Time to Loot Journal: November 2021

I have something of a… plan forming. A project plan. Plans are something of a unicorn around here. Generally flying by the seat-of-my-pants is more my style. So this is significant! Mark the date! Which date? Oh- er… Unsure yet! The plan isn’t fully formed! More of a proto-plan. Plan in progress. You might say that I am a man-with-an-almost-plan.

Now that I’ve suitably shocked you, maybe I should warn you to take a seat. Because there’s more.

There isn’t just one proto-plan, there’s two! TWO PROTO PLANS!

Although one is far more likely than the other… And er, also that one basically boils down to just ‘pick a game and play it’. So I suppose I shouldn’t be hyping this up too much.

The Potential Plans

1. The less likely plan: Play games that I don’t understand the appeal of and write about it.
   Now, I don’t mean play games that don’t appeal to me — I do actually mean ones I don’t understand the appeal of for anyone. e.g., Farming Simulator ’22 just came out. This is quite a long lived series. But… why? Maybe I’ll find out! If it has more of the financial management aspects to it, perhaps I’ll understand. If it’s just janky driving around of farm equipment then I’ll probably come away just as puzzled as I went in. But it might be fun!
   
2. The more likely plan: Select a small list of games I’ve wanted to play and put off, and randomly select one… to play!
   I know, nailbiting plans these ones. X4 would definitely be on this list. I seem to constantly be in a state of ‘waiting for the next big update’. But there is always another big update. I had decided I might play this one again — get this — on the day of the announcement of the 5.0 update and new expansion for early next year. So, I just need to jump in and play! There are other things in this situation too.

Why? Well- I’ve noticed fewer actual posts about games of late. I’m still playing them. Quite a significant number of hours this month, even! But just not in a way that has translated into posting. So these plans are much less about the games themselves as it is putting a focus back on writing about them.

I don’t just want to write about games directly though, I’ve also had a lack of taking up ideas started in other posts and the like. So I suppose you might say there is a third sub-plan here- reboot (sort of) my writing!

That’s the future though. Maybe something I start in earnest with the holidays next month. For now, a look at the past… :)

Looking Back

One Year Ago

The last couple of Novembers, I’ve been doing a Five Game Challenge. This November, I didn’t quite feel up to it — but I might still do a very belated post selecting the five games I would have picked. Last year though, these were my picks.

• Last year though, things got cut short when I put a knife through my thumb. Literally moments after sharpening the knife, I might add. So that certainly put a damper on the whole ‘typing’ thing for a while. I got that post out while still enjoying the anesthetic injected by the kind Dr’s at A&E before the stitched things together again. A year on, there is still a bit of an odd sensation touching the scar on the thumb but otherwise its all good!
  
• Shadowlands came out. I don’t think any of us could’ve guessed back then how the rest of the year would unfold. I was very much enjoying myself for a time. But, until we see some meaningful change there will be no return for me to Blizzard products old or new.

Two Years Ago

Two years ago, I kicked off this whole Five Game Challenge thing. It started with this post, where, as a thought exercise, I considered which games I would pick if I could only play five games and nothing else for an entire year.

• Anthem briefly reignited a spark of life by way of a possible ‘Anthem Next’ or ‘Anthem 2.0’ project. The fact this never happened is still a source of disappointment to me. The game had a great deal of potential, now never to be realised. Hopefully it won’t scare the market off the idea of letting us all be custom Ironmen for too long and someone will do it justice.
  
• Path of Exile 2 was announced but we still have a fair amount of waiting to do. It could be 2024 before we see the full launch but hopefully a beta might come our way in 2022!

Gaming Goals

November’s Goals

I didn’t set any! And I regret nothing!

It’s nice to take a little break every so often. :)

December’s Goals

• Forza Horizon 5: Complete Series 1
  As in, gain both season rewards from all seasons and both series rewards from Series 1 of Forza Horizon 5, not that I’ll necessarily complete every single available point.
  
• Implement… a Plan!
  Start one of the two plans mentioned at the top of the post. Doesn’t matter which. Just get one done.

Games Played November 2021

It feels more than just a month ago since the Lost Ark closed beta. This doesn’t bode well for the wait between now and the full launch in March next year. Although on the other hand there is a number of big releases between now and then. Dying Light 2 has left the December slot, but there is still Monster Hunter: Rise for PC mid-Jan, then Elden Ring at the end of Feb. (Eeeeeeeeeeeeee!)

I did take a step back from my Coding lessons this month between Work, Lost Ark and Forza Horizon 5 — but perhaps in December, it’ll be something I return to.

82.3 hours of gaming this past month, that’s quite a bit for me, of late! I can’t really imagine anything making me take the hours I did for the Shadowlands launch again any time soon. Not even Monster Hunter: Rise or Elden Ring, I reckon. Although… never say never, I suppose. I could be well wrong!

Books Read November 2021

Right at the tail end of October, I started reading Skyward. An unusual pick for me because it sits in the Young Adult genre — one I typically turn my nose up at. So I gave myself explicit permission to just… stop… if I wasn’t enjoying it. Something I’m not good at, when it comes to books, which might surprise you if all you had to go on was my approach to games. Those I’ll stop even when I am having fun.

In any case, I finished Skyward. Then I finished Starsight. And now I’m just consuming Cytonic.

So far? Cytonic hasn’t grabbed me as immediately or as thoroughly as the first two but I’m only about 20% in. So still plenty of time yet. And it isn’t that I’m not enjoying it, rather that the first two set quite a high bar!

I’m sure I’ll get a review of Cytonic out in December, but I’m less sure I’ll manage to hit my 15 book target for the 2021 Good Reads challenge. My one hope is that the next book I’ll be reading is quite short too, it’s the latest Alex Verus novel, Risen.

The Blog

Including this journal, I published 9 posts this month. But despite the relatively low post count — it was a pretty exceptional month for views. While not to the same extent as being WoW Insidered back in the day, Skill-up tweeted out a link to my Lost Ark coming to NZ/Aus post!

This saw almost 2k views in the first day, and pretty good numbers for a week or so afterwards with a general uplift for the remainder of the month. (Edit: Ooh, I didn’t realise this until just now — but CohhCarnage retweeted this as well.)

So perhaps unsurprisingly then:

Most Viewed Posts

1. Lost Ark to Launch in Oceania on Release
2. Deep Rock Galactic: The Solo Experience
3. Rolling Credits on Tales of Arise
4. Transport Fever: Things I Wish I Knew When I Started
5. Rolling Credits on Exo One

I’m not even sure giving the Lost Ark post bold is enough to indicate the full extent of how far ahead it was. It was almost 12x the views of Deep Rock Galactic, which was no slouch itself with another big content drop this month!

Without another similar event, I’ll never beat the new record for most views in a day but I think that’s OK. I won’t lie though, it is rather addictive to see those types of counts come through. ;)