The Power of Love (and Anger)

Tags

battle for azeroth, bfa, community, games, gaming, gaming community, haters, MMO, mmorpg, rage, warcraft, world of warcraft, WoW

I’ve written before about how you should just ignore the haters and like the games you like, and by and large I still absolutely stand by that statement. That said, being someone who’s new to World of Warcraft, I’m continually reminded that I probably am not wanted and that I should stick to people I have vetted outside of the game itself.

How did I reach this conclusion? By the needless upset of those who were enraged by the whole War of Thorns thing in WoW.

Burning a world tree and bridges at the same time. Well done, Sylvanas.

World of Warcraft: the Wrong Game for the Right Reasons

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battle for azeroth, community, friends, gaming, MMO, mmorpg, warcraft, world of warcraft, WoW

I don’t like World of Warcraft very much.

Yeah, yeah, yeah…

Believe me, I’ve tried, but at the same time I’ve always bounced off of it. I have no idea what the characters are doing or what the story is about, and I don’t have any nostalgic feelings tied to the game and so can’t bring myself to care.

Yet here I sit, subscribed to the game and with Battle for Azeroth pre-ordered. All that’s missing is a hat that reads “I’m a big fat hypocrite.” So what gives? It’s because of friends.

ArenaNet and the Price Paid

Tags

anet, arenanet, community, games, gaming, guild wars 2, gw2, MMO, mmo gaming, mmorpg, mmorpg gaming, reddit, social media, twitter

By now, everyone has had more than enough time to process the matter of ArenaNet’s actions against two of the writers of Guild Wars 2, including the resultant blowback that still seems to be washing onward at the point of my writing this blog. As someone who likes to follow and write about MMOs and multiplayer games, there’s something of a compulsion to provide my own opinion on the whole sorry affair, but there’s also quite a lot of thoughts I would like to get off of my chest.

Before I begin, though, I do want to mention that links that I provide in this post are very likely going to direct to some unpleasant content, so if that’s a sensitive spot for you, then I implore you to not click any links in this post if that will cause you to be upset.

I’ll also be including pictures of owls to further smooth the edges.

My 2017 in Gaming

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2017 gaming, 2017 in review, 2017 year in review, best games of 2017, best of, best of 2017, end of the year, games, gaming, gaming in 2017, list, listicle, nintendo switch, pc, ps4, year end, year in review

Look, you can’t be completely surprised by seeing this topic on my blog; it’s kind of typical of this time of year to look back at what was and I actually was asked in the Discord server I help run. So while it might be par for the course to write these sorts of things, my responses might not be expected.

To further entice you to stay, here’s a puppy picture.

Wolfy’s Most Anticipated Games of 2018

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2018, 2018 games, console, games, games of 2018, gaming, list, listicle, MMO, mmorpg, most anticipated, most anticipated games, multiplayer, pc, sandbox, single player

This is pretty much expected behavior for people who like to write about video games, I figure. So to further extend assumptions, I will now openly admit that I’m writing this in the hopes that I get all the free stuff from the games I mention.

In fact just writing that lead-in brought me about $35.

But seriously, though, whatever you feel about 2017 in terms of real-life things, it has been a great year for games and next year is looking pretty solid as well. So I wanted to wiggle excitedly in the direction of upcoming titles that I have no basis for anticipation for other than marketing speak and second-hand experience. Because piss off I like being excited.

The Joy of Doing It “Wrong”

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gameplay, gaming, group, guild wars, guild wars 2, gw2, MMO, mmorpg, path of fire, play, pve, solo

Below is a picture of my build in Guild Wars 2.

I’m running a Guardian right now who wades into battle almost exclusively with a mace and a shield. I’m not entirely sure that I’ve gotten this build optimized, but damn if it isn’t optimized for me.

Stocking the Bomb Shelter

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bomb shelter, closure, games, gaming, lovely people, memories, MMO, mmorpg, shutdown, sunset, wildstar

So it was my unfortunate task to report that WildStar is such a non-factor in NCSoft’s eye that they’ve outright stopped including the IP in their quarterly reports as of Q4 2016. While they haven’t completely expunged the game from the record, relegating it instead to the “Other Sales” segment of their quarterly and yearly earnings, it still is a very worrying thing, especially as we all bear in mind the company we’re dealing with here.

In fact, it’s the behavior of that very company that prompted this post. NCSoft is very good at cutting the things away from them that they feel are hurting their bottom line, and the reshuffle of WildStar as an inconsequential IP has me reliving City of Heroes all over again. Recalling how I got through that closure, I decided to share an idea on how fans can possibly deal with the end of their favorite MMO.

You can start off as a sad Chua, but you’ve got to move on from there.

The Sunday Bundle – Feb 5 2017

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black desert online, conan exiles, counter-strike: global offensive, esports, game news, gaming, gaming news, heavy metal machines, MMO, mmo news, mmorpg, the elder scrolls online, the sunday bundle, week in review

As the news editor for MMOGames, I see a bunch of stories crawl across my feeds, and there are a few of these I have thoughts on or that strike my fancy enough that I’d like to expand upon them. That’s what this segment is all about; The Sunday Bundle.

This week’s MMO news has been full of Elder Scrolls, reminders of games I really should play more, and Conan Exiles cocks. So it’s been a lot of fun to witness, really. Though some stories have, admittedly, been more fun to follow than others.

Take a wild guess which one.

30 Videogame Answers, No Likes Part 2

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carbine studios, classic games, eve online, final fantasy iv, final fantasy ix, final fantasy vi, games, gaming, MMO, mmorpg, modern games, ratchet and clank, rpg, splatoon, uncharted, wildstar

So a couple of days ago I decided to turn an image that was circulating around Twitter in to a writing prompt. Which, overall, felt like a good idea but it ran awfully long. So this here’s part two of that blog!

I’m also re-using this image just because.

30 Videogame Answers, No Likes Part 1

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atari 2600, chain letter, fandom, games, gaming, i'm joining the crowd lookit me, meme, MMO, nes, one like one answer, pc, snes

Sometime last week or so, there was a fun little prompt fluttering among those I follow on Twitter. Basically, you answer one videogame-related question for every like the posted picture got, to a maximum of 30.

It looked like a lot of fun, and since I’m always a sucker for cheap easy writing prompts, I decided to take the idea and write about it here.

…I searched for “writing prompt” and got this. So let’s just move on.