"The prosecution has sickened us with grizzly photographs of the crime scene."

(from this authorwank, which is ... something)

Tags: fun

There is another free weekend for SW:TOR going on, and for some reason, this week liriel_ decided to try if maybe her old computer can run the game (instead of having to buy a new one).

AND IT WORKS!

I'm ridiculously happy, and we've also settled on 2 characters we'll level together: I'm on a Sith Assassin and she is on an Imperial Agent Operative (meaning: me tank, her heal, we both can stealth).

And, because we had planned to roll these two and had talked about them, and our conversations always turn ... "special", they are Darth Hyacinthe and Agent Rosebud. Our Dark Flower Power Team. :)

The thing that's been entertaining me most (well, aside from being able to play a game I enjoy with her) is Li's cries of "OMG! What is he *doing*? I thought he had morals!". The choices you have in the in-game dialogues may not influence the outcome of the overall plot that much (there *are* different overall resolutions to your storyline, but obviously they can't be wildly different for everyone), but it changes how your character behaved to get the results. And that can make for some quite interesting character development - and that is the main selling point of SW:TOR for me.

Here, have a picture (her's is the dark red horny guy, mine is the tentacled one)

Tags: *squee*, gaming:starwarsoldrepublic

Tags: gaming:guildwars2

or: OMG NOOOOOO not another one I like!!

(yes, yes, I am working on getting a separate blog for gaming posts, bear with me, I'm in beta stress)


This is what you're trying to prevent

So, this weekend was open beta for The Secret World. I almost missed it, but OMG I am glad I didn't. It's an incredibly mixed bag, tho.

If you want moving images, here's the pre-order trailer.

The omg want gimmie now!!! part of it is the setting and game world. Those of you too lazy to read the official site, the nutshell of it is that The Secret World is like our world, but with all the conspiracies and paranormal stuff etc. being true, too. There are 3 factions, the Illuminati, the Templars and the Dragons, and they fight each other, but they also fight to stop the really evil things from destroying the world.

Now, I LOVE this. I am someone who'll sometimes go read conspiracy websites when I can't sleep, because they entertain me. It tickles my What If bone (same reason I like alternative history as much as I do). And in-game, while some quests are "kill something" and "find something and bring it back", there are also investigation quests, where you actually have to puzzle things out.

For example: in beta you could play a new Templar, and you were sent on your first assignment to a small town that is now run over with zombies (and other things).


One of the former townies

As you work on figuring out WTF is going on, you talk to one person, who mentions that 4 years ago there was a sting of murders that were eventually blamed on a vagabond, but that she always thought that this was a fishy cover-up. You get a mission to find out more. The only hint: "this must have been big in the newspapers back then". And that's it. I eventually found a place that had archives of old newspapers, which yielded the name of the person they pinned the blame on, and then, following another hint that all that suppressed info from the police investigation should still be around, I found more in the police computer (and then it was midnight and I went to bed). I *love* this - granted, I know soon there will be websites to hold your hand through all of these quests, but I can ignore these.

So, setting and missions, yay.

Class system: well, you have no levels and no classes, and a pretty innovative: you earn skill points and ability points, that you can spend on various ... well, skills and abilities. You have 9 possible weapons: 3 melee, 3 ranged, and 3 magic-based, and apparently can have 2 equipped. As you spend points into their part of the ability wheel, you get more and more uses for them. I went with melee fists, because hitting stuff in the face plus heals? That is so what I love to play. This aspect so far looks good, too.

But.

And, well, there is a but - several buts, even.

The characters. Well. This *did* say that there will be a lot more possible options when the game is live, but so far, they're not very thrilling. They may have been *passable* 4-5 years ago, but that's it. There are a lot of complaints that they're all ugly, and ok, it'd not go that far, if you compare these to other recent games, they're ... meh.

However! You can, as a female, wear nice comfy clothes that actually make sense, which is a huge plus for me, especially after having to come to terms with the mesmer in GW2. Yes, you can also wear a short skirt and more revealing top, but hey, all I want is the *option* to be fully clothed.

Here are the 2 characters I rolled for the beta (sorry for the bad lightning, I never took screen shots of them in the sun, apparently):



That would still be ok, however... *sigh* Animations are horrible. All movement, including combat, is just ... clunky. Just running somewhere in a straight line feels awkward.

Combat is also incredibly repetitive, and if you combine it with clunky movement, it's sometimes really fiddly to turn so you're facing the enemy you want to hit with your ability.

This carries over to the cut scenes that you have: they consist of a character talking at you, while you stand there, with an unmoving face staring blankly ahead - ok ok, maybe sometime the character's head moves, but that's it. This might have been halfway decent some years ago, but nowadays, especially after Star Wars: The Old Republic really raised the bar for cut scenes and character dialogue, it's just painful.

You know what else is painful? Loading screens that actually take a whole minute to load! (yes, I timed it). And I have a fast PC.

Frankly, what the game needs is about 6 month to a year where they spend all their resources in polishing up the graphics and especially the animations. However, the game is coming out in a month, on Juni 19. *sigh*

Also, on a disquieting note: it's a game with a monthly subscription - and yet, there is a "store" button on your UI...

(it's developed by FunCom, of the Age of Conan-fail fame. So... not a gaming company that has a great track record)

If you want to read in even more detail, here is a very good blog post on the beta, and another one by the same writer, stating why in the end they decided not to get the game.

And for me?

Well, my newly-minted templar has grown on me. I really want to find out more about this world, putter around in it. So... yeah. I'm gonna be playing this, too. Albeit just on my own - it can fill those "I can't sleep, I'll go browse around for some strange/weird/kooky websites" moments.



I just dunno yet if Yona is going to stay a Templar, one of the soldiers in the army in the fight against Evil, of if she gets to be an Illuminati, playing with money and powers behind the scenes, or a Dragon, an agent of chaos.

If you want to see another very creative review, which maybe captures more of the feeling that makes me like the game, this this one from Rock Paper Shotgun.

*

later today: GW2 stress test. Tomorrow: work stuff. But from Thu onwards, I've got 1,5 weeks of time off, I'll be moving my gaming stuff over to a wordpress blog then, and stop bothering the lot of you with it here. Well, except linking to the gaming posts from time to time. :)

Tags: gaming:secretworld

I've been thinking about some of the games I play, mainly the MMO ones. There's a TL:DR summary at the end. :)

(ETA: I got the idea from this Penny Arcade comic)

World of Warcraft

WoW is the comfortable old sweater. I *know* this game. Some classes I can play while half asleep without thinking. There's still lots of things I love about it. It has great lore, you can really tell that there are 3 other games that came before, and there's history there.

But I'm not too enthused about some of the things they do, I am completely "meh" about the great new race that is coming with the next expansion pack (essentially: anime-influenced panda people), I cringe at some of their character development. I am not happy that they changed the whole world in the most recent expansion pack, because it wasn't really new so it didn't scratch my "must explore" itch, but rather made me go "no, this is wrong, it shouldn't be like *this*".

But there are some people in my guild that I love and would hate to lose contact with, and I probably would lose contact with them if I stopped playing. OTOH, there are some people in my guild ... you know what I mean. :)

I think WoW is a game I'm going to stay subscribed to just because it's the comfortable old sweater thing. They haven't yet annoyed me to the point where I feel I should leave.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

TOR's main problem, I think, was the hype. It was sooo incredibly hyped as OMG SO GOOD IT WILL KILL WOW. And, I mean, it's not a bad game, but not a WoW killer.

What I love about the game are the individual story lines and how they influence how I feel about my character. There's a blog post here, "Ethics and th e Morality Wheel. Why choices create characters", that perfectly sums up why I love TOR and will play through all 8 storylines (ie, play one of each class).

But that said, unique class quests are not all there is, a lot of the quests are planet-based quests that are the same for everyone, so if you do 4 classes per side, you play them 4 times (although you can skip some, especially if you do PvP or Space Missions on the side). The other drawback is that it's aside from the storytelling (which includes full cinematics and voice-acting), it's not very different from WoW, even down to the talent trees (if you played WoW during Burning Crusade, you know them).

I don't know if I'll keep playing once I leveled all 8 classes. Maybe, if by then there is enough new content. Or maybe not. But the blog post is true: I feel quite attached to the characters, especially the ones I've played more.

Rift

Rift came kinda out of nowhere for me and broke me out of the "I only play WoW" mentality (MMOs do eat a lot of time, so that is actually not a bad mentality to have). I think they had a very good idea with the rifts (essentially events that open up somewhere on the map, you can just casually wander over, join any people already there, and battle the rift until it closes.

It also had an extremely flexible soul system - there were 4 classes, but each had 8 souls, and you could pick any three to put points in. You could easily switch between these, and each of the 4 classes could usually fill 3 or the 4 roles (tank, healer, dps, support/buff).

Rift also hit the nail with their artifact collection, it's really what WoW's archaeology should have been (and the reason I hate WoW's version with such a passion). In Rift, you simply find small glowing dots in the landscape, which are artifacts that you collect. There are collections of 3 - 8 bits (4-5 is the most common, tho), and if you complete a collection, you turn it in and get some small rewards, mostly cosmetic. It really rewards you if you want to explore around, but it's also totally not necessary to get more powerful, so it's completely optional.

I really loved the game for some time, but then I pretty much had a personal problem with a person who also came over from WoW as well who glommed onto me, and they also joined the guild I was in (so found all the characters I had hidden from him), and I just quit the game right there for 3 months. I got back into it 2 months ago, but... I associate it with the really stressful time I had with that person. And that sucks, because liriel_ FINALLY got into Rift just when I dropped out of it.

It's not a bad game, and I wish I could like it more than I do, but it's probably the #1 candidate for unsubbing.

Lord of the Rings Online

I played LotRO for a while, but it couldn't grab me. Don't get me wrong, it's really nicely done, and extremely close to canon (but that also means: no dwarf women. *sniff*). It's a ... hm, slower game, I think. Not hectic or full of action, and I'd really recommend it for people who are fans of the fandom or who prefer more laid back games (the community is very nice, too).

TERA

I'm actually rather embarrassed to admit I bought the game - it's a Korean action grinder MMO, which has been out in Asia for a year and has just come out for the US and EU. Let me link you to some images that will demonstrate why I am embarressed:

this or this (the shoes!) or this or this (these 2 are *tanking* armor).

Mind you, the game also has this or this.

But... also this (they were censored for the US/EU version).

It does, however, really deliver on the "fun action combat" bit. I played the TERA beta the weekend before the GW2 beta. Both games feature combat where you don't target a mob and start your ability rotation, but rather just turn into the direction of the mob and start to swing your weapon. I would have immediately signed up to GW2 if I could have, but, well, it's still some months in the future. So, after spending a week going "Gnnnnn", I gave in and got TERA instead, so I can scratch that action combat bug that seems to have bitten me.

I play a lancer, which is the tank class, and she looks similar to this, only with a braid down to her butt that moves around as she moves. She has a shield and a lance, which is *huge*. I love that you get to actively block (and successful blocks mean that you avoid taking any damage), and that you can jump out of the way and even have the mob who was about to charge you fall flat down on it's face.

The story-line ... I think it has one, but don't ask me what it is. I have a tall muscular woman who is RAWRR and hits things with her huge lance and smashes things in the face with her shield, and that really really works for me. I strongly suspect that once GW2 is actually out, I will lose most if not all interest in TERA. But until then...

To sum it all up:

looking this over, here is a list of the things I like in my MMos (outside of playing with friends, and I can't always influence where my friends play):

• great world building (lore, backstory)


• lots of places to explore


• great character development including story, and choices my character can make (even if it doesn't change the outcome of the general storyline - see the TOR blog post I linked above)


• flexibility, especially in regards to the "tank/heal/dps(/support)" roles


• more dynamic combat


• easy casual grouping that rewards you for doing so

So far, the games I'm playing cover one or at most two of my likes, which is why I switch between 4 games currently. They all scratch an itch the other don't. Right now, I can afford to do so, I have both the money and ... ok, I don't really have the time to devote to *all* of these games, but enough time that I can do stuff in all of them. However, my job is going to change in the very near future, and it looks like I might end up with less time than I have now.

And that is why I do have hopes for Guild Wars: it looks like it may cover at least 4 of my likes. I suspect it will knock Rift and TERA out of the list of games I play, and may even push out WoW or TOR (probably not both), depending on how far along I am in those games by the time GW2 comes out, and how much I like or don't like the new WoW expansion.

And, of course, what liriel_ will be playing at the time will influence me, too.

I'm gonna leave you with a link to another Guild Wars 2 post, "Tips and Tricks for new players", this one describes a list of 30 very neat things about GW2, some of which I didn't even notice during the beta weekend.

Tags: gaming:guildwars2, gaming:rift, gaming:starwarsoldrepublic, gaming:tera, gaming:worldofwarcraft

I've been thinking - for quite some time - about maybe starting a seperate blog for all my gaming posts.

There's currently a Newbie Blogger Initiative being run by gaming bloggers, many of which I read myself.

So, I'm now really tempted to do it.

HOWEVER!!

I really am not sure what I'd call it... *headdesk*

See, when I signed up to the guild website for my WoW guild, the name of my character, Ushan, was taken. So, given that Ushan is an enhancement shaman, who hits stuff in the face (or in the back) with 2 axes, I went with UshanHitsStuff. People liked it, and it really fits.

Since then, I've mostly been playing melee dps or tank classes, all of which hit stuff, except when I play a healer, then I hit other players with heals.

I've even signed up to some sites with the ID "arihitsstuff", which I like as a gaming handle.

However... a blog. What would I name that?

I mean, I could go with "ari hits stuff", but I'm never quite sure about a name in the title.

But... the alternatives are just "hitsstuff" or "hitting stuff". Neither of which really clicks with me.

I know some of you have a way with words. Anyone have a suggestion for a better name? I like the "hitting stuff" motif, but maybe there's something I could use that ... I dunno. flows better than what I come up with?

(not sure if I'd still copy all gaming posts to over here, or just post a link whenever I'd post there... but first I need a *there*, before I ponder that.)

Tags: gaming:blog

I sat down this weekend and pondered my TOR characters. I had created 16 of them - two for each class, because the genders have different romances. I didn't really plan to level all of them, but I do love alting, and love having additional low-level characters, if only as additional bank storage. But with GW2 looking like a "omg that is going to eat so much of my time" game, I decided to prioritize and settled on one of each class to play.

I have mentioned the Empire ones previously: my female chiss Imperial Agent (healing Operative) is 50 already, the Sith Warrior (Marauder) is a male pureblood sith, the Sith Inquisitor (Assassin) is the hilariously pink twi'lek male, and the Bounty Hunter (Powertech) is an enormous emotionless female rattataki.

On Republic, I'll be leveling a male twi'lek Jedi Consular (healing Sage), a male twi'lek Smuggler (Gunslinger), a female zabrak Trooper (healing Commando) and, once I finish leveling the pureblood sith to 50 and unlock the race for all classes, a female pureblood sith Jedi Knight (Guardian).

Here's my "what I did this weekend" post (some images are behind cuts to avoid spoiling liriel_, general info plus the first companion are without a cut - first companion you are going to see anyway, as other players will obviously run around with them)

I've been avoiding my IA, partially because while i have some bonus planet quests, and all the new daily quests you get at 50 still untried, she is also logged out still infected with the Rhakghoul plague from the event 2 weeks ago.



So first of all I played with the smuggler, who as a gunslinger gets to dual-wield blasters - very cool. Ranged shooting isn't my favorite play style, but TOR is easy enough that it's not much of a problem. He's fairly entertaining and shaping up to be a rather "I'll do everything for money" kinda guy, willing to betray a quest giver if someone else offers more money. He's currently leaning towards dark side, but sometimes, the light side offers more money, or he person he'd have to do something dark side-ish for just pisses him off. He's also after every woman he sees (and boy, male smugglers get a lot of flirt options...).

I played him up to lvl 14, where he *finally* got his ship back from the bad guy who ran off with it.

I'm not horribly thrilled with Corso Riggs, his first companion, who so far is very much the AWWW SHUCKS homegrown farm boy type. But he's so far working out ok, my smuggler has been very focused on getting revenge on the guy who stole his ship, and Corso also wanted revenge, because the bad guy stole his favorite blaster. ... that he had named "Torchy". ... yeah. He is romance-able for female smugglers, and yeah, am I glad I'm playing a male one.

I've been experimenting with companion customizations for Corso. I wasn't fond of the default look:



however, the first alternative I tried didn't thrill me either, it made him too ...smooth.



I've now settled on this one, because it keeps the rather iconic hair, but looks decent enough, and I can live with the cyborg implants:



I then switched to the Jedi Consular, who's very very light-side, very dutiful, humble, diplomatic, trying for peaceful solutions - the epitome of a great Jedi. I'll see if he stays that way or if he's going to develop some dark aspects - I don't mind either way. I've taken him to some PvP, which is really quite fun. Level ranges 10 - 49 all play together (your damage and healing are normalized, so a higher level character just has more abilities). I've always enjoyed healing in battlegrounds, so it's likely he'll get some pvp in while leveling.

Yeah, he's another male twi'lek. I really like them, I could probably have 5 or 6, but I've limited myself to 3.



His companion is even worse than Corso Riggs - mainly, because... remember how in Star Wars, some alien races talked in gibberish? Yeah, not only is he a weird race, he's a weird race that talks in gibberish - underwater-bubbling sounding gibberish - with subtitles. And he's the tank to my healer. *sigh*



And lastly, I played some more on my Sith Warrior - the next character I'd like to have at level-cap so I can unlock his race for the Jedi Knight. He's still with Vette, who got a new look - I'm not super-thrilled with i, I it kinds misses a headband and the eyes clash with her skin and both of them clash with Seret's skin... but these are the same facial markings as my sith inquisitor, so I'm pondering whether or not they're related, which is why she's keeping the look so far.



Despite the fact that Seret is planned to get together with Vette, he of course flirts - hilariously - with quite a few women he comes across:







The woman he's wooing? Is this semi-deranged Sith Lord with a passion for blood, murder and choking people to death (she's about as flaky as she looks like *g*):



However! He has now met his 2nd companions, and OMG. If it was at ALL possible to play a gay Sith Warrior, he would be ALL OVER him. I'm cutting images of him for liriel_, but I already spent some time last night sporfling at her over IM, describing the dialoge choices and yelling that no no no, I do not want to see a slash couple there, noooooo.

( image of him this way )

He's very obedient from the moment he first shows up, and then, when offering to join as a companion, comes and kneels in supplication.



Gnnn, the things you can read into that "Interesting" or even that "what are your qualifications"!! And, I mean, do I even have to mention just *where* my mind went with this one:



NO DAMN IT SERET IS HET, HE'S GOING TO GO WITH VETTE.

It didn't exactly help that liriel_ was laughing at me the whole time, and suggested that Vette was probably getting interesting ideas, too, and maybe planning on getting these two hooked up so she could watch. *facepalm*

So, yeah. I had quite a bit of fun this weekend. :) How about you guys?

Tags: gaming:starwarsoldrepublic

http://sixdee.net//2012/04/last-portal-to-tyria/

this is one of the best beta reaction posts I've found, in that it aligns with how I feel about the game (well, minus the fact that I didn't start out uninterested). I feel it really gets 2 issues:

• GW2 goes out of it's way to make the other players your friends, not your secret enemies like in other MMOs


• female skimply armor

if you're even faintly interested in MMOs, give this a read.

(I do suspect GW2 is going to be the game I'll be trying to push on the non-gamer people once it's out. *g*)

Tags: gaming:guildwars2

I just reinstalled Trillian, a IM client that lets you connect to ICQ, AIM, YahooChat, GoogleTalk, Skype, IRC and others. I actually managed to remember some of my old chat passwords (and promptly scared someone off who happened to be online. *g*)

ETA: I do have a twitter account, mostly so I can follow some gaming bloggers. Trillian connects to that, too, so maybe I could, you know, actually post to it? :) I'm ariunderscore there, if any of you have a twitter.

I'm sorta hoping it'll be a way to keep in contact with some WoW guildpeople *and* people I know from fandom and even locally. So far, people from my WoW guild were trying to use the Steam client, but I don't like to have that running all the time when I'm not actually playing a game there.

What are you people who actually read this using?

Tags: misc

So, I ended up playing some more last night (until midnight. Which isn't a problem until 4 hours later when I have to get up again...)

More on Professions

I did end up playing a lot more with the Guardian, and fell in love with it. This will be one of my mains (I can't tell yet if I will have a ONE TRUE CLASS, or if I'll be focusing on 2-3 at the same time). I love how many different abilities you get, depending on what weapon you have equipped (this is true for all classes, of course, but guardian felt good, once I learned how to move out of stuff and stop dying so much).

I rolled a Thief because I was trying to tweak a female Norn face and because was squeeing madly how great the Thief animations are, and ... oh boy. As a Thief with daggers, you get attacks where you jump and lunge and somersault and OMG! I may have spent nearly an hour just jumping at things because it looked so cool - even with a huge Norn. I am going to have to have a Thief, just because of that. I'm not sure if I'll like the mechanics in later stages, but just for kicks and giggles, I need a Thief.

I also rolled a Necromancer because I wanted to see if I could manage to create a properly insane-looking female human. Yes, I can. The side-effect of that was that I realized that necro game play is kinda fun: for every mob you kill, you gain a little bit of their life energy, which builds up in a bar, and you can then trigger to switch into a different state where you go all shadow-blob-y and use different, powerful abilities, until that bar has run out again.

I also tried Warrior again, but I can't really get a good handle on it. May be user error, or may be the profession is not for me.

To sum it up:

Want to play seriously: Guardian, Engineer, Mesmer
Want to give a good try: Elementalist, Thief, Necromancer
Not sure: Warrior
Sure that I'm not interested: Ranger

Since the game ships with 5 character slots, I suspect I'll have to buy 2 additional ones...

Races

( Find an image of my fierce Norn Thief, and my insane Human Necromancer behind this cut )

I created a Norn male, too, that I like, but forgot to send the image to myself at work so I can post it. I'll add it later tonight.

More Non-Quest/Event talk

I haven't played a lot, so I'm not sure how true this will hold in the later game, but so far, there are 3 different things:

Personal storyline: this works like a quest, in that you do one thing, then are sent to do another, etc. Not quite like normal WoW-quests, but most similar.

Hearts: a heart on the map means there is a person for whom you can do something. There are often different ways to achieve it: often, you could either kill something or instead do some other peaceful activity which also helped the person in question. Both kinds of activities gave karma points, once you reached a certain number of karma points, you were one.

Events: this means that something happens. A huge mob attacks, for example - this is the really dynamic stuff, ie, you see something interesting happen, and you go and check it out, and then you either do something, or you walk away.

Personal story thoughts

From what I've seen, the Human and Charr stories look to be more interesting than the Norn ones. ... the Norn are the race where I know I will have more than one character, for human and charr, I could do with just one looks-wise. *siiiigh* Of course.

Some combat thoughts

Combat is very different from what you're used to if you have been playing WoW or a similar game. It's much more action-y. You don't really target mobs that much, and mobs you fight never have a cast bar - you have to watch what they're doing, and dodge when applicable, for example. It flows much more naturally.

But it is going to be difficult to getting from WoW-type combat to this kind of combat. I love it, but I know I'm going to have to work at it, as I don't really have the instincts - especially for dodge, I keep wanting to run out of stuff, and that is too slow.

PvP/World-vs-World stuff

I didn't get around to that at all. Maybe next time, or maybe not at all. I don't want to play too much in a beta.

Tags: gaming:guildwars2

ok, yes, I am very much looking forward to playing this once it's out.

I've tried out: guardian, warrior, engineer, elementalist and mesmer (was about to try ranger, but the server went down).

Professions (=classes, in most other games)

I think I enjoyed Engineer most. It's the ranged shooter with lots of toys, and I felt pretty good about movement/survival/killing stuff.

Warrior and Guardian I think I need to play around with more. There was one event that was a lvl 8 mob against lots of lvl 2-4 players. We got constantly mowed down (if your equipment breaks, it will no longer show up on your character. Which lead to some naked fighting. *g*), the melee more so than the ranged. I'm not sure how this will play out in general questing, so... more playtesting necessary for me to decide if I want one of them as a main.

Mesmer was the surprise. It's the control/create illusions class, but I hadn't realized that it's a melee fighter. I did like that combination, more that I thought I would. Drawback: cloth armor. because... well. I will never complain about plate bikinis or black mageweave in WoW again. You feel dressed in those, in comparison. :)

Elementalist was also surprisingly fun, because it's incredibly mobile, and I'm not used to that from a caster class. It went from the "well, maybe" to "will have one for sure, even if it's not the main". Ranger looked similarily mobile when I saw others play it, which is why I'm going to try that out as well, but I'm not so interested in ranger thematically, so we'll see.

Races
(I really only looked at females, btw)

Charr:
I *love* female charr. I could probably roll many of them, but I'll probably narrow it down to one.

Humans/Norn:
For both... OMG cloth armor WTF? ... a-hem. :) I prefer my characters semi-decently clothed, which *will* be a problem. The cloth starter outfit, to give you an idea, is a short top that's rather build to showcase your boobs, a miniskirt with fluff and ruffles, a garter one one leg, and thigh-high laced boots.

Another drawback for both are the female faces. Half of them have make-up permanently stuck on, and it's difficult to get a non-attractive face together (very few options can be made unattractive). The selections for hair are quite good, but most are too nice for me to use (I play fighters, not models - the hair should be practical and out of the way).

For norn, my engineer will be norn, and lucky for me, engineers are pretty well-dressed. There are various body-types, and one of them is "huge, stocky and with big boobs" (they *all* have big boobs, the norn females). I really liked that one, and my engineer looks quite ok - large, and with big breasts, but they're well-contained. And I am toying with the idea of a norn mesmer, who would use big bouncy boobs as a fighting distraction...

For human, one bodytype is stocky with hardly any boobs at all, which looks hillarious in the cloth outfit (the top is designed to showcase breasts, but if there are hardly any... *g*). All my females are also at maximum height, which is apparently unusual, as I was always surrounded by other females who were thin and reached up to my shoulder. I suspect I'll go with a chunky, flatchested elementalist, simply because the bodytype is not what you'd usually put into these clothes. Plus she'll get dark skin, which seems to be a rare choice, too.

( pictures of human and norn females I rolled behind this cut )

Asura and Sylvari were not playable, but I'm looking forward to trying them out. Sylvari are plantpeople, and their character design is *gorgeous*, they really look like plant-like humanoids, not just humans painted green with some leaves stuck on. If you've not seen them yet, go google for images. Asura I'm waiting to see: they *are* the small species, which traditionally aren't quite my thing, because they are usually cute. However, it looks like Asura will be leaning towards creepy rather than cute, at least some of their appearances, and there lore is not fluffy at all. So I may end up with one against expectations...

Questing... or, not-Questing, rather.

I really enjoyed this. You do have a personal questline that you follow, but that was - what, 4 things to do in the starting area? Aside from that, NPCs tell you that you can help around the area, and there are points on the map that are hubs where you can do things - you enter the area, and you are told, for example, to help the wolf shaman: free trapped wolf cubs, or defeat some kind of monsters, or carry stuff around, or clean up things. You can do any kind of them, however, you like, until you reach a certain threshold and are done - and that gives you XP (outside of what you got for, say, killing stuff).

It's not just "kill 10 fozzles, bring me 5 livers from them", but it's cleaning up stuff, picking up eggs and returning them to nests, and, cutest thing ever: play with snow leopard cubs:



I'm really looking forward to seeing the whole game (I only did all of the norn starting area, and most of the human/charr one, I don't want to play too much in the beta) - this really feels dynamic, and much much less like the new leveling quests in WoW, for example.

It also worked out very well even with lots of people running around: you don't really lose anything (you get credit for stuff you help kill, even if you don't tag it like you'd do in other games).

I mentioned before that at character creation, after chosing the race, profession and then the visuals, you also pick your personal story: some are race-dependent (humans: are you nobility/commoner/street rat, norn: which of the 4 animal spirits are you favored by, etc), while others depend on class (elementalist: which of the 4 elements is your favorite, guardian: which piece of gear that you own has personal meaning for you), while others are general (do you face adversity with dignity, charm or strenght).

When you combine that with the really open world, this really meshes together and has the potential to be something very very cool.

After you create your character, you see a movie that sums up what you just picked, and the line it ends with, I think, really rings true for this game:

Tags: gaming:guildwars2

why, hello there, new shiny MMO!





These would be a Norn Engineer (generic nordic-ish people, uses Rifles/Bombs/Traps/other tools), and a Charr Guardian with a silly helmet (GRR-RAR-ish pepole, hits stuff and protects others).

The Charr will likely change profession, Warrior is the one that interests me most (hitting stuff in the face = ♥), but Charr Warrior is going to be one of the popular combinations...

I really like the character generation, because it's not just the visual bits and and the profession (class, for the WoW people), but you also choose your background, your goal, and how you approach stuff. *thumbs up*

Anyway. Shiny. Going to have to sit on my hands to not play much now, because it's just beta.

Tags: gaming:guildwars2

{Take the 100 Things challenge!}

I'm kinda torn about this: I'd been thinking about what I could write 100 entries about, and there were 2 main things that came to mind:

• books. Of *course* I can write aout 100 books, I mean, I have over 2.000 at home. I'd just have to pick some and actually *write* about them.


• fandom pairings. I was leaning towards writing 100 posts about different fandom pairings I like to read about (so, not any of the rare stuff I read for kicks, but actual pairings I'm fannish for). So I thought about it, but with these criteria, I can only come up with 75 pairings.

So I suppose I'll be writing about books...

(if you're curious, list of pairings I'm fannish for behind ( this cut )

Tags: books, fandom

So, I finished playing my IA to max level, having done all (solo) quests, both the planet-based ones (that are the same for everyone of each side), and the class-based ones (that are, well, class-based. *g*).

Overall, I'm pleased: I had fun, and I really enjoyed the story.

I'm going to talk about that story a bit, and that goes behind a ( cut, because Liriel_ is not allowed to read this yet. )

I was, all in all, very entertained. Sometimes the cut scenes did make me go "eeeee" and hide under the covers, but those were the minority.

I am looking forward to playing more characters, although I forsee that I will get bored with the planet quests that I have already done, I will probably try to skip some by exploiting rested XP, or doing space flight missions or PvP. The next character on the menu is my Sith Warrior who thinks he's all big bad Sith, but is actually quite fluffy.

Tags: gaming:starwarsoldrepublic

The next expansion for WoW is now in beta testing, so I thought about what I still want to do in-game before we get such *fascinating* features as FarmVille, Pokemon, and more corrupted people as "interesting" story lines (also Pandas and monks).

I am also going to unsub my 2nd account once it's out, I will have enough to do with just the one.

I've always wanted one character of each class at max level, ideally with also professions available at max, and I'm very close to that now (say what you will about the Looking-For-Group feature that puts you into dungeons automatically, but I actually enjoy that, and wouldn't have managed to old-style quest my way through the world 10 times).

Ushan (enhancement/resto shaman, leatherworking & gnome engineering)

• poke person I know to make me nicer shoulders for transmogging for her resto set.
  
• find nicer weapon for transmogging for the resto set

(transmogging: feature that lets you change to look of a piece of armor you're wearing to some other piece in your possession, so you can chose what you look like regardless of how ugly the *actual* armor you're wearing is)

Sosia (prot warrior, herbing & alchemy)

• factionchange her to alliance, making herhim a male draenei (like this), so I can play with liriel_'s shaman again
  
• finish leveling herbing

Srian (protection/holy paladin, enchanting & jewelcrafting)

• grind about 1.200 justice points to buy gear for finishing his holy transmog set
  
• think about actually making a proper prot transmog set, and not a "well, I had it in my bank and it doesn't clash too much" set
  
• maaaybe bring him to exalted with the Shattered Sun faction, so he can buy an awesome shield for transmogging, and many jewelcrafting recipes

Kashgur (blood/unholy death knight, blacksmithing & alchemy)

• push her from 84 to 85 (next weekend)

Niwe (disc/shadow priest, inscription & alchemy)

... she's done, actually.

Jhuuna (arcane/frost mage, tailoring & alchemy)

• use up my 1.000 bolts of Netherweave by making bags to sell to all these new Panda monks people will roll

Mahinay (resto/feral cat druid, skinning & herbing)

also completely done.

Felflower (affliction/destruction warlock, goblin engineering & alchemy)

• finish leveling engineering

Kirzha (beastmaster hunter, mining & alchemy)

• finish leveling mining back up

Derelicta (assassination rogue, herbing & alchemy)

• level her from 82 to 85 (together with liriel_'s hunter)
  
• try out combat to see if it's more fun than assassination
  
• finish leveling herbing
  
• transfer her to alliance once she's max level, making her into a female dwarf (like this) as a bankalt

That is ... not much more to do. Pandas will also bring another slot on the server, that I'll use to level a monk (probably a forsaken female)- they can heal and tank, both seems interesting. I've already made plans with Li. *g*

There are some characters I will miss, when I give up the 2nd account. I'd love to have space for a 2nd priest - I love my draenei holy priest, because she's batshit insane and into conspiracy theories (thus the tinfoil-ish hat), but my horde priest has inscription at max level with all glyphs learned, so she wins. I'd love to have another dwarf female, and I'd love to have space for a female tauren. So, 14 slots per server would be ideal for me. Alas... While the 2nd server is still up, I'm haveing fun dungeon-leveling some pairs with Li (tanking warrior/healing priest, tanking druid/healing paladin, warlock/tanking paladin, rogue/healing druid) and a threesome with her and _bettina_, too.

I could do a lot more stuff on the main account, especially with Ushan - for example, I'm a bit of a completionist when it comes to profession recipes, and a lot of them can be gotten by maxing out reputations with various factions. But I really don't like WoW enough anymore to go repgrinding. Or to work on achievement points - but I don't raid anymore, and the remaining ones I can easily get are also grindy. I am happy I have her over 9.000 *g*, but really, that's enough.

However, that means I have time play SW:TOR, and dabble in Rift and Skyrim and Kingdom of Amalur and maybe even Sims2. And play through Mass Effect 1 and 2 before buying 3! damn, why do I need sleep... :)

Tags: gaming:worldofwarcraft

I said before, I love that World of Warcraft is full of lore and story and background and all that.

But.

Yesterday, we got a huge info-dump about the new expansion. They also revealed that the end-boss of the last patch - traditionally the "Big Bad" of the expansion - will be Garrosh.

For the non-players who don't want to bother with the link above:

For years, the leader of the orcs, and of the Horde (one of the 2 factions that a player can belong to) has been Thrall, who united the Horde, brought a revival of shamanism to the orcs (who had gotten somewhat corrupted by demons), and who was generally on a course of trying to get along peacefully with the Alliance (the other player faction). Then, at the start of the last expansion, he went off to become green-skinned Jesus find himself, and he put Garrosh in charge.

Garrosh ended up being a warmonger, who believes in the racial superiority of orcs and who started to wage war on the Alliance, expanding territory and even pissing off other Horde races (killing the most peaceful racial leader in a honor duel didn't help). Garrosh and his warmongering ways were not that popular with the player base, but I do think that he has the potential to be an interesting character, there are some quests that involve him that I like.

Now then.

Let's look at some of the bad guys that we have fought against in WoW.

• Deathwing, formerly Neltharion the Earth-Warder, black dragon and empowered with dominion over the earth/deep places: corrupted by evil Old Gods (yes, think C'thulluh).


• Arthas, ex-shining human prince of Lordaeron turned murdering Lich King: corrupted by an evil sword


• Thorim, Freya, Hodir, Mimiron, guardians of the world WoW takes place on: corrupted by evil Old Gold


• Illidan, night elf demon hunter: corrupted by his pursuit of power


• Fandral Staghelm, ex-Archdruid: corrupted by the Emerald Nightmare (which is an area of corruption within the Emerald Dream, which is a spirit world linked to dreams)


• Queen Azshara, leader of the elves for ten thousand years: corrupted by influence from a dark titan


• various orc bosses: corrupted by the Burning Legion/demon influence/drinking of demon blood


• various eredar bosses: their whole race was corrupted into evil by the leader of the Burning Legion

I could probably think of more, if I wanted to spend some time on it.

The ultimate Big Bad of the whole universe: Sageras, who used to be one of the pantheon of the WoW universe, tasked with fighting evil, is now the leader of the Burning Legion, corrupted by the existence of true evil. Speculation is that he will be the last ever big boss we get to fight, whenever WoW starts to close it's doors.

Back to Garrosh. This morning, I was reading a summary of additional info we leared about the new expansion from the various interviews they gave to various big fansites.

What do I find?

Garrosh has become corrupted and has been doing some really nasty things beneath Orgrimmar.

FUCK YOU, BLIZZARD, GET A NEW STORY IDEA!

Tags: *headdesk*, gaming:worldofwarcraft

Last night, both me and liriel_ were hanging out in WoW, each leveling mining and chatting idly over Skype.

I mentioned that I was thinking about applying to crack_van to post recs for the WoW fandom, but that it'd be a huge undertaking, because I'd have to write up info posts on the characters involved in each story and sum up the back story necessary - and WoW has a *LOT* of lore.

And I mentioned that Asric/Jadaar would be one of the pairings (*), and Li was all "what? who?", and so I gave her a quick summary - after all, Asric and Jadaar are NPCs with just a couple of lines of dialog each. And then I had to go and find the 3 nice and readable stories that I've found for the pairing, because she really really fell for them.

*buffs fingernails* yep, I can still pimp people into fandoms/parings. :)

(*) the others would be Thrall/Jaina, Thrall/amnesia!Varian, Garrosh/Varian, Illidan/Kael'thas and Thassarian/Koltira

Tags: fandom, gaming:worldofwarcraft, isilibabetc

SW:TOR just had their first "Guild Summit", which was something of a meeting of various guilds with the official people.

Lots of interesting details came out of it (for example, if I get to lvl 50 with my pure-blood Sith, that unlocks that race for ALL classes - including the Republic classes. Pureblood Sith Jedi, yes. *makes plans*)

Another features they announced is that everyone can invite up to 3 people to a 7-day free trial. However, it's only possible to invite 3 people, even if someone never takes the invite, it's gone.

So: anyone reading this interested in trying out the game for 7 days? Then leave a comment (I haven't checked if I can invite US people, but since I can see and roll on US servers, I'd say yes).

(I have a bunch of half-written SW:TOR posts, but I got distracted by a case of ... hrm, Schrödinger's relative. That was not fun...)

Tags: gaming:starwarsoldrepublic

Every World Press Photo Winner (1955 - 2011)

really great photos.



*takes cats and goes to cuddle under covers*

Tags: pictures

My mother just called me to tell me an amusing thing that happened at work (her words).

She's a teacher at a school for 14-19year olds (you finish with what in the US would be a college degree in economics, I've been told). Today they learned that a male student has been banned from the school.

...

He had masturbated all over a classroom.

Tags: *boggle*

So, my main has reached lvl 45, and I finished the personal quest for the companion my agent has been snogging romancing for a while now (eeeee they are cute. *cough*). So I decided to take a bit of a breather, and instead sent some money to all 3 of the other Empire classes, so each of them could buy presents for their first companion.

Giving presents ups their affection - it can reach 10.000. The higher it is, the more efficient the companion is - in fighting or in crafting/gathering. Also, you get scripted events at certain affection levels. You do gain affection while playing with them, if they like the decisions you make (or you can lose it, too). Gifting them up to 4.000 is easy and a nice starter buffer to have.

That was no problem with my Sith Inqusitor and my Bounty Hunter. However, on the Sith Warrior... I don't really like the default appearance of his companion. You can buy different appearances for them, but for the Sith Warrior, the 2 I was considering are only available on the the lvl 30 planet. So I leveled him up from 11 to 14 by finishing up the class quest on the first planet after the starter one, which means he now has his starship. So off to Taris he flew and then I sent him money from my agent so he could buy the two and now... gnnnn. I can't decide.

The official bio for Vette is this:

A Twi'lek born into slavery on the planet Ryloth, Vette escaped a life of servitude to become an accomplished rogue and treasure hunter. Too daring for her own good, she managed to breach Imperial defenses and sneak onto Korriban, gaining entry into the most sacred Sith tombs before being caught.

Years of travel and close calls have made Vette quick with a blaster. Outspoken, uppity and unfiltered, she can be fiercely loyal or relentlessly taxing, making her a source of annoyance to some and of great amusement to others.

Likes: Anti-authority behavior, protecting the weak, treasure and getting paid
Dislikes: Bullying, killing innocents, kissing up

This is her standard looks:



And these are the looks I'm considering, but... the yellowish one is somewhat too nice, but the pink one, well, the eyes really don't fit and make her look evil (also, she would clash with his skintone, and that would make the bit of the smooching we do get to see look weird).



So now I'm at a loss. And it turns out her appearance will be important, because counter to what I was *planning*, my Sith Warrior has decided to have a fluffy marshmallow light-side interior inside his "me-big-evil-Sith" outer shell.

I really am quite taken with him. It's something like...

I'd always known Seret was going to be from a privileged background, with Sith parents who made sure he was brought up like a proper little Sith and attendants and slaves to tend to him. He was always used to everyone bowing to him and expected that. But then, at the academy, there was backstabbing and people trying to kill each other.

And then he got given Vette to help him on some errant, and she was really quite competent and not at all boot-lick-y like the slaves he was used to, and, well, she is a twi'lek female and for some reason he kinds would like for her to like him. And he did take off her slave collar when she asked about it, but then totally freaked her out by saying oh, they were a great team now.

So, yeah, I'm going to work on their romance (Vette is one of two romance options, although the other one does depend on choice when you acquire her - she can either become a romance option or not). So, I'd like to settle on her looks early, but... grrrrr, can't decide.

BTW, amusing story bit.

Seret's master, a Sith Lord, has a rival, another Sith Lord. He discovered that the rival had a son that he kept in secret to protect him from enemies. So he sent my warrior off to kill the son - he was not to touch the rival himself, he was still needed.

Seret got there, and defeated the son (adult son) and his mother, who sprang in to protect him. After defeating both, he could have just killed them, but the mother spoke up and offered an alternative: he could go and kill her husband, because her husband always wore a mask after an accident. Her son would stay alive, assume the role of his father, and make sure to make it look like the plan had succeeded.

After thinking about it (Vette doesn't like senseless killings, so, maybe sparing them = good?), he went with her suggestion, killed her husband, etc. And once he was done, she was very happy. And one of the conversation options with her was a flirt. And, of course, he went for it. And Vette was already all "Are you *really* going to ...", when the now-widow sent her son out of the room and asked Seret to send Vette out, too. And Seret, he could have asked Vette to leave, or he could have commanded Vette to leave... but in his infinite wisdom, he said "no, she always stays by my side" - causing Vette to go "EWWWW". (yes, really. *g*)

And before he could wonder why she wasn't so thrilled to watch him ... perform, she widow jumped him and fade to black happened.

And once he got back to his master, who bought the whole "yeah, sure I totally killed the son, yep" thing, Seret felt the need to also brag to his master that "and after killing his son, to complete his humiliation, I seduced his wife". And in the conversation, when he says that, you can see Vette stand behind him, and she does a magnificent *FACEPALM*.

And that moment, when I was giggling madly (as was Seret's master, btw, he says that totally lightened up his day, too), I knew that I really had to play this character soon. :)

Oh yeah, TOR may not be the new great MMO invention, but it sure is giving me my money's worth of entertainment.

(liriel_ has no plans of ever leveling a Sith Warrior, so I can talk about his storyline without spoilers - unless anyone regularly reading wants to remain unspoiled? If so, let me know. Because yeah, I suspect I may post updates about him when it's his turn to get leveled - and he just worked himself up to #2, right after my agent)

Tags: gaming:starwarsoldrepublic

I thought I'd round up what I've been reading lately. Local people can poke me if it sounds interesting, but some has been read via Kindle. Links go to amazon.com, all summaries in italics are from there (because I suck at summaries).


Midnight Riot - Ben Aaronovitch
Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London’s Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he’ll face is a paper cut. But Peter’s prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost. Peter’s ability to speak with the lingering dead brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and other manifestations of the uncanny. Now, as a wave of brutal and bizarre murders engulfs the city, Peter is plunged into a world where gods and goddesses mingle with mortals and a long-dead evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of magic.

I really enjoyed this one. I have no clue about the London-specific or police-specific parts (although both seemed plausible), but it worked nicely to set up a world were various supernatural things are real, including magic. I liked the characters, both the main players and the minor/story specific ones. The supernatural was nicely interwoven (I really liked all the various embodiments of all the rivers of London, and the fact that they're having a turf war), and the writing was ... dark humor-ish police story, I'd say. Better than many of "Supernatural Stuff exists" books I've seen and/or read in the last few years.

It's the first in a series and I just bought the next 2 because I wanted to read more of the series. (Moon Over Soho, Whispers Underground).


The Compound - S.A. Bodeen
Eli and his family have lived in the underground Compound for six years. The world they knew is gone, and they’ve become accustomed to their new life. Accustomed, but not happy. No amount of luxury can stifle the dull routine of living in the same place, with only his two sisters, only his father and mother, doing the same thing day after day after day. As problems with their carefully planned existence threaten to destroy their sanctuary—and their sanity—Eli can’t help but wonder if he’d rather take his chances outside. Eli’s father built the Compound to keep them safe. But are they safe—really?

This is YA fiction. It's probably quite good as YA, but was a bit too predictable for me. I think I might have missed that it's YA, and was just attracted to the summary - I would probably have liked the story more if it had a larger cast of people caught in the Compound, and the main character was a bit older.


Feed - Mira Grant
Twin bloggers Georgia and Shaun Mason and their colleague Buffy are thrilled when Sen. Peter Ryman, the first presidential candidate to come of age since social media saved the world from a virus that reanimates the dead, invites them to cover his campaign. Then an event is attacked by zombies, and Ryman's daughter is killed. As the bloggers wield the newfound power of new media, they tangle with the CDC, a scheming vice presidential candidate, and mysterious conspirators who want more than the Oval Office. Shunning misogynistic horror tropes in favor of genuine drama and pure creepiness, McGuire has crafted a masterpiece of suspense with engaging, appealing characters who conduct a soul-shredding examination of what's true and what's reported.

I'm not a huge fan of zombies (because, yeah, that virus? creates zombies), but I did like the imagining of a world where the media has changed and bloggers have become a huge influence. I thought that part was mostly well-done, although I think it's a bit behind technologically: there's no mention of Twitter or a similar service, and I don't think it will go away or be replaced completely.

I also really liked the title, with the play of "Feed" for both feeding and a newsfeed.

The writing is very fast-paced and exciting, and the characters are likable and relateable. The plot moves along nicely, although I began to see where it was heading a bit earlier than I was supposed to, I think (I'm never quite sure about these things).

However, it hit a huge squick button for me with a fairly graphic description of dead cats, and another cat that dies later. But even without that, I'm not sure I'd be interested in reading the other novels (there are 2 more, Deadline and Blackout); I felt it was a bit too... gimmick-y at the end. I won't be picking up the sequels, but if I ever run into someone who read them, I'll probably ask how it all ended.


Hounded - Kevin Hearne
Atticus O’Sullivan, last of the Druids, lives peacefully in Arizona, running an occult bookshop and shape-shifting in his spare time to hunt with his Irish wolfhound. His neighbors and customers think that this handsome, tattooed Irish dude is about twenty-one years old—when in actuality, he’s twenty-one centuries old. Not to mention: He draws his power from the earth, possesses a sharp wit, and wields an even sharper magical sword known as Fragarach, the Answerer.

Unfortunately, a very angry Celtic god wants that sword, and he’s hounded Atticus for centuries. Now the determined deity has tracked him down, and Atticus will need all his power—plus the help of a seductive goddess of death, his vampire and werewolf team of attorneys, a sexy bartender possessed by a Hindu witch, and some good old-fashioned luck of the Irish—to kick some Celtic arse and deliver himself from evil.

I was positively surprised by this one, I'd thought it would be more like some of the other paranormal books I'd been reading these last few years, usually ones with female main characters that fit the "strong but conflicted, and way sexy" stereotype of Urban Fantasy. I couldn't take the book all that seriously - I mean, he talks to his dog, and the dog talks back (then again, better than talking invisible fire salamander, and that was from one of the better Urban Fantasy ones) - but really, the dog is actually very entertaining and a good side-kick. I was also very entertained by the very buff vampire and werewolf lawyers. *g* Overall the book was well-paced, fun, and kept me entertained.

I may also have spent quite some time thinking about him and Methos meeting. *still such a Methos fangirl*

There are 3 more, Hexed and Hammered, which are out, and Tricked, which will apparently come out in April. I haven't bought them yet - I'm trying to make a dent in my TBR pile first - but they are on my "to buy" list once denting the TBR pile(s) has been achieved.

(I'm pretty happy I read it on the Kindle app, I'm not sure what I think of the guy on the cover - I have a quite different mental image of Atticus)


The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency - Alexander McCall Smith
This first novel in Alexander McCall Smith’s widely acclaimed The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series tells the story of the delightfully cunning and enormously engaging Precious Ramotswe, who is drawn to her profession to “help people with problems in their lives.” Immediately upon setting up shop in a small storefront in Gaborone, she is hired to track down a missing husband, uncover a con man, and follow a wayward daughter. But the case that tugs at her heart, and lands her in danger, is a missing eleven-year-old boy, who may have been snatched by witchdoctors.

I first heard about the series when it became a TV show (and I still haven't managed to watch it - I really should!).

I'm rather torn about the book - ok, I make it sound more dire than it is. *g*

Essentially, I loved the main character. Everything about her, her character, her figure, her attitude, the way she solves the cases, the way she thinks, everything. The writing also conveys a sense of love for Africa and living there. I liked how her back story is described, and I like the cases she solves.

But the writing was a bit too, hm, unfocused? It's less like one novel, and more like lots of small episodes stitched together. Which isn't bad, and it does fit the story, but it was a bit too episodic for me to really get into it. I may enjoy it more watching the TV series, or maybe at a different time - it sorta feels like the kind of book you read when you're in a really lazy mood, and want something that moves slowly and wanders around. Given that I do a lot of my reading on the subway, I just don't have the time to let myself fall into a story like that. Maybe I'll try the 2nd novel when I'm on a holiday, or on a weekend when I feel like I want to accomplish nothing more than savoring a story.

So, make of that what you will. It's a good series with a lot of books out (I think I saw up to 13 at least), and it's also getting very good reviews - I've seen comparisons to Ms. Maple. If you are at all interested by what I've said, give the books a try!


Sill Life With Murder, Murder in a Mill Town - Patricia Ryan
Boston 1868: The wealthy are enjoying the height of the Gilded Age--but not all are wealthy. As governess to the Hewitt family, Irish immigrant Nell Sweeney is sent to discover the truth behind the rumor that their son--thought to be killed in the Civil War--is still alive and in prison.

I liked the first novel enough that I immediately bought the 2nd one, and will probably read the next 4 that are out so far soon.

I really liked Nell, who is not *quite* who the Hewitts think she is, and the Hewitts themselves are an interesting family. Starting with book 2, there's also Nell's relationship with another (male) character that I enjoy a lot, and the minor characters are also portrayed nicely - they're not cardboard cut-outs, even if you only meet them briefly. I also enjoy the descriptions of life in Victorian America.

The stories are well-crated, and while I did guess one twist of the 2nd one early on, I think they're both very good mysteries - and it was just one of many. I'm already looking forward to the other 4, but the author writes slowly, so I'm fitting in other books so I'll not be finished too quickly. I do think the first 2 books should really go together, tho.


Kris Longknife: Muniteer - Mike Shepherd
Kris Longknife joined the navy to escape the shadow of her politically powerful family. Her first mission is rescuing a kidnapped child. Her second takes her to a planet decimated by a volcanic eruption. Despite everything she does to be a good ensign, two things stop her: numerous attempts on her life and a habit of forging ahead and getting things done, regardless how dangerously. [some spoilers snipped] This is a fast-paced adventure in which the heroine does a lot of maturing and eventually understands her family and how much she is a part of it.

I'd had that shoved at me as a recommendation for *ages* by amazon, because I liked the Vorkosigan books. I can see that the recommendation system thinks if I like one offspring of a powerful family in a futuristic space setting going his/her own way, I might like another, but really, there is no comparing these to the Vorkosigan books.

We have a heroine who's just left school 6 months or something like that before, and while she does some maturing during the book, for me it felt like it was hitting a lot of stereotypes: the kid from a rich family who tries to prove that she isn't like them but has to step up and be daring and rescues everything...

I mean, it wasn't a bad book, and if you like military SF, and these kind of heroines, you'll probably like them. But I'm a bit bored with plucky heroines, and this one didn't really have anything that made me at all interested in her. The plot isn't enough to keep me interested, either. I once read half of the first book of David Weber's Honor Harrington series, and that one didn't grab me for similar reasons that this one misses me (although it had the added eyeroll of the main character's it's-a-cat-with-an-alien-name). ... Actually, I think if I had to decide, I'd probably say I enjoyed the David Weber book more. But, as I said: If you like the tropes, you'll enjoy the book. If it's not your usual stuff, don't make an exception for it.

(The first Honor Harrington book, On Basilisk Station, is available for free from the Baen Free Library, if you want to try that and see if you like the genre)


And Only To Deceive - Tasha Alexander
From gifted new writer Tasha Alexander comes a stunning novel of historical suspense set in Victorian England, meticulously researched and with a twisty plot that involves stolen antiquities, betrayal, and murder

For Emily, accepting the proposal of Philip, the Viscount Ashton, was an easy way to escape her overbearing mother, who was set on a grand society match. So when Emily's dashing husband died on safari soon after their wedding, she felt little grief. After all, she barely knew him. Now, nearly two years later, she discovers that Philip was a far different man from the one she had married so cavalierly. His journals reveal him to have been a gentleman scholar and antiquities collector who, to her surprise, was deeply in love with his wife. Emily becomes fascinated with this new image of her dead husband and she immerses herself in all things ancient and begins to study Greek.

Emily's intellectual pursuits and her desire to learn more about Philip take her to the quiet corridors of the British Museum, one of her husband's favorite places. There, amid priceless ancient statues, she uncovers a dark, dangerous secret involving stolen artifacts from the Greco-Roman galleries. And to complicate matters, she's juggling two very prominent and wealthy suitors, one of whose intentions may go beyond the marrying kind. As she sets out to solve the crime, her search leads to more surprises about Philip and causes her to question the role in Victorian society to which she, as a woman, is relegated.

I'm still in the first quarter of the book, but what I've read so far, I like very much. It looks to also be the start of a series of novels, so unless the book suddenly takes a large drop in quality, I'll have another nice series to look forward to. I'm quite taken with Emily, and am interested to see where the plot will go.


*

Of these books, I'd say I enjoyed the Patricia Ryan murder mysteries the most (and the last book mentioned that I'm currently reading appeals to me in the same way they did), followed by the Ben Aaronovich magical police officer one, then the Druid books. I liked the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency one, too, but don't feel the need to read more, although this may change, maybe after I take a peek at the TV show. The others, I'm giving away/deleting off the Kindle app.

I've always wanted to write more about all the books I'm reading, maybe I'll manage to make posts like this one a regular feature...

Anyway. Have any of you read any of these books? And comments? (no spoilers on the series I like, please!)

Tags: books

On Sunday, I was playing WoW with liriel_ and _bettina_, and talking moved to "funniest raid wipes", which reminded me of this.

There is a raid boss called Jaraxxus, a huge red demon (memorable because he kills the gnome who wants to use him as a weapon - who doesn't love a good gnome killing?). At the start of the fight he emerges from a huge purple portal. Here is an image of the scene:



We use Vent during raiding, so we can talk to each other. One time, just as we pulled the boss and the portal opens (note that you can see, in the image, that the portal is being pulled open by disembodied hands), someone in our raid speaks up with:

"This always reminds me of Goatse."

(Wiki links that *describes* the image - read first before you do an image search!)

Needless to say, more than half of the raid did know exactly what he was talking about, and it all dissolved into a mixture of "EWWW"s and mad laughter, with one or two "what the fuck is he talking about" thrown in.

That is one of my fondest memories of my raiding career. :)

Tags: fun, gaming:worldofwarcraft

I'm currently doing a training in VBA Excel Macro Programming, and about to face plant into the computer, because I'm so tired. I dunno why, I got 8 hrs of sleep last night...

But, I did learn that I am more interested in SW:TOR right now that WoW.

Because I'm desperately trying to keep myself awake by imagining TOR porn, and not WoW porn.

...

what? it can't be *that* unusual a way to keep yourself from falling asleep...

Tags: gaming:starwarsoldrepublic

I've squee'd all over my IA story line and companion, but I don't think I've talked about game play, so I really should.

This will bore those of you who're not interested in games (sorry) and the few comparisons I make are to WoW, since I know that best, but hey, at least it's a SW:TOR post that liriel_ can actually read. :)

SW:TOR has 4 classes, although they have different names (including all the abilities), depending on whether you're playing Sith Empire or Republic. So everything I'm saying about the Imperial Agent also applies to the Smuggler, just with different names (and, well, less cool, of course. *g*). I have played the other 3, but only up to level 10, which is where you choose the Advanced Class - each of the 4 classes has 2 ACs, and each AC has 3 talent trees (although one of them is the same for both ACs, so each class has 5 trees).

Or, in other words: Imperial Agents can play either an Operative or a Sniper. The Operative can them spec into healer, stealthy stabber, or, er, more damage to all kinds of abilities. The Sniper can spec into the "er, more damage" tree as well, or alternatively use a spec that boosts ranged damage, or one that boosts bombs and explosives.

IA (and their Smuggler counterparts) have an interesting mechanic: Cover. You'll either hunker down where you are, or suavely roll behind some handy cover that is often lying around. Some powerful damage abilities require cover, and it also offers some protection from ranged enemies. The Sniper later gets a portable laser cover that they can set up anywhere, Operatives continue to have to roll behind stuff (and look very cool doing so, I might add. *g*)

Besides health, they have Energy, up to 100. It regens, and it regens faster the more you have, so it's a resource that you really don't want to deplete too much (although there are abilities that will speed up regeneration if the situation does require you to empty it). It may sound like the energy system for rogues from WoW, but it's really more like an arcane mage's mana.

And then there is Tactical Advantage (I have no idea if Snipers get that, too, Sniper is the last interesting AC to me). Some abilities can give you a stack of TA - you can have up to 2. Some abilities need a stack of TA to use.

Combine that with a tanking companion that you get at lvl 8, and a Healing Operative is actually one of the more versatile and powerful specs. At lvl 25, you can grab the Kolto Probe talent - these are cute little probes that will circle you and spray green healing goo over you - ie, a heal over time that you can stack to 2, and can refresh (like a Lifebloom, if you know Druid healing). It also, when spec'd into it, has a chance to give you free TAs. Besides that, you also have a small channeled heal that regens some energy (I pretty much never use it), and a slower bigger heal that gives you one TA (I am lvl 39, I will get an additional AoE heal once I can spec into it at 40).

So, combat situations (aside from a group of weak mobs, me and my companion can just mow them down) mean that I put 2 Kolto probes on my companion and on me (healing draws lots of aggro, even if I don't shoot stuff), which will start giving me TAs to use on spot healing. Meanwhile, I start to work on the weaker enemies while healing my companion through the damage he takes from the strong ones, and hopefully also not forgetting to heal myself, because if it's a group, some of them will start coming at me.

The companion doesn't really need much handling. Usually I can just point them at an enemy and let them go. Much like with WoW hunter pets, you can toggle which of their skills they use automatically (so you can turn off AoE attacks if you CC a lot, etc). The one I use has high avoidance, which makes them a better tank than the ranged tank companion.

I have a lot of helpful tools: 2 short stuns that work as interrupts, another interrupt, 2 CCs (one for droids, one for living things), another stun if I knife someone from behind, a slow, an evade that ups my dodge, a temporary extra shield that, since I talented for it, also means I get additional healing recieved while it's up, a rogue-like vanish if I really don't want to fight right now, a snare break-out, a threat dump, Toxin removal (ie, a cleanse), various damage-dealing shots for ranged attacks, some stabs, and a bomb that throws enemies down.

Oh, and STEALTH.

I love stealth, because it means that I don't have to fight my way to objectives, I can just stealth to them. It means missing out on a bit of mob-killing XP, but it's not been a problem. The planet I finished last night is lvl 36-37, and I just ding'd lvl 39. I've not done any heroic (group) quests, flashpoints (instances), pvp or space combat (optional shooting game that does give XP), I just do all normal quests and usually the extra bonus quests - you're sent to, for example, plant 3 bombs, and the area is guarded by Republic troops, and if you kill one, you're informed that you can kill 10 for some extra XP, and you'll have to kill about that many anyway if you want to reach the area for the bombs.

Stealth is so cool, I am apparently getting a 10 sec group stealth at lvl 42. Although that would be more useful if I actually grouped up occasionally. :)

So. Healer with huge toolbox and stealth and a melee dps or tank companion and ranged and melee attacks = really good gaming experience. I normally like melee dps that can also heal (enh shaman, prot or ret paladin, shaman/justicar in Rift), and Healing Operative is the closest to that in TOR, even if it has less "hitting stuff in the face" then usual. I can instead watch my companion gracefully leap into enemy faces. I didn't plan for it - I had just heared that the IA has the best story, and since I lean towards Empire and towards non-force classes, that sounded very appealing. That it's also a class that really lets me enjoy the mechanics in addition to the story (and romance *g*) is the icing on my yummy cake.

I'll try to provide info on the other classes once I play them, but up to lvl 10/11, it's really just Bounty Hunter = shoot stuff until it falls over, Sith Warrior = hit stuff until it falls over, Sith Inquisitor = fry and hit stuff until it falls over. Which is ... less that informative (and at that level, IA was "hunker down and shoot stuff until it falls over, maybe stab it if it comes close").

Tags: gaming:starwarsoldrepublic

I have Diplomacy as a mission skill in TOR, which means I send companions off to do quests for me, and they return with either medical supplies (needed for Biochem, which an alt will take), or with companion gifts. Each of the missions also give light or dark side points.

Just now, I got this very precice message:



And, checking on my character panel, I of course also have the very exact display of light/darkside points:



:)

Tags: gaming:starwarsoldrepublic

I've been playing my Imperial Agent some more, and yes, I can heavily recommend this class for "has a great storyline". ( spoilercut for Li & others )

Regarding her companions, they remain entertaining and provide a "I can't wait to see their story lines play out" feeling. It's an interesting collection, and theoretically there is no reason to trust either of them. Kaliyo I have mentioned before, and she has told my agent she cut her own deal with imperial intelligence. The 2nd companion could possibly be influenced by an alien species. The 3rd companion she found doing dodgy genetic experiments, and they are somewhat mutually blackmailing each other: she won't tell their superiors about their experiment, s/he won't make public that my agent is working on an unauthorized mission (yes, her superior sent her, but it's standard "she went rogue on her own" if she is ever found out).

Granted, I *can* probably trust the ship droid, but that droid... that droid... Each Sith Empire class gets the same ship droid, and the only thing I like about that is that I heard the Republic one is worse. Imagine a C3PO who's mortally afraid of you. That's my ship droid. Who will speak up *every* time I pass by him.

The relationship with the companion my agent will be romancing remains *heart*. ( *interesting stuff being hidden from Li* )

So, overall, yes, I'm enjoying SW:TOR a lot. :)

Tags: gaming:starwarsoldrepublic

Brant Widgeon is an Astronomical Image Enhancement Engineer. Many people are surprised to hear everything that goes into making the beautiful celestial images that have brought us so much awe and wonder. One of the most technically difficult parts of Brant's job however is dealing with space cats.

Tags: cats, misc

I've finished the first Chapter of my Imperial Agent's story. I'm at lvl 34, finished it at 33.

I had a moment of frustration on Friday, when I first tried to finish it, at lvl 30, by skipping all but my class quests on Alderaan, the last planet before the chapter ending. That didn't work (the boss is partially bugged, by the time I had him out of the bugged state, either I was half-dead or my companion completely dead), so after going back and finishing all quests and then buying some gear upgrades in the AH and spending my commendations (tokens you earn from quests or killing mobs), I got him down in one try.

I *really* liked that, in the conversation before the fight, I stared at my options (several times, it was a conversation) for about 10 minutes before I could make a choice. Yes, I could have looked up what each option leads to, but I didn't want to. I did end up with a choice that I'm happy with (even though I could've had it easier and avoided a fight, but I didn't take the relevant option).

Now in Chapter 2, the story is getting really fun: ( spoiler cut )

I'm also working on getting to know my 2nd companion better. The person in question (see last entry) fits much better with my agent's personality, and has become my companion of choice when I'm out in the world. I mean, I like Kaliyo, and she was a lot of fun, but my current one makes me want to draw little hearts, so... :)

Also: DAMN I want fanfiction for ... both of them, actually, Kaliyo and the other one. It's probably too much to hope for, tho - I mean, WoW has a much larger audience, and there's very few good fanfic for it (there is a lot of original character fic, but it'd have to be outstanding to interest me)

I really wanted to finish chapter one on the IA (at that point, I can choose a legacy surname) and then play with more alts, but I suspect I'm going to have to stick with my agent for now and see how the storyline (and the romance!) plays out.

Tags: gaming:starwarsoldrepublic

This has spoilers for the 2nd companion the Imperial Agent gets, so just in case, it's behind a ( spoiler-cut )

So. Yes. Glee.

Also, I'm including 2 screenshots of Alderaan, which is very pretty. One is just my character on her mount looking at the landscape, and the other is a taxi mount that is available on Alderaan (it makes authentic noises, which totally startle my cats. Also, it may *look* like Dumbo but it's really not. *g*)

( pretty landscape )

Tags: gaming:starwarsoldrepublic

I don't play Dwarf Fortress.

I've looked at it, and I KNOW I could sink countless hours into it, obsessively, so I don't. I already have way too many other games I am behind on playing, without including one that has a huge learning curve.

But, if you ever wondered why I find the idea of Dwarf Fortress so compelling, here are 2 accounts of what makes it so compelling - both easily understandable even if you don't know what the game is about (essentially: micro-managing dwarves building a fortress).

The Story of Bronzemurder

The Hamlet of Tyranny

Tags: gaming:singleplayer

*points to subject line* yes, really.

The scary thing is, you can actually recognize the theme.

ETA: ok, adding something more to this.

This is a great "if you like WoW, what is TOR like in comparison guide. I think it starts weirdly with PvP first, but the 2nd page has things like "if you liked X WoW class, what TOR class is similar".

So, if you've been wondering whether to give TOR a try, check it out.

Tags: fun

various stuff, so I can close some tabs (anyone else have around 200 tabs open in Firefox normally?)

Lady Pixie Moondrip's Guide to Craft Names
Because 15 years ago or so, I knew some people who were into this, and omg so true.

Backloggery
Once upon a time, I had time, but not enough games (they were expensive and difficult to get). Now, I can buy what tickles my fancy, but miss the time to finish them all

Unfiction
I *heart* Alternative Reality Gaming

I love a good creepy story, here are a few nice ones:
Candle Cove
Dionaea House (be sure to read the links on the last - the update page - as well)
Ted's Caving Story (warning: Angelfire Page, popups)
lots more here (warning: TVTropes link!)

Slightly related (ie, creepy, but really happened):
Dyatlov Pass Mystery
St. Petersburg Times article

Here's a bunch of links to great music from games:
Tunes of Skyrim
Tunes of Magic - Intro
Tunes of Magic - Fantasy
Favorite MMO Music
Music Week - MMORPG Soundtracks
More Music in MMOs (the first one, from GW2, is great, especially if you've played GW1)

This is a bit old now, but Google does Zeitgeist videos for every year, here's the one for 2011

A 3,5 minute condensation of a 1914 move, The Florida Enchantment, pretty much one of the earliest cases of gay cinema (warning: there is a black-face actor in there)
Wiki summary: "In the film, Lillian Travers, a wealthy Northern woman about to be married, takes a magical seed which transforms its user into the opposite gender. Lillian's transformation into Lawrence Talbot has also been read as a transformation into a butch lesbian. This reading is bolstered by the later transformation of Lillian's fiancé into what appears to be an effemininate gay man."

I love fractals

Some great Interactive Fiction:
Blue Lacuna
The Play (great presentation)
Vicious Cycles

Acts of Gord
Tons of entertainment: they're stories from gaming retail hell

The Best Statistics Question Ever

Damn You Autocorrect: the Top 50 Funniest Autocorrects
Part 1 - Part 2
I have an iPhone now. Ask liriel_ if you don't believe some of these are possible, I've sent her more than enough really weird messages. *g*

Some TOR stuff for myself:
Darth Hater Imperial Agent Operative Medic guide
Operative Healing Compendium
Imperial Agent thread at SA
Sage/Sorcerer early leveling
Rage spec for SW Marauder
Torwars - Powertech Tanking
Warzone Guide: Alderaan
Server Status

WoW-related:
Maps for Tanks
Death Knight Tanking

YULETIDE
waaay late, and I haven't even read all that I marked for "read later" yet (that's the Vorkosigan and the Discworld stuff; there weren't that many fandoms I was interested in this year), but anyway, here's what I remember liking:

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
Blue - Wicked Wiles
I love this story to bits. I don't really want to say too much about it, because, well, most of the fun is the finding out. Also, the Stealth Crossover bit is *hearts*

Rome
Nary - From Rome to Brundisium, With Stops
set after the ending (well, it's an AU end), Vorena the Younger decides to become a boy.

World of Warcraft
Jackofnone - Forged in Fire and Quenched in Blood
Koltira and Thassarian, after the Andorhal quest chain in post-Cataclysm WPL

Suaine - The Bough that Bends
Thassarian is missing something. He just has to figure out what he is willing to do to get it back.

Also: not Yuletide, but I enjoyed it a lot:
Jeeves and the Hole in Time - Jeeves&Wooster Timetravel Slash

Tags: fanfiction, fun, gaming:starwarsoldrepublic, recs

no, my breasts are not of the dark side of the force.

Tags: fun, isilibabetc

This is a fascinating (but not funny) series of 14 pictures (by reddit user Vidzilla).

I'm direct-linking, so they're behind ( this cut. )

(last pic comes with a warning - ok, the 12th, too - but you can probably tell by then and stop first)

The bit.ly URLs work if you manually surf there

Tags: misc

So, I may have put my 4 Republic SW:TOR toons on a different server, so I could roll up 8 Sith Empire ones.

I just like the races so much more...

(yes, I will play the republic toons for the story, but if I do end up playing after I finish all the stories, it will be on red side, so I may as well embrace that and roll more horny characters... and it will make crafting easier)

So, if you want to hit me up in-game, I am on The Progenitor on Sith Empire side, and on Shaltin Tunnels for Galactic Republic. Poke me for names if interested.

Tags: gaming:starwarsoldrepublic

What I really like about the TOR Imperial Agent story:

Right now, I have no idea if I can trust my companion. Kaliyo did say, when she started to work for/with me, that she cut her own deal with Imperial Intelligence.

I have no idea if I can trust my superiors.

Heck, I'm beginning to wonder if I can trust myself.

I'm liking this. Is feel properly agent-y.

*goes off to take down a terrorist cell on Tatooine*

Tags: gaming:starwarsoldrepublic

I'm still happily leveling my IA (leveling her in healer spec, even. *is masochist*)

I like that sometimes, my companion now feels like she can joke around with me, and the characters do look betting during cut scenes than they do when you run around with them in the wilds.



The conversation - concerning a young male questgiver, who seemed to respect (and crush on) my IA, and with whom I had just disagreed on how to proceed - went like this:

Kaliyo: How could you hurt his feelings? He respects you so much, and you were cruel to him! All he wanted was to save a few lives. Now how will you two ever find happiness together? The poor boy's crushed.

And when I went with "It's not my fault men like me." as a reply (other options were "Let it drop" and "He's not my type."), my agent said "What can I say? People just fall at my feet".

And Kaliyo replied with "They do. Me? I have to push men down there, but it all works out."

... WHY can't I romance her? *sadface*


On a more review-y note:

This is a timeline that notes to what planets you go when, and when each class gets their companions (IA gets their 2nd companion when most other classes are already getting their 3rd). Spoiler-free, unless you don't want to know when you may be picking up a new companion - it doesn't say who it is, just that you get one.

And here is an awesome post about Crew Skills (professions, in other games). Really tells you all you need to know. I couldn't really decide so I only went with slicing so far, and am making enough money to be comfortable (I need 45.000 by the time I'm 25 for my speeder, the equivalent of the riding mount, and at lvl 21 am sittin on 60.000. I don't buy much, quest rewards work just fine, but skills are already costing me 1.500 per).

I really enjoy that I can just send out my ship robot (he comes with the ship - and hooo boy, is he happy to please me. C3-PO was harmless compared to him) while I play, I send him on a mission, and 15-20 mins later he comes back with a reward - usually. Sometimes he fails, and then I'm out of the money I paid for the mission. Right now, I spend about 500-700 for each mission I send him on, and usually get about 550 - 900 back, sometimes more if it crits, and sometimes he brings additional stuff (mods, that are kinda like enchants/gems from WoW, or rare/epic missions for other skills, that I can sell)

I think, if I level my other alts on the Sith side (and currently, it's likely I'll keep playing after the free month), I'll go with Biochem for one and Cybertech for the other, each with their connected gathering skill, and slicing, and have my IA pick up the 2 mission skills they need. The 4th would probably get Artifice plus the gathering and mission skill that needs.


Questing mostly goes smoothly. Mobs are all designated, they come in normal, a bit harder, epic, and boss (approximately) out in the wilds. Often when you are sent, say, to find something that is in a rebel base, you get a bonus quest to kill X rebels while you're there. You can kill the easy or the harder mobs, up to you, but the harder ones have a higher chance to drop stuff.

There are also heroic missions which often are out in the wild, but sometimes are behind a portal. They are like mini-instances, and can be repeated once per day. There are also actual instances, called flashpoints, but I've not done any yet - I'm unsure if I can heal well yet, and that makes me all verklempt. Also, I play with all chat turned off, so I don't see groups getting formed. Both are optional - I'm not doing either (unless I go back for a heroic 2person mission once I nearly out-level it and see if I can do it), and I'm 21 now and just starting Nar Shaddaa, and that planet is lvl 20-24.

Some quests are class quests and the ones you need to do to move forward, but many are side quests and thus optional. You can't skip too many because you would fall behind and end up unable to do your class quests, but otherwise, it's pretty smooth playing.


Story-wise, I'm really enjoying the Imperial Agent. It's all about spying and infiltrating and such, and I'm eager to see how the story develops. I've read that there are, for the IA at least, 3 possible endings, a main one, an alternative one, and one hard to get one where you'd have to be doing something specific for it to show up. I can't wait to find out what the other options were once I'm done with my story. It's also why I play with all chat off, I've read that spoilers can fly around.


The draw-back is really the somewhat sterile feeling. I mean, the graphics are neat, but it misses that *zing* that makes me really fall in love. A small point, for example, but it nags me: if you see someone get tortured, at the most they open their mouth, but their face doesn't really change to show the agony they're in. Maybe that is a limit of the engine? That, and you get used to the motions your character or the NPCs make. I mean, they did make a lot of different NPCs, and a lot of them are quite entertaining, but gestures etc. get reused.


Still, overall, I must say the story is good enough that I can easily ignore the things I like less. It does not scratch the same itch WoW or Rift do, but I think it's worth the money for story. What the monthly subscription does mean is that I do not expect to stay subscribed once I've done all the story I want. WoW easily kept me busy even after the story was done, TOR would have to add compelling stuff to keep me long-term. But then, maybe that's not really the goal, I do think they are going after a large audience that so far has not played MMOs, and will also consume the story a lot slower than typical gamers.

I do wish some of my usual suspects were playing with me, just because there are obviously many mocking options. And because I know that liriel_ is interested in eventually playing it, I can't post that stuff here.


I'm leaving you with an image of Nar Shaddaa, the planet I just started. The previous ones were not all that different from previous MMOs, just with tech stuff, but this one is a city planet full for bars, clubs, gambling, etc. It makes for a very different atmosphere. It's larger than the others, so it's behind ( this cut. )

Tags: gaming:starwarsoldrepublic

Yes, I went with the pink male Twi'lek for my Sith Inquisitor. I rolled him on my server last night, and played him up to level 8, and he certainly amuses me. He's an utter ass, full of himself, and full of disdain for nearly everybody else (except for the people who are powerful and who he might be able to use)

He also got his first companion, and the reactions when he is threatened and goes "Khem? Eat them" in reply? Are priceless.

This is Khem:



I'm not sure the class is for me, so far. I feel a lot more squishy than with my Imperial Agent, and I so far have no heals, so the companion can also be a bit squishy. I could spec into either ranged dps plus healing/crowd control, or melee/stealth/tanking, but I'm not sure which one appeals to me. I think I'd favor tanking with him, because he would let people who needs heals die. They were weak, after all.

I did change his name, tho. I mean, Peachblossom... was fitting, but after some thinking I settled on something slightly different.

Meet Darth Hyacinthe:

Tags: gaming:starwarsoldrepublic

or "fuck, noooo, I was settled on what characters to play"

So. Originally, I was planning to play an female Pureblood Sith evil Sith* Warrior, and a female Twi'lek for the Sith Inquisitor, with a slavery background. Then, when first rolling them, the Twi'lek worked out great, because it turns out being a slave is part of the official story for the SI. However, looks-wise, I fell in love with the Zabrak (that was Darth Maul's race), and changed my plans a bit, now planning on a female Zabrak Sith Warrior who'd be more light-side-ish, and the Twi'lek going more dark-ish for personal power sounded good, too.

(* Sith is both part of the racial name - "Pureblood Sith" - and 2 class names: Sith Warrior/Inquisitor)

However. I'd been hearing a lot about how nice the male Sith Warrior voice is, so I rolled a character on another server to check - another Pureblood Sith one. And oooh, yes, that *is* a great voice (people say it sounds a lot like Alistair from Dragon Age: Origin. It's not him, but it does sound quite similar).

While I was at it, I also rolled a male Twi'lek, and blam. I now have a pink ex-pleasure slave who wants nothing but POWER.

*facepalm*

I can't decide, really. I love the female light-ish Zabrak SW, and the male Pure-blood Sith asshole/evil-ish SW. I am strongly leaning towards the male Twi'lek over the female Twi'lek. But then again... *ARGH*

The problem is: doing both is ... not really an option. Because I really don't want to sit through all the cut-scenes more than once. I also can't play them as other classes: the looks of the Twi'lek are unique to Sith Inquisitor, the Pureblood Sith can only be Sith Warrior or Sith Inquisitor, and while the Zabrak could be the Imperial Agent or the Bounty Hunter, I prefer the alternatives I have already rolled.

The only faintly possible solution would be to keep the 2 male characters, and to use the Zabrak to play an Imperial Agent Sniper. However, if I do that, I can't play the blue-side alternative, the smuggler, at all. Granted, it *is* the class I'm least interested in and had the most problems creating a character I like, but if I do keep playing after the free month runs out, it would be to see all the storylines.

Anyway, here are illustrations of my dilemma:

Originally planned female evil-side Pureblood Sith Sith Warrior



My current female Zabrak light-side Sith Warrior



The alternative male Pureblood Sith, who'd be an evil-side Sith Warrior



The originally planned female Twi'lek, could go light or dark side



And, the alternative male Twi'lek (currently called Peachblossom... *cough*)

Tags: *headdesk*, gaming:starwarsoldrepublic

ran across this yesterday while playing a bit:



I'm off to visit my aunt (my grand-aunt, who's nearing 90, and broke the neck of her femur, right after getting her knee replaced. She's doing ok for someone her age, I just hate hospital visits).

Tags: gaming:starwarsoldrepublic

Had a great new year with liriel_ and dragonaph. Showed them SWTOR to much amusement (mine over their screams of pain when watching the dialogue cut-scenes *giggles*), also showed them LotRO and Aion (because it goes F2P in Feb, in case they are interested. I don't think they are.) Also Skyrim for Aph, since Li ran away from that because of the weird controls when I showed it to her earlier, and Aph played the Magicka tutorial as well.

SWTOR was the thing we had most fun with, mostly mocking it. It really is a problem with spoken cut-scenes, because what text your character says isn't something you can influence, and I may envision a character differently than what the "official" responses are (you usually have a good-ish, bad-ish, and neutral and/or snarky reply possibility). I mean, my spy is a *spy*. She sure knows how to fake boot-licking, it doesn't mean she isn't mentally envisioning her superiors in frilly underwear. But all that is for another SWTOR-specific post.

Aph rolled a Jedi Sage, and promptly deleted him after the opening scene, cringing in embarrassment with the whole cut-scenes. She did the same to a Trooper she tried. Her last try was a Bounty Hunter, envisioned as an asshole, that worked better. Me and Li then got to make fun of her because she saved the traitorous little brother of a guy who hired her to save the kid, and got light side points.

Here's her secret softie (who is named "Gor". *sideeyes Aph*)



Li tried 3 characters: Horny Lady with big Tatas was a Sith Inquisitor where she was completely frazzled with the possible replies offered, because none fitted the character she envisioned. She also tried an Imperial Agent, Prettyboy, who I think she enjoyed quite a bit, and a Jedi Knight, Bunny (possibly the names on the screen were a bit different, but that's what we called them *g*).



Li would probably play it ('s her first fandom, after all), but her current computer won't run it. Aph might play it as a single-player game, which it very much resembles, but will not spend money on a subscription just to play a single-player game. Which means I will keep playing, at least for now, like it's a single-player game, on my own.

Midnight we turned the radio on (traditionally in Austria, you first hear the bell of St. Stephen's Cathedral, and then the Blue Danube waltz) and watched the fireworks from the balcony.

By now, my cats have grown very nonchalant about the whole "fireworks going off" thing. Years ago they spent hours hiding under the bed, now, they just lie around until the point where we actually open the balcony door, and come immediately back out from under the bed after the waltz is over and the balcony door closed.

Good employee that I am, I got a cold now, when I have a week off work. Yesterday, Li and Aph left around noon-ish, and I went back to bed, and stayed there till now. Well, with breaks for a snack and for feeding the cats, because it's hard to sleep if a cat is standing on your face.

Oh, and very belated happy NY for the rest of you.

Tags: gaming:starwarsoldrepublic, isilibabetc

Last night, I played some more, and I now have my companion. She's a sick little fuck who gets off on cruelty and only doing things for money. This will be interesting, since my Agent is more light-ish. She was also mod-able, I could choose 3 different facial tattoos/facial bling for her. Companions of other races will probably have other modding choices (including skin-colors forTwi'lek, for example), and I can later unlock more customizations for her and apply them.



Companions are an interesting aspect. You get your first one very early (around lvl 8), and can get more - up to 5, I think - later in the game, once you find them - you can have only one with you, but you can switch them around. They come with you and fight with you, and your first one is generally one that is meant to complement your class, making fights easier for you.

They do have back stories and opinions, and you will gain affection with them, depending on what choices you make while they are with you (if you have played Dragon Age, you know what I mean). The more they like you, the faster they will do gathering and apparently also the faster they will be with helping you in fights. I also read that you can influence them, too, making them more light or more dark, but I don't know yet - I try to stay away from reading up on details and enjoy figuring these things out for myself. If they like you enough, you can romance them, too.

However, and this is a big however, there's no same-sex romance. Apparently, after first being quite dismissive, they have given in to user requests and will be adding same-sex romance in a future content expansion. While it's nice that they will be adding it (whenever that will be...), I'm irked that it took a huge cry-out from prospective gamers to make them include it. Also, their statement was along the line that they would be adding more content in the future, which can include more companions, who then may be open to same-sex romance. GNNN. And what if I want to romance a current companion?

Really, I wish they had just opened them all up for both genders. Also, I kinda wish I had noticed this before I bought the game, because I think I may not have bought it if I had known this. *grump*

I mentioned gathering above: apparently, you send your companions off to gather materials for your professions, and they will even gather and craft while you're offline. You can have 3 professions (there are 6 crafting ones, although 2 of these are for force-users, and 2 are for non-force-users only; 4 gathering and 4 mission professions). I'm not that far into the game yet, so have a wiki article about them.

I'm getting close to having finished my starting planet on the Imperial Agent, there's just a few things left to mop up, and 2 more datacrons to find (they are in hard-to-find places and will give you permanent boosts to your stats, at fixed points on the map). My first one last night was an exercise in frustration, because jumping works slightly differently than in WoW. I'm used to being able to do a forward jump directly from standing still from WoW and Rift also. In ToR, however, your toon needs to take a step before they'll jump. As you need to run along a long pipe-line, and jump twice from one pipe to another before you get to the island the datacron is on, I spent over 30 minutes being utterly frustrated (as you had to run back quite a bit once you fell off).

Another thing I am not horribly happy about is body types. Women can be tiny, normal, huge and muscular, or slightly chubby (essentially, they get a big ass combined with small shoulders). Men can be tiny, slim, huge and muscular, or fat. What if I want to play a fat chick? What if I want to be a fat female Twi'lek? but NOOOOO, can't have ugly females. You *can* have a fat male Twi'lek, tho:



That's another point, btw: beauty. Characters are all just so _goodlooking_. Yes, you can work with scars and dirt on the face, but they will all end up being attractive anyway. Meh.

Tags: gaming:starwarsoldrepublic

Background: SWTOR has 4 base classes, at level 10, there are 2 advanced classes for each of the base classes.These are non-reversible choices. Each AC then has 3 talent trees (and if you've ever played WoW before Cataclysm, wow, these trees are exactly like WoW trees, just with different terminology), but one is shared between the 2 advance classes (so, you have 5 talent trees per base class).

There are also 2 factions: The Sith Empire, and the Galactic Republic. To make things more confusing, the classes have different names, depending on what faction you're playing.

The classes are:

Jedi Knight/Sith Warrior
- Jedi Guardian/Sith Juggernaut (tanking, melee dps)
- Jedi Sentinel/Sith Marauder (melee dps)

Jedi Consular/Sith Inquisitor
- Jedi Sage/Sith Sorcerer(ranged dps, healing)
- Jedi Shadow/Sith Assassin (melee dps, tanking)

Smuggler/Imperial Agent
- Gunslinger/Sniper (ranged dps)
- Scoundrel/Operative (healing, ranged/melee dps, stealth)

Trooper/Bounty Hunter
- Commando/Mercenary (ranged dps, healing)
- Vanguard/Powertech (ranged dps, some melee, tanking)

I'm not horribly interested in the Force users, I've never wanted to be a Jedi or a Sith. So, after some thinking and after reading some blogs, I've decided on trying an Imperial Agent Operative (my main character in WoW is a shaman with melee dps and healing, so I know I like that), and also a Bounty Hunter who will probably be a Powertech (I like tanking - I read something about it being ranged tanking, which sounds interesting, and even if tanking doesn't work out, I can still do ranged dps with a huge gun).

(The player base, btw, heavily favors force classes, and Empire)

So, here are my Chiss Imperial Agent, and my Rattataki Bounty Hunter:



They both use the same starting planet, Hutta (it's the 2 force users and the 2 non-force users of each side with the same starting planet). The Imperial Agent is sent to convince the reining Hutt to support the Empire instead of the Republic (the Hutt so far hasn't picked a side in the battle), and so is going under-cover to the Hutt's court, using the identity of a minor famous smuggler. The Bounty Hunter is on the planet because there is a new Great Hunt starting - apparently *the* greatest thing for Bounty Hunters, and she want to compete, but needs a sponsor; she's hoping to convince the main Hutt on the planet to sponsor her and trying to impress him by killing off some dangerous locals.

The Imperial Agent is a good and loyal little spy, but since she's my first character, I am usually choosing options that are close to what I would do, following my own moral code; so far, this has earned her a few light side points. The Bounty Hunter, OTOH, is mainly interested in killing people and is a pretty emotionless rock, and so her solution to any problem is to shoot it until it stops twitching (problems include things like a father trying to flee with his son to keep the kid out of being trained as a Sith, which would either get him killed or turned into, well, a Sith. Tthe mother, btw, approved of the BH murdering her husband in front of the kid, as anger and sorrow will hone the kid into being a better Sith warrior).

I'm only level 8 on the IA and level 4 on the BH, so I've barely scratched the surface.

The completely voice-acted questing (ie, every time you talk to someone, it's a cut scene) really makes this feel like a single-player game with other people running around. I can also see it becoming tedious, but right now, I am playing very slowly, taking my time, so it's less annoying to me than it would be if I was really into the game and wanted to level fast.

When I started playing WoW, the moment I knew I was hooked was very early: I first rolled a troll hunter, but had a headache that day, and the bright red of the troll starting zone hurt my eyes, so I decided to try a dwarf hunter. It was early in the morning, and I played through the starting area (takes maybe an hour, if you're totally new) and then ran out and into the first zone and the first city there. And since it was still dark out, I was running through snow-covered landscape in the dark, for what seemed like a loooong time, and it started to snow, too. And then I opened up the map and saw how *TINY* the area was that I had seen so far, and how huge the whole zone was and how much larger the whole world! And I knew I wanted to see it all!!

(For those of you who know the Bartle Test of Gamer Psychology, I'm 80% Explorer, 70% Social, and 30% Achiever and Killer).

Rift gave me that same feeling of "huge new world to explore", and so did Guild Wars and Aion (but to a lesser extent, and with other issues).

SWTOR... isn't giving me that. I find the story line interesting enough to follow for now, but there is not that OMG WANT feeling.

We'll see, I'll keep you updated (and hey, maybe I'll manage to post more often. *g*)

Tags: gaming:starwarsoldrepublic

So, I may have started playing Star Wars - The Old Republic, the new Star Wars MMO.

It's ... interesting. Kinda like a single-player game, tho, with LOTS of cut-scenes. Expect more details later...

Tags: gaming:starwarsoldrepublic

what I hate with a burning passion is that Yuletide only opens on the 25th, in the morning, US time.

Christmas is over and done for me already, because like a lot of other Europeans, it takes place on the afternoon/evening of the 24th.

I COULD be curled up with stories, but NOOOOO, I have to wait.

*grump*


(yes, yes, first world problem. Bite me, I want rare fandom stories)

Tags: fandom, fanfiction

do you know these moments, when the cats who have been fighting over who gets to sit on your arms while you're at the computer for half an hour finally manage to find a way to arrange themselves so they both can snuggle and you can still type and mouse?

and just then, you realize you really REALLY need to pee?

*sigh*

Tags: *headdesk*, cats

There's a teaser trailer out for The Many Many Dwarves Hobbit

DWARVES! WHEEEE!

Tags: *squee*, fandom:lordoftherings

I'm kinda linking this for myself, so I can find it again, but it should amuse some of you:

Amok Time re-cap, done by ontd_startrek

Hint: it's the book that was so slashy it was re-edited with some of the slashiness taken out.

(honestly, if nothing else, read this for the picture of McCoy in a kimono. *g*)

I am one of these weird people who like pugging in World of Warcraft.

For those of you unfamiliar with the game: there are dungeons that you do in groups of 5 people, because you're killing mobs that are much harder than normal ones. You need a tank (who can take a lot of damage, so the tank's job is to have all enemies be hitting them, not anyone else), a healer (who keeps the tank alive), and 3 dps, or damage dealers, who really really hurt the enemies. If a tank wants to keep enemies on them, they have to make sure to hit them all and be all RARRR in their faces and gather them up nicely.

In WoW, you can group into the "Looking for Dungeon" finder, where you'll get paired off with random strangers - that's what pugging is.

I am leveling (among others) a warrior tank (she's a female forsaken, ie, an undead woman with bits falling off. This is what she looks like). liriel_ is leveling a healer with me (tanks love healers. Well, healers who know what they're doing. She does. unless she's busy looting things from dead mobs) Sometimes we also have _bettina_ oder dragonaph with us, they come as dps usually.

Doing LFD with random strangers (instead of with 4 people you know, or, you know, NOT AT ALL) can be an exercise in masochism.

Yesterday, we met an exceptional mage called "Iamdps". Don't you just love it when someone wears a clear flag telling you he's an idiot? He was also a GoGo guy: he constantly said "Go Go", "Go faster", "GoGoGo", etc. If I wasn't fast enough, he attacked for me, so I had to work to get the enemies off him and interested in me. Well, up the the first boss (*really* hard-hitting enemy), because when he pulled *that*, me and Li and Bettina backed away and watched him die. And giggled at him.

(We also had a hunter named "Grrrah", but at least he knew how to play).

But at least a mage isn't as bad as an elemental shaman or a balance druid. Because both of these have spells that will knock enemies back - in a halfcircle, usually. Remeber that bit where I said that tanks need to be able to *hit* the mobs to keep them attacking the tank? Yeah, sure, spread them all out far away from me, that's going to make me appreciate your "help". /sarcasm.

The trick to doing LFD is to just accept that you'll get idiots and then complain about them either on skype, vent, or your guild chat. And, honestly? I'm really no longer interested in WoW outside of doing dungeons. I can't be arsed to go do actual questing (the usual way to level, where you go do quests like "please kill 10 rats", "please bring me 10 boar livers (1)", please go and kill that bad guy". Ok, they've gotten better about quests, but still.)

(1) where you find out that only about 1 in 6 boars has a liver. And if you need to get hooves? Only every 4th horse/zebra/gazelle you kill will actually have one. Just ONE!

I still enjoy WoW. But mainly because I can play with Li, and because I like my guild. ... and probably because I'm a masochist. :)

(also, short movie about the common types of people you meet in such groups)