Return of the Slacker

Well, here I am again :)  Its been quite a while since I last updated this, mainly due to work issues, family issues and a renewal of serious gaming.

Speaking of which, an update as to what I've been doing is definitely in order about now...

So, what's been happening I hear you cry? Plenty actually, although my heads a cluttered so what comes out onto here may not be any semblance of chronological order of particularly coherent.

I had a slightly longer sabbatical from my primary game and dabbled in several other MMO's, RPG's and FPS's. However none really satisfied me at all, so I have subsequently returned to my original home only to find that the game is now shutting down as of mid-December. I have to confess that this news was not greeted particularly well with myself and my fellow players. A combination of reactions from complete outrage to total indignation to outright depression were witnessed in many of my friends. Since then it has pretty much settled down into just enjoying what we have whilst its here.

Meanwhile the excitement and anticipation is building for the new game I will be playing as a replacement. In fact most of my gamer friends are looking forward to this game, with us already having formed a guild (as much as we can) for it, with old friends from 6-7 years ago returning just to join up. Once again Malicious Intent will be strutting their stuff on the battlefields with their glow-bats and blasters. HUZZAH !!!  As a slight by-product of this situation, and the result of some friction, we have actually reformed our previous guild on the slow wind down to our current games closure. I'm back gaming with the guys that I have metaphorically stood shoulder to shoulder with on the battlefield, and boy does it feel good to play unencumbered by all the BS !!

To be fair, there wasn't that much BS it was probably more like tension bubbling away under the surface that eventually manifested itself and just sparked the inevitable. What we had was a world class wind-up merchant verbally sparring with someone that appears to be very easy to provoke, next thing BOOOOOOOM!! I'm sure you get the picture ;)  The guild we have just left has some really good people in it, most of them with really good intentions, especially the guild leader. Sadly, being a huge guild there were too many anonymous players and the interaction in the various chat forms was limited to a small number of people, and if you get one "bad apple" it can blow up quite quickly. We had issues with some of the things that went on over the months, but nothing we directly verbalised, and perhaps things should have been said earlier?

Ok, now I feel like I want to say the stuff that wasn't said.......

As a big guild there was an ideal opportunity to really make a big impact on the server as a whole. Build a good reputation, be seen as one of the top guilds around. Instead we had a huge bunch of players, most of whom were silent, doing their own thing within in the confines of their own wants. Admittedly we kinda fell into that trap too to a certain degree. My crowd PvP, that's what we do and we're damned good at it and as a game based on a "civil war" we see this as a fairly large part of the game. We played hard and were successful to the point of gaining benefits, for the guild, for our endeavours. Did the players who were contributing the most to this reap the rewards? DID WE F**K !!  So this grates on people more than a little bit.

What made it grate so much was that these people would moan about PvP, then try it occasionally but only for 10-20mins. They would quit if they lost a couple of times or quit if they won and had to wait around a while, then moan that "this is why i dont pvp". However are perfectly happy to wait around from 30mins, 45mins or even an hour for some useless specimen to sort their crap out and get prepped to do a PvE instance that they could run blindfolded. This was even more irritating when the same guy that was giving us crap having been wound-up is the one we were ALWAYS waiting on, and absolutely sucked playing !!

The constant email spam also got every irritated. The constant mails announcing the latest player to join made it seem like if you stood still long enough in one place you'd get signed up to guild. Guild chat was even dubbed "NPC chat" because the people logged into it never seemed to do anything!!!

I guess the split was inevitable and to be perfectly honest I feel better for it, as though it was never really "home". I think the rest of the guys feel similar and we have even had a couple of the other crowd come with us. Apparently we brain washed them into following "the cool crowd" ?!?!?!

So, that covers gaming and the associated drama's :D

As regards my personal life that has been a veritable mixed bag. I finally turned 40 years old and spent it with the people I really wanted spend it with. My family (thanks for the Friday night sis), my best friends L+L and my closest gaming buddies. It's quite a moment turning 40 and reflecting on where you in your life. Sadly I was so drunk the whole weekend I kinda missed that part and went straight to the feeling 50 and struggling to retain the contents of my stomach !!!

Work is still work and as such is to be detested in whatever myriad of forms it decides to take. That is the nature of it, and I am always deeply impressed with anyone who is truly happy in every element of their professional life. Of course not having met that person I enjoy the smugness knowing they aren't any better off than me. In fairness I dont truly detest ALL of my work, just anything that involves interaction with customers, suppliers or my own management........... damn, that is practically everything !!   LOL

So, there we are. My life up-to-date and moving along reasonably nicely. I'll definately try and more a more concerted effort to not only keep this updated with I am doing, but also resume the "social commentary" aspects as well. I know how much you all enjoy them.

Keep on gaming !!!

Jaded...

Well, halfway through February is a pretty poor start to my New Year's Resolution of keeping this blog updated more frequently than last year :(

I don't know if its a case of feeling like I have nothing worthwhile to say, or just feeling a little jaded by my online gaming selections? My main game got some serious attention through January, with alot of effort being put into actually accomplishing stuff ingame, PvPing as much as I could and actually recruiting new players into the guild? Other titles have received much less attention but have also been incredibly unsatisfying, to the point of actually irritating me within 15 - 20mins.......

I guess everyone goes through these times of being a little "burnt-out" by certain aspects of their life. I know various online friends of mine have coma and gone from the various games, citing boredom or RL pressures/commitments. I suppose its just my "turn" to get this? The thing that bothers me though is that I almost feel guilty for feeling this way. That I am, in some odd way, letting my friends and guildmates down by not being in-game?

I actually re-subbed an old account on another game in order to try and invigorate myself, making the assumption that it was the just my regular game that was the issue. I started a new character from scratch, levelled up fairly fast, made some money and even joined a guild. The guild seems like a nice group a people but I find that I have no great desire to game with them or even chat? The whole experience just wasnt that great...

So, I made a conscious decision to snap out of my grey mood and get back to some proper gaming with the guys!!  Things didn't go that easy though and the world seems to be conspiring to keep me away from my PC entirely. Evening visits from old friends, working later than usual, power cuts and social obligations have all curtailed my triumphant return to my mistress...... ahem, I mean online game :D

Hmm, I feel a Chinese takeaway and some serious game-time may be on the cards for tonight.......

Toon Army !!

Well, I managed to get in a larger than expected session on FM2011 last night and so far my Newcastle Uts team are doing rather better than expected??

I'm about halfway through the season (January transfer window has just closed) and I'm currently in 4th. I've used the time so far to tweak my free-flowing 4-4-2 formation and its working marvellously, proving to me that I am indeed a tactical genius and it was merely the Luton Town players that we failing :)

I'm keeping some fairly good unbeaten runs, but too many draws is keeping a decent sized gap between myself and 3rd place. I'm anticipating a fairly hard scrap to keep this final Champions League place as I've played the majority of the harder teams at home so far.

Bringing new players in has been quite a chore as Newcastle have very little money to play with, but with some good scouting a and few speculative choices I've filled out the squad nicely and my signings so far have done well. My front pairing of Xisco and Andy Carroll have been banging the goals in like crazy which, combined with some inspired half-time team talks, have turned quite a few potential loses into creditable draws and more that a few wins.

The big thing that I have found is that I'm making much better use of my scouting reports than in any previous game. The addition of dealing with agents is an interesting feature and this is where the scouts reports are fantastic. I'm saving a fortune on players wages with some calculated haggling, based on the scouts info on what players are likely to accept. Example: I bought a youngster from Chelsea who's agent was asking for wages of 19k per week. My scout indicated that the player would likely accept between 4k and 6.5k per week (current contact was £1500 per week), so I offered the contract at 4k, halved the signing on fee and agents fee. BOOM !!!  New player signed !!! Thats a saving of almost 1mill over the course of 1 year !!!

First game when I get home tonite is an away fixture to Man City who are riding high at the top of the Premiership......... could be tricky??

C'Mon !!!

Ok, I said I'd update here about my exploits with Luton Town in FM2011....... here's the update....

I've stopped that game temporarily (i hope) and am going to perfect my tactics, training regimes etc. at another club. Newcastle here I come!!!

Have managed to get into my main game again the last week or so and last night had a real blast!! Got some really good PvP gaming in and was relatively successful, although seemingly I missed the biggest part of it by getting online too late :(   The main player I roll with is a guy I've played this game with since its inception, some 7 years ago. It's always good when we are playing together as the class I play is pretty much a glass cannon, and he manages to keep my going with his healing skills (most of the time). Combine that with some mad skillz from the other guildies and faction members and we can pretty much hold our own in most situations.

Last night was good because everyone was there for the right reasons......... FUN !!!  There was no bitching, whining, moaning or smack-talk. Strangely enough this could well be because one of the chief instigators of that sort of stuff was absent from the proceedings. I cant really express how much this pleases me, although me and the guys did kick his ass royally about a week ago, as it always makes the gaming session much more enjoyable. Having said that, it always puts a smile on my face when I see him get whooped, even more so when I get to do it ;)

Back Again !!

SURPRISE !!!  Yup, despite another abscence I'm back yet again.

In all honesty I havent much to talk about, gaming-wise, as I've been suffering from a few back problems which means I havent been able to sit for extended sessions at my PC.

Having said that, I did manage to get some "trigger-time" last night. OMG how much have I missed playing???  Had a real blast with my guildies last night, and was quite successful despite a little rustiness. Got about 3 hours in, which is good considering the back issue, and it has really whet my appetite for more. I was quite surprised at how much I seemed to have missed playing....... not bordering on addict level, more the social aspect I feel. Of course this is a personal perspective and other people may disagree, but who cares about them ;)

I did manage to fill my gaming time whilst laying on the floor/bed. Management Sims are a blessing in that regard! You can pick them up and put them down at will, dipping in and out as much or as little as you want/need without any penalty. My game of choice?  Football Manager 2011....... damn that game is so in-depth and time consuming!! I've probably done 25+ hours of RL time and only played about 7-8 fixtures, but thats what makes it such a great game. Just for the record, my Luton Town team is struggling despite my current best efforts.......

Well, best leave it there. I'll update Luton Town's progress as I go along for anyone that's interested

Booooooooooooored !!!

To be honest I don't have much too much "online gaming" stuff to talk about at the moment. I've become a little jaded with stuff lately and have taken to revisiting some old games, but even these don't seem to hold my attention anymore.

Is this general feeling of "boredom" with the genre a result of the lack of variety in online gaming, or just a period of "burn-out" that I've seen/heard in other online gamers? Not sure I can answer this accurately, but I suspect its a little of both. I still enjoy chatting to my guildies and other other friends in-game, but no matter which game I'm playing they are just not holding my attention long enough.

Actually, now that I've started writing this entry I think I may have a partial answer........

My job is really frustrating and boring me at present, which I think is leaving me in a deflated mood by the time I get home. Therefore by the time I've booted up my system, logged into whichever game I randomly decide to play, I'm really not up for it........

Now thats been identified, maybe I can do something about it. Anyone got the classified ads?   LOL

Life's a biatch !!!

So, again I find myself apologising for lack of activity here (not that I know if anyone comes here to read it?)

Apparently life is a bitch. Well, its not apparently, its absolutely totally 100% a bitch !!!  I've been thrown so many curveballs lately, had so much bad luck and had life kick me in the bollocks so many times for me to not agree :(

RIGHT !!  Got that out of the way now, time for some inspiring musings, some deep thoughts or maybe a little ranting?

The subject of this particular "episode" was inspired by a news story I saw on Yahoo.

"Ex-SAS: Gamers should pilot drones"

Wow, impressive headline huh? The text of the news report is even better...

"Ex-SAS soldier and writer, Chris Ryan, says the skills that video game players pick up on their consoles could make them better soldiers."

"When you are behind the controls of a game, it's more or less the same controls as a drone."

"We need guys who played these games and are very skilled at them. It's guys like me on the ground that would rely on an ex-gamer to help out."

What a great idea!! Lets entrust millions of dollars worth of equipment to a bunch of guys (and girls) who take great pleasure in "pwning n00bs" whilst screaming the same sentiment at the screen. That throw hissy-fits when things dont go there way, that have to scoff starch-laden snacks and quaff energy drinks all day AND spend most of their time trying to find work-arounds or "sploits" for any and every rule setup in their particular environment of choice ???


Ok, so I'm generalising quite a little bit there, but I think you know what I mean. Surely, with the almost constant stream of injured service personnel being released from their particular armed service branch, they have a source of people that could be readily retrained to provide this skillset. They already have the military training and simply releasing them into the general populace is a waste of all that time and money, when a little bit of lateral thinking could provide these brave men and women with an alternative military career?