May/June Check In

Silvermoon City

 Yes, it's well into June but I started this post in May.

Three months since my last check in and really not much to report.  I have made a little progress in World of Warcraft. My house is now level 4 (thanks to my guild's endeavor more than me) and I've reached level 82, leveling up with the main quest sequence.

I just haven't been very motivated for gaming recently.  Still playing Logic Town daily and mindless games on my phone.  Now, with the World Cup on TV, I've been spending a lot of my free time on that.  Also, just generally tired recently.

Just wanted to provide myself a quick update.  I'm sure this will change with time.

February Check In

My House in World of Warcraft

 

My monthly post has now gone three months, partially because there hasn't been a lot to post about in my time gaming.

World of Warcraft added housing in December and I joined on the first day to grab my plot.  I acquired enough furniture to get the house to level 3 and then pretty much stopped playing.  I still have catch up to do to finish the end of the World Within Story and the Midnight pre-patch has arrived, with it a new set of quests along with the ability to level my alts more quickly to level 80.  We will see how much of it I get done before Midnight arrives in March.

The major change in my gaming life was the addition of a Playstation Portal for Christmas.  This is allowing me to play all the Playstation games I haven't played without needing to be on the television.  With many games available, the one I ended up playing first was Unicorn Overlord, which is one of the last games I finished on the Switch.  Since it's turned based, it's ideal to play remotely since performance isn't an issue.  I've been playing both from the Cloud and with Remote play from the PS5 and both work well.  There were some cloud performance issues during a storm but otherwise it's been great.  I completed the game after more than 100 hours and only had three achievements to reach my first PS5 or PS4 platinum.  One just took a few seconds (unlock all the unit slots, I only used 8 out of 10).  The last two were treasure hunt related so I looked up what would be involved and decided to visit one of the five nations daily until it's done so I'll probably be done within a week.  The achievement for 10 treasures unlocked after the first nation and I finished the second nation today.

I have also started playing Claire Obscure, a birthday present in January, but I'm only at the beginning.  It'll be interesting to see how it works on the Portal.  I also played a little of The Last of Us Part II and it seemed to work ok on the Portal as well.

November Check-in: Slow going in K'aresh

 

Begining K'aresh in September

It has been two months since I have finished Undermine(d) and I have finally gotten through chapter 3 of K'aresh and acquired the Legendary Cloak. At this point, I'm thinking I have too much hope for what Housing will offer on December 2nd and, although I look forward to completing the War Within, it is more of a waypoint than a destination.

It initially I was intending to alternate between my main character, Kanter and alts that I have.  I did this a little but there doesn't seem to be much experience benefit between levels 70 and 80 and there will be a faster way to do it with the patch on December 2nd.  I still might try to get two more alts to 70 so I will have 4 alts that I can pretty quickly get to level 80 and have access to most of the professions.  I'll be interested to see how they tie professions in with housing.

I've been looking for something else to play on my Playstation and Switch and nothing has been motivating recently. I briefly started Unicorn Overlord again but a replay didn't capture my attention either.  I am still playing Logic Town daily, which I'm enjoying and I may try to find another similar game, possibly Einstein's Cats, that I can enjoy in short sessions.

So on to December!  Unless I'm very motivated by some change in my gaming, my next post will probably be my first impressions of World of Warcraft housing.

World of Warcraft Undermine finished

 

On to Ghosts of K'aresh

So a couple quick notes on the new area.  What does it mean to have a apostrophe after a single consonant.  Is it pronounced ka-aresh? Or do they just think it looks cooler to add an apostrophe.  Second, the first quest is the normal learn the area and do menial tasks quest but at least they are honest about it in the quest text.

As I mentioned in the last post, Undermine isn't my kind of zone, urban areas being one of my least favorite types in MMOs.  I must abmit I'm glad for it to be behind me though I don't think the execution was bad, it just wasn't for me.  I'm not very good about taking screenshots but I believe I took only the one for my last blog post and, looking back, I'm not sure there were any great opportunities.  For atmosphere, I like all the other War Within zones better.

One quick call out for how they handled the raid. I really like the addition of Story mode raids with the War Within.  I think it is a good thing that the raids and dungeons don't just exist by themselves but in the context of the greater story and now with follower dungeons introduced with Dragonflight and Story mode raids with the War Within, casual players like myself can experience them without having to worry about skill or gear or insults or people rushing past the story.  Yes, if you want better gear you should participate in the true raids (though now Delves are another solo option) but I don't care about the gear.  I'd rather see it within the game by myself than watch a video, the only option we used to have if we didn't want to participate with others.

End of Blaugust, More World of Warcraft

 

Undermine, not my favorite kind of zone

Blaugust is ending tomorrow so I'll make this my last Blaugust post.  My goal was to post twice a week except for the week I was on vacation.  I probably missed that by two posts but I'm fine with 5 posts which is the Bronze award.  That's all I was expecting though it would have been nice to have one or two more posts like I planned.  I had two posts related to the weeks including a music post that I thought about doing for a while and was nice to get done.  This has been the first year that I've been going to concerts in a long time and there have been great ones within about a three hours drive though none of the bands I want to see have been local.

I did the next set of Undermine campaign quests which reinforced that I don't particularly want to spend extra time in this zone.  I don't think I've done any of the dungeons or raids so I'd probably like to do them either as they come up in the campaign or at the end just to fill in the story.  Undermine as a zone is fine in terms of quest density, I would just rather do quests in an area that seems more rural than urban.

I went back to Kantro to do some more quests and realized he isn't getting any bonuses right now other than the 5% of having a character at level 80.  I moved him to the zone where I plan on seeing some of the quests I haven't seen rather than repeating the campaign quests and did some mining which gave him some experience and will allow him to level his blacksmithing.

As a final World of Warcraft note, I really am looking forward to housing.  I think I only paid full price for one expansion after Burning Crusade, but early access to housing will get me to do it even though I realize it won't be fully implemented.  I've been in the same guild since beta in 2004 it has to be close to my 21st anniversary.  The original forum has been down for a while and the guild itself is pretty quiet both online and in the Discord but I still feel a lot of fondness for it and I'm hoping it can be a way we can feel more connected.

I hope everyone who participated had a great Blaugust.  I've only really added two blogs to my regular reading at this point, but I will still try to look at some of the new ones and add them to my list.

Blaugust - Creator Appreciation, New Music

Horsegirl - Phonetics On and On

I've been away on vacation for the week, but since I was only planning on posting twice a week, it hasn't really impacted my Blaugust schedule.  For three years or so, Spotify has gotten me to listen to more new music and this year, I've even gone to three concerts and have two more on the calendar.  I'll be posting music from 2025 for artist I've either seen, I'm going to see, or I'd like to see.  I'll include Spotify links and YouTube links for those like Blagpuss who don't use Spotify.

MJ Lenderman (and This is Lorelei) - Dancing in the Club

MJ Lenderman's new album came out in 2024 so I'm using this This is Lorelei song that he recorded.  I heard the original song and thought the lyrics were clever but didn't care for the music.  This version is so much better.  I saw MJ in January and it was a great concert.

https://open.spotify.com/track/2aFkH4wK9nZbgtmlq411f2?si=e564bedadb144229

https://youtu.be/7BUI9S6PEiI?si=GH94zex1DArX-VVX

Horsegirl - Well I Know You're Shy

Blagpuss included Switch Over in his blog, so I thought I'd include this one here.  The whole new Phonetics On and On album is great and they played the whole thing along with a few other songs at the first concert I was able to see with my youngest daughter earlier this year.

https://open.spotify.com/track/2t1PBeyHtPyGaHvxh3lLoY?si=d4d4ed8c9c5d447a

Unfortunately, no official YouTube version of this song

https://youtu.be/HkdLtb6Rg-I?si=7Sir4e1t0tr7xgBP

Julien Baker and Torres - Dirt

Boygenius was definitely my band of 2024, so I've been happy to listen to more of their songs both together and separately.  Was able to see Julien Baker and Torres at a great venue earlier this year. 

https://open.spotify.com/track/4joCdZ76bt2OQTqYMbizJI?si=22b2a3ccef864382

https://youtu.be/z9p13VpD3Aw?si=QkDiHBBaF7VAgvBv

Lucy Dacus with Hozier - Bullseye

Interesting so many of these songs are collaborations.  Forever is a Feeling is another great new album.  I love Lucy's voice and look forward to seeing her next month.

https://open.spotify.com/track/6hwzlorpMDQsHtIhwoNPP9?si=cf63e095157a4e4b

https://youtu.be/j8Hudcruuwg?si=4gPGFl8NdAS3RP9X

The Beths - Metal

The new album comes out in a week but three songs have been released so far.  I thought Expert in a Dying Field was both a great song and great album and am looking forward to the new album and seeing them live in October.

https://open.spotify.com/track/6KF6TkyYpEWKg6BZ3OYJz7?si=3b5c722ce41d420e

https://youtu.be/YrVEgP0LkDA?si=32cSTKKRKsZy8xGc

Wet Leg - mangetout

Blagpuss introduced me to Chaise Longue and that was definitely my song of 2022.  The new album is more mature but true to their sound.  There were several songs I considered but the clever use of a name for snow peas for which I wasn't familiar but this song over the top.  Though they are touring, no concert near enough to me.  Maybe they will add somewhere closer later.

https://open.spotify.com/track/5UW4tA4j23YL6kDfRw3rWT?si=3b85480909794883

https://youtu.be/ye1_CSuv5NM?si=2qCZjs47AULumpYV

I hope you enjoyed something new to you!

Blaugust Who am I? and more World of Warcraft

 

Xal'atath scheming as a dagger that my priest used

Yes, I am still amused by the fact that my priest in World of Warcraft was using the main villian of  the War Within as her weapon in Legion.  One time I'm glad I played as a Shadow Priest, even if she is one of my alts.

Before I get back to World of Warcraft, this week's theme is to introduce yourself.  I'm not very interested in introducing myself more broadly (and, it's a little disturbing what people could probably find, if they tried; I'm not at all interested in testing AI like Wilhelm or Bhagpuss).  For blogging, as I mentioned in my earlier post, this blog started as a way to figure out how I could transition to being a casual MMO player.  Over time, it has become two things for me.  First, it is a way to keep track of my casual gaming, sometimes MMOs, but often non-MMOs on the PS5, Switch, PC or even on my phone or tablet.  Generally these are covered in my 'Check In' posts that I try to do most months, but every once in a while I will include a post about a specific non-MMO that I'm either playing a lot or have finished.

The second thing I enjoy is posting about my MMO experiences.  I find the experience of MMOs more story-like and you end up building your own experience which, to me, is more fun to write about than other games.  Not necessarily more fun to play, just I find blogging about my MMO experiences fun and therefore I'm much more likely to post regular, maybe weekly posts, while I'm playing an MMO as opposed to the monthly posts about other games.  Also, although I enjoy having interactions with other bloggers, this is really for me.  Relatively early on it was about the larger blogging community but for most of the life of this blog, probably at least the last 10 years, it's really been about me enjoying writing about my gaming experience and very little beyond that.

Speaking of my gaming experience, I am continuing to alternate between experiencing the new content with my hunter, Kanter, and level an alt, initially Kantro my warrior.  My last session saw me finish off the Lorewalker Xal'atath questline on my warrior.  The Lorewalker quests can be done for characters as low as level 10, but since I wanted to level my warrior first, I thought I'd play it with him.  This was probably a mistake.  I only gained about 75% of level from the full questline rested and I think it would have been much more on a lower level alt.  However, it was a nice casual experience and I went from it to the War Within introductory questline and the beginning of the campaign quests, gaining another two levels in the process.

Depending on when it happens, I'll likely skip the introductory quests on my next alt but it was last December when I did them and didn't remember everything over the 8 months.  Just finishing the introductory quests and the campaign quests up to the first delve was a good couple of hour session and netted me two levels, as I mentioned, plenty fast enough for me.  I'm not interested in chain running dungeons or other ways of fast leveling and part of the reason I like having alts is to be able to use the different crafting professions.  Doing campaign and side quests gives more opportunity for gathering.

Speaking of which, I need to figure out where my hunter, Kanter, is on his professions for my next session.  I also believe I'm about ready to start the Undermine(d) campaign.  That'll will probably be next time.