Hullo! My second post in my blog will hopefully help you with picking a few of the plethora of software out there. I have chosen these from personal experience, which have all done what they were created to do and have made gaming perform faster, be beneficial, and are the best of its kind. Enjoy.

First of all, I am going to start off with the software which improves my computer’s performance. Defraggler. This, as you can guess, defrags your computer. Don’t know what defragging is? Read on, if you do, skip to the next bit of software. Defragging, in a nut-shell, gives you more space on your hard drive. How? Well, whenever you install something, a game for example, it is usually saved scattered all over your hard drive. Like this (10011010110011 (the 1s being your game and the 0s being porn)). Now, what defragging does is that it sorts it all out, putting the game and the porn together, so it would be like (11111111000000). This, for some reason, saves space. Go to Wikipedia if you want to know the whole shazam.

Next, Xfire. Xfire works a bit like Steam, except it works for all games, not just steam games and games which you buy from its store,  and also has additional features which I find pretty nifty. These include Video capturing, the ability to take screenshots, and the ability to talk to people on msn. The videos/pictures you take can also be uploaded to your profile site type thing, which other people can see, also saving it on the website, freeing up potential memory on your computer. Another nifty thing is the game time it records. It saves how long you have played on each game, and the total time played on games. Pretty handy to know how much life you have lost since you installed the program  :P. Note: Taking videos takes up RIDICULOUS amounts of space and takes a monster of a PC.

As I mentioned in the previous, Steam. Everyone probably knows steam, but for those who don’t, it works like Xfire, but has a store inbuilt as well. The store is brilliant by the way, so many great offers appear every now and then, e.g. The five-day Christmas sale type thing which just ended. Every day for five days, a bunch of offers came up on different games. Personally, I purchased Dragon Age Origins (Which I absolutely love and will try to write a review for in the future) for £22 and also Evil Genius for £1.79 (which I bought simply because it had the phrase “world-domination simulator” in it).  Steam is a must just to check up on offers from now and then.

Now, onto quite a big question. What firewall is the best? Well, NOT NORTON! Norton is simple bloat ware, a complete waste of space and money. Its defragging feature is a joke, its virus detection is laughable and you might as well smash your PC into small pieces before the frustration gets to you. This opinion about Norton could be a tad harsh due to my own personal bad experiences (not stopping viruses, taking a year and a half to scan PC, defragging and so on) but meh. Had to be said. What I think is a good  firewall is Avira or, as I like to call it, the friendly, little umbrella thing on my toolbar. It does what it says on the tin, protects my PC. It detects viruses instantly, scans PC pretty damn fast, and is up-to-date. It also has no impact on my gaming and just runs unnoticeably in the background, cleaning up the bad stuff.

I would include some sort of voice communication-type software, but the only one I really use is Skype. Ventrilo and Teamspeak I used to use during my WoW addiction phase, but not so much anymore. I also use ingame voice chat for games such as L4D and TF, because it’s pretty decent. I use skype just because it is free, and simple to use. I also don’t talk to so many people at once (maximum of four others) so the lag generating from a skype conversation isn’t half bad, although being a tad noticeable.

Now, onto my last bit of software, Media Jukebox. Media jukebox, in my opinion, is better than iTunes. Although, I do use iTunes to chuck songs on my iPod, media jukebox does have this feature aswell. But just for listening to music whilst browsing the web or something, I use the jukebox. One personal benefit for me is that I can use the skip track buttons on my laptop which I can’t do on iTunes, it also seems to lag a lot less than iTunes and not affect performance whilst running alongside a game as much. iTunes have their store as well, though I only use it for freebie songs I get from coca-cola bottles. Both have their advantages, both are on my PC.

So that’s my first ever proper blog post. Hope its been even marginally useful. Thanks for reading.

Stop Venting: Blabbelon Opens A New World for Gamers

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–November 03, 2009– You’re about to jump on a MMOG and need to bring other players into a voice chat session. After time-consuming downloads, complicated invites and discovering that your best player can’t join the chat because he’s on a Mac and not a PC, you finally begin playing – just as your game is rudely interrupted by loud team members. Your voice chat system, which should be providing you with a better gaming experience, has become more trouble than it was worth. Now, Blabbelon is removing the headaches associated with antiquated voice chat services and offering users a new gaming experience.

Tweet this: Stop Venting: @Blabbelon Opens a New World for #MMO Gamers http://bit.ly/2T5xAF #blabbelon

In just one click, Blabbelon users are up and running with the Internet voice chat service using Skype’s SILK super wideband audio codec – offering a free, high-quality push-to-talk voice service that uses approximately 50 percent less network bandwidth than previously required. Once a user enters a chat or “Blab,” they can invite participants to join in numbers far greater than other push-to-talk services and easily manage their various groups through Blabbelon’s extensive built-in administration features.

“I come from a family of avid gamers, and we were all frustrated with our options for online voice chat. I didn’t understand why I couldn’t just register once, click and talk and at the same time have the ability to easily invite people to join me, manage my various groups, and control my game through better quality communication. And so Blabbelon was born,” said Ed Ikeguchi, founder and CEO of Blabbelon.

Acting like a giant walkie-talkie, Blabbelon is perfect for MMOs and other online gaming environments. Designed to overcome the range of limitations that come with other push-to-talk systems like Ventrilo, Blabbelon offers users:

• One-Click Entry with No Downloads: Users register once for the service, and can start new chats (called Blabs) through a URL. Chats are run through a Web browser with no complicated start-up procedures and no software downloads, allowing other applications to run simultaneously while the Blab runs in the background.
• Fast Push-to-Talk/Low Lag: Blabbelon provides minimal delays in push-to-talk timing, ensuring quick reaction time to any in-game occurrences and lower lag times, while still providing superior voice quality with less bandwidth consumption.
• Party Control: Each user within a game is placed within a specific stereo space, giving administrators more control over their groups. Blab leaders can be assigned dominant push-to-talk capabilities- allowing features such as better management of unruly users and ensuring that sessions run smoothly without forcing session members to mute offending parties. Also, Blabbelon allows administrators to permanently ban unwanted users
• Party/RAID/Guild Security: Purchasing a server with other services often means that “chat leeches” continue to use the server without permission, but Blabbelon enables the administrator to set a wide-range of group security measures. Through Blabbelon, administrators can easily reset a URL, keeping leeches from re-navigating back to a voice server as with other services such as Ventrilo.
• Multi-Platform Control: Blabbelon works on Windows, Mac, Internet Explorer, Firefox and Google Chrome without the need to download any content, install new browser toolbars or submit passwords.
• Scalable: Each Blabbelon session can handle several thousand users.
• Privacy: Blabbelon is a personalized and private environment. Only invited and known users are allowed to join, and users can maintain complete anonymity through the use of in-system aliases.

“I used Ventrilo for years, but since trying Blabbelon for about a month now – I’ve converted my entire Guild – and we’re all telling our friends about it. There’s no comparison, really. It’s easier to use, simpler to manage, sounds great – and it’s free. What more could you ask for?” said Lance Hurd, guild master of True Blood of Malkier, Alliance Mok’Nathal.

Availability

Blabbelon is available immediately from www.blabbelon.com.

About Blabbelon

Blabbelon is a free, push-to-talk, private Voice over IP service that helps people gather and communicate. It uses Skype’s SILK codec to deliver super wideband audio quality. Requiring no software downloads and running through a Web browser, Blabbelon is a multi-platform service that is ideal for a wide range of voice needs. Blabbelon is a privately-held company, headquartered in New York City.

My guild, the Imperial Guardsmen, is an exceptionally small guild by most people’s standards.

It always has been no matter how much effort we’ve thrown into recruiting. On average, we’ve tended to have between 40 and 50 members at any given point in our lifetime since I took over as GM, and while we try as hard as we can, we simply can’t manage catch up to other guilds. Of course, this sometimes creates issues. Oftentimes, we get stuck with several people who have really good ideas for things to do, but we just don’t have the human resources to make it work. If things are implemented regardless, they go unappreciated, or fall flat due to lack of interest.

For example, we recently purchased a Ventrilo server for the guild to use, and thus far a total of five different people have used it. Four of them are officers. Another example would be our guild website, which is updated pretty frequently and provides news, forums and a messaging system for our guildies. At the time of writing, we have a total of seven people signed up to the site, and approximately three of them use it regularly. Similarly, we set up a guild Facebook page for anyone who preferred to communicate through that medium, and inevitably it has just four members and has essentially fallen into disuse. The final example I’ll mention is the guild bank; after investing (officers’) gold into buying tabs for it, it is used a couple of times a month and that, again, is mainly by the officers. Hardly the healthy trading situation we had hoped to create.

The problem also exists with raiding and instancing. We can’t advertise and say we raid, because we rarely do, meaning we get very few people joining (seems as though everyone is looking for a raiding guild). However, without current members willing to put the effort in so that we can at least run half a raid, we can’t actually try and do things to improve the situation. Swings and roundabouts.

Now like I say, this problem has always existed, and in a way it has helped shape the guild’s nature. We have a relatively low turnover rate, losing and gaining just a few members in a time period where a larger guild could see many more new recruits, so instead we have turned our focus away from endgame content, and instead towards the members themselves.

While we can’t say we will ever finish a raid as a guild, what we can do is foster a social atmosphere we can be proud of. We have a fairly low level restriction on joining (40+), and indeed many older members have good memories of weekend guild instances – no, not to Karazhan or Naxxramas, but instead to LBRS, Zul’Farrak and even BRD in order to help our members through the levels on their way up to the cap.

We’ve grown used to the idea that members are liable to leave once they realise there’s a whole other world out there, outside the bubble you form while leveling, and we accept this. So we give them the best atmosphere possible while they level. We run our alts through instances with them, or we boost them. We give advice and help, and guide them to new sources of information. Once or twice, we have, as a guild, comforted someone emotionally who was upset or having a hard time. We saw someone through the birth of their first baby. We chat about everything from flying fire-breathing sheep rams (BAAAA-UUUURN) to the Theory of Relativity. Several of our ex-members have gone on to join the server’s top raiding guilds, and in many ways we consider ourselves like a school, preparing talented people for what comes next.

We also take screenshots, and I make videos – we’ve built, and are building, a history, founded on creating that atmosphere, supported by a solid group of officers, most of whom have been with us almost since the very beginning. When we disbanded briefly last year, the commemoratory video contained the names of every single recorded member ever to pass through the guild by that time. You can see it at the top of the page, and our other videos are on the same Youtube account.

In all probability, nobody is ever going to make more use of our facilities than they are now, but what we can do is make sure those facilities are available. If someone wants that blue item out of the bank to use for ten levels to help them level, then sure, why not, it’s there after all. If people need to communicate, we provide every means we can think of, all of them readily accessible. Later this year, in celebration of the guild’s third birthday, we’re going to be holding our first ever real life meet-up for our members. We don’t expect many people to come along – possibly nobody but the officers – but we’re doing it anyway. We’re giving people that chance, which is there for them to take.

At the end of the day, we provide a place where people can log in, relax and just have a good time while they play. I have never felt at home anywhere more than with the Guardsmen, and the sentiment is shared by many others, including many who have left. I don’t know another guild who does family atmosphere as well as we do and for that, I love my guild and its members, and I wouldn’t have our situation any other way.

Vel.

The underground has been here for quite some time now and have helped many people.
Although helping them in text format is all good and well and with the new Underground e-book coming out why stop there? and why not expand our horizons a little? or.. a lot?

Proposition #1
The Underground official chatroom and i dont mean this like skype where you might talk to one Underground member. But I mean something like ventrilo where the underground members can login and join the room and get troubleshooted through there or just have a talk, start a few games why not? i mean im sure by now the Underground members are well aware of tunngle by now thanks to VersatileNinja i feel that this idea will help promote the Underground for what it does but help a lot more people in a simpler environment although i have not ran this idea through anyone this is why this blog is here.

Proposition #2
As i hope you are aware of a program called logmein although i bet this idea will be shun and not taken seriously but hear me out.
This program brings troubleshooting to a whole new level and long with a chat function from the Proposition above getting help couldnt be easier with an underground member guiding you through what you do though with logmein or taking over the operation entirely

I believe this may cause some people to worry about some security issue’s im sure in a community like this that should not be a problem ( also in logmein you can block the remote user taking control and let them observe and guide you through).

THIS HAS BEEN TESTED!

I use this system of logmein and a voice chat (skype) and i find it makes the process infinitely easier and a lot quicker than the regular text base help.

But Armsdealer? theres tutorials on the internet!
True but each computer is different and some steps may need a work around and with someone there doing it specifically for your needs will make your life easier and probably theres because they dont need to reply to a million comments but instead promote this site

Elindult a magyar egyesített ventrilo szerverünk. Jelenleg 4 klánnak van szobája rajta, de aki szeretne, kérhet a saját légiójának bármikor itt a hozzászólásokban.

A szerveren lehetőség van party szobák kérésére, a szobák jelszavazásra, stb…

Host: 94.125.180.96 - Port: 3785
Ventrilo Admins: fubenalvo, Elfi

Now some of these are classics, and aren’t really in the war but, I wanted to review them anyway because they deserve to be mentioned here since they made me appreciate gaming. I’ve posted the approximate dates I played these games because content in MMOs is always changing and I wouldn’t want to tarnish any games if they’ve improved on something I’ve mentioned. Please feel free to comment if things have changed; I always welcome feedback. My guesstimates could have been longer or shorter, but it’s hard to specifically recall. My thoughts are random in that I’m writing as I’m recalling past experiences for the most part.

 What you should also note about me is that after Anarchy Online, my main has always been a healer class in every single game. My perspective is always as a priestess. Hah.

 Anarchy Online (2003 -2004) (for around 3-4 months)

Anarchy Online (AO) published and developed by FunCom was my very first MMO. It was released in 2001 but I played it a few years in. My then boyfriend now husband finally convinced me to give gaming a try, and am I ever glad I did. Anarchy Online was an eye opener; I realized just how much I enjoyed levelling up and improving my skills and defences. The game is very different from other MMOs due to its futuristic science fiction theme. It took a while longer to figure out the whole technology implants system, but it was cool. The game runs mainly on instances, and there isn’t a whole lot of exploring, but their instances were good enough to keep me interested from what I can remember. We decided to move on to different things because my husband had already played AO and wanted something new. We thus moved on to Everquest 2.

Everquest 2 (2004- 2005 for around 6-7 months or so)

Everquest 2 is a beautiful game by Sony Online Entertainment. This was my first character customization experience. I loved it! It’s practically my favourite part about MMOs. Clearly I’m a female, lol. Everquest’s sceneries were very picturesque, they never failed to amaze me. It’s basically a fantasyland, as it should be. Aside from my character’s beauty, and she was beautiful; the game was a lot of fun. There was always somewhere new to explore at least in the time that we played. I still wish we’d played it longer because there were still some unexplored areas. I also enjoyed the random gambling this game presented, and at far off places, such as on a boat- a random peddler offers you to gamble your hard earned money away. FUN. The quests in EQ2 never felt like grinds, at least not to me since it was so new. I loved the themed holidays in main cities. It gave the game a personal spirit of sorts. You knew the game developers played and were proud of their programming skills. I would be! As I recall they were good to rely on for help. Player housing is accessible to players from level 1. The more I write about EQ2, the more I want to play it again. It was a great game. Did I mention I love loot? Well, there’s a whole heck of surprising loot in this game. The music of this game is part of the whole experience. Well done Laura Karpman! – I can actually relate here due to 10+ years of piano playing and a tad of teaching. Beautiful sounds, you get drawn right into the themes. There is a lot of character races and classes which can really make your character an individual. What we found lacking at the time of our play was a good guild, or rather the means to find a good guild or talk to people. This is possibly due to the stage at which we joined the game, which was right at its inception. There didn’t seem to be a large presence, or perhaps we were on a non-busy or off-timed server. We never made it to any expansions. Overall this game holds a special place for me and I miss it.

 World of Warcraft (2005 – 2006 for around 9-10 months)

I think the most fun I’ve ever had with Player vs. Player (PvP) was in World of Warcraft (WoW) by Blizzard Entertainment It is what drove me to play it as long as I did. The PvP arenas were so much fun to me. I loved it. Even as a priestess I still like to think I played very well. The setting of WoW is quite similar to Everquest, in that it involves similar mythical creatures, but with definite differences. WoW was must first experience with VOIP and with joining a guild. VOIP was still done by using an outside program such as Ventrilo. I’m aware they’ve added in-game VOIP like LOTRO now. The questing in WoW was a lot of fun. As in all the MMOs I’ve played, I never bought any expansions. Either computer upgrades or school would get in the way of gaming and I’d have to stop playing. Not that I’m addicted or anything. I won’t get into too much details since this is the most known MMO. WoW was a great game and I would play it again some day.

Lord of the Rings Online (2006 – 2008 for a good year and a half)

I still hear that lute! If you know, then you know.

Lord of the Rings online by Turbine was a game that I was the most excited about playing prior to its release. I just loved Lord of the Rings Online. I knew the whole background of the story, and this is what really helped me get into it. They did a great job creating backyards to the storylines. The story was always ambitious, and challenging. I love challenges. As a healer you have to multitask to the fullest; and Lotro allowed me to do just that. In addition to the excellent gameplay and in-game VOIP from the start, Lotro had an excellent guild creation, likely due to VOIP. You automatically talk to people and form groups. What I also enjoyed about Lotro were its books and how you had to fulfill additional tasks or feats. This was fun and made helping lower leveled people worth it. I’ve always played MMOs as a duo, but with Lotro I knew I could always count on good groups.(gg!) I also had the most amazing guild in Lotro called Ring Guards of Rivendellon the Elendilmir server. Those people were a lot of fun, and most of them still play. I felt like part of a team. One thing that was lacking was great PvP and I do not like Monster Play. I always play good characters, and I don’t want to be a monster. Again, it must be a girl thing. I would most definitely play Lotro again. It was a tease when I played for 3 free days last May or June, and I was welcomed back with open arms. I will play this game again.

Age of Conan (2008 for 3 weeks)

Age of Conan by Funcom was the next promising game that I wanted to try. My husband’s computer had pretty much kicked it and that’s why we stopped playing LOTRO. We upgraded and bought new computers for AoC with Direct X10 and superior graphics. I gave AoC a very valiant chance because I was informed that its combat methods were very quite different and more involved than other MMOS. This considering that my character got stuck in the lower level realm for an additional 48 to 72 hours because of a technical quest glitch. So here I was all levelled and prepared for the next part of the game and I had to wait and roam the dark night streets aimlessly. So we had to wait. That did get solved though, and I did play a while longer. Why did I only play for three weeks? One word: instances. I dislike gaming solely or mainly based on instanced play. It’s boring, I like to explore and run off to do my own thing.

Funny quote from http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/egrr_4446_668336  :

“Well you are a woman so of course you do 25% less DPS than a male, that is why you’ve got boobies although what happened to your nipples? Surely a girl your age has bigger ones?”

Too funny, but I had no clue about the decreased DPS. How horrible! I always tried to make my tits realistic to me. Even if women are less strong than men in RL,  healers are not realistic thus this should not be allowed. This game was sexy, if you’re a male or if you’re not offended by it; but the game was not fun enough to keep playing. The graphics weren’t even that impressive; and it wasn’t a stingy upgrade.

 Warhammer Online (2008 for 2-3 months or so)

Warhammer Online (War) by Mythic Entertainment was initially not a game I was very inclined to play because it seemed dark and dreary. I of course gave it a chance anyways. Warhammer was very cool. It was different in that there was a lot more cooperation required. Unfortunately, this may have been the game’s downfall; at least in our case. I really liked the fact that you could enter the forbidden zones of your enemies and strike from behind like a coward, lol. I’m really not this evil. The problem was that there just weren’t enough people online for us, and we’d have to wait around or die trying to fight difficult quests alone when they’re meant for 10. It was a great idea though, and I’ll give them their credit. It would have been really neat to have really big battles. There were a few, but it was a rare chance it seemed. I’ve heard they’ve had to downsize their servers, so we might give it a chance again.

 Aion (2009 work in progress, too tired) 

One of my favourite songs that’s related by Basshunter!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OzWIFX8M-Y

~Darleya~ 

Thanks to our good friend Achmed we now have a vent server to use for whatever we want. So hop on in and test it out

vent96.light-speed.com

port: 4212

-

So, I like to drink quite a bit. I like to grab some friends and family and head down to my local and eat their delicious, delicious greasy food and drink beer and scotch until it comes out my ears. That is a fabulous time in my opinion. However, when we do such things, we usually take it in turn to decide who will be the responsible person for the evening – and it’s not so much fun when it’s me.

It’s not that I miss drinking, it’s that I hate having to shepherd and corral and manage 17 people who behave for all the world like small children. It’s wearying. It has its moments – seeing someone miss their mouth entirely and splot their drink in the centre of their shirts is (usually) well worth the hassle of spending the night herding people who are working on a three minute, closed-loop memory. (Where am I? How did I get here? Whose pineapple is this?)

The converse, however is pretty entertaining, too. Having one drunk person in a crowd of sober people can be quite a lot of fun. Well, for the sober people, I guess. I know that I sure enjoy teasing and laughing at (in a friendly way, of course) those people I know who are brave (or foolish) enough to come drunk to a sober gathering.

After I logged off on Saturday night (and well into the wee hours of Sunday morning) a guildie of mine (one of our tanks – a drunk tank! punny!) came home from a birthday party absolutely shittered – and decided the best thing to do was to get onto vent. While I am so very grateful that he made the decision to display his drunk ass for our entertainment, I’m even more indebted to the kind and clever soul who decided to record the vent conversation.

And post it on the forums.

Mondays being what they are, I was surly and miserable when I finllally oozed into the office. After I did all my normal Monday start up things, I checked the guild forums and decided to download the file. It was 58 minutes of absolute bliss. I laughed loud enough that a few people poked their heads into my cubicle to see just what the heck was going on. I was tempted to link the recordings here, but I don’t know how entertaining they’d be to people who don’t know the guild or recognize the voices. You’ll just have to trust me that listening to an absolutely plastered man with the Bostonian accent howling “heroic throw, heroooooic throoooowwwww” like an abandonded wolf pup is pretty much the bestest thing evar. It was exactly what I needed first thing in the morning. It’s exactly what I need a lot of the time.

I know this may make me sound like Nerdly McNerderson, Mayor For Life of Nerdtown, Nerdvania, but I was actually mopey when the recording was over. For a little while there, it was like being at home, online, (virtually) surrounded by my friends. A couple of times while I was listening, my fingers twitched a little, unconsciously typing /g in preparation to reply to something I heard. It wasn’t just that my guildies were having fun laughing at our very very drunk warrior tank (they made a drinking game out of his drunken ramblings. If he says “what planet am I on?” – everybody drinks! If he says “I’m soooo hammahhed” – everybody drinks!) but that they were together and having fun. I love that so, so much about my guild. I love the way that I feel like a part of a community – a family almost (OMG someone call the cliche police!)

For all they drive me bugnutz insane sometimes, I really do love my guild. Actually, I think that’s why they have the power to make me so crazy – and to cut me so deeply. I care for them so much, and that means that I leave myself very vulnerable to being hurt by their indifference or their scorn.

Drak, Sora, Undi, Chiclet, Jett, Ama, Thunder and everyone who was online – I enjoyed your company on Monday morning. Impossibilium – I quite honestly and truly love you guys.

Greetings fellow guild mates, the website is now up and running check back frequently for news, events and the vent info that will be soon be added, please take the poll and let us know when you are most available for pvp, questing and raids.

Please make a donation to our ventrilo server! We all use it, please make a donation if you can. Your donation will be processed via Paypal Thank you!

http://www.hostventrilo.com/order/refill.php?id=20932

I’ve just worked out something pretty important. I’m absolutely shit with background chat when in events.

A while ago, Ere paid for a hosted Ventrilo server. Since when, quite a few of us have been on it a fair bit. Even before that, some of us would use Skype for smaller stuff but even that grew to 10-12 people. And my stress levels grew.

I put it down to work stress, it has after all been pretty shitty. I put it down to some personal stress in the game but tonight I finally figured it out. Whilst events have always stressed me out, they have never stressed me out as much as they have done since we all started talking to each other. It’s not that I don’t want to communicate or chat, it’s just when I need to think, I need peace and quiet.

I used to occasionally run events whilst chatting to Niamh on the phone with little problem. But as soon as you get more than 1-2 other people talking, I can’t handle it. I find it really hard to filter out the background noise. People’s general banter becomes enormously irritating to me. I just want to tell them to STFU. I get so focused on the event I’m running that people joking/teasing/messing around just annoys the living crap outta me.

When events on Skype got too much, I would drop out. Occasionally I’d just call Rotx or Doyler so we could talk through what was happening and because they tended to be a lot more focused on the event and how it was going than others.

Today during Dynamis, I lost it. I completely lost it. I couldn’t handle the endless banter and bs whilst trying to set up a Dynamis Lord run. I snapped at Uneac who was just teasing and positively jumped down Rg’s throat. (We did very well for our first impromptu attempt, we’ll get him next time I think.)

I was talking to Nia after the run and began to realise, it’s the extra dimension of voice which is adding to the stress. As well as the tells, ls chat etc I’m getting endless questions and comments on Vent and I can’t think straight for the noise.  Stuff, which during low stress events or general stuff in game doesn’t bother me at all, starts driving me nuts during big events.

When I had no form of voice chat, I’d occasionally ring Nia or Clevan up after an event and vent or celebrate but it was not in the same kind of league as the level of irritation I experience in Vent.

I was talking this through with Nia and realised, I’ve always been like this about noise. I used to sit chatting with him and need the tv turned down or preferably muted or I found it really intrusive. I can’t stand peeps at work being loud or chatty around me when I have something complex to work on. I always preferred to study in the silence of the library.

The harder I have to concentrate, the quieter I like it. FFXI without voice chat gives you distance. So I posted up that whilst I’m happy to chatter away outside important events, that during important events I’d be on another channel with only a couple of key people instrumental in making the event happen.

It’s so simple, I just didn’t realise what an impact the extra noise was having on my sanity. I should have, I’d even have to hang up on Nia when things in game got hectic.  Hell I turn the radio off in my car when the weather is bad and I need to focus. Vent is great for bonding, for Salvage, for xp parties for bsing when you’re doing something low key. But add in any pressure to the event and I can’t deal with the noise.

Weird huh?

So, this is how my Wednesday went down.

The Good: I did my Brewfest dailies on my priest, got 351 beer tickets, and got my achievement! Look!

The screen is fuzzy because it's Brewfest

Loooooook! So pretty! My Flying Purple People Eater!

Do I eat only purple people?

The Bad: Word got around that there was going to be an Onyxia raid. So our 25 signups dwindled to 19 (mysterious!) plus two late people. So 17. Enough to do a 10 man, though! If one of our late people (a healer) had shown up, we very likely have been able to do two ten mans. But, it was not to be. I gave a stern lecture to everyone on the importance of signing up up for raids (novel idea!) and expressed how disappointed I was in the people who declined over the last 24 hours. (Except for the one guy who had a good excuse – he got a new job today! Yay for gainful employment!) and then stemmed the flood of QQ.

Now look, I know that there is going to be QQ no matter what happens. I know that I could magically give everyone GM powers and let them loose on the world and there would still be QQ. (Whaaaatt? I have to type in .kill to take down Arthas??? But that’s tooooo haaaaarrrrd.) But Christ on a candlestick people – don’t complain at *me* when the signups dwindle. Complain at the selfish bastards who decide that if the raid isn’t going to be something they’re crazy excited about or need anything from that they don’t care enough to go anyhow. And also: STFU about the fact that when we post raids, we just say “25 man raid” and not specify where we’re going until right before raid. You know why we do that? This is why. This is also not my fault and I respectfully direct your attention to the “Not A Team Player” section of the guild.

Anyhow. One ten man raid. We have an earnable rank in our guild, based on people who go above and beyond what is expected of “typical” raiders. One of the perks of this rank is that if there are limited raid spots, they go to these people first. I do not have this rank, because there is a pretty strict attendance requirement and I havn’t managed to quite make it yet. So, I got to sit on the sidelines for our very first (New! Improved! Now with more whelps!) Onyxia raid. It made me pretty bummed, but hey I guess them’s the breaks. I make the rules, I have to live by them, too. No matter how much my squeeing Ony fangirl heart longed to be in there, pew pewing, and handling the many whelps.

The Ugly: Look, the other night (Monday, maybe?) I had talked to our late healer. He said he was going to be late. I asked him to send me and/or our Raid Leader an in game mail about it, because I was unlikely to remember five minutes from now that he was going to be late. Let alone two days. He gave me some guff about it (but, but, but I doan waaaaaannnnnnnnaaa) and I reminded him it was actually part of our policy, could he do it please? He got pouty about it, and huffed off, but I assumed that he had done it. He evidently had not because I didn’t have a mail last night and neither did our Raid Leader. And I – of course – had forgotten that he had mentioned it.

Half an hour into our raid time, our late healer comes onto vent and in an insolent, sassy-bitch tone says, “Oh, Ori, I’m sure you noticed I didn’t send you an in game mail about me being late tonight like you asked. I’m *soooooooooo* sorry,” and then brightly, “Well, arewe doing anything tonight?”

First: You know what? I didn’t much like your pushing the boundaries and your “tee hee I am so disobedient and naughty” attitude when you first came into this guild. My liking for it has not increased with exposure.

Second: YOU SIGNED UP FOR A RAID! YOU KNEW YOU WERE GOING TO BE LATE! FOR A RAID! WHAT IN THE FUCK DID YOU THINK THAT WE – A RAID GUILD – WERE DOING AT HALF AND HOUR AFTER OUR RAID START TIME!?? ON A RAID NIGHT!?

Third: That there is the final straw.

To the guild: I’m sure you all saw me spend the night in the officer channel on vent where only officers could come talk to me. And I’m sure there are people amongst you who thought I was ‘off sulking’ and honestly, if you want to think that, that’s fine. The reality is that I didn’t feel like being in your company. I was embarassed at my reaction to our healer’s jerky attitude on top of the QQ about raids and the lack of concern for my feelings about the Onyxia run. I didn’t want you all to hear that in my voice. I also didn’t want to listen to you guys try to re-learn the Ony fight. I didn’t want to be a part of you last night.

I didn’t feel like you wanted me to be a part of you.

Post Scriptum: Titled “Insult to Injury or Here Is Some Salt For Your Wounds.” The computer ate this post and I had to re-write it. Prolly a good thing as there was a lot more “fuck” involved the first time.

Well its with a heavy heart that I say goodbye to … LOL well I can’t quite say it that way. I’ve decided to cancel my EVE Online subscription and head back to Everquest 2. It was pretty easy to do since I have friends playing EQ2 right now and no one I know IRL except the Canadian dude (who wasn’t around much), that helped me get started, plays EVE.

EVE is very fun game at first because it is so drastically different then anything else out there. You need skills to fly ships but those skills can train 23/7/365 while you are playing with the stuff you do qualify for or not playing at all. Progress is swift and steady at first so you get to experience a quickly changing new world but then it all of a sudden comes to a crashing halt when all your skills suddenly cost 5 million (5,000,000) ISK each and they take 6+ days to train to the level you need. This is when a good guild or group of friends would continue to make the game interesting and without that well I just can’t keep playing. If you need a good game that is fun and exciting and you have the need to be able to walk away and still make progress then EVE is a game for you.

Everquest is well Ever”crack” and it will always be so. The grand daddy of all current MMO’s and its child EQ2 is a direct copy with upgraded graphics. Its a fun game to and it will be ever more so because of my friends that I will be able to experience things with. Join us on ventrilo sometime @ vent.equitasguild.org. Email me for the password.

It can get pretty crazy late at night in my guild, especially with the introduction of a new Ventrilo server, and last night was no exception.

The plan had originally been to raid, but we eventually decided we couldn’t be bothered and so we went to ToC heroic instead. Afterwards, me and two others were somewhat bored, so we decided 3-manning Onyxia was the only sensible option.

Twenty-five minutes later, additional instances still could not be launched.

Luckily we developed a lazy man’s way of bashing our heads against the portal, which is to say we positioned ourselves such that we only had to jump and it would try and zone us in, meaning we didn’t actually have to move forwards or backwards or anything. The screams of joy were somewhat deafening when we finally did get in.

So the first attempt went down the pan when I got knocked into the whelps! -50DKP for me.

My last moments.

The exact same thing actually happened the second time, which was irritating.

However, thanks to some Warlock tanking in demon form (yay, Demo!)…

Reasons to spec into Metamorphosis - #1

… we got her down on the third attempt.

Victory!

Before we left, I thought I’d have some fun, however, and so I decided to run into one of the whelp pits to pull some back to my unsuspecting guildies – not realizing that it’s actually one big pit which runs all the way around. So there were rather more whelps than anticipated.

Ooh er

Needless to say, Tom (the Mage) and I died rather quickly, but Vahan (the Rogue) hadn’t run in with us, and lived. He then made the mistake of attempting to get to us and using AoE to try to clear the area.

Congratulations, Vahan, now we're all dead.

So it was up to me to use my uber Demonology powers for good instead of evil – i.e. self-rez with the Soulstone and try to burn down all the whelps with Metamorphosis and Immolation Aura.

Reasons to spec into Metamorphosis - #2

Which I did! Face it, Demonology is the superior spec. However it was at this point we realized that after all that, I couldn’t rez the others anyway, so we left.

But not before a game of Portal Roulette!

Vahan and I got lumped with the Exodar…

Stupid city.

With all that behind us, the logical continuation was to head over to an RP server, roll Horde alts and (E)RP the hell out of everyone around. We even spoke on Vent in character – yes, we all seemed to be Undead Jamaicans, but at least we stuck with it! I called myself Sarooman (a Warlock of course) because of an earlier misunderstanding whereby Tom had said ‘Sorry mon’ in an accent and I’d thought he was calling me Saruman from LotR.

Good times.

Vel.

P.S. I’m away Monday to Friday this coming week, so hopefully I’ll be able to schedule the first part of my written leveling guides for midweek – that’ll be the part which deals with all the new spells and abilities you can learn from the Warlock trainer. The talent-specific options will have to be slightly delayed until I get back.

The Champions Online Open Beta is over. I’ve posted my comments in the Beta Forums. Before I say anything else, let me say that I’ve cancelled my subscriptions to two other MMOs in the expectation that I will only play Champions Online when it launches. I had that much fun in the Open Beta.

Meanwhile, people are talking about Bioware’s MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and how much voiceover it will use.

Those two things got me thinking about MMO features. What follows are my opinions. When they are comments on a specific game, I’ve cited that game’s title. Don’t assume a comment with no attribution is about a specific game.

Must Have

You have to support voice chat in your MMO. Work out a deal with Ventrilo or some other service, but get it in your game. Voice chat is built into several games now, including World of Warcraft. It’s now expected.

You must have a wiki. Not only for story information, but for how to play the game. You can launch the story portion prior to game launch, as a marketing tool, but the game mechanics side should launch with the game. If you’re not simultaneous, someone will steal your thunder and wikis are a case where first-to-market matters.

You need in-game web access. No, not just so players can order pizza. You want to set up a web portal, which accesses your wiki, your online store (especially if you’re using micro-transactions), and your forums. You can make it as difficult as you like to navigate away from those sites, as long as getting to them is easy in the game. This portal should be expandable, in case you form a licensing partnership with someone like Dominos, or J!nx.

You must have strong social tools in the game. There are two aspects to this. First, we want good reasons to team up. Maybe missions require characters of different roles or backgrounds or specializations to complete them. City of Heroes and City of Villains (COX, collectively) run holiday events, for example, where heroes and villains have to team up to complete quests. Second, we want teaming up to be easy. Forming teams and building friend lists should be easy. Rejoining a team part way through a quest should be simple, if not automatic. Eliminate everything that stands in the way of socializing in the game.

You must have strong instancing. I played an MMO where my team finished a quest, left the quest map, and each member wound up in a separate instance of the game world. That’s something that stands in the way of socializing in the game.

Want

We want in-game social media access. Let us update Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, or any number of other sites (you can start with just a few and expand over time, of course) from inside the game. Let us control the updates. Don’t automate them (my least favorite feature of Tweetcraft, and the reason I uninstalled it), but do include a button with each accomplishment pop-up that allows the player to broadcast it if he (or she) wants to.

Give us global (across server) user names, so we can e-mail our friends across servers. In fact, give us the option of sending standard e-mail from within the game.

We want to sort our quests, and control how the game tracks them. In other words, we want to be able to sort by level, or geographic proximity; and we want to be able to mask out missions in zones other than the one we’re in. It’s okay if the default display and sort is everything, in the order acquired. Just as long as we can customize it. We want to be able to sort quest givers the same way.

We want to change the world. We want our actions to have a persistent impact. Champions Online makes a stab at it, with the way different zones show the same geographic locations before we complete a story arc and after.

We want mobile access to the game. Giving us social media is a good start, because most of us already update social media via our mobile devices. Even if we’re just managing inventory or scheduling a raid, we want mobile access. Let us check our characters’ e-mail via mobile devices. Keep us involved with your game when we’re away from our computers.

We want to see you get tough with spammers, gold farmers, and griefers. We don’t care that you posted a tough policy on your website or in the EULA (End-User Licensing Agreement). We want to know that you’re enforcing it.

Just Stop

A characteristic of MMOs at this stage is repetition. You spend lots of time in the same places, with the same NPCs, while you get e-mail, shop, and initiate quests. Voiceover dialogue, as a result, will be heard over and over. Congratulations, you just spent a boatload of money on a feature that annoys your players. Just stop the voiceover madness.

Heya,

We have also a Ventrilo server,

for talking and having fun.

IP : vent39.light-speed.com

Port : 5725

Greetz Management of DU

Ventrilo Harassment – Duke Nukem Style

On the subject of balls. The following vid is very funny. Explicit Language used.

Credits to OxYgEnX & Videocompilertest

Al meu sot e pasionat de WoW (World of Warcraft) si in week-end am spectacol. Fac raiduri (ataca boshi din diferite instante – Naxxramas si Ulduar sunt cele mai grele) si toti jucatorii folosesc un program de comunicare – Ventrilo – ceva gen Skype corelat cu jocul. Vlad nu foloseste castile, deci ii aud ce vorbesc intre ei and stuff. Nu e foarte relevant ce zic, ca oricum vorbesc in termeni specifici si n-am de unde sa stiu ce vor sa zica prin stop the DPS on the route lasher, etc., etc. Ce e deopotriva interesant si inspaimantator este modul in care se dedica jocului. Vlad se cam cearta cu ei si cum aud ce se intampla si ce se discuta, nu se poate sa nu-mi dau si eu cu parerea. Majoritatea jucatorilor sunt nordici (sunt si f multi romani, dar Vlad e intr-o ghilda cu nordici), cam pe la 18-22 de ani, care nu prea ies din casa, se joaca 18 ore pe zi si fac pe desteptii in joc, ca in real life nu fac mare lucru. Iau jocul mult prea in serios si cam de-asta se si cearta Vlad cu ei. Ca sa intre in ghilda astora a trebuit sa completeze un formular si sa dea interviu :|, ca si cand ar fi un job. In raiduri, stau si diseca fiecare miscare a fiecarui membru, au un guild master care e ca un fel de carmaci la canotaj, dar muuulttt mai enervat. Cam ca un american, manager la un call center de vanzari – incearca sa te motiveze sa faci bani, dar foloseste cele mai penibila si mai bullshiting&brainwashing methods. Daca nu merge cu motivarea, se infurie, urla, critica, da vina pe ala si pe alalalt, ii acuza pe toti ca nu se dedica jocului, ca nu sunt focusati si asa mai departe. Dar, daca l-ati auzi pe asta cum vorbeste, Dios mio, parca ar fi vorba de a life threatening experience si nimeni nu il ajuta :|. Ce m-a socat cel mai tare a fost cand Vlad a gresit la nush ce chestie, iar guild master-ul l-a luat la intrebari, l-a dadacit ca vaiii, noi intelegem ca nu stii tactica, dar suntem draguti si te luam in continuare, dar vrem ca tu sa te dedici cauzei si sa muncesti mai mult. Dupa asta, ca sa para mai friendly probabil, l-a intrebat de unde e. Vlad i-a zis ca e din Ro si ca e prieten in real life cu alt membru, care ne-a fost coleg de serviciu si ei doi sunt prieteni buni de mult timp. La care, prietenul asta al nostru, a raspuns ca *yes, and I’m not very proud of that*. Cand l-am auzit, mi-a venit rau. Mai sa fie, te dezici de prieteni pentru un joc amarat, care-ti mananca timpul si nu te ajuta cu absolut nimic in viata?? Asta chiar mi se pare urat. E un simplu joc, nimic mai mult.

I got hung at 98% and couldn’t get further, tried a few times and said fuck it. Talked to Sam and Colleen lastnight so I was able to get some skinny on the vault run (lol), as well as the smell and toxicity of Sams computer burning up with his wife rolling her eyes at him. I can picture it. I did. 

Instead I contributed to our 4 feet X 5 feet canvas we bought last week and drew (draw) my wifes eyes and eyebrow with slashes of her vibrant red hair in my minds eye. Using colored pencil and pastels on canvas take more work and strokes than normal and the residuals are waiting to be smudged or blown off by a breath of non-saliva air. It’s going to be an interesting piece when it’s all done and hope we can finish it up soon (4-6 weeks) since I’ve already noticed it gets wear and tear, smudges and more smudges as we work on it. Finishing it off with some fixative will be key to keeping it fresh…and so clean clean.

I read up on the new specs/talents and it looks promising sans some things I will miss in being a Priest, -40% mana…..yikes…but I will play and see before making my all-mighty and important judgement post. I hope to be able to log in tonight. 

YOU KNOW YOU’VE BEEN BANNED WHEN—

• If you abuse our vent you will be banned to the depths of the frozen hell of North Dakota working as a pig farmer with only one leg.
• If someone logs in on your I.P. and it’s not you and they get stinking drunk and recite excerpts from A CLOCKWORK ORANGE in pig latin you will be banned, even though I love A CLOCKWORK ORANGE others may not.
• If you log in to our vent under some strange name no one recognizes like “DirkDigglerDidYourDog” or “WookieLube” or “Logtarded” then you will be banned! (Use your screen name or reals, it’s real easy to change it…)
• If your 12, 13, 14 or 15 and come in cussing up a storm to random members for no apparent reason other than your parent failing to do his/her job as a parent by keeping tabs on you or that your single parent is too busy blowing the mailman or woman to notice you yelling at strangers in vent…then you will be banned. I will be your parent in that moment…if not right then….then…later when I log in ..after your mom just blew me.

If you are in a bad mood, drunk, buzzed, angry, pissed off DO stay in vent if you are in the guild…we are here to help you in your time of need. Need to talk to others in private? There are rooms you and others can talk in private, use them.  You won’t be banned for having real life. We are friends, albeit online…we are all still friends.