Content Consuming Monster

I like video games, cooking, and making faces at things.

[lioreblog]

WildStar and the Mixed Blessing of Free to Play

WildStar and the Mixed Blessing of Free to Play

Carbine Studios announced today that WildStar is going free-to-play, and I just don’t how I feel about it.

On the one hand WS is a legitimately great game that never really found its audience, probably because technically they stopped playing hardcore MMOs around 2009. If WildStar had launched at the same time as RIFT I think it would have been very successful. The game has a lot of charm, some…

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Five Weird Things About Day-to-Day Life in America (from a Canadian)

Five Weird Things About Day-to-Day Life in America (from a Canadian)

From the non-North American perspective there probably doesn’t appear to be a lot of difference between Canada and America. The two countries are a similar age and have similar demographics. Canada tends to reflect the same political shifts as the US and I can tell you from experience that when you live next door to the largest cultural exporter in the world, you end up sharing a lot of the same…

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That Retro Healing Spirit is Alive in FFXIV

That Retro Healing Spirit is Alive in FFXIV

I have been running dungeons almost non-stop since hitting 50 in Final Fantasy 14, which isn’t very surprising because at this point there are so many of them. I want to run lowbie and story dungeons for tokens to improve my gear, I want to run higher level dungeons to work on my relic weapon and finish the post-50 story. Just unlocking the first 25-man dungeon requires days of running…

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A History of Level Capping

A History of Level Capping

This weekend I sat down and finally got my first class to 50 in Final Fantasy XIV.

Of course in FFXIV, more than most games, the leveling isn’t over yet. I need to level up the other magic classes to get key cross-class skills on my White Mage, and there are a billion levels of crafting and gathering I could do if I was so inclined. But first I have so much to do at 50! There are many dungeons…

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Time Management and Gaming, or a lack thereof

Time Management and Gaming, or a lack thereof

So here’s the terrible truth you guys — I’ve barely played any video games for the last couple of weeks. I feed my virtual cats in Neko Atsume twice a day, and maybe play fifteen minutes of Puzzles and Dragons in bed before falling asleep.

Part of the problem is just being busy. I went from having no job to what borders on too much job in a matter of weeks. I get up early now, and I’ve been going…

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Cat Context 74: Valve's Mod Debacle, SWTOR, Heavensward

Cat Context 74: Valve’s Mod Debacle, SWTOR, Heavensward

Usually Cat Context records on Sunday evening, but this week Liore, Ellyndrial, and Arolaide met up on a Monday morning to talk about MMOs and mods. We probably could have used some more coffee.

Elly considers getting back into Star Wars: The Old Republic and he gets the inside scoop from Arolaide. Do you need to subscribe? Is it worth buying the expansion? Are the space battle quests terrible?…

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TV Credits That I Never Skip

TV Credits That I Never Skip

Nope, still not a video game post… also when you’re short on time and energy, Newbie Bloggers, consider a post that is nothing but awesome YouTube videos. Ahem.

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One of the casualties of our modern binge-watching television habits (thanks, Netflix) is the opening credits. Sure, they might seem interesting at first but after the first three episodes or so they’re usually just 30 to 60 seconds of…

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DIY Wallpaper with Gift Wrap

DIY Wallpaper with Gift Wrap

Okay yes, I know this post isn’t about video games and I haven’t written much here lately. I just recently became fully employed and I have a bunch of freelance gigs, which means long hours while I get organized. Given limited time, I’d rather be playing games than writing about them.

I will be back to writing thrice weekly very soon, and in the meantime you can still check out Cat Context or…

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Cat Context 73: Star Wars, Batman v Superman, Superhero Movies, Dragon Age

Cat Context 73: Star Wars, Batman v Superman, Superhero Movies, Dragon Age

There was a technical problem while recording so the audio is not as high quality as usual. Thanks for bearing with us!

This week Liore, Ellyndrial, and Arolaide are joined by friend to the show Corranhorn to talk about superheroes, mobile games, and a trailer for a little movie that takes place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

That’s right: the trailer for the newest Star Wars movie…

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Cash Shop Accountability, a.k.a public shaming

Cash Shop Accountability, a.k.a public shaming

I was lying in bed at 3 a.m. on Saturday morning playing Puzzle & Dragons on my phone when I noticed that there was a limited-time event going on that greatly boosted the chances of getting a Super Rare god monster from an egg lockbox. Having just started playing the game I knew that adding a SR god to my arsenal would be an enormous boon, but there was a little problem: egg lockboxes cost 5…

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The WoW Token Almost Got Me

The WoW Token Almost Got Me

This week Blizzard debuted their new “WoW Token”, allowing players to purchase months of subscription time with in-game gold. I haven’t put a lot of thought into the theorycraft behind the Token so I’ll leave that to others who have but I can confirm that it alllllmost got me back into Azeroth.

(By the way, “WoW Token” just further cements my view that for all of their creative talents Blizzard…

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You Can't Kill Progress, But You Could Liven It Up A Bit

You Can’t Kill Progress, But You Could Liven It Up A Bit

Yesterday morning a strange new channel started streaming on Twitch. The live video shows a distressed man who has been locked in an empty room. Eight different security cameras record his plight from just about every angle. A timer at the top of the screen slowly counts down to something, and a hashtag in the corner says “#cantkillprogress”.

As of this post, the stream has been showing this man…

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3 Things RIFT Did Better Than Anyone Else

3 Things RIFT Did Better Than Anyone Else

While I’m still having a grand time in Final Fantasy 14, lately I’ve been reminiscing about the glory days of RIFT.

Before Storm Legion and before cash shops, RIFT was my favorite MMO ever. It didn’t start out that way: the game debuted with a weird anti-WoW advertising campaign that was kind of off-putting at the time, and it did a lot of patching and maturing over its first six months. But I…

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Roundin' up the blogosphere on MMORPG.com

Roundin’ up the blogosphere on MMORPG.com

Apparently writing about the general MMO blog community is very much on trend right now, and who am I to resist a good trend?

For those who don’t know, as of last week I’ve joined the excellent writing team at MMORPG.com with a weekly blogosphere roundup column called “Tales from the Neighborhood“. I already read a billion blogs each week so it seemed like a natural topic! I am a huge believer in…

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The motivating terror of freelancing (real life stuff!)

The motivating terror of freelancing (real life stuff!)

Today is my last day at my job of almost five years. Tomorrow I become unemployed, or ideally more accurately… a freelancer.

@Braxwolf @grnmushroom Terror is surprisingly motivating! ;)

— Jessica Cook (@Liores) March 31, 2015

Part of my reason for doing this, honestly, is need. I’ve been looking for a full-time gig in Seattle but I haven’t found one yet that I think is right. That’s okay — I’m…

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The MOST Irritating Thing about Final Fantasy 14

The MOST Irritating Thing about Final Fantasy 14

Earlier this week I wrote a list of Five Irritating Things About Final Fantasy 14 and folks in the comments contributed some excellent additional suggestions of their own.

One frequently mentioned irritation was not being able to queue for Duty Roulette while you have your chocobo companion out, which is indeed totally ridiculous. But there was one piece of grit that bothered people above all…

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5 Irritating Things About Final Fantasy 14

5 Irritating Things About Final Fantasy 14

Starting tomorrow (at about 8 a.m. EDT) check out my new column on MMORPG.com, titled Around the Neighborhood! Every Wednesday you can find highlights of some great and interesting writing from the MMO/RPG blogosphere. I’ll leave the exact posts for people to explore tomorrow, but you can expect to see mention of In An Age, Gamer by Design, Casual Aggro, and more. Hooray!

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I love Final…

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