Gloamwood. I played a new character through the first two zones in Rift to imagine what Rift Prime might be like. _A series of short reactions to the week’s MMORPG stories, otherwise known as “just about giving up on blogging” because I can’t be bothered to write long posts lately. _ Sea of Thieves was in closed beta. This is a game on my radar, but the more I see, the less I’m interested. (641 words.)

They aren't too concerned about spoiling things from the previous patch, are they? Roughly 75% of the 4.2 patch doesn’t interest me, but there’s a few cool things in there. This cracked me up: You won’t be able to skip the cut scenes in Castrum Meridianum and the Praetorium anymore. If I were a new player, I’d be glad about that, because I’d hate to miss them (I honestly don’t remember if I watched them the first time or not, or if I ever have). (1382 words.)

The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (translated by Ken Liu) Published by Tor Books. Read by Luke Daniels. Produced by Macmillon Audio. I got this a long time ago because it won the Hugo in 2015, but I only just got around to it in my January 2018 listening binge. Set against the backdrop of China’s Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. (492 words.)

Gardens of the Moon: The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Book 1 by Steven Erikson Published by Tor Books. Read by Ralph Lister. Produced by Brilliance Audio. The Malazan Empire simmers with discontent, bled dry by interminable warfare, bitter infighting and bloody confrontations with the formidable Anomander Rake and his Tiste Andii, ancient and implacable sorcerers. Even the imperial legions, long inured to the bloodshed, yearn for some respite. Yet Empress Laseen’s rule remains absolute, enforced by her dread Claw assassins. (461 words.)

Pandemic: The Extinction Files, Book 1 by A. G. Riddle Published by Riddle, Inc. Read by Edoardo Ballerini. Produced by Audible Studios. In Africa, a mysterious outbreak spreads quickly. Teams from the CDC and WHO respond, but they soon learn that there is more to the epidemic than they believed. It may be the beginning of a global experiment-an event that will change the human race forever. Another one where I have no idea how or why this book got into my Audible library. (1083 words.)

The Land: Founding: A LitRPG Saga: Chaos Seeds, Book 1 by Aleron Kong Self-published. Read by Nick Podehl. Produced by Tamori Publications LLC. Tricked into a world of banished gods, demons, goblins, sprites and magic, Richter must learn to meet the perils of The Land and begin to forge his own kingdom. Actions have consequences across The Land, with powerful creatures and factions now hell-bent on Richter’s destruction. This is definitely a winner for the largest number of sub-titles within one title. (302 words.)

Published by Rocket Hat Industries. Read by Luke Daniels. Produced by … Scott Meyer? (Presumably the author paid Luke Daniels to make the audiobook.) Sinclair Rutherford is a young Seattle cop with a taste for the finer things. Doing menial tasks and getting hassled by superiors he doesn’t respect are definitely not “finer things.” Good police work and bad luck lead him to crack a case that changes quickly from a career-making break into a high-profile humiliation when footage of his pursuit of the suspect—wildly inappropriate murder weapon in hand—becomes an Internet sensation. (316 words.)

I found this Moonshade Highlands library in Rift for, I think, the very first time this week. Weirdly I got to it from Sanctum. I have no idea what it's for, except to give me a little bit more experience as I level up. Final Fantasy XIV 4.2 releases January 30. Yay! The nostalgia part of this patch means nothing to me, as I’ve never played any other Final Fantasy game. (636 words.)

Looking longingly at the place where level 69 players-or patrons-can go. I suppose the announcement of RIFT Prime deserves its own blog post, rather than an offhand remark in a news summary. Like most of the other reactions I’ve read, I’m tentatively interested, but I’m certainly not jumping on the hype train yet. See, here’s the thing. I’m probably only going to subscribe to one game at a time. Historically the main reason is that there are precious few games out there worth subscribing to. (845 words.)

I’m trying an experiment here: A list of MMO news that I found noteworthy during the week. I’m trying this slightly retro blogging format because, to be brutally honest, for most MMO topics, I have a lot of trouble summoning up more than a few sentences of commentary, which results in a glut of unfinished blog drafts and a paucity of published posts (ha!). The challenge here will be finding a picture to use. (799 words.)

I never thought this would happen, but YouTube finally made changes that affect me. Previously, channels had to reach 10,000 total views to be eligible for the YouTube Partner Program (YPP). …starting today, new channels will need to have 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time within the past 12 months to be eligible for ads. We will begin enforcing these new requirements for existing channels in YPP beginning February 20th, 2018. (562 words.)

I promised myself I would try to write two writing posts a month. Technically this should be the second one, but it’s actually just the first one. Oh well. While I have not been extremely happy with my progress on editing “Survey,” my 2016 NaNoWriMo project, I have at least *made* progress on it. Last time I described how I was highlighting sections of text that needed attention, and I have more-or-less completed that. (697 words.)

There is a wide variety of interesting sky effects, too. I haven’t played ARK much since early 2016, so I decided to re-download it and give it another look. The game finally “launched” last year, after all. Presumably all of the problems I had with the game are now fixed. Well, not exactly. Although to be fair I really enjoyed it before, too. I just ran out of challenge. I got to a point where I could go to any biome and survive, and kill any dinosaur in my path, and that is pretty much “winning” the game. (1026 words.)

We interrupt your regularly scheduled blog post for a blatant, unabashed, self-promotional advertisement that has no purpose other than to shower me with cold, hard cash that I will not share with you.* I have had a book on Amazon called Lute of the Sparrow under my writing name Everett Renshaw for about seven years now. This weekend (starting January 13), I am making it available for free. Please go forth, download it, read it, and post a review. (124 words.)

The last thing I mentioned playing was Divinity: Original Sin. I sort of gave up on it. It’s a great game and all, but it’s just too exhausting. I went through two boss fights in a row (SparkMaster 5000 and Radagoth) and both times, luck was the determining factor for success. That’s just not fun. I don’t know how all the people who play tabletop games do it. :) (781 words.)