Time for the end of year report card prediction adjustment.  Wilhelm’s is up.

Blog Resolutions

• Post more media in the blog. Pictures & video.  I think it would add more to the context.

 

I certainly blogged more, but not that many more pictures.  I ended up with nearly twice as many posts this year as last and more than doubled the hit count.  So win?

 

• Try out a diary format for a few posts. While I tend to focus on analysis, I think the recounting of adventures always fun to read.

 

Well, I started putting in more personal items, so it did end up more like a diary in a sense.  But not from a gameplay perspective.  No wins.

 

• More cross-posts. There are many, many bloggers out there.  I should do more to cross-post/link/comment.

 

Marginally more cross-posts is still more cross-posts.  It’s really quite ironic since I read so many good blogs out there. I need to force myself to do this apparently.  No wins.

 

• End the year with 200 posts. That’s about 4 per week, which should be manageable.

 

WordPress is really quite bad at reporting this data.  Some months were better than others, though March and August were off months as I was away from a computer for a long stretch.  No wins but it’s still a solid goal.

 

• Try more games! I won’t invest in a console, so I’m out about a dozen options per year.  But my tablet and Steam can keep me more than busy.

 

I did this.  Boy did I do this.  I must’ve played 50 games on the tablet and dabbled in tons of PC games over the year.  Super wins.

Personal Resolutions

• Actively work on an exit-plan for current project at work.

 

Haha, this is pretty sad and accurate.  Things went for a loop during the summer and I’m doing that just now.  No wins.

 

• Focus more on the family and what makes them happy.

 

The spring wasn’t so good for this but summer and fall have been great.  I’m a lucky guy.  Win.

 

• Take time to breathe and time to sleep.

 

Time to breathe is better, time to sleep not so much.  I’ve taken some steps to better manage stress and anxiety and it’s certainly improved since last year.  Miles better.  I’ll call this a win.

 

• Read at least a dozen books.

 

The fails.  I think I only ended up with 6 this year.  Murf’s idea to get through Hugo award winners is going to be a goal next year.

 

• Introduce my 4yr old and wife to tabletop/board games. My daughter received a Connect 4 and Trouble for Christmas and we played a fair amount.  She hates losing and wants to learn how to win. There are tons of games out there to try.

 

I’ll call a win on this.  My eldest has played nearly every board game in the house so far, including Imperial Assault, Galaxy Defenders and Shadows of Brimstone.  She has a kick for it. Going to try and get a few more next year, like Ticket to Ride for starters.  My youngest is now 3 and a bit, so time for her to join in the fun as well.

 

Predictions

• SOE won’t launch a single product in 2015. Specifically, the order of eventual launch is Landmark, H1Z1 (cancelled before launch) and EQ Next.

 

Ok, partial win here.  Nothing launched, but H1Z1 wasn’t cancelled.  Yet.

 

• EvE will increase their patch cadence a bit, to allow for more time between and draw out the ideas. Their subscription numbers will drop due to the stance on multi-boxing and bots.

 

I think I’m on the money for this one.

 

• Wildstar goes B2P by late spring. It either drops raiding as a focus or closes shop.

 

F2P, in the fall but did expand a lot of stuff on the “things to do at max level” list.  I’ll call this a miss.

 

• ESO will launch on consoles in the summer and go F2P at the same time. Still no auction house or viable crafting container.

 

I missed the B2P call but the rest of the items are accurate.

 

• WoW will drop back to 7m subscribers. Their PLEX-derivative won’t work due to the way the economy works (you don’t actually need gold to play WoW in WoD).

 

I was off on this one.  WoW dropped to 5m and their PLEX-like junk is still going.  Tobold is going to be playing for infinity for free due to it.

 

• WoD end-game will be Burning Legion tie-in.

 

Nailed it.  Sadly.

• WoW patches will continue to take an eternity to go out, with no expansion news this year.

 

We got expansion news alright.  On the shortest expansion in history and what’s expected to be the 2^nd longest content drought in history.  Blizz is feeling more like that drunk uncle everyone has.  You’re really not sure what’s going on over there but somehow he shows up to parties.

 

• Heroes of the Storm will “launch” in the fall, even though Closed Beta is taking your money in about 2 weeks. Pricing will change once the gates open.

 

Yessiree on the launch.  Pricing is certainly different than last winter.  Wins.

 

• Overwatch won’t show in 2015.

 

A closed beta is going on now but it’s been down for 3 weeks(?), so I’m going to count this a as a win.

 

• SWTOR will have 3 content patches, with new raids and planets. GSF will be forgotten.

 

I got this wrong.  Instead of patches there was an expansion.  No new raids or dungeons.  No one cares about GSF though, so that’s neat.

• Steam and Riot will get hacked, which will likely change the way PC gamers identify with hackers. They’ve only targeted consoles so far.

 

Neither happened, though Steam is reporting that ~70,000 accounts are compromised daily.

 

• 2015 will have a bunch of kickstarters finally launch. Pillars of Eternity, Star Citizen, Tides of Numenera and so on.

 

PoE launched (great game), Star Citizen is in 2^nd alpha (whatever that means) and Tides doesn’t have a date yet.  This is a miss.

 

• Microsoft will use the Minecraft source for a new game that’s used in schools. Makes a mint.

 

Microsoft hasn’t done squat with Minecraft.  Which is a win for gamers I guess.

 

• This is the year of the indie game standards. $15 dollar games will be held to similar standards as $60 games in terms of quality, less so content. Ori and the Blind Forest and Rocket League are good examples.

 

I’m calling this a win.  The ability for indies to make a buck has changed dramatically.  Games need to be amazing to even try to turn a profit.

 

• A new review system will be established detailing whether a game is playable at release or if you should wait for a kitchen sink patch.

 

Well, more sites have started a review in progress, or a second review after a couple months.  I wouldn’t say it’s everywhere mind you.  IGN and Kotaku mostly.  Ehh.

 

• Evolve, No Man’s Sky and Repopulation will do better than expected.

 

Nope, where is it?, and nope.

 

• 2015 will be the year of the RPG! (Witcher 3 for sure)

Well, we got Witcher 3, Fallout 4 and Pillars of Eternity.  I call this a win, though the trend seems to be going towards RPG/Sandbox games.

 

I hit the 50% mark in the Blog/Personal stuff, so that’s not too bad.  50% on the predictions as well, though some were safe bets.  It was an off year for gaming, with expectations set pretty low overall.  A year in review post will cover that stuff later on.  I didn’t expect to hit 50%, so yay?