Progress! I mentioned going through Heart of Thorns and the Living Story Season 3 in my last post, so I started working on that again. At least until I got to Heart of Thorns, Chapter 12, “The Way In.” This requires a Nuhoch Hunting Mastery before you can access it. Boo. And people complain about FFXIV locking content behind a Main Scenario Quest! I had previously completed up through Chapter 8, “City of Hope. (1413 words.)

I just wanted to announce that my Hunter made it to level 58 in Moria. Gaining another level in LotRO (when you’re not subscribed or anything) is a major accomplishment. I am not really sure what is going on with the epic story here. I am on Volume II, Book 4, Chapter 3 as of this writing. The dwarves are just sort of rooting around looking for chambers and relics and books and stuff. (137 words.)

This morning I tried the Path of Fire demo again, and it went much better. Thanks for the encouraging comments on my last whiny post. :) In fact, the second time through, I got all the way through the burning village and killed the two Veteran Forged Warhounds without dying. Then … the client disconnected. That was disappointing, to say the least. So I had to go through it a third time. (397 words.)

I’m going to try really hard not to sound bitter, angry, and resentful as I write this. :) I’m home today so I logged into GW2 to try out this Path of Fire demo thing. At first I had no idea how to even participate. I logged into my Necro, who I had left in Orr outside of the Zhaitan dungeon. Last time I played, I tried to do that last personal story mission to kill Zhaitan. (867 words.)

You can always count on my blog to bring you the latest, greatest news and commentary… so here’s another forgotten post from my Drafts folder. It is was E3 time again, and for a change, I actually watched some of the presentations, something I have never done before. I watched part of a Sony event on Saturday [June 10th], part of a Microsoft event on Sunday, and part of an Ubisoft event on Monday. (536 words.)

I was having some fun in the Mordor expansion, bopping up to the Black Gate, talking to Gandalf … pardon me, Mithrandir … meeting those four “adventurers” with different personalities. It seemed like they were setting up those four folks as characters we might see again throughout Mordor, following their adventures so to speak, and it seemed like a good story idea. They all had their different reasons for going into Mordor, and it was the hook I needed to get interested in the zone. (324 words.)

Here are just a few thoughts about the announcement of The Thirteenth Doctor, Jodie Whittaker, because I wanted to schedule a post for today, my first day back at work (yuck), and this was the only text I had available. I don’t have a problem with a female The Doctor. Whittaker was very good in Broadchurch. And that’s about the extent of my thoughts about the announcement. I’ve never looked up to The Doctor as a male role model, and can’t even conceive of anyone who has, or what it might be like to be a man who believes they’ve lost their favorite male sci-fi role model. (682 words.)

I did indeed buy the $40 edition of the Mordor Expansion, and boosted a Hobbit Minstrel from level 24 to level 105 so I could actually play said expansion. (Folks on Twitter seemed to think Minstrel was a good solo class to play.) Once again the gear you are given looks awful, like a suit of white underwear. I guess they really want people who use level boosts to look like total newbies compared to the people have been playing all along, which I suppose isn’t entirely inappropriate. (914 words.)

So Tuesday afternoon I went out to my garage to get some tools, and a very friendly cat popped out from beneath my car and meowed. I meowed back and the cat went on to explain with a long series of meows that he was very hungry and he further asked if I might have some extra food please? Now I’ve seen probably a half dozen different cats wandering around the vicinity of my house in the last year, not to mention packs of stray cats hanging around the cul-de-sac where I last lived (I am pretty sure a neighbor across the road fed them). (730 words.)

I haven’t yet bought the Mordor expansion (I probably will, despite the hype-destroying trailer), but it dawned on me that LotRO is one of those rare MMORPGs where you can actually explore the world without having to unlock zones by completing quests. So I decided that I wanted to run my 95 Runekeeper as close to Mordor as I could get. I made it all the way to the Black Gate. (217 words.)

I didn’t know much about Dark and Light except that I had a vague sense that it was a PvP-style MMORPG that had been cancelled and then salvaged. Yesterday I saw a screenshot of the game float through my Twitter feed that looked amazing, so I totally broke my own rules and impulsively went to Steam to buy the Early Access version for $25 (on sale). Dark and Light - Today's Minor Patch Paves Way for Larger One Coming Soon https://t. (598 words.)

I mentioned a Let’s Play series showing Final Fantasy XIV 1.0 in my last post: Out of intense curiosity, I’ve been watching this series for a while, trying to take some notes about what I like and dislike about 1.0. The YouTuber showers praise on the game while he plays, more than it deserves-to the point where I wonder if Square Enix actually paid the guy-but he’s at least enthusiastic. He is more of a talented radio-voice-guy than a talented gamer though. (1443 words.)

To make a long story short, I left my old job and will be home all this week before starting a new part-time job Tuesday. (Technically it’s in the same building.) Being home is weird. I’m not quite sure what to do with myself. I haven’t had a full week off of work since the last time I changed jobs, which was in July 2014. That means I’m writing this post on Tuesday morning on my gaming PC, which is a very strange situation for me. (1183 words.)

Since I’m home this week (see tomorrow’s post :) I had a rare opportunity to actually watch the Guild Wars 2 Path of Fire expansion announcement live today. (Those things are usually timed so that only the unemployed can watch them.) Not only that, but I could write a post about it and publish it with a screenshot all in the same day! Path of Fire is scheduled to release September 22, 2017, less than two months from now. (475 words.)

Final Fantasy XIV and the Stormblood expansion dominated the month of July. Final Fantasy XIV - 154 hours Secret World Legends - 3 hours Lord of the Rings Online - 2 hours (32 words.)