Time to Loot Journal: June 2022

Not that you could really tell just by my posting schedule… But I perhaps feel something close to peace with regard to the current situation. And I do think it is peace rather than just resignation. Having said that, it is also a very fragile thing. Easily disturbed by anything additional or outside the expected routine. It feels a bit like life is a still pond; calm and collected — but where throwing the smallest of pebbles can begin a storm rather than mere ripples.

I guess this finely balanced state only really occurred late in the month too, so perhaps we’ll see some more of me this month. Both in games and in posts!

I did manage to get my turn in the XCOM 2 Succession game done, though. A fair bit later than I would’ve liked, but I’m very happy with how it came out! I ended up tackling one of the major missions of the game and not getting any of our team killed. Kluwes will be up next and has the benefit of (slightly less) pips on the progress bar toward completion of the Avatar project.

Honestly, until I looked at ManicTime, I thought I’d actually bumped my gaming time up this month. Considerably so, even. But it appears that was just a recency effect on memory, as my overall playtime was still very low. In any case, that’s getting ahead of myself! First, looking back…

Looking Back

One Year Ago

• I Quit WoW… Again. I haven’t gone back to the game since, either. Although there has been the odd moment of consideration for it the equation is always the same. In the ‘Pro’ column is playing with my raiding guild again… And… Little else. All the reasons I outlined for quitting are still there. Nothing has changed. Then add to that the Blizzard Saga that has kept me out of all Blizzard and Activision products since and there is just no way. Will there ever be? Who can say.
• The First (on Time to Loot) Book Review Went Up! The idea of reviewing what I was reading had been on my mind, and a year ago, I finally decided to do something about it. The first book I covered here was Raymond E. Feist’s King of Ashes. Lately, I’ve neither read as much or covered what I have read — but I’m sure that sooner or later I’ll get back to it.

Two Years Ago

• Cities: Skylines formed a big part of this month! It helped me recognise I may’ve been holding some silly notions about playing in ‘Creative Mode’. I also kicked off the Blogger City of Anddul. Unfortunately, that series came to a rather premature end. I think the issue was I was attempting it down to too micro a level, and the burden came to outweigh the fun. If I were ever to do this again, I would probably just turn off street names — or at least only name the big avenues. Similarly, district naming is enough. Not buildings. Will I, though? Well… Never say never. :)
• Silliest Reason for Avoiding Early Access Titles? You bet. Seems there was a bit of a theme to my recognition of ‘silly’ notions this month. Although worth noting; neither of these realisations actually led to me, you know, changing anything. ;)

Gaming Goals

Still nope!

… But… Maybe next time?

I’m closing in on an Elden Ring completion though. I’m up to the Malenia boss fight now. I’ve only given it one attempt, but in it, I beat the first phase. The second phase though… Phew! That one is going to take a bit of learning.

Games Played June 2022

Like I said at the top of the post, I really did think I’d played a lot more this month. But that has really only kicked off in the past week or so. Outrider’s launching its Worldslayer expansion has been a big drive in jumping back to playing with my friends, too. And really, much of that has been in July rather than in June.

Monster Hunter Rise also got an expansion! I bought it, but figure we’ll tackle this one a little later after Outriders is done and dusted. (Which, according to all reports, won’t take long.)

Those two expansions weren’t the only things I bought this Steam sale, though. I mean… Just because I’m playing less doesn’t mean I have to buy less… *cough*

More than the gaming time, I was initially surprised to see the computer time drop so sharply. Thinking about it though, it’s really not that surprising. This month, I flipped almost entirely from working solely at home to working at the office. This wasn’t a change work has forced per se, but with the restructure going on — there were many more conversations (including the process of simply interviewing everyone again) that were really best done in person.

Likely a more hybrid approach to working with more of an equal split will be the way forward from here.

Books Read June 2022

Reading fell away almost entirely this month. I’ve been falling asleep to shows instead over the last little while.

That said, I did still make a little more progress on Salvation and have found more interest in it as I’ve gone. The structure of the book is an interesting one. Each of the main characters has quite an extended chapter (more of a ‘section’, really) talking about an event from their past, as an explainer of sorts as to their inclusion in the mission at hand.

So far? Not much actual progress on that mission. My suspicion is that this isn’t what this book is really going to be about. The purpose of this book is to setup the universe and set the scene for the technology of this universe without just explaining it at all.

I reckon we’ll get to the destination outlined at the start of the book and then end on something of a cliffhanger.

We’ll see if I’m remotely right soon though, I guess!

The Blog

June marked the third month running of just making it to 2 posts published over its course. While I certainly can’t promise anything, I would certainly like to achieve more than that for July. I feel like it might be possible now too, but will have to see.

Most Viewed Posts

1. Book Review: King of Ashes by Raymond E. Feist
2. Transport Fever: Things I Wish I Knew When I Started
3. Deep Rock Galactic: The Solo Experience
4. Rolling Credits on FFXIV’s Post-ARR Content
5. Rolling Credits on Tales of Arise

Master of Furies (Firemane Saga #3) is out in a matter of days, apparently driving interest in reviews for the start of the series up significantly! The review for the second book, Queen of Storms also did rather well this month.

Otherwise, no real surprises. :)