Redwolf's Journal (continued)

Still enough people to raid sorta-baredly. We hit up Obsidian Sanctum (sort of out of the blue to me) and went for Sartharion with all three drakes up. I bet we could have done it better with strategy, but after a couple failed attempts, we were able to brute force our way through the fight. Then we finished out our Black Temple run - the Illidari Council was a pain in the tail and became an endurance battle, then Illidan Stormrage. The "main" baddie of Burning Crusade, once the most difficult of fights, done in three and a half minutes. Whoo! We also started in on Sunwell, the tacked-on raid of BC (which is still more satisfying than Ruby Sanctum) before calling it a night. I wonder if a 10-man guild will be able to get the achievements for old 25-man raids? Ah well. I'd rather be doing Wrath raids, but I don't mind older stuff too much. Elly, you sell your aggro-generation short. ;) Everyone has some issues with groups these days, but I've seen no evidence ...

... that people were talking about going to paperless offices in the mid-eighties and we still print sooo much stuff over the course of a day? ... I can post MUCK thoughts here and log in later to find long posts of proposed changes based on my LJ post instead of getting anyone to discuss such topics with me (either here or there)? I'll be asked what I think of the proposal when I may not even be sure what I think of what I said in the first place.

Who knew Laurell K. Hamilton wrote a fantasy novel before the Anita Blake series? I sure didn't. I'll have to admit I actually got into the Anita Blake series. I wasn't even so put off by the increase in sexual plots, per se. But after several books, I found myself growing disenchanted with it all. The main character evolved in a way I didn't really like and the stories seems to boil down to "How do we give Anita more powers and add to her harem of lovers?" Anita was so much more interesting as a low-power "reanimator" resisting the allure of vampires and such. So how does Hamilton's debut novel compare? Not... favorably. I was immediately stricken by the change in perspective (more typical fantasy third-person rather than first). And then by the sheer density of scenes and elements. Everything flowed from one point to the next with no pause between. That sounds like it could be good, but I found the pace oppressive between the introduction of ...

I finished another of the "I've never heard of this before" books I picked up on my trip. It appears to be meant to be the first in a series. 'tis all about the rigors of war! Well, okay, not directly. Actually, it's about England in an age of taking on all comers. The Spanish are rivals over shipping conflicts. Most of Europe hates England over breaking with the Church. And the Unseelie Court wants to stomp England for actually standing up to them. Ah! There's the supernatural element. Yes, the main protagonist is "England's Greatest Spy," but that's mostly a public show. He, and those he's connected with, are far more concerned with the Enemy (said fae folk) than any foreign powers, though the conflicts are interwoven. All the campfire stories are real, the fair folk have been preying on humans for ages, but they're just subtle enough that all those incidents can usually be brushed off as superstition. What drives the fae is uncl...

The excitement/uproar over changing settings on Furryfaire seems to have dulled somewhat, and it doesn't feel like it's any closer to being done. That's... not unusual, I'm sorry to say, and it's one thing that makes it harder for me to get involved in the MUCK's "present/true" story. I'm left feeling there's going to be a big change that will render choices I make now pointless, only it doesn't happen for months (if at all). One thing I don't remember seeing in the system poll was the option to go fully freeform. And right about now, I'm wondering if that might not be the way to go. Granted, I've often felt it wasn't right simply because I didn't true players to play nice. And yet, I remember very, very few scenes that were meaningful in some way where the system was in play. And as I see more and more "tabletop-style" games done online peter out or otherwise crumble, I'm left wondering if the trade-off ...

So let's see... a quick game roundup... In Guild Wars, things have slowed down in some senses. With the campaigns finished for most of us, we're spending time on other things. Getting the black moa chick minipet (worth a point or two in the HoM) is a primary goal now, it seems. Sunday we also helped a guildie slog through some of the drabness that is Kaineng City. I hunted up the last bog skale fins I need this morning. What's left? Skree wings and getting to Sorrow's Furnace, I think. The latter will be the longest for me, I suspect, given my current "main" wasn't the character I used for the Prophecies campaign, so I need to cover somewhere around a third of the storyline's worth of territory. WoW was a little light this weekend, too, actually. Short a few people, we downed Razuvious for the weekly quest, then went to the Black Temple - base of Illidan and the last big raid of the Burning Crusade primary storyline (Sunwell came later, but it feel...

Though it's specifically about Champion's Online, there might be some value in reading http://www.massively.com/2010/10/21/behind-the-mask-cliques-are-the-bane-of-roleplaying/#continued 'tis advice mostly from the perspective of a roleplayer trying to get involved with others who seem to be fairly set in their groups. Of course, a little bit of empathy makes it useful to those who usually play in groups, too. And while it's written for a graphical MMO, my mind is taking it more in terms of a MUCK. I'm thinking of linking it in a post on Faire's boards, though I know those aren't always read. Some highlights: - Have a background written and proofread. - Spelling and grammar matter. - Make your character likable. Seriously. Hero or villain, if you make a character people wouldn't want to be around, people *gasp* won't want to be around him/her. This is another reason why making a blatantly EVIL character in these games can be shooting yourself i...