Getting back on track, 20 days of SWTOR, etc

[virtualvoyages]

Alrighty then.  Life has been a bit of a distraction, and I've been failing at being organized, so, er, I'm going to try to get organized here.

First order of business: what do I do about my original idea of journal entries as opposed to the fan fic I've been writing?

Solution: Journal entries will resume/continue.  And there will be fan fic.  Journal entries are game continuity; fan fic is, obviously slight alternate timeline/alternate universe/whatever, and should be considered to have diverged immediately after chapter one (for smuggler continuity) and to have diverged somewhere before that for agent continuity.  I realize this is temporally wonky.  I will also have to get back to you on divergence from bounty hunter continuity once she's involved.  Because having things nice, tidy, and sensible is apparently beyond me.  *headdesk*

I realize that's a bit confusing.  And that having two different continuities going on here is a bit confusing.  But I miss my in-character reactions to game events entries.  And I have my own storyline in mind for my fan fic.  Icons and tags should keep things clear, I hope.

Second order of business: 20 days of SWTOR.

nebelstreif  proposed this slightly altered meme on swtor.dreamwidth.org/2016.html and their version looks doable, so I figured why not?

Day 01: Introduce yourself

Hi, I'm Mac.  (Calling myself Virtual Voyages would just be silly, and Mac is a short form of my last name.  I've gone by it before, since my first name is extremely common.  It's also appropriate to someone who carries a Swiss Army Knife and is a little too fond of 80s TV.)  I write, read, play SW:TOR (and, theoretically, other MMOs *eyes dormant accounts*), love Star Wars, work at a library, and love music and hiking.

What I'm doing here is covered in the sticky post and in the earlier part of this post. *points up*

Um... I live in a neat old apartment building built in the 1930s.  I have a pet cat (more like he has a human servant).  I am absolutely terrible at introductions.  Oh, yes, I play pen and paper role playing games - currently D&D.  I live in the mountain west, in a sometimes embarrassing city.  I walk to work.  I love history.  And I have probably now given enough information for (theoretical) stalkers to find me.

As to what I'm like, I'm both extremely shy and love to entertain people.  If I believed in astrology, I'd blame my tendency towards polar opposites on being a Gemini.  I find life too horrible to take seriously, and I like making people laugh.  And I think I've been personal quite long enough.


20 Days of TOR (Redux)
Day 01 – Introduce yourself
Day 02 – Why did you decided to start a blog?
Day 03 – Your best SW:TOR playing experience
Day 04 – Your favorite SW:TOR quest or quest chain
Day 05 – Favorite item(s) in game
Day 06 – How many active characters do you have? Do you suffer from "altitis"?
Day 07 – The reason behind your blog’s name
Day 08 – Your favorite class so far, and why
Day 09 – Favorite attack or special move
Day 10 – Crafting: yay or nay? What professions, if any, do you seriously pursue?
Day 11 – Bad in-game habits and flaws
Day 12 – What's a typical TOR gaming session look like for you?
Day 13 – What do you hope Bioware will add to the game?
Day 14 – What aspect of the game upsets you the most?
Day 15 – Have you created a unique headcanon for your characters? If so, what is it?
Day 16 – Your favorite character companion
Day 17 – Your favorite in-game location
Day 18 – Your favorite outfit
Day 19 – What strange things do you keep in your bags or bank?
Day 20 – Conclude with a free day! Write about a SW:TOR topic that the previous 19 days failed to address

Comments

[nebelstreif]

Hey, Mac! I'm glad to see that someone else has picked up this meme -- I'm excited to see what you write!

Also, good luck with the fic writing! I'm pretty certain that it'll be easy enough to follow; stick to whatever tagging system works best for you.

[virtualvoyages]

Thanks! Should be fun. :)

[loquat.myid.net]

Hi, Mac. Nice to be formally introduced. :D

I have no blog at this time, so I think I'll just put brief meme answers in the comments here, unless you object. I'll call myself Bao here, that being a short form of my favorite MMO handle. (That's pronounced to rhyme with wow, by the way - most people I game with want to pronounce it Bayo, which I guess is what I get for picking a Chinese name when I don't game with any Chinese speakers.) I live in a suburb in Pennsylvania with my husband and an evil cat, and I garden with a focus on hot pepper plants. I currently play Rift, and plan to not buy SWTOR until the price comes down substantially.

So, since you mention other MMOs, do you think you might pick up Aion again once it goes free-to-play this spring? I don't plan to get seriously back into it myself, but I do miss playing my gladiator. It's odd, because I do have a plate-wearer in Rift who can pick up a polearm and do pretty much the same things, but somehow she feels less formidable. I think the weapon animations are the main culprit - Aion's animations make it look like a polearm is heavy, and takes noticeable effort for your character to swing around; Rift's animations have your character waving a polearm around like a broom. Plus Rift's polearms tend to be much smaller and thinner than Aion's, relative to the wielder.

Also, a brief Secret World plug - they promise quality voice-acting! and total freedom to choose what your character wears with no need to worry about stats!
/end plug

[virtualvoyages]

You do make Secret World sound tempting there...

Most of the games I've played have gone free to play or will soon (except WoW, of course), but... SW:TOR is like having your own movie. It's hard for anything to compete with that. (Now, once I've played through the best stories, that might change. Republic side is significantly less gripping, except for the Smuggler story. Though that may be as much a matter of which classes match my taste in fiction and which don't. Because I've heard plenty of people say the Trooper story is great and I'm all meh, whatever. At least so far.)

[loquat.myid.net]

I'm making it my business to talk up Secret World whenever possible. They're trying to make the character system as un-WoW-like as possible, and I don't know how well it'll work but I have high hopes. It's a bit like Guild Wars in that you eventually learn all abilities but can only have a few available to use, and like Rift in that you can easily switch builds to handle different sorts of fights. The gear with actual stats mostly exists only on your gear window, and has no effect on your appearance, leaving you free to clothe your character as you wish.

Rift has gotten back a whole lot of players who left for SWTOR, and most of them say they greatly enjoyed being the star of their own Star Wars movie, but then the movie ended and there wasn't much else to do. So, if you find yourself in the same boat after you finish with all the class storylines you like, Secret World is having beta signups now and plans to launch in late June.

(I'd encourage you to try Rift's permanent free trial too, but since it's basically WoW with more character flexibility, better graphics, and uglier armor, I'm assuming it wouldn't really hold your interest.)