The rebirth of my Miqote

I was back in WoW for the third month when FFXIV: A Realm Reborn launched. It was also when I lost an argument that would eventually lead me to play FFXIV: ARR completely... and thus WoW is on deep-freeze once again and I'm now channeling my hours into FFXIVARR.

Things started off on the wrong foot I admit. I played the alpha and early beta of FFXIVARR and found it to be completely lacklustre and slow. Maybe I was playing the wrong game at the wrong time seeing that we just had some wonderful action MMOs such as Neverwinter Online, Tera, Defiance.

I gave it another shot anyways seeing that I had the time (a ton of time in fact). Even if I do prefer action mmos over classic types anyday.

More than a month into ffxiv and I do kinda enjoy it? At least I dont hate logging in anymore, which pretty much summed up my 1st few weeks of the game. Well, mind over matter! The first few weeks after launch was hell; server limit was tiny, there was no queueing system in place and no anti afk-ing. Now that its fixed, you'll still get the occasional 20-odd person queue when logging in but that's fine. I still enjoy the gathering, although leveling it can be a lil slow without other perks, and definitely enjoy running dungeons. Every few levels you will unlock a new dungeon to try out!

I absolutely love the free company (guild) I'm in. I found them by accident but am totally glad now, as they're wonderfully friendly, (mostly intelligent, interestingly) chatty and helpful. Most of its core are from 1.0 so they know what they're talking about. Absolutely glad I spoke to the guild leader about his guild :) So I stuck with my original 1.0 toon when I restarted ARR. Didn't bother changing her looks much but when SE mailed me a bottle of Fantasia I changed my Miqote's highlights to white (the darker pink was starting to annoy me) and gave her silver eyes ^^ I still have another bottle of Fantasia... maybe I'll give her pigtails next time!

I finally paid for the 1st installment of my home loan last month! Exciting and all (but why must it be soooo expensive x__x I'm still pretty excited about it though :) It's a lovely place... Low density, slightly more upscale, great access to shops and food places. The apartment itself is of moderate size, furnished very nicely (we get most of it when the owners move out). Will have to start looking around for beds, bedding, and most importantly, computer tables! :D Once I move in, I'll be able to invite friends over for boardgame sessions and fun timez! ^___^

Also caught the final's of the League of Legend's World Championships 2013 :) It's amazing as usual. I totally admire their skill and flair. So amazing! Wish I played like that.

Of time spent in Defiance.

So I bought Defiance at launch and decided to try it out even if its not my usual thing. Generally don't overtly favour sci-fi games and shooters but I did love Borderlands 2 so... eh why not. I had some friends that were going to buy the game anyway so I decided to join them.

My first hour in Defiance was uninteresting to say the least. I had a few issues with the game from the very start. The controls and UI felt a little lacking but that could be because I was still getting used to it (and I'm nubby at shooters ^^;). It was very Borderlands-ish minus the crazy gun names and humour, which I supposed could work well depending on how the game pans out. Defiance has a really bad tutorial. Besides it being really laggy, the controls weren't explained properly, the entire experience felt rushed and fell flat. I promise that you'll actually enjoy the game alot more AFTER the tutorial. Everything gets better after your first 2 hours in Defiance.

Character models for this game is... fugly, but I guess you don't play a game like Defiance and want cutesy/pretty characters... so this rather fits the game. Overall graphics are gorgeous and my screenshots look beautiful despite the game's post-apocalyptic look.

Defiance is truly a level-less game with something called EGO Rating (that you gain as you earn XP) that you spend on buying perks (kinda like passives). Perk slots are unlocked as you gain higher EGO Ratings. This makes the game scale alot better, and you are able to join a lowbie friend in quests/Co-ops without ruining his experience of the game or sap his XP. Gun damage is similar for all except for a slight increase in stats with better quality guns.

Connection from Malaysia seemed spotty at areas with high player density. Lag was inescapable when it came to large scale Arkfalls where it took the game ages to realise that you changed weapons. At least it was ok when out of those massive Arkfalls. The game was alot less laggy when just questing or in Co-ops. Co-ops are really fun (especially when doing it for the first time). My friends are mostly from Australia and Singapore so it doesnt seem too different in terms of lag. On those rare occasions that we had to get a random person in for a Co-op run, we seem to lag ALOT. It's frustrating and for that reason alone, I no longer queue for random matchmakings if I can help it.

Chat is buggy :( It doesnt appear at times and this has to be the quietest MMO ever! There is almost never any chatter... maybe because chat window is too tiny or buggy or whatever. But... I like it! The silence is much better than TERA's influx of rubbish players spamming general with nonsense :) Kinda why I dislike f2p games so much.

And Defiance first ep has finished downloading! ^_^ brb!

Rainbow!

Yay Freida and I both bought the Rainbow mount last night the moment it hit the stores in Tera! ^__^ Fun night, in which we spent lots of time taking screenies! My internets has been pretty bad lately (since the last weekend) which made it difficult to dungeon much. But I got the last piece of t14s for my Priest! Once it stops being this laggy, I'll get back to leveling my lowbie alts ^^

Also got my whip with the new Issue #6 expansion of TSW and immediately skinned it with the Orochi skin. Since it does go pretty well with my Panoptic Core outfit. Nothing much left to do in TSW these days, I only log in when friends scream for me :)

**Pictured here with my helium kitty pet and a dominatrix friend.

I suddenly have a bad craving for some boardgame sessions... hmm... especially Arkham Horror :/ Or maybe some BSG...

Stuff I'm continuing with this weekend

• FFXIVRR
• Scarlet Blade
• TERA
• Simcity (finish up that region zomg!) 
• Maybe some Borderlands 2...

Huzzah weekends! Finally, time to catch up on all that missing sleep (due to Simcity -_-) Haven't had the time to write about my Simcity experience due to a hectic work week! But otherwise, Simcity has been sapping up all my time while I'm home since its launch day. I never know where my time has gone every time I stop the game at 4am lol. 

Board game night?

So Chinese New Year is over (huzzah)! And now maybe friends will be back to their usual schedules for gaming and boardgame nights again -___- Will probably plan a boardgame session for the weekend at my place... Arkham Horror or Battlestar Galactica although I'm leaning more towards Arkham as we've had quite alot of BSG games lately. Since Iggy got me the Saboteur expansion for my birthday I'm deeeeefinitely trying that ^___^ Now to net ze friends over!!! :D Muahahah! So few of my Malaysian friends play board games (fewer still are of the right mindset or interesting enough to invite bleh). King of Tokyo: To buy or not to buy?

*coughs* I'm back in TERA... because I can NEVER seem to get enough of it for some reason. Back to the grind on my L60 Priest, and to level all my beautifully twink-ified alts ^_^

Meanwhile storing these database links in case I need to check up on TERA stuff!
Tera Tome
Tera Codex

Also finished patching my FF14 Realm Reborn client. Will probably play later or something.

A zombie at work...

So I'm back at work after a week off for Chinese New Years... and I feel... terribly sleepy. The late night NM Ankh run did not help either!

Other than my morning passing really quickly, possibly due to me playing catch up with work, its lunch time! Here's hoping the rest of the day goes by as fast (although, I highly doubt it).

My week off has been interesting to say the least, half of if seems unaccounted for... for some reason. As someone pointed out, the missing hours of my life is probably because of Journey. Journey is an amazing game and I keep having such profound journeys with the companions I've met along the way. Made plenty of friends too :) I'm still learning to fly better (and vertically lol) after a session with someone who got me to fly vertically up the tower! The same game I got my white robes. Most people that I meet in game are pretty nice and friendly, whether I'm in White or Red :) Ahh well, can't wait to go back and Journey some more! ^_^

Warlock deck outfit

Been awhile since I unlocked a deck outfit ^^ So since I'm back in TSW I decided to get back to it!

Here's my Warlock deck outfit.

And Funcom decided to gift a little Akab pet and a new title to people who've participated in the End of Days event! :) It's pretty big and kinda noisy. I still prefer my Killas Kitty though.

Iggs bought himself a Draug pup when Funcom has a 40% storewide sale a few days back. It's actually pretty cute and floppy lol. The pup is definitely high on my to-buy list. I got myself a new outfit and a Leet pet since I couldn't resist the sale.

OMG Steam Sale!

Had a long weekend and am now back at work... I can already tell it's going to be a boring/relaxed day since the office is more than half empty :/

Did lots of stuff over the long weekend ^_^ Had another boardgame night on Saturday, this time we played Iggy's Cutthroat Caverns and some Saboteur, then chatted till 3am or so.

Then came Christmas gifting! :D Got some gifts for friends on Steam... bought some for myself and got some as gifts from friends too! ^__^ Braid! Little Inferno! The Longest Journey! Terraria!  Bought World of Goo for some of them because its a pretty awesome little game (and one for myself as well, since I lost my old copy some time ago). Finally got my BL2 seasons pass too... after months of just "thinking about it" lol.

I spent so much on the Steam Sale this year x___x *sigh*

We're back in TSW for the End of Days update! Fluffy Pink Unicorns will be clearing up the event achievements and the dungeon ^_^ Will probably run NMs again for the hell of it. If you're a multi-build Templar playing during Oceanic times and looking for a team to NM/raid with, PM Aelyrra in game.

As for TERA, I'm still farming out rep for better gear :) Am already in full t13s but I want the cooler t14s! Also twinking up all my alts in enchanted gold gear! hehe ^__^ After playing many other mmos, nothing comes close to the combat in TERA. Its fast, reactive, and incredibly exciting each time.

I'm suddenly caught in a massive influx of games though :/ With TERA, TSW, and Final Fantasy XIV Realm Reborn... there really is not much time to split between them! Then there's the rest of the gifts/games I got from the Steam sale.... lol. WTB more time!

FF14 Alpha

Got into FF14 Realm Reborn alpha testing! :) This is going to be fun.

Player base in Tera

Whenever silly people QQ about how Tera is dying or the population has left... or something equally stupid about not seeing people around...

They proooobably should join Nexus :) LOL This screenshot was taken yesterday right before the start of Nexus. The game stopped rendering the rest of the players at this point.