Real Life

Dragon Age Ramblings

Today was one of those horrible days where I barely got anything done, real life kicked me around and so for most of the evening I decided to just do absolutely nothing and sat down with some great story telling from Dragon Age, and a little Torchlight – that’s right, I didn’t even play an MMO (brr, feel that? Hell just froze over). I am absolutely LOVING Dragon Age – which is a giant surprise to me, because while I do like RPGs I’ve never really been a HUGE fan. I’ve never played another Bioware game before, and discovering how much of a fan I am now is a lot of fun for me. I’ve heard a few people complain about the graphics, but the stories are SO interesting and so involved that I can easily look past the flaws in graphics and lose myself in the story line.

The one issue I have is when I play in 3rd person (scrolled in) I wish the camera followed my character instead of me having to right click to rotate it. I’m getting used to exploring in the furthest view, and then scrolling inwards for combat or if a specific item requires me to, or simply to look around a little at the scenery. It’s just something I’m personally not used to, nothing game breaking.

I won’t give any spoilers, but I wish I had started playing this at the beginning of NaNoWriMo – the story I am currently writing would have probably been a LOT different then. It’s so easy to get involved with your character based on the decisions and actions you make throughout the game, and I’m just having a lot of fun with it. For those who use the Bioware social network you can find me on there as Stargrace and add me to your friends lists. I’m currently playing a Dalish elf, rogue, and I’m looking forward to hearing what everyone else is playing!

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

NaNoWriMo – Almost here again!

Not gamer related, I know how dare I. It’s rare I make these types of posts though, and it’s important. Well, to me it is.

It’s almost November, which means almost a year has gone by already since I participated in my very first NaNoWriMo – wow. Time really does fly. If you’ve never heard of NaNoWriMo before, it stands for National Novel Writing Month and it runs world wide for the month of November. The challenge is for people to write a 50,000 word story within the month. That is a LOT of writing, compacted by real life that won’t stand still. It’s an amazing challenge, and it also helps raise money to inspire kids and adults to continue with their creative endeavors.

Last year thanks to some very generous donations I managed to raise $200 and this year I’m looking to break that goal and up it by $50, bringing the grand total to $250. It is a huge goal for me I realize what with all of the economic issues going on right now – but I’m still going to try, even if I don’t make it.

Why?

Well, that’s the easy part. First of all I absolutely love to write, and I really love the creativity that I see from other people. It inspires me, and motivates me. November will be a trying month, and what better way to convince myself to sit down and finish my novel then to actually have people who believe in me and sponsor me, donating money for a fantastic cause. These donations will spur me on, and inspire me to complete my novel.

If you’d like to please help me out and donate, then head over to my donations page here. Everything is tax deductible, and you can also get soem goodies from donating. I’m going to be writing about my progress here on my personal web site, and when the story is completed I’ll be sending it out to anyone who would like a copy.

If NaNoWriMo is something you think you may want to take part in then be sure to register over on the official site, and let me know! I’m always interested in seeing who is giving it a go, and reading their work if I can by the end of it. You can also check my word count progress at the end of the month by searching for me on the NaNoWriMo web page, my user name is MorrowS.

I’m so excited about this year, it’s going to be fantastic, I can already tell.

No Place Like Home

I apologize in advance for this not-quite-all-gaming blog post, but it does happen from time to time (the joys of this being my personal rant place). I did game yesterday (of course) but I didn’t really do anything of significance. My woodworker inched her way to level 30, which is great. My sage inched her way (sans vitality or bonus, painful!) to level 35 – and I marveled over the fact that on Antonia Bayle there were only three T8 loams for sale for 2p each. We’re talking common loams here not those rare silicate loams. Not sure why they were all suddenly bought up unless perhaps people are preparing for the extra 10 levels they’ll need to obtain in February and stock piling. Grinding writs it wouldn’t be too difficult to do T8 for 10 levels since harvests will be rare for a time in T9.

Speaking of harvesting, I was a little amused to find that the harvest bots in guild halls can now harvest imbue materials. These are used for the crafting epics, and the smoldering ones are pretty pricey on the broker. I need to help level my guild up a few levels so we can get our bots back, as we’re still too low quite yet to purchase them. It will come with time.

Tomorrow evening I’ll be leaving the city of Ottawa and heading to Russell, which is about 25-30 minutes south of Ottawa. It is a small community, with its own township, and I’ll be spending a few days at my parents place. They in turn are headed to Tennessee on their motorcycle for a week – or at least that’s the direction they’re headed, whether or not they actually get that far is still to be seen. I think it’s neat that my parents can just head out like that with no real plan. Anyhow, I as much as I love this city I need to get away for a few days and I think the country air will do me wonders. I have deadlines for work coming up on the 14th of August so this is slightly before the mad rush begins. I haven’t gotten out a great deal lately since I spent so much time sick (and I’m still recuperating over that ordeal) and I have a feeling that the simple fact of ‘being home’ will do wonders for me. I’m incredibly excited about it, there’s plenty to take pictures of, wild life everywhere (my folks have raccoons and birds and squirrels etc that come to their back deck) a comfortable gazebo out back with lights and seating to relax and read in. I’ll be taking my laptop simply to check up on emails and twitters and I haven’t decided if I’ll blog yet, I probably will not. Expect lots of pictures to show up on ShutterCal though, I need to fill in my blank days.

Monday is a holiday here in Canada (Civic Holiday) but I’ll be coming back Sunday morning (I need to get groceries before the stores all close) so I still have two days of relaxation back in my own house before the hustle and bustle begins. It’s certainly been an interesting year.

Back to the game bits, I also played a little WoW yesterday, running a lowbie instance with a friend to work up my shamans skills, and then we did the graveyard instance of Scarlet Monastery. It was a lot of fun, and I inched my way to level 34. I don’t own a mount yet but apparently in patch 3.2 (due out in August?) mounts will be a LOT cheaper – so I’ve been holding off. Since I don’t dedicate too much time to playing I don’t have a great deal of coin, not to mention all of the alts. Ah those expensive alts. Maybe I’ll run a few more lower level dungeons just to find greens to sell. We’ll see.

In the mean time, MmoQuests may be quiet for a few days but at least it’s because I’m taking a nice relaxing break feeding squirrels and not because I’m in bed sick. I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend, and happy gaming no matter where you are!

Safe travels!

A Day of Good News and Good Games

First of all, I got confused and yesterday was apparently not Saturday at all, but Friday – so the book of the day is posted below, hope everyone enjoyed it! In the mean time, while I don’t have any solid answers yet about why I was sick nor am I feeling 100% quite yet – I am feeling better, and that is a huge bonus. In another little bit of good news, I managed to get a little promotion at work! Most readers know that I write for Beckett Massive Online Gamer, I write articles on Sony related games (EQ, EQ2, and Vanguard for the most part) as well as Free Realms, and I also write about Wizard 101, and whatever else they happen to throw my way (I’ve done a piece on Darkfall, etc).  The magazine is published in the states every two months and sold in stores like Barnes and Noble and Walmart. People can also get a subscription, and I’ve been working for them for exactly a year this month.

My new job still involves writing articles for them – but also includes working on their newly revamped web site a lot more. Posting news articles, moderating the forums and making sure things are posted there, too. It also includes a lot of public relations and promotions to the site and the magazine via twitter, facebook, and what ever other social media I can get my hands on. So from time to time you may see a post like this one trying to rack up interest. Hopefully I do a fine job (I can’t see why I wouldn’t!) and things go smooth. I’m excited!

Game wise I’ve been playing a lot of Wizard 101, I just can’t help it! My little life wizard has been having fun exploring Krokotopia, her dorm room is now completely packed with house items resembling the ancient land of forgotten treasures. In fact it’s starting to get a little crowded, and I need to move into a real house one of these days so I can move all the items out of my dorm. I have no idea what sort of house I want to purchase – I really want to purchase one of the “big” lots of land, as opposed to the smaller versions. They cost a lot of gold though – I have about 17,000 saved up.

I haven’t really gotten into crafting too much because there have been so many people running around going after the same things I needed it hasn’t been worth it. However, in Krokotopia I seem to find craft supplies galore. I’ll need to find a quiet time to finish my beginner quests one day if for no other reason then to say at least I’m working on it.

I love the newly revamped bazaar – it’s far easier now to search for items that you actually want. I don’t know that I’ll use it all too much never being a huge bazaar person myself, but one never knows!

The sword pictured above is the one from the latest issue of Beckett MOG – although if you happen to buy their Pokemon magazine you’ll also find another code! I love these little items, even if it means everyone is running by me asking where the awesome sword comes from. I’m always happy to point them towards the magazine!

Although it says little Angela Ravendust is level 23 in that picture, she’s now level 24 and part way through. I’ve been trying to take a little break here and there from the game but it’s hard, I find the card game combat exceptionally addicting, especially because it’s just so different from all of the basic hack and slash games that I already play.

I’ve been playing some EQ2 as well (of course) my little illusionist managed to get herself the wand from Crucible – of course it’s not the illusionist I have on Antonia Bayle (I’m still split between two servers, instead of four, making it much easier to handle) but it’s nice none the less. We did a few instances last night for shards and I completely forgot that the key mobs have been removed from Crucible and Scion of Ice for the time being. It would have meant two more (very useful) shards for me. I hope they get them fixed soon!

Ultann was taking his inquisitor on multiple raids yesterday which is fantastic for him. He managed to get his Thuuga update, Leviathan, and as I was headed to bed he was headed to Veeshan’s Peek – to perhaps get his final update of Nexona. I haven’t logged in yet this morning to check how that went, but my fingers are crossed! Calreth didn’t have nearly as good luck with his updates, Leviathan going horribly wrong for the evening (hugs). Fingers crossed that he’ll get his updates one of the times he’s around! I know he’s been waiting forever for it.

I hope everyone else has a fantastic Saturday, enjoy the weekend (more rain here) and happy gaming! I’ll see you in Norrath (or in Krokotopia!)

No Posts Until Further Notice

I’m sorry, but for now I will be unable to continue to post about my MMO experiences. Health issues are currently preventing me from doing much more then curling up in the fetal position and crying. Hopefully I will be back before the month is up so I can get back to writing about things I love. Thank you all so much for your comments and support, thoughts and hugs and well wishes. Means a lot to me. I can still be reached by email, occasionally on twitter, and in game though I am typically afk. I did not want to leave readers in the lurch over my lack of posts, and hope everyone understands.

Thank you

~ Stephanie Morrow (AkA Stargrace)

Nomadic Gamer