December 2022 Update

Improvised "Hall Update" Thumbnail.

I think I definitely should get some kind of template for these posts, like I've mentioned in previous Update. My copywrite work stuff went in slightly different direction, but in return I reached the new payment record and that was nice. Back to waiting for more work before the end of the month since at least the first half January will be pretty quiet.

Surprisingly enough, I was suddenly freed from all penalties, arrests and allowed to leave the country. Although there's no way for me to make a good use of these returned privileges, I guess this is good news. It's probably a temporary thing though and (sooner or later) we will be back to this nonsense.

Reconsiderations.

I kept coming back to some conclusions from my "Hearth Reflection" in November 2022 Update post. I still tend to redirect my attention to strictly positive topics for future "articles". Even though I have a neck for these "serious posts" that kicked off this silly blog, there's no point in forcing myself to stick to any formula if I don't want to. In turn, this means that I'm properly cancelling the Warcraft 3 post about new updates (both 1.33 and 1.34) that I was promising for so long. Because I have nothing positive and/or new to say. Current situation to me appears to be pretty depressing and grim as all parties involved simply get worse. The end of Blizzard & NetEase agreement resulting in games shutting down is a great news since it's going to take War3's Battle Platform with it, even though it could be only temporarily.

However, that does leads us towards the matter of negativity. It's pretty common nowadays and it's hard to not stumble into something negative and your social enviourment doesn't really matter here. Not on Internet, at the very least. Some bad spirit will fly before your eyes one way or the other, but this gets much worse you regularly go through websites, social media accounts and online communities with strong emphasis on negativity. This could be more subjective based on specific point of time though as World of Warcraft community would be a great example of that. While I fully gave up on the game and stopped tracking it down even lazily, my eyes still catch something related to its latest expansion in spite of my disinterest.

If your current surrounding are toxic for one or many reasons, then why not change that? I still have a few friends that play both Retail & Classic versions of the game and cutting them off seem counter-intuitive. Not that I'm really as social as I probably should be: I'm more of a lurker than an active participant of specific community or friend circle. What I can do is simply reduce superfluous, undesirable stuff from my daily routine. Communities of older games appear to be a total mess full of stupid drama? Don't waste your time looking at that! Moved on from World of Warcraft? Then do it properly, including changing your stupid profile picture everywhere!

Like, seriously! My gnome warrior is cool and all, but the fact that I still have his Retail version as my default avatar is really astonishing. I think this clean up through my online routine was long overdue. Obviously I waste most of my time everyday behind the screen of my crappy laptop. And I have a clear pattern that I follow every single time. This is like some daily ritual or something, I'm not sure how weird that is, but I'm getting annoyed if this "natural order of things" gets somehow broken.

Back To Grind.

What does it mean for Ilko's Hall? Like I've mentioned before, I'm going to distance myself from more "critical" (and often negative) articles and switching my main focus from Blizzard to somewhere else. In other words, I don't want to write anything related to Warcraft and their other franchises anytime soon. I'm sticking to rare posts about random older titles and maybe even some PICO-8 stuff. Initially I wanted to become a "variety guy" and simply jump from one game to another, I've come to realize that I need some kind of "default spot". Something I can only always go back to in case there's nothing else out there for me in the horizon. If I have no ideas and/or mood for any of that.

While Warcraft series played that role in my life for many years, there's another game that either shared that spot with Blizzard's titles and/or was pretty close to that. Ironically enough, that's Minecraft. Because of similar names, yeah. While there're a lot of problems surrounding it once you start to pay some attention, it sounds like a great candidate. I'm terrible at sandbox genre (thanks for helping me realize that, Terraria!), but Minecraft is a pretty damn calm game... most of the time, at least. There's no story in it and the lore is intentionally ambiguous in spite of its spin-offs, which means there's nothing to ruin on that front... Except Vex losing their famous smile and probably Zombie Pigmen being replaced by Zombified Piglin. Again, it's not perfect there. It's not perfect anywhere.

I guess you can say that the thumbnail for my "note" about "copying Bedrock Edition skins" to the original Minecraft was a subtle teaser for my new blocky appearance around here. Ideally, I would've drawn the skin myself. Why not just learn how to pixel art, especially since I expressed interest in it before? I can't answer that question and I wish I could. If I knew what stops me in situations like this, I could've at least had a chance to deal with it. Why not something closer to that silly gnome? Well, original Ilko is (World of) Warcraft character, and it doesn't feel right to pull him out of that universe into another.

Not sure whenever I get to some proper updates or changes to Ilko's Hall, but I'm committed to another "January grind": spending part of New Year's holidays (or even earlier) of writing new "articles" for this blog, both regular posts and "Just an Idea" nonsense. This year was kicked off with the total of nine posts (including an Update one): almost half of them were dedicated to my Warcraft-related ideas while more typical posts went over earlier id Software games and PICO-8's Tetris titles. I would like to do the same in this upcoming January with the goal of writing down ten "articles" with someone more unified theme, aside from Update post and an additional "off-topic Just an Idea" (if it goes well enough) about something I've debated about in some aforementioned updates.

Don't expect me to keep up this momentum. Once we reach February 2023, Hall will be most likely back to its hibernated state. While it would've been great to write down at least a couple of posts since the blog would reach its second anniversary that month, but (again) I don't wanna commit to something I might not be able to fulfil... Hopefully, that last sentence will not backfire on me later on.

Everything Else.

I'm close to the finishing line with Rogue Legacy. Remixed versions of bosses were defeated after multiple attempts and lost gold on updating preset hero a couple of times, each time. That last part seems to be a recent thing as all guides on YouTube show off players as cool professionals that get through without either not using or even having that option close to boss entrance to begin with. I think I could've done that "as is" through trial and error, but I never shied away from using cheese of some kind when it comes to beating the game or getting achievements. I've also got the rest of blueprints. All that's left for me to get a Traitor character for Geminiphobia & Katagelasticism. Until then, I'm just clearing all rooms and surrender to The Fountain. Thanatophobia will be my final challenge.

Once Rogue Legacy joins the ranks of my Perfect Games on Steam, it will be time for another title to beat and get all achievements. Not sure which one it's going to be next. Technically, I need to finish off both Terraria and Portal 2 (cooperative mode). Not counting DOOM 16 (Modern one from 2016, yeah) since I'm still using my old laptop that can't really run that game. I need the upgrate and perhaps I've finally reached this good(?) point in time where that seems more plausible. Obviously, I'm talking about used PC setups and/or laptop. I looked up only the first option and there're a couple of variants within my affortable price. Perhaps I should wait until after New Year's Eve. Part of me wants to hold off to my stash in case something goes wrong, as it usually does. However, this does feel like one of those rare & strange moments in life where something nice happens.

Lastly, I really should at least try to put some effort into being more social. I'm not totally isolated (this blog sort of proves that, in a way), but, as I've mentioned before, I'm not as talkative as I think I should be. In a way, I was always like that and it is what it is. Just a weird guy sitting by himself in a corner that might eventually adapt with his surrounding and say a word or two. Some things can change if you want them to, you just have to put enough effort into it... Where am I going with this? Somewhere too far for me and this post.