Is there a game for me?

Cross posted on my World of Warcraft blog: Healsnheels.wordpress.com

My gaming life has been through a lot of change lately. Long gone are the days when I raided and kept up with how things changed with each patch in WoW. And in FFXIV, I am so far behind on the story that I’m beginning to wonder if I’ll ever see it while it is current.

My little pup somewhat sealed the deal on my limited game time. And I’m never going back – I am officially a dog mom. And I love spending my time with him. But I do occasionally miss the socialisation and stress relief my gaming hobby provided. Hey – socialisation isn’t just for dogs!

Some days I only get to play 30 minutes a day. Some days I don’t get to play at all. And ofcourse, the more my pup grows up, the more things settle down and the more time I get for my own stuff. Currently, I am flip flopping between three games trying to find that perfect zen state. That’s somewhat the story of my life right now with the move and all. Yes, I know it’s been six months but hey, I apparently am an OCD musician who is resistant to change and takes a while to put down roots. But back to gaming for now.

The three games I swing between are WoW, FFXIV and Hearthstone. I tried Legion in WoW and loved it until a few months after I hit level 110. I began with my gnome mage and did World Quests and a bit of LFR but never managed to do much more. And frankly there didn’t seem to be much of a point to do a whole lot more of the same. World quests became redundant after a point since I never really plan on raiding, so I don’t need lots of gear. I predictably then moved onto leveling alts and enjoyed that for a while. But it wasn’t long before my initial excitement just fizzled out and once I couldn’t afford the token in gold anymore, I decided just to switch it up and try FFXIV. On the plus side, playing my gnomes was awesome.

FFXIV for me was the exact opposite – there was OODLES to do. There are so many classes and jobs and story arcs that I haven’t yet explored.  The music and art offer a welcome change. And so I began picking up where I left off. And here I am now, absolutely drowning in things to do. The problem is, everything takes a long time – which is great, I enjoy the challenge. But sometimes, with my limited gaming time, it feels like very little progress is being made. Heck, my pup has learned to do neat tricks like twirl, walk back, bop his nose on specific spots, shake, high five and lots more. And here I am STILL leveling my bloody White Mage and Summoner, and STILL working on trying to get my ilvl on my Black Mage high enough to do the next part of the main story quest line. On the bright side I love playing a Lalafell, and the trailer for Stormblood left in super fangirl mode with stars in my eyes.

Now we come to Hearthstone, an unlikely game for me to begin with since I’ve never been into competitive card games and deck building. But it offers small goals I can reach everyday like those daily quests. Then I make gold with those daily quests and buy solo adventures. That’s my play style and it was going great until they decided to get rid of buyable solo adventures with the new expansion. I really should’ve kept up with the news on it but I had no idea. So now, I’m close to buying the final wing of Karazhan (which is super fun fyi) but then what? The bright side is that the game offers me goals I can accomplish in an evening – but sadly not much more without adventures to buy.

That brings to me to the question of the hour – is there a game out there for me? Or is my dissatisfaction just another sign of moving-into-my-new-life growing pains? I just had to get it all off my chest. Because I remember the good times of logging on and having fun and looking forward to gaming. And I want those feelings back. The excitement and the enthusiasm with which I looked forward to and read about those games. I miss it. I know moving and change happens but there are some things about my old life that I miss and want in my new life here.

Fangirl to the Max

It took a few days for me to realise that there was something new on the horizon with FFXIV…what, I had stuff to catch up on! And then I saw the epic Stormblood trailer. If you thought I was fangirling over Aymeric then apparently my fangirling abilities far surpass what we thought possible. Because this trailer is just so bloody awesome.

So my goals for the next couple weeks is to get that main story finished up as much as I can so I can move along when Stormblood hits. Easier said than done, particularly for a casual player like me who gets a few minutes of gaming time everyday. Buuuuuut I’m so stoked…I have stars in my eyes, and I squealed like a kid in a candy store when I saw that trailer. So I’m sure going to try!

Lala powa. That is all.

Little Ladies Day

I’m back after being burned out on FATE grinding with the Yokai event. I’ve missed being a Lalafell in Eorzea surrounded by fantastic music to be honest. So here I am, back again, celebrating with a wonderful season event in FFXIV and trying to figure out what everything means….again.

Those Roguish Charms

As a break from doing Yo-kai weapons I decided to switch it up and take a look at the rogue class. Can I just say – it is so awesome! I am in wuuuuuvs with Jacke!

The rogues I think have a great sense of humour going through the story and in general, there’s this sassy badass awesome vibe going which I love.

The Yo-Kai Grind

It’s almost as if SE read my previous post on how much I love grinding FATEs and said: “Hey guys! Let’s take FATE grinding up a notch!” Because really, that’s what it feels like – an event of epic grinding proportions for the FATE lover.

Here’s my handy version of this event:

1. Complete the intro quest (beginning in Ul’dah) and talk to the cool in Golden Saucer. Get the special Yo-kai watch and equip.
2. Go forth and FATE it up until you have enough medals to buy the minions.
3. Buy all minions, summon them and get a special mount!
4. Unequip the watch (you don’t need it for the minion-specific legendary medals), summon the appropriate minion in the correct FATE area (as shown in the Yo-kai book you received along with the watch) and grind the Legendary medals.
5. Use the Legendary medals to buy special Yo-kai weapons for FASHUNZ. (Note that the cost of weapons keeps increasing – so they weren’t kidding about the grind lol).

6. Grind enough Legendary medals to buy all the weapons and obtain a special mount for the achievement! Total count of medals you’ll need: 222. 😀 Good news is that this event lasts until October so there’s plenty of time to space it out and keep yourself from going insane.

Not sure which minion should be summoned where for which weapon? Check out the handy table below (from this great reddit thread):

It couldn’t come at a better time for me. I have tendinitis on my right hand which means two weeks rest and not really being able to do anything – including playing piano. Plus, the countdown to the move date has begun and given how terrible I am at waiting, I am one anxious lalafell. Good thing I can do FATEs relatively easily with just the left hand!

I have thus been throwing myself into this event with a fervour and passion that makes my FC members think I am truly a closet maso for doing this grind. 😀 Plus it’s a great opportunity to get some levels on my lowbie classes while doing the FATEs.

Five weapons down so far….and uh….*counts on fingers*…. eight to… EIGHT??! Yep… eight to go!

 

Fate Grinding Therapy

The last few weeks, I have been mostly quiet because RL has been exciting. We’ve been looking at buying a house and have been wanting to move. Well, after a few months of searching (yeah, it’s not that easy to find a good spot for a 6 foot grand piano apparently), we finally found a place and are actually under contract.

I need a paper bag. I mean, I suppose I can never complain that my life is boring. But yeah…it’s all kind of freaking me out in an excited-but-terrified way. So I’m oscillating between “woohoo we’re moving!” to “HOLY SHIT WE’RE MOVING!”.

How do I deal with stress? Apart from the wine that is, like any good gamer, I game away my worries. In Final Fantasy, this has amounted to endless Fate grinding.

60 and Beyond…

I finally hit 60 the other day! What a lovely glorious feeling it was…and ofcourse, hitting level cap didn’t mean I was done by any means. More main story to do, more stuff to explore ( I need to figure out hunts at some point), and in general I get to experience level cap while it’s relevant for the very first in this game. The last time I experienced level cap was only a few days before Heavensward’s release!

The Magic of Flying

Last night, as I was working through my challenge log and getting to level 59 for the main story, I took a break and decided to do a bit of exploring. I was in the Sea of Clouds, and I think that region in particular is so much easier to navigate from the air than on the ground. The floating rocks and obscure paths all mixed in with the different levels are just too much for my directionless self.

Soon, me and the trusty compass were at it trying to figure out where all the aether currents were. The last few aether currents proved to be the most challenging for me. There was a point where I was running around in circles for a good half hour! It made my head spin but I was at the same time, enjoying the challenge. Personally I think Sea of Clouds is one of the harder regions to find those darn currents in!

JUST THE ONE LEFT!

When Shit Hits the Fan

At the beginning of this year, Life threw me a curve-ball…no, a meteor. I received news that my father unexpectedly passed away. No warning, no good reason (he was in good health), just you know… that’s it. I flew home in a daze on an 18 hour flight, and within hours of landing was attending his funeral and performing the last rites.

When I finally returned home after being with my mother and family for a while, well it’s been a struggle. I came home feeling like I was walking into someone else’s life. Life has been turned upside down for me and the new “normal” doesn’t feel very normal as yet. Things are different – I still wake up at nights with images and memories and that’s probably going to take a while before it goes away. And it’s having its effect on my piano playing too.

Interestingly, I can’t play any of my old repertoire anymore. My brain just says NOPE. I can’t memorise new pieces either – yet another NO from my brain. So it’s a craptastic issue really for me. I hope my ability to play comes back soon because frankly, if I’m a pianist and can’t play I’m going to need to consider another profession. But I’m sure it’ll come back sooner or later. Preferably sooner.

Despite the choas that I’m having to deal with, certain parts of my life are coming back to make me feel more myself. I picked up an old piece from three years ago that I began but never finished …. so atleast I’m being able to play something. I took apart my old computer and rebuilt a new one, and finally logged into a game. I ran around on my gnome and lalafell a bit. I opened up twitter and sent my first tweet and who knows how long now. And here I am, blogging for the first in the last few months.

I’m currently spending more in Final Fantasy XIV than WoW at the moment, but I haven’t forgotten about my gnomish allegiance. I’m still looking forward to gnome hunters even though nothing in WoW is really making me want to play at the moment. And meanwhile in Final Fantasy XIV, I’m catching up with story time and everything else that I’ve missed doing this whole time.

For a while when I got back, I wasn’t sure if I would be playing or blogging again. A part of me  looked at everything before it all went to hell and felt like just walking away from everything I used to do. But, it’s nice for me to know that ultimately I returned to doing something I love and enjoy… even if it takes time.

Gaming and blogging are a part of who I am and I’m glad. I am the eccentric pianist, the reluctant cook, the overly-analytical-and-often-feisty blogger, the eternal tinkering magic-loving gnome, the shiny-loving lalafell who enjoys blowing things up. It’s a wonderful life.

(Cross-posted on my WoW blog: healsnheels.wordpress.com)