Crying in my beer! Not really though, just another campfire chat..

Lol, it's been a while, hasn't it?
It's Spring Break here in Texas and my son is off school for the week. What did he decide to do? He reclaimed his Xbox One from me. Oh! The humanity!

What do I do now? We've only got the one Xbox. For now I let him enjoy his games, I guess. I've been hogging it for a whole month, but not really. I mean, I do take time and ask him if he wants to play, but he usually refuses and does his own thing..not this week. Lol! Yes, it makes me laugh. He makes me laugh. He's funny and smart and witty. He's also hogging the game system now, darnit! Lol, and to think I'm upset over this turn of events..smh face palm. I laugh at myself pretty regularly nowadays. I can be so childish sometimes. I step back and examine the situation and see how I can make things better.

So, here I am on yet another forced break from NEVERWINTER. "It is to laugh.." as Bugs Bunny would say.
Slightly bemused, very bored, still very happy that I have my problems and not those of other folks. I am blessed to have the issues I experience and not worse ones. Looking for the silver linings in things here, bare with me.

(Images courtesy of google)

So, I was playing this Cleric character and all my online friends want me to go ahead and create another one, another character to play with, but I've spent well over a hundred hours in real time this past month in order to get the one I have to be in able to both fight and heal. Clerics are tricky. They can be either fantastic healers or amazing warriors, but seldom can they be both. I've done my best with what I have and I've had help from The Alliance run by South of Haven stronghold. Still, my character has serious flaws. Currently I am trying to level up my equipment and it's going to take millions of points and refining stones and shards to get there. It's an agonizingly slow process that eats up my days like an elementary school with candy day.

I know I messed up my character build from the beginning. It's still not right. Most of my power and defense now comes from equipment, companions, mounts, and enchantments. I'm getting the idea it may never be playable as a stand-alone character ever again. I take time on my cool down periods to assist others on their endeavors. I'm the random masked cleric that turns up and heals you out of the blue. The guy that suddenly jumps off his mount and fights by your side. I rush in to throw healing spells at some random stranger and then remount my ride to go aid yet another character in distress, all that except for when my son takes over his Xbox and won't let me on. I guess he knows that if I start he won't be able to play for the rest of the day. Lol! Shrug..

Well, I do suffer romantic thoughts and visions of what could be, on a regular basis. I have a grand vision of what gaming could be and we just aren't there yet. The game still lags a lot and regularly I get kicked off the system servers for one reason or another. Probably because I'm running on DSL and WIFI. It's not nearly as bad as dial-up, but still slow. I wish I had a dedicated fiber-optics line directly to my Xbox One. Anyhow, the game is still enjoyable at lv70, but the enemies that I'm taking on are set to 73+ and my character has trouble with lv65 enemies still.

(Image courtesy of google)

I was given the Tiamat set and it's eating all my refining points to level them up. I doubt anything short of a year playing or $500.00 will get me where I wish to be, and I'm not paying money if I can help it. I'm not doing PVP because there's always a better player with better gear doing ten times the amount of damage that I'm doing. Besides, I prefer going against the NPC's, or non-player characters, than other gamers. There are too many who lose or win poorly. I've dealt with poor losers and they are just as awful to play with as poor winners. No fun there.

The first 70 levels were fun. I got to follow a storyline and everything was clear and simple to understand, mostly. I thought once I reached level 70 I would spend more time assisting others, not trying to stay alive. I see the grinding involved and know instantly that the programmers have become complacent and lazy. If you build a game right there's no need for grinding. It reeks of half-a**ed programming. In the beginning I didn't get the feeling of laziness. Now that I'm at max level 70 I am seeing it everywhere. They shouldn't have put a level cap on the characters at all. That's lazy. There shouldn't be grinding involved because that'll lose players quickly. They're not thinking big picture, but I guess as a programmer they always think in the micro level, not macro.. They put in so much detail, but left out much. All sorts of stories and legends exist in the realm of Dungeons and Dragons that they could build an unlimited game that can keep the most bored person in the world busy for years, but they haven't. Idk, maybe it's just me, but I see potential for so much better and I'm not seeing the effort being put forth.

All that and I still enjoy the game. It's getting better. It's a shame that a person can't take a single character build and run it forever. This game, right now as it stands, almost quietly suggests that you should invest your time in multiple builds. I'd prefer to stick with one. Also, it's a darned shame what they did to Cleric builds in the game. Certain other character builds seem to get better quicker than a Cleric. Maybe it's just my character though. Idk idk idk... so much still to learn and process about this game.

I was sick the last couple of days and couldn't bring myself to play much, but now that I'm feeling better my son is on and..well I'm not going to kick him off his game he has earned and not been able to use much. So I'm waiting for my turn. Bored. I did go out this morning and assisted the elderly, so I'm doing other things as well, but I'd prefer to play NEVERWINTER.

My son started playing the game as a Hunter Ranger/Legolas type character/bow and arrow user. He sort of lost interest in it though and that's when I tried my hand at the game..yeah, that was my bad. I shouldn't have done that. Now it's what I've grown to enjoy over my other hobbies. The people I've met and made friends with are all over the globe and the conversations we enjoy together really add a certain spice that I've been missing out on all these years.
Guess I've babbled on long enough about this and that.

Remember that I too am human and extremely fallible. The only thing I'm absolutely perfect at is being human.

Much love and light to you and yours,
X

P.S.
I think this guy kinda looks like me, somewhat, what do you think?

(Image courtesy of google)