Stuff and Games

Posted by Stropp on April 23, 2009 So. Haven't posted for a while. It's been one of those times where I haven't really felt like I've had anything much to say. The project I'm on at work has also joined the critical path, which is a nice way for management to say "get it done you mongrels!" It also means, ironically, that there are more meetings taking time from development to discuss the development. That's one of the reasons I love Dilbert. It's funny because it's true! I'm also finding myself considering the future of some of my gaming. Don't worry, I'm not on the outs with gaming or MMORPGs, on the contrary, I'm currently having a lot of fun with LotRO but more on that later. The problem I face is that the contract I'm on completes at the end of June. I've been told they will extend it for another three months, but only three months, however until I have the extension signed there is still a bunch of uncertainty. Unfortunately there have been a few big layoffs from other companies in the sector I work in, and the vacancies have dropped right off. To make matters worse, the contracting agency has told me that, after nearly ten years in this sector, my skills are now not really suited to work outside that sector. The crisis has not killed vacancies there, but it's a lot more competitive and employers want exact impossible matches. (As an aside, I heard last night that even newsagencies -- newspaper and magazine stores -- want to only hire staff with years of newsagency experience!) Goal number one, Save. Reduce my expenses. And that means I may need to shut down some subscriptions to games I don't play that much. LotRO is safe. I have a lifetime membership. But then there's Eve, World of Warcraft, Station Access... I think the first on the chopping block will be WoW. While I do enjoy playing it, I'm not sure it's giving me the bang for the buck. Then there's a toss up between Eve and SOE. Station Access is expensive, but there are a few games available. EQ, EQ2,  and Vanguard which I own make it a reasonable sub. Hmmm. More thought needed. Anyway, on to the good stuff. As I mentioned, I've been playing LotRO a lot more lately. Not so much during the week, but the weekends have been Tolkien packed bundles of gaming goodness. Majikthise, the Woman Hunter, has completed books one and two, nearly done three, and has  started on book four. Over the last four weekends (not so much this last weekend though) she has leveled from 21 to just short of 37. The biggest problem I've faced is the sheer number of fellowship quests that are given. Fortunately the leveling curve is now such that I can just go on to the next solo quest area and keep leveling. Unfortunately that means a lot of the group quests end up going gray and I dump them. (Apparently that's not so bad in the Moria expansion.) I've done a few of these fellowship quests as PUGs, including the epic fellowship quests, but it's not always easy finding a PUG, let alone a good one. I've been lucky in that most weren't all that bad. Majikthise is now running around Evendim doing her bit to save Middle Earth. There's probably not that much left there, maybe a day or two, and then it'll be off to the Trollshaws.