My first full calendar year of blogging – woot! I actually hit my 1-year anniversary last September, but having a full Jan-Dec. calendar year of blogs is kind of cool too!
So let’s see… as for gaming in 2008 I did stints in EVE, LotRO, AoC, DAoC, WAR, Wiz101, WoW, Hellgate, CoX, and minimally some Guild Wars (mainly to see what my annual gift pets were, LOL). I think I’m getting bored with the whole genre though as I can’t seem stay interested in any one of them more than 2-3 months at a time.
My top three favorites, based on how long I kept up a subscription, were EVE, DAoC, and WAR. EVE is just an interesting game, and has some great mechanics. but it’s also got some incredibly awful mechanics, which usually drives me away after a couple months (no meaningful Alts, being my number one gripe). DAoC is still the best designed game out there, maybe I’ll just have to go back. I think WAR is a great “end-game” game, but getting there needs some work. My main gripe with WAR is instanced RvR. It never should have been there, it totally bled off the open RvR areas.
My least favorite games which I played for at least a month were: Age of Conan, WoW, and Anarchy Online. AoC was just bleh – I kept getting griefed so… meh. WoW was just a bore, nothing really new or exciting, I think I got a couple levels and… bleh. I tried AO again, but jeebus, they’re entry area is totally different than it used to be and I never got out to the areas that I used to know and love from Notum Wars and Alien Invasion.
A lot of my “old favorites” could become new favorites if they were released with new engines: AO, DAoC, and AC2 making my short wishlist for upgrades/reimagineering. AO and DAoC really just need graphics upgrades. AC2 needs a bit more design work, keeping it’s basic character/levelling mechanics but redesigning Dereth into a well developed world, like that of LotRO (ie, towns, NPC’s, vendors, quests, buildings you can actually enter, etc.) . Damnit, now I really want to go play my Tumerok Invoker! LOL
Outside of the gaming, I also took on a new job in a new city and a new state. Moving from an independent web developer in Albuquerque, NM, to a IT systems position in Prescott, AZ. So far I’m really enjoying both the new job and the new location. Hopefully the economic woes won’t have too dire an impact, but we’re already seeing cut-backs and hiring freezes – I’m just hoping we can all weather this “Katrina” of an economic crisis.
In the personal sphere of things, I’m still single and not really looking, although I think it would be nice for that situation to change – I just don’t feel compelled to deal with the whole dating thing right now. The unexpected loss of my Dad over the summer was a terrible thing to have to contend with, making the holidays mostly somber occasions this year. And due in part to the LDS Church’s huge financial backing of the Prop 8 fiasco in Ca, I officially renounced my membership.
Other happenings in 2008 were my first videos posted to YouTube, some very minor work on my “Templars of Ra” project, and also working on some “how to” postings concerning making “in-game” videos using FRAPS, FSX, and TileProxy, and how to make a physical Tarot deck using various technologies and crafting supplies, my take on the whole “Techno-Crafting” craze. Well, it’s not really a “craze” just yet… 😉 I also built a “stand-up” workstation in my living room, where I hope to eventually add a used treadmill to end up with a final workspace similar to one of these.
Guess that about wraps it up for 2008. I hope to get my 2009 predictions and “want to do’s” posted sometime between now and the end of the weekend. Hope y’all had a Happy New Year! Enjoy 2009!