Black Desert Online

 I have been playing this game for a while now. Even have a seasonal character. But I'm probably not gonna talk about that. It's a little complicated. So, it's a fantasy MMORPG. Honestly, I hardly ever play anything but a fantasy RPG. I could do without the MM aspect of that acronym, but hey, at least this way, there's the market. I do use that quite often. It is a place where players can buy/sell items to/from other players. It's a great thing. 

So, what is BDO. Apart from being a fantasy MMORPG. It's a little confusing at the beginning. Like, you have your basic controls and you can pretty much make do with just that. Treat it as just a basic hack-n-slash. But it's so much more. There's a management aspect to it, production, investing into the cities and areas on the map. That one took a while to figure out. But basically, if you invest into something, for example, a farm, you can order your hired workers to produce stuff you can then sell and use that money to buy that weapon you absolutely need. 

Cosimo Yap - The Gam3 #3: Sacrificial Pieces

 Well, let me tell you something first. This is a fucking PREQUEL TRILOGY. And I'm not happy about it. Most of all because the author wants to take a break from this universe. Which... Rude! Anyway! This book mostly deals with Alan fixing the Abyss Labyrinth and learning more about the Revenant faction. At least in the first half or so. Then, in Act 2, we get to the good stuff. Not that the Labyrinth isn't interesting, but learning more about the fucking game, well, that's the reason I devoured the book so fast. Even if it took a bit for me to write this. So! Warring factions, Haxlards vs. the Empire, Black Rose Guild stuck in the middle, people having to reveal true allegiances. And more! 

Turns out that the Emperor is a predecessor. The same one that attacked Alan in the tutorial back in book one. And well, at the very end, Alan sacrifices himself in order to kill this guy. And when I say sacrifice, I mean he actually dies. Only for us to learn something game-changing. Literally. Get ready people! The game has several layers. At least five of them! Inception-style! Apparently, Earth has never been anything more than a simulation run by the so-called gods. And now they revealed themselves to Alan. He's a major player now and he (and us!) finally knows something more about the nature of the game. 

And that's where it cuts off. Bummer. I mean, it's a great cliffhanger and everything. An interesting place to cut it off, but damn! I hate cliffhangers. This is also the place that tells you it is a fucking prequel trilogy. I'm still pissed off about that. I almost immediately went to google the next book, but it doesn't exist yet. But I'll be keeping an eye out for it.

Cosimo Yap - The Gam3 #2: Earth's Gambit

So, I just finished writing about the first book in the series and scheduled it for posting. You would have already been able to see it at the time you are reading this, but for me, it's been only a few minutes since I did that. Now, onto the second book. It's called Earth's Gambit as you could have read in the post title.
The book starts with Alan and his new guildmates going to the Academy to train before being unleashed on the world of the Game. Their academy life starts with a test of getting into the center of an arachnid mob colony. Alan is the first one (maybe even the only one) who gets there. And it's all thanks to his bionic eye enhancements. With them, he's able to see which threads the spiders use for seeing their enemies and which are dummies.
Then, when this first test is completed, he is grabbed by a Machine Lord named Cerberus who practically claims him and demands to be his teacher. Well, more like he orders it. But Alan gladly accepts. And starts learning more. Also, he starts to learn how to properly use his AI Eve. To have her run background checks while he makes the decisions instead of having her do everything. It's slow progress at first, but he starts to get better at it.
Alan's training with Cerberus is interspaced with talking with his friends, joining a tournament, finishing one of his other quests, the one where he needs to need 10 major players, and, if he can, learn their objectives. Also, he gets infected with a bunny virus. That one is a little funny, because he, in the end, needs Cerberus to do a somewhat of a purge. And then, he starts to learn about the true hacking in the game. And Cerberus sets him a challenge. He manages to complete it just in time for him to not be late for a tournament that a Predecessor insisted he attends after he won a free for all tourney before.