A flurry of Pokémon news has confirmed a launch date for the long-awaited Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket, and a look ahead at what's next for Pokémon Go.

Pokémon TCG Pocket, a digital version of the phenomenally-popular trading card game, will go live via the iPhone App Store and Google Play for Android worldwide on 30th October.

As previously announced, you can open two packs of Pokémon cards for free per day - just enough to get you hooked - and it's interesting to see the pack-opening mechanic front and centre in the game's trailer below.

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Pokémon GO - Get ready for Shiny Solosis' debut, Curveball Throw bonuses, and more

Pokémon Go's upcoming addition of Dynamax mechanics has been something of an open secret - and now we're able to see how some elements will look in-game for the first time.

Fans of Pokémon Go have peered inside the popular mobile game's files to find visual elements of the upcoming Dynamax system, which also offer clues as to how Dynamax Pokémon will be obtained.

For the first time since Pokémon Go's launch all the way back in 2016, new locations look set to appear on the game's overworld map - currently labelled as "stations". These gym-like structures look like they'll host raids for Dynamax Pokémon.

Read more

Pokémon Go's upcoming addition of Dynamax mechanics has been something of an open secret - and now we're able to see how some elements will look in-game for the first time.

Fans of Pokémon Go have peered inside the popular mobile game's files to find visual elements of the upcoming Dynamax system, which also offer clues as to how Dynamax Pokémon will be obtained.

For the first time since Pokémon Go's launch all the way back in 2016, new locations look set to appear on the game's overworld map - currently labelled as "stations". These gym-like structures look like they'll host raids for Dynamax Pokémon.

Read more

The Site

I did my complaining about WordPress early this month, so I can move on to something more upbeat for this section.  I got at least a bit of recognition this month from CCP as they included the blog in the Community Beat post published on July 5th. (The title says “July 7” which just says to me an American wrote the title and screwed up the Euro date pattern.  Swift?  I blame all things on CCP Swift now.)

Woo hoo!  I guess I have to set aside my usual “CCP only cares about Twitch streamers and the rare site they let into the community program” gripe for a while.  I mean, it is still true, but I can’t gripe about it for a few weeks now.

Hey, they didn’t just link to this blog, they also took a moment to link out to my other blog, EVE Online Pictures.  So it was a twofer!  That site saw an immediate boost in view!

From zero to 30 in just an hour!

I mean, maybe that wasn’t a huge boost, but when the average is zero, anything is an improvement.  (It looked like one person showed up and used infinite scroll to look at pictures until they got bored and moved on.)

And what prompted them to notice my work?  Was it my ongoing writing about life in New Eden?  Was it my monthly look at destruction from the MER?  Was it my criticism of their economic policy and their plans for null sec?  Was it my years of CSM election coverage?  Was it my posts about the Alliance Tournament?  Was it all the historical posts about wars in null sec?  Was it because I was bitching again about the in-game map?

Nope!  It was due to me repeating the story Asher Elias told at the fireside a while back about Ser Fukalite’s ship spinning medal… a medal which I am pretty sure was handed out by the community team.

So the lesson here is clear enough that I can put it in meme form.

You know what to do

You can close the loop if you just write about what the people who write the community outreach post are up to.  Look for more of that for sure!

One Year Ago

We got the announcement that Blaugust would be returning for its 10th edition.  We had a decent list of signups in advance.

I did a run down of my gaming in the first six months of 2023.

EverQuest and EverQuest II got quiet summer producer’s letters.

Blizzard’s Q2 2023 financials were all about Diablo IV.

In Wrath Classic I was indulging in the Call of the Crusade update.  That is always good for faction rep… and for heirloom gear for alts to come to Northrend.

The group gave heroic Gundrak a try and we didn’t quite have it in us.  That got us doing Wintergrasp for welfare epics… when we were not having desync issues.

I thought about flying in Wrath of the Lich King, probably the last expansion where it wasn’t a controversy.

Blizz was warming up for WoW Classic Hardcore with the proposed rule set.

CCP announced that the EVE Online 20th Anniversary Edition box was ready to order… though the shipping was going to be so expensive they pledged to give is PLEX in compensation.  CCP also gave us the roadmap to the CSM18 election.  I went over the June 2023 destruction from the MER.

In New Eden the drama of the Tranquility Trading Consortium kept on going with Vily changing his mind and declaring it would carry on, just as a PanFam-only business.

Pandemic Horde lost their irreplaceable Pochven Fortizar in Skarkon.

And I reviewed The Fountain War a decade after its end.

The Metaverse was still trying to be a thing, but even after pouring billions into Facebook Horizon Worlds, Zuck’s metaverse vision still lacked legs, both literally and metaphorically.

Twitter, which was still Twitter, was trying to limit the posting rate of non-subscribers.  Many thought for sure that would kill Twitter, yet it lived.  Only Twitter could kill Twitter I opined, and it couldn’t even manage that right.  At that point I had spent a month with Twitter alternatives and Facebook launched Instagram Threads.  I tried to sum up the different pretenders and the communities they were fostering.

And then Elon announced his master plan, to change the name of Twitter to X.  Jesus wept he is so dumb.

I did a brief wrap up of the 2023 Steam Summer Sale.

I was looking at old books on my shelf wondering what to do with them… besides read them again.

And I started off on my Telephony Tales series of posts.  That started with my misspent youth and calling payphones at the mall and yelling past the Popcorn Lady.

Five Years Ago

There was a Steam Summer Sale to write about, with its odd contest.

Daybreak was fiddling around and registering studio names with the USPTO.

Pokemon Go hit its third birthday. StarCraft got cartooned.

And it looked like Blizz was going to give people a mount every six months so long as they subscribed to the six month renewal plan.

CCP, after saying they would change the 1 million skill point starter pack, just kept on selling it so long as there was sufficient demand.  But at least it was limited to one per account.

Out in null sec space, it was all about the Drifters as the month opened up.  They changed up a bit, but the war we had in progress was already ruined.  We tallied up the damage and headed home.  We had chased PanFam out of Tribute and Vale of the Silent.

But the Drifters were just the start of what would be dubbed the Chaos Era.  CCP announced that local would soon be blacked out in null sec.  We got warnings it was coming.  And then it hit and CCP said it would remain in place indefinitely. (Which some people took to mean permanently.)  The idea came from Hilmar, though many people were going on about null sec being risk averse.

The big VNI nerf hit in there as well.  And a tax increase!  Good thing devs don’t need to run for re-election.

Meanwhile, CCP was trying to keep people in the game during the blackout with skill point handouts.  So many skill points.  And they had to clarify what they meant even.  But the online player count suffered all the same.

And I was on CCP about maybe building their own killboard or at least making SKINs for all the things.

Still, I did get some play time in New Eden.  We did a Triglavian roam with DBRB.  I went on a blackout roam. I moved a dreadnought around to a new deployment on my own, then lost it.  It was a suicide dread.

I tried out DOTA Underlords.

I had been fiddling around with tracking my game play time for six months.

And, finally, we were getting ready for Blaugust once again.

Ten Years Ago

There was a site put up by eBay about game return on investment.  Unsurprisingly, it indicated that used games are a deal in that regard, so you should go buy some on eBay.

There was the passing of yet another Steam Summer Sale.

SOE forgot to pay their domain name registration.  Wasn’t that fun!  Meanwhile, Landmark was available for a deep discount after the Steam Summer Sale, leading to speculation about its future.

SuperData Research was listing out the Top Subscription MMOs while not defining what they really meant by the term.

Anarchy Online introduced a PLEX-like currency, GRACE.

The community manager for LOTRO was busy telling raiders and PvMP players that they weren’t getting any new content because they added up to less than 10% of the player population.

I finished up Pokemon Y on the 3DS.

In my attempt at the loremaster achievement in WoW I ran through Desolace, Feralas, and Thousand Needles one week, Felwood and Un’goro Crater the next.  Then it was Winterspring, Swamp of Sorrows, and the Blasted Lands, the Cape of Stranglethorn, and the final bit of the Eastern Kingdoms.  I was on a roll.

in EVE Online we were commuting to Delve, where maybe there was going to be a war, and chasing Brave Newbies around (then getting pipe bombed) when there wasn’t anything going on.  That was back when we owned Delve.  Fights went on sporadically for a while and many a Rupture was sacrificed simply try a fresh doctrine.  So many Ruptures.  Apocs did better.

Meanwhile the Crius expansion hit New Eden, making industry better… it did get better, right?

In EverQuest, on the Fippy Darkpaw Time Locked Progression server, the vote to unlock the Underfoot expansion failed, making it the second expansion ever to get voted down, the first being Gates of Discord nearly two years before.

With that I was wondering what other MMOs might go for the retro nostalgia server thing.  Not WoW, I was sure of that at the time.  Since then though…

I was also on about housing in MMOs, what has really worked for me and what has fallen flat and why.  This included some projection as to what garrisons might end up being in WoW.

Our epic game of Civilization V saw expansionism and direct conflict with the Aztec empire.

Fifteen Years Ago

I won a contest.  Granted, all I got was a T-shirt.  But that was probably more than you got.  And it was due to a video game.

Mythic announced a version of Warhammer Online for the Mac.  Not sure that helped anything at all.

I was, as usual, asking silly questions like why does Tetris gets faster.  Okay, it was an analogy, but it was still silly.

Oh, and then there was the horse.  Remember the $10 horse?  I did a poll about it and everything.  Boy, that seems like small potatoes these days.  I mean, that was a cash shop game selling a horse for $10.  Now WoW and EQ2 will sell you mounts that cost much more.

Gary Gannon announced that GAX Online was going to close in August, bringing to an end that experiment in gamer community building.

I asked what people considered cheating in an MMO.  It included another poll.  I was doing polls that July.

I did a parody of Tipa’s Daily Blog Roll feature.  That is some pretty rich stuff in hindsight.

In EVE Online I got another step closer to mining perfection.  I was also fiddling around with a fit for a Dominix.

In World of Warcraft the instance group hit Violet Hold and Gundrak, but couldn’t get the team together for Halls of Stone, so went back and did some Burning Crusade heroics just for kicks.

Then the instance group took a run at Onyxia.  The old school Onyxia.  She’s since been remade.

My daughter somehow got to Dalaran at level 16… without having the Wrath of the Lich King expansion.

And even as we were doing all that, we were starting to mull over what we should do once we were level 80 with no new expansion in sight.  It only took us a year to try another game.  At about that time, my hunter alt hit level 80.

I also dredged up the old Alamo Teechs U 2 Play Druid post from the WoW forums.  Philosophical question:  Would Alamo have posted that if RealID had forced him to use his real name?

And, finally, my daughter was trying to get me to help her make WoW videos to post on YouTube.

Twenty-Five Years Ago

Billy Mitchell got the first perfect score in Pac-Man, though his record has since been expunged due to accusations about cheating.

Forty Five Years Ago

The Sony Walkman was introduced and portable music has not been the same since.  A pair of classmates of mine had a father went to Japan on business regularly and who brought them each one of the brand new devices back from one of his trips.  Those were the first two I ever saw.  Blue and gray cases and headphones with bright orange foam padding for the ears.

Most Viewed Posts in July

1. Blackrock Caverns for Four
2. Return from Pokemon Go Fest 2024
3. I Sold a SKIN on the Paragon Hub!
4. Level 45 at Last in Pokemon Go
5. Stars Reach Appears on Steam and all the Default Social Media Outlets
6. Timing those Lucky Eggs for Friendship Milestones in Pokemon Go
7. Starting No Man’s Sky – My Ship is on Fire and I am Being Irradiated
8. June 2024 in Review
9. In Which We Bowl Over Blackrock Caverns
10. Averting a Black Ops Disaster
11. Answering Gaming Questions with AI – Finding a Warm Ocean in Minecraft
12. Tarisland – I Hate it Already

Search Terms of the Month

starcraft cartooned carbot deviant art
[Why Deviant Art?]

ttc-collective-agreement-2020
[I have some posts about that!]

gamer blogs
[pretty sure I’ve had my card revoked]

neg vs enad
[gen vs dane?]

zmud on windows 11?
[Haven’t gone there yet… maybe?]

Game Time by ManicTime

On the one hand, I did play a few more titles than usual this past month.

• EVE Online – 48.14%
• No Man’s Sky – 24.11%
• WoW Classic – 14.81%
• Valheim – 6.04%
• EverQuest – 4.01%
• Unnamed Beta – 1.50%
• Once Human – 1.31%
• Palia – 0.04%
• World of Warcraft – 0.04%

On the other, nearly 75% of that time was the first two titles, though No Man’s Sky was a surprise dark horse candidate.  But I cover that below.  It could have been a Once Human month.  I played that for an evening… and then was distracted elsewhere.  Meanwhile, I think I logged into WoW and Palia to claim a gift or a Twitch drop or something.  It was quick.

EVE Online

New Eden was at the top of the chart this month, thanks to several factors.  First, there was a new group formed in the Imperium to go out and pick fights in the middle of PanFam space, so that got me undocked.  Then there was the Keepstar bout in Catch.  That might turn into something next month, but in July it was mostly move ops.  I was recorded on 16 different fleets according to the participation dashboard, but at least 6 of those were just getting in to move ships from point A to point B.

A lot of my time in game was probably attributable to me logging in and doing the AIR daily goals for 12 days across seven characters, 5 Omega and 2 Alpha, to test that out.  Well, if the goal was to get entice me to log in more, op success.

EverQuest

Really, I am still subscribed, but all I am doing in the Overseer thing every day… and I have almost gotten all the achievements for that.  So I might be done here sooner rather than later.  My 25th anniversary spirit is waining.

No Man’s Sky

Kind of a surprise entry this month… or any month.  It came out in 2016, I played it for a short bit in 2017, and then haven’t really thought about it much since then, save for noting updates coming out every so often.  Then there was all the Stars Reach talk this past month, with pillars and being on Steam, and I started thinking about procedurally generated exploratory space games… and hey, here we are!  More to come on this too.

Once Human

I came very close to making Once Human a thing, mostly because I had picked it in our Game Critic Fantasy League, so I had a vested interest, and because I left Twitch tuned into Mind1 and he went and played it so I ended up with some Twitch Drops for it.  So I tried it for a bit.  It has its own interesting flavor.  But then all the Stars Reach stuff made me think about No Man’s Sky and I went there instead.

Pokemon Go

• Level: 46 (+1, level, 10% of the way to 47, 0 of 4 tasks complete)
• Pokedex status: 838 (+8) caught, 847 (+7) seen
• Vivillon Evolutions obtained: 16 of 18
• Pokemon I want: Two specific Scatterbugs; Sandstorm and Sun
• Current buddy: Annihilape

Valheim

I think I finally hit the wall here in the Ashlands.  But that is fine.  We got some good times out of this third run at the game.  It is my most played title on Steam.  I can feel good about moving on.

WoW Classic

I am feeling kind of the way I did with Burning Crusade Classic, that I have started to prove that my negative feelings for Cataclysm back in the day were not wholly unwarranted.  And we have six more months to go on this.  Our group still has a dungeons to run.  But logging in to level up alts and that sort of thing… not really feeling it for that.

Coming Up

Blaugust.  Next month is Blaugust so you can expect a Blaugust kick off post tomorrow to celebrate the first day of the event, with a run down of participants, probably with a bit of history and some reasons to join in.  Or maybe not.  I don’t know.

Then I have to figure out how to fill out the month… which is one of those things that is always daunting on the first day, and then when I get to the last day I realize I have a half a dozen more unfinished drafts in the drafts folder and didn’t even start on some things I felt I should have.

There might be a war of sorts in EVE Online.  We’ll see if the other side shows up I suppose.

Other than that, nothing is going on in August… wait, I am being told that there might actually be a release or two in August.

Yes, we’re getting the Janthir Wilds expansion for Guild Wars 2, which will bring with it player housing.  A very big deal there.

I think we’re getting a big update in EverQuest 2.

Oh, and Visionary Realms is said to be doing a pre-alpha beta test of Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen in anticipation of early access in December… I think I have that right.  But you won’t hear about it here as this event is has been reported to require that participants not share, communicate, or deliberately imply information about their pre-alpha experience or involvement.  Public information on their website, however, is fair game and we’ll get to the plan for early access, oh you can just bet.

And I suppose I would be remiss if I did not mention The War Within for WoW.  Big new expansion.  Kind of a thing here in the game’s 20th year.

Updated: June 24, 2024

Searched for new codes!

The post All Pokemon GO Codes (June 2024) appeared first on GameSkinny.

Inkay, a Dark and Psychic-type Pokémon, has a truly unique evolution process that sets it apart from others. It's not as simple as just consuming candy; it requires a specific procedure to transform into its Malamar form. If you're intrigued and want to know more, here's how to evolve Inkay in Pokémon Go.

How do you evolve Inkay in Pokémon Go?

To evolve Inkay in Pokémon Go, exchange 50 Inkay Candy and turn your phone upside down. Once your mobile device is in this position, you'll notice a darker shade for the evolution button, indicating that it is now accessible. This is the same method used in other Pokémon iterations, including Scarlet and Violet.

You may have to tweak your phone's rotation orientation, especially if it's set to lock. But if you still have issues, you'll need to restart your device to get it working correctly.

Thanks to the Season of Light research, Inkay also has a Shiny variant, which will transfer to its Malamar form. However, Shinies are incredibly challenging to obtain, so it may require a few captures.

Attacks like Psycho Cut, Foul Play, and Psywave are among Malamar's best movesets. Each skill demonstrates a decent amount of DPS, whether you're on a raid or participating in a competitive league. Just be sure to watch out for Bug and Fairy types, as these critters are its weakness. Fortunately, Malamar is pretty good defensive-wise, where trainers can use its Peck to fight off its Bug vulnerability.

The post How to evolve Inkay in Pokémon Go appeared first on Destructoid.

The Site

WordPress.com acknowledged once again that I posted every day for a year straight, a reminder than quantity does not equal quality.

Another year gone by…

Also, it only says that because I changed the time zone setting for the blog from UTC to Pacific time which changed my streak when it recalculated it.  The count should be around 1,522, but I posted the occasional item for the next day before midnight Pacific time so the changing of the time setting changed what counted.  That’s the way it goes.

There is a Dril tweet for all occasions

Also, the chaos that social media has become has taken a lot of the edge off of Dril these days.  But that is for another post I suppose.

Anyway, I am not mad because what is a posting streak anyway?  Plus, WP.com did something nice this month… they paid me.  Those ads some of you had to endure earlier in the year paid the hosting fee for the site for 2024.

Getting Paid

Granted, they took their time about it.  But dollars are dollars… and they are in my PayPal account just in time for me to blow it all on the Steam Summer Sale in June, if I can wait that long.

Then there is my other site, EVE Online Pictures, which I have let slide this month.  Part of that is due to not playing much EVE Online, so not having any new screen shots… I am surprisingly picky about what I post there, though you might not believe that if you scroll through the place… has taken the edge off.  That and the fact that not posting has had pretty much zero impact on traffic… nobody visits when I post, so it is hard to go downhill from there… has made it easy to ignore.  I might go back to it with the new expansion… but after 16 years of being essentially unknown, it might also be time to let the experiment fade.

The question back in 2008 was whether or not an all pictures blog about EVE Online could achieve some level of popularity.  The answer, in this case, seems to be “no.”

One Year Ago

EVE Online turned 20 and the month long capsuleer day celebrations kicked off.  I did my own post reflecting on the two decades of the game.

CCP was also talking about the upcoming Viridian expansion, which included tech II capital ships.

I also did a bullet point post about the game that included the deadline to get on the monument, the minutes from the CSM17 summit, the delay of the CSM18 election, fireworks in Jita, the building of the first shipcaster, an ESS theft story, and the end of the BOSS alliance.  Then I did another one, again mentioning the monument, chat channel issues, the MER, player made billboards, a T-shirt design contest, and the Pearl Abyss financials.

I was considering average daily destruction as a metric for EVE Online and looked into the April 2023 destruction count.  I also wondered how many skill points were enough in New Eden.

Over at Enad Global 7, My Singing Monsters was still making the most money, but investment groups were demanding more money from the company, suggesting that the company explore being sold.  Good thing Embracer Group didn’t get hold of them.

In Wrath Classic I had accomplished some of my goals in Wintergrasp and the Argent Tournament, though I could not yet build Jeeves.  The group managed to get through The Oculus,

Blizzard said they were going to make a hardcore mode server for WoW Classic and they introduced WoW Tokens to Wrath Classic.

I started my lossless scaling experiment to see if that would make LOTRO more playable on my 34″ wide screen monitor.  It helped, but couldn’t overcome all of my large screen issues.  That was just in time for the 16th anniversary.  Meanwhile, Amazon said they were again interested in doing a Middle-earth game.

In the AI Question Time series I asked about a tank in EVE Online, sandbox MMO options, whether it could generate some ideas for an RPG campaign, including a royal family, and about Wilhelm Arcturus.

I was on about timing lucky eggs with friendship levels in Pokemon Go.  That is probably my most popular post from 2023.

I did a mail bag post after being inundated by media op offers.

I caught up with HBO becoming Max, Netflix ending its DVD services, and MTV just ending, along with some more binge watching.

I was checking out Twitter alternatives as Elon’s reign kept getting dumber and dumber.

Finally, it was Memorial Day once more.

Five Years Ago

Back in May of 2018 there was a rumor leak about Daybreak, so a year later I went back over them to see what came to pass.

Blizzard revenue margins dropped considerably.  As if to prove the point, WoW dropped off of SuperData’s digital revenue chart.

To hide that in the news cycle Blizzard gave us a date for WoW Classic. I wondered if the Cataclysm expansion was a necessary prerequisite for WoW Classic.  I also was speculating as to what would happen with WoW Classic as it aged.

The beta for WoW Classic had been up for a while, but they decided to do a stress test, so they let everybody in for a bit.  Of course I went!  And I did the following week as well.

In what we now call retail WoW I was off collecting the Children’s Week pets.

Blizzard also gave us a peek at their 15th Anniversary Collector’s Edition.

The Mittani uttered the words, “Gevlon was right” in a public forum.

EVE Online celebrated its sixteen year anniversary with a sixteen day login campaign.  The Invasion expansion was slated for the end of the month.  Its arrival brought more Triglavian fun to the game as well as the big revamp of The Agency interface and some war dec changes.

CCP Peligro Tweeted out a chart about who gets banned for botting in New Eden.  CCP had also been trying to nerf ratting and mining, so that was the focus of my MER review that month.

The CSM14 election was coming up and Jester did a Reddit AMA about his time on the CSM as his NDA had finally expired.  I also had a bullet points post about CSM14 candidates and rewards and a coming war and such.

Out in Delve I got to undock my dreadnought.

With Liberty Squad I went on ops to Amamake and into Etherium reach that resulted in explosions.  I also got to drop on some Rorquals with Black Ops.

But people were focused on the coming Imperium attack on the north and where it would land.  Even as we formed up and moved vast fleets to the north of null sec, our target was still speculation, though once we set up shop in the east of Pure Blind it looked like Tribute was the target.  There was a rush to see if we could kill the PanFam staging Keepstar, but when that failed we settled in to burn down the region.

In Minecraft I was growing bamboo and looking for the new village types that came in with the Village & Pillage update.  The I went looking for pillagers.

Connor at MMO Fallout announced that the site was winding down… and then he changed his mind.

And I watched the Catch-22 miniseries on Hulu.  I liked some of it, but there were issues for me.  There always are.

Ten Years Ago

EA killed off Mythic Entertainment.  They had already handed over Ultima Online and Dark Age of Camelot to Broadsword, so what was left in any case?

The news about post-Kickstarter Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen continued to be off-putting.

I got another seven day trial in Landmark.

The strategy group started in on our BIG map campaign in Civilization V.

Nintendo announced Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire were coming in November. They also closed down the WiFi game services for the Nintendo DS and Wii, which led EA to shut down the server support for 50 games a month later.  Most of them were DS and Wii related, but EA used the opportunity to kill off some PC game support as well.

Nintendo also launched Mario Kart 8, one of the few bright spots on the otherwise disappointing Wii U.  Soon the Luigi death stare was everywhere.

In EverQuest the Fippy Darkpaw progression server wrapped up the Seeds of Destruction expansion.

In EVE Online I was wondering about the prospects for a summer war.  Everybody just assumed that there would be one, though in null sec the various empires seemed to be settling in and consolidating.  Sure, there was the trap at Daras… another on the list of reasons we shy away from low sec… the run down to Placid for a kill, and that op down in Syndicate (my post on which stirred up some sour grapes about day one players) but otherwise things were quiet.  That left plenty of time to go find my name on the monument.

As EVE Online turned eleven I was wondering if the alleged ‘learning cliff’ was still the biggest issue facing EVE Online.

Meanwhile CCP announced they were getting off the twice a year, huge update release pattern in order to have releases… named releases for a while… every month.  This led into a post about the pacing of content delivery.

In World of Warcraft the Timeless Isle was still a thing.  The Warlords of Draenor expansion was still over the horizon and subscriptions were down to 7.6 million under the weight of wait.  That seemed like a big drop until Warlords of Draenor fell to 5 million two years later.   Meanwhile, our group was slowing down a bit even as we started in on dungeons in Pandaria.

In attempt to make plans for another summer hiatus, I gave Star Wars: The Old Republic a try, going through the Sith starting area.

And then there was the kick off of the 2014 Newbie Blogger Initiative.

Fifteen Years Ago

I was able to expose the true conspiracy behind the EuroGamer Darkfall review.  Powerful forces have been suppressing this story ever since.

EA lost a billion dollars.  This came after the CEO announced that recessions were good because they eliminate competitors.  They can also eliminate bad execs.

Meanwhile, EverQuest was celebrating its 10 year anniversary by putting up a new server.  Polled on what it should be, people chose the 51/50 rule set.  I’m sure that, somehow, that says something about MMOs and nostalgia.  I cannot recall how that server even played out at this point.

I went back and played some Blizzard classics, Diablo II and StarCraft, both of which received  patches that meant you no longer needed the CD to play.  This was prompted by Blizzard’s pushing people towards Battle.net and the announcement of the opt-in for the StarCraft II beta.  I opted in right away.  I hear that some people got in to the beta almost a year later. *cough*

In New Eden, it was new ship time, as I picked up both an Orca and a Buzzard.  I also managed to lose my Cerebus.   Oops.

And speaking of EVE Online, I announced my one year experiment, EVE Online Pictures.

CCP put a new boxed version of EVE Online on store shelves.  I bought a copy and made a fabulous new character.

In World of Warcraft the instance group was moving along slowly.  We did hit Azjol Nerub, but vacations and such kept us down to four people, so we spent a bit of time back in Burning Crusade doing heroics and generally messing around.  That included our run into Ogrimmar to do Ragefire Chasm.

I also messed around with the Noblegarden holiday.  I actually got all the achievements for that.  However, Children’s Week was another story.

Playboy’s “Massively Casual Online Game” Playboy Manager was announced.  The game was supposed to launch in the summer of 2009 according to the press release.  There was a whole story about what happened… but you’ll have to search up on it because it is too long to repeat here.

And then there was a little game called Minecraft that was first made available in early access back in May 2009.  Estimates put it as possibly the best selling game of all time.

Twenty Years Ago

Nintendo announces a new console code named Revolution to follow from the GameCube.  Revolution would latter be given the official name Wii.

Twenty-Five Years Ago

Nintendo started talking about Project Dolphin, the console to follow the Nintendo 64.  This would eventually become the GameCube.

The 4th Coming, an early MMORPG developed by the French Canadian firm Vircom Interactive, is officially launched.  The game is still running and being updated as of this writing by DialSoft, which took over the title in 2006.

Thirty Years Ago

Chaos Studios, once called Silicone & Synapse, having changed its name to Ogre Studios the month before due to a trademark claim by Chaos Technologies, changed its name one last time and became Blizzard Entertainment.

Most Viewed Posts in May

1. Are the Ashlands going to Kill Valheim?
2. The Ashlands Arrive in Valheim
3. Quote of the Day – Just Say No?
4. Timing those Lucky Eggs for Friendship Milestone…
5. Just a Sap in the Mistlands
6. The Special Business Unit
7. After Three Weeks of the Cataclysm Pre-Patch
8. Finding an Infested Mine in Valheim at Last!
9. Level 45 at Last in Pokemon Go
10. Warm Ups for Cataclysm Classic
11. EverQuest Starting Points – Butcherblock and Kaladim
12. EverQuest Starting Points – Ak’Anon and Whatever Happened to the Steamfont Mountains

Search Terms of the Month

can i still play the older versions of civilization?
[Have I got the post for you!]

pokemon go best friend lucky egg can i claim later
[I don’t think so]

gamer blogs
[I think I am on page 912 of that search on Google]

waerzor
[Neither than nor porn here]

Game Time from ManicTime

WoW Classic, with Cataclysm showing up, got the gang back together and into Azeroth.  Clearly I spent a lot of time there… and all the more so due to Valheim issues.  At the bottom end is Palia, which I tried briefly early in the month for somebody’s friend code bonus and… I don’t really remember much… and the retail WoW, where I logged in to collect something and to check an achievement.

• WoW Classic – 80.02%
• EVE Online – 6.68%
• EverQuest – 5.86%
• Valheim – 5.66%
• Palia – 1.72%
• World of Warcraft – 0.06%

EVE Online

I did managed to collect all 30 daily rewards for capsuleer day/month in celebration of the game’s 21st anniversary.  I even logged in and went on a couple of fleets, got on my requisite kill mail, updated my PI… and did nothing else.  I am kind of waiting around for the Equinox expansion to show up to see what that will mean.

EverQuest

I spent a bit of time running around old Norrath in search of starting points.  I think I have one more post in me on that front, if I can find some words.  But I think come June and the launch of the EverQuest II Origins Server that I might need to turn my eye towards post-cataclysm Norrath.

Pokemon Go

As noted earlier this month, my wife and I finally made it past the final task to get to level 45, which meant we were already halfway to 46 on the xp front.

• Level: 45 (+1, now 57% of the way to 46 in xp, 1 of 4 level tasks complete)
• Pokedex status: 825 (+4) caught, 839 (+5) seen
• Vivillon Evolutions obtained: 15 of 20
• Pokemon I want: Three specific Scatterbugs; Sandstorm, Icy Snow, and Meadow
• Current buddy: Varoom… which is really a Pokemon, I swear

Valheim

The letdown of the Ashlands and Iron Gate going all in on “you must suffer to play our game!” along with the arrival of Cata Classic made for a pretty steep downturn in my play time here, which is saying something because so for in 2024 Valheim is my most played title by a fair margin.  I still want to try The Queen in the Mistlands, but that will probably be then end of things until somebody rolls up a “make the Ashlands available to casuals” mod like the mist removal mod for the Mistlands.

WoW Classic

Cataclysm Classic is now a thing.  It may not be a popular thing, but it does seem to be our thing.  For all the issues it has and my general angst about it as an expansion, I have spent more time playing it than anything else this month.  We’ll see how that carries on though…

Zwift

My last entry for Zwift.  As I noted earlier this month, they sent me a note saying that on my next billing cycle they would be raising the price to $20 a month.  That prompted me to cancel immediately.  I thought I had the rest of May to ride because the note said my next billing date was June 6… however, that was wrong and I found my account lapsed by mid-month.  So it goes.  These are my final numbers for Zwift.

• Level – 27
• Distanced cycled – 1,980.5 miles
• Time spent riding – 4d 8h 23m
• Elevation climbed – 72,375
• Calories burned – 58,617 (+1,323)

Going back to something I was doing previously, that distance would be about from my house to Davenport, Iowa.

Coming Up

On June 11th we’re going to get the Equinox expansion for EVE Online, so that will be a thing that I will be there to try out.

Over at Daybreak, the EverQuest II time locked expansion server Anashti Sul will go live, and I want to take a peek into that.

Traisland, the Tencent MMORPG that the gaming press cannot stop calling a WoW rip-off, is set to go live on June 21.  Given that it is following the free to play model, it is likely I will give it a try.

The first day of summer… the summer solstice is on Thursday, June 20th, should see the start of the Steam Summer Sale.  Like I need more titles in my back log.  Still, there it is.

And then there is Cataclysm Classic.  We’re invested for the moment and the first dungeon is waiting for us.

Many mobile games offer hundreds and even thousands of hours of game time without requiring players to spend a dime on it, unless they want to. The 10 best free mobile games players can play right now in 2024 on Android and iOS devices offer content, quality, and worlds worth experiencing without the necessity to pay to enjoy them.

With a focus on games across various genres and styles, these are the 10 best free mobile games worth your attention in 2024.

Genshin Impact

Genshin Impact shows the true potential of mobile gaming in 2024 with its continuous updates that improve and expand upon the massive world of Teyvat. There is always a new character to collect, region to explore, and events to partake in. And the best part is most of this is totally free to pursue. The gameplay feels a step above most mobile games, with each playable character having unique powers and the gorgeous cel-shaded, anime-style world.

Pokémon Go

Many years after its unmatched released, Pokémon Go is still going strong with new seasons and frequent releases of new Pokémon to collect. The formula remains the same of walking around the real world to find, catch, and evolve Pokémon. However, raids, various limited-time events, new shiny Pokémon, and more mean this is the best time to check out this game.

Among Us

There is still nothing quite like the mobile game phenomenon that is Among Us. The eternal battle between the crew mates and completing their tasks versus the shadowy imposters is a simple but timeless formula. Whether it is investigating to figure out who the killers are or trying your best to cover your bloody tracks, this is one of the best mobile multiplayer experiences available today.

Marvel Snap

Marvel Snap blends together two of the most compelling ideas for a mobile game: Marvel superheroes and card-battling. Each match only lasts a few minutes with some of the fastest pacing in the genre, which ensures there is the right mix of challenge and excitement. It is just accessible enough, too, to welcome anyone even if you've never played a card game like this before.

Honkai: Star Rail

The other main free mobile game from HoYoVerse is certainly worth a look, even if you aren’t into Genshin Impact. While the style and characters feel quite similar, Honkai: Star Rail trades whimsical fantasy for widespread galactic exploration. In addition, the strategic turn-based RPG combat might be more appealing to those looking for a mobile game with depth but not nearly as demanding.

Roblox

No mobile game in 2024 carries the level of freedom and content as Roblox. Think of any genre or gameplay experience and Roblox likely has it with surprising quality at the same time. Classic games like Murder Mystery 2 let players sus out and defeat the murderer alongside games like Natural Disaster Survival tasks players with staying alive amidst tsunamis and wildfires. There are also newer Roblox experiences these days, such as the incredible Ancient Egypt Roleplay where players start as a peasant and work their way up to pharaoh.

Brawl Stars

Brawl Stars is the latest creation from the makers of Clash of Clans. While it carries the lovable, colorful art style of the studio’s other games, this particular mobile title has a compelling blend of a top-down shooter with the gameplay hook of a MOBA. There are seven different game modes to choose from, including Team Deathmatch-like experiences, objective-based modes, and more.

Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile

The beauty of Warzone Mobile is how it sacrifices almost nothing to bring a pure Call of Duty battle royale experience to Android and iOS. Out of all of the various first-person shooters on mobile, this is the one that feels the closest to console and PC FPS gameplay. Besides its connection to the other games in the franchise with shared progression, it also includes the return of the beloved Verdansk battle royale map.

Wuthering Waves

The newest contender in the open-world mobile action RPG genre may look like Genshin Impact and carry the same gacha-style mechanics, but Wuthering Waves sets itself apart in terms of its gameplay. The combat centers around Echoes, which players collect from enemies around the world to unlock unique skills and temporary transformations. While it had a rough launch, its movement and combat remain exceptional.

Old School RuneScape

Yes, an entire MMORPG exists on mobile for players to check out for free on Android and iOS. This is the exact same RuneScape fans may remember from their childhood but revamped to work with a mobile control scheme. Moving your character around the world and engaging in the slow-paced but methodical combat feels great. Plus, it offers some of the best gameplay variety from its quests to PvP to just sitting around hacking at the same trees all day.

The post 10 best free mobile games to play in 2024 appeared first on Destructoid.

The Site

A while back WP.com introduced Blaze, a paid ad program that allows you to promote your blog.  Back when it first showed up they gave me a $50 credit and I tried it… and it was not worth the cash.  65 clicks into my promoted post seemed like a joke for that much money.

Then they sent out surveys and talked about how they were making it better.  So when they gave me another $50 credit this month I decided to try it again.  This time I chose my post about Balatro, which I though was maybe a bit more mainstream for a video game ad.

And this time they are telling me the ad pulled in almost 500 clicks.  A serious improvement… if it is true.  The problem is that if I go into the WP.com stats and look at how many clicks that post received during the run of the ad, it is actually closer to 250.

Still an improvement… but the stats on my admin page show clicks from all sources, just not the ad, and while traffic often dies off after a day or two, it can still carry on for weeks in little drips and drabs.  So there is no saying that all of those 250 were from the ad.

In the end, even if it was a great improvement and added another 25 to 50 views a day over a ten day campaign, would you spend $50 of your own money for that result?  I wouldn’t.

Meanwhile, just because I need an excuse to put an image in here somewhere, the surges of direct traffic continue to pop up now and again.

Direct traffic as a source in April 2024

However, these surges are a lot less regular than they were back in November and December.  Search engine traffic… which means Google 99% of the time, remain steady.

Also, WTF is going on with the Google Analytics site?  Have they just broken it on Firefox to be dicks?

Finally, the Flag Counter widget informs me that somebody from a new country visited the blog in April.  Welcome random person from Palau!  I hope you found something interesting!

First new county in a few years

Palau, a trust territory of the United States in the wake of the second world war, is an independent island nation, but has two ZIP codes assigned to it and is still served by the US Postal Service.

One Year Ago

I did what I believed to be my final post specifically covering April Fools at Blizzard, Blizz having gone pretty cool on the whole thing since around 2017. We’ll see if this pans out.

The Fellowship and Fire update came to New World, bringing with is seasons and season passes.

LOTRO offered a limited time level 140 boost, which was the cap at the time.  I bought one and went through the process of using it.

Niantic was going after remote raiding in Pokemon Go.

Honest Game Trailers took on the Civilization Series, which aligned nicely with my own brief retrospective on the games.  I did my own round up of the series, with some ranking.  All versions I looked at were playable in some form.  I even went and played Civilization VI.  I am still not a fan.

In Wrath Classic the group was culling Stratholme with Arthas.  I also had some minor gripes about Wrath Classic.  We also had the Activision Blizzard Q1 2023 financials.

I wrote about five EVE Online maps that were better than the two in-game maps the game offers.  Spoiler: fifth place was a multi-way tie, so it was way more than five.  Meanwhile, somebody did a video of the 2007 to 2022 null sec influence map… which was one of the maps on my list.

Meanwhile, as we drew closer to the EVE 20th anniversary, CCP was refurbing the EVE monument, which included the ability to get your character name on the plaques if you missed that at the ten year anniversary.  They also outlined the road to Alliance Tournament XIX.

I also did a Friday Bullet Points post about EVE Online that covered the new launcher beta, another in-game theft, a reminder about the monument thing, Fraternity Keepstars, and the MER.  Oh, and they also announced that EVE Anywhere was going away.  Cloud Computing was sooo 2016.

In the game, the Imperium and B2 coalitions managed to win the armor time against Fraternity’s Keepstar in X47L-Q, a battle than ran through down time, so we all got kicked and had to log back in again to resume the fight.  Having lost the armor timer, Fraternity and its allies did not contest the final timer and the Keepstar was destroyed.  The Imperium then dialed-back operations in Pure Blind.

I also looked into March 2023 destruction in the game.

Then there was the a16z Project Awakening that CCP was going on about.  I was not a fan.  Since Pearl Abyss was all in on this blockchain scam nonsense, I wondered who should have bought CCP back in 2018.

I was wondering what Atari… or the company that owned the Atari name… was actually in the business of doing.

I was also kind of wondering what the Metaverse Standards Forum was doing… another working group for a nonsense idea.

I did another Friday Bullet Points post, this time about the Worldle-verse, where Wordle itself hit puzzle 666, Spotify was shutting down Heardle, a DOS version of Wordle, a WoW focused version of Wordle, and Digits from the NYT which they have since shut down.

I was fiddling with AI bots, asking what the difference between an MMO and an MMORPG was, why there were so many fantasy MMORPS, and how to find a warm ocean in Minecraft.

And over on Twitter, which was still Twitter then, Elon’s threat to take away blue checkmarks for verified users and make them only available for sale failed to appear on the appointed day… except for the New York Times, which Elon felt was spreading the “woke mind virus” or some BS.  “Woke” quickly came to mean “something I don’t like” when used by Elon.  The unpaid for blue checks eventually were taken away in the back half of the month.  The blue check mark went from “this celeb or whoever is who they say they are” to “This bozo paid $8.”

Five Years Ago

April Fools, once a grand tradition at Blizzard, was pretty sparse.

Google Plus went away.

The Minecraft Village & Pillage update landed.

CCP loudly announced the removal and banning of CSM13 member Brisc Rubal.  And then in what I described as the “nightmare scenario,” CCP hedged, promising to investigate further.  And then they exonerated Brisc and restored him apologizing for all the trouble. A disastrous example of “measure once, cut twice” by CCP.  And Brisc didn’t get his reputation back.  I still see people who think he must have been guilty and somehow worked a deal or threatened to sue in order to get CCP to back down.

CCP also announced the CSM14 election timeline.  Brisc opted to stay away from that.  And the April update brought capital nerfs, especially for the Rorqual.  Hilmar was starting on something about player retention.  And CCP unveiled the Katia Sai monument in Saisio.

Actually out in space myself in EVE Online, I was flying with Liberty Squad as we visited The Spire for a fight over a Sotiyo as well as busting some other structures and setting some timers.  There was also an op from Delve to Lonetrek and another Reavers Race.

NantWorks handed H1Z1… or Z1 Battle Royale… back to Daybreak, having failed to make a go of the challenge of reviving the game.

I reviewed a bit of the coverage the EverQuest 20th anniversary got.  There was also some changes to the Selo progression server, which reflected on what players wanted versus what Daybreak was offering.

I was also playing World of Warcraft, binging on pet battles and catching some new pets.  We got some news about the approaching update, which would unlock flying in Battle for Azeroth.  That promoted me to get the first part of the pathfinder achievement done.  I also got my first alt to level 120, though he hadn’t even been to Zandalar or Kul’Tiras.  Pet battles will do ya.

And I came up with a guide to criticizing games you do not like.

Ten Years Ago

Spacewar! for the PDP-1 was up via emulation on the internet archive.

The Elder Scrolls Online launched, hitting its planned April 4th date.  I did not play.

I was diving in to Pokemon X & Y, having returned to Pokemon at last.

The strategy group played a game of Civilization V that ended with a win via nuclear terror.

The Kickstarter campaign for the book A History of the Great Empires of EVE Online kicked off.  We were also watching Pantheon: Rise of the Something was splutter along after failing its Kickstarter campaign.

In EVE Online proper there was Burn Jita 3, which seemed like less of a thing the third time out.  There was a video.  Then there was the CSM9 vote.  At least there were only 36 candidates on the ballot.

In null sec we were shooting Black Legion things, because that is what we did in the CFC.  I was just happy to be using lasers, those skills having been trained up amongst my 120 million skill points.  There were also some posts about being space famous and an attempt at in-game blackmail.

But on the broader CCP front, World of Darkness was officially cancelled.

On the iPad I was playing Hearthstone and QuizUp… for about a week.

Turbine announced that Beornings were coming to Lord of the Rings Online.

SOE gave me a key for seven days of Landmark, so I went and tried it out.  SOE also announced H1Z1 and began their love affair with Reddit and got their new All Access plan running.  While on the old school front, Dave Georgeson said SOE never plans to shut down EverQuest.

Warlords of Draenor was still a long ways away.  But Blizzard was doing well on other fronts.  The instance group finished up Zul’gurub.  And there was the usual April Fools stuff.

Over at GamesIndustry.biz they have a round up of what was going in April of 2014.

Fifteen Years Ago

Dave Arneson passed away.  He was, with Gary Gygax, the co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, that so-influential gaming system that has shaped how we view fantasy swords and sorcery games for over 30 years now.  There would be no World of Warcraft as it is today without Dungeons & Dragons.

We also saw the launch of SOE’s Free Realms, which stuttered a bit on day one.  Soon though they had millions of people signed up for the game, but since it was free to play, not a common thing at the time, that was no indication of revenue.  My daughter tried to sign up four times, so that was at least four out of the millions.  SOE was advertising the game heavily on Cartoon Network.  But FR did not run on MacOS, and my daughter was running on an iMac at the time.  I knew she has signed up because her email used to get routed to me.

In EVE Online I was mulling over the Apocrypha expansion and configuring up a Cerebus to try out as a mission runner.  I was also doing invention to make tech II missiles, which meant data cores and research agents and such, and pondering the idea that maybe using your skills should increase your skill points or something.

As usual, there was much ado about World of Warcraft.

• PETA was planning some event in WoW.  I had trouble believing it wasn’t a joke.
• In a blinding flash of the obvious, Nielsen reported that a lot of guys play WoW.
• There was Noblegarden, or Blizzard Easter, and its egg collecting frenzy.
• There was my daughter and I trying to swim to Silvermoon to find a pet for her hunter.
• I couldn’t find a copy of The Burning Crusade at Fry’s.
• After hitting level 30 my daughter, my mom, and I were all riding around together on our night elf cat mounts.
• And the instance group, after a hiatus, got back together, did a warm up run in the Shadow Labyrinth, then went on to finally collect the head of Ingvar the Plunderer.  After that it was on to The Nexus.

I was sniggering like a pre-teen about Cornhole.  Also, there was something about Honest Scrap that was a meme, back when memes weren’t just pop culture references.

I was looking back on two years of the Wii and the games we played on it.

On the TV we were apparently watching Castle and Dollhouse.

And then there were new comers as we brought home two wee kittens.

Twenty Years Ago

City of Heroes launched in the US.  Closed down by NCsoft in 2012, the game lives on with a privately run server called City of Heroes Rebirth, built on the original code base.

Lineage II launched in North America.  This successor to the Lineage never reached the original’s popularity, but hung on to its own user base.

Thirty Five Years Ago

The Nintendo Game Boy launched in Japan.  Perhaps the definitive hand held console for a generation, it lasted from the Tetris era into the original Pokemon series of games.

Most Viewed Posts in April

1. Timing those Lucky Eggs for Friendship Milestones in Pokemon Go
2. WoW Classic Season of Discovery Phase 3 Kicks Off
3. Wake up sweetie, Cataclysm Classic is Almost Home…
4. Now Playing – Balatro
5. Web Banking, The Acquisition, and the Start of the Great Decline
6. Ahbazon Fight Sees 100+ Dreads Destroyed over Fortizar Hull Timer
7. The Contested Seat – Every Vote Counts
8. Pokemon Go Now Lets You Use a Lucky Egg at Friendship Milestones
9. The Altar of Zul and Jintha’alor
10. Answering Gaming Questions with AI – Finding a Warm Ocean in Minecraft
11. Alamo teechs u 2 play DURID!
12. EverQuest Starting Points – West Karana Where the Scope of the World Begins

Search Terms of the Month

eve origin of the northern coalition
[Pretty sure it started in the north…]

zombie heat gay game
[Look man, just leave me out of this…]

“ttc-collective-agreement-2020”
[Widely criticized, now just a PanFam thing]

is jetpack replaced wordpress app
[Sort of…]

valheim how much iron do i need for the entire game
[All of it. Seriously, later biomes use it.]

how to get edencom lp
[Run Edencom missions?]

Game Time from ManicTime

In the end, April was pretty evenly divided.  I came in on Conan Exiles and out on Wrath Classic really.

• Conan Exiles – 29.56%
• WoW Classic – 23.75%
• Balatro – 21.81%
• Valheim – 13.00%
• EVE Online – 5.50%
• EverQuest – 6.39%

Balatro

A deck building rogue-like poker based card game.  That ate up some time.  I’ve kind of hit a wall on getting past 80K points in a single hand to be a boss blind.  The cards have failed me there a few times.

Conan Exiles

We were all-in on this at the start of the month.  Many hours were invested.  We explored, found horses, did our first dungeon… then it kind of faded.  It didn’t help that GPortal’s LA data center, where our server is hosted, was down for a full weekend this month.  That’ll break your stride.

EVE Online

I did undock and go on a couple of fleets this month.  I left my mark on zKillboard to at least provide proof of life.  But I haven’t been all that invested.  The interesting ops have been running in early EU time, which is the only time PanFam and Fraternity will show up.

EverQuest

I continue to explore some of the old places still there in Norrath, with erratic tales of the old days based on foggy memories and rose colored glasses.  Not done with this yet.

Pokemon Go

Just a few more Team Rocket leaders to go to unlock level 45 for my with and I.  At least we still earn xp as we try to knock down that one final objective, so we’ll be a few million points into that level once we finish the task.

• Level: 44 (138% of the way to 45 in xp, 3 of 4 level tasks complete)
• Pokedex status: 822 (+1) caught, 836 (+2) seen
• Vivillon Evolutions obtained: 15 of 20
• Pokemon I want: Three specific Scatterbugs; Sandstorm, Icy Snow, and Meadow
• Current buddy: Zygarde

Valheim

We had a slow down in Valheim as Conan Exiles became a focus for several weeks.  Also, the Mistlands were a bit too oppressive.  Now that I have banished the mist… at least on my client… I am going to see if we can unlock some of the resources of the biome as the Ashlands loom.

WoW Classic

We started off the month having spent weeks away from the game.  But the coming of Cataclysm Classic awakened the desire to carry on… at least in Potshot and I.  I spent time working on one last alt who is already level 79 as I write this.  I will have some options going into a revamped Azeroth late in May.

Zwift

Zwift gave up on its bonus experience for weekly usage streaks, so my unearned advancement up the level path has slowed down.  Not that levels mean much, aside from cosmetic unlocks, and I am many levels from anything interesting.  But still I get on and ride.

• Level – 27 (+1)
• Distanced cycled – 1,973 miles (+35 miles)
• Elevation climbed – 72,198 (+1,457 feet)
  
• Calories burned – 59,692 (+1,075)

Coming Up

I wrote a post about a number of things coming up on the WoW front in May.  Probably the most on point is the coming of Cataclysm Classic.  The pre-patch lands today and the expansion on May 20th.  The will no doubt generate some sort of assessment of Wrath Classic and a bit of history about Cata.

It is also the Capsuleer Day celebration in EVE Online.  I’ll get to that, but it looks like that day, the game’s 21st anniversary this year, will be celebrated all month long.

I also strongly suspect that we’ll get the Ashlands update for Valheim in May.  They are close.

I have to travel quite a bit more than usual in May, so my posting streak is at risk of being broken… not that such a streak has any real meaning.  But it is a thing.

Pokémon Go developer Niantic is taking feedback following the mixed reaction to its recent player avatar refresh.

The game's new-look avatar system went live last week, and replaced all in-game character designs with a more adjustable default option, which now has sliders for weight and specific body parts, as well as more options for skin tones and hair styles.

But the change has received a lukewarm response, with criticism of how the new avatar's faces look, and the sudden change in art style. Over the weekend, the main Pokémon Go reddit was flooded with complaints, while one player who claimed to have been part of an internal beta test where concerns were raised ahead of time said these had not been properly taken on board.

Read more

If you're looking to add the mythical Celebi to your Pokémon Go collection, you need to complete the A Ripple in Time Special Research tasks, which were added to the game back in 2018.

There are 22 tasks to complete across eight sections, and we've listed all of them below, along with their respective rewards, so you can plan ahead by knowing what Pokémon Go expects of you. We've included some tips on how to complete certain tasks as well, but a lot of them will simply require a lot of time and patience.

As a dual Psychic and Grass type, Celebi is naturally a good counter against Water and Fighting types, particularly with its Psychic and Magical Leaf attacks. However, it's not considered an optimal choice for PvP or PvE battles due to its low damage output and lack of moveset versatility. You get Celebi more for completion's sake than anything else.

Pokémon Go: A Ripple in Time tasks and rewards

Part 1

The first set of tasks are:

• Power up a Pokémon 5 times—Requires Stardust and Candy, which can be acquired simply by catching Pokémon or hatching Eggs
• Battle in a Gym 2 times—This only applies to regular Gym battles, not Raids. Also, you don't need to worry about winning; just battling in a Gym is enough
• Battle in a Raid

Your rewards for completing these tasks are 10 Poké Balls, a Fast TM, and a Super Incubator for hatching Eggs.

Part 2

The second set of tasks are:

• Make 3 new friends—If you don't know enough people to complete this one, there is a dedicated subreddit and website where other players will happily share their Friend Codes
• Evolve an evolved Grass type Pokémon—This refers to Pokémon that have evolved once already, such as Ivysaur and Bayleef
• Catch a Pokémon 3 days in a row

Your rewards for completing these tasks are 1,500 Stardust, a Sun Stone (which you'll need for the next set of tasks), and a Premium Raid Pass.

Part 3

The third set of tasks are:

• Reach level 25—You will earn player experience just by playing the game and completing these tasks, but you can use Lucky Eggs to double the amount of experience you earn for 30 minutes. You can buy a Lucky Egg from the in-game Shop for 80 PokéCoins or a bundle of eight for 500 PokéCoins
• Use a Sun Stone to evolve Gloom or Sunkern—Both of these Pokémon can be found in grassy areas, especially in sunny weather
• Hatch 9 Eggs—Use the Super Incubator you got from Part 1 to help expedite this. You can purchase more Super Incubators from the Shop for 200 PokéCoins each

Your rewards for completing these tasks are an Eevee encounter (be sure to capture it since you'll need for the next part), a King's Rock, and a Premium Raid Pass.

Part 4

The fourth set of tasks are:

• Walk 10km with Eevee as your buddy to earn Candy—This will also contribute to evolving Eevee into Espeon
• Evolve Eevee into Espeon during the day—After completing the previous task, Eevee must be given 25 Candy during daytime to evolve into Espeon. Make sure it's still your buddy before you evolve it, otherwise it won't turn into Espeon. If you've never acquired an Espeon before, you can nickname your Eevee "Sakura" to trigger the evolution
• Send 20 Gifts to Friends

Your rewards for completing these tasks are another Eevee encounter (again, keep this Eevee for the next section), 2,500 Stardust, and a Metal Coat.

Part 5

The fifth set of tasks are:

• Walk 10km with Eevee as your buddy to earn Candy—Yes, you have to do this again, but you need to anyway for evolving Eevee into Umbreon
• Evolve Eevee into Umbreon at night—Just like with Espeon, you need to give Eevee 25 Candy and evolve it at nighttime while it's your buddy. You can nickname it "Tamao" to instantly trigger the Umbreon evolution, but this only works if you've never acquired an Umbreon
• Trade a Pokémon—Trading costs Stardust, so stick with trading a regular Pokémon for one you already own since this trade is the cheapest. You can only trade with a player who's within 100 meters of your location, so you'll need to find a local group if you don't know anyone else who plays Pokémon Go

Your rewards for completing these tasks are a Star Piece (which awards 50% more Stardust for 30 minutes), 15 Pinap Berries (which, when fed to wild Pokémon, double the amount of Candy they drop when captured), and an Up-Grade.

Part 6

The sixth set of tasks are:

• Visit PokéStops 7 days in a row
• Use 25 Pinap Berries while catching Pokémon—Aside from the ones you earn from completing Part 6, you can acquire Pinap Berries from PokéStops and Gyms
• Use items to evolve Pokémon 2 times—The King's Rock, Metal Coat, and Up-Grade items you've earned so far can be used to complete this task, but any item-based evolution will count

Your rewards for completing these tasks are 3,500 Stardust, a Dragon Scale, and 5 Silver Pinap Berries (which, when fed to a wild Pokémon, increases the odds of catching it and how much Candy it drops).

Part 7

The seventh set of tasks are:

• Catch 40 Grass or Psychic type Pokémon—Grass types can be found in any grassy areas. Psychic types can be harder to find, but can show up in grassy and urban areas. Exeggcute and Exeggutor are dual Grass/Psychic so catching these will help
• Make an Excellent Curveball Throw—If you're struggling, there are guides on YouTube to show how it's done
• Earn a Gold Johto Medal—This is earned by catching 70 Pokémon from the Johto region AKA ones that debuted in Pokémon Gold & Silver. Examples include Chikorita, Cyndaquil, and Totodile

Your rewards for completing these tasks are a Charged TM, 10 Silver Pinap Berries, and an encounter with Celebi.

Part 8

At this stage, Celebi will appear, and you can capture it. Celebi will teleport, so you'll need to constantly turn your camera to look for it, but you'll be granted an unlimited amount of Poké Balls for this and there's no time limit. Just keep throwing Poké Balls at it and, once you've hit it three times, it'll be yours. You'll also be rewarded with 5,500 Stardust, a Super Incubator, and 20 Celebi Candy.

The post A Ripple in Time Pokémon Go quest guide and rewards appeared first on Destructoid.

A pair of scientists working in the Antarctic have managed to get their remote research station added as a location in Pokémon Go.

The duo discovered they both played the game after each had individually attempted to get the continent's most isolated research base added as an in-game PokéStop.

Speaking to The Independent, Australian scientists Raimon Hennessy, 29, and Pete Rizzo, 60, explained how they had then managed to gain the attention of Pokémon Go maker Niantic via reddit, which then aided in getting the Davis Research Station added in-game.

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Pretty much every change Niantic makes to Pokémon GO results in enormous backlash from its vast community of players. That’s usually because pretty much every change Niantic makes to Pokémon GO is disastrous and stupid. The latest is a new avatar creator, and guess what.

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I wrote previously about the angst and frustration at trying to time friendship milestones in Pokemon Go.  These can be the biggest single xp events you have in the game and using a lucky egg will double the amount of experience you get… if you time it right and don’t mess it up.

Pokemon Go – Since 2016

The fact that my post about this one of the most popular posts I have written in the last year based on search results indicates that I am not the only one who felt this might be an issue.

You want the big xp, pop a lucky egg in time!

However, Niantic has apparently heard our frustrated outburst when somebody becomes a best friend and you find you’ve forgotten to pop that lucky egg to make the most of it.

This past week I noticed a few updates with the game, the biggest one being the button I saw last night on a friendship milestone.

Use a lucky egg? Yes Please!

There is now a big button on the alert that allows you to use a lucky egg and apply it to your milestone, even displaying how much additional xp you will get for it.

I am sure this will benefit Niantic in that it will drive lucky egg sales from the shop, which will, in turn, drive coin sales.  But for this change I don’t care.  As a player lingering in the mid-40s, these friendship milestones are a big deal for leveling up.

In addition, Niantic also put in buttons when you use a revive or a heal that allow you to “revive all” or “heal all,” which can be very handy after you have done a few raids and are catching up to your group.  It also lets you use up all those lesser heal potions quickly rather than just trashing them for taking up too much storage space.

Of course, the ways of the Pokemon Go client are strange.  I had the new revive and heal buttons show up days ago in my client, but my wife doesn’t see the in her app.  However, she saw the “use lucky egg” option.  So if you don’t see any of these today, you should see them soon.  Just hope you don’t miss a friendship milestone while you wait.

And then there is the “two steps forward, one step back” aspect of things.

Niantic has messed up the daily streak tracker in the app.

Which day am I on?

When you look at that, have I completed the two day 6 activities?  It looks like it.  Or maybe it is day 7 now and I have not done that yet.

But no.  In this screen shot I have done the catch but have yet to do the spin on day 6.  Can you see any diffence between the two rows?  Because I can’t.

This at least once caused me to use a lucky egg thinking it was day 7 during the big streak bonus they had going recently.  The big streak bonus is gone, so no more 40K payouts on day 7, doubled with a lucky egg if you remembered and were not fooled by the UI, but the steak indicator still needs to be fixed.

The worst part is that this bit of the UI used to work fine… then they broke it.

So it is in Pokemon Go.

Updated: March 2, 2024

We looked for the latest codes!

The post All Pokemon GO Codes (March 2024) appeared first on GameSkinny.

Updated: June 24, 2024

Searched for new codes!

The items you carry around with you in Pokémon Go are extremely valuable, giving you a chance to revive your Pokémon after a battle or catch new ones. There’s little you can do in the game without them, making visits to PokéStops vital. Every little bit helps, and a good way to receive them outside of visiting Gyms and PokéStops is to redeem codes. These codes rarely make their way into the game, but you’ll want to add their rewards to your account when they do.

All available Pokémon GO promo codes

The available promotional codes vary each month, much like the offered items. While they are available, some of them are only capable of you turning in for a limited time, which is not always clear. If you are an Amazon Prime member, we recommend visiting the Pokémon Go Prime Gaming page every two weeks to receive an exclusive bundle for your account.

• GOFEST2024 — Redeem for a Premium Battle Pass and Incubator (Use in web store with purchase) (New)
• CAPTAINPIKACHU — Redeem to activate the encounter
• 0HY0UF0UNDM3 — Redeem for the Research for a Shiny Rotom
• FENDIxFRGMTxPOKEMON — Redeem for FENDI x FRGMT x POKÉMON hoodie for your avatar

How to redeem Pokémon GO codes

While the game initially featured two different methods for redeeming codes (for iOS and Android users), the developer has transitioned to using only the code redemption webpage. If you’re not sure how to claim your freebies, you can follow the instructions below regardless of which device you’re playing on:

1. Open the official Offer Redemption webpage.
2. Sign in using your Pokémon GO credentials.
3. Enter your code into the text field below Enter offer code and hit Apply.
4. Open the app and claim your freebies.

Pokémon GO - Get ready for Shiny Solosis' debut, Curveball Throw bonuses, and more

Happy Pokémon Day 2024! This year's celebrations have been capped off with a relatively short Pokémon Presents livestream, showcasing what's in store for the franchise this year and beyond - including Pokémon Legends: Z-A.

Though there was no mention of a main game releasing this year, there's a couple of substantial projects to look forward to. Here's a roundup of everything announced during Pokémon Presents for Pokémon Day 2024.

First up, those of you still enjoying Pokémon Scarlet and Violet can challenge a mighty Venusaur, Blastoise, and Charizard in upcoming Tera Raid battles. Mighty Venusaur will be available from tomorrow, 28th March, for a week, after which mighty Blastoise and mighty Charizard will follow.

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Are you tired of wandering the same old streets in Pokemon Go and longing to explore new territories without leaving the comfort of your home? ...

The post [2024]How to Fly/Teleport in Pokemon Go for iOS and Android- Full Guide appeared first on Gizchina.com.

The Pokémon Company is bringing its hugely popular Pokémon Center pop-up store back to London for four days this April, with promise of more exclusive Pokémon merchandise.

The Pokémon Center's return to the UK coincides with this year's Pokémon Europe International Championships, which take place at ExCeL London from 4th to 7th April. The store will be open at the venue from 10am to 8pm every day except Sunday, when it's set to close at 4pm.

Previous Pokémon Center pop-ups in the UK have attracted huge crowds, and The Pokémon Company is clearly expecting similar attention this time around. It notes that while entry to the store is open to the general public and won't require a competitor or spectator badge, reservations are mandatory - even for badged attendees. More information on the reservation process is set to be shared "closer to the event".

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