When familiarity breeds contempt (and why mystery of an MMO's mechanics keeps me engaged)

My MMO gaming of late has taken a bit of a turn. Guild Wars 2 has become my game of choice, after 5 years of LOTRO. There were a number of reasons for this change, the game had become stale for me, my kinship were often absent at the times I was playing, I was not getting anywhere with my level 100 Warden and my alts were just repeating the same old content I had been through so many times before.

Guild Wars, on the other hand is fast (loading in seconds rather than minutes), it's fresh, the story is all new but most importantly, the systems are a complete mystery. My Asura Ranger, Jestro, is awesome and the cosmetic system is incredible.

LOTRO had become stale because I understood everything about pretty much every character class and while not by any means an expert, it wasn't exciting. GW2 offered not only a raft of classes to discover, each with their own storyline, but a depth to what a character needs to do running up to level cap and even more so beyond. The PVP, which I have never been a fan of, is easy to get into and actually fun! (As much as I love PVMP in LOTRO, you can run round the small zone and not find a single opponent if you're on at the wrong time)

Now a new update for LOTRO has arrived along with a new system, allowing you to Imbue your legendary items, a system I have no idea about and the excitement is back. Today I spent my time back on Landroval, trying to catch up to the current content and figure out how to get a First Age weapon instead of my trusty Second Age.

This excitement may not last forever but it coincides with the latest incarnation of the Coursera course which brought me to Landroval in the first place, so an influx of new players to the kinship (The Courserrim) may be just what we need. Pinestro the Warden is there to help them.

I'll still be back to GW2 each night to slap Tequatl though :)

I've joined the Newbie Blogger Initiative!

It's the beginning of May which means the NBI 2015 has launched. Simply put it's an organised group of bloggers forming a community to help new bloggers. While I'm not that new, I still consider myself a Newbie and would like some tips on certain elements both technical and otherwise.

If you want to get involved or just find and support new gaming blogs, go check them out.

http://newbiebloggerinitiative.com

April drawing to a close and things are flying!

 Nice surprise at the allotment today, visiting first time in a week to find the things I planted in the greenhouse have taken off. Some very solid Sweetcorn F1 plants along with some French Climbing Beans. Clearly very tasty as slugs have munched through a couple already along with month of the peas I planted.

The climbers are now safely in the ground but I forgot my homebrew I was planning to use for beer traps. Hopefully they'll survive the night.

Things planted in the ground last couple of weeks are starting to show up, lots of Kale and the first Broad Beans. I'm amazed the soil is producing anything. Right now it's dried and looks like solid clay. 

Back at home, the fruits are looking promising. Raspberry canes have shown themselves and are sprouting up through the lawn. Dug a few up and replanted in the beds, so hopefully they'll produce this year too.

I'll also bought a new cover for my small greenhouse and used the torn cover from last year to make an ad hoc cold frame.

Guild Wars 2 on Sale this weekend!

With the new expansion for Guild Wars 2 - Heart of Thorns on the way soon, Arenanet are offering the Digital Heroic Edition and Digital Deluxe Edition for 75% off from April 10th to April 13th.

This is a great bargain for a fantastic buy to play MMO (No Sub required!) and I highly recommend it!

Get Guild Wars 2 today for the lowest price ever!

* Offer applies only to Digital Heroic Edition and Digital Deluxe Edition purchased through buy.guildwars2.com from 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time April 10, 2015 through 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time April 13, 2015.

LOTRO Mount Giveaway #1 ENDED

Last year, Sapience of Extra Life (Formerly of Turbine) offered various rewards for donating to his Extra Life fundraising efforts.

As a result, I have a bunch of codes that I don't need so I'm having a couple of giveaways to distribute them. So here's how it'll work. I'll post a selection here. Please note that these mounts with be applied to your account so you'll get them on every character.

 Leave a comment on the blog post with which items you'd like and you'll go into a draw. Ensure you leave some form of contact detail (email or twitter) and I'll run this first draw on Saturday 11th April.

CREMELLO STEED
Winner: Jonathan Lee

STEED OF THE RED DAWN
Winner: Giggles

STEED OF THE FIRST MARSHALL
Winner: Indra Quintero

STEED OF THE WINGED HERALD
Winner: DKRules

Congrats to all the Winners!

Watch the blog for more freebies...

Greenhouse up and a brand new friend!

Couple of hours at the plot today and some lovely sunshine. Managed to get another 6' square of digging/weed clearing done and set up my little plastic greenhouse that I've fitted nicely into my lean-to area. I've planted a few peas in pots and put them in there to get started.

Also while I was digging, a new friend came to visit, no doubt looking for worms!

New Season, 2015 - And we're off!

So this year I've taken on a half plot at my local allotment and there's a ton of work to be done.

 Not only is this a much larger growing space but it comes with a shed and makeshift greenhouse/lean-to. It's not fully covered but will be a good spot for the small plastic greenhouse I picked up on sale at the end of last season.

The plot also has a nice set of backberry and raspberry bushes as well as what I'm told are blackcurrant bushes.

After a couple of weeks of rain, I managed to get a couple of days digging and transplanted my strawberry plants from my old raised bed.

I've made a started on planting beans - Borlotti and Yard Long Beans, all in toilet tubes. I've also started off Tomatoes in a 50p propagator (another end of 2014 season bargain) - 5 x Supersweet 100 F1, 5 x Sungold F1 and 14 x Tigrella.