My Comfort Zone

Christmas meme 2008

2008-11-25T18:55:09Z

Step One

- Make a post (public, friendslocked, filtered...whatever you're comfortable with) to your LJ. The post should contain your list of 10 holiday wishes. The wishes can be anything at all, from simple and fandom-related ("I'd love a Snape/Hermione icon that's just for me") to medium ("I wish for _____ on DVD") to really big ("All I want for Christmas is a new car/computer/house/TV.") The important thing is, make sure these wishes are things you really, truly want.

- If you wish for real life things (not fics or icons), make sure you include some sort of contact info in your post, whether it's your address or just your email address where Santa (or one of his elves) could get in touch with you.

- Also, make sure you post some version of these guidelines in your LJ, or link to this post so that the holiday joy will spread.

Step Two

- Surf around your friendslist (or friendsfriends, or just random journals) to see who has posted their list. And now here's the important part:

- If you see a wish you can grant, and it's in your heart to do so, make someone's wish come true. Sometimes someone's trash is another's treasure, and if you have a leather jacket you don't want or a gift certificate you won't use--or even know where you could get someone's dream purebred Basset Hound for free--do it.

You needn't spend money on these wishes unless you want to. The point isn't to put people out, it's to provide everyone a chance to be someone else's holiday elf--to spread the joy. Gifts can be made anonymously or not--it's your call.

There are no rules with this project, no guarantees, and no strings attached. Just...wish, and it might come true. Give, and you might receive. And you'll have the joy of knowing you made someone's holiday special.

The things I want (in no particular order) are:

01. DramaQueen to reprint Empty Heart I <3 Book Off.
02. ~~the plush sheep that came with the Harvest Moon GameCube game a few years ago~~
03. the plush chicken that came with Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness
04. Pushing Daisies to be uncanceled
05. that Jake Hunter game to be re-released in English with all the cases
06. Chrono Trigger (for DS) to cost $20 or less I forgot I preordered it from Amazon to get the Extra Soundtrack...and then they shipped it and I remembered and I mourned my $40.
07. Time Hollow to cost $20 or less
08. FFXI's user interface to become friendlier
09. Amazon to give preorder bonuses instead of GameStop This has partly come true; Amazon does offer some of the preorder bonuses. I say "instead of" instead of "in addition to" because if GameStop doesn't have any, then Amazon can have more:p
10. tbd

Christmas meme 2007

father daughter conversations 1

2008-11-20T22:00:36Z

Father: How many are in a pack? Eight?
Daughter: Yep.
Father: So divided equally, I get five, you get three.
Daughter: Umm...I need a calculator.
Father: Trust me. *chomp*

</3 UPS

2008-11-12T21:48:54Z

UPS, please at least give me enough time to walk down the stairs before you leave. Thanks for making Amazon Prime shipping less useful than free USPS shipping.

Prince of Lawyering

2008-11-05T16:26:42Z

All of the seiyuu used in the Gyakuten Saiban 2008 orchestra performance are somehow related to The Prince of Tennis.

PC x Mac BL

2008-10-13T16:18:43Z

Boys love, featuring PC and Mac! Well, actually, it says Windows and Mac, but I think that's an oversight. Software x software, hardware x hardware!

Junjou Romantica umbrella

2008-09-19T07:36:34Z

Slowly converting every practical thing I own into something BL or Sanrio related (and having lost the only umbrella I've ever used for the past three or four years), I ordered a Junjou Romantica umbrella. I'm making rain uncharms in the hope that it will rain on the last day of NYAF so that I can use it and that free medieval festival will get moved to a rain date instead of being on the same Sunday as NYAF. Two birds with one stone!

Looks good once it's open, but...

...opening and closing this thing was the hardest umbrella activity I've ever taken part in. The outer edge folds up from the handle instead of down towards it so that when I open it, I have to reach up and pull each corner down. Closing it, I had to bend each corner back up. Well, I guess I didn't have to...

...but it wouldn't have fit in its tote otherwise! (Plus, it would probably be easier to break if not wrapped back up properly.) There are actually snaps along the side of the tote to wrap around the umbrella snugly.

Unsnap them to hold other things or to air out the umbrella without actually having to hold it open or to be hypnotized by Suzuki-san or whatever.

Frustration would get the best of me if I had to open that umbrella in actual rain, so I'll most likely just use the Suzuki-san umbrella tote with my Totes umbrella.

I wasn't going to open the umbrella and take pictures at first because of the superstition about it bringing bad luck. Then I remembered that my grandmother opened one in the house last month. Anyway, if any of these things are real, some friends, some relatives, and I were already in trouble way before this.

Once, I asked my mom about the umbrella superstition because there were a couple of Chinese stories that had (good) ghosts coming out of umbrellas. Her response was something resembling, "You see what happens? Don't open your umbrella indoors."

Hello Kitty news

2008-09-12T17:09:57Z

Hello Kitty Online is now accepting requests for their Founders' Beta! I passed on the closed beta because I didn't like any of their (two) options for downloading the client, but this is much more enticing. I hope there's at least a Filefactory option this time around because mmosite is slow and keeps cutting me off (thanks for making me wait half a day in anticipation for nothing).

Hello Kitty: Big Dreams in the City will release on the same day as My Japanese Coach, according to Amazon.

buying stuff

2008-09-10T03:49:53Z

Bah, I missed the Netcomics sale last week at Right Stuf. Well, maybe "missed" isn't the word. I was at the website on Sunday and I knew about the sale and I knew it was the last day and I even put a few books in my cart...but it wasn't enough for free shipping and I couldn't decide what other books I wanted and figured it wouldn't be too late to think about it later. Well, later came and went and here I am now. The plus side is that the current sale is for DMP books, which has way more stuff I want than Netcomics. The problem with this sale, however, is knowing when to stop adding stuff to my cart.

Oh yes, and Animaxis has a preorder for a Suzuki-san cushion. The Internet is conspiring to drive me into debt this week.

FFXI update

2008-09-04T19:46:03Z

I got it to work after all! Thanks to Lord of the Rings Online, of all things. It's kind of a long and complicated story that highlights my stupidity, so I'd rather not tell it:p Besides, I'm not playing it anymore (although it was a week of pure bliss spent in my hometown and empty Mog house), partly because the user interface drives me mad and partly because I'm cheap, but mostly because I need the hard drive space for Guild Wars.

Nexon update

2008-09-04T19:34:13Z

Hrm...I don't think anyone cares anymore and the cash shop limit was taken care of months ago, but it's only fair to Nexon to post their (finally competent) response:

Greetings,
We are sorry you have been having issues with your questions being answered properly. You should have been directed to the official Nexon website, www.nexon.net, instead of the Maplestory one. Unfortunately this site is not completely updated and would not contain the answer to your questions. As for the Premium Service, it is indeed stackable so multiple purchases will increase the duration of the package itself. As for the paypal limit issue, that is not something we are at liberty to discuss but is not something we are able to adjust on an individual basis. We will take your suggestion to increase the limit and forward it to the correct department for consideration, as the need for it is evaluated periodically. We do apologize if this is inconvenient for you. In the meantime please feel free to visit the official Mabinogi website, mabinogi.nexon.net, for any future announcements or game related information as it will be continuously updated.

Thank you,
GM /blank/

Sorry for not updating sooner!

updates soon...probably

2008-09-04T19:27:41Z

I know this is like the bazillionth time I made this promise, but I mean it this time!

FFXI still doesn't work

2008-05-05T22:31:24Z

So it turns out that optimism doesn't magically get a game that didn't work before to suddenly work. Time to begin the hours-long process of uninstalling FFXI and reinstalling Guild Wars.

Nexon's crappy customer support

2008-04-08T00:14:48Z

Because Nexon does not trust their customers (I don't blame them; I've heard of gold farmers), they impose a limit on the amount of points a person can charge by PayPal. For first-timers, this limit is 30,000 points ($30 worth). This limit gets doubled every six weeks if there are no chargebacks and other such fraud because as time goes on and you purchase more points with no problems, they deem you more trustworthy. This poses a problem to people using Mabinogi's Fantasy Life Club service because the service lasts 30 days and costs 14,900 points. Sure, you might say, "Oh well, the limit's just perfect then!" Yeah...only if you didn't rebirth or make other characters because those things cost additional points. So I tried to get my limit lifted or increased, but I expected them to say no and resigned myself to ordering cards off Best Buy's website. What I didn't expect was a total ignorance.

My first letter:

I know the limit was implemented to prevent fraud from gold farmers and that the limit is increased with time, (and after this month, this will not even bee an issue because I will have gotten the multiple character creations out of the way), but I was hoping I could implore you to raise the limit in this case.

I will again be able to purchase Nexon points on 5/11, however by then, the Fantasy Life 30 day service will have been expired for some days and I really enjoy that service. Also, I wanted to create one more character, but because of the limit, was not able to purchase another character creation card.

I also have a question about the 30 day Fantasy Life service. Does it stack or overwrite? If someone purchased the service right now and then again tomorrow, does that person have 60 days worth of service or just 30 and one day?

Their response:

Greetings,

Thank you for contacting Nexon America's Customer Support team.

Thank you for your suggestions. Please be sure to use the Feedback category when submitting suggestions. You may also want to post your ideas on the forums. Thank you for being an active member of the Nexon community.

Also for any information on Cash Shop items please refer to our website MapleStory.Nexon.net.

Sincerely,

GM <this space was intentionally left blank>
Nexon America, Inc.

I wasn't aware that asking questions was feedback. I thought feedback consisted of comments and opinions and things like that. My mistake; I obviously need a dictonary. I also wasn't aware Maple Story's site could answer questions about Mabinogi; I should check that out immediately.

Hey, Maple Story's site didn't answer my question at all about whether Mabinogi's 30 day service stacks or overwrites! Also, an online dictionary seems to define feedback as the same thing I always thought it was. Well, let me try again.

My letter:

Excuse me, but I wrote the following the other day:

***
I know the limit was implemented to prevent fraud from gold farmers and that the limit is increased with time, (and after this month, this will not even bee an issue because I will have gotten the multiple character creations out of the way), but I was hoping I could implore you to raise the limit in this case.

And received this reply:

***
Greetings,

Thank you for contacting Nexon America's Customer Support team.

Thank you for your suggestions. Please be sure to use the Feedback category when submitting suggestions. You may also want to post your ideas on the forums. Thank you for being an active member of the Nexon community.

Also for any information on Cash Shop items please refer to our website MapleStory.Nexon.net.

Sincerely,

GM <this space was intentionally left blank>
Nexon America, Inc.
***

Did anyone actually read my inquiry as the reply did not address my questions and was not even referring to the same game? I would like my questions answered by someone who actually read my inquiry, please.

Nexon's response:

Greetings,

Thank you for contacting Nexon America's Customer Support team.

PayPal is a different company then Nexon so any limitations would have to be resolved with them. Also any information needed on cash shop items are on the website MapleStory.Nexon.net, there is the limitations and requirements for various items. Thank you and if there is anymore questions please feel free to let us know.

Sincerely,

GM <this space was intentionally left blank>
Nexon America, Inc.

Why on earth are we still talking about Maple Story?! Does this GM even know how Nexon works? I am talking about the 30,000 point limit to prevent excessive chargebacks, not any limitation on Paypal's part! Will this thing even get resolved before my service ends?!

Another letter from me:

I feel as if I am talking to a wall. Can someone other than GM <this space was intentionally left blank> please read my last two tickets and answer my inquiry correctly? I'm sure GM <this space was intentionally left blank> is a pleasant enough person, but he or she does not seem to be reading my inquiries carefully enough.

First of all, GM <this space was intentionally left blank> keeps referring to Maple Story when my questions are about Mabinogi. Second of all, I am not referring to limitations on Paypal's part when it comes to purchasing points; I am talking about the limitation of 30000 points I am able to purchase with Paypal tied to my account, which means that I will not be able to purchase the 30 day Fantasy Life Club until a week its expiration. I hear that this can be bypassed with Nexon cards, but these cards are hard to find.

Third of all, the question about whether or not the 30 day Fantasy Life service stacks or gets overwritten was ignored.

Please for the love of all that is holy, someone who shows that they understand what I mean and does not have an obsession with Maple Story please answer this.

Added as a comment to the still open ticket after some thought:

Just to be absolutely clear (in case closed tickets are not allowed to be viewed by other GM's), there is no limitation on Pay Pal's part; the limitation I am referring to is on Nexon's part. Nexon allows first time point buyers the opportunity to only purchase up to 30000 points by Pay Pal to prevent fraud resulting from chargebacks. This amount doubles over time, and for me, this will be on 5/11. However, my Fantasy Life Club service ends on 4/26 and without the ability to purchase more points, I will not be able to partake in the G1 quests that I have been enjoying. I would like to either have this limitation raised enough so that I can purchase more points for another 30 days of service when the current service expires, or the have the date when the limitation is raised brought to sometime before 4/26.

I am still awaiting a response on whether or not the 30 day service stacks or overwrites as Mabinogi's site (nor Maple Story's site, as GM <this space was intentionally left blank> is so fond of referring me to) does not give me this information.

Can't wait for their next response; either I'll have something amusing to tell my friends about or I actually get a question or two answered.

Mabinogi review

2008-03-12T00:01:48Z

I know I say this about every MMO within the first few days of playing, but I really think I mean it this time when I say I'm going to stick with Mabinogi. The amount of activities available to do at any time are so numerous that I don't see myself getting bored for months to come. First of all, there are the part-time jobs with different NPC's offering different jobs (chopping wood, gathering eggs, harvesting crops, shearing sheep, etc.). Plan your day well and you could have a few jobs in one day; busy day, more pay! Doing well in any one job will mean promotion in said job; the work gets harder, but the payoff is more rewarding. Go from being a mere delivery boy to actually making stuff! Any way to get money and experience aside from fighting is is a welcome way; I'm a gatherer, not a fighter! You see that girl standing just outside the graveyard, waiting the strong fighters to take care of the spiders so she can go pick up the scattered cobwebs? That's me! (Just kidding; I can take on a spider. Even if I couldn't, they seem non-aggressive.)

For those that prefer to go the entrepreneurial route, there are of course quests to complete and the slaying of innocent creatures for the gold that they drop (although only finishing moves will net a decent amount of gold) and junk that they drop and intrepid looters can sell for gold (actually...none of the things they drop are worth selling). Hrrm...life's tough for the self-employed, isn't it? Anyway, battles in Mabinogi are slightly less boring than in other MMORPG's; instead of the usual "click, wait for death", the opponent has moves that actually need to be considered before attempting your own move. For example, if a fox has a shield displayed above its head, that means it is using defense and you must use the smash skill to break through or else be knocked back (or at least, that's what I'm recalling; could be wrong since I've only actually battled a few times).

The one thing I found to interfere with having fun in Mabinogi so far is the incredibly small inventory space. Even the bank doesn't hold much. Let's say I wanted to work on my tailoring skills. Sure, I could buy cloth from Nora, but that's like baking a cake from a cake mix and calling it home-made (besides, the cost of those materials is highway robbery). So instead, I collect cobwebs and shear sheep so I can get some materials with which to make yarn. I fail at making the amount of yarn I need, but I didn't have too much cobwebs and wool to begin with since I can only hold so much, so I run back to get some more. I succeed! I still need to get more wool and cobwebs, though, since I haven't gotten the right amount of yarn yet. Fail, run back, get more. Succeed, run back, get more. I've spent more time running to the graveyard and the pasture than actual weaving. It's hard to actually make room to hold anything, especially after you've made whatever outfit you wanted to because that outfit probably takes up twelve or so squares (it's a grid-based system in which larger items take up more squares, but one would assume clothing could be folded up), which is a lot considering all the tools needed for everyday tasks, such as a sickle for harvesting (four squares), a gathering knife for shearing sheep (two squares), an axe for collecting firewood (two squares), a sewing kit for tailoring (one square), patterns for making clothing (two squares per pattern), gloves for making yarn (four squares), an instrument to hopefully please people with (four or so squares, I assume), etc. Let's not forget the stuff you've collected using all these tools, such as wool (four squares), cobwebs (one square), firewood (four squares), wheat (four squares), barley (four squares), eggs (one square), etc.

Since the time between pre-open beta and open beta was so short, I didn't think there would be changes, but they actually improved the game. Those black spots seen on some text during closed beta and pre-open? Gone! Starter dungeon? Gone! Okay, that's not exactly an improvement. I can't say that it makes the game any worse, though, since no one was actually required to go through it (I didn't even know it was there during closed beta). Let's just call it different; it was interesting to see another starter area in any case.

Blu's price hike

2008-02-11T00:33:36Z

When Amazon notified me that the fifth volume of Junjo Romantica had been shipped, I was eagerly waiting for the bell to ring, so I could tear open the box and see what great extras they were going to have now that the price was raised three dollars. Dust Jacket? (If I had read the forum post, I would have seen that there would have been no dust jacket.) Please not oversized volumes. (Last thing I need is stuff that takes up more room.) Color pages galore? (Although if the original had only one color page, I don't know how they would get more just for the Blu publishing.) Bookmark? Postcard? Nope, none of those. Just one color page the same as they do occasionally and what appears to be the same exact quality paper and cover they have always given us for $10. (I say "appears to be" because I noticed that the book is actually thicker than previous volumes; whether this is because of higher quality paper or because of more pages, I do not know yet. Either way, a three dollar price hike is still a lot.)

I remember reading a few months ago on Boys on Boys on Film that the increased cost was to get more shelf space at brick and mortar retail stores. I also remember reading on the ML about when Blu first posed this question on their forums; they made it sound as if they were raising the prices to match the other BL publishers (it's what "other companies" charge after all). Sure, other publishers charge more, but they also provide more. For June's $12.95, you get an oversized book with a dust jacket and occasionally a postcard (and very rarely, a color page). I could do without the oversizedness, but the dust jacket is nice. For 801media's $15.99, you get a dust jacket that actually fits (June's dust jackets are frequently too large for their own books) and color pages. For DramaQueen's $12.99, you get a dust jacket (also frequently too large for their own books) and a color page. It seems that I'm really fixated on the dust jackets, but that's because I lack creativity and can't think of anything else and it's what "other companies" do anyway, if that's what Blu is going for.

Not that the higher price is going to stop me from buying Blu's books; they've got a lot of good series and I want to keep reading them. It is going to stop me from buying them at retail stores, though, since they will now ultimately be cheaper on Amazon (especially when they show up in my Gold Box), which is ironic, considering their reason for charging the higher price in the first place. I say screw B&M retail bookstores; it's hard to find what I want there anyway, and when I do, it's usually in bad condition.

Death to tarous!

2008-02-10T23:24:47Z

Just a couple of weeks ago, my wannabe super novice was wandering the sewers, killing everything in sight, the goal of being level 45 so near yet so far (...actually, pretty much just far). There's only so much darkness, dampness, and...err..suberraneaness...a person can take before they think they're starting to lose it, though, so I took my novice aboveground. Fresh air! Light! Mushrooms! Sure, there were more creatures in the pipes to level up on, but there wasn't freedom!

And then iRO announced the Lunar New Year event and it was back to the sewers. Oh well, at least she's not alone now.

Wouldn't it have made more sense for the tarous to be on every map like the crystals and the Santa Porings were during the Christmas event, though? No one would be able to ruin things by deadbranching, because there will always be somewhere else to go. Also, while it's not exactly competitive since mice respawn like bunnies, and there are usually more targets than targetters (at least on Iris), the pipes are still rather small and claustrophobia-inducing and people have accidentally taken out each other's prey in these narrow areas. It doesn't even make sense logically! So the mice stole the rice from Payon and ran all the way to Prontera Culvert? Or even further to Mount...errm...Mount something that I can't get to because of the dragons that kill my near-skilless character when I enter the area?

Although realistically, mice do hang out in sewers (I'm guessing) and it's likely that the sewers extend all throughout Rune-Midgard, so they probably entered the sewers while still in or near Payon through some entrance that isn't humanly possible, while the only entrance humans can go through would be the culvert. Darn, I hate it when I reason out a possibility so that it makes sense when I don't want it to make sense in the first place.

Nexon hate fading, Mabinogi love rising

2008-02-01T10:21:32Z

After playing Mabinogi for a while, I no longer hate Nexon; now I just hate Maple Story. Windowed mode! Different resolutions! Windowed mode! A variety of interface colors! Windowed mode! Wide-screen support! Windowed mode!

Even though I had reservations about Nexon, I signed up for the closed beta because the opening video was like a massively version of Harvest Moon and I love that idea. It's not so far (like Harvest Moon), but I expect to be shearing sheep and milking cows as I get further along. I actually did get a quest to shear sheep, but I didn't complete it on time because that particular one had an expiration (18 game hours, I think). The expiring quests is the one thing I don't like about it so far. I can live without the part-time jobs that are available only at certain times on a first come first serve basis; I think of those as "extras". Quests, however...I like to do them all. It's not for the experience (although I do love that) or the items (I love those, too) that I want these quests; it's for the extra dialog that usually come with quests, no matter how inane they are. Without hearing every single thing an NPC has to say, I feel like I'm not getting a full story. I like anything, no matter how small, that fleshes out a character! I play scattered hours instead of consecutive ones, though, so I predict that quite a lot of quests will expire for me and I'll miss out on learning some meaningless info about an NPC I didn't particularly care about in the first place, but would like to have learned more about anyway ~~because I'm that nosey~~.

Sometimes I don't use a mouse, just the the laptop touchpad, which makes navigating games such as Sword of the New World difficult (I have to turn the camera in order to move more than a half a step every time I go anywhere, which gets incredibly annoying with a touchpad; where are keyboard movements when you really need themT_T). With games such as Ragnarok Online, however, camera angles do not suddenly change and zoom in crazy ways as I move around (it's almost like a top-down feel), so trekking to towns I'm too cheap to teleport to is rather painless. An RO character is also rather small with respect to the rest of the map, which makes things easier (unlike the three people in my SotNW family taking up over half the screen; if I try to go anywhere without adjusting the camera again, I'm likely to just click one of them by accident). Mabinogi is the same as RO in this respect; I do not recall the camera suddenly readjusting itself or getting stuck in odd places, but if it did, it was not as pronounced as it was in SotNW or Dream of Mirror Online. Also like RO, the character is small in relation to the surrounding area, so it's easy to just click a spot and move her around.

I can't wait for a real release, a character I can keep! My character has stamina! My character needs to eat! My character will milk cows and shear sheep one of these days! A massively simulation game! (Okay, there's comabat...but Rune Factory has combat, too...)

Notable:
- Incredibly long NPC dialogs; anyone who knows me well knows I love this.
- Get experience points for raising unconscious players
- Racoons are attacking the chickens! Players can't attack the chickens, though.
- Stuff can fall out of trees if you hit them long enough.

the BLicious family

2008-01-29T10:11:47Z

Maewen, Tylendel, Vanyel
(Eilonwy, my female elementalist, is hiding behind Vanyel.)

I'm sticking with Sword of the New World, but DoMO doesn't have to go. The pioneering MMORPG turned out to be much larger than DoMO anyway, so FFXI, the experience that never was, had to go. Thanks for at least letting me see the character creation screen, PlayOnline.

I've only been playing Ragnarok Online for a month and online games in general for only a few weeks more than that, so saying that I haven't been this enamored with an online game since RO isn't really saying much, but I haven't been this enamored with an online game since RO. First of all, look at that eye candy above! Is the wizard not hot? As a bonus, he looks just as I imagine Vanyel Ashkevron would look! The one I named Tylendel...doesn't look a bit like how Tylendel should, but I figured I needed a scout and I wanted them together. He still looks good, though /slur. And as always, there's plenty of eye candy for the males, seeing as how every female NPC's shirt looks like it's going to bust open at any moment because of the over-abundance of chest. There aren't as many good-looking male NPC's as there are female, but the ones that are, are shirtless /gg

Because I can (errr...have to, actually) create a team of three, it plays like one of my lonely RPG's, so it feels really familiar. The only thing separating "familiar" from "same" would be the non-turn-based combat. It's like a dream come true for the chronically shy (which I am).

I really hope there's another way to move my character other than mouse clicking, though. While this was fine for RO because of the small character and large map, it's really frustrating with a fairly large 3D character and just a little bit of surface area surrounding this character. I'm literally taking baby steps! Speaking of which, remember those green arrows Shaiya didn't have? SotNW has them. I guess I really do need more stuff to compare to.

planning, but not executing

2008-01-28T10:27:33Z

I'd be asleep right now if I hadn't decided that right after washing up was a good time to install and start patching Sword of the New World.

Anyway, after having recently seen the greatness of MMO's, it's inevitable that I at least think about World of Warcraft if not actually play it. Having seen the prepaid card in Best Buy the other day, my calculator and I concluded that it would be cheaper to buy the prepaid card (for 60 days) from an online retailer rather than actually paying the half a year subscription fee (which would work out to $12.99 a month) since there's a sales tax applied to NY customers.

And just because I've done some minor research and simple math doesn't mean I'm actually going to journey through Azeroth!

rotating games

2008-01-28T00:24:55Z

Maybe it's because I haven't experienced that many MMORPG's and most of the ones I have tried are free, so I don't have much to compare it to, but playing Shaiya was like playing a massively Engrish version of Guild Wars with not-as-epic-music, not-as-beautiful-scenery, and less immersive sound effects. Tapping around with the mouse controls didn't produce fading green arrows to indicate where the character would head, but it did produce orange fading diamonds. The menus even sport the familiar pearly black and red scheme.

I haven't really given the game a chance yet, having just made it into an actual town, but I'm dumping it. Other worlds await me and one hard drive can only hold so much! Next up is Sworld of the New World, which I'm really excited about because the guy that created Ragnarok Online is one of the developers (or at least, that's what it says on their website). Will I stick with this one longer than a week? If I do, Dream of Mirror Online will have to go; either that or I stop rotating through all the free MMORPG's out there. I can't help it, though; I just have to dip my toe into every pool.

Taking stock of the past two months:
Trickster--Stopped playing because of the beggarly community and my lack of willpower to keep from Gacha gambling.
Ragnarok Online--Still playing because the feel of it is almost just like a 2D JRPG and I love those. No beggarly community since cash shop items can't be traded in any way.
Dream of Mirror Online--Still playing because it looks so different from the others, yet still cute. Awful cash shop, though. Sold out virtual items? See if I ever buy anything from you, Aeria-_-
Flyff--Stopped playing just a few minutes in; I just didn't "feel" it (whatever that means).
Maple Story--Couldn't even start because neither the community nor the staff was helpful in providing me with port information. I doubt I would even want to start at this point considering the lack of a windowed mode.
Guild Wars--Still playing...very casually.
Final Fantasy XI--Couldn't start despite the fact that I allowed access to the thousands of ports they might use.

/sarcasm

2008-01-14T09:51:14Z

I love how PlayOnline keeps my credit card info on-hand at all times, even if I'm not subscribing to any of the paid services. I love how credit card is the only way to pay for PlayOnline services. I love how I can spend hours upon hours downloading PlayOnline and Final Fantasy XI updates via the PlayOnline viewer instead of a patch on their website so that if I get disconnected, I can start all over again. I love how I had to spend $20 first in order to get the game and then a free trial. I love how I can only create one character without paying extra. I love how thousands of ports may require access to Final Fantasy XI. I love how I wasted the whole day attempting to explore Vana'diel when I could have been successfully exploring Rune-Midgard. I love that I can't freely choose a face to go with a particular hairstyle when creating a Final Fantasy XI character.

Guild Wars Platinum Edition

2008-01-08T18:56:40Z

It comes with a manual. A real, printed, smells-like-heavenly-ink manual, not a 200mb, awkward-to-scroll PDF. I love this game already.

4 more tickets left

2008-01-03T09:04:13Z

After continually getting lost (and promptly killed by orcs and dogs with bows) on the way back to Prontera from Geffen, I decided to try my luck again with the other way and found the place still littered with dead branch spawns. I'm patient with the play dead skill, though, so I managed to avoid all of them (eventually) and ended up...someplace even more dangerous, where I was killed by two petites (playing dead can only take you so far). If not for someone wanting to meet up with me in Prontera, I probably still would have hung onto all five transportation tickets, and would still be wandering around Geffen and the fields around it.

As it is, I've finally made my way to a new town from Prontera, the desert town Morroc! Well, new to me anyway. While I don't care for the heat (I prefer arctic-type stuff; they're prettier and don't make me sweat), this place is awesome. There's this pub with two drunk guys in it groping each other and blaming it on the alcohol. Oh, how I wish there was animation for that. And yes, the two guys pretending they're too drunk to resist what they're doing is the reason this town is awesome.

Oh yeah, isn't the alcohol actually non-alcoholic because the king outlawed alchol? "My hand is moving on its own!" Suuuuure.

Edit: Added pictures.
accidentally-on-purpose groping 1
accidentally-on-purpose groping 2
accidentally-on-purpose groping 3
accidentally-on-purpose groping 4

planning my next journey

2008-01-02T01:22:57Z

Before I was lamenting how I didn't try out MMORPG's before Black Friday for great sales and now I'm lamenting how I didn't try them out before the holiday season for decorations and events. Well, except for Ragnarok Online, but I probably won't get to see (and hear--I love how they all have a different Christmas BGM) all the towns in their Christmas glory before the decorations get taken down, seeing as how I'm hoarding all my expensive items for emergencies and getting income from selling grasshopper legs and can't afford to teleport. Well, there are the five free tickets, but I'm saving those, too!

I've been researching other places to visit after I tire of Rune-Midgard. Vana'diel and Tyria are at the top of the list, Guild Wars's Tyria having the edge not only for its free online play, but for also requiring access to only one port. Final Fantasy's XI's Vana'diel rapidly started losing its appeal after reading up on payment. What do they need payment info for if I just want to use the 30 day free trial? Can't they just delete the account after those thirty days if I don't start paying by then? And why would they still want to keep my credit card info even if I delete all my content ID's and only keep the free PlayOnline account? It's like they want to keep my credit card hostage!

Still, I'm sure I'll end up playing FFXI one of these days even if I do start Guild Wars. I mean, it's Final Fantasy and it's not limited to a console. How great is that? Besides, if I actually play it, maybe I'll actually start liking that limited edition soundtrack I bought a few years ago.

Happy New Year!

Protecting or threatening?

2007-12-31T00:48:44Z

View Poll: Protecting or threatening?