Category Archives: Uncategorized

Platforming and Why I Never Finish Games

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A week or so ago I finally managed to get my hands on Donkey Kong Country Returns for my 3DS. Being an avid Donkey Kong fan ever since childhood I was kind of hyped they finally brought out a new game on a handheld, since it’s been quite a while since I have seen a DK game that wasn’t on a console.
Going way back to the Gameboy era I really loved DK way more than Mario. The games itself looked much better and I felt like there was much more to do in the games. Like finding the “kong” letters hidden around every level. It was really hard to actually 100% those games and it seems like they made it just as hard in this new game that has come out.

One of my favourite levels so far has been the one depicted at the top, Sunset Shore, where you basically play with shadows against a sunset. The level itself is quite beautifully designed and in 3D it looks amazing. All of the levels look quite good in 3D and the gameplay is such that you feel like you actually move around in more dimensions than on a normal platform game. All in all I’m very happy with my purchase and it’s keeping me quite busy. I play on the train to and from work, and I manage to do about a level every time so I’m currently in the second world of the game.

Never really finished
The downside to a game like this, is that it’s evolved beyond merely making your way through the levels. I remember when I was very young and playing on my SEGA that the hard part about the game was actually beating it. You would find your way through every new level and engage a boss every now and then. I remember being stuck for very long on a boss in the Lion King before finally figuring out how to beat it, granting me passage to the last few levels of the game.
This was also an era where save games weren’t a thing, so if you shut down your console for the day it would mean that you had to start over from the start the next day. Ofcourse everytime you beat a level it became easier and getting to the point where you would get stuck previously wasn’t as big of a chore anymore.
These days however, simply beating the game is just not a thing anymore. I look at my Playstation 4 games and see all the thropies you can earn with those. Some are earned simply by playing the game and beating the mainstory, but others require you to do special things… which usually require more than one playthrough of a game. The same goes for Donkey Kong. You can simply make your way through the levels and consider the game “finished” when you have played through the entire story. However…
In every level there are puzzle pieces to find along with the letters K-O-N-G. Getting all of those, plus beating certain times on levels will earn you points towards 100% completion of the game.
Since I’m a perfectionist, and a completionist, it can be very frustrating for me to play these type of games because I actually do want to 100% them… But that will probably take me forever on some games (mostly my PS4 ones). So I’m trying to tell myself that it’s ok if I just finish the mainstory and I can always come back later to earn trophies or really “finish” the game… Which just makes me not play anymore at all after a while. I really want to play through my games though. I usually like the stories and want to see how it ends, so this year I want to push myself to finish story modes… And then I can always come back to 100% it later if I want to.

Minor tweaks
I did a minor tweak on my blog. I found it a bit too narrow for reading so made my two sidebars into one. This should hopefully provide for a nicer reading experience overall, I’m happy with the current design and layout atleast 🙂

Sunday Scale – January

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Hello everyone and welcome to my monthly weight check up column type thing. I’m actually not sure how to call this but I just want to check in once a month and “report” on how my weight loss is going. I’m planning to do this on the first sunday of every month… Which will also be the time where I choose to stand on the scale.
I don’t like looking at my weight, since it’s mostly a confirmation of the horrible year that 2015 has been for me, marked by inactivity, binge eating and lots of therapy. I’m slowly coming down from that again now though and am currently 70kg (as you can see on the picture). As you can also see, my goal weight is 60kg and with the rate of weightloss I’m having now I should reach that goal in +/- 10 months.
I’m basing this off the fact that I’m more or less dropping 1kg per month now and that is on a pattern of technically not going to the gym and only on the activity I get on my workdays. I’m hoping to start dropping more weight, since one of my New Year’s resolutions was to go to the gym more often, which I am actually planning on doing.

Reward System
To keep me motivated to stay on my path of losing weight I bought a few Disney Infinity figurines yesterday that I want to use as reward every time I lose 2kg. Depending on how lazy I am this can mean I get one new figurine every two months… Or one every month. I’ve packed them up and stored them away in a cabinet so I don’t know which figurine is which anymore, thus making it a true surprise when I open one up. Something I will absolutely share on the blog here with you guys! I’m really excited to see this through and forcing myself to make atleast a monthly update will hopefully keep my motivation high aswell.

Music Wars
I entered an interesting conversation yesterday with a friend after he linked me a videoclip by Limp Bizkit… Who I never liked. I told him I could find way better music than that and with that started a sort of musical War. The rules are a bit unclear but mostly it’s about linking songs together. This can be done through various ways. It can be the same artist, there can be words shared in the title but also more complicated links are allowed like titles sharing a same theme or songs being on a same compilation CD. I even managed to link two songs together because they were directed by the same guy. Oh and I linked Led Zeppelin to The Who due to Keith Moon basically giving Led Zeppelin it’s name. So far it’s been a really fun game which we can keep on playing on and off inbetween the rest of our conversations. It took up most of my evening last night, preventing me from playing any games. But it’s totally worth it having a night filled with music and fun with a friend.

And who knew you could ever link Lady Gaga to U2?

2016, The Year I Finally Grow Up?

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Before looking ahead to 2016 and what the year will bring to my personal life, I need to look back at 2015 first.
To be fair, 2015 has been one of the roughest years in my life so far. Things were looking very grim at the start of the year when I decided to go into therapy to tackle my many many issues. Mostly they had to do with insecurities that were my demons and were driving me insane. I spent a good year of 2015 in therapy, from January untill September and even though I wasn’t always happy about going, I’m really glad I did.
I have some demons I will probably never get rid off. I’ve been firmly raised with the idea that nothing I did was ever good enough, so whenever something goes wrong I immediatly blame myself and kick myself over it again and again. I shouldn’t do that and I’ve come far enough to prevent it a lot now, but every now and then I still go back into that black mood. It’s almost cost me a friendship and probably a lot of job opportunities, but in the end I feel stronger for it. It was also the year where I was desperately trying to find a job and finally managed to get a permanent one in November.
For the first time in my life I have actually been challenged to manage my time better and even though the first weeks or so were panicky for me I think I finally managed to find a rythm that works and so I can start doing other stuff than just sleep when I come home from work.

I don’t want to look back on 2015 too much because all in all it has just been a painful year. Instead I want to focus on 2016 and how I plan to achieve my goals!

First off: The Weight Thing
I’ve been struggling with my weight for a very long time now and last year marked my peak where I was on my heaviest. A combination of not getting any exercise and binge eating brought me to 75kg, which is quite too heavy for a girl my length. Ever since I’ve started my job in November I’ve gotten a Fitbit and a more healthy lifestyle and the results are slowly paying off. Even though I’m not going to the gym as often as I should, I already am losing some weight and am hovering around 70kg now. My goal for 2016 is to get down to 60kg again and preferably a bit below. This means I will need to keep an eye on what I eat but also make more of an effort to go to the gym, especially on days where I don’t work.
My ultimate goal is to drop down all the way to <55kg but no further than 50. I have been down there in the past (about 3-4 years ago) so I know I can do it, it just requires some effort on my behalf.

To help me get there I decided to try out a reward system for myself. One of the game stores close to where I live has a sale on Disney Infinity Figurines and I’m planning to buy 3 of them and pack them up. Whenever I drop 2 kg’s I get to open one up and use it for my game. I really hope I can stick to this and that it will be positive reinforcement to keep on losing weight! Ofcourse this means I only have a reward for the first 6 kg’s going off, but I’ll think of more rewards later for when I hit 62 and ultimately 60kg. I want the 60 kg to be a big reward since it means I will have reached my goal then… Any suggestions in that area are therefore welcome!

Moving Out
The moment I got my job I started cheering. Not only does this mean I have a more permanent source of income… It also means I can start looking for a place to live.
I’m turning 27 in March and it really is time to get my own place. I’ve been desperately wanting to move out since I was 18, but real life happened and it’s been delayed and delayed. Now that I can start building a steady and solid income and put a lot of money aside I think moving out will be one of my biggest priorities in 2016.
This will mean I need to discuss a lot of money things with my dad and my uncle, mostly about whether I’m able to buy a house or that renting is my only option for now. For now I’m just waiting for my first real tax business so I can learn the ropes there and maybe get some money back that I’ve paid to much last year!

Other resolutions
Like most people I have to admit I’m more or less addicted to screen time. My job involves hanging infront of a computer three to four days a week and when I get home I immediatly transfer to another screen to play games. Put phone/tablet use inbetween and it feels like I am online 24/7. I want to try to limit this time by not allowing myself to take my tablet and/or phone to bed with me anymore.

Tieing in with this is my desire to finally get a healthy sleep rythm going in the first place. Going to bed early on workdays is something that is already happening, but I notice I just don’t get enough sleep. So I put an alarm on my phone that will go off at 22.45 on evenings where I have work the next morning, signaling me to close down and finish whatever it is I am doing and start heading to bed. This way I hope I’ll be able to fall asleep easier and at a more appropriate time so that I don’t feel so tired during the day anymore. Which also means I don’t feel the need to immediatly head to bed the moment I come home from work. If I can pull this off I will probably also feel much better on my days off… Which will help me be more energetic in general and pursue my weight loss goal by just going to the gym on the mornings I am off.

All in all I hope 2016 is the year where everything comes together for me. I’ve had such a shitty time last year on so many fronts… I really just need some positivity in my life.

Entertainment goals for 2016

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After writing my Gaming Goals list, I got inspired to look at other areas in my life and set “goals” for those aswell. I’m not a very big media consumer. I hardly watch TV… And if I do I prefer to watch a documentary of sorts or a football match while staying away from most shows and a lot of the brainless crap they seem to be enjoying on the telly nowadays. Every now and then though I get into a show and I feel like I should watch it untill the end… And seeing as there have been some seriously good shows the past year I feel like I can play catch up in 2016. And look forward to more series to come!

Lets start off with…

TV Shows
I’ve been an avid follower of some TV shows in the past. I think I’ve watched most of the Star Trek seasons of every generation except the original one. I’m pretty sure I’ve actually seen Voyager from start to end. I’ve watched all of Charmed, Buffy and Angel… Alias, Desperate Housewives and some Dutch series I was into. I also followed Grey’s Anatomy religiously, untill they decided to kick the character Christina Yang and Derek Sheperd. In 2015 I’ve watched very little shows except for Hannibal season one and two and Les Revenants season one. I’ve also watched some Orange is the New Black and House of Cards and Daredevil on Netflix.
Looking at what I’ve seen, and what I haven’t seen yet… I want to atleast watch the following shows in 2016:

  • Hannibal Season 3. This could be the last season? I’m kind of cheating here since I’m already a big way through this season, but haven’t quite finished it yet. I really want to know how it ends though so this is top priority right now.
  • Les Revenants Season 2. I bought Season 1 on Blu-Ray and am watching it in preperation of the second one coming out on Blu-Ray in January so I’m caught up again. I think this is one of the better shows I’ve watched the past five years and can’t wait to see how it unfolds.
  • Daredevil. I have the show on my computer somewhere and watched the first episode and loved it, but for some reason never got around to watch the rest of it. High on my list aswell!
  • House of Cards Season 2 and onwards. I watched the first season and got hooked but stopped watching some episodes into the second season. Now there are four and I feel like I need to catch up and watch. Kevin Spacey is brilliant in this show and the way it’s filmed is completely my style.
  • Orange is the New Black Season 3. Watched Season 1 and 2 and then somehow couldn’t get into the third. Am planning to watch it before number four comes out though. I hope.
Books
In the past I have been more of an avid reader and my favourite books were always of the fantasy kind. Lately though I’ve invested a lot in books about Psychology and Neurology which are two of my biggest passions. I didn’t get a degree in Psychology for nothing and the human brain fascinates me to no end. So I’m planning to read atleast the books I bought about those. Next to that there’s a fantasy series I wish to finish… Here’s the list!
  • Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks. A beautiful book about music in relation to the brain. Oliver Sacks has been one of my favourite authors and is a very well known Neurologist and Neuro Psychologist. He writes pretty damn good books and I’m very sad that he passed away this year.
  • Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. I actually know very little about this author but his book somehow ended up in my  hands and I can’t wait to read it. I have the Dutch version though and it’s quite a big book… But I’m really looking forward to reading this!
  • We are our Brain by Dick Swaab. Sorry for only the picture here but it’s a Dutch book. It basically discusses brain functions in a very funny and readable way. I ordered this recently and won’t be reading it untill I’ve finished a few of my other books, but it looks very interesting!
  • Laat Je Hersenen Niet Zitten by Erik Scherder. Another Dutch book by an author that is called the Dutch Oliver Sacks. He is a Neuropsychology teacher and sort of a TV celebrity here. This book is mostly about how being active is good for the brain and how to live a healthy lifestyle.
  • The Tamuli by David Eddings. A fantasy trilogy set as a sequel to another trilogy of his. I read the first one and started in this one. I’m a really big fan of Eddings and I hope these books are just as good as all the other ones I’ve read from him.
Anime
There’s a few anime shows I have laying around but never gotten around to watch. Firstly there is Elfen Lied that is usually a bit too violent for my tastes but nevertheless I still really got hooked on the first episode. I want to watch the rest because I want to know how it ends… However it’s been so long since I started that I’ll probably start watching it from scratch. The same goes for Ayashi no Ceres which has been sitting around on my PC for years now. Never got around to watching it and I really want to so.
Anyway, I consider this to be my “entertainment” list for 2016. It’s mostly catching up on shows, in the hopes that I can start watching the new seasons for atleast House of Cards and Orange is the New Black. I also still have the hope that there will be a fourth season of Hannibal… But let’s not get too excited untill it is actually announced.
This will also be my last post of this year. There will be one more “goals” post to follow tomorrow which will focus more on my personal and real life goals. It looks like I’ll be heading into a busy year next year… But I can’t wait!

Gaming Goals in 2016

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Most people tend to set goals whenever the New Year approaches, and although I have plenty of IRL goals to work towards, I also have quite an impressive list of gaming goals for 2016.
Are you guys ready? Here it comes. Remember. These are goals for the entirety of 2016 so it looks like a really big list.

FFXIV
Moogle
Get all my battle classes to 60. The list currently looks as followed:

  • Paladin 50
  • Warrior 35
  • Dark Knight 30
  • White Mage 50
  • Scholar/Summoner 50
  • Astrologian 31
  • Dragoon 60
  • Monk 31
  • Ninja 57
  • Bard 53
  • Black mage 50
  • Machinist 31

Get all 2.0 relics

  • Paladin
  • Warrior
  • White Mage
  • Scholar
  • Summoner
  • Black Mage
  • Dragoon
  • Monk
  • Ninja
  • Bard

If I get to finish these goals I’ll probably add goals for my Crafting and Gathering classes, but Battle classes take priority for now.
Onto the next category…

Playstation 4

  • Finish “Inside Out” playset on Disney Infinity.
  • Finish “Twiligh of the Republic” Star Wars Playset on Disney Infinity
  • Finish Tales of Zestiria
  • Finish FF Type-0 HD
  • Finish Witcher 3
Nintendo 3DS
  • Finish “Majora’s Mask”
  • Finish “Bravely Default”
  • Finish “Donkey Kong Country Returns”
  • Finish “New Super Mario Bros. 2”
Other PC games
  • Battle to rank 1 in Heroes of the Storm
  • Obtain all card backs for every month in Hearhtstone
  • Unlock and play through all adventures in Hearthstone
  • Finish Trine 1 and 2 on steam
  • Finish “Ori and the Blind Forest”
  • Finish “Ducktales Remastered”
As you all can see it’s quite a big list. It’s also something for me to refer to when I don’t know what to write about on my blog throughout the year… So expect some update posts on it!
For now I’m going to return to fiddling around on my tablet playing some Candy Crush type games since I’m simply too tired to do something else right now. I’ll try to push out a blogpost on the 31st looking back at my year in gaming… But no promises 🙂

Holiday Goals

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Typing this blog post on my tablet I realise how busy I have been over the past month and a half.
I started a new job in November and I have been making crazy days, leaving me to come home absolutely shattered and not wanting to do anything but relax and sleep. Even now during Christmas time I can’t really get properly rested seeing as I have a very full schedule and have to work a few days in between Christmas and new year’s eve.
However since I do have a bit more free time than usual I wanted to draw up a small post of things I want to get done within the next week. So here we go:
In FFXIV
● Finish off dragoon zeta.
● Level Ninja to 60
● Do starlight celebration on both Moogle and Cactuar character.
Other games
● Play through as much of the “Inside Out” plays et on Disney infinity as possible. Currently 3 levels done.
● Advance in Pokemon X as much as possible.
My FF goals have priorities over the other two, but I think only playing FF will drive me nuts. Plus I am not home all the time and I can take my 3DS with me on the road.
Hopefully a new year will bring a bit more peace to my life so I can start living more regularly and plan stuff better.  For now I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Where Did My Time Go?

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It’s a weird feeling for me. I am so used to doing nothing all day, and basically having way too much time on my hands, that actually getting cut down in time is harder for me than I thought. Especially on the weeks where I work 32 hours it feels like I just don’t have enough hours on the days I have off. Especially since I tend to plan a lot of activities in my free time, so getting rested is not really anything that is happening for me.
And unfortunately this is coming to bite me in the ass on the few days where I do try to rest and relax. I slept for about 9-9.5 hours last night and it has left me in a state of drowsiness and a nice headache on top of that. I guess I slept too long, or too deep, but it’s not really something I can influence since I actually slept all those hours. It wasn’t like I woke up after 7 hours, decided I could sleep in and rolled back over just to find myself waking up even more sleepy than I went to bed. So today I had a lot of things planned and didn’t do any of them, simply because my head was bothering me.

Maging it up
One of the few things I did manage to do today is obtain the staff transmog I wanted for my mage. I run around in Tier 6 (because I like purplez) and I needed a purplish/pinkish staff to go with it. I have always loved the look of Velen’s staff and decided to take the plunge and make my way to Shadowmoon Valley to complete the quest that awards that awesome looking staff. It’s the only way to get the model in the game next to killing Doom Lord Kazzak in Hellfire Peninsula. It took me about two hours to get there, the Cipher of Damnation and all it’s prequests are very exhaustive, but I’m super happy with the end result.
So I’m rocking item level 660 on my mage, with a Tier 6 transmog and that staff and life is good. Gold is flowing, and I’m having fun running content on a class that for once is not a hybrid.
On the Horde side of things I’m also leveling a Mage… But on my alt account. Sometimes I just really need to step away from the people I know. They are nice enough but I have times where I just want to do things for me and not want to be bothered and that’s when I retreat to my alt account. My mage on there (a very sexy Bloodelf) is now level 92 and I’m hoping to get her to 100 somewhere next week. This account is very much a fresh one when it comes to WoW and for once I would love to focus on only one character, so that Mage is the only one on there. I have to re-earn all my achievements, pets, mounts, toys and tabards but that’s something I’m very much enjoying. It feels fresh and new and challenging again, and way more fun than only hanging around in my Garrison on my main account.

FFXIV
I’m still leveling Ninja on Final Fantasy and she is close to hitting level 52. Due to me working I’ve not really had the time to run a lot of roulettes… But I am religiously doing the Vanu Vanu beast tribe dailies and the lowest level Hunts. Add that up everyday and levelling goes fast enough. I’m also slowly working my way through the Ninja relic weapon as a sidequest. I should put a bit more time in, but seeing as I’m still getting used to my schedule and how to divide my time it’s taken a bit of a backseat to playing World of Warcraft and Heroes of the Storm.

Speaking of the latter… I managed to obtain Cho’Gall via a friend. The champion is very interesting and fun to play with two people. Personally I think I’m better off playing Cho with that particular friend, mostly because I’m just better with map movements and lane movements in general. I know when to extend and when it’s overextending and I know how to be where I need to be. I’m not sure if this champion will see much competitive play. It takes very good coordination to work well and it technically takes a champion off the map. But he is definately a beast to play and very strong if built and played well. I hope I get to play some more… Assuming there are some people to play with!

My Other Passion

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I have (had) a lot of hobbies and passions over my short 26 years on this earth. I’ve grown up being a gymnast and a dancer and kept doing that untill I was about sixteen years old. I’ve tried my hand at horseback riding, but decided it wasn’t really for me… Although it did wonders for correcting my gymnast posture which resulted in me actually not have the hollow back you normally see with girls who practiced gymnastics for most of their child and teenage years.
Gaming didn’t really enter my life untill I was about 18 years old. I had a console at home and a Game Boy, but I didn’t play them intensively and saw it more as entertainment for when I had nothign else to do.
I have always been an avid reader and I lost count on how many books I’ve read exactly. I love almost all genres… But especially autobiographies intrigue me.

Being Dutch however there is one thing you inevitably come across when growing up, even as girl, and that is football. I grew up with a family who were mostly born and raised in Amsterdam and that almost automatically means you’re a fan of AFC Ajax. I had some very enthusiast cousins and growing up around men mostly I quickly caught the football virus. We used to have the channel that showed a lot of the games in the Dutch League and a lot of my sundays were spent watching Ajax play anyone.

The football fever in this country when there is a World or European Cup is almost unprecedented and I first got to experience it in 1998 when the Dutch national team made it to the World Cup semi-finals vs Brazil. I was only 9 years old at the time and the game was very long. One and a half hours of regular time… Another thirty minutes of extra time… Only to finish up with penalty shooting. We lost in the end and I don’t actually really remember much of it. Mostly that it was my first real impression with football like that and that I got to stay up way past my bedtime for it.

Fast forward to the present and I am still a big football fan. I still cheer for Ajax and the Dutch national team, and although they are both not performing very well right now they will always have my heart. Next to this I like to follow individual players and some teams abroad aswell. I’ve been a huge Zlatan Ibrahimovic fan ever since he played for Ajax and tracked his progress through Europe. For me he’s a very strong, very smart player. He is a leader in any team he joins and is able to single handedly pull teams together and push them towards championships or qualifications. His latest achievement? Making sure Sweden qualified for the upcoming European Cup by scoring all the goals they needed and carrying the team through all the games. Jokingly people say that it’s not Sweden who goes to the European Cup but it’s Zlatan… And I guess this is partly true. I have his biography lying here at home and to get a glimpse into the mind of a man who I admire has been awesome. There will also be a documentary coming out about him in a while and I’m certain to watch that one aswell. But for all the successes he has had, there have also been a lot of struggles. And it’s really interesting to watch the good and the bad.

Which brings me to the picture at the top of my post. I honed my skills as pirate of the digital seas and managed to get my hands on a version of Cristiano Ronaldo’s recently launched documentary. Ronaldo, like Zlatan and Messi, is probably one of the best players of this generation. Although he might come across as arrogant and vain there is no doubt in my mind that he works hard for everything he has achieved so far. Something the documentary only confirmed. Being an unwanted child (his mother contemplated abortion) and growing up to become one of the best players of our generation almost sounds like a fairytale come true. But ofcourse everything has it’s downsides. A normal life? No chance. He can’t go out of his house without people wanting something from him, even if he’s walking around with his 5 year old son and obviously wants to be left alone. This man lives and breathes football and has given up much and more than you and I ever will to achieve the success he has today. Friends are scarce in that world and trusting anyone is a risk. Not to mention all the physical pain he has to endure and work through which comes with being a footballer in the first place.
Watching that documentary only renewed my respect for him and players like him AND reminded me why I became a football fan in the first place. Ofcourse I hope that one day Ajax will have a star like that for their team aswell, but for now I’m gonna enjoy the few more years that Messi, Ronaldo and Zlatan are around to make football an even more beautiful sport than it already is.

Winter Is Coming

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As the days are getting colder it’s getting more and more cozy to cuddle up in a blanket and stay inside all day. Even on my days off I rarely stick my nose out of the door and it’s been very relaxing. So much stuff has come my way that just sitting down with a big steaming mug filled with tea and watch a League of Legends stream is probably the best thing I could wish for right now. No stress, no action required by me. Just sitting back and relaxing.

Overwatch
I managed to get into the Overwatch stress test weekend this weekend and while I was initially all hyped up for it… I have to admit I barely played. I did a few games on Friday evening to get a look and feel of the game and test out some champions that I thought would be nice to play beforehand. So I played Mercy, Klinkhamer, Soldier 76 and Widowmaker and after that I more or less got bored.
The game itself is fast paced enough, I don’t think any match took me longer than 10 minutes. It’s really chaotic and you need to be aware of your surrounding at all times. I found out I do better in supporting roles (Klinkhamer and Mercy) than when I need to fight on the forefront… But I managed to get some decent kills in on Soldier 76.
All in all it seems to be a very noobfriendly FPS, something that I really needed.

The one thing this game is missing big time (in my opinon atleast) right now is some sort of personal tracking system. You see your stats at the end of every game, but in the main menu you can’t see any game history or some sort of tracking how you perform in the different roles. So the only thing you get to do is queue and play and rinse and repeat this for the entire duration. Ofcourse me having to soloqueue all the time doesn’t really help either, I like games the most when I can share them with friends. But since I’m the only one from my circle who seemed to have gotten in, it’s mostly been a very lonely experience for me.

On the other side I’ve been able to grind my Ninja to level 50 on Moogle. She’s actually almost level 51 already and so very fun to play. The only skills I haven’t really incorporated in my rotation yet are the ones I got today (Trick Attack and Kassatsu) but I’m sure I will learn eventually. It looks like my level 52 ability will be one that is very beneficial for Black Mages (or really anyone who overaggroes the tank) since I can reduce the enmity of a single party member with Smoke Bomb. This makes Ninja even more utility oriented than they already were seeing as they can also provide TP for one party member.
I already have an almost complete set of gear ready for when I ding 60. I just lack the rings, a chest and some pants. I guess I really should start doing some ex-roulette and void ark on my Dragoon so I can use all that to gear up my Ninja who I will probably be rerolling to. After that I will see. There are still so many classes not max level for me and I had planned to stick my nose into crafting this expansion, so I might just see that through.

On World of Warcraft I got my baby Mage to level 100 and geared her up with about two hours of Timewalking. She’s now sitting on ilvl 660 and I do better DPS than one of our raidmages… Who sits on ilvl 707. Yeah he’s that bad. I really enjoy playing my Mage and will probably do a bit more on her over the coming weeks. It feels nice to be on a character that can only DPS so I don’t have to switch roles, only speccs. It can be really exhausting to switch between Healer and DPS all the time and sometimes I wish I never rolled a hybrid to begin with. But what’s done is done and there’s no going back.

I’m also enjoying playing Hearthstone and watching movies on my tablet as part of my bedtime ritual. I watched Life of Pi last night before going to bed and absolutely loved the movie. It’s so colourful and the story is something that is completely up my alley. I don’t fancy these high action movies much and prefer movies with a strong story or a story that makes you think. This was one of such movies and combined with the gorgeous effects it was definately not two hours of my time wasted.
The next thing I really want to watch is the documentary about Christiano Ronaldo, I’m a huge football fan and I think he works so hard for his success. I’m really curious to get a glimpse into his life to see how he manages all of it.

Finding New Goals

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Quitting raiding in World of Warcraft has been both liberating and a very emotional experience for me. Ever since I achieved max level on my very first toon in the Burning Crusade I have always been in a raiding group. I’ve never stepped down from an active raiding roster or guild and the only lulls in my raiding career have been because of inactive people which left me with no possibility to raid outside of pugging.

Now however our raiding group was very much active and more or less stable and just walking away from that has been odd. In a way it feels like I gave up on my goals for WoW (which was mostly killing heroic Archimonde before the next expansion comes out) and I’m struggling to cope with the sense of logging into a game without clear endgame stuff to work towards. Ofcourse raiding isn’t the be all and end all in World of Warcraft (or any MMO for that matter) and with the addition of patch 6.2.3 gearing up itself has been made significantly easier with the reintroduction of valor points. But for me it’s not about the gear. It’s about the goal that I had set when we started the expansion: to clear all endbosses on heroic with this group of raiders. And it’s weird to let that go, even though it is probably the best decision I have taken for myself in a very long time.

So now I feel like someone adrift, someone in search of new goals to work towards and new ways of enjoying a game where my entire career has been about raiding in one form or another. I think I might try to pug my way through heroic Archimonde at some point (I was a tiny bit too late with subscribing to FriendshipMoose unfortunately) and I’m sure I will see him dead somewhere before Legion hits. I’m also free to devote more time to some of my other characters that I personally enjoy way more to play, but that I never really got a chance to this expansion. So I’m levelling my mage and I’m planning to do some Timewalking on both my Hunter and my Warrior.
Next to that I’m also relocating my focus towards other games. I’m intent on getting better on Hearthstone.. Which essentially means playing more, unlocking all my adventure wings and keep on unlocking more cards.
There’s also the thing that I would love to get my hands on all the heroes in Heroes of the Storm, which mostly requires me to atleast work my way through all the quests I get and level my heroes to level 5 for the gold you get then. It’s a bit tedious at times, but I enjoy myself immensly when playing that game, even if I’m on the losing team. I just need to find someone who I can play Cho’Gall with so I can unlock that for myself aswell and then I’m even more happy.

The major thing I did, ever since patch 3.1 launched, is pick up FFXIV again with a fervor. I’ve been steadily working my way through the new Vanu Vanu beast tribe quests everyday (and am now rank five or six I believe) and am levelling my Ninja which is my new favourite class. Currently she is level 46, but I get some challenge log bonuses when I do my low level and guildhest roulette today so in theory I should be well over level 47 after I log off later tonight.
I haven’t really picked up doing ex-roulette again, mostly because I don’t enjoy my Dragoon as much anymore as I did, but I think I’ll try to make up for it over the coming few days because I want to start saving up gear for when my Ninja dings 60… And what better way to do that than with some Esoteric pieces?

All in all I’m trying very hard to adjust to a more casual approach of games where I find the fun in other things than endgame raiding. In FFXIV it seems to be working out well, I really want to level all my battle classes to max level and start on the new relic so that will keep me going for quite a while.
In World of Warcraft I’m sure I’ll find my way around somehow somewhere… But for now even logging that game just feels weird and I can only hope that will pass soon.