[New Post] I Fought the Uber Penguin (but the Uber Penguin did not win). #AsheronsCall and the value of Friction in an MMO.

And the Uber Penguin did not win. While I’m also dealing with Penguin in the Telltale Batman game I don’t mean that one. No no, this Uber Penguin belonged to Asheron’s Call. The Uber Penguin is a metal encased cyborg-like level 160 critter that roams the frozen planes near Silyun.

One of the new[efn_note]Well, not really new. It’s 14 years old after all. New to me, though.[/efn_note] towns…

[New Post] Because I'm Batman! -- A bit of a palate cleanser today as at long last I take a stab at Episode 1, Season 1 of Telltale's Batman games.

Right, well, disappointingly in my opinion — this line was not once uttered throughout the opening episode of Telltale’s 2016 ‘Batman – The Telltale Series’. I’m holding out hope that this oversight will be rectified in the future episodes.

Either way, today I took as a bit of a palate cleanser. I played several hours of the Cube Worldbeta earlier in the day and then ran through the first…

[New Post] Finishing the Facility Hub (finally. You know -- only 20 odd levels later than intended.) - #AsheronsCall

Sure, I finished it about 20 levels later than intended. But I did! The last level gate on the last quest location from the hub was level 45 after all. I’m now 66 (although I was 65 when I wrapped up the Hub). I sort of got myself a tad distracted working through other goals and self-improvement projects.

But I was close! Very close. When I broke away from the Facility hub last time, I only…

[New Post] Quality of Life Improvements -- I went against all instinct and training in #AsheronsCall in pursuit of some QoL. ...Actually turned out alright really.

I had to make a really hard call last night. A call that went against my nature. Against all instinct. All understanding of what is ‘right’. But I did it anyway.

And uh… So far it’s been… Yeah, pretty alright honestly.

The deep seismic shifting I felt deep in my gut as I removed my specialisation in Melee Defense and took it down to just ‘trained’ must’ve just been gas, I guess. But you…

[New Post] Hitting Goals and Making New Ones (#AsheronsCall)

Asheron’s Call excels at having enough systems and ‘stuff’ in it for players to create their own goals and path to success. Some will require you to really stretch and dedicate yourself to their achievement, others you can simply fulfill in parallel to working toward something else.

Whatever mood, or whatever time you have available in the moment basically — there’s something for you. Some of…

Playin’ by new Rules

Some people love creating additional rules for themselves to play a game. Sometimes it’s quite simple — playing in a hardcore or ‘one life’ mode in a game that doesn’t officially support it. Sometimes they’re remarkably complex like the ‘Nuzlocke’ Pokemon ruleset (or maybe just seem that way to me as a non-Pokemon player).

I’ll happily moda game for a new ruleset. I might even choose a…

[New Post] Teetertot Moments -- Less than a week ago I tried #AsheronsCall again for the first time in a decade. And I almost bounced off hard. Fast forward to now, and that as an outcome is near impossible to imagine.

Only a week ago, I was trying out Asheron’s Call again for the first time in what I estimate must be at least 10 years. Fourteen if you take it from when I last ‘seriously’ played. And I almost bounced off entirely. I was so close to just calling it a failed experiment and moving on.

A week later and that outcome is almost unimaginable.

Inside Glendon Wood Prison

The loss that would…

[New Post] Ding! -- Well, actually a LOT of dings. But more importantly, being back in #AsheronsCall might actually be recovering some of my lost MMO-Social-connectivity tissue I thought I'd left to the past.

Well alright, maybe more than just one ding. I very almost didn’t get a post out at all tonight on account of wanting to extract every moment possible of play until better sense took over and drove me to bed. I made a fair bit of progress — not just in raw levels (although that too), but also in social ties to the server and general preparedness for this character to go out into the world.

Not…