I had already been wondering whether Zwift, the app I use to “gamify” my exercise bike usage, was worth the $15 a month fee it was charging. Ride On?  Screw off! If I had been more hardcore, a dedicated rider that used many of the features the app offers to keep myself in competitive shape, I might see some real value in the options Zwift offers.  But as a causal 2-3 day a week rider that basically uses two features and just likes the fact that it tracks my totals… well, there are cheaper alternatives out there I am sure. So when I received the following message from Zwift this wee ..read more

Blizzard would like to keep the WoW Classic party… and revenue stream… going, lest that team appear next on Phil Spencer’s every increasing list of layoff targets, and they need some help. Can you re-run a cataclysm? Having split WoW Classic into four different flavors at this point and facing the peril of the main thread heading into what was once considered one of the worst WoW expansions… at least until Shadowlands came along… with the coming of Cataclysm Classic, they really need some more people playing… and paying.  So they are giving it away for free, at least for the weekend. Or ..read more

The April Monthly Economic Report for EVE Online landed this week, so it is time to dive into that once more. EVE Online nerds harder As usual, I am going to focus mostly on destruction. You can find things about the general New Eden economy here: CCP – April 2024 Monthly Economic Report CCP – April 2024 MER Forum Thread Reddit – April 2024 MER Thread TNG –  April 2024 Activity In EVE Online TNG – A Look At The April 2024 Active ISK Delta (link soon) Overall Summary With April we’re back to a 30 day month, so one might expect something of a drop in the total given that ..read more

As I mentioned last time around, I had finally found an infected mine, almost completely due to using a mod that removed the mist in the Mistlands, and managed to get a few of the critical black cores needed to make the new crafting stations. But I quickly realized I needed sap from the Mistlands, which meant making sap extractors to tap the glowing roots in the biome.  Those require a Dvergr extractor to make.  Potshot had collected two of those, as he isn’t all that fond of the Dvergr.  So I took the portal out to our base, grabbed those, and sailed back to our main base, thos ..read more

Greater Faydark is another one of those square zones, though unlike its neighboring zone, the Butcherblock Mountains, it is not divided up by a bunch of mountains to try and segment it or channel players in specific directions.  It is a big open square… that also happens to have one of the starter cities in it. Unlike most of the other racial starting points, the wood elves start in Kelethin in the middle of a big square zone.  Once more to the Project 1999 wiki for a map. Greater Faydark Map The map legend: 1. Orc Camps 2. Abandoned Druid Ring 3. Bandit Camp 4. Wizard Spires 5. P ..read more

In which unqualified people inflict absolutely the dumbest ideas on us. The story so far was that Edify had been bought by web banking competitor S1 Corporation, which in turn destroyed out web banking product in hopes of making our customers move to their platform, the major flaw in that plan being their product was garbage and their promised platform never seemed to materialize.  I think we changed 401k plan providers more often than S1 even did patch updates.  They were not good at the whole software thing. The IVR side of the house was stuck into a building on San Thomas Expressw ..read more

One of the interesting aspects of old EverQuest, something else borrowed from TorilMUD and in turn used by WoW (even as it was skipped by EverQuest II which had just two cities, each with several racial ghettos) was the fact that every race had their own distinct hometown to start in. Except humans, who had two, Qeynos and Freeport, because they run the place and you all suffer under the boot of their oppression or some such.  But the catalog of other races got their own special places.  And those were, indeed, starting points. I’ve already mentioned on, Surefall Glade, the little si ..read more

It was always on the EverQuest roadmap to launch at least one new special rules server this year in order to help celebrate the 25th anniversary of the game. EverQuest Anniversary Time They had been slotted in for a may launch on the somewhat bloated 2024 roadmap. The EverQuest 2024 Roadmap If that image is hard to read I have it broken out in detail in a post from earlier this year. Last week Darkpaw dropped the details, indicating that we would be getting TWO time locked progression servers to celebrate the anniversary.  Named Teek and Tormax, they will have the following rule sets ..read more

Why am I excited about finding an infested mine?  because there is no gear advancement in the Mistlands without finding one.  Or several, more likely. Valheim has always gated its gear progression behind some level of resource harvesting progression that is generally unlocked by slaying the boss of the previous biome.  You can’t mine any metal until you slay Eikthyr, for example, or unlock sunken crypts without besting The Elder. It changes up a bit.  For example black metal in the plains just drops off of mobs, so the gate is the is the items from Bonemass that allow one t ..read more

Capsuleer Day, the annual celebration of the launch of EVE Online, has returned once more.  And for Capsuleer Day XXI CCP has decided to go for a full 30 day celebration, running from yesterday, April 30th, through until downtime on May 30th. It is that time again The thing most players will see will be the return of login rewards.  This year the rewards run all 30 days, but the last seven of them are just repeat boosters, so if you miss a day or three you won’t lose out on the good stuff. Login Rewards Commence The good stuff, for Omega subscribers, include: 650,000 skill point ..read more