Cutscene Focus
stargrace 
In my 4 person campaign, the cutscenes are always of my husband (orc fighter) and his denim underwear. Not sure why it tends to focus there, but I think I’ve seen more denim underwear than anyone deserves to see.
August 2023
Remodeling a Calico Critters House
I’ve decided it’s time to remodel the Cozy Cottage Starter Home I have from Calico Critters. I’ve seen some amazing tutorials on using egg cartons to remodel the outside walls into stone (right now they’re ugly yellow plastic) and I’m just waiting to use up the eggs in the fridge so I can get started on this. I’m sure I’ll post my progress pictures here, I may even film some of it. Keep watching this space!
A New Idle Game Addiction
I love idle games / clicker games. These are games where very little input is ever required, they run in the background and you can be as active or inactive as you want and still make ‘progress’ I’ve played a lot of them over the years, and my favourites are always a mixture of actions depending on the day and my moods. I saw a few friends playing Idle Champions in my steam list, and I decided to check it out because I had never played it before.
I’ve kept the game running for days now, and it shows. With over 90 hours invested I am truly smitten by this idle game. There are a few reasons for this, but one is it’s free – and you can find codes all over the place to earn items / chests that help progress without feeling the pressure to invest any cash. That being said, after a week of game play I decided to spend the $15 CAD for the season pass so I could unlock even more goodies. Much like I’d buy a season pass for BDO, it gives me rewards for the season with a little extra.
I can’t even begin to explain why games like this appeal to me, but they’re just light little fun things when I don’t have the focus or dedication for a ‘proper’ game.
Last night I took a small break from Baldur’s Gate 3 to get some actual sleep (who knew, I can’t just run on coffee) but I’m sure I’ll be back at my duo campaign tonight, and tomorrow (Tuesday) is the group campaign again. As always, happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!
Archaeology in Wurm Online
The goal for this week in Wurm Online is pretty simple – I have 1400 archaeology fragments that need to be identified. Identification has two steps, the first step uses a stone chisel, and then you need a metal brush. I want to get all 1400 on the metal brush stage. I have 300/1400 done at the time of this post. It will take some time, each action in Wurm takes a bit, but I’m hoping by the end of the week I can complete the first step of the task – then next week I can complete the second step of the task (completing identification by using the metal brush) and then I can finally put all of the pieces together.
Right now I have 61.51 skill in archaeology, and 61.52 skill in restoration. I’m not using sleep bonus or buffs for this first step, but I will for the subsequent steps. I’m hoping this will inch me closer to 80, but we all know that Wurm Online is a pretty slow moving game on the best of days.
The fragments themselves came from an explorer who was mapping out the island I live on. They had no use for them as they don’t really do archaeology itself, so they scattered the bits all over the place and I would go around each day collecting them. Hopefully I get a few neat bits and bobs out of it in the end, even a statue or two completed would be nice.
As always, happy gaming – no matter where you find yourself!
In a Subscription Model World, What Do you Prioritize?
When it comes to video games I used to love the subscription model. It was a nice base price paid monthly, cancelled when I didn’t want it. Over time, it has evolved and changed into something I no longer recognize or enjoy. Now you’ll see games with a subscription that also offer some sort of pass you have to purchase separately, that also offer a shop to sell things for cash, that also offer any number of other features and bonuses that all add up. It’s rare that a subscription gives you access to everything.
What bothers me even more is that the entire world has turned to a subscription model method of doing things because you can easily nickel and dime this way. Amazon prime – comes with TV channels, but here in Canada you can add MORE channels for a bit more cost. Which (since we cancelled cable) we pay for. Then there’s Netflix, Disney+ and CRAVE (another Canadian streaming option). Then there’s my two young children, they have a subscription to Barbie worlds (which is an amazing app on their ipad, I’m not ragging on the cost of it or the fact that they have it, but it is yet another subscription for me to take mind of), and they used to have a subscription for Pepa Pig, too (they outgrew that one, thankfully).
There’s subscriptions for meals, subscriptions for boxes of goodies that show up at your door monthly, dog or cat supplies, wine, beef jerky, subscriptions for magazines, apps, and music. If you can think of it, there’s probably a subscription for it. When you think about these little bits of bite sized costs it’s easy to forget how much you’re actually spending each month – they add up! I highly suggest people keep a list some place where you can keep track of these little payments and see a grand total some place. It’s VERY easy to forget these costs, especially with automatic payments.
For me, prioritizing is a bit more simple. I pay for WoW (and all Blizzard related things) with gold, so that takes a huge chunk of my personal subscription fees away (two accounts, all expansions, etc). I play FFXIV, and I have the cheaper subscription option but I have 1 extra retainer, which is another fee. I try to keep my personal subscriptions to just 1 item, whether it’s a game, or Crunchyroll (used to watch anime), or a yarn box subscription.
In a world that has become SO subscription heavy, how do you decide what is “worth it” and how many subscriptions are you currently balancing? Let me know in comments!