It's been... well, quite depressing. We all know what's going on and I'm not going to repeat what the whole world knows right now.
Thankfully, I managed to adapt. It's not because I'm a Singaporean instead of a Ukrainian. Rather, it's more like a natural self-defensive system within my brain. I find it far better to be positive by acknowledging the world to be imperfect and the actual definition thereof. Believe it or not, my church is responsible for preserving my sanity instead of my country. In a very real sense, I see quite a bit of myself in Emiya Shirou of the Unlimited Blade Works route of Fate/stay night. This also means I also see my hypothetical self in Archer.
The weird thing the Russo-Ukrainian war had provoked in me was to search what Slavs looked like. Note that if you can call a Russian a Slav, it means you cannot call a Slav a Russian. Because Ukrainians are also Slavs.
The interesting part about Slavs is that they don't seem to have that sharp look present in your typical white person. So if you see a white foreign talent with a smoother jawline, that person may possibly be a Slav.
Eye shape-wise, it's interesting that rounded eyes are not a given among Caucasians. While rounded eyes do exist among East Asians, the shape resembles the capital letter D flipped to left. For Caucasians, rounded eyes mean a shape like a rugby ball. Interestingly, this shape may more prominent among the Slavs. There's a term called the Pontid or North Pontid look. The latter has a sharper look while the former had a softer look. Both have an oval jawline and rounded eyes.
This was when I came to my very own WTH moment. For years, I acknowledged I don't look Chinese. The reason is that my jawline is a smooth oval shape while my eyes are symmetrically rounded and slightly slanted. This actually gives me a weird Japanese look with an equally weird Ainu touch. At the same time, my nasal bone is a weird combination of low (note I never say flat) and narrow. This is why my nose looks nicer with glasses on instead of just after waking up. The former boasts a sharp look while the other presents a flatter look. As a result, I started having questions about my DNA. Singaporean Chinese are descended from southern China. As a result, they can look quite different from those of northern China. This was due to different ethnic minorities in both ends of China respectively. But even then, I'm not sure how northern I look because my eyes and jawline are unable to give me a clue. Then the next thing I realised, I weirdly resembled half-Slavic. Or more possibly one-quarter Slav. It's weird. I tried observing other fellow Chinese and even Google search for the relevant images. The outcome only further reinforced the possibility that something wasn't right. And it didn't help that an accident involving my feline curiosity (i.e. not this type) resulted in discovering a half-Ukrainian Japanese model named Karen "not that kind of Karen" Takizawa. Some of her photos left me scratching my head. We both have similar jawlines. You know the moment Joseph Joestar broke the third commandment once again? Yeah, something like that.
With that being said, I'm not about to assume whether I'm adopted or not. One thing life has taught me is that you play the hand you're dealt with. And with that, how you play the cards accordingly. If I sound like a philosophical Remy, that's because I identify myself with Gambit's past as well.
Shipwright's Regret and Coral Aerie: First impressions
One thing I learnt about enjoying the storytelling process in ESO is this: Do the DLC dungeons asap once they got released. The reason why is that players would want to have a go at the mechanics while at the same time enjoying the dialogue. One issue I have with doing dungeons is that I don't have time to go through the dialogue because everyone else would be running forward. Random normal dungeons have been known for all sorts of people speedrunning from point A to point Z. The reason why is that since Update 29, changes in the CP system means everyone is out to grab fast loot and faster XP. Everything about normal dungeons is farming without knowing. If you really want to learn, you have to do random veteran dungeons. As a DPS, I find that random normal dungeons don't serve as a good honing session. It's now like dolmen farming in Alik'r.
If the dungeons are new, however, it's a different issue. Players would be out testing how the mechanics work. In veteran difficulty, one strategic error can cost a wipe and quite possibly a mutual party quit. That's what happened in one of my random veteran dungeons raids where my group (including myself) decided to quit at the last boss. Never mind the fact Bloodroot Forge can be insanely hard on veteran mode. It's a miracle we got to Earthgore Almanac, never mind the fact someone accidentally triggered hard mode during our final try. Now to think of it, maybe the healer should be in charge of triggering Quenching Blood with the tank holding ground at the Blistering Fire fount. Maybe I should have suggested that to the group. But I didn't due to confidence issues caused by schoolyard democracy in the past. With that being said, Bloodroot Forge is an interesting raid due to a high strategic focus.
For the two newest dungeons, I call them the advanced versions of Red Petal Bastion. In Red Petal Bastion, the most difficult bosses would be the first and last ones. For the first, it's all about eating sweetrolls and busting portals. For the final boss, it's about precise positioning and tactical reaction to the AoE attacks which would happen like half of the fight or more. Both DLC dungeons functioned similarly. However, my first impression was that they're harder. Of course, this may be due to the high group level since everyone's CP was way above 1200. More likely post-1400. This actually made the run sweeter since it's not every day you run a normal dungeon with nobody running ahead and possibly leaving the rest for dead. While I don't mind an ad-hoc speedrun in random normal dungeons, there were indeed rare occasions of one inconsiderate group member running ahead without paying attention to whether any other members had the need to do the quest. As a result, one person's want for fast loot and faster XP left a lingering bad taste in other players' mouths. I don't think you can ever say get over it because that's a terribly irresponsible way of implying we live in a broken world. Truth to be told, I'd rather have 3 other group members not knowing what to do instead of someone running ahead. That's actually the good thing about queuing for random veteran dungeons: You don't have to deal with unnecessary toxic behaviour because no one could have the free pass to do so.
Enough about the complaining, let's go back to the two new dungeons. As I said, we had a fun time running it. One guildmate and two other strangers. While my inner world is an isolated fortress, I know an honourable person when I see one. In this case, three.
I'll be honest here: Coral Aerie seemed to be more challenging than Shipwright's Regret. For the latter, the difficult fight was restricted to the last boss where the Code's Combat Alert addon only told me trouble was coming. How to deal with it, that's your business. The movements of the slow travelling whirlpools functioned like Prior Thierric's travelling wall attack. For the latter, you needed to block and break free from the knockdown. Otherwise, you're going to take a ton of damage. For Shipwright's Regret's last boss, blocking didn't result in a massively reduced damage done. The amount of damage taken if blocked? The same as Thierric's travelling wall damage if you never blocked. That's how tricky it is. In other words, you have to be familiar with the whirlpool movements. Something you need to practice often to get the hang of it.
For Coral Aerie, the overall more difficult part lies in the mobs. It's a bit like navigating Bloodroot Forge and Scalecaller's Peak where the AoE just kept coming. The last boss wasn't that bad compared to that of Shipwright's Regret, but the second last boss required a higher level of mobility and positioning since her AoE attacks kept coming out like a modified machine gun. Interestingly, bosses in Coral Aerie seemed to take more damage than that of Shipwright's Regret. This probably meant Coral Aerie boss fights were more a DPS check than Shipwright's Regret.
Some thoughts about ESO storytelling
I'll be brutally honest here: Gates of Oblivion wasn't the best ESO storytelling. The gameplay is good, especially with the Rockgrove trial, but I just felt ZOS was trying too hard to give female NPCs the chance to shine. The gender balance seemed terribly lopsided. This resulted in me wishing Sombren wasn't the traitor despite the foreshadowing. It shouldn't be happening. If I was a feminist, it might be a different story. The fact though is that I'm not. Do I believe in righteousness and justice? Yes. But that doesn't make me a liberal any more than you can call a dictatorship democracy.
With ZOS stating it's going back to its storytelling roots, this means I should have certain expectations. One thing I'll be paying attention to is whether Jakarn is going to be nothing more than a drama tool. Truth to be spoken, I found Za'Ji's interaction with Caska in Shipwright's Regret much better than that of Khaleen with Jakarn (although it could be counter-argued that Khaleen and Jakarn don't share the same camaraderie). I wouldn't want to see another Arox the Mutilator where his role was more of a running gag. As for Rynkyus, I recognised the fact there's only this much focus available. For the latter, it's understandable. For the former, that made him stand out from the likes of The Anchorite, Lyranth, and Everil. In fact, I have no qualms in saying Sister Celdina was the standout character in Gates of Oblivion despite any actual understanding restricted to her lore entry. For Lyranth, her standout moment was restricted to your final interactions with her.
This is not to say ZOS can't tell a great story. Murkmire, despite being largely forgettable, had the best storyline fit for Yoshida "not Hanzawa" Naoki. Season of the Dragons was awesome in terms of plot atmosphere and the righteousness of Abnur Tharn's selfishness. Summerset had great plot twists and finely crafted darkness that could make the likes of Sakaguchi "not Ango" Hironobu and Miyazaki "not Hayao" Hidetaka take notice. And let's not forget Barbas' sense of humour. As for Dark Heart of Skyrim, the storytelling went two to three gears up in Markarth due to Verandis Ravenwatch being the gamechanger.
My point is storytelling is a craft above all things. While socio-political concerns can be an effective source of ideas, they should NOT be used as an excuse to shackle inspiration. I'm NOT saying Gates of Oblivion was a plot of grand wokery-woke. However, the lack of gender balance has to be looked at. As I've implied, the past storytelling in the game wasn't like that. And we all can see for ourselves ESO storytelling at its very best in the past episodes/DLCs.
Some thoughts about account-wide achievements
It's quite interesting to see the decision to make achievements account-wide being some kind of controversy among players. Now I have to say for now that the decision is justified. The reason is that ZOS was making this call based on technical concerns. As for the players, they saw it in terms of experience. Casual gamers welcomed it because they don't have to grind. Hardcore gamers didn't welcome it because that'd reduce the value of titles like Stormproof where fellow players would know how awesome you are by earning merit at a CP of 200+. Believe it or not, a guildmate with a fondness for Khajiit characters actually proved it possible.
The justification of the decision, therefore, has to be made based on the company's stance. In this case, I'd say it's a good call. My game is now running more smoothly. That's saying something given ESO has a notorious reputation when it comes to optimisation and performance. Coupled with its popularity and you get a massive issue in performance.
Ultimately, I can only say whatever controversy is due to the company and players speaking in two different languages. One is technical, the other is gameplay experience. What about an opt-out option, you may ask? As I said, it's due to technical concerns that ZOS is doing this. If the company felt an opt-out option would compromise efforts to optimise game performance, we'd be going back to the same issue. Namely, two different languages from both sides of the debate.
