The last month of this year was, frankly, an exhausting one, and not just because of the holiday season. A lot of situations and Christmas prep meant a lot less time to play… at least until after the 25th, when things lightened up for me somewhat, and I was able to reverse that trend.
I wrapped up Pillars of Eternity II, which felt like a very satisfying end — even though I didn’t do all of the quests or DLC. I did enough and felt like it was time to be done.
For a Christmas present to myself, I picked up a trio of discounted games on GOG — WAR40K Rogue Trader, I Was A Teenage Exocolonist, and Chained Echoes. Haven’t started playing any of these yet.
In World of Warcraft retail, I ended my time in Legion Remix, set up my new home, went decor hunting, and switched over my Death Knight from a Draenei to a Dark Iron Dwarf. It was a busy month there!
I did get in a smattering of WoW Classic time with my Druid, but not that much overall. I’m still in the mid-30s there.
And in Lord of the Rings Online, I dug into the new expansion on my Minstrel and did a very little with my lowbie Captain.
January 2025’s gaming goals
Let’s start with LOTRO: I’m roughly aiming to complete one new zone in the expansion per month, and when that’s done, I’ll probably fall back on my Captain for a while. So getting all of the second zone done by the end of January (with deeds) is a very doable goal.
WoW retail has its Midnight prepatch coming on the 20th, I believe, and I’m only interested in this for some catchup gear for my new Death Knight. Otherwise, I’ve got more decor to hunt down!
WoW Classic’s 20th Anniversary Burning Crusade prepatch also arrives on the 13th, and that’ll be the make-or-break point to see if I stick with my Druid (I should!) or go Shaman (I also should!). A goal? Just to play, level, see how far I can get toward 60.
I do have several MMOs on my backburner right now — FFXIV, Necesse, Fallout 76 come to mind — but I’ll have to see about the time and how much these overlap with what I’m already doing elsewhere.
For a non-MMO, I’m going to boot up Rogue Trader and get back into this amazing Owlcat CRPG.
It was quite the surprising month of gaming in my quarters, starting with a brief but memorable return to RIFT with the fresh reroll crowd. I felt really torn whether or not to stick with this, because I could look ahead on the calendar and see how busy things were about to get, so I opted out after a couple days, but it was heart-warming to see all the enthusiasm and to touch base with that game again.
Another slightly surprising move was dusting off my WoW Classic Druid after a long absence and enjoying a week or two of gaming with her. I then tucked her back into storage after the news of the January 13 prepatch, because I think I want to wait to roll up a Shaman then after all.
In World of Warcraft, I spent most of the month mired in the near-endless slog through Legion Remix’s Suramar. That got old, fast, but at least I got it all done and then started pursuing housing decor-granting achievements in earnest.
In LOTRO, I sidelined my other characters (Captain, Mariner) to end up focusing on my high-level Lore-master for the latter half of the month. Her big achievements were getting to level 150 and fully completing Cape of Umbar’s deeds.
Finally, I enjoyed continued adventures through Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, making some really significant progress as my crew leveled and geared up.
December 2025’s gaming goals
This is going to be a really interesting month, starting with player housing finally arriving in World of Warcraft’s 11.2.7 this week! I’ll be scouting out a perfect plot of land for me and take my time setting up a home while also pursuing decor-gathering projects by doing the new weekly quests and any Legion or Legion Remix achievements that grant them. Getting everything I want out of Legion Remix is important by the end of the month.
Lord of the Rings Online’s Kingdoms of Harad expansion is set to go live, probably, so I may be going through that on my Minstrel. There’s an outside chance I won’t have the expansion early, though, so if that happens, I may be a little late to that party and simply keep questing with my Lore-master. I’m really in no rush here.
As I said up there, WoW Classic is sidelined until January.
I do want to finish up Pillars of Eternity II by the end of the month so that I can move on to another CRPG. I’m thinking that a good pace is a new game every three months, with four in a year. We’ll see. I do have my eye on three CRPGs/JPRGs to possibly buy if they’re on sale around the holidays.
While I was incredibly bummed to hear about the likely demise of both Project Ghost and New World this month, those were more helpful nudges toward a move that’s been long in the works for me — a return to CRPGs (and, to a lesser extent, JRPGs). I’m not abandoning MMOs or anything, but I do want to diversify and reclaim one of my favorite gaming hobbies of my pre-MMO career.
I found myself gravitating back to GOG, mostly because I wanted to *own* games DRM-free, and I really appreciate that this site does that and helps support and preserve older titles. I already have a number of CRPGs purchased there, but I did snap up Fallout New Vegas to have a copy — and I’ll probably be getting more in the near future.
For now, I started in on Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire with glee. It was truly a great decision, as I had a blast going through an old school-feeling CRPG and being able to swap computers over the course of a week thanks to GOG Galaxy. I’ll probably be talking a LOT more about these kinds of games in the future on this blog.
In Lord of the Rings Online, I kept nudging forward both my Mariner and Captain. My Mariner finished up Lothlorien and went into Southern Mirkwood, clearing out a couple areas and starting to make headway on deeds. My Captain is still in Outer Gondor at level 148 but finishing up that content and eyeing the Shield Isles once I do the deeds.
World of Warcraft was all about Legion Remix this month, and no regrets about that. I wish that I had had more time to play, but I did manage to level up a Hunter to 80, get a ton of bronze, and go through a few zones and various dailies.
November 2025 gaming goals
This is the last pre-housing month for World of Warcraft, so I’m going to go all-out on Legion Remix with the goal of doing all the zones, quests, campaigns, order hall, and other patch content.
This is also the last pre-expansion month for LOTRO, so… more of the same? I don’t see getting Mirkwood done at this pace, but that could happen. Outer Gondor definitely should get wrapped up as well. When Kingdoms of Harad lands, it’s going to be 100% Minstrel for a while before I get back to rotating through characters.
I’m going to keep plucking away at Pillars 2 on a (hopefully) daily basis. CRPGs require a lot of time to beat, so I need to make them more regular than once-every-so-often. I don’t know what kind of goal to set for this other than “play every day if I can and see how far I get.”
I have a sizable backlog of CRPGs I’m refining, including ones I’ve purchased and ones I want to at some point. Probably my most-wanted for the remainder of this year are Clair Obscur Expedition 33, The Outer Worlds 2, and Chained Echoes. What I’ll play after Pillars 2 is not certain; I want to leave that decision up to the day I actually finish a game.
I knew that this month was going to be a lot of treading water, so to speak, as I waited for some big releases, but it was a fairly enjoyable month even so.
LOTRO saw a big uptick in my interest and game time as I finally brought my Mariner out of Moria and dusted off my Captain for some Corsairs of Umbar adventures.
In World of Warcraft, my main goal was doing all of Warlords of Draenor’s content, start to finish, with my Death Knight in the hopes of grabbing some extra transmog and preparing for housing decor unlocks. Goal accomplished!
I did scoot around in Guild Wars 2 for a couple weeks — it was nice, it was fun, but it wasn’t sticky at all. Nice to visit with my Ranger, though. I don’t think I’ll be playing the expansion later this month.
There was some WoW Classic adventures earlier this month, but those got shelved again as I keep waiting for Burning Crusade’s pre-patch.
In non-MMOs, I hit infinite in Marvel Snap for the second time ever and sank a lot of hours into Rimworld.
October gaming goals
I’ve been working on a list of some CRPGs and JRPGs I’d like to play, but I haven’t decided which, if any, I might commit to this month. I wish I had the funds to buy The Outer Worlds 2 right now, but that’s going to have to wait. Also on my “to buy in the near future” list is Erenshor, Chained Echoes, and the Rimworld Odyssey expansion.
In LOTRO, I’m going to keep on keeping on with my Captain (in Outer Gondor) and Mariner (in Lothlorien/Mirkwood), doing all the quests and deeds in each before moving to the next place. We’ve got a while before the expansion hits in December (or perhaps later), so this will be the course this fall.
In WoW, it’s all going to be about Legion Remix! I’ll probably roll up a Shaman or Druid (mayyyyybe Hunter) to comb through that entire expansion and unlock as much stuff as I possibly can.
There’s not a lot else that’s beating down my door right now as must-play. I may revisit my WoW Classic Druid, but mostly right now I’m content to stay in just two MMOs.
Augusts SHOULD be a slow, lazy month, but they never, ever turn out to be that way. This one blew right by, cut in half by a family vacation and followed up with a flurry of preparations for the fall. As such, it was a skimpy gaming month with far fewer sessions than normal. That’s OK, it happens sometimes, and I just roll with it.
I did go on a “video game safari” to touch base with a few titles, including Guild Wars 2, Project Gorgon, RIFT, and Fallen Earth. All of these are still installed on my computer, and it was genuinely nice to play the latter two.
Lord of the Rings Online: I worked on my lowbie Lore-master for a while, getting her up to 20 or so in Cardolan, but I began and ended the month with my Mariner in Moria. She’s been in Moria for too long now, and I’d be embarrassed to check when I first went in here. She’s about level 63 and working on a full clear.
WoW Classic: That’s right, I came back to WoW Classic this month after missing it a little too much! I tried out an Undead Priest before going back to my Hunter and pushing her into the very late 40s.
World of Warcraft: Probably the biggest development this month was reverting my main from the Warlock back to the Death Knight thanks to some positive 11.2 changes. I also did a chunk of the new story content, including the campaign, and worked on climbing the delve journey again.
September 2025 gaming goals
I don’t anticipate any major releases or developments this month — my next big things are Burning Crusade Classic pre-patch, Legion Remix, WoW housing, Midnight, and Classic Plus. Oh, and LOTRO’s fall expansion. But none of that is coming in September, so it’s going to be steady-on.
In retail WoW, I really might start doing that project of clearing out older zones. I need a side project that’s not The War Within for a while, and I know it’ll help get decor in the future, so why not?
The goal in LOTRO is obvious — finish up Moria already, darn it! Get the epic and deeds done, and head out into Lothlorien, Mirkwood, and beyond. I need fresh air so badly.
And in Classic WoW, I’ll continue to play my Hunter, amass gold, and push toward level 60. No new characters until the pre-patch!
I’m also going to try to get in enough time with RIFT to get a blog post or two to y’all.
July was a fine if unspectacular month of games, with little coming out that changed my course overmuch. Probably the biggest shift was that I ended up putting down Palia one day and never picking it back up. I liked it, don’t get me wrong, but the repeated gameplay loop was wearing thin and the big attraction of home decoration is getting coopted by my excitement over WoW’s upcoming housing.
Retail World of Warcraft was a little bit of this and that, but nothing too thrilling. I did some Collector’s Bounty hunting for a while, then rolled up a new Forsaken Death Knight to level her through the Turbulent Timeways. Oh, and I did the Arathi Highlands campaign that came out in the last patch.
I did get back into WoW Classic, probably more in anticipation of The Burning Crusade and whatever Blizzard has planned for Classic+. After fiddling around with my Druid for a week, I went back to my Hunter for some 40s leveling, even though I know I’m going to reroll as a Shaman down the line. At least I can get some gold right now, I tell myself. It does seem a little futile, though.
In LOTRO, it was some more Moria questing on my Mariner, some Umbar epic story on my Lore-master, and a very little bit of Shire questing on my lowbie LM.
August 2025 gaming goals
I think that some change is needed this month. There’s nothing that imminent for any of the MMOs I’ve been playing — more like “treading water” — so this feels like a good time to scoot around to some of the other MMOs and maybe even some offline CRPGs or adventure games.
So that’s my big goal this month: A Videogame Safari. I know right now that Guild Wars 2, Dungeons and Dragons Online, and RIFT are going to be on that tour, but I’m open to more suggestions. I may be getting Rimworld’s Odyssey expansion and checking that out too, and/or treating myself to another title.
I’ll be rotating through titles on a weekly basis, in addition to some World of Warcraft 11.2 questing and LOTRO lowbie completionism. The goal will be to get into those games, zero in on a new character or an old favorite, and get some adventures under my belt while evaluating how I feel about playing them right now in 2025. And I’m open to even more suggestions!
This was a nice, quiet, stable, and engaging month of gaming for me — which is, frankly, ideal. While there wasn’t any super-exciting revelations or rollouts, I enjoyed being in an early summer groove rotating through the same games and characters while enjoying them all.
In World of Warcraft, I’ve mostly been playing my Warlock and chewing through War Within sidequests. I’ve gotten all but the last zone done, and that feels good. She’s also pretty much completely finished with Season 2 delves and gearing.
In Lord of the Rings Online, I wrapped up questing on my Minstrel (for now) and flitted back and forth between my Mariner (still in Moria) and my Lore-master (going through Corsairs of Umbar’s epic). I also took a few days to do the new Midsummer Festival island, which was neat.
In Palia, I made some great progress across the board, especially hitting my first level 10 skill (gardening) and pushing into Bahari Bay.
I did test a couple games — Dune Awakening and Monsters and Memories — for column write-ups.
I also started up a new Rimworld run and completed a full Kathy Rain playthrough.
July 2025 gaming goals
There really isn’t a whole lot of “must plays” on the immediate horizon other than Rimworld’s new expansion, Odyssey, which I’d love to buy and play this month. I also want to pick up the most recent Life is Strange game, Double Exposure, while it’s still half-off on Steam.
For WoW, I feel like I’m in a holding pattern for the next patch or Legion Remix. So I’m going to focus on leveling and gearing up my Shaman this month and continue blitzing through zone sidequests on my Warlock.
For LOTRO, it’d be nice to get to the end of Moria, at least questing-wise. Deeds come after that, plus the epic, so I’ve still a ways to go. And I’m going to see how far I can get through the latest two expansions if all I’m doing is the epic.
For Palia, I’m hoping to start making some serious money with apple trees and canning. I want to get more skills to 10, nibble down my quest log, and get a better feel for Bahari Bay (it’s not the best to navigate).
The only other game that I’m feeling interested to play is WoW Classic, but I don’t know if I’m going to go back right now during the vanilla era or wait to hear more word about TBC and Classic Plus. I do miss it, though.
Wow, what a gaming month this was! I didn’t realize how packed and eventful it was until I looked back over at it, but I really did cram in an awful lot into this stretch.
For starters — nerd bragging alert — I hit infinite in Marvel Snap for the very first time since I began playing a couple years back. I never try that hard to do that, but it was a pleasant surprise when I cruised past 90 and then 100 without too much difficulty.
I had a bit of fun in WoW Classic but ended up pushing that aside right now for World of Warcraft retail, which became my main obsession. My focus has shifted to completing all zone quests, starting with The War Within and my Warlock, and I’m having a really great time clearing off the maps.
In LOTRO, I’ve been slowly rotating through three characters, one per day, inching toward their respective goals. My Mariner continued to work through Moria, my Lore-master entered the Shield Isles, and my Minstrel chewed through Update 44 quests.
I experienced a great re-entry into Palia, starting over and finding a lot more of interest this time around. This game truly did grow on me, and I hope that I’m over that invisible hump from learning to enjoying.
Elder Scrolls Online was a daily login for me for a while there as I plowed through West Weald, but like WoW Classic, I think I may put this aside for time reasons.
I finished up a full playthrough of Day of the Tentacle and also played some Equinox Homecoming, Dread Delusion, and Kathy Rain — more on those later.
June 2025 gaming goals
I’m keeping an eye on some big June releases like Dune Awakening, but right now I don’t anticipate buying or diving into any new games.
Rather, in LOTRO I’ve got a good thing going with this rotation and will continue to gently go through each of my three character’s respective adventures without any huge drive to accomplish a specific goal within the month.
For WoW, I want to fully complete all of The War Within’s zones on my Warlock and then start on some content not in this expansion. I haven’t decided where I’m going next, but I might jump around a bit or work on the old world.
I also want to continue immersing myself into Palia and see if this could be a good summer vibes mini-MMO. I’d like to be able to get a good grasp on the full gameplay loop and sand out some of the frustration points I’m currently having.
April was a monumentally busy and eventful month in the Syp household, and so a steady bout of reliable gaming helped to keep part of my life stable. I dipped in an out of a few titles like Palia and Diablo III, but mostly it came down to my reliable stable of MMOs.
LOTRO: My Mariner pressed further into Moria with an eye on deed completion, while I dusted off my high-level Lore-master and began her journey through the last two expansions. I also got into the new Update 44 content with my Minstrel and fiddled about with some lowbie stuff.
World of Warcraft: Other than getting through all of Undermine’s campaign, this was a pretty boring WoW month. I did the usual weeklies, delves, and world quests, but I started to burn out on all of that. Thinking it might be time to step away for a little while.
WoW Classic: But WoW’s loss was Classic’s gain, as I greatly enjoyed returning to my Hunter and continuing her journey through vanilla. One big achievement was finally saving up enough money to buy riding and her first mount.
May 2025’s goals
I foresee this to be an interesting month indeed. I am testing the waters for a possible Palia second chance, and Equinox Homecoming comes out in early access on May 8th, so either or both of those would be a pretty big change.
I’m going to start setting aside a day every week — I’m thinking Saturdays — to push aside ALL of my regular games to play something different. It could be an old favorite MMO, or a title from my gaming backlog, or whatever. Just to shake up the routine a little bit. Maybe calling this “Saturday Siesta,” I dunno. So I’ll give this a test run in May and let you know how it goes.
In LOTRO, I’m going to rotate daily between my LM, Minstrel, and Mariner to continue progressing each of them through their respective slices of content.
In WoW Classic, I’m starting to push into the slower leveling stretch of the game, so maybe getting to 50 would be a significant accomplishment… but 46-48 would be nice, too. I’m also continuing to mine with an eye on improving my engineering.
And finally, I’m starting to feel the call and pull of Elder Scrolls Online once more, so that’s definitely on my radar. But should I roll a new character and go through the entire journey or continue it on my favored Warden?
This was actually a fairly eventful month with both games and game-related projects. We put out our final Battle Bards episode after 234 (!) episodes, which was a very bittersweet experience. I didn’t swap around games pretty much at all, nor did I have the time or inclination to do so.
Lord of the Rings Online: It was the Month of Transfers, and after a week of insanity, I got my characters all moved over to Peregrin. I did a smidgen of Spring Festival, mostly to get a couple of goats, and traded my Burglar for my Mariner as a leveling character. I focused on blitzing my Mariner to Moria through missions while refining her build.
World of Warcraft: With Season 2 here, I mostly focused on gearing up my Death Knight and Warlock — but at the expense of not having nearly as much time to do Undermine as I had hoped.
Diablo 3: I picked up a sale copy of the full game and started to go through a normal run with a Necromancer.
I did play a chunk of The Sims 4, mostly to go through the anniversary questline and work on a microhome. Other non-MMO gaming included Rimworld and Marvel Snap, although I could say that about pretty much every month.
April 2025’s goals
LOTRO: When housing opens up, I have my plot picked out and will need to do a lot of moving in. Other than that, I’m going to be working on taking my Mariner through Moria, zone by zone, working on deed completion along the way.
World of Warcraft: I really am going to focus more on Undermine and continue to work on engineering on my Warlock.
Diablo 3: I’m just going to keep plugging away at this, one short gaming session at a time, until I can say that I finally beat it.
I am keeping an eye on Inzoi for now, and will probably set aside an evening or two to check out Defiance when it relaunches in the middle of the month (feels like a big deal!). Possible back burner games include WoW Classic, Project Gorgon, Fallen Earth,
Bio Break 