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#MMONBI completed
And the story continues…
Congratulations to all of the other members who have participated. Hopefully you have also enjoyed what you’ve contributed to our small community as I have. Please continue what you’ve started.
About a month ago while taking a few minutes to get caught up with my RSS feeds there were many posts mentioning the New Blogger Initiative. The idea to introduce new video game bloggers to the world had piqued my interest and I knew that I had to be a part of it largely because it’s something that I had attempted before. The experience from participating in the NBI has taught me that this is not as easy as I had envisioned the project to have been. Now that I’ve got plenty of posts there are a number of things that needs to be addressed. The design of my site, how I share my media, and more importantly how I represent myself to the public. Although the NBI has ended it is now my duty to continue what I’ve started and hopefully solidify my minor inclusion in the online gamer community as a casual observer.
RIFT: Storm Legion expansion
A very cool video, teasing the upcoming expansion for Rift. Two weeks before Tera’s release I had removed the authenticator from my Rift account because my intention was to resub shortly afterward. Clearly that hadn’t happened as I’m fully invested in seeing Tera through (I’m still incredibly excited about the game and nearly level 2/3 of the way to level 60).
With the announcement of Storm Legion and reading up the summary as to what to expect I have to say that my interest in Rift is once again piqued. Perhaps later on after summer I’ll revisit Telara; that is if I can pull myself away from Tera, The Secret World, Guild Wars 2, and who knows what else that has me captivated.
Forever alone
Not really forever alone actually and this afternoon I had taken the first step to address not being in a guild. Since launch day a RL friend and I have been playing Tera. Since then another friend had started playing this past Memorial weekend. While we have been content in playing as party members we have recently started chatting about being in a guild but haven’t invested the time to start looking. As of a short while ago that has changed as I’ve proactively posted a thread on the Dragonfall forums.
Now that the ball is rolling hopefully I’ll be able to share some additional tales of high adventure in Tera with guildmates.
I’m pretty sure that her armor provides optimal protection…
Looking fab-u-lous!
My current gear is a tad bit on the flamboyant side. Wouldn’t you agree? These games crack me up.
Tera – Sinestral Manor
Here’s an album that I’ve put together from my experiences in Sinestral Manor. The dungeon is laid out pretty well and has wonderful pacing. The significance with the second dungeon in Tera is that I’ve learned to follow the story quests that lead up to the dungeons. Doing this has opened my eyes on the lore of the world and gave me that sense that my role in this world is significant. In the previous mmo that I played, SWTOR, I didn’t have the same feeling, which is odd considering that Bioware is known for the stories of their games.
Click on the dungeon map below to see my web album hosted on Imgur. The link below the map is to the Tera website describing the story quests that lead up to the second dungeon in tera.
Under My Skin
For a week I was out of the loop and unable to play anything, even iPad games. So after returning home my first stop on the way home was to pick up Diablo 3. This post isn’t about D3, it’s about Tera. A game that initially I wasn’t too keen on and one that I was convinced that I would be ready to drop-kick to the curb and move on to the next new shiny. However, as I started to grasp the idiosyncrasies of the game something started to happen; I genuinely started to like Tera.
What is it about this game that has me so enthralled? To be honest, I don’t really know. The leveling and quest paths are such a grind-fest. They can be monotonous and rote with little to differentiate themselves from other contemporaries of the mmo genre. The zones are not as open and expansive as I would like and most of the time you get a feeling that you’re enclosed within a maze with no ability to diverge from the path to explore. The chat channels are filled with trolls lambasting on the failures of Tera and hyping the virtues of WoW, or they’re discussing the omnipotent abilities of Chuck Norris, or my favorite so far citing anything from reddit.
So what is it that keeps me logging back into Arborea? Perhaps it’s the discovery of something completely new. Of late I have been discovering the nuances that makes your character more unique by purchasing glyphs. This shouldn’t be a fresh idea since they are almost comparable to WoW’s glyph usage in that they modify and improve existing skills. For me to discover this at level 29 after they have been available since level 20 has been an eyeopener. However, more than anything it has been the story line quest chains that have me coming back for more. These story quests became apparent shortly after I had made level 20 and got into my first dungeon. Since then I’ve done the quest chain that led to the second available dungeon and am now on the chain for the third dungeon. What I’ve discovered in these story line chains is something far deeper than what I saw in SWTOR class quests and for me hearkened back to vanilla WoW when you would have to do quests to unlock your access to end-game dungeons. As I’ve done these quests I’m discovering more about the world that I’m a part of and my role within that world and for once in a long time I feel that my participation in this world matters. Whether that’s a sentiment that’ll stay with me until I reach max level remains to be seen, but it’s a journey that I really look forward to discovering.
This pose by the fire cracked me up. I don’t know what’s up with the semi-squat. 😛
Stay On Target
Lately I have been negligent in posting anything new on Aggrolicious. This is a trend that I’d like to avoid as this is a project that I’d like to see evolve into something special if not for anyone then at least for me. That being said I have to do a better job talking about the games that I play on a regular basis and my opinion on current news and trends. This is probably the hardest task that any blogger has to address and I’m sure that it’ll get easier as I start hitting my stride and truly find my online voice.
Evil Is In Its Prime
Now that I can dive back into my NBI commitment I can return to playing games from the comfort of my cool basement office. While on our way home we made a brief stop so that I can get a few needed things, among them is Diablo 3. This is a game that I had wanted to play for some time now, especially after briefly participating in one beta weekend. Those few hours playing a witch doctor was enough to persuade me that D3 would be a launch day purchase.
That plan to jump right into D3 was put on the back burner when I realized that I’d be away for my training and would miss that launch by a few days. Luckily (for me), the first day sounded uncharacteristic for Blizzard in that the servers were giving a lot of players fits and not allowing them to connect.
These days as a more savvy customer base for online games exist we expect a perfect launch. This was evident in Rift and most recently Tera. Other games had some issues, but none were really show stoppers. That was my experience anyway and perhaps I was more fortunate than some. What I will say concerning D3 having launch day issues is that I’m not surprised. As sensational as Blizzard has been on their IP releases they are just as prone as any developer in getting a product out that can have some bugs. Since that stumble out of the gate I’m guessing that a few wrinkles have been taken care of since what’s been on the wire has been quiet.
Presently my install is at 53%, and I eagerly anticipate my descent into the dark depths of Sanctuary.
And I’m back
The past week in Las Vegas was incredibly intense. The class would start at 8:30 every morning with a day filled with lecture, labs and practice tests. Every night I found myself up till at least 11 PM studying and then getting a few hours of sleep before the next day began. Except for Sunday evening when we arrived the rest of the week we didn’t leave the hotel where the training was co-located. By Friday that diligence paid off. I was able to successfully pass my certification exam and return home victorious.
Where’s Rhalinur
Today has been an incredibly busy day that started off with a parade to celebrate our troops. Afterward we joined them at a local park for hot dogs and snacks. After getting home I biked off to get my wife a camelbak backpack from a local outfitter store. When I returned home I had taken off again to get a few more things for my trip. Since the trip is to Las Vegas for a weeks worth of IT training where the days are near triple-digits during the daytime I picked up some new pairs of shorts. Coming from Alaska, the highs in Vegas will be pretty darn close to double than what we got at this time of year. Not looking forward to it. So, that being said I’ll be gone until next Saturday. For now I’m playing a final night of Tera before calling it an evening. Enjoy your week and I look forward to reading up on the D3 reviews. I know that next weekend I’ll be able to join you then.
Cheers!
Rhalinur
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