Tag Archives: video games

Pax East 2013 Statuary

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I present my photo’s of Pax East 2013′s Statuary in no particular order:

 

 

Had a blast at Pax East 2013 and the photo’s never do it justice because I spend so much of my time DOING things instead of taking photo’s of the things I’m doing. Such is life.

If you get the chance, and you enjoy any sort of gaming, I really suggest you check out one of the many Pax out there. Worth it.  And you CAN do everything(except the panels/discussions) in one day if you stay focused.

So I went to Pax East again this year

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AND HAD A HELL OF A FUN TIME!

Though I had a 3 day pass I really only spent one day at Pax. I spent the rest doing EXACTLY what I wanted. Hanging out with my friends, playing games, drinking beer, eating out(and in!) and generally just enjoying spending time with people I really enjoy spending time with.

Thanks again for having me Chris and Rachel!

Now for the photos:

 

I’ll make a separate post about all the statues/models used at Pax East 2013. I’m always blown away by the work the game manufacturers put into their booths and their statues always impress.

Currently playing

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Looking back on it now, I should have known this would happen. I let my ‘completionist’ flag fly last week and bought the last of the DLC for Civ5 that I didn’t have during a Steam sale. I figured spending a little less than $2 bucks couldn’t hurt, even if I hadn’t played Civ in over 6 months. Well, that purchase has led to a lot of lost sleep and lost hours.  Yup, went back to playing Civ 5. I find I want to beat the game as every civilization in the game at least once. My biggest trouble is that I DON’T enjoy military victories and tend to always want a nice peaceful planet that lets me win a Culture or Science victory after having explored the entire world.  Trouble with culture or science victories? They take a LONG ASS TIME! Oh, well. All I’m missing out on is MMORPG game time, so it’s not like I’m missing anything.

GAME ON!

PS: Still wish Skyrim would go on sale.

PPS: Really should play through Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas completely. I’ve never beat either game.

Got my first Guild Wars 2 character to max level.

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Can I get a “Whoot! Whoot!”?

Finally got my elementalist up to level 80 in Guild Wars 2. So far, I’ve ONLY been doing normal PvE/Story line play with it. My plans are to finish the personal story line and then try to get 100% map completion. I may try to do a lot more of the jumping puzzles as well. I’ve strangely found them to be frustratingly fun.

Next, I’ll try to get my Thief and Ranger up to 80. I’m not sure I’ll ever do a dungeon. My small group of friends tried to do the level 40 ‘Caudicus Mansion’ this weekend and it ended in tears. We didn’t even come CLOSE to being able to figure out how to beat this place. My friends have NO DESIRE to try a dungeon again, so I guess I’m done with them too, unless I get a random invite some night and decide to go for it.

I don’t think my friends have any interest in PvP either, but I do intend to try out both the structured PvP and the WvWvW(I pronounce it wubwub). Right now, on my 80, I really need to figure out my stats a bit better. I bought a whole bunch of level 80 rare gear, and am now pretty much broke but hopefully it’ll make doing the story line easier. I have NO idea if the gear actually ‘fits’ with my playstyle and build.

Comparing GW2′s ‘Buy to Play’ vs ‘Free to Play’ and ‘Subscription’.

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I’ve been playing Guild Wars 2 since it came out in August, and I must say it continues to be a lot of fun. My Elementalist is 65, my Thief is 49 and my Ranger is 43. I am only doing PvE so far, but I will eventually try out PvP. The dynamic events just MAKE this game sooo much fun.

But I wanted to discuss Guild Wars 2′s business model. To me, it’s ‘Buy to Play’ model, feels much more like a subscription game than a ‘Free to Play’ game. I’ve actually bought $20 worth of ‘gems’ since the game released. I used those gems to buy 2 extra character slots giving me 7 total. It was a spontaneous decision, and while I don’t regret it, I really didn’t need the 2 new characters it let me start. Because I’m only focused on 3 characters right now. I don’t feel any need to buy anything else right now. Okay, I’ll fess up, I may eventually buy one last character slot, because I’m an ‘alt-aholic’ and there are 8 classes to play(Gotta play’em all!). But otherwise the game plays just like a subscription game where the entire game is available to you and at most you have some extras you can purchase but nothing necessary.

Of the ‘Free to Play’ games I’ve tried, I’ve always found I was better off just paying their subscription if they offer one. LOTRO for example, I’d much rather just pay the subscription than figure out what new thing I need to buy to play ‘normally’ today. When I do go back to LOTRO I usually start my subscription back up too.  I’d probably play LOTRO a LOT more if I had a lifetime subscription(Oh, how Turbine must hate those lifers.) Tribes Ascend, is a free to play FPS, and while I don’t find it’s model as frustrating as LOTRO, it is definitely a more expensive game in the long run than a ‘buy to play’ game would be. They continuously put new skins(don’t care), and weapons (CARE CARE!) into the game. If I continued to play the game, (I’ve basically dropped it), they would be pinging me for 10$ here and 10$ there from now until I finally gave the game up. Being able to slowly gain the ‘xp’ needed to purchase weapons is nice, but I think they know exactly how to tune it, so that the normal player feels the need to drop them some cash, much like a subscription game would.

Overall, the game companies are going to get the money out of you, or they won’t be making games for long. Still, of all the various games I’ve played, I find I prefer the ‘Buy to Play’ model the most, with Subscription and ‘Free to Play’ a distant second and third. ‘Free To Play’ is my number three mostly because I find it is almost as expensive as a subscription (for me anyway) but WAY more frustrating to have to make time to make ANOTHER payment, while subscriptions don’t take any ‘time’ for me to set up.