Battle Bards Episode 31: Listener Requests Part II

Another episode of Battle Bards is up and ready for your listening pleasure!

This week we bring you the second half of our Listener Requests series. Tune in with me, Syp and Syl to hear what other fans of Battle Bards want to hear. Apologies for my fire alarm going off partway through this show, but  what can I say, the songs you guys are coming up with are just too hot, hot, HOT!

LISTEN NOW

Episode 31 show notes

• Intro (featuring “The Hero’s Call” from Ultima Forever)
• “A Euology for Hope” from Warhammer Online (suggested by Thomas)
• “Answers” from Final Fantasy XIV (suggested by CariMac)
• “Harababuresti Dances” from The Secret World (suggested by Richard Bartle)
• “Glorious Future” from EVE Online (suggested by Mika)
• “Theme for Rohan feat. Taylor Davis” from Lord of the Rings Online (suggested by Redbeard)
• “Vigilant Church Theme” from WildStar (suggested by Nightmare System)
• What did we like the best?
• Mail from Redbeard
• Outro (featuring “Disband Deed” from Wurm Online)

Battle Bards Episode 30: Listener Requests Part I

A new episode of Battle Bards is up!

A few shows ago, we started asking YOU, the listeners, what your favorite MMO songs are and what you’d like us to feature on the show. We actually had quite a few submissions, enough for two episodes! So without further ado, we present to you the first part of our pair of Listener Requests shows. See what tunes your fellow Battle Bards fans want to hear and what Syp, Syl and I have to say about them.

LISTEN NOW

Episode 30 show notes

• Intro (featuring “Karakorum” from Auto Assault)
• “Saga of the Norn” from Guild Wars 2 (suggested by Dibstaru)
• “Guardian/Sanctum Theme” from RIFT (suggested by Scott)
• “Booty Bay” from World of Warcraft: Cataclysm (suggested by Shay)
• “Mithlond” from Lord of the Rings Online (suggested by Michael)
• “Land of the Golden Sun” from Guild Wars: Nightfall (suggested by Kevin)
• “Desert Travel” from PlanetSide (suggested by Reese)
• What did we like the best?
• Mail from Shay
• Outro (featuring “Disband Deed” from Wurm Online)

Happy 4th Blogiversary To Me

Holy crap, as of yesterday this blog is four years old! Time really flies, doesn’t it? It feels more like three, though that might be because I completely forgot my blogiversary last year. Would have forgotten this year too, truth be told, if Rowan (who will be celebrating his own blogiversary very soon as well) hadn’t reminded me. I am just bad with birthdays.

Anyway, since my blog’s anniversary is in January, technically this post could also serve as a look back at 2013. Once again, this blog didn’t see as much activity in the last year as I would have liked. In my defense though, it was a busy year in terms of real life, and quite honestly, it was a pretty tame one for MMOs. Tame…but definitely not lame.

I only participated in the launches of mainly two games — Defiance and Neverwinter — and both released during the first part of the year (though in the latter’s case, an um, open-beta-that-really-wasn’t-a-beta).

Instead, I spent the last year revisiting a lot of old favorites. World of Warcraft, of course, is as ever the dependable standby. I would play a couple months, take another couple months off, then do it all over again. I know I can always count on it being there whenever I feel like a romp through Azeroth.

Star Trek Online saw some play too because of their new expansion. I rolled a Romulan, got to have some fun with the duty officer mini-game, and got roped into doing dailies for their summer event. This was the year I truly came to develop an appreciation for a free-to-play STO.

A few months ago, I also surprised myself by resubbing to Star Wars: The Old Republic. This was thanks to the revitalization of our guild, which included a faction change to refocus our efforts on the Empire side. SWTOR saw an expansion too, and I’m still hopping in now and then getting in my Galactic Starfighter battles. They’re a lot more fun once you get a hang of the controls and start upgrading your ship.

And finally, there’s The Secret World. TSW Mondays are still going strong, and in terms of social events, it’s probably Mercy Gaming’s greatest success. I don’t think anyone would have believed it a year and a half ago, but it’s true that our weekly group has steadily grown since Secret Mondays first started. To the usual gang, thanks for making this such a great year in TSW.

Other highlights of the year that aren’t really related to gaming (and in fact, they actually took away from my gaming time, but I wouldn’t change that for the world!) include some of my new hobbies:

1) Pathfinder! I have reason to look forward to Sunday nights now that my friends and I hold weekly games over Fantasy Grounds 2 and Teamspeak.

2) Miniature painting! I’ve always wanted to get into this, and this year I finally took the plunge!

3) Podcasting! Recording Battle Bards with my co-hosts Syp and Syl has been such fun this year.

4) Book blogging! I’ve always read voraciously, and this year I went one step further and started a book blog with a couple of my friends. It has been amazing.

And of course, nothing beats spending time with my family. My little girl is almost two now, and every day she fills my life with surprises and delight. My husband and I don’t get to play video games as much anymore, spending a couple hours a night in our MMOs only after we’ve put the baby to bed. When she’s awake, we don’t want to miss a moment with her!

Finally, to my readers, I want to thank you for another fantastic year. 2014 looks to be another great one with a couple big MMOs on the horizon. I haven’t mentioned these games a lot on my blog the past year, mostly because I’ve resolved to keep my excitement in check going forward, but I’d like to go on record to say that I am very much looking forward to BOTH Wildstar and The Elder Scrolls Online.

I have no doubt I’ll be gracing this blog with my thoughts on both sometime in the future. And perhaps more! Thanks again, and I’m definitely looking forward to another year of blogging. Ciao!

The Secret World: Krampusnacht And End Of Days

Lighting Hel up for the holidays.

Happy new year, from your friendly neighborhood MMOGC! Hope everyone’s holiday season was filled with much love and joy and gaming.

The last few weeks have been conspicuously devoid of posts about The Secret World Mondays, though I have indeed kept playing even through the craziness of the holidays. In fact, out of all the MMOs that had their Christmas events, I probably spent the most time doing TSW’s, even though I did dabble some in Guild Wars 2 and their Tixx’s Infinirarium dungeon.

Heh, now that’s some insane juxtaposition right there: creepy Krampusnacht of the former versus the whimical Wintersday of the latter. True to form, Funcom puts a horror twist on everything, even for Christmas.

And nothing says “horror” quite like an ugly holiday sweater from your great aunt Agnes.

As a bonus, the End of Days came back as well, which made me very happy because I was out of town when they had that event last year and I thought it was a one-time thing that I’d missed forever.

Sigh…this would have been such a cool screenshot if I hadn’t ruined it by wearing my granny panties.

And this screenshot says so much about us as a guild.

Anyway, it all wrapped up today and my friend TenTentacles’ round-up post inspired me to do one of my own. And like TenTen, I thought it was great, but also that it’s high time Funcom comes up with something other than, in his words, the whole “Big Bad Monster Tromping Around the World thing”. It’s a lot of fun, but he’s right in that it’s also getting a little old. Or heck, maybe I’m just feeling bitter because I must have participated in more than two dozen fights of Super Hel and never got my horns. Seriously, everything else dropped for me BUT the damn crown.

“That two-faced mother…er, she’s standing right behind me, isn’t she?”

On the bright side, I still maintain that these types of events bring out the best of the TSW community. I wouldn’t even have gotten to battle the big two-faced Norse goddess if not for the efforts of the different cabals and the numerous other volunteers pooling up their resources to chain summon her for the rest of us who need the achievement or need her drops. Everyone is always so eager to help others in this game, and I hope that aspect never goes away!

People all over The Secret World, join hands! Start a Hel train, Hel train!

TSW: Post Party Report

If your FPS >10, you STILL don’t have enough DPS!

So, the person who predicted that I wouldn’t be content with getting just one pet during The Secret World one year anniversary event? They were absolutely right.

I ended up going boss farming this weekend, and walked away with a total of eight out of the nine available. I tell myself I’m not going to count the one out of Fusang, having given it up as a lost cause right from the start. I wouldn’t even have ended up with so many if it weren’t for my prince of a husband, who helped me out by giving me some of his loot bags. His must have yielded 6-7 pet drops for both of us, whereas mine continued to drop only flares and signets. With my rotten luck, I’m sure I could have killed bosses ’til the end of time and still wouldn’t have gotten anywhere.

But crappy RNG and the questionable decision by Funcom to involve the PvP in the event aside, I’d say that the TSW first anniversary celebration was a success in terms of fun and enjoyment, due in every part to the efforts of the community. The players really came together for this one, calling out guardian sightings and offering meet ups over the #Anniversary (and #Anniversity) chat channel.

My in-game friends list is filled after this event, mostly due to the fact you have to get around from boss right to boss fight, you have to “friend” someone before meeting up with them. But in spite of this, there are a lot people I’ve established a rapport with from communicating and cooperating with each other during this event, and as such, there are quite a few names which will stay in my contacts even after the celebrations are over.

With that kind of help and support, it’s much easier to set aside the frustrations and just enjoy myself. As overheard in chat during a glitched fight in the Carpathian Fangs, someone said “I love how the boss is bugged but I’m still having fun”, and I couldn’t agree more.

DAW: Funcom

Shout-out to Funcom

Outstanding. Apparently, my blog’s revival has serendipitously coincided with DAW, or Developer Appreciation Week. This is good, because I would have been loath to miss out on this tradition. Let’s all take part in sharing the love! Originally the brainchild of Scarybooster, DAW is a chance for gamers and bloggers everywhere to show our appreciation for developers, and thank them for their hard work in bringing us the games we enjoy.

Anyway, there are so many devs that deserve a pat on the back, but this year I would like to dedicate my DAW post to Funcom and the team who brings us The Secret World (and I’m not the only one).

TSW enchanted me from the outset to become the biggest and most pleasant gaming surprise for me in 2012. To be honest, I didn’t know what I was expecting at first, but it certainly wasn’t something I anticipated playing past the first 30 days. I think I bought the game out of curiosity more than anything. It was meant to be an MMO to dabble away in for a while, a summer distraction and not much more.

Fast forward almost nine months later, and I am still playing. More importantly, I am still having a blast.

Of course, Funcom has had its struggles and TSW has not been free of issues, but I’d like to think I know a gem when I see one. The guild I am in has even set up weekly sessions to play TSW together, and I have to say that week after week it still never fails to entertain me, to shock me, to make me shake my head and say to myself, “Damn, this game is bloody brilliant.”

So, to the good folks working on TSW, keep up the good work. You have in me a loyal subscriber who does not at all mind her money going to support the likes of creepy Innsmouth Academy occult headmasters or rifle-dancing Marya. Thank you for your ingenuity, for having the guts to push the envelope, and for making one hell of a unique MMO.

Good times:

 

 

My Top 5 Gaming Highlights Of 2012

Happy New Year! Here’s my first post of 2013, whose title I confess should really be “My Top 5 Gaming Highlights of 2012…And Then Some” because while 2012 was indeed a great year for games and gamers, admittedly I found myself struggling to come up with pure gaming-related entries for this list. It’s not that I haven’t been impressed with the industry’s offerings this year so much as I find myself with less gaming experiences to draw from, because the truth is I played less games these past twelve months than I have in recent years. Time has been so tight, there are so many games on my to-play list that I never even got a chance to go out and buy, let alone play. I can’t say that I’ve ever been so behind before.

Then again, so much has also changed in my life in 2012! Let’s take a look back at the memories:

5. Pet Battles and the Return of the Dynamic Duo

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria released on September 25th. I won’t go as far as to say it’s my favorite expansion so far, though I’m aware it is for many. Nevertheless, I’m still playing it more than three months later, which is already more than what I could say for its predecessor Cataclysm.

I will say that the new expansion has provided me more reasons to stick around, even after hitting the new level cap. For one, the companion pet battling and collecting system has me hooked — 431 pets to my name so far, and I’m still hunting, always hunting. Also, the mister and I have both taken a break from the endgame grind to work on a couple of Pandaren Monks. More than anything, I love playing MMOs with my husband. Leveling characters has always been our special way to bond, and nothing brings us closer than facerolling our enemies together with our Spinning Crane Kicks.

4. 122 Books

I’ve always been one to go looking for challenges, which I have to say sometimes leads me to give myself some pretty random dumb goals.

As with most random dumb goals, I didn’t really have a reason for it, but a few years ago I just decided one day that I wanted to read 100 novels in a year.  I attempted several times, coming so close in 2011 at 83 books, and being pathetic I went and retroactively lowered my Goodreads challenge that year to 80 just so I could get the achievement badge. Well, no need to fudge the numbers for 2012; I kicked the challenge’s ass with a total of 122 novels and so you can even say I read enough to make up for last year.

Interestingly, the more I read the lower my average rating for books seem to get. I don’t know if it’s because I’m getting more critical, or that more books under my belt just simply equals more mediocre ratings.

3. Mercy Gaming

2012 was a rather turbulent year for Star Wars: The Old Republic to say the least, and neither has it really been smooth sailing for a lot of us who kept our subscriptions going until free-to-play. I think the most gut-wrenching part of it all the worrying I did about whether my Republic and Empire guilds will fall apart. After all, I got to meet and play with an amazing group of players, and I’ll always have SWTOR to thank for that.

I needn’t have stressed myself. The Republic Mercy Corps and Imperial Mercenary Corps may be shadows of what they once were in the game, but many of our members have kept in touch. Rebranded Mercy Gaming, the guild lives on, becoming a multi-gaming community that continues to adventure together in games like Guild Wars 2, Borderlands 2, The Secret World, Minecraft, World of Warcraft, PlanetSide 2, and many many more. It’s always a party with these folks, who have all become my very good friends.

2. The Secret World

Never have I ever played an MMO like TSW. The only other game that even came close to capturing my heart and blowing my mind this year was of course Guild Wars 2, but even that gets edged out, albeit just barely. For one thing, while my playtime in GW2 has tapered off until I can find more time in my schedule, I am still playing TSW regularly each week because I just can’t seem to get enough of this game! I suppose it does have a certain je ne sais quoi that made it stand out to me above the rest, and it’s not just the unique genre or playstyle.

For one, I like that it came out of nowhere and surprised me (in a good way). In fact, months after its release it’s still regularly doing that. While it’s far from perfect and definitely not everyone’s cup of tea, it does sometimes feel like with every issue update and TSW Monday, I fall hopelessly in love with this game all over again.

1. “Baby Mogsy”

Welcoming our first child in February 2012 definitely made me and my husband a lot busier. While taking care of a baby has left me not as free to do a lot of my hobbies anymore, I’m loving motherhood and I cherish every single moment I spend with my little girl, even though she’s probably the biggest reason why my time spent gaming has dropped so dramatically in 2012! But you know what? I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Even from the moment I found out I was pregnant, I knew I’d gladly give up anything for her.

Our daughter has changed our lives, bringing us such joy and making us feel blessed each and every day. At 10 months old now, every moment with her is like an adventure. She is just full of surprises, and I don’t want to miss a single one!