SWTOR: Bears in space

The laptop is back! Looking back it took two months to get the repairs done. And even that wasn't exactly how it happened, because we ended up not getting the original laptop back but a new version with better specs. Annoying that it took this long, but on the other hand it was worth the time and money because this means we can use it for a few years longer before having to replace it.

Guild troubles

Unfortunately, we found upon our return to Star Wars that both our Republic and Imperial guilds had become inactive, due to a combination of us not being able to attend and the release of the Elder Scrolls Online (ESO). The situation was especially severe in our Imp guild, with almost all officers, members and guild leader having left off to ESO without any plans for Star Wars. A real shame, because we had a solid team of good players doing progression raids and our characters are ready for the new nightmare modes. For the moment we've joined a larger guild called PC Mint Imperials, so hopefully we're able to get raiding there.

On Rep side activity luckily seems to have returned, and we have some raids planned again. I'm really happy about this, because Tiger and I have played and raided with these people for years in Lord of the Rings Online. It has been great raiding with Asylum in Star Wars now LotRO has a far more casual character and lacks proper endgame.

Drawing bears

I also had amazing fun designing a new website for our Rep guild. I've given up on getting better at drawing on the Bamboo tablet for now, because it dawned on me that improvement will mostly have to do with getting to know tricks and buttons within Photoshop, something that I simply lack the energy for. Instead, I've found great fun in illustrating blog posts and now designing our guild website. I feel this simple back-to-basic style has its own charm. And by just doing it a lot, I might even learn a few things and, in time, improve a bit.

For our guild's banner, I was inspired by whoever decided our URL should include "bears in space" and our guild's mascot Norman. Taking these quite literally, the result was a rather silly retro-looking website including some bad humour. I was anxious to hear the reaction of my guildies, but luckily they have been exclusively positive so far! I'm happy with any feedback, though, so if you want you can check our website out over here.