Saturday, November 9, 2013
Beyond the Veil Take 65: Monster Mash!!
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Becoming Grumpy
Life brings changes. We grow up, establish careers, get married, become parents, get re-married, become grandparents . . .
Yep, I am officially entitled to tell y'all to get off my lawn. Scooter and I have leveled up. Since mom and dad are staying with us for a couple months before heading off to school so Scooter and I can help with the baby, we'll see how this affects our gameplay. But I'm pretty sure I'll be OK playing one-handed with my Nostromo.
When we started discussing what we wanted to be called relative to this precious addition to our family, I couldn't think of anything better than "Grumpy." Scooter was like "Really? But you're not grumpy. . . usually." And I said, "That's why it's funny." She refuses to be called "Grim," though. She wants to be "Gram" or "Grams" instead.
One of my crewmates from Beyond the Veil, the first time he saw me on Google Hangouts, commented that I didn't look like someone he'd want to meet in a dark alley. I said, "Good. Then my job is done." Hehe, hopefully I scare potential boyfriends, too.
When we started discussing what we wanted to be called relative to this precious addition to our family, I couldn't think of anything better than "Grumpy." Scooter was like "Really? But you're not grumpy. . . usually." And I said, "That's why it's funny." She refuses to be called "Grim," though. She wants to be "Gram" or "Grams" instead.
Beyond the Veil Take 64: A Picture Perfect TSW!
Beyond the Veil Take 64 is now available for download. Join the BtV crew as we announce the winner of our Picture Perfect TSW contest, give you an update on the Agartha Event, introduce you to the Ability Search function and tell you about TSW entering the movie screen and give you the news from the Forums!
You can subscribe through Holosuite Media's RSS feed, through iTunes (with older episodes here), and now through Stitcher. Be sure to catch the live show tonight and every Thursday at about 7p.m. EDT (11p.m. UTC) on Holosuite Excess. Funcom Lead Designer Tilty will be joining us live tonight the show to talk about The Secret World's Issue #8, "The Venetian Agenda"! Beyond the Veil is produced by "Xander Hayes" and Holosuite Media.
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Dex-y's Midnight Runners
After yesterday's rant, it took Scooter and me almost two hours early yesterday evening running down Incognito for the Head-O-Lantern (shown above) which completed our Samhain 2012 achievements. I found a map online, marked the spots on my own in-game map, and just started running around the circuit. Eventually I found him, not far from where Scooterz had parked Dex-y, actually. On the one hand, it's awesome that Funcom didn't make last year's achievements "feats of strength," and unobtainable to newer players and veterans who were lackadaisical. On the other hand, the costume reward for the Hop-tu-naa, Trol-la-laa meta-achievement is the same Baron Samedi outfit you get for completing the Cat God mission chain, which is part of the meta-achievement. In other words, no reward at all.
As we waited for the usual suspects to log on, we found a few straggling lore pieces in Kingsmouth and Savage Coast (with the help of unfair.co). As detailed by Tententacles, there were again enough folks to split into two groups and run NM Cat God. Our group (Syp, Mogsy, Mr.Mogsy, and us) managed two full runs, in which I obtained the Amethyst Mouser, and Scooterz rounded out Dex-y's weapon set with a 10.1 Assault Rifle (having gotten purple Pistols on a prior run. Unfortunately, on our third run, a major lag spike during the third and final Cat Sidhe phase ended with a server kick, and we were booted to the outer world.
No one from our group was interested in another attempt, so we reorganized the groups into a run at The Ankh Elite and a NM Filth run. Dex-y and Dortmunder still need several Elite instances before we can take a run at Oscar, and our fellow Knights of Mercy were happy to help us out (I think). In any event, it was the smoothest Ankh run I'd ever been through, with only a couple deaths and a couple full wipes. I healed on Dortmunder, with Mogsy tanking. Scooter, Maric, and Grace brought the pain. I picked up a blue Rifle, and a couple tanky talismans.
After that, we split up again, with Maric and Grace joining the Filth run and Mogsy—I'm not sure what Mogsy was doing. Scooter and I returned to Blue Mountain, where we are finishing up achievements; Dex and Dort having skipped out on Solomon Island as soon as we were able. In QL 10+ gear, even the Ak'ab—while a nuisance—are not particularly difficult to deal with.
Several ironies of my post title:
As we waited for the usual suspects to log on, we found a few straggling lore pieces in Kingsmouth and Savage Coast (with the help of unfair.co). As detailed by Tententacles, there were again enough folks to split into two groups and run NM Cat God. Our group (Syp, Mogsy, Mr.Mogsy, and us) managed two full runs, in which I obtained the Amethyst Mouser, and Scooterz rounded out Dex-y's weapon set with a 10.1 Assault Rifle (having gotten purple Pistols on a prior run. Unfortunately, on our third run, a major lag spike during the third and final Cat Sidhe phase ended with a server kick, and we were booted to the outer world.
No one from our group was interested in another attempt, so we reorganized the groups into a run at The Ankh Elite and a NM Filth run. Dex-y and Dortmunder still need several Elite instances before we can take a run at Oscar, and our fellow Knights of Mercy were happy to help us out (I think). In any event, it was the smoothest Ankh run I'd ever been through, with only a couple deaths and a couple full wipes. I healed on Dortmunder, with Mogsy tanking. Scooter, Maric, and Grace brought the pain. I picked up a blue Rifle, and a couple tanky talismans.
After that, we split up again, with Maric and Grace joining the Filth run and Mogsy—I'm not sure what Mogsy was doing. Scooter and I returned to Blue Mountain, where we are finishing up achievements; Dex and Dort having skipped out on Solomon Island as soon as we were able. In QL 10+ gear, even the Ak'ab—while a nuisance—are not particularly difficult to deal with.
Several ironies of my post title:
- The man who came up with it was unable to run with us last night.
- We fully intended to run past midnight, as we had last week, but only lasted until about 11p.m., our time.
- Scooterz and I were still the last ones online, which almost never happens.
Monday, November 4, 2013
Halloweekend Follies
After a yummy breakfast together at Cracker Barrel on Saturday, Scooterz went out "gathering" with her daughter for most of the day, which left me ample opportunity to run around Solomon Island and complete achievements for the Secret World Halloween event (a.k.a. Samhain). On LoneStarBelle, I hooked up with Galactrix, EmDash, and Mith to run a couple instances of the Cat God Nightmare (actually fairly easy), and then tried to complete the NM Filth run in Agartha (not so easy).
After Mith and Em took a break, Galactrix and I did the Spooky Stories missions. Try as I might, I can't think of a really efficient way to do those. Regardless of the order in which you pick them up, you'll be running back and forth across the island—multiple times. Perhaps this is by design, but it's a little out of step with the normal mission flow for TSW, in my opinion. Xander and Antida showed up to do some of the missions and spotted Incognito (a miniboss needed for one of the Samhain 2012 achievements), and we jumped in on that. The rest of my 9ish-hour play session was spent with Galactrix and Gigabyte, trying to get that last Bloody Pumpkinhead from one of the Trick or Treat bags for the final achievement LSB needed, but to no avail.
StartRant:
Over a few posts the past few weeks, I had a discussion with Balkoth about random number generation as a loot delivery system, and am at this point willing to concede that the current raid loot system in World of Warcraft is sufficient for their needs over there; though in the past, it was not nearly so. However, I am still a player in favor of steady, measurable progress in a game that reflects the amount of effort I have put into it. Levels are one way to achieve this. Tokens and other currencies are another. Dice rolls and slot machine mechanics are not. Turning a piece of RNG loot into an "Achievement" that is also part of a "Meta-Achievement" is the worst sort of Skinnerian game "design." And that's exactly what we have here with the Bloody Pumpkinhead—and to a lesser extant, the Incognito Head-O-Lantern. Killing a bunch of NPCs in Blue Mountain does nothing to increase my skill at my current "level" in the game (running Elites and Nightmares). And while there is XP to be had in doing so, it is negligible compared to, say, farming ice creatures or running the Issue 6 and 7 missions.
So there I am, like an addict in a casino, hoping for that rare drop; not even so much for the item, but in order to complete the Achievement—that is not really an achievement. Now, you may be saying, Dear Reader, that the effort I put in to get the bloody pumpkin is the achievement. But I will tell you why it is not, and why I hold the opinions I do regarding RNG loot. Some player, somewhere in TSW, strolled into Blue Mountain after the recent patch that fixed the loot tables to include the bloody pumpkin and got it in the first bag they received. Did they achieve something more than me? Something less? Did their speedy receipt reflect anything about their skill as a player or progress as a character? Would you consider a lottery winner to have achieved anything? No, not any more than the hours I spent and dozens of bags I opened reflect any real achievement. Receiving a randomly generated, low-drop-rate bit of game fluff is not an achievement.
Even when the loot is of practical value, like a weapon or other stat gear, I hate playing for the purpose of acquiring said loot. If it comes to me (or not) during the course of something else I doing that is fun, so be it. Doing something not fun for the purpose of getting loot is a grind. A chore. A job. Not a Game.
How fun is hunting for Trick or Treat bags in Blue Mountain? The second I got the bloody pumpkinhead (as seen above), I stopped actively doing it. Scooterz and I (on Dortmunder and Dex-y) did finish the mission we were on, and did kill more Kitties of Ulthar, and did get more bags. But at the end of our session last night, we passed them all to LoneStarBelle, who also finally got the pumpkin and therefore the meta-achievement. Tonight, we have to track down Incognito, who appears for short intervals in random places throughout Kingsmouth, which means another hour or more of running around, unless we get lucky.
EndRant
In the meantime, we made actual achievements. I did work through all the Samhain 2012 and 2013 achievements on LSB. In a 5ish-hour play session yesterday night, Scooterz and I completed a mission in the Carpathian Fangs, completed the "Jack-in-the-Box" and "People of the Dawn" achievements, and I managed to complete a Deck: the Exorcist. Scooterz has a couple more abilities to go on her Warlock Deck.
I set out to write about the fun I had this weekend with my friends and my beloved. But that would have been a much shorter post. I did have fun. I enjoy chatting and working together with the folks from BtV and my best friend, Scooterz.
After Mith and Em took a break, Galactrix and I did the Spooky Stories missions. Try as I might, I can't think of a really efficient way to do those. Regardless of the order in which you pick them up, you'll be running back and forth across the island—multiple times. Perhaps this is by design, but it's a little out of step with the normal mission flow for TSW, in my opinion. Xander and Antida showed up to do some of the missions and spotted Incognito (a miniboss needed for one of the Samhain 2012 achievements), and we jumped in on that. The rest of my 9ish-hour play session was spent with Galactrix and Gigabyte, trying to get that last Bloody Pumpkinhead from one of the Trick or Treat bags for the final achievement LSB needed, but to no avail.
Over a few posts the past few weeks, I had a discussion with Balkoth about random number generation as a loot delivery system, and am at this point willing to concede that the current raid loot system in World of Warcraft is sufficient for their needs over there; though in the past, it was not nearly so. However, I am still a player in favor of steady, measurable progress in a game that reflects the amount of effort I have put into it. Levels are one way to achieve this. Tokens and other currencies are another. Dice rolls and slot machine mechanics are not. Turning a piece of RNG loot into an "Achievement" that is also part of a "Meta-Achievement" is the worst sort of Skinnerian game "design." And that's exactly what we have here with the Bloody Pumpkinhead—and to a lesser extant, the Incognito Head-O-Lantern. Killing a bunch of NPCs in Blue Mountain does nothing to increase my skill at my current "level" in the game (running Elites and Nightmares). And while there is XP to be had in doing so, it is negligible compared to, say, farming ice creatures or running the Issue 6 and 7 missions.
So there I am, like an addict in a casino, hoping for that rare drop; not even so much for the item, but in order to complete the Achievement—that is not really an achievement. Now, you may be saying, Dear Reader, that the effort I put in to get the bloody pumpkin is the achievement. But I will tell you why it is not, and why I hold the opinions I do regarding RNG loot. Some player, somewhere in TSW, strolled into Blue Mountain after the recent patch that fixed the loot tables to include the bloody pumpkin and got it in the first bag they received. Did they achieve something more than me? Something less? Did their speedy receipt reflect anything about their skill as a player or progress as a character? Would you consider a lottery winner to have achieved anything? No, not any more than the hours I spent and dozens of bags I opened reflect any real achievement. Receiving a randomly generated, low-drop-rate bit of game fluff is not an achievement.
Even when the loot is of practical value, like a weapon or other stat gear, I hate playing for the purpose of acquiring said loot. If it comes to me (or not) during the course of something else I doing that is fun, so be it. Doing something not fun for the purpose of getting loot is a grind. A chore. A job. Not a Game.
EndRant
In the meantime, we made actual achievements. I did work through all the Samhain 2012 and 2013 achievements on LSB. In a 5ish-hour play session yesterday night, Scooterz and I completed a mission in the Carpathian Fangs, completed the "Jack-in-the-Box" and "People of the Dawn" achievements, and I managed to complete a Deck: the Exorcist. Scooterz has a couple more abilities to go on her Warlock Deck.
I set out to write about the fun I had this weekend with my friends and my beloved. But that would have been a much shorter post. I did have fun. I enjoy chatting and working together with the folks from BtV and my best friend, Scooterz.
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