MMO Review: Tera

So seeing there was a new MMO flavor of the month and I had a few extra dollars to spend, I thought "why not, it'll give me something to do while waiting for Torchlight 2 to come out." So I went and got the game "Tera", by some Korean company that, according to their wikipedia entry for the game, saw a touch of legal action before release of the game (but won).

So after picking the game up and playing through the first 25 levels... 

The artwork is very attractive. If it's something this company knows how to do, it's graphics. If your computer can handle the powerful graphics, turn the settings all the way up and you won't be disappointed. If you like breathtaking vistas, you'll like Tera; the graphics are better than both WoW and Rift. I won't say better than both combined because the background is kinda "comical" and maybe just a little bit cartoony (lack of better words); Rift has it beat on realism. The general premise of the game is different than most: no factions like the Horde vs the Alliance of WoW, or the Guardians vs the Defiant for Rift. Here, it's harmony. Well almost, there IS PvP elsewhere. The idea is that two titans dreamed up the world and everything on it. Now some creatures called "argons" (mechs? robots? I'm not sure) are hell bent on wrecking the place and making griefers of themselves.

Combat is interesting in that attacks have weight and visible power behind them, if you miss with a big slam and they move out of the way you leave yourself open as you recover and could get knocked down or one-shot. If you don't time your attacks and just mash buttons (as I am used to doing), you are not going to get very far at all.

While the premise of the game is good, the interface is crap. I'm used to clicking and dragging the view around, the same way as most other games out there. Not so with Tera; either the mouse controls the camera (leaving it unable to click buttons for special attacks because moving the mouse moves the camera) or right click buttons, leaving it impossible to change the view quickly if you have enemies attacking from several sides at once. This does mean you have to actually have some skill to play, though. It's not a point and click game by any means. I chose a "tank" class (the kind of player that stands there and keeps the enemy busy while others shoot them down), and tanking is -very- hard if you don't get the timing just right (due to the whole "all actions have weight to them" mechanic).

The outfits are mostly T&A --- some of these waif girls should either be toppling over paralyzed or have their own gravitational field coming from their chests that is powerful enough to snag Jupiter. Most of the outfits look exactly the same and are divided up into "tiers" (all armor and weapons of the same tier look alike) that can be "dyed" (which is both expensive and temporary) in order to customize them. I haven't bothered with that, as armor's armor and weapons are weapons... as long as they get the job done, who cares what they look like. Function over form, as it were.

The crafting is very very "overdone" --- many many things need to be crafted in order to make even the most basic of items. This has led me to not even bother with doing crafting, despite the fact that the game says crafted items are more powerful --- I've gotten by just fine on what I have and I'm almost half way to the level cap as it is. Questing seems like it's the standard fetch/kill x of y type, so nothing new there. No clicking or running over to pick up fallen treasures either; that's also all keyboard based. At least you can't pick up stuff that "doesn't belong to you" though I am unclear if things "revert" to a free for all after X minutes of no pickup.

The classes seem to be a mishmash of strange things. I think the company that created this tried a little too hard in order to seem "unique", and created a congealed mess, class-wise. Warriors are leather-wearing dualwielders and the game's "tank" class (the Lancer) wields a lance and shield -without- being mounted (wouldn't that be, I dunno, really unwieldy?). I haven't tried anything with the caster classes. I think the game company may have felt threatened by the upcoming Diablo release and wanted to get their game out.

The races are cute; everything from a resistant-to-everything (up to and including the heat death of the universe) warrior to a cute little "enlightened animal" (whose race is "all males animals, all females cat-or-bunny girls"), give something new to the table.

Overall, aside from the artwork being worthy of being better than god, I am still kind of unimpressed. At $60 + a subscription fee + middling customer support after three days of waiting about something, I am going to say unless you like shiny anime-ish artwork and an interface that makes you want to rip your fur out while trying to figure it out, give this one a pass unless you have the loose change and the time to spend on it. The game has good intentions and somewhat good ideas in spite of there being no real unique ideas on the planet anymore, but has a Linden-level ability of execution in that UI until people learn it and get used to it, which is something I am still trying to do twenty five experience levels into the game. I'm going to give this one three dragon hoards out of five, and that's being nice. It's growing on me just a little, but not enough to give it any more than three hoards.

Torchlight 2, on the other hand, when that comes out? THAT will be worth every penny and more of the $20 it will cost...

Xymbers Slade

Xymber Slade's Horoscopes for January

Review of Skyrim

So, like many people who are interested in the Elder Scrolls series, I recently got Skyrim (the 5th in the series). It's supposed to be "cutting edge", the best thing out there graphics- wise, etc. etc. etc. However, from my experiences, it doesn't seem to live up to the hype much.

The story goes that you're captured and set to be executed, when a dragon decides to make itself known and ruin the proceedings after being sealed away for so long. Once you escape and do a little investigation, you're sent to kill another dragon, and it is there you learn you're "dragonborn," able to use the "shouts" of the dragons. From there, you're off across the realm doing quests and slaying yet MORE dragons while you uncover the richness that is Skyrim.

And rich it is. It has a LOT of realism to it, and the graphics are just beautiful. The rivers and streams are beautifully rendered, there's a lot of background ambiance in the towns, you can capture bugs with your bare hands for alchemy ingredients or snag fish out of streams, and I don't know how many times I've -slowly- edged into a cave, fearful of all the sounds and worried that something's going to jump out at me and eat my face in. Dragons can attack at random in real time, diving out of the sky and surprising you if you're not paying attention to your surroundings. If it's one thing the creators of Skyrim at Bethesda got right, it's the graphics. They also have what is known as the "Radiant" quest system, where your actions influence what quests become available. If there's a bandit group in one cavern and you clean it out before the quest can be given, then the game will just pick another cavern from a predetermined list and use THAT for the quest bait.

But they got a lot of things wrong, as well. The first thing that annoyed me was some of the physics. Sometimes if I fall off a cliff, by the time I stop bouncing off the boulders like a ragdoll, I'm three cities away. There -is- a difference between "laws of gravity" and "bouncing like a ping pong ball across the planet", which kind of annoyed me when my first horse fell and I found its corpse half the continent away. The second thing that annoyed me was the experience system; instead of getting points for killing things and advancing skills once you level up, you only advance when you advance your skills enough and on a level-up you only gain ten points of magic, hit points or carrying capacity / stamina (dishonorable mention is the fact that you can't research new spells nor put more than one enchantment on any item).

The third thing that annoyed me was the behavior of some of the dragons, but I think that was by design (I'm playing a solid melee character with no magic or ranged support, and some dragons will stay airborne and breathe on you from the air, making it very difficult to bring them down), which brings me to yet another gripe I had: the way things don't respawn all that often. If you kill a dragon, bear, or other large beast, go off questing for several game hours, days or months, and then return, the skeleton/corpse will still be there when you get back. Nice when it's a dragon you'd rather not deal with again, but not so hot if you're trying to farm bandit camps for things to sell or the odd piece of extra gear like you could in Oblivion or Morrowind (I later found they do respawn, but it takes a -long- time).

The last thing that annoyed me, and this one's the big one, was the way they handled "followers." See, every now and again you can recruit mercenaries or people who like you (never more than one at a time, which -really- is dumb... I want to see an adventuring party and interparty politics, damn it!), but if they are badly badly wounded, they don't die. They fall to the ground and slowly regenerate instead. You can kill them if you attack them yourself at that point, but enemies will ignore them if they're injured and come straight for you instead. When I saw this, I went "Really?" --- the threat of the dungeons is lowered if your characters can't die; just send in the follower to soften them up, wait for them to go down, charge in swinging, kill the bad guy, rinse and repeat until everything's dead.

On top of that, one of the followers is actually tagged as "Essential", meaning she CAN'T die. Not EVER. So if you have her as a follower, equip her with the best gear and give her a steady supply of healing, you can basically just waltz through the entire game and never have to raise a sword. That takes something away from the game.

I'm going to give Skyrim 3 Dragon Hoards out of five. It's got a lot going for it, but they got too many things wrong in my opinion. It's worth at least one playthrough, but after that, I'm not so sure.

*Update* For more information, you can check reviews by New World Notes and Paul Tassi of Forbes.

Xymbers Slade

MORPG Review: Rift

A few people have been asking me where I've been, and why I haven't put up a couple of articles for the Newser in recent times. The simple answer is that I haven't been in-world; I've been distracted by a game known as Rift... essentially "World of Warcraft" if WoW had respectable graphics.

Rift is a shameless WoW knockoff, but it's a good one. It's set in the world of Telara, and there are two factions, the Alliance and the Hor... I mean, the Guardians (chosen by the gods to go after evil) and the Defiant (relying on technology over "gods"). The two factions are at odds about how best to deal with a bunch of evil dragons that want essentially to eat the world. As of right now in the storyline, two of those dragons (Greenscale, dragon of Life, and Akylios, of Knowledge) have been taken out by players.

The classes are kind of the same, with skill "trees", only in this case, the more points you put into the "branches" of the tree, the more "root" skills are unlocked. There are a few differences from WoW in this regard; Rogues can tank (their tanking tree comes with a lot of shields and teleports both to and from the monsters) and mages can heal with a "Chloromancer" build.

Rift has a few things going that make it different from WoW. For one, it has its namesakes, the Rifts. These are mini events in which you "kill x amount of monsters" that are usually stronger than the norm. Rifts have multiple stages, with stronger and stronger beings appearing until the last of them drops and the rift is sealed. The other thing it has is its Artifact system, where during the course of your travels you can come across artifacts that make up "sets" and which you can turn in for a gold reward (and sometimes a costume piece, like the head of an iron golem you can use as a helmet). It also has "Chronicles", mini-dungeons/adventures that allow you to solo "high end" content (so instead of needing a 20 man raid to down Greenscale, you can do it alone or with one other person). Currently there are only two Chronicles, but I am sure there are going to be more.

Other than that it's the same as WoW. You go out questing, do dailies and holiday events, go on raids (the current end content, Hammerknell, has 11 bosses that take 10-15 minutes to down... each), get better gear. They just opened up a new continent for content, Ember Isle, with a tropical "jungle feel" to it for the Level 50s (the highest level you can be so far). I decided to play a Rogue, as I was looking for a Hunter build like my WoW days.

It's not without its faults. The aforementioned hunter only has three pets (tanking boar, dps wolf, and a mutant velociraptor called a blood raptor); there is a lot of groaning about how clerics seem to be underpowered, and one thing I have noticed is that the devs can't seem to get world events right. Their first (the opening of an instance called the River of Souls) was a disaster, and the ones following haven't been all that hot either, with a lot of unexpected bugs. Their PvP leaves much to be desired, as there's no scaling. You can be a "rank 2" (out of 8) PvPer, and routinely run into Rank 8s whom you can't put a dent into. When their newest expansion, Ember Isle, opened you had world bosses with 60-80 people fighting the boss trying to down it. The lag generated by so many people in one place means the boss despawns after two real-time hours before you finish killing it. The technology is advancing faster than most home computer users.

I've been playing since the beta that started in March. Having been kicked out of my WoW guild for stupid reasons, I was quitting cold turkey (a good decision; I found I didn't miss WoW at -all- after two years total of play). Rift's a good game that has a LOT of potential for improvement if they don't make stupid mistakes, so I'm giving it an optimistic 3 Dragon Hoards out of five, because it has room for improvement.

I've also been playing several other games and am pondering getting Skyrim, and I simply haven't been in Second Life all that much otherwise except to allow my Tiny Empires HUD to advance a few turns. So if you were looking for me, that's where I've been.

Now for an announcement. I've become a rather jaded equine reporter here on the Grid, it's very hard for me to find something I can get really excited about writing about. Twice already I've had to pass stuff back to Bixyl (the recent Meeroo story, for instance) because I couldn't get excited enough to write a piece on it.

With that in mind, for the 2012 year I want -you- out there to get me to do things. I'm a reporter, make me report things! :) If you can point me to something or have something to plug that I can get excited about, AND I give it a good review, it's $L in your pocket; I'm putting my $L where my mouth is. If I give something you bring to my attention 4 Dragon Hoards out of five, I'll pay you 500 $L. If I give it a full five out of five (harder than it looks), I'll pay 2000 $L out of my own pocket.

Xymbers Slade

Xymber Slade's Horoscopes for November

It's been a while, I know. To celebrate the passing of Halloween I did a 5 card spread for each sign instead of a three-card like I normally do. Consider this one good for the rest of the year, and I'll post a ten-card for each sign at the end of January to be a "2012 incoming" spread.

Capricorn (12/22–1/19), Magician upside down, 3 of Swords, 3 of Cups, Wheel of Fortune, Queen of Pentacles upside down: Things screwed up, but they got screwed right back down. Many bullets were dodged and will continue to be dodged. Don't put any resources toward long term projects; nothing is stable right now and there's a saboteur in the works. Fortunately said saboteur is affected by the same unstable environment and will not be effective.

Aquarius (1/20–2/18), Death upside down, Ace of Swords upside down, King of Wands upside down, 4 of Swords upside down, Judgement: Cut ties to the previous chapters in your life. It's all dead weight for a variety of reasons. An older man in your way is too established and has his resources too defended/protected and has friends in high places; go around him rather than through him, or if you can't go through him, get away from him as much as you can. They will fall soon enough and you will be able to step in and clean up their messes, both political and material. But do not directly engage this older man.

Pisces (2/19-3/20), 6 of Pentacles, 10 of Cups upside down, 7 of Wands upside down, The World, 8 of Wands upside down: Lots of talk, talk, talk, and very little action that accomplishes anything. You're not doing anything wrong, simply keep trying and keep yourself out of the interference of those who are strutting around like they own the place (even if they do).

Aries (3/21–4/19): Ace of Cups, 7 of Cups, Death upside down, 4 of Wands upside down, 2 of Swords upside down: Take advantage now of all that you can and "test" all routes of potential before committing to one (and only one) particular road). Once you pick a road you cannot go back. Don't make plans from home; do them in social spots. Plan for between-a-rock-and-hard-place situations.

Taurus (4/20–5/20), Star upside down, Page of Wands upside down, Death upside down, 3 of Swords upside down , Hanged Man upside down: Simply put, don't push your luck in relationships or business. You're at a low point right now, best bet is to just run, hide, and retire until things thaw out in the spring of next year. All Stop, instead of Warp 9.

Gemini (5/21–6/21), 3 of Wands upside down, Death upside down, 6 of Cups, 8 of Swords upside down, Temperance: A trojan horse is about to go off but it's too late to stop it; people were lulled into monotony and blind to the obvious and now it's the snake's turn to strike. Patience rather than fighting back will be the name of the game here.

Cancer (6/22–7/22), 6 of Pentacles upside down, 8 of Wands upside down, Ace of Swords upside down, 8 of Cups, 2 of Swords: What seems like a profitable venture likely will not be (either through fine print or people not wanting what is being sold) so leave yourself an escape route before you're stuck between a rock and a hard place leaving you without resources.

Leo (7/23–8/22), 7 of Pentacles, 7 of Cups, Knight of Wands, The Lovers, 10 of Swords upside down: There is a LOT of good potential here, but that one person you seem to have a good connection with? There's a nasty flavor of betrayal behind them. Your new friends might not be so friendly, so don't let them lull you into a false sense of security.

Virgo (8/23–9/22), 10 of Swords, 10 of Wands upside down, Page of Wands upside down, 7 of Pentacles upside down, Page of Cups: You got set up. There was nothing you could do, so do not worry. This is an "it's not you it's them" series of events that drain your resources. Let them have their fun; karmic payback does exist and will be felt full force. Whether the trouble makers involved learn (or ignore) the lesson is another story.

Libra (9/23–10/22), 5 of Wands, 10 of Swords, Ace of Wands upside down, Justice upside down, The Moon: Secrets and gossip will have more of an impact than the petty fighting for position everyone is doing. The road currently traveled seems like a good one, but things have to be "unlearned" before they can be learned properly. Justified Karma is a bitch, so watch your actions no matter how minor they seem.

Scorpio (10/23–11/21), 7 of Pentacles, Justice upside down, Knight of Pentacles upside down, The Sun upside down, The Chariot: Resources spent now will bear fruit but that fruit will be coveted with everyone biting off a tiny bit off as "their little secret share." If not stopped, when the fruit gets big, the bitten-off chunks get just as big. The new year will start with a roller coaster of events, so be ready for them after a "cold snap."

Sagittarius (11/22–12/21), Tower upside down, Knight of Cups, 7 of Wands, Ace of Cups, Hermit upside down: A fall from grace and a collapse of whatever was held dear leads to better connections... a "knight in shining armor" pulls out a victory from nowhere (infurating those who set up the fall in the first place, setting the stage for petty revenge later on, so be careful) but only if it's done -quickly- after the fall. If there is a "complete" loss of things, don't give up and don't be intimidated by those in power.

Xymber Slade's Fortunes for August

Aries (3/21 to 4/19): Wheel of Fortune (fate and chance), upside down 5 of Cups (crying over mountains made from molehills) and an upside down Knight of Wands (Right thing for the wrong reasons) --- don't bet that just because the "ends justify the means" that you'll be happier because of it. Don't take such a crap-shoot and go more solidly with tried-and-true methods; don't be a maverick.

Leo (7/23 to 8/22): 4 of Pentacles (Stubbornness), the Lovers (personal connections) and the Knight of Cups (Honest knight) --- There may be some relationship spats both in business and pleasure. Your personal strength and inability to give in may in fact be a hinderance here. At least people will be accepting once it is time to kiss and make up, though.

Sagittarius (11/22 to 12/21): 2 of Cups (Gift giving and friendship restoring), upside down World (things turned on its head) and an upside down 5 of Cups (not seeing the forest for the trees) ---Good intentions end up on the paved road to hell. Some things are too far gone to restore; the most important things are not too far gone. Keep that in mind.

Taurus (4/20 to 5/20): 9 of Cups upside down ("All that glitters..."), the 8 of Pentacles (hard work), and an upside down Ace of Pentacles (bad finances) --- people are going to attempt a hostile takeover; do not let them take credit for your good deeds or you'll never get out of the hole.

Virgo (8/23 to 9/22): The Sun (personal relationship opportunities), the Ace of Swords (Victory) and Justice (karma, destiny) --- Now's the time to ask people out, the window of personal relationships is not going to remain open this wide forever! And if they turn you down, it's a pretty sure sign they'll -never- want to connect.

Capricorn (12/22 to 1/19): Upside down 6 of Cups (boring routine), the 5 of Pentacles (big dreams with a lack of resources) and the King of Wands (Stability) --- If you ask someone with resources to aid you, you'll get that aid but be prepared to be in a "boring" situation for a long time as you dig yourself out of the hole.

Gemini (5/21 to 6/21): 2 of Swords (Black and white choice), an upside down Ace of Swords (growth in the wrong direction) and the upside down 10 of Wands (big burden) --- Double back on all major decisions this month. Just because all roads lead to Rome doesn't mean you have to pick the one with 24-hour construction covering it.

Libra (9/23 to 10/22): 6 of Pentacles (communications), upside down World (scrambled signals to those communications) and the upside down 5 of Wands (petty babbling) --- watch what you say, words have a stronger impact than normal and you might not realize to what out-of-context extremes people might take what you say.

Aquarius (1/20 to 2/18): Upside down King of Pentacles (Greedy man), upside down Knight of Pentacles (his lacky) and the Devil (danger) --- Danger comes in the form of someone who wants/knows too much and wants more. Don't get shaken up by the goons they send and hold your ground. They'll "go to hell" eventually...

Cancer (6/22 to 7/22): King of Cups (Stable man), upside down 8 of Swords (Lies, hiding the truth), the Queen of Cups (Stable woman) --- if there seems to be secret keeping between a relationship you know of between two other people, do NOT get in the middle of it! You don't need to be getting any of the lies on you.

Scorpio (10/23 to 11/21): Upside down Page of Swords (Not looking before one moves), upside down 10 of Cups (Disaster), and the upside down 3 of Swords (breakups) --- If you jump the gun and don't verify your facts before you act, you're going to REGRET IT. Make sure all the layers of lies and deceiving are lifted before exposing the heart of the matter!

Pisces (2/19 to 3/20): Upside down Page of Pentacles (Someone talking out of his butt), upside down 5 of Swords (lots of combat and squabbling), upside down 7 of Wands (Victories not worth holding) --- You might hold the moral high ground in an argument but the moral high ground in this case is potentially worthless; you're going to have to be ruthless instead of acting all worried about what other people think of your actions.

Behind Bronyville’s Fall

Bronyville was up for only a few scant months before it went down, and went down hard. All signs point to Bronyville (and its co-existing sim, Derpy) being lost forever with the removal of the original owners (Overbrain Unplugged and Twinkie Swizzle), the latter of which I did an interview with while things were finishing up being built. Krypton Radio is reporting at http://kryptonradio.com/2011/07/21/woodbury-banned-a-third-time-sl-bronies-take-a-hit/ that both Overbrain and Twinkie were "ban evasion" alts of trolls/griefers, real troublemakers against Linden Lab.

I talked to a few people, and they seemed to be in agreement. In the eyes of Linden Lab, "once a griefer, always a griefer" --- meaning if these two straightened up and "went legit" on their ban-evasion accounts, they'd still get in trouble if caught no matter how many good deeds they did (such as building Bronyville, getting people interested in SL BECAUSE of Bronyville, etc).

Then I got wind that the Bronies were recovering at a new sim raised by donation money, known as Bronytown (the sim next to that, Everfree Forest, I am not sure of if that is part of the new Brony sims or not). I tracked down one of the bronies who offered an interview, and they had this to say:

[12:19] Xymbers Slade: Ok, so what can you tell me about the massive avalanche that went on with Bronyville? I've been hearing a lot of reports of different things, from an admin coup to an admin troll.

[12:20] Magenta Stars: Well, I think it was the troll. I had heard rumors, but never really made the connection myself. That Overbrain was a Troll ALT was surprising

[12:21] Magenta Stars: I've seen coups before, they're never so clean or quick as this was.

[12:21] Xymbers Slade: Did you lose a lot from Bronyville when it went down? I had a plot I'd just dumped a good 6 or 7 more weeks into when it went down.

[12:23] Magenta Stars whispers: I had a plot in Derpy that still had three weeks rent on it, and I was on the waiting list for a merchant stall. They told me I could open for business when the Arena was finished.

[12:24] Magenta Stars: Beautiful sim you have here.

[12:24] Xymbers Slade: Are you going to grab a stall or plot on the new sims? Do you think the same thing will happen, that trolls disguised as "good people" will wreck things?

[12:26] Magenta Stars: Yea! And will I worry? No. Even if i know the leaders are trolls elsewhere. Trolls don't bother me, being a furry in SL makes you have to grow a thick skin, lol.

[12:27] Xymbers Slade: Thicker than most, at any rate. Do you think this was the intention of the trolls... to build everything up and to get their "lulz" later on, knowing it would come crashing down?

[12:28] Magenta Stars: No. I don't, maybe they got some lulz out of it, maybe not. But you know they invested some significant cash into the two sims. I think it was the genuine article. Maybe I'm nieve, but I like to hope for the best =^.^= mews Happily =^.^=

[12:29] Xymbers Slade: I'd seen at the meeting where the sim was going to be named... between the bouts of noise spam from those outside, it looked like [Another Brony], who I thought was a driving force, was basically ostracized.

[12:30] Xymbers Slade: Any idea why?

[12:31] Magenta Stars: I'm not sure, by the time I came in, Bronyville was largely formed and Derpy was only weeks away. [Another Brony] seemed to me to be a quiet type. Hope he's doing well, I havent' heard from him since this all started.

[12:32] Xymbers Slade: I think that's all the questions I can think of... thanks for your perspective. I remember interviewing Twinkie for my first article on the Bronies... hard to believe that he (according to other sources) was a troll alt as well.

[12:33] Magenta Stars: Yea, he seemed pretty cool.

[12:33] Magenta Stars: and no problem. Bix told me you were doing a piece, so I thought I'd offer.


I'm expecting more troll attacks in the future. I know that much of /b/ had declared the Bronies "cancer" (they did tell them to go get their own board, which they did at ponychan.net) and they like nothing more than trolling something as "innocent" as a kids show aimed at little girls. When something this popular rebounds this quickly in the face of the trolls, it just turns into too tempting a target. I didn't lose much from my little plot when Bronyville went down (other than a couple of no-copy freebie water jugs from years ago), but I'm not going to buy another plot for rebuilding my store... not until I see things are solid and stable and hopefully troll free. I'm sure Brony Town when finished will be a nice place to visit, but I'm not going to live there.

Xymbers Slade

Editor's note: Reading the Krypton article, I noticed the name connected to the alt "Overbrain Unpluged" was a familiar one: Intlibber Brautigan. Sorry to say the SLN veterans in Second Life Newser are all too acquainted with him.

Bronyville In Trouble

I have learned that Bronyville and its accompanying sim Derpy has been taken offline, hit harder than the repeated griefings by bored troublemakers in the past. I hadn't logged in for most of the day, being elsewhere and otherwise indisposed, but then I started to see the notices flow in... "calm down, please"... "we'll get this straightened up..." "attempts to rebuild and salvage are in the works..."

I spoke with three or four people, and at this stage in time many people are not talking. Many of the people "with power" (or whom I assume have power) are just as confused as to what went on and is going on as I am. I spoke with one concerned citizen of Bronyville who had this to say:

[20:50] [Concerned Bronyville Citizen]: not the slightest, some coup between admins
[20:50] [Concerned Bronyville Citizen]: I suspect we aren't getting it back though
[20:51] [Concerned Bronyville Citizen]: Curly got hacked, twinkie and rembrandt got banned for supposedly being the hackers
[20:51] Xymbers Slade: Got hacked, again?
[20:51] [Concerned Bronyville Citizen]: then the bronies group went ape****, accusing Curly or getting them banned falsely so that he could control everything
[20:51] [Concerned Bronyville Citizen]: no, not again, the last time he was hacked was what set off these events
[20:51] [Concerned Bronyville Citizen]: so depending on who you believe
[20:52] [Concerned Bronyville Citizen]: maybe [Sim Owner] is powerhungry and got the other admin ponies banned
[20:52] [Concerned Bronyville Citizen]: or maybe its a big misunderstanding
[20:52] Xymbers Slade: Banned from the sim, or Second Life?
[20:52] [Concerned Bronyville Citizen]: nobody knows what actually happened and is just speculating at this point
[20:52] [Concerned Bronyville Citizen]: banned from Second Life, which is why the sims are gone
[20:53] [Concerned Bronyville Citizen]: I barely know any of them so im not gonna make any judgements
[20:53] [Concerned Bronyville Citizen]: but the place has been a giant dramafest from the start
[20:54] Xymbers Slade: As are most things spawned by 4chan, though... /co/ board or not.
[20:54] [Concerned Bronyville Citizen]: one conspiracy theory is that a chan hacker got into all the admin's accounts
[20:55] [Concerned Bronyville Citizen]: and maybe used [Sim Admin]'s computer as a proxy to hack curly
[20:55] [Concerned Bronyville Citizen]: to get them all turning on each other and fifing off all these bans and ****.
[20:56] Xymbers Slade: Mind if I save this log? I write for a SL blog, and this kind of story will require more than one "eyewitness" opinion.
[20:56] [Concerned Bronyville Citizen]: I'm far from an eyewitness, I'm just repeating the heresay that ive heard
[20:56] Xymbers Slade: I'll list it as hearsay then if I write an article on it.
[20:57] [Concerned Bronyville Citizen]: nobody that actually knows what is going on has spoken about it, except maybe [Sim Owner] who had a meeting to tell their side of the story earlier today

Speaking with one of the "Brony Royal Guard" (if titles can be believed):

[21:20] [Brony Royal Guard]: The canned response is:
[21:21] [Brony Royal Guard]: The Bronyville and Derpy sims are offline while Lindens investigate [Sim owner]'s account trouble. The sims may go back online, but we will probably need to find a new owner/sponsor. The worst case scenario is that the sims will go back online for a short period of time (a week?) for people to pick up their items before going offline permanently.

A few minutes before walking away from what appeared to be a little group meeting held on another sim nearby to discuss the untidy turn of events, a notice went out that essentially said "Attempts are being made to salvage Bronyville and Derpy (if it can be done everyone will get a voice on if we should save it or lose it; Funding attepts are being made as well; Once stages 1 and 2 are done everyone will get to choose who they want to lead the sim and who they want as admins."

By "Funding" I am assuming a new sim, which makes me think Bronyville, at least in its current incarnation, is not going to come back. That last bit has me worried. "Choose who they want to lead the sim"? It makes me wonder what kind of drama and politics were being played with behind the scenes.

Now, I had a small plot on Bronyville which I just renewed. If the sim goes down for the count, there goes a few thousand $L down the drain. I had nothing truly "of value" on the plot so I will lose nothing if it disappears from the Grid, but it was a nice home away from home. Others spent hours or weeks or months on the build, getting it just right. I can't imagine how they must be feeling right now.

The moment I know anything more, I'll report it here on the SL Newser.

Xymbers Slade

"Free Avatars" or Maybe Not

Acting on a tip from one of my friends the other day, I headed on over to the "Free Furry Avatar Warehouse" over in the Solbim sim (180,153,91). It's inside a large megaprim off of the main road and holds both a dance club (deserted, like 95% of clubs I see on the Grid, epecially on the mainland) and the "win zone", a place with a lot of Lucky Chairs and Midnight Mania boards. After flying in through the wall of the prim (directly below the pawprint showing the name of the place), I flew up to the second level where the "win zone" was, and was stopped by a wall --- you have to be a part of a group called "Anthropomorphism Therianthropy" and have the tag active before you can go into the Win Zone (or else be ejected from the area and deposited outside of the building).

"Well, that's not free, is it, if you have to do something like join a group to be eligible..." I said to myself. Still, that's not abnormal for SL, as many many groups give out free things to their members all of the time.

Using my camera to pan in, I saw several Lucky Chairs lined along the wall... then blinked to myself as I recognized the avatars. Avatars including the Crux, old equines by Avenity, and most of Wingless Emoto's avatars were available to win. These are avatars I remember paying $L for (1000 for my Crux, about 900 or so for one of my Avenity equines). These weren't "special" avatars available to members of the group, these were copied off of someone else's hard work and given out for free, depriving the makers of another sale.

Now normally, I'd be a bit annoyed about seeing copied avatars, but these are very old versions. I know that the maker of the Crux got out of the avatar making business because the Crux got copybotted in a big way (I do not know the details and I am reluctant to track down the creator for the whole story as I heard it is a very very painful story with way too much drama) and I think Wingless Emoto got out of the avatar making business as well due to "business problems" (I do not know the details). I found myself asking "Does anyone care?" I hardly see anyone wearing any of these old, old avatars. If anything, I see the occasional crux. Maybe some newbies are wandering around in Wingless Emoto's avatars. But other than that, I don't see many wearing these. I know Avenity updated their equines a while back, and these are not the updated versions, so it's not like they're "missed", I think.

Still, they were copied off of someone's hard work. That's really a problem with Second Life. There really ISN'T a way to stop things from being copied and passed around. On top of that, after eight years of being on the internet, there can be only so many ways to make a horse head, or a lion avatar, and so on, and you're bound to get nearly-identical things from time to time. Those trying to build new things after so long on the Grid are running into that as a major problem ("If you go into this now trying to make money, you will fail." someone once told me, and I agree).

Then I noticed that the owner himself, Farthington Whetmore, was in the area. As my opinion is that people who stoop to copybotting are trolls of the worst order, it was time to test that hypothesis and see if he had any "remorse" about stealing. I asked him how he got the avs on the chairs, to be free to all, and his reply was that he got them from various places on the Grid, as well as them being full perms when he got them and that he thought it'd be fun to give them away to newbies searching the grid. I wanted to use our exact conversation, but "Due to the TOS issue and until I research more, I'd rather you didn't." Fair enough.

Still, "Just been" brought to his attention? The tip I got from my friend was about a week and a half old when I decided to act on it and visit the place. "Full perms"? I don't think they had full perms when they were first made. Yeah, my hackles are up, but I'm not going to pursue the matter further for now (mostly because if he IS a troll, I don't want retaliation or drama). I brought up the fact Avenity updated their horses, and it will be interesting to see if I return to the area in a few weeks to find the selfsame things put up on the Lucky Chairs. Given the nature of copybotters/trolls like that, I would not be surprised if my current appearance at the time (a "Verin" avatar out of the company called Derp) got slapped up there as well.

The real problem is that the damage has already been done and that these things are out there. This sort of grid-wide damage can't be undone simply by destroying the place. Linden Labs would fare better simply by saying "What you make you make at your own risk" and leaving it at that, but even being that honest would damn -them- in a way as well and they would lose a LOT of players because that's what Second Life was founded on: The ability to build or make/be anything you wanted.

I doubt I'll return to the "free furry avatar warehouse." I know of -several- places that I can get free things from; this is just yet another place on the grid that does it.

Xymbers Slade

Xymber Slade's Fortunes for July

Aries 3/21-4/19 Upside down Heirophant (Unhealthy Knowledge), upside down 3 of Pentacles (bad foundation), upside down 9 of Swords (Big mistakes): Do NOT jump to conclusions this month. They will be as far from the truth as Egypt is from New York. Even if you don't like where your knowledge of events takes you, to jump to conclusions will only make the problem(s) worse.

Leo 7/23-8/22 Upside down 10 of Pentacles (People as a whole), upside down 6 of Pentacles (Bad communication or outright lies), 5 of Wands (petty conflict and combat): Rely on actions, not others' words or guarantees, and don't worry what others say or do to criticize your works. It's all minor compared to the big dreams and goals you're chasing and to hold on to such small grudges would be a mistake.

Sagittarius 11/22-12/21 Upside down Star (Lack of a chance), 5 of Wands (Conflict), The Sun (A new dawn on a situation): Current obstacles are not worth the trouble to cross directly unless you have a lot of resources to spare. Circumvent them with unusual ways and methods and your path should be clear to your goals.

Taurus 4/20-5/20 Upside down 6 of Swords (Wrong-way travel), 7 of Cups (Too many possibilities), upside down 9 of Wands (Impassable barriers): You're going the wrong way about things, but you'll find that out on your own before the big goals you have in mind are shot down out of the clouds. Afterward, take one goal out of the many you have and focus on that 100%.

Virgo 8/23-9/22 Upside down Lovers (Trouble in relationships), King of Swords (Strong male influence, a possible threat), the Emperor (an even stronger man / bigger threat): The strong male influences in your life may get suffocating in a BIG way. Open a window, quick!

Capricorn 12/22-1/19 The Tower (A fall from grace or hitting rock bottom), upside down King of Swords (Dangerous threat), Page of Swords (Threat reduced in power to lowest rank): Absolute power corrupts absolutely... but at least here the lesson is learned. Stay out of the fall of others... you don't want to get hit by falling bodies on the way down.

Gemini 5/21-6/21 Upside down Wheel of Fortune (stacked deck, taunting Murphy), upside down Lovers (relationships on thin ice), 2 of Cups (Gift giving and emotional bridges repaired): The relationships you "fix" from a rocky start won't last long. Too much unpredictability. Heart's in the right place though, and that may be enough.

Libra 9/23-10/22 The Chariot (Movement and speed), 6 of Wands (Victory), upside down King of Wands (Unbending resilience): Goals set this month should be able to be reached with a minimum of effort and problems. Just don't let it all go to your head.

Aquarius 1/-/18 The Moon (Secrets revealed), 2 of Wands (Stay or go? Moderate choice), Upside down 3 of Wands (Bad intent): Err on the side of caution and paranoia this month regarding leaps of faith. Any escape route you set up beforehand you may very well be needing.

Cancer 6/22-7/22 Upside down Devil (Handbasket to Hell), Ace of Swords (Victory in the extreme), 8 of Swords (Blind to the obvious): You escape the current round of difficulties very very easily... but you still overlook something that may come back later. Double back on your route and check sources.

Scorpio 10/23-11/21 Knight of Wands (Stability), upside down Hermit (Moving to action), upside down 3 of Pentacles (Bad set-up): You're on a shaky path, but you can't afford to stop now. Press on with the knowledge that despite best attempts and nothing going wrong, some things are not meant to be.

Pisces 2/19-3/20 9 of Cups (All that glitters), upside down 3 of Cups (Bad or false luck), upside down 5 of Cups (Lamentation, wasted resources): You're being sold a sob story on fool's gold, or it's not as bad as someone makes it out to be. Be very careful who you help, because you might not get the help returned when you need it.

Xymbers Slade

Xymber Slade's Hororscopes for June

Aries (3/21–4/19) 6 of Cups ("Same old, Same old..."), upside down Ace of Cups (Overturned holy grail), 2 of Swords (Black and White Choice): You're running on fumes; when faced with upcoming tough choices simply pick the lesser of two evils and otherwise just -get some rest-.

Leo (7/23–8/22) Upside down 3 of Cups (Bad or negative luck), 7 of Pentacles (Stored resources) and the Lovers (Intimate connections): Relationships shouldn't go wrong, but they likely will and it will be out of your control. Don't fight it, you've got enough "stored potential" to outlast Murphy -and- his damned Law.

Sagittarius (11/22–12/21) Upside down 2 of Pentacles (The unhappy jester, living a lie), upside down 9 of Cups (all that glitters, and some things that do, ain't gold), upside down Queen of Cups (Someone focused only on themselves): Someone you care about is holding you down. Cut them loose before you get dragged down further; know when it's time to call it quits.

Taurus (4/20–5/20) Upside down 4 of Pentacles (selfishness), The Lovers (personal connections), and the King of Swords (dangerous threat): Someone who doesn't bend with the wind will instead snap like a twig in a storm. Be careful what you say and how you say it as people will be so singleminded as to refuse to "agree to disagree".

Virgo (8/23–9/22) Upside down Justice (Time for Karma), upside down 9 of Wands (barriers and walls) and an upside down King of Cups (The emotional game-player): People who have done you wrong will get what is coming to them, but not without some feedback to you. Don't worry about the backlash, this has been a long time in coming.

Capricorn (12/22–1/19) Upside down Ace of Cups (Overturned holy grail), Queen of Cups (Strong emotional allies) and an upside down Knight of Swords (Tripping over one's feet): Good intentions, bad outcome. Conclusions you jump to may be right, but the obvious "fix" isn't the correct fix. Try approaching a problem from an unusual 75-degree angle.

Gemini (5/21–6/21) Page of Pentacles (Overeager friend), Knight of Cups (Said friend with a good heart) and King of Cups (Someone who listens): If you have allies and big dreams, use the former to achieve the latter, quickly! Now is the time to act on those big dreams. It won't be cheap, but it will be cheaper than normal.

Libra (9/23–10/22) Upside down 10 of Cups (Incoming storm), the Devil (Dreams and reality are two different things) and an upside down 5 of Swords (War, conflict, physical harm): You're on far thinner ice with many explosive situations than you realize. Unless you like causing nuclear war, Back Off.

Aquarius (1/20–2/18) Upside down Knight of Pentacles (Personal greed), upside down Queen of Pentacles (wasteful and materialistic), and an upside down 10 of Cups (Trainwreck of a situation, incoming): The road to Hell is paved with gold. You can get rich quick, and get poorer quicker.

Cancer (6/22–7/22) Upside down Judgement (The final end of one situation, beginning of another), the 7 of Wands (fighting for every step), and an upside down 3 of Pentacles (the house of cards): You feel forced into climbing a mountain made of loose sand and looser stones. Sometimes the best game played is simply none at all.

Scorpio (10/23–11/21) Upside down 8 of Cups (Empty potential), 4 of Pentacles (Stubbornness), and the Queen of Wands (Established, but too by-the-book): Let others hold on to their ideals, even if those ideals can't be met. You may need to play the "What they don't know won't hurt them" card.

Pisces (2/19–3/20) Upside down Queen of Cups (Entitlement), the 2 of Wands (a safety net) and the 6 of Pentacles (communications): You've got it, but you don't know you've got it. Time to be more assertive than normal but remain aware of your limits; your "insurance" can't protect you forever.

Xymber Slade's Hororscopes for April

Aries (March 21 to April 19): Upside down 9 of Cups (All that Glitters is not gold), the Fool (Self-explaining) and Death (An ending of some sort) --- Put your past mistakes behind you. You've made some dumb moves, now it's time to close the door on that self-doubt that resulted and open a door to the next chapter.

Taurus (April 20 to May 20): Upside down 5 of Cups (crying over spilled milk), King of Cups (someone established, with power willing to share) and the 2 of Wands (Moving forward) --- Don't hesitate to ask someone with power for help, despite previous fall-outs you may have had with them.

Gemini (May 21 to June 21): Upside down 7 of Pentacles (Lack of resources), upside down 5 of Pentacles (Goal in sight, but feeling blocked) and an upside down Magician ("miscast" spells) --- Plans made now will not stand on their own feet. Delay progress a month. The goal is sound and the steps to get there are good. Now's not the time to execute those steps though.

Cancer (June 22 to July 22): Upside down Queen of Pentacles (someone holding more than they deserve), Page of Swords ("attacking the problem head on"), and the Knight of Cups (Good intentions triumph) --- You know the difference between right and wrong, but zealotry will make more enemies than it will fix problems. Still, sometimes zealotry's needed to win.

Leo (July 23 to August 22): 10 of Swords (Betrayal, endings), Upside down Heirophant (Bad knowledge leading to a worse situation) and the Page of Wands upside down (a liar) --- don't trust everything you read or hear. Some of it may be just plain bad or come from sources with a subtle agenda.

Virgo (August 23 to September 22): Upside down Hanged Man (stagnation, total block), The High Priestess (Emotional power) and the 10 of Pentacles (people as a whole) --- You won't accomplish your goals on your own; people are not listening nor will they. Time to hire outside talent, even if it's on a very short term basis.

Libra (September 23 to October 22): Upside down Queen of Cups (Someone who acts good but is a black widow), Justice (teaching the Queen a lesson) and the 4 of Pentacles (Stubbornness, not listening to the universe) --- Someone in your circles is ignoring a lesson or is stubbornly getting in the way convinced they're in the right. They're not going to go away. Adapt rather than fight them off.

Scorpio (October 23 to November 21): Upside down Page of Cups (Brat), Queen of Swords (Someone ignoring the brat), 8 of Cups (Emptiness) --- A problem involving two people will burn out on its own. Don't go trying to fix what will properly end or you stand to be the next troublemaker.

Sagittarius (November 22 to December 22): Upside down Queen of Pentacles (someone who is too connected), the Star (opportunity rising), and the 7 of Wands --- Someone with a winner-take-all attitude's "time to shine" is rapidly approaching. They'll be so busy fighting to keep every step whether they got it legally or not that your plans are unaffected. Fly under the radar.

Capricorn (December 22 to January 19): Ace of Cups (Holy Grail), upside down 8 of Cups (Emptiness, no potential) and the King of Pentacles (Someone with a lot of riches/power/connections) --- You hold the "cup of bounty", but it will rapidly run dry. Enjoy it while it lasts before it passes into the hands of the lawful-but-undeserving.

Aquarius (January 20 to Febuary 18): Upside down 3 of Wands (Trojan horse), 9 of Wands (barriers), and the upside down Knight of Wands (Bad starts, slow progress) --- Trust yourself over others on the same life goal or path, though your own progress will be slow going for a while.

Pisces (Febuary 19 to March 20): Upside down Page of Pentacles (Bad spending), Upside down King of Pentacles (Worse spending), upside down Knight of Wands (near-no progress) --- stop spending your material resources. They're getting you nowhere. Back off on projects, use go-betweens or emotional resources instead.