Syp’s gaming goals for May 2019

April 2019 in review

• I proclaimed April “MMO Safari Month,” where I would try titles that I’d never really played, and I think I acquitted myself well here. I tried out a MUD (Starmourn), a semi-popular eastern MMO (Blade & Soul), a fledgling title in alpha (Fractured), and an established superhero title (DC Universe Online). It was really neat to spend a few days in each, although I think I liked DCUO the best out of the lot.
• I reached level 60 on my LOTRO progression server Minstrel and blasted through most of the core Mines of Moria content as well as started the anniversary content.
• Lots of Dungeons and Dragons Online questing was had, especially in the Necropolis and Three Barrel Cove. I definitely liked the latter more than the former, and reached level 14.
• This month’s retro game series was Monkey Island 2, which I completed in style. Good times, funny game!

May 2019’s goals

• The overall theme this month is “MMO diversity.” I’m going to lighten up on my regular mainstays and instead get around to doing a lot of various projects in about four or five MMOs. These include:
• Lord of the Rings Online – The anniversary should keep me busy for a few weeks, especially on my Minstrel, but past that just finishing up the Mines of Moria content and maybe deed grinding. A bit.
• Project Gorgon – I’m tired of waiting for an official launch. Should I still be patient? Should I just dive in and trust that some persistence will carry over to the live version? I’d really like to get into this but this uncertainty holds me back.
• Final Fantasy XIV – I have that free return week to enjoy, and I’m mulling over the idea of subscribing just to adventure a day or so each week. So instead of deep diving into this game, just skimming and seeing if that might suit my preferences better.
• I also really want to give Fallout 76 another solid try, especially now that it has a few months of updates behind it. Plus, backpacks and Scouts seem pretty cool.
• Lots of DDO solo and group questing, as per usual. Still trying to knock out those lowbie quests even as I make my way up through the teens.
• My next retro game series is going to take me back to a Troika RPG classic — Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines! Hopefully it won’t (ahem) suck.

Syp’s gaming goals for April 2019

March 2019 in review

• Pretty productive month in terms of gaming, although I didn’t branch out much when it came to MMOs. Primarily, I jumped back into LOTRO hard for the progression server Moria unlock and got in a lot of single-player DDO action as I went through House D and the Necropolis. Many quests and victories were won, and I got to level 54 on LOTRO and level 13 on DDO.
• I did try out a couple of MMOs for the Try-It Tuesday series, the soon-to-be cancelled Survived By and Eldevin. For the series I also poked into Subnautica and Commander Keen.
• Curiosity drove me to look into Torchlight Frontiers’ alpha test, which I generally found very solid and engaging. Made me excited about the full product.
• My retro gaming series took me through the entirety of Secret of Monkey Island and into its sequel, LeChuck’s Revenge.

April 2019’s goals

• Generally I think I’m in a really good groove right now, with several projects simmering in different areas and a core focus on LOTRO and DDO. For the former, I would like to be done with at least Moria (if not Lothlorien) by the end of the month and free up that time for the content update that’s coming soonish. For the latter… no goals other than my current pace of “one unexplored dungeon per day.”
• I think I’ll have Monkey Island 2 at least finished and fully written up (but probably not published) by the mid-month, after which I may take a break from that series to try a different retro game for a bit.
• As I’m doing a superhero MMO column over at Massively OP, I need to be getting more into those types of games, so I have Champions Online and DCUO on my “to do” list right now.
• I thought about returning to some old titles, but I’m going to push off any temptation for that until May. Instead, I declare that April shall be MMO Safari Month. That means I will go to extra lengths to try out new MMOs to me that I haven’t played before whenever I get antsy. That should definitely help to beef up Try-It Tuesdays! Any suggestions?

Syp’s Gaming Goals for March 2019

February 2019 in review

• Earlier in the month than I had anticipated, I ran out of content that I needed to do on Lord of the Rings Online’s progression server. So I logged out of it for a few weeks while waiting to see when the Moria unlock would happen. At least I’m ready!
• After beating Morrowind, my enthusiasm for Elder Scrolls Online dipped a bit. I got the Thieves Guild DLC and tried that for a while along with some random questing. It’s fine, but I ended the month only logging in to get the daily rewards and bump up my horse’s carrying capacity. That’s not a good sign. I shouldn’t let this title go.
• While our Dungeons and Dragons Online group missed a few weeks, at least it encouraged me to log back on to my solo Artificer and finish up Mists of Ravenloft. I then proceeded to work on finishing up low-level missions that I had overlooked on that character.
• My work laptop died and I got a replacement, which also ended my lunch sessions through Quest for Glory IV. So instead, I blasted right through the entirety of The Secret of Monkey Island for my retro gaming series and wrote six posts’ worth of playthrough from it!
• I think I made good progress on doing Try It Tuesday titles, including Commander Keen, Survived By, and The Long Dark.
• For fun, I replayed a lot of Firewatch to listen to the audio commentary by the devs.

March 2019’s goals

• Once Moria unlocks, I’m full steam ahead on LOTRO’s progression server. The news about the flexible virtue system has me loosening up my goals with completing deeds — I might go back and do a lot of earlier ones in preparation for this.
• I’ve really been having a blast soloing in DDO again, so I’d like to get caught up on my mission log to at least level 10 quests.
• I keep kicking a lot of potential MMO titles around in my head to see if I’m in the mood to try/go back to them, and the five that keep popping up are EVE Online, Star Trek Online, Guild Wars 2, EverQuest 2, and World of Warcraft. No promises or goals with these other than to admit that they’re in my vision. Also been wondering if Fallout 76 deserves another go with the patches and whatnot. That 2019 roadmap did seem a little interesting…
• I want to keep Elder Scrolls Online going, even if only one good session a week. I do like this game when I’m in it, but it takes some prodding to log in.
• Retro gaming wise, I’ll be moving right into Monkey Island 2 while the remainder of the blog posts covering the first game roll out over the span of March. I like working ahead!
• And for Try It Tuesday, I’ve got a growing pile of MMOs and non-MMOs to experience. Subnautica, Night in the Woods, Eldevin, and SubSpace seem like a good lineup to me!

Syp’s Gaming Goals for February 2019

January 2019 in review

• The theme of this month was “Finally clicking with Elder Scrolls Online,” and I am so glad that happened. After a few aborted starts over the past year or so, I am now deep into the ESO groove with a great month of questing, partying, and leveling under my belt. I got my Warden to level 16, went through most of Morrowind’s content, enjoyed a few grouping experiences, and started to figure out the ins and outs of the game. Oh, and I got me a house.
• My adventures on Lord of the Rings Online’s progression server continued as I took my level 50 Minstrel through the frozen north of Forochel. She’s just about done with the content in this quarter!
• Our Dungeons and Dragons Online group leveled to 9 and tackled various quests including White Plume Mountain and House P missions.
• I petered out in FFXIV after a few weeks of intense play, and I let my subscription lapse.
• My Quest for Glory IV playthrough went well, although I did not get near to finishing it as I had hoped by the end of the month.
• I finally finished up Pillars of Eternity, which took me most of 2018 to do! I also spent more time trying out other titles, such as CrossCode, Return to Obra Dinn, and The Unavowed.

February 2019’s goals

• As I’ve already stated on this blog, I’ve got a plan to wrap up the relatively small remainder of Shadows of Angmar content in LOTRO before the March unlock. Nothing too exciting there, but it should be satisfying to have it all done.
• Once I wrap things up in Morrowind, I’ll be doubling back to start on the base game content in Elder Scrolls Online. The other expansions can wait — at least for now!
• I expect that we’ll be exploring more level 10 instances in DDO, and I am planning on putting in at least a week of regular play in Warframe with MOP’s Bree to see if we can actually get into this popular scifi title.
• Aside from MMOs, I really want to wrap up Quest for Glory IV soon in order to start the next retro series. I also have more Try-It Tuesday titles lined up for experimentation, so if I get at least two of those in this month, I’ll be happy. Any suggestions?

Syp’s Gaming Goals for January 2019

December 2018 in review

• Generally it was full steam ahead with Lord of the Rings Online’s progression server (in which I nearly hit the level cap and got all but two zones done) while enjoying my annual month stay in Final Fantasy XIV.
• A good chunk of that LOTRO time was spent in Halloween and Christmas activities to get cosmetics and housing decor.
• I ramped up my playtime in Pillars of Eternity with the goal of finishing the base game by December 31st. Put in at least a half-hour a day in this with sometimes more.
• Retro gaming came back as I started a Quest for Glory IV playthrough. I also went through The Return of the Obin Dinn, although I’ll talk about that more next week.
• Our DDO group got together to do some House K and Delara’s Tomb quests, ultimately netting me the Voice of the Master and level 8.

January 2019’s goals

• After looking over what I played in 2018, I came to the conclusion that while I had a generally agreeable and enjoyable year, I didn’t do much to push into new territory or try different games. In fact, I kept going back to the well of the familiar over and over again.
• My big push for 2019 will be to broaden my gaming scope. Different MMOs. New games. Dig through my backlog. Be more purposeful in my gaming time. I don’t know how that’s all going to shake out, but just thinking about this kind of frees me up in a way that I didn’t realize I was shackled.
• For January, I’m going to be giving Elder Scrolls Online and Warframe both solid, multi-day sessions. I’m actually quite excited about both.
• For LOTRO, I’ll aim for the very reasonable goal of hitting level 50 and finishing Angmar and Forochel, if not Eregion too. I have to start thinking about what I’ll be doing when they release new content on the live servers, because that’ll split my attention.
• One retro game a month is my goal, so by the end of January, I want to have finished Quest for Glory IV and move on to my next project.
• I’m going to take a one-month break from time-intensive single-player RPGs to dip into several quicker titles. I have a bunch lined up, including Unavowed, The Long Dark, Subnautica, and even (sigh) Fortnite.

What Syp played in 2018

One of the side benefits of posting my gaming goals every month is that it serves as an auxiliary memory so that I can easily go back and see what I played over the course of the year. I made a quick compilation of this in the form of a bullet-point list, putting main games in bold (ones that I played the most that month) and the rest in regular font.

Here’s what I played in 2018 (except for some other mobile games):

• January: World of Warcraft, DDO, LOTRO, What Remains of Edith Finch, Life is Strange: Before the Storm, Tacoma, Champions Online, Global Adventures, KOTOR 2
• February: World of Warcraft, FFXIV, FFIX, LOTRO, DDO, Closers, KOTOR 2, Rimworld
• March: World of Warcraft, RIFT, DDO, Project Gorgon, Shroud of the Avatar
• April: World of Warcraft, RIFT, DDO, Secret World Legends, LOTRO, Project Gorgon, Star Trek Online
• May: World of Warcraft, Star Trek Online, Secret World Legends, DDO, LOTRO, Dauntless, Pillars of Eternity
• June: World of Warcraft, LOTRO, Star Trek Online, Secret World Legends, DDO, Fallout 4, The Sims 4, Pillars of Eternity
• July: World of Warcraft, DDO, Star Trek Online, Fallout 4, The Sims 4, Pillars of Eternity, Telltale Games’ Batman, Everyone’s Gone to the Rapture
• August: World of Warcraft, LOTRO, DDO
• September: World of Warcraft, LOTRO, Pillars of Eternity, Neverwinter, Guild Wars 2
• October: World of Warcraft, LOTRO, SWTOR, DDO, Guild Wars 2, Grim Fandango
• November: LOTRO, SWTOR, DDO, Fallout 76, Grim Fandango, WildStar
• December: LOTRO, FFXIV, Pillars of Eternity, DDO

Obviously, with the job transition and move, this was a really crazy year for me and as a result, I stopped pushing myself to play outside of my “comfort” games as much. Also, I had a lot less time for a good stretch there until my routine was established once again.

In terms of main games, I experienced very little variety. World of Warcraft carried me through a good chunk of the year up until Battle for Azeroth and a little beyond. That stretch of WoW came to an end in October as I packed things in and looked elsewhere for MMO entertainment.

RIFT Prime and LOTRO’s progression servers both drew me back to those games hard, but LOTRO endured more thanks to the fact that I was already enjoying a renaissance of sorts in that game and deeply appreciating Updates 22 and 23. And while I had a bit of a go at SWTOR for a bit there, I’m ending the year on a strong FFXIV streak instead with a brand-new character and revitalized interest.

Obviously, I dipped lightly into some other MMOs — you can see that I was testing the waters of old favorites. The only completely-new-to-me MMOs that I encountered this year were Closers, Fallout 76, and MapleStory 2. That meant that I really failed at my resolution to branch out and try other MMOs more often.

I had a couple of long runs with single-player games, most notably Grim Fandango and Pillars of Eternity. I also plowed through a few smaller adventure titles.

One nice trend this year is that I spent more time doing activities WITH other players in-game. From DDO to SWTOR to GW2 to FFXIV, I was probably more socially active than I have been in quite some time.

So that’s my year in gaming. Generally, it was a fun and satisfying year, if not particularly adventurous. We’ll see what 2019 holds!

Syp’s gaming goals for December 2018

November 2018 in review

• Easily, the entire month was dominated by my excitement for and subsequent adventures on Lord of the Rings Online’s new progression server, Anor. While I dinked around with a few classes, I ended up sticking with my initial choice of Hobbit Minstrel and had a great time leveling, questing, and even grouping.
• I officially ended my current run in World of Warcraft, as Battle for Azeroth and Patch 8.1 feel like they have nothing exciting to offer me. I even stored all my auction house inventory!
• Star Wars: The Old Republic got a couple of play sessions, but no where near as many as I had anticipated putting in. I’m on the fence whether or not to continue right now.
• I couldn’t wait for Fallout 76, but when it came I was less-than-enthused due to my LOTRO fever and the half-and-half nature of the game design. I did get in a few short adventuring sessions, but it wasn’t the ride I had anticipated.
• Two Dungeons and Dragons Online grouping nights kept my social needs met, and we had fun wrapping up Waterworks.
• I wrapped up a full playthrough of the classic adventure game Grim Fandango.
• I also got in one last WildStar run before it shut down.

December 2018’s goals

• I think it’s entirely reasonable to expect that my LOTRO Minstrel will be at level 50 by the end of the month, although I doubt I’ll be through all of the content by then. If I’ve only got one or two zones left by the 31st, that’ll be a good run.
• I haven’t quite given up on Fallout 76, so I’m sure I’ll poke my head in there now and then.
• I feel like I’ve narrowed my MMO gaming stable down to, uh, one game and that makes me a bit nervous. I’m going to try or return to a few more titles this month to see if any have potential stickiness — FFXIV, Path of Exile, and Star Citizen are all possibilities.
• I want to finish Pillars of Eternity this month and start in on another single-player RPG. There. I’ve put that out there to keep myself accountable.
• In addition to group time, I may get back to my Artificer on DDO and see if I can’t wrap up Mists of Ravenloft.
• And that’s pretty much it. There aren’t any big releases I want, and I’m sure that the holiday schedule will be crazy enough as it is.