I’m buried under work at the busiest time of the calendar for my current job, lots of overtime and feeling too exhausted after work to do anything but relax away from the gaming chair and any type of screen. The worst willl be over in a week or just over so at least the light is at the end of the tunnel. The last year has been busier for me not quieter, work-wise.
A few things I’ve noticed around the blogosphere of interest, that I’ll include here, since I can’t muster a full post at the moment.
I read over at Time to Loot that a mandatory account migration is happening for all Black Desert Online players as the game is switching (or is it more reverting) publisher. It’s a game that I usually dip into for a few weeks every year, and I never like to willing loose an account or its characters. According to Naithin’s post I have until 31 May this year, so I can safely let the peak of work subside before sorting this.
Belghast has an intriguing post up about a rumoured new Knights of the Old Republic game. It seems single RPGs are very much back in vogue. I wonder if this game might finally be the one to add coop gameplay? I loved the original series, but I’ve never been a big fan of watching someone play a game or taking turns. I want full multiplayer of the actual story content, not some tack-on PVP or squad missions as an after-thought. Anyway, while some might say “just go play SWTOR”, I can easily counter that the coop multiplayer of story took a big nose-dive several expansions ago.
Bhagpuss has an interesting description posted about the expansion cycle in Everquest 2 and how much it differs from WoWs. Not only does EQ2 get expansions every year, but they also tend to vary the game a lot less, focusing mainly on new story content and repeatable activities. That contrasts rather with WoW’s flashier expansion releases every two years that usually throw a whole load of systems out and add in new ones, plus semi-regular class rebalances. I wonder sometimes whether Blizzard should pay a bit more attention to other examples from the genre, I for one am tired of the constant reinvention of gearing and class mechanisms in Azeroth.
Happy gaming all!
GamingSF 
It is kinda sad that SWTOR stopped leaning into the co-op gameplay. When that game first launched a friend and I decided to level exclusively together. He played a Consular and I played a Jedi Knight which together gave us a well rounded view of the events of the game. It also was effectively good enough to do some of the flashpoints with us each bringing a companion. Unfortunately they leaned super hard into the single player gameplay aspect decimating the ability to co-op the story.
I haven’t played EQ2 but it sounds like those expansions are between WoW’s content patches and expansions in size, but I mean it’s not like you have a complete content drought between 2 expansion launches in WoW, there’s usually something bigger coming every 6-8? months.
I think that’s about the size, yes, but EQII also usually gets at least two major Game Updates between each expansion (each year in other words). Last year we got the cowboy-themed dungeon in the early spring, which I thought was excellent, in the spring and the Solusek’s Eye Raid dungeon and Fabled Plane of War Heroic Dungeon in the Summer – come to think of it I don’t think I’ve even tried the PoW one…