Lumine petals applied

Well yes, exp is important, raids and kinah too, but right now I am too busy applying lunime petals to both my armor and my blog! What do you think?

Wait, better not answer that. I will change the blog (at least!) back to something more "appropriate" soon - just for now though, few days of color-spree!

 Click Pic to Enlarge

What the F*@$&??

Oh gosh, i guess game-friends can be as silly as rl-friends!

Now if the same person is both game-friend *and* rl-friend.. endless potential!

Yesterday we wanted to do Azoturan Fortress (remember where you did Fragments of Memory 3? same place). BTW it got much easier after the 1.9 patch! There drops a shield I want, and lovely rings for everyone. The so-nice elf and the dearest british thought of the idea, especially since they know how much i need a shield.

However 3 ppl are not enough for the fortress. We spoke to legionmates, even asked one of them to repeat our call in vent. A group was formed, and we farmed the 2 bosses multiple times (yay!!).

Just after the 2nd time, I receive a whisper from a close legion-mate, rl-friend and ofc game-friend:

"You are so "LOL" all of you, going there to farm the fortress in utter silence and secrecy -were you afraid we will steal your loots?"

What the f@()$* - why did he say that?! True, i didnt explicitly ask him to join us - but that's only because he would probably say no. Why on earth he was so rude?

"What's up with you, why are you so rude, is it something i did?" --me

After some heated discussion, he admitted he "didnt mean it like that" etc etc. Oh yeah? how did you mean it then?

"Oh, how did you mean it then?", I asked

He responded something about "just saying so" and "playful" and "joking".

I am not sure I believe him though :-( I think he is still angry with all of us. Pittttty! :-(

The chosen comic demonstrates how a complex relationship can indeed form online, be it a friendly or a romantic one. Oh and it's funny too!

Crowd Control please!

Tooo many mobs around! Too many players too! CC urgently needed!

And let's say we can handle the mobs. Actually this is the easy part - hack and slash, rinse, repeat, done!

But the players? How can we possibly handle all these ppl?

Oh I don't want to control anyone (well.. let's say I don't, for the argument's sake).

I don't even want to manage anyone.

I would like to.. mmm.. let's say encourage people towards the right direction, or at least what I perceive to be the right direction. Oh don't be hasty to judge. Told you, no control 1984-style - just making sure they all know the advantages of the option presented in a Brave-New-World-style.

Current problem pertains to legion members collaboration, group formation algorithm, balance. I guess you have already seen this kind of problems:

• few chanters, few clerics
• two groups (e.g. for DP) forming concurrently
• person X wants to go with Y but not with Z; while Y wants to go with Z, doesn't care if K joins, but Z waits for K and L because last time L helped him and anyway she is nice. Perfect sense, no?

So.. nope. No-one went to DP. Gosh!

4 reasons game friends are [not?] real friends

I was pondering for days the simple yet quite important question:

Are game friends, real friends?

What would you answer, do you feel your game friends close? Close enough to consider them "real" friends?

Reasons for NO:

1. It's possible you have never met a game friend in person.
2. You might not even know his name / age / gender / location.
3. You don't go out together, you don't exchange xmas cards and you don't invite each other in social events (oh wait - sometimes you do!)


Reasons for YES:

1. You spend more time chatting with game friends than other ppl in real life.
2. You had a fight with your game friend (because he was bossy about what to do, or you were careless and he died, or .. ooh many reasons to fight!) and yet your relationship survived and got even better.
3. You do care about his everyday mundane things and you know he cares too.

You choose - are they? real friends?

Best Reason for YES:

As far as I am concerned,
4. Friends are the people you can count on. Who count on you, too. Who will pick you up, when you are down. Game or no game.

What to do?

There are rules, and rules are important.

And there is the group, and The Group is important.

The rules might differ a bit, depending on where you come from or what you are doing at the moment, but they follow a more-or-less steady pattern:

stay close, heal,
debuff, heal,
dispel, heal,
dont aggro mobs, heal,
buff, heal,
preserve mana, heal

Then there are priorities:

tank over ranger
sorcerer over spiritmaster

Even harder?

preserve yourself - you must not die

..even if this means that someone else will be left to die.

I follow rules. Was trained for years to follow rules. It's easy to follow rules. Ppl like you better if you follow rules.

It's just that sometimes the lines are unclear. Or the moment too short to decide. Then you save the person you want, maybe dieing in the act, but you did save him, and that's so more important.

Way across town.. where your rules curve.

And you are ..?

How do you like your in-game friends call you when you chat? Using your real life name or your game-name?

I am not comfortable with my game-name. Not this game-name at least. So I asked my friends to use my real name (when chatting at ventrilo). My newest-and-very-promising young friend (the elf!!!) keeps using the game name. I thought he did it in order to impose a distance (barrier?), especially since he has not yet disclosed his real life name.

However he told me himself, that even with his closest friend, the one they have been playing together a long time, he uses his game name. So maybe it's not a barrier thing, but just a preference..? Preference for what though? Not maintaining two identification strings for the same person? (<--- that's only for the computer geeks to understand). I dont quite get it, but at least I dont mind now.

A successful failure

You get a group and sent them off to Theobomo Lab.  They wipe again and again and again, and after more than 4 hours, they give up - just before the final boss.

Fail?

Well yes, they did fail the raid, but I can give you 5 reasons this was a successful evening!

Background:

• Group was mostly 50s, one cleric 47, one gladiator 47.
• Only half of the group had experience on this dungeon.
• Group members from 2 close-collaborating legions, first time together though.

Facts:

• Group wiped twice in the first room.
• Drops more-or-less compromised players for soul healing required.
• Communication was ventrilo - based (some ppl had to install client).

Beneficial Outcome - 5 Reasons:

1. Players of 2nd legion had to install and learn vent.
2. Players entering the Lab for the first time, learned related small secrets.
3. All players proved their devotion to the group by staying there up to the last moment.
4. The two legions came closer together. That's important, since we are trying to make these two legions unite - but it needs to be done when everybody agrees.

A wise group once said:

Always look on the bright side of life! (worst things happen at sea you know!) [VID]

Last but not least, I had the selfish pleasure of feeling valuable :-) "If I were there, things could have been better" etc. Not only because I am 50 and their cleric was 47, but also because my friends said I do play better. It's not necessarily true, but I like thinking it is. Or my friends are really nice, which is even better!

He is shy

I have met him before, the slim blond elf with the pointy hat and the blue trousers. Always kind, always nice, never talking.

My british friend (see previous posts) officially introduced us yesterday, and the elf came to my help together with my friend - although I had never asked! We were at a group - the british, the elf, a suicidal legionmate, and I. It was not before long, that we all joined vent.

I tried asking the elf's name, but he didn't reply.

I tried asking his job, but he didn't reply.

I tried asking where he is from, and .. there it was, an answer. That was all the info I got yesterday about his personal data.

But he did tell me a lot, albeit not in words:

He told me he is kind.

He cares about other people.

He keeps to himself with new acquaintances.

And that it will take some time to make him trust us.

Having realised all that, I now feel bad for my attitude yesterday, attacking him with questions. Whenever he is ready, if we ever gain his trust, he will talk to us.

PS I am sure you can guess his class. What class do your most interesting friends choose?

Peace on Atreia

It can be done - seriously!

Not all the time, but we need just enough to conquer Divine Fortress (@Core). Maybe stop the enmities on remote quest locations too.

I had the pleasure to meet characters of the opposing faction, with whom we agreed on truce. Set up a shop, simple english so everyone understands:

"Friends? I do quest"

With some emotes (/wave) and good will (/dance), we both continued our business, mutually benefiting from the agreement.

Disclaimer: Your legionmates, friends and 99% of your faction will get sooo mad at you!

Rumors from the korean servers have it that the Divine Fortress has once been conquered by an alliance of  Elyos and Asmodians. I look forward to the day that this will happen to our servers too. Then we 'll kick the Balaurs out of our universe!

PS Yes, I suck at PvP.

Such a cute wee thingy!

We get pets! Omg omg omg we get pets!

Decorative pets, alertive (..) pets, various pets! Green and blue and black and maybe red too!

Today I read the release notes for expansion pack (a.k.a an update) Aion 2.0. Sooo many new things, I could talk for hours. Skills and instances and quests and cap lvl raise (ofc). But I will stick to the cute wee creatures they call 'pets'.

You can find plenty of information reading the release notes. And being a very informed player, I am happy to present you the appearance of our new friends - not included in the release notes, although it is of uttermost importance!

The cutest one:

The one that most people will like:

Most handy:

The funniest (if the animation is right):

Few more:

These are not all - there are few more that I didnt like that much, so I didnt include.

You see these things are important!