There is a long gone Heartlessgamer that would have been happier with today's results, but reality and old(er) age wizened him up. Unfortunately that means today sucks. This one is going to hurt for a while. There is a non zero chance we never come back from this.
The worst part is the truth that has been staring us in the face: this is America. This is who we are. It's time to grapple with that reality and the consequences of it.
Blogger provided number (last 30 days graph so a bit off a full month): 19,800
Note: this is missing the first few days of October where there was a spike in traffic visiting my Hurricane Helene posts. You can see it falling off on the left side.
In other metrics:
October started with no gaming due to the hurricane causing power and internet outages, but towards the middle of the month I was able to get going with Throne and Liberty and that has consumed most of my gaming time. I have two level 50 characters now and am working to max out my main's gear.
I did spend a little bit of time in New World as well.
Last year in October 2023 we got a chance to play The Finals beta and I ended up really enjoying it. It didn't hold me long term but my oldest son is addicted and plays every day. He is pretty good at it too. Every once and a while I hop back on to play with him.
We also got the "mind blowing" Star Citizen video. A year later I am not sure anyone can say the game is any closer to what that video promises.
Oh and New World's expansion, Rise of the Angry Earth, launched. It brought mounts, level 65, level 700 GS, and a bunch of changes to the game. It was light on content and staying power, but feature wise it was great.
Oct 2019 was in the 'not a lot of blogging' era and nothing comes to mind.
In October of 2014 I was getting a chance to play Archage for the first time. I honestly couldn't remember the game all that well so it was good to re-read my initial impressions post. My... uhhh... younger self does come through in the post.
Setting a milestone and trend that continues to this day in October of 2009 World of Warcraft launched cross-realm (aka cross-server) dungeons and thus ended the idea that you were limited to the server you joined in an MMORPG.
For fantasy readers: we received the first Wheel of Time book co-authored by Brandon Sanderson.
We also got the Left 4 Dead 2 trailer; one of my favorite game trailers of all time!
Technically I have 20 named years on my sidebar, but mathematically 2005 is only 19 years ago.
In Oct of 2005 we had hints that Diablo 3 may become an MMORPG. Oh how wrong we were!
We all celebrated Raph Koster starting his blog in 2005! And he is still at it today which is pretty cool as I've gotten the chance to catch up with him over Discord as he works on his new project, Stars Reach!
Oh and I got banned from the World of Warcraft forums for posting a picture of a magazine article. A magazine I physically had in my hands. Ironically this ban stands to this day!
Some screenshots from the Halloween Event in Throne and Liberty. I think the team did a really good job on the visuals here!
 |
| Lots of pumpkins! |
 |
| Halloween dungeon; get in the flying pumpkin! |
 |
| Don't forget to block or enjoy your flight into the abyss! |
 |
| Pumpkin boss mechanic; get in the pumpkin to avoid the wipe! |
 |
| F this pumpkin. If you know; you know. |
 |
| Amazing decorations at Purelight Tower! |
 |
| Obligatory armor skin: the pumpkin helmet |
I don’t usually dive into politics on this blog, but every now and then, something just grabs my attention. If you looked back far enough, you'd probably see that I’ve drifted between the right and left over the years. Since around 2016, though, I’ve found myself firmly on one side—and it happens to be the one where a VP candidate is unafraid to show off his Crazy Taxi skills. Plus a Mountain Dew! Now that’s a candidate I can get behind! Kamala is pretty cool too.
The next Throne and Liberty global patch 1.5.0 is rolling off the assembly line tomorrow (10/31). I spoke into my AI box and told it what I was interested in and it spat out this summary for me:
Throne and Liberty Update 1.5.0 Highlights
Throne and Liberty’s Update 1.5.0 lands October 31, packed with new content and impactful tweaks:
New Battle Pass & Shop Gear
The Phantom Tracker’s Star Battle Pass launches October 31, bringing exclusive emotes, a spooky Amitoi, and new outfits. The Lucent shop refresh also offers themed cosmetics for a festive look.
Big Gameplay Enhancements
- Field Boss Rewards: Boss portals now scale better with player count, offering more spread and better odds for rewards, including new Epic reward chests for selecting your preferred Epic loot.
- Combat Adjustments: Faster crowd control immunity buildup makes getting CC’d less punishing in group fights.
- Dungeon Fixes: Bugs in Death’s Abyss are squashed, and Adventure Codex objectives now award more XP.
UI & Quality-of-Life Tweaks
Extra chat tabs, visible health bar shielding, and a better Guild Points tracker make it easier to stay connected and organized.
Bug Fixes Galore
This update smooths over crafting issues, character movement, and controller function—setting players up for a smoother, more polished adventure.
... and honestly the AI (ChatGPT) did really well here with what I gave it as my interest areas. Specifically I told it my favorite dungeon was Death's Abyss and it picked out a change specific to it. I also mentioned I was interested in epic loot which it used well. I also said to make sure to let me know if there was a new battlepass (which I knew already but wanted to see if the AI would interpret correctly). I also asked if there were any changes to CC / crowd control and it picked them right up!
I am sure there is more I could get out of reading the actual full patch notes but time is limited here and I'd rather play around with my "read the patch notes for me" AI than read actual notes myself :)
