810 Man

 Well it happened: On the weekend, I made it to Level 810 on Elder Scrolls Online. 

This means that, after so long, I have achieved the level cap and unlocked all the champion points for all my characters. 

So I've done it: I've achieved what I set out to do. I declared that I will commit some key gaming time to ESO for the sole purpose of getting to level 810 and I did it.

But now I face a new problem: Where do I go from here?

It has been observed that once you reached the level cap in ESO then that's it: The game is over and there's nothing left to see or do. And I do agree with that: In order to reach level 810, I went through countless dungeons and traversed through all available areas (all in correct chronological order) - only to come out the other side with a sense that there's no more places to visit. 

It also can't be ignored that ESO is, by far and away, the game I have sunk the most hours into. According to my Steam account it is the only game that boasts an investment of over a thousand hours. But that distinction has come because I have been playing ESO near exclusively - often at the expense of the other games in my collection.

Much like WoW before it. 

So perhaps it is fitting that with nowhere left to go, the time has come to move on. I guess there was a degree of finality and inevitability to ESO once I made it to level 810 but at least i can say that this time I ended this MMORPG on a positive note (as opposed to loss of interest (WoW) or bitterness (Star Trek Online)).

So to that end I should be grateful. 

That was the year it was: 2015

Well here we are at the tail end of 2015. The festive season is well and truly upon us so now is the time to step away from this blog and spend some time with family and friends - which is what we all should be doing around this time.
Therefore, this will be the final post for Game Tumour in 2015.

This year has been a quiet one: Its not just because I choose to scale back the amount of time and effort in this blog due to outside commitments.
No, much of my time has been invested in playing Star Trek Online. But if playing World of Warcraft has taught me anything it is too easy to fall in the trap that is common with MMORPGs: You find it is the only thing you play, the one thing you invest the most time in that the other games tend to get neglected and because you're continually investing money in this game you convince yourself to make the effort not to make the investment going to waste (WoW with the subscription, STO with Pay-as-you-go). But being in that trap doesn't mean you can escape from it.
Why, in the past week I've found myself moving away from Star Trek Online and enjoying an old favorite, Dragon Age Origins, again.

Still it's not all been bad news: I've knocked down more games off my Hall of Shame: System Shock 2, Curse of the Azure Bonds and some of the Leisure Suit Larry games.
Other highlights of 2015 have been:

• my delight at seeing the Gold Box finally make it's way to GoG
• Convincing a friend to play Divinity Original Sin and both going into it blind - and both of us finding it quite enjoyable
• Meeting Bajo and Hex
• In another coup for GoG, the arrival of the original Star Trek Adventure games!
• Obtaining a copy of New One Lives Forever (and defying the legal confusion preventing it's re-release)

So what can I take away from 2015? Well, I think the less time I spend on MMORPGs, the better. Yes they are time-sinks - hell, that's what they're designed to be! - but the amount of hours invested in a MMORPGs can really be better invested in working on some of the many games that I have left untouched.

You know, I've been playing a lot of Western RPGs these past few years that it's been quite some time since I last played, and enjoyed, a JRPG.
Therefore, I think I will, in 2016, play Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky...

So this concludes Game Tumour for 2015. Thank you to everyone who has visited this blog over the past twelve months and I look forward to speaking to you all again in 2016 :)

An Admirable Effort

I've been playing a lot of Star Trek Online lately. And I'm pleased to say that my character has made it to the rank of Admiral.

If my guy made it that far then Starfleet must be really desperate for admirals. I mean Kirk threw his away, Picard never ranked past captain and Sisko entered the Celestial Temple. The fact that Janeway made it to admiral only confirms such a theory

R.I.P. Leonard Nimoy

One of the icons of geek culture passed away on the weekend - Leonard Nimoy, Mr Spock himself.

Thankfully Star Trek Online are keeping his soundbites but I will admit it's getting hard upon leveling up and hearing that distinctive voice utter: "Congratulations Admiral"

I raise a glass to you, Mr Nimoy.
And say hi to Gene, James and DeForrest for us. :(

Paying up

Today I did some calculating up and found out that I've spent under thirty dollars on Star Trek Online.

Not a bad amount invested on a FTP game.

I suppose it is a good thing though that I've kept track of this figure. If anything, it's a necessary restriction when facing down a MMORPG - if you lose track of how much money you've spent on it, then maybe you're in a dangerous position. I hate to think how much money I've blown on World of Warcraft or Elder Scrolls Online but no doubt both amounts are somewhere in the three digits.

And considering how much money I've spent on games that have ultimately gone unplayed then maybe such a restriction is more important than I realize.

Triumphs and tragedies

Alas my computer has suffered a major hardware failure. I've had to take it in to be fixed but, as is often the case, I'm stuck on a waiting list. There's no telling how long it will take so I'm left high and dry at the moment,

Still it's not all bad news: Before the computer crash, I did manage to make some progress with Star Trek Online. I defeated the Klingon ship that was giving me so much headaches and I made it all the way to the second season (Wasteland). Funny thing buffs: You never realise you have them until they end up saving your bacon

Paying for an Escort

Following on from a post made earlier this week about Star Trek Online, I decided to tackle the problem of being decimated by the Klingons by shelling out for a new ship: An Escort! Yes, screw the Cruisers, give me a ship made for combat! It's maneuverable! And it's loaded with guns! Yes, I'll make those Klingons regret they ever saw me!

Oh wait, they just blew me out of the sky.

Oh well, never mind then.

Going off Trek

I've been playing a lot of Star Trek Online lately.

I've been enjoying it so far but now I think I've reached the point where cracks are beginning to show. True I love going through the galaxy, I love building up a crew of individuals and how the game really captures the feel of the TV show. But what I find problematic is.....the ship combat.

You heard right. Some critics have said the ship combat as one of the highlights of the game but I'm not one of them. I find it dull, tedious and frustrating. At the risk of sounding like a noob, I've come to loathe the ship combat what with the enemy ships outpacing me, getting the shit kicked out of me by ships who never seem to take a scratch and being blown up time and time again.
Funny thing is, I've been going by the Federation campaign. And at one point I got to use a Klingon Bird of Prey - which, funnily enough I found more maneuverable and subsequently more enjoyable. Therefore perhaps there is something to be gleamed from the Klingon campaign.

bortaS blr jablu'Dl'reH QaQqu' nay'

The Final Frontier

Recently I've been having a go at Star Trek Online.

So far it's proving to be a compelling game. It does what I want a Star Trek game to do with traversing through the galaxy, building up a crew and going through missions presented in an episodic format. The latter deserves special notice: I like how the game remains true to it's TV roots with each expansion being a new 'season' and each mission having it's own title card. It's a clever approach and certainly goes a long way to give Star Trek Online a sense of it's own identity.

Also of note is that this is my first time doing a FTP MMORPGer (damn abbreviations!). It certainly makes a change when I was playing a WoW in that by not having a subscription I don't have a sense of commitment to the game. Which in turn assists in me actually enjoying game.
Still, some exchange of money is required and it is here that I have an issue with - certain things are proving costly. I don't mind paying for Borg crew members or for a Federation Klingon PC but I do object to paying so much for a particular crew member. According to the Earth dock, you need 240 purple things (whatever they're called) to purchase a new crew member. And for 114 of these purple things you spending an excess of over $100! That is indeed a bit much.

Still this is only but the beginning and it would be interesting to see how things go from here....