May 2016

Comfort Gaming

stargrace May 31, 2016 3 Comments

I’ve talked about this before in-depth, but this week more than others I find myself drawn to “comfort gaming”. Basically just like comfort food, we all have games that we’re very comfortable with. Maybe we don’t give them as much attention as we wish we did, or maybe we’ve moved on over the years to something more shiny, or maybe we’ve just stopped playing for whatever reason. Whatever the case may be, this week has been all about comfort gaming for me, and nothing gives me that feeling like EverQuest 2.

Lets face it, we all have a really bad week here and there. Mine started out with a doctor appointment that I was pretty sure was going to be bad news. Turns out, it was. There’s potentially something wrong with my pregnancy so now I have to fly to Vancouver for testing (in approximately a week) so I can find out what’s wrong, and how sever it is, and what (if anything) I can do to prepare myself for whatever comes next. Getting bad news sucks. Getting bad news and then having to wait a week before knowing anything sucks even more. Getting bad news, having to wait, and then having to take an unexpectedly expensive trip to find out results is even more stress. Then I found out my friend in EQ2 passed away after losing his fight with depression (which I wrote about here, too). Needless to say my weekend and the beginning of this week has certainly been filled with far more downs than ups. I’m ready for something good to come along.

That’s why turning to these comfort games is something I fully embrace. I’m not saying ignore the world or pretend the problems don’t exist, but give yourself a bit of a break. You’re dealing with some pretty rough times, you need some space to step away and collect yourself.

I decided nothing really gave me that feeling as much as leveling up a new character and so I created two. One is Milay, a berserker, and the other is Quails, a channeler. I logged in a second account and decided to power level both characters (one at a time) because what I really wanted to do was just plow through content without any thoughts at all.

So that’s exactly what I did.

Both characters are now at level 50, brokers are stocked with lots of yummy items for sale, and I feel a bit better about things (or at least calmer). Is it a perfect solution? No, of course not, but I can’t stress enough how much gaming has helped me keep my sanity in otherwise impossible situations. I had a lot of fun, and got to relax. It’s a great combination.

Gaming

Goodbye, My EverQuest 2 Friend

stargrace May 30, 2016 3 Comments

I have a habit of always wishing people happy birthday on whatever social media they happen to use (that I also use). Facebook, G+, twitter, you name it, I’m there obnoxiously wishing you a happy birthday, year after year. Even if we don’t know each other that well. It’s just something I always do.

So like every other year I wished my friend Jean a happy birthday.

Then his daughter contacted me to tell me that he had lost his battle with depression back in March, and was no longer with us. His wife posted the same message, just weeks earlier.

I had no idea.

I felt.. well, I don’t even know how to describe what I felt. I felt ashamed that I hadn’t kept in touch better. That I didn’t know that he had died. That I had posted a chipper happy birthday message to his facebook wall for friends and family to see and probably stir up some memories. I removed my message right away, ashamed.

Instead I posted one expressing my condolences, and telling Jean and his family that I won’t ever forget our talks in EQ2.

Yep, another gamer. Just like all of us.

I “met” Jean in EQ2 years ago. I don’t even know how long it has been now. He was instigating arguments on the public channels of Antonia Bayle. Arguments that I didn’t agree with. It was something against the US military, in a time where that was (I suppose it always is) a pretty volatile statement to make. Needless to say, the entire server ganged up on him to try to ‘take him down’ due to his harsh statements.

I felt like it wasn’t fair to gang up on a person just because of their opinion, whether or not you personally agreed with that opinion. I didn’t like that a mass of players were verbally attacking one single person due to the tone of their comments (whether he deserved it or not). So I started sending him tells. I had never spoken to him before that but something told me I should reach out, so I did.

We were never really ‘close’ per say, but I knew he was battling depression and that he had been for years. I knew about his family, and we became friends on facebook. I thought I’d share one of our last conversations. His part is in italics.

You were there for me when I was in dire need of some human contact and I know I’m not easy to deal with, lotsa obstacles: low self-esteem, anti-social, etc. I know it’s awkward to even talk to me. anyway, just in case I never said it, thank you for being there when I needed it. For you I’m sure it seems like a sordid memory. I know it was a weird time for me.
You’re more then welcome. I’m always there for anyone I consider a friend or who needs it. I try, at least.
like I said, a saint

Our final conversation was about some anime, back in January 2015, followed by (you guessed it) the typical birthday wishes. I think about how many people out there are suffering in silence with depression and I constantly wonder “what can I do?” it seems like an impossible task to take on.

You never know what someone’s personal situation is like, so please, be kind to one another out there. You just don’t know what it will turn into one day.

I’ll miss you, Jean.

Gaming

Exploring #Minecraft Mod Pack Launchers

stargrace May 27, 2016 3 Comments

To this day, Minecraft remains one of my best game purchases. I bought it before it was mainstream for a total of $5 and it has since provided thousands of hours of entertainment – largely due to the mod community. There are hundreds (if not thousands) of different mods out there, and with them, different mod packs.

These days most mod packs require a specific launcher in order to use them. The three popular ones that I’ve made use of in the past include the Curse Client, Technic, and FeedTheBeast. I recently started using another one called ATLauncher. My issue with some of the others is the method in which they organize (or don’t organize) the list of packs available. It can make searching for the perfect one to try incredibly difficult. ATLauncher is amazingly simple, installation is even more simple, and going from downloading a server to playing on said server is something I didn’t have to struggle with at all.

One of the first packs I checked out was called Divergence. This is a heavy quest mod pack, with dungeons and a progression system. A really fantastic pack – except it doesn’t suit my play style at all. I don’t like progression type mods, and I don’t like having to follow a more difficult crafting path just unlock achievements and progress the quests. I quickly moved on to Revenge of the C-Team which was another fantastic pack with tons of mods and it was very unique in what it offered. To start off, there was weather going on and I’m not talking about your typical rain or storms, but a huge tornado type storm was forming overhead. Lightning and thunder was going off everywhere and it was amazing to watch.

Then I found this gigantic tower in the sky. I climbed to the top and started mining my way down. Each floor had 2 creature spawners along with a chest of treasures. There must have been at least 20 floors in all and when you got to the 2nd last chest it spawned a boss underneath that started fighting me through the floor (which is completely not fair by the way!). I eventually defeated him, placed enough torches in the tower so that creatures wouldn’t spawn, and took the place over as my first base. It was awesome.

Because of the ease in setting up servers with the ATLauncher, I decided to try one more. This one was called Resonant Rise Mainline. It includes a TON of mod packs, and of course when I logged in to my newly created world I found myself in a vast empire of.. taint. It was growing everywhere, out of control before I even got into the world.

One of my favourite new (to me) mods that most of these packs have is the ability for me to open a web browser with a live map of my game as I play. That means I can close down the mini-map in game (freeing up valuable screen space) and simply track it from my 2nd monitor. Plus I can take screenshots, and that’s awesome.

All in all I’m incredibly impressed with the scope of mod packs available on ATLauncher, and their creativity. They do include a few mods that I’m overly familiar with by now, but most of them are brand new to me, and that makes for some exciting game time.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Gaming

Why I Highly Recommend Jumping into PvP Pet Battles

stargrace May 26, 2016 No Comments

I don’t enjoy confrontation, and I’ve never been a huge fan of PVP though I do partake (it’s probably because I’m constantly doubting my skills or lack there of). Where that doesn’t seem to matter at all because of the method in which battles have been implemented in is in World of Warcraft’s pet battles.

At the start I was pretty intimidated. My first attempt at doing pet battles (in a pvp sense) was during pet week when there’s a bonus to the experience earned. You get a token that instantly boosts a pet of your choosing to 25, and that’s a pretty awesome thing to have. I figured how bad can it be to win 5 matches.

The very first thing I realized is that there’s a lot LESS pressure than I thought because the whole thing is anonymous. You have no idea who the player is that you’re up against. There’s no names, there’s no chatting. It’s just like you’re fighting NPC except they’ve got a different way of doing things.

I started learning a lot about my pet set ups and thinking outside of the box as to what team would be best suited for random battles where I had no idea what I would be up against. The team switches from week to week, but for now I’ve settled on the unborn Val’kyr, anubisath idol, and soul of the forge.

I open with curse of doom, and follow up with haunt. This kills the val’kyr but only temporarily until haunt triggers 4 turns later. This gives my opponents a false sense of security, they think “hey, one pet already down!” – then I sandstorm. I try to time my deflection when their biggest moves are up, and crush in between. I swap pets and repeat the process when the unborn val’kyr is back in play, and spam flamethrower, and deep burn on the soul of forge while keeping extra plating up where possible.

Do I win every fight? No, of course not. But I win enough to earn a few achievements and to earn the quested token that lets me boost another pet to 25. It’s fun, stress free, and if you’ve been avoiding it because you’re not sure how the pvp aspect of it would be I highly suggest diving right in.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Gaming

Countdown to Legion

stargrace May 20, 2016 No Comments

Legion is right around the corner, and with all of the hype going on lately I’ve wandered back in game to play around with my level 100 characters and perhaps get another one (or two) to 100 before the expansion. I’m pretty sure I’ll be playing my priest when legion hits, but there’s always a chance I’ll decide on someone else instead. Priest is just what I’m most comfortable with, and the character I’ve dedicated the most time to (achievements and what not, even though I know those are account wide).

Even though I’ve had multiple level 100s for quite a while now, I still hadn’t gathered the courage to defeat Kazzak in Tanaan Jungle. Today I decided it was most certainly time. I got a nice cloak upgrade and a few felblight for crafting. Plus the achievement for defeating him. Before that I had been going through the LFRaid groups looking for ones that would reward me the goodie bags for queuing as a healer. I got a neat empowered apexis fragment from that which I’ll probably pass down to an alt to use so they can have a piece of nice gear too. My main is just slightly shy of 700 ilevel, and I couldn’t be more tickled about that.

Having fun in a game that I’ve played (off and on) for years now is important to me and I’m glad I can still get that same sort of joy from it. If you want to add me to battlenet, I’m Stargrace#1783 and while you’ll typically see me wandering through Azeroth there are times I take a dip into Diablo3 and other Blizzard games too (Overwatch maybe?) in time.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Comfort Gaming

Goodbye, My EverQuest 2 Friend

Exploring #Minecraft Mod Pack Launchers

Why I Highly Recommend Jumping into PvP Pet Battles

Countdown to Legion

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