oh the amazing slackishness of me

In my defense, the last couple of weeks have been rather hectic for me. What with worrying about extra crispy grandmothers who turned up in Las freaking Vegas (and without me!!! wtf???), a busy couple of weeks at BOTH jobs, and lingering sniffles and general sick in bedness... yeah. There has been little to no writing. There has been lots of soup though!

Today is one of my favourite days of the year. Halloween. But I think I like Coyote's definition better, so on the off chance someone reads this who doesn't already read Coyote (yeah... that'll happen) go scamper over and check it out. He gives good giggle.

I've decided that there just isn't enough time in the day to do all the stuff I want to or need to do. I need more hours. I need to be able to play twice as long so I can fit in all the stuff I need to do and then have time to write on top of it. I need to be able to find a way to squeeze in another few jobs (*nods to radar and his in living colour jokes*). But most of all? I still need time to sleep.

I've decided that sleep is a GOOD thing. I don't do it nearly as much as I should. I think my love of sleep is compounded by a love of my big comfy bed. It's a lovely and wonderful bed. And oh so very comfy. I need to spend more time bonding with it.

Thus, I have decided that the time has come to achieve a state of independent wealth wherein I can do whatever I want whenever and spend more time bonding with my bed.

So I'll be winning the lottery this weekend. No one else buy a ticket. And to the lottery people? I'll be emailing you the numbers you're to choose on Friday. kkthx.

sometimes it's better not to worry...

But when you have family in the midst of wildfires, you can't help it.

Of course, then you hear from them three days later and find out they were kicking back and having fun in Las Vegas... yeah. I was so relieved that she was safe that I decided not to strangle her.

More and more people that I know in the area are checking in and are all okay. As awful as this has been so many have been lucky. My heart goes out to those who are still in danger and who have lost things in the fires.

i got your jam right here!

So. I had my very first jam making experience this weekend.

As it's something I've always wished I knew how to do, this is quite a milestone for me.

The one thing that really struck me (other than how totally cute the friends who were doing it are) is that it really isn't that hard.

There's always been this thing in my mind that making jam was some sort of mystical and difficult thing that would require me to dance naked at midnight, backwards, on one foot, whilst chanting monty python quotes in order to accomplish it.

Yeah. So not. What does this mean? Yeah. I'm making some jam.

Of course, this also reminds me just how lacking my domestic skills still are. There's so much stuff that I want to know how to do that I've yet to learn. I'm getting there though. Slowly but surely. I've finally mastered the whole bread making thing. Which is highly groovy. I'm still trying to learn how to make soap.

Most of my projects are slow going, mostly because I just don't have the time to squeeze everything in. Which is yet another reason I need to win the lottery.

Thank you, my lovely friends, for teaching me to make jam!

(insert witty title here)

Yeah... I got nothing.

Well for a title anyway.

Mostly just a lot of thoughts floating about in my head. So I'm just going to sift out the game related stuff, cause the rest of it is none of anyone's damned business.

Gods and Heroes

While I called the death of this game from the second I read the first interview with Steig (incidentally, Steig was reached after much debate over the correct spelling... We've all seen it both ways and can never decide which is correct. So if it is misspelt, send your hate mail to radarx@tentonhammer.com kkthx.), I'm still sorry to see it crash and burn.

There are a lot of factors that contributed to its demise that I'm sure I have no clue about one way or the other. The main one that I see from a player's standpoint, though, is that it tried too hard. They took Roman culture and mythology and made unnecessary changes to something that didn't need it. They also tried to incorporate what seems like all the most successful aspects of major games on the market. And in the end... It was just too much fantasy in a glutted market. When someone like me, who has eaten up mythology since 3rd grade, throws up their hands in disgust, you're doing something wrong. Period.

Gallenite, who's terribly smart and awfully cute too, posted about the development side of game making and all that's involved. Go read.

My guild

Are a bunch of loons. I love them dearly :) They're curing my burnout most handily.

Crafting

Must. Get. To. 70... * twitch *

Warhammer

Arugh. Just... Arguh. I wanna play this game. I give them massive props for having the brass to take down the beta servers and say "Hey, you gave us good feedback... we're fine tuning and reopening the beta later." That's awesome. DAoC should have been bigger than it was. It was a well made game. So hopefully they'll do good stuff with WAR.

Tabula Rasa

Not sure... still debating. I like the idea and the feel... but there's a learning curve that sorta turned me off at first. Hopefully they refine that a bit.

Winning the lottery

I need to. That is all.

* does the happy snoopy dance of I told you so *

I absolutely, without a doubt, love to be right.

It doesn't happen often. In fact, all too often I make really ridiculous mistakes.

But just this once, I bask in the glory of rightitude. Yes, it's a word.


** for the people who don't know what this is about :)

Gods and Heroes has been cancelled. I said a year ago that this game was never going to make release. * flex * Yes, my ESPN is strong!

Hello, I love you. Won't you tell me your name?

I often joke that I have a "Freaks and Creeps Apply Here" tattoo on my forehead. Whilst this is obviously not true, as my forehead isn't large enough for that, it is an on going sensation.

Being female in an MMO is... interesting, for lack of a better term.

One need not even really be female to experience this. Which is an entirely separate discussion.

Just being perceived as female often garners attention. You'll get random pressies just for being a chick and showing up in the newbie zone. Can you say, eww?

What's worse is when you're minding your own business and making some potions and poisons and such (what kind of an idiot messes with a woman who can make poison, btw???). Sitting there crafting away, carefully measuring out components for that oh so dangerous hemotoxin...

freaky_guy_01 tells you: nice underwear!
....
I beg your pardon?
freaky_guy_01 tells you: do you often craft in your underwear?
* twitch * The plate gets in the way * goes back to crafting, mildly amused *
freaky_guy_01 tells you: a bunch of stuff that can't be repeated, not even here.
* gags * You're creepy. Go away.
freaky_guy_01 tells you: even worse things that make me want to go bathe in acid..
/ignore freaky_guy_01!!11!one11eleventyzomg!

guh. guh guh guh and a big heaping side helping of GUH.

Now, I know that this is an extreme case. I know that this doesn't really happen to all that many women. But good gods it seems to happen to me a lot.

Obviously my own fault for having a Dark Elf (superior race, hottest chicks in game, etc etc).

But it kind of makes you wonder about people who just randomly strike up that sort of conversation, if that's what you wanna call it, with a pixilated version of a totally fictitious race and assuming that just because these pixels are female means that the consciousness behind them is also female.

If I'd been thinking clearly at the time I'd have busted out with: Dude, I'm a guy. That would likely have been the end of it. But I'm just not that quick and I was so thrown by the whole episode that my mind was reeling.

I get flirted with a lot online, it's just sorta what you deal with being a chick gamer. Random and kinda sad PM's on forums from people you don't know, tells, mail, whatever. Somehow they always find you because you're Eleanor. Two points for the reference.

I honestly don't think people know just how creepy this really can be. And then I think to myself, good GODS why do they do it in the first place?

When someone figures it all out, lemme know! I'll just be in the bathroom trying to scrub this invisible tattoo off my forehead.

Barbara had a point...

People... People who need people....

Okay, that's enough of that. I'll not be singing in the blog. Something for which I'm sure you're all profoundly grateful.

Life being what it is, last week was a ridiculously non productive week work or writing wise. (And while that entire sentence reads like poo, it makes sense in my head and we're going with it.) Thus, the all of one entry.

Today is a brand new week, though, so here we go.

I've long held the firm belief that there is one thing that makes or breaks an MMO. The people who play. A lot of people won't agree with me. They'll site gameplay, or fun factor, or whatever other hot buzz word is being bandied about that week.

Whilst all these things are an important factor in the success of a game, I still hold that the community devoted to the game is the most important variable.

Look at EQ2, my game of choice. I think it's the best game on the market and has been since it's launch. I will likely never be swayed from this opinion either. I can admit that the launch was a little rough and that the game needed some serious polish.

However, even as far from the yummy perfectiony goodness that it is today, nothing could have drawn me away from EQ2. The reason for that is simple. The community.

I got involved in the EQ2 community in April of 2004. The official forums hadn't been up for very long at that point and the community was in its infancy. Moorgard was still the only one running the show and we all spent a good deal of time chit chatting and speculating over every tiny tidbit SOE slipped us.

The months leading up to beta and then to launch gelled the forum community into a rather lovely and fun place to make friends and get game information. We figured out what did and didn't work, both in the game and on the forums.

I've made some very good friends from EQ2. But I didn't meet them in game. I met them there, on the forums where the community congregated during work hours when those of us not lucky enough to be able to play from work (yes, there are people who can do that... lucky bastards) would hang out and get our fixes.

Of the games I've played and the communities of which I've been a part, EQ2 has one of the tightest knit and mature bunch of game addicts I've come across. (By now I think I've used the word community a dozen times or so.... I suck.) This is what's kept me around, even through the burn out and the lure of other games.

Nothing else has had the feel that EQ2 holds and a large part of that is the people. For the most part, because to be honest every game has asshats, the people of EQ2 are warm and welcoming. They help newbies get started in the world and share amongst themselves.

I'm not saying that other games don't have solid communities. They do. No MMO out there can make it on gameplay alone. Man is a social animal and we congregate in groups. The trick is finding the group that fits all your kinks and quirks and makes you feel at home.

* brushes off her little "Home, Sweet Home" sign and hangs it up on her door in Neriak *

This is mine and you're all more than welcome to stop in anytime for the grand tour.

Will they never learn??

The lovely people over at Online Gaming Radio let me get on EQ2sday and yap for a couple of hours last night.

I've been on before, not EQ2sday but Friday night's Ravecast, and for some reason they keep inviting me back. I think they're gluttons for punishment or something. But, hey, I get to yammer about EQ2 and whatever else crosses my mind for a few hours, so I am happy!

Zanadi mentioned a pick up raid she'd gone on and that let me touch on a topic near and dear to my heart. I didn't get to say as much about it as I would have liked, which is probably good since it would have occupied way too much time and ended with me totally monopolizing things. So, now all four people who read this must suffer. Send your hate mail to OGR ;)

So. Raiding.

I love to raid. I have since EQ1. There's just something about the whole experience that opens up all new avenues for fun and excitement in the game for me. It isn't all I do by any means, but it's definitely a big part of things for me.

One of the problems I've always had with raiding, though, was that it seemed like a part of the game only the super uber elite folks could do. I've never held with that mentality and I have never agreed with the strangle hold the "uber guilds" have tried to keep on raid content.

I'm of the firm opinion that anyone who wants to do it should have the opportunity to and more importantly CAN raid. Here's the thing. Raiding isn't HARD. Yes, you do need to focus a little more than you do when you're soloing or grouping. There are more people to coordinate and get used to. But even with all that, once you get yourself in that mode and know what to do, it isn't hard.

More and more lately I'm seeing casual guilds run through raid content. Pick up raids are all over the place. Yeah, they're a little rough and not as smooth as say NPU or whatever other uber guilds are out there, but honestly? Who the hell cares? It isn't about who can do it the fastest or with the least amount of mistakes. It's about FUN.

You don't have to be a rigid militarily precisioned guild to do any of the content in this game. I mean you can't run around and half arse it or anything cause you won't get very far. The point is, that all of the content can be done even if you aren't "perfect" at the game.

I absolutely LOVE to see casual guilds, raiding alliances, pick up raids... whatever. I don't care who it is. I'm just happy to see people who want to do this stuff getting out there and doing it. It's an aspect of the game that is becoming more accessible to the player base and I can only see good in that.

There are elitests out there who are pissy about the hoi polloi out there getting the gear and such that they think should only be reserved for the "better" guilds. I think they know where they can shove that nonsense.

This isn't a contest. It's a game. It's there for people to have fun. That being said, yes, these folks need that competition and sense of accomplishment for their fun. Good for them, and I hope they're getting what they want. It's the attitude that the gaming companies need to cater to them that makes me grind my teeth.

It isn't about a fraction of the player base being appeased and elevated. It isn't about keeping the super uber elite so far above everyone else that no one can hope to attain those levels. It's about everyone having as much fun as they can. That can't happen if content is focused on just one type of player. It has to incorporate things for everyone.

The more people who raid? The more attention that can be given to raiding content.

**note: there's a lot more to say on this... but I have a day job, so it'll have to be a continuous thing.

believe it or not...

I try to be fairly laid back. I get excitable about things, but for the most part, I like life to be drama and hassle free.

Mostly because I'm high strung and something of a perfectionist (which is really just a nice way of saying an anal-retentive Virgo). As such, I tend to get a little... invested in things. Anything that puts pressure on me tends to end up magnified by like, oh a million or so, because of the added pressure I put on myself to do it right and make it perfect and whatever else leads me to develop an ulcer.

What the hell does that have to do with anything?

Shut up and read. Gods. Impatient much?

I'm applying for a job. An honest to god, real life, grown-up job. Which means instead of filling out an application with all the relevant information, I have to send a resume and a cover letter.

I never knew that writing a little 3/4 page blurb about what I want, who I am, and what I can do could be so stressful. My head is seriously on the verge of explosion. (It's a damned good thing I'm wearing black today. Brains are SO hard to get out of clothing.)

So here I am. Fretting. I swear if I were a cat I'd be shedding fur so fast I'd be bald.

I love pressure :D

And the award for dumb idea goes to...

This lady.

I get how she thinks that things are gonna go down the tubes after seven years. I can't really say I blame her going strictly off personal experience.

I'm just not sure what exactly she thinks she's going to accomplish with this. It's just divorce with another name slapped on it.

It isn't going to make people more interested in staying together. It isn't going to take any pressure off and make it easier to get along.

If a marriage is over, it's over. Likely because the people shouldn't have gotten married in the first place. If it's going to last, it's going to last because the people involved are committed to making it work no matter what.

So I'm really failing to understand what the hell is going on in her head. Maybe she's seen too many reality shows.

oooo i LOVE quizzes!!!

And this one just amused the hell out of me.

My favourite question?

You know that being a dev groupie is weird, right?

Yes, YES I do.

I came out to be Risque-Intense. And yes I think that fits.