TSU minus LOTRO = unhappy TSU

I can’t remember the last time I played LOTRO…

I think we had just repaired my wife’s PC and I spent over a day to get it reinstalled, I had been busy over the anniversary event (Update: Gaming draggin! – 1^st Jun) festival and thought life was going to be rosy but my disillusion with LOTRO quickly reappeared, I think I basically have lost my way and don’t know where I want to take my lv65RK.. I had taken him out of Rohan where to be honest he was enjoying himself (except for the ‘my-little-war-pony’ bits) for the anniversary event, after which in LOTRO: Gettin INTO LOTRO again… 26^th APR I decided to go to Great River where the game quickly got boring again…

On the 29^th of July (GAMING: Pokémon GOne?) I again tried to play LOTRO due to my nr1 son wanting to play… I even created an account for him but he is too young and even with my coaching and help he quickly lost interest… and that was that…half a year later I have not played again, not helped that for 5 month’s my wife’s computer has been out of action I blame the installation of MINECRAFT for the kids which I reckon has permanently damaged something in the motherboard as now every couple of weeks it just crashes again… and MINECRAFT itself is unplayable!

The MINECRAFT adventure was amazing though, I am a late comer to it, and the kids both got hooked straight away, I liked the more lethargic survival approach but found it got too easy too quickly with nothing to really keep me pushing forward… My nr2 son turns out to have the ability to create huge and complex houses… not bad for a 4 year-old! Nr1 son used it mainly to create ingenious machines he had seen on YT and indeed we have had to curtail their YT watching habits away from the same old MC videos… especially one episode of Lucky Blocks pistols…  which has 3.3+million views… which my wife and I felt were mainly from our 2 kids…

As the PC (when working) cannot run it anymore we installed it on the ipad and nr2 again started doing remarkable things, nr1 was quickly found to be sneaking back to YT all the time! Presently they are both fighting over the new Mario Run app (which is having problems with a lack of free content I gather…)… when not being banned from any access due to bad behavior…

So back to MY gaming… and my thoughts of coming back to LOTRO, somehow the news (I popped back to LOTROPLAYERS to check if true… LOTRO Players News Episode 182: What What Whaaaaat??) that LOTRO n DDO will be spinning off from TURBINE awoke this desire to play again…

I then stumbled on Malaysian Gamer’s YT video ’10 Reasons to play LOTRO’… and oh boy was desperate for my wife’s computer to be fixed… it has been and I am still itching to install LOTRO yet again… it will probably take a day… so maybe over the new year holiday (we got the 2^nd of JAN free from work for some weird corporate reason!) …I just wonder how long it lives this time… surely 2017 must bring a new PC into the household?

Oh another nice YT video byThomas Huayra: ’10 lifehacks for LOTRO’, some stuff to try out here:) Also great to see Nakt is still LOTROing and blogging, and he mentioned our old clan leader Taltoz is still also in game 🙂

Undoubtedly if I start playing again I will probably start blogging again, you have been warned… TSU’s mad ramblings could be coming back soon… unsubscribe now… ur last chance to preserve your sanity.

So sans LOTRO what the hell have I been doing?

Now having moved back into Buenos Aires (6 blocks from Congress no less, sounds good it’s actually not that nice an area…) I have been swimming more than I did when I actually had my own pool, but am still not in body-surfing form… I ripped a calf muscle playing Frisbee with myself 😦 that didn’t help but hope to get back into chucking plastic again this summer, I walk to work most days now – 15 blocks so a little more activity and a HUGE saving in time. (I saw a BMX for sale yesterday…so tempted!) Work has been a huge focus for 2016 which contributed heavily to my blog’s demise, simply no time to spend at work in blogland! But 2017 looks very quiet, to the extent that my job (the whole department’s in fact) looks in danger which could  impact quite negatively on future gaming plans… touching wood it works out, although being made redundant in Argentina is quite a generous process and would easily fund my family’s return to Europe. But being jobless anywhere is not good at this time and OMG 2016 has been bad for politics and world travelers such as myself, especially as I am married to a non EU citizen 😦

Wife n aforementioned kids of course eat up lots n lots of my time, I have really enjoyed Stranger Things, Happy Valley, The Night Of, Game of Thrones, WESTWORLD, Daredevil, Luke Cage, Preacher and Star Wars Clone Wars (all episodes seen for first time :)) . I survived a plethora of others, notable mentions to How to get Away with Murder, Gotham, and Night Manager!  Started and gave up on quite a few too, the biggest disappointment being 2nd season of Mr. Robot.

I half-heartedly started a TSUISM project for blasts of creative madness, incorporating some of the LEAN culture work is attempting to instigate (I won’t go there…):

So no gaming then?

Computer basically out of action (so no EVE online either!) or in use by others so I continued my casual gaming on my phone(s*) in the shape of CoC, CR and MCOC. All of which I am submerged in to differing degrees.

*Why phones…I was always suspicious of geezers with more than 1 mobile, now I pack 2 myself (and I am not counting the ipad which is best for MCOC!) Now I have 1 phone for CoC, CR and phone calls and my wife’s old phone which runs MCOC, mine did not, it’s kinda laggy, a little too small and has a tendency for the screen to come off but it’s my fall back for when nothing else to do or I need to play MCOC and family ipad is in use.

CoC – CLASH OF CLANS

th9… just before…

th 10 🙂

Backdoor is painful!

cmon get it front door!

2016 Xmas tree on my border 🙂

oh events 🙂

I left my dead Philippine clan and joined a British Clan. It’s super-active nowadays but unorganized and unsettled. The leader is permaAFK! So we have a constant stream of new recruits and we are struggling to maintain a core of good players; we had a huge fall out and lost 2 good factions – one of which is continually inviting me to follow. Funnily one of the newer members is also one of my best friends from GB who reached out over FB as a fellow CoC player and he decided to join the same clan :). Notice I start by talking about the alliance and other players, in the end the longevity of this (all?) casual game is about the people u play with not really the game itself…

I recently reached th10, always fun starting a new level, I should have kept levelling my walls n heroes but to be Frank (who I am not!) it was SIMPLY BORING! So th10 antics ahead… its early days as u can tell by the pics… not even done a new base design and my bastardized WAR base which was a Clash Tutor th9 thumper design is a truly weird beast. I am now nr1 base in WAR which is quite a daunting role as to be honest I am too casual a player to hold that position… but I suppose I am the most consistent donator so I get away with it 🙂

CR – CLASH ROYALE

I have come so close to stopping playing this game… I got invited to Supreme Cream’s CR group and it made a huge difference initially with the then ‘NEW’ tournaments (which turned out to be crock!) and the constant donations of cards which still help a lot 🙂 But recently actually playing the game became a bore, there was simply no necessity to play… as a f2p player gold costs are too high to contemplate nothing less than monthly goals! Then during the last update SUPERCELL introduced the Clan Chest and suddenly the game came alive. There is a 2 week on off cycle but I missed the thrill of piling up crowns after only a day of rest… I even started to mess around with Mortars just cos I wanted to. I have used a cheap deck since day 1 and only really changed it recently with the addition of the Black Knight (Monty Python sketch)

So it goes, soon I will reach lv10, so tougher castles… maybe by end of 2017 I will have all my cards that I use raised to level 12… I doubt it but I suspect I may still be playing.

MCOC – MARVEL CONTEST OF CHAMPIONS

My 4* (and 1 5*) heroes

Act4 …story mode is HARD! Great measure of where u r in abilty 🙂

Arena… Grindier than LOTRO!

GOLD realm … xmas generosity 🙂

LUCKY opening…cat4 basic

Event completed for another cat4basic

Wish I had more days like this one…

And last but not least the game that has consumed my idle moments to the ire of my wife! Our alliance has grown to full size and it’s become more stable but it’s such a DEMANDING MONSTER! It’s a casual game that sucks up your life… and of late for pitiful rewards… as the core mechanism for progress is the chance opening of hero crystals for better n better heroes (or using to improve those you already have) and in which I have had the longest streak of crap… so why is it such a TIMESINK…again it’s the people! Yes being in contact with 30 other players 24hrs a day in game and also via FB and now LINE, who are constantly pushing u to log in, do something, reach yet another target for another reward which may help gain another crystal… Can you tell I am close to my limit? It was fun and when I was busy at work it was actually useful, I was applying and practicing team building ideas which I could replicate as best I could in my workplace (My department works in 2 sites, one in Buenos Aires another in Manila, and the company is Global. The alliance has members in Europe, US and me in Argentina!)

But I do love beat em ups and I grew up on MARVEL so this game hits those buttons hard 🙂 When you do have a row of good fights (when the special button on teeny tiny touchscreen works!) the adrenalin kicks in and the RW simply vanishes – all focus is in the game, those are the sublime moments when you realize that you LOVE this game.

There is always something to do in game as well, it may be tedious and repetitive (aren’t all Beat Em Ups?) but each fight is practice and can lead to improvement, I have found that I can even win some fights without being able to see the screen… they recently introduced an AI mode for the most basic quest fights which does an OK job of removing some of the tedium. The main alliance focus is the Alliance Quests and Alliance Wars which have the biggest rewards (much of which is hidden behind shitty RNG) but working as a team is essential to attempt the harder maps(AQ) or beat the harder opponents (Wars). And the whole alliance is needed, all 30 players, to really make it work which is why it can get quite stress inducing 😦 Arguments flare up, no shows and wrong paths end in dissension, its all quite dramatic at times. Maybe too much so, and I am seriously questioning how much longer I can soldier on, I helped start the group up and the leader understands I have a wife n kids and a busy work life too so I do get by.

I reckon after the new year I may get some luck that should drive me onwards, if not a break could be coming… maybe a LOTRO break (not away from but BACK to!)

So TSU is back maybe for just this quiet end of year day at the office… I wish you all well in your lives be they real or virtual.

GAME ON