Pokémon: Hated by all

You know that feeling? You're walking through a cave and then... *groan*.

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So there are also pokémon I don't like. Many, actually. Today's post is an exception in that I actually drew a pokémon that annoys the hell out of me. You know the one, imagine you're walking through a cave (any cave, I don't think there are any without it)...

Apart from annoying, Zubat is also quite ugly. But if anything stopped me from ever leveling one, it's its evolution Golbat, which is remarkably even more ugly. I usually just catch both forms for my collection and never look back.

However, now Tiger told me that there is another evolution, Crobat. He showed me a picture and I grudgingly had to admit that it looks pretty awesome. So now I need to take a deep breath and level a Golbat. The positive side is that I potentially don't have to level it more than one level. It just needs to like me.

Pokémon start to like you if you drag them around large distances within a pokéball in your bag (no way). Since I don't want to be physically close to Golbat for that long, I'm going for the alternative, bribery haircuts. While I myself procrastinate going to the barber until I really can't comb through my hair anymore because it's so dead, pokémon apparently really like going to the barber, and in turn start to like their trainer more for being so kind as to take them there. The fact that many of them (Golbat included) don't really have any hair doesn't matter, the mere imaginative thought of being at the barber already makes them superhappy. I'll spam the hell out of these 'haircuts' and will try to acquire a Crobat this way. You'll hear about the result in another post.

Last but not least, I found this comic that made me laugh so hard:

By Jallcomics.com

See? It's not just me!

Apart from this particular comic being hilarious, I thought it was pretty cool that Jall writes on his site that he started drawing pokémon just to experiment with how to use a tablet. You know, basically like I'm doing now with this pokémon article series. So who knows, there might still be hope for me. Maybe. If I'm lucky!

SWTOR: Defying gravity

Some people are cool, others are just waaay cooler. Sanju Pyne thinks he's the man after BSOCK with Yuniper on Balmorra. He just forgets one tiny detail...

LOTRO: Should you pre-order Helm's Deep?

In Helm's Deep, even hobbits can be fearsome

I was startled by the announcement that LotRO's newest expansion, Helm's Deep, will be released November 18th. With the Beta only started a few weeks ago, I was hoping the devs would take some extra time to polish the new expansion. Especially since I sometimes get the feeling that Helm's Deep will make or break the game.

Dooooom and stuff

As an active LotRO player since the game's launching year, 2007, I can say that the in-game world of my server Gilrain hasn't been as quiet as it is now. The autumn days of the Mirkwood expansion was the last time I experienced something like this, but then Free-to-play managed to save the game from its difficult situation by attracting many new players. Nowadays, I'm not only bothered by the 'Snowbourn movers' (people moving to that higher populated EU server) and the silence in the world of Middle-earth, but also by the online silence in the blogosphere. Over the last year, I've noticed a massive decrease in active LotRO fan blogs, not to mention its largest, A Casual Stroll To Mordor, changing its title into Casually Strolling Through MMOs. I don't want to be overly negative here, but let's just say Helm's Deep better be darn good.

Anyway, if you haven't seen it yet, here's the official Helm's Deep video:



I personally had to giggle a bit at the "Batman style" voice over and music combined with the kinda cute old style LotRO design there. Oh oh, trailer designers...

Considerations

Now as some of you might know, I've lately been playing LotRO on a casual basis only. Hence where my question last year was what I was expecting of Riders of Rohan and whether to pre-order the expensive legendary edition or the cheaper version of the expansion, I now find myself torn by the question if I should buy Helm's Deep at all.

Okay, let me clarify here, this doesn't solely have to do with the prices (which are once again very steep). The pre-order options are more or less the same as they were with the Riders of Rohan, with similar prices for a legendary and a basic edition ($59.99/€53,99/£44.99 and $39.99/€35,99/£29.99 respectively). There's a good analysis here on CSTM that I'll point to rather than just replicate the content of the editions here. It suffices to say that the fluff mostly consists of the Amour of the Hammerhand and the Steed of the Hammerhand of which you see the pictures in this post.

My hesitation to pre-order has to do with how much of a Turbine fangirl I am (not so much one).

There will be content that I will certainly enjoy: I'm sure the landscape will be beautiful once again, there will be new quests and a good epic story line. The developers have never let us down there. But do I want to spend so much money just for that? There is something else that has been bothering me.

End game

With Riders of Rohan, we got a raid cluster that felt like a skirmish to me. Sure, it had challenges, but the total absence of any trash mobs and the fact that you just got ported to another place right in front of the boss without any common 'main dungeon' for all three instances made it not feel like real raid for me. Somehow (and I still don't completely understand why) the Erebor raids weren't engaging for me and it was the same for a large part of my raiding kinship, which became less active as a result. This is extra sad because my kinship is one of the main raiding kinships of my server since the days of Moria, with many server first take-downs.

To my fear, Turbine has declared that Helm's Deep's end game content will consist of 'Big Battles', which sound like huge skirmishes to me. In addition there will be far stretching class changes. While I like good changes, the devs' talent for buggy content makes me very weary. Generally, I get the impression that Turbine has looked at where most money comes from, concluded that it is from casual players, and is now taking the game in that direction. Which is fine if you're a casual player, but for me as an end game player this diminishes my interest in LotRO.

Should you pre-order Helm's Deep?

When thinking about all this I realized that there were so many different things to consider.

And then, oh dear, I got a creative attack and had to abuse my Bamboo tablet once more. So here is your very own Horse of Wisdom to determine whether or not to buy Helm's Deep:

Now I'm sure not even this Mearas steed is perfect, but I'm still very much curious as to what decision you ended up with. Me, it was "No, but consider buying with release". Even though that pre-order armour looks so darn sexy (and that on a hobbit).

Although the direction LotRO is heading might not be very pleasant for me personally, I do still feel curious as to find out what Helm's Deep will be like. I might spend my hoard of Turbine Points on the expansion rather than real money. If I'm unlucky and end game and class changes disappoint, I will at least be able to complete the epic story and explore the new landscape.

Many thanks to my friend Ger from Gilrain for offering his services as a handsome hobbit-mannequin-in-armour.

Pokémon: Lapras

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Recommended listening: Surf theme.

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I admit that this isn't my best drawing and I made it rather quickly, but nevertheless, my newest water pokémon issssss... Lapras!

I have a terrible problem with water pokémon. There are simply too many nice ones of them, so I never manage to pick one. I usually level one up, evolve it, then switch it for another one I like etc. This counts for grass type pokémon as well, by the way. This way I keep leveling new pokémon over and over.

But I managed to catch this Lapras on a Monday (which is the only day it appears in the game, in some backwater cave) and decided to stick with it for a bit. In the TV series, Lapras apparently functions as a ferry, carrying loads of people over the water. As I was busy surfing along the Whirl Islands, I thought it was appropriate to use him (it even shows a Lapras icon by default if you're surfing).

Why Lapras? 1) Both ice and water type, therefore being less weak towards plant type 2) Gentle, soft and cute ( 2) of course being the most important)!

More grave dilemmas and water pokémon to follow in my next pokémon post.

LOTRO: Popular among goats

I continued to explore Wildermore with Tiger the other day. We found the Dunlending girl Nona in a cave, where she was taking care of wounded Rohirrim she rescued. I really like the love story of her and Horn, and I so hope it's going to end up well between those two! It is the main motivation for me to complete the Wildermore quests. We also had to bring some tame goats to refugees hiding in caves. Because we were questing with two we got double the amount: a whole army of goats running after us (bottom picture). Two didn't want to leave after handing the quest in and followed us for the rest of the day. It was kinda cute, I've never had a goat pet before.

I am still bothered by the fact that I'm only enjoying LotRO in a casual manner. After Wildermore, there will be nothing that attracts me to the game as it is. There are so many things wrong with LotRO that I occasionally fear that it is beyond repair and then I wonder why this bothers me so much. It is only a game, is it not? But then again, it was my first MMO and it bewitched me as soon as I set foot in Middle-earth. This is the game where I made my first online friends, where I learned how to raid and fell in love with the lovely class that is the lore-master. And last but not least, it is where I met the amazing Tiger, with whom I continue to explore many other games.

Wildermore might be the only thing left for me before Helm's Deep, but at least I got this romantic picture (top one) of Tiger and me, the moon and the (photobombing?) pet goats. I was pleasantly surprised when I checked my screenshots folder, because it's possibly the best picture I have of Fingolwë and Ravanel (or Tiger and I) together.

SWTOR: Busy, small and furry

University life is busier than ever this first week of the new college year, so that's why I've been a little quiet this week. As far as I can see my homework load fluctuate through the week, I'll probably have to settle for posts at the start and the end of the week, say Monday and Thursday/Friday.

For the rest, meet Treek, my new ewok companion! I know, I know, it took me like a month to scrape together that 1 mil required, but I refuse to grind for things, even if it's just money. After I hired her, I spent some Cartel points to unlock her for all my characters and then I couldn't resist to get some customizations as well. I really adore this one with the eye patch for Y-u'no's Treek. She works amazingly well, tanking for me as well as giving herself some small heals now and then. Follows me around a bit less like a loyal dog, too (read: Corso).

I think Treek's animations look hilarious. She leaps into battle using makeshift wings and heals herself with cute green bubbles.

Now I just need to find out what gifts she likes, so I can find out more about that strange ewok history of her.

SWTOR: Obviously a guild picture

The Imperial guild I'm in has been having a group picture in TfB on their website for a long while, but there were quite some people on there who I didn't know and probably weren't even in the game anymore. It was time for a new one! I'd never done a planned guild picture before, but they put an event on the calender and everything, so I thought it was pretty cool and attended. Weeks of thinking about the locations had preceded this.

The top picture was taken at the Elysium on Alderaan (you need to pick up a quest that unlocks a speeder to get there), the bottom on top of a building on Korriban (we had to pull people up there). Can you find my sorcerer Fárah on the pictures?

Anyway, our official guild photographer probably took better pictures (I would need to change the game files so I can zoom out further - keep forgetting about that), but they're still on their way. For now I'll have to do with these. I'm still not sure which setting is the best one.

What's the best group picture of your guild?