The Site
I had a scare at the start of the month. I mentioned that WP.com was planning to push their new block editor on users a while back. Well, it hit me on the first, as a post I had left open in the old editor was suddenly floating in this white void of a web page.
I seriously have a problem understanding the philosophy of this new editor. It looks like some pretentious design student’s wet dream, but it lacks practicality. Or maybe just don’t get why every paragraph of text needs to be in its own special edit box that can be moved around the post. Do people juggle paragraphs like that?
Fortunately the update push from WP.com hadn’t fully settled and later in the day I found that I could still use the classic editor if I made sure to click on the right options.
Classic is as classic does
The Add New button by default brings you to the new block editor horror, but you can still find the classic if you want.
And then there is the side bar. IFTTT, which is part of the kludge that drives the dynamic blog links update, has decided to start charging, though you can have up to three simple items running for free still. However, the day they announced their subscription option all three of mine broke. They fixed the issue, but the subscription plan will be in place tomorrow and I won’t be surprised if all three stop working again. I have a backup plan for two of them.
One Year Ago
BlizzCon was coming, so I spent some time speculating about what I wanted to see and what I thought we might actually get. There was a lot in play. Blizzard was also talking about WoW Classic and getting realms down to a single layer. Layering carried on, but Dire Maul was added to the game. Also free transfers and Hallow’s End.
And then the whole Blitzchung thing happened, casting a pall overBlizzCon and making #boycottblizzard the theme of the day. Blizzard then took a few days to finally respond officially, and their response pleased nobody.
In WoW Classic we carried on, exploring the Ogre area in Loch Modan and starting our first run into the Deadmines, which became a two part post, with the follow up about getting to Van Cleef. From there it was off to wander the Wailing Caverns. We also did the running of the gnomes event. Ula made a video about it.
Over at Daybreak it was time for more layoffs. But Holly was on the EverQuest Show to talk about the game, expansions were announced, special servers were discussed, and there were still custom UI issues, all summed up in one bullet points post. The pre-orders for EverQuest Torment of Velious were live.
Meanwhile, it was declared that PlanetSide Arena was just a stepping stone to PlanetSide 3.
CCP brought back the Skilling Spree event top EVE Online, which let you earn skill points by completing a daily task. They were also straight up giving away skill points again. Many skill points were there to claim.
The October update expanded the Triglavian invasion and updated the tutorial. They also raised warp speeds on some ships to help us get around New Eden. We also got a Halloween event and the howling interceptors update.
More importantly, the meeting minutes from the first CSM14 summit were released, in which CCP laid out its top four priorities for the game. I couldn’t decide if “fix the stupid” was okay as the second item or if it covered so much stuff that we might never get to the third. Certainly the MER showed that the “Chaos Era” might have fallen under that. And I was wondering if gating missions behind standings was falling into that as well.
Of course, it isn’t a real CSM if somebody doesn’t step down or get kicked. This time Killah Bee dropped out and Sort Dragon returned to the CSM in his place. Meanwhile, there was always somebody out there ready to take CCP at their worst.
It was also time for the annual vision quest to EVE Vegas. We learned about many things, like Team Talos and plans and what not. We also learned that this would be the last CCP sponsored EVE Vegas event.
Out in space, the Reavers deployment was out looking for things to shoot. When in doubt, shoot structures. That’s the way we roll. But that wasn’t panning out, so we took a wormhole back home and were in Delve before the Reavers turned five.
Meanwhile, Liberty Squad was still out as well, and we took a fight in FDZ.
And, finally, Raph Koster announced his new venture, Playable Worlds, while Mike O’Brien, formerly of ArenaNet, announced his new venture, ManaWorks. Daybreak also released the EverQuest and EverQuest II sound tracks for purchase on most major platforms. All of this was covered in yet another bullet points post.
Five Years Ago
I opened up the month with a post about the Mineserver Kickstarter campaign, a little box that promised to make hosting easy! A pity is never came to anything… and that I basically threw money into nothing.
Then there was the now perennial complaint about customers being too cheap to by any and every 99 cent game. It is because your 99 cent game sucks.
In EverQuest II, the Desert of Flames expansion unlock votes passed on Stormhold and Deathtoll, which made me ponder the pacing of nostalgia. Daybreak seemed to want to go faster.
Daybreak also have expansion announcements for EverQuest and EverQuest II that included pricey special editions. Milk ’em while you got ’em I guess. But PlanetSide 2 was having problems attracting subscribers.
EverQuest II was consolidating servers, so it was farewell to Crushbone.
In Lord of the Rings Online, server consolidation was just getting under way as well.
Crowfall was still in development, but had announced some costly RMT castles.
Guild Wars 2 launched the Heart of Thorns expansion.
I picked up the Reaper of Souls expansion for Diablo III and made it through Act V.
My wife and I went to EVE Vegas where we partied and heard about the planned Citadel expansion. I brought some give-aways for the trip, which I covered, along with Pirate’s Little Helper, in a Friday bullet points post.
Meanwhile, in New Eden I was very impressed with the multi-buy feature that came in with the previous month’s Vanguard release. I was also wondering if space priests were a problem. I also went pipe bombing for the first time. The month’s Blog Banter wanted to know about my PC. And Reavers celebrated their first anniversary.
Over in one corner New Eden SpaceMonkeys Alliance (SMA) stole ISK from EVE Online casino I Want ISK who, in turn, hired low sec mercenaries to camp SMA space, starting the embers of what would become the Casino War.
And the sad tale of CCP and White Wolf came to an end as CCP sold off the subsidiary and its neglected IP, World of Darkness.
Finally, in Minecraft, Aaron began his draining of an ocean monument, and I was interested in bases, several of which sprang up as I worked on the Great Northern Road.
Ten Years Ago
I had some hopes and expectations for BlizzCon. They were pretty much unmet. But Blizzard had already announced the Cataclysm ship date, so what else did I expect?
I asked if people ever look at the items in the blog side-bar. People mostly do not.
EverQuest launches the House of Thule expansion.
I finished building my new computer. Windows 7 64-bit was the wave of the future… unless you wanted to take that LOTRO survey.
The EVE Online screen shot contest wrapped up, winners were declared and prizes were sent out.
I was playing Lords of Ultima innocently enough and then somebody attacked me! Oh noes!
I was suddenly determined to “catch them all” and finish the National Pokedex in Pokemon SoulSilver.
The instance group was playing in LOTRO, which had been live as a Free to Play game for one month. In-game, we were subjected to the disturbing habits of some of the residents of the Lone Lands, while I indulged in one of my own habits, the mid-game character swap. And then I made one post completely unreadable by making anagrams out of all the proper nouns. I had to repost a corrected version.
I bought Civilization V, which like every Civilization launch, had issues with my current computer. The unwritten rule of Civilization is that you need to upgrade your machine in order for the game to play well.
LEGO Universe launched.
My daughter and I were drinking new and interesting sodas. and was really hoping that the SF Giants could make it to a World Series victory.
Fifteen Years Ago
Club Penguin, the browser based, kid friendly MMO, launched.
Civilization IV launched and, as with all Civ launches, the game really needed the next generation of hardware to run in its full glory. I recall submitting a bug and getting a response telling me to stop trying to play with so many civilizations in a single game.
Age of Empires III also launched. While it was well reviewed, and we all bought a copy, it never really eclipsed Age of Empires II in my heart. The second game remains the pinnacle of the series for me.
Twenty Years Ago
The PlayStation 2 launches in North America.
Pokemon Gold & Silver arrive in North America. Regional launches were a thing back then.
Forty Years Ago
Berzerk arrives in arcades. I remember this game showing up and dropping a lot of quarters to play it. It said things.
Most Viewed Posts in November
- The WoW Shadowlands Pre-Patch with the Big Level Squish Arrives Today
- SuperData and Wavering WoW Subscriptions
- The EverQuest Team Announces the Claws of Veeshan Expansion
- CCP is Just Going to Keep Selling Skill Points for Cash
- Alamo teechs u 2 play DURID!
- A Costly Imperium Victory at FWST-8
- A Tale of Two Keepstars in FWST-8
- LOTRO War of Three Peaks Launches Today
- The Fall of Niarja and the Shape of High Sec
- The EVE Online October Update Changes Space and Commerce
- Are We Going to Get a Level Squish with Every WoW Expansion Now?
- EVE Online Blazes a New Trail with UI Only Mode
Search Terms of the Month
do warp core stablizers help with intradiction bubbles
[Legit question, answer is “no”]
eq upgrading an old character, will i lose anything?
[Just your self-respect]
warcraft orcs vs pirate
[Sure, I guess]
lotro cracked server
[They seem that way lately]
everquest the scalet desert from pok
[don’t get me started]
Game Time by ManicTime
A lot more time spent playing this month than the last couple, and I ended up launching a lot more titles this month as well, mostly due to the new monitor.
- EVE Online – 44.01%
- World of Warcraft – 36.26%
- WoW Classic – 15.02%
- RimWorld – 3.33%
- Age of Empires II – 0.92%
- Minecraft – 0.16%
- LOTRO – 0.12%
- EverQuest – 0.08%
- EverQuest II – 0.06%
- Grim Dawn – 0.05%
Of course, the war kept EVE Online high on the list. But WoW Classic fell off quite a bit owing to the group not getting together as well as renewed interest in retail WoW due to the whole level squish thing. Almost everything else on the list is due to my doing a test run to see if they would work with the new wide screen. The only failure was Grim Dawn, which stubbornly refused to work. A pity because, after finishing up with Diablo II (which absolutely won’t work on the new monitor) I was thinking about a return to Grim Dawn. It will not be.
EVE Online
The war carries on, now about to reach its fourth month. The start of October saw some of the largest battles in the game for ages, including one that set new records according to Guinness. After almost two weeks of that the war settled down to a less exhausting pace. But the war is far from done.
Pokemon Go
Both my wife and I made it to level 40 in October. There is a blog post under way about getting there and what you do once leveling is no longer part of the obsession. It does take a bit of the pressure off of the need to maintain daily streaks or to do things just for xp. But there are still plenty of Pokemon left to catch.
Level: 40
Pokedex status: 584 (+7) caught, 608 (+6) seen
Mega Evolutions obtained: 7 of 8
Pokemon I want: Need some Unova Pokemon to fill in the gaps
Current buddy: Farfetchd
World of Warcraft
For once I can say I did more than just run the Darkmoon Faire quests for the trade skill advancement this month. The great level squish came and changed retail WoW for everybody. It remains an ambitious experiment as to whether or not it was worth the effort. It is easier for new players to level up, it is easier to experience old expansions (though with the current class and talent structure), and it is easier to level up alts. But is that all core to the main player base, or do most long term players just care about the latest expansion?
WoW Classic
Slow times for us after wrapping up Sunken Temple. Ula and Skronk bought a new house and moved while Moronae had to build a new computer. That meant not a lot of play time for the group, and my solo play time was focused on retail WoW. But Blackrock Depths still beckons.
Coming Up
The WoW Shadowlands expansion launch is likely going to be the biggest of deals next month, at least for those with an interest in WoW. Pre-expansion events start on the 10th, the expansion goes live on the 23rd.
The war carries on in EVE Online, but CCP has another series of changes set for November. They plan to kill off the NPC bounty faucet by reducing payouts and forcing the ESS system that allows others to come in and steal your bounties before they’ve been paid. CCP celebrated the Guinness records being set, but perhaps has failed to note that we’re willing to throw in ships into such battles because we can afford to. When ISK tapers off and with minerals already more dear, there is no doubt a point at which groups won’t commit the numbers they have in the past as they will be too expensive to replace. We shall see.
There will also be more news on the EverQuest and EverQuest II front for their respective annual expansions.
And, of course, this coming Tuesday is kind of a big deal here in the US, being a literal struggle over the future of the country. The fate of the republic and any remaining faith in a representative government rides in the balance.
from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8262364
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