ThaydFest – Gamer Girl Confessions

Gaming Goals Review: March & April

Chestnut — Sun, 08 May 2016 13:58:00 +0000

I started this back in June 2015, and have been keeping up with it this past month. I’ve kept reducing my goals due to real life, and I think I hit a stride heading into December, and have kept it up for the most part. Well, except maybe on the blogging end and the goals posts the past two months!

Comparison Time!

WildStar

Finish Celestion achievements (on Chestnut)
Get Bauxyte her key and at least one dungeon towards attunement
Upload completed Yardcore 10
Choose which toon will be next to 50

Final Fantasy XIV

~~WAR 50~~ Completed!
FSH 30
BTN 30
MIN 30
~~Start working on crafting professions to clean out retainers (max of level 15)~~ Started!

The Secret World

Finish and upload Let’s Play 4 and 5
~~Finish Saiid’s missions~~ Completed!

Steam, etc.

~~Finish~~ ~~Men of Yoshiwara~~ Completed!
~~Finish all of Impey’s endings (including GCs and video) in~~ ~~Code Realize~~ Completed!
~~Start Victor’s route in~~ ~~Code Realize~~ Completed!
~~Start Amnesia: Memories (suggestions on the card suit to pursue first are welcome!)~~ Changed game.

I ended up completing quite a few goals, though mostly outside of MMOs. Real life was busy again. Actually, it doesn’t ever seem to slow down, any. Granted, it should be a tad bit slower this month compared to the past few.

Comparison: February and March

1 hour less of WildStar… so comparable hours
1 hour less of Final Fantasy–again, comparable
1 hour less of The Secret World–I’m sensing a pattern here
Added 2 hours of Men of Yoshiwara
Added 23 hours of Code: Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~
No Blade & Soul (down 2 hours)
No Black Desert Online (down 3 hours)
Added 15 hours of Stardew Valley
77 total hours in Feburary
110 total hours in March
Overall up 33 hours in March–I blame this on Stardew Valley and Code: Realize

Comparison: March and April

9 hours less of WildStar
Added 2 hours of Final Fantasy
Added 11 hours of The Secret World
No Men of Yoshiwara (down 8 hours–completed in March)
17 hours less of Code: Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~
No Stardew Valley (down 15 hours)
Added 3 hours of Atlas Reactor (beta)
110 total hours in March
77 total hours in April
Overall down 33 hours in April–I know this is due to project deadlines at work and IRL events

Overall Thoughts

Chaide and I finished the base-game story!!!

So I didn’t get very much done in WildStar. Partially was just real life, and partially was just I’ve been working on ThaydFest stuff non-stop. I’ll probably adjust my goals there knowing that ThaydFest won’t be over until end of May.

We finally got our main classes to level 50 in FFXIV, and we’ve been working past the 2.0 story very slowly. We’re currently about halfway through the “A Realm Awoken” patch. We’re currently stuck on the “Rock-solid Protection” quest, (1) because of time and (2) we can’t figure out if we need normal or… hard mode? I think it’s called hard mode. And needing normal makes no sense since it’s a level 45 dungeon. So if you have thoughts, let me know. I almost got my gathering professions up, so I might continue those goals. My play time has decreased there overall, so I’m not sure adding a new class to level would be wise. Maybe I’ll think about how much story we can feasibly get through this month and use that as a goal instead.

We’re almost into Transylvania in The Secret World, but I just haven’t had much time outside of work to work on the videos without also cutting into my gaming time, or time spent with Chaide in general.

My other gaming goals were fairly easy, honestly. I was a terrible person and left Men of Yoshiwara: Kikuya minimized during raids and pulled it up whenever I was dead. Honestly, it’s what keeps me so jovial during raids, because I hate dying. And Code: Realize was easy, because I play that for an hour every day at work during lunch. Plus, if I carry my Vita with me everywhere, so if I’m waiting in line or something, it’s easy enough to pop out and play some. I’m at the point where I’m almost done with Lupin’s route, and I’m sad to see the game end! But more thoughts on that another time. I decided that instead of playing Amnesia first, I’m going to be playing the new Men of Yoshiwara that just came out a few weeks ago. I got it day-of because it was on sale, but I was up in the air on which otome to try next, until Sushi told me about how one of the routes is right up my alley (I love the sweet romance/childhood friend routes), so now I have to try it first.

I also picked up Stardew Valley and Atlas Reactor these past two months. Stardew Valley is lots of fun, but it’s something that I can only really handle in small doses. I just get bored with it after a few hours, and need to put it down. Plus I stink at the whole relationship building thing, and after a while I start to feel overwhelmed at all the things to do and that I want to do and… yeah.

Atlas Reactor is one that I was lucky enough to get a beta code, and I have lots to write about it, but I’ve not had much time to get in there and play around with it more to solidify the thoughts and guides I want to write. Overall, I love it because it’s more thought- and strategy-based than MOBAs in general. Or at least from my limited MOBA experiences. I’ve tried HotS and LoL, but neither caught my fancy. I don’t like the way it works, and it’s super confusing, whereas I caught onto Atlas Reactor really quickly, and it almost feels like a team-based game of chess.

Thank you to the wonderful Ammo for the beautiful ThaydFest banner donation!

The month of May is going to be taken up mainly by ThaydFest, so I don’t know that I’ll have a lot of goals for May, but June will have countless hours to fill in, because Chaide is going to be teaching in Africa for two and a half weeks straight… so I’ll have lots of time to game (and be sad) and put together Let’s Plays.

Gaming Goals Review: October

Chestnut — Thu, 12 Nov 2015 20:13:00 +0000

This post is a part of #IntPiPoMo! You can find out more, and sign up at this link.

I started this back in June 2015, and have been keeping up with it this past month. I reduced my goals the past few months due to real life, and I think I started getting things to a reasonable goal list. But, we’ll see in a moment.

#IntPiPoMo 5/50 – What did the cards hold for October?

WildStar Goals

Chestnut

Collect some more mini-pets
Reach max reputation in Crimson Badlands (& last bit of Northern Wastes)
Work towards completing my AMP (55) and AP (48) points
Put up recorded Yardcore
Complete all achievements in Celestion
Start getting up plat resources for runes (ugh)
~~Participate in zPrix International event, and Halloween event!! (ACHIEVEMENTS)~~ Completed

All Toons

~~Log in~~ Completed
~~Check mail~~ Completed
Organize bags
Organize personal bank
~~Check if things to use in guild bank~~ Completed

FFXIV Goals

Cactuar

~~Level 20 BTN~~ Completed
~~Level 10 MIN~~ Completed
~~Level 30 GLD~~ Completed
~~WAR job~~ Completed

Lamia

Log in
Level 10 ARC

SWTOR Goals

Reach level 25 (Jadz’iaa)

TSW

~~Check out Halloween event~~ Completed
Run Hell (dungeon)
Put up first LP video!

Thoughts

Such lofty goals, hah. If I thought September was busy, October completely trumped it. I never did get into SWTOR for the month. I have kept up-to-date with the launcher, though, so I’m more likely to hop into it when I feel like it.

As for FFXIV, I think it’s what I played the most this month. Granted, I also set myself goals that were easily attainable, overall. I never did log onto Lamia. I don’t know if I want to level two characters through the main story, quite honestly. So even though Tal is over there, I’m none-too-keen to level even a second character through the main story. It’d almost feel like splitting my time with another game, even though it’s the same one. If that makes a lick of sense.

We’ve played a fair bit of The Secret World as of late, mainly to work on the Halloween content, but Chaide has also found himself enjoying it far more than when we first piddled around in it back in March. The only problem with TSW playtime is that we need to try to work it around the schedule of the three of us (some months are a moot point because Cam is traveling for work). Sometimes our friend Moon will hop in with us, too, if she’s around, but she’s not really one of the core folks we work times around.

I’ve been playing lots of WildStar, but I haven’t had the time or energy to do much outside of guild leading and prepping for ThaydFest 3 (which is in about a week and a half). Actually, I’m kind of stressing out about it, haha. I’ll be ready for a nice relaxing break away from WildStar over Thanksgiving weekend! Oh, wait, nevermind, I’ll be running a guild Harvest Party. Suffice to say, December might be a bit slack in the WildStar department.

Various Updates

Chestnut — Mon, 02 Nov 2015 22:43:00 +0000

IntPiPoMo List Update

A couple of changes and additions have been made to the IntPiPoMo list, so here’s the current list! Be sure to let me know via Twitter, or on this post if you plan to participate! ^_^

Pizza Maid also put together this pretty awesome guide to taking screenshots in FFXIV that could also be applicable to many other games. Starshadow has another great one for screenshots in general, so be sure to check them out if you’re looking for tips or ideas!

Let’s Play!

The second Let’s Play for The Secret World is now up! Short term goal is to get episode 3 started in the next few days, and maybe finishing it by the end of the week. It gets easier to do them as I go, so hopefully I’ll fall into a routine.

Yardcore

Speaking of videos, I am almost done putting together the last Yardcore from before F2P drop. A lot of folks I’ve done Yardcore with previously have updated their plots, such as Green Ghost (who now has a Twitter account if you’re interested in following him!), so I’m not sure if I’ll start with visiting updated plots for the post-F2P updates, or mix them up with new folks… we’ll see who jumps at the opportunity to go next first.

The next episode was actually a lot of fun for me to record. It’ll be on Slade Frackwell’s plot, who happened to be someone that opened my eyes to the wonders of housing, and someone who is always there to help out folks in Housing with ideas and the like.

WildStar

Lots been going on in WildStar, but most of it is related to guild master duties, or ThaydFest. So I guess I’ll just pimp ThaydFest! This is an Entity Exile event that the guild hosts, and we’re already on ThaydFest 3!

ThaydFest is the biggest, baddest, most awesome event our server has ever seen (yet)! It’s a day full of awesome, a chance for you and your friends and your guild to log on and do something fun and different and experience the best part of Wildstar–the community. It is an event brought to you by your fellow players, and done entirely with the resources that the game gives us, and our own ingenuity. No matter what aspects of the game you enjoy, ThaydFest probably has something fun for you to do.

ThaydFest is coordinated by the Black Dagger Society and other community-oriented guilds and players on our server. We’re doing this because we recognize that the community is a huge part of what makes the game so awesome, and this is our way of giving something back to that same community. We hope that you’ll come out, have a great time, and maybe make some friends.

So if you’re in WildStar, check it out! Everyone is able to roll up a toon on Entity, assuming they have the character slots, so come join the fun! Carbine was even kind enough to donate some codes as prizes, so there’s that, too… And there’s more information using that nice little URL and we’re always looking for prize donations!

FFXIV

We’ve been playing a lot of FFXIV, mainly because Chaide is kind of over WildStar (until they make some changes). So it’s become his game-of-choice when we don’t want to schedule in some TSW. I’ve just been super busy with work, interviewing for new positions, and then social obligations on the weekends that I haven’t been able to write much about it.

But the cool thing is that a lot of what we’ve done in the game is easily written about after the fact, including the Hallow’s End stuff. So there will be lots of posts utilizing lots of screenshots for IntPiPoMo in the next few days!

ThaydFest II, WildCast Podcast, and Yardcore

Chestnut — Sat, 21 Mar 2015 16:22:00 +0000

ThaydFest

Last Sunday (the 15th), Black Dagger Society and a bunch of other guilds (in particular, Blazing Saddles) and folks on the Entity server (Exile side) put together an awesome WildStar event called ThaydFest! We had a bunch of people come out for all the events and hang out and just be awesome together.

We held a housing contest called Lifestyles of Nexus where judges went around to folks’ houses and we came up with winners, whose plots are pretty damn awesome! You can see videos if you go look at the winners.

Twitter was afoot with tons of pictures and streams and videos and comments. It was so great to see the WildStar community coming together for a shared experience like that.

I spent a bunch of time going to as many events as I could, including the Fight Club hosted by Blazing Saddles, and then I was a pacer for the Footrace. I also attended the Fashion contest and took a video!

Chaide ended up winning one of the categories for the contest, and won a character sketch by the amazing Typrop. He’s very excited, and I’ll be sure to post it in the blog when we get it.

WildCast Podcast

I had the pleasure of joining Avidguru and Dahk (who was filling in for Behalter) for the WildCast Podcast, episode 61. (It is not up, yet, but I’ll be posting a link as soon as it goes live.) We discussed things such as ThaydFest, INVASION: Nexus (aka Drop 5), The Ravaging of Arboria, and just goofed off a little bit. It’s a family friendly podcast, so I’m proud of myself for keeping my sailor’s mouth in check except for saying “shit” at some point, which I’m sure Avid is going to gleefully bleep out.

Yardcore: Nexus

So, I recorded all of the videos for the winners in the Lifestyles contest, and I had a blast doing so. So much so that I’m going to be starting a weekly YouTube video where I sit down in Skype or TeamSpeak with a house creator, and interview them while we tour their plot for about thirty minutes or so. I’m aiming to have the first one completed for the first week of April, and continue them from there.

If you play WildStar and would like to volunteer your house for this, let me know, or comment on the post I’ve going on the official forums.

Monitors Ahoy (hoy)!

On Monday, Chaide and I met up at the Best Buy after work and purchased a second monitor for the both of us (as well as a PS4 for his graduation present, because he graduates in MAY!!!). After getting them home and trying to set them up, we promptly figured out that our graphics card didn’t have a VGA hookup, and the monitors didn’t come with the DVI cord to hookup the video card. -_- Why do you make things so difficult, companies? Why not just include both cords? *sigh*

So anyway, I drove back to the store, which luckily isn’t very far away (maybe 10 minutes) to buy two stinking DVI cords to hook up and set up our monitors. But, WE HAVE SECOND MONITORS!! I’m so excited!! Here’s what my new set up looks like.

Thursday night was not a good night for tech, however. While I was walking the dog I dropped my phone (which is always in a case) and the LCD underneath the glass screen shattered. The nuts and bolts were still working (I was still getting notifications, etc.) but the screen wasn’t working. Luckily, there’s a place nearby work that gives a discount to folks at my place of employment, and I had it fixed in about forty-five minutes after I got there. Needless to say, when it first happened, I was a wreck for the rest of the night, and part of Friday.

Today’s plans consist of some FFXIV (both before we head out and maybe after we get back), a guild meeting/RP in WildStar, and then some tabletop gaming with some friends, and possibly a Kodra sighting (meaning, he might show up to tabletop)!

In Which There is Stuff and Things

Chestnut — Mon, 23 Feb 2015 22:23:00 +0000

The past few weeks I’ve had stuff to write, but I didn’t know how to go about it without (a) pointing fingers, (b) revealing too much and (c) without sounding like a whiney you-know-what.

There’s still a lot of details I can’t, and won’t, go into, but I think I can pretty much sum up.

Black Dagger Society

For those that don’t know, I’m one of the GMs in Black Dagger Society in WildStar, along with my husband (Chaide), and a good RL friend.

I love the guild. It is a place we feel like folks can come, relax, and be family. And then be successful when folks have the desire to run things.

The past few months, however, the guild has taken a direction more from “let’s have fun and down vets for the first time!” to “Let’s raid!”. Now, granted, raiding is something I’d like to do eventually, maybe as a pick up, but based on the focus of the guild, and how it was originally designed, raiding doesn’t particularly appeal to a large base of guildies, and I myself would never want to do it full time.

This change sprung a chain reaction. Suffice to say, rifts started happening amongst members who enjoyed the more casual outlook versus the raider outlook. And it caused a fair bit of drama in its own right.

But, after ThaydFest, we’re changing the direction of the guild back to that of a more casual “come, play, have fun, and down things at your own pace” with no focus on raiding or warplots. And it is making a lot of folks much happier already. There’s more participation, more talking in guild chat, and more folks in TeamSpeak. I’m happier, too. I don’t have to login to put out fires, or walk on eggshells so as not to create any.

It’s been a painful experience emotionally, based on some of the things said and done by others (myself included), but I am glad that we have worked through a “growing pain”, and are moving forward.

I think that all made sense, while not being too vague or upfront, pointing fingers, or whining… right?

WildStar

Let’s switch gears and go to happy! Last night in WildStar, we ran two different Vet Dungeons. We ran a Vet Protostar and downed Squirgnasium for the first time, as well as getting Slimy Feast down to 4%–our lowest yet.

We also sent a group into Vet SSM for the first ever time, and I’m waiting to log in tonight to hear how it went.

Tomorrow I’m hosting a “Naked Baby Protostar” run. We go in clothes-less and smash faces for a few runs and need on gear we can need and see what kind of outfits we come out with at the end. Think of it like “Naked Karazhan” from the WoW days. I’m hoping we can get two groups of that running and take an awesome screenshot after we’re done.

Some guildies are also hosting some RP this weekend, which’ll be a lot of fun, too.

Also, Black Daggers are in full swing getting ready to host ThaydFest II with the help of our awesome community. Everyone is hella pumped.

FFXIV

Chaide and I picked up FFXIV to play with some folks we thought we might enjoy playing it with to find out, well, we don’t quite enjoy playing with them, as much as we love the game.

So, at the kindly offer of Belghast, we ended up moving to Cactuar to hang out with some other Twitter folks, and we’re having a blast. We’re amazed by the hospitality of everybody there in the FC, and we’re loving leveling at our own pace, and having folks that are willing to run things with us as we progress at said pace.

We can see FFXIV being our home for a quite a while, long after we’ve hit the WildStar burnout (which we hope is none-too-soon, but we can see it sooner than FFXIV).

Also, expect a “First Impressions” post at some point in the near future.

On Playing Two Games

For the first time in our lives, we’re in a financial spot where we can afford to subscribe to two games, and it feels wonderful to be able to play different things depending upon scheduled events, or what we just feel like playing at the time, and which amazing group of folks we feel like hanging out with. It’s quite freeing, though we lack the time IRL to do much of anything.

Big Changes

In real life, I started a new job and just hit my 90 days not too long ago. It’s in my career choice, which is amazing, and I’m loving what I’m doing, even if the material is kind of bland. But that’s what I’m for! To make it not bland! Plus, I seriously get to write how-to guides and manuals and web training for a living. How can I say no?

Chaide is finishing up his teaching degree, and is in the final stretch–he graduates in May! This past month has been hell for him, and also stressful for me as a result. Isn’t it awesome how couples stress together? We’re looking toward his graduation, and I’m helping him with his resume to find an awesome teaching position. We’re also looking forward to seeing my mother for the first time in almost two years, as she’s coming down for his graduation.

In that vein, we’re also looking at a “new” (used) car for me that isn’t a 1990-something van that’s going to die at any moment, as well as starting to look at purchasing our first house, starting to try for a family, all this summer.

Finale

I get stuck a bit at tying up post endings, but I think as I continue to blog more, I’ll get better at it. Hopefully see you tomorrow with things to say!