September 2017

Streaming Video Games? Sure, I do that!

stargrace September 25, 2017 0Comment

Today I tried a little bit of an experiment. See, I love streaming but have held off for one reason or another. I was just going to start getting into it when I had my son, and I haven’t really been able to find my groove since then. I started by trying to stream when he was asleep – turns out he’s not the best of sleepers, and he frequently wakes up which means I’m frequently running to check in on him and put him back to sleep.

I thought about it a while and today decided why not try streaming when he’s awake. My computer is in his play area, he’s got a baby gate and can’t get anywhere and it’s pretty easy to watch over him while doing other things. He enjoys wandering around and doing his own thing and playing with his toys so technically speaking there should be no reason why I couldn’t stream an hour or so a few days a week with him wandering about.

I loaded up RimWorld and the Combat Wombat adventures began (episode 2) – and it went pretty well. I did have to run away from the computer and microphone a few times but nothing drastic. RimWorld is one of those games you can play and you don’t necessarily have to pay full attention to it plus you can pause it any time it’s needed. I called it a success and posted the video over to my YouTube channel, then spent a bit of time organizing my videos so they made more sense.

I’m pretty sure I’ll do more. The streams may not always be that long, but I’m going to try to devise some sort of schedule and as always if you miss any of the streams you can watch the VOD (video on demand) as a highlight on twitch, or give my YouTube channel a follow and catch it there. Either way, it feels great to be streaming again. There’s not very many things these days that I “do for me” but getting a little bit of game and stream time in is certainly one. I’m still trying to raise money for a chair, once I get that taken care of I’ll start using the cam while I stream but in the meantime it wouldn’t be much fun to watch me kneeling on the floor as I try to game, or gaming from an exercise ball, lol.

I’m thinking a Throwback Thursday stream may be fun, along with some visual novels, and of course the continued game of RimWorld. W’ell just have to see!

Gaming

Choya are Adorable

stargrace September 24, 2017 0Comment

Choya are the CUTEST things I have ever seen.

Yesterday I mentioned that I was having some stability issues that caused me to lose a bunch of progress (an entire instance worth) and it put me in enough of a mood that I decided to just log out for a little bit. My time is pretty limited so I can only play when the little guy is down for a nap twice a day (and even then he tends to wake up after an hour) so if I can’t get something completed within that time I usually have to abandon it. I had just gotten the final boss down to the 10% mark when I was dropped back to Crystal Oasis. I do plan on going back there today some time, but it wasn’t a nice experience.

A few of my friends have been working towards their bunny mount – it looks so awesome! I still need one more point in my raptor before I can go for that one, but I know I’ll get there eventually. On one hand having so little time to play is a great way to make sure the content stretches out a little bit, but on the other hand I want to experience all the things! The story has really captivated me this time around, probably because I’m actually paying attention and it doesn’t hurt that the voice overs are fantastic.

Honestly, I think ArenaNet has done an amazing job (from what I have experienced so far) and should be proud of themselves. Sure, there have been some issues, but they’ve been working all weekend at making game play smooth for everyone, and they’ve been addressing the issues as they crop up. I remember from my days at Carbine / NCSOFT just how stressful a game release is and just how much work goes into something like that. Experiencing it first hand takes away a lot of the bitterness I might otherwise feel at having issues crop up. They happen, and I know the company is on it. How long it takes to solve is not something anyone can control.

I haven’t had time to play anything else, though I am eager to get back to Cook, Serve, Delicious – as well as Divinity Original Sin 2. Isn’t it a great time to be a gamer? So many fantastic releases this year.

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

Gaming

I’ve been Mounted! (Er, I’ve got my Mount?)

stargrace September 23, 2017 0Comment

The release of PoF went pretty smooth – initially. I love their method of releasing an expansion, which doesn’t include any downtime other than logging out so you can patch a new build. I think this is a feature that a lot of gamers forget about, especially since some other AAA titles still have 8+ hours of downtime on expansion days. One more win for ArenaNet.

I logged in with my Asura Guardian and began the story – as you can see by the screenshot above she received her first mount, an awesome raptor. Don’t forget you can dye your mount so even though it may look like everyone else there’s at least a tiny bit of individuality. I wonder how long before we start seeing skins for them in the gem store.

I don’t want to give the story away, so I’ll keep things fairly brief and generic.

This expansion is absolutely beautiful. I mean Guild Wars 2 always looks pretty fantastic to me, but this one is over the top. Maybe it’s because after looking at nothing but plants for a few months I’m just happy to be back in civilization, but the setting is just amazing. The voice acting has been top notch, and I’m fully invested in my story.

Now, that doesn’t mean everything is perfect. It’s not. Today (Saturday) there seem to be quite a few instances of people dropping during important instances fights (I was doing The Sacrificed and dropped during the boss fight, it spit me out into Crystal Oasis and now I have to do the entire story again) and a lot of other technical issues that people are having, including map completion not offering rewards. So no, things are not perfect – but it’s OK, no one is expecting perfection. I know players just want to get in game, and when things prevent them from doing that, or cause lost progress, well, the not so nice side comes out.

Anyway. I’m having a blast. I don’t get a lot of time to play because I’m limited to times my son is asleep, but I’ve done some progression and I’m content to take my time. If you’ve been looking to get back into the world, now is a great time.

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

Real Life

The Weekends Are Hardest

stargrace September 22, 2017 0Comment

The weekends are hardest for me. I see everyone with their families, and mine is incomplete for another 128 days. We tend to fight on weekends. We don’t get much time to talk and what time we do have gets misunderstood because text is really no way to have a relationship. He’s bogged down with the difficulties of depot, and I’m trying to raise our (almost) one year old son alone. We normally lean on each other, and we can’t do that right now, although we both try. I’m exhausted from day to day activities, and so is he, even though we’re doing completely different activities. We talk less than an hour a week.

It’s temporary, I know. I remind myself like a mantra. One more day. One more day. One more day. Some days are harder than others. Like immunization day that’s coming up. That’s going to be a rough one. They’re all hard on some level because it’s never easy to be away from your partner, but you develop a routine and things become a bit ‘normal’ for that situation. I don’t cry quite as much but I certainly still cry. Silly things still set me off. Like Friday nights. Normally we’d be gaming together, getting ready to relax. He’d give our son a bath and then read him Dr. Seuss books while I took a break. I’d take over and nurse and then put our son to bed while my husband relaxed at his desk and decompressed after a long 12-14 hour day at work. We’d each talk about our day. Laugh at stupid stuff that no one else would find funny or understand.

I miss the simple things. You never expect to miss farts, but I miss those. He says he misses changing diapers and I believe him. I miss cooking for more than just one person. I miss having someone to split the chores with. I love our son but I miss having a break. I miss just talking. I miss listening to him breath at night. He missed our son learning to sit up, learning to crawl, eating a billion different types of new food. He feels guilty about it but timing has never smiled upon us in life so we just have to make due and keep going forward. One more day. One more day. One more day.

Gaming

Just One More Sleep!

stargrace September 21, 2017 0Comment

Just one more sleep and we’ll finally be able to play GW2’s latest expansion – and hopefully unlock some mounts. One thing I’m really excited about is map completion – with mounts. Not just in the new zones, but in all of the old zones that I haven’t finished yet. I do have 65% map completion, but this should help me out a bit by making it go faster and being a little more fun. Of course it doesn’t help me complete heart missions any faster, but that’s alright.

Pictured above, my adorable asura guardian with her awesome backpack. Isn’t she completely threatening and cute all at once? I think so.

I completed dailies today but didn’t get a chance to do much more than that before I had to get back to real life things. Still, at least it was a bit of progress. I also spent almost all of the gold I had left buying recipes that I didn’t own. For some reason the completionist in me wants to own ALL THE THINGS. I also started on living story 2 – yes, I’m that far behind.

I completed my main story and living story one was auto completed (although I was playing for most of that) and I haven’t actually done any content since then. When HoT released I flip flopped between both of my accounts and really got no progress done on either of them, and then the difficulty level of HoT just left me with little reason to log in any more.

Nothing has changed in that regard, Auric Basin is still just smashing me to the ground, but in the meantime there’s still things I can work on, and that’s fine for now. We’ll see how PoF goes tomorrow. I’m wishing ArenaNet a nice smooth launch – and I’m looking forward to the hype, and seeing all the excited players in game.

With my left over gems (after buying season 2 unlocks) I purchased the storage increase item that lets you add 250 to your stacks (of 250 by default). I hoard all the things, and it’s REALLY nice to have a bit more wiggle room. What I’ll actually use these supplies for (or IF I’ll actually use these supplies) I have no idea, but I like knowing they’re there.

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

Streaming Video Games? Sure, I do that!

Choya are Adorable

I’ve been Mounted! (Er, I’ve got my Mount?)

The Weekends Are Hardest

Just One More Sleep!

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