Incoming!

OK, so I haven't done as well at keeping up with this as I'd hoped. The new job is keeping me super busy, and I've been juggling dog-sitting for a friend, going to the gym, and trying to game online at least a little.

People have been keeping me updated on some new exciting stuff coming out though. I was pointed in the direction of the new DCU Online "Who Do You Trust" trailer, which makes the game look pretty dynamic and interesting, with a fairly twisted storyline. Mark Hamill is apparently the voice of the Joker, so at least that will be familiar!

If you go to the site and select your pre-order retailer, then mouse over the PC edition button in the next box, it will show you what your pre-order in-game bonus will be. Amazon gauntlets FTW!

Here's an E3 video of Jumpgate Evolution. I'd like to believe that this game will come out one day... Here's some actual gameplay footage...

Also, we're going to try and update the site a bit more, and I'm trying to coerce a Guildie that is heavily involved/informed in WAR to post once in a while too!

More soon.

-RBK

IRL

Well, I'm nowhere near as reliable as Dickie for quality or frequency of posts, but I will do my best on here keeping up with what I can so that he can pursue his real-life dreams. Since pursuing mine brought me to a whole different state (geographically and mentally, I suppose) when I took a job I couldn't turn down, we'll give Dickie his due.

It's funny with gamers how "real life" sneaks in. Having left a houseful of people and animals, where we could share the duties and responsibilities, I'm now in a position where I also have to juggle gaming, blogging, the gym, shopping, work, gaming... I don't get to play quite as much as before, but now when I log on I value the time more, particularly when I can connect with my friends in Vent.

But hopefully most of us can find a sane way to get gaming in without neglecting our lives (like this guy...). What this made me ruminate on was how gaming actually affects our "real lives. It does it in both positive and, well, less positive ways. We all know someone (or have done it) who skipped work or "called in sick" when Burning Crusade or Wrath of the Bitch King came out. I know when I was totally addicted to City of Heroes that I let things IRL slide.

But I was recently broadsided by a RL incident that made me smile. I was "interviewing" with a Rottweiler rescue group as to my suitability to adopt one of their animals. My dog, who was the pack leader, is now without a pack here in Nebraska. So while I decide whether or not I can afford the time and money for a new friend for Biascuit, I decided to explore options. I've had two Rotties and love them to death. Anyhow, the lady comes and inspects my home, and we're conducting the interview. As she's wrapping up, she suddenly asks, "So are you a gamer?" I smirked and answered "Maybe" as she gazed over at my computer setup (with my giant 32" monitor). She grinned and followed up with "Isn't that an Alienware gaming system?" I grinned and answered "Maybe" again, suspecting I had stumbled across a stroke of luck.

Turns out she and her husband met playing Quake 3 online. They've been together several years, and while they game less now due to children and family responsibilities, gaming clearly had a positive impact on their lives. We have two people in our Guild who met through our group gaming adventures, and have been together for ages now too, recently making things legal. I also wouldn't trade my online friends for anything, they've been such a source of support and caring IRL.

So while we read about morons dying from gaming (or stupidity) and are bombarded by the supposed effects of video game violence on children, we can counter with the amazing RL benefits many of us have been gifted with as a result of our game time.

-RBK

Reassessing And Making Changes

Howdy all!

So I'd like to give all my loverly readers a bit of an update. As I mentioned, the (now) husband and I whisked ourselves off to the land of Mooses and Maples, otherwise known as Canada, to get married two weeks ago. On June 26, 2010, me and my boo became a legally wed couple by the laws of British Columbia, Canada. On June 30, the States reminded us that they don't legally recognize that marriage… one step at a time, I suppose.

I've been back home for a week now and have been structuring my time since I've been back in ways that will move me forward. I've been focusing on a promotion at work and building networks within my company, I've been putting more serious efforts into going back to school for an advanced degree, and I've been considering the things I do in my free time that can help further these and other goals, as well as things that can help foster a healthy marriage. In short, I've been taking stock of my life and making adjustments as needed.

As part of this assessment, I've realized that gaming, while a big part of my life that I thoroughly enjoy and love, needs to take a back seat for awhile. I need that time to really focus on my future, and games take up some of the time I need to focus my efforts. I'll still game, but that gaming is going to be reduced to short bursts or weekends.

What that also means is that it is time that I step away from blogging about games for a while. This is that realization that I've been fighting for a couple of weeks now, and something I don't really want to do but I know I need to so that I can achieve some other goals I have.

That said, I don't plan on shutting down Rainbow MMO. I'll leave it open with the potential that I can come back to it later, and so that Real Big Kitty can still have a place to blog. This also means that if anyone else is interested in writing for us, please let me know.

Am I completely done with blogging? No, not at all. I still have my personal blog I'm Just Gaying… that has been sadly neglected for some time. I'll be returning to that platform to blog more about my personal adventures in life, and talk more about my philosophical, political, musical and nerdy adventures. Not that I'll have much time to blog, but at least those will be topics that I'll be exploring more fully in my daily life so it'll be a bit easier for me to write on those subjects than on gaming.

With that, I welcome any of you that choose to follow me over at I'm Just Gaying…. I also want to thank all of the readers that have come along with me on my gaming journey over that last year and a half here at Rainbow MMO! You've made this blog what it is, and that's something very special to me. To the other bloggers that read here, don't expect me to disappear as I'll still be popping up in your blog comments section ;)

So long, farewell… ok, I'll stop before I go off on a Rogers and Hammerstein tirade. Bye, folks!

Love,

Dickie

Mid-West Pride

Well, I made it safely, and I am now officially esconced in the mid-West. Haven't heard from Dickie, so we'll hope his foreign nuptials went well. Being Canadian myself, I wouldn't be surprised if he just didn't want to come back. We are a pretty awesome country...

So as a moving gift a friend hooked me up with the Guild Wars trilogy on Steam. I could never get into the first campaign, but we made a character in each of the other two, and so far the third expansion in the Africa themed zones has been kind of fun. I'm playing a Dervish/Monk, and so far having fun with the AoE damage in melee proximity. While we were killing insects in the first zone, I started running in and the others would call out "sending in the bug blender."

I did however attend Nebraska gay pride yesterday. There were a LOT more people than I expected to see, and I was thoroughly impressed by the HUGE presence of one of the major companies in the area (and many other urban areas), Cox cable. They had their vehicles and a large number of employees proudly marching in Cox shirts (this is ironic, I feel), and booths set up at the festival area. It was great to see that type of community support.

This, however, was the high point of my day. I went all over the festival after the parade looking for this drag queen, just to get a picture. It made my day.

I'll try and get back into the swing of reading blogs and posting again. It will improve as my sanity does, and the number of boxes dwindles...

Happy Fourth to all you American readers!

-RBK

Vancouver, Moving, And Wedding Bells

Hey all! So I wanted to let you know things will be quite here at Rainbow MMO for a few days, but we'll be back in short order. Real Big Kitty is in the process of moving and all the fun that comes with it. But me, I'll be heading to beautiful Vancouver tomorrow morning.

What's in Vancouver, you may ask? And to that I'd answer: my wedding! That's right, after months of blabbing on about my non-gamer fiance, I'll finally get to start jabbering about my non-gamer Husbear!

So enjoy your time off from us gay gamers, and send all your well-wishes for RBK's easy move and a happy wedding for me, and I'll see you all next Wednesday when I get back!

- Dickie

Epic Storys Are Epic

After almost a year of on and off play, my Hunter in Lord of the Rings Online finally hit level 45! "But Dickie," you say, "65 is the level cap in LOTRO, so why are you excited about 45?" To which I say that level 45 opens up a few doors that previously were not open and is sort of a gateway into Moria. Plus I can now do the Volume 2 Book 1 epic quest line to get my first Legendary Items!

While grinding out traits on my legendary items is utterly enticing, what I thought was really neat was the Prologue to the Volume 2 quest series: watching the Fellowship leave Rivendell. I ushered them off after talking to the members of the Fellowship and hearing their concerns and worries and waved goodbye as they made their way first toward the Misty Mountains, but ultimately through Moria.

It was a very sweet, endearing moment in the game. I was honestly touched by the scene, which is something that doesn't happen too often in games for me and even less often in MMOs. Perhaps it was my familiarity with the story and characters, but I really feel like Turbine did a wonderful job with telling this story. I know, people harp on and on about the Epic Storyline in LOTRO and how wonderful it is. So why do I feel the need to post about it too? Well, because it is that wonderful!

It's exciting to know that when the F2P conversion happens, even the Free players will get to experience the Epic Storyline of the game (up to Moria) completely free. It is something that should be experienced by MMO gamers if only so they can see how storytelling can be in favorite genre. If you've never given LOTRO a try, then this F2P switch should really excite you, if only so you can experience the best parts of LOTRO.

- Dickie

Weekend Wrapup: Wedding Planner Edition

Weekends are often far too short, and even more so when your wedding is just a week away! We had quite a bit of running around to do this weekend, and just a little bit of beach time to put in, so the gaming time was minimized for me. However, everything for our wedding is now planned as well as it can be which is a huge relief! With that said, here's what I did get into this weekend:

The Lord of the Rings Online

My Hunter is making steady progress. I ran a couple of skirmishes to get enough tokens to get the Level 43 gear from the Skirmish vendor, trained up both my soldiers (I've got the guardian and lore master soldiers), and worked on Book 5 a bit more. I actually thought I finished Book 5 until Gloin decided he needed to send me off to scout Helegrod, but I can't be too disappointed because I did got to use the Inspired Greatness buff for the first time while slaughtering Skorgrim. I'm also just a hair away from 45 so I'll get to start on my Volume 2, Book 1 quests shortly to get my first Legendary Items.

Split / Second

I had checked out Blur but also wanted to give Split/Second a shot. I enjoy some racing games, but not many. Blur was a lot of fun, but in the end it felt like an "adult" version of Mario Kart: fun, but more so with friends. My preferred racing series is the Burnout series, so anything that reminds me of Burnout gets an automatic bump up, and in that department Split/Second wins. The game has a similar sense of speed and an interesting take on destruction, which I like. Many scenes and tracks are over the top, which is also nice. Ultimately though, if I'm not ramming cars into oblivion it's just not that fun, so Split/Second will join the pile of "fun, but not for me" games.

What Did You Play?

So what games did you get into this weekend? Let me know in the comments!

- Dickie

Checking In...

While I am in the process of moving, I haven't dropped off the face of the earth or the gaming scene entirely. While I have only engaged in some WoW PvP in the few moments I glean that don't involve packing my household into boxes, these are the most interesting game previews, videos, or updates I have seen or had sent to me recently:

DCU Online - looking forward to trying this. Hoping it is more engaging than Champions was...

SWTOR - Great new cinematics. I am behind on a few, but they're worth looking at!

Jumpgate Evolution - This title has been plagued by any number of growth pains, but it looks like previews of the product provide some hope for a great game. Also the preview is kind of fun for the next game:

Transformers: War for Cybertron - No idea what to expect for this one, but the cinematic looks action-packed and awesome.

That's all I've got for now. Back to packing for the big move. To quote a classic Simpson's moment :"Pray for Mojo"...

-RBK