- It's that time again. Welcome to the three hundredth post here at Bullet Points. Just like last time, this feels like the perfect time to reflect on where the blog has gone over the last hundred posts.
- Just like the run from 100 to 200, reaching three hundred took me about seven months. I can't see my posting frequency change much for the foreseeable future. I still enjoy writing for the four of you still reading, so I'm not going anywhere. At the same time, I don't have enough interesting things to post about to do any more than I am. Whether what I already post about is all that interesting is open for debate.
- I started collecting site metrics about a year ago because I am a little bit of a freak. The cool thing about it is that I get find out about readers that are either passing through or lurking quietly without drawing attention to themselves. Please don't think that just because you don't comment that I don't love you. I lurk on too many blogs and never comment to ever pass judgment.
- One of the benefits of watching all these numbers is to see the readership grow. Comparing the last seven months to the prior seven shows an approximately eighty percent increase in page views. I attribute most of that increase to the attention I got for blogging about Champions Online. The fervor around the game has passed, but some people have been nice enough to stick around anyway. For those of you looking to improve your blog's profile, I suggest waiting for the next bandwagon to come along and jump on. It really works.
- From the top five posts on the site, two are old Free Realms favorites, both of which are almost a year old now. Three other posts have climbed up, though. The top post is my Top Five Things To Do Before Cataclysm. Cataclysm continues to be a big topic, so I'm not surprised people are feeling nostalgic about the old world. My Q&A about Champions Online pulled quite a few hits, mostly on the strength of the words "Kevin Poe" in that article. That guy is such a pain. Rounding out the top five was the news about Turbine adding a solo option for the epic quests in LotRO. An amazing update which I would love to try out if LotRO wasn't still crashing my computer.
- Where in my last anniversary post I could identify definite gaming focuses, this cycle shows an almost gleeful bouncing around from game to game. If anything, the theme has been my triumphant return to single player gaming. Games like Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age: Origins, and Grand Theft Auto IV kept me quiet busy. I enjoyed the solo options in primarily cooperative games like Left 4 Dead and Borderlands. And in the last month I've rediscovered why I bought an Xbox 360 with Assassin's Creed and Brutal Legend. Not that I'm giving up on MMOs just yet. That lifetime sub for Champions Online has lived up to its promise, so I'll be in and around Millennium City whenever the mood strikes me.
- One of the side effects of all my gaming is that I've done a lot less reading. And thus there's been a lot less blogging about books. I also cut way back on my comic buying, but I wasn't blogging about that so much anyway. Heck, I haven't even killed time with a random Top Five post for a while. Hmm.
- On the creative side, my Microfiction stories have been few and far between. That's the kind of thing where something pops out only when the mood strike. On the other hand, I just started my Unexplored Worlds series. Focusing on encounters for the pen-and-paper roleplaying games gives my creativity the kind of structure it needs to produce regular work. I'm not sure how many of you still roll a d20 with any regularity, but feel free to use this stuff as inspiration for your own games.
- With any luck, we'll see post four hundred before the end of the year. I look forward to seeing where the journey takes us.
© 2010 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
- Over the weekend, thanks to urging from Blue Kae, I finally overcame my hesitation and jumped back into Champions Online. The Apocalypse waits for no man or pixeliated superheroine. So off we went to save the world. Again. I've saved the world in CO before, right? I'm pretty sure I have. Anyway, each time is like your first.
- The Vibora Bay crisis zone is, without a doubt, the best in the game currently. The design is much closer to the crisis zones for the Southwestern Desert and Canadian Wilderness than Monster Island and Lemuria, but taking the best of both approaches. If you're reading this but never delved into CO's leveling game, the MI and Lemuria crises both play like extended public quests while the earlier are miniature questing zones. Vibora Bay is also a focused questing zone, but with a stronger storyline that carries you through.
- The storyline was strong enough to carry me through the zone in only two gaming sessions. That is quite the feat considering that, as a level 40, I'm no longer gaining any experience points. My sole reason to continue playing is to see what happens next. If Cryptic doesn't get that right, they don't have the crutch of advancement to fall back on. I secretly hope that the upcoming Adventure Packs play just like crisis zones without following explorable zones.
- And it all looks incredible, too. That screenshot above is Arcfire flying in front of Therakiel's stronghold. I've always enjoyed the graphics in CO, but Cryptic outdid themselves with Vibora Bay. Again, if this is the kind of work they are planning for the Adventure Packs, they are going to be amazing experiences.
- Once you finish the final mission, you end up in Vibora Bay proper. This is part where I have to take back what I said about Adventure Packs above. The Vibora Bay explorable zone is an awesome sight to behold. Even though that didn't go the direction I was hoping for with their first expansion, Cryptic definitely made the right decision by adding a second urban zone to the game. The contrast with Millennium City is perfect. I've only spend a little time in the zone, but I'm looking forward to exploring every corner.
© 2010 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
- Professor Nayli opened his apothecary shop in a narrow two-story building that was once home to squatters and assorted vermin. After the local guardsmen drove the occupants out, Nayli moved in and started selling his wares. He has never taken an interest in maintenance, though previous apprentices preformed what upkeep they could with varying degrees of success. As such, the building is not much to look at from the outside. But for the professor and his shoppers, what is inside is much more important.
- He earned the title of professor working as a tutor to the children of noble parents. But after a falling out with the local baron over his teaching methods, Nayli turned his attention toward alchemical pursuits. His passion is for discovering new recipes, so he sells a number of potions to pay for his research. He primarily deals in curatives and offers the best prices for those. He also produces some exotic potions for high prices, though only in one or two each at a time and never more than six in the store in total. Even finding the potions can be a chore as the shelves are stocked haphazardly.
- Over the last year, the professor has become more and more convinced that everything he is doing is wrong. From the concoction of his potions to the running of his business, his fear of causing some grievous mistake grows daily. This paranoia was exacerbated by the hanging of his most recent assistant who, for unknown reasons, murdered his family and defiled their corpses. Nayli has been unwilling to take on another apprentice since the arrest.
- In truth, Nayli's age has been catching up with him. His poor eyesight and shaky hands make him a dangerous alchemist. Because of his years of practice, most of his most of his potions still work competently. However, 8% of his minor potions and 15% of all major potions fail in some way, either acting as cursed potions or poisons. Through various accidents, a number of failed potions have seeped through the floor boards into a basement that the professor forgot that he owns. What effect this may have on the people and the environment has not been discovered.
- The people in the neighborhood think of the professor as a kindly old man and will look out for his best interests. A few people, however, are fearful that he will one day blow up his store and the surrounding buildings. Their suspicions may not be unfounded.
- Unexplored Worlds is my attempt to design an RPG campaign in the open. Since I have not rolled a d20 in anger in many years, this is my way to keep playing without actually playing. All posts are written to be system-agnostic, so please use whatever keeps your interest in your own games. Just let me know how it goes!
© 2010 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
- I just discovered recently that one of my coworker's laughs exactly like the female gnomes from World of Warcraft. It's a little eerie, but it works for her. I would never mention it, though, because then I'd be the crazy one.
- I have a World of Warcraft page-a-day calendar on my desk at work. For April Fool's Day, the image was the Crazy Cat Lady's Cottage in Elwynn Forest. Very fitting, I think.
- I've been reading a lot of Old School Gaming blogs recently. A lot. It's all made me nostalgic for my pen-and-paper gaming days. Since I'm not likely to be rolling dice in anger any time soon, I'm thinking about writing a campaign setting just for the heck of it. And if I'm going to do all that work, I might as well put it here so you can enjoy it. Or heckle it, I'm not picky.
- Some workdays when I just have to get out of the office, I drive over to the local Best Buy so that I can surround myself with games and DVD and electronics. Most of the time I'm just window shopping. I don't feel like dropping $60 on a game that I'm not entire sure of. This last week, though, after already talking myself out of The Saboteur at $40, I saw the sale bin. You know what I'm talking about: a cardboard filled with My Pretty Pony DS and Bass Fishing PS2 games. This time, though, they had Bully for Xbox 360 in there for $20. That's about what it goes for used, I'm sure. I've been interested in that game since Rebel FM did a Game Club series on it a year ago. So it looks like I'll be playing Bully soon.
- Just finished listening to the Three Red Lights Podcast #140. What a bunch of fucking amateurs. Now I remember why I don't read IGN.
© 2010 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
- After finishing all of the warm-up quests, I stand on the heli-pad next to the transport to Vibora Bay. Arcfire has just learned that she has been duped into collecting a number of mystical artifacts that will bring about an apocalypse. Her only choice is to travel to Vibora Bay and put right the mess she has made. And yet, I find myself unable to click the button that would allow me to travel to this great new zone.
- This is a common occurance for me. I find a good break point, tell myself that I'm perfectly placed to pick up from here, and then I stop playing the game completely. Some of that is the game failing to give me a reason to continue. If I found such a good stopping point, that's because the game has come to a screeching halt. That's one of the main reasons I've stopped playing so many console games in the past.
- The other reason this happens for me, though much less rarely, is that sometimes I don't want the game to end. I know that once I finish all the content, the game will be over for me and I can't go back any more. As long as there is unfinished content, I still have a tie to that virtual world.
- And that is the reason I haven't gone back to Champions. Once I enter Vibora Bay, the end of the game is in sight. As long as I deny myself access, there is something for me to look forward to. Strange, I know, but I'm a strange person.
- I won't be able to stay away forever, though. I'm really curious about what's on the other side of that "Travel To..." button.
© 2010 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
