Announcing my new YouTube channel! :)

Wow, it feels like I have been away from this blog forever and I pretty much have! Oopsie. >_> There's really no excuse for my absence other than... teh lazy. If you hadn't noticed, there was a pretty big focus here on talking about Guild Wars 2 content. So when my interest in the game faltered and I pretty much stopped playing GW2 altogether, it also led to less of an interest in writing about it and continuing making updates for this site. My sincere apologies if anyone was actively wanting to keep up with these posts.

The youtube channel view for AeryPlays. :D

In other more awesome news though, I have finally forced myself to do something that I have been putting off for far too long, which is to create a YouTube channel! I still can't really believe it's real and actually a thing now. I've wanted to make videos for such a long time (we're talking years here), but kept thinking it was too complicated and that I'd never be able to do it. It also didn't help knowing I have a bad track record of starting things and then not following through with them for very long *cough* this site *cough*. So the idea of being a youtuber continued to be put off indefinitely.

I won't go into detail but around three months ago, my world pretty much fell apart. Or that's what it felt like (and still does a lot of the time honestly...). I really needed something to take my mind off everything - a new hobby to focus on and escape real life for a bit so I thought, "Why not give this a try?" Even if no one else watched them, I figured things definitely couldn't get any worse as I obviously had 0 views, 0 subscribers, and 0 videos at the time. I literally had nothing to lose and potentially a lot to gain.

Sooooo I decided to dive right into making videos! Some things were easier than expected, some things were harder than expected, but in the end it was all really fun. The hardest part was actually just sitting down and forcing myself to do it. Making videos has been an immense learning experience so far and I imagine it will stay that way for quite some time. I'm very much a yt noob. :p For fun I thought it would be amusing to list my top ten things I've somehow managed to figure out along the way:

• recording and running games on a 5 year old crappy PC
• basic editing (ooh you so fancy!)
• what render settings to use (most times)
• the need to cut back on saying "umm" and "uhh" all the time so I don't sound like a complete fool 
• making thumbnails that aren't horrendous
• making channel artwork and then having to resize/change it all around for every single social media site 
• making a homemade pop filter out of an old sock
• spending way too long animating an intro and outro 
• halfway decent SEO
• promoting the channel while trying to not appear creepy and desperate, etc. etc. 

I just finished posting my very first series and am having a blast with it all so far. Creating videos is a really enjoyable hobby. Who knows what the future holds, but right now I'm pleased with the feedback I've received. People seem to enjoy watching and that's really encouraging. Honestly never expected anyone to watch, so any growth is automatically awesome. A huge thank you and hug to anyone that subscribes, likes, or comments on a video. <3

My goal for the channel is to showcase all the great games out there. I also really want to make a positive place where people can watch my videos and escape for a bit, where they will feel included and supported. Especially those struggling with self-esteem, depression, etc. because I know what that's like. Creating videos is also a good way to keep challenging myself, so I'm hoping to do it for as long as possible! Don't give up on this, future Aery. :)

Also, if you're in a similar situation and are thinking of starting a channel - please do it! Don't wait until you have the perfect setup or channel art or any other excuse you can think of. Just go and record yourself playing a game and have a blast. It will be worth it, trust me!

What will happen with this website you might ask? Well, ideally I'd like it to sort of be a supplement to the youtube channel where I can post more in depth about certain things or provide extra bonus content of some sort. I'd still like to post updates about what my characters are doing in various games or news topics that might not really make sense to put in video format. In other words, I'm still figuring it out. But keep an eye out here as I definitely do not want to abandon this blog!

In the meantime, if you'd like to watch me stumble my way through video games you can do so below:

Finishing "A Season of Growth" Sylvari Personal Story Chapter

Sorry for a bit of an absence lately. I was working on changing the site over to our own domain (yay!) and that proved to be a huge hassle because of the company I decided to use. If you have a blog on Blogger and are thinking of using your own custom domain, I can't say I would recommend going with 1&1 unless you don't mind having to do a bunch of workarounds. Yes they are cheap, but probably not worth all the extra effort you have to go through just to get things to work how they should. Luckily, I was able to finally sort everything out in the end and it appears to be working fine. If it isn't and you encounter any problems with pages not loading or links not linking correctly, please let me know... I'd really appreciate it! But until I hear otherwise, I will assume that it is all fixed now. :)

Anyways, tonight I decided to work a bit more on the Sylvari personal story again because I have it in my head that I must finish it all before running any dungeons. And I need to do dungeons for the monthly to get laurels, so I need to have the story all completed before the end of February! As you might remember, last time I was working on the personal story it ended with needing to meet Pellam in Caledon Forest. Note: personal story spoilers ahead!

GW2 100% Map Completion, Explorer Achievements, and a Jumping Puzzle. Oh my! [Epic Adventure]

Well, after all this time, 100% map completion is mine! You may remember from my last GW2 post that I was pretty close to completing it - just one zone and one wayward skill point away. Guess what? That skill point in the Temple of Lyssa that is always contested and that I thought would take forever to get because no one runs that event can actually be activated by just carefully sneaking around the back and grabbing it! So, if you happen to be silly like me and didn't know otherwise, perhaps that tidbit of information will help you toward your map completion, too. For everyone else, don't mind me - I'm just happy to be done either way even if it could have been sooner! :D

100% World Map Completion finally! :)

Guild Wars 2 Personal Story, Finally! [Epic Adventure]

Plants vs... Tengu?

So, it's really no secret that I've been in a bit of a love/hate thing with Guild Wars 2 for a few months now... playing in the beta and even after launch were great but the "new car smell" has worn off a bit since then. Don't get me wrong - the game is definitely fun, but I, like a lot of other people, don't feel like there is much to keep players, well, playing. Even though there are many things to do (in fact, I haven't even touched certain areas of the game yet like sPVP or dungeons/fractals), I don't usually feel a whole lot of motivation to actually do them, at least for any significant length of time. However, since a lot of my gaming is done with my SO, I have been making more of an effort to spend time again in Tyria since that is what he's been in the mood for lately. The only goal in-game I'm really working for at the moment is the 100% exploration-star-medal-thingy, and I am very close to finally finishing! Right now my character is sitting at 96% complete with only the Cursed Shore and that stupid, forever-contested skill point in the Temple of Lyssa left to do. This is all fine and dandy, but I keep thinking what will I do with my little Sylvari Elementalist when I finally reach my goal? What will keep me playing next? Well, I decided tonight to work a bit on my personal story which has been severely neglected for the past... 70 levels or so! :D Warning: personal story spoilers, ahoy!