I've Got Some Backlash Here In My Bag

Sage flinched as a shard of ice shot from his hand and straight into his eye.

"You really ought to be more careful with that," Parsley advised, shrugging off an arrow or two that had made their way into his shoulders. He had his back turned to the ram-manners and his shield up defiantly facing the rest of his party.

They had happened upon a keep whose outer door had not offered much resistance. They had quickly joined the horde of peons of the Bird God in taking down the inner door and crush what little opposition faced them on this a most sunny day in Dragonwake.

"I mean," he went on to say as fire rained around him, "I've seen you get seriously hurt from those things. I know you can be more careful with that. Besides, it doesn't help one bit when I'm sticking my neck out to defend you."

"Have you ever heard the saying 'You need to spend money to make money'?" he asked as a particularly thick, sharp and now bloodied ice spike pierced through his calf. "The same principal applies. In order to inflict pain, one must endure it, as Mary will no doubt attest to." Mary, as it happened, was falling down from above, a gun shot piercing her chest and ending her life right before her feet touched the ground.

"That may very well be but... You could give us a break. I mean just look at Rose and Tom here."

"It's Thyme..."

"Sure, Tom. They work their asses off trying to keep us up and you're not making their job any easier."Rose and Thyme looked and each other quizzicaly. They soon resumed their pelvic-thrusting and baton-twirling. They knew how things could get when Parsley made up his mind about arguing about something.

"Oh. And I suppose crushing our opposition to a bloody pulp does nothing for our cause. Or freezing over something pesky that might pounce on them or leap from the shadows." One of his ears froze over entirely and began to crack as he spoke.

"You see that? The mere fact that you're falling apart as we have this discussion is indicative of how right I am."

"And the cinge marks in your armor and all the arrows protruding from your body are supposed to make me take you more seriously then? Be silent, Chosen and do your job, which in this particular situation would consist of... not a whole lot."

"Oh, really? I guess I'll leave then."

Sage's smirk quickly faded as a Shadow Warrior's arrow found it's way to the middle of his forehead as soon as Parsley was more than 30 feet away. He rose up again, uncomfortably close to his friend the Shaman, to meet Parsley's grin.

"Although I still believe I've made some valid points, I'll take your advice into consideration," he uttered grudgingly as green and purple lights swirled around him, removing blood stains and restoring cloth to it's pristine condition.

"Glad to hear it! Now, Mary, I suspect you're about able to pick the door again?" She nodded and twirled her blades in that very characteristic way Witch Elves are known for. "Then Rose and Tom shall edge closer to the wall and Sage and I will do our best to keep them safe. Keep the chatter to a minimal and let's send some of these toons back to whine to their maker."

Down, But Not Out

I moved.

Decided to try something different. Although I won't be playing WAR anytime soon as this blog as been mostly just about that particular game, my recent purchase of Rift and a 3-month subscription made me realise I still have something to say about gaming in general, what it's like for me, how it impacts my life, what I expect from games, how I expect to feel fulfilled and, you know, stuff.

And here's where.

Urgh...

This is probably one of the hardest posts I've ever written. Not that I'm like all pro about posting that I do it every day or that I did it even semi-regularly. No. Posts, for me, came and went but this one was particularly hard to start.

I've been dreading this day for months now, when I'd finally put all of this in words but now the time has come and so, out with it.

For two years, I adored WAR. I loved it and was proud to play it. I spent hours on it, ditched school, set my desk on fire, let the dishes pile up in the sink. I was a healer and a damn good one at that. It was a title I wore like a medal. No other game could steal me away from it for long and I even had vivid dreams about it. I talked about it, read about it, blogged about it, wrote about it. I loved WAR.

Just... not anymore. I remember a post I wrote once on how people rr80 could still find things to entertain themselves while they waited for the post 80 patch: chase down tome unlocks, roll an alt and... I did all that. And I'm not even rr75 yet. I milked that cow dry and now I'm left holding the saggy tits of the dead thing.

I don't even know why I bothered resubscribing this month. I played it for like 15 minutes and all it did was piss me off. If people keep screaming that they need new content, that something that's not really an expansion doesn't cut it, you should listen. It's like going shopping for a woman having no idea what they like. You have to know the audience you're trying to please. That starts by listening. I think they failed to listen.

Losing interest in WAR was, for me, like losing a dear friend. I spent countless hours having fun with it, I laughed, I debated, I learnt, I taught. But now it's giving me the cold shoulder and I could care more. I could. But I don't and that's what hurts the most. That the game has become something I just don't care about.

I'm hoping that, given enough time, I'll come back to it, pretending to see with fresh eyes that which I'm now so pro at. Meanwhile, I'm going to go give Rift a try. Not that I'm overly impressed with it but I miss playing stuff with other people. At least undil Dragon Age 2 comes knocking.

If anyone finds this, I hope you continue having a great time with WAR, that it fills your life with as much joy and entertainment as it did mine, once.

Now and Then, Here and There

Wonderful anime, that. Featuring what probably is the cartoon boy that has suffered the most and grinned and beared it. Too bad this post has nothing to do with it.

No, I'm not dead. It was Christmas.
One thing about Christmas.
I fucking hate Christmas. I hate it to the point of tears, which is usually where it ends up (or starts off as the case may be). New Year's Eve, however, I love, and this year I got drunk to the point of laughing hysterically sitting on the floor behind the couch. Good times.
So that's why I've been away.

Also, Epikk did us the wonderful favour of buying Dragon Age: Origins which brought me back to an old favorite hobby of mine: flirting with fictional hunks.

A few years back I had a huge crush on Carth Onasi. You remember him, right? The blumbering widower from KotOR. I don't know exactly why, but I almost intantly fell in love with the thing. And I call it a thing cuz I have no delusions about what it is. It's a thing, a remarkably well made and endearing thing, but a thing. Maybe it's the voice behind the thing (somewhere, a voice-actor is blushing right now) that spawned that crush in me, I don't know. Probably.

But, for a time, I could do nothing else but play through KotOR over and over again, finding new ways to romance it and break its heart. I know most fans of the game actually hated it and I can see why. It could be a bit whiny. But what man, fictional or otherwise, isn't at times?

That was then - now, its Alistair. He's my crush for the new year.

Alistair is the spiritual successor to Carth in many ways. It's just as whiny but I find it a bit more witty. Plus the british-like accent is a nice change. So, while my modem is all up in a rage, I have succumbed back into BioWare's grip, romancing their fictional hunks. I spend hours in camp, flirting with other party members just so he'll tell me how hurt and jealous he is. Come to think of it, better I do that in a game than in real life, right?

Problem is, Epikk liked the game so much he's considering buying Mass Effect as well. Oh, dear, this does not bode well for my sanity. I just know there's at least one more virtual hunk in there for me to fall for. A girl can only have so many crushes at once.

That thing about the modem: I don't know what's wrong with it, it keeps disconecting both our 360 (which is really anti-climactic when you're making out with your choice of pixels) and Epikk's new pc. Also, since we received our new bedroom furniture (crafted by a very old, very rikety hermit in Sweden that has a contract with a very big, very famous furniture selling company that starts with an I, ends in an A and has the letters K and E somewhere in the middle) we had to disband our "junk room" so it could be turned into our bedroom. Junk, however has a habit of not magically storing itself in appropriate places so we now find ourselves with the den, where the computers are stored and used, as a temporary "junk room". I'm afraid to go in there. Not only because it pains me to know I'll be doing the bulk of the cleaning and storing but also because there's a big ass mirror against a wall that I'm always afraid will fall on me when I open the door.

Er... Wut?

Disciple of Khaine



•Khaine’s Embrace: The base healing value of this ability has been reduced and its cooldown has been removed.


•Khaine’s Vigor: The base healing value of this ability has been increased and its duration has been reduced.
 

I thought Khaine's Embrace didn't have a cooldown. In fact, as chance would have it, I was respeccing my DoK back to healing (and failing miserably at it) and I was spamming it like crazy, interrupted solely by my global cooldown. Maybe it's just me.

 

Also, I was farming some curios on my Magus late at night, while Epikk read to me the full details of that Wikileaks debaucle, and Indigo Fire of Change's debuff icon on my enemy still reads "If killed will turn into a horror!" or something to the same effect.
 
I mean, how hard can that be to fix? It's like the iPad's Safari not having a "find on page" function. Inexcusable. Or that I now currently have 15 "Wots a Subject?" mails in my inbox. I don't need them, I don't want them and I'm pretty sure I've completed the damn thing already.
 
While I'm here: Marauder=ganking goodness. I'm taking revenge on WLs everywhere. I'm only rk 19 but it's been great fun so far. Solo locking t2 zones for the influence weapons is a tad boring but when I find a little opposition its marvellous. For once, I don't have to worry myself with the survivability of me and my team mates. I can just run out and get killed.
 
Wots a punchline?

All I want for Christmas is a Little Piece and Quiet

I've been busy.

I've got xmas presents to buy, no mey to buy them with.
I've been ranking a Marauder, he's rk 17 now and I'm fuckin lovin it.
I have to get my cat castrated or whatever you call it. His balls must go.
Have to go buy bedroom furniture so we can stop sleeping in the guest bedroom.
Must make a doctor's appointment because I had a numb-finger episode, which is really scary since I had a half-face-numb-for-two-months episode.

I have a lot on my mind.

Be back shortly.

Smile, Though Your Heart Is Aching

I might have left things in a bit of a dreary note. Let's change that.

Shortly after the patch first kicked in I got my faith in the game restored. And it only took one man.

We went in a city siege, even though I'm always reluctant. I dunno, it seems they either leave or we do. And if we don't we're all about the fail. But I had nothing better to do so in I went, guns blazing and heals aplenty.

As luck would have it, we were being led by one who has been aptly referred to as Caligula. General but-kissing aside, I always liked Caligula's leadership style. There's no second-guessing, there's no questions asked, there's no sentences that sound like questions but really aren't. There's no pussy-footing or beaver-tickling or things of that nature generally. There's just stfu and do as you're told. You know, like war should be.

We arrived a bit late, first stage was already well under way. We were up against God knows who (well, maybe someone remembers but I sure as hell don't) and, I must say, I was impressed. With our flanking tactics we absolutely murdered them time and time again but they knew what they were doing. In the middle flag, they took out the cannons, wipe after wipe. Then they fought over the bomb, stopping us from defusing it. Then they split us up to take Lyceum and the Outcrop. And we murdered them again and again and again but never did they faulter.

If I remember correctly we eventually won on the second stage, us being able to save Engra when he was down to 10%ish and the third stage, simply because there is no great mechanic there. You just kill.

This turned out to be not just one of the best city sieges I've ever been in (just because it was challenging for both parts) but an opportunity for me to rediscover why I like the game at all. It's not something that can be put into words, or at least not any words I know of. It just felt right. We all came out of that instance completely fulfilled. We couldn't have asked for anything much better than that.

Also, one good thing about the patch was that I got to leech almost an entire renown rank during the weekend (in a VERY casual gaming schedule) simply just by idling in The Maw while waiting for Eternal Citadel pops. Yes, you know what I'm talking about.