with a bit of free time. Character creation was odd: they clearly had specific characters in mind for specific roles, and the character creator is mostly in varying up those specific characters. Mage gives you a freakish doll-loli-thing (a lot like the doll pet you first get), and getting that to be human-looking was a chore. And sizing her up even 25% still leaves you with a shrimp. Otherwise, nothing to write home about. It sounds like a fun story, but I wish the translation was actually competent.

And of course, Atelier Ryza came out. And I played it. So far, liking it a lot. It’s a slower burn than other Atelier games, I think, but that’s fine by me.

As for my future plans, I think I’ll just keep on keepin’ on. ESO will probably get relegated to “daily only” status as long as I’m playing Ryza. I’m feeling a hankering for something a little different; maybe after that, I’ll get back into Cities Skylines, since I went through the expense of buying all the DLC.

For Black Friday, I’ll be on the lookout for Switch and/or PS4 sales, leaning heavily towards the Switch. Possibly also RDR2 for PC, depending on how I’m feeling when it comes out. I don’t know if that’s a “Buy full price” game for me: I liked RDR a lot, but I don’t know if I liked it that much.

*Yes, I did just happen to have these Atelier Ryza screenshots handy; how can you tell?*

ESO: Progress, of a Sort

October 10, 2019TheRoyalFamily Leave a comment

(I figured that, as I went to the trouble to upload all my ESO screenshots to THE CLOUD, I should make a post about it.)

As I stated a few posts ago, one of my plans for ESO was to finish the Ebonheart Pact storyline, so I could move on to other things. I was already in the penultimate zone for that storyline, and almost done with it at that point, so not a huge deal. Right?

Wrong! I finished the zone, and King Jorunn tells me the Great Mage (Vanus Galerion) has something to tell me. OK. But he doesn’t. See, I’m a Bosmer, which makes one a member of the Aldmeri Dominion by default (unless you pay for a ‘all races all alliances’ character). But I wasn’t doing the Dominion storyline, I was doing the Pact storyline. Because I started in Vvardenfell, which is part of the Pact, so after completing the Morrowind story, I just hopped over to the next place and started that story. So the trigger to start the next part of the Pact storyline isn’t there, because the last chapter of all the alliance storylines are functionally the same: everyone invades Coldharbor together (or at least let the neutral guilds do it), the realm of Molag Bal, so they can put a stop to his schenanigans, and everyone can get back to the important business of warring against each other without undue daedric interference.

So, what to do? Go through the entire Dominion story, to get that quest to pop?

Fortunately not. (I hope.) It turns out that you can also trigger that quest by going through enough of the Main Story. So, off to do the main story then, right? (Which I’d been avoiding, since it required me to go the the Dominion lowbie area.) No problem. Until I ran into a problem. One of the questgiving NPC’s for the main quest is also one of the main character NPC’s for the Elswyr expansion, and there is a prologue quest that he starts (and is involved in). But I didn’t know that when I randomly talked to him; I just thought he was another random NPC handing me yet another quest. Which I then proceeded to ignore, because it wasn’t what I was focusing on. Well, I was stuck for a while, until I realized that said NPC being on this quest I had started prevented him from giving me the next quest in the main story. So I had to do his quest(s). Which took a lot of time, since this is the prologue to a major expansion.

Now, tonight, I should hopefully be able to continue in the main quest. What a ride.

September Gaming in Review, and October Plans

October 3, 2019TheRoyalFamily Leave a comment

Another month has come and the last one is gone. Let’s see what I’ve done, compared to what I was thinking on doing. Well, I did make level cap in ESO, as expected. And I also made it to the next “content” cap, 160 Champion Points. Everything after that is gravy, I guess. I’ve also maxed crafting on all the actual crafting things (blacksmith, clothier, and woodworking), so I can make gear for my maxed-out level. I’ve gotten into The Rift in the Ebonheart Pact storyline, and am working on that.

Didn’t even boot up FFXIV, though. I’ve been so engrossed in ESO that I haven’t had time or will to even start a new sub in FFXIV, after the first month expired. Might re-sub for the Halloween-ish event, but might not. So, obviously no progress there, still at like lvl 30 or 31. I do plan on playing it again, it isn’t dropped.

In STO I did the new content for the season. Not that there was much there. And I did the daily event, every day. More or less every day. But I got the new ship a couple days ago; I don’t know if that was on Sep 30 or October 1, though. I mostly did it with two TFO’s per day; that seemed like the shortest, easiest, and most fun path. (Today I tested out said ship; more on that in a future post.)

In mobage land, I mostly did the bare minimum. I’ve been sorta burnt out on all of them; or rather, my gaming energies are fully focused on ESO, so I don’t have much spare thought for them. This recent event in Dragalia Lost was surprisingly good though (the actual event, not the anniversary celebrations, which are also pretty neato). The boss is something a little different, and actually impressive. Like, it actually looks impressive to just watch someone play; this is a rarity with mobage in general, and DL is no exception. In GBF I skipped Guild Wars, completely. I haven’t really participated more than the barest minimum in half a year, if not more, and these past couple of times I just checked out completely (sorry dancho, exams…). The recent event was good, but it’s just the same thing as far as gameplay goes, just like every non-summer event for the past 5.5 years. Since I’m at the point where these events don’t give me good gear I need, but I’m not good/dedicated enough to grind out the boxes, I’m kinda just out of it. And in Pokemon Masters, there’s a new event, but again, not really doing it. I spent money buying all the one-time crystal packs, and didn’t get Hilda. Very sad, since she’s the reason I bothered with the game in the first place. Still in chapter five or six there, too, because performance issues.

Now, for October. I expect my play patterns will mostly stay the same. There will be events towards the end of the month for all the continuing-content games I play, so I’ll participate in those as needed. But I figure it will mostly be ESO, with dailies (or less) for the rest. For ESO in particular, I’m going to finish the EP quest line, then go to the Summerset expansion, to get jewelry crafting kicked into high gear (and also the content, I guess…).

As for games coming out this month, the only one I’m really looking forward to is Atelier Ryza. I’ve heard little but good things, and it’s selling like hotcakes in Japan (well, as far as a niche series like Atelier goes, at any rate). But that’s the 31st (according to Gamespot), so it won’t really affect my October gaming much, I think. Also keeping an eye on The Outer World; while Fallout New Vegas is one of my most very favorite games, I’ve mostly lost my faith in Obsidian. But we’ll see.