No Age for Gaming
Here is a good article about Seniors who spend their retirement time gaming, or start to, and what they benefit from it:
https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/video-games-retirement-senior-men
Videogames
Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines sequel announced!
I bought Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines when it came and I thought this game is just awesome. You had to manually install Wesp’s unnoficial patch back then, but now it’s an exe that install in a short time the patch by clicking, or double-clicking, the file. I definitively want to thank Wesp for his hard work and dedication for still working on his unnoficial patch. At first it was to fix the bugs the game had (Basic), then to uncover the unfinished materials the devs were still working on and put them in the game (Plus).
Videos on how awesome Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines is. I’ve tried to embed them in my post, but it won’t let me. I’m really happy about this news.
My favorite clan to play is a female Gangrel, love their skills, they’re hardy and badass. I love that they may seem human at first, but if you start to look at them closely, you notice they’re not. And personnally I love their claws, looks feral. They don’t look monstrous like the Nofteratu, but like them they have to hide and cover themselves, hidden in the shadows. And since I play a female, people probably just think my claws are just long nails. With points in Seduction it makes the game easier to feed on people. Maybe because to me the Gangrel is the closest to my idea of a real vampire, strong, hardy, lots of stamina, can turn into bats, wolves, mist, can call animal spirits for help, like bats and wolves.
I don’t play the Vampire the Masquerade games from White Wolf, though, saw some of their books on Vampires the Masquerade from them in a store in English. I’m French-Canadian and my English was pretty bad, and my friends’ English was worse. Anyway, so my sole experience I have with their PnP is with their videogames. I bought Bloodlines first when it came out, found it amazing, and Redemption much much later on GOG. I haven’t played Redemption yet.
My personal room in Final Fantasy XIV
One of the few downsides of Final Fantasy XIV, and the major disappointment, is their housing system. They said private houses would be much less expensive, that Free Companies and private houses would be separated (but instead players compete and fight against Free Companies over the very few houses and wards that are available) and a long list of other things that are wrong with it, like the very few wards that they made. I’m lucky because my guild was in the closed beta and at launch so they bought a medium house, and now that they’ve added private rooms in Free Companies’s houses, I bought one as well not a long time ago. It’s pretty much the sole housing available for individuals right now unfortunately.
Anyway, here are screenshots of my room. The grandfather clock makes a sound at every second or so, it’s really nice. I plan to update this post whenever I make changes and add things to my room.
World of Darkness Online Cancelled
I’m really heartbroken to hear that CCP Games have decided to cancel World of Darkness Online. I’ve always wanted to play such an MMO in such a vampires-supernatural creatures dark setting. Vampire the Mascarade: Bloodlines is among my favorite games and I was so looking forward the MMO version of World of Darkness. I was planning to make two vampires, one Gangrel and one Tremere.
What bugs me is that CCP Games put time, money and people all these years on mediocre and failed games like Dust 514 and Valkyrie, instead of making World of Darkness Online their focus, they have kept spreading themselves with worthless projects. And considering they purchased White Wolf that means that they own the IP, and therefore no MMO or games most probably will ever be made based on World of Darkness because of them. So I’m really disappointed with their incompetence.
Let me put here the trailer of the game and show what could have been an awesome game:
Diablo III
Personally I really like Diablo III, and after I started mode Nightmare with my 4 characters, I heard they were working on a new loot patch 2 which would make the loots better. After you go through the game on normal mode, the main reason to play after is to get better gears, so I decided to stop completely playing my alts and wait for the patch, which took around 9 months. It’s a good thing that I’m patient, and instead I played my hardcore monk that I had made.
The new loot patch occurred a bit before the launch of the expansion Reaper of Souls and Blizzard had for 3 weeks an extra 50% XP boost. My characters were around level 33-34, and I was worried they would never reach maximum level, so I was really happy about this, and I used the boost in question to get all my 4 alts to level 60. So I’m really proud to see that my characters are so high level. With the expansion the maximum level has been raised to 70, but with them being at 60 already it will be easier to get them maximum level again.
I’ve played solely my monk and I’ve done the new act, which I find awesome. Now my monk has reached maximum level of 70, and I’ve been doing bounties to raise my Paragon levels. Right now my Paragon level is 29, and I’d like to get it up around 100-110. I also prefer the new levels of difficulties that has come with the loot patch, the adventure mode, and the new Paragon system, because now all the alts share the same Paragon level, which means you just need to do it with one alt to level up Paragon, and all your alts have the same Paragon level too.
Here are signatures made with my characters, including my new born crusader, showing the classes, levels, etc.
Video games are good for us
Like all the other gamers out there, we all get tired of the superstitions about gaming: that it’s bad for our health, that it makes us more violent, that it make us lose contact with other people, that gaming can get addictive, etc. One has to remember that every new media has been bashed from radio, movies, tv, video games, internet, etc.
I’ve decided to share links about video games that have just good things to say.
5 Reasons Video Games Are Actually Good for You
6 Ways Video Games Are Saving Mankind
Could video game addiction help save the world?
How Video Games Stretch The Limits Of Our Visual Attention
Top 10 Frustrating (and Incorrect) Preconceptions About Video Games
Video Game Research Project Helps Blind Children Exercise
Video Gamers Can Control Dreams, Study Suggests
Video Games Lead To Faster Decisions That Are No Less Accurate
Video Gaming Prepares Brain For Bigger Tasks
Why video games are good for kids
Gamers make for better workers
Some online video games found to promote ‘sociability,’ researchers say
Social Games Can Save the World
Swimming Sessions in Guild Wars 2
I watched recently a french video about the useless activities that the players in Guild Wars 2 can do if they want. One of them consists of jumping from a high place and do the same moves that the olympic swimmers do in competitions. I had to go in Lion’s Arch anyway so I decided to give that one a try.
When you get in that area your character suddenly wears a swimsuit and a pair of glasses. And when you jump, you get access to certain skills allowing your alt to do the same moves than the ones in competitions.
Here is my Asura guardian who looks all professional with his mini-pet golem that I got from my Hall of Monument in Guild Wars.
My biggest disappointments about Guild Wars 2
The dyes
We were told that the dyes we would unlock would be account based, so those who play many characters like me would be able to access all their dyes. And there is a LOT of dyes to unlock, 400 in total. Obviously something that would take a LOT of time. Well, in all beta events the dyes were indeed account based, including the big media week-end beta event where journalists in gaming industry were invited, including smaller guys like TotalBiscuit, who confirmed to the world, in different medias, that dyes were indeed account based, that ArenaNet follows their promises.
It’s only in the very last beta events that suddenly dyes were not account based anymore. Everyone thought it was a bug and reported it as a bug it to ArenaNet. Up until someone showed up in their official forums to tell us that ArenaNet had suddenly changed their mind, that now dyes are character based and gave us the most ridiculous reason why : to give us a sense of progression. Most people on the forums were angry and did not agree at all with that and wanted their account based dyes back.
I just want to mention that publically dyes are still account based because ArenaNet has not put on their website or blog that they’ve changed their mind, that they BROKE a promise, only other places have mentioned it, so that means that someone who check the beta events articles and videos, especially the journalists ones, and quickly check their website, will have a hard wake up call when they realize that sneakily dyes are not account based anymore.
On top of that, the dyes that drop are not identified so that means you don’t even know what color it is. Well, I don’t plan to play that gambling game. I plan to just NOT identify said dyes up until either the dyes become account based again or up until there is a way to identify the dyes before unlocking the dyes. Also, l will NOT buy dyes in the ingame store either. Again, it’s a gambling game. None of these are fun is any way whatsoever.
Ironically, some short time after ArenaNet changed their account based dye system to character based system in closed beta, ArenaNet had the nerve to write a blog article called Is it Fun? Colin Johanson on How ArenaNet Measures Success. The nerve!!! In other word, while they were working on the game they made sure to put emphasize on fun and get rid of not fun stuff.
Well guess what ArenaNet, the current character based gambling dye system is NOT fun at all. NOT FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And multiply that NOT FUN by how many alts we have. NOT FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WAKE UP!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Mesmer
In Guild Wars mesmer was the most awesome coolest fun original class. It was too much fun to play. And in PvP even better. It was so much fun tossing Ineptitude on melee classes and Backfire on casters, and watching them kill themselves. The most fun PvP I’ve had was playing a mesmer in alliance battles in Guild Wars.
In Guild War 2 most of the classes have gained new stuff, for the ranger more pets to have, for the warrior ranged weapons, necromancer death shroud, assassin a western look and guns. Mesmer in the other hand is not a mesmer anymore, I don’t know what it is but it’s NOT a mesmer. Someone wrote a better post about the sad situation about the mesmer in Guild Wars 2, here: Guild Wars 2: How ArenaNet ruined the Mesmer.
All I’m going to say is that I fully agree with the author.
Hard decision
It was an hard decision for me but I’ve decided to quit Lord of the Rings Online permanently. I know I leave behind some friends, I have their emails so I have at least that, but also my beloved deluxe house
, my first ingame house ever. I leave behind as well my characters I had become attached to with which I had fun role-playing.
I think it is partly playing Warhammer Online in november 2008 that made me realise that. Warhammer Online is so similar to Guild Wars that it almost made me feel like playing it. Guild Wars has so many qualities with its anti-grind attitude, non-gear oriented game, reach level cap fast, casual gameplay, fun. Not once I felt compelled to play Guild Wars, or obsessed, I played a lot but always for fun.
It was not the case for Lord of the Rings Online. I was compelled to play all the time to try to advance a little my alts and I felt for years I was not getting ahead. How come I can play a dozen alts in Guild Wars, get them to max level really fast, get them nice armors, skills, etc. in a few months while almost two years later and my 5 alts are still low level? Ok, I managed to advance my main more then the others in Lord of the Rings Online but only after I fully abandoned the other alts. Leveling alts is no fun in Lord of the Rings Online.
Let’s not forget the lack of storage, the deeds, the crafting, the reputations, etc. all grind that was making me obsessed about the game quite late at night and the whole day about the whole organisation. I was trying to play as often as possible to satisfy to everything.
Then came the second reason, the expansion Mines of Moria that has turned Lord of the Rings Online into World or Warcraft. I’m quite aware of World of Warcraft, I’ve heard about it plenty and I’ve decided long ago to avoid the game for many good reasons, one of them being the raids that are a must, and a grind, to acquire items. Frankly, if I wanted to play World of Warcraft, I’d buy the game, but since I’m not interested I’ve played other MMOs instead. Before Mines of Moria raids were not needed, one could craft, get items through quests or buy them on the Auction Hall but not anymore. As strange as it might seem, it’s World of Warcraft that is becoming more casual while Lord of the Rings Online is becoming more hardcore and more raid oriented.
Another thing coming from Mines of Moria are the skills, the virtues and the deeds. While before one did not need to work too hard on his/her deeds, now having them at high level is almost required. Still, even on the old system, one of the main reasons not to level up other alts was indeed the deeds, now it’s worse. There are as well different trait paths for classes and some classes get punished for certain choices while others don’t which is not fair. Turbine also has changed the combat system with Mines of Moria and that is quite a bad move.
So yeah, these are pretty much the reasons why I’m leaving, Lord of the Rings Online is turning into something I don’t like, and I want to go back to an healthy gaming state of mind because Lord of the Rings Online is very very unhealthy for me.
I’m going back to City of Villains/Heroes, like Guild Wars it’s casual, non-gear oriented, no raid, a rich and fun PvE MMO, and I’ve never felt that unhealthy addiction towards it as well unlike Lord of the Rings Online. On top of that, my guild there is still fully present ingame and I’ve been taken back and they’re still as nice as before. So from now on you know where to find me, on Virtue the unofficial RP server.
This is a past blog entry from my gaming Multiply.
Me love cuteness – Free Realms
I admit it, I love cuteness. 
I love those games with cute graphics and I often check out asian MMOs because of their high level of cuteness factor. Alas for me, asian MMOs are 99% of the time hardcore grinders with not much to do than kill the same mobs again and again to level up, which brings back to me nightmares, the ones I had when I had to do it in Saga of Ryzom, and also when I had to do it for slayer deeds in The Lord of the Rings Online.
I’ve noticed Free Realms last year but it was hard to tell what to think of the game, all I could see were a very few small bad quality videos of a cute world. Since the year has started, more screenshots have come out and more videos, it looks really interesting. The game is focused on kids and teenagers but the adults can play it too if they want. The beta has recently started and the open beta should be there in a month or so, I definitively intend to try the game out and see by myself how it is. It seems the game is more focused on exploration and socialisation, we get to have a house and a pet and we also get access to many classes that we can switch anytime, one aspect I love very much, flexibility, which is something I deeply miss from Guild Wars.
Sony claims it will be free-to-play but actually there will be a small monthly fee of 5-6$USD for those who want to have access to the whole content and areas and there will be micro-transactions as well. It’s unfortunate because when I first saw the game, the game was supposed to be wholly free but with a small monthly fee for parents who wanted more security for their kids, understandably. Considering the game is marketing kids, I think that now with monthly fee for everyone and micro-transactions, that it might make kids somewhat addicted and make them litteraly beg their parents for virtual items. They are already begging their parents for real items, now it will be virtual stuff, I doubt it will be healthy
In the meantime, here are some links:
Free Realms on SOE website (screenshots and videos there)
Latest videos on Free Realms, really cool stuff
This is a past blog entry from my gaming blog on Multiply.
Strange Realms' Random Thoughts 