Just Some Gamer Things

Black hearted evil.

Brave hearted hero.

The beautiful thing about Lost Ark, for me, is how vibrant the world is. From an island inspired by the Legend of Zelda Minish Cap and Pirates of the Carribean to a technocratic dystopia reminiscent of Final Fantasy. This game has it all, and it handles each and every instance with care.

My favorite so far is the martial arts tournament arc, which reminded me heavily of Jade Empire. From the folklore supernatural like the Yokai to the warring schools of competition. Throw in ambient setups like cherry blossoms, tea houses, and bamboo forests and it just feels so beautiful to play through.

(Journal Entry) Flashback to Aug 26, 2021.

This would ultimately be my final victory royale of the season, and my 4th overall. Not bad for someone that had started just a month ago during the Ariana Grande concert.

This win was unique. I’ve been late to Fortnite so I missed a lot of OG skins like Drift and Midas. But I was happy to be able to pick up the Midsummer Midas skin.

Immediately after buying it, I jumped into a Battle Royale game. And wouldn’t you know it? I won. That means I was 1 for 1 with the Midas skin. I won the only game I played with this skin.

(Journal Entry) Another flashback from last season. 08-26-21.

This win came following my victory as Kratos. This one is special because of the skin I’m using. I said I was new to Fortnite. That’s true. But back in the day, Fortnite wasn’t quite AS popular and it was still fledgling compared to PUBG.

Back then Twitch has 2 prime packs that players could redeem, and I redeemed them both. At the time I thought nothing of it, but since then Fortnite has become immensely successful, and those skins are considered rare and coveted.

Journal Entry: Flashback to Second Win (Aug 23, 2021)

Just a day over a month ago, I got my second win of Fortnite. This one came with the added bonus of the Decimator legacy update. I was using the Kratos skin for this one so it felt even more hype going through the motions, getting so many kills.

Fortnite collabs really allow a different kind of immersion than any other game out there.

This season I was so close to getting this but I fell just short with 9 kills at 2nd place. I’ll keep aiming for this. Who knows how long it will be until I can get this again, but I know the excitement will be just as real when the moment finally comes back around.

Journal Entry: Throwback to the first win (Aug 16, 2021)

My first victory royale after I started playing Fortnite last season was such a rush. I had started playing during the Ariana Grande concert and I originally didn’t intent to stick around after the event. But then I did. And I found myself having fun with the game.

But it was different from all the other games I play. The aim feels so different compared to the games I would main, like Destiny, Overwatch, or CoD. On top of that it was a Third Person Shooter instead of a First Person Shooter.

But I practiced everyday and started getting my bearing bit by bit. I would start coming in top 25 more often. Then top 15. Soon I was reaching top 10 and sometimes even top 5. But the first win always eluded me until this moment. I felt so happy when I finally accomplished it.

Sept 24, 2021. Haven’t been on here in forever.

I’ve recently picked up Fortnite, ever since the Ariana Grande concert.

Last night I got my first win of this season. I was popping off. Anyways here’s a screenshot. I don’t know why but I love this skin/wrap combo so much. Collab on collab and reactive and animated skins but this ends up being one of my favorites thus far.

This is a great game with several grievances.

This is a post to discuss one of the biggest ones, and that’s the handling of “Variant” and “Rare/Legendary/Exotic” creatures. The chance for appearance is slim altogether, and when they do appear, the chance to capture them itself is even smaller. Now, of course, in a grand scheme this makes sense. If this wasn’t the case everybody would have tons of Variant and Rare/Legendary/Exotic creatures thus diminishing their value. But the execution is still an annoyance due largely in part to the limit of 3 astrochips.

First of, the variant and R/L/E (rare/legendary/exotic) monsters could show up at any time. In a stage they could show up right at the beginning (1/3), or all the way towards the end (3/3) of the stage. Meaning to have any chance of capturing one, you cannot use any astrochips until stage 3/3. Otherwise you might use them on part of 1/3 and then a variant or R/L/E astromon appears at stage 3/3 and you can do nothing to capture it.

In my opinion, this should be changed. If you encounter a variant or R/L/E astromon, then the game should allow you to, once per stage at the time of the encounter, have an option appear to “recharge” your astrochips back to a 3/3 for the cost of, 25 astrogems perhaps.

What this does is several positive things for both the gamer and the company. 1 is that it gives gamers a backup. They will know that it is ok to try to catch astromon beyond just the final portion of a stage. They can use their chips more openly; rather than holding on to them until the final portion of a stage in fear of using them all and then encountering such a creature.

(Additionally, if the option is presented to the player only once per stage and that is at the time of the encounter, then this keeps things fair. 2/3 astrochips left? You cannot use both of them and then recharge to have 5 chances at catching the astromon. The chance is still only 3/3 since the option to recharge is presented only at the beginning of the encounter and not beyond that.)

I’ve dropped over $700 on Warframe so far, not even an exaggeration (I purchased my PS4 before there were any actual PS4 games for it, so my friend and I went balls deep in Warframe for a good while and by the time more games came out it was too late to get out).

I also want to mention I got a new gaming setup recently. I’ve been gaming on the PS4, but since I was about to graduate with my master’s degree, my parents wanted to do something nice for me, so they got me an entire gaming setup. And I LOVE it.

Recognize that machine at the bottom? It’s an alienware area-51. Custom-built to my specifications, and it runs like a beauty.

As for the peripherals, I got:

Razer Blackwidow V2 Razer Mamba (wireless) Razer firefly mousepad to round off the set.

The speakers are cyberacoustic, because Razer doesn’t have RGB speakers and at this point I was all in for an RGB setup.

Only peripheral to not have RGB is my headset, which is currently a TTesports Thermaltake headset (and yes, at the time of this picture, it was resting on Blizzard’s official Overwatch Reaper statue because my headset stand hadn’t come in yet - it’s here now though).