I first heard about the Newbie Blogger Initiative last year, sadly just as it was ending. I thought it was a great idea then, and I still do, so I’m supporting it this year in whatever small way I can. New bloggers need all the support they can get, because it can be pretty discouraging at the beginning. I’ve been writing and blogging about various things for years, so I know all about how daunting it can be to find and build an audience. (Honestly I only know about failing miserably at it.) Blogger communities like the NBI help tremendously. (410 words.)

My Templar has reached level 30, and I’m starting to notice a few long-term trends in ESO gameplay. First, my character hasn’t really changed very much. I expected that having more skill points available would allow me to make significant changes to my gameplay style over time, but I am still using basically the same set of 5 skills that I started with. And to be honest, the newer skills available to me don’t sound very interesting or helpful. Consequently I have a surplus of skill points while I wait for something better to open up. (And that’s after spending many points on crafting.) (478 words.)

I took the plunge and jumped into GW2, post-Feature Pack. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. The meaning of the traits came back to me as I was looking over them, and I dumped points into things that sounded familiar. I haven’t done anything even remotely close to min-maxing in GW2 so it probably doesn’t matter. Also I don’t do dungeons or anything competitive, so my lack of optimization won’t affect anyone but me. (272 words.)

I thought I would do a quick update on my progress in ArcheAge RU. I have made it to level 12. Update complete. Thusfar I have still not been able to enjoy any of the vaunted sandbox features of ArcheAge, because I still can’t read Russian*. I have sort-of puzzled out how to grow vegetables from seeds, and how to make food from the vegetables. (I don’t precisely know what happens when you eat food - you get a buff but it only lasts about 30 seconds.) Recently I also learned how to make potions from some of the plants I’ve gathered. (574 words.)

I have to disagree with MJ at Massively when she writes, somewhat defensively, that SOE is doing a good job providing what the players want in Landmark. I like MJ and all but SOE has definitely not listened to any of my feedback. Like for example when I keep asking for them to turn it into an actual game. If they are listening to anyone, they must only be listening to people who just want to build fancier houses and role-play in them. Because the only things they’ve added to the game since the beginning are more and fancier parts with which to build things. (483 words.)

So. H1Z1. Another zombie game. That’s already enough to make me not care about it. Zombies were old when The Secret World came out. (Yes, TSW is already an MMO with zombies.) Zombies are now so old that you can’t help but roll your eyes whenever you see another zombie game. “But wait, in this one the zombies can breakdance! See how relevant we are!” No. Zombies are dead. Pun intended. They are like elves in a fantasy MMO. Except there are no other races to distract you from the elves. (350 words.)

I was interested in checking out the new GW2 Feature Pack until I read Zubon’s warning. Apparently you have to re-do and re-learn all your characters after you login. I suppose I should have expected it, given the complete restructuring of the trait-lines. But facing the cold, hard reality of having to re-learn your class from the ground up is pretty daunting. Especially when you haven’t thought about GW2 traits in ages. (293 words.)

I never got a chance to write my impressions of Final Fantasy XIV’s 2.2 patch, so I will do so now. I only had about one day to look at it before ESO came out, so there are some gaps in my knowledge. Like, for example, how I didn’t look at any of the new dungeons or trials. I did get a chance to sort-of look into Glamours, but it appears that you need Tailor, Leatherworker, and/or Armorer classes to create those glamour crystals, and of course I do not have those beyond level 15. (213 words.)

The technical difficulties seem to have fixed themselves. Shrug. I have one more criticism about ESO, although it’s not exactly a “criticism” so much as it is merely an “observation of the way ESO does things.” Most of the zones look the same. Stonefalls, near the beginning of the Ebonheart Pact starting point. Not exactly the same. Some of them have jungle trees and some of them have deciduous trees. Some of them are more rocky and some of them are more grassy. Some of them have oceans and some of them have swamps. (534 words.)

Lucky you. Because I can’t seem to post by email during the week any more, you get to read an epic novel of a post put together over the weekend. Falls-on-Steps. Yeah, I made an Argonian even though I played one in beta. It’s actually been kind of nice that I haven’t been able to post. I’m having so much fun playing ESO that I don’t want to analyze the game very much, because then I might start to wonder if I’m really supposed to be having this much fun or not. Perhaps I’ve somehow been “tricked” into thinking the game is fun when it’s really not. (2012 words.)