A Couple of Thoughts about Minecraft Live 2022

Minecraft Live 2022 Thumbnail. Taken from YouTube.

Starting with "maybe I'm getting too old for gaming events" seems both cliché & ridiculous because the latter implies that I'm wise enough to not spend my time on something as pointless as writing this text. Minecraft Live 2022, everyone! Aside from a reminder about the existence of Minecraft Dungeons and some shared details on Minecraft Legends (including the gameplay in cooperative mode), the show itself... went kind of the same as the previous year.

Another highlight of creator tools for Bedrock Edition with that Blockbench segment is fine. Don't have much to say about the mob vote: I like turtles, I don't care. Good on them for using their own platforms for collecting votes, but Mojang Studios has more than enough ideas from previous years that they should focus on slowing bringing back instead. Especially with their current pace when it comes to new content for both versions of Minecraft across a whole lot of platforms. There're better ways to ensure interaction with the community.

October 2022 Update

Improvised "Hall Update" Thumbnail.

Despite this blog getting slightly more attention than usual in the last 30 or so days, you would've assumed that things slightly got better. Obviously, they didn't. It's not a surprise that there's nothing really positive to highlight in current times, but it is still concerning. My current routine goes on and on, days & weeks blend in together. Something good might shine on the horizon every now and then, but it's so dark around here for this light be here long enough. It's kind of the same as previous months, but also not.

My copywriting workflow is as scuffed as ever with constant delays of the job itself, my written material and payment. Especially the latter, I'm still waiting for the money I really should've got by now. Although the latest work went very smooth since they gave me an easy topic for short texts. Oh yeah, I legally can't leave the country now due to family debt. Not that there was any way to do so. Or any part of the world to go to, for that matter.

Late Thoughts about Realms Deep 2022

Realms Deep 2022 Key Art.

It's been a long time since the last Events post from me. Usually I tend to write those a day after specific event, but there was nothing that really interested me for the last year. Not to mention that we exist in crazy and often surreal times. So I eagerly waited for Realms Deep 2022. Kind of. It's actually funny to think about in retrospective. I wasn't disappointed by it (show was nice), it's just the stages of anticipation I went through.

I didn't know what to expect. Didn't want to expect anything. Not after the last year, which had its ups and downs. The only think I had in mind in regards to Realms Deep 2022 was "When they will just announce it already?" because it was obvious that the show will go on. Once teaser trailer came out, I was just too busy with work to really get excited. However, I managed to be there in time. All three days. I'll go over each one of them.

September 2022 Update

Improvised "Hall Update" Thumbnail.

It was overdramatic on the occasion. I've got some copywriting stuff to do, but there was a chance that it would've ended since a friend of a friend who I've worked with considered move on and sell the thing I rewrote articles for. However, that ended up not working out, and it looks like I'm back to business. You know, that's one of those moments in my low points in life: there's always this balance of miserable drama & somewhat fine stuff. I'm trying to not think about this too much because that wouldn't really help.

Either way, allow me to look back at this rather uneventful month... Yeah, that's how I would call this August. So it's going to be similar to last month's update.

August 2022 Update

Improvised "Hall Update" Thumbnail.

No drama this time. This month might've been slightly better than the previous one. Copywriting resumed for some time and I got probably the largest pay ever. I was a busy guy who rewrote a lot of silly texts and payroll kept getting delayed. You know, it is current times and something just has to go wrong for me. Then I got another two week break that, according to current plans, should end today (somewhere at August 13-15). So it feels natural to look back at July 2022 Update and "keep this post short" yet again.

The "rocPortraits" Mystery

Hidden Reign of Chaos portraits from Patch 1.33 PTR.

Blizzard's sudden return to Warcraft 3 with Patch 1.33 on PTR has been very interesting, to say the least. As I observed these events from afar, it did seem like we're heading in the same circle and repeating the same mistakes that paved the way for current Reforged. My initial plan was to go over all of this after the patch gets proper release, but things have changed for the better. Besides, I'm not really excited to revisit the negative side of things.

Instead, I would rather focus my attention on something great. Something that can be good for this game, its community and developers. I've mentioned the secret Classic+ (as we seem to currently call them now) portraits for 25 wins in The Frozen Throne before. Now, the last PTR update brought in all Reign of Chaos ladder icons and community loves these with Grubby & Wtii highlighting them on their YouTube/Twitch channels. It looks like Blizzard started to get it and we're in for a treat... However, I started to have my doubts because it is current Blizzard.

Hence why I decided to write this "article" and also mirror some key points on official forums & Reddit. I would talk about the portraits themselves, how they might be implemented and how I think they should be introduced into current version of Warcraft 3. As other members of the community, I'll try to help them avoid upsetting pretty much everyone.

July 2022 Update

Improvised "Hall Update" Thumbnail.

I was miserable and somewhat happy this month. Dramatic entry, I know. It's just that I would like to get over bad stuff straight away and then mention something either more interesting or positive. They ended up cutting us off from the warm water like a few days after my previous update. So that's fun. My copywrite fluff was mostly stale, but recently I get back to business and that's partially a reason why I would rather keep this post short.