Hearthstone - Byebye Mech Rogue (An Ode to Flying Machine)

Mech Rogue was my last favourite deck to play before the advent of the Blade Flurry nerf and the Whispers of the Old Gods Expansion. The soul of the Deck is an underused and under-appreciated card: Flying Machine.

This Meme Doesn't Apply to Older Gamers!

You'll pry my games out of my figuratively dead clutches. Unfortunately, I'm still firmly in the middle category.

A Response to Backlash against Devs in Guild Wars 2

Recently, Guild Wars series developers Arenanet have come under increasing fire from disillusioned players who believe that the company is losing its way in terms of producing new content. These current and some now former players contend that Arenanet has consistently under-delivered on their promises. It's an ugly list for those keeping track. Redditor DustyDemonNinja's observations about the HoT expansion summarize many of the issues concisely, but there are certainly many more as well.

Additionally, it appears that Arenanet may be undergoing some internal turmoil and restructuring as well (particularly the departure of Game Director Colin Johanson) in order to focus more on deliverable content as discussed here.

Hearthstone Low Ladder Blues

I love Hearthstone, but I have a confession to make: even in a month where I tried pretty hard, I have never made it higher than rank 11.

For a long time, this had been bothering me. My win rate was alright, though not excellent. I was winning more than 50% of my matches. For reference, pro players on the ladder win 60%+ depending on their decks. If you win over 50%, then over the long run it is statistically probable that you will progress on the ladder. I just... don't progress as high as I would like.

Gaming After 30

I used to be a Guild Wars addict. I would play for 8-hour stretches and sometimes longer. I'd sleep at 4:30am just so I could finish one more dungeon. I was a hardcore gamer all the way through school, university and graduate studies. 

Times change.

Introducing Myself

Hi, my name is Ryan.

I have been a gamer since the age of five. My first ever videogame was the original Super Mario Bros. on the NES. My uncle bought it for me against the wishes of my parents. It was awesome and I was immediately hooked. It didn't matter that I ran into the first hole in the ground fifty times before I figured out how to jump over it, this was the most amazing thing ever and I was going to master it no matter what. I moved on from there to other Nintendo games and early games on floppy disks for the Mac Classic such as Dungeon of Doom, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? and other classics.

Despite this, I mostly played console games throughout my early childhood. One day, however, I discovered Doom. This was followed shortly thereafter by Duke Nukem 3D, Warcraft 2 and Diablo. These games ignited my now lifelong passion for PC gaming. This is not to say that I left console games behind, but the advent of Steam and budgetary constraints meant that PC gaming was far more attractive.

For many years, I was a competitive gamer. I played Counter-Strike from it's original beta days and played 1.6 all the way through the CS:Source era. I even played some CS:GO, but not competitively. I played DotA, I played Starcraft. As time went by, however, I realized that these games were stressing me out and required enormous amounts of my time to remain competitive and for very little payoff. That's when I branched out at around age 22 and discovered Guild Wars, which I played for its entire lifespan until the sequel came out. I have played Guild Wars 2 regularly since then (and continue to do so). Most recently, due to time constraints, I have also been playing Hearthstone

Despite my apparent single-minded loyalty to very few games, the games I just mentioned were all games which I focused on, but which I did not play exclusively. I have a good-sized Steam library (and backlog, sorry to say) and have enjoyed a huge variety of games. I am always on the lookout for new and incredible experiences. My son has just introduced me to Minecraft (which he tells me to play for him because it is "too hard") and to the Lego series of videogames. I love the Lego sense of humour!

If you have any suggestions for games I should check out or review on the blog, let me know and I will do my best to get it done. Keep in mind that, for now, I am limited to PC and Wii U, though this may change in the future!

Welcome to the Show

Welcome to Gaming After Thirty

This blog is about my experiences with gaming after age 30 which I hope to share with you.

I plan to cover a number of different topics:

- Thoughts on gaming, gaming culture and specific game communities

- Game reviews

- Youtube videos of my gaming sessions

- Contests and giveaways (eventually)

- Ranting and Raving