Chronicles of Elryia - MMORPG with farming, family, combat and more

Hey everyone!

PAX is going on right now, and lots of awesome games are being shown off, but there's one game among them that I wanted to bring attention to. Mostly because it's had my attention for quite a few months now.

It's name is Chronicles of Elyria, and it's an upcoming MMORPG for the computer (and possibly on console as well) that is breaking the mold created by other MMORPGs of the past. I'm gonna give you all a brief overview of why it's my most anticipated game of 2017, but if you want to learn more, feel free to join the community and get your questions answered through the forum or the Developer Journals at the Chronicles of Elyria website. 

And if you decide to join the community, I'd love for you to use my refer code: 840BC1

So let's jump in!

You may be wondering...
What exactly is Chronicles of Elyria? 

Chronicles of Elyria, CoE for short, is an upcoming MMO that is going to revolutionize the MMORPG field. With finite resources, a closed economy, non-repeatable quests, and a huge open world ruled by NPC and player-run kingdoms alike, every choice you make matters. Will you be a farmer and create food and goods for the towns that will come to depend on you and your harvests? Or a mailperson, traveling across a huge open world filled with perils and unknown surprises to deliver a package to someone that needs it? Maybe a tailor, creating beautiful outfits for royalty and nobility alike, from a hugely customizable crafting system that lets you mix fabrics and patterns and accents to create a one of a kind piece?

You have all those options to choose from, and so much more. Whatever you want to be, you have the opportunity to be it. A baker, a spy, a King/Queen, a bard, a traveling merchant, a miner, an explorer. Whatever you want to focus on, focus on it! Don't want to fight monsters? No problem! Let the guards and adventurers take care of it while you do whatever it is you enjoy, for as long as you live.

Although, unlike most games, don't expect to live forever. Because unlike other MMORPGs, in CoE, your character will get old and they will die.

Character Death in an MMORPG

So, you may be asking: "Why would I play a game where my character could permanently die?" And that's a fair question. It worried me at first too.

But then you have to realize how much more important your characters are in a world where choices matter and people may come to depend on you in one way or another. And don't worry! If someone stabs you with a sword and you fall to the ground, you more than likely are not experiencing a perma-death. There are three levels of death in CoE. Incapacitation, which knocks you out, and you get back onto your feet after a short time downed. Spirit walking, where someone finishes you off after knocking you out and your spirit has to find its way back to your body in the spirit world, and perma-death, where it's game over and you have to get a new character, which trust me, doesn't happen very often.

So why would you play if you're just going to die? Because your character is actually the soul! You will be reborn once every real-world year or so into a new child, and your soul will keep the experiences that it gained through past lives, which means your skills will keep increasing at an increased rate. So if you focus on farming through several lifetimes, your character is going to be one of the greatest farmers in the world of Elyria. Kingdoms will send merchants to barter with you from far and wide to be able to get some of your rare crops. Would you sell your goods to rival kingdoms for a vast amount of riches, or would you remain loyal to the kingdom you live in?

Every person has a story. Every person is a quest giver.

You are an adventurer, and you come into town, looking for a way to make coin to buy better armor for your next outing. You go into the tavern and the barkeep tells you about the town leatherworker looking for someone to kill wild beasts and bring them pelt. So you go out and you kill ten of the creatures and bring them to the shop that the barkeep told you about. The leatherworker thanks you, and gives you plenty of coin for your trouble. Coin the blacksmith will happily accept in exchange to upgrade your armor! You, the barkeep, the leatherworker, and the blacksmith are all players, all helping each other and asking for help in order to survive in a living, exciting world.

The engine the game runs, the Soulborn Engine, will create stories for you as well. But many stories will come from interacting with the people and the world around you. Give the king the gift of a beautiful amulet you bought from a wandering merchant, only to find that the amulet was laced with poison, and you are now the most wanted person alive for perma-killing the kingdom's beloved king. Explore the woods and come across a cave that you hear strange sounds from within, only to find vampire players that want to feast on your soul. Take the path of darkness and darken your soul to the point you become an evil lich, effectively becoming the game's first raid boss! Everyone has a story in this game.

Family

What good is growing older in the game unless you have someone to share the journey with? In CoE there is marriage, opposite and same sex marriage, and you can have children. Those children you can save for yourself so you can inhabit them should your character die, or you can open them up for another player to put their soul into, becoming your child. Families are connected to each other so closely that should you die and get sent on a spirit walk, your family will give you a reason to live, and make the journey back to your body that much easier. They also help you learn new skills, give you a place to live, and encourage you. Of course, families are not for everyone, and if you want to start as a ward of the state, starting out on your own with no family, that's okay too! You'll come into the world at a younger age and have some extra time to hone your skills if that's the path you choose to take!

Magic in 5%

Magic is a legend in Elyria. As a normal character, you cannot decide you want to cast fireballs from your hand one day. But if you're incredibly lucky you may be born with a talent. Talents are this games version of magic (fireball hurling, planeswalking, etc) but only 5% of the population will be lucky (or unlucky) enough to be born with one. Would you use your magic for good or evil? Would you, and the rest of the world, look favorably upon magic users, or shun them?

There's so much more to say about this game, I've only just scratched the surface. But for fear of rattling on, I'll stop here. But there's still so much to learn if you're interested, such as the in depth crafting system, realistic inventory space, soulmates, actual map-making, building your own house from scratch in whatever way you want, running your own cities, genetics, player-created dungeons, the ability to research future technologies, disguising yourself as another PC to commit crimes, destinies, offline-player characters (OPCs), and so much more! 

The Kickstarter for Chronicles of Elyria begins May 3rd, and it looks like they're going to have some great tiers to choose from! So check them out, and help them out if you want to see them succeed. I'll leave links to more information here so you can check out more things if you're interested:

Be sure to check out the first look of the game here! (remember, it's all very pre-alpha!):
First Look Gameplay
PAXEast Combat Interview
First look at pre-alpha combat

And if you want to watch videos of more CoE coverage, check out:
DM21 Gaming

 If you're interested, join the ever growing community at the game's website:
Chronicles of Elyria

 And read more about the game through the developer journals:
 Developer journals


Everyone is very friendly and ready to answer whatever questions you may have! If you join up on the website, feel free to use my friend code to sign up:
840BC1

If you played Chronicles of Elyria, what role would you take?

My New Reason to Love PS4

Everybody's Gone to the Rapture.

It's a beautiful game by The Chinese Room, and released on only the Playstation 4. I knew as soon as I watched the trailer for it forever ago that I would want to own it. Unfortunately, before now, the fact that I didn't own a PS4 sort of presented a fairly big road block to not getting the game I wanted.

But that was okay. It was one game, and I couldn't justify buying an entire system for just a single game. But Christmas came, and I was surprised by a shiny new Destiny white PS4 gaming console underneath my Christmas tree. While I also got other fantastic looking games, this was the one I wanted to try first. And I'm glad I did.

As for the gameplay, I was underwhelmed, and actually put down the controller to do other things multiple times just because it was so frustrating. And the frustration didn't come from complicated button pressing, or complex puzzles or anything like that. The frustration came from the simple fact that you walk, through an entire, very large town. No running, only walking.

For the patient, I'm sure this doesn't matter very much. But when I have an entire open world area to explore, I want to explore everything to make sure I didn't miss anything. But when I have to walk around, I get very impatient and when I get impatient, I just want to get things done. So I know I missed plenty of side stuff. It was frustrating, but I dealt with it.

(And by dealt with it, I mean I maybe sort of whined until the boyfriend, Zach, decided to take the controller and walk everywhere for me.)

But it wasn't the gameplay that made the game so drawing. Even though I hated playing through it, I loved watching it, and listening to it. I knew the PS4 had fantastic graphics. I've been hearing it from Sony fans constantly as they put me down for preferring the Xbox One to the Playstation 4. But it wasn't until I experienced it first hand that I realized what they meant.

The world is beautiful. I've never been so drawn into a game just because of how it looks before. I wanted to be there. Even as the story around you begins talking about the horrible series of events from a sentient...thing called the Pattern. That story was fascinating and terrifying. (This is not a horror game, but I'd be lying if I said it didn't keep me awake for a long time that night just the same.)

And the music... This game had by far the most beautiful soundtrack I have ever heard in a video game. I thought the music of Bioshock Infinite was wonderful, but it has nothing on this game.

I have been a huge Xbox fan since the Xbox 360 came out, but I'm okay with giving PS4 a chance to win me over now. I've had a taste of what it can do, and I look forward to seeing much more.

If you own a PS4 and don't mind a slow pace, I highly suggest giving Everybody's Gone to the Rapture a try. The entire game is based around exploring a town and the lives of the residents within, and the events that have most recently happened to them. It has no action or puzzles or anything like that. It's basically a story that you explore for yourself. Simple, but beautiful.

Which video game would you rank as the prettiest game you've played?

Why do I love Final Fantasy XIV?

Hey everyone! Here's me fulfilling my pre-New Years resolution by posting within a week of the last post!

This post, I would like to talk about my current obsession: Final Fantasy XIV. It's a wonderful MMO game available on the PC, PS3, and PS4. I play on PC, my boyfriend plays on PS3, and we're able to play together! Shared servers are absolutely wonderful. So without further ado, here are some (a lot) of pictures to show how amazing and pretty this game is.

 

 My character is the au'ra race, which means she has very adorable, funky horns instead of ears, scales all over her face and body, and a really cute tail. I named her Sa'rielle Chevalier.

This is my boyfriend, Zach's character. Same race, just with black scales instead of gold. He named him Naire Draaken. If you play this game, feel free to add either of us. We're on the Lamia server!

And now for Halloween event pictures! It was so cool seeing everything change for a couple weeks around Halloween. Very spooky atmosphere, and very pretty clothing options for completing the Halloween quests!

 And with Halloween over, came leveling my character's classes. I worked hard and am amost max level in one of my classes now. My favorite part of leveling is getting access to much cuter clothing than was previously available to me. Like the pictures below:

A strange outfit to fight monsters in? Why yes. Which is why these are my crafting clothes. FFXIV is great, because it's lets you be all classes, combat/gathering/crafting all on one character. So many options, it's impossible to decide what to do next!

And of course, it just wouldn't be an MMO without the bikini armor option. I just love the look though. (Bikini with an attached hood? Practical, no. But fantastically ridiculous.) I felt sort of foolish running around killing monsters in a fancy bikini, so I figured the jester hat fit particularly well.

And lastly, was my accomplishment at getting the same hat as my adorable minion. Twinsies!

So yeah, that's sort of a brief overview of my adventures so far in Eorzea. Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is a wonderful, beautiful game, and I highly recommend it. If you decide to pick it up, or you're already on, and you're on the Lamia server, don't forget to send a friend request to my character! And also check out my Free Company (basically what this game calls player run guilds) DeathMeister Academy!

Thank you for reading! Love you lots!

What's your favorite MMORPG?

Hey It's okay Tuesday!

Original post from Airing My Dirty Laundry. Go check out her blog if you haven't. She's one of my favorite bloggers ever!

                                                             

Hey, it's okay..

...To have not written a blog entry for a few months now. I think it's the picture taking. I haven't taken nearly as many pictures as I used to. Also, I don't want to be in many pictures because my hair is currently two different colors since I haven't redyed it, and I need to go back on my diet hard. I know I should do it anyway though, because low confidence sucks and I need to push past it and post by wonderful self up in pictures again. Soon.

...To not be as excited for the Star Wars movie as everyone else is right now. I do want to see it, but I haven't watched Episodes 4-6 of the original. Only the first three, and I admit that I slept through half of that marathon! It's just hard to take the special effects seriously for me. I know if I had grown up on Star Wars, I would probably love it. But trying to watch it now? it's hard. I'm trying though. I swear.

...To have procrastinated yet again on Christmas shopping. Panicking about whether last minute online purchases would arrive in time for Christmas morning was just so much fun last year that apparently I decided to do it again this year. One of these years I'll get it right.

...To speak up to customer service if a purchase arrives in a bad state. I hate bothering customer service people, because I'm sure they have to deal with lots of crap, especially this time of year. I try to tell myself "Sure, it's a little busted up, but oh well." but then it keeps bothering me and bothering me, and I realize that I probably should speak up. I paid for the item, I deserve quality. Luckily, Thinkgeek is an awesome website with wonderful customer service representatives. Sometimes their merchandise isn't super high quality, but usually I don't have a problem with their items, and their customer service is definitely some of the best.

...To let a video game take up most of my time. I'll admit, I haven't been doing much other than working and playing Final Fantasy XIV every chance I get. if any of you play MMOs, you know how addictive they can be. This is the first one I've enjoyed this much, and I'm loving every minute of it. If you haven't played it yet, I highly recommend it. Just be sure to let me know, so we can adventure together!

So there's my Hey, it's Okay! Tuesday list. Not very long, but it's a hectic time right now what with last minute shopping and wrapping and planning. Thank you to everyone who is understanding about my long absences from my blog. I'm going to try to get better at posting again. It's my early new years resolution! At least one blog post per week. Preferably two or three though! See you all again soon!

Stay beautiful!

My 12 Hour Journey for a Book (To Indianapolis!)

Hey everyone!

So, what did you guys do last weekend? I bet whatever it was, it was smarter than taking a 12 hour car trip in one day.

Because, yep, that's what I did this last Saturday. Armed with a blanket (because goodness that car was freezing) and a pair of sunglasses, I journeyed across 6 hours of road to get to Indianapolis. Why? Because GenCon was there, and at GenCon was a very specific book that I needed. Sure, I would be getting this book in two days when my friend arrived back home, but that wasn't nearly soon enough for my very impatient needs. And so, with a few willing friends, I made my way through Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana until we arrived at Indianapolis. (Stopping briefly at Cracker Barrel, because we were all starving, and two of our members hadn't eaten there in their entire lives, and the rest of us couldn't accept that.)

It was really neat going to Indianapolis. It was such a huge city, with such tall buildings! I mean, I've been to Chicago, but it's been quite a few years, and I can hardly remember what it was like there. So this was a very cool experience.

Upon waking from my car nap, I saw the first hint that we were nearing our destination.

I mean, I'm not a big fan of racing cars, but I've lived with fans for long enough that I knew I was very close to reaching my book. They had really cool designs like this throughout a large portion of the city that we drove through. It was really neat.

There were so many interesting things to see. There was a really large monument in the middle of the city that I wanted to take a picture of, but I wasn't able to. I plan to visit again next year though, so I'll be sure to take many more pictures, with a better quality camera next time. All I had on me this year was my ipod, so I apologize for slightly craptastic picture quality!

Over all, it was a really cool experience to be in such a big city with so many interesting buildings and monuments and decorations. I can't wait until next year when I can hopefully explore the city even more.

My boyfriend, who does so hate to have his picture taken, haha! I loved the Marriott building though. It was so pretty. Nothing like that around here!

But I got my book, I got to walk around a pretty city, and I had some delicious Cracker Barrel and Steak and Shake. Over all, it was a great time, and I really enjoyed the trip, even if I was in a car for half of the day! And my friend that I went to see ended up bringing back a present from GenCon!

Goggles! My friends basically decided I should cosplay Chandra from Magic the Gathering next year. We'll see!

Thanks for the memories Indianapolis!

Have you been to Indianapolis? If so, any suggestions for places for me to go next year??

Love you all! ♥

Hey, it's Okay Tuesday!

Hey everyone!

I really don't do enough of these, so here's my 'Hey, it's Okay Tuesday!" blog post. If you don't know what this is, or want to link up as well, you can find the original blog post here, at Airing My Laundry.

-To have traveled a 12 hour trip to Indianapolis, there and back, in one day, just to get a book two days early. (Totally worth.. check out my next blog post for details!)

-To be going on another trip only one week after my Indianapolis one! Adventureland, here I come!

-To finally be thinking about investing in some motion sickness pills for the theme park. I was always so proud of myself for being one of the only ones in my family that never got sick on any ride, no matter how ridiculously fast it spun me. But now that I'm in my twenties, I'm not nearly as impervious to motion sickness as I used to be. I think it's finally time to accept I'll need a little help to not throw up on the poor person sitting in front of me.

-To already be planning next years conventions. AnimeIowa, and GenCon! Which means lots of shopping and lots of dressing up.

-To be spending way too much money on Kickstarter lately! I mean, hey, it's for a good cause right? People want to create things that they love, and I'm helping them do it, while getting something nifty for myself too. If you're interested too, here's a few projects I'm really excited about:

• FEBO - Allowing you to create, using Sunlight!

• Rogue Queen Playing Cards!

• HypnoLights - Full color Animated String Lights!

• Once Upon a Time Playing Cards

-To have gone outside with my family to see the Space Station pass by. It looked like a star traveling across the sky. It was actually really neat to witness. 

-To have orange hair! I didn't get the chance to mention it to you guys yet, so here's the news! My brown hair is gone, and I'm officially a red head. I had to bleach my hair and everything. I really love how it turned out though, even if my roots are already starting to show up after only a couple weeks! You can see the pictures below.. It was really light orange at first, then I got more red put in it!

-To cosplay Amy Pond to AnimeIowa, even if it was a super casual, lazy outfit. Dressing up in super detailed costumes is tons of fun, don't get me wrong. But I was looking for something simple and comfy this year. And this one, along with my Sims outfit (blog post about this coming soon!) was absolutely perfect! 

-To think I look horrible as a blonde! I've loved blonde hair for a long time, but seeing myself with bleached hair definitely scared me away from ever doing it to myself. I think I'll stick with either brown or red hair (although I have to admit that pastel is super tempting!)

Well, that's all I can think of for now! If you make a "Hey, it's Okay!" blog post, be sure to link it down below in the comments so I can check it out! 

Thanks for reading! Love you all! ♥

A Question about my Blog

Hey everyone!

Short blog post here to ask a question. I was wondering how you all see the top of my blog? Is everything lined up correctly? On my last computer, everything was fine and lined up perfectly (since that's how I made it to look, of course). But on this computer, things are slightly askew.

This is how I see my blog on this computer, and was just wondering if I was the only one, or if you guys see this. The problems being that the latest tweet text is too far to the left, and that my gif in my little info center on the right is too far to the left as well, blocking out some of my words.

I would super appreciate you all letting me know what it all looks like on your computer. Thank you so much in advance.

Michelle

Zelda. So much Zelda.

Hey everyone!

So, let's talk Zelda.

I have played almost every game, minus some of the handheld ones. It's a fantastic series, and one of my favorites. Link, the silent protagonist (minus the occasion "Hya!"), has always been really important to me, even though he has absolutely no lines and no real personality. He is the savior of Hyrule. Your 'link' between your real life, and the one inside your gaming device. Whether I was saving princesses or swinging my sword at chickens (sorry, Cuccos), I always loved loading up the most recent Zelda game for my next big adventure.

So when Majora's Mask 3D was announced for the 3DS, I was incredibly excited. And even better, the New 3DS was coming out with a design absolutely perfect for my inner fangirl!

It's beautiful. I, of course, had to get it. It certainly isn't as girly or pink as my last 3DS, but I can accept that trade off for Majora's Mask. It was my favorite Zelda game growing up and still is. All of those side quests, the dark tones to the game, and the ability to change Link's species with a few very awesome masks made Majora's Mask the Zelda game dearest to my heart, even to this day.

I really love the New 3DS, and the Zelda: Majora's Mask game, and I definitely recommend you checking it out. I'll be uploading another post sometime soon with more picture of the system, since the one above doesn't really do it justice (and I recently bought a new camera, so it's time to get that baby busy).

Also, one of my very awesome friends got me a wonderful gift recently:

Rings based on the three Spiritual Stones from Zelda: Ocarina of Time! They're absolutely beautiful in person, and because they're adjustable, they fit very comfortably on any size of finger. Although, because they are so adjustable, they tend to slide off sometimes a little too easy because they loosen up over time. Just be sure to adjust them every once in a while though, and you're good.

If you want to grab your own set of rings, you can buy them from GuiltyGeeks on Etsy.

And lastly, in my personal Zelda news of the day, I recently purchased Code Name: S.T.E.A.M.Which, by itself, isn't exactly very related to Zelda. But the pre-order bonus...

A Majora's Mask pin. Silver, and absolutely beautiful. I was almost expecting it to feel cheaply made, since it's just a pre-order bonus, but no! It feels great, and sturdy. I absolutely love it, even though I had very little interest in the actual game it came with.

So, yes, so far this year, Nintendo has been very good to Zelda fans. And if you look on Club Nintendo, (which is closing soon, so check it out if you haven't lately!) you'll see that there are a couple very fantastic Zelda items up for sale. I purchased both with my Nintendo coins, and I can't wait to show them to you once I receive the items.

So, do you like Zelda?