Monday Screenshots: Once Human (Dr Teddy and Manibus)

 More Once Human screenshots this fine Monday.

FINALLY got my Dr Teddy!  He heals and can pick you up when you are knocked down.

Manibus and his many noodly appendages descending from the skies

More Manibus action

Riding off towards the mountains

Blaugust 2024: We're in the home stretch now cats and kittens

 We're in the home stretch now cats and kittens (as Mike Mcgrath would say)!  Blaugust 2024 is coming to a close and that means "Lessons Learned Week"!

 Lessons Learned Week (August 25th – August 31st) – This week is a reminder that the goal of Blaugust is to refresh the content creators out there for the coming year, and not to burn them out in the process. Some folks are going to cross the finish line and immediately go dormant and others will want to process their thoughts about the proceedings. This space is reserved as a bit of a cooldown lap so that you can share your own experiences.

 

Staying Motivated? My favorite decaf coffee!

 It's Saturday of the "Staying Motivated" week for Blaugust 2024 and I'm running out of ideas and have a jam packed weekend so let's keep it simple for today's post.  I recently dialed back my caffeine intake to one cup of coffee a day but I missed that warm cup later in the morning.  As a compromise with myself I decided to make that second cup decaf.  

 A lot of decaf coffee has a "taste" to it so I did some research and found out about the "swiss water method" for decaf coffee.  A quick search of my local grocery store shelves and I found a few brands advertising this method.  After some trial tastings I landed on Peet's Coffee brand; specifically Decaf Major Dickason's Blend.  If you are looking for a decaf coffee to give a try I'd recommend it.

Staying Motivated for the Future of MMORPGs?

 It's Friday of the "Staying Motivated" week for Blaugust 2024 and what better way to wrap the work week than thinking about the future of MMORPGs!  Fortunately TheLazyPeon has taken the time to do must of the thinking for us (it is Friday after all!).

 As can be guessed much of the "future" that is discussed includes AI and TheLazyPeon goes through a number of use cases for AI in games.  Everything from simulating players and creating dynamic NPCs that respond to players in interesting ways is mentioned.  Even the prospect of AI generating an MMO from scratch with just a few phrases!

 It is the "simulating players" that I think was most interesting and realistic of the bunch; especially when it comes to less populated MMOs. Nothing kills the fun in an MMO faster than not having other "players" around. I say players in quotes because obviously the proposal is to create fake players which is basically "adding bots to the game".

 The difference with what we think of bots today is that these bots would be run on behalf of the game developer for the betterment of the game and it's community.  This is markedly different than "gold farming bots" that more often hurt than help games and their communities.

 You might say "but this is just AI NPCs!?" and I'd not disagree but the difference is intent.  The intent is to make them seem like players.  Yes they are not real and it is all schadenfreude, but that is sort of the point.  Think about MMOs you play and how many players you just walk by without a second thought of whether they are a human or not.  Would it be so different if they were not?

 Challenges arise when you start to look at group content and motivations.  Are the bots in it for themselves?  Or are they in it for the good of the other players?  Can an AI controlled player ever actually stand in for a human player in group content without dragging the group down?

 I'd somewhat argue, in many games, much of the group content is scripted and driven by UI prompts and addons so it is not a stretch to say an AI controlled player could execute that nearly pefect.  The question comes in how it handles a change in direction or the pacing of the group.  Maybe the group goes off script and does something out of order.  Can the AI player keep up?

 I won't proclaim AI can do these things but I find it fascinating to consider they may.  As mentioned in the video there is already an extremely complex botting ecosystem in MMORPGs today so chances are we have all come across that "bot that we thought was a player".  There is no doubt those running these bot networks are looking at, if not already using, AI chatbots / large language models to try and avoid detection.

 Whether we like it or not; AI is going to influence our future.  MMORPGs are a logical place for it to fit.  I for one want to remain optimistic on the topic.  That optimism for exciting new technology and what it will do for MMORPGs keeps me motivated to see what happens!

Staying Motivated for New World?

 It's Thursday of the "Staying Motivated" week for Blaugust 2024 and the desire to post every day is starting to weigh on me.  I have topics to cover such as recent Ashes of Creation drama, Hell Divers 2 losing it's luster, or dupes in Star Citizen but they just don't seem to pull words out of me.  I keep thinking about New World though and if I am going back to the game in October so I need to post to help me understand if I'm motivated to or not.

 The video below from Bowsense really got me thinking about it.  As a long time diehard New World fan the video does hurt to watch.  Maybe it is a little unfair in parts but it's over all theme is spot on.  I hate to say it but AGS has fumbled New World and having taken a break from playing daily I can look back with a more critical eye at the game.

 The video doesn't put New World in a great light so why am I still trying to find motivation to return?  For one I really enjoy the combat and how the game plays.  I play the game; not a UI like I am struggling with in other newer offerings like Throne and Liberty.  The combat is light years ahead after I tried out games like Elder Scrolls Online or more recent entries like Throne and Liberty or Once Human .  If players think New World is bad about bugs or unpolished features (which I disagree with) then I'd really like to see what they think of games like Once Human that are far buggier and less polished yet somehow don't take any heat for it (or lose players over it).

 As you can tell I still get a bit defensive about how New World is treated because I think there is a good base game there.  I was reminded today by a Reddit post today about one of the earliest trailers for the game.  That brought back so many memories of when I first discovered New World in its first preview beta event.  It reminded me that the promise of the game behind that trailer is still possible.

 So here I am recently re-motivated by the original 2021 trailer for New World holding onto the promise of the game it can be.  We need to see what the shift to New World: Aeternum brings and if the team can execute back to the promise.  I think I owe the game a fair try again in October.

Dune Awakening Gameplay

 We just got a 20+ minute long look at Dune Awakening's gameplay thanks to their video at Gamescom 2024.  This was the first time I've gotten to see the game in action.  Go ahead and watch the video and read on down below for some quick thoughts.

Thoughts:

• The building UI was almost pixel exact to what I am used to in Once Human. Even further UI elements such as how interacting with an object seemed right from Once Human as well. Even the machines and workstations built inside the bases seemed very Once human.
• I admittedly don't play a ton of games in this genre but are they all so scarily close in design and UI?
• The combat and animations seemed to need work.  Character movement looked sluggish.
• I like that the new trend in game seems to always give players a glider or jetpack.  Dune Awakening showed off its own flavor in the video and I'm on board!
• The world events seemed cool.  The question is if they are random or if they occur at the same time in the same places.
  
• I am not sure I was a fan of the over world top-down map for travel.  I will have to see how it plays but felt like it will take me out of the immersion of the game.
• Each clip wasn't long enough to get a real sense of gameplay but enough was shown to see the game is well along in development.

 I walked away from the video interested in the game as a possibly more polished base builder survival exploration than what Once Human currently offers.  The game is not set to be out until some time in 2025 so I have time to watch it mature.  I'm signed up for testing so hope to get an early look and chance to provide feedback.

Monday Screenshots but on a Tuesday!

 Welcome to Monday Screenshots but on a Tuesday!  Some shots from my recent adventures in Once Human.

I will never get tired of my kitty cat friend!

Big ole' pike caught in the cave!

Look at all those loot boxes!

Exploring the bear cave

Finding out after a hundred hours played that there is stickers for your guns.  So cute!

I have pet bears using the new ranching system.  Unfortunately they were all called by my home defense systems.

The "Rebecca" deviation will play a piano if placed in your home and provides a source of music to keep other deviations happy!

Blaugust 2024: Staying Motivated

 Ever had the itch to reply to someone online after seeing them post about an accomplishment?  Not a reply to say "good job", but an itch to comment on what they accomplished.  An itch to provide that feedback that is burning a hole in the back of your mind.  An itch that the original poster had no intent for you to scratch in a reply because they were never soliciting your feedback?  Turn that itch into motivation.

 It is "Staying Motivated" week for Blaugust 2024.

Staying Motivated Week (August 18th – August 24th) – As we get towards the end of the event, the activity can often trail off a bit. The goal of this week is to share some of your own tips surrounding how you keep motivated and stay focused on creating content. If you are new to the event, you might share some of the things that have helped you stay engaged during Blaugust.

 Over on Mastodon, Evan Prodromou tooted a thread that rang true for me and is excellent advice.  It fits right in the theme of staying motivated as it is an excellent way to source ideas for your blog.  Ideas that you have a keen interest in sharing because it already came to your fingertips but instead of firing it off into the void of social media you drop it on your blog for safekeeping.

 So next time that itch to tell someone they were did something slightly less efficient than you did strikes turn that into a blog post.  Make the blog-o-sphere better.  Feed those large language models with your own training data.

 Be like heartlessgamer!  One of the main driving factors that caused me to start blogging was lamenting lost forum posts as forums I frequented were getting shut down and posts deleted.  Starting a blog was my way to control my own posts and to contribute to the ecosystem of the Internet.  That same thread still motivates me today.

Once Human Animal Ranching Tips

 Need help with Once Human's new animal ranching feature?  Apparently most of us do because its a buggy mess.  With that said check out this Reddit thread with some tips as I found it helpful.

My Youtube Weather Guy: Ryan Hall Y'all

 It is Creator Appreciation Week for Blaugust 2024 and when this post publishes I am likely going to be deep into the outdoors camping again.  Part of getting ready for any camping trip is checking on the weather which means a stop in at Ryan Hall's Youtube channel to get his take on the current weather.  As I tell folks: he is my Youtube Weather Guy.

 I wouldn't recommend this as a way to get your local weather necessarily, but to get a big picture on weather across the United States he does a great job.  My kids love to watch him; especially around hurricanes since we can be affected by those that hit near us in the southeast.  He also tends to go live and provide really great updates during any major weather event.

 Check out a recent video:

New World Creator: Savvvo Games

 As part of Blaugust 2024's Creator Appreciation Week I want to take a moment to give props to a creator that is smaller but has stuck with pushing out content for New World through all of it's up and downs.  His content is free of the doom and gloom and hands out the information you clicked the thumbnail for.  That creator is: Savvvo Games

 Check out his video on the upcoming New World: Aeternum open beta for PC and console.

Once Human Creator: P4wnyhof

 It is Creator Appreciation Week for Blaugust 2024 so I wanted to take a moment to recognize one of my go to Once Human creators: P4wnyhof. You can find his entire Once Human playlist here.  He features a mix of build guides, boss fight breakdowns, and general commentary on the game.

 I found his take on the season resets to be really good. Check it out and dig around his channel if you are looking for help with the game.

Once Human Update 1.1 Patch Notes

 Once Human is trucking along with changes to the game and have a long list of patch notes coming in update 1.1 set to land on August 15th.  The update brings a new animal "ranching" system, an overhaul of the fishing system, improved base building, a new ancient trial, and a ton of balance changes.  There is a lot in the patch but a few items I wanted to touch on.

Animal ranching in Once Human patch 1.1

 First is the headline addition to the game: animal ranching.  This will allow players to build enclosures to keep the various animals in the game.  Players will have to provide the right type of home and the right type of food to keep the animals happy.  With enough positive treatment players will be able to harvest skin and other byproducts from the captive animals.

 I think this is a neat addition and one I had not expected.  I am a fan of "farming" games so look forward to adding animals alongside my garden beds.  I hope this makes it less tedious to gather the animal byproducts needed for many crafting recipes.  It was annoying having to chase down herds of deer or pigs or rabbits and only end up with a couple items per harvest.  Compared to other systems such as mining/logging where you get hundreds of items per gathering attempt the animal harvesting was annoyingly slow.

Fish and chill

 Fishing is also getting an overhaul.  The fishing system at launch was borderline functional and the mechanics from a user interface perspective didn't line up.  Sometimes you catch fish, sometimes you don't.  Choosing a bait from those available in the game also didn't seem to change anything.

 With the updated system a new stamina-based fishing system is coming into play that should solve the user interface situation.  There are also changes coming to bait and it is hinted at that certain baits, such as using fish you catch as bait, will increase the chance at certain predator fish species.  As a fan of fishing games and fishing in games I am looking forward  to the changes!

 

Ancient One plane whale thing!

 There is also mention of a new trial for players who are willing to venture to the top of Chalk Peak.  Not much information is shared about the encounter that awaits players but the image (see above) shared looks really cool.  It alludes to having to jump onto a giant flying ancient one that is part flying whale merged with an airplane!  This is the sort of thematic flair that I love about Once Human!

 The patch also covers a lot of other areas that I want to make brief mention of:

• Server invitations are coming so players can invite friends to locked servers.  It is not clear this can be used to transfer your character but it should help get new players onto your server with you.  There is still a maximum cap so could still lock players out.
• Battle pass and cosmetic shop purchases will now be account wide instead of specific to one character.  Having restarted 3 times I've been waiting for my battle pass to become available on the character I finally settled on playing with!
• They are nerfing some items that make players harder to kill in PvP which seems odd because many builds can one shot players in PvP.  If anything I'd of thought they'd make the defensive items more available to more builds so PvP wasn't a "who shoots first" affair.  With that said PvP is pretty terrible so not sure this changes much about it still being terrible.  I'll still play on PvP servers but not for the PvP right now... just the chance that PvP gets better in the future.

 Since it is also Creator Creator Appreciation Week (August 11th – August 17h) for Blaugust it is only fair that I share a Once Human creator that has covered the patch in more detail.  Go on over and check out MrApocalyptic's video.

End Game Thoughts On Once Human: Finished LEA Research Labs

 I recently completed the endgame dungeon for Once Human's first season: LEA Research Lab. It was the toughest content I've faced in the game, requiring numerous attempts and different teams to conquer. Now that I’ve finally done it, I wanted to share some thoughts.

One of the LEA Research Lab bosses

 In my initial posts about Once Human, I noted how easy the game was. I was using the same gear I started with well into the later levels. I didn’t upgrade my gear until long after clearing all the normal mode max level content. Nothing in the open world or instanced dungeons (silos/monoliths) seemed to put up much of a fight. It’s worth mentioning that PvP is terrible in this game, so that didn’t push me to upgrade gear either.

 I did eventually upgrade my gear when the hard mode versions were released with phase 3 of the season. But honestly, I didn’t really need to, as hard mode was still too easy. With max-calibrated armor and weapons, hard mode felt no different than the rest of the game: easy.

 Phase 4 of the season introduced the pro modes. At first, tackling the pro mode silos/monoliths I’d done before didn’t present much of a challenge. I could solo them fairly easily, and playing duo with a gaming friend made them even easier. Pro mode initially seemed like just another way to burn through resources for bullets and repair costs.

 Then my buddy and I took on the big phase 4 content: the Forsaken Giant and LEA Research Lab. The Giant took a few tries, but the failed attempts were more about learning the mechanics (we went in blind) than about gear. Then we ventured into LEA Research Lab and hit a wall. We couldn’t finish it as just two players. We managed to get through three of the four challenges, but not the final one. Even when grouped with four players, our first teams failed. Had we finally encountered challenging content in Once Human?

 I’ll give a hesitant “sort of” in response. The lab is laid out in progressive stages, with fights that teach the mechanics for the final stage. The final stage then combines all the previous mechanics, along with a boss that, as my buddy put it, “won’t leave me the f!*$ alone” throughout the fight. It’s a long battle with overlapping mechanics, requiring solid coordination and fully upgraded gear to succeed.

 However, even with good gear and coordination, the unpolished nature of Once Human starts to show. Quirky movement, unreliable button presses, no line of sight for enemies hitting you, janky animations, desync between client and server—these issues didn’t matter much when the content was easier, but they rear their head in this final fight. This means a lot of the challenge comes down to battling the game itself rather than the actual encounter.

 Perhaps the most frustrating part is that by the end of the fight, even with max upgraded gear, all your armor—and sometimes weapons—are broken. No armor means everything kills you in one hit. A broken weapon means no damage. In theory, you could bring an entire extra set of gear or portable repair potions (if you’re lucky enough to have access to them, which I’m not), but that’s not a viable strategy in the middle of the fight. The gear damage happens way too fast. You shouldn’t start a single boss fight at 100% durability and end up at 0% and broken before it’s over.

 Another source of frustration is the line-of-sight and battlefield visibility issues. In the final phase, a lot of ranged attackers spawn, conveniently sitting in corners and behind walls, plinking away without line of sight. All you know is that you’re taking damage, often from something hitting you through the floor because they’re in a pit on the other side of the map. It doesn’t help that there are flying enemies throughout the fight as well, and with no way to get a wider view of the battlefield, you spend a lot of time not knowing what just killed you.

 Then there’s the hit detection issue. Guns are hitscan, so in general, they’re almost foolproof for hitting targets. But if you switch to melee (assuming weapon swap responds reliably), it’s a lesson in frustration. You might as well rule out ever being a melee-oriented build in this game. But that only applies to players—enemies, on the other hand, suddenly have massive range and hit detection well beyond where their attacks animate. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been hit when it looked like the enemy swung at the air. The animation is horrendous (which is easy to overlook in the rest of the game when you’re killing things in a few hits).

 The issues with the interact feature also rear their ugly head. For PC, this is the F key. In parts of the fight, you need to pick up objects to throw them at targets. It can be maddening trying to get one to pick up, and the animation is so slow that more deaths than not come from simply trying to pick up the item you have to pick up! Then mix in how terrible F can be when trying to revive teammates, and it’s just a big F in chat.

 If that wasn’t bad enough, the problems with weapon swapping come into play. Sometimes weapon swap works, and sometimes it doesn’t—or maybe it swaps, but then you press fire, and it swaps back to the other weapon. Even worse is trying to swap between a tactical item, like a grenade, and back to a weapon. More often than not, you end up throwing several grenades before realizing your weapon never came back up. They need to get tactical items off the hotbar and onto a dedicated button, like in any other shooter game.

 The inconsistent registering of actions extends to everything, it seems. Reload your gun? It regularly doesn’t register that the reload finished, and your next action cancels the reload. Apply a healing activator and the animation finishes, but the healing doesn’t apply until a second later, which means you accidentally cancel the heal, thinking it’s done. As mentioned, tactical items like grenades are very quirky.

 I’ve posted before that Once Human has no right to be as popular as it is. Any mainstream developer would get torched over how buggy, unfinished, and unpolished this game is. Yet the gaming community and players keep giving Once Human a pass. Even I am giving it a pass. I keep logging in. I keep playing. I keep fighting the game as the primary challenge, with the content’s difficulty level coming second.

Monday Screenshots: LEA Research Lab FINISHED!

 Just a single screenshot for today to mark that I completed the LEA Research lab in Once Human which is the end game dungeon of Season 1.

Not the highest damage but landed the killing blow.

And since one screenshot is never enough; here is a giant tree I cut down.

Big ole' tree!

And it's down.  Sorry about your house.

8/10/2024 Saturday Post

 Oh hey; there was a football game yesterday which means I need to get back to my posts about the games.  Which means a few minutes in Paint.net making something that amuses me.

1-0 ... undefeated in the preseason baby!

My Gaming Mouse: Glorious Model I

 Simple Saturday post to round out the "Introduce Yourself Week" of Blaugust 2024.  Here is my current gaming mouse of choice: Glorious Model I (wired). Skip down for some thoughts.

Model I (wired)

Reasons I like the mouse:

1. The mouse is lightweight which I didn't realize I liked until I started using light weight mice instead of chunky "gaming" mice
   
2. It has the classic shape that I've loved since my early days of PC gaming with similar shaped Logitech mice
3. There are four side buttons

The only aspect I don't like about the mouse is the feel of the scroll wheel.  It is not my favorite scroll wheel but is not enough of a detractor to make me want to switch.

 If you are in the market for a new mouse I'd highly recommend checking out Glorious and their selection.

Inventory management should NOT be a mini game!

 It is "old man rants at the open sky" time.  Games, especially RPGs, should NOT make managing your character's inventory a game in and of itself!  It is irritating and detracts from otherwise great games.

 This topic came to mind after I read Nerd Girl Thoughts post on Crashlands.  She describes how the game has the audacity to have an unlimited inventory:

Did I mention you can carry, well, everything? One of most annoying parts of crafting-focused games is that you never know what you’re going to need later, so you’re spending resources crafting a million chests just in case those early game resources are needed again later on. Not in Crashlands, because your inventory is infinite. If you can pick it up, you can carry it. No inventory management, no chests, no worries.

 The "crafting a million chests" hits close to home for me right now playing a lot of Once Human.  My house has chests... everywhere.  Chests for all the logs that I keep piling up.  Chests for overflowing collections of disassembled parts.  Chests for that thing I may just need a week from now.

 Fortunately Once Human at least lets crafting supplies be sourced from the crates without having to go and get it out of the crate (well at least most of the time; some inconsistency with some of the crafting stations that don't do this).  Also Once Human lets players carry a lot of misc items for free in their backpack.  Nice but still irritating with so much in the backpack.

Ashes of Creation's inventory

 Even with the quality of life features Once Human has it still has "manage your inventory back at base" in it's core loop which is a common offender for my "old man rants at the open sky" trigger.  It makes sense that you go out on an adventure in a game and then return home to prepare for the next adventure.  But it's a game so I want to relax and enjoy my home; not micro manage inventory!

 Another big offender in games is various currency tokens.  Massively multiplayer games especially LOVE their currency tokens and even more than that they LOVE being inconsistent about the tokens.  Some go into a currency bank and others go into inventory or sometimes it goes to some hard to find account wallet you don't even realize you have.

 Once Human as a recent example for me is a poster child for inconsistency.  Where did that starchrom you just picked up go?  Oh it's just tracked as a number on your inventory screen.  Picked up some stellar planula?  That is in your backpacck.  Got a blueprint fragment?  That is in the blueprints screen.  Oh you got the other thing called blueprint? That is in your inventory.  Once Human content creators are making bank on just explaining the inventory management interfaces in this game!

 If it's not obvious by now I don't like managing inventory which is why you will see me barking about games like Ashes of Creation planning a "tetris like" inventory management system or why you will see me rolling my eyes at a game like Star Citizen trying to make an entire career path in the game for "loading a ship".  Just stop.   Let me play the game; not an inventory UI!

New World just can't win right now

Not bad? Not good? Not sure.

 

 New World posted about their wrap up of the closed beta for the console release.  They were rightfully called out on Reddit for the lacking quality and content of this update.  As /u/randrogynous broke down:

In the spirit of sharing statistics, the official News Article that this was pulled from contained 240 words. 81 of those words were a reminder that the Closed Beta was under an NDA and breaches would be treated seriously.

Over a third of their 'recap' of the Closed Beta was a reminder/threat about not talking about the Closed Beta.

New World is starting to resemble Fight Club. The first rule of New World is you do not talk about New World. The second rule of New World is you DO NOT TALK ABOUT NEW WORLD.

 Ouch.

 It is never a good situation when developers are more focused on NDA enforcement than building excitement and Amazon has made the rounds having videos and other content taken down that came out of the beta.

 The worst part is most of what has leaked out is so minor in nature it baffles me why there was an NDA in place.  Does a new artifact and some changes to some quests need to be behind an NDA?  Do a few tweaks to some weapon skills along with other balance changes warrant an NDA?

 Damn it AGS stop digging New World's grave.

Blaugust: What is a favorite Quote/s, and tell us why?

 Uninspired today so grabbing an item off the Blaugust prompt list: What is a favorite Quote/s, and tell us why?

 One of my favorite quotes: "If something is worth doing, it's worth doing wrong"

 I cannot say definitively where it originates but I first heard it from Joel Salatin during a Mother Earth News Fair speech he gave about homesteading.  Looking around the Internet I found that the quote "If something is worth doing, it's worth doing wrong" is often associated with Murphy's Law, which emphasizes that taking action is more important than achieving perfection.

 That last bit "taking action is more important" is where I wanted to focus because it's relevant to Blaugust and highlights why I really love this quote.  Some folks want to blog for Blaugust and they will spend time on social media wondering what to post about.  Analysis paralysis is a real problem.  At that point the desire to do something right is irrelevant if you never do it.

 This is why I like the weekly focus areas for Blaugust.  It helps me form a plan and take action for that week.  Then when my brain gets stuck the prompt list is a good backup to get that drive to action. Underlying this is the reality that blogging has no rules except for those that you make for yourself.

 A blog post doesn't need 1,000 words.  It doesn't even need to be edited.  There is nothing wrong with grabbing a screenshot from your favorite game, writing a sentence about it, and publishing it.  That counts.  Check the box.  You blogged!  I even recommended this yesterday to a fellow blogger that was getting stuck.  Since the rules of blogging are your own only you know if its right or not so be flexible with yourself and you can find success!

 In the real world I am in senior management and oversee a lot of projects.  My team is well known as the "get sh!t done club".  We do lots of things wrong but we do them fast. We get feedback and work to get them "right" (which is often 80% of the way there since the last 20% of anything is perfection and not worth the squeeze).

 I've been asked numerous times by more senior folks how we do it.  I always answer with some form of "we just get going".  There is also an aspect of breaking big things up into small things.  People understand small and are less likely to get analysis paralysis when presented a puzzle piece vs the entire box of puzzle pieces.  Big things don't get made into smaller things without getting started and just getting started is often where so many projects fall down.

 

Stars Reach

 This blog is my blog.  It goes where I go.  I am probably one of the biggest Raph Koster fan boys out there.  He even once posted on his blog about me.  Yes, me!  Now Raph is making waves in the MMO community with his new game Stars Reach.  So why haven't I talked about Stars Reach yet?  Well that's simple: I've been playing games and blogging about them.

 Blaugust is a great chance to switch things up a bit and talk about fresh topics and Stars Reach is right up my alley.  It also fits well with the "get to know me" week of Blaugust because in order to talk about Stars Reach we need to step back and talk about Star Wars Galaxies (SWG)!

 First I should note that I am a huge Star Wars fan.  I can't pinpoint specifically where in my life that I became a fan, but I do have a core memory of sitting on the living room floor as a kid and watching the opening scene of A New Hope being broadcast.  My family didn't go to the movies so catching a movie on the TV was about it.  Eventually I was known to check out every Star Wars book from the local library and the rest is history (and I still maintain the original expanded universe, now called Legends, is far superior to what Disney is doing).

 Now take a love of Star Wars and combine it with the early days of massively multiplayer games and throw in a shaker of Raph Koster and we got Star Wars Galaxies.  For me personally I saw a lot of Ultima Online in SWG and that was exciting.  At the time I didn't know much of Raph Koster but through being in early alpha tests for SWG I learned about him and found myself nodding along to most things he was saying.

 I ended up having a love-hate relationship with SWG.  I loved that it was Star Wars and that it was an open world where I could build my house anywhere and be the moisture farmer I always wanted to be in Star Wars.  I hated though that the game didn't focus on the moisture farmers and eventually with the infamous New Game Experience (NGE) it was clear combat was the focus.  SWG never delivered on the promise for me.

 Fast forward today and we have Raph Koster hard at work on a spiritual successor to SWG.  He even went so far as to say the words out loud: Koster calls Stars Reach a “Star Wars Galaxies 2.0,”.  So what does that mean?

 It means an online game that is focused on more than just combat. A game that is trying to do so much more than  just be a themepark.  To do the scope justice let me pull from Raph's announcement blog post:

Stars Reach uses simulation to a degree never seen in an MMO before. We know the temperature, the humidity, the materials, for every cubic meter of every planet. Our water actually flows downhill and puddles. It freezes overnight or during the winter. It evaporates and turns to steam when heated up. And not just our water — everything does this. Catch a tree on fire with a stray blaster bolt. Melt your way through a glacier to find a hidden alien laboratory embedded in the ice. Stomp too hard on a rock bridge, and watch out, it might collapse under your feet. Dam up a river to irrigate your farm. Or float in space above an asteroid, and mine crystals from its depths.

 That is a lofty goal and takes me back to memories of SWG.  For example; SWG had dynamic materials that could be gathered from the world.  There was an entire path for players that wanted to be nothing more than gatherers whereby they improved their ability to scan for and find materials.  That information could then be sold to others and it had value.  Why? Because the materials in that exact state with those exact variables were finite and once mined were gone forever.  Those materials then were used in blueprints that could only use those materials resulting in limited runs of items such as blasters and armor.  Materials gone?  So were those specific outputs.  The inner moisture farmer in me was jumping for joy.

 Stars Reach is aiming to take this level of dynamic world to another level and multiply it across a universe.  That has me super excited for what they bring forward as a game.

Monday Screenshots: The Many Faces of Heartlessgamer

 It is time for Monday Screenshots but with a Blaugust slant!  As we are in the "Introduce Yourself" week what better screenshots to feature than the many faces of the characters I've played recently across games.

 

New World

Throne and Liberty Global Beta

Once Human

Pax Dei Alpha Test

Enshrouded

Battlefield 2042 playing as Irish with my favorite skin

Call of the Wild: the Angler

New World open beta

Oldie but goodie - my Guild Wars 2 launch character... ummm yeah

Shout out to Massively OP's Global Chat

 Just a quick shout out to Massively OP for featuring me in their Global Chat feature post.  As much of as an honor when they mentioned my comments on their podcast about how I listen to podcasts at 2x speed in the shower.  If you want MMO news and insights then Massively OP is the site for you.

Blaugust 2024: Kicking off Introduce Yourself Week

Welcome to week two of Blaugust 2024; outlined below:

 "Introduce Yourself Week (August 4th – August 10th) – The idea behind this week is to have some structured time around getting to know the other bloggers. I realize that those of us who are veteran bloggers might have already written half a dozen introduction posts by now, but it is a great time to share anything interesting you might have in your arsenal."

 As a veteran blogger I do have lots of different posts introducing myself.  I will refer you to my first post of Blaugust this year if you want some links and more info.   I also shared some info about the Real World me in that post but I left out one of my favorite hobbies: fishing.

 I've fished since I was a kid and used to spend every summer day down at my local fishing spots.  I was fortunate to grow up in a small town in the midwest with a local lake that I could ride my bike around.  Even when I finally got into video games with Sega Genesis I jumped outdoors every chance I got to go fishing.

 Speaking of video games I am a big fan of fishing games from Super Black Bass all the way to more modern takes like recent adventures in Russian Fishing 4 or Call of the Wild: The Angler.

 My dad also took us fishing from time to time and some core childhood memories were watching my dad rake away weeds near shore so we had a spot to fish for bluegill/sunfish (our local lake was very weedy at the shorelines).  Then we'd usually end up at A&W or Hardees for a lunch afterwards.  My dad always got a strawberry shake.  Good times.

 Also I am posting this as a dad myself who is getting ready to take my kids fishing later today.  We don't have a small town lake we can ride bikes to so it's a bit of a drive for a good fishing spot here, but I hope the memories for my kids form the same.  Though we won't be stopping at fast food afterwards today; if we did it would be Culvers (since they are now down here in the south).

Need Blaugust inspiration? Use the prompt list dummy!

 Want to post for Blaugust 2024 but stuck on what to blog about?  Then I suggest you hit up the prompt list, grab a D20, roll that beautiful bean footage and count down the list to the prompt you rolled.  Then get writing!

2

In classic D20 fashion I rolled low; a 2.  That prompts me to write about:

What are some key sources of media (games/movies/etc) that have shaped your worldview?

 One of the best parts of the prompt list is that there are no rules, and the questions are open to your interpretation. In this case, I get to ponder what to do with "worldview" in the question. My gaming worldview or my real-world worldview? Hmmm. Let me think on this. Since I've shared a bit more about the real me this Blaugust, let me stay in reality and focus on one piece of media most may not think of: football announcers in the '90s.

John Madden

 Growing up, I religiously watched the Packers games (we were practically in the shadow of Lambeau Field). While I am obviously influenced by being a Packers fan, one aspect that went hand-in-hand with the Packers in the 1990s was John Madden. I will admit to not knowing a ton about John Madden outside of football broadcasts, but what he did inside those broadcasts left a lasting mark on me. That mark was one of positivity, keeping things simple, and a willingness to say the "duh" things out loud

 The infamous Madden joke goes something like, "Well, you see the team who scores the most points wins the game." - John Madden ... probably. For diehard football fans, Madden's basic statements seemed unwarranted, but to many others, they made the game infinitely more approachable. There was an entire cast of extended family members in my orbit who bounced in and out of the living room to catch Madden's updates on the games. He delivered his commentary with such flair and simplicity that it met them right where they were as passerby fans.

 Another part of this puzzle is that many in my family have entered the teaching profession; you could say it is in our blood. I personally did not, but every time I coach my kids' sports teams or lead my son's scouting activities, I always get asked if I am a teacher. I have a way with kids, and a lot of it comes down to just talking to them with a bit of excitement in a simple manner and saying the "duh" things out loud that so many adults skip over.

 Nowadays, I am a director at my company and lead teams on big projects. We have a reputation for getting stuff done on time and above expectation—seriously, to the point where I have senior vice presidents saying, "That is just not how projects go in business.  Good job." I am good at what I do. You know a big part of it? Simplicity and laying the "duh" things out.

 If you are following along, you can see that this sounds a lot like what passerby fans got from John Madden. As a Packers fan, I am fortunate that he covered so many of their games and was there for our Super Bowl runs in the '90s. I really do think of Madden when I am laying things out for folks, and I use him as an analogy anytime I am working with a newer manager struggling with working with employees. No doubt most of my employees are the football fans and not the passerby, but the power of keeping things simple and breaking things down for the passerby also reminds football fans how they got to be the fans they are. I feel like a bit of John Madden is narrating when I lead.

July 2024 In Review

 Blaugust 2024 is here which means July 2024 is over! Let's take a look at what happened on the blog in July.

The Blog

 Blogger provided number (last 30 days graph so a bit off a full month): 29,200 visits

 This is up about 7,000 from June and there was a spike around 7/5 while I was out of town.  I did not dig into the spike.

 

 In other metrics:

• Posts:
  
• Target: 18 (week days minus days I was on my trip)
  
• Posted: 22
• Difference: +4 Woohoo! Lots of good topics to talk about and playing a new game, Once Human, kept the ideas flowing.
  
•  Search Trends
• "throne and liberty beta review", "throne and liberty impressions", and "throne and liberty open beta review" flew to the top this month with lots of Google searchers finding my initial impressions post and then after beta review post.  Look at that mountain in the chart!
• 
  

  

  Look at that mountain in the chart all driven by Throne and Liberty searches.
  

  
  
• "best battlefield game", "best battlefield", "best battlefield games" continue to be towards the top still thanks to this post: Best Battlefield!?
• Then another new search trend is cropping up around the game Once Human (see What I Played).  Lots of folks (me included) are searching for information about how seasons and season resets will work.  Here are the most common search terms:
  
  • once human 6 week reset
  • once human seasons
  • once human season reset
  • once human resets
  • once human seasonal wipe
• And for New World searches... well they dropped all the way to page 2 of the results!  It's all Once Human and T&L here baby!
  

What I Played

 For the first month in close to two years the answer for "what I played" is NOT New World.  I basically quit New World cold turkey after coming back from my trip.  I do drop in to reset some long duration trading post listings and to keep my "days since last login" fresh on the company board but that is it. I have not actually "played" the game since June.

 What I have played though is a lot of Once Human (all tagged posts).  I really like the game even though it has tons of issues and is death marching towards a seasonal model that is going to piss a lot of players off with how the server locking has gone.  We'll see if it has staying power after July.

 I also took the opportunity to try out the Throne and Liberty global beta and I shared my thoughts.  I wasn't hooked enough to say for sure I am playing at launch but having broken the New World grip on my gaming time it is entirely possible I give it a go in Sept.  It will be free 2 play so not much risk.

Years Ago

1 Year Ago

 In July 2023 I was prepping for my first Blaugust!  

 Season 2 of New World was in full swing and I was posting my daily checklist which was a long standing driver of traffic to the blog as it was picked up on the New World subreddit.  Sort of makes me sad to look back and see how positive we were on New World and just a year later and its doom and gloom.

5 Years Ago

  July 2019 was in the 'no blogging' era and nothing comes to mind.

10 Years Ago

 In July of 2014 I was also not blogging regularly so had no entries.

15 Years Ago

  July of 2009 had us talking about the infamous Darkfall review debacle and eventually we got the real Kieron Gillen Darkfall re-review to talk about.  To be honest the original review was fair.  Darkfall was a turd of a game.  Personally I liked my May 2009 take by taking Kieron's review of The Path and treating it like it was for Darkfall.

 I was also enamored with Battlefield Heroes through the month of July. It still holds a spot in my "best battlefield" list.  Sad that it closed so soon after launching.  It was Fortnite-like before Fortnite!

 20 19 Years Ago

 Technically I have 20 named years on my sidebar, but mathematically 2005 is only 19 years ago.

 In July of 2005 it was a mix of Battlefield 2 posts and posts complaining about World of Warcraft.  Hmmm... that seems familiar.

First Post of Blaugust: Heartlessgamer

 Welcome to Blaugust 2024!  This year many bloggers are participating in the “First Post of Blaugust” initiative. The idea is that for my very first Blaugust post this year I should take a bit of time and introduce myself and the blog.  As Tipa so quoted on my post yesterday "Once more into the breach, and damned be he who first cries "Hold! Enough!""

 First I think it is worth looking back at Blaugust 2023 (my first year doing Blaugust) and my "about me" posts on where the blog came from and how I became the gamer I am today.

• My Gaming History
• A masterpiece of a blog post and probably the most digging I've done in my memory banks in a very, very long time.
  
• So It Begins Again
• A look back at the decision close to 20 years ago to start a blog about MMOs (and other games)

 In explaining who I am and why I have this blog I always go back to my first blog post and pull forward this quote. 

This blog has officially started. It has been a process of thought pulling at my mind for a while. I play these games we call MMORPGs, but I don't even know if "play" is the correct word to describe it anymore. I live and breath these games. They are more than an escape from my mediocre life. Fun is no longer the driving factor. Social interaction with like minded nerds and geeks; people whom live through their in game characters as though it was version 2.0 of themselves.

 As I said last year this statement holds true all these years later and if you want nothing more than to know about the who and why of Heartlessgamer that is it.

 There is of course the personal side out in the real world as well which I tend not to share too much about but Blaugust is good a time as any to share some more about the real me:

• I am in my early 40s
• I have a family and two kids (14 and 5)
• I grew up next to Green Bay WI which is evident by the Packers posts on this blog
  
• I am retired from the military (6 years active, 14 years reserves)
• I am in senior management at a privately owned telecom company
• My other big hobby other than games is gardening