Today I am going to rant/try to get you to get on a game.
Last week I discovered this beautiful gem called Chronicles of Elyria. A game that has progressive research, deep immersion and permadeath.
The game drops you in an unknown world playing human like Mann, or rather, their souls. Like Ark this game is persistent(as in, your character doesn’t vanish upon logging out, it will actually be taken over by an AI(you can give tasks to it) until you log in) and as such you’ll need things like food, water, shelter and the gods know what more.
Your character will age and eventually die. You are more physically capable when you are young then when you are old, but old age comes with wisdom and as such you are better at the mental stuff of life. You also want to get a family going, which helps you in your next life(s), with finance, resources and getting back to life. Didn’t I mention that? If you die you have to do this spirit walking, the younger you are, the longer the time you have, and family gives you a reason to live and thus extend that meter a bit. So yeah, that’s the game in a very tiny nutshell, you can read more about it here, and even more about it here.
And I am extremely excited about it.
Not so much because of what I named(and really, it does no justice), but more so because I thought of a game like this way back when I first heard of The Sims 2(yes, that game). The game was described as new, progressive and able to live lives from a broad view. That was somewhere in 2003-4. The Sims 2 badly dissapointed me(though, was still enjoyable) because of the things I had dreamed up about that game.

What had I dreamt up? Well, in my mind you could go anywhere you wanted and you could discover things, even new technology. Now, from there(really liking this concept in my head) I expanded upon it when I heard bits and pieces about Spore(it was announced in 2005), namely the parts of being able to piece things together and make new technology happen and progress from the Stone Age all the way up to modern times. I dreamt that there would be this big MMO where players would be free to do what they wanted, and started in(or around) the Stone Age. Progression was up to them. Literally. You wanted bronze swords? Go find, mine and process Tin and Copper and figure out the right mixture to get Bronze, then fiddle with that until you’d get a Bronze Sword. All the while you’d need to survive as well, and others would most likely be jealous of you, etc. Point was, progress could be hard to do. (oh, and all the things would be player created, via a similar interface spore had, some shapes you put together to make item X, which you can use to assemble item Y, and so on and so forth. No pre-made shit from the devs)
Chronicles of Elyria does not do this exactly, however, it DOES keep research in, with which you progress. And it does let you make a Dynasty over your lives(your soul travels to a new vessel when the old one decides to break down permanently). And the best part? No levels, EVERYTHING is skillbased, like it should. A new skilled player can still poke an experienced lesser skilled player full of holes, very much unlike most other MMO’s where a lvl 90 laughs so hard at the level 50 trying to hit him.

 

It’s a very ambitious project, which is already 8 years in the making(albeit with a very small team most of that time), but it has already reached it’s goal. And for my sanity’s sake I hope they succeed in bringing this beast to surface and rock the world. I want my dream to be truly realized by some smart-ass dev and loose myself properly in that game and build myself from stone age to modern age and beyond. And SoulBound Studios(creators of Chronicles of Elyria) has added to that dream; I now want to build a family alongside that progress as well, myself reincarnating every so often to view the progress to new eyes and add to it.
And only for that I wish to thank them from the bottom of my heart.

 

Musica Maestro!

First of we start a bit dolente(sad that is 😉 )with Wrong Side of Heaven by Five Finger Death Punch. I really must warn you here, this thing get’s to me, but is so powerful.

Second of is a popsong from yesteryear, Thrift Shop by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

Third off is Bliss by Muse

This time it is only been 3 months, so we are improving, somewhat at the least.

So… no special theme here or something, just felt like writing something on my blog. Just because I can.
Quite a lot of stuff has happened the last few months, sometimes I feel like I am riding a rollercoaster and I don’t know when a quick part starts or ends, but I mostly enjoy it.
The last few months have mainly been about friends, new friends and a bit of old friends.

Let’s start with the old friends, these consist mostly of friends from across the globe, ones that I have known mainly through the interwebs, the ones that come and go, the ones that stay for a while and move on, you get the gist.
Lately I have thought of a few of them again, Lynn from Spokane, Raz from England, Oriagi  from England, Julia from Germany and Natalie from Blackpool.
All these people have been nice buddies and friends at some point in the last.. 10(already? geez I’m getting old) years or so. I have talked with you all, laughed with you, wanted to smack your head in and just hang out.
Some I have lost contact with, some I still have some words every now and then, but none of you have been forgotten.
Through games, websites or other (forgotten) friends we have found each other, picked up the talking and maintained contact. With some of you I have experienced the wildest adventures and tough emotions, I have scaled mountains, killed Pic’s, romanced as a detective, build mansions, arrested criminals, died in your arms, hyped about the next new game, mourned an old one going dark forever, discussed tactics and taunted you while dodging your bullets. Those were great times, and I know there are even greater times to come yet, perhaps with you, perhaps with new friends.  I still remember each and everyone, so if you read this, give a shout-out to me!

Now for friends, and I have to start with the most important update in that area, my friend Steven and his (now) wife Mariska are married now! They were a lovely couple to which I was his Best Man(damn, the honour) . The day was long, but so very worth it, had a lot of fun, and again I want to wish the couple the best in life!
On other news, I have really bonded with Didi(who plays Ardalys) lately. Been chatting a lot with her, and I think she is a great friend. I hope this won’t be over any time soon, all of this is way too much fun to have this end sometime soon. Which reminds me, I should start to discuss Artificial Intelligence with her, although I have a slight feeling she’d rather stick her sword in me rather then cutting this subject *grins*. Did I mention teasing her is fun? No? Well, it is, albeit slightly dangerous(but it is a good Dodge or Endurance training). Also, her dog, Mushu, can be real funny when you start calling him while on skype *grins*

As for new friends, quite a few of my acquaintances have been ‘upgraded’ to friends, after a good bit of talking with them and getting to know them(yes, I am very picky like that, I consider a friends(although the internet one is somewhat special for me) something you’d have to earn, someone I meet is an acquaintance, whom may or may not have the potential to grow into a friend). The biggest batch came with a new thing for me(more on it below), a new LARP, to which 2 of them asked me to join in on. I can say I was really flattered by it and try to live up to their expectations. Through them I have more contact with a few other friends, also connected via the LARP as well as a lost sister to one of them(and a girlfriend to another), to which I am happy to talk. I have had a great time with them so far on plotting for the LARP, DnDing(much better then the other DnD party I had) and fun in general. They helped me with a lot of my skeletons and opened a door to a new place, for which I am grateful.

The best part about all of this post? I haven’t talked about missing or lost friends, for I haven’t got any! I have not lost a friend these past months, so jeey! for that.

As for the LARP, the only thing I am allowed to say, it is a LARP with a Western meets Steampunk feel, so basically a Western LARP with Steampunk touches to it. There is much more I know about it(well, duh) but which I am not allowed to say. Perhaps I can soon tell more about this, and then I most definately will say more about it. But for now, this is what you’ll have to do with.

Now for my usual closing of things, music!

I’ll start of with Axxis – The Monsters Crawl:

Second off, Tenacious D – Master Exploder

From Skyrim, sung by a beautiful voice: Malukah – The Dragonborn Comes

And lastly, University of Tennessee Men’s Chorale – John Williams Is The Man