Looking Ahead to 2022
So far, I’ve taken a look back at 2021’s reading and gaming. Looking back is all good and well but what about the future? Although I do realise now as I write this that I haven’t taken a look back on the year in blogging. Perhaps I can work a little of that in here, or better yet, wait for Time to Loot’s anniversary, January 20th. Maybe both!
You might be able to tell — I’m still finding my footing with all this stuff and trying to give it some semblance of consistency. The whole ‘look forward, make predictions and/or resolutions’ thing isn’t really something I’ve done much of here. You’d kind of think that might be blogging 101; free content! At both ends of the year! And if you think that- well… you’re not wrong. I got nothin’. I covered off reading well enough in its own post, for future too.
So in this one, it’s time to focus on Gaming! And there is no time like the present to start looking to the future!
Predictions for Gaming in 2022
The Industry
- Kotick will still be head of Activision — the furor will (for the most part) fade from public consciousness
The near constant news stream re: Blizzard and Activision will all but dry up as the clicks it generates dwindle and people stop caring with no meaningful change being reached.
Although to add a slightly more positive element to this: I do think Activision’s union-busting efforts will amount to nil. So perhaps where change cannot be reached by any efforts of Activision’s leaders, the people themselves will take over and make it so. That certainly seems to be the direction of things so far — and my one hope for one day being able to enjoy Diablo 4. - Big publisher pressure will continue to drive NFTs into the gaming space
2022 will be the last year that smaller entities such as GSC Game World will buckle to player pressure to drop NFTs. The interest from the likes of Ubisoft and Square Enix will drive a wedge into the market that everyone else can take shelter behind. I expect we will see at least one more game or game-related service make an NFT announcement this year that is later walked back, but next year? No.
Steam’s recent ban on Cryptocurrency and NFT driven games may get quietly walked back toward the back end of the year. I’d like to believe they might remain a bastion of defense against the rising tide here but I expect this will last only up until the moment they start getting a bottom line hit. - Ghost of Tsushima will have a PC port announced
It hardly seems a ‘prediction’ any more to say Sony will continue bringing their big titles over to PC at long last. They’ve already announced the Playstation PC branding, even. So, to make this a little more specific, I’m calling out Ghost of Tsushima specifically. I don’t believe it will release this year — but I do think we’ll get the announcement, potentially late in the year, for an early 2023 release.
My Own Gaming
- Monster Hunter Rise, Lost Ark and Elden Ring will all occupy top 5 spots in ‘hours played’ by the end of the year.
By which I mean to say, I’m going to enjoy them every bit as much as I think I will. They will rise to the level of the hype building in my brain.
I don’t think MHR and Elden Ring will necessarily appear anywhere special in terms of months played though. I expect they’ll burn bright as all-the-time games with a ‘primary’ month of drowning out almost all other gaming but with little besides.
Lost Ark though, that might be different. That might span a longer period of time, too. - MMOs — and WoW specifically — will continue to take a backseat in my gaming priorities
In fact, I think I’d go so far as to make the prediction that I won’t be touching WoW at all for the entirety of 2022. Which may mean that I’ve once and for all quit it. But… for real this time. WoW is still going to sit at the top of the ‘hours played’ chart overall for quite some time though, I think. And near the top for months played, too.
A return to Black Desert Online seems inevitable but I won’t hit it nearly so hard as I did last time around. I’d rather not burn myself out on it so quickly again!
Then finally there is Final Fantasy XIV which also holds a nil chance of not being revisited. I almost didn’t even think of FFXIV for this prediction though, as I continue to see it more less as an MMO and more of a SP experience given how I play it. Still- between Endwalker and an Oceanic data centre coming soon, I’ll be there. Maybe not right in February when the data centre opens though, as I’ll have plenty else on at the time!
Annnd I think that might be it for the predictions!
As noted at the top, I want to keep the more blog-specific stuff for the anniversary post. Even so, I can’t help think about, at least a little bit, how I want this all to show up here this year.
The two broad categories of writing I enjoy the most when going back over them, reading my old work, later on, are:
- Recounting a play session or gaming events
Such as these two from my time last year with Black Desert Online, or going even further back; my original series of posts about starting off again in the Elder Scrolls Online.
They’re generally not the best of conversation starters and are probably of most interest to me rather than anyone else but they’re fun. So this is probably something I want to do a little more of this year. Including actually taking the time to make notes of key points. For both sets of linked posts there I took brief bullet points as I went. - ‘Discussion’ Posts
By which I mean posts that have the seed of an idea worth (in at least one person’s mind, at least) discussing. These ideas can come from other bloggers and their posts, or, if you’re incredibly lucky a post of your own might spawn further conversation and posts elsewhere.
The most recent example of this that I’ve participated in that I recall right now started with Aywren, and her post on the importance of story in MMOs. This spawned a fairly significant conversation! Heck, I ended up with two posts based off Aywrens and the conversation that followed. But this was flowing all through the community, with posts from Bhagpuss, Telwyn, Rakuno at least and possibly others to boot.
Spawning this degree of conversation — or being involved with it — is the best outcome and, truthfully, some of the best parts of blogging fullstop!
So! More! Moooore. More of those things will certainly be on the (planned) menu. My hope is that doing so will help wash away some of the recent building dissatisfaction with how things have been going.
