I'm now officially a Groundbreaker for the resurrection of Digg.
https://groundbreakers.digg.com/u/9446b171
https://groundbreakers.digg.com/u/9446b171
https://groundbreakers.digg.com/u/9446b171
https://groundbreakers.digg.com/u/9446b171
Blogger stats for March: 28,632 (note: below graph includes Apr dates)
For March I had very little in the "played" category. I did play some New World but nothing serious. Sort of just checking the trading post and doing weekly objectives. By end of month I was not playing any games including New World.
I did play a few games of Magic the Gathering with my oldest son using precon decks we have sitting around. That was enjoyable.
March 2024 saw my short lived attempt to figure out what the deal with Path of Exile was. It didn't catch me and the experiment was short lived.
Also in March, the New World developers let us know there would not be an expansion in 2024 but there would be a "big announcement" in June. We all know how that went...
Ashes of Creation was previewing their Commissions system.
March 2020 featured no blog posts.
March 2015 featured no blog posts.
In March of 2010 Bioware's boss was flat-out lying about the success of Warhammer Online; "Right now it's [a] really profitable business unit within my group.". That was followed with rumors that Bioware proper was going to be more involved with Mythic (both part of EA at the time). Years later we know how that turned out...
My gmail was hacked...
And last but not least I was playing a lot of Battlefield Bad Company 2 in March 2010. It remains one of my favorite Battlefield games to this day! Scroll through the full month of posts to see my various BFBC2 posts.
I am going to attempt to catalog all of my characters in any game I put significant time into. Goal is to "remember" characters from the past 25+ years of gaming and include server and class/race information as I am able to recollect.
I finished the new main story quest for New World Aeternum on my alt character on the seasonal PvP server. Along the way I took some no-UI screenshots. Enjoy!
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Riding past a shattered obelisk |
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Shattered Mountain in the distance |
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Not part of the MSQ, but a shot from the Glacial Tarn expedition |
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This ghostly tree was part of the original MSQ and I was happy to see it still there. One of the iconic moments from the original MSQ. |
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Finishing a soul trial (solo boss fight) |
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I always enjoyed the visuals of the corruption areas and while the MSQ no longer goes through the Tempest Heart expedition there is still a visual replacement in one of the new MSQ's solo trials. |
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More corruption. |
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This floating island is new and I was disappointed that so little time was spent here. I need to go back and see if I can get back to it now that I am done with the MSQ. |
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One underappreciated part of New World is that many of the props, such as this bench in a camp site, can be interacted with. Here I am catching a break sitting around the campfire. |
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Isabella still sits at the end of the MSQ. |
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Inside the new solo trial boss fight with Isabella. |
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When I saw this view I needed to stop and take a shot. |
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Riding off into Brimstone Sands after defeating Isabella and finishing the first leg of the MSQ. |
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I didn't remember this hidden chamber hiding in Brimstone Sands so grabbed a shot for the scrapbook as I mined away on a stone scarab I defeated. |
Some gameplay videos have appeared online for the new Battlefield game!
In the second video we get some infantry game play. The theme appears to be modern times which will be a return to the trend of BF2, BF3, and BF4. I am looking forward to a return to the modern battlefield for the series!
A lot has been going on with Deadlock lately. It recently became the most wishlisted game on Steam. There were also a sweeping set of changes to how the game plays along with a revamped map. Because while players are wishlisting the game players are also able to play the invite-only early access alpha beta testing version of the game. Honestly, who a I kidding here? The game is effectively a live game and its a MOBA. And it's still a MOBA even after all of the changes that were made recently. And to me that is a damn shame.
First lets look at Deadlock's popularity since its invite-only test launched. It rocketed up to 170,000+ peak concurrent players but has steadily dropped since and now enjoys about 17,000 peak concurrent players. Considering it is a new game from Valve those are not huge numbers. For comparison Valve's other MOBA, DOTA2, sees 600,000+ peak concurrent players and while not its absolute peak it is not far off. DOTA2 also saw a steady climb from it's earliest test periods (i.e. there was no drop off as we are seeing with Deadlock).
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Chart from SteamDB |
So Deadlock is on a downward trend in it's early access phase which makes you wonder if that downward player trend is resulting in the team reconsidering the design of the game. With the most recent changes many of the gameplay aspects that set Deadlock apart from other MOBAs are being replaced with standard MOBA fair. The map went from 4 lanes to 3 lanes. Last hitting became more static. Mobility and map traversal is reduced. Basically Deadlock is more like any other MOBA that has come before than it has been at any point in it's early life.
For me personally the biggest disappointment of Deadlock is that it still remains a MOBA. Why is Valve making another MOBA? The theme of Deadlock is fresh and new. There are so many more interesting things Valve could be doing with that theme. And so far it seems players are saying the same thing by voting with their playtime. 16,000+ peak concurrent players is nothing to sneeze at but its tiny for a Valve game.
Maybe I have too high of expectations for Valve and bringing a new game to market that doesn't fit into their stable of existing genres. Even so it still seems like a waste that the creativity behind Deadlock, it's world, and it's characters is just for another MOBA. Maybe I'm just not like other gamers with my expectations.
February 2025 is already done!?
Blogger stats for Feb: 40,187 (note: below graph includes March dates)
In other metrics:
For Feb it was ... wait for it... New World. Shocker! I still love this game and still play almost daily. The big change for this month was that a long lost acquaintance and a chance encounter in 3v3 arenas convinced me to try out the Season 7 PvP servers. The selling point to get me to jump is that he could get me leveled up to 65 "in 5 minutes". True to his word I was basically leveled to 65 in a few minutes thanks to being able to turn logs into ethereal dust which crafts into animus that you get 2,500 XP for opening. So a few minutes at the crafting station and hundreds of clicks opening animus and I was 65.
There is also drop on death PvP gear that is easy to obtain (easy to lose as well) so I was geared up in no time (and then promptly ungeared with my first open world death). And while I was max level with gear there were still some annoyances I had to deal with such as leveling my faction up to max level which requires me to finish the main story quest to access a specific zone. I am still working my way through that and enjoy the frequent open world PvP skirmishes since everyone is flagged and there is always the chance they are loaded with PvP drop-on-death gear!
I also jumped into the Anvil Empires early access test and that game simply isn't ready for much serious testing consideration.
Feb of 2024 brought us Enshrouded and I enjoyed my time digging around that world.
My beloved Green Bay Packers once again exited the NFL Playoffs with a loss to the dreaded San Francisco 49ers. Boo!
I was also in my very early stages of playing around with AI image generators. Its a bit crazy to look back over the last year and see how much AI has changed. I really need to take some time to share more of my AI dabbling. There is some cool stuff out there.
Feb 2020 featured no blog posts.
Feb 2015 I felt obligated to post and so I did.
In Feb of 2010 I was playing Allods Online open beta and then had my launch reaction and then promptly started arguing about its plans for a cash shop.
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 was a hot game heading our way in Feb 2010 and still ranks as one of my favorite Battlefield games. I spent time comparing it to Battlefield 2, talking about SecuROM DRM, and
Some of us bloggers also challenged ourselves to try and make believe that Warhammer Online wasn't shutting down or going into maintenance mode. Oops.
Oh and I started the idea of posting regular monthly look back posts with my first "What I'm Playing/What I'm Paying" post that looked at the month prior of Jan 2010. I must have had more free time back then; I played a lot more games.
I made another New World Aeternum video; this time showcasing my new character "heartlessgamer2" from the PvP server Scalvia. I just finished leveling to 65 and grabbed a set of the 725 "Swarm's Mighty" gear which is unique to the PvP server. This is a great way to jump right to 725 gear score and jump into arenas. I ended up winning against the odds 1v3 in the first round and we brought it home at the end for a great arena win!
New World's new outpost rush (OPR) map is available to preview this weekend so I gave it a spin and boy did I have some fun! So much fun in fact I had to clip one of the matches where our team came back from 300+ points down to steal a win in the final moments! Not only that but I scored first place! This new map is a ton of fun!
First the video:
I am playing my heavy sworld and shield/firestaff build with a key change to using Burnanator as my firestaff. This thing BURNS; even after a slight nerf this patch. It fits my playstyle perfectly!
A screenshot of the scoreboard as well; 1000 to 986 is about as close as you can get in OPR! I went 31 kills / 6 deaths / 61 assists. Over 2.3 million damage!