Favourite SWTOR droids

It's Friday, so sit back and enjoy another blog post for 5 Fandom Friday! This week's topic was actually submitted by me, because there are just so many awesome neglected droids out there asking for our attention. In this blog post, we're going into space to look at my five favourite droids from the MMO Star Wars: the Old Republic (SWTOR). But if that's not your cup of tea: fear not, because I'll be sharing my five favourite non-SWTOR droids at the end in a bonus paragraph. Just make sure to only watch the videos if you've already played SWTOR or don't care about being spoiled.

Green inspired screenshots from virtual Middle-earth

The Shire

It's Five Fandom Friday, and that means another geeky post! This week's topic was the Green Photo Challenge, and the participants were stimulated to share 5 green inspired photos in honour of St. Patrick's Day. In what is by now Ravalation tradition, I decided to go with screenshots instead, and Lord of the Rings Online was the first game that came to my mind.

LOTRO is my go-to game when I want to immerse myself in beautiful landscapes. Even though it's a pretty old MMO by now that has been overtaken graphics wise by new games, there's something about its landscapes that makes it feel more lively and 'real' than any game world I've visited. Perhaps it's the beautiful skies and weather mechanics. Or I'm just biased because I'm a huge Tolkien fan. Either way, here are five pretty green screenies from virtual Middle-earth.

Geeky expressions only my friends understand (and now you will, too)

For most these will just be some random words, 

but members of Asylum will recognize them immediately

The latest 5 Fandom Friday was about "geeky expressions that only my friends understand". I suggested the topic myself, so I definitely wanted to participate, even if the flu kept me from writing anything on the appropriate day (last Friday). 

I don't really talk "geeky" in everyday life, but when I'm at my gaming laptop, I definitely do. Not only am I fluent in "MMO language" (read: Lost in translation: Why my friends don't understand me when I talk about MMOs), I also use specific phrases that don't make a lot of sense to anyone (not even other MMO players) but my friends. 

My to be read pile

This week's Five Fandom Friday topic is - once more - not about gaming: it is about reading. I used to fill my hours reading anything I could get my hands on as a child. At school, we had weekly tasks, and each week I finished them as fast as I could, so I could spend half of Thursday and the whole of Friday reading. Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that at university and since I now need to read so much professionally, I don't feel like reading for fun so much anymore. And now there is gaming, too, to distract me. 

Fandom Friday seemed like a good opportunity to look at what books I have laying around that I want to read this year. Turns out it's a very diverse company! I love reading in my native language (Dutch) as well, but somehow I don't have any Dutch books waiting for me at the moment.

Films I'm excited for in 2017

I was happily typing away at my newest drawing diary, when I found out that the 5 Fandom Fridays are back! I used to love these, because they offer a different perspective to what I usually write about. So I dropped the drawing diary (you'll get that Monday) for this post about films. I know is not gaming, but who doesn't like movies? Here are five films (and some bonus ones) I'm excited for in 2017.

Fandoms that I never thought I'd like (but did)

Today's 5 Fandom Friday post was enthusiastically called "Fandoms You LOVE But Didn't Think You Would!" I usually try to keep an open mind and not dismiss things without knowing them. I obviously fail at this, though, because I managed to come up with this list of five anyway!

Food in MMOs

Today's 5 Fandom Friday is about favourite fictional food. Looking for my traditional gaming twist, I decided to investigate why we have food in games. After all, if you think about it, there's no need to use food in a digital environment. However, I will argue that food does play a role in MMOs - the game type I spend most time playing - as a method of implementing realism and familiarity to digital environments. Here are some examples from the games I play. As always, your own examples from other games are very welcome in the comments!

Life Day greetings from Nar Shaddaa

A belated merry Christmas! Err... I mean, happy Life Day of course! In SWTOR, Christmas is celebrated in true Star Wars style and that means a Life Day celebration. This is what Wookieepedia says about Life Day, or "Wookiee Christmas":

"Life Day was a Wookiee holiday celebrated by the inhabitants of Kashyyyk every three years. It was a celebration of the planet's diverse ecosystem and the many forms of life it encompassed. It also was a time to remember family members who had died, and the young ones who continued to bring new life to a family. Life Day was a sacred holiday, and many Wookiees considered it their duty to return to Kashyyyk in order to celebrate it. Life Day was held once every three local years for many generations, but during the Galactic Civil War, its importance to the Wookiees became more pronounced. Wookiees were spread across the galaxy, either because they had been enslaved by the Galactic Empire or for personal reasons, and they began celebrating Life Day each year as a way to remain in touch with their history. Over time, the holiday found its way into various other cultures." (source: Wookieepedia)

The Female Geek Blogger community is die-hard: what do you mean, Christmas? It's a Friday, so there's 5 Fandom Fridays to be written! This one was themed "favourite holiday decorations".

A Christmas wishlist - Star Wars edition

This week's 5 Fandom Friday topic was "5 things on your Christmas wishlist". Now I don't usually see the point of wishlists since 1) they just make me want things I cannot afford and 2) Christmas is not celebrated with presents in the Netherlands (we have Sinterklaas for that) so a wishlist at the end of December doesn't make much sense to me, but I made an exception for this one, because of the upcoming The Force Awakens movie. There's just so much cool Star Wars stuff around, it's insane! So here are some Star Wars things I wouldn't mind finding underneath the Christmas tree (if I had one).

Star Wars characters I would love to dress up as for Halloween

...if only I could sew. And actually be able to attend the two Halloween parties I've been invited for. All I'll say is, chronic diseases SUCK. Almost as much as your boyfriend wanting to watch Heartstone tournaments instead of playing Star Wars: the Old Republic with you. Anyway...

Summarized, if my life would be more awesome, I would definitely dress up as:

(Spoiler alert: this post features the names and pictures of some main characters of the recently released Knights of the Fallen Empire expansion. However, there are no spoilers about the story developments.)

Teachers of the Old Republic

Padawans at the Tython training grounds

If you like numbered lists you're in for a treat this week. After my "6 orange-pictures" post on Tuesday's 6 on 6 it's time for yet another classic: 5 Fandom Friday!* This week's theme was "5 Favourite Teachers". As always, I'm turning to the Star Wars universe for help and selected my favourite teachers from online multiplayer game Star Wars: the Old Republic (SWTOR).

This post includes some mild spoilers (like the names of some companions and NPCs that are encountered through various class stories), but I took care not to mention any major plot spoilers. Oh, and I totally would have included Yoda, but he wasn't there yet in the Old Republic! *runs off to file a formal complaint*

Star Wars pets I'd like to adopt

Today's 5 Fandom Friday* is about fictional pets I'd like to own. Of course I'm going for the Star Wars: The Old Republic approach and I've managed to select five favourites out of the large heap of likeable animals that the Star Wars universe offers. Here we go:

My favourite SWTOR aliens

Today's Fandom Friday* was all about aliens: name your five favourite ones. Enough contenders, for a sci-fi fan such as I. I could easily do a Star Trek special for this one: a favourite today named by both How to Fangirl for Adults and dePepi is Spock (but what's with the second spot; surely that should've been the first!), another is the pair of Odo and Quark, also mentioned by dePepi (just thinking of them makes me want to re-watch Deep Space 9 again!). If I would look at movies, I'd definitely include Rocket Raccoon from Guardians of the Galaxy**, mentioned by My Open Sketchbook (I adore him so, he made that movie work for me!). Also, I can't believe nobody featured Yoda (edit: Bad Wolf Brunch did, just now)! If we're looking at games, I'd totally include Mission and Zaalbaar from KOTOR I and Liara and Wrex (!!!) from Mass Effect. Too much inspiration: perhaps I'm a nerd after all?

Okay, keep calm, disengage fangirl mode... I gotta stay on-topic here: favourite aliens from Star Wars: The Old Republic. Seeing as the Star Wars universe is thriving with aliens, this should be an easy one... right? Check out my picks below and find out how aliens are portrayed in my favourite Star Wars MMO.

The nerdiest things I've done

Drawing Wrex of Mass Effect in my agenda: geeky or nerdy?

Time for another Fandom Friday!* I learn a lot from these events. Today: apparently there's a verb called "to nerd". It sounds like a geek word. A while ago, I read an about a group of scientists that had looked into the cultural meaning of the words "nerd" and "geek" based on their linguistic use. If I remember correctly, their conclusion was that "geek" is mostly related to fandom of things considered nerdy, while "nerd" is not. It's obviously a grayscale thing, hence the heated arguments about the definitions.

I don't really identify as either a geek or nerd, but it wasn't very hard for me to come up with five things I did that could be considered nerdy. (I left out the video gaming, as that would hardly be a surprise.) It's up to you to say if they qualify!

Mums in games

Pokémon mums, by ViViVooVoo

When I saw that last week's 5 Fandom Friday* theme was "favourite fictional mums", I knew I was going to have a hard time adapting this to "favourite mums in games". What I did not know was that I would have to scratch the "favourite" part altogether, because there simply wasn't enough data. With games traditionally focusing on the combat adventures of healthy, young characters; mothers, associated with homeliness, parenting and familial relationships, don't exactly score high on the agendas of game developers.

I'm sure there are some games featuring great mothers out there, but for now I'll focus on two questions: how many mums are there actually in the games I play? And: in what way is motherhood portrayed?

The games I love to play

F.l.t.r.: Valiant Hearts: the Great War, SWTOR, Guild Wars 2, Pokémon Emerald, LOTRO

This week's Fandom Friday* challenge was themed "the five games you love to play". Now for me this was a bit of a problematic challenge, as the only things I talk about are games, so most of you guys will already know what games I play (also, the text underneath "About this blog" to the right sort of gives it away). However, I play my games in different manners: for me there's a game for each time and mind state. So in addition to providing you with an overview, I'll look into what I get out of these games as well. When do I choose to play them, and why is that so?

Pipe dreams: SWTOR items I'd like to own for reals

Today's 5 Fandom Friday challenge was "five magical items you'd want to own".* Items from Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings were popular, but I wanted to stick to the Star Wars theme for this one. After all, the force is pretty much magic anyway (no, don't even think about those stupid midichlorians). So here I present to you: the five things from Star Wars that I'd love to have in my analog life.

SWTOR characters I would name my children after

I've recently joined the Google+ Female Geek Bloggers community, a group of female bloggers with a weekly challenge called 5 Fandom Friday. The last one was "Characters I'd Name My Kids After". This is one I could relate to. So here are five SWTOR characters I could imagine calling my kids after. If you put a gun to my head. Seriously!