It is of course the month of Halloween and so I decided to do a small series of three paintings to hang together in a frame (or at least that’s the idea). This is the first one I did, and I think it turned out adorable. Medium is acrylic paint on canvas.
I was doing some thinking last night and came to the conclusion that perhaps I should start my own guild in Black Desert Online. Now, I ‘run’ guilds in a few games, but they’re not what I would consider active, at all. They’re used mostly for storage and because I don’t always play nice with others. BDO just feels like a different game to me, one I actually WANT to play for a long time. I’ve been playing for almost two months now and I still enjoy it as much if not more – and there’s tons of stuff I haven’t even explored yet, like bartering, sailing, and all that good stuff.
I decided to start up the Quail’s Tale Tavern, a life skill guild for any mutual friends who wanted to join. We’ll never be big and take over the world, but that’s fine by me. It’s a quiet place to call home and rest if that’s your thing. If you’d like to join just let me know and we can make that happen (discord, twitter, in-game, whatever works).
My lahn is now sitting at level 53, and has spent most of today attacking a training dummy because my hands have been too sore to play. Sure, the levels come slower than if I had of just been out exploring and questing, but that wasn’t really an option. At least this way, I can still ‘play’ – and I honestly couldn’t be happier. The class is just plain fun to watch, and I’m not sure what character I’m going to time piece yet on my alt account, but I’m pretty sure it will be another lahn on my main account.
Two good friends joined up in game today and added themselves to the guild which just makes me smile. I love seeing others enjoying themselves and giving the game a chance. I feel like this game has flown under the radar for a long time because of the MANY confusing mechanics, but sticking with it and learning in smaller bite sized doses has been much easier. Ignoring the onslaught of quests and UI gimmicks has been key to my enjoyment. Well, that and horse training. I’m very close to being ready to breed my first mounts – I’ve got my fingers crossed for a Tier 8!
There is also another new event that involves twitch drops – you can read about it here. It works much like New World’s current event where you watch for an hour, claim a reward, watch for two hours, claim another reward, watch for 5 hours, get a reward. There are new rewards each day, and it runs for a number of days. You need to link your twitch account to your BDO account through the BDO web site, then you claim the items on twitch, and redeem them back on the BDO web site. They’re not game breaking items, but hey, free is free.
Goals? I’ve got those! I can only set the guild emblem on Monday’s (why? I have no idea, it’s in the rules. Maybe the person who goes around approving guild emblems only works Monday’s) so that’s one goal. I’d like to get ranks and stuff set up but BDO has everyone do a mandatory 14 day trial as a new member before you can be promoted (minus the guild leader) so I can’t assign anyone yet. I think this is a great idea, it auto assigns you to a ‘general’ player once your two weeks is up. During this time you can’t earn guild incentives (money) so you’re less likely to hang out waiting to abuse the system. You also have to wait 24h before joining a new guild after leaving one, so there’s lots of time to think things over.
Anyway. 53 inching my way to 61 on the lahn, working on fishing on the Shai (and other crafts in time) next on the docket is to learn how to make use of the workers I have, and get into simple farming. I need to start my empire after all!
Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!
Today is patch day, which means that I need to spend a few hours downloading (thanks 5mb/s speeds) before I can play, but I did browse over the patch notes and wow, they added quite a few things! First up is their second dungeon ever – Sycrakea. It looks amazing, but you do need to complete the first dungeon before attempting it I believe. I haven’t done either of the dungeons yet, and honestly it’s not really my thing so I think I’ll let the big time adventurers partake in that one.
They’ve also added some new skills and instruments to the Shai class! You might recall that at the moment, this is my main. It looks insanely detailed and complicated! I can’t wait to dive in and figure it out.
There were some other generic class changes, some drops adjusted, monsters tweaked, really nothing out of the ordinary. They also opened up some forums to go and talk about the big class revamp that they’re working on for later this month. You can sign up to help out and be sure to test those changes and get some input in about how the classes will work moving forward.
For me personally, it’s been a fishing sort of week. I am almost rank artisan 7 which is lovely, and I’ve been catching lots of the event fish which will come in handy to stockpile for whatever goodies I want to buy. My 2nd account also swapped over to a full copy of the game today since I reached level 50 and I’m pretty tickled about that.
I still need to level my horses up so I can breed them and have a better chance at a top tier mount, but I haven’t found the time quite yet because the lure of earning silver through fishing has been pretty high. Eventually that fishing event will end, and I’ll have to figure out other ways of making money – but why not take advantage of it while I can.
As always, happy gaming no matter where you find yourself! If you want to see some awesome screenshots of BDO I’ve been posting them on twitter lately, the game just blows me away in remastered mode.
I’ve talked about multiple sclerosis before here on my blog, but I usually try really hard to just go on with life as normal as I can, and not complain about the hand I’ve been dealt. The problem is, I can only do that for so long, and I don’t really have a lot of constructive outlets – so I use my blog. This post won’t be about gaming, but is more just a general unloading.
A lot of my days are great. I have a steady constant pain that doesn’t go away, but I’ve learned to deal with it. The pain makes me a bit short tempered, pretty tired, but I’m able to function for the most part. This is my life the majority of the time. Let us put the pain at about a two on a scale of one to ten.
Then there are relapses, which is what I have going on right now for the third day. The pain in my hands and feet is so bad that my hands bend into a claw shape and just ache like they’re on fire constantly. It’s so bad I can’t carry anything heavy because I’m afraid I might drop it. Typing hurts. Just sitting doing nothing hurts. I can’t knit or cross stitch and I do my best not to game because resting my hands on my keyboard / keyboard rest – hurts. Using my mouse hurts. It’s a solid 8-9 on my pain chart and let me tell you, my pain threshold is really high. I have a tattoo and it didn’t even bother me to have it done. My husband jokes all of the time because I take scalding hot showers and never feel it, but come out a blistered red. When I say my hands and feet are hurting, it means they’re really hurting.
People can’t SEE this pain though. They just have my word to go by. I have two young kids and a husband who works shift work so I can’t just give up. I have to power through the days and do my best, which means making sure meals are done and the kids don’t hurt one another. Talking on twitter or doing a blog post is usually dictated and is my only real means of escape because we’re at an isolated post, and I can’t game (another reason I play BDO, where I can AFK or just stare at the screen and make progress). Tylenol and other medications don’t help. There’s no inflammation, it’s from lesions sitting on certain sections of my brain and spine, telling my body I’m in dire pain and triggering all my pain nodules. I’ve tried cannabis to ease symptoms but it doesn’t make the pain go away, it just makes me care less and I can’t function like that – and I have to function. I have to be able to take care of my family.
Some days, like today, I’m really angry. I’m frustrated that I can’t do what I want to do. That I can’t use a can opener unless it’s electric. That everyone around me is so loud when I’m just trying not to drown in pain and I can’t focus because MS takes that dignity away from me. I slur my words and just get so frustrated so easily because I’m trying to balance everything and function like a normal human being under insane conditions. Let us add the fact that I have a child with autism and a learning disability, and a second child on top of that, at an isolated post – and well, you have a small window into how life is going for me lately. I don’t like to complain or whine to people because I know that makes it even harder to be friends with me, and I have few friends. No one wants to be around a sad person all of the time. No one wants to hear them moan about how much pain they’re in each day. People don’t like that. Don’t even pretend they do, because I know otherwise. I’ve experienced it.
I’m just so tired. I want a break. I want a single day without all of the pain and confusion and anger that I constantly feel. I haven’t been away from the kids for more than an hour or two since our first was born five years ago. I can’t drive. I feel like a prisoner and it’s not anyone’s fault that this is life. I keep trying to make it better, trying to change it, trying to be a better person – over and over. Today, it’s just not working.
I’m sorry.
Thank you for listening.
I’ve been talking about BDO for a few weeks now, and even after New World released, I’m still feeling this game more than anything else out there right now. I know it might seem a bit confusing, the game isn’t ‘new’ (it released in 2016); so why the sudden influx of posts about it? I decided to clarify with my main points – and I’ll list some cons at the end too. It’s not ALL sunshine and roses (but it’s pretty damn close).
A few cons –
stargrace