New Photo Gallery Format

As I excitedly prep for the headstart release of Rift: Planes of Telara in just a few short days, I’m trying to get my blog overhaul completed to start fresh in conjunction with a fresh game. First on my list was the theme. What do you think? My gaming blog has only had two looks over the past five years, so I thought it was high time to give it a design facelift. There are a few little tweaks I’m still working on, but overall I’m pleased and hope you like it, too.

A big part of the design overhaul was getting away from my old Flash-based screenshot gallery. Not only did I receive lots of complaints about it from readers whose Flash or browsers weren’t up-to-date (and the coding of it was ooooold), but it was also not very streamlined with the blog design itself. Not to mention I hadn’t updated screenshots in years. (Oops.) I had promised way back when that I would eventually re-do the screenshot gallery in a non-Flash format, and today I took the time to revamp the gallery and build it right in to the blog itself. You’ll notice the new button across the top for Photos and the link along the right has been changed to take you to the new Photo Gallery, too. Give it a spin and let me know what you think! And if you catch me linking to the old gallery anywhere please let me know; I’ve tried my best to change old links to direct to the new gallery, but I may have missed a few. While switching the gallery over, I preserved most of the nostalgic screenshots and added a few more, especially to the WoW section that had been neglected. And I updated the photos of myself to be more current, too. I hope it’s an improvement over the old system! Right now the old gallery is still accessible mostly because I have linked A LOT of its images on various articles, but once I feel comfortable that I’ve caught it all, I’ll finally delete it.

In gaming news, I got to level up both my bard and healing cleric a bit more in beta 7 of Rift this weekend, and I think I’m going to lean towards bard as my main soul with cleric secondary. We’ll see! There’s still lots of time left to ponder, and I’ll be doing some reading between now and headstart next week, too. Thanks to a friendly commenter here on the blog, I feel like I’ve found a guild home in Gaiscioch, and will be rolling my characters on the PvE-RP shard, once shard names are released. I can’t wait! Gaiscioch sounds like an honest-to-goodness family, with structure and adult maturity. Everyone seems very supportive and helpful, and the guild has been together since 2001 across several games. They also seem to be very flexible and supportive of those who have a more casual playstyle, which is important to me heading into the last handful of months before the geekling is due. All I know right now is that I will be a dwarf (Guardian) on whichever the PvE-RP shard is, and I’ll also release my character names once I have those decided upon and squared away at headstart. See you in-game! Hope you’re as excited as I am, and hope to fight alongside (or against, if you’re Defiant!) soon.

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Overhaul Incoming!

Don’t you love that the gaps between my posts are big enough that by the time I post again, I’ve already stopped playing the game I posted about previously and am playing something else?

Life has been busy for this gamer girl. I’ve come to a startling conclusion lately: while I LOVE to game, I’m not as hardcore as I used to be. I’m not running in hardcore endgame raiding guilds anymore, nor am I spending every minute of my evenings after work in-game. I still game, and love trying new games out, but I don’t have the time to participate at the same level I used to. I don’t remember this advertised very clearly on the package for adulthood; is it too late to get a refund?

Like my excuse every post, I’ve been busy. My geeky soap business is incredibly successful and we had an amazing holiday season! I’m working on some new things and working with some fabulous people on some exciting projects in the upcoming future, so that’s been keeping me occupied in the evenings when I get home from work.

In addition to that, my husband and I are expecting our first child in four months now. At just over halfway along, I’m finally starting to FEEL pregnant along with looking pregnant, and sitting at the computer all evening isn’t as comfortable. Not to mention that I’m itching to knit baby stuff all the time. Knitting time has trumped gaming time. What universe are we living in?! Call me crazy, but we find out next week whether we’re having a geek or a geekette, and I can’t wait to dig in on the knitting in preparation. So in four months, what little time I’m currently spending on games will be practically nonexistant. Not that I’m complaining, mind you, because I’ll need something to keep me awake during 3am feedings while rocking the geekling back to sleep, but I realize my time in-game will be slim to none very soon, and I am ok with that because my family has ALWAYS been my first priority already. Now with my little family expanding, this is even more important.

My husband had a bit of a medical scare two weeks ago, and so I’ve spent a fair amount of time at the hospital instead of home. And when he got home from the hospital, it was with a very strict low sodium restriction, and we’ve had to completely overhaul what we make and how we cook. Not because we add lots of salt to our food, but because if any part of the meal comes from a box or a can, it’s already got too much sodium. Which means new recipes and A LOT of pure cooking from raw ingredients. Not difficult to do, but cooking full meals from scratch every night takes time. Time that I am more than happy to spend because again, priorities – the health of my husband is the most important – but you can see how my gaming life trend is to be more casual.

So what does this have to do with anything? Well, I’ve decided that yet again, World of Warcraft is boring me to tears. I can’t get motivated to login when I do have time to play. I have friends who play, which is what motivated me to come back in the first place, but because I keep up with them socially elsewhere, I don’t feel the need to keep up the WoW subscription to keep in touch with them. And then because gaps between playing with a busy schedule can sometimes stretch on like the time between my blog posts here, I found myself getting fickle with WoW again. I spent a week in the hospital with Lucas, and now that things are back under control, I realize I didn’t miss WoW even a little bit in that absence. It’s the same way when I get busy with soap orders or begin a knitting project; I may not get a chance to login to WoW one night, and I’m finding more and more that I just don’t care. Clearly the game just isn’t keeping my interest. I tried by tackling Cataclysm with an old hunter character that I hadn’t touched in years to give me a new perspective, and it worked for awhile but I need something that pulls me back in, not something I’ve played for 6 years. And sure, there’s been new content in the form of the expansion, which promised to breathe new life into old zones, but I still feel like I can navigate and play with my eyes closed. It’s just not exciting me anymore. I need something fresh, a new start where I can participate casually and enjoy the little time that I do have to login.

I had a comment on my last post from Randy asking me if I had heard about this game in beta called Rift: Planes of Telara, and then I noticed someone talking about Rift on my Twitter feed, and how they were playing the beta also. I looked into the game, and the fact it had a bard class caught my eye immediately. I loved playing a bard class in EQ2. Lucas’ EVE corp had some members who posted a few VIP beta keys on their forum, and he passed one to me to try. I jumped in during beta 5 and enjoyed what I saw. Enough that I’ve pre-ordered the game. Something about the depth of customization with the soul system really pulled at me. Not to mention it’s a fresh start in a new setting with a world that I haven’t explored before. Because really, I’m being honest: I won’t be hardcore especially as we get closer to my due date. But when I do login, I want it to be a new experience that holds my interest because I’ve not done it all before. And who knows, Rift may fall flat. It may be like my Aion experience where I followed it, got in early on the beta, and pre-ordered only to cancel a month later. But hey, even if it gives me something to do for only a month, it’s still a new experience to tackle fresh from the beginning with everyone else. I’m prepared to approach it from a more casual point of view, and as long as I keep that in mind, I’m ok with that.

More about my thoughts on Rift later this week in another post as we head into open beta. And maybe some screenshots, too! With the anticipation of something new to try, I’ve been inspired to overhaul the design of my gaming blog, too, so be on the lookout for a design change in the near future.

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The Huntress Returns in Cataclysm

Back in the very beginning of WoW, I made a night elf Hunter named Peppermint. She was my first character, and got to around level 46 in vanilla before I realized I was just one of a million identical night elf Hunters on my realm, and dungeon groups were always full on Hunters. I placed her on the back burner and rolled Toque, my pink pigtailed gnome Warlock that later became my official online alias and the face of my gaming presence when it came to WoW and all of the other games I played. I still wrote for the Azeroth Advisor for years and contributed to their Hunter columns, later becoming a Hunter Content Editor. I kept going back to Peppermint every now and then, but when I went Horde and rolled a Druid, I though I’d never look back.

At some point in my WoW past, I felt like I was on top of the Hunter class and how it functioned. Then Peppermint was abandoned for years. Then the cataclysmic sundering of  Azeroth took place, and everything changed forever. The Hunter class got a huge overhaul. Some friends of mine rolled and moved Alliance toons to a new server and I decided to join them there, and give Hunter another try. The changes intrigued me. Try as I did to re-roll a new Hunter, even a worgen one to check out the new race, my heart just wasn’t in it. Not that the newly redesigned Hunter class wasn’t fun, but something wasn’t quite right about the whole thing. I couldn’t put my finger on it. Then it hit me: worgen just wasn’t for me.  I didn’t feel right being a worgen Hunter, I needed the comfort of my original huntress. I needed Peppermint.

About this time, an old WoW Hunter friend of mine returned to the game to experience the Hunter changes in Cataclysm, too. Peppermint was realm-transferred to the new server where we were all gathering and even though she was unable to keep the name Peppermint due to it already being taken on the new realm, it didn’t matter… all felt right in the world again. Being back on my night elf Hunter with such a rich, old history felt right. And I was questing and leveling with my old Hunter buddy, and it felt like the “good old days” of vanilla learning it all for the first time again.

I haven’t decided 100% how I feel about all of the new Hunter changes since Qiviut (Peppermint’s new name) is only level 70 right now and happily leveling fishing and reconnecting with my familiar old pets, (I missed Waddles the crocolisk!) but I can’t complain. I see so many “fix Hunters!” threads on the forums, but you know what? I’m too busy having fun learning the changes to notice “broken” things. Maybe it’s because there has been such a gap in time since I’ve actively played a Hunter that I don’t remember the “old” mechanics well enough to notice? I am leveling via Beast Mastery currently, and I love that I can have several pets with me at once to swap through for different needs on the spot. I am working to get a “rotation” down that allows me to make best use of my focus bar, but I suspect that’ll get easier when I get Cobra Shot, so I don’t mind. Like mana, I just have to learn some efficiency. I’m really just enjoying Hunter for now, and not worrying too much or getting hung up on the little things. It’ll all come in time.

My Druid and my Warlock are still hanging out on my Horde realm and they’re not abandoned forever, just not getting played right now. Playing the Hunter class again with the new changes and being with some old friends is refreshing and is what’s keeping my interest right now, especially with all of the “fun” I’m hearing about healers in the 85 endgame right now. (Poor Druid.) I’m not even sad that I’ve not done any of the 80-85 content yet with Amoo or Tuque; it’ll all come in time. I’m in no hurry.

On a personal note, my geeky small business of creating GEEKSOAP has flourished amazingly well, and I had record breaking sales and success this holiday season! I opened a second store back in October specifically for my crochet Cthulhu accessories (hats, scarves, etc.) and that took off this winter, too. With the holidays behind me I have a bit more time to play WoW in my free time, but gone are the days of hardcore for me; I really am content just enjoying the time I do have and having fun with friends. Besides… in other personal news, my husband and I are expecting our first child in June 2011! I’m going to be a mama! As I’m sure you can understand, once the summer rolls around I’ll be a little busy and WoW will most likely be the first thing to go for awhile. Priorities! But don’t worry, I’ll be raising the geekling to be a gamer girl or boy and will never be gone forever ;)

Hope you and yours had a merry holiday season – Happy New Year! <3

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WoW and Geeky Soap + Gen Con!

Weeeeeeee!

So not only am I still making lots of handmade geeky soap (GEEKSOAP! See my previous post(s) for more info and go check out my geeky soap store here.) but I’m back in WoW! You all knew I couldn’t stay away that long, right? I blame my lovely guildmade Alyxx for it – she kept telling me how much I was missed on Facebook ;) Amoothyst is a little behind in the gear department since I haven’t been around since the WotLK Naxx was THE big end-game raid, but I’m loving randoms and badge gathering and so Amoo is already in full Tier 9, lol. Good luck getting me into Tier 10 without having more time to get into some bigger raids, though – currently I get bits and pieces of time to play here and there which works well for gathering Emblems of Triumph in randoms, but being back towards the east coast now means my beloved guild raids too late for me and/or I’m struggling to find consistent time for raiding that fits with my busy work schedule. But that’s ok – gear was never THE big thing for me in WoW. I enjoy a lot of other things, too, such as exploring and achievements, and am just happy to be messing around again in-game.  So be sure to say hi! I doubt I’ll do much on alts until after Cata comes out so you’ll probably just find me on Amoothyst for now.

GEEKY SOAP! So I’m still plugging away with my successful small business handcrafting geeky and gamer themed soap over at geeksoap.net and prepping for Gen Con Indy in less than a month. (August 5- 8, 2010!) If you’re going to Gen Con, be sure to stop by booth 2732 and see me! My most recent new soap is WoW themed in honor of coming back to the game yet again – the Soapstone! Read more about the adventure of making it over on my craft blog.

See you in-game and/or at Gen Con! <3

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Where Have I Been? Making Geeky Geek Soap, of course. GEEKSOAP!

As I mentioned in my previous post, it’s been somewhat quiet around here on my gaming blog. Partly because I don’t currently have any subscriptions running, but mostly because I’ve been busy with my RL small business of making geeky geek soap… GEEKSOAP! I’ve just been too busy making geek soap for the nerdy masses over at http://www.geeksoap.net to keep gaming subscriptions active. Literally, I’ve been swamped with orders and my entire house has turned into a soap studio. It’s fantastic! I love creating geeky soap. :) Let’s see… combining my geek side and my creative side? EPIC WIN!

So what are my newest soaps? The Game Cartridge GEEKSOAP line… 100% solid handmade soap made from all natural ingredients in the shape of retro game cartridges. So far I have an 8-bit, 16-bit, and 64-bit soap version (as well as a Handheld variety) and coming later this weekend or early next week are parody replica soaps in the shape of old school Atari 2600 rom cartridges and 16-bit SGenesis carts. My Game Cartridge geek soaps have been plastered all over the Internet this past week and featured and re-featured in more places than I can keep count of.  I’ve given two phone interviews (with a third scheduled) and just sent off a big batch of soap to the UK to be in a magazine photoshoot. It’s been amazing! In August my husband and I will be manning a small table in the Art Gallery of GEN CON – the biggest and best 4 days of gaming! We only have a small table, but based on GEEKSOAP’s popularity at shows when people see these soaps in person, we don’t need much space to do well: the soaps sell themselves and we’ll have lots of stock to keep the table full of geek soap goodness over the 4 days.

Another popular soap of mine that was featured in a bazillion places about a month ago is my D20 Soap on a Rope geek soap. Is this seriously cool or what? You can play a little D&D in the shower and roll critical hits against bad body odor at the same time! Your party members will thank you. And if you love the sweet little flat-bottomed dice bag you see pictured with my soap in the photo, you can snag one over at Dragon Chow Dice Bags by my friend @GeekyLyndsay - she makes amazing dice bags that are incredibly cute and practical in a wide variety of fun fabrics to suit anyone’s taste, and/or coordinate with any dice set. Want to see more pics? Head over to my portfolio. This mold (like the Game Cartridge soaps) was all designed and created by me, so you can be sure it’s 100% original, too.

Both Lucas and I are itching to get back into some gaming, but I’m just not sure what yet. I’d love to spend my upcoming summer break making soap and gaming (bliss!) but I need suggestions… as I’ve mentioned before after playing the STO beta, I don’t know if linear is the way I want to go. SWG is (has been for awhile) dying and as much as I love the open-endedness, I need more action and adventure in a new environment. I’ve played WoW foreeeeeeeeeeever, and while I do end up going back often, I really want something new. I don’t see myself going back to Aion, but perhaps I’ll get back into EVE for a bit while I search for that something new. Who knows.  Until then, it’ll probably continue to be quiet here while I make geeky soap. You can stay up with what’s going on by following me on Twitter @geeksoap and my blog over at thepinktoque.com – where I update about my crafty geek endeavors and release new geek soap designs for GEEKSOAP.  Want to fan Pink Toque / GEEKSOAP on Facebook? Check out the fan page here – Twitter and FB fans are the first to know about upcoming sales, giveaways & contests, and new soap designs as they are released. I love to give away geeky soap to readers & followers regularly :)

That’s about it for the gaming blog today – hope to see you on Twitter or over at geeksoap.net soon! <3

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