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Just when I’d had enough of the game, blew my hoarded gold and mats on not one but two legendaries, does RNG finally yield a “toilet” reward:

There’s really nothing left for me here, though, other than playing dress-up with my alts (I was thinking of making my greatsword-wielding Necromancer/Reaper into a Suicide Squad-based Katana), but I will cherish these experiences of participating in the best examples of the large-scale open-world adventure, especially after missing it so badly in poorly-programmed DCUO; in FFXI it was just a pipe dream. Though ultimately, GW2 might’ve squeezed a few more months out of an obsessive-compulsive like myself with an NM drop or two.

Three dreams last night: the first I had a clear memory of when I woke at 3am, having resumed my slumber after getting off X’s floor, but lost since; the second took place in first-person MMO (perhaps in anticipation of GW2’s imminent perspective changes), where a sizeable group of my fellow players were exploring a new area and had come upon a map under a covered open structure, like a bus stop. I was impressed that approaching it, the details became more visible. An event alert appeared above us indicating the direction to a boss named DIM, and we followed it to a catapult. The idea was to use it on ourselves (or respective avatars) to traverse some distance gap, but I was more interested by its design: little more than a black version of the Lego prop that came in X’s Batman set, with a single additional crank, which when turned once would generate enough force to launch its basket. Maybe influenced by this:

The last was yet another return to college, this time sharing an apartment with the wife and Alison Brie. I took off for class with my backpack, and wondered whether having twenty years to relive, I’d do something (more) with them.

Guild Wars 2 has lasted longer than I’d expected it to, without the least bit of the Ventrilo/TeamSpeak camaraderie from DCUO (which went through two “leagues” over little more than a year and a half), but as appealing the environment is for players without in-game ambition for the carrot chase—the longevity reflected outside it as well—I can’t see this matching my time in FFXI.

Dyed like this, the Black Lion outfit is a fair reminder of my first artifact set, which was such a challenge to obtain on my only job then (well, maybe not compared to the Black Belt), and stayed in my inventory for the duration, at least as macro swap gear. But of course, looks back then weren’t as customizable as they are now, and any good Monk showed up to party in the same ol’ Accuracy-laden Optical Hat and Scorpion Harness. Hoping for luck, I wore this on my legacy character to forge my first four exotic weapons tonight… and got none.

Eight points of light in the darkness that’s otherwise been enveloping my interest in anything lately. Sure, Community’s fifth season has been delivering (though with a weird alternate-universe vibe), the 7’s running again and GW2 is still, um, free, but that feeling of anticipation has long seemed missing in this age of instant gratification, of slick storytelling and easy answers, even if all the Lovecraftian dread amounted to a hallucination that gave the killer a jump on the hero. But apart from the formulaic finish, this was truly the anti-Sherlock.

GW2’s vertical trend has alienated me, Arrow’s on hiatus and well, there hasn’t been much of anything else to keep me occupied lately (a slew of 2013 releases on the flight back from Boston, comped because of the delay, and I still watched Man of Steel again), so I took a chance on my first new アニメ since, what, FLCL, with this popular hit whose Fantastic Planet-like premise is undeniably intriguing. And as wonderfully creative the Spiderman gear that’s used to combat the eponymous titans is as well, I’m just not sure it’s capable of a satisfying resolution—see The Walking Dead—and may only be fit to tell the story of much the same characters. Hell of a setting for a videogame, too.

Liquid-cooling should assuage my fears of another crashed laptop (assuming it wasn’t the SSD), but I’m finding little motivation to return to GW2 nowadays. Sure, there’s content galore and my new 24″ Asus with the new card makes it look all the more glorious, but the creeping progression game is unwelcome to on-and-off players like myself. Then again, at least there will always be a crowd at Jormag; I should check in on DCUO for some perspective.

So you’ll understand why I find solace in nerdglaze. (Loathsome, isn’t it, to resort to pop language; not that the term is even applicable, but a search for the 윤 family-familiar “thon” turned up only a relevant link in its oldest result.)Really, I got no other excuse for sitting through all 13 hours of this. Don’t tell me showing Laura Prepon’s breasts in the first minute of them wasn’t deliberate.

Seriously, DCUO’s PVP has nothing on this. Beats me how my Game of Thrones-fan leaguemates can pass up re-enacting the Kings Landing siege for 5-minute 4-man instances, replay badge-after-replay badge.

Oldboy the Ranger is on ice (and maybe indefinitely, until an expansion brings a martial artist-like profession) since I thought the thief’s speed would make an easier transition from the console-like gameplay, but I’m sticking with this leather analogue to the biker style; the winged bow reminds me of the movie.

My new game. DCUO gets maybe 5% of my time now, what with a loot system that makes you hate the RNG, the ninjas, even your own leaguemates, and the general lack of anything to do. And what’s got to be my favorite here so far are the “jumping puzzles”, which take me back to Ultima Underworld.