Newbie Blogger Initiative: Age of Run-On

This stealth blogger creeps along swiftly, keeping the reticule on target. His bow is poised, arrows dipped in the appropriate toxin made 'specially for the intended target. His mind isn't even thinking about the mandatory chest at the end of the dungeon, though now that it's been mentioned, I think he only needs a couple more gems to make that overflowed urn in the homestead a deadly avalanche of wealth.

He is the wayward blogger, and his prey is the ubiquitous Newbie Blogger Initiative (NBI), a courageous group of accomplished and apprentice bloggers. Though this is a completely new beast for this lone hunter to tackle, he thinks that his legendary and almost again double maxed sense of Stealth can follow the NBI and perhaps do some ninja-like blogging of his own. Crouched, he approaches closer to the camp of bloggers, and reaches back to grab an arro....LYDIA! What are you doing here, go home. Yes, I know I know, honor to me. Get outta here...

Anywho, yes it has been awhile since I posted anything here. Then I saw the mention of the NBI starting up in May, and with the dizzying spell of the #Beleffect washing over the World Wide Web (it's a viral inFUNction, I heard), I figured perhaps I'd give it a shot, or at least pretend to play along on the sidelines.

As was the case with Blaugust, I'm not totally sure what to expect heading into this. I am not necessarily looking to promote my blog, but to rather experience the events as part of the NBI. To start off, I have decided to shorten my blog title from "The Life of a Pleasant Gamer" to simply "Pleasant Gamer" to embrace the brevity. If it works on Twitter, it's gotta work elsewhere!

The premise of my blog is pretty much the same. I am a non-competitive gamer with a low budget - if ramen noodles were an MMO, I'd probably be waiting until it went F2P to try it out. Though LOTRO has been my top MMMO of choice, I have lately been playing around with a bit more variety (and not necessarily "popular" titles). Basically, if they build it (and make it free), they will come...though Hello Kitty Online was a tough pill to swallow.

So to all participants of NBI - have fun! You should most definitely check out the Newbie Blogger Initiative (yes, we're still waiting for the Hulk to arrive...he said "ME HUNGRY" and was last seen at Cici's Pizza) and sign up as a newbie/mentor. If I can cobble together these words, you so can so you.

Sorry if this first post mentioning NBI is a couple days late - that real-life thing happened, causing a bit of a delay. I was told that deleting lifesystem32 would take care of the problem, so I'll give that a shot and call WebMD in the morning.

The Year of 4102...

Well, seeing on how I don't know what iteration of the Internet we'll have 2088 years in the future, maybe I should just reverse that and start with the year of 2014 first. Anyways, after checking out several other "year in review" posts in the blogosphere, I felt like banging out a post of my own. While I certainly don't have much on them in terms of the amount of stuff I've done, I see that it has been roughly two months since I've done a post. Oops!

Anywho, for me this was mostly the year of the same 'ol, same 'ol. Not much has changed personally, of which I shall not divulge. Game-wise, I've been branching out a bit more, trying some additional titles/F2P MMOs. I've always been one to know that while I can certainly have an MMO to deck out as my homebase (with that still being LOTRO at the moment), I realize that these kinds of virtual spaces can be evicted at any moment. Since we really have no overall control for when this kind of stuff happens, it's always good to have backup e-lots to build a new empire.

Taking that literally, I was fortunate to try out Trion's Trove this year. Much like Landmark, this was one of the new voxels to enter the space. Trove takes its seat to basically be a F2P Minecraft, obviously with its own set of rules. This is a great choice for traditional MMO players who want to dip their toes into voxel builders, as it plays more toward the RPG elements of leveling up classes & action-oriented combat. Cornerstones allow the player to create their own home, block by block. Overall, a fun and simple voxel MMO (Landmark certainly takes the building aspect to a much more rich and technical experience). I started with the Gunslinger (DPS - mostly single target), then later started leveling the Knight (melee - defensive).

Several of my other regular MMOs saw expansions/level increases, including LOTRO and RIFT. While LOTRO's player population is in a bit of a wavering downward flux, I saw a bit of upward trend around various updates, and from the blip of preview we saw for the developer letter, I'm hoping it has a better upcoming year. RIFT released its Nightmar Tide expansion, with another five levels and region to explore. I have not reached 65 with my main yet (think he's 63), but I'm also not rushing it too much. Unlike LOTRO, I'm not really following the story. At least the new Minion system is really addicting to me, which lets you send out card-based allies on time-based missions to return with various goodies (yay, more artifacts and a TON of dimension items).

Other new titles I have dipped my toes into this year include LEGO Minifigures Online, Archeage, and Defiance, though I'm not sure how much I'll be playing any of these in the future.


LOTRO Players

I have continued to write some articles for LOTRO Players this year. I started with them around their launch last year, beginning with a revamp and release of my LOTRO reputation guide. My original intent was probably to keep writing and releasing periodical guides. I later decided to maybe try my hand at some creative pieces, and that has probably been my main form of content this year.

While I still went ahead and kept up with a guide for Gondor reputation, I have also been doing some other pieces. Particularly, after getting reacquainted with the free graphical program GIMP (man, I like a lot of stuff with all capital letters), I have enjoyed doing several mashups between LOTRO and the real world...or LOTROfications, as it has been coined.

I look forward to continue my contributions toward the site, and while I never really have anything planned, I shall see what the future divines with those endeavors.


Blaugust

This very blog had been sitting in dust and shambles at the start of this year...plus about four more Blaugust. This month-long blogging marathon, the child of Belghast, challenged its participants to create a blog post every day for the entirety of August. I had read about this through another blog, and after checking out the details, was first hesitant that I'd be able to accomplish this feat myself.
years on top of that. It wasn't until August that I decided to reboot this corner of the Internet for an event known as

It was the very end of July, and I'm sure several others were all set with their topics and possibly some posts heading into the event. Meanwhile, I think I had probably forgotten all about it, and was off likely causing some kind of havoc elsewhere. The next day ticked by, and August was upon us. I woke up, checked Twitter, and noticed someone had posted their very first Blaugust post. It dawned on me that, hey, I could give this a whirl. I had a blog that, while a little outdated, was available for my to attach the jumper cables and give it a shock.

So I was off, doing my first post, and as the fingers warmed back up to the concept of blogging, I decided to keep with it. While I didn't always have a topic ready for each day (very rarely did I, actually - most was done on the fly), Belghast fortunately had some ice-breaker topics I could use every now and then. Other days I would just whisk a game or topic from the far reaches of my mind and roll with it.

It was a pretty great experience to play along all 31 days and complete the challenge. I know some may be used to blogging/journaling on a daily schedule, but it was certainly something very new to me. Overall, it was something that I could probably do in the future, but I'm not sure I'd be something I'd want to always do. I'm not a huge fan of being forced to do something, and while I know I was never forced to continue, I felt like I had to keep my own momentum going. I'd much rather do something semi-regularly and have a sense of something I'd like to write about, so that's probably how I'd roll in the future. Still, this was a great event, and got me to meet plenty of other new individuals in the blogosphere.


Da Future

So, I guess 2015 shall be upon us in a couple of hours. A world where we shall be able to splurge for some Surge, munch on French Toast Crunch, and...get all wispy with M&M Crispy? We'll look forward to Marty McFly coming back to the future on October 21, 2015, and deal with the next barrage of nerd outrage that I'm sure will come with Windows 10.

I always seem to make a resolution not to make resolutions, and I plan to keep up with that tactic. Goals are great and all, but I'd rather not try and make some grand plan to schedule out my yearly well-being. If something good happens or I can manage to do something to positively further my life, then awesome, but I really just don't feel like trying to outreach what I can realistically accomplish. So, a bit of this, a touch of that, and I'll call you in the morning. Have a great new year, all.

Diving into RIFT

After receiving plenty of emails and tweets that the latest RIFT expansion, Nightmare Tide, was undergoing beta testing and all that good stuff, I never kept track on when it'd finally be dropping. I saw a tweet the other day, announcing the release of this free expansion to an already solid Trion free-to-play MMO title. Boom - RIFT 3.0 is upon us.

I figured I'd at least get through the patching process, and perhaps give it a whirl on not launch day. I checked out the patch notes while the server was busy getting my set up with all the bells and whistles, and I guess something triggered me to hit "Play" once it was all downloaded. Perhaps it seemed a little exciting & overwhelming to see bits like "5 more levels of adventure," or maybe the "three brand new zones" of the Plane of Water (water-themed Goboro Reef, dream-themed Draumheim, and frozen-themed Tarken Glacier). Other details certainly sparked an interest, like the new minion system and further advancements in crafting. I'm neither a PvPer or raider, so I was indifferent to new warzones/dungeons.

Upon loading into the game, the first thing I noticed was that my health pool must have been doing some backflips, as it took a leap from about 14k to 41k health. I did see the patch note explaining this, in order to reduce the difference in health between tanks and squishies. What I didn't realize was quite how much this balance would ultimately affect my rogue's well-being (not that I'm complaining!).

Minions, a new activity in Rift 3.0

I had myself sitting in Meridian (home town for the Defiant faction), so I figured the first thing I would do was check out this new minion system put in place as a casual side-game. I had seen some comparing it to WoW, which I had no connection to, so I went into it with the Neverwinter "Sword Coast Adventures" in mind.

It is presented as a card game, in which you pick a minion (some starters are available for platinum purchase, other premium ones acquires in various means), and an adventure. It is usually best to try and match up your minion attributes to the detailed attributes within each mission, usually for a better result. Starting off, it seems best to just do the beginner adventures to level up your minions. It is a nice little side-game for those slow times, though I have not gotten far enough to tell how the premium minions compare to the starter selection.

After playing around with the minion game (or should I say, while - the minute adventures kept me on my lazy toes), I took the porticulum over to Goboro Reef, the first of a whole new page containing the three new zones within the Plane of Water. I will say that I'm still only about level 60.33, and have really just been running around the first zone a bit, discovering land & porticulums.

Goboro Reef, the first of three expansion areas

From what I have seen, the world builders must have been busy filling out this lush area. Meanwhile, the designers literally gave another dimension to combat by means of underwater combat (there was a preview of this in an earlier update, in a mini-region of content). It's a little jarring to deal with what is not just in front/back/sides of you, but also up and down. Fortunately, I have only actually needed to complete underwater combat in one smallish part of the region thus far. The rest has been designed to show you being in the Plane of Water, but plays as regular landscape combat. It looks like there is also a shark mount that can be used both on land and sea, though I'm not sure if it is only available for those who made the optional expansion purchase.

Zone events on launch days in the expansion starter area are...touchy.

Playing launch days on an MMO expansion is always a gamble. It's a new fresh experience, so that's cool, but then you have to remember that the floodgates are now open for ALL players on that server. Many of whom have been waiting around for this to launch. So you pop open into the new land, and you realize there are probably several hundred avatars standing in the same spot as you. It becomes more apparent as you start questing, and if spawn times aren't on their game, it can become a waiting game (good time for Minions, at least!). Another highlight of RIFT are the zone events - dynamic occurrences that are randomly activated on various zones. So a zone event pops for one of the new areas, and now a good percentage of the server's level 60+ are now working together en masse to complete this sucker. We reach the final boss, a 600 million (I think) health demon. When everybody is crammed at the same place at the same time, our biggest enemy became the lag monster. Skills fired off at least 5-10 second later, allies would flash in and out of existence, all that good stuff.

I also got the chance to take my first bite of the new nightmare rifts. Another staple of RIFT, portals (known here as...you got it, rifts) open up all around each area in the game, as enemies from another plane attempt to infest the lands of Telara. Normally, rifts have a set number of stages that can be completed, several of them on timers to advance. Nightmare rifts, introduced with the latest update, take it to another level by having an endless number of stages. They run on timers, and must be completed in time to proceed to the next. They also increase in difficulty as you progress, and are also scaled depending on the number of allies you have in your vicinity to the rift. I joined one in progress, probably somewhere in the 30-50th stage, and went another dozen stages before the enemy health was a bit too tough to take down in time. It looks like a nice way to pick up a swath of goodies, and if you can get the right group, would be interesting to see just how far the player-base could reach.

Overall, my limited time with the latest RIFT expansion has been a pretty good time. I have not really gotten far enough to give a better opinion, but first looks are leaning on the positive side of the board. There also appears to be a new equipment slot (2x earrings), which can be unlocked by either purchasing the Nightmare Tide optional pack, or paying some huge amount of earnable currency (assuming it's possible for any subscription type to gather that amount). I believe there is also a new bag slot available, though the 5 bag slots (with the larger size bags) that I have at the moment seem to suffice (especially when I can access and sell vendor trash anywhere I am in the world via the RIFT store).

If interested in trying out the game, head over to the RIFT site here and give it a whirl. In general, I think Trion is fairly successful in producing free-to-play models with a large amount of content to be enjoyed without immediately attempting to whisk their fingers into your wallet.

Revisiting my LOTRO Goals

Goals and resolutions can be a pain in the rear to attain. Those big, lifetime changes you'd like to make to improve the quality of your life can take years to accomplish, generally through the means of baby steps.

While browsing my Twitter feed this morning, I passed a "Daily Grind" link from Massively, which serves to probe the player-base with a question to answer in their comment section. Today's post dealt with long-term MMO goals, and made me remember my goals I had left in LOTRO Academy's "Goals for 2014" episode. Below are the following LOTRO goals I have left for myself to accomplish:

1) Get both my Riddermark lore-master (currently 44) and my Arkenstone captain (currently 46) to at least level 75. Alas, no combining their levels, or I’d be done already! ;)  

2) In honor of Pineleaf’s “Skirmisher of Middle Earth” (SoME) goal, I’d like to get ONE character (most likely my main, Riddermark hunter) to attain the SoME title. I think he already has decent progress, so finishing it off would be great.  

3) I would like to complete at least one raid that I have not done before (BG, any OD wing, Flight or Smaug [Erebor], Saruman [ToO], or DN), and two 6-man instances that I have not done before (Roots of Fangorn, Foundry, Lost Temple). Level does not matter – it’s the experience that counts.

Thus far, I have not fully accomplished any of these goals. Then again, I had basically forgotten I had these running goals for many months this year, so no specific focus has been made toward their completion. With roughly 2.5 months left until 2015, I guess I should start giving it the old college try. Running through each proposed goal, individually...

1) Leveling Challenge: One of the bigger problems with this challenge lies in the fact that neither of these characters were in existence during my month of VIP. As such, neither of them have Swift Travel, which allows for MUCH quicker travel while leveling. Adding up all the times you need to travel here and there across the world (especially for the Epic story quests), having Swift Travel accessibly is a pretty huge boon to leveling in LOTRO. Not having it kind of makes it a turn-off to leveling those characters, so I have not focused my efforts in their leveling. As it stands, my lore-master is level 48 , and my captain is level 51. This is likely the most difficult of my listed challenges for me to complete.

2) Skirmishing Challenge: This is the goal that I had probably forgotten most about. I do not skirmish that often, and as such the information about my progress on skirmish encounters is something I have not looked at in forever, on any character. On my main (hunter), I believe I have 20 encounters remaining to complete the SoME deed (out of 18 skirmishes, each containing anywhere from 5-9 encounters). Considering you'll only get about two random encounters per skirmish, this is a rather RNG-based challenge. I think I'll be happy enough if I can get to 10 or under encounters remaining.

3) Instance Challenge: Combined with my general "whatever" attitude toward completing group instances, and the dwindling server sizes on which I play, I'm not sure I would honestly fully complete this challenge. I have done Dar Narbugud (DN) at least twice with a group, but that is probably the easiest of the raids I have listed. I have not fully completed any of the 6-mans I mentioned, though I did get to the end of Lost Temple solo...aaaand promptly died due to DPSing too quickly.

Anyways, these goals should be less important than my real-life laundry list, but there's something about virtual goals that make it more desirable to attain. I assume it's the fact they are generally easier to accomplish, plus there is no real downside to not quite making it to the finish. That just makes it that much more fun to add it to next year's gaming goals!

Do you generally make MMO/gaming goals for yourself, or do you simply pat yourself on the back when you finish something and say "Well done, me. Well done!" ? Share in the comments below!

Please Bear With Me - Beorning Play

Note: All pictures and information are subject to change - all come from Bullroarer Update 15, Build 1...at least the non-photoshopped ones...

So yesterday I decided to check out the first LOTRO Update 15 beta build on Bullroarer, the preview server. This update boasts two fairly big pieces of content: the continuation of our journey through Gondor (Central Gondor), and arguably the bigger feature - a new class! The Beorning marks the 10th class to be introduced to the game, and the second time we've seen a class added (Moria brought us the Rune-keeper & Warden).

Beornings are explained as "skin-changers that can change into the form of a bear in combat." Their roots descend from the big fellow himself, Beorn. They are mainly a reclusive type, though the ensuing struggle of enemies pouring into the lands have pushed these people of the forest to lend their claws to rip the enemy open like the tasty honey pots they are.

As I sat in line to patch the server, I could only imagine how many Beornings would be rampaging the lands in both beta and launch day. Bears, bears, everywhere! Not to mention the plethora of puns that would no doubt strike the name box. Step aside, Honey Boo Boo!

There was a fair amount of talk about how the Beorning was a "race" and not a "class," and as such would cause a tizzy of shaking fist pumps and heresy heckling. I think that it was at least half-settled when it was revealed at character creation screen that the Beorning is also listed as a separate race option from Man (from which they were descended...at least ancient man). I guess it will be kind of strange, since the only kind of racial Beorning you can create is...a Beorning class. Though I guess it would also be kind of strange to create a "Beorning Skin-changer," since that is equally redundant. The Beorning class was purchasable in the LOTRO store for a BETA PRICE - SUBJECT TO CHANGE YADDA of 1000 Turbine Points, which seems roughly what I'd imagine it to cost.

Character creation screen - Beorning Beorning hype!

Sorry ladies...no pink hair...or facial
hair for that matter. [CONCEPT]

At least there is no gender restriction in the creation of a Beorning, so there is no Dwarvish inequality going down. Another pretty neat bit is that an extra detail tab is available to adjust your facial war-paint/tattoo (one of the options being to remove it, should you decide to act as the rebel plain-faced Beorning). You make also pick from a fairly wide selection of colors for both that tattoo, and eye color. Other than this, the available hair and facial choices are basically the same as those available via the race of Man (which makes sense).

It is important to note the color of your hair during character creation. Depending on your choice of a lighter of darker hue, your bear-form's fur will echo this selection. Choose a light color, and your bear will likely try to migrate north and take up chugging cola. I'd love for them to add an option to see what your bear-form will look like from this screen, to allow us to make a more informed decision.

Jumping into the game will take you to a new solo instanced starter area for the Beornings, in the Vales of Anduin (specifically, Grimbeorn's Lodge). Getting through this area will introduce you to the basic mechanics of the class.

Grimbeorn's Lodge - Beorning starter area

Basically, you will generally find yourself starting combat in humanoid-form. There are a set of skills dedicated toward building Wrath (what I'd imagine as honey-infused bear mana). Once you feel you have a sufficient amount of Wrath, you can activate a skill to swap over to your bear-form. The set of skills only available to use in bearmode will then use up Wrath (as well as a Wrath being spent just being this fearsome creature). Once you are out of juice, you will shortly return back to your bipedal form. It is a pretty smooth transition between the two modes, but I can imagine it will take some work to get a good flow between the two forms. Sorry South Park fans...there is no pig-form.

Battle transformation - I hope that's honey the combatant is bleeding, yum!

One of the parts that felt a little weird was that upon the completion of the short starter area, my character was level two. After my character hop, skipped, and jumped to post-burning Archet, she must have had some tasty rabbit protein bars along the way, as she loaded in at level five. I understand the purpose of auto-leveling our characters to better fit the starter quests and to be in line with other classes making their way out of the starter, but it still felt a little jarring. I know that I'll keep in mind that this is just the first build of the public beta, so as always, anything is subject to change.

Overall, it seemed like a good start. I had to put in a report on the apparent clipping of a couple of the male Beorning beards, and several placeholders seemed to be place in the starter area for this build. I'm sure I'll go ahead and try out the Beorning class come the live launch of Update 15, assuming I have acquired the proper TP cost. The hard part? Deciding the craft. Maybe I'll craft large holes in trees, enough to sneak in and grab the precious honey.

The Splendor of Gender Pretender

Well, I had planned on getting a blog post out a couple days ago, but Trion was so kind as to put out a new server for Archeage. While open PvP is not my cup of tea, free-to-play is, so I figured I'd give the game a shot...at least until level 30 or so (which I hear is roughly when the hostile player combat starts to pick up). At that point I'll likely play it by ear...perhaps see how much PvE content I can do while keeping under the radar? My original plan was to just do fishing, but I realized it wasn't quite as easy as picking up a fishing pole from an NPC and heading to a body of water.

While listening to an episode of LOTRO Players News (LPN) a week or so ago, they were talking a bit about how one goes about picking their character's sex, when the choice is available (this mainly would occur in an RPG title, whether it be MMO or single-player). The answers were pretty varied, from some males picking basically males (to others creating mostly females), females mainly creating females; others taking on a more scientific approach by splitting their characters to have a half:half split of male & female.

Some games may make the query a bit more one-sided, thrusting
"you" into one choice even before "you" are created

As for my male-self, I'd say that, when given the choice, my first character in most RPG titles are male - whether or not this character will end up being my main-player character. Perhaps this choice lets me connect a little closer with my playable avatar as I take on my first experience with the unfolding adventure embodied within the game. When/if I decide to roll up another character in that same game, my second character is female probably at least 75% of the time. Some games offer a slightly different set of dialogue, or perhaps the character animations offer something a bit varied based on the gender choice (yes, I said gender...I don't feel like filling my entire post with "sex" a thousand times).

Beyond the second character, I'd probably say that I fall into the mathematical approach of gender choice. My characters in LOTRO probably display the best example of this phenomenon. My toons displayed on the page at the top currently show those characters I am leveling/own - there are six male characters, and five female characters. The Beorning class will hopefully be released Update 15 (which I believe is supposed to be released before the end of the year), and I will likely create a female to even out the selection.

Though I usually try to customize the cosmetic appearance of my role-playing characters to some degree, I will generally not pick certain pieces to flatter the character's sex, male or female. Some game titles will put more effort into displaying certain aspects of character models, and armor alike, so it is sometimes hard not to end up with a rather voluptuous model under your control. However, from a backside perspective (which is how you'll generally see a character during gameplay), most of the games that I play don't really have too big of a difference between choosing male or female. I mean, have you seen elves from the rear in...basically any game?

As such, I suppose my choice to try and split gender choices is so that I can end up with a varied "army" of equal sexes. Whether that is subconsciously my views on the real world (peace, love, nerd hippy power) or not is beyond my current train of thought. Like I mentioned earlier, it's also nice to switch things up a bit, as some games may offer slightly different choices/dialogue based on gender.

Like I always say, gaming is a form of entertainment, and you gotta have fun with what you're doing, or it's time to switch it up. All of the hosts on LPN made solid reasons why they make certain gender choices when it comes to character creation, and I am not opposed to how anyone decides to make those choices. Even if it comes down to wanting some extra...jiggle physics, or perhaps those female beards are just not making the cut, you gotta choose what works best for you. As long as game designers don't create negative effects for selecting one or the other (when the choice is available, of course), we all get to be heroes in our own worlds.

It's a Mod, Mod World

Falskaar is a new lands mod for Skyrim (no DLC required), created by Alexander Velicky. This adds an entirely new map to explore, with additional quests and all that good stuff. I have not put too much time into Falskaar yet, but what I have experienced so far feels very polished. The features list this size of the territory (which is independent from Tamriel, allowing you to port to and back from Skyrim with a boat system) as "roughly the size of 2-3 Skyrim holds." I've spent most of the time within dungeons, which have served to make it feel even more expansive. It also contains new voice-acting and a soundtrack created just for the mod, and boasts at least 20-30 hours of gameplay. Basically, Falskaar is a free content add-on that serves as unofficial DLC, and should probably be on your go-to list if you choose to check out some Skyrim content mods.

Map of Falskaar - still plenty of dungeon delving to do!

Storywise, I wouldn't want to spoil too much, but after accidentally arriving on this land, you are asked to assist the locals with some of the not-so-friendly bandits. I've probably spent most of my time thus far with side quests; helping a boy with the local mudcrab population (as well as investigating why they are suddenly so large), and am currently assisting his parents with separate anniversary present quests. I'm sure the likely bandit attacks can wait, or they'll have to answer to my bow (I suppose they'll eventually need to do so anyways).

In my many hours of Skyrim (don't have an exact number, but I'm sure it's 100+) so far, this is only my second game modification - the first being SkyUI (a nice overhaul to the basic UI, making things more simple and efficient). I am pretty random when it comes to deciding if and what I'd want to find a modification for any given game, though I can likely say it's not all that often (note I am referring to modding, or alteration of the game code...programs like plugins for an MMO do not fall under this umbrella of discussion).

I think the desire to modify my game experience will usually revolve around having played a certain title for a total large amount of time, but not quite yet wanting to put that game on the back burner. As such, if the game allows for mods, and there is a fairly well-known community, I may delve into the all-mighty Google and research what exists out there that will tinker with my gameplay.

As it stands, what I probably love most about modding itself is that it can extend the life of a game on my shelf, without instituting a burden on my wallet. While Skyrim already contains an unquantifiable truckload of things to do, the vanilla experience may eventually become stagnant. If the DLCs do not fall within your budget, there is a free mod like Falskaar that is simple to install, and *poof* hours are now added to explore a new land and hopefully keep the fun clock going for a little while longer. Some types, such as total-conversion mods, serve to almost re-invent the game by replacing nearly all assets with an entirely new coat of paint, so to speak. This may serve as a means to inject a well-known franchise within the walls of a non-related game, such as the Lord of the Rings-inspired Third Age - Total War mod for Medieval II.

Also known as Lake-town, as depicted in Third Age - Total War (LOTR-inspired total conversion mod for Medieval II)

Another neat thing about modding is the possible extension of lore within a game (if applicable). For those lore-junkies, your game of choice may have its own set of lore-enhancing content mods. From what I have seen in a couple games, modders are often a creative bunch that seem to have a good grasp of their project's connecting game world. As such, some mods serve to build a richer lore-appropriate environment.

Similar to the lore, immersion is often a huge boon when it comes to creators producing a more in-depth mod which serves to enhance the gameplay. The realism becomes even more real, the combat becomes even more combative, and the fantasy becomes even more...fanatical? Whether the mod raises the difficulty bar, or creates improved graphical assets (the grass is now even grassier!), immersion mods serve well to root the player deep into the game world, and gives them a reason to keep up the good fight.

OH YEHHHH!! What do you mean, not lore appropriate?

Naturally, not even mod is going to be well-received, and others may gain more of a shock value rather than respect (cult-classic mods, anybody?). Some may create wacky graphical assets that are extremely non-lore appropriate, while others may be geared toward a more mature, adult audience. Please do your research when finding mods online, make sure you are downloading from somwhere reliable, and try to know roughly what you're about to change with your game. You know, for the kids and all?

Additionally, it is very important to read up on the installation. Many mods are often sharing or replacing your vanilla (original) game files, and some may be much more tricky to set up than others, so it's always a good idea to know exactly where you are placing or swapping around when it comes time to set up a mod. It is often recommended to back up your original files somwhere - including any save files. You wouldn't want that 200+ hours of Skyrim to suddenly go poof 'cause some mod decided to go on a corruption spree, would you?

Once set up correctly, game mods can be a pretty awesome experience. Some may really stand out to you, making you wonder how those modders got this shot...make that a keg of creativity, and if you can have a double order. Others may end up being a quick try and uninstall. That's a cool thing with mods - just like the games themselves, some people may prefer different things out of their modded gaming. Perhaps one really wants some new textures, while another would like a different feel to combat. Some play it more aggressively, seeing how many mods they can install in one game before it decides to pick up its belongings, go to the safety of home, and do something that doesn't involve you playing it until you back off (perhaps a relaxing puzzle...as long as it's under 1k pieces and interlocking).

The Just Cause 2 multiplayer mod adds a whole new layer to the game - other people

Some gamers prefer not to mess with mods, whether it possibly be the quantity of titles they have to run through, non-desire to mess with game files, or perhaps they simply don't wish to stay from the original gameplay feel. It's just another of the many freedoms that gamers have. Not all developers create their games with the thought or desire of user modding, while others almost expect their players to express their creativity through additional user-made content. However you float on the modding boat is your decision, though I'd probably recommend that you at least take a look at what adventures may lie out there for mod-friendly titles.

Do you enjoy playing game modifications? Why or why not? Any specific mods you love, or perhaps you feel modding tarnishes the vanilla gameplay? Share in the comments!