#I’ve never played an mmo before

[emet-selch-apologist]

I told my friends that I didn’t know how to swap hot bars and that I just click most of my buttons with my mouse and I got roasted

[fithragaer]

I think one of the things ESO does right is bringing back random shit from pre-oblivion TES games, like dungeons from Arena or beasts from the fucking Nokia mobile games

[alkasden]

Respond to the following prompts out of character, then tag others you'd like to get to know a little bit better.

Roleplayer name: Nine

Roleplayer pronouns: She/Her

Muse name(s): Alkas & Imp Nine (TBA) / Rosie (In another blog)

▼ More under the cut cause this is a bit long.

Preferred communication: Tumblr. Unless we plot some stuff together and I’m comfortable with you then I’d move to discord but often I won’t initiate on friend requests cause I’m shy. You'll likely have to be the one to send it or bring it up.

Experience: Been on and off RPing since I was able to type on a PC, so a bit over 20+ years ranging from chatrooms to paragraph forums to MMOs to Discord to Tumblr and even some VR thrown in there. Though I’ve helped run a lot of writing groups, I led one for several years that I retired from which was aimed at helping newer RPers learn the ropes based out of an MMO. My reasoning for retiring was simply a lot of pressure as it was around 500+ members at the time and my interest in the MMO was dying out. Though I’ve recently returned to Tumblr, before the nsfw purge I ran fanfiction and headcanon blogs for various fandoms and some light RPing. So I have a lot of scattered experience in fandoms and OC works.

Preferred roleplay type: I’m very flexible honestly as I’ll mirror who I’m vibing with whether it be just dialogue back and forth or paragraphs or even novellas! I don’t mind mixing up genres either as they are welcome to respond to me at their preferred type even if I’m not matching though I’ll often try to match to not pressure them.

Pet peeves & dealbreakers: Honestly, after leading a group of teaching beginners in writing there is not a lot that bothers me. I think a pet peeve I could say that really irks me is metagaming in the sense of not letting me play my character at all and basically writing out all my character’s actions for me unless discussed upon ooc for that scene.

Deal breakers for me are pretty common ones found in roleplaying. I will not tolerate someone claiming exclusivity over me as an RP partner and not allowing me to RP with others. I also tend to play combative or villain characters so someone forcing me to change them just so they can interact is really not something I can do with the exception of censoring certain topics or content for the sake of ooc comfort!

Loose example: I will not make my character nicer just so you can bang them (this one comes from the experience of being asked this more than once in past experiences before Alkas). Gotta earn that development if you want it. Otherwise, I’m all for toxic dynamics and bad endings.~

Other than that, making sure there’s a clear line between IC and OOC is a must. I am not my character and I will dip into themes I do not always see as okay morally.

Best time to write: I work as a 24/7 in-home caregiver, so honestly anytime is good for me. I have to occasionally leave my PC unexpectedly as I’m always on call and I also am awake at odd hours that shift everyday, so I cannot predict a schedule.

Are you like your muse? Personality wise? Heck no, Alkas is almost my polar opposite which is partially the intention. She’s very rude and abrasive and combative to the point she’s unreasonable and aggressively insecure. I think I would cry if I ever acted like she does to another person.

Of course, there are some parts of myself I have in her personality like we’re both Aromantic (though she’s Hypersexual on top of that and I’m Asexual (sex-positive). We both tend to be really awkward when it comes to actual friendships and keeping up with them, too. I also did put her living life close to mine since it was a RL reference just to make it easier on myself in her birthplace and ethnicity. Though I don’t know a lot about motorcycles, I certainly am going to be getting one soon and of course, I love greasers.

Physical wise? I shamefully admit her human form (and body type) is greatly based on myself. You never see it though, so it’s fineee.

For my imp, she's the gremlin that lives in my head based on intrusive and impulsive thoughts. For Rosie, I just try to stick to canon, so kinda in the kind motherly vibe cause people sometimes say I'm like that I guess?

Tagged by: @the-delightful-temptation (Thankies for the tag!)

Tagging: ANYONE THAT SEES THIS cause I’m too shy to tag anyone aaa!! -hides-

[lestcat-de-lioncourt]

So elated Yamada-kun to Lv999 no Koi wo Suru/My Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lv999/山田くんとLv999の恋をする is out, aired to the public in Spring of this year, 2023, through Madhouse studios, one of my favourites for a series.

I watched a few episodes before I decided to wait till it was mostly/totally released so I could sit and watch it in one stint. Yesterday I gave in hahaha.

I am most pleased. It’s the first anime released about a manga I’ve read since I returned to immersing myself into manga just over a year ago once again. I usually read a lot of not super popular mangas which never see the screens unfortunately despite being beautiful stories in the rough. As I thought, I’m very much enjoying it so far.

If you’re into anime, you’ve probably seen a fair few memes of Yamada already during the one scene he turns away from the computer. The most amusing one to me, was this one, as I’m also a big gamer of Genshin this was a funny joke between me and my partner.

I still can’t get over the scenario where he just starts totally choking on cup ramen in the manga, and I hope that doesn’t get forgetting. Because yeah, very relatable. Introvert gamer eating and choking on noodles, disaster. How he’s like socially I understand, I like the character, Akane is always very kinda despite some ways she gets treat and I think that’s quite brave but I wish she would stand up for herself more! The time with the fan incident was so sad, and such a real thing to be wary about even though she was set up. I cannot everr forgive that lil’ wet wipe Runa for doing that to her. She totally got my goat when that happened, idc. Her excuse is she’s younger and lonely and immature but.. that doesn’t cut it for me, there’s no excuse to do that but I’m glad she felt guilty and apologised as y’know, I thought she definitely never would when reading the manga.

Eita is so camp I love him, and when he goes angry face at Runa, we know shiz gonna go down as he’s usually like ^-^^^.

Let’s just say, Takezou, is, just, adorable. I’m very glad there’s representation for the older gaming community which very much exists, not only for the fact many avid gamers from when games started releasing still very much have been around this whole time since those days and have a lot of experience! Even if you can’t do big tournaments as easy the older you get, a lot of older gamers get ignored or forgetting and it’s associated with only being a young people thing.

Synopsis

After her boyfriend breaks up with her for another girl, college student Akane Kinoshita wrestles with a broken heart and the memories he left behind. Loading up Forest of Savior, the MMO they used to play together, she forms a plan to get back at her ex-boyfriend through an in-person event for the game. In the process, she runs into someone unexpected: Akito Yamada, a gaming legend who just happens to be her guildmate.

Desperate for support, Akane ropes the asocial Yamada into helping with her scheme and lending her a shoulder to cry on. The differences between Akane and Yamada soon become apparent as they spend time together, yet they cannot help but notice each other's inner qualities. As the two gain more experience with one another in and out of the game, their tentative acquaintance may level up in a way neither expects.

Producers: Aniplex, Movic, Tokyo MX, BS11, Egg Firm, Kadokawa, COMICSMART

Genre: Romance

Theme: Video Game

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

[nian-7]

hello, i hope you’re having a great day!! could i request a romantic matchup for pjsk and hypmic?

i go by T, i’m a virgo, and my mbti is INTP-T

i like all kinds of art (visual arts, music, dancing) and i love video games! i mostly play rpgs and rhythm games!

i don’t like people who can never act serious and take responsibility. i also don’t like people who draw to much attention unnecessarily cause i’m pretty shy and get embarrassed easily 😓

i have trouble taking the first step to become friends with anyone, but once i get close to someone i love to spend time with them. i could talk with someone i like for hours.

while i am introverted, i like going out and exploring as long as random people aren’t paying a ton of attention to me. i guess i like to be a bystander.

with the people i’m close to, i always want to be there for them if they need me and i rarely get angry or annoyed.

(i hope this is enough for a matchup! i’ve never really made a request before, but you put so much thought into your work so i thought this would be fun. thank you so much!)

hi, T! i hope you like your matchup!

I match you with...

Nene Kusanagi!

-Nene doesn't draw much attention either and so you both have that going! She's able to act serious and once you get through to her and actually start dating, she'll show a more soft side that's behind her more seriousness.

-Both of you are introverts so it might be hard to even really 'meet' unless it was through a mutual friend like Rui. It was probably a bit awkward at first since it would take the two of you a while to warm up.

-You and Nene could both play some video games together! Maybe a new mmo came out that you're both interested in. Or maybe you both just want to play singleplayer. Either way, she enjoys talking about whatever games it might be.

I match you with...

Ichiro Yamada!

-I was going to match you with Sasara but, the big thing there was I could see way too many situations where he'd draw unnecessary attention thus here we have Ichiro!

-Ichiro can be playful or lighthearted a lot but, part of the reason I matched you with him was because he knows when to be serious but he also knows how to be more playful!

-He'll be like your extroverted boyfriend and introduce you to his friends and brothers while being there in case you get too shy to talk to them.

-Although Ichiro does draw some attention in Ikebukuro, he hopes you don't mind too much and can get used to it so you both are able to go out on dates a lot!

[box-bunny-grey]

A Washed Up WoW Raider (from original release Cataclysm) Decides to Dip His Toes into FFXIV Savage Raiding and fails to clear an Ultimate

“This is a pretty easy raid tier.”

Had a subject I decided to write another mostly unedited blog post about. Let’s see how it goes!

So, since I started playing FFXIV I’ve been avoiding high end raiding. After having just completely burnt out on serious content in WoW a while back but still enjoying MMOs I’ve been trying my best to do so. Having felt Heavensward be the point where I still felt the toxic WoW player in me before that finally bled out probably around mid-Stormblood, I’ve been enjoying finding what I can to do. But on occasion I have dipped my toes into Extremes, and that’s always when a boss “hits me” right. Like something about the fight or the aesthetic gets me. Susano’s sword qte got me to clear it on extreme while still ‘current’ content, while the hectic nature of Barbariccia’s fight made me want to try it. But I never tried a savage because well, top content. After all, none of the tiers really spoke to me with their normal mode fights. But when Arcadion came out I just felt something click in. Something in me found the whole tournament arc, each boss having a separate theme, being voiced, and just the implication of what the tactics for savage could be. So I decided to take the plunge.

And decide fuck it, let’s make it a whole blog post because it might be fun.

Black Cat: the guild officer in me rears his ugly head

So, when I was first trying this fight I told some friends who said “Hey, let’s get together some other friends to do it for the hell of it!” So I decided why not? Dedicated people, probably better than party finder. So I waited to see if someone would say something since I figured someone else was ‘leading.’ Well waited a couple weeks and nothing came of it, so I decided you know what. I’ll say a day, see if people want to do it. Sure enough the group members we had were all available so we went with it and…

Got in a single pull in which we wiped on the first mechanic before we quit. So. That sucked. And that should have been it but instead I started to have thoughts. “Oh the schedule’s all fucked.” “I let the group down.” “The guild leader’s going to kill… The guild leader?”

So.

Turns out I may have been affected by my time as a guild officer in WoW having a guild leader who expected a lot more out of me than you should trust someone at that age and would chastise me hard for any mistake I made in leading the b team raids and would do things like guilt trip me into doing heroic content even after I said I was burnt out and needed a break and would then chastise me for fucking up on content I told him I didn’t have the fortitude for anymore. Then would talk down to me when I got rightfully mad because he wasn’t respecting my decision to not try serious content for a bit!

But thankfully a friend from that group was kind enough to hear me out and let me know “This has nothing to do with being a grown-ass man shit like that can fuck you up.” And I think having that moment helped me because.

I then tried it again on my own after leaving the pseudo-static to try it on my own. And I found that I can at least handle long prog parties if I have the time set aside!

Because I was there for 4 hours.

Very funny thing, I was told after a few pulls to go off tank because apparently my invincibility button wouldn’t be up for Raining Cats if I did the thing every group did where you used the button on the first tank buster.

We never made it to Raining Cats.

I don’t even think we made it past Mouser 2.

But I stayed with it, even when we had the group seem to break up temporarily. But due to it I had to eat a late dinner while I waited. The night ended with me hearing the group leader complain to me about how their boyfriend and other raiders had decided to make a static without them and while a nice conversation. Kind of an odd thing to just tell a random person from party finder.

But even though I could do it it got me thinking: do I really have the patience for prog like this? Do I really care enough about pixels in a video game anymore to commit to these kinds of parties that go nowhere? While plenty of people have stories of people who made long lasting friendships over MMOs I uh… Didn’t.

Most people in my guild were probably anywhere from 5-10 years older than me and those within my age group wound up… Not being great. Like a Warrior who would pad meters by spamming AOE on a fight in which doing so made us explode and for some reason decided to roll on a sword he didn’t need and when asked to pass it to the person who did decided to…

Disenchant the weapon and mail him the shard saying “Here’s your sword : ).”

So yeah, all the while this slow progress and my own bad experiences made me say something on twitter.

And a different friend said in response “Hey, we have a free company that’s literally serious savage raiders who try to help players who are new to savage.” So after a day or two of thinking about it I thought.

Alright, fuck it. First few weeks didn’t say much, tried doing more party finder. Then eventually I went into voice chat and talked a bit and eventually they got me into a group and helped me clear (Despite me somehow managing to kill the MT WHO IS SAID FRIEND by going to the completely wrong place). So I thought that was as much time as they could spare and I get hit by.

“We’re taking you into Honey B Lovely.” “You Wha-”

Honey B Lovely: NOW THIS IS SPEED PROG

So, at that moment I found out what Speed Prog is.

Speed prog is when someone takes you into an instance and goes “Alright buddy time for you to learn the entire fight in one lockout because everyone here knows what they’re doing.”

So not much prog story, but due to the above happening I FREQUENTLY forget things in the fight. So now even having done it a few times I’ll say that no matter what. Alarm pheromones gets me. And I can hear you saying “Oh yeah alarm pheromones 1 is bullshit.” NOPE. SOMETIMES 2 FUCKS ME UP. REMEMBER ME. IT’S SUPPORTS AND DPS. NOT LIGHT PARTIES.

Brute Bomber: The Frustrations and Limits of Party Finder

So having been essentially carried through the first two fights I was feeling pretty good, and decided to give a shot at continuing prog before I asked for help and first groups were pretty good, frequent progression forward to the point that I even made my way through Chain Deathmatch 2! Bombarian Barrage might still make me take a sharp inhale every time but I was pretty consistent! So I kept going and find out that…

Party Finder lies to you!

Fusefield prog? Nope, Final Fusedown prog!

Chain Deathmatch 2 prog? NOPE. Final Fusedown prog!

Fuse or Foe prog? NOPE. FINAL FUCKING FUSEDOWN PROG!

(Stated by a person who took longer than he cares to admit that it’s SLIGHTLY BEHIND THE MARKER for Final Fusedown.)

So I’m talking to the free company I’m in and someone says “Oh you’re that far? Just prog skip there’s nothing new to see.”

So sure enough I join clear parties and find that yes, the only thing I haven’t done is really easy and

So. Many. Are. Still. Final. Fusedown. Prog.

But again, a few members of this free company came on by down the wire and helped me out with a clear so I could be a part of reclears the upcoming week. Where I learned “AH ONE DOES HAVE TO TIME THEIR INVINCIBILITY BUTTON.” Good news, I only ate the last one and died rather than caused a slow death across the party!

Where I may have died and fucked up a bit but HEY FIRST CLEARS ARE LIKE THAT HEE HOO.

Wicked Thunder: Where Confidence is Born

So we’ve gotten to the final boss and in my first party finder pull.

And we die to the first raidwide. And you know what?

Everyone took it well! We just laughed about “Damn, that raidwide does need mitigation.” That’s one thing I’ve noticed from a lot of Party Finders, most people tend to be good sports and try to figure out what’s going wrong over just screaming at each other. Remember how I said it took me a while to figure out Final Fusedown? Well that was fixed because one of the parties figured out I was out of place and told me where I should be on the marker!

And boy howdy did I have fun with those early phases. No matter how much we wiped there was something hilarious to me about exploding during Electrope Edges. Even had someone who was out of place and overcharged me rage quit with this message:

But sure enough Electrope Edge is where things kept getting screwed up, and somehow during stacks I’d always find that things didn’t seem right.

Doing some runs with the raiding friend I found out “OH. FOR STACKS THERE ARE SET POSITIONS THAT AREN’T JUST MY MARKER SPOTS.” And through that I eventually make it to Sunrise Sabbath!

… I mean I was so overwhelmed by it I just stood in the middle and was definitely the reason that one didn’t wind up being a kill and I think shortly after a DDOS hit that caused use to have to stop pulling but HEY I CAN SAY I’VE SEEN EVERYTHING.

So I pushed on on my own and had plenty of characters that were on my blacklist temporarily. Some people bad, some people just obnoxious, and some that are wonderful people playing very well and making up for the fact that my dumbass died twice when I finally got that clear.

But I got the clear. In Party Finder. And I felt a feeling I haven’t felt in a while. That absolute adrenaline rush when you finally get a clear. The music, the tension, the closeness as sword quiver goes out. It’s that feeling of finally getting done with a boss and knowing that you are good enough at the game to do that. And as I did so I kept seeing that despite my zero parse on M4S, despite the mostly grey parses I had, I could tell one thing.

Wow I am better than most people in PF Jesus.

But what makes me say that? Well…

The Pain of Reclears

So, due to scheduling conflicts and one section later reclears started to not happen over in the free company. Which I was fine with might as well try to do them on my own because aftera ll everyone’s cleared this will be painless. Right?

Fun fact, when I did that 4 hour M1S party one of the people leading it said, and I quote:

“You guys are honestly better than most clear parties.”

I.

I thought he was joking.

HE WAS NOT JOKING. OH GOD HE WAS NOT JOKING.

IT’S FUSEFIELD PROG NOW THEY CAN DO FINAL FUSEDOWN BUT NOW IT’S ALL FUSEFIELD.

IT WASN’T EVEN THE HEALERS THEY WERE FINE JUST EVERYONE FUCKED IT UP FOR LIKE 3 DIFFERENT PARTIES AND THE ONE THAT GOT HIT 1% ENRAGE 4 TIMES AND THE RED MAGE KEPT DYING.

Also somehow the Dancer who it was being cleared for was the only one who didn’t fuck up any tactics which is really funny. They might have gotten a zero parse but fuck man good on ya you got your clear and you can only improve.

That includes me I had the occasional messed up Lariat/Dive because I forgot which he was doing I ain’t perfect buddy let that be the lesson here.

Funny enough, M4S was far easier. Party had a wipe (literally my fault can’t even deny I fucked up Midnight Sabbath and murdered my partner because I tried to correct and just wound up confusing him) but like we had a pull where nearly all the ranged and healers died and we recovered and got the clear with that one.

And I main tanked that one! After that one party made me nervous and even got complimented! Because the summoner kept dying (they were aggravated with themselves sorry poor guy ya kept getting fucked) and happened to die during Mustard Bomb 2 leading to only one safe party member which the OT took so I had the opportunity to HALLOWED GROUND AND EAT IT RAW. THANK YOU OTHER TANK FOR LETTING ME MT SO THAT WAS UP SO I COULD FEEL COOL.

That was week 1 of me doing reclears on my own and well. Boy howdy I have some opinions but the most succinct version of it I can give is.

Uptime Sunrise is the funniest, most worthless resolution in the game. It turns a mechanic that might end with one person dying if someone is a little off to one that kills half the party. If your leader has markers even slightly off it means you’ll be dying and not knowing why. And as it turns out if DPS is high enough you can just skip it. It serves no purpose but to be put into the mind of Party Finder that those like what, 3 extra gcds will totally lead to a clear?

My plan had been originally to just clear and be happy, and now I’m BIS and have the mount. So I suppose I feel pretty good. Good enough to have decided to help out with something the friends were trying to do.

Perfect Alexander: Where We Learn Hell is Other People

So, there’s a funny thing people do if you do savage. And that’s that they say “Let’s do an ultimate!”

At first I was apprehensive but decided fuck it, nothing ventured nothing gained. After all, the group seemed pretty good. All people who had been helping me clear or people who already did Ultimates. By the end we had about 9 people so I even had an out if I decided to leave. So I thought.

Well, we had the three greatest problems any kind of group content has: Scheduling, Personalities, and Desperation.

The scheduling was a mess at first. Members who were only available at super late night and at very specific times (if people even remembered they had to tell the group organizer schedules) meant that early on we had a Tuesday night hat lasted about six hours. That got changed eventually to spread out the raid nights a bit more manageable. Unfortunately as it turns out two of our members just couldn’t make any of the times so that’s two down. But seven ain’t bad right? Well…

Personalities was me finding out that two people who were helping me may have, in fact, been big issues in the Free Company for a while and that the leader had finally had enough of their bullshit. This is made worse by the fact that, when I can only imagine they’re being told they’re going to be kicked, they decided to make a post claiming that they were leaving for their mental health. A real scumbag move! So that’s two more down.

Okay, not bad, there’s me sure but we still have three people who have cleared and are helping and someone who has done ultimates before. We just have to find people. And we found two fills who…

Had never set foot in even a Savage fight before. To their credit, they improved fast. But yeah we started to hit a desperation spiral especially with the last bits of problems.

We could not find a Physical Ranged DPS to save our lives. The first one we found was a pretty nice guy, was willing to adjust his schedule to meet raid times and even gave us a resource I used to figure out some of the trouble points like Limit Cut. Unfortunately data center travel screwed him over and he decided to leave the group as not to force us to have to play by the whims of sever availability.

Our second was a guy who just lied about his prog. Just outright lied. Pretty much washed the night, refused to get into VC for a significant period of time, and was gone the next night.

Our ‘final’ person was… So you know that kind of person who talks when they get nervous, and just won’t stop talking? The kind you feel bad for because you know it’s them just trying to keep themselves calm but they’re taking up the entire VC and it’s getting a little distracting but you can’t tell them to try to be quiet because you know that’s rude then one pull they just mute and deafen themselves saying ‘it’s okay I understand this I think’ and then they wipe you multiple times because you can’t tell them what to correct in time. And sometimes they say things that makes it feel like maybe it’s not a nervous habit but they’re a really big problem person who’s self-obsessive and the pull is going and you can’t ask for clear comms because you have no idea if they’ll fold in on themselves or reveal they’re a giant asshole who was just waiting for a fight.

So yeah we never had a consistent ranged DPS and by the end we hadn’t even made it past BJCC by our last week. And our last week was. Bad. People not able to make it, clear lack of interest due to knowing we’re not clearing, and PUGs that were the absolute worst kind of player.

We had some very nice, very understanding PUGs. But that last week our PUGs were RANCID.

So unfortunately, all this is to say we didn’t make it. It’s frustrating but hey it was a fun time for the most part and I’m glad I did it. Which begs the question of the most important question in this.

Is it worth it?

It’s.

Complicated.

Don’t get me wrong, I had a lot of fun and enjoyed prog as I got my shit together and started to do better until we reached a kill for the fights. Frankly if you’re just going in to see if you can just get a kill and call it a day 100% go for it.

But thing is, I’m seeing stuff that turned me off of WoW raiding over the years as reclear nights go on. That kind of thing where you have no patience for people or the way you get advice is very clearly passive aggressive tone that makes its way through text.

As said in Black Cat I know this is all pixels. Pretty pixels but pixels nonetheless. And having not really gained much past finding out I have a weird trauma response to being in a leadership position in serious content from playing WoW I really don’t feel like having to deal with the MMO “and now everyone’s at each other’s throats because the one guy who actually fucked up isn’t owning up to it while someone else also fucked up and he’s trying to pin the blame on them.”

Don’t get me wrong, I think I’ll try to keep up with Savage content a bit. Maybe even keep up with TEA to see if I can’t get a clear and to see how funny it is with all the serious raiders more than likely doing FRU. Just seeing that the faces of raiding are more the same as what they were is something I keep thinking on.

Unfortunately, I’ve also become more aware of the XIV hardcore raiding scene. While I’m not a part of that boy howdy. Again. That sounds like every issue the WoW raiding scene has. Like shit man, I wish the worst of this was just people who clearly are too hardcore minded to understand that some things they want are things only they want. Now I’m aware of abuse and harassment constantly happening and man. Man that’s disheartening.

I’m here to play a game and people fuck up sometimes.

Anyways Here’s Some Random Advice

In general

You’ll die on first mechanic

That’s just going to happen. Raidwides that go unmitigated and wipe people, failed firs things. Give yourself the chance to learn and you’ll find fun in it.

Even if you’re a first time player you’ll find there are hardcore raiders worse than you

No seriously some of the worst people in some of my groups were literally sporting their legend weapons and titles trust me some people are just outright bad at the game because they try to act like the content can’t hurt them.

Try to be nice

I’m still mad about that fucking Viper getting snippy I will double the curse I put upon them just to be sure. Ask questions and own up to mistakes, practice parties know they’re not here for a clear.

No one will remember you (positive)

The people who will remember you are bad frankly are saying more about themselves than you. Like everything above, practice and improve and eventually you’ll get it.

And for Ultimate specifically

It’s a marathon, not a race

Expect these to take weeks or months. Yes you’ll see the occasional ‘I cleared x in 5 days’ or something videos but expect, especially if most of your group is learning, to be in it for the long haul.

As time goes on they get ‘easier’

Fun fact I learned: food and potions don’t scale with sync in XIV. This means that as time goes on these buffs become more powerful, and thus allow you some breathing room. No, you will not bullshit tactics BUT you will have some wiggle room with DPS checks and can have some screw ups with shields and such.

Just because someone has the weapon doesn’t mean they’re good

Some of our worst PUGs were people proudly displaying their weapon. Oh, paid legends you’d think yes? No. These people cleared. Multiple times. And they were frequently the reason for wipes due to not knowing their role. Or parsing. I am at a stage where I can honestly say I think parsers are the worst thing to exist in XIV, and I will always prefer grays across the board but a clear over someone greeding us to death.

So there it is. My bizarre journey of trying to see if I still got it, finding out I have a weird trauma response that I think I worked through with what they call exposure therapy (I think I’m not a therapist I don’t know terms), and then failing at an ultimate as I’m forced like a cosmic horror protagonist to see the truth of the World. It’s an experience! Figured the day before FRU was a good a time as any.

Thank you for reading here's my character on a capybara.

[quibbs126]

I just had this random idea this morning, but I don’t know if the concept holds water

Basically you have a game where you ave a main gameplay style where you go about the world and such, as typical, but in this world there’s also like this popular MMO game that a lot of people play, including a lot of important characters. So you have sections where you switch to this alternate play style of this in universe hypothetical MMO (but the gameplay itself isn’t MMO, since all the players are in universe), where you communicate with other important characters, getting important information and also getting to know them before you meet them in the real world

Oh wait, isn’t that like the plot of Ready Player One? Eh, whatever

I don’t know, it sounded neat in my head. But granted I’ve also never actually played an MMO, so I don’t know how it would look

[dokidokitsuna]

Looking forward to playing my first Splatfest ever! As you can see, I’m Team Sour~

I feel like I’m in a kind of odd in-between position; where I’m new enough that I can still relate to the Christmas noobs, but experienced enough to already have a solid playstyle and a few weapons of choice…and if there are any fellow new players following me or casual players who are just looking to improve, I’d like to share a vital piece of wisdom I’ve gained over the past ~1.5 months:

Find your comfort zone, and make it your niche.

Before, when I used to imagine what it’d be like to play Splatoon, I thought of myself as a ‘support’ player, who’d probably spend most of my time inking turf and helping my allies defeat enemies, rather than going full offensive on my own.

When I actually started to play, I did do that for a while (out of fear XD)…but before long I started trying to copy everyone else, thinking that jumping straight into battle was the ‘right’ way to play and that I needed to stop being a ‘coward’. Long story short, I got killed A LOT doing that (lots of unhappy memories with the Reefslider…), and I found myself getting more and more frustrated after matches, and eventually I thought “Y’know what? Clearly this isn’t working…maybe I should just go back to the non-confrontational approach”.

I made a point to stop using weapons with specials that made me try to get into the middle of fights, and stick with specials I could use from the sidelines (Tacticooler, Wave Breaker). Then I went back to playing like a ‘coward’...and I started learning things.

My first breakthrough was literally just learning tactics-- watching player behavior, and figuring out how to exploit it. For instance, when my team was getting cornered or otherwise unable to advance, I would use the ‘suicide run’: sneak around the side of the map and make a mad dash into enemy territory. Not necessarily to ink turf, but to simply get everyone to turn their backs on the front lines and focus on the intruder (who is always seen as the more urgent threat). If you can survive for at least 10 seconds, it’s a valid strategy, and doing this on the regular also taught me evasive skills pretty early on. When you’re constantly getting attacked by 2-3 people at once surrounded by enemy ink with no one nearby to help, you learn fast. ^^

My next breakthrough was learning to aim…which is a valuable skill that not everyone has, believe it or not. ^^ And as the person who usually wandered off alone to ink all the unloved corners of the map, I often found myself in a position to sneak up on enemies and quickly splat them when they were focused on other things…which eventually became the cornerstone of my playstyle.

At this point, I’ve gone back to focusing on inking turf and ‘Splat Assisting’...but I do it not out of fear of trying other things, but because I’m GOOD at THOSE things and now I know how to do them in the most beneficial ways. I’ve learned to ‘splatter’ enemy turf to slow down opponents’ movements and draw them out of hiding, and even to paint escape routes for struggling allies. My aim’s gotten so good that anyone I can hit before they notice me is usually splatted in 2 seconds, and I specifically target people who are preoccupied so I can get those kills. Yesterday I racked up 21 in Clam Blitz (a mode that, just last week, I was afraid to even try) just by doing what I do best and ‘assisting’.

All that is to say, what you feel comfortable doing (in any MMO game, really) is probably what you need to be doing; you just need to get yourself the right tools and tailor your playstyle to accommodate it. There are lots of types of skillsets that can be useful in Splatoon, and lots of ways to work with each weapon class (and Salmon Run is a great way to trial-by-fire yourself into finding weapons you never knew you’d click with…once upon a time I almost considered becoming a Splatana main). Just go with your gut, believe in yourself, and always prioritize having fun~

[break-between-the-walls]

I played video games! Not that series, though. Mostly MMOs. Chase mentioned recording himself play games- guess he hasn’t had a lot of time for that, huh?

Jackie laughs. “No… his YouTube channel has been quiet for a while. Stacy says that his fans are worried, even though she went onto his Twitter and said everything was fine. She… didn’t want them to worry.” They pause. “Um, I don’t play a lot of online stuff. Didn’t, I mean—even before the whole Psyode thing. I just don’t enjoy interacting with other people online. Games are an alone thing for me… except for games where I can play with C, like local co-op and stuff.”

“…I don’t… know any of this language,” Magician says slowly.

“MMOs are massive multiplayer online games,” Jackie says. “I think World of Warcraft is the most popular example. Local co-op are games where you can sit next to each other and play something on the same console or computer.”

“…I see.”

Jackie tilts his head to the side. “What… games do you like to play?”

“I-I don’t know,” Magician says quietly. “I don’t play games.”

“You literally just said you did. You’re doing it again.”

Magician folds his arms. “…didn’t mean to… Um, co-op sounds fun. I’ve never played one like that before but it sounds fun.”

[sodapaladin]

I’ve done just about everything I want to with my main character in FFXIV. I’m still leveling summoner, need to finish Bozja, and so on; plenty to do, but those can be done whenever. Instead, I’ve finally turned my attention to my alt on a European server.

Part of me feels a bit “guilty” when I have such a massive backlog. Why replay a game that takes my entire life to finish? But I’m really enjoying a second run through ARR, actually. I had never played an MMO before, so my journey through ARR was full of learning experiences. I had nooo idea what I was doing half the time, no idea which characters were important, which locations I should remember, and more.

Now I can see, oh yeah! This guy becomes important later! I didn’t know this guy shows up this early! It’s been nice walking around the zones I’m used to just flying through again. I’ve forgotten some of the small details of the world that captivated me the first time around and caused me to stay.

[talkinbouttinygames]

FAREWELL. - A Send-Off to Blaseball

I’ve got no way to put this that it’ll make sense to someone who wasn’t there. But I’ll try my best, because at this point, recollections are what’s left. The stories told – about something really, really excellent. I said it in my original coverage, but stories are Blaseball. The names and the stats and data are just the materials the fans steals to collage into a narrative of strife and struggle and the whims of fate and community, and it was like nothing else I’ve seen before. And I doubt I’ll easily see it again.

It makes sense. Blaseball in its entire run has never been sustainable in a healthy way. Despite being about as lightweight as you could make a kind of game, it just wasn’t enough for the fast pace. Things like the sun being swallowed by a black hole or the Grand Unslam are wonderful legend pieces, but they’re also proof of the game’s frailty, and the fact that they were embraced by the fandom is partly a stroke of luck. It’s pretty clear that Blaseball can easily run you dry—I myself was rather checked out during the Expansion Era, which I now regret despite circumstances at the time—I don’t blame the Game Band for deciding continuing the game wasn’t worth it. Maybe if the game had been drafted with sustainability from the start, requiring a subscription like an MMO and on a TV show schedule… but it was made as an off-hand project born of frustration at impotence in times of crisis for the sake of profit, a gift of the internet. The way it took off and grew probably wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t you could just sign up for.

Of course, “took off” might be a bit of hyperbole. It exceeded the Game Band’s expectations after they passed the game around to some friends, sure. But the fact is that despite the overwhelming love from the fans, Blaseball is really quite terribly small and niche in the grand scheme of the internet. It mostly existed on Twitter, a site whose future existence is a great deal more precarious than it was around a year ago. It’s very liable to become a piece of passing trivia, or obscure nostalgia, supposing no Youtuber video essayist makes a rundown that goes 7-figures viral. Obviously, as a man writing for a ‘zine mostly read by his patient friends, I’ve not nearly that influential, but I want to say: Blaseball will not be forgotten, not by me. I love(d) it and it opened my eyes to a wondrous form of narrative and I’ll be thinking about it for the rest of my life.

It was a game of rotten systems, about how disparate people across groups can work as a greater community in order to rebel against those systems, and yes, through rebellion be punished—sometimes dearly for it—but never negating the existence of the rebellion in the first place. It was a lovely loom for weaving sports narrative and the fandom (a good chunk of whom are not sports fans) provided thread with passionate fervor. It was a wonderful testament to collective play and the act of giving a shit.

I’d advise any Blaseball fan to save and archive (preferably physically somewhere) any and all Blaseball media they’ve got on their socials or elsewhere. Even aside from the now seemingly imminent Twitterpocalypse, the Blaseball wiki exists primarily as a way to dispense the events of Blaseball in a clean, matter-of-fact way. It won’t express the reaction tweets, the fan theories, the narrative as it was on the ground. (And for that matter, the wiki itself still has gaps with what is essentially a skeleton crew of editors…) Blaseball was ephemeral in its life and it’s up to fans to stop it from fading.

I am, we all are love Blaseball.

[feedback]

[macgyvertape]

I can count almost on one hand the games I have either pre-ordered or paid full price for (excluding mmo expansions): Witcher 2, Mass Effect 3, Witcher 3, Fallout 4, Dishonored 2, Cyberpunk 2077. I’ve never bought a game full price knowing there would be spiders in it and the no spiders mods don’t fully work, but Baldur’s Gate 3 is the exception. A big driving force is it’s really been years since I played for the first time a heavy choices matter rpg, and I miss that experience.

I’m a big fan of Divinity Original Sin 2 and what I’ve heard of Baldur’s Gate 3 from people with mutual media taste has all been very positive which has really overcome my initial hesitation because I played both Baldur’s Gate 1 & 2 and didn’t enjoy them, I even ended up rage quitting 2. Most of my frustration was due to the age of the games, aside from quality of life things, I really struggled with the combat and character builds feeling clunky and unintuitive. The tipping point in BG2 was when the main tank/melee-dps Paladin NPC abandoned me right before the Underdark and Mind-Flayer area because he disapproved of me romancing the lesbian vampire. Which is ironic given what I’ve seen of the marketing of Baldur’s Gate 3, maybe I can retread some of that ground and have a more enjoyable time this game.

[front-facing-pokemon]

pokemon unbound is a REALLY good romhack of firered that looks and feels like a ds game in a way! ive played it twice now its so well made also Uranium is a good fangame, and the devs are making another game that only has one part out but so far is SO GOOD called Pokemon Flux!

theres also a pokemon mystery dungeon fangame thats a big multiplayer mmo that ive been playing a bunch called pokemon mystery universe! although this one takes a while to get used to and is VERY different from the others. the combat and genreal dungeoning is in real time and a lot faster paced

i am very passionate about pokemon fangames

oh Wow you put a lot of effort into this one! let’s see

firered… kanto has never been my favorite. in fact it’s always been my least favorite. if it’s different enough, i might consider it. from a cursory google, it does seem Very intense and rather different. lots of things redone—practically doesn’t even seem like firered anymore at that rate. seems a lot of time was spent on it—interesting!

pokémon flux, again from a cursory google, has some Very cute new pokémon. i like these dudes. would love to meet these guys

mystery universe is indeed one i’ve tried and is one i was thinking about when i said i hadn’t played any fangames—it was my technicality for “maybe i have” but i didn’t consider it just because i really didn’t enjoy it that much. it felt very different from the reason i came to love pmd and didn’t really end up being my style—plus, it only has a native build for windows, and i wouldn’t touch windows with a thirty-nine-and-a-half-foot pole. of course, i could probably run it in a virtual machine or with a translation layer. i cant imagine it’s that intensive, but given i’ve already tried it before and it felt rather unpolished and too different from what i was expecting, i just don’t feel it’s worth it to me. i guess an mmo with a bunch of randos online wasn’t what i expected either

i appreciate your passion. i like this energy you’ve brought to the table it’s good to hear this perspective

[miloscat]

[Review] Star Wars The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels (Wii)

The waggle is what gives a Jedi her power.

I’m looking forward to Jedi Survivor, so I thought I’d knock a few other Star Wars games off my backlog before it releases. Starting with this, the final game based on the Clone Wars animated shows that I haven’t played yet (apart from an old MMO that is long since shut down, a mobile game that I couldn’t find a non-crashing version of, a handful of Flash games, and Disney Infinity... hmm). I’ve previously played Lego Star Wars III on both console and handheld, Republic Heroes on console and DS, plus the other DS game Jedi Alliance. The latter was actually the companion release to Lightsaber Duels, although they’re in totally different genres. This one is a one-on-one fighting game, mostly centred around the no-brainer concept of translating Wii Remote swings to lightsaber strikes. And, it was made by beloved Aussie studio Krome!

The game was in development at the same time as the show, so it’s only able to pull from first season episodes and the movie. The story mode is fairly brief but adapts certain fights that were seen on screen, with framing cutscenes made up of footage along with new narration by Tom Kane’s narrator. All the characters are voiced by their show counterparts in fact, and the graphics match the show’s 3D animation as well, so it’s nice and authentic. I would have liked to see more new content, but there is one unique scenario at least, with the final battle featuring an advanced dual-saber-wielding droid.

The cast plays pretty safe with the main saber-compatible heroes and villains from the show. Mace Windu, Plo Koon, and Kit Fisto are unlockable by engaging with the Challenge mode, but I couldn’t be arsed. The stages are fun with dynamic layouts and events happening, like droids popping out to ineffectually shoot at you, or bits and pieces exploding and such.

It’s really the core gameplay that lets this down, as waving the wiimote and nunchuck around just never translates to a satisfying and deep gameplay experience. There are combos you can do if you can somehow get the correct directional waggles in sequence, and there are technically dodges, force fling powers, and so forth, but in practice I got through the fights by flailing madly and spamming force attacks while hoping the bot player didn’t just block everything.

Let me pull out a few choice tidbits before wrapping up. I was amused by the tutorial, where Anakin is training Ahsoka on the basics; his fully modelled hands appear on screen holding a Wii Remote and nunchuck to demonstrate the controls, which of course establishes that they exist in the Star Wars universe. The characters pepper quips throughout each duel, which are sometimes surprisingly crass insults, and can be pretty silly when a character is versing themself. Finally I recommend inputting cheats to unlock the concept art gallery, as there’s some good work in there; I wouldn’t mind seeing a comic illustrated by the Krome artists in fact!

Lightsaber Duels works in theory and Krome did a decent job filling the game out in certain areas. But relying too much on motion controls is sadly a fundamental flaw to any game design. As part of the Clone Wars project they could have gone further in the game’s content, but it seems this was compromised by the schedule and even supposedly not wanting to spoil the events of then-upcoming episodes! An absurd concern 15 years later. Still, as a fan of the show I enjoyed the character interactions and how well the game fits the show’s style, even if it’s just a bit of waggly fluff.

[wandringaesthetic]

On the run up to Final Fantasy XIII and XV, I replayed the whole series sans MMOs. I absolutely the heck do not have the time or inclination to do that this time, but

If I finish Horizon Forbidden West in good time (and if I don’t get eaten by Jedi Survivor instead) I want to replay a Final Fantasy before FFXVI come out, and the options I am considering are:

Final Fantasy XIII-2: I have been meaning to replay this one for forever. I only played it once, directly after its release, and really enjoyed it. A surprising number of ideas and themes from the XIII trilogy have popped up in XIV (and in XV but that’s less surprising because of *~Fabula Nova Crystallis~*). On the downside this would be one of the less convenient ones to play. I think I would have to drag out the PS3.

Final Fantasy XII: playing XI really made me see how much that game influenced this game, especially in gameplay and aesthetics, but a little bit in overall feel too, and I’d like to replay this one with that in mind. I’ve never played the Zodiac version and would like to. The Ivalice games seem to have a strong influence on the direction of XVI, so this makes XII XVI’s nearest sibling among the main series. This would also be one of the more convenient games to play, as I’d probably play it on the switch. On the downside: I do not love this one.

Final Fantasy XV: I couldn’t tell you if I played this game once or twice. I honestly don’t know. (the second time would have been while I was pregnant and having brain/fatigue problems) I do know it’s the most recent one and that it has the most action-oriented gameplay in the series Until XVI, so it would be interesting to go into XVI with this game in mind. On the downside: this game is sad as hell and also kind of a mess and I sort of doubt I would have the drive to play it all the way through again.

Others that would be relevant to play, but I won’t:

Final Fantasy Tactics: again, Ivalice. It’s probably the best (?) of the Ivalice games (though my personal fave is Vagrant Story) but my first playthrough took me seven years and nothing in heaven or earth or under the earth could cause me to play it all the way through a second time.

Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward: Kazutoyo Maehiro, who was main scenario writer for Heavensward (and also ARR, hmm), is credited as creative director/original screenplay for XVI. When 3.0 initially came out I aggressively DID NOT WANT to continue my journey with XIV because the Coerthas sections of ARR felt very much to me like “are you, American gamer, missing your D&D flavored normal ass gothic medieval fantasy? have we got the thing for you!” and ugggghhh. Also it’s dragons in the snow and my fatigue regarding Game of Thrones was and continues to be infinite. SO TO MY CHAGRIN: Heavensward is my favorite FFXIV expansion. It somehow manages to be all of that and also peak Final Fantasy/JRPG bullshit. The Catholic elves got me, man. So anyway, I expect XVI to have a similar flavor. I will replay XIV’s whole main scenario eventually but not soon. Perhaps when the graphics update that’s supposed to come with 7.0 happens.

[barrelcat]

Holiday Pickups 2022

Happy New Year!

A little late, but thought I’d share some pickups from right before Christmas to now. 

I’m very lucky to be a mod of a great writing community on discord and this is the second year that we’ve engaged in Secret Santa across the server. @grimbims, who was my Secret Santa, sent me Hades on the Switch! I was also delighted to discover that the physical copy of the game comes with a code for the soundtrack, as well as a small artbook featuring all of the game’s characters. It’s also my first roguelike (again, recalling that whole “broadening your gaming horizon” thing), and while Hades is difficult for my novice skills, it’s a terrible amount of fun. I’m not too bad at it, either. I favor the spear coupled with blessings from Artemis and have made it just past Asterius on Elysium, but that battle of attrition always leaves me struggling to survive afterward. 

Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition is the other game I’m shuffling between right now. I had asked for XC3, but there was a mixup during my gifter’s order and I ended up with this one instead, which may secretly have been what I actually wanted. I know that XC3 is supposed to be amazing, but I like to get the whole story, even if the internet tells me that I don’t need to play 1 and 2 before diving in. I’m about twenty hours deep so far and can confidently say that I’m going to play it to the end. The world and premise are interesting, the characters and story are compelling, even if the dialogue is a bit painful at times (my writer's brain can be overly critical even at the best of times), and the gameplay loop is satisfying. It feels very MMO to me. As an avid FFXIV player, that’s only a good thing. 

I was excited for Harvestella the moment it debuted on the Nintendo Direct back in June of ‘22 (oh my gosh, is that really “back in” already???). Even though I’ve only dabbled in a handful of farming/life simulators, I’ve obsessed over the ones that I have played (minus Stardew Valley - I know, I’m awful, but it just never grabbed me like it did others. Conan Exiles, though? I lost days to that game.) The anime aesthetic coupled with farming and crafting in Harvestella spoke to me like a game hasn’t in a long, long time, and I knew I needed it as soon as it launched. This was later confirmed when I blasted through the Switch demo shortly after. As excited as I was, though, I’ve decided to set this one aside until I finish the first Xenoblade. Then I’ll discover what was really going on with those Seaslights. 

I played Fire Emblem: Three Houses for the first time just a couple months ago. The two weeks I poured into it were gone all too quickly, and while I told myself and friends that I wanted to do a replay for the other endings and storylines, I just couldn’t bring myself to betray Edelgard. After 70+ hours together, her character meant too much to me. Color me excited when I realized that Fire Emblem: Three Hopes was another story featuring those characters, but in the style of the Dynasty Warriors games. (Note: to be honest, I’m not sure what the deal is with the story, but I’m excited to find out!) So once I get to this one, I’m sure it’s going to be another non-stop ride. 

Not gifts per se, but I did pick up a Byleth amiibo with some Christmas Cash, as well as a copy of Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright for the 3DS from the local used game shop. I wanted to get a copy of an FE Fates game so I could download the third not-so-secret storyline to that series, Fire Emblem Fates: Revelations. If you didn’t know, the online shop for the 3DS (and the Wii U, I believe) are being shut down in March of 2023. Apart from purchases made before that date, nothing will be available on those marketplaces to buy or download. Part of a string of odd choices made by Nintendo, recently. 

I’ve been eyeing these books since the newest printing was announced sometime last year. Both volumes of the Encyclopaedia Eorzea are gazetteers of the world of FFXIV, and feature stunning art taken from the game. They’re filled to the brim with world lore, and remind me more of a D&D campaign guide than anything else. I have half a mind to use them to run a game set in Eorzea using these books as source material. Maybe then I can get my group to join me in the MMO. 

This mug is from Etsy and brings me immeasurable joy. It features a memed version of Gaius van Baelsar’s famous line from the end of FFXIV: A Realm Reborn and makes me cackle every time I read it. I actually received two of these in duplicate, a 16oz and a 12 oz. The larger has worked its way into my mug rotation (because we all have a thousand mugs at this point, right?), and the smaller has earned its place among my small-yet-growing FFXIV collection next to my handcrafted moogle (a birthday present from my sister). From his perch, Gaius will always be there to remind me to drink more coffee. 

Probably the coolest gift I received this year was an ocarina from the Nintendo 64 classic, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of time. I’m not sure if the picture does it justice, but the craftsmanship is stunning. The blue gloss is deep and shines wonderfully under light. It fits perfectly on the shelf with my other Zelda mementos. The box came with sheet music for several melodies from the game, so I’m definitely going to try and learn a couple tunes. Physical items from games like this are the best. I’ll admit, I have a soft spot for action figures, but having something tangible from a game world you’ve invested hours into is so, so cool. 

The final, and arguably largest, pickup for this update is a Nintendo Wii that I was able to find locally on CraigsList for a fantastic price! I didn’t have a Wii when I was younger (well, I did briefly… but that story might be for another time) and I’ve had one on my list for a while. Everything works, minus some battery acid damage on one of the Wii remotes, but I’m going to invest some time into repairing that soon. 

The seller lived about an hour away, so we met halfway at another used game shop that I hadn’t been to before. After the transaction, I popped inside to grab a couple games as well, including Nights: Journey of Dreams and SSX Blur. I read the Nights comics when I was kid, which were Sega and Archie Comics attempting to see if the series could survive the market. They didn’t, unfortunately, but they were a major influencer in my perhaps misguided desire to become a writer, so I’ve always wanted to try the games. As for SSX, Blur is the only one I haven’t played in the series. SSX Tricky on the GameCube was a gaming staple when I was a kid, so I couldn’t pass this one up when I found it. 

All in all, exciting additions to the collection with a lot of games to enjoy.