Gaming

Games – What’s Going on in August

stargrace August 9, 2023 No Comments

Despite what the past week or so has shown, I DO tend to write about video games here, so let’s do a little update on that.

World of Warcraft – I’m “playing” but not really. I haven’t kept up with content or story, instead I do some pet battles and marketing bits. As much as I love World of Warcraft, and I do, the game is old and it shows. It’s comfortable, but there’s nothing innovative and I always get a little bored mid way through expansions. It happened with Shadowlands and I’m not exactly surprised that it’s happening in Dragonflight either. Don’t get me wrong, I think DF is an amazing expansion (compared to previous ones) and I’ve had a lot of fun, but it doesn’t seem to last.

Wurm Online / Wurm Unlimited – I’ve been cautious about playing much WO because I’m not exactly convinced that the ‘new’ CEO won’t completely change the game that I love and adore, so to scratch some of those WO itches I’ve been playing a bit of WU, where the Sklotopolis server is my home and I have a small deed there I’ve been working on. WO has done some great QoL changes over the years that I really wish WU would be able to pick up on, but the Sklotopolis server developers have done well given their restrictions. They can only do server side changes with the way things currently are.

FFXIV – My husband returned to this game sort of out of the blue, because two of his RL friends are playing. I decided why not, and my little bard is mid-way through Endwalker and level 86. Most of my time is still spent crafting and harvesting, but the game is lovely. I’d like to get more into housing (so far I only have an apartment) and I’m learning the markets. Having 40(60) sale slots has been an interesting restriction that I’ve been having fun working around/with.

Baldur’s Gate 3 – Like a lot of others, I picked it up just before release and then held off playing so that progression wouldn’t have to start over. I have a 4 person campaign with some friends, and a 2 person campaign with my husband. I’ve been having an absolute blast, and while I know there are some issues that hardcore D&D players take issue with, I’ve just been relaxing and enjoying the narrative. Combat did take some getting used to, but now that we’re no longer in the tutorial and we’ve been adventuring together for a bit, it’s much more fluid. I play a wood elf druid in my group campaign, and a human paladin with my husband. Probably one of my favourite games this year.

Cook Serve Delicious 3 – When I don’t want to be around people this is the game I head to. I enjoyed the previous two versions of the game, and the third one follows a pretty dark apocalyptical timeline that I wasn’t expecting, but still enjoy. I appreciate that they have a ‘chill’ mode, and it’s just been a great little game to escape to.

School (and thus homeschool) will be picking back up in September, and this time I’ll have my 7 year old son and my 5 year old daughter so spare time (and thus gaming time) will go down as I do lesson plans and all that other fun stuff. I’m also trying to dedicate a bit of free time to hobbies, so games that I can get into (and out of) quickly are usually the winners. Baldur’s Gate 3 is (right now) Tuesday / Friday nights for 2h, and everything else I just sort of rotate around. Hopefully I can continue to balance it all, but we shall see. Life doesn’t always listen to me when I ask things to go a certain way.

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

Gaming WoW Gold Making

What Does it Mean to be a Goblin

stargrace August 4, 2023 No Comments

I don’t play World of Warcraft the traditional way it was meant to be played. I don’t enjoy raids, I don’t do group content. I do like collecting pets, and other pet related activities – but what I REALLY like to do in World of Warcraft, is make gold. If you enjoy making gold the term ‘goblin’ is often used. It isn’t a mean comment, it just means you enjoy making gold. It doesn’t even necessarily mean you’re any good at it (although I am). Right now in WoW I have 50,000,000 gold in liquid form (that means actual gold, not stock). That’s over 14 years of game time if I were to convert it all to battlenet tokens right now. I’ve been paying with gold for anything digital that Blizzard releases for years now, and I do that with my gold making. Diablo digital deluxe? Gold. Hearthstone packs? Gold. 2 WoW subscriptions and all the expansions? Gold. It allows me a certain freedom and also lets me feel guilt-free if I decide to take a break unlike other games where I’m actively paying a monthly subscription with my credit card.

This amount of gold is practically nothing compared to some of the bigger goblins out there – but time IS money, and the more time you devote to your trade, the more gold you’re going to earn. Right now I spend less than one hour a day on goblin activities and I’ve been established for a number of years which is what makes all of this easier. It takes time and effort to get set up and to learn the market and figure out your role in it. Once you’re there, it gets easier.

I started getting into gold making in BFA when the auction house mount was on a vendor for 5 million. My husband was away at depot for 6 months, and I was home with a newborn baby. I used gold making to get me through the incredibly long and lonely days, and it just sort of took off from there. Prior to that I had zero gold making knowledge. I used to ask my husband for gold to help me be able to afford to craft. Needless to say I no longer have that problem, lol.

I personally like to use my gold for good. I like to gift things to friends and family, help out guilds, and I never forget what it was like NOT to have that extra gold. It’s supposed to be a fun game after all, so I would rather help people have fun and not have to stress about an in-game currency when real life makes us stress so much already. Along those same lines, I also don’t enjoy making gold in a method that would bring harm to others. I don’t bait on the auction house or try to talk people out of their money. It’s simply not needed. I WILL spend time sniping auctions, but if someone messages me and kindly requests an item back without instigating an argument, I tend to give it back. After all, mistakes can happen.

My gold making habits tend to carry over into other games, but WoW is the only one I’ve managed to create such an extensive system on. Unfortunately, when I’m bored with gold making it also usually means I’m bored of the game, and need a break. Not necessarily a bad thing, but you don’t make a lot of gold if you’re not playing the game.

Anyway, there’s an introduction into my role as a goblin, and a bit of an explanation. As always, happy gaming – no matter where you find yourself!

Gaming

Learning to Spearfish!

stargrace August 3, 2023 No Comments

I’ve been back in FFXIV for just over a week now, picking up with the beginning of Endwalker and meandering my way through the story. In my down time, I have always loved crafting & gathering jobs in the game, so it wasn’t too long before I learned that spearfishing had been revamped in 6.1 – and that I had not even picked it up prior to the revamp.

It’s a mini game that opens these days. You find a node much like you would with botany and mining, and you have to use your spear on fish that swim by. I thought the game was pretty fun, and a nice change from the regular fishing that I have all but forgotten how to do. I picked up a few hermit crabs that I needed for a provision mission, and a handful of other fish that I put on the auction house. I don’t have a lot of gil in game (probably one of the few games where I spend most of my time broke) but I’m trying to save up so that I can enter the housing market. We’ll see how that goes. My husband has also returned to the game, so he’s been working through the older expansions with a handful of friends, and I’m now waiting for him to catch up in Endwalker. Overall? It has been some nice casual gaming, and a perfect way to spend a few evenings.

Gaming

Blaugust – Day 1

stargrace August 1, 2023 1 Comment

I’m taking inspiration for this post from Tipa, who is another long time blogger – she started talking about what she posted on August 1st through the years, and I thought that was a fascinating topic, so here I am shamelessly copying. My blog started out at MmoQuests.com and gradually transitioned to NomadicGamerEh since I have always bounced around from game to game, and I happen to be Canadian. Let’s face it, I’m not very creative when it comes to names.

Back in 2006 I was writing about EverQuest2, I was playing Silverstep who was a warden (druid), and I was very excited to get an ultra rare recipe book from my guild at the time, Valorous Union. I don’t actually remember that guild, but I like that there’s a record of it on my blog. I complained about being East coast when everyone else was West, and time zones just not matching up (I still complain about this).

In 2007 I was still talking about EQ2 (go figure, this would be a theme for many years) and player housing. game update 37 was all the news, and included a lot of crafting changes. I sure did love player housing. I still think EQ2 was one of the best systems out there, and I loved the creativity of the player base.

In 2008 I’m still talking about EQ2 but this time I featured a member of the community – Coniaric. I interviewed this player just for the fun of it, and I actually asked them what kitchen appliance they would be. Alright then!

In August of 2009 I’m still going strong, with 31 posts that month. I think August has probably always been one of my busiest blogging months – not only because of Blaugust which I’ve done for the past 7(?) years now, but also because August is just a hop skip and jump away from fall, which is my favourite time of year. I have so much energy and happiness during that season, I can’t help but write and share.

Player books were a thing and my 2009 August 1st post was highlighting a book that I have in my Norrathian Library (EQ2, of course) – which still exists to this day. I have hundreds of books written by players through the years. I no longer collect new books, but I’ve always been VERY proud of my collection.

In 2010 we start to see what would soon become my nomadic nature. I’m playing Vanguard, running a guild, and talking about a holiday coming up where I’m headed to the newly revamped museum of nature in Ottawa. I still remember that place, I loved it.

I don’t want this post to be too long, so let’s sum it up. 2011 has me playing EQ2 again but I also see some posts on Rift further into the month. In 2012 I have no posts around the 1st, but I’m playing Guild Wars 2. In 2013 I release my very first book – it’s a book of poetry, angst ridden teenage poetry. I think I just wanted to prove to myself that I could. In 2014 I start my very first Blaugust, but the August 1st post is actually my goodbye post to Vanguard after the announcement that it would be shutting down. I volunteered as a guide and I had a lot of fun with it. I was incredibly sad when they announced the shut down. You can read the rest of my posts over on the right with the drop down menu. I can see my post counts and know immediately when my children were born, when I moved across the country, when I had a lot of time to write, and when I had zero time to write. It’s a detailed online history of my life as a gamer (with nods to other hobbies), and I treasure that. I think one of the most important things about this blog is that it has always just been written for myself, due to my love of writing. I appreciate and thank anyone who has stumbled into it, but at the end of the day I just write what I want to say and if I have nothing to say, I don’t write.

Happy gaming – no matter where you find yourself.

Gaming

The Demise of Wurm Online?

stargrace July 27, 2023 No Comments

I’ve been away from wurm online for two entire days – and in that time period shit hit the fan. I’m still trying to figure everything out, but between the forums, and the Wurm Online discord, what I assume is that some staff were presented with options / happenings from the ‘new’ CEO / company, disagreed with what those were, and decided to take a stand and leave. An enormous number of staff have left this week, more than I’ve ever seen before in the history of Wurm Online – and that worries me. The overall health of the game worries me. As a 15+ year player I am considering that it might be time to move on before it gets bad. I’m not one to make that decision lightly.

I like Wurm for what it is now. Yes, more players would be great. Yes, it’s old, and it’s niche, but I’m happy with it (usually) and I enjoy it for what it currently is. I do not want to see it change THAT much so that it loses the soul of what I consider to be Wurm. It’s an old niche game and I am so thankful it is still around when so many others are not. I do not think it’s healthy to think it can ever be something like Valheim or similar. Most of the staff of Wurm Online (including but not limited to developers, forum moderators, discord moderators, etc) are volunteers. They do this as a passion project, and get experience. They are there because they WANT to be. It makes sense that if the future is not one that they feel the same passion about, they would leave. I wish them nothing but the best, no matter how involved they were.

I’m incredibly concerned about the future of Wurm and the direction that it is headed. I understand that a lot of players are excited about what might be and how it can potentially grow, but I personally love Wurm for what it already is. I would be incredibly sad to see it lose what makes it special.

For now, I’m not doing anything about these feelings except listening closely to the forums and discord to see where we’re headed. We haven’t been given a lot of information on the specifics as to WHY staff left (for obvious reasons people cannot talk about it or don’t want to talk about it) but I know it couldn’t have been an easy decision.

I guess we’ll just have to see.

Games – What’s Going on in August

What Does it Mean to be a Goblin

Learning to Spearfish!

Blaugust – Day 1

The Demise of Wurm Online?

You Missed

Moving On – Sort of

Everyone is Sick – Game On

A Recipe Named After.. Me?

Puzzle Labyrinth and Crystal Balls