I recently looked back
at this blog to see topics I had discussed in the passed when I
realised its been quite a while since I last put finger to keyboard.
As is usually the case, life has a way of giving you lots of things
to do so here's a quick update on the past 2 months.
IRL
Work commitments have
been keeping me busy for the majority of my time as I'm getting
involved in a number of side projects which have been occupying the
time I would of set aside for writing this blog. These projects
included guided talks, exhibition design and lectures for
professional qualifications which naturally allow me to make more
progress towards my goal of a curatorial / archival role within the
museum and heritage sector. That being said, I can't blame it all on
that otherwise I could just organise my time more effectively, but
the times where I have thought to do blog writing I find myself
attending a social event or being incredibly late getting home due to
delays on the London transport links. To give context to such a
point, last Sunday it took me 3 hours to get home whereas a normal
journey would take somewhere in the region of 80-90 minutes. It
doesn't stop you from writing, its just takes you out of the mindset.
A somewhat related
point to this is the 'fun' of moving as I'm looking to move much
closer to work to cut down on my commuting time. Organising viewings
between work and getting as much information as possible takes up a
surprisingly large amount of time which I haven't had to deal with in
the past. This has been compounded by the fact that recently I
applied for a job much further afield back in my university home of
Plymouth so between moving 20 miles and 250 miles has brought another
set of tasks to accomplish at the moment.
As well as this, I
recently turned 26 which brought a nice mixture of nights out and
time off to do nothing (more on that later). I went out on Halloween
dressed up (something I very, very rarely do) and ended up getting
home at like 6am which I haven't done a night of that length in quite
a while but was welcome the next day by remnants of face paint and
quite the hangover to contend with. Again, I could have been writing
during this time but I wanted a couple days to myself which has
become the topic of a post I want to write about that I have hinted
at from time to time; a factor of a player dwelling in a game and how
it fits in an individual / solo environment. It basically talks
about “the lodge” of architectural theory being a dwelling of
personal space and how much private time one can have in a space
where you're accessible through multiple means at a moments glance.
This may come across as introverted, but we shall see when we get
there.
Gaming
The majority of my time
gaming has been taken up by the recent release of Guild Wars 2's
expansion, Heart of Thorns which has been an interesting time for me.
It has been very different to expansions I've played in the past
(WoW, Rift, ESO, etc.) due to not having a gear / level cap increase
and I haven't felt like I'm in a rush to 'get to the end game
content' that I would race towards, which in turn has allowed me to
enjoy it a great deal under my own terms. I am going to do a proper
discussion on it soon, but it has been a highly enjoyable time over
the past week and a half and I look forward to what's coming next
from Arena Net.
As my time for Guild
Wars 2 has increased, my time in Warframe has decreased by quite a
bit. I'm in an awkward space with that game because I enjoy the
gameplay loop but the RNG nature of its loot system is causing my
enjoyment to wane. The fact that I'm getting a load of new things in
GW2 may have something to do with it but I think I may need to have
some time away to truly get back into it. Its a bit like last year
with GW2 where I took a couple months break and found myself enjoying
it all over again. For now, my Tenno is docked with its dailies
grabbed each day but not much more than that.
With the recent release
of Fallout 4, I have also perked my interest for the franchise by
replaying Fallout New Vegas alongside its DLC on a new luck-based
character. As someone who usually 'powergames' Fallout with a
high-intelligence character on energy weapons, It's been an fun
experience going through with a sneak / guns build with high critical
hit chance. I've also gone for a karma neutral character
role-playing as someone out for personal gain which has opened me up
to some new interesting quest-lines that I haven't experienced before
this play-through; showcasing the recognised re-playability of these
titles years after their initial release. By the time I fully finish
New Vegas, I would like to start on Fallout 4, but that depends on my
last point of a new PC build.
I have mentioned before
how I'm looking to build a new PC as my current one is ~8 years old
and definitely showing its age. As my post on low-performance gaming
shows, it hasn't been all bad but I've got to the point where I would
really like to play modern games on a smooth frame-rate as well as
nice graphical fidelity. My PC build is coming in around £900 but
I'm currently in an awkward space of “do I build now or wait until
the sales?” That being said, it does ask the question “which
sale?” because we have black Friday, Christmas and January sales
over the horizon and I may just end up saying “f**k it!” and
buying it anyway. Time will tell but as long as it stays under £1000
I think I'll be happy.
Well, that's everything
regarding the last couple months in my life. Writing this up has
been important for me because its a step back into the blog space
which is important because I need it to be regular for someone to be
interested in. A lot of this maybe words thrown into the twisting
nether of the internet and its vast accessible information, but if
you find these posts interesting that's what gets me to continue on.
Anyway, next topic will either be the 'Player Housing from the
individual' or 'Thoughts on GW2:HoT” so look out for that on
Monday.
Now back to the 101
other things on the list :\
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