Multiplexed – Page 2 – Self Distract Sequence

Time for Tannenbaum

A festival of gifts comes to Eve Online, and a new Caldari capsuleer earns her license.

The spirit of Christmas touches even the deepest corners of space in the distant future. The Yoiul Festival started in Eve Online on 14 December 2016, and it brings 12 days of free gifts for capsuleers. Each day, a new item will appear for 24 hours from midnight Eve server time in the item redeeming system.

I also decided it would be a good time to create a brand new character in order to try out the new Inception tutorial, which features a fully voiced mentor guiding you through an important faction storyline. Continue reading “Time for Tannenbaum”

Who Wants to Be a Billionaire?

I set myself the challenge of becoming a billionaire in Eve Online, in only 30 days. Is it possible?

Eve Online allows you to buy 30 days of subscribed game time using in-game currency. I’ve played the game sporadically over the last three years, each time activating a month-long subscription and then trying in vain to accumulate enough wealth to keep my subscribed status before time ran out. I was never successful.

Even with several hours of play time every day, I’d only scrape together a measly amount of ISK (the game’s main currency) over the month, probably not even breaking the 100 million ISK barrier. I’d then accept defeat and move on to another game.

Now that I’ve returned to Eve Online once again, could things be different this time? At current prices, you need around 1.1 billion ISK to be able to afford a PLEX (the pilot licence extension). Can I become a billionaire in a month? Challenge accepted! Continue reading “Who Wants to Be a Billionaire?”

Exploring Ember Bay

The Living World continues in Guild Wars 2, as you head to the unforgiving Ring of Fire Islands.

Episode Two in Guild Wars 2’s Living World Season Three is called “Rising Flames” and introduces a new explorable location in Tyria – Ember Bay on the Ring of Fire Islands in the far south.

I’m always impressed when whole new areas appear in Living World updates, and Ember Bay is quite a large map compared to the previous area, Bloodstone Fen, which was added in Episode One.

Episode Two continues from the cliffhanger moment at the end of Episode One where teenage asuran prodigy Taimi drops the bombshell that the elder dragon Primordus has woke up. Continue reading “Exploring Ember Bay”

The Alpha and the Omega

Eve Online has opened its doors to thousands of new players by removing the subscription barrier and going free to play.

Eve Online has ascended. With the launch of the Ascension expansion, the game introduces a new free to play option in the form of “clone states”, as well as a revamped new player experience with a story-focused and fully voiced tutorial.

I first tried out Eve Online back in 2013 and have resubscribed a few times over the last couple of years, when I’ve felt the urge to try to make some progress on my character. With the subscription no longer required, I’ve jumped back in to the game to check out the changes. Continue reading “The Alpha and the Omega”

Citizenship Test

An opportunity to test out Star Citizen happened back in October, so I jumped in and explored what it had to offer.

I’d heard about Star Citizen from various people I follow, but never really looked deeply into it. I usually start paying attention to a game after it has been released as a finished product or at least when it has a beta test signalling its imminent launch.

I knew that Star Citizen was being developed by the creator of the Wing Commander series, that it was being crowdfunded and that it was hoping to have a bit of everything including a space combat sim, first-person shooter, an epic roleplaying storyline campaign and a persistent universe to explore.

So when somebody told me about the Fall Free Fly event back in October, where you could sign up and try out the game for a free trial, I decided to jump in and check it out. Continue reading “Citizenship Test”

The Summoning Has Begun

It’s Halloween in The Secret World, and this year we must hearken the arrival of The Rider.

When Halloween knocks on our door, it’s time to launch The Secret World – billing itself as a spooky, horror themed MMO, what better place would there be to enjoy the season’s festivities?

Every year since the game’s launch, The Secret World has added to its Halloween events with new content and activities to partake in. For 2016, the developers promised something different from previous events – a community-wide puzzle to solve. Has this experiment proved to be a triumphant treat for the players or a troublesome trick? Continue reading “The Summoning Has Begun”

Raiders on the Storm

Finding a noob-friendly community in an MMO that can help you experience end-game content is a valuable thing.

In many of the MMOs I play, I mostly enjoy experiencing the solo content and main story quests. It’s rare for me to find an MMO community that allows me to also experience the group-oriented content that a game has to offer.

In games such as Star Wars: The Old Republic and Guild Wars 2, this is the end-game high level stuff such as dungeons and raids. Aside from random dabbling using group finder tools to find a random pick-up group, I’ve never been able to fully experience what these games have to offer.

So I’m really grateful for the open and noob-friendly player communities that exist in The Secret World, where unusually I’ve managed to experience all of the end-game dungeon and raid content that the game has to offer. Continue reading “Raiders on the Storm”

Gilded Raging

A surprise Golden Week event goes live in The Secret World, but a mistake by the developers causes some fuming about reward cooldowns.

On the last day of August, the servers for The Secret World went down for what seemed like a regular hotfix patch. When the game came back online – surprise! – a Golden Week was now in effect.

Golden Week is an in-game promotion that happens a couple of times throughout the year, usually to fill the gap between other large events such as Halloween and Christmas. During the week, the Gilded Rage event occurs. Large angry golden golems appear in every zone in The Secret World that need to be destroyed. It’s a continuation of the story from the Guardians of Gaia anniversary event and uses the same mechanics.

There’s one mechanic that isn’t usually the same as the anniversary golems though – the cooldown for rewards – there isn’t supposed to be one. Continue reading “Gilded Raging”

Challenge Accepted

There’s a new limited time challenge in The Secret World that will grant you a fancy Hell themed hoverboard.

There’s a new Hell themed hoverboard in The Secret World, the Doomboard, that will let you sprint around with infernal style.

Previously, when new items such as this have been introduced, you get them through methods such as buying them direct from the item store, getting lucky with random loot bags, earning an achievement or as mission rewards.

With the Doomboard, the game developers are trying something different – to unlock it, you have to complete a special limited time challenge that requires doing any 70 challenges before September 21st. Continue reading “Challenge Accepted”

The Museum of Grind

You’re given a whole museum to fill up with exciting exhibits in The Secret World. But filling it up may take some amount of grinding which sounds less exciting…

The Secret World stands out from other massively multiplayer online roleplaying games, in that the setting is in our present day modern world, rather than some medieval fantasy land or far in the sci-fi future.

It has an interesting story that takes you around the world, through New England, Egypt, Transylvania and Japan (and some other dimensions in-between) exploring myths, legends and conspiracies which all turn out to have some truth to them.

You get to join one of three secret societies battling for control and influence – either the Templars, Illuminati or the Dragon – and you get to fight mythical creatures, demons and Lovecraftian horrors.

Those are some of the highlights of The Secret World, and why it’s one of the main MMOs I spent my time in. However, recently after the addition of their latest new feature, I feel like people are beginning to see a different side of the game… a more grindy side. Continue reading “The Museum of Grind”