One of my hidden RPG passions is Pendragon, an Arthurian roleplaying system. I have been fascinated with the Arthurian legends from quite a young age and during my early 20s did quite a lot of reading around the subject. So when Nigel offered to not only run the game, but also to run the Great Pendragon Campaign - the campaign of Mallory's Le Morte de Arthur.
We're onto the second session now and I'm loving every minute of it. However, it does present a different view of roleplaying than the scenarios we are used to. The campaigns I have ran have been heavily character-driven, story-based affairs with a lot of player driven ideas for metaplot and not a lot of system at all. We've been playing in that style for the best part of five years. It's bound to become engrained.
Pendragon is, at first glance, a totally different beast. Firstly, it has a lot of 'crunch' about it, but the crunch is essential to deliver the punch of the game. I'll take a few examples:
Passions: Each character has opposed traits (like Valourous/Cowardly) which define the personality of the character. The players control these traits in a modelling sense at char gen but afterwards, they must act within them or pay the consequences. So, say a knight with Valourous 17 (highly renowned for his bravery) decides to run away from battle against a weaker foe. He would not be acting valourously at all and would probably get a check on his Cowardly. At the end of the year, if he rolled over 3 (his cowardly) he would move to Valourous 16/Cowardly 4 - less brave. The passions, in the right amounts and combinations also give bonuses towards being knightly or religious. The genius of this system is that it links the characters actions directly to their aspirations and you live with the consequences of your actions, sometimes painfully. A Religious knight that falls from the tenets of his chosen path will become a fallen knight and must do deeds to make amends. Far better than any silly alignment system.
Glory: Glory is the ranking system for knights - a knight with 1500 Glory 'outranks' a knight with 1450 by popular acclaim. You get glory by a number of means - mostly battle, deeds and presence at great events. You also get glory by just surviving and being a knight. This really underlines that you are playing an ARTHURIAN game rather than a fantasy game. You meld the actions of the adventurous knight and the medieval lord together as one.
Year-to-Session Play: Each session encompasses one whole year of play. It starts with a Spring Court, then knightly adventuring, then whatever service your Lord requires and then the Winter Court and the bluebooked Winter Phase. This seems wholly at odds to the previous games we have played where one session might encompass three hours and an entire campaign might have lasted one summer of bloody conflict. Again, it is the modelling of the ARTHURIAN aspect of the game that we see here. The swathe of the Arthurian mythos is played against a historical backdrop and you can only really appreciate that if you are moving through that backdrop at a reasonable rate of knots. The actions of medieval knights were maintained around short bursts of indentured warfare and then lots of mundane rogering, healing and harvesting. It models the genre beautifully.
So how do we, very story-based players, handle this strange system?
The first thing I would suggest is to embrace the basic heart of the game and that is that it still revolves around the characters. We have already seen Excalibur and aided Merlin, in a very small and dismissive manner. However, we are essentially 'First Level Knights' interacting amidst 20th Level Druids! I'm pretty sure that our actions will catapult us to knightly stardom and we will soon be the movers and shakers in the Court of Earl Roderick.
Secondly, we have to grab our chances to roleplay when we can and create the tensions and conflicts that we are used to dealing with. So if Sir Guillame challenges me to lead a charge and I do, he damned well owes me a challenge - even if it is at a feast. If Sir Guillame fathers a bastard child by a lady in waiting, he will have to pay the consequences. Alongside that I also feel that we have a responsibility as players to badger the referee senseless for details, especially of the meta-history in the background. Whats happening with the Saxons? Are they near Sarum? Why were we left on garrison duty when we could have been fighting? etc.
Finally, I think we have to realise that this is a very different style of roleplaying. And thats not in a bad way either. This is ARTHURIAN roleplaying and as such mirrors the genre tropes of the source material - be that dark ages poetry, Mallory, T.H.White, Cornwell, Zimmer-Bradley or even Geoffrey of Monmouth! The mechanics of the game mirror and model these genre tropes brilliantly and if you use them as a tool that acts in the background to reinforce the game, it allows this new style of roleplay to come fully to fruition.
It has indeed, picqued my interest on whether the same type of system could be adapted to mirror other historical roleplay scenarios? I've never seen a game that centres around say, the heroes of Ancient Greece, but I can see a derivative Pendragon system working there too.
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Double Decker Buses
As in two come at once.
The demise of P&P has meant that another referee, Nigel, has stepped into the breach and like buffoons we have started The Great Pendragon Campaign. Hot off the press, this is a massive expansion and revamp of the classic 'Boy King' supplement. It will take YEARS to complete. It is ludicrous to even consider that we would do it. It's bloody great!
I love Pendragon. I love every bit of the system because it drips flavour. My character is Brion O'Hara, the son of an irish squire from Skye. He's a big lad with red hair, strong, good with the spear and the horse and a master of the hounds. I am ignoring his Orate 10 because frankly, anything sniffing of Bard would drive me insane with my self-stereotyping.
As with all textbook Pendragon games, we are vassals of Sir Roderick (and yes, we did the joke) in Sarum, Logres. We were knighted (and the big lug made his horse vault as well!), we have our demenses. We met some etheral woman, met challenges, found pledged wives and fought saxons to a stand-off in our first massed battle. Brion even distinguished himself by leading the charge on his new uber-fast horse after being challenged by one of our gallic brothers.
Great stuff. I loved it. I was buzzing at the game (which may have been the wine) and buzzing after the game. If we can keep the atmosphere and the general tone of the game, I think the characters are going to shine.
Now thats a lot more positive, isn't it?
Warcraft is plodding along. I have been turning attention to Gortessa in the end game a little and levelling Kylea (to 47 now) before she returns to the pvp arena. I have a feeling that the guild may be coming to an impasse as Burning Crusade approaches. A little more hardcore, a little less forgiving - a cull may be coming, the numpties should watch themselves!
I got Green Lantern#4 sent off to the editor at DC Infinity last week, which was a relief, and he gave the green light (ha! no pun intended) to a new title, Zatanna. That should be fun. Oh, and I was namechecked on Other People's Toys, a podcast about fanfic. It titilated me!
So, in general, whilst I am still knackered, things seem to have calmed down a little bit.
I do have a yearning though. I haven't been on a road trip for months. I'm getting itchy feet and that cannot be good.
Neil
The demise of P&P has meant that another referee, Nigel, has stepped into the breach and like buffoons we have started The Great Pendragon Campaign. Hot off the press, this is a massive expansion and revamp of the classic 'Boy King' supplement. It will take YEARS to complete. It is ludicrous to even consider that we would do it. It's bloody great!
I love Pendragon. I love every bit of the system because it drips flavour. My character is Brion O'Hara, the son of an irish squire from Skye. He's a big lad with red hair, strong, good with the spear and the horse and a master of the hounds. I am ignoring his Orate 10 because frankly, anything sniffing of Bard would drive me insane with my self-stereotyping.
As with all textbook Pendragon games, we are vassals of Sir Roderick (and yes, we did the joke) in Sarum, Logres. We were knighted (and the big lug made his horse vault as well!), we have our demenses. We met some etheral woman, met challenges, found pledged wives and fought saxons to a stand-off in our first massed battle. Brion even distinguished himself by leading the charge on his new uber-fast horse after being challenged by one of our gallic brothers.
Great stuff. I loved it. I was buzzing at the game (which may have been the wine) and buzzing after the game. If we can keep the atmosphere and the general tone of the game, I think the characters are going to shine.
Now thats a lot more positive, isn't it?
Warcraft is plodding along. I have been turning attention to Gortessa in the end game a little and levelling Kylea (to 47 now) before she returns to the pvp arena. I have a feeling that the guild may be coming to an impasse as Burning Crusade approaches. A little more hardcore, a little less forgiving - a cull may be coming, the numpties should watch themselves!
I got Green Lantern#4 sent off to the editor at DC Infinity last week, which was a relief, and he gave the green light (ha! no pun intended) to a new title, Zatanna. That should be fun. Oh, and I was namechecked on Other People's Toys, a podcast about fanfic. It titilated me!
So, in general, whilst I am still knackered, things seem to have calmed down a little bit.
I do have a yearning though. I haven't been on a road trip for months. I'm getting itchy feet and that cannot be good.
Neil
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Arse! (will contain profanity)
Well, I have to say that I am totally and utterly arsed off with life at the moment. For the last few years I have been waging a silent and not-so-silent war against real life and advancing 'age' and the battle ground has been my plethora of hobbies.
Yesterday I realised that I may have met a rather metaphoric Waterloo.
Over the years, I have had to rationalise a number of the things that I do in order to compensate for the responsibilities of married life and fatherhood. No longer can I travel the length and breadth of the country playing cards. No longer can I watch the Wrestling Channel at the drop of a hat. No longer can I roleplay every weekend and alternating week nights etc. No longer can I be a slave to a far away company and their website.
However, changes in my workplace have meant that I am now, at my traditionally busiest time of the year doing not one (Marketing Manager), not two (Marketing Manager and Marketing Sales Assistant) but THREE (Marketing Manager, Marketing Sales Assistant and Print Shop Administrator) jobs. Thats a lot of work and a lot of mental fatigue. I thought I could handle it. I suppose I can, but the side effects are hellish. In short, I am mentally (and increasingly physically) knackered.
So whats the effect been?
- I have, after much thought and soul searching, had to cancel Pulsars and Privateers. This was not an easy decision because it may have further implications for my play group than simply the end of a game. I don't feel easy doing it, but in the end I had to face up to the fact that I was simply unable to raise my enthusiasm and creativity out of the gutter when I returned from work to do ANY preparatory work for the project. Normally, I can feed off the enthusiasm of others as well, but a number of the players have been on holiday or had life stresses of their own and you cannot rely on that. Hopefully, a Pendragon game is going to spring from the ashes, but for the next seven months I think I can safely say that my tenure as the Iron GM has concluded.
- I now grab maybe half an hours wrestling TV a week because I have simply lost the ability to stay up late and watch it and the kids holidays have allowed them to encamp the teatime telly. It really really exposes the child in you when you have to exert Daddy Power Privilege to get to see the week old repeat of RAW!
- I've been passing on raids in Warcraft a little more than usual because I am simply too tired to go through the repeated tasks over and over again. Sure I'm still playing but that's more because it is almost an effortless pursuit.
- Did I mention that I'm writing fanfic again? In a week 'off work' - where I did little else but think about work - I wrote four paragraphs of one issue. Not through the want of trying, more through the want of sleeping!
- I have an RPG group on the horizon playing in a superhero game but everytime I sit down to write out some details on the character, my mind is a blank. It may happen - the GM is churning out some quality background guff for it - but in the end I'm sceptical. Our first character generation session was cancelled due to a last minute withdrawal by one of the players for no specific reason. Deja vu?
So here I am - drained - absolutely fucking drained. I'm so absorbed with the pressures of work that I cannot even muster the energy to have a self-brainstorming session on the Metro like I used to do, because every time I do, it just resets back to thinking about the next piece of work that needs to be done and how little time I have to do it.
Pretty much hobbywise at my lowest ebb. Which is shite.
Hey, if this is the bottom of the glass, maybe it's time for a refill?
Neil
Yesterday I realised that I may have met a rather metaphoric Waterloo.
Over the years, I have had to rationalise a number of the things that I do in order to compensate for the responsibilities of married life and fatherhood. No longer can I travel the length and breadth of the country playing cards. No longer can I watch the Wrestling Channel at the drop of a hat. No longer can I roleplay every weekend and alternating week nights etc. No longer can I be a slave to a far away company and their website.
However, changes in my workplace have meant that I am now, at my traditionally busiest time of the year doing not one (Marketing Manager), not two (Marketing Manager and Marketing Sales Assistant) but THREE (Marketing Manager, Marketing Sales Assistant and Print Shop Administrator) jobs. Thats a lot of work and a lot of mental fatigue. I thought I could handle it. I suppose I can, but the side effects are hellish. In short, I am mentally (and increasingly physically) knackered.
So whats the effect been?
- I have, after much thought and soul searching, had to cancel Pulsars and Privateers. This was not an easy decision because it may have further implications for my play group than simply the end of a game. I don't feel easy doing it, but in the end I had to face up to the fact that I was simply unable to raise my enthusiasm and creativity out of the gutter when I returned from work to do ANY preparatory work for the project. Normally, I can feed off the enthusiasm of others as well, but a number of the players have been on holiday or had life stresses of their own and you cannot rely on that. Hopefully, a Pendragon game is going to spring from the ashes, but for the next seven months I think I can safely say that my tenure as the Iron GM has concluded.
- I now grab maybe half an hours wrestling TV a week because I have simply lost the ability to stay up late and watch it and the kids holidays have allowed them to encamp the teatime telly. It really really exposes the child in you when you have to exert Daddy Power Privilege to get to see the week old repeat of RAW!
- I've been passing on raids in Warcraft a little more than usual because I am simply too tired to go through the repeated tasks over and over again. Sure I'm still playing but that's more because it is almost an effortless pursuit.
- Did I mention that I'm writing fanfic again? In a week 'off work' - where I did little else but think about work - I wrote four paragraphs of one issue. Not through the want of trying, more through the want of sleeping!
- I have an RPG group on the horizon playing in a superhero game but everytime I sit down to write out some details on the character, my mind is a blank. It may happen - the GM is churning out some quality background guff for it - but in the end I'm sceptical. Our first character generation session was cancelled due to a last minute withdrawal by one of the players for no specific reason. Deja vu?
So here I am - drained - absolutely fucking drained. I'm so absorbed with the pressures of work that I cannot even muster the energy to have a self-brainstorming session on the Metro like I used to do, because every time I do, it just resets back to thinking about the next piece of work that needs to be done and how little time I have to do it.
Pretty much hobbywise at my lowest ebb. Which is shite.
Hey, if this is the bottom of the glass, maybe it's time for a refill?
Neil
Monday, July 24, 2006
Horde Paladins and the End of the World Show
World of Warcraft is coming to an end. No really. Ignore the burgeoning conflict in the middle east or the crumbling edifice that once was our democratic system. The real drama is the utter and contemptuous destruction of SACRED LORE within World of Warcraft. You see, after the new expansion, the new Horde race will be able to create the formerly alliance-only class of paladin and the new Alliance race will be able to create the formerly horde-only class of shamen.
ZOMG!
I have never in the entire history of the game seen such concentrated wailing, screaming and gnashing of teeth and general grief that something as horrendous as this could be being brought into play. People are now constantly threatening to quit the game and worse. It is hilarious.
OK, lets take some of the 'facts' being quoted and see whether they stand up:
1. THERE IS NO MORE DIVERSITY IN THE GAME
Apparently, the only thing that seperated Alliance and Horde was the Paladin/Shaman thing. Hot races and geography and starting areas and lore and quests and quest hubs. No. Two classes. A subset of these whines have been the people who have realised that the game isn't actually that diverse *shock* Only about a year late on that one then...
2. THE LORE! THE SACRED LORE! THINK ABOUT THE LORE!
Yes, apparently this change is 'against Lore'. Lore, for those that don't know, is the word used for the established backstory of Warcraft, as established through the three Warcraft games and their expansions. It explains who, for example, Thrall is, where he came from and why he never moves from his throne in Orgrimmar. For an elite subset of folks, for whom Lore is everything, changes to Lore are devastating. It's heinous. How could it happen? What's even better is they think they have more of a connection to the lore than the developers at Blizzard or even the Chief Lore Monkey at Blizz. NEWSFLASH - they don't call them developers for nothing. The Lore is not held in a static holding pattern at the end of WC3. It moves, it develops and it changes. All ready, WoW has introduced new places, new legends, a massive joint effort on behalf of both sides in Silithus and at Naxxaramas. Things change, the lore changes.
Oh and there is nothing so hilrious as someone called 'IPWNNOOBS' crying about the fate of the blessed lore....
3. IT's IMBA!
Thats 'imbalanced' for those of us still capable of using real language. Yes, apparently the changes will make the horde/alliance imbalanced in pvp/pve and thus cause the demise of existing paladins/shaman (delete where applicable...). Now, historians of the Warcraft forums will know that two of the major threads that have been flying around for ages have been:
ZOMG!
I have never in the entire history of the game seen such concentrated wailing, screaming and gnashing of teeth and general grief that something as horrendous as this could be being brought into play. People are now constantly threatening to quit the game and worse. It is hilarious.
OK, lets take some of the 'facts' being quoted and see whether they stand up:
1. THERE IS NO MORE DIVERSITY IN THE GAME
Apparently, the only thing that seperated Alliance and Horde was the Paladin/Shaman thing. Hot races and geography and starting areas and lore and quests and quest hubs. No. Two classes. A subset of these whines have been the people who have realised that the game isn't actually that diverse *shock* Only about a year late on that one then...
2. THE LORE! THE SACRED LORE! THINK ABOUT THE LORE!
Yes, apparently this change is 'against Lore'. Lore, for those that don't know, is the word used for the established backstory of Warcraft, as established through the three Warcraft games and their expansions. It explains who, for example, Thrall is, where he came from and why he never moves from his throne in Orgrimmar. For an elite subset of folks, for whom Lore is everything, changes to Lore are devastating. It's heinous. How could it happen? What's even better is they think they have more of a connection to the lore than the developers at Blizzard or even the Chief Lore Monkey at Blizz. NEWSFLASH - they don't call them developers for nothing. The Lore is not held in a static holding pattern at the end of WC3. It moves, it develops and it changes. All ready, WoW has introduced new places, new legends, a massive joint effort on behalf of both sides in Silithus and at Naxxaramas. Things change, the lore changes.
Oh and there is nothing so hilrious as someone called 'IPWNNOOBS' crying about the fate of the blessed lore....
3. IT's IMBA!
Thats 'imbalanced' for those of us still capable of using real language. Yes, apparently the changes will make the horde/alliance imbalanced in pvp/pve and thus cause the demise of existing paladins/shaman (delete where applicable...). Now, historians of the Warcraft forums will know that two of the major threads that have been flying around for ages have been:
- Nerf Shaman because they are IMBA with their totems and shocks and self res
- Nerf Paladins because they are IMBA with their blessing and healing and bubbles
So now, each side is equal and still apparenly it is IMBA? /sigh
4. IT IS THE DEATH OF SHAMAN
I'm going to make a generalisation here - paladins have more pvp useability than shaman. I could be wrong, but the whining voices of 1000 posters couldn't be wrong, could they? The question being raised is - why would you put a shaman into a raid when you could have a paladin? Now, coming from a guild where we have a pretty laise faire attitude to class allocations this seems a little mad, but upon closer examination... We know that we have a problem sometimes with Shaman who think of themselves as Mages in Chainmail rather than Priests with Shocks. Getting some of our Shaman to heal is a nightmare - indeed on a recent raid two shaman were outhealed by a bandaging warlock! Paladins are more actively used as healers and therefore they are, apparently, less likely to suffer this culture shock. And they have blessings and blessings are far more useful than bloody totems!
However, to all the shaman who are bemoaning the demise of their raid place, my only reaction is ... cry me a river! As a feral druid I have HAD to change the way I play and the equipment I wear to become a raid healer. Why? Because thats the part of my hybrid class that the raid needs me to do the most. So what makes you think you are so special that your horridly mana inefficient burst dps is going to make a snot of difference to the raid? Adapt your class to the raiding mentality or be cast aside. I have a L60 Shaman and I would be hard pressed to justify her coming to MC because I could not see where I could be of assistance with anything like the utility that my druid does.
5. ITS AN EASY BALANCE TO THE GAME
And saving the silliest to the last - apparently it is a quick cop-out on balancing the sides. Let me see - I'm at work and we have a problem, and we have a quick, efficient easy solution that answers a number of other problems we have faced and cuts development time on future products down too. Do we take it? Hmmm.... well, the only reason not to would be if it was going to be a massive marketing looser.
And herein lies the real comedy of this all - EVERY SINGLE CHANGE MADE TO WORLD OF WARCRAFT IS MET WITH THE SAME REACTION - and therefore the WoW community has fallen into the trap of the boy that cried wolf. If you are going to leave en masse in a protest at the raping of the SACRED LORE then for Gods sake, do so now. NOW. Not later, N-O-W. Because Blizz have grown used to the willy waving and the sabre-rattling and they simply will not reverse their huge plans for you. Mr 14-year old computer user who will next year discover sex and never play their game again.
Change - learn to love it, or living in angsty horror for the rest of your days!
Neil
More advert madness
Another day, another hilarious advert, this time for Boots Soltan (I think) - a suntan lotion. The crux of their arguement is that 'if you realised that 50% of your childs exposure to UV rays was during the summer holidays, you would protect them too!' - accompanied, of course, by the sweating, tanned picture of some waif on a lilo.
Lets think about that for a second. 52 weeks in the year right? In Newcastle we are lucky if we get anything that could be reasonably called direct sunlight between October and March. Thats six months of the year. So 26 weeks of the year have gone already.
Right, of the other 26 weeks or 182 days we have Easter, Whit and Summer school holidays. A total of 9 weeks off school. For the remaining 17 weeks, the kids are indoors during the majority of the sunshine. 85 days of school, resulting in a max of 1 hour per day sunshine (at lunchtime) and 34 days of weekend, for the purposes of this experiment, say 6 hours each weekend day. Thats 289 scorching hours of sunshine.
During the two shorter holidays, again assuming that the cherubs get 7 days of blistering sun and spend 6 hours out, baking - we have another 126 hours of sun.
So outside the summer holidays, assuming a roasting year of sun and nothing else but sunbathing, the combined total for the year sans summer hols is 415 hours of sun.
During the summer holidays, we have six weeks and six hours of sun, a paltry 252 hours of solar illness.
Hmmm...I detect sums that aren't adding up... Maybe the sunshine stuff gets more intense during the summer, that must be it? Regardless I suggest that if for the rest of the year, during the times when the sun is in the sky, the kids are either under a cover of clouds or in a classroom it makes perfect sense that they should get the majority of their exposure to sunshine when the sun in clearly in the sky and they are outside!
Neil
Lets think about that for a second. 52 weeks in the year right? In Newcastle we are lucky if we get anything that could be reasonably called direct sunlight between October and March. Thats six months of the year. So 26 weeks of the year have gone already.
Right, of the other 26 weeks or 182 days we have Easter, Whit and Summer school holidays. A total of 9 weeks off school. For the remaining 17 weeks, the kids are indoors during the majority of the sunshine. 85 days of school, resulting in a max of 1 hour per day sunshine (at lunchtime) and 34 days of weekend, for the purposes of this experiment, say 6 hours each weekend day. Thats 289 scorching hours of sunshine.
During the two shorter holidays, again assuming that the cherubs get 7 days of blistering sun and spend 6 hours out, baking - we have another 126 hours of sun.
So outside the summer holidays, assuming a roasting year of sun and nothing else but sunbathing, the combined total for the year sans summer hols is 415 hours of sun.
During the summer holidays, we have six weeks and six hours of sun, a paltry 252 hours of solar illness.
Hmmm...I detect sums that aren't adding up... Maybe the sunshine stuff gets more intense during the summer, that must be it? Regardless I suggest that if for the rest of the year, during the times when the sun is in the sky, the kids are either under a cover of clouds or in a classroom it makes perfect sense that they should get the majority of their exposure to sunshine when the sun in clearly in the sky and they are outside!
Neil
Thursday, July 20, 2006
The Wall
Sometimes, even the nicest things can throw up unexpected problems.
I have been recruited to play in a Mutants and Masterminds campaign. This makes me all sorts of happy. Firstly, because I get to play, secondly because it's M&M and thirdly because of the new experience side of it. It's has the potential to be quite an eye-opener after playing within the same group for umpteen years.
I have had the basic influences of the campaign explained to me by the GM, Ben. It's going to be a campaign similar to The Ultimates and The Authority, whilst not having the same power level of the latter. I'm imagining a rather Morrison-/Millar-esque tone to the entire thing. This is exactly what I wanted. Giddy, I am...giddy!
So, I now have the chance to create a character. As always, I create the stated up character alongside the more fluffy side of the character because I have always found that I gain some degree of synergy from the process. I have my spanking new copy of M&M2 (which is very nice) and I am indeed, ready to rumble.
Or am I?
I suddenly realised that this is it. On balance of probability this is the only character I am going to be able to play for a fair while. Being 'The Iron GM' is a wonderful thing, but as playing comes few and far between, you want to get it right. When we dabbled with Exalted, I got it all sorts of wrong. My idiot brawling giant was a great concept and a cracking character but the limitations that he had made him a very awkward vessel to explore the setting with. Total play time, maybe two sessions. I had an Arab teacher (Bard....) in a nice medieval D20 D&D game - that was much better but he was still a very cunning niche character that played great in his particular arena, but not magnificently elsewhere. Total play time, two sessions. I also had a warrior (of barbaric origins) in our rotating DM game of D20 D&D. That was much better in that he was a very basic character which roamed around within the setting. Total play time, four sessions I believe.
Hey, throw in two sessions of the infamous Shadowrun game and I've had 10 weeks playing in five years. What am I complaining about?!
So the mission is to make a relatively generic character who isn't designed into a corner. Something that can run with the campaign.
At this point I thought, hey - why not access your encyclopedic knowledge of the comic genre and see what you can come up with?
Guess what I came up against? THE WALL
Too much knowledge is a bad thing folks. Every power in the book is a 'oh, I could do that with this and then...oh no, what about this. Oh and that!'
Maybe it's not a wall. Maybe I'm a kid locked in a sweetshop desperately trying to find the key and the great sweets without stumbling outside grasping onto a bag of parma violets.
More later. This isn't as easy as I thought.
Neil
I have been recruited to play in a Mutants and Masterminds campaign. This makes me all sorts of happy. Firstly, because I get to play, secondly because it's M&M and thirdly because of the new experience side of it. It's has the potential to be quite an eye-opener after playing within the same group for umpteen years.
I have had the basic influences of the campaign explained to me by the GM, Ben. It's going to be a campaign similar to The Ultimates and The Authority, whilst not having the same power level of the latter. I'm imagining a rather Morrison-/Millar-esque tone to the entire thing. This is exactly what I wanted. Giddy, I am...giddy!
So, I now have the chance to create a character. As always, I create the stated up character alongside the more fluffy side of the character because I have always found that I gain some degree of synergy from the process. I have my spanking new copy of M&M2 (which is very nice) and I am indeed, ready to rumble.
Or am I?
I suddenly realised that this is it. On balance of probability this is the only character I am going to be able to play for a fair while. Being 'The Iron GM' is a wonderful thing, but as playing comes few and far between, you want to get it right. When we dabbled with Exalted, I got it all sorts of wrong. My idiot brawling giant was a great concept and a cracking character but the limitations that he had made him a very awkward vessel to explore the setting with. Total play time, maybe two sessions. I had an Arab teacher (Bard....) in a nice medieval D20 D&D game - that was much better but he was still a very cunning niche character that played great in his particular arena, but not magnificently elsewhere. Total play time, two sessions. I also had a warrior (of barbaric origins) in our rotating DM game of D20 D&D. That was much better in that he was a very basic character which roamed around within the setting. Total play time, four sessions I believe.
Hey, throw in two sessions of the infamous Shadowrun game and I've had 10 weeks playing in five years. What am I complaining about?!
So the mission is to make a relatively generic character who isn't designed into a corner. Something that can run with the campaign.
At this point I thought, hey - why not access your encyclopedic knowledge of the comic genre and see what you can come up with?
Guess what I came up against? THE WALL
Too much knowledge is a bad thing folks. Every power in the book is a 'oh, I could do that with this and then...oh no, what about this. Oh and that!'
Maybe it's not a wall. Maybe I'm a kid locked in a sweetshop desperately trying to find the key and the great sweets without stumbling outside grasping onto a bag of parma violets.
More later. This isn't as easy as I thought.
Neil
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
A Sign of the Apocalypse
http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/sayuncle/trailer/
Finally, madness has come full circle. Yes folks, a comedy film about a man who has a natural affinity with children being victimised as a paedophile. What next?
Neil
Finally, madness has come full circle. Yes folks, a comedy film about a man who has a natural affinity with children being victimised as a paedophile. What next?
Neil
BREAKING NEWS: RolePLAYING on the cards?
I received an email last night from a friend asking to be part of a new Mutants and Masterminds campaign that he is starting. Me, actually playing, in a superhero game? For the first time since 1988?
I'm giddy with excitement!
Neil
I'm giddy with excitement!
Neil
Addiction Overload
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/5034756.stm
http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=274459
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf9kX6ujz9w
Three things in two days is going to provoke a reaction from me. This is one topic that strikes close to home and really (REALLY) annoys me.
As a society, we are obsessed with obsession. Our pursual of normalisation with culture has created a monster that condemns those who are somehow different and the weapon of choice is the accusation of obsession and addiction. And what a wonderful weapon it is as well because it latches onto two phenomena.
The first is social norms. It is very easy to accuse someone of addiction if they do something out of the ordinary. Something strange. Dare I say geeky. Secondly, it is an unbeatable arguement because any attempt to defend yourself is met with the panacea of 'denial'. Echoes of middle age ducking stool interrogations methinks?
Online gaming is a major target for the obsession obsessed at the moment and naturally it is something that has effected me. I play World of Warcraft a lot. Usually a couple of hours every night (when I am in the house). And yes, I have been accused of being addicted to it. Which, I have to say, is a load of bollocks.
The truth of the matter is that it is a past-time that I enjoy, that helps me relax and that allows me to stay in contact with my friends from the comfort of my own living room. I have a family and the responsibilities that come with that, so I cannot be out roleplaying and card playing and pubbing three or four nights a week anymore. However, I see no reason not to socialise with my mates. The internet (as a medium of communication) allows that. I can sit, watch the TV, play WoW, talk to my wife - all at the same time. Thats decent time management in my book.
However, one of the real bugbears of my interaction with this subject is the issue of stopping and letting people down. Note in the (actually very funny) advert, the woman expects the man to stop playing as soon as she approaches him with the offer of sex? The expectation I and many of my friends have met, is that playing Warcraft is like reading a book or drawing a picture. Something that you can drop instantly and pick up again.
Really, it isn't. In virtually all activities you are working as part of a group and have an essential part of that group. In our game, I am a healer and my job is to keep people's characters alive. If I walk away in the middle of an encounter for a quick shag, those characters WILL 'die' and that means that everyone I am playing with will be inconvenienced. In fact, if I go AWOL in the wrong place I can create a situation where the entire event will have to stop. Now, no doubt some of you are reading this and thinking - so what? It's only a game?.
Next time you are say, playing a game of football, take the goalkeeper away from the game. What would the reaction be? Would he be able to say 'sorry lads, it's just a game...wife wanted a shag ASAP!'. Imagine a horse race where the jockey you backed pulled up and got off his horse for three minutes to check out a nice patch of greenery?
Just not going to happen is it?
Time is another factor that enters into these calls of obsession quite a lot. The length of time played in one 'sitting'. Now, lets consider how long some other activities take? Like golf? A proper game of tennis? A long hike up a mountain? Going to see Pirates of the Caribeean II? A night out on the beers with the lads?
Not really short passages of time are they?
However, they are all socially acceptable because the Obsession Obsessed cannot rally against anything socially accaptable like sport, outdoor pursuits, cinema or face-to-face social interaction*. ANYTHING involving technology is fair game though. Open house for the OOs to vent their spleen.
Don't misunderstand my ranting - I know that there are many people who are truly addicted to gaming. Those people that take time off work to game, that pull sickies to game, that care more about the game than their families, those that spend inordinate amounts of money they cannot afford on gaming and those that game for so long that it makes them ill. They all need help.
However there are some of us that have a happy balance between our gaming hobby and our private lives and our work lives. Sure, sometimes things need a little tweaking - more often between work and private, than private and hobby. But please don't just knee-jerk and associate everyone who games with obsessive buffoons who cannot differentiate life from pixels
Neil
* I stand constantly amazed how, when it suits, going out on the piss is bona fide social interaction encouraged by society - whilst at other times it is virtually criminalised, akin to an attack by marauding hordes!
http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=274459
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf9kX6ujz9w
Three things in two days is going to provoke a reaction from me. This is one topic that strikes close to home and really (REALLY) annoys me.
As a society, we are obsessed with obsession. Our pursual of normalisation with culture has created a monster that condemns those who are somehow different and the weapon of choice is the accusation of obsession and addiction. And what a wonderful weapon it is as well because it latches onto two phenomena.
The first is social norms. It is very easy to accuse someone of addiction if they do something out of the ordinary. Something strange. Dare I say geeky. Secondly, it is an unbeatable arguement because any attempt to defend yourself is met with the panacea of 'denial'. Echoes of middle age ducking stool interrogations methinks?
Online gaming is a major target for the obsession obsessed at the moment and naturally it is something that has effected me. I play World of Warcraft a lot. Usually a couple of hours every night (when I am in the house). And yes, I have been accused of being addicted to it. Which, I have to say, is a load of bollocks.
The truth of the matter is that it is a past-time that I enjoy, that helps me relax and that allows me to stay in contact with my friends from the comfort of my own living room. I have a family and the responsibilities that come with that, so I cannot be out roleplaying and card playing and pubbing three or four nights a week anymore. However, I see no reason not to socialise with my mates. The internet (as a medium of communication) allows that. I can sit, watch the TV, play WoW, talk to my wife - all at the same time. Thats decent time management in my book.
However, one of the real bugbears of my interaction with this subject is the issue of stopping and letting people down. Note in the (actually very funny) advert, the woman expects the man to stop playing as soon as she approaches him with the offer of sex? The expectation I and many of my friends have met, is that playing Warcraft is like reading a book or drawing a picture. Something that you can drop instantly and pick up again.
Really, it isn't. In virtually all activities you are working as part of a group and have an essential part of that group. In our game, I am a healer and my job is to keep people's characters alive. If I walk away in the middle of an encounter for a quick shag, those characters WILL 'die' and that means that everyone I am playing with will be inconvenienced. In fact, if I go AWOL in the wrong place I can create a situation where the entire event will have to stop. Now, no doubt some of you are reading this and thinking - so what? It's only a game?.
Next time you are say, playing a game of football, take the goalkeeper away from the game. What would the reaction be? Would he be able to say 'sorry lads, it's just a game...wife wanted a shag ASAP!'. Imagine a horse race where the jockey you backed pulled up and got off his horse for three minutes to check out a nice patch of greenery?
Just not going to happen is it?
Time is another factor that enters into these calls of obsession quite a lot. The length of time played in one 'sitting'. Now, lets consider how long some other activities take? Like golf? A proper game of tennis? A long hike up a mountain? Going to see Pirates of the Caribeean II? A night out on the beers with the lads?
Not really short passages of time are they?
However, they are all socially acceptable because the Obsession Obsessed cannot rally against anything socially accaptable like sport, outdoor pursuits, cinema or face-to-face social interaction*. ANYTHING involving technology is fair game though. Open house for the OOs to vent their spleen.
Don't misunderstand my ranting - I know that there are many people who are truly addicted to gaming. Those people that take time off work to game, that pull sickies to game, that care more about the game than their families, those that spend inordinate amounts of money they cannot afford on gaming and those that game for so long that it makes them ill. They all need help.
However there are some of us that have a happy balance between our gaming hobby and our private lives and our work lives. Sure, sometimes things need a little tweaking - more often between work and private, than private and hobby. But please don't just knee-jerk and associate everyone who games with obsessive buffoons who cannot differentiate life from pixels
Neil
* I stand constantly amazed how, when it suits, going out on the piss is bona fide social interaction encouraged by society - whilst at other times it is virtually criminalised, akin to an attack by marauding hordes!
Thursday, July 13, 2006
How NOT to have a WOW Holiday
I rarely get free holiday time. Much of my work occurs during the summer and as such my holiday time is split into occassional days. This means that I rarely get to holiday with my family. Sad, I know, but you have to live with it. So the last two days I took off were a chance to just loaf around the house and do nothing.
Catch that euphimism for playing Warcraft?
So on Tuesday morning I waved my wife off to work and happily logged on, ready for a days adventuring in Azeroth. Sadly, no-one else had decided that this particular Tuesday was a good day to join me. I could have logged in on Gorthaal and done ... something, but essentially he's my Raid character and he was parked at Dustwallow ready for the assault on Onyxia. I could have farmed with Gortessa, but everywhere I want to farm I have to compete with bots which annoys me no-end. So I logged onto Kylea in the hope of pushing my PvP Rank to the exalted heights of .... 3!
Kylea is an interesting experiment - I have decided that I should try PvP, if only to see what I have been missing. I have been missing a lot apparently, because I have been loving it. Very interesting situations and interesting group interactions. Most of the time, now that I have the hang of things, we win 3-0. We lost once on Tuesday because the raid leader instructed our flag carrier (who had the flag in our flagroom, we were at 2-2 and the Alliance had our flag somewhere) to hide, so they could hunt down our flag. Well, you can guess what happened?! However, the problem is that well, the Alliance don't like losing to they don't instantly sign up again, which we do, naturally. So you have to wait and wait and wait. Of course, I can't do anything else because Kylea is a nasty little L39 twink and if she levels she becomes dogfood in the 40-49 BGs. So ..... I levelled my fishing.
Oh the adventure of it all.
And then I was summoned to the ritual humiliation that is Sports Day. Youngest child, Emma, was participating for Yew house. Now this isn't your normal 100m, egg race, sack race style sports day. These are modern grouo-competitive sports like bean bag throwing and other nicities. Lots of happy parents watching their cherubs run around like loons. Lots of kids (including Emma, bless) running the relay and waving as she passed by. In the end, Yew came second and Elm won. Hurrah! Free icepops all round.
Home again and Onyxia got pwned, first time, by 33 people.....which personally, I thought was pretty impressive. It's obviously going to be a while before everyone gets their T2 Helms etc but it is definitely now on the raiding schedule.
So anyway, Wednesday comes and of course, it's maintainence so I do some writing and pottering and then log on again and find...exactly the same thing. The bots come on as soon as the server starts so farming is a nonsense. I cut some leather with Gorth to send to Dave to pass the time as I watch a DVD and then it's off to Sports Day part 2
Eldest daughter, Lara, is not an athlete in any description of the word although she has aspirations as a gymnast or a footballer. Neither, I believe, will come to fruition. Its actually quite hard as a parent to see a child motoring towards that inevitable time when her peers will tell her, bluntly, that she is too big and uncoordinated and no, she can't be on their team - but she can help them with their homework. I was there once and I know how hurtful it can be, especially for one so innocent and trusting as Lara. Anyway, sports day was more advanced with hurdles and relays and such. Elm, Laras house, came second. Hurrah! Free icepops all round.
One thing I did notice was the propensity, even at that young age, for the little buggers to cheat in any way, shape or form. I wonder whether the headmasters much vaunted School Code has anything in it about cheating? Hmmm....
WoW was dull again in the evening. The majority of the guild were in Zul Gurub and once again I had precious little to do. I was tired, I put some shelves up. I ate. Zzzzzz.
So, two days holiday and nothing really achieved? The lesson here? Be more bloody productive with what precious time you have available to you - and avoid sports days!
Catch that euphimism for playing Warcraft?
So on Tuesday morning I waved my wife off to work and happily logged on, ready for a days adventuring in Azeroth. Sadly, no-one else had decided that this particular Tuesday was a good day to join me. I could have logged in on Gorthaal and done ... something, but essentially he's my Raid character and he was parked at Dustwallow ready for the assault on Onyxia. I could have farmed with Gortessa, but everywhere I want to farm I have to compete with bots which annoys me no-end. So I logged onto Kylea in the hope of pushing my PvP Rank to the exalted heights of .... 3!
Kylea is an interesting experiment - I have decided that I should try PvP, if only to see what I have been missing. I have been missing a lot apparently, because I have been loving it. Very interesting situations and interesting group interactions. Most of the time, now that I have the hang of things, we win 3-0. We lost once on Tuesday because the raid leader instructed our flag carrier (who had the flag in our flagroom, we were at 2-2 and the Alliance had our flag somewhere) to hide, so they could hunt down our flag. Well, you can guess what happened?! However, the problem is that well, the Alliance don't like losing to they don't instantly sign up again, which we do, naturally. So you have to wait and wait and wait. Of course, I can't do anything else because Kylea is a nasty little L39 twink and if she levels she becomes dogfood in the 40-49 BGs. So ..... I levelled my fishing.
Oh the adventure of it all.
And then I was summoned to the ritual humiliation that is Sports Day. Youngest child, Emma, was participating for Yew house. Now this isn't your normal 100m, egg race, sack race style sports day. These are modern grouo-competitive sports like bean bag throwing and other nicities. Lots of happy parents watching their cherubs run around like loons. Lots of kids (including Emma, bless) running the relay and waving as she passed by. In the end, Yew came second and Elm won. Hurrah! Free icepops all round.
Home again and Onyxia got pwned, first time, by 33 people.....which personally, I thought was pretty impressive. It's obviously going to be a while before everyone gets their T2 Helms etc but it is definitely now on the raiding schedule.
So anyway, Wednesday comes and of course, it's maintainence so I do some writing and pottering and then log on again and find...exactly the same thing. The bots come on as soon as the server starts so farming is a nonsense. I cut some leather with Gorth to send to Dave to pass the time as I watch a DVD and then it's off to Sports Day part 2
Eldest daughter, Lara, is not an athlete in any description of the word although she has aspirations as a gymnast or a footballer. Neither, I believe, will come to fruition. Its actually quite hard as a parent to see a child motoring towards that inevitable time when her peers will tell her, bluntly, that she is too big and uncoordinated and no, she can't be on their team - but she can help them with their homework. I was there once and I know how hurtful it can be, especially for one so innocent and trusting as Lara. Anyway, sports day was more advanced with hurdles and relays and such. Elm, Laras house, came second. Hurrah! Free icepops all round.
One thing I did notice was the propensity, even at that young age, for the little buggers to cheat in any way, shape or form. I wonder whether the headmasters much vaunted School Code has anything in it about cheating? Hmmm....
WoW was dull again in the evening. The majority of the guild were in Zul Gurub and once again I had precious little to do. I was tired, I put some shelves up. I ate. Zzzzzz.
So, two days holiday and nothing really achieved? The lesson here? Be more bloody productive with what precious time you have available to you - and avoid sports days!
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Hypocrisy
Getting away from hobbies for a moment, I need to vent my spleen on one of the aspects of modern life which I believe is strangling our civilisation - moral hypocrisy. Every day I am bombarded via the media and, by osmosis, the opinions of my friends and colleagues with a barrage of seemingly contradictory messages. It drives me mental. Here are a couple of my favourites of the moment:
The Great Food and Bodyshape Debacle.
Being fat is bad. Really bad. Being fat encourages heart attacks, asthma, diabetes and a number of other diseases and illnesses that costs the NHS £X billion pounds a year. Thats an unacceptable burden that the tax payer should not have to pay and is singularly the fault of the fat bastard.
Being thin is bad. Poor Keira Knightley (known universally as a stick insect) is so thin she MUST have anorexia. She really needs to pork up a little because she is a role model for hundreds of young girls.
What? The 100s of young girls that you have just scared senseless about the dire consequences of eating too much, now must eat enough to make them 'the perfect weight'? OK, everything in moderation - no-one is allowed to be fat and no-one is allowed to be thin. Well, expect female media stars like Brittney Spears who is vilified in the popular press for succumbing to the bodily ravages of having one child soon after another and has put on a few pounds. ZOMG! She's fat! She has let herself go! She must slim down NOW!
And then we have the food debacle that goes along with it! I have been following the case of William Guntrip, a kid who has been punished at school for selling his classmates sweets when they have been removed from school canteen. Fair enough, the school probably sees this as wrong but the reactions in the ever entertaining 'Metro' newspaper have been nothing short of hilarious. "[Guntrip] ...is little better that selling alcohol/drugs to addicts in rehabilitation"
The Jamie Oliver revolution continues apace with chubby kids being forced to run fat laps during games and the proposal that kids should be weighed and graded on their fitness as part of their school assessment.
Of course, this would all be great if we all ate the correct foods and this message is pummelled into us ad infinitum at the moment by either Findus or Birds Eye with the most annoying, patronising adverts I have ever witnessed. If you haven't seen them, they have found an actor that looks as near to Ray Mears as you can get without being accused of genetic modification and had him investigate the dodgy practices of the fishing industry. This includes the shocking revelations that cod which isn't frozen goes off quickly, farmed salmon has a colourant added to food to make it shocking pink like fresh salmon due to the lack of prawns in their diet and that fish fingers sometimes have preservatives in them. What makes the adverts so annoying is the way that the actor manages to look as if these revelations are as serious as say, discovering a sight of mass genocide or having your grandmother impaled on a spike before you. The utter disappointment he puts into his voice when he reveals 'I thought they were joking?' regarding fish flesh colour charts is Oscar nomination stuff. What the crafty fucker does so well is divert attention from the clever words in the advert - Findus never claim to not use stale cod in their meals, they just say it is frozen (not when, which is the issue). They say they use fresh salmon in their dishes, but they never mention that the colourant is only used sometimes and that by flying pacific salmon across the world, your nice steaks have not only contributed to over--fishing but the air freight emissions have blasted another chunk out of the ozone layer!
I remember a time when it was considered the height of political incorrectness to accuse a woman of being fat and to do such was to be enforcing a gender stereotype onto them. Nowadays, being fat is the last taboo. Unlike being black or gay or disabled it is something that you change and has a palpable cost to society - similarly, being too thin.
But what about other things with palpable costs to society? What about tobacco? What about alcohol (and I mean ALL alcohol, including Sherry!)? What about extreme sports? Hell, what about all sport? What about outward bounds exploits that force brave men and women to risk their lives because you were not competent enough to complete what you set out to do? What about David Walliams risking his life swimming the Channel?
All of these things, in theory, could cause the NHS to spend money on things that are avoidable by the performers....they should ALL be banned. We should live in a society where our every action has to be judged to minimalise risk of injury or illness lest we drain our scant resources. No? Then why pick on fat and thin people?
Why pick on William Guntrip for showing a little initiative to buck the system and stand up for the kids who want to eat sweets like their parents did in their school days. What Guntrip does at that age is frowned upon - trust me, in a few years time it will be called an Enterprise Unit at University and will get the lad a great degree. The entire thing is riddled with... hypocrisy.
The Two Johns: Reid and Prescott
We hate politicians. Whatever colour of rosette lies on their shirt we hate them. Why? Because they are the fractured gods of modern society. Flawed deities placed above us all, yet easily accessible. Trapped between the truth and the media, the modern politician is typified by the question-dodging cabinet minister being pursued by Jeremy Paxman to show one chink of vulnerability, yet knowing that one chink will be torn open to reveal a human and thus end their careers in the gods.
Except for Reid and Prescott.
Reid is termed as Blairs Enforcer - why? Because he tells a modicum of the truth. Reid's admission that his department was a shambles and needed twatting into shame from top to bottom was an amazing piece of politics. His unveiled threats to be sacking a number of high ranking civil servants was welcomed. His suggestion that we, the public, should look after our own neighbourhoods a little instead of waiting for someone to do it for us was too much for everyone involved.
I mean, God help us if we cannot look after ourselves! If we cannot forge communities and relationships with other human beings without the way it is done being prescribed in an Act fo Parliament. To suggest this was, apparently, condoning vigilantes. No, it was condemning people who sit, do nothing and whine that no-one helps them. The paladin against all evil, the Bobby on the Beat, does not police on his own - the community creates an atmosphere where wrong-doings are seen as unacceptable. And yes, that means that you sometimes might have to cross paths with a young kid who is doing something wrong - but talk to them, suggest an alternative action. Hell, have a laugh with them about it - it works you know?!
Alternatively, you might consider toning down your expectations of young people. In a society where gatherings of more than two kids seems to signify a riot in the making and the sight of a ball being kicked is the equivalent of the drawing of swords on a battlefield, it gives them little option but to be seen as toerags.
Of course, these are the kids that are out of the house, searching for somewhere to play or hang-out in our prescribed suburban jungle. Not like the fat ones, who are indoors playing on their computers. Naturally the fat ones should be outside (so they can be chased and told to go indoors) and the thinner ones should be indoors (where they can be accused of being sedintary and told to get out and play)
Sigh
And finally John Prescott. My god, what exactly has this man done to deserve this level of abuse? I'll tell you what he has done.... he's *shock* had an affair. Now, with the majority of marriages ending in divorce I'm going to bet that a fair few of the people who are lambasting him have ducked onto the other side during their partnerships.
But lets be fair, theres more than that! He did it on government property! He broke rules!
Lets be honest - a fat man in his late 50s with a face like a sack of spanners and the sex appeal of a pound of tripe managed, for sometime, to get his leg over with a younger, attractive woman....at the office. He didn't show her civil defence secrets, he didn't turn up to meet the survivors of a bomb attack smelling of vadge - he just got some sex.
In some circles, the man would be hailed as a hero!
But no, because then he was seen playing crochet with his staff. OH THE FUCKING NOES! I don't know what was worse - that he was the defacto 'PM in da House' at the time and should clearly have been bombing someone - or that the game he played was not Bar Billiards or Darts like a true Northern lad.
And now he spent a weekend at the ranch of a man he knew but whose business dealings had nothing to do with his department.
So, to sum it up, comedy fat guy gets shag, bunks off work early once and has weekend at ranch.
I'd hate to see what would have happened to him if he had oh, collapsed the economy, engineered an illegal war and occupation of another sovereign state, manipulated an election or ten, had dozens of people held without trial for being foriegn. You know, THE REAL PROBLEMS CAUSED BY GOVERNMENTS!!!
Gah!
And don't get me started on Sepp Blatter. Thats another entire column!
Neil
The Great Food and Bodyshape Debacle.
Being fat is bad. Really bad. Being fat encourages heart attacks, asthma, diabetes and a number of other diseases and illnesses that costs the NHS £X billion pounds a year. Thats an unacceptable burden that the tax payer should not have to pay and is singularly the fault of the fat bastard.
Being thin is bad. Poor Keira Knightley (known universally as a stick insect) is so thin she MUST have anorexia. She really needs to pork up a little because she is a role model for hundreds of young girls.
What? The 100s of young girls that you have just scared senseless about the dire consequences of eating too much, now must eat enough to make them 'the perfect weight'? OK, everything in moderation - no-one is allowed to be fat and no-one is allowed to be thin. Well, expect female media stars like Brittney Spears who is vilified in the popular press for succumbing to the bodily ravages of having one child soon after another and has put on a few pounds. ZOMG! She's fat! She has let herself go! She must slim down NOW!
And then we have the food debacle that goes along with it! I have been following the case of William Guntrip, a kid who has been punished at school for selling his classmates sweets when they have been removed from school canteen. Fair enough, the school probably sees this as wrong but the reactions in the ever entertaining 'Metro' newspaper have been nothing short of hilarious. "[Guntrip] ...is little better that selling alcohol/drugs to addicts in rehabilitation"
The Jamie Oliver revolution continues apace with chubby kids being forced to run fat laps during games and the proposal that kids should be weighed and graded on their fitness as part of their school assessment.
Of course, this would all be great if we all ate the correct foods and this message is pummelled into us ad infinitum at the moment by either Findus or Birds Eye with the most annoying, patronising adverts I have ever witnessed. If you haven't seen them, they have found an actor that looks as near to Ray Mears as you can get without being accused of genetic modification and had him investigate the dodgy practices of the fishing industry. This includes the shocking revelations that cod which isn't frozen goes off quickly, farmed salmon has a colourant added to food to make it shocking pink like fresh salmon due to the lack of prawns in their diet and that fish fingers sometimes have preservatives in them. What makes the adverts so annoying is the way that the actor manages to look as if these revelations are as serious as say, discovering a sight of mass genocide or having your grandmother impaled on a spike before you. The utter disappointment he puts into his voice when he reveals 'I thought they were joking?' regarding fish flesh colour charts is Oscar nomination stuff. What the crafty fucker does so well is divert attention from the clever words in the advert - Findus never claim to not use stale cod in their meals, they just say it is frozen (not when, which is the issue). They say they use fresh salmon in their dishes, but they never mention that the colourant is only used sometimes and that by flying pacific salmon across the world, your nice steaks have not only contributed to over--fishing but the air freight emissions have blasted another chunk out of the ozone layer!
I remember a time when it was considered the height of political incorrectness to accuse a woman of being fat and to do such was to be enforcing a gender stereotype onto them. Nowadays, being fat is the last taboo. Unlike being black or gay or disabled it is something that you change and has a palpable cost to society - similarly, being too thin.
But what about other things with palpable costs to society? What about tobacco? What about alcohol (and I mean ALL alcohol, including Sherry!)? What about extreme sports? Hell, what about all sport? What about outward bounds exploits that force brave men and women to risk their lives because you were not competent enough to complete what you set out to do? What about David Walliams risking his life swimming the Channel?
All of these things, in theory, could cause the NHS to spend money on things that are avoidable by the performers....they should ALL be banned. We should live in a society where our every action has to be judged to minimalise risk of injury or illness lest we drain our scant resources. No? Then why pick on fat and thin people?
Why pick on William Guntrip for showing a little initiative to buck the system and stand up for the kids who want to eat sweets like their parents did in their school days. What Guntrip does at that age is frowned upon - trust me, in a few years time it will be called an Enterprise Unit at University and will get the lad a great degree. The entire thing is riddled with... hypocrisy.
The Two Johns: Reid and Prescott
We hate politicians. Whatever colour of rosette lies on their shirt we hate them. Why? Because they are the fractured gods of modern society. Flawed deities placed above us all, yet easily accessible. Trapped between the truth and the media, the modern politician is typified by the question-dodging cabinet minister being pursued by Jeremy Paxman to show one chink of vulnerability, yet knowing that one chink will be torn open to reveal a human and thus end their careers in the gods.
Except for Reid and Prescott.
Reid is termed as Blairs Enforcer - why? Because he tells a modicum of the truth. Reid's admission that his department was a shambles and needed twatting into shame from top to bottom was an amazing piece of politics. His unveiled threats to be sacking a number of high ranking civil servants was welcomed. His suggestion that we, the public, should look after our own neighbourhoods a little instead of waiting for someone to do it for us was too much for everyone involved.
I mean, God help us if we cannot look after ourselves! If we cannot forge communities and relationships with other human beings without the way it is done being prescribed in an Act fo Parliament. To suggest this was, apparently, condoning vigilantes. No, it was condemning people who sit, do nothing and whine that no-one helps them. The paladin against all evil, the Bobby on the Beat, does not police on his own - the community creates an atmosphere where wrong-doings are seen as unacceptable. And yes, that means that you sometimes might have to cross paths with a young kid who is doing something wrong - but talk to them, suggest an alternative action. Hell, have a laugh with them about it - it works you know?!
Alternatively, you might consider toning down your expectations of young people. In a society where gatherings of more than two kids seems to signify a riot in the making and the sight of a ball being kicked is the equivalent of the drawing of swords on a battlefield, it gives them little option but to be seen as toerags.
Of course, these are the kids that are out of the house, searching for somewhere to play or hang-out in our prescribed suburban jungle. Not like the fat ones, who are indoors playing on their computers. Naturally the fat ones should be outside (so they can be chased and told to go indoors) and the thinner ones should be indoors (where they can be accused of being sedintary and told to get out and play)
Sigh
And finally John Prescott. My god, what exactly has this man done to deserve this level of abuse? I'll tell you what he has done.... he's *shock* had an affair. Now, with the majority of marriages ending in divorce I'm going to bet that a fair few of the people who are lambasting him have ducked onto the other side during their partnerships.
But lets be fair, theres more than that! He did it on government property! He broke rules!
Lets be honest - a fat man in his late 50s with a face like a sack of spanners and the sex appeal of a pound of tripe managed, for sometime, to get his leg over with a younger, attractive woman....at the office. He didn't show her civil defence secrets, he didn't turn up to meet the survivors of a bomb attack smelling of vadge - he just got some sex.
In some circles, the man would be hailed as a hero!
But no, because then he was seen playing crochet with his staff. OH THE FUCKING NOES! I don't know what was worse - that he was the defacto 'PM in da House' at the time and should clearly have been bombing someone - or that the game he played was not Bar Billiards or Darts like a true Northern lad.
And now he spent a weekend at the ranch of a man he knew but whose business dealings had nothing to do with his department.
So, to sum it up, comedy fat guy gets shag, bunks off work early once and has weekend at ranch.
I'd hate to see what would have happened to him if he had oh, collapsed the economy, engineered an illegal war and occupation of another sovereign state, manipulated an election or ten, had dozens of people held without trial for being foriegn. You know, THE REAL PROBLEMS CAUSED BY GOVERNMENTS!!!
Gah!
And don't get me started on Sepp Blatter. Thats another entire column!
Neil
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
DRAMA!!1!
Ah, never a day goes past without some drama occuring within World of Warcraft. Yesterdays was the guildkicking of a rather annoying new member. Oh the sheer human tragedy of it all.
This guy was, to be fair, a pillock. He didn't sound young on comms, probably in his early 30s. He just couldn't understand what was going on around him. Every so often he would go postal on comms, getting VERY irate. He would harass officers in /w. He would /w people spreading sedition about the guild. (oh God! I used the word 'sedition' - how sad.)
Most of all though, he refused to take any instruction in raids and thus died very quickly and caused numerous problems. Bad play we can abide. Bad play that is repeatedly pointed out and the advice ignored or worse, blatantly disregarded...well, thats just not acceptable.
What people in the guild maybe don't realise is that we have pondered over the decision to kick this guy for WEEKS. We absolutely HATE kicking people from the guid. In some way it infers that we have failed in our mission to be the broad-church welcoming guild. We have only done it a scant handful of times.
And the reprecussions will no doubt start soon. Which is the silly part. It's a microcosm of our take-all, give-nothing society. The whining players who are not officers will complain that the officers have in some way abused their power. And yet, in the next breath,they will complain that the same officers have not organised their game for them in terms of raiding. Cake, Eating it. etc.
Oh the drama!1!!. How can something so silly be taken so seriously.
On a brighter note, Kylea the Mage won her first WSG this weekend. I was so proud.
Neil
This guy was, to be fair, a pillock. He didn't sound young on comms, probably in his early 30s. He just couldn't understand what was going on around him. Every so often he would go postal on comms, getting VERY irate. He would harass officers in /w. He would /w people spreading sedition about the guild. (oh God! I used the word 'sedition' - how sad.)
Most of all though, he refused to take any instruction in raids and thus died very quickly and caused numerous problems. Bad play we can abide. Bad play that is repeatedly pointed out and the advice ignored or worse, blatantly disregarded...well, thats just not acceptable.
What people in the guild maybe don't realise is that we have pondered over the decision to kick this guy for WEEKS. We absolutely HATE kicking people from the guid. In some way it infers that we have failed in our mission to be the broad-church welcoming guild. We have only done it a scant handful of times.
And the reprecussions will no doubt start soon. Which is the silly part. It's a microcosm of our take-all, give-nothing society. The whining players who are not officers will complain that the officers have in some way abused their power. And yet, in the next breath,they will complain that the same officers have not organised their game for them in terms of raiding. Cake, Eating it. etc.
Oh the drama!1!!. How can something so silly be taken so seriously.
On a brighter note, Kylea the Mage won her first WSG this weekend. I was so proud.
Neil
P&P Returns....at last.
Three months between games was always going to be a tough task for a campaign and especially when the set-up for the next session (zombies!) had been spoiled to the players and hyped them up a little.
Well, to cut a long story short it worked in the most chaos filled freeform sort of way.
I had a number of problems going into the session other than the obvious 3 month gap. The first was zombies and combat. There were 10,000 people on that ship and most of them were transformed into nanite-controlled zombies. Thats a lot of people to fight. In the end, the Zombies were just mooks and then real villain of the piece was the Plasma Warp that the ship was falling into. Oh the tension. Still, the zombies had to be fought and they were, in a very cinematic, running-combat way. NPC survivors were eaten and heroes were grappled only to shoot their way free.
The second problem was that of the rather ship-bound Zeb character. He naturally functions better when he is plugged into the Khanjar, but that means that he is always looking for a high-tech way to get out of a problem. A bit like a runner in a Cyberpunk game. However, the tactics used by the crew and their need to transmit and analyse information within the chaos made him rather active, which worked well.
The third thing was that the rather ridiculous plot would ruin it for the players. This was blatantly a double homage episode to films like Posiedon and The Towering Inferno, as well as Event Horizon and any number of '...of the Dead' films. However, it also had the machinations of an insane pirate lord, a massive complicated double-cross and a random (yet dramatically useful) cosmic event all slammed together with cliche after cliche.
Bless my players! They picked up that particular ball and ran with it as fast as they could. The session started slowly with the players testing theories and then landing on the ship. From then on in, the game entered a searching mode until a sublime scene where Zeb told the 'away team' the fate of the crew, according to the Captains Log, whilst they were standing in a room of dead bodies.... and then *wham* it was Aliens speed from there till the end. And the twist at the end left a great cliffhanger for the next session.
The Ideas Factory questioned in his blog whether the use of cliches and genre stereotypes added or detracted from the session as I planned it. I don't think it did, especially considering the nature of the timing of the session. We needed a good session, a great laugh and something that moved the campaign on to the next series of adventures after the introductory sorties. I think this did it.
Next time, the final face off with One Eyed Elijah ... and an explanation of the intricate plotting that caused the ship to be filled with Zombie Gas...honest!
Neil
Well, to cut a long story short it worked in the most chaos filled freeform sort of way.
I had a number of problems going into the session other than the obvious 3 month gap. The first was zombies and combat. There were 10,000 people on that ship and most of them were transformed into nanite-controlled zombies. Thats a lot of people to fight. In the end, the Zombies were just mooks and then real villain of the piece was the Plasma Warp that the ship was falling into. Oh the tension. Still, the zombies had to be fought and they were, in a very cinematic, running-combat way. NPC survivors were eaten and heroes were grappled only to shoot their way free.
The second problem was that of the rather ship-bound Zeb character. He naturally functions better when he is plugged into the Khanjar, but that means that he is always looking for a high-tech way to get out of a problem. A bit like a runner in a Cyberpunk game. However, the tactics used by the crew and their need to transmit and analyse information within the chaos made him rather active, which worked well.
The third thing was that the rather ridiculous plot would ruin it for the players. This was blatantly a double homage episode to films like Posiedon and The Towering Inferno, as well as Event Horizon and any number of '...of the Dead' films. However, it also had the machinations of an insane pirate lord, a massive complicated double-cross and a random (yet dramatically useful) cosmic event all slammed together with cliche after cliche.
Bless my players! They picked up that particular ball and ran with it as fast as they could. The session started slowly with the players testing theories and then landing on the ship. From then on in, the game entered a searching mode until a sublime scene where Zeb told the 'away team' the fate of the crew, according to the Captains Log, whilst they were standing in a room of dead bodies.... and then *wham* it was Aliens speed from there till the end. And the twist at the end left a great cliffhanger for the next session.
The Ideas Factory questioned in his blog whether the use of cliches and genre stereotypes added or detracted from the session as I planned it. I don't think it did, especially considering the nature of the timing of the session. We needed a good session, a great laugh and something that moved the campaign on to the next series of adventures after the introductory sorties. I think this did it.
Next time, the final face off with One Eyed Elijah ... and an explanation of the intricate plotting that caused the ship to be filled with Zombie Gas...honest!
Neil
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Great Responsibility!
I have always been of the opinion that the social aspect Warcraft is a microcosm of the real world, with it's good points and it's bad points. This last week, I have seen some of the worst points mirroring the apparent threats to our society.
Identity Theft - The Case of the Miscreant Brother
Our guild had a new member, called Gungajin, skillful level 60 Warrior, very knowledgeable about the game and apparently the reason for this was that his Alliance alt is Gromagrim. Who? Gromagrim is one of those 'active' realm members - a person who is in the battlegrounds a lot, on the boards a lot. I believe he is the off-tank of Inner Sanctum, the best guild on the server in terms of progression. A true 'star'. Gungajin was given props for this and we all felt a little touched by this and then someone questioned whether he was actually Gromogrim, or whether he was lying. This second guessing continued for some days until the inevitable happened - Gungajin was playing in an instance and our guild master downed a dwarf in WSG... and it was Gromagrim. The scam was up! The pretense was exposed! BUT... that was not the end of it.
When confronted, Gungajin span out that oldest and best of anonymous excuses - that wasn't me, it was my brother playing my account. And yes, indeed, the voice of Gungajin had never admitted that he was Gromagrim - only the words typed into the screen. The guild decided to offer Gungajin the benefit of the doubt and kept him as a member - and a damned good member he is.
However, now, I have noticed that a number of other players have began to react to this - my brother threatened to quit the guild, my brother was messing with my mic, lend me money because my g/f has changed my talents etc. It is a very pleasant excuse.
Another upshot is that certain players are watching other players and waiting for them to make a mistake. Any claim of previous guild activities are dealt with in a 'guilty until proven innocent' manner. Someone even said to Gungajin last night 'Last time you said that, it was Dementation not Praetorians...at least keep your lies coordinated'. It's a level of distrust that I find distasteful and also niaive. After all, we are all simply personalities hidden behind pixelated avatars on a screen. The anonimity of the internet provides the perfect facade for someone to create a new identity....or to steal another one!
Social Responsibility - the Patch 1.11 Drip Feed
Patch 1.11 has arrived to the starved masses of Silvermoon's level 60s. I think this was probably the most anticipated patch I can remember for a long time, even though the big inclusion, the necropolis of Naxxaramas is essentially about six months off for many of us....if at all. 1.11 has been on the cards for weeks now and the patch notes have been available for a month. A full MONTH. So we have all had some time to peruse them, disgest them and generally understand the way they work, right? WRONG!
Last night was a literal cacophony of people in chat, ventrillo and in /general simply bumbling around wondering what was happening! How could the game have changed so much? How could this new content not be BLINDINGLY obvious? Why did they have to search out the new questing targets? Couldn't someone just take time to explain everything to them and spoon feed them the answers?
My annoyance with this is two fold. Firstly, a number of the complaints about the game revolve around it not having enough new content and that the new content that is added is targetted at the very best players. Poppicock is what I say! How can someone who has never set foot in Blackwing Lair say that there is no new content? They have at least three entire instanced dungeons that they have never even entered! That smells like new to me?! Similarly, they devour any new content that is available like rabid animals - I wonder how many people have completed the Midsummer quests already? And yet on the flip side of that, we have the tactic that Blizzard uses to give these events a little longevity - they make them into extended 'grinds'. Now, the new attacks on the cities are quite exciting I think, and have a definite script, but they are essentially grinds in the same way that the elemental lords in Silithus are. For some people, starved of so-called new content, these quests do not deliver quickly enough, For others, they are zoomed through. You cannot have your cake and eat it I'm afraid.
And secondly, there are the people who never learn. The perennial spongers of information who rely on others to spoonfeed them their entertainment on one hand and the people for whom the expectations of great things that have never occured and thus disappoint, are so easily raised as to be annoying! Look, how obvious is it that dancing around a Maypole is NOT going to give you any sort of phat epix? It's a bit of fun. And yes, the rewards for visiting a load of bonfires will be 'chaff' - it's supposed to be a bit of fun, to add depth to the game. Of course, it doesn't help you with your plunge into Molten Core... but it might save your soul.
(News just in - dancing around the maypole gives you a +FR buff....so it will be mandatory for MC. *shakes head*)
ASBOs - The Horror of Global Barrens Chat
A while ago a number of players complained that the Looking For Group channel (LFG) was restricted to the area you were stood in. Therefore if you wanted to say, start the Battle of Darrowshire, you would be unable to because there were not enough people to help even though in Orgrimar there were dozens of happy recruits. Blizzard decided to solve this by introducing the Global LFG channel - a worldwide channel for seeking help with quests.
You can see what was coming, right?
There is no other global channel. Even /general is kept within your area. Thus every simple minded little fucktard in the game had an open channel to expose their specific brand of fucktardery to the masses. Why annoy maybe 100 people in the Barrens with your opinion that 'teh rouges r teh ghey!' when you can spam 5000 people?
However, the worse thing is that when people try to stop them, they realise that they are indeed, holding the channel to ransom! The only real avenue that players have to avoid these imbeciles is the /leave! And indeed, thats what people have done in their droves. In our guild after only a couple of hours of play, the default answer to anyone complaining about the channel was 'it's your own fault for not leaving already'.
So there we have it - a society where your identity can be stolen and the anonimity of the system creates a viable blame avoidance culture, a society where people want someone to always be helping them to greater, free-er rewards with minimal effort on their parts and a society where the slightest of freedoms for the masses are spoiled by the actions of a few idiots.
Familiar?
Identity Theft - The Case of the Miscreant Brother
Our guild had a new member, called Gungajin, skillful level 60 Warrior, very knowledgeable about the game and apparently the reason for this was that his Alliance alt is Gromagrim. Who? Gromagrim is one of those 'active' realm members - a person who is in the battlegrounds a lot, on the boards a lot. I believe he is the off-tank of Inner Sanctum, the best guild on the server in terms of progression. A true 'star'. Gungajin was given props for this and we all felt a little touched by this and then someone questioned whether he was actually Gromogrim, or whether he was lying. This second guessing continued for some days until the inevitable happened - Gungajin was playing in an instance and our guild master downed a dwarf in WSG... and it was Gromagrim. The scam was up! The pretense was exposed! BUT... that was not the end of it.
When confronted, Gungajin span out that oldest and best of anonymous excuses - that wasn't me, it was my brother playing my account. And yes, indeed, the voice of Gungajin had never admitted that he was Gromagrim - only the words typed into the screen. The guild decided to offer Gungajin the benefit of the doubt and kept him as a member - and a damned good member he is.
However, now, I have noticed that a number of other players have began to react to this - my brother threatened to quit the guild, my brother was messing with my mic, lend me money because my g/f has changed my talents etc. It is a very pleasant excuse.
Another upshot is that certain players are watching other players and waiting for them to make a mistake. Any claim of previous guild activities are dealt with in a 'guilty until proven innocent' manner. Someone even said to Gungajin last night 'Last time you said that, it was Dementation not Praetorians...at least keep your lies coordinated'. It's a level of distrust that I find distasteful and also niaive. After all, we are all simply personalities hidden behind pixelated avatars on a screen. The anonimity of the internet provides the perfect facade for someone to create a new identity....or to steal another one!
Social Responsibility - the Patch 1.11 Drip Feed
Patch 1.11 has arrived to the starved masses of Silvermoon's level 60s. I think this was probably the most anticipated patch I can remember for a long time, even though the big inclusion, the necropolis of Naxxaramas is essentially about six months off for many of us....if at all. 1.11 has been on the cards for weeks now and the patch notes have been available for a month. A full MONTH. So we have all had some time to peruse them, disgest them and generally understand the way they work, right? WRONG!
Last night was a literal cacophony of people in chat, ventrillo and in /general simply bumbling around wondering what was happening! How could the game have changed so much? How could this new content not be BLINDINGLY obvious? Why did they have to search out the new questing targets? Couldn't someone just take time to explain everything to them and spoon feed them the answers?
My annoyance with this is two fold. Firstly, a number of the complaints about the game revolve around it not having enough new content and that the new content that is added is targetted at the very best players. Poppicock is what I say! How can someone who has never set foot in Blackwing Lair say that there is no new content? They have at least three entire instanced dungeons that they have never even entered! That smells like new to me?! Similarly, they devour any new content that is available like rabid animals - I wonder how many people have completed the Midsummer quests already? And yet on the flip side of that, we have the tactic that Blizzard uses to give these events a little longevity - they make them into extended 'grinds'. Now, the new attacks on the cities are quite exciting I think, and have a definite script, but they are essentially grinds in the same way that the elemental lords in Silithus are. For some people, starved of so-called new content, these quests do not deliver quickly enough, For others, they are zoomed through. You cannot have your cake and eat it I'm afraid.
And secondly, there are the people who never learn. The perennial spongers of information who rely on others to spoonfeed them their entertainment on one hand and the people for whom the expectations of great things that have never occured and thus disappoint, are so easily raised as to be annoying! Look, how obvious is it that dancing around a Maypole is NOT going to give you any sort of phat epix? It's a bit of fun. And yes, the rewards for visiting a load of bonfires will be 'chaff' - it's supposed to be a bit of fun, to add depth to the game. Of course, it doesn't help you with your plunge into Molten Core... but it might save your soul.
(News just in - dancing around the maypole gives you a +FR buff....so it will be mandatory for MC. *shakes head*)
ASBOs - The Horror of Global Barrens Chat
A while ago a number of players complained that the Looking For Group channel (LFG) was restricted to the area you were stood in. Therefore if you wanted to say, start the Battle of Darrowshire, you would be unable to because there were not enough people to help even though in Orgrimar there were dozens of happy recruits. Blizzard decided to solve this by introducing the Global LFG channel - a worldwide channel for seeking help with quests.
You can see what was coming, right?
There is no other global channel. Even /general is kept within your area. Thus every simple minded little fucktard in the game had an open channel to expose their specific brand of fucktardery to the masses. Why annoy maybe 100 people in the Barrens with your opinion that 'teh rouges r teh ghey!' when you can spam 5000 people?
However, the worse thing is that when people try to stop them, they realise that they are indeed, holding the channel to ransom! The only real avenue that players have to avoid these imbeciles is the /leave! And indeed, thats what people have done in their droves. In our guild after only a couple of hours of play, the default answer to anyone complaining about the channel was 'it's your own fault for not leaving already'.
So there we have it - a society where your identity can be stolen and the anonimity of the system creates a viable blame avoidance culture, a society where people want someone to always be helping them to greater, free-er rewards with minimal effort on their parts and a society where the slightest of freedoms for the masses are spoiled by the actions of a few idiots.
Familiar?
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Changing Infrastructure
Two days ago, the computer died. It was old, it was more patched parts than original, but it died. It is time to update into the 21st Century in the PC sense.
Originally, we planned on getting a nice new desktop - nothing fancy, no great indepth searching, just a Dimension 5150 from Dell (like I use at work). It's fast, it's fruity and most of all it's reasonably cheap! The spec' is perfect for the web and graphics work I do as well as running WoW.
However, in the interim period, I have been playing WoW on the laptop (owner: Mrs G.) and it has ran perfectly well. It has also illustrated some of the unseen stresses that furniture positioning puts on the household. For example, when I use the desktop, I have my back to the rest of the room, facing the corner. This is not seen as the most sociable of things and indeed, when I am mic'd up it generates quite a bit of tension and frustration. It can also be a tad claustrophobic.
So we discussed getting another laptop... and this lead to a number of other revelations. We could get rid of the PC table/shelf array in the corner and clear that corner as a toy-area for the kids. That would mean that the current pile of toys could be replaced by our new spangly 27" flatscreen HD TV thats coming tomorrow...which would mean that the TV area could be shelved and we would have more bookspace and DVD space. And that means that if we are both watching TV on different sofas, one of us will no longer have their back to the other, as it is at the moment.
Hey, and if I am working (or playing - lets be honest) on the laptop, our super-duper wireless system will allow me to sit in the kitchen or the conservatory and watch the kids play etc. whilst doing it - rather than being pinned in one hole.
Now there are downsides - laptops are a lot less adaptable than desktops and when they break, they BREAK! However, the prices of an Inspiron 6400 and the Dimension 5150 are not that different for very similar specs. And we do need to take into account the massive social implications that this could have. We are a computer-house, but being a social computer house would be even better.
Not something about hobbies really, but something I fancied putting down for perpetuity!
Neil
Originally, we planned on getting a nice new desktop - nothing fancy, no great indepth searching, just a Dimension 5150 from Dell (like I use at work). It's fast, it's fruity and most of all it's reasonably cheap! The spec' is perfect for the web and graphics work I do as well as running WoW.
However, in the interim period, I have been playing WoW on the laptop (owner: Mrs G.) and it has ran perfectly well. It has also illustrated some of the unseen stresses that furniture positioning puts on the household. For example, when I use the desktop, I have my back to the rest of the room, facing the corner. This is not seen as the most sociable of things and indeed, when I am mic'd up it generates quite a bit of tension and frustration. It can also be a tad claustrophobic.
So we discussed getting another laptop... and this lead to a number of other revelations. We could get rid of the PC table/shelf array in the corner and clear that corner as a toy-area for the kids. That would mean that the current pile of toys could be replaced by our new spangly 27" flatscreen HD TV thats coming tomorrow...which would mean that the TV area could be shelved and we would have more bookspace and DVD space. And that means that if we are both watching TV on different sofas, one of us will no longer have their back to the other, as it is at the moment.
Hey, and if I am working (or playing - lets be honest) on the laptop, our super-duper wireless system will allow me to sit in the kitchen or the conservatory and watch the kids play etc. whilst doing it - rather than being pinned in one hole.
Now there are downsides - laptops are a lot less adaptable than desktops and when they break, they BREAK! However, the prices of an Inspiron 6400 and the Dimension 5150 are not that different for very similar specs. And we do need to take into account the massive social implications that this could have. We are a computer-house, but being a social computer house would be even better.
Not something about hobbies really, but something I fancied putting down for perpetuity!
Neil
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Blockbuster Reviews Part One
Ah, the summer months - lots of films to be seen and chewed over. I love the summer blockbuster season because I am a sucker for popcorn action movie fun! Without further ado, here's my scores on the doors for the films I have seen so far...
Mission Impossible III - 6/10
Good film, worth the ticket price, but definitely signalling the end of the franchise for me as it seemed to have ran out of ideas. Nice sideways look at the way the MI thing works. Too much of a Tom Cruise Message film for me to like more.
The Da Vinci Code - 8/10
Liked the book and the film was essentially the book on the screen. Covered all of the aspects I wanted to see on screen well, and glossed over some of the slower bits. I think some people may have expected more action, but I just wanted the clever history bits cos I'm a geek for that stuff.
X-Men III: The Last Stand - tbc
Posiedon - tbc
Nacho Libre - tbc
Superman Returns - tbc
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - tbc
And there's bound to be more! I haven't even considered the Childrens Animated Quota yet
Mission Impossible III - 6/10
Good film, worth the ticket price, but definitely signalling the end of the franchise for me as it seemed to have ran out of ideas. Nice sideways look at the way the MI thing works. Too much of a Tom Cruise Message film for me to like more.
The Da Vinci Code - 8/10
Liked the book and the film was essentially the book on the screen. Covered all of the aspects I wanted to see on screen well, and glossed over some of the slower bits. I think some people may have expected more action, but I just wanted the clever history bits cos I'm a geek for that stuff.
X-Men III: The Last Stand - tbc
Posiedon - tbc
Nacho Libre - tbc
Superman Returns - tbc
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - tbc
And there's bound to be more! I haven't even considered the Childrens Animated Quota yet
News of my demise has been grossly exaggerated!
Welcome back. It's been a while.
Over a month since I last looked at the bottom of the glass and well, it's been a bitch. A week in hospital with a nasty internal abcess and infection, the family leaving me home alone in my convalenscence as they toddle off the France, work being on the verge of bankruptcy. All the fun of the fair. But we're not here to talk about life - we're here to talk about hobbies.
It's all change.
Goddamit, just when you thought the hobby rollercoaster was finished - WHAM - we're off again. Where to start?
I'm writing fan fiction again, as a direct result of my newly enthused view of comics brought around by DC's Infinity Crisis event and the massive reprecussions it has brought. I am buying comics again. I am reading comics again and I am writing again. Green Lantern, to be precise, at a site called DC Infinity (www.dcinfinity.ca) with some of my old buddies and some new ones. I wrote two 3.5k word issues in one weekend and it was wonderful. Oh to be creative again. I'll keep everyone up to date on how the feedback pans out (so far it has been good)
Raw Deal has gone - Glasgow would appear to have been my last hurrah with that particular CCG. Too much infighting, too much involvement to be part of but let go and really, the longer I remain attached, the longer Comic Images are going to retain me as their web-dude. I gave them a one month extension, but it might well last longer the way things are panning out. Hopefully not. A new CCG, Universal Fighting System, seems to have risen to the top of the pile as the prominent replacement (in waiting for the WOW CCG naturally). It's very very gentle in the play, no-one getting too hot under the collar about it, just another pastime (although I have already managed to score a box and a set of promos from the company for setting up a UK message board....hehehe)
Roleplaying is on standby at the moment - between hospital, recovery, holidays and marking we are all pretty much timed out. Mind you, I have asked the question on our little message board - are we too busy to roleplay. I'm not sure what my reaction would be if the answer comes back 'actually yes, lets leave it there.' I suspect I would be initially relieved for some sort of gap in my timetable, but then sad and remorseful and eventually I would either start something again or join another group. RPG Addicts Ahoy!
Which brings us to World of Warcraft?
So I was sat at home, with a massive gash in my groin, wondering what I was going to do for the next two weeks. I could barely move, although I could sit (just). I rearranged the room so I had my PC next to me and logged onto Scarshield Legion. Nothing. Nada. No-one in my tiny guild online. Infact, not a lot happening at all. I considered. I pondered. I weighed up the consequences and then.....I logged back onto Silvermoon.
And everything changed.
This wasn't quite a Blues Brothers-esque ray of light shining from the sky...but it was close. I have been like a spoiled little child whose parent has remarried and now has to share with his step-siblings. Instead of playing, I have just locked myself in the loft, talked to my imaginary friends and pretended it was better. Here's what's different.
1. I have been raiding Molten Core. I put the time aside for it on Fridays, like we used to. It has been exhilartings, exasperating, fun, horrific, embarrassing and adventurerous - all at the same time. It has redefined Gorthaal into a new role (as a healer again) but in a very different way. I'm gathered and refined equipment to suit the role. Hell, I've had to think very hard about the way I play and the options I have. It's made me a better player!
2. I talk to people on voice comms now. I have discovered that what I was told is true, the personalities of people written are totally different from those of people speaking. One of the guys I really had a problem with on the forums I have developed a real liking to on comms, and a great deal of respect. It's very strange.
3. I did some PvP. This was the biggest departure for me, as it was something that I have never done and never wanted to do....but the guild were going in en masse, thus reducing the embarassment factor if I got it wrong. Guess what? It was GREAT. I loved it. I stayed in Alterac Valley for nearly 5 hours having a whale of a time. I made Rank Two (Grunt) which gets me my little PvP trinket thing - something I have coveted for a long time. The howls of disbelief from the guild when they saw where I was were priceless.
In generally, I'm enjoying WoW more now than I have for ages. The Dungeoneers are now the biggest guild on the server, but it appears that they have overcame their identity crisis - they are a raiding guild, with a massive slice of fun attached. And thats cool.
And so...well, it appears that everything has changed. Will it change again? Probably. It's all a little mad in my life at the moment and shift priorities mean I look to strange places for entertainment and release. Who knows what will come up next!
Over a month since I last looked at the bottom of the glass and well, it's been a bitch. A week in hospital with a nasty internal abcess and infection, the family leaving me home alone in my convalenscence as they toddle off the France, work being on the verge of bankruptcy. All the fun of the fair. But we're not here to talk about life - we're here to talk about hobbies.
It's all change.
Goddamit, just when you thought the hobby rollercoaster was finished - WHAM - we're off again. Where to start?
I'm writing fan fiction again, as a direct result of my newly enthused view of comics brought around by DC's Infinity Crisis event and the massive reprecussions it has brought. I am buying comics again. I am reading comics again and I am writing again. Green Lantern, to be precise, at a site called DC Infinity (www.dcinfinity.ca) with some of my old buddies and some new ones. I wrote two 3.5k word issues in one weekend and it was wonderful. Oh to be creative again. I'll keep everyone up to date on how the feedback pans out (so far it has been good)
Raw Deal has gone - Glasgow would appear to have been my last hurrah with that particular CCG. Too much infighting, too much involvement to be part of but let go and really, the longer I remain attached, the longer Comic Images are going to retain me as their web-dude. I gave them a one month extension, but it might well last longer the way things are panning out. Hopefully not. A new CCG, Universal Fighting System, seems to have risen to the top of the pile as the prominent replacement (in waiting for the WOW CCG naturally). It's very very gentle in the play, no-one getting too hot under the collar about it, just another pastime (although I have already managed to score a box and a set of promos from the company for setting up a UK message board....hehehe)
Roleplaying is on standby at the moment - between hospital, recovery, holidays and marking we are all pretty much timed out. Mind you, I have asked the question on our little message board - are we too busy to roleplay. I'm not sure what my reaction would be if the answer comes back 'actually yes, lets leave it there.' I suspect I would be initially relieved for some sort of gap in my timetable, but then sad and remorseful and eventually I would either start something again or join another group. RPG Addicts Ahoy!
Which brings us to World of Warcraft?
So I was sat at home, with a massive gash in my groin, wondering what I was going to do for the next two weeks. I could barely move, although I could sit (just). I rearranged the room so I had my PC next to me and logged onto Scarshield Legion. Nothing. Nada. No-one in my tiny guild online. Infact, not a lot happening at all. I considered. I pondered. I weighed up the consequences and then.....I logged back onto Silvermoon.
And everything changed.
This wasn't quite a Blues Brothers-esque ray of light shining from the sky...but it was close. I have been like a spoiled little child whose parent has remarried and now has to share with his step-siblings. Instead of playing, I have just locked myself in the loft, talked to my imaginary friends and pretended it was better. Here's what's different.
1. I have been raiding Molten Core. I put the time aside for it on Fridays, like we used to. It has been exhilartings, exasperating, fun, horrific, embarrassing and adventurerous - all at the same time. It has redefined Gorthaal into a new role (as a healer again) but in a very different way. I'm gathered and refined equipment to suit the role. Hell, I've had to think very hard about the way I play and the options I have. It's made me a better player!
2. I talk to people on voice comms now. I have discovered that what I was told is true, the personalities of people written are totally different from those of people speaking. One of the guys I really had a problem with on the forums I have developed a real liking to on comms, and a great deal of respect. It's very strange.
3. I did some PvP. This was the biggest departure for me, as it was something that I have never done and never wanted to do....but the guild were going in en masse, thus reducing the embarassment factor if I got it wrong. Guess what? It was GREAT. I loved it. I stayed in Alterac Valley for nearly 5 hours having a whale of a time. I made Rank Two (Grunt) which gets me my little PvP trinket thing - something I have coveted for a long time. The howls of disbelief from the guild when they saw where I was were priceless.
In generally, I'm enjoying WoW more now than I have for ages. The Dungeoneers are now the biggest guild on the server, but it appears that they have overcame their identity crisis - they are a raiding guild, with a massive slice of fun attached. And thats cool.
And so...well, it appears that everything has changed. Will it change again? Probably. It's all a little mad in my life at the moment and shift priorities mean I look to strange places for entertainment and release. Who knows what will come up next!
Sunday, April 23, 2006
There's Nowt as Funny as Folk
I realised something this weekend, that has really caused me to cast some of the decisions I have made in this little experiment in a different light. See, I was under the impression that my increasing despair with the state of some of my hobbies was to do with disenchantment, time management and clashes of priority. The one thing I missed was the madness that is 'other people'
I've been away playing Raw Deal this weekend in Glasgow. OK, the RD is really just an excuse to see some friends, have a drink and get out of the house when Mrs Gow and the kids are away with the in-laws. It was awesome to see the guys (and gals) again and even though I didn't perform too well in the tournament, I had a good laugh. However, in the background, a drama was unfolding...
The UK Nationals are approaching and the venue for the nationals is always controversial. Generally, it should be central and big. This year, Reading was earmarked. Not really central but the player base of the game is skewed somewhat to the south so it's not insane to do so - and the southern players deserve a PPV. Now the manager from that area has known this for months, but like anyone else, he left the organisation of the venue to the last minute and then found out that it wasn't suitable. Now, there are a lot of people who are wanting to know when the event is happening - holidays need booking etc. and a new card set is imminent, which causes complications as well. Also, it cannot be too late as it causes a 'log jam' of PPV dates which can cause chaos. So, my successor as Commissioner, after chatting to me, approached a different venue in Shrewsbury who organised themselves in under one day. Good yeah?
Nope. The Reading Manager tendered his resignation (which was refused, because he really was being a drama queen) because he had let down the Raw Deal community. And then the manager from Southampton resigned because he saw the emergency change as a slur upon the southern players. Why wasn't anyone consulted? Why wasn't it put in Southampton? The fact that the Teams event later in the year has been rescheduled to Reading/Southampton (hardly twinned cities..) and another one is in Cardiff (a similarly deemed 'southern' venue) is apparently null and void.
Whether he is right or not, the entire thing has embroiled a number of people in long and heated conversations. Entire plans and counter plans have been talked about. Conspiracy theories, claims, rebuttals - oh for fucks sake guys, it's just a bloody card game! Stop being so bloody damned melodramatic. Nobody actually gives a flying fuck whether you resign or not, where the venue for a tournament is, or whether a group of self-appointed organisers are, or are not, consulted.
And this is the sort of small minded shennanagins that I have been living with for the last four years. Everyone double guessing everyone else about their ways of doing things, what the real meaning is behind what they are saying - it's really quite pathetic. Hell, the new Commissioner was asking me what sort of things he should and should not say to the creator of the game in order to curry favour with him because said creator is notoriously ... difficult! Duplicity, double talk and drama. Hell, Vince McMahon should really just hire these guys to write Smackdown! and it would be better.
Now, this is rather similar to the situation I had with the Dungeoneers. A lot of people getting very hot under the collar about the stupidest of minor things in a computer game. The mind boggles, I know...but the atmosphere was such that I really just found it easier not to be there. So I posted up a note on our site saying that I would relieve myself of the bankers duties in the guild.
So what do I get? A mail from the guildmaster - a guy I have known for years - 'hoping that we can still be friends..'. I mean, what in the blue fucking hell of shite made him think that because I didn't want to be an active part of his guild, it meant that we wouldn't be able to be friends! The week beforehand he was suggesting that his son and my daughters should spend some time together during the holidays. It's madness - utter utter madness.
To be honest, I'm glad I'm out of it. It's hard - I still have a lot of attachment to these things - especially the Raw Deal 'scene' - and when things are nasty, they hurt. These people are my friends. However, there are so many more important things in life. Whether it is the care and upbringing of family and children, participating in other socially valuable activities or simply appreciating that there are people in this world that don't know if they will be alive tomorrow - and we argue about what voice comms server we use?
My shining light through this is my roleplaying group. We missed one player last week, so we sat around and chatted about...stuff. And the conversation became, at times, 'heated' - but in the way that people who are totally assured of their actions in the presence of their friends can be. No-one taking umbrage at disagreements, no-one leaving the gaming group because of a difference of opinion. All people, I believe, who have some degree of grasp on their life's priorities. Sanity, amidst the madness.
I think I shall steer towards the sanity
Neil
I've been away playing Raw Deal this weekend in Glasgow. OK, the RD is really just an excuse to see some friends, have a drink and get out of the house when Mrs Gow and the kids are away with the in-laws. It was awesome to see the guys (and gals) again and even though I didn't perform too well in the tournament, I had a good laugh. However, in the background, a drama was unfolding...
The UK Nationals are approaching and the venue for the nationals is always controversial. Generally, it should be central and big. This year, Reading was earmarked. Not really central but the player base of the game is skewed somewhat to the south so it's not insane to do so - and the southern players deserve a PPV. Now the manager from that area has known this for months, but like anyone else, he left the organisation of the venue to the last minute and then found out that it wasn't suitable. Now, there are a lot of people who are wanting to know when the event is happening - holidays need booking etc. and a new card set is imminent, which causes complications as well. Also, it cannot be too late as it causes a 'log jam' of PPV dates which can cause chaos. So, my successor as Commissioner, after chatting to me, approached a different venue in Shrewsbury who organised themselves in under one day. Good yeah?
Nope. The Reading Manager tendered his resignation (which was refused, because he really was being a drama queen) because he had let down the Raw Deal community. And then the manager from Southampton resigned because he saw the emergency change as a slur upon the southern players. Why wasn't anyone consulted? Why wasn't it put in Southampton? The fact that the Teams event later in the year has been rescheduled to Reading/Southampton (hardly twinned cities..) and another one is in Cardiff (a similarly deemed 'southern' venue) is apparently null and void.
Whether he is right or not, the entire thing has embroiled a number of people in long and heated conversations. Entire plans and counter plans have been talked about. Conspiracy theories, claims, rebuttals - oh for fucks sake guys, it's just a bloody card game! Stop being so bloody damned melodramatic. Nobody actually gives a flying fuck whether you resign or not, where the venue for a tournament is, or whether a group of self-appointed organisers are, or are not, consulted.
And this is the sort of small minded shennanagins that I have been living with for the last four years. Everyone double guessing everyone else about their ways of doing things, what the real meaning is behind what they are saying - it's really quite pathetic. Hell, the new Commissioner was asking me what sort of things he should and should not say to the creator of the game in order to curry favour with him because said creator is notoriously ... difficult! Duplicity, double talk and drama. Hell, Vince McMahon should really just hire these guys to write Smackdown! and it would be better.
Now, this is rather similar to the situation I had with the Dungeoneers. A lot of people getting very hot under the collar about the stupidest of minor things in a computer game. The mind boggles, I know...but the atmosphere was such that I really just found it easier not to be there. So I posted up a note on our site saying that I would relieve myself of the bankers duties in the guild.
So what do I get? A mail from the guildmaster - a guy I have known for years - 'hoping that we can still be friends..'. I mean, what in the blue fucking hell of shite made him think that because I didn't want to be an active part of his guild, it meant that we wouldn't be able to be friends! The week beforehand he was suggesting that his son and my daughters should spend some time together during the holidays. It's madness - utter utter madness.
To be honest, I'm glad I'm out of it. It's hard - I still have a lot of attachment to these things - especially the Raw Deal 'scene' - and when things are nasty, they hurt. These people are my friends. However, there are so many more important things in life. Whether it is the care and upbringing of family and children, participating in other socially valuable activities or simply appreciating that there are people in this world that don't know if they will be alive tomorrow - and we argue about what voice comms server we use?
My shining light through this is my roleplaying group. We missed one player last week, so we sat around and chatted about...stuff. And the conversation became, at times, 'heated' - but in the way that people who are totally assured of their actions in the presence of their friends can be. No-one taking umbrage at disagreements, no-one leaving the gaming group because of a difference of opinion. All people, I believe, who have some degree of grasp on their life's priorities. Sanity, amidst the madness.
I think I shall steer towards the sanity
Neil
Monday, April 17, 2006
Can You Serve Two Masters?
My Scarshield Legion oddessy continues and has taken a new and very welcome step. Branan has reached 31st level and I seem to have finally 'got' the way the server works.
First off, the PVP side of things is very ... different. There are two aspects of it. In the low level areas, you occassionally get some high level types coming down to harvest the younglings. Essentially, there are two options - stand and fight or run like hell. Generally, I choose to run like hell but on one or two occassions, stand and fight is a decent option. Thats quite fun. However, the absolute slap-in-the-face of PVP reality is when YOU are that higher level invader! At 30th level fighters get a quest that takes them to Fray Island, off Ratchet. There is no easy way to do it - boat to Theramore and then either a trip through the Barrens or overland through Dustwallow Marsh. Either way, you see more Horde in that trip than all of the previous 30 levels in the dwarf lands combined. It is .... tense. A wholly different set of rules and social interactions compared to the 'care bear' invisibility of a PvE realm.
Second, the RP side of things has some interesting implications. Items that are totally worthless in PvE suddenly take on a new light. Take a 'Disciples Stein' - a random Level 7 item of almost no use whatsoever. Valuable? Oh yes. Why? Because it's a big beer mug in your off-hand and that means that if you are RPing in a tavern, you have the item that fits the situation. Similarly a non-magical diamond ring goes for 25g+ because of it's use in in-game marriages...art imitating life, I suspect. So Branan has his fighting gear and his off-duty gear. Now, this isn't roleplaying - but it is an aspect of the immersion that can occur. Certainly, the level of in-game RP I have seen is minimal. People refrain from using l337 speak in the game and do talk to each other using /say but generally, theres not much to put between RP and PvE....
Until you join an RP guild. Now, I have refused a number of guild invites over these 30 levels because I didn't want to dive into something unsuitable. I wanted an RP guild, preferably a dwarf-only guild and I wanted it to be quite casual. No raiding...been there, done that. So, this morning, I spotted an annoucement in Ironforge /general about a guild called Gryphon Hammers. RP guild (Check!), Dwarf only (Check!), no 60s and no raiding (Check!). I was directed to their website and it was all about their story, their ongoing plotlines, their clan meetings and ... well, wow! I was SO in! They signed me up there and then, and I put in an application anyway. So here it is:
-- Sometimes, a dwarf comes along who isn't destined to wield the greatest axe in the world and slice off the head of Cthon. Sometimes, a dwarf comes along who isn't the final child of a murdered clan seeking revenge on a race of dragonkin. Sometimes .... sometimes a dwarf comes along who has just been trouble since he was born. Say hello to Branan Badrock.
Branan was born and raised in Ironforge by his uncle, the owner of one of the cities smaller importers of 'exotic culinary frippery' - the salesmans patter for piles of smelly tangy clam meat and gooey spiders legs shipped in fresh from the Wetlands. Branans formative years were spent cleaning various animal parts for his uncle. He longed to join his father in the mines in far off Baer Modan but no, he had to stay at home.
Of course, Branan got bored and discovered the wonders of beer, brawling and no-beards. On more than one occassion he fell foul of the Ironforge city watch, either drunk hanging above the lava trenches in the Great Forge, bruised after some shennanagins in Tinker Town or brokenhearted after a liaison with a comely no-beard ended in a swift mace smack around the head.
Eventually, his bad behaviour got the better of him and despite his budding aptitude with the hammer and anvil he got into one brawl too many and was sentenced by the Ironforge Magistrates to be sent away and have his troublemaking tendencies put to better use - in the battle with the Horde. Banished to Coldridge to learn his trade as a warrior, Branan was also given the temporary name Badrock - a monicker he will keep until he manages to reconcile his differences with Ironforge.
Since that shameful day, Branan has found himself in a number of adventures - beating on Troggs and Orges in Loch Modan, aiding the humans in their battles with the Defias bandits - even gaining a token of gratitude from their boy-king and now he stands ready to breach the Thandol Span...
...which leads him to the borders of Aerie Peak and his true destiny, to drink alongside the Gryphon Hammers in the Hinterlands!
---
After I joined and was given a cacophony of IC greetings from my 'clannies' I suddenly got a pang of guilt. Yes, real proper guilt. About yes, the Dungeoneers. Lets get one thing clear - in no way, shape or form am I going to get anywhere near as involved with the Gryphon Hammers as I was with the Dungs. Not going to be an officer, not going to have any say it how they are run. Just another member. But it does mean that I have some ongoing responsibilities with their guild events. What if it clashes with the Dungs event?
What if it does? Which do I choose? Who takes precedence? At the moment, probably the Gryphon Hammers because the Dungs have really moved to a raiding guild status. In a really Dungs way. So they now raid an unspecified target four days a week. You turn up and depending on how many people turn up, thats what gets raided. Somehow, that just doesn't seem appealing to me anymore.
But the happiness that I feel at finding a suitable guild is a bittersweet feeling. I love the Dungs and I miss a lot of the people in it. Not the people I see every week but those like Havock, Volta, Gumbert etc. who are WoW-only acquaintences.
I'm not sure whether that is a sad thing (in the boo-hoo way) or a sad thing (in the geek way) but it has certainly been the unexpected upshot of having two masters...
Neil
First off, the PVP side of things is very ... different. There are two aspects of it. In the low level areas, you occassionally get some high level types coming down to harvest the younglings. Essentially, there are two options - stand and fight or run like hell. Generally, I choose to run like hell but on one or two occassions, stand and fight is a decent option. Thats quite fun. However, the absolute slap-in-the-face of PVP reality is when YOU are that higher level invader! At 30th level fighters get a quest that takes them to Fray Island, off Ratchet. There is no easy way to do it - boat to Theramore and then either a trip through the Barrens or overland through Dustwallow Marsh. Either way, you see more Horde in that trip than all of the previous 30 levels in the dwarf lands combined. It is .... tense. A wholly different set of rules and social interactions compared to the 'care bear' invisibility of a PvE realm.
Second, the RP side of things has some interesting implications. Items that are totally worthless in PvE suddenly take on a new light. Take a 'Disciples Stein' - a random Level 7 item of almost no use whatsoever. Valuable? Oh yes. Why? Because it's a big beer mug in your off-hand and that means that if you are RPing in a tavern, you have the item that fits the situation. Similarly a non-magical diamond ring goes for 25g+ because of it's use in in-game marriages...art imitating life, I suspect. So Branan has his fighting gear and his off-duty gear. Now, this isn't roleplaying - but it is an aspect of the immersion that can occur. Certainly, the level of in-game RP I have seen is minimal. People refrain from using l337 speak in the game and do talk to each other using /say but generally, theres not much to put between RP and PvE....
Until you join an RP guild. Now, I have refused a number of guild invites over these 30 levels because I didn't want to dive into something unsuitable. I wanted an RP guild, preferably a dwarf-only guild and I wanted it to be quite casual. No raiding...been there, done that. So, this morning, I spotted an annoucement in Ironforge /general about a guild called Gryphon Hammers. RP guild (Check!), Dwarf only (Check!), no 60s and no raiding (Check!). I was directed to their website and it was all about their story, their ongoing plotlines, their clan meetings and ... well, wow! I was SO in! They signed me up there and then, and I put in an application anyway. So here it is:
-- Sometimes, a dwarf comes along who isn't destined to wield the greatest axe in the world and slice off the head of Cthon. Sometimes, a dwarf comes along who isn't the final child of a murdered clan seeking revenge on a race of dragonkin. Sometimes .... sometimes a dwarf comes along who has just been trouble since he was born. Say hello to Branan Badrock.
Branan was born and raised in Ironforge by his uncle, the owner of one of the cities smaller importers of 'exotic culinary frippery' - the salesmans patter for piles of smelly tangy clam meat and gooey spiders legs shipped in fresh from the Wetlands. Branans formative years were spent cleaning various animal parts for his uncle. He longed to join his father in the mines in far off Baer Modan but no, he had to stay at home.
Of course, Branan got bored and discovered the wonders of beer, brawling and no-beards. On more than one occassion he fell foul of the Ironforge city watch, either drunk hanging above the lava trenches in the Great Forge, bruised after some shennanagins in Tinker Town or brokenhearted after a liaison with a comely no-beard ended in a swift mace smack around the head.
Eventually, his bad behaviour got the better of him and despite his budding aptitude with the hammer and anvil he got into one brawl too many and was sentenced by the Ironforge Magistrates to be sent away and have his troublemaking tendencies put to better use - in the battle with the Horde. Banished to Coldridge to learn his trade as a warrior, Branan was also given the temporary name Badrock - a monicker he will keep until he manages to reconcile his differences with Ironforge.
Since that shameful day, Branan has found himself in a number of adventures - beating on Troggs and Orges in Loch Modan, aiding the humans in their battles with the Defias bandits - even gaining a token of gratitude from their boy-king and now he stands ready to breach the Thandol Span...
...which leads him to the borders of Aerie Peak and his true destiny, to drink alongside the Gryphon Hammers in the Hinterlands!
---
After I joined and was given a cacophony of IC greetings from my 'clannies' I suddenly got a pang of guilt. Yes, real proper guilt. About yes, the Dungeoneers. Lets get one thing clear - in no way, shape or form am I going to get anywhere near as involved with the Gryphon Hammers as I was with the Dungs. Not going to be an officer, not going to have any say it how they are run. Just another member. But it does mean that I have some ongoing responsibilities with their guild events. What if it clashes with the Dungs event?
What if it does? Which do I choose? Who takes precedence? At the moment, probably the Gryphon Hammers because the Dungs have really moved to a raiding guild status. In a really Dungs way. So they now raid an unspecified target four days a week. You turn up and depending on how many people turn up, thats what gets raided. Somehow, that just doesn't seem appealing to me anymore.
But the happiness that I feel at finding a suitable guild is a bittersweet feeling. I love the Dungs and I miss a lot of the people in it. Not the people I see every week but those like Havock, Volta, Gumbert etc. who are WoW-only acquaintences.
I'm not sure whether that is a sad thing (in the boo-hoo way) or a sad thing (in the geek way) but it has certainly been the unexpected upshot of having two masters...
Neil
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Rarer than Rocking Horse Crap...
...a decent Alliance PUG?
Having a little sabbatical from the trials and travails of the Dungeoneers for a while, I have been concentrating on Branan, my dwarf warrior on Scarshield Legion, an RPPVP realm. It's been an experience, for sure. Not a lot of PvP and to be honest, not a whole lot of RP either, although it is 'in the air'. I've never seen Stormwind so bloody active!
I've reached level 22 through mostly soloing and a few 'knowing nods' impromptu groupings without actually forming a party. However, last night I reached the point where I knew I was headed to the Deadmines and that would need me to join a group *shudder*. Now my previous alliance character had some absolute NIGHTMARES in alliance PUGs and I have to say my expecations were pretty low.
At around 7pm, the LFG channel in Westfall was buzzing with DM PUGs, but after tea at 8pm is was silent. I trotted down to the entrance to DMs and sat there and started chatting to a 22 NE Warrior who was there as well. He was looking for a PUG too. Aha! Theres our frontline sorted. So, I decided to do a comedy LFG about wanting to 'Spank Van Cleefs arse!'. Comedy always gets a response and soon we had a Rogue and a Warlock. And then something amazing happened.
Obviously, we were in need of a healer. So I LFM'd for one healer and got back tumbleweed. Comedy LFM followed - still nothing. And then a /w from someone random saying they knew a healer that wanted to come? Bizarre...but 20s later I get a /w from a priest wanting to come and yes, it was the first guys mate! I was taken aback.
So the five of us trundled into Deadmines and well, to be blunt, crushed it like a bug. The entire run took under an hour and a half to complete and we trashed all of the bosses and even some rare spawn boss that dropped a nice shield for me. The NE warrior, Bolt, got the sword he wanted, the warlock got the Emberseer Staff and the priest got Cookies wand. Everything was done 'right', we had no poor pulls, the healing was exemplary, the tactics great, the banter amusing - all in all, an extremely entertaining nights ... entertainment.
And I will be honest, playing a warrior does seem to be a little more entertaining than a druid. It's just a little more gung-ho than the healing role, more relaxing. And it has a lot of button pressing and a lot of very quick value judgements on what to use rage on, and thats quite cool.
All I need now is to find a good RP guild and I am sorted!
Neil
Having a little sabbatical from the trials and travails of the Dungeoneers for a while, I have been concentrating on Branan, my dwarf warrior on Scarshield Legion, an RPPVP realm. It's been an experience, for sure. Not a lot of PvP and to be honest, not a whole lot of RP either, although it is 'in the air'. I've never seen Stormwind so bloody active!
I've reached level 22 through mostly soloing and a few 'knowing nods' impromptu groupings without actually forming a party. However, last night I reached the point where I knew I was headed to the Deadmines and that would need me to join a group *shudder*. Now my previous alliance character had some absolute NIGHTMARES in alliance PUGs and I have to say my expecations were pretty low.
At around 7pm, the LFG channel in Westfall was buzzing with DM PUGs, but after tea at 8pm is was silent. I trotted down to the entrance to DMs and sat there and started chatting to a 22 NE Warrior who was there as well. He was looking for a PUG too. Aha! Theres our frontline sorted. So, I decided to do a comedy LFG about wanting to 'Spank Van Cleefs arse!'. Comedy always gets a response and soon we had a Rogue and a Warlock. And then something amazing happened.
Obviously, we were in need of a healer. So I LFM'd for one healer and got back tumbleweed. Comedy LFM followed - still nothing. And then a /w from someone random saying they knew a healer that wanted to come? Bizarre...but 20s later I get a /w from a priest wanting to come and yes, it was the first guys mate! I was taken aback.
So the five of us trundled into Deadmines and well, to be blunt, crushed it like a bug. The entire run took under an hour and a half to complete and we trashed all of the bosses and even some rare spawn boss that dropped a nice shield for me. The NE warrior, Bolt, got the sword he wanted, the warlock got the Emberseer Staff and the priest got Cookies wand. Everything was done 'right', we had no poor pulls, the healing was exemplary, the tactics great, the banter amusing - all in all, an extremely entertaining nights ... entertainment.
And I will be honest, playing a warrior does seem to be a little more entertaining than a druid. It's just a little more gung-ho than the healing role, more relaxing. And it has a lot of button pressing and a lot of very quick value judgements on what to use rage on, and thats quite cool.
All I need now is to find a good RP guild and I am sorted!
Neil
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