Happy 7th Blogday to me

Back when SWTOR came out, I didn't even manage to go for a full week before I had the urge to start blogging about it, and well, here I am seven years later. That said, I've been less prolific in 2018 than in previous years - most years my post count for the year seems to average around 111, (123 if you include the unusually busy 2012 and 2016), but this year I'm only just making my 100th post.

Mostly I continue to blame my current place of employ and the annoying commute it forces me to endure, but to be honest I'm just generally trying to do too many things at once. Not only do I want to write about the game, I also want to make videos about it every now and then, and this year in particular I've also spent more time than ever just playing, what with the many Conquest events in which my guild decided to compete. I'm not very good at cutting back on things in a sensible manner, I just find myself suddenly running out of time while trying to do ALL THE THINGS and then get somewhat annoyed with myself. Anyway, you don't read this blog to hear me moan about my first world problems, not to mention that my chosen country of residence seems to be close to descending into anarchy, so who knows where I'll be this time next year... let's look back at what I blogged about in the past year instead; that's much more fun.

I started the year with a love letter to my favourite warzone, which is criminally underrated by most players. I was somewhat baffled to find that I'd apparently never done the Korriban Incursion flashpoint on master mode on Imperial side, and I started my journey to complete all the KotFE / KotET chapters on master mode. For anyone who might be waiting for me to post about the last few chapters of KotFE by the way, I haven't forgotten about them; I just need to actually write the post about chapters 12-14, which I've already completed, and then still play through 15 and 16, which I expect to be toughies. I also noted the day I reached Command rank 300 on my 9th character. For the record, not even a full twelve months later, I'm on 16 characters at that level, and I gave up on actively trying to level them up long ago... it just kind of happens now as I play.

In February I wrote about the third and fourth boss in Gods from the Machine, about whom I felt very ambivalent. We also got a spring road map, and I revisited all the repeatable world events, in which I previously hadn't participated in ages (something that Conquest would soon change though). I also made a compilation video of Pugette's flashpoint pug adventures, which I'm still proud of.

In March I expanded my in-game horizons (literally), and was excited to kill Izax for the first time when Gods from the Machine was finally completed. Bioware held a sort of event on social media, which I thought was kind of entertaining. They haven't done anything comparable since then though, so I'm not sure it achieved what they were going for. Conquests were revamped and despite of many people being critical about it at the time, it rang in a whole new era for my guild in terms of Conquest participation.

April started with the Big Cartel Market Spring Sale getting even me to take an interest in what was on offer. (I hope they bring it back some time.) I mused on the subject of story gating in SWTOR and wrote about some of the new class-specific companion returns. Despite of my enthusiastic finishing comment about wanting to complete KotET on the classes I was still missing to see their new companion missions, I've failed to make significant progress on that front ever since. I started on Pugging with Shintar season 2, a project that has been sorely neglected in the past couple of months due to the factors mentioned at the start of this post. I also talked about how my guild was doing just peachy despite of its age.

In May I discussed both the mechanics and the storyline of the new Nathema Conspiracy flashpoint in detail, while I started June expressing happiness about my guild putting more focus on 16-mans again (we've actually been able to keep this up and they are now a fixed part of our raiding schedule for one week each month). Conquest received further tweaks, and PvP was scheduled to receive some big changes. I expressed my thoughts on these and waxed nostalgic about what kind of changes SWTOR's warzones had gone through over the course of more than six years.

July saw me visiting the PTS and talking about beating the Terror from Beyond on master mode. My guild also conquered its first planet since the introduction of the new Conquest system, with many more to follow. In August I participated in Blaugust and killed the Yavin walker for the first time, three and a half years after it was added to the game. I also talked about the big PvP changes once they'd actually been implemented and had a look at the new Rishi stronghold.

In September we got another road map, and I decried the way Conquest had caused me to neglect my Imperial alts. I also defeated Revan in the Temple of Sacrifice operation on veteran mode for the first time, which was a big deal for me.

October saw me having some fun on the new Huttball map and thinking about how I'd been spending more time playing in planetary PvP instances lately. I also solved the problem of the neglected Imperial alts by making my guildies go on adventures in our Imperial alt guild.

November's posts were dominated by me participating in IntPiPoMo again, though I also got nostalgic for a bit, both about marketing hype after listening to an old podcast as well as about what I consider SWTOR's golden launch days.

Finally, I used December as an opportunity to review how the game's approach to dailies has changed over time, and when 5.10 finally launched I reported on the launch day, the Ossus story and both new and returning characters.

Whatever else happens, I'm sure the next year will provide me with plenty more subjects to write about.