Again Again Again

Today's Promptapalooza starter is

Do you “finish” games/hobbies/projects and move on or do you come back to the same things again and again?

Talk about shooting a barrel full of fish through an open goal while riding a very high hobby horse. I could bore for my country on this one.

But  I won't. I'll just state my case, of which I'm certain: doing something only once is tantamount to never having done it at all. Going back to that earlier prompt, the one about favorite quotes, I could so easily have gone with Mark E. Smith's "We dig repetition". It could be the motto of this blog. Maybe it is!

But I've said all this before, haven't I? I'll leave it at that. Wouldn't want to repeat myself.

Instead, since this used to be an MMORPG blog, maybe I'll list some of the games I've stopped playing but might get back to, some day. It's not like I've done that before...

Blade and Soul - This has been on my mind recently. Not sure why. I don't think I've returned to it once since my first run ended, back in 2016. Which is surprising, because at the time, I seemed to be enjoying it quite a bit:

"I've played Blade and Soul almost every day for a month now. My Summoner is level 30 so I'm averaging about a level a day. It's just a fun MMO. It isn't very deep or complex or  sophisticated or subtle - it's just fun to play".

Probably worth another shot, I'd say.

Star Wars: the Old Republic - I was enjoying  this one enough to sub for a while. After a month or so I'd put in "around a hundred hours so far, taking one character to Level 57 and another to 35".

The main problem I had was the incessant voice acting. It was okay in the spring but when we got to the summer and I wanted to have the cricket on in the background I had to mute the voiceovers, which kind of seemed to be missing the point a tad. Then I went on holiday and it just felt like a good time to take a break.

I was always planning to come back but as yet it hasn't happened. And it's cricket season again now, so it won't be happening for a while. Maybe in the autumn.

Twin Saga - I have actually been back to this one several times. I really like it a lot. The problem is... it's too hard.

Seriously, I stopped because I got stuck. Couldn't progress. Was dying too often. I waited a few months, then a couple of years but each time I went back it hadn't gotten any easier. Quite ironic, given my initial assessment:

"Twin Saga is a very comfortable game to settle into, with a very shallow, gentle learning curve."

Yeah, I think they call that "bait and switch".

Lord of the Rings Online - I took the trouble to log in and claim my compensation. Only fair for the extreme inconvenience I suffered, being locked out of a game I wasn't playing. Shame I wasn't on the server that had the huge rollback - I might have gotten recompensed for losing the progress I hadn't made as well. I'm sure I would have deserved it.

Now that the mysterious and elusive Standing Stone Games have decided to give just about the whole of the game away for free (and yes, I logged in that other time too, to claim my permanent free quests. Of course I did.), I sort of want to give Middle Earth another run. I think playing a Guardian might be the drag anchor that stops me ever getting very far. Perhaps I should try another class. They can't all be that dull, can they?

Also I guess I need to decide over the next week or so whether to buy any of the expansions on sale for 99 LotRO points. I probably have enough left for two or three. I should at least check that before the offer finishes at the end of August.

Final Fantasy XIV - And while we're on the subject of improved free trials...

Elder Scrolls Online - Hang on, wasn't I playing this one, like, a few weeks ago? I thought so! Talking about its prospects of staying on my "Currently Playing" list (it's notional - don't look down the side of the  page for it) I did say "I can't see ESO hanging on for long." I wasn't wrong.

I'm going to stop now because the ESO thing reminds me it's less than two months since the last time I did this. For years I've been making a practice of putting up posts where I tell myself which MMORPGs I might be playing, should be playing, could be playing but currently amn't.

Sidebar - I've always wondered why "amn't" isn't the commonly-used abbreviation for "am not". It turns up in the odd high-Edwardian novel, now and again but mostly everyone just jumps to "aren't", which is just plain wrong, now ain't it?.

Hmm. Now that's what I call a sidebar. A good editor would blue-pencil that entire paragraph. Shame I don't  have one. A blue pencil or an editor. Nor any shred of self-restraint, apparently.

Ahem.

I like writing posts like this because a) they do quite often nudge me into patching up and  logging into at least one of the games in question. Last time it was ESO. This time I'm really hoping it's going to be Blade & Soul. (Spoiler: downloading it as I type...)

And b) they're ridiculously quick and easy to write.

Also, as I believe I implied at the top, in answer to the prompt, yes I do come back to the same things again and again and again...

This post is the proof of that.