Devilian: Placing Flowers On The Grave

 
Sunday night I hit level 50 in Devilian, and it seemed like a good place to quit. I really enjoyed this game. Whenever it was dull, new surprises, game modes, or pretty landscapes kept the interest level going.

The many dungeons were fun and well-tuned.

I chalked up Leonore on my Hall of Fame (characters) page. I went back to Hearthstone last night, still with a return to WoW on my mind. The action RPG genre isn’t a world I want to live in.

Hearthstone has a simpler, gentler enjoyment. There are no Brazilians calling me a stupid whore. There are no evil clown guild masters telling me to either get on Discord, or I’m kicked.

Devilian swept me into a beautiful dark world, and just as quickly to the cliff of looking down my elf nose at the human-kind, and just wanting to leave it all behind.

I’m sure Devilian’s social schemes work better in Asia.

So I don’t have too much to say, but I wanted to write a post-mortem. Syp also wrote a progress report today. I tried to friend Syp in-game (I think, unless someone took his name), but I couldn’t because the chat box drop-down bugged out.

The dropdown disappeared every time I tried to scroll down and click to add friend. The bugs really weren’t a killer. Everything is good and recommendable for what it is.

Like Syp, I really liked the floppy-ear pet that picks up loot for you. I could see myself wanting to pay for that service full time.

The most memorable bug was when I left the game running on the start screen for three or four hours, and the devil-girl’s breasts started heaving at some point with machine-like 10 x speed.

This was the nature of most bugs I saw – they only occurred after hours of playing.

I wish Trion the best of luck with success and profitability on Devilian. I’ve noticed a significant uptick of Rift guide traffic since Devilian launched, maybe showing that Trion’s ecosystem (Glyph) is also working well for them.

Weekly Wyrm: Trion Livestream, Devilian Etc.

This week I finished part one of Life is Strange, got halfway through Act 2 of Diablo 3, went from level 35 to 55 in Guild Wars 2, and played some Devilian Beta.

I’m not motivated to advance past level 30 in Devilian. The beta characters will be wiped before launch, which is expected by the end of the year. So I focused on watching the Friday official livestream.

Drewcifer (producer for Devilian NA/EU) mentioned not wanting to launch against Star Wars, and also implied a reluctance to go against all the current big releases this month in November.

Since Star Wars ep. 7 is December 18, and Battlefront is this coming week on the heels of Fallout 4 and Black Ops, this kitty guesses Devilian in 3-4 weeks after Thanksgiving.

Drewcifer said a new super-momentous producer letter will be released in the coming days, to be discussed next Friday on the next livestream. So I’d guess we get a release date.

Trion also mentioned some new team members on Devilian. I’ve started working on a newbie guide, but I’m just trying to learn the game myself at this point. So we’ll see.

Anyone can supposedly join the beta this weekend by buying the $20 starter pack.

Victoria Voss said if you’re interested in streaming Devilian, please contact them via the forums, and they will help you get set up.

Drewcifer said there was nothing they can do about the gender-locked classes, which is the most criticized feature at this point. The devs said there is no chance of doing opposite genders for each class, but they mentioned a possibility of adding variations of classes with the opposite gender.

More classes are coming to Devilian in the coming months, which is more than Elder Scrolls Online can say 18 months after launch. One new class was previewed recently, and it’s a great addition to the female selection.

The two current female options are cute and cuter, so the bad girl theme is a really good idea, as is melee. For the sake of the game, a wizard or ranger type for the guys seems even better.

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Rift

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In the Rift livestream, the devs mentioned they are bringing the Sparkle Quest back, along with Rift patch 3.5, which will include Fae Yule. Last year’s Sparkle Quest was a weekly where you did all sorts of Rift content, and you could get a random piece of tier gear.

This time will not be a weekly that turns all players magically into insane hamsters. You can only do it once for a tier 3 piece. You’ll be able to choose if you want DPS/heal or tank gear. It’s still random between those two types. No weapons this time. Only armor and accessories.

Patch 3.5 will also bring upgrades to PvP gears, PvP convenience improvements, and a button on the crafting panel that lets you jump directly to the correct component to buy in the store. Now that’s some seasonal joy!

Also, all mounts can now be made amphibious, but they still need to be unlocked. The devs went to great efforts to do this, and they need fat paychecks for their NorCal rent. Trion is also hiring, but they apparently need lots of senior and director people.

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Personal

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This week I was also reading and uploading new versions of my books to stamp out typos. It’s depressing that I made so many mistakes in my final attempt to be perfect. The editor has been flogged.

At least two succubus-focused reviewers may be looking at my books soon, so I’m also marketing more towards the succubus theme at this point. I’m advertising for that on a super-secret bad girl blog.

It’s secret, but I have 750 followers on that blog. How does that happen? Believe it or not, video games are not the most popular online topic.

Today I tried to make sushi. I made the rolls ok, but the rice tasted horrible. I’m still burping up that fake crab leg crud. The sweet potato roll was more promising. I’ll try to do better next time, senpai.

Happy Friday, and happy gaming.

Blizzard ~ Going Up Or Going Down

A few days ago I bought stock in Blizzard-Activision. The stock has been crushed in the last month, supposedly due to the initial bad reaction and reviews of Destiny (Activision), and I would assume the cancellation of Titan is also a factor.

I know better with Destiny. I think. Destiny seems to have solid post-launch traction with the Joe and Jane console gamers, and most comments I see are surprisingly positive. So why not take a chance with an industry that I know?

The chart of Blizzard’s stock looks terrifyingly horrible, though. It bounced with the big market bounce in the last week, but it still underperformed, and it’s limping dangerously below its trend lines. I hope I don’t lose too much for comfort before the earnings announcement on 11/4.

That would be a problem.

It would be worse if the stock tanked on earnings, I sold, and then a big announcement came at Blizzcon. That would be this kitty’s luck recently. I don’t recommending pushing chips at Blizzard, but if there’s a surprise of any kind, and I think there could be, there could be big profit.

Raptr from last month shows a strong surge in Diablo 3, and Hearthstone is holding position for Blizzard to dominate the top ten most played PC games. (Destiny is not in PC.) They also have Warcraft the movie coming in 2016, but who knows.

Any opinions on Blizzard? Will they have a big announcement at Blizzcon? They already announced Hearthstone will go to mobile early next year. Hearthstone is an awesome game.

I hope dedicated U.S. kitty readers perked their ears and got some chips in during last week’s panic sell-off over Ebola, Europe, and China. You might have made 5-10% since then. Or maybe things aren’t over yet. I think money coming from Europe and Asia in off-hours has been a big factor in the rally, but I won’t bore readers any further.

This is just a little blurb that I’ve kept short on purpose. I’ve got good writing material for the weekend, including a secret sex scandal in a big upcoming RPG the kitty uncovered this week while pawing through a developer Tumblr. I hope Massively doesn’t scoop me. :3

So go Blizzard! I never thought I’d be cheering for Blizzard, but Trion is a private company. So. I’ll have reactions on Nightmare Tide when I have more of them. Today I’m a wee bit annoyed, but I’ll get over it.

Nightmare Tide: Toes In The Water

This was a memorable week with two highlights: a Nightmare Tide beta key courtesy of Khellendross on his livestream, and KKBB was linked and quoted on Massively.

Last month I saw TAGN linked on Massively, and I thought–wow! That’s when you know you’re a big time, well-known MMO blogger. You’re quoted on Massively.

Well, for one week KKBB stood furry ear-to-ear with TAGN and KTR, and I would like to thank Justin Olivetti (Biobreak) for that.

So the visits to KKBB spiked for a couple days and went back to baseline, leaving in their wake a minor heightened terror of saying stupid things. At least I have a beta key and good screens meow, like this beautiful screenshot of a huge shark and little air bubbles in Goboro Reef.

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Rift: Nightmare Tide Beta Pre-Impressions

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I have things to say, but it’s too soon. The new expansion is super-colorful, which is super-good. I’ve criticized the Rift color palette on this blog, and this time around the artists are unleashing the color. So far it looks great.

There is a fair amount of intentional mermaid half-nudity. All mermaids are female apparently, otherwise they wouldn’t be “maids”. Surely there are mer-men with glorious pectorals somewhere though.

According to the official lore linked above, the particular mermaid we met in the Ember Isle prologue piece is returning, which is good news for a good, memorable character. You can meet Arethea and hear her singing on Youtube. The chat is just visible, allowing a glimpse into the expansion lore.

Arethea can surely attract a handsome mer-man with her song. Unless the mer-men disappeared like the Ent-wives, lured to their doom by an evil octopus sorceress with less Disney-fied priorities in life. I doubt it.

I asked Khellendross on his stream whether he thought the Nightmare Tide expansion was ready for release, and he didn’t seem sure. I’m not sure either. Supposedly the devs are working well ahead of the state of the beta.

For example, the official Minions livestream showed numerous issues, which have since been fixed. We know this because the Rift devs are so awesome with communicating. So we’ll see.

Nightmare Tide is wedged uncomfortably between the releases of Archeage and Warlords Of Draenor right now. (I’ll never give Warlords the acronym of WoD, which rightfully belongs to World of Darkness. This still makes the kitty’s blood curdle.)

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Archeage

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The tide of public opinion seems to be turning in favor of Archeage. I’m thrilled for Trion. I hope they have a huge hit on their hands.

I watched some low-level dungeon gameplay from AyinMaiden on Youtube, which is the first time I’ve seen anything in Archeage that really grabbed me and made me want to play.

The fighting looks fun, actiony yet with familiar tab targeting that this kitty prefers. I’m not so sure that resource squirreling for trees and carrots will appeal to the kitty long term, or losing everything in PvP.

I saw some pirates wipe out a livestreamer last night through the open-world PvP. It was fun to watch, but he and his crew were not happy campers. So it’s probably a bad idea to livestream a dangerous resource transport. Noted.

The Rift forums are really dead right now, and surely Trion is cannabalizing some of its players. Can Trion offer an all-access subscription through Glyph? Or does F2P even lend itself well to that?

I’d be much more likely to go play Archeage if my Rift sub transferred, and thereby stay subbed to Trion on a long term basis.

Trion is the only MMO developer this year that landed a tactical shot to Blizzard with its timing. Blizzard is normally the aggressor, taking aim at ESO by announcing pre-orders right before ESO’s launch, and then announcing beta right before Wildstar, like a bully walking into a debutante party and waving around a giant penis.

Regardless of what happens, I’m cheering for Scott Hartsman and Trion. I hope everything turns out well for them in the end.

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Personal

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In personal news, in addition to exploring the Rift beta, I’ve slogged on with my rogue using an Assassin build, which is better than Ranger in return for more effort. It’s one of the top DPS builds in the game.

So I went from level 52 to level 58 in just one week. As of my last post, I’d given up leveling my rogue at 52, and made her an Assassin just to hunt artifacts. The ‘sin turned out so well that I went back to leveling. She brings back fond memories of my old hobbit burglar.

My rogue is still an artie hunter, but I really need the faster 150% horse available at level 60. Thanks for reading, and happy Rifting or Arching or whatever you’re up to.