Endgame Viable

If you’re reading this blog post, you’re probably not the kind of person who is going to watch YouTube videos, but just in case, here is a minor programming note regarding the Endgame Viable cross media empire. Generally speaking, I only upload game videos to YouTube when all three of these conditions are met: When I’m finished playing the game (so nobody spoils anything in comments), when I at least liked the game enough to finish it, and when I think the game might be interesting to watch (meaning that my particular playthrough might be different from everyone else’s in some way-in the way I played the game, or my reactions to it). Also I try to stick to relatively family-friendly sorts of games. Few games meet all of those requirements, so I end up only uploading a handful of series to my channel. (516 words.)

I’ve been mildly interested in setting up a system of gathering my tweets into digests and posting them on the blog periodically, maybe once a week. I just like the idea of keeping all of my writing in one convenient place, for myself if nothing else. It seems like something that should be very easy to do, but of course, it’s 2020, and all of the computing world has moved into walled garden silos where you’re forced to adopt somebody else’s stockholder-approved idea of an ideal workflow. (497 words.)

I’m not going to dwell on this very much, because everyone else seems to be enjoying it, but just for the record, I didn’t care for the New World beta very much. I was ready to give up on it after a half hour, but I recognize that MMOs tend to start slow. So I persevered for a little over two hours and by the end I felt it to be repetitive and unrewarding. I feel like two hours is plenty of time for any game to make their case for why I should continue playing. (855 words.)

I thought about writing a little on New World and/or Crowfall but I’m having a lot of difficulty finding good things to say about those games and I don’t particularly want to ruin everyone’s hopes and dreams for the future of MMOs. So instead I’ll catch up on all the Promptapalooza prompts I missed. With the pandemic, we are going through an unprecedented time. In what ways has this shared global event impacted your content creation? Sometimes I write depressing blog posts but mostly I try to avoid the subject. It’s a toss-up whether people will respond better to honest discussions of real-world issues, thoughts, and feelings, or to entertaining diversions from real-world issues, thoughts, and feelings. In my experience, most people tend to prefer the latter. (502 words.)

It’s my Promptapalooza time! Yesterday, Sandrian at Aeternus Gaming talked about content creation. Today, let us consider this topic: What are you looking forward to the most over the course of the next year? Hoo boy. That’s a doozy. I’ve been dreading this day since I first saw this prompt. Before you run screaming away from what is about to happen, let me direct you to tomorrow’s Promptapalooza writing prompt, which according to my notes will be hosted by Kanter at MMO One Night a Week. Go check it out! It’s sure to be less depressing than this one. (2272 words.)

First, catching up on Promptapalooza prompts: Tell us about some of your hobbies outside of the realm of your specific niche. Ugh. I feel like all my hobbies have fallen by the wayside. But music, writing, stuff like that. Tell us about some of your favourite antagonists and explain why. Recently, Abby from The Last Of Us Part 2, though I would say it’s arguable whether she’s an antagonist or a protagonist. (742 words.)

I meant to post this two days ago four days ago but I kept putting it off because I hated what I wrote and kept thinking that maybe if I just add a little more it will magically fix itself. So here we are. Not magically fixed at all. Then I put it off again because I didn’t feel like finding a picture. The Promptapalooza prompt from what is now two days past was: Do you “finish” games/hobbies/projects and move on or do you come back to the same things again and again? I typically do finish projects, then forget about them and move on to the next one. I’m a very project-oriented sort of person, as opposed to a routine-oriented person, if that makes any sense. My biggest difficulty is starting projects. (756 words.)

I got distracted with Remnant: From The Ashes, so here are the Promptapalooza prompts I missed: Tell us about a person/s or thing/s that has greatly influenced you. Most of the people on that list would be family or people I’ve known personally, but the first “famous” name that came to mind is Brian May, guitarist for Queen. I don’t play much like him, but his intellectual approach to musicianship has inspired me greatly. (440 words.)

I’m rendering some videos so I have a moment here. Soon after ragequitting Remnant: From The Ashes because of the Shroud boss, I went back and figured out how to defeat that bastard. My recipe for success was: Replace the medium/short-range coach gun I was given at the start with a long-range hunter’s rifle. Upgrade the hunter’s rifle to +2. Install the Hot Shot weapon mod in the hunter’s rifle, which does stacks of fire damage over time. Listen to YouTube videos while mindlessly repeating the boss fight over and over again for a total of about an hour and a half. I counted a total of 33 tries. UPDATE 8/27: Here is my victorious Shroud video. (420 words.)

Well that was quick. I got to the first boss fight (Shroud) and I’m ready to uninstall the game forever now. I chose “Hard” difficulty because I’m a Souls veteran. The combat has been taxing at times, but after some adjustments in tactics, easily overcome. Up until this one boss fight, when it became ludicrously impossible. Shroud has a million hit points. Shroud teleports away after every attack. Shroud lives in an arena that is choked with obstacles preventing you from moving around freely. Shroud causes a bleeding effect if you have the misfortune of being hit. Oh, and Shroud has an army of spawning adds that magically appear and harass you constantly. (553 words.)