2015 is nearing it’s end, and while I’m not normally very retrospective, I feel compelled to take a look back at 2015. Everyone else is doing it, why shouldn’t I? The main reason is that there are things going on that don’t really merit a full blog post; all the little things that add up to a full year.
Computer Games
Computer games are currently waxing for me right now. I’ve been playing a fair amount of Guild Wars 2 and Path of Exile, while still keeping my EVE Online account active. I also recently picked up Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void, where I am currently playing through the campaign.
In Guild Wars 2, I have finally found a way to enjoy the game again. First, I’ve been doing a lot of exploration on my main character (Kae Listre). I’m pretty systematic in clearing out a zone, which allows me to get a feel for all the little things that are going on. The reason this is so interesting is because this content is deterministic (at least, I’m pretty sure it is, and if it’s not, it’s at least mostly so). That means that you can explore it and know about it – it’s not just random people and events overlaid on random terrain. There are interesting people to talk to, interesting dynamics between characters and groups that feels fun to explore. The other thing that I’ve noticed is that they appear to have made it easier to get to level 80 – this is important to me because I don’t like the grind. There’s nothing more frustrating to me than not being able to explore somewhere, not because I couldn’t reach it, but because I wasn’t high enough level – it is a total immersion breaker.
I’ve been playing Path of Exile with my friend John in the mornings on the weekends. This has been really fun for me for a couple of reasons. First, I don’t get to talk to John much, but I really enjoy hanging out with him. We’ve got a lot of shared experiences and enough common threads that it really makes me happy to do so. The neat thing about playing Path of Exile with John in particular is that we play at about the same speed – for me, it’s tough to find a rogue-like partner as Ian is significantly faster than me, and Jessa is a bit slower. While we do have different play styles, it’s close enough that I don’t feel like I’m missing out.
While EVE Online is waning for me, I’ve been keeping plugged in to what’s going on with the community and the game. I keep my sell orders refreshed so that the ISK keeps flowing, and my skill queue pulling in the skills that I enjoy most. I think the reason that I haven’t been really active is that I don’t really have anyone I can talk EVE production with while I do it. This means that logging on and doing it feels less fulfilling than my other options at the moment.
Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void is… …A bit disappointing. While the gameplay is familiar, and the story is fun, the DRM is buggy and annoying. At this point, every time I have launched the game, I’ve run into issues with the launcher, the always online DMR, or some other bug that has taken more than the energy that I wanted to spend playing the game. I troubleshoot software for a living, having to do that for a game I want to relax and enjoy is the quickest way to get on my shit list.
Wargaming
I did a fair amount of wargaming early in the year, but that has dropped off a bit lately (with the exception of The Thanksgiving Warhammer 40k Game). It’s been quite a few months since my Khador or Circle armies have seen table-time, and I still have a few models sitting on my workbench waiting to be glued together. I’ve already talked a bit about my Space Wolves, but I want to say a few things about my other armies while I have the space.
My Khador army for Warmachine is pretty much right where I want it (model-wise, I want to do some more painting on it.) with a couple of exceptions. I have all the metal and character warjacks and a couple plastic kits all magnetized up. I’ve got the full suite of warcasters, sans Vlad2, and one of each type of unit (which is all I really care to have, since I don’t usually run dude-heavy armies). I’m really looking forward to a couple of the new releases, namely, the Victor and Grolar, and I’ll probably keep up on the other releases as well to keep my army with the new shiny toys.
Circle Orboros has most of my unassembled minis right now, as I have a unit of Wolves of Orboros and Reeves of Orboros still in their boxes. I picked them up on a deep discount when Privateer Press discontinued their metal lines. I also have Bradigus to assemble, and a Woldwrath… …Those got picked up right before I realized that I had to ramp up for the Thanksgiving game, and I haven’t gotten around to it yet.
My Searforge Commission dwarves and ogrun are annoying me right now. I have a bunch of models that I bought used – they are already painted in a theme that doesn’t match my army, and they have textured bases which look… …good, I guess, for textured bases, but they offend my eye, so I want to replace them. Pulling apart bases, regluing, and rebasing a bunch of models isn’t something I’m super-excited about, so I’ve been avoiding this project. Other than that, they’re hanging in there.
Cygnar hasn’t really gotten off the ground. I know what I want to do with a Cygnar army, but, I don’t really have the motivation to actually execute – why work on a Cygnar army when I could be working on one of my primary armies?
My Firestorm Armada forces are coming together bit-by-bit. I’ve been painting these guys before I put them on pegs, so it’s been taking me a bit longer. I’m pretty close to having a completely painted Aquan force, which I am very excited about. I’ve also been picking up Terran, Sorilian, and other Kurak models as they come out, though not really doing much in the way of painting them just yet.