Reviewing My Goals for 2013

At the beginning of each new year I have a special post.  Sometimes if it predictions.  Some times it is demands.  Back in January I decided it should be goals.

So I wrote out a list of eight goals for 2013, then promptly forgot about them as set out into the year.

Now here we are, into December and we have reached the time to review.  In theory, I could run out and complete at least one of the incomplete goals on my list.  But in reality, it isn’t going to happen.

Each of my eight goals were well within my ability to accomplish.  How many did I manage?

1- Finish Rift

There was a specific definition of “finish” in the goal, since MMOs are pretty difficult beasts to tame otherwise.  And it wasn’t even the whole game I had to finish, just the Storm Legion expansion.  The base game was already finished per my definition.

All I had to do was get a character to the new level cap and finish the five person dungeons with the instance group.  Level cap should have totally obtainable… I had four characters at the old cap, one in each base class… and we were starting in on the first instance back at the start of January.  I figured this was a gimme.

Um, about that…

And then I had problems getting into Storm Legion.  That dragged.  I wandered off, then came back and gave it another shot and made it a bit further.  But on entering Seratos I lost all momentum and that was that.

Meanwhile, the instance group had problems even getting online at the same time.  We didn’t actually finish the first instance until the end of June.

So that goal was pretty much a bust and Rift lies fallow for me even now.  The group as a whole hasn’t been back since we poked our collective noses in to see how the F2P transition went.

Goal not achieved.

2- Find a new goal in EVE

This isn’t looking good either.  I had some idea about what I could do.  I even trained up some skills.  But here it is December and I am still playing about the same way I was back in January.  I wait for a fleet op to get called, I log in, join the fleet, and go shoot things.  Or fail to shoot things.  My role is still pretty much that of “aligner to whatever, presser of F1, and clicker of PAP links.”

Not that I don’t enjoy that.  I still goggle at large fleet battles.  It is my place in the game for now.  But it isn’t anything new.

I did train up to fly a carrier.  I even purchased an Archon.

My first successful Archon jump

But flying a new ships is a constant and flowing thing in EVE Online.  But unless you have a plan for what you are going to do with that ship once you have it, it isn’t the kind of goal I meant.  And I haven’t done anything with the Archon since I bought it.

Goal not achieved.

3- Get to Tier IX in World of Tanks

Another goal I though would be a gimme.  At the time I was closing in on a tier VIII tank and I was driving the KV-4 by mid-April, leaving me a good 8 months to make my goal.

KV-4 with a Maus

And then I stopped playing World of Tanks around the beginning of May and I haven’t really been back since.

That is the way it goes with video games sometimes.

Goal not achieved.

4- Finish that Second Instance Group Video

This was to follow up the first instance group video I did, which reviewed our first year as a group in Azeroth.  You can read my post about it, which includes the video and the whole director’s commentary.  It included music performed by Earl and his musical friends.

I did actually start on this.  I had decided that the second video ought to focus on our run through Wrath of the Lich King, which was arguably our peak in the game up to this time.  We ran all the instances and had some adventures in the open world, so it seemed like good enough topic.  I even went through the screen shots from the period and started pulling out and cropping potential candidates.  I got about half way through that.

And then I got hung up on the music.  I mentioned that in writing the original goal, that the music is an important part of the process for me.

I really need something to make the whole thing come together.  At one point I was leaning towards ELO’s Don’t Bring Me Down, which I thought had the right ironic tone for the assault on Northrend, plus is a good tune.  But I never quite got there. Then I got a bit twitchy about music after I ran into some trouble with one of my videos.

I understand the the holders of the rights to the music are entitled to profit from them.  They claim the rights on YouTube, slap ads on them, and collect a bit of revenue.  I am fine with that.  But for one of my favorite videos, the horrible slog through time dilation to the battle at Q1U-UI, the rights holder insisted I remove the music.  Apparently the reputation of the song Theme from a Summer Place, the most stereotypical elevator music ever, was being harmed by association with internet spaceships or something.  Perhaps EVE was too exciting for it.  I don’t know.  But Google muted the audio until I clicked the button and let them remove the music from the audio track.

Google did a surprisingly good job at that, but now the video lacks much of its charm.  It is just a bunch of slow spaceships with people laughing about how slow they are going.

Anyway, this made me a bit leery of doing anything else with musical tracks I happened to have in iTunes.  Maybe I can get Earl and his group to record a version of Don’t Bring Me Down.

And then I got distracted with other things, the instance group was having trouble forming up, and I never quite got back to it.

It remains on my “to do” list, and now that we have actually done the last three instances in the expansion, maybe I will get back to it.  But I still have the music thing to deal with.

Goal not achieved.

5- Retry an MMO That Didn’t Stick

Complete and utter failure on this one, at least for the definition I gave.  I put out a potential list with titles such as Vanguard, Dungeons & Dragons Online, Star Trek Online, Runes of Magic, Warhammer Online, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and Pirates of the Burning Sea.

And I did not go back and play a single one of them.

I did try to log into Warhammer Online, but only after they announce it was going to close, and only for nostalgia tour reasons even then.

Time to get stuck in…

And I failed at that, as I could not coax Warhammer Online into letting my log into the game.

Goal not achieved.

6- Scout for the Next Instance Group Game

This was just vague enough that I can claim to have done it.  Potshot was really the leader of the scouting expedition in 2013, leading the way into things like Neverwinter Nights 2 and Neverwinter.  Some sort of theme going on there.

With Commander Tann at Fort Locke

But for me to really lay claim to achieving this goal, I think I would have had to scout a game that we actually ended up playing.

Which I did.

I stepped foot into what would become our next game.  I lead the way.  I was there first.

It just happened to be a game we were already invested in, World of Warcraft.  So I am pretty sure the group’s move back there had more to do with our investment in the game, and the BlizzCon announcements, than anything I did.

Goal not achieved.

7- Book My Autumn Nostalgia Tour Early

I think I managed this one.  Every autumn I, usually accompanied by Gaff or Potshot, end up going back and playing some MMO from the past.  This year I managed to this twice.

For the really early nostalgia tour, Gaff and I and our EVE corp went off to Middle-earth and indulged in a summer of Lord of the Rings Online.

Always the same tale

Then, when that was wrapping up… I was on the far side of Moria and the rest of the corp had wandered off… my daughter wanted to go back and play World of Warcraft.  So that was declared the Fall nostalgia run… for specific definitions of nostalgia in any case.

Riding to Adventure!

That ended up turning into the destination for the instance group, so it became more current and less nostalgia.  Still, I think I managed this one.

Goal achieved.

8- Blog Stuff

My goal here was pretty much to stay the course… which isn’t really much of a goal.  It is like riding a bicycle and making your goal “continue to pedal.”  334 posts later, I think we can confirm that I managed to carry on as always.

Goal achieved.

Scoring

So that was a meager eight goals, out of which I managed to achieve two.

And the two that I achieved were vague targets to do what I expected I would do in any case.  That certainly doesn’t reflect well on my ability to define a goal and achieve it.

I think that for my 2014 New Year’s post I am going to go back to predictions.  Those are more fun to discuss… I cannot resist throwing in some silly or outrageous ones… and more fun to review at the end of the year.  So look for that come January 1st.