Games

Every time I read about people who can play (and enjoy) multiple MMOs at the same time (I’m mostly thinking of Syp, but there are others) I’m astonished. Whenever I tried to pay for 2 subs at the same time (and yes, that small amount of money is still a real argument for me, in the sense of “I’m paying this monthly sub, I better be playing that game”) I might hold up for a week of alternating, but at some point I’ll highly gravitate towards one of the games and use up 99% of my gaming time in that week or month or that game – I just can’t seem to focus on more than one. The only exception might be EVE Online, where it’s feasible to pay for offline training and only actively play a few hours per month, but I’m more thinking of traditional MMOs here. I’m mostly ok with that, but if I knew it would work for me, I’d be joining WoW’s BfA expansion now, because I’m kinda nosy. But I’m having a blast in SW:TOR and I still have Dead Cells and Quake Champions here, and I’m already neglecting those 2.
PS: Blaugust has started and this is my fourteenth post.

When I started digging through the backlog of some of the Blaugust participants’ blogs there was one topic I found pretty interesting: character boosts.
(I wrote down one specific post, it was this one, but I’m pretty sure I saw more).
I wouldn’t say I have a strong opinion, so why am I talking about them? I guess what you often see is this “Back in my day we had to walk uphill.. both ways” attitude, but if I ever held it, I regret it. Sure, if you’re playing a game where some stuff is gated behind a terrible grind… maybe the easy route shouldn’t be available. Same as “Buy this boost for money!” – although I usually prefer level playing fields, something in the range of a monthly subscription price (or 2 months) can be acceptable for everyone who wants to take part in endgame and skip the time sink.
The thing is… I usually don’t do it. In any game where I get a free max-level (or old-expansion-max-level) boost.. I just keep on stalling and not using it. I am actively playing SWTOR right now (I also wrote a lot about it) and I have one “Level 65 boost” sitting there, unused – I’m still not even sure for which character I want to use it. I think I’ll pick one of the missing pure DPS classes where I am not too fond of the mirror class, or where the fun part is missing, like the Gunslinger, where I liked the Scoundrel because of stealth, but didn’t love the combat.
In WildStar I did use a Level 50 boost (I have no clue where I got it from) for a class I hadn’t leveled much yet (Engineer) but it was a very forgettable experience – but I guess I didn’t play much after using the boost, so I never got to know my character very well.
In WoW, I remember using one boost to Level 60 – but I’m pretty sure it was refer-a-friend in TBC or WotLK, and I didn’t enjoy playing Mage in Vanilla at all. After he was 60, I leveled him in a normal way and by that time also had a ton of fun at times. I’m not sure we ever got another free boost, but a quick google search tells me you got a Level 100 boost for Legion. Thinking hard I might have used that one for my Alliance Paladin. I might have leveled her to 60 (via demon invasions? were they called that?) and then boosted to 100, because I had already leveled a Horde Paladin to 100. And apparently there will be 110 boost available if I purchase Battle for Azeroth. Doesn’t make much sense for a 91 Monk that I don’t enjoy playing anyway, but on the Alliance side I’m completely missing Warlock, Druid, and Monk, I have no Horde Demon Hunter, and the Alliance Mage is only 20 (but I wanted to level one to 60 the normal way anyway) and then there’s a 60 Hunter and a 7x Priest and an 80 Shaman. Oh, also no Alliance DK on my main account, but not a fan either. We’ll see, maybe it will stay unused just like in the other games.
Guild Wars 2 is an exception, because just by playing you get so many Tomes of Knowledge (click to advance a level) that you can level 3-4 characters to max level just by playing a handful to max level, nearly 2 for the price of 1, so to say. And you also get a complete boost, but I haven’t used that one either. Or do you even get 2? I don’t remember, but I had no shame using my Tomes on some characters to fill up some levels, e.g. personal story from 10-13, then 7 Tomes, personal story from 20-22, then 8 Tomes, and so on.
PS: Blaugust has started and this is my thirteenth post.
Ninja edit: Hehe, of course Wilhelm also wrote about it, but I had this draft since late July, I swear 🙂

Yay, I did find something for Blaugust Reborn’s “Topic Brainstorming Week” because it’s something I’d love to know if people are willing to talk about it.
How do you choose which games to get? Are you grabbing anything that comes out and looks interesting? At launch or at the first sale? Do you preorder? Do you buy Humble Bundles and then never play them? Do you gravitate towards or away from F2P titles? Or do you not care and decide case by case for these?
I think I’m not part of the majority of people who spend a decent chunk of their time playing games: I have just shy of 100 games on Steam, and as you can see in my yearly gaming expense reports I don’t buy many games, and when I buy one and only play it for a few hours I’m kinda let down. That’s why I’m usually debating with myself for months whether to get a game or not. Impulse buys aren’t really my thing.
Friends have told me I’m kinda tightfisted, but in reality I’d much rather gift a game for a few bucks to someone when I know they will play it than buy a cheaper one on sale for myself if I’m not sure I’ll play it. Or even worse, if I love the art style or something but know I will stop after a few hours. And no, I also don’t usually buy and try to evaluate it in 2 hours to return it…
PS: Blaugust has started and this is my fourth post.