Christmas is fast approaching and the list of people I suddenly realize I should have a gift for grows. I realize that the holiday seasons is not all about gift giving or receiving and I am usually pretty stingy anyways. Realistically, I only have 6 people on my must-gift list but it's always fun & nice to give out presents. There are at least an additional 8 people/groups of people that I feel should receive a small obligatory gift.
Usually these people get the generics: wine or homemade cookies. Two of these lucky people are relatives who used to live in HK and I've decided this past Thursday (12 days 'til Christmas), to knit up a scarf and a hat for them. This doesn't sound like a lot to most knitting enthusiasts but it is to me. I can most likely finish the hat in 1 night on the weekend. The scarf which contains a pattern of 44 rows X 42 stitch repeated 9X is currently only 4X complete in 4 days. With that amount of progress over 4 days, 2 of which were weekend days, on top of my daily chores, planned grocery trips, extra cookie baking time, last-minute Christmas shopping, etc. Will I finish them in time? I don't even know when I will be seeing them!!
I would also really like to make and finish roommate's 1up Mushroom Headband for Christmas as well. So many things to do, so little time. I wish I could just take time off work to knit/bake up a storm.
BTW: I'm back on WOW; started a new character on the 4 days I took off 2 weeks ago. We did some hardcore leveling in 5 days but I haven't played since that week. I have a level 18 Gnome Mage right now who I desperately want to squeeze in some time for to do some instances with our make-shift guild, on top of all my other hobbies. Everyone else is getting ahead of me again.
I still want to finish my quilted sewing machine cover. I've also been thinking about making my own ball-winder as inspired by David North's Lego Yarn Winder. Although I would preferably not make it out of plastic parts. Oh, so many ideas!
Showing posts with label World of Warcraft. Show all posts
Showing posts with label World of Warcraft. Show all posts
Monday, December 17, 2007
Friday, July 6, 2007
Catering to Evil
There is a new game out by Codemasters called Overlord. I have yet to actually play it but from the looks of reviews, screenshots and in-game videos, it's right up my alley. Not being a video game junkie or avid follower of gaming news, I first knew of the game after seeing a TV commercial for it. Instantly, the announcer's description reminded me of previous games I loved and played obsessively like Dungeon Keeper & Black & White. After further research, I learned that it is compared to these games very often.
Going by what I have seen so far, I would liken it to playing WOW as a warlord or hunter except you command a legion of pets instead of one. Each class of pet has its own abilities and weaknesses and they do your bidding like Dungeon Keeper creatures minus the building aspect. It's like Black & White in that your minions will gather materials and treasure for you and you have the ability to sacrifice them for whatever purpose. The rest appears to be story driven with the main purpose of wreaking havoc upon citizens and NPC's in the game world. There isn't much written about the multiplayer aspect of the game but when my computer is upgraded with a new motherboard and chip to specs, I'll let you know. We can probably classify it as a third person RTS RPG.
If you're like me and like to control minions who'll fight your battles, be greedy and gather treasure all day long, sacrifice your own creatures just for laughs, smote your enemies with powerful spells and swarm them with your gruesome army, then you might want to check this one out.
Going by what I have seen so far, I would liken it to playing WOW as a warlord or hunter except you command a legion of pets instead of one. Each class of pet has its own abilities and weaknesses and they do your bidding like Dungeon Keeper creatures minus the building aspect. It's like Black & White in that your minions will gather materials and treasure for you and you have the ability to sacrifice them for whatever purpose. The rest appears to be story driven with the main purpose of wreaking havoc upon citizens and NPC's in the game world. There isn't much written about the multiplayer aspect of the game but when my computer is upgraded with a new motherboard and chip to specs, I'll let you know. We can probably classify it as a third person RTS RPG.
If you're like me and like to control minions who'll fight your battles, be greedy and gather treasure all day long, sacrifice your own creatures just for laughs, smote your enemies with powerful spells and swarm them with your gruesome army, then you might want to check this one out.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Life with World of Warcraft
Since I have been working a regular 9-5 job, my day after work is scheduled flexibly in neat packets of time for chores, cooking and leisure. After adjusting to this new way of regulated life a few months ago, I needed a hobby. Something enjoyable to fill up my leisure time. For the first 2 months, I joined in on the wildly popular MMORPG adventures of Blizzard's World of Warcraft with my boyfriend and roommate. I enjoyed the gameplay and the entire concept of the game very much but the addictive nature of it kept messing up my schedule.
This is especially problematic since my work schedule is off-sync with the people I lived with because they work afternoons to nights. When they come home at 11pm, they would play for hours non-stop until the early morn, levelling, gaining XP. My progression in the game was always a few levels behind, which would make my character weaker and less effective when I played with them. They tried to close the gap for me by playing my character while I was at work but that only frustrated me because new skills and spells were learned without me actually experiencing the change. In short, I could not fulfill the potentials of my character.
So they continued on without me and at first I solo'd my quests but alas, the game is designed to be played with other players to enhance the gaming experience. It was simply too difficult in many cases to go it alone, especially on PVP servers. After that my WOW life just stopped. My character, forever frozen at level 29 or 30, who can remember. Since I quit, my boyfriend and roommate have gone to to a different server with their guild, started fresh at zero. In approximately 3 months, they are in their 60's. There's never a night when WOW is not running on a computer at home. The soundtrack to my homelife are the clashing sounds of epic weapons, the sound of spell effects and the muffled cursing and yelling over Teamspeak, all overlaying the looping BG music of the World of Warcraft.
I wonder what the total # of subscriptions of active WOW accounts there are in the world. Since the inception of the game, how many waking hours have these players dedicated to playing the game? How much time to they spend looking up information about the game, such as tips, secrets, strategies, etc.? What percentage of their leisure time is strictly for WOW? What percentage of players joined and quit? After how long? How many returned to the game after quitting? I think it would be a very interesting study on gamers' behavior with many implications.
This is especially problematic since my work schedule is off-sync with the people I lived with because they work afternoons to nights. When they come home at 11pm, they would play for hours non-stop until the early morn, levelling, gaining XP. My progression in the game was always a few levels behind, which would make my character weaker and less effective when I played with them. They tried to close the gap for me by playing my character while I was at work but that only frustrated me because new skills and spells were learned without me actually experiencing the change. In short, I could not fulfill the potentials of my character.
So they continued on without me and at first I solo'd my quests but alas, the game is designed to be played with other players to enhance the gaming experience. It was simply too difficult in many cases to go it alone, especially on PVP servers. After that my WOW life just stopped. My character, forever frozen at level 29 or 30, who can remember. Since I quit, my boyfriend and roommate have gone to to a different server with their guild, started fresh at zero. In approximately 3 months, they are in their 60's. There's never a night when WOW is not running on a computer at home. The soundtrack to my homelife are the clashing sounds of epic weapons, the sound of spell effects and the muffled cursing and yelling over Teamspeak, all overlaying the looping BG music of the World of Warcraft.
I wonder what the total # of subscriptions of active WOW accounts there are in the world. Since the inception of the game, how many waking hours have these players dedicated to playing the game? How much time to they spend looking up information about the game, such as tips, secrets, strategies, etc.? What percentage of their leisure time is strictly for WOW? What percentage of players joined and quit? After how long? How many returned to the game after quitting? I think it would be a very interesting study on gamers' behavior with many implications.
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