Originally written and published in Spring 2010 under Second Life Newspaper, this was my attempt at Second-Life inspired fiction. These were the days of M Linden. For those not familiar, he the second CEO of Linden Labs noted for his apparent disconnect from the wants of the residents of Second Life and a number of questionable moves on his watch. In this story, M Linden is interested in television advertising to pick up numbers, and an aide gives him two proposed commercials.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
“So what do you have?”
“Well, Sir, our agency went through a number of commercial ideas, and selected two different ones to do commercials on. We decided to leave it up to you which of them to air, or perhaps both if both are to your liking.”
“Or we could ask you to start over.”
“Um, of course, Sir. Anyway, we heard there was a dispute between your staff about which direction to take in marketing your virtual world. Do you try to appeal to a select audience, saying Second Life is a special environment that is only for those looking for more creativity other places online offer? Or do you say Second Life is so big and so diverse, you have a little something for everyone with a computer?”
“I believe your job is to create commercials, not make decisions on issues limited to management.”
“Er, well, Sir, in any event, these two commercials each market a different point. I will go ahead and play them for you, and hopefully they will meet your approval.”
“We shall see.”
A TV screen in the room came on, and then appeared a caption, with a narrator speaking the line as well.
“You could join a Massive Multiplayer Online Game, with everyone.”
The scene then switched to an animated figure in medieval armor, sword and shield, fighting a ferocious looking beast. It’s a tough fight, and the health bar of the fighter is getting low. Finally the beast cries out and collapses. The scene then changes to the player, “Whew! That was close. ... Aw darn, only fifty experience points. Man, I hate grinding.”
Another scene comes of, of a dwarven figure picking at a rock with a pickaxe. After a few seconds, it changed again to a frustrated gamer, “C’mon, c’mon ... Finally! Just seven thousand one hundred, and twenty one more addimantium ores before I level up. Only a dozen more levels before I can finally mine unobtainium!”
The screen switches to the man talking into his computer, “Hey guys, who wants to make a dungeon run?” “Sorry dude, you’re too low level for me.” “I only go on Level 200 runs.” “Beat it, newb!”
The scene changes again, a man dresses in financial Medieval garb, going down a road. All of a sudden, a shadowy figure leaps out, there’s a flash of a blade, and the first figure collapses. The scene changes to a surprised player, “What the, one shot?” And from the computer there’s laughter, “LOL! I haxxor yur gamez. I pwned U, nub!!”
Another scene comes up, a team of players is gathered around the body of a dragon. The man behind the computer types, “Whew! It was tough going, but we did it. I’ll bet you guys never faced anything like this at the office.” But the comments get confused remarks, “Office? I’m in 8th grade.” “7th for me.” “Dude! You’re old!”
The screen goes dark again, and comes a caption, with the narrator speaking again, “Or you could go to Second Life.”
The scene changes to a handsome-looking, though plainly dressed female avatar walking through a door, and into a well detailed club, with bright lights, crystalline structures, and a few dozen avatars either dancing in the middle, or socializing closer to the new visitor, mostly human, but also a few nekos and a single furred, all well dressed. A few notice the new arrival, and wave at her, “Hi!” “Welcome.”
The screen then shows the woman outside a store, cutting to her inside and looking among a wide variety of dresses, on both mannequins and signs. Split second shots show her in a variety of fashions, from punkish, to high-class elegant, to ready for a night on the town. Her next stop, a scenic beach, which shows her at one point riding a jet ski, cutting to flying a hang glider alongside a flock of birds over a lush forrest, to surfing a big wave.
The scene cuts to a party, in which the lady is happily dancing at a club to some music. She stops, and walks to the wall, where there’s a sign saying “DJs wanted - will train.” The next scene then shows her in the DJ booth, operating the controls, and the audience emoting, “I love this tune - whoo-hoo!”, with her tip jar radiating dollar signs.
The next scene is after the party is over, it shows her making adjustments to the DJ table, slightly higher in places. Then she’s in a sandbox, building furniture. Following that is a store with her face on the sign, with “Grand Opening” underneath, and furniture inside. The next scene shows her on a stand, designing dresses. Following that is the store with several of her designs, a number of women looking and shopping. This is soon followed by a fashion show, with models going down the runway. Then comes a scene in front of an audience with her and another lady sitting on chairs on stage, with what look like TV cameras pointed at them, and a screen showing the two of them, “Tonight, we look at the woman recently voted by Metanomics as ‘Second Life’s Newcomer Entrepreneur of the Year ... “
The screen then goes black, and captions appear again, “You can go to an online game with everybody, and be a noob. Or, you can go to Second Life, a place where those whom are exceptional can go limited only by what they want to do.”
“Second Life: Not for everybody.”
The screen then faded, “And that’s our first commercial.”
“Hmmm. Not bad, though it seems instead of a broader audience, we would be appealing to a niche market.”
“Perhaps, Sir. It seems no matter what we do, numbers of people turn away. They’re confused by not being given clearly defined goals, or they confuse virtual worlds with games and don’t see a point if there’s nothing to kill. With that in mind, we did this commercial. That it focuses on a woman character was a deliberate decision. Although Second LIfe has no shortage of female users, forty percent compared to the twenty percent of World of Warcraft, there’s still room for improvement..”
“Hmmm. So, the second commercial is more about mass appeal?”
“Yes, Sir. The theme is ‘a little something for everyone,’ appealing to peoples’ varying tastes. We had a little fun with it at segments, appealing to humor. Perhaps low humor, but - “
“Can you please just play it?”
“Oh, pardon me Sir. Here you go.”
The screen was black, with the following caption appearing, with the narrator speaking the words, “People are different, and are interested in different things.”
Another caption appears, “The apartment-dwelling nature lover.”
The scene changes to a blonde lady in plain-looking clothes talking to the camera, “I’ve always loved walking around nature, but with my job I need to live in the city, and the park is so far away.”
The screen changes back to black, and up comes another caption, “The veteran.”
A middle-aged man wearing a POW shirt and with thinning hair is now the speaker, “I like getting in touch with my buddies from the Army, talk about Iraq and other old times. But we can meet up only so often, and while there’s chat rooms, I wish there was a way to see them.”
The screen goes black again, and the caption is now, “The science-fiction/fantasy fan.”
A dark-haired lady wearing glasses and dressed as if working in an office appears, “I’ve always had a love for sci-fi and fantasy, not just the adventure, but also seeing new worlds and peoples. Movies and books are great, but I wish there was something more.”
Once again, the screen goes black and comes a new caption, “The world traveler.”
The person now facing the camera is a man in a business suit, “I’ve always liked traveling about and seeing the world, the monuments, the different cities and cultures. But I have only so many vacation days a year, not to mention limited cash.”
Again, the screen blackens, and comes still another caption, “The average 18 year old male.”
The person shown is a young man with rumpled clothes and hair, and a few acne spots, “Boooooooooobs.”
The screen blackens again, with a new set of captions and narration, “Different people with different wants. Yet they all go to the first place to meet them.”
“Second Life.”
The scenery that appears is a blonde lady avatar walking around in a virtual forrest, the underbrush lush with flowers. The voice from the nature lover speaks, “Oh wow! It’s just like being there.” A scene change then shows her riding a horse. Then comes a scene of her hang-gliding over the treetops. This is followed by her underwater, swimming in a skin-diving suit with bubbles floating to the surface while looking at a coral reef, “So cool!”
The scene changes again, and a group of men and a few women are sitting in a circle, some in uniform, others in T-shirts & jeans or denim vests and jeans. Speaks the voice of the Veteran, “I’m really happy to be here with you guys.” The scene changes to the men reflecting in front of a solid black wall with names, and flowers and flags at the bottom: The Vietnam Wall, “Here, we can truly reflect better than in a chat room.”
The scene switches to an avatar much like that of the dark haired woman on a posing stand. It goes through a few changes. The first is just clothing, to skimpy fantasy armor. Then the avatar changes to a slender lady elven form in a silken dress, then an athletic-looking but still feminine orc fighter wearing just leather shorts and a top, then an anthro skunk in shorts and a short blouse. The woman’s voice is heard, “Hey, I can look like just about anything here!” The scene then changes to the skunkgirl wearing a jumpsuit and wielding a lightsaber, swinging it at a robot and cutting it to pieces. Then comes a scene in which a six inch catboy avatar is sitting on the skunkgirl’s shoulder, and the camera panning out a little shows her on the shoulder of a fifty-foot macro catgirl, “It’s just like walking into a book here.”
The scene changes to a well-dressed male avatar, walking in a city square with sizable and detailed fountains, “I don’t believe it. They got all this in a computer?” The scene changes to the man looking at the Statue of Liberty, then the Eiffel Tower, then the Mayan Pyramids, “This is great. I can just look around here until one day when I can afford to see it for real.”
Then comes a scene of a seedy looking girly bar, with rap music playing, and over a dozen male avatars ogling at a few scantily-clad females twisting and moving around dancepoles. The camera focuses on one punkish-looking male in the bunch, staring at one girl dancer as she moves and bends down to him, as if to give him a closer look of her front. Then comes the voice of the young man, “Boooooooooobs.”
The screen goes black, and comes a caption with the narrator speaking, “Second Life: Something for Everyone.”
“Well, there you are Sir. That part with the kid we debated whether to include or not, so we decided to run with it, and see what you thought. If you like this commercial, we could easily delete than part.”
“No, do not get rid of that. This is what we need.”
“Excellent Sir. I’ll contact the stations that expressed interest in airing an advertisement, and - “
“No, that’s not what I meant. Could you do a commercial focusing more on the 18 year olds and what they like?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Second Life really needs to tap into the young adult market, and so far we’ve been lagging behind. We need to make stronger appeals to them, and nothing sells to them quite like sex.”
“Um, Sir, haven’t we been trying to get away from the perception that Second Life is about little but sex and populated by mostly perverse men? We were just having a little fun with it, and including there was much more.”
“Yes, but for some time our numbers, both in revenue and users, have stagnated, even declined. We need a fresh approach to bring people in, and young adults are the key market.”
“Sir, you do realize that if what you’re proposing hurts our reputation, it will take quite some time, perhaps years, to undo the damage?”
“Don’t give me that! You do your job, and I’ll do mine! I’ve made my decision!”
“(sigh) Yes, Sir, I’ll have work done on a commercial focusing more on the, adult, side of Second Life.”
“Excellent. We’ll feature various places in Zinrda. Maybe work with the pornographic studios. I can just see the business world talking about our new numbers.”
“I just hope we don’t end up making boobs out of ourselves.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
M Linden was shown the door not long after this story first aired, so whatever ideas he had for TV advertising went away. But if you could, what TV commercial would you do for Second Life?
Source: Second Life Newspaper
Bixyl Shuftan
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Friday, February 17, 2012
Spaceport Alpha/International Space Museum Sim Goes Offline, But Will Return
The Spaceport Alpha sim, noted for being home to the International Space Museum, was recently taken offline. According to Daniel Voyager, it and Spaceport Bravo vanished from the Grid sometime in mid-Janurary. These two sims, along with NASA CoLab which closed sometime in early February 2012, were part of the Sci-Lands region in Second Life, aimed at the promotion of astronomy and other sciences. The ISM wasn't owned by NASA, as some people thought, but run by a volunteer group.Hamlet Au talked with Katherine Prawl, whom was involved with the ISM since the start in 2006. She and others involved could no longer get enough money together to pay the tier. With the discount for nonprofit sims gone, they tried a different tactic: going to the US Internal Revenue Service to get a nonprofit tax exemption. Not surprisingly, the IRS turned them down. They felt the museum was ineligible since it had no real life presence.
"After nearly six years, Spaceport Alpha, home of the International Spaceflight Museum, together with Spaceport Bravo (a year younger), disappeared from Second Life. These sims represented the completely volunteered efforts of over 100 talented and committed residents, as well as contributions from many more hundreds of supporters."What happened? How could such a highly-acclaimed and beloved destination just go black? It goes back a few years, to the decision to apply for US tax-exempt status as a 501(c)(3) corporation. After nearly a year and a half of work, incorporating, filling out forms, answering questions, and of course paying fees to the government as well as to Linden Lab, the IRS decided not to grant the tax-exemption because the museum only existed in the virtual world, without a "real life" physical presence. (This was in spite of our having a "real life" corporation!) Subsequently, Kat Lemieux (Kat Prawl IRL) resigned as president and was replaced by Paradox Olbers (SL name). Kat became Treasurer, but later resigned that position as well when she went back to grad school and didn't have time to do the job.
"Things went along pretty well for awhile; Paradox managed to find donors who funded the sims for over a year, but then he had some personal problems (N.B. - I don't feel comfortable explicating that without Paradox's permission, although he did tell me what was going on. It's serious), and the payments to Linden Lab lapsed for months. The first we knew about the problem was around Jan. 13th, when the sims went offline. I tried to log into the land-owning alt's account, but it was disabled for non-payment. At that time, the amount due was over US$1,000, far beyond the means of the now-defunct corporation or the willingness of any of the planning group to pay."
Daniel Voyager noted that the Sci-Lands region used to be quite large. In July 2010, it was almost 70 sims in size. Since then, a number of these science-based sims have dropped off the Grid. With the ISM being a draw, in a sense this represented the loss of one of its more valuable ones.But there is some good news, at least for the near term. On Wednesday, Katherine Prawl announced that a donor made it possible for them to bring the ISM back on, "as soon as some payment issues are settled." Problem is, they'll need more funding for later. Katherine expressed confidence they should be able to for a while, mentioning "help from several quarters."
Both Daniel Voyager's Blog and the New World Notes articles had a number of comments. Someone called the loss of the ISM no real surprise, "We're not even flying our own astronauts to the International Space Station any more." OpenSim fans suggested exporting the ISM out of Second Life. Trouble was, the ISM group doesn't have permission to copy the various builds and move. And of course the problem of OpenSim having only a tiny fraction of the traffic Second Life has. It would be preserved, but few people would see it. In a sense it would go from a themed exhibit in a museum to placed in the archives. Katherine expressed interest in Hamlet Au's suggestion of a "Crowdfunder" style project, like the recent one that worked very well for Bryn Oh. Beyond that, the comment chatter went a few ways, including pointed fingers at Linden Lab for letting this and other good sims fade away.
So it looks like the ISM will be coming back, at least for now. While the problem of sims going dark still persists, at least this one will still be around.
Sources: Daniel Voyager, New World Notes
Top pic from Daniel Voyager
Bixyl Shuftan
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
The Return of Bay Club
Furry clubs in Second Life generally have the same theme: provide music everyone can dance to and goofing off after a hard day of work. Also "Tail Sales" come into play to raise money for the clubs, and offer you to "buy" that furry you always wanted.
Then came the Bondage and Yiff club, or Bay. The BDSM slant, which was almost lacking (except for Furr in Chains) came alive with Entangledwolf "Entangled" Snowpaw’s club and hard work to keep it up. I was put off a couple times as he was busy with something, but I did get a chance to interview him and here’s what he had to say.
When he first started, he had a mere ¼ sim when he got the idea from his buddy Red. Even by just messing around and positive word of mouth, 2 weeks later Entangled’s basic version of Bay became more popular than Furr in Chains the other furry BDSM club in existence. When Entangled got on his feet and decided he wanted to go further, he stepped forward and bought the sim from Red and created Bay.
I asked Entangled how his club became popular and rose above the rest. He answered, "Well I attribute this to a few things.... one better advertising and the funding needed to run a club. People rarely realize how much these places cost." Entangled said running a club his size costs 325-350 US dollars a month, "They build themselves a club then when they open, lack funding for contests, streams, or anything else."
He mentioned that he modeled his club after IYC based upon the layout and how well managed the club is. Based upon logistics and layout and the need for empty spaces, also that IYC is a large club to draw people to.
Bay indeed did become a popular draw for furries and a hot spot. Sadly Entangled had some health issues and had to close the club for a few months. Lots of people were sad when the old bay closed down. Amazingly however when word came around SL that Bay would reopen its doors, lots of furries jumped for joy hearing their fave hang out was being brought to life.
Entangled was saying the traffic isn’t quite as high as before. However there’s always new furries and humans coming into Second Life as fresh blood to hang out. Entangled also said that a major challenge is finding staff to maintain his club as sometimes older players of SL get bored and leave. I asked him what he’s hiring for. He answered escorts, bar staff, security and DJ's. I asked to make sure, and Entangled said humans are welcome just like the furry crowd. However to work at Bay you need a furry or neko avatar. Simple enough if a human wants to try out a bartending job.
So even if you’re not into BDSM, but you’re looking for a nice place to hang out, or even if you do like BDSM, stop by Bay and meet new friends furry and/or human.
I might be there to serve you a drink. Entangled rehired me when he reopened Bay. ^.^
Grease Coakes
Then came the Bondage and Yiff club, or Bay. The BDSM slant, which was almost lacking (except for Furr in Chains) came alive with Entangledwolf "Entangled" Snowpaw’s club and hard work to keep it up. I was put off a couple times as he was busy with something, but I did get a chance to interview him and here’s what he had to say.When he first started, he had a mere ¼ sim when he got the idea from his buddy Red. Even by just messing around and positive word of mouth, 2 weeks later Entangled’s basic version of Bay became more popular than Furr in Chains the other furry BDSM club in existence. When Entangled got on his feet and decided he wanted to go further, he stepped forward and bought the sim from Red and created Bay.
I asked Entangled how his club became popular and rose above the rest. He answered, "Well I attribute this to a few things.... one better advertising and the funding needed to run a club. People rarely realize how much these places cost." Entangled said running a club his size costs 325-350 US dollars a month, "They build themselves a club then when they open, lack funding for contests, streams, or anything else."
He mentioned that he modeled his club after IYC based upon the layout and how well managed the club is. Based upon logistics and layout and the need for empty spaces, also that IYC is a large club to draw people to.
Bay indeed did become a popular draw for furries and a hot spot. Sadly Entangled had some health issues and had to close the club for a few months. Lots of people were sad when the old bay closed down. Amazingly however when word came around SL that Bay would reopen its doors, lots of furries jumped for joy hearing their fave hang out was being brought to life.
Entangled was saying the traffic isn’t quite as high as before. However there’s always new furries and humans coming into Second Life as fresh blood to hang out. Entangled also said that a major challenge is finding staff to maintain his club as sometimes older players of SL get bored and leave. I asked him what he’s hiring for. He answered escorts, bar staff, security and DJ's. I asked to make sure, and Entangled said humans are welcome just like the furry crowd. However to work at Bay you need a furry or neko avatar. Simple enough if a human wants to try out a bartending job.
So even if you’re not into BDSM, but you’re looking for a nice place to hang out, or even if you do like BDSM, stop by Bay and meet new friends furry and/or human.
I might be there to serve you a drink. Entangled rehired me when he reopened Bay. ^.^
Grease Coakes
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Personal Account: Finally Can See Mesh, But ...
Remember the Dranopia Quest Xymbers Slade wrote on? Well, some friends of mine insisted I head over them and join them in the fun. As the area is made up of lots of mesh objects, what I saw on my Singularity was essentially what the first picture shows.Naturally, I felt a bit left out. So I told my friends I was going to get the latest Phoenix Viewer, Firestorm and the official viewers unable to run on my machine. Phoenix had been updated earlier to see Mesh, but was quite unstable. I crashed just after logging on with it. I did hear there was a further improvement to iron out a few bugs, but hadn't given it a try. So I logged off, downloaded the new Phoenix, and began logging on ...
And it worked!It actually worked! I was finally able to see the mesh objects that I never could before, in all their detail.
But, there was a catch.
I found the viewer a bit awkward to use at times. It seemed to default to just behind my avatar's head in a position that made walking about difficult. It was like having to adjust to a stronger perscription of eyeglasses. It just seemed ... not quite right. It wasn't always easy to pan around to get a better look either.
And as it turned out, it was still a bit crashy. I would still crash on occasion after teleporting or even logging in. Mesh was now visible, but the result was an unstable viewer that could be hard to move around and focus with.
By this time, the old Singularity viewer I had had been starting to show it's age, some objects appearing as red even when they weren't. Downloading the latest version, I was no longer seeing red. But it wasn't long before I crashed. The viewer was less stable on my computer than the latest Phoenix.
So I now had a mesh-capable viewer that was hard to focus around and crashed occasionally, and a non-mesh capable viewer that crashed even more.
It might not be completely the viewers' fault. the computer I've been using is now five years old. Perhaps it's time to replace it soon, but as a working stiff, my finances have usually been a bit tight, and these days tighter than ever. To complicate matters, I've heard of computers upgraded to be more powerful, only to have Second Life run even slower.Perhaps the best thing is to keep an eye out for a good buy. In the meantime, life on the Grid has become a bit crashy for me.
Bixyl Shuftan
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Thursday, January 12, 2012
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
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
Thursday, December 29, 2011
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
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
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Have Yourself a Tiny Little Christmas
Remember the "Tiny Carollers" whom entertained the audience at the last show of the season of "the 1st Question" during technical difficulties? Well, their whole performance was too long for the article then. So here it is now.
~*~ O' Little Sim of Raglan Shire, Where Tinies come to Playyyy ~*~
~*~ To run and chitter endlessly and RiverDance all dayyyy ~*~
~*~ And in the Snow of Winterfest, Tinies are heard to Call.. ~*~
~*~ To Visitors of Biggie Height, Asked Why Are You So Tallllllll? ~*~
* ~*~ * ~*~ * ~*~ * ~*~ *
~*~ It's beginning to look alot like Wootmas! ~*~
~*~ All across the shire you go! ~*~
~*~ Take a look at the village chalet, ~*~
~*~ The snowmen and the sleigh, ~*~
~*~ With candy canes and tinsel all aglow! ~*~
~*~ Its beginning to look a lot like Wootmas! ~*~
~*~ Tinies in every store! ~*~
~*~ But the nommiest site to see ~*~
~*~ Is the waffles that will be ~*~
~*~ Inside your own front door. ~*~
~*~ A pair of bunny hop shoes and lazors that shoot ~*~
~*~ Is the wish of Copper and Reign! ~*~
~*~ Dolls that will talk and go for a walk ~*~
~*~ Is the hope of Jillan and Jane! ~*~
~*~ And Kayak and Toady can hardly wait ~*~
~*~ Till Raglan U opens agaaain! ~*~
~*~ Its beginning to look alot like Wootmas ~*~
~*~ All across the shire you go! ~*~
~*~ Theres a great tree name of Steve, ~*~
~*~ That all the tinies can see, ~*~
~*~ He's GINORMOUS, and doesnt mind the snow! ~*~
~*~ Its beginning to look alot like Wootmas! ~*~
~*~ Soon the bells will start! ~*~
~*~ And the thing that will make them ring, ~*~
~*~ When all the tinies sing, ~*~
~*~ Is right within your heart!!! ~*~
* ~*~ * ~*~ * ~*~ * ~*~ *
~*~ Hark the Tiny Critters Sing, Glory to the Waffle King! ~*~
~*~ Peace on the Grid & Syrup mild, Otters & Ferrets Reconciled! ~*~
~*~ Joyful with all your fur so slick, Raise up your Cookies on a stick! ~*~
~*~ And with upward paws proclaim, We shall RiverDance again! ~*~
~*~ Hark the Tiny Critters Sing, Glory to the Waffle Kinnnng ~*~
* ~*~ * ~*~ * ~*~ * ~*~ *
~*~ Jelly Beans, Hunks of Cheese, Sugar Frosted Ham. All Deep-fried, Toast on the Side with Wootberry Jam.. ~*~
~*~ Chocolate Cake all wrapped in Bacon, Nachos on a Stick! Come Along, Let's eat some Noms & Hope we don't get Sick... HEY!! ~*~
~*~ Nomming Treats & Sweets, from Our Raglan Shire Buffet, Fills our little tummies, with Food this Holiday! ~*~
~*~ Just singing 'bout it now, Make's our Hunger Rise! We can't wait to grab a Plate & Stack it real High.. Withhh.. ~*~
~*~ Jelly Beans, Hunks of Cheese, Sugar Frosted Ham. All Deep-fried, Toast on the Side with Wootberry Jam.. ~*~
~*~ Chocolate Cake all wrapped in Bacon, Nachos on a Stick! Come Along, Let's eat some Noms & Hope we don't get SICKKKKKKK! ~*~
~*~ Here we come A-waffling please feed us Breakfast Food! Here we come A-hungering so ~*~ Knives & Forks Come to Me, And a Warm Butter Patty, And please Serve us some Syrup & Chopped up Pecans Tooooo...~*~
~*~ And Please Sprinkle some Berries on them Toooo! Here we come A-waffling please Feed us Tasty Treats!~*~
~*~ Here we come A-chittering so give us something Sweet! Thanks to All for the Snax! Now we all can go Chillax!~*~
~*~And go about the things that we all Dooooo..... And Happy Holidays from All of Us to YOUUUUUUUUUU~*~
* ~*~ * ~*~ * ~*~ * ~*~ *
~*~ Sleigh bells ring! Are you listening? ~*~
~*~ In the shire, snow is glistening! ~*~
~*~ A wootiful sight, we're happy tonight, ~*~
~*~ Walking in a waffle wonderland! ~*~
~*~ Gone away is the blue bird ~*~
~*~ Here to stay is the new bird ~*~
~*~ He noms on chocolate ~*~
~*~ With bacon on a stick ~*~
~*~ Walking in a waffle wonderland! ~*~
~*~ In the shire we can build a snowman ~*~
~*~ Pretend that he's a chef from outta town ~*~
~*~ He'll say 'Want some waffle?' We'll say 'YEAH MAN!' ~*~
~*~ Then he'll pour the syrup while we chow! ~*~
~*~ Later on we'll conspire ~*~
~*~ As we riverdance in the shire ~*~
~*~ Tiny faces alight ~*~
~*~ With all the presents in sight ~*~
~*~ Walking in a waffle wonderland! ~*~
~*~ To run and chitter endlessly and RiverDance all dayyyy ~*~
~*~ And in the Snow of Winterfest, Tinies are heard to Call.. ~*~
~*~ To Visitors of Biggie Height, Asked Why Are You So Tallllllll? ~*~
* ~*~ * ~*~ * ~*~ * ~*~ *
~*~ It's beginning to look alot like Wootmas! ~*~
~*~ All across the shire you go! ~*~
~*~ Take a look at the village chalet, ~*~
~*~ The snowmen and the sleigh, ~*~
~*~ With candy canes and tinsel all aglow! ~*~
~*~ Its beginning to look a lot like Wootmas! ~*~
~*~ Tinies in every store! ~*~
~*~ But the nommiest site to see ~*~
~*~ Is the waffles that will be ~*~
~*~ Inside your own front door. ~*~
~*~ A pair of bunny hop shoes and lazors that shoot ~*~
~*~ Is the wish of Copper and Reign! ~*~
~*~ Dolls that will talk and go for a walk ~*~
~*~ Is the hope of Jillan and Jane! ~*~
~*~ And Kayak and Toady can hardly wait ~*~
~*~ Till Raglan U opens agaaain! ~*~
~*~ Its beginning to look alot like Wootmas ~*~
~*~ All across the shire you go! ~*~
~*~ Theres a great tree name of Steve, ~*~
~*~ That all the tinies can see, ~*~
~*~ He's GINORMOUS, and doesnt mind the snow! ~*~
~*~ Its beginning to look alot like Wootmas! ~*~
~*~ Soon the bells will start! ~*~
~*~ And the thing that will make them ring, ~*~
~*~ When all the tinies sing, ~*~
~*~ Is right within your heart!!! ~*~
* ~*~ * ~*~ * ~*~ * ~*~ *
~*~ Hark the Tiny Critters Sing, Glory to the Waffle King! ~*~
~*~ Peace on the Grid & Syrup mild, Otters & Ferrets Reconciled! ~*~
~*~ Joyful with all your fur so slick, Raise up your Cookies on a stick! ~*~
~*~ And with upward paws proclaim, We shall RiverDance again! ~*~
~*~ Hark the Tiny Critters Sing, Glory to the Waffle Kinnnng ~*~
* ~*~ * ~*~ * ~*~ * ~*~ *
~*~ Jelly Beans, Hunks of Cheese, Sugar Frosted Ham. All Deep-fried, Toast on the Side with Wootberry Jam.. ~*~
~*~ Chocolate Cake all wrapped in Bacon, Nachos on a Stick! Come Along, Let's eat some Noms & Hope we don't get Sick... HEY!! ~*~
~*~ Nomming Treats & Sweets, from Our Raglan Shire Buffet, Fills our little tummies, with Food this Holiday! ~*~
~*~ Just singing 'bout it now, Make's our Hunger Rise! We can't wait to grab a Plate & Stack it real High.. Withhh.. ~*~
~*~ Jelly Beans, Hunks of Cheese, Sugar Frosted Ham. All Deep-fried, Toast on the Side with Wootberry Jam.. ~*~
~*~ Chocolate Cake all wrapped in Bacon, Nachos on a Stick! Come Along, Let's eat some Noms & Hope we don't get SICKKKKKKK! ~*~
~*~ Here we come A-waffling please feed us Breakfast Food! Here we come A-hungering so ~*~ Knives & Forks Come to Me, And a Warm Butter Patty, And please Serve us some Syrup & Chopped up Pecans Tooooo...~*~
~*~ And Please Sprinkle some Berries on them Toooo! Here we come A-waffling please Feed us Tasty Treats!~*~
~*~ Here we come A-chittering so give us something Sweet! Thanks to All for the Snax! Now we all can go Chillax!~*~
~*~And go about the things that we all Dooooo..... And Happy Holidays from All of Us to YOUUUUUUUUUU~*~
* ~*~ * ~*~ * ~*~ * ~*~ *
~*~ Sleigh bells ring! Are you listening? ~*~
~*~ In the shire, snow is glistening! ~*~
~*~ A wootiful sight, we're happy tonight, ~*~
~*~ Walking in a waffle wonderland! ~*~
~*~ Gone away is the blue bird ~*~
~*~ Here to stay is the new bird ~*~
~*~ He noms on chocolate ~*~
~*~ With bacon on a stick ~*~
~*~ Walking in a waffle wonderland! ~*~
~*~ In the shire we can build a snowman ~*~
~*~ Pretend that he's a chef from outta town ~*~
~*~ He'll say 'Want some waffle?' We'll say 'YEAH MAN!' ~*~
~*~ Then he'll pour the syrup while we chow! ~*~
~*~ Later on we'll conspire ~*~
~*~ As we riverdance in the shire ~*~
~*~ Tiny faces alight ~*~
~*~ With all the presents in sight ~*~
~*~ Walking in a waffle wonderland! ~*~
from the Tiny Crew of "the 1st Question"
Monday, December 12, 2011
Meanwhile Back in Azeroth: Holidays and Updates
Recently, the massive multiplayer online game World of Warcraft made news with plan announced for the new expansion. In the meantime, the players have been going through holiday events from Azerothian versions of Halloween to Thanksgiving, plus the latest update in which they can take a trip to an amusement park island and finally face down the arch-villain of the current game.
October brought the “Brewfest” holiday, during which players sampled various brews and could help out by bringing fresh ale to the festival grounds and defend them against the jealous Dark Iron Dwarves. Later on was “Hallow’s End.” Previously, it was featured with the Horde’s burning of the Wickerman near the Undercity with the Alliance watching from their neaby town of Southshore, Horde stinkbomb pranks on Southshore and Alliance cleaning them up “with the power of pine,” and of course going from inn to inn for tricks or treats, which besides candy could get you a mask or a costume (there were hunters with bat pets ending up with bat costumes), or perhaps a trick and getting temporarily turned into a worm or black cat.
With the introduction of the Worgen and Southshore lost by the Alliance there were some changes to Hallow’s End, as well as additions. The Forsaken’s burning of the Wickerman was closer to the Undercity, just inside the walls of the ruins of Loredon. And the Gilneans held their own Wickerman burning just outside the gates of Stormwind. And both the Forsaken and Gilneians had witches to offer players the chance to drop stinkbombs on the other’s city, as well as offering quests to clean up the messes left by the other. There was also a quest to douse the fire on the opposing side’s Wickerman, though just venturing near would get you flagged for PvP combat. Needless to say, I only attempted this late at night when there were few opposition around.
There was also a special Hallow’s End questline. A man at a bar asks you to get a crate that was recently shipped over. Naturally it’s missing, and the character has to search for it. Along the way, you discover the crate is far from harmless. Once you find it, you have a choice, go ahead and give it to the man who hired you, or to someone else you met better prepared to handle it’s dangers?
And like before, there were the Headless Horseman quests. During Hallow’s End, his spirit terrorized several Horde and Alliance towns, setting them afire. Players have the task of teaming up to put them out and stop the specter. But to truly slay the Headless Horseman, one has to go to his grave in a Scarlet Monastery dungeon, draw him out, and smash his head. Among the possible drops by besting him, his spooky flying horse. And of course there was the treat or treating at inns, which got you candy and possible prizes, such as masks, and broom mounts that lasted until the end of the holiday.
In November was a dual event. The more notable part was the Thanksgiving holiday theme “Pilgrim’s Bounty." There were no changes from last year, so characters were still going from capital to capital with holiday foods to complete quests. The good part of this holiday, characters could advance their character’s cooking much more quickly than usual to expert levels. And the special stat bonuses from the food were a help in combat, that is, for those who took time away from the cooking to fight.
Also was the “WoW 7th Anniversary” Event. In previous anniversary events, the reward had been a special companion pet. Unfortunately for pet collectors, this was not the case this time. Instead, players got a packaged that when activated shot a firework in the air, and gave the player a temporary special tabard with “WoW” on it plus a 7% boost to experience and reputation gains. It was good for two weeks, ending on Dec. 3rd. While some liked the little bonus, others expressed disappointment there would be no lasting memento.
And after Pilgrim’s Bounty came to a close came Patch 4.3 for the game, also known as “Hour of Twilight.” It is here that the quests to defeat Deathwing, the main villain of the third expansion, finally arrive. This includes a special rouge’s quest line, which supposedly deals with a mid-ranked quest in the Badlands in which the player ends up with a dragons egg (note to any WoW player reading, you *did* keep that egg, didn’t you?) There are a number of others, eventually ending up with the players on the massive black dragon’s back to rip off his specially armored plates long enough for a superweapon to be fired at the weak spot.
But these quests are for the strongest characters. For those of all ranks, there is the new Darkmoon Faire. Before, the Faire was a traveling show that alternated between showing up near Goldshire or Thunderbluff every month. Now, the carnival workers have set up a portal that takes players to the new Darkmoon Faire Island. There, players can buy tokens to play games from ring toss to wack-a-gnall to target shooting in exchange for tickets. They can also take on daily quests (daily for as long as the faire lasts) to complete the games. There are also quests to help out some of the carnies, the rewards being tokens and five levels of experience for the profession involved in the quest. All six professions are involved, not just cooking and fishing. For yours truly trying to become an Illustrious Leatherworker, the Darkmoon quest linked to that provided a welcome shortcut.
The Faire first appeared in early December, up for a week. The Faire may be gone now, but it won’t be long for the Christmas holiday, Winter Veil.
For yours truly, as well as many other players, it’s been a year since playing the game in our new favorite characters, starting them when Cataclysm appeared and brought with it Worgen as playable. So far, I’ve gotten to Level 83, but wanting to experience lots of quests and work up my professions, plus get materials for the guild's larger bags, I still have yet to experience the new Cataclysm regions with my newer characters. Still having fun in the Sunweaver guild, set up by my Second Life friends on my home estate, and still having fun in Azeroth after all these years.
But not everyone who was playing World of Warcraft is sticking around. More on that later.
Picture Source: WoWHead
Bixyl Shuftan
October brought the “Brewfest” holiday, during which players sampled various brews and could help out by bringing fresh ale to the festival grounds and defend them against the jealous Dark Iron Dwarves. Later on was “Hallow’s End.” Previously, it was featured with the Horde’s burning of the Wickerman near the Undercity with the Alliance watching from their neaby town of Southshore, Horde stinkbomb pranks on Southshore and Alliance cleaning them up “with the power of pine,” and of course going from inn to inn for tricks or treats, which besides candy could get you a mask or a costume (there were hunters with bat pets ending up with bat costumes), or perhaps a trick and getting temporarily turned into a worm or black cat.
With the introduction of the Worgen and Southshore lost by the Alliance there were some changes to Hallow’s End, as well as additions. The Forsaken’s burning of the Wickerman was closer to the Undercity, just inside the walls of the ruins of Loredon. And the Gilneans held their own Wickerman burning just outside the gates of Stormwind. And both the Forsaken and Gilneians had witches to offer players the chance to drop stinkbombs on the other’s city, as well as offering quests to clean up the messes left by the other. There was also a quest to douse the fire on the opposing side’s Wickerman, though just venturing near would get you flagged for PvP combat. Needless to say, I only attempted this late at night when there were few opposition around.
There was also a special Hallow’s End questline. A man at a bar asks you to get a crate that was recently shipped over. Naturally it’s missing, and the character has to search for it. Along the way, you discover the crate is far from harmless. Once you find it, you have a choice, go ahead and give it to the man who hired you, or to someone else you met better prepared to handle it’s dangers?
And like before, there were the Headless Horseman quests. During Hallow’s End, his spirit terrorized several Horde and Alliance towns, setting them afire. Players have the task of teaming up to put them out and stop the specter. But to truly slay the Headless Horseman, one has to go to his grave in a Scarlet Monastery dungeon, draw him out, and smash his head. Among the possible drops by besting him, his spooky flying horse. And of course there was the treat or treating at inns, which got you candy and possible prizes, such as masks, and broom mounts that lasted until the end of the holiday.In November was a dual event. The more notable part was the Thanksgiving holiday theme “Pilgrim’s Bounty." There were no changes from last year, so characters were still going from capital to capital with holiday foods to complete quests. The good part of this holiday, characters could advance their character’s cooking much more quickly than usual to expert levels. And the special stat bonuses from the food were a help in combat, that is, for those who took time away from the cooking to fight.
Also was the “WoW 7th Anniversary” Event. In previous anniversary events, the reward had been a special companion pet. Unfortunately for pet collectors, this was not the case this time. Instead, players got a packaged that when activated shot a firework in the air, and gave the player a temporary special tabard with “WoW” on it plus a 7% boost to experience and reputation gains. It was good for two weeks, ending on Dec. 3rd. While some liked the little bonus, others expressed disappointment there would be no lasting memento.And after Pilgrim’s Bounty came to a close came Patch 4.3 for the game, also known as “Hour of Twilight.” It is here that the quests to defeat Deathwing, the main villain of the third expansion, finally arrive. This includes a special rouge’s quest line, which supposedly deals with a mid-ranked quest in the Badlands in which the player ends up with a dragons egg (note to any WoW player reading, you *did* keep that egg, didn’t you?) There are a number of others, eventually ending up with the players on the massive black dragon’s back to rip off his specially armored plates long enough for a superweapon to be fired at the weak spot.
But these quests are for the strongest characters. For those of all ranks, there is the new Darkmoon Faire. Before, the Faire was a traveling show that alternated between showing up near Goldshire or Thunderbluff every month. Now, the carnival workers have set up a portal that takes players to the new Darkmoon Faire Island. There, players can buy tokens to play games from ring toss to wack-a-gnall to target shooting in exchange for tickets. They can also take on daily quests (daily for as long as the faire lasts) to complete the games. There are also quests to help out some of the carnies, the rewards being tokens and five levels of experience for the profession involved in the quest. All six professions are involved, not just cooking and fishing. For yours truly trying to become an Illustrious Leatherworker, the Darkmoon quest linked to that provided a welcome shortcut.The Faire first appeared in early December, up for a week. The Faire may be gone now, but it won’t be long for the Christmas holiday, Winter Veil.
For yours truly, as well as many other players, it’s been a year since playing the game in our new favorite characters, starting them when Cataclysm appeared and brought with it Worgen as playable. So far, I’ve gotten to Level 83, but wanting to experience lots of quests and work up my professions, plus get materials for the guild's larger bags, I still have yet to experience the new Cataclysm regions with my newer characters. Still having fun in the Sunweaver guild, set up by my Second Life friends on my home estate, and still having fun in Azeroth after all these years.
But not everyone who was playing World of Warcraft is sticking around. More on that later.
Picture Source: WoWHead
Bixyl Shuftan
Friday, November 25, 2011
Meanwhie, Back in Azeroth: "The Mists of Pandaria"
World of Warcraft, the most popular of the Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games, has been in the news recently. A few days ago, it was for it’s Chuck Norris TV commercial. But before that, in October Blizzard announced their plans for the next expansion for their bestselling game: "The Mists of Pandaria.”
To begin with, a new PC race is introduced, the panda-like Pandaren. No this isn’t some “Kung Fu Panda” joke. Longtime players are probably familiar with the Pandaren Monk companions (most often seen in capital cities). As it turns out, they were originally created years ago as an April Fool’s gag. But the response was so popular, they were included in the Warcraft III game. Rumors of them soon to be introduced in World of Warcraft persisted for years, as well as rumors of complaints from China. But at Blizcon 2011 in October, the word was official.
The racial traits of Pandaren, at least according to current plans, include twice the stat benefits from foods, in addition to starting out with 15 points in the Cooking skill. Their rested experience will be twice as long as other players, and take 50% less damage when falling. The Pandaren’s background describes their homeland, Pandaria, as being secluded from the rest of Azeroth and its fighting. Beginning Pandaren PCs start out as among a group of explorers on the back of a giant turtle. The Pandaren are neither Horde or Alliance, but unaligned. After some time progressing, new Pandaren characters will need to choose which faction to support.
Pandaren were provided by Blizzard with an interesting background. Naturally, much of their in-game cultural background is based on that of China, with elements of Daoism and Tai-Chi used as inspiration. Much like the Tauren, they have a respect of Shamanism. Similar to the dwarves, they have a love of alcoholic beverages, brewmaking considered a revered tradition among them.
A new class of character is introduced as well: the Monk. They are available to all races except for the Worgen and Goblins. Monks have three specilizations: Brewmasters, which can take more damage, Mistweavers, which are healers, and Windwalkers, whom deal more melee damage. They can use staves and fist weapons, in addition to one handed maces, with Mistweavers being able to use off-hand items. They wear leather armor. They use a new resource bar, a Chi-bar, which is described as being similar to the Energy bar for Rogues.
The Talent system is being described as “entirely redone.” Talent trees are being replaced by being granted another specialization ability every few levels. Plus, every fifteen levels a talent point that can be spent on one of three talents. There will also be Challenge-Mode dungeons, requiring players to complete them in a certain time. There are also plans for Scenario battles, where players team up to accomplish a goal such as capturing or defending an area. Then there’s the “Pet Battle System,” which will do doubt get the attention of “Pokemon” fans. All those companion pets which are currently just for show will be able to fight and level, as well as able to be traded on the Auction House. As of now, Mists of Pandaria is planned to have nine new dungeons, and three new Raids. And players will be able to level up to Lvl 90, with adjustments to profession skills.
There is one change that will be a bit upsetting to some players. All classes are losing their secondary weapons, which means hunters lose their melee items (though will be able to shoot point-blank), and other clases lose their raged weapon slots, though warriors and rouges can throw their weapons, and casters can use wands in their main hand.
Blizzard got an enthusiastic response to news of the expansion at Blizcon. Since then, reactions have varied, as one can tell from the WoW forums. Joystik called the expansion an interesting move in new directions. They quoted game lead designer Dave Kosak, "What we're trying to do is find other ways to incorporate other playstyles into the game and give everybody something to do. ... We have this big, giant, incredible world -- what else can you do in it?"
But “Pandaren” and all its changes are about a year away most likely. Until then, WoWers still have some new content coming up, which we’ll be covering in our next article about World of Warcraft.
Images from Blizzard.
Other articles at PC World, Joystik, WoWWiki, ING
Bixyl Shuftan
To begin with, a new PC race is introduced, the panda-like Pandaren. No this isn’t some “Kung Fu Panda” joke. Longtime players are probably familiar with the Pandaren Monk companions (most often seen in capital cities). As it turns out, they were originally created years ago as an April Fool’s gag. But the response was so popular, they were included in the Warcraft III game. Rumors of them soon to be introduced in World of Warcraft persisted for years, as well as rumors of complaints from China. But at Blizcon 2011 in October, the word was official.The racial traits of Pandaren, at least according to current plans, include twice the stat benefits from foods, in addition to starting out with 15 points in the Cooking skill. Their rested experience will be twice as long as other players, and take 50% less damage when falling. The Pandaren’s background describes their homeland, Pandaria, as being secluded from the rest of Azeroth and its fighting. Beginning Pandaren PCs start out as among a group of explorers on the back of a giant turtle. The Pandaren are neither Horde or Alliance, but unaligned. After some time progressing, new Pandaren characters will need to choose which faction to support.
Pandaren were provided by Blizzard with an interesting background. Naturally, much of their in-game cultural background is based on that of China, with elements of Daoism and Tai-Chi used as inspiration. Much like the Tauren, they have a respect of Shamanism. Similar to the dwarves, they have a love of alcoholic beverages, brewmaking considered a revered tradition among them.A new class of character is introduced as well: the Monk. They are available to all races except for the Worgen and Goblins. Monks have three specilizations: Brewmasters, which can take more damage, Mistweavers, which are healers, and Windwalkers, whom deal more melee damage. They can use staves and fist weapons, in addition to one handed maces, with Mistweavers being able to use off-hand items. They wear leather armor. They use a new resource bar, a Chi-bar, which is described as being similar to the Energy bar for Rogues.
The Talent system is being described as “entirely redone.” Talent trees are being replaced by being granted another specialization ability every few levels. Plus, every fifteen levels a talent point that can be spent on one of three talents. There will also be Challenge-Mode dungeons, requiring players to complete them in a certain time. There are also plans for Scenario battles, where players team up to accomplish a goal such as capturing or defending an area. Then there’s the “Pet Battle System,” which will do doubt get the attention of “Pokemon” fans. All those companion pets which are currently just for show will be able to fight and level, as well as able to be traded on the Auction House. As of now, Mists of Pandaria is planned to have nine new dungeons, and three new Raids. And players will be able to level up to Lvl 90, with adjustments to profession skills.There is one change that will be a bit upsetting to some players. All classes are losing their secondary weapons, which means hunters lose their melee items (though will be able to shoot point-blank), and other clases lose their raged weapon slots, though warriors and rouges can throw their weapons, and casters can use wands in their main hand.
Blizzard got an enthusiastic response to news of the expansion at Blizcon. Since then, reactions have varied, as one can tell from the WoW forums. Joystik called the expansion an interesting move in new directions. They quoted game lead designer Dave Kosak, "What we're trying to do is find other ways to incorporate other playstyles into the game and give everybody something to do. ... We have this big, giant, incredible world -- what else can you do in it?"
But “Pandaren” and all its changes are about a year away most likely. Until then, WoWers still have some new content coming up, which we’ll be covering in our next article about World of Warcraft.
Images from Blizzard.
Other articles at PC World, Joystik, WoWWiki, ING
Bixyl Shuftan
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Images of Imagine Peacefest
IMAGINE PeaceFest was a respite from Occupy protests, where global solutions are envisioned, and Second Life's most fabulous talent converge in spirit of peace, love, and harmony. An eclectic melange of art, music, poetry, politics, and positive thinking, IMAGINE PeaceFest was a 3 day weekend, over 50 hours of events on dozens on Second Life regions.
Second Life's best and brightest and most talented, all turned out to bless us with their special human gifts. Donations went to READA, RAWA, and One Laptop per Child, important and under-reported small causes, where our Second Life contributions really do make a big difference.
Amazing Second Life immersive artist, Artistide Despres, stood alongside a huge hand peace symbol on New Caerleon region.
The IMAGINE MUSIC stage was set up by Gary Kohime and Pixels Sideways at New Caerleon for IMAGINE PeaceFest.
Famous photographic artist Gracie Kendal joined us at IMAGINE PeaceFest. Her new book 1000+ Avatars is in production. At the Peacefest, she declared that if you had your portrait taken for her first book, 1000 Avatars, your picture is definitely published there.
Epic artist, curator, and Second Life builder, Trill Zapatero comes out in her Occupy outfit for IMAGINE PeaceFest. Her RAWA and Afghanistan builds kicked off the festival, and on Sunday she hosts the RAWA BoHo Hobo Fashion Show of authentic and inspired traditional designs.
Photons of Imagine and Peace radiate from a large hand in peace symbol, sending a message of love towards the heavens.
The IMAGINE PeaceFest home page is at http://peacetraintrust.org/ .
Any1 Gynoid
Article & images originally on CNN.
Second Life's best and brightest and most talented, all turned out to bless us with their special human gifts. Donations went to READA, RAWA, and One Laptop per Child, important and under-reported small causes, where our Second Life contributions really do make a big difference.
Amazing Second Life immersive artist, Artistide Despres, stood alongside a huge hand peace symbol on New Caerleon region.
The IMAGINE MUSIC stage was set up by Gary Kohime and Pixels Sideways at New Caerleon for IMAGINE PeaceFest.
Bankers on the run!!!
Leading the parade of Occupy Movement protest marchers.
Famous photographic artist Gracie Kendal joined us at IMAGINE PeaceFest. Her new book 1000+ Avatars is in production. At the Peacefest, she declared that if you had your portrait taken for her first book, 1000 Avatars, your picture is definitely published there.
Epic artist, curator, and Second Life builder, Trill Zapatero comes out in her Occupy outfit for IMAGINE PeaceFest. Her RAWA and Afghanistan builds kicked off the festival, and on Sunday she hosts the RAWA BoHo Hobo Fashion Show of authentic and inspired traditional designs.
Photons of Imagine and Peace radiate from a large hand in peace symbol, sending a message of love towards the heavens.The IMAGINE PeaceFest home page is at http://peacetraintrust.org/ .
Any1 Gynoid
Article & images originally on CNN.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Four Years of Reporting
It was four years ago this month in which I started writing about the Grid as a Second Life reporter. It had been just weeks since my time as a newcomer had come to an end, having taken a greater interest in the virtual world, logging on more frequently, finding a hangout and making friends, and ditching the newbie ringtail in favor of the Lusk red foxboy. I wanted to learn more, so began searching the ‘net for websites related to Second Life. It was this search that led me to Second Life Newspaper, run by founder JamesT Juno and Editor Dana Vanmoer, and began reading it daily. I took pride in keeping up with real-life news, so felt keeping up with it here would only help.In October 2007, I came across a notice calling for “Reader Submitted” articles and pictures. I responded by sending some amusing screenshots along with noteworthy personal accounts. It wasn’t long before James and Dana called me to their office for an interview, and offered me a job. Needless to say, it was an opportunity I couldn’t refuse. I would do more than just read the news, I would take part in reporting it.
And the rest, as they say, is history. With my first payment, got a trenchcoat and hat to look the part of a “Fox Reporter,” standing out in the SL Newspaper staff. I continued to produce at least one article a week, along with at least one picture for a cartoon, which added a little humor to the paper. Although some writers specialize in one field, such as music, I preferred to cover a variety of topics, reporting on the various people, places, and events across Second Life. Sadly, real life caught up with James and Dana, and SL Newspaper closed. In response, Second Life Newser was created for most of the remaining staff to keep reporting on the news. But I now had a new role: editor.Second Life has changed quite a bit since I began writing on it. Back then, it was still somewhat new, and it was being talked about warmly. In the BBC News website at the time, one reporter was describing his experiences of creating an avatar, getting past Help Island, and going about the Grid. Politicians such as Newt Gingrich appeared via an avatar to make a speech before residents. It even made network TV a few times, most notably in an episode of CSI that was a cooperation with Second Life. Viewers saw the police track down a killer in the virtual world, and on the grid residents got a chance to play a CSI game. Companies from Honda, to Circuit City, and most notably IBM appeared on the Grid.
As the years went by, Second Life didn’t make real-life news so much. It has gotten a little attention for veterans getting help there recently. But unfortunately people seem to know of it more through someone getting in trouble through a love affair on the Grid. Talking about it with real-life friends and co-workers, most have a hard time understanding what it is. One guy kept calling it a “porn site.” Another I talked to was interested only in it’s seedier aspects. People have been much more familiar with World of Warcraft, and especially Facebook.
My own personal experiences in Second Life have also changed over time. When first writing about the Grid, I had only recently found a couple hangouts and a group of friends. Over time, I’ve lived in a few estates, taken part in a few communities, become part of a combat RP, helping run a few virtual clubs, taken part in the Relay for Life, and gotten to know many friends and talented individuals. People like Pooky Amsterdam and Delinda Dyrssen have made a name for themselves showing what one can do with Second Life. Other talented individuals, such as Lomgren Smalls and Alleara Snoodle, prefer to work more quietly behind the scenes, such as at eh Relay for Life.And of course there’s the people I’ve been writing with. I’ve had a number of interesting people I worked alongside with at SL Newspaper, some of whom I had the fortune of joining up with me at the Newser such as Gemma Cleanslate and Grey Lupindo. I’ve had a number of interesting people on the team along the way, and more recent arrivals such as Netera Landar and Xymbers Slade show there are still more people interested in writing about the Grid.
Writing about Second Life has been no small challenge, but it’s been an experience well worth it. And I’ll continue for as long as I can.
Bixyl Shuftan
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
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.
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.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Areo Park's Fifth Annual Halloween Trail
The Areo Pines Park area, usually known for horseback riding in the virtual countryside, has a different look for this Halloween season. For the fifth year in a row, it is offering it’s “Halloween Trail.”The Halloween Trail takes full advantage of the ten sims of space, offering more than thirty exhibits. Some are a simple scare, such as a tribute to Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds.” But there are also larger and take a little time to go through. There are several haunted houses & castles, plus a haunted prison, in addition to a crypt and corn maze. Besides looking at them, there are levels of interactivity, such as being able to dig in the dirt at the Hiltop cemetery. Some are exhibits from previous trails, but there are some new ones.
Upon arrival at certain places in the sim, one is offered a notecard with teleports to various attractions. One can use the LMs, or just tour around on the Trail. The places are best seen at sunset or Midnight.
Vampire Bat Lair Motorcycle (154, 99, 53)Hilltop Cemetary, Equus (130, 88, 35)
Cannibal Island , Caledfwlch (117, 68, 28)
Ghost Pirates, Caledfwlch (86, 69, 28)
Man-Eating Plants, Horse Ranch (94, 73, 22)
Bilavio Haunted Manor, Horse Ranch (57, 115, 23)
Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds", Horse Ranch (129, 241, 23)
Seaside Haunted House, Seaplane (178, 64, 23)
Thriller Back Alley, Motorcycle (26, 172, 22)
Haunted Castle & Crypt Maze, Firehouse (43, 52, 31)
Witches Camp, Horse (28, 129, 32)
Hilltop Crematorium, Horse (136, 143, 74)
Killer Bees, Aero Pines Park (21, 110, 24)
Haunted Prison, Aero Pines Park (32, 214, 23)
Bates Motel, Aero Pines Park (151, 19, 22)
Chop Shop (Bad Noobs Processing Center), Equus (103, 229, 22)
Corn Maze, Equus (34, 193, 22)
Guillotine, Horse (216, 23, 23)
Some places offer a small gift, like the “Thriller Back Alley” giving you a Thriller AO. The Hilltop Crematorium is near Roxies Roadhouse, where one can get a motorbike, or a balloon ride. At various locations, one can rez a broom to ride around.Besides the exhibits on the Trail, there are also events:
Fri Oct 28 Halloween Costume Bash with Sandy "The Sandman" 6pm-10pmSLT
Equus (17, 203, 23)
Sat Oct 29 "Who ya Gonna Call?" It’s the GHOSTBUSTERS! Interactive Movie Adventure! It’s a 72 hour screening! - All Ghostbusters, Slimers, and Stay-Pufts Welcome!!!!
Sat Oct 29 5pm-7pm Halloween Costume Party
Equus (17, 203, 23)
Sun Oct 30 Ghostbusters! All Day & Night
Aero Pines Park (111, 3, 22)
Sun Oct 30 5pm-7pm Halloween Costume Party
Equus (17, 203, 23)
Mon Oct 31 Ghostbusters! All Day & Night
Aero Pines Park (111, 3, 22)
Mon Oct 31 Young Frankenstein 6pm 8pm & 10pm
Equus (17, 203, 23)
For questions, the notecard recommended contacting Cindy Bolero.
The Halloween Trail exhibits will remain up until November 6, for latecomers to the Halloween fun. But you don’t need to wait. The place is fantastic Halloween fun.
Bixyl Shuftan
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Basketball in Second Life: Changes at the VBA
Recently I came across some Internet chatter about the VBA, the organization of basketball teams in Second Life I wrote about last spring. Deciding to hear from the source, I send a notecard their way, and got a message from their co-founder Emerald Ishtari invited me to talk with her about what happened in the past few months.
Emerald greeted me upon my arrival at the VBA’s Alpha Cold sim, and offered me a tour around. She pointed out the Recruitment Center. Asking her how things had been with the VBA, Emerald answered, “As with any business especially one as new to the grid as basketball, we have had our ups and downs.” One major change was the introduction of the Womens’ Virtual Basketball Association, or WVBA. But the results were less than ideal, “The response has been mixed. Women get excited to play then get apprehensive. So it has been up and down.”
She then ported to the Arena, sending me a TP after her, “This is the Alpha Cold Arena.” In their original one, there was a mall, so they “kept the concept” by having some stores around, “Game of the Week and special games, i.e. playoffs and finals, are played here.” To let fans know of upcoming games, people could cick on a “Subscribe-o-matic.”
Emerald told me they try to keep a family friendly environment, though she admitted there had been problems, “As with real-life, we have had to exercise the right to eject, as have team owners. Second Life has it’s share of ‘misbehaving’ people, and that ranges from blatant rudeness, to not abiding with league standards such as lowering their arc or turning off their mic..”
She showed me another court. Asked if it was a practice court, Emerald told me,”his court is used for (both) practice and games. Players are welcomed to come here anytime, as long as there isn't a game going.” She grinned, “some fall asleep here practicing.”
“This particular court is exclusive to the VBA. It is linked to our website and records stats of official games. It was a major project to get it just right, and I am happy it has come to fruition. The scripting had to be just right to record realistic stats. Not only team stats, but those of individual players as well. (smile) As a matter of fact anyone just wanting to try out the court can come here. It is open to anyone. Even a fox can play (grin), as long as they are the right height.” Emerald went on to say, “... the court forces the player to be the right height. ... we used the general range of real-life basketball pros.” The range was three inches.
At this point, we were joined by one of the VBA players, Valentino Fallen. Emerald introduced him, “Valentino is one of the players that comes here to practice at times.” Valentino explained, “Been with the league for a little bit, I was a member with the Bulls.” After a little talk, he went to the court, pressed a button, and the scoreboard announced, “Valentino Fallen has joined the H-O-R-S-E game.” Emerald told me it was a kind game on the court, “e spells out H-O-R-S-E to complete the game. Each made shot equates a letter. It is a great one person game. It’s also great for just horsing around, thus the name. (giggle)”
Emerald and I then headed to the Executive building. She showed me a special fountain that had been set up, “For Sept 11th, we put up a memorial reflecting fountain ... the Pentagon, World Trade Center, and the flag erected by the soldiers/firefighters.” She added it was just “a small gathering” whom where there for it’s unveiling, feeling perhaps more would be there next year.
We headed into the Executive building’s main lobby, where the VBA championship trophy sat. The season was still going, delayed somewhat by Hurricane Irene, “some of our players were affected, so teams had to regroup. We had to reschedule approximately 10 games.” The playoffs most likely would be in November.
I asked a few more questions. Of the occasional female av with a male behind it, and vice-versa, Emerald told me they were acceptable as long as the avatars fit their league’s gender. She went on to say there were some teams up for sale, both from the VBA and WVBA.
Of the funnier moments/sports bloopers at the basketball games, Emerald mentioned, “Pre-game at the last game a spectator rezzed in nude. She didn’t know, there were little boys here, and they chased her until she teleported out. (laughter) Rezzing issues are the biggest bloopers, or the person who fell asleep on mic in the stands with a high arc, and I "tucked them in" by sending them home. (laughter) I think some players sang a lullabye.”
Emerald did say there was one sad development at the VBA, “We had a major shift in league ownership. My dear friend/co-owner/co-founder for personal reasons has for all intents and purposes left Second Life. On July 31st he and I finalized turning sole ownership of the league and all holdings over to me. ... It has been quite exhausting. When you grow accustomed to working with someone and suddenly they are not there anymore in any capacity, it can be overwhelming. ... to go from having him there at times, to no times, that has been a very difficult pill to swallow. I appreciate everything he did when he was here, and still does on his guest appearances, and we all wish him the best.”
The VBA is based in the Alpha Cold sim. They also have a website at http://www.vba-bball.com, with a Facebook page and Twitter account.
Bixyl Shuftan
Emerald greeted me upon my arrival at the VBA’s Alpha Cold sim, and offered me a tour around. She pointed out the Recruitment Center. Asking her how things had been with the VBA, Emerald answered, “As with any business especially one as new to the grid as basketball, we have had our ups and downs.” One major change was the introduction of the Womens’ Virtual Basketball Association, or WVBA. But the results were less than ideal, “The response has been mixed. Women get excited to play then get apprehensive. So it has been up and down.”She then ported to the Arena, sending me a TP after her, “This is the Alpha Cold Arena.” In their original one, there was a mall, so they “kept the concept” by having some stores around, “Game of the Week and special games, i.e. playoffs and finals, are played here.” To let fans know of upcoming games, people could cick on a “Subscribe-o-matic.”
Emerald told me they try to keep a family friendly environment, though she admitted there had been problems, “As with real-life, we have had to exercise the right to eject, as have team owners. Second Life has it’s share of ‘misbehaving’ people, and that ranges from blatant rudeness, to not abiding with league standards such as lowering their arc or turning off their mic..”
She showed me another court. Asked if it was a practice court, Emerald told me,”his court is used for (both) practice and games. Players are welcomed to come here anytime, as long as there isn't a game going.” She grinned, “some fall asleep here practicing.”
“This particular court is exclusive to the VBA. It is linked to our website and records stats of official games. It was a major project to get it just right, and I am happy it has come to fruition. The scripting had to be just right to record realistic stats. Not only team stats, but those of individual players as well. (smile) As a matter of fact anyone just wanting to try out the court can come here. It is open to anyone. Even a fox can play (grin), as long as they are the right height.” Emerald went on to say, “... the court forces the player to be the right height. ... we used the general range of real-life basketball pros.” The range was three inches.At this point, we were joined by one of the VBA players, Valentino Fallen. Emerald introduced him, “Valentino is one of the players that comes here to practice at times.” Valentino explained, “Been with the league for a little bit, I was a member with the Bulls.” After a little talk, he went to the court, pressed a button, and the scoreboard announced, “Valentino Fallen has joined the H-O-R-S-E game.” Emerald told me it was a kind game on the court, “e spells out H-O-R-S-E to complete the game. Each made shot equates a letter. It is a great one person game. It’s also great for just horsing around, thus the name. (giggle)”
Emerald and I then headed to the Executive building. She showed me a special fountain that had been set up, “For Sept 11th, we put up a memorial reflecting fountain ... the Pentagon, World Trade Center, and the flag erected by the soldiers/firefighters.” She added it was just “a small gathering” whom where there for it’s unveiling, feeling perhaps more would be there next year.
We headed into the Executive building’s main lobby, where the VBA championship trophy sat. The season was still going, delayed somewhat by Hurricane Irene, “some of our players were affected, so teams had to regroup. We had to reschedule approximately 10 games.” The playoffs most likely would be in November.I asked a few more questions. Of the occasional female av with a male behind it, and vice-versa, Emerald told me they were acceptable as long as the avatars fit their league’s gender. She went on to say there were some teams up for sale, both from the VBA and WVBA.
Of the funnier moments/sports bloopers at the basketball games, Emerald mentioned, “Pre-game at the last game a spectator rezzed in nude. She didn’t know, there were little boys here, and they chased her until she teleported out. (laughter) Rezzing issues are the biggest bloopers, or the person who fell asleep on mic in the stands with a high arc, and I "tucked them in" by sending them home. (laughter) I think some players sang a lullabye.”
Emerald did say there was one sad development at the VBA, “We had a major shift in league ownership. My dear friend/co-owner/co-founder for personal reasons has for all intents and purposes left Second Life. On July 31st he and I finalized turning sole ownership of the league and all holdings over to me. ... It has been quite exhausting. When you grow accustomed to working with someone and suddenly they are not there anymore in any capacity, it can be overwhelming. ... to go from having him there at times, to no times, that has been a very difficult pill to swallow. I appreciate everything he did when he was here, and still does on his guest appearances, and we all wish him the best.”
The VBA is based in the Alpha Cold sim. They also have a website at http://www.vba-bball.com, with a Facebook page and Twitter account.
Bixyl Shuftan
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