Sideshow & Syrana

A few years ago, Sideshow and I bought a treadmill.  At the time, we were trying to go to the gym on a regular basis to work out.  Like lots of great plans, it worked for awhile, but then trailed off.  Mostly due to the extra time it took to get there and back.  Solution: buy a treadmill for home.  I don’t have anything against treadmills and used it almost every trip to the gym… so why not have one at home to use to fill in the gaps between our trips there?

We bought it and used it for a bit.

Now it sits in the basement, unused.  Why? Well, the environment is not conducive.

I get the treadmill effect with some games.  At this point, I’d say Aion was my treadmill MMO.  Once my workout buddy stopped playing, it was hard to keep my interest.  Then there’s the grind.  Sure, I’ve said time and time again that putting seemingly mundane and repetitious tasks into game form and I love ‘em.

But the environment wasn’t quite right.

So Aion, much like my treadmill, sat unused for a lengthy period of time.  All the while I kept telling myself I should get back in there.

But I didn’t.  My account expired a few weeks ago.

I didn’t quit because I disliked it or because of World of Warcraft (which I haven’t logged into for a few weeks either).

Much like my treadmill – I enjoyed it when the environment was conducive.

I could start using either one again at anytime.

Image courtesy of Robbert van der Steeg @ Flickr

You ever notice how weird time is? The amount of time in a day is the same… every day.  But some days time seems to drag and other days it flies by.

I definitely find this crazy “fast flying” time to be the case when I take vacation days.  Especially those vacation days where you don’t actually leave the house.

I had some time off over this last week, and I had all these plans of things to do during that time.

All these things I wanted to tackle could be boiled down to 3 main categories:

1. Spend time with Sideshow
2. Play games
3. Write blog posts and maybe get a bit ahead of myself!

…I can tell you 2 outta 3 ain’t bad.

Of course I got to spend time with Sideshow.  Besides it being our birthday, we like to … well, play games together. (continue reading…)

Oh hi there!

What? Oh yes, I know there’s been nothing new ’round here for a few days.

You see, sometimes I get a bit distracted…especially by new games.  But not just by any ol’ new game – good new games.  Unlike Sideshow, I don’t really suffer from game ADD.  Instead, I tend to get hyperfocused on one thing at a time.  That’s why my playtime may seem to be monopolized by one particular game for a stretch of time then shift to another.  After the newness wears off, I tend to fall back into a more “normal” multi-game rotation of sorts.

Unfortunately, this hyperfocus can derail other projects I have going.  For example, this past week I’ve fallen (farther) behind (than usual) on reading other blogs as well as posting.  But hey, we all need mini-breaks here and there, am I right?

At any rate, I thought I’d give a bit of an update as to what’s going on in my virtual world(s).  I don’t usually write update type of posts, but what the hell… when have I ever followed the rules before? (continue reading…)

I thought I’d give an update on my gaming and an overview of my play-style.

Sideshow is currently at 80 and has been there for many months now. In all honesty, he’s probably as far as he needs to be. He has a few Naxx pieces, some PvP pieces, etc. I have no interest in getting him fully top-tier geared. That’s not how I play. I drop in to enjoy my free time with whatever I feel like doing at the time. I usually do a few dailies, hit up a few battlegrounds, and maybe run some stuff with guildies. I may start PuGing more when the dungeon changes come out in 3.3. It’s not the act of raiding that I don’t enjoy. (continue reading…)

Today is the first day that Aion players can redeem veteran rewards.  Last week NCsoft revealed their plans for veteran rewards.  Starting today, accounts that have been active for at least a month will be able to redeem them.  Although things could still change, at this time, they are planning to have rewards for each active month – up to 6 months.

What kinds of goodies shall we see? Titles, cube expansion, exclusive emotes, rez stones, experience amulets, and better wings.

Best part? You can redeem them for any/all of your characters as long as your account has been active long enough for each veteran reward package.  Very cool for altoholics. (continue reading…)

No clever title from me today, sorry.  But here are some random items that I have starred in my Google Reader and wanted to share with you, if you want to check ‘em out.

Anna has a wealth of RP information: Notes for the New RPer, Character Independence,

Alexan has a great Aion guide for identifying a mob’s difficulty which is very useful.

Fish discusses how being a part of a guild is much like being in a relationship.

Plectical over at Rawrcast talks about completing the Loremaster achievement.

Saresa gives advice on unique ways to improve your healing.

Darraxus has a great (and amusing) list of things NOT to do if you get your significant other to play WoW with you.

Not Cadistra’s most recent comic, but I love a great Monty Python parody.

Krizzlybear posted about the worst fail pug ever about a month ago, but I still find it immensely hilarious – even after reading it 5 times.

(To the tune of “On The Road Again” by Willie Nelson – which, by the way, is totally outside my normal musical selection)

I’m a noob again

Just can’t wait to figure it all out again

The game I love is adventurin’ with my friends

And I can’t wait to figure it all out again.

I’m a noob again

Questin’ in places that I’ve never been

Rollin’ things that I might never roll again

And I can’t wait to figure it all out again.

That’s right.  I, Syrana, controller of demons and dark magic artistry, am a noob again. (continue reading…)

Woo, queues have significantly reduced over the weekend.  It seems that opening a couple more servers and raising population caps slowly have helped.  Also, the change made to the private stores, where they can’t be afk selling for more than 30 minutes, has helped too.

As I mentioned before, Sideshow and I rolled Asmodian on Lumiel.  It has been a popular server – which makes it busy.  During the headstart, queues for Lumiel were easily 2 hours.  After the live launch, the queues were commonly 1.5hrs.  But Friday night, it was only 20 minutes!  Then on Saturday, there was no queue in the afternoon, and a short one (15ish minutes) in the evening.

See, I think things will be ok.

Character Creation

So, yes, I have an Asmodian on Lumiel by the name of Syrana.

(continue reading…)

What an eventful past few days it has been.  The buzz surrounding Aion’s launch can be heard far and wide.  Apparently, the Asmodian race is a popular one.  Who knew? I mean, usually more people gravitate toward the shiny happy people, right?

Last Friday (9/18/09) was the day for pre-selection for those that pre-ordered Aion.  It meant you could reserve 2 character slots.  That’s it.  No playing yet, just reserving your name and faction on 1 or 2 servers.  This actually didn’t go over well for everyone.  Sure, it was nice to get to do that… but there was a lot of complaining too.

Some people had to change their server choices or had their names taken.  Then there was the blocking of creating Asmodians on a LOT of servers for a period of time.  This didn’t mean you never could, but you had to wait until more Elyos were created to restore balance.

Balance being the key word.

With a game like Aion that has a lot of focus on PvP, balance is important. (continue reading…)

Alright, so we’re still in open beta right now, but I still get altitis.  I guess part of it is, I know my characters are going to get wiped so I don’t want to overinvest in them just yet.  Right now, it’s sort of like the trial period where I can putz around before making more permanent selections upon live.

And selection dates are coming up fast!

So, primarily I’ve been playing an Asmodian Spiritmaster.  This is similar to the WoW Warlock, so, y’know, pretty fitting for me.  Can I compare Asmodians to Horde? Meh, not really, no… at least not at this point.  Maybe somewhere down the road I can take a look at lore/war/oppression/whathaveyou parallels or something.

Now, the Asmodians are considered to be the dark, shadowy faction while the Elyos are bright and shiny.

….

I had to make one just to see it.  But I decided I needed to roll something different, so I went warrior.  The first random face that I got was this:

I’m sorry.  I cannot smash faces with a HEART ON MAH CHEEK. (continue reading…)