Desk Diary 9-10-12

Well, it’s been a little over two months since my last desk diary post. I’ve been pretty busy (gaming) and thus haven’t posted much (leveling), but it’s time for some updates and, of course, new loot!

First things first, an update on the webcomic project. My friend recently called this my “white whale,” but hopefully this won’t have such a tragic ending. For the last several months I’ve been bouncing between two main ideas. Lately I have been thinking of combining many of my favorite aspects of both. I think I’m close. I still want to get this started before the end of the year. That doesn’t give me much time. I tend to work well under pressure, so hopefully a deadline will force me to get this project started.

In doll news -many- things have happened, some of which I’ll share below. For now I’ll say that my desk has suddenly become a little more crowded. I’m -still- waiting for some things I pre-ordered almost a year ago. Volks has been very much slammed this year due to that pre-order event. They are just now starting to ship out the last batch of orders, my stuff included (hopefully). There are already rumors of another pre-order event coming. With the shortage of regular items this year, one has to wonder if things will ever settle with all these events. It also goes to show how much this hobby has grown in popularity over the last couple years.

In gaming news… we’ll let’s be honest, I’ve been sucked into a handful of new games that were launched this year, which hasn’t helped my productivity. I had mentioned in my 2012 post that the games coming out this year could potentially suck away a lot of my free time, and that prediction has become mostly true. In that post I had mentioned I was playing Star Wars: The Old Republic at the time, I had quit that game not long after that post, as have many others. It’s going “Free to Play” later this year, nuff said. For a time after that there wasn’t really a game distracting me. That is until Tera launched earlier this year. That game has been the main time-sink for me this year. I’m still playing Tera, which I talked about at length in its own post.

Since then the other games that I mentioned in my 2012 post have also been released. I played The Secret World from launch, and while I do like its unique modern-day-mixed-with-horror-films style, it was fairly buggy and a bit unforgiving in its gameplay. While a challenge is nice, sometimes I prefer the more casual stuff. It also had some stiff character animations and a lack of character customization. The combat was decent. Working on finding a “build” that worked for you was interesting as were the unique quests and stories. However, All MMOs need a time to grow and expand, so it’s definitely one I may check out again down the road, but for now I have stopped playing it.

Next up, and most recent, is Guild Wars 2. The most hyped MMO of the year. Did it live up to that hype for me? Yes and no. It’s a wonderful game and very pretty (not Tera pretty, but still really nice), and it really does break many of the not-so-great and over-used MMO mechanics, but some of what they claimed didn’t really pan out. The dynamic quest system, while great overall, doesn’t really give that sense of making lasting changes to the world. They restart rather quickly. While this makes sense from a gameplay perspective, it does kinda make the game feel a bit like a theme park, not like a WoW (World of Warcraft) theme park, but a different kind of, and certainly more fun and active, theme park. That doesn’t actually bother me at all, though. Heck, Tera is a prime example of the old-style WoW theme park setup. The combat is, at its core, a target based system, but you can attack while moving. Some of the personal missions can be a bit brutal as well. My favorite part of the game is that they encourage you to explore. This aspect is the gem of this game to me. They have added a lot of little hidden areas to the game and even some rather fun and challenging jumping puzzles. Overall, it’s a well-polished and well-made game. Since you only have to buy the game once and there is no subscription fee, there is really no reason to not play this game. It’s one I’ll certainly be playing for some time to come (sucking away more of my free time).

Finally (yes, it does end), a game that was released two years ago this month may be making a comeback and has me eager to try it again. Two years ago Final Fantasy XIV launched with a less than stellar reception. It was so bad that the game suspended its subscription fee for many months. While I didn’t completely agree that the game was a total failure as some others, it did have some holes and lack of content. Most of the original team was taken off the project and a new, untested, game director was handed the reigns. Square Enix has been determined to push forward. You have to give them credit. Other MMOs would have buckled and failed under similar circumstances. However, not only has this new team and director attempted to fix a lot of the problems, late last year they stated their plans to take things a step further with a project that would almost completely remake the whole game. This is something that has never been done before and just recently the first signs of this “2.0” version have begun to surface. I’m very interested to see how this pans out. I had a lot of faith in SE when the game was released and I still think they can pull this off. So this is the next MMO that I’m looking forward to trying… again, especially when I learned there will be a new summoner job. I really respect them for working this hard to please their customers. They have taken a lot of polls and kept the players in the loop. I think they deserve a second chance. I know I’ll be there opening day. I already have “Legacy” status for supporting the game during this rough period. It should be interesting.

Okay! Now on to the loot. There have been several items that have come my way over the last couple months that I meant to post about but didn’t have the time (gaming), so I’m going to post them all here in one go.

First off I bought some new items for my computer. My hard drives have been nearly full for a long time, so I bought a new 3TB hard drive to ease the pain. I also picked up a new keyboard and mouse.

This is the new Logitech G600 gaming mouse. I wasn’t sure if I would like this mouse at first. I picked it up on impulse. The mass of button on the side were intimidating at first, but I have to say that it really has grown on me. I’ve been a “clicker” for most of my computer gaming years until I was “forced” to use the keyboard for combat in Tera. Now this mouse has taken me to the next step with executing commands all from the buttons on the side of the mouse. I don’t know if I’ll be able to go back.

Since I take a lot of photos for this site I’m always struggling with my lighting. Usually I just deal with whatever light I have, but normal room lights tend to be yellow and I don’t always have sunlight. So I finally saved up and got a proper lighting kit. I couldn’t afford anything super crazy. I also didn’t want to deal with lights that gave off a lot of heat. After much searching I found the Flora light set by Linco. They use florescent light bulbs and have pretty ingenious softboxes.

The softboxes are a sort of umbrella deal. You just pull a string and they open up and snap into place. The diffusing cloth attaches with some Velcro and it’s all set. The softbox sits in the grooves in the light base which kinda looks like a flower, hence the set’s name. Setup is not too bad, another thing that was important to me. They do take up some room, though, but I can tell they are improving my photos a lot. They seem to be made pretty well. Some parts are plastic, but as long as I’m careful with them I’m sure they will last for some time. They also came with carrying cases. It’s a really nice set and I’m glad I got them.

I picked up a new Blu-Ray anime called “Samurai Girls.” I haven’t finished it yet, but it’s a silly haram story with some unique animation styles. I’m not really sure what I think of it yet. It has some cute and funny moments, but some of the over-the-top stuff isn’t really my thing. The “fan-service” is nice, though.

As I mentioned above, I’ve been playing Guild Wars 2. Since I had a feeling it was going to be a good game I pre-ordered the Collector’s Edition, which sold out soon after. I’m glad I took the plunge. The box for it is -massive- and contains a lot of nice goodies.

Inside is the massive Rytlock statue and a sizable tin case. Everything about this CE is big.

Inside the tin case is a collection of items. A portfolio with prints, a picture frame, an “Behind the Scenes” artbook, a soundtrack sampler and the game discs.

And last but not least is the Rytlock statue. He is one of the main characters in the story from the Destiny’s Edge guild. He is also a Charr, the race that was the main enemy from the previous game. He’s quite massive and hefty, fairly well painted and detailed and his Rurik “flaming” sword is pretty cool.

It’s a really nice and well-made collector’s edition. I’m glad I got it. Now where to put it…

I also got some doll loot. Some I didn’t plan on while others were nice surprises. First I got a couple little things from Volks. Some cute hands and another wig cap.

I’ve been on the lookout for a body for my limited 06 head for many months, but due to the Volks pre-order event from last year, bodies have been in a major short supply and nearly impossible to get. However, I managed to snag a slightly used one from a member on the Dollfie Dreams forum.

This one is a Dollfie Dream Dynamite body, which is different from the standard body due to its larger hips, thighs and other “assets.” This means that my third Dollfie Dream is nearly complete.

Of course, no Dollfie Dream is complete without some clothes and accessories. And, of course, if you are going to get clothes for one, why not get some for your other girls as well? Here are some items that I got from Cool Cats. I like Cool Cats because their prices are reasonable and they have nice clothes and stands made for Dollfie Dreams.

Here I got some swimwear, shirts, skirts, stands, shoes a wig and way too many socks. I seem to have a thing for socks. At least my girls will never have cold feet. As always, Cool Cats threw in some free extras too, which is always a nice surprise.

With all these items I realized I was running out of room to store them. I had most of my Dollfie Dream stuff in cardboard boxes. So I thought it was about time to get a new container for their stuff.

Only two years into this doll hobby and I already have a cart for their stuff. I never thought I would get to this point. The funny thing is, as you can see with the extra box and container on the top… I already filled it up.

But wait… there is still one box left.

A friend helped me greatly with these items in a way I could never fully repay.

As you can see there are some interesting items in the box. But there is this odd item…

What ever could it be? You will just have to wait for a future post to find out.

WHEW! Well, that concludes this desk diary. It was quite a long one, but it wasn’t six months apart from the last one at least. Still a lot happened in a short couple of months and I’m not done yet. There are still a couple item I’ll have to show soon. I also hope to start working on illustrations again for my webcomic.