Weekend Wrap-up

I had a great weekend playing games. Here is what I did:

WARFRAME -

Of course, I spent a good chunk of my weekend in Warframe. I'm always double fisting Warframe on the PS4 and PC. The great thing is, I don't have the same frames between the 2 systems. On the PS4 I play Frost Prime or Excalibur. On the PC I play Mesa, Nekros, Hydroid, Ember, Nyx, Rino, and 3 others I want to play but can't because the world is a cruel place. It's a long story I will bore you with.

So, every time you log in you get a reward. On the PC during day 1 and 2 there is a chance to get 20%, 50%, and a mythical 75% off of platinum, which costs real money to get. Platinum is used to buy stuff off the Warframe market. One of the things you have to use platinum for is warframe character slots. Initially you get 2 slots.  One for the starter warframe and the second for a warframe you make. All warframes bought off the market get their own slot so they do not take up your free slots. Anyways, I have 3 warframes I made last week that I need to buy slots for. Each slot costs 20 Plat. For 75 Plat it costs me $5. Even though that's really cheap I really want a big Plat purchase to get discounted Plat and some special mod cards. With a glorious 75% discount I can get the $200 package for only $50. With that I'd be set for life on the PC side. I know I sound like a whiney cheap ass, but yeah, I am.

The grunt of my weekend in Warframe was playing random groups with people I don't know. 99% of the time I play Warframe without anybody I know. The clan I'm in on PC consists of me mainly and the clan leader that logs in when I beg him. I'm ok with it though because I really don't mind playing with strangers. Over the past few months playing Warframe hardcore I've learned how to communicate better with strangers to get what I want. That is the only way to be successful playing a game like Warframe unless I want to join a large clan made up of people I don't know. It would be the same as what I'm doing now, but I wouldn't have my friends to play with when they decided to log in. I'm happy with how I'm playing the game now.

WORLD OF WARCRAFT -

There wasn't much WoW this weekend. The night I usually log in to raid I was busy with my family. Actually, I've felt less and less wanting to play WoW because my friends haven't had time to play. Unlike Warframe, my happiness in WoW hinges a lot on my friends happiness in WoW. WoW is a game to me where I love playing with people I know and chatting on VOIP. Without them, I stop logging in. It's just not the same without them.

PILLARS OF ETERNITY -

I've been having a blast with this game. I haven't played a whole lot because it requires a lot off attention. There is a ton of reading and like true old school RPGs, you need to be careful not to screw up your story. I usually play this in a large chunk, but only 1 chunk a weekend. This weekend I did about 3 hours and my brain was mush.

I'm playing a Ranger because I feel pet classes always add extra depth to RPGs. That and I die less. I did have to move my game from normal mode to easy. PoE is just so brutal at times. Even on easy mode the game is very hard. This is no Dragon Age Inquisition people! This is the real RPG deal.

DCUO -

I didn't play it this weekend, but I patched it up ready for the new Powers coming out today. I'm excited to play a Munitions power. I watched a little video explaining how the powers work, but not too much a out it. I want it to be a surprise when I play it today. Yeah... TODAY!! Well, unless me Warframe log in award is 75% off. I doubt it though, so I'm pretty sure I'll he playing DCUO tonight.

That's it for my Easter Weekend of gaming, how was yours?

#DAW2015: Digital Extremes - Warframe

I guess it wouldn't be right to not do a DAW post this year. About 6 years ago I started DAW to show developers we (gamers and bloggers) aren't all assholes all the time. When I thought of DAW I thought of Michael Jackson, Elton John, Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder, Cyndie Lauper, Tina Turner, and all the other singers that joined together to help Africa in the 1980's. I wanted to bring bloggers, gamers, and developers together Bill and Ted style for 1 week.

Just like all great crusades, I realized it was pointless. I realized people only cared about the villains. If you think about all the great movies, historical icons, and any great story, what makes it great is the villains. When you think of World War 2 the first thing you think of is Hitler. When you think of comic books, you rattle off all the ones with the best villains. Anything that sticks in our minds as the best forms of entertainment always has an amazing villain attached to it. That is why we'll never see world peace and that is why DAW will never be great.

Giving up on my crusade to be the Pope of the gaming community, I decided to disappear this year. To become the martyr, which always makes a great story. I was expecting DAW to not happen this year. Well, it did! A couple cool catz took the reigns. They might not be Willy Nelson or Kenny Rogers, but damn, they're some great guys in my book. Thanks www.ihavetouchedthesky.blogspot.com (Rowan) and www.aggronaut.com (Belghast) for doing DAW this year. Sure, Africa still is overridden with death, disease, diabetes, distribution, discombobulation, dingleberries, and dysentery, but you've made me smile.

DIGITAL EXTREMES - WARFRAME

Now that I'm done with the formalities of kissing peer ass, I can kiss some developer bootayh.

I've had an account with Warframe for 1 year 9 months. Just last week Warframe turned 2 years old. Even though I've been a member of their community for almost the whole time the game has been out, I haven't played the game very much. About 2 months ago that all changed. I've been logging in daily for 2 months straight now. Not just on PC, but on PS4 too.

Since I've started logging daily, I've helped fund their free-to-play game through 4 accounts. Yes 4! I have an account on PS4 and PC, that's 2. 2 out of 3 of my kids play Warframe daily too, that's 4. Each account we've bought something. Not because we had to, but because I strongly believe in helping if I'm enjoying myself. Warframe has brought my family closer.

I understand a lot of people believe: if the game is free-to-play, I'm not spending a dime and I expect 110% effort from the developers. Even though I believe in funding the game, I do like free from time to time. My household has probably spent $200 on Warframe in the last 4 months. Every penny was worth it and I plan on spending more.

Right now I have 16 platinum (in game currency bought with real money) and it costs 20 platinum to buy a character slot. I've made 3 extra characters I don't have slots for. Sadly, I can't play them until I spend more real money or find a person that wants to buy something I have for platinum.

You see, everything in Warframe can be made, bought, and sold by players. Anything sold for real money on Warframe market is in the game to find. Even though I'm limited slots for characters and I need platinum to open those slots, I can find a sucker player to trade something I got in game for platinum. The problem is, nobody wants what I have... Jerks! I have 2 options to play those characters I built:

1. Pay real money now
2. Delete existing characters

Obviously, option 2 is very stupid because all characters I've acquired are amazing. So the last 2 weeks I've been playing the log in roulette wheel hoping to get a platinum discount. One very addicting thing about Warframe is the daily log in rewards. You can get some awesome stuff just by logging in. For me, I need to log in once every 2 days to get what I'm looking for. I want a 20, 50, or super duper awesome 75% off platinum award which is only in the 1 to 2 day log in window. I know it's sad I don't want to pay full price for my platinum, but damn dude I've already spent $200 on yo game brah!

That all said, I'm extremely addicted to Warframe. I love their game and I love their weekly live streams. Digital Extremes is a bunch of great Canadians. We all already knew that A! I would love to thank them for making an outstanding game and constantly changing it for the better over the past 2 years. Keep up the great work I love you all.

PS- If your next Prime Access is Ash Prime with Dread Prime and Hate Prime, I'm buying the $140 package without blinking a eye!

Hype Misunderstood

When I was younger I got my wife (now ex-wife) pregnant with our first child. I remember how excited we were to have a baby. For 9 months all we could do was talk about our plans for the baby and how great we are going to be as parents. We talked about our future in great detail. Not just 9 months later or the first few years, but a lifetime of plans together with our new baby.

Some of our plans were:

1. Be Super amazing parents and nurture our child every step of the way.

2. Teach our child together with the same rules and responsibilities.

3. Love our kid and each other.

4. Send him/her to the best collage in the world.

5. Have him/her do all the sports because we have superhuman genetics.

6. He/she should win the Nobel Peace award.

7. World peace... Definitely!

8. Best kid in the world without a doubt.

9. He/she is going to make us billions! BILLIONS!!

10. I'll be surprised if the baby doesn't come out speaking with a British accent holding a martini.

For 9 months we had a perfect life. Well, except when she was in a hormonal bitch-fit. Other than that though, life was perfect. We would walk around with birds singing our names and other women would line up to touch my penis wife's belly. Damn, when is somebody going to shake the real creator of this baby?

About 2 weeks over the due date we had our first baby. Our first of 3 sons. My wife was a total ass to me in the delivery room. There was blood everywhere. I needed sleep. Her vagina was a mess. What the hell happened to the martini? The whole birthing thing did not go as planned at all. It wasn't bad, but nothing could've prepared us for it. Not even stupid books or past experience of other people. Our baby was unique in his own way coming onto the world. Unique is not perfect.

Several years after our son was born and everything on our list of hopes and dreams was burned, we decided to try again. I remember standing naked over my wife after using her like a Chucky Cheese Skeetball machine thinking to myself, "this time, this time, I must have got it in the 500 hole!"

9 more months later, I realized my wife wasn't pulling her weight in the gene pool. That is the only way to explain the messed up coding our kids were coming out with. I knew it wasn't me. I did my job. I gave a 110%. My heart sunk and my marriage fell second to trying to fix the imperfections in my kids.

Third times a charm right? Wrong! No matter how much love you put into sex, it doesn't improve the sperm or egg quality in the end. No matter how much faith you put in your hopes and dreams, things we create have a life of their own. There is only so much you can control before it starts to control you. My 3rd son made me realize it was my fault. Yes I tried my hardest, my wife did too, we were super hyped each time, we believed they were going to be perfect, but life is never perfect.

Even though I love my kids dearly, I know their faults just like I have my own. My expectations of them was as expected from a new parent. We don't create life in hopes it's mediocre, average, or even slightly above average. We create life in hopes it's the best, better than all other life, and everyone will worship what we created. Even Superman can't live up to those expectations. Our hype is misunderstood by ourselves and by others. No wonder we always feel let down and depressed by it.

There are days I just sit with my kids and think about them and what I thought they were going to be like. I think about my list and how the only problem with it was me. The feeling of creating life is intoxicating. When I made the list I was drunk on my own life not the one I created. I don't ever regret being overly hyped about having children, it was the best feeling in the world. I regret feeling disappointed by the expectations of everybody else. I should've never sought their approval and loved my kids for who they were not who society expected them to be. To this day I believe my kids are perfectly who they want to be and that's perfectly ok with me. I will love them forever.

Project Scarybooster

Yesterday, I was sitting in my Dragon Bone computer chair thinking. I've had this Thorn in my side that's been causing me Sarrow if my memory serves me right. I'm not sure because I forgot. My chair didn't help me remember, but we know the Angry Chair pisses Alice off until she throws Dirt in my eyes. Enough with these Games of Thrones, somebody is bound to get hurt or worse. I know you're on the edge of your own seat waiting to find out what Project Scarybooster is...

PROJECT SCARYBOOSTER:

As I said before, I was pissed off sitting in my uncomfortable chair waiting to die when I thought of this idea. An idea so grand I can't pull it off. Ultimately, this idea is going to fail no matter what. Obviously, I don't want it to fail because if I did I wouldn't tell you so I could fail in my head. Deep down inside me I want to do something in my life that wins me praise from my daddy. I just need a hug before I die. Project Scarybooster is that hug I sorely need. You can help me... Maybe.

The other day a friend of mine wrote a post on Facebook about how the person in front of her bought her coffee at Starbucks. Without even knowing my friend a stranger was nice enough to buy her a cup of coffee not even knowing how much she spent. That type of thing has never happened to me, you know "pay it forward". It's a karma, soul massaging, act of kindness. Even if my friend was a mass murderer, she got a free cup of coffee. How would you feel buying a murderer a $5 cup of coffee? I know, chances are my friend isn't a murderer, but she could be.

Thinking about the succulent coffee my friend got for free pissed me off more. Why don't I ever get free shit? Why am I a loser? Why did my parents chain me to the basement wall and feed me dog food for 6 years? Then all the answers came crashing down on me, I'm selfish! I expect to be handed free stuff just because I'm naturally amazing. As I get older, I'm getting uglier and people don't lick my boots anymore. I need to change my ways and do something out of the kindness of my heart.

That's where Project Scarybooster comes in. For the next couple days, weeks or hours, I'm going to search for a person I don't know. A person I've never talked to before in my life. A person that has never heard of Scarybooster (which might be really hard), and buy a game for them.

I believe I'll go to heaven for this. No... Lol. I believe I'll make someone happy for a little bit. That's good enough for me. So, let Project Scarybooster begin...

Crowfall on Kickstarter

I'm a 40 year old gamer. I've lost all faith in games and their overly hyped communities. My beloved hobby is depressing.

The older I get, the more I feel like a hermit when it comes to gaming. Even though I love playing MMOs, I want less interaction with the community. I'm not sure if it's them or me. I just don't want to deal with the people that play these games anymore.

Last night I was in a raid and the main tank started cursing at the off-tank for pulling aggro. Not just F-bombs, but C, B, S, L, M, N, O, P-bombs. All in CAPS. Was he wrong to put the off-tank in his place? No not really. Was he wrong to use the Urban Dictionary to get his point across? Yup! Nobody cares anymore, though. The gaming community is filled with people that have no understanding of empathy because there are no repercussions. Gaming and the Internet are in a sad, sad state.

Yesterday, I backed a new MMO due out in 2017ish, Crowfall. If I'm so depressed about the gaming community why did I put a new MMO to my head loaded? Crowfall is a PvP-centric game after all and that brings ALL the hateful gamers out of the woodwork. Why would I put myself through this again? Is Crowfall that awesome I can forget the pain it will being? What is wrong with me?

Sadly, I've lost my faith in game communities. It's one of the main reasons my blogging has slowed down. I'm just not passionate about writing about a subject that brings me pain. I'm sick of not having faith in my hobby. I love writing and I love the friends I've made over the years through gaming. I needed a leap of faith. I need Crowfall to catch me.

Back when I first started blogging about MMOs, the community was amazing. There were jerks, but overall people were excited to share their fun stories through blog posts. 6ish years later, most of those positive bloggers are exactly where I'm at or have given up all faith. Every year I see more and more positive bloggers quitting to get away from the hate. For some reason hate sells better and those of us that refuse to hate on our blogs, we wave the White Flag. I'm not going to give up without a fight!

Recently, a great blogger and a person I consider a good friend (through Internet proximity), quit his main gaming blog. He is an amazing writer and had the best insight into gaming, but he was a good guy. The years of hate finally crushed his shoulders and he closed down his blog. I feel for him because I want to do the same thing everyday. I've stopped posting because I keep telling myself, "what's the point?" I haven't found one yet. I really don't think Crowfall is the answer, but it's worth a try.

Let's get this clear, I'm not a fan site and I doubt I'll post anything about Crowfall this year. Well, unless I make fun of them. I'm not the guy Crowfall wants on their link-love rounds. I'm not an ass kisser. I'm not going on their forums... Ever. I'm not going to write or draw fan fiction... Ever. Shoot, I don't even kniw anything about the game except you can blow shit up. I like that. So why Crowfall?

Like I said, I need faith back into gaming and Crowfall needed my -money- faith. I'm sick of feeling down about MMOs. My writing invigorates me and I need the "Crowfall's" in my life.

Test!

Test!