We’re as soon as once more on the trail out of 2024 with what is usually my ultimate reflective publish to be written through the yr.
The yr 2024 will probably be departing quickly
There may be, at this level, a protracted custom of such posts right here at TAGN. In case you are sufficiently bored, you may indulge your self with the musings of previous years:
Often I do highs and lows. As soon as I feel I did highs, lows, and in between. I should have been actually bored.
This yr, within the face of actually every thing getting worse (with a forecast of continued relentless worsening for the following 2-8 years) and the online game trade wrecking itself within the title of brief time period income, I’m going to attempt to listing out simply the highs for 2024.
Now, in case you’ve learn the weblog, you’ll know I most likely received’t have the ability to keep away from veering into sarcasm on a few of this. I can solely be so good earlier than I begin to crack. That and the fixed typos are all of the separate me from the AI menace at this level, so relaxation assured in case you see one more topic/verb mis-match, that this was human generated, pounded out by my frail human palms on a keyboard that most likely must be cleaned.
Anyway, let me see how far I can get with this.
Microsoft
- Activision Blizzard acquisition full so no extra Bobby the Tick… that was final yr truly, however nonetheless, fuck him
- Phil Spencer stays a modestly likeable heartless company software
- World of Warcraft twentieth anniversary
- Warcraft franchise thirtieth anniversary
- The Conflict Inside growth has launched with attention-grabbing options
- Dragonflight now free to subscribers
- So many flavors of WoW Traditional!
- WoW Traditional Cataclysm
- WoW Traditional merely vanilla
- WoW Traditional Season of Discovery
- WoW Traditional Hardcore
- WoW Traditional Traditional
- The promise of housing in retail WoW
- We’ll finally be rescued from the malaise of Cataclysm Traditional
- Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred launched
- Hearthstone retains Hearthstoning... and didn’t we get Hearthstone Traditional or one thing?
- OverWatch 2? Was {that a} factor? I nonetheless don’t know what it’s, besides that there is no such thing as a PvE marketing campaign
- A yr with a “2” in it, so most likely one other Name of Responsibility sport shipped
- XBox little doubt shipped some issues and solely raised costs a bit I assume
CCP
- EVE On-line Equinox and Revenant expansions landed
- Occasional indication that they make things better based mostly on participant suggestions… although this could be extra convincing if it wasn’t so usually stuff that they broke or shipped damaged
- EVE: Galaxy Conquest cell title launched
- EVE Vanguard testing carries on
- EVE On-line board sport Kickstarter funded
- EVE Frontier shifting into pre-apha
- Stays general a contributing issue to the Pearl Abyss backside line, guaranteeing its continued existence for now
- Didn’t truly lay off an enormous share of workers… however none of its new initiatives has failed but both
Enad International 7
- The 12 months of Darkpaw
- EverQuest twenty fifth anniversary
- EverQuest II twentieth anniversary
- All of the annual expansions!
- EverQuest – The Outer Brood
- EverQuest II – Scars of Destruction
- Lord of the Rings On-line – Legacy of Morgoth
- No matter it’s DDO, DCUO, and PlanetSide do for brand new content material…
- Palia acquisition, the primary new Dawn title ever
- My Singing Monsters nonetheless rolling exhausting, even when down some
- A touch of a glimpse of a brand new EverQuest title
- Managed to stave off shareholder calls for to promote itself to bigger competitor
Different MMO and On-line Recreation Issues
- Pokemon Go hasn’t been wrecked by Niantic unhealthy concepts but, although this complete attempting to make Dynamax a factor isn’t engaged on me
- Throne and Liberty launched
- Tarisland went dwell and
- New World on consoles eventually… anticipated that final yr, however hey!
- Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds launched, bringing housing to the sport
- Path of Exile 2 early entry arrived
- Playable Worlds gave us a pre-alpha glimpse at Stars Attain
- Star Citizen… I assume proves that avid gamers will throw cash at hope for a greater sport
- Enshrouded got here in stable and go some good updates
- Sons of the Forest arrived
- Nightingale confirmed up
- Valheim gave us the Ashlands
- Conan Exiles had a complete new map and a UI revamp
- No Man’s Sky stays a tremendous flip round with extra new content material
- Patheon: Rise of the Fallen made it to early entry
Different Video Recreation Gadgets
- Have I discussed Balatro but? It’s all that for a solitaire card sport for me
- A shout out to GoG.com for conserving some video games alive, like Fight Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin
- Regardless of my blase perspective in the direction of the occasion, the Steam Winter Sale nonetheless has some tempting offers… it’s only the dimensions of my library and the variety of unplayed titles that restrains me
- Oh, and Steam hasn’t gone evil on us but… however being privately held means they don’t really feel like they need to seize each unfastened nickel in our pockets…
- Homeworld 3 lastly noticed the sunshine of day
- Dragon Age: Veilguard revives the sequence
- Cat Quest III continues the sequence
- Half-life 2 and Counter-Strike Supply attain the 20 yr mark
Blogs, Social Media, Media, and On-line Life
- The weblog abides – TAGN made it previous the 18 yr mark
- In 2024 TAGN, regardless of… or possibly due to… all the rubbish happening on the planet, truly noticed an uptick in readership
- Google search continues to simply accept my existence and ship folks to the weblog
- WordPress.com, regardless of all its drama and unhealthy updates, hasn’t damaged their platform but
- The running a blog group likewise abides
- Hey, we even had a fairly good Blaugust
- Blue Sky has formed up properly and isn’t owned by a right-wing billionaire desirous to suppress speech they don’t like (You’ll say “X” and I’ll level to Threads as nicely)
- Mastodon likewise hangs on, having grabbed that “Linux of social media” nook
- Some precise good Hollywood films this yr… I imply sure, there have been additionally stinkers like Borderlands, however you’ll at all times get a few of that
- Regardless of some questionable strikes… like advertisements in all of the issues… streaming companies have managed to place out some respectable content material like:
- Amazon Prime Video: Cross, Fallout, The Boys new season
- Apple TV+ : New seasons for Shrinking, Sluggish Horses, Silo
- Hulu: The Bear, Shogun
- HBO Max No matter: Dune: Prophecies, The Penguin
- In the meantime Netflix stays in a league of its personal for brand new content material… I may write a complete publish about how they’re continually placing up new stuff and don’t really feel the necessity to drag issues out with weekly episodes to maintain you from cancelling since you received’t cancel as a result of there may be at all times one thing new
- Whereas we’re continually bombarded by AI nonsense, not less than the metaverse hype has lastly gone quiet… if solely crypto would go away as nicely… however too many billionaires see an excessive amount of potential to rob most of the people by way of crypto, so it stays
As ordinary… truly, extra that ordinary… I did this very a lot as a stream of consciousness publish which suggests, right here on the finish of the yr I’m fairly prone to have forgotten something that occurred early on. Generally I begin this publish a pair months prematurely.
This yr it was final minute.
So what did I miss from the above niches or different features of 2024?
