Busy Busy

So, like mentioned before, I fail at blogging often. Lately, though, a large part of it has been due to some hectic changes and events going on offline.

My fiance moved back here, we had to find him a job, then we discovered his license has been suspended for a while but he was never informed of such and the drive back here kind of wore out a few bits of his car - the tie rod bushing, the brake pads and the rear break drums. So while everything is fixable, it's going to take two weeks, and I have to drive him to and from work till we hear back from the state of Utah about his license (btw, never move to Utah, it sucks).

My disability hearing was set, much to everyone's surprise as it's been less than a year from the denial, but it's taking a lot of time to finish paperwork, set up the last round of medical appointments on top of regular/ongoing medical appointments and get me back up to the point where I'll actually be able to attend said hearing since one of my recent specialists basically blew me off and avoided treating stuff.

I've been reading a lot, because the fiance has the Earth's Children series, and on days I have appointments or running around to do, I tend to be tired after and relaxing on the couch or the bed tends to be nicer than at the PC. When I do have time and energy to use the PC, I've been playing Aion, though I took advantage of the City Of holiday weekend special - they reactivated all the retail+ accounts, and it was a nice break from re-doing most of the same things in Aion.

That's the bad thing about being involved in a beta. You do a lot of the same things so many times that by the time the game releases, you're really sick of the starter stuff and get highly frustrated before getting to new content.

Regardless, I signed up for the chance to beta test Star Wars: The Old Republic and will be impatiently waiting to hear from BioWare on the matter for who knows how long. ^.^

During the moving of the fiance, we basically stopped role playing in the Harry Potter sim sets in Second Life. There were a couple of uncomfortable RPs that people were trying to push even though they weren't wanted by either of us, and we kept being disappointed by most of the "leadership" of the sim. In the end, we decided to drop it and focus on Aion and reviving our SW:TOR RP sessions, since Tony's time is cut down (comparatively) by work; off-time will probably be spent in City Of or more casual aspects of Second Life that don't demand so much face time.

That's basically what's been going on. I'm going to set aside Mondays (unless there's an event in Aion) to update this thing, and maybe add back in Friday reviews once I'm in the habit again. ^.^

Facebook Games...That Do More Than Waste Time

So I'm an officer for a Facebook group that collects, verifies and posts information about various Facebook applications/games that actually support legitimate offline charities or causes. Most of these focus either on saving animals, the environment or humanitarian interests, and all of them must have transparent dotnations to said causes to be included on the list.

Most of the games are pretty fun, or at least easy enough to do a little bit of clicking through yet still generate enough to create a donation. Please check out the group Games/Applications Supporting Human, Animal & Environmental Causes on Facebook, and if you currently play or decide to start playing one of the listed games, please join the group and share it on your profile as well as leave a review for the games you play.

Namaste.

WoW: Almost There...

Last night, Tony and I got our characters to 78. We're almost 80, and the work to get raid ready will be so much easier than leveling from 1 - 80 has been. We have basic and cold weather flying, so we can get around to finish up the quests in Sholazar, Storm Peaks and Icecrown. Between the quests and the start of our rep grind dailies, we should be able to get the gold for dual specs and whatever materials we need for gearing. Once we're geared, the dailies gold will start going towards getting epic flying, which means having to grind out a bunch of faction in BC so we can get more epic mounts.

We both have largely been able to keep up on our tradeskills. I'm hoping to be able to get enough frostweave and infinite dusts to grind out my tailoring to 440 so that I can make our craftables shit. We unfortunately have to get Loremaster of Northrend ASAP so that I can make our damn Deathchill Cloaks, but Tony isn't too against the idea of doing that many quests. Enchanting isn't a huge rush, considering Dave (the guild leader) already has max enchanting and can cover any enchants that I don't have.

Unforunately, RAWR has been dead since the last patch, so I can't fine tune theorycraft our gear now that we're closer to level cap and raid preparations. I'm waiting impatiently for the developers to update the program so I can get cracking on the last bit of tuning I want to do pre-raid.

So I should be able to start putting more up here soon. I have a couple of MMOs I want to review and a few Facebook games to talk about.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Well, I haven't posted much for a couple of reasons.

Recently, I started the long and confusing work of planning my own wedding, which is taking a lot more than I expected, as I didn't really know anything beyond what I wanted for the ceremony itself...there's sooo much crap that goes into making a wedding happen.

Secondly, Tony (my fiancee) plays WoW as well, however he began a character on the same server as our long time friend Tas. Since WoW is one of the only ways we can spend time together until he moves back here, I made a new Shadow Priest on the same server - hence the long guide to Shadow Priests finally being mostly finished.

We're already into Outlands, and we should be into Northrend by this coming week, if not sooner. We'll probably get 65 or 66 tonight, as we average about 2 - 3 levels a day. Oddly enough, our professions are staying almost the same level as our characters. =)

So Caught Up...!

Well, a week and a half ago, I fell down a flight of stairs so that's one reason why I haven't made much in the way of posting like I should.

I'm also trying to figure out what format I want to do the MMO/Major Game posts, and haven't found a writing style or format that I like yet, so that's not going up just yet.

What time I have been able to get on the PC has gone towards WoW's new raid zone, Ulduar and leveling Alliance characters with a few old friends on Hydraxis. And this addicting little browser based game called Civony. >.>

But I should be able to get back into the swing of things this week. My bruised tailbone only hurts a lot when I try to lean back, so it's basically become a crash course in perfect posture!

LOLcats Networking >.>

I got around to making an ICanHasCheezburger.com account, so I can just favourite my LOLs instead of having to download and rename every single one I find funny. They have a friends feature so stop by my LOLcats Profile and add me!

Site Updates: Story Blogs Added

The other night, I decided to import all of my MMO/RPG/LARP stories to their own blogs. Each blog is for a different character, and the blogs are grouped to the left according to what game they are from.

I'm still doing the layout formatting and stuff, so expect them to change over time!

Gamer Social Sites Info

I just realised that I put up links to various gamer social sites, without even bothering to mention what my screen names for them were so that people could network with me there. The only one I check on any sort of regular basis is GamerNook, but I'll toss the others into the mix anyways.

GamerNook ID: Darkfae
GamerDNA ID: Darkfae
MMOCluster ID (Under WoW): Teiris
MyGameMug ID: Darkfae

Notice a pattern? On most game related boards, I have a login that is Darkfae or some variant. I think that's also my log in for most WoW-specific sites. A few of the game places like Aeria Games I used what I would remember as my game login, so those are different. >.<

Also...

Twitter ID: ielixzia
Facebook: Ixy
MySpace: I never really use this...

(____) Game of the ____ Posts

Here's the general posting schedule for game review/spotlights that I'll be doing. The post will be part spotlight, part review of the game, and any additional opinion from readers would be great! If you have a suggestion for a game spotlight/review, feel free to send me a private message or e-mail about it.

Every Friday Night/Saturday Morning - Facebook Game of the Week
Every Other Friday Night/Saturday Morning - Bi-weekly Web-based Game
Second Friday Night/Saturday Morning of the Month - Game of the Month
Whenever I actually play a Console game - Random Console Game Day

Each post will have a score set at the end, looking something like this (as it may need to be changed from game type to game type):

Design Score: This is for overall game UI design.
Game Play Score: How well the mechanics work together
Graphics Score: Based on whether or not the graphics are unique and appropriate, and with some games, exactly how detailed they are.
Replayability: How often can you play/replay the game. With some web based games and MMOs that don't end, this score is more about how often you can play the game before it's not really worth it or becomes boring.
Bonus: Additional mark given for unique concepts, may not apply to all games.

Overall Score: An average of the above scores.

The Game List

Yes, I play a lot of games. It happens when you have oodles of free time, and are in an artistic slump (I do 3D imaging/animation and write, btw).

World of Warcraft
I was in the Beta for WoW, however at the time I was working for Sony Online Entertainment, and wrapped up in their games since they were free. Sometime around a year ago this past Febuary, it was uncovered that SOE employees had been feeding strats, timers and scripting information to the supposed "top content guild" world wide; being that I had been in a top end contested raiding guild and was considering going back to full time raiding, this kinda pissed me off quite a bit. So I left for WoW and never really looked back.

Off and on for several years, I was on the Kirin Tor server. When I went back to WoW, I ended up meeting a guy (WoW character's name is Ovelia) via GamerNook.com that lived about 45 minutes from me; we ended up hooking up, which lead me to making my priest - Teiris - on the Dark Iron server...which was a huge change for me because I preferred being able to NOT PvP when I wanted to get something done fast.

Things didn't turn out well with Ovelia, but at the time I was rather stuck on the server as he tried to get me to hook up with his best friend, Estarial. I moved out of the Arena focused guild , which were a great bunch of people, and into a guild that immediately became - yes, I gave them the name of my prior EQ2 hold-over guild.

I got rather adgitated at the way the guild was being run, as it claimed to be a progression based guild, yet it was so loosely organized and managed that it was more like a casual raid guild that wasn't getting too far very fast. I left them for one of the top raiding guilds, Vital, which was fun on some levels, and hell on others.

Eventually, I had ways to get the hell off the server without re-rolling my toon, and started hunting around for one I liked. I wanted to go back to an RP realm, but Kirin Tor had been so dead the few times I was on it - even during peak hours - so I looked elsewhere.

I've settled down on Steamwheedle Cartel, in the wonderful guild Arcana Solarie. The majority of the people there are awesome, the raiding is largely progressive and fun, at about the pace I'd like to be at as far as how many nights I raid. They have a huge RPer cross section of members, so there are RP events and happenings to be had as well.

Here I've met Kilo, the player of Stabbikins, whom I spend the majority of my time with unless I have a doctor's appointment or he has job hunting or D&D. Life on SWC has been pretty good, and I think I'm going to keep myself here even if I move on to other games, just to stay in contact with the people.

Horde Characters :
Teiris Shadowsong - 80 Shadow Priestess
Onona Darksun - 80 Retribution Paladin
Seresu Stormblade - 64 Dual Wielding Death Knight
Anezka Calacirya - 54 Soul Link/Siphon Life Warlock
Noquisia - 36 RestoKin Druid

Alliance Characters:
Avarianna Calacirya - 20 RestoKin Druid
Rhana - 10 Frost Mage


Requiem: Bloodymare
I forget how I found this game, but I really dig the graphics and some of the systems they have that are semi-unique. And nothing is more refreshing than watching your enemy lay hacked into bits, twitching about as they die in a huge pool of blood!

Requiem is sort of a side game for Kilo and I, though we have been spending quite a good amount of time on it when we're not raiding in WoW. I've been thinking about starting up an RP group there, because there is some interesting ideas to play with, and somewhere I have a couple of diaries written by my characters...I'll have to find those.

Lintra Characters :
Lexia - 22 Kruzena Rogue (Assassin)
Ixie - 12 Xenoa Battle Mage (Elementalist)
Teiris - 13 Turan Templar (Radiant)


Second Life
I visit Second Life on and off, depending upon my mood. I have a couple of avatars, however there is only one I am currently paying for/using. Part of me would like to get better at item creation in SL, the other part of me doesn't want to bother with the work that would bring; people would be expectant of me as a content designer, and I never really can give a definate date on when I'll be done something.

Right now I'm looking into renting a place in HarajukuBox City - the idea sounds pretty cool, and I enjoy the atmosphere there.

Character:
Aria Jinx


Guild Wars
This is a totally convenient game for me - while they do have a store to purchase some things for those not patient enough to get them through gameplay, the game is entirely free aside from buying the base game and/or "expansions". I can play it at any time and drop it without worrying about a subscription fee, unspent "points" or losing my characters.

US Server RP Characters:
Gwen Aurora - 20 Elementalist/Mesmer
Avaria Calacirya - 20 Mesmer/Necromancer
Ykatya Mehroe - 19 Necromancer/Monk

US Server PvP Characters:
Kirei Tenshi Yumiya - 20 Elementalist/Mesmer


Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine
If you haven't played any of the Shin Megami Tensei/Digital Devil Saga (Story)/Personae games, get thee to Blockbuster and rent one of them! I suggest Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne if you're new to the series or want to play SMT:I - it's the most similar to it.

I actually have a clan for each of my three characters, to get each of the "return home" stones for their cities, and to try out different alignments and demons or gear.

Cerberus Characters:
Ixy - 32 Chaos Magic Gunner
Shiloh - 16 Law Support Mage
Lexia - 13 Neutral Fighter


Shayia
I think it was Pheronecius of the Antonia Bayle server in EQ2 that got me into Shayia. Luckily it's on the same system as SMT:I, so if I decide that I want something from the item mall, I'll have two different games I can get stuff in. I resently deleted my main character on the Teos server, because I messed up on picking her abilities. >.>

Shayia has some damn fine promotional artwork, and the game itself is quite pretty too. I really love the dualistic qualities of it, the separation between Light and Dark quite important to the game.

Lailah Server Erina Characters:
Naica - 11 Mage

Teos Server Reikeuseu Characters:
Ixy - 5 Pagan


Asda Story
Yes, it's Supah Ka-wa-ii. I know, it's so cutesy that it makes you wanna gag unless you're into Shoju anime...but the game has some interesting systems to it. Their "Soulmate" system is really interesting, and kinda reminds me of WoW's newer "Refer-A-Friend" system, but more permanent.

The game is silly, and kawaii, but it's a fun change of pace from time to time. The only large complaint I have is that it's damn launcher pad is set to be on top of everything...so I can't do anything when it's up. >.>

Tilia Characters:
Zalika - 15 Fighter

About the Ad-Sense...

...I don't know if it's going to stay or not.

I selected the option cus I'm pretty poor ATM - can't work due to health issues, haven't won disability yet, so I live off about 200ish USD a month. But if it irritates me, or posts too many non-relevant links, I'm going to toss it!