Picture related.

One thing I’ve been thinking while in the shower before returning to play with <!PICTAR RELATEDZ!>.

It amazes me how most people I knew playing MMOs and are having me in party can keep themselves seated in front of their computers without having to respond to a certain call of duty (no, not that Call Of Duty) – in which this means, you’re at home and you’re now on the PC playing a certain online game (be it anything you’re thinking while reading this post) and you’re in your group whacking away at monsters in a dangerous dungeon. Or, you are with your guild going for the frontlines, already at the base where you’ll need to fend it off from would-be invaders and at the same time said invaders are charging inside all out at your guildsmen for a last resort strike. Or, you might be battling a monster everyone wants to kill for the reward it gives.

Basically, anything that needs you to stay on full alert in-game and not even a second of neglect. But wait!

Let’s say your name is Johnny. All of a sudden voices rang into your ear, offscreen, sounding something like this:

“Johnny! Please wash the plates!” Or, it can be something like “Johnny! You need to follow dad out and buy some groceries etc!” Or maybe something mundane like “Johnny! Please hand mom over the spoon!”

And all these while you’re doing any of the stuff I mentioned before in that long fucking paragraph up there.

Not to mention being seconds late to do what you’ve been asked for would grant you an annoying barrage of lectures.

How would you deal with the tension that comes after that, ladies and gentlemen? One thing for sure is that I’m not going to listen to those who say they just ignore it or ask somebody else to do it. Oh, in order to make sure of that I’ll add one more situation: Given that situation, you’re now not in any position to just ignore or ask someone else to do it in your stead.

I, for one, am not free from these “obstacles” (name it something else if you wish) and always have to make a quick sprint to whatever I need to do after getting away from the keyboard, and depending on the number of tasks I’m assigned, will take me quite some time to get back to the screen and see what’s happening.

Of course, if I were a support character going AFK (that’s Away From Keyboard for you twerps, if you still don’t know) all of a sudden and my party members all died (including me) while I was at it, I would get the blame for sure. Luckily enough most of the people I’ve met are pretty understanding people because they know this fact for sure that you can’t blame people who suddenly went AWOL (Absent WithOut Leave if you still don’t know, somewhat a ‘formal’ term for “missing,”) online because he was called for some stuff off-screen.

But it’s still annoying to be suddenly called off in the face of an important moment while playing MMOs, don’t you think?

Somehow I think something else is needed apart from everyone’s AWSUM GODHAXness or ZOMG UBERMULTITASKERZ stuff…

Also applies to those of you playing offline games and got distracted within that one second that determines your loss or victory against a final boss by that certain “call of duty,” doesn’t matter whether the game is pausable or not.

Man I have been busy. It doesn’t always look like it but I’m starting to realize that time flies (even when you are not having fun). Work has kept me from launching some much needed actions. I usually find a spot during the day to check some blogs and keep up with our forum but now it’s hard to provide a blog post every day. And just some post to attract visitors is not my kind of thing, they will get bored after a while. Maybe some of them allready are.

So what have I been upto besides work and some other real life things? Trying to master the AH. I was getting low on gold and needed to supply 3 active raiding characters with the much needed repair funds. As I am not an all day long grinder, I mostly rely on my epic gem transmution and some herbs/alchemy stuff. It usually pays the bill but gearing up Masiv demanded a lot of epic gems and they are costly. I’m sure I’ll make a post on it someday, when I have 5 minutes more spare time.

As usual, we also had some guild drama. Ah well, drama, not really. Some loot issue caused a new discussion on the forum and things started to heat up. It’s never a fun thing to deal with and especially not when the people involved are close game friends. I like to be a popular officer but that isn’t always easy. Oldtimers has a lot of intelligent people and every argument holds some truth in it. I’m usually the one who tries to combine all of these arguments into a single wall of text wich every person can rely to. But this time I had to smack the door and ask for silence. Things are running out of hands on the forum and it is my responsibility to act as a leader now, although I never asked to be in this position. I’m not always sure if I’m doing the right thing for the guild. The things that happened during the past days have made me wonder why I still play the game and why I put all of this effort in it.

All of the previous officers seem to have had that “burn-out” feeling and not a lot of them have decided to stick to the game. I’ve had it several times before, but I always managed to find some bag of motivation wich kept me going. Sigge seems to be an expert at it. He’s been arround for a long time and I’m sure it affects him aswell, but he’s still an oldtimer. Can’t really imagine what our guild would be without him. Luckely we have those kind of people at oldtimers. There have been numerous occassions where things could have caused to wipe to whole guild.

So, AH and guild drama and I’m also waiting for my new hardware to show up. I’m developing my new UI aswell so I have a good idea on how to implemment it into my new screen. And that will also be the start of some video footage. A UI guide, some PvP combats, some progression movies in ToGC 10 and perhaps IC. Lot’s of plans, not sure they will all make it to the blog.

I have a patch post in draft for a long time now but I guess I will skip it untill the patch actually hits the live servers. There are some interesting things I look forward to. And ofcourse some new raiding place. I hope we get the guild back on her feet first. But for now, I’m going to try to afk a bit longer. Perhaps my game joy will come back a bit faster.

Sorry, I’m just SO EXCITED!  Who will Bella fill her meaningless, empty, self-involved life with next?  A werewolf?  Cap’n Crunch?  A creepy televangelist who has 14 “child brides”?  All I know is that I somehow messed up big time, what with getting married to a loving woman who isn’t secretly any sort of terrible monster waiting to drink my blood or flay my skin.  I’m so sorry, Bella!

• Ha.
• I get blamed for EVERYTHING.
• KTR re: DDO – “I have to say, I am pretty impressed that I am playing two games from the same company at the same time.  And, at different mental tempos.”
• Ferrel re: Tortured Football Metaphors – “They try to go out and get loot for everyone by scoring points against the other team!”
• Werit re: TOR – “I would be very surprised if TOR did not have something similar to the DAO Codex.”
• MMO Misanthrope re: Googling – “I think a good amount of the disenchantment with themepark MMOs like WoW is that they do not encourage us to experiment or play.”
• TOROZ re: SWG – “Galaxies is walking a fine line however, and I don’t think they have the luxury any longer of foisting new half baked experiments onto the community”
• Slurms re: Fallen Earth – “You’re not really experiencing the game unless you craft.”
• Rainbow MMO re: Fallen Earth – “So far, the community seems great, including players and developer/GMs.”
• Petter re: SWG – “Am I having fun? Oh yes. Do I regret starting out on the project? Absolutely not.”
• KIASA re: LOTRO – “It’s not quite the realisation of my dream to create Shakespeare Man, the masked hero who fights crime using his supernatural ability to make things explode by quoting pithily at them, but it’s pretty close.”
• Wolfshead re: Video Game Politics – “What happens when the goals of the designer and the player contradict each other?”
• Stargrace re: Fallen Earth – “I loved the humor in such a dark themed video game.”
• Bronte re: Champions – “However, the vagueness of the following statements left a bad taste in my mouth.”
• Scott Jennings re: RMT – “Few rumors enrage me quite as much as this one – because not only is it fairly obviously untrue, it’s also pretty insulting.”
• JoBildo re: LOTRO – “I’m spending most of my time drooling about the main major feature of Turbine’s upcoming expansion: Skirmishes.”
• Trembling Hand re: AI – “NPCs never express surprise. To NPCs everything is normal. Even a demon walking in to a bar.”
• Nerfbat re: Fun vs. Grind – “The question is, is it worth creating the more enjoyable path AND the path of least resistance (both in terms of development cost and in terms of gameplay)?”
• Keen re: Allods – “You get to play as 3 gerbils!”
• Ancient Gaming Noob re: RMT – “But then you wonder, what other games could support something similar to PLEX?”

And if you haven’t been over to Bio Break’s sister site, Mutant Reviewers From Hell, here’s the cult movie goodies you’ve been missing out on:

• Saturday’s Six: Thanksgiving Movies
• House of the Devil
• Poster Dissection: The Hottie and the Nottie
• MASH
• Planet Terror
• The Howling: New Moon Rising

Sign up for Daily email and feed at etfdesk.com

Today’s market-moving headlines, macro trade ideas and more…

• Confronting the China-U.S. Economic Imbalance
• Freshest Data Shows The Recovery Is Nowhere Near V-Shaped
• Dave Rosenberg 11/17/2009
• Gold – the next bubble?
• Goldman Sachs: “V-Shaped Recovery Unlikely”
• TF Oct Monthly Update
• Altman Group hosted CEF conference
• Michael Panzner: Commercial Real Estate Is A “Tsunami Unfolding”
• The Great Wallop : Chimerica
• Explorers’ Self-Deflating Gas Cushion
• Hands warns governments on banks
• Africa: Corruption Perception – Nigeria’s Rating Worsens
• Microsoft Bing Investments Starting to Pay Off In Market Share Gains
• It’s Quiet…Too Quiet
• U.S. consumers expect deep holiday discounts
• the Geography of the Recession
• Mobius Sees 40% BRIC Stocks Gain, Buy on Correction
• The Case for the Chinese Yuan

Religion, one of the topics of ‘impolite’ conversation, and admittedly the focal point of this blog. Religion to me seems a great big conspiracy theory derived to promote superstition and conformity in an effort to control a population of specified people.

Ever notice that religion is often attributed to certain geographical regions? The Mormons (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) ‘Southern’ Baptists, Quakers, Muslims, Buddhists, and Catholicism, all have a place that each thinks about when that name is spoken. Yes, there are pockets of each in any area to a certain extent, but the main group is attributed to a certain area.

Group mentality is used in these areas to promote the religion of choice. While yes, we have the individual freedom to choose what we believe, the children of these religious groups are brought up within it’s circles, often not knowing other options exist, or that other options are ‘wrong’ and ‘heathen’. Views of other belief systems are full of prejudice and fear. Trying to shake a belief system ingrained since childhood is a difficult thing. So the system repeats itself generation upon generation, growing as population grows.

My opinion of religion is that it was originally created to instill morals and a certain code of conduct by it’s followers.  The ‘fear’ of a deity disapproving of one’s actions and can send you to a place of unspeakable pain and suffering is quite a motivator for those that don’t know anything else.

Each religion deems itself as the ‘one path to <insert Deity name here>’ That only those that follow the same religious beliefs are going to go to a blissful afterlife, all others will be damned to pain and suffering for eternity. It’s rather confusing then, trying to pick a religion that suits your view of the world, or if you’re seeking asylum from a painful afterlife, trying to appease the ‘correct’ god.

Is it possible that God has created all religion? To create a belief that there is something out there that is greater than anything we could possibly imagine? He would know that different strokes are for different folks. That one belief system wouldn’t be proper for the entirety of humanity. To have different belief systems that would reflect the world around them, or even be based upon the world around them. The areas of rain forest in Brasil wouldn’t quite have the same structure as some belief founded in the Middle East about conserving water, nor would a belief in the Middle East be quite so understanding of a holy river named the Amazon.

The biggest problem I have with religion is man. Man has always used any leverage to gain more power and prestige. Exploiting others and stepping on innocent people to gain their own ends. Could it also be true that even if God did speak to certain individuals, those individuals might have ‘incorrectly’ translated those words to ensure that they would be more in control, or that they could direct the actions of their followers more accurately? Sure, the spirit of the direction given by god could lead in the same general direction but the letter of the law could have totally different meaning. How else could teachers of the supposed word of god be raking in millions of dollars while the ones supplying the money they live off of have to budget every penny?

Organized religion is a double edged sword. Yes, discussion helps refine our beliefs about who God is and who we are. Organized religion assists us in socializing with other like-minded individuals who share the same or similar beliefs, but organized religion also has the power to narrow one’s view, and become so extremely intolerant of outside influences.

That is enough on this topic for now,

D Manchild

AFK

Acronym for Away from Keyboard used mostly by online computer gamers (as opposed to console gamers). It literally means the person is away from the keyboard and, therefore, unable to play or respond to messages.

If only… if only we could harness the sheer power and strength of nerd rage… we could supply the entire world’s energy for the next five hundred years!

• Wildwhine’s Sten emotions chart
• Hee.
• KIASA re: DDO – “It’s just that DDO has had thirty five or so years and four editions of the pen and paper game to really hone their hive of supercilious bees, who swarm out and attack with stinging words anything that doesn’t belong to their colony.”
• Arbitrary re: Boss Names – “Please game companies, do not give bosses silly names.”
• Werit re: Torchlight – “I created a skill that shoots bees at enemies, so now… my dog is summoning zombies and barking a swarm of angry bees at my foes.”
• Bronte re: Star Trek – “Star Trek Online will be released on February 2, 2009. This is very disturbing for me.”
• Elnia re: WoW – “When you buy a pet from the pet store you are not only buying a cute panda monk, you are electing to support with your dollars a specific business model.”
• Elder Game re: Community Relations – “Whatever you do, you have to stick to your guns.”
• Grimnir re: WAR – “This is going to have some evil naughty and hated words in it, but it’s for the best.”
• Jay re: Fallen Earth – “Two snaps that hopefully might give ya some insight into actually how LARGE and OPEN this game is.”
• Scott Jennings re: Bugs - “Why doesn’t someone just fix all these bugs already?”
• Gordon re: Grouping – “I do find it odd how now we have to be forced and herded into grouping.”
• Ancient Gaming Noob re: Fishing – “I believe that there is a correlation between how well a fantasy MMORPG does relative to its contemporary competitors and how deep and interesting the fishing mechanism that is available at launch.”

Sorry folks, I’m currently working and studying 16 hours/day. I need make some reviews soon. So stay tuned, problably this weekend I’ll put a nice Taka Co. Review.

Am gestrigen Sonntag, 8. November, hat die Münchner Schauspielerin Waltraut Borchmann meine druckfrische Anthologie »Auch Zombies brauchen Liebe. 12 vermoderte Geschichten – Band I« ins Radio gebracht.

Im Abendmagazin »Auftritt – das Schauspielermagazin« auf afk M94,5 hat sie das Buch, den Verlag und mich vorgestellt. Außerdem im Programm: Verleger Torsten Low mit der Anthologie »Metamorphosen«, dem neuesten Werk aus der Edition Geschichtenweber, und seine Frau Tina Low. Wer zugehört hat, weiß, dass wir vier viel Spaß miteinander hatten.

Nachtrag vom 25. November 2009: Tina Low hat mir vier Schnappschüsse geschickt, die ich gern mit euch und Ihnen teilen möchte. Viel Vergnügen!

Neidfreies Autoren- und Verlegerkuscheln

Torsten Low und Simone Edelberg

Waltraut Borchmann und Simone Edelberg

Torsten Low, Waltraut Borchmann und Simone Edelberg

I’ve finally crossed the barrier that separates the overwhelming compulsion to play a new game, and the ability to continue to play it while going to other games as well.  Your days of ruling my life are over, Dragon Age — I needs me Fallen Earth fix!

• Werit re: WAR/Aion – “With a long grind to 50, seeing bots make me wonder why am I bothering?”
• Hawley re: Fallen Earth – “In Fallen Earth, I’ve had to relearn how to tie my shoe-laces.”
• Emily’s Wish – “They really treated her as a design professional, and her humor and creativity made the day.”
• Bronte re: Champions – “Cryptic cares more about making quick bucks and pushing out content on strict deadlines than the quality of their products or the sentiments of their customers.”
• KIASA re: D&D – “It’s a party composition straight out of Hideously Doomed To Fail PuGs 101.”
• Brent re: Champions – “For now, I’m hanging up the spandex.”
• Sharon re: Aion – “My main problem with Aion is that PvP just isn’t that complex… or fun.”
• Darth Hater re: TOR – “Some industrious individuals have taken it upon themselves to sift through the official site, attempting to ferret out any content clues hidden within the website architecture.”
• Evizaer re: Character Progression – “How continuous (or discrete) should advancement in RPGs be?”
• Beau Turkey re: Free Realms – “In other words, the SOE bashers will have another reason to use the letters “NGE”. I have already witnessed it.”
• Chris re: WoW – “What we have is an example of fitting the lore around the game instead of the game around the lore.”
• Tipa re: Free Realms – “For every good, original MMO, there are nine that are crap.”
• Spinks re: Shields – “Is it any wonder that shield using fighters in games feel attached to their shields?”
• MBP re: DDO – “Dungeons and Dragons online has possibly the most confusing currency system of any game I have yet played.”
• MMOG Chronicles re: Anarchy Online – “This was the first time that I know of instancing was used.”
• Word of Shadow re: Aion – “What’s the fastest way for a Cleric (healer), who is responsible for keeping the entire group alive, to get 100 resurrections?”
• Fool’s Age re: Emotions – “Sorrow is a profoundly deep and negative emotion, and is not casually experienced.”
• PvD re: LOTRO - “Still, what’s the point of charging for an expansion and then going so far out of your way to give it away?”
• Incoming Pull re: WAR – “From the start, Mythic has been back peddling to get their game where it should have been at launch”
• Ferrel re: Leading Raids – “Most readers will not agree with everything I say and it certainly won’t work for every guild but in my experience this is what has worked best for me.”

Wish me and my fellow NaNoWriMo friends well as we kick off a full month of writing a novel from scratch!  50,000 words is a mountain, folks, and I’ve lost my sherpa.

• Tipa re: Legends of Zork – “All that can’t hide a game where the play consists of hitting the ‘Fight!’ button repeatedly until you run out of that day’s Action Points.”
• Werit re: GameX – “It didn’t have nearly as much going on game wise as the big cons, but I’ll take what I can get.”
• Johnny B Gamer re: MMORPGs – “Know Thy Parent Company and Its Track Record…”
• Bronte re: Champions – “I went through the quest text, took screenshots and created a composite of the entire text for this mission.”
• KTR re: Mystery Threads – “There is no indication of what might be inside, and there is a very good chance that it is poison.”
• Evizar re: Alganon – “This game is awful.”
• Frank re: WAR – “If Aion, Champions, and even Fallen Earth are ships sailing above the surface, WAR is a submarine, cruising almost casually underwater.”
• Ferrel re: Guilds – “How do you deal with the impending doom of a guild you’ve loved, nurtured, and spent a lot of time building?”
• Spinks re: WoW - “Warriors are still the most popular class in WoW by a large margin.”
• Stabbed Up re: DDO – “I’m going to look at two areas in this analysis: the types of items sold and the types of spender buying them.”
• Keen re: Fallen Earth – “I absolutely LOVE being so clueless.  It’s so refreshing to really have no clue what is going on.”
• Fool’s Age re: Fear – “Fundamentally, I see three components to horror: suspense, wrongness, and startlement.”
• Hawley re: ???? – “This is The Bad Place™ that I worry about.”
• Gordon re: Torchlight – “Combat in most MMOs isn’t exactly thrilling stuff so the Torchlight/Diablo/Titan Quest mouse-mashing style might be a nice break.”

.: The MMORPG Commandments :.

Commandment 4. Know When to Quiteth…

Sad to say, but all things must end and MMO’s are no different. If your preferred MMO has become more of an obligation than a joy, it’s time to retire your character. I myself have also fallen into this most deadly of MMO traps, prioritizing my game obligations above my real life ones. Luckily, I have never lost anything as dramatic as a job or a relationship over it.

Near the end of my MMO playing career I found myself dutifully logging in simply to administrate my guild, check my crafted auctions, and run dungeons, only to fall asleep at the keyboard as I waited for someone in my party to return from AFK (away from keyboard).

Sure guilds, crafting, pvp, dungeon running, and all the social aspects of MMO’s can be fun but they can also be draining, sometimes making us gamers lose sight of what’s really important in life

Are MMO’s evil? Heck no! Just realize you’re playing on a slippery slope.

It’s about time that someone put a stop to the epidemic of NPC cursing in MMOs, so salutes all around to Cryptic for making that happen!

In other news, here’s a few articles and posts that caught my eye this past week:

• Cedarstreet re: First Impressions - “It’s the introduction phase that is really the ‘make-or-break’ for any MMO.”
• Prof. Beej re: LFM/LFG - “You’re not LFM (looking for more) if all you have are DPS classes; you’re just LFG (looking for a group) because without a tank or a healer, there is no group to speak of.”
• Elder Game re: Champions – “If Champions is around two years from now, it’s because the producer made the right calls during these first three months of the game.”
• Random Shots re: Champions - “Sharks! With laser beams on their heads! If that doesn’t make you want to play Champions, then good riddance. I want nothing to do with you.”
• RPS re: Fallen Earth – “So it would be entirely wrong to call Fallen Earth Fallout: the MMO.”
• Don’t Fear the Mutant re: Champions – “I’ve lost all faith in that the devs have any clue what they are doing.”
• Kotaku re: Addiction – “The reason I quit was because I was tired of making excuses for being late, and I just wanted to play EverQuest.”
• Chris re: Characters – “Even though I don’t plan on returning to the MUD I used to play, I’d be upset if my character there were deleted.”
• Muckbeast re: Champions – “If CO were a stock, I’d be selling short right now.”
• Gordon re: Holidays – “Nothing like seeing an Ogre wearing a Santa Claus hat to utterly destroy the illusion of a scary opponent.”
• PvD re: EQ2 - “In particular, NOTD features three solo instance – haunted houses and a new hedge maze – that feature some serious puzzle-solving.”
• Frank re: STO - “Comparing this to, say, Star Wars: The Old Republic from Bioware, the amount of exposure the two games are getting is like night and day.”
• Bronte re: Champions – “Combat in Champions Online is a visceral, perhaps at times over-simplified, but thoroughly enjoyable experience.”
• Dusty re: DDO – “Chuckle at yourself and everyone else that’s running around going SWOOSH SWOOSH SWOOSH all the time.”
• Ferrel re: Quests - “The biggest annoyance I have with quests are pre-requisites.”
• Darth Hater re: TOR – “BioWare knows and understands its community as well as anyone, and it is possible that they might have a surprise up their sleeves.”
• Genda re: WoW – “Is this an opportunity or a pain for them?”
• Spinks re: Spoilers – “Spoilers are a very personal issue for both geeks and non-geeks alike.”
• TOR Online re: WoW – “Competition is good for both parties as mutual success strengthens the industry.”
• Ysharros re: Principles – “And yes, cybering in drood cat-form in Stormwind’s main square is hurting my playtime. I’m still scarred from what I saw. Get a damn room.”

And don’t miss out on what’s been happening over at Mutant Reviewers:

• Saturday’s Six: The Many Disguises of Steven Seagal
• Fanboys
• “You Know, That Guy” with Stephen Tobolowsky
• Whip It
• The Dark Knight
• Poster Dissection: Avatar
• Rockabilly Vampire

Taking a vacation into the mountains/hills of North Carolina. Hoping to get some writing done and basically unplug from work and deadlines. I’ll be out of SL for most of the week, but I’ll have internet and my laptop so maybe I’ll see about some photo posts and rambling updates. And as always I can be found on facebook, twitter and you can always g-mail me

I wish you well!
~Sage

For those of you who think it’s okay to be in the middle of a chat with someone and then walk away to go do something else without letting the person know you’re leaving, I have news for you.  IT’S NOT.

You think just because you’re not face-to-face with the person you are talking to that for some reason to ignore what they’re saying to suddenly go do something else.  Oh but you had a good excuse.  You had to eat dinner, or you had to go take a shower or do some housework…

Honestly, how much trouble would it be to say “hey, brb”.  Let the person know you’re going to be away for a bit so they don’t THINK that you are there paying attention.    Don’t just leave without saying anything.

I hate it when people do that to me.  We’ll be right in the middle of some conversation, and I’ll ask a question, and get no response… “hello?”.  Nothing.  Then maybe 30 minutes later they’ll come back and start talking like it’s only been 30 seconds.  By then I don’t know what they’re talking about because obviously I’ve closed the window almost half an hour ago… then they make me look like the jerk for closing the window..  “Why did you close the window?  I just had to have dinner with my family real quick”.

Ohhh, of course.  I forgot to switch on my mind-reading feature.  My bad.  DUHH of course you were having dinner.  How stupid of me not to know that.

In short, if you’re chatting with someone online, and you have to go away for a bit, TELL THE PERSON.  A simple “BRB” usually does the trick.

I understand sometimes things pull us away that we can’t control, and we don’t get a chance to tell anyone.  I understand that.  I’m talking about you inconsiderate folks who just walk away from a chat mid-conversation without warning.

*sigh*

Immersion?  You young whippersnappers want “immersion” in your games?  How ’bout I hog tie you and drop you into the middle of a clown rodeo, and see how “immersed” you get by the time Big Bozo arrives with his branding iron!

Oh, and here are a few articles that caught my eye this past week:

• Pete re: Immersion - “But a lot of what Fallen Earth does is ‘wrong’ by the standards players demand from modern games. And yet people who try it out tend to stick with it.”
• Stabbed Up re: DDO – “Now what’s nice about this is it’s effectively a lifetime sub.”
• Bootae re: Aion – “It could have the best end game ever, but why go there if the journey is an epic chore?”
• Psychochild re: Adventure – “Luke didn’t broadcast on /lfg before heading into Jabba’s palace to try to save his friends.”
• MMOmisanthrope re: Loot – “You let players construct virtual things, or somehow restrict existing things to a form of ownership as a reward.”
• Frank re: Chat - “I had so much fun the last time I decided to start screenshotting chat windows that I think I’ll just keep on doing it.”
• Incoming Pull re: Fallen Earth – “Because of this tie to reality, I actually feel like I am trying to, not only live in a wasteland, but survive.”
• Slashcry re: Champions – “It reminds me of a more open WoW actually.”
• Spinks re: Gold DKP – “If there’s one thing that might make running an old raid instance more palatable, it is getting a nice cash pot at the end of the run.”
• MMORPG.com re: Top 10 MMOs Since WoW -  “It may not be the biggest MMO ever, but no matter how big the IP, MMO fans wouldn’t have stuck with it this long had it not done a few things right.”
• Darren re: Fallen Earth - “I think it’s safe to give this game a very high recommendation to try out.”
• Wolfshead re: Blizzard - “So why is Blizzard so special? What do they do that is so different from the rest of the industry?”
• Hawley re: Aion - “And for once I’m finding it difficult to put this into words; It just doesn’t sing to me.”
• Spouse Aggro re: F2P MMOs - “DDO’s recent success shows that F2P is (like I have always said hehe) a viable option.”
• Stargrace re: Friends – “I’ve always said that my friends are what make games absolutely amazing for me.”
• Chris re: Fallen Earth - “Taken as a whole, I really enjoyed the introduction Icarus Studios has crafted.”
• Darth Hater re: TOR – “While there may certainly be new and unusual planets created solely for The Old Republic, hopefully we will be able to revisit some of those we already knew about while questing in a galaxy a far, far away.”
• Kill Ten Rats re: Underwater Combat - “The z-axis is appearing more and more in MMOs as another dimension to be explored.”
• Bullet Points re: Champions – “If the rewards are good enough, you would have players looking forward to their characters dying.”
• Evizaer re: DDO - “Throughout, I feel like a child in a candy store.”
• Screaming Monkeys re: WoW – “In the end, the Argent tournament killed WoW for me.”
• Hardcore Casual re: Aion – “If you bought Aion, you are telling NCSoft and the genre as a whole ‘more of the same please’.”
• Dusty re: Free to Play - “But the business model they are employing is, I firmly believe, the future of MMO’s.”

And this past week on Mutant Reviewers was a special theme week — Bad Sequels Week!  Check it out:

• Bad Sequels Week Begins!
• Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2
• Son of the Mask
• S. Darko: A Donnie Darko Tale
• Lost Boys: The Tribe
• Highlander: The Final Dimension
• The Crow: Salvation
• The Next Karate Kid
• Caddyshack II
• Airplane II
• Good Sequel, Bad Sequel
• Saturday’s Six: Signs That You’re A Bad Sequel

How many blogs could a blogger blog if a blogger could blog blogs?  According to the awesome MMO blogging community out there, a LOT!  Here’s a quick roundup of articles from the past week that caught my eye:

• Slashcry re: Champions – “However, because of this openess there are consquences for your choices — mostly on how effective of a player you will be.”
• Frank re: WAR – “I can’t really complain about these kinds of ‘reset button’ changes, even though some people might point to it as a sign of flawed core design.”
• Genda re: Aion - “Aion is going to hemorrhage users within the next 6 months, until the point where is is WAR-sized or smaller.”
• Trembling Hand re: Champions - “I don’t know whether Champions can find a way out of this balancing trap.”
• Wolfshead re: MMO Revolution – “The MMO industry has squandered all of the great potential that was evident at the cusp of the first MMO revolution a scant 10 years ago”
• Muckbeast re: MMO Types – “SWG’s epic failure basically chopped down the LP tree and nothing has yet revitalized it.”
• Spinks re: Puzzles - “Who’d have thought that a massively multiplayer online game might end up with massive amounts of people communicating? Not early MMO developers, that’s for sure.”
• MMOSH re: Guilds - “I don’t have problems getting involved in a new guild, but finding one annoys me.”
• MMOisanthrope re: Religion – “Religion is full of immense meaning for every little thing.”
• MMORPG re: MMO Remakes – “MMO years are not like human years. A 12 year old game is collecting social security checks.”
• Petter re: Gold Selling – “It’s about the fact that your selfishness has the possibility to affect thousands of other people.”
• Boathammer re: STV – “I hate Stranglethorn Vale with every ounce of my being.”
• Stabbed Up re: DDO – “This is a look at a build designed to do that fast.”
• Genda re: SWG – “Instead they have taken a short-term attempt to grab a few extra dollars in callous disregard for their past and future customers.”
• Evizaer re: Aion – “So, for no apparent reason I can’t fly in most of the zones I have access to? Great innovation, guys.”
• Bootae re: WAR - “We are standing at the edge of Pit of Lost MMOs.”

And don’t forget to check out Mutant Reviewers’ past week of cult movie reviews:

• Night of the Comet
• Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure
• Babylon 5: The Gathering
• The Crow
• Zombieland
• Caddyshack
• Tales from the Crypt
• Hard Boiled
• Return to Oz
• C.H.U.D.

OBSERVERA! TID OCH PLATS FÖR ANTI-FRALAGSDEMONSTRATIONEN I STOCKHOLM ÄNDRAT TILL MEDBORGARPLATSEN 11.45-12.45!

Nedanstående är ett protokoll från mötet på Gråmunken i Stockholm idag för Piratpartiet. Som vanligt ber jag om ursäkt för det miserabla språkbruket.

******************************************************************

Kvart över sex anländer jag till Café Gråmunken. Redan sitter ungefär fem pirater i källaren, ivrigt pratandes för att undvika hörande av vad några fjortisar som också sitter i källaren pratar om. Hans J. Har skrivit ut en demonstrationstillståndsansökansmall. JRL ber att få låna min dator, för att kolla upp huruvida han ska besöka en gymnasieskola imorgon och prata om Piratpartiets politik. Det skulle han inte; den ansvariga hade mejlat några frågor rörande områden Piratpartiet inte tar ställning i, och om vi inte kunde svara på dem var vi inte heller välkomna att besöka skolan (jag antar att de skulle ha någon debatt om de frågorna; frågorna rörde f.ö. ungdomsbrottslighet, segregering, ungdomsarbetslöshet etc – svårt att applicera informationspolitiskt perspektiv på dem, utom möjligen att berätta att lösningen på ungdomsbrottsligheten INTE är kameraövervakning). Fler pirater anländer till gråmunken allteftersom. Två NSM:are anländer. Nu finns det till synes fyra olika grupperingar i källaren till Gråmunken: vi (pirater+NSM:are), fjortisarna, ett rollspelargäng och ett kompisgäng. Därför flyttar vi oss lite, så att vi tydligt tar den inre halvan av källaren. Jan anländer typ halv sju, när mötet ska börja. Jan berättar att Daniel har en megafon till demonstrationen som kommer tas till demonstrationen. Vi har gäster, säger Jan: två NSM:are och en journaliststudent som kommer anteckna och fota. Han frågar om det är OK att han fotar; det är det. Om det hörs dåligt försöker vi INTE överrösta fjortisarna, utan flytta oss närmre Jan.

*Demonstration på lördag, 14-15 på Mynttorget. Bestämda talare är Rick Falkvinge och Christian Engström. Megafon är fixad. Frågan är om vi kan få fler talare; Centeruppropet kanske kan bidra med talare, vi vet inte riktigt. Annars kör vi som vanligt att folk som vill får prata, dvs antingen icke föranmälda. E-maila jan.lindgren@piratpartiet.se om ni vill tala, för säkerhets skull.

*En NSM:are säger att de flesta föreningarna vi vill samarbeta med om demon kräver demonstrationstillstånd, för att vara med på demos. Om ngn kan lämna in demonstrationstillståndsansökan tidigt imorgon bitti, de öppnar tio, vore det bra. En säger sig göra ett försök imorgon. Eg. bör en ansöka om tillstånd en vecka innan demon, men i praktiken har det gått att få tillstånd så lite som en dag innan. Vi går vidare; alla är överrens om att Tomas söker tillstånd imorgon. Det enda problemet är att vi kan få avslag, men då kanske det går att ansöka i någon annans namn. Mötet enas om att Tomas söker demotillstånd i partiets namn. Jan tar på sig att skicka ut pressmeddelande för alla demonstrationerna (dvs, Malmö, Göteborg OCH Stockholm). Ngn från NSM kommer tala. Om andra föreningar vill vara med och tala, bör de kontakta jan.lindgren@piratpartiet.se.

*Johan tar med några småflaggor till demon. Ngn kommer antagligen ta med stora flaggor. Det kommer finnas 500 flygblad att dela ut på demon (upptryckta av Johan). Vi har en begränsad budget, typ max 10 000 kvar. Vi fixar inga affischer, det är för sent och för dyrt. Vi har inget att dela ut innan demon. Vi ska köpa 200 Piratpartiet-knappar av Johan att dela ut på demon. . NSM och Jan delar upp kontaktarbetet med ev. Medarrangörer (ungdomsförbunden, Sossar mot storebror, Centeruppropet,…). Demonstrationsfrågan lämnas

*I princip är det klart för att ha val av distriktsledare nu. Mårten är ansvarig. Ett gammalt förslag är att ha två veckors nomineringstid, och sedan en vecka per delmoment. Eg. skulle allt varit klart för några veckor sedan, så GAMLA tidsplanen har kraschat. När valet väl dragit igång tar det en månad att bli klar med det. För distriktets skull är det bra om valet går så snabbt som möjligt, för valets skull att det atr så lång tid som möjligt. Ett förslag är tre veckor: en vecka för presentation, en vecka för valet av distriktsledare, en vecka av vice distriktsledare. Då kommer nog alla hinna vara delaktiga i valet. Jan kommer föreslå tre veckor för valet för Mårten. Dessutom kommer han skicka vidare forumtråden om vilka fråggor alla kandidater ska svara på; gå gärna in på tråden idag och påverkaa vilka frågor som skall besvaras!

*Jan har inga fler punkter han tänkte ta upp. Mötet har ingen större beslutsrätt än trepiratersregeln formellt; allt som faller utanför den kan vi inte besluta i. Budgetfrågor avgörs dock av distriktsledaren och valkretsledarna (över valkretsbudgeten). I praktiken är dock de som kommer på mötet distriktet, har distriktsledaren ändå stora problem att stoppa dem om han inte håller med dem… Ngn föreslår att vi på riksnivå bör ta upp hur organisationen bör se ut, hur det bör bestämmas. Styrelsen jobbar på ngn form av styrdokument för beslutanderätt. Ngn föreslår en styrelse för Stockholmsdistriktet, för att det är så stort. Jan menas att Stockholmsdistriktet inte alls är, medlemsmässigt, så mkt större. En invändning är att vi har mer arbete då vi har närmre riksdagen och regeringen; hursomhelst, vad hindrar distriktsstyrelse? Tomas menar att det är just detta styrdokumentet ska handla om. I början var det meningen att DL och vice DL skulle ha en grupp med valkretsledarna och vice valkretsledarna. Ngn föreslår att DL skulle delegera ansvar till olika grupper. Hans J. Menar att vi inte kan besluta något, utan DL har beslutanderätten över hur organisationen ska fungera. Jan vill inte besluta hur organsationen ska se ut för han efterträdare. Detta bör diskuteras på högre nivå. Tomas tråd om organisationsform bör flyttas upp. LÄNK.

*Det kostar mycket att vara med på Internetdagarna (som antagligen hålls i november), så vi lär inte vara med där. Kanske skulle vi få komma in dit gratis, men det är högst osäkert. Rickard, som är med på mötet, tar hand om det.

*Det finns kommuner i norrort som saknar kommunledare; Anna ska kolla på det.

*Ngn undrar om vi bör ha flera vice DL. Jan menar att det inte behövs, förutsatt att DL och vice DL inte sitter på dubbla poster.

*Robert föreslår att vi ska köpa knappmaskinen av Gert, då han inte verkar intresserad av att använda den. Den finns hemma hos Robert, men den väger en del, så att flytta den är inte så enkelt. Johan menar att det är mkt enklare att köpa in knappar, om en inte ska göra enskilda knappar. Jan menar att detg är en bra gimmick, vi hade behövt den på Pride (dvs, för massproduktion kan vi köpa in, men som ”rolig grej” på Pride funkar Gerts knappmaskin bra).

*Valkretsen Sthlm stad skulle ha ett möte, men bara Johan dök upp där tyvärr. Inga beslut fattades.

*Förslag om aktion: att ha ett slags ”begravning” för Sveriges befolknings privatliv 14 oktober. Det behöver inte vara ngt stort, menar ngn; när IPRED röstades igenom stod fyra pers och delade ut flygblad, vilket genererade mediauppmärksamhet. Vi kan ha en flygbladsutdelning. Jonathan är ansvarig för att ordna flygbladsutdelning. Johan fixar fler flygblad.

*19.25 förklaras mötet avslutat.

*Om ngn har invändningar mot protokollet, kommentera!

Detta inlägg finns på http://intressant.se/intressant. Du kan läsa andra bloggares tankar rörande samhälle, politik, AFK, Piratpartiet, möte, möten, pirat, mötesprotokoll, protokoll, (PP)

VARNING!

E-post och ALL Internettrafik till och från Sverige, eller som passerar servrar i Sverige, avlyssnas av Försvarets Radioanstalt, FRA. (Text från Journalistförbundet)

WARNING!

E-mail and ALL Internet Communications to and from Sweden, or via servers in Sweden, is monitored by the National Defence Radio Establishment. (Text from Journalistförbundet)

Are we clear of September yet?  Good.  As we recoup, let us take a solemn moment to honor those brave bloggers who fell in the line of duty:

• Dave re: Fallen Earth - “I’ve been aching for an MMO with the depth of Crafting that EVE presents, while having a slightly easier learning curve.”
• MMOCrunch re: Forums – “If I contrast the MMO communities of today with those of five years ago, I see that we have become less patient, less civil and frankly, meaner.”
• Rog re: Champions – “This isn’t your grand-daddy’s MMO where you stand still for every fight.”
• Werit re: WAR – “I had a chance to ask Carrie Gouskos, of Warhammer Online, a few questions.”
• Stabbed Up re: DDO - “I think you will have a much much better experience if you’re able to take the initiative.”
• Spinks re: Volunteers - “So in a game like EVE, what’s to stop a player from using their volunteer powers to help their own character or faction in game?”
• Bullet Points re: Immersion – “There is a persistent attitude in the MMO blogging community that doing the same quests as other players reduces immersion.”
• Zizlak re: WAR - “There are heavy flaws, which imo Mythic can’t fix or at least don’t show a proper way to handle them.”
• MMO Tidbits re: Licenses – “The problem is that people financing games hate risk.”
• MMO Weekly re: Fallen Earth - “Surprisingly, post-nuclear Arizona looks exactly like modern, contemporary Arizona.”
• PvD re: LOTRO – “Turbine is forging into some new ground here.”
• Chris re: Casuals – “Sometimes I like to wear high heels too but it’s still not socially acceptable.”
• Wall of Text re: TOR - “Am I the only one that knows that 1) betas are popular, and 2) SWTOR is the most anticipated title in a long time?”
• Darth Hater re: TOR vs. WoW – “As with the Roman Empire, it’s going to be a variety of factors, and not one big rival, that is going to eventually topple the current king of the genre.”
• Ysharros re: Signatures – “Srsly, size and animation is NOT an indication of personal excellence in signatures — you’ve got the wrong organ there.”
• Darth Hater re: TOR – “It is probably best to get to know the native creatures we will be dealing with on a regular basis.”
• Antipwn re: Aion - “The game is visually stunning, uses current technology well and yet, it could have been designed back in 1999 as far as the game mechanics are concerned.”
• Ferrel re: Hardcore Play – “Sooner or later they will not be able to keep up the pace they’re used to anymore.”
• Dusty re: Champions - “No matter how much you love something, there is someone else equally convinced it’s the worst thing ever.”
• Tipa re: Wizard101 – “Thundercats fans should have a lot of fun with the lions and tigers available as mounts.”
• Turbine’s quarterly calendar wallpapers for DDO and LOTRO
• Snort!

And don’t miss out on this past week of Mutant Reviewers:

• Happy Birthday to Me
• The Matrix
• The Matrix Reloaded
• The Matrix Revolutions
• When Good Trips Go Bad
• Zombie
• Jennifer’s Body
• I Sell The Dead
• 9
• Within the Woods

Yes, I do know people like this. Oh yes I do.