My 2015 blogging highlights

As I have done in previous years, I’ll take this moment to review the year of blogging and to highlight some of my favourite blog posts of the year.

January

I was away for the first half of January 2015 so it was a post-light month this year. We were still well into playing our first run-through of The Secret World (TSW) back at the start of the year, popping into the Hell Raised dungeon. I was also busy leveling my  shadowknight in EQ2. Otherwise the month had a number of expansion and gaming news posts ending with the shocker that the gaming news stalwart Massively.com was due for sudden closure.

February

TSW and EQ2 continued to dominate my gaming and posts in the second month of 2015. I posted about my fondness for the Egypt zones in the former game and I gave Advanced Solo dungeons in EQ2 a try. The most commented post of the month was a conversation topic on “how much does story matter“.

March

March saw my return to Final Fantasy 14 (FFXIV) to push on through more of the levelling experience. I decided to play as Arcanist/Summoner this time around as trying to solo as a Conjuror was part of why I burned out last year. We also enjoyed the Goldem Golem event in TSW and my comparison of TSW with Elder Scrolls Online garned a good number of comments.

April

I switched to duo mode in FFXIV as my husband joined me in playing the game. The launch of Neverwinter’s latest patch, Elemental Evil, gained some interest from commenters but failed to draw me back into the game. At the end of the month I was rather irked by an interview with the (then) CEO of Daybreak Games.

May

Progress continued in FFXIV as we unlocked Grand Companies and Chocobos. We took the time to unlock the Flamethrower auxiliary weapon in TSW. I outlined four MMO characteristics that were missing in some older games. At the end of the month I contemplated questing in a group with a random pick-up player.

June

At the start of Summer I commented on MMOs in the real world. In FFXIV we were nearing the level cap and joining FATE parties. I dipped back into Wildstar to create a new engineer.

July

In July I posted about the pace of content release in World of Warcraft. In TSW I was envious of an Elemental Hack to bypass traps. We were also ploughing through the end of story content in FFXIV. I also made a return to SWTOR to try out the 12x levelling bonus.

August

I joined in on the MMO Regrets theme that was doing the rounds. I finished leveling my Trooper alt through his class story in SWTOR. Following WoW’s Legion expansion announcement, my husband wrote a three part Class-Halls speculative post (2nd part, 3rd part). We also played Shadowrun Chronicles rather intensively as a trio for a more strategic gaming option.

September

In a somewhat ‘rose-tinted’ month I remembered all the healing classes I’ve played and also reminisced about playing my Balance Druid character in WoW. I also returned to WoW that month to level through Draenor finally. I did take the time to consider the role of technology in tabletop roleplaying.

October

I started the month with a round-up of MMO turn-offs. The first content patch for Shadowrun Chronicles launched, bringing us back into that game. We kicked off a Chua duo-team in Wildstar including later in the month some expeditions and the Shade’s Eve festival content. I wrote a contemplative post on the fate of older pen-and-paper RPGs vs their MMORPG counterparts.

November

In November there was another community theme with the IntPiPoMo. Reviewing all my MMO screenshots for these posts was a ton of fun, if very time-consuming! I particularly enjoyed researching the Mobs I Hate post. Post Blizzcon I was excited by a possible return to playing Boomkin in the Legion expansion. I also gave some non-spoiler impressions of the new KotFE expansion for SWTOR.

December

In this final month of 2015, I commented on the impending release of Issue 13 for TSW, after quite a break from the game. I also returned to LoTRO only to die by Lag Monster. I considered the variety of opponents (or lack thereof) in several games. The most fun post to write this month was the comparison of different approaches to festive content.

This year really seems to have flown by faster than ever. Looking back at all the posts I’ve done is dizzying considering it doesn’t feel like it’s been a year since I wrote some of those early posts back in January! It seems to me that 2015 has been quite a monumental year for MMORPGs; big expansion launches and some earth-shaking events with closures and model shifts.

That’s a wrap for this post and this year of blogging. Happy gaming to all my readers and a very Happy and Healthy New Year!