Author Archives: Sam

A Writer’s Interview: Part Three

Posted on by

This is the third and final part of the ‘Writer’s Interview series’ of posts. It’s been interesting for me to answer them, even if it’s not been quite so interesting for anyone to read them.

I fully admit that writing these last couple of posts has been pure procrastination. I want to write my novel but I’m having real trouble focusing, it’s incredibly frustrating. It reminds me actually of this t-shirt I would quite like from Red Bubble. It’s titled ‘life as a writer’ and the front of the shirt says 45% procrastination, 30% coffee, 15% self-loathing and 5% writing. Obviously the person that created it was a writer, and not a mathematician, as that only adds up to 95%.

Anyway, on with the last questions, then I’ll have no more excuses about not working on the novel. Except who am I kidding? There’s always excuses, I suspect I’ll get up and start cleaning in a minute, that’s the last bastion of desperation. This really does puzzle me considering I like writing, it’s not like I hate it and want to avoid it. Oh well, I suppose if nothing else I’ll have a blog post written and a clean place to live.

Continue reading →

A Writer’s Interview: Part Two

Posted on by

Yesterday I answered eleven questions in response to my friends blog post, where they did the same. Today, I’m answering another eleven questions, my friend will be doing the same but I don’t have a link just yet.

I’m supposed to be working on fiction right now, writing more of the sequel to my finished book. However, I admit I’m struggling a bit at the moment. Confession time, at the weekend I actually made myself a star chart. I know it’s juvenile but I figured a bit of positive reinforcement never hurt anyone. I don’t think I’m going to get a star for my work time today.

That being said I’m writing this blog post, rather than doing something unproductive like those facebook games. I figured if I wasn’t going to write fiction, then this is the next best thing. It’s at least forcing me to focus on something to do with the written word.

Anyway, this is part two of the interview, there will be a third and final part posted tomorrow or after that.

Continue reading →

A Writer’s Interview: Part One

Posted on by

This blog post was inspired by a friend of mine. I don’t know how to do a trackback, or pingback, or whatever it is that marks a blog post as a response. However, they are going to be doing a series of blog posts answering questions from a writer interview. I thought I would join them in answering those same questions. You can find their post here.

I know I haven’t blogged in ages. I was ill for a couple of months, since then I’ve struggled to catch up and get back into a normal routine. I did want to write a review of Avengers: Age of Ultron, possibly still will even though it was some time ago that I saw the film. I also had a post in the works about the Marvel Heroes achievement system, another about all the Swtor news, both the expansion and the 12x story boost in action.

Given circumstances I know better than to make any promises about when, or if, these blog posts will make it live. However, those posts along with the rest of the writer interview series, will appear at some point.

On with the interview.

Continue reading →

Diving back into Landmark

Posted on by

I have a few posts in the pipeline. One on Marvel Heroes which just added achievements! Another on the reality of the Swtor 12x boost, one on Age of Ultron when I eventually manage to see the movie (I can’t wait!) but it’s the newest post in the pile that has my attention.

I never really should have signed up for the Landmark Alpha but I was too excited about the game to wait the year or so until release. I wanted to try it out for myself. However, with having to gather all the materials, then losing them in wipes, I never really got into the game. I know it’s beta and that’s the whole point but I am a very bad beta tester, I didn’t want to waste my time gathering only to lose everything.

Well the devs have said that’s the last wipe, that they will only do claim wipes from now on. Given the template system, all people have to do is login and pick their spot and they are in the same position. From this point on, aside from more bugs and missing features, there’s little difference in my opinion between this and the eventual ‘launch’.

Right so what’s different from the last time I played? What are my ‘first impressions’ when logging in this time?

Continue reading →

Marvel’s Phase Two

Posted on by

Avengers: Age of Ultron is now out in Europe, it’ll be released in America on my birthday, May 1st. My twitter feed has been filled with #It’sAllConnected tweets regarding Agents of Shield. Now I haven’t talked about that show on this blog since the beginning of the season, I never even blogged about Agent Carter.

It would seem I have some catching up to do.

ABC still haven’t announced whether Agents of Shield or Agent Carter are going to be renewed for another season. There are also rumors that there could be a spin-off from Agents of Shield, more Marvel TV shows to geek out on, sounds good to me. There might be spoilers under the cut.

Continue reading →

Wary but Excited

Posted on by

In my last post on Swtor, where I talked about why I resubbed and what I liked about the game, I mentioned the 12x experience boost that had been available for a limited time to purchasers of Shadow of Revan. I said part of me was sorry that I had missed it, as the class quests were the best part of the game. The other part of me was fine with it as the planetary quests were good too.

Well, on May 4th aka Star Wars Day, the 12x boost is back for subscribers. No definitive word on when it’ll be over but the date given is ‘in the fall’ so it’s going to be around for a couple of months.

When I read that announcement my immediate thought was “I’m going to be playing a lot of swtor this summer” and that’s likely still true. However, thinking about it beyond the initial excitement I’m wary for what it means for the longevity of the game.

Continue reading →

Why I unsubbed to Warcraft

Posted on by

I was talking with a friend the other day, a friend who started playing Warcraft not long after it launched. He unsubbed partway through Mists, was persuaded to try Warlords but didn’t even make it to level cap. He’s done with the game. He said that was the nature of MMO’s, they change, and the game Warcraft is now, isn’t the game he loved and played.

That made me think. I’ve said repeatedly, here and elsewhere, that I didn’t know what to do with Warcraft. I’d invested so much time, effort and money into the game, that just turning round to leave and never going back was hard to contemplate.

However, games are supposed to be fun. Rather than spend time in a game I no longer like, let alone love, wouldn’t it be better to leave? Let the memories of the good times remain, and accept that the game has changed and it’s no longer the game I loved and played.

Continue reading →

Using my Level 90 Boost: A 12th Class

Posted on by

This post isn’t complete, and I never will finish it now. However, in the previous Warcraft post I mentioned this and I figured I would get it out of my draft folder.

There are eleven classes in Warcraft right now. Three are complete hybrids which can tank, heal and dps (paladin, druid and monk), four are partial hybrids which can either tank and dps (death knight and warrior) or heal and dps (priest and shaman), then there are the four pure classes which can only dps (warlock, hunter, mage and rogue).

The game started with nine classes, eight of which were available to each side (paladins for Alliance, shamans for Horde) and two more have been added since release (death knight and monk) in Wrath of the Lich King and Mists of Pandaria respectively.

There is no hard and fast rule as to what blizz adds in each expansion box. TBC brought two new races and unlocked the ninth class for each faction, Wrath brought the death knight class, Cata brought two new races (goblin and worgen) and unlocked more class/race combinations. Mists had a new race (pandaren) which was available to both factions and a new class (monk) and Warlords brought nothing but new character models.

So what’s the class I have in mind?

Continue reading →

Why I resubbed to Swtor

Posted on by

My history with Swtor has been very up and down. I started this blog not long after I started playing the game, so the whole process has been chronicled.

I played for a while at launch, unsubbed after six months as I’d stopped playing, always choosing to play Warcraft when I had time to play games. A year later I tried to play some more but the f2p model annoyed me, and my computer was having issues. Six months later I tried playing f2p again, got annoyed and this time resubbed for a couple of months. Again I wasn’t playing enough to continue the sub. Just over a year later, and we’re back in present day, and I’ve resubbed once more.

The f2p model for Swtor is in some respects generous, as it does allow you to play most of the game for free, but in other respects it’s extremely annoying. I always resub if I’m going to be playing a fair bit as it’s worth it for the medical probes alone. They allow revival where you die, rather than having to revive at the nearest med center and then re-fight everything to get back to where you were when you died.

Everytime I play Swtor I enjoy it, so why my interest wanes and I stop playing is something of a mystery. I think it’s because of the way I play, purely questing for the class storylines. I don’t miss out on anything if I take a day, a week or months away. I’m not behind, I’ve just stayed standing still.

Continue reading →

Number Six – The Next Expansion

Posted on by

Warlords isn’t even half over and I’m already looking ahead. Part of that is because I’m not happy with Warlords direction, each expansion brings a shake-up and I’m hoping the next one will be good. Another part is because blizz have said there’s going to be two raid tiers this expansion, not three, which makes Hellfire Citadel the last raid of the expansion. That was announced last night, so the beginning of the end is upon us.

This post is going to be in two parts. I’m going to try and theorize what blizz might actually do, but then I have to allow myself some wishful thinking in what I hope they might do. November, in seven months, will be Blizzcon when they’ll announce expansion number six. Given that patch 6.2 has already hit the PTR, even though I don’t raid anymore, I hope very much that beta will hit soon after Blizzcon, and therefore the expansion release is early-mid 2016 to coincide with the release of the film.

Blizz managed to weather 14 months of the same patch remarkably well, and I have promised not to rant about it anymore, but I really hope to never see that again. In a subscription game it is really beyond a joke.

Right so expansion number six …

Continue reading →