Name the chicken!

Something random happened to me today. A guy gave me a free pet. We squadded together for a quest, and when it was done and we were saying our thank-yous and goodbyes, I complimented the pretty bird following him around.

"You want it?" he said. Apparently he had a few spares lying around.

Baby Elysium Fowls aren't good for a lot except flapping around your head and getting in the way of people trying to target you. They're basically just big, pretty, decorative flying chickens. But you don't have to feed them or train them, and this guy was offering one to me free. How can I turn down a free animal?

So now I have a Baby Elysium Fowl. It has a disturbing habit of hovering just above Meirizhu's head, a little too close for comfort. I have an irrational fear it's going to poop in her hair. It makes cute little cheeping noises.



But now I have a problem. What am I going to name this big, pretty chicken? I've had a couple of ideas and suggestions already:

• Zephyrus
• Elysian
• KFC
• The Colonel
  

If any of you guys have any other ideas, let me know in the comments! My pet must have a name!

Righteous wrath

I am extraordinarily ticked off at my roommate right now. He was late on our internet bill and we've been disconnected.

You know what this means. No Perfect World until Monday! Gaaaaaaaaaaahhh!

This is really bad timing, too. Not only have I just now gotten back in touch with long-lost Rodneye and Kristei--hooray!--but my best friend from back home just started playing. I'm going crazy not being able to play with these people!

Roommate, you know who you are. Vengeance will be mine.

Trying so hard not to be shallow

I will not buy a new dress. I will not buy a new dress. I will be content with my armor. I will be content.

This is what I keep telling myself. Up until this point, it hasn't been hard. But the new Plumed Embrace outfit would look so cute on Meirizhu!

The problem is that I'm poor. There are two kinds of currency in PWI: coins, which you earn for stuff you do in the game, and gold pieces, which you pay for with a credit card. If you want to buy gold pieces, the minimum you have to shell out is $50. That would get me enough gold to buy tons of Plumed Embrace outfits. There's no way I'm dishing out that much actual money, though.

There is an alternative. I'm sitting on a small pile of mirage celestones, semi-precious little rocks you can use to upgrade equipment. It really doesn't make sense to do that, though, until you're at a super-high level and keeping your weapons for a long time. So, do I keep stockpiling them until I'm level 60, or do I sell them and buy pretty clothes from another player?

I can't believe this is even an issue. I used to think it was so silly to dress up your character in clothes that don't help in combat.

But, like I told Thug, I have to make some concession to girliness.

What do you say?

What do you say when somebody asks you if you're as pretty in real life as you are in the game? Really? What do you say? I know this guy was only trying to pay me a compliment, but actually it made me feel kind of crappy. I designed Meirizhu to be an idealized version of myself. Me, only pretty.

So no. I'm not as pretty in real life. I'm skinny and redheaded but the similarities end there. She has flawless skin and decent boobs and she's tall. I'm shrimpy and boyish-looking and I have acne. I'm not saying no one has ever told me I'm pretty. But come on. I probably wouldn't be playing this game if I thought I was gorgeous. I'd be off... being sexy, or something... I don't know.

Well, there ya have it, boys. Enjoy Meirizhu and Siloam for what they are and not for what they represent.

Goodbye, Liu!

It is with sadness and regret that I announce the retirement of Blademaster Liulen as an active character.

We were doing just fine until after the big boss quest at level 19. When I got the special weapon that was a quest reward, I realized Liu didn't have enough strength points to equip it.

I made the journey to the big city of Archosaur, anyway, where I was the only Blademaster who didn't have my big glowy spear equipped. It was three more levels, very difficult levels, of pouring every growth point I earned into strength, before I could finally equip it and compete with all the other Blademasters.

By then, though, I was getting really frustrated. I dealt less damage and was less sturdy than other Blademasters my level. The truth of it was, I had built Liulen wrong, putting too many points into magic and dexterity. In my attempt to make a well-rounded character, I made a useless one.

My immediate reaction was making Siloam, a Cleric, and I've really enjoyed playing as her. But I miss mindless hacking away as a Blademaster, so I'm starting a new one: a sexy male named Bassai.

Yep, that's me. I get frustrated, I start over from scratch.

Elves are snobs.

Above you see three Clerics and one Archer. Having a squad of three healers and one ranged attack is not particularly efficient, but it is fun.

Few things are more hilarious than a squad made up entirely of 4 or 5 female Clerics running around trying to kill things. (According to one of my faction mates, few things are also hotter.)

This happens pretty often when I'm playing as my Cleric. I always ask for help, since it's really hard to do things alone as a Cleric. The people who answer my pleas for help are those who understand my position--basically, other Clerics.

That's why so often I find myself in a troupe of lightweight chicks frantically throwing spells at Ursogs and dying after every other skirmish. One evening it was a constant parade back and forth between the respawn point and the enemy territory.

If you don't let it frustrate you, it's amusing.

Excuse me for liking men.

Let me just start by saying that I really enjoy the faction that my characters Meirizhu and Siloam belong to. It's full of fun, talkative people, and a good handful of them are women near my age who share some of my interests.

Perhaps it's not too surprising that we spend a lot of time in faction chat discussing--and arguing about--the sexiness of Johnny Depp, Vin Diesel, Viggo Mortensen, and other men. And we are quite honest and specific about how we feel about them.

Usually other faction members are amused, indifferent, or just weirded out by these discussions.

Today, though, someone in the faction was offended, and asked us that if we were going to "trash talk" we should do it in private chat rather than faction chat.

Well, whether she was being oversensitive or not, we agreed to keep our discussions private. I think it was silly, but I'd rather not cause offense and drama within the faction. Or get kicked out for starting trouble.

"Outside"

My friend sent me this picture, saying it made him think of me.

I'm amused, but also slightly offended.

No, I'm not looking for a "bf."

It's kind of sad but almost cute when a male player asks a female player to be his in-game girlfriend.

Unless, of course, said male player is 35 years old and pops the question to someone he's never spoken to before. Then it's just creepy.

On a side note, I think it's ironic that "gf" can mean either "girlfriend" or "good fight."

No Hablo

Today was Official Address Rita's Character in a Foreign Language Day.

It's happened before. There are a surprising number of Spanish-speaking players on my server, several German-speakers, and some Italians and French. It is, after all, Perfect World International.

I asked a guy to join my squad because I noticed we seemed to be killing the same things. He was helpful, but I quickly became frustrated when he wouldn't answer any of my questions. I tried common chat, squad chat, and even personal messages, and he didn't say a word. I'd already killed my quota, and if he was done, too, what was the point of going on?

Finally, he stopped running around. I stood directly in front of him and, calling him by name, I asked in common chat (which makes the words float above your character's head), "HOW MANY MORE OF THESE THINGS DO YOU NEED KILLED?"

He responded with a request to carry me. I was dumbstruck. Was he stupid or just a jerk? But then he said, "Si o no?"

This explained much. I was sorry I'd been mad at him, but what could I do except say "No hablo espanol" and leave the squad?

Later on, while I was playing as the same character--Siloam, my elf Cleric--some guy in Plume randomly whispered "hi." I'm always apprehensive when people whisper me for no reason, so I said, "Hi..."

"Wie gehts dir so" the guy replied.

No hablo German, either!

Boys are fun.

I really enjoy teenage boys. Not in a creepy way; they just amuse me and they're fun to hang out with. Especially when, like my PWI friends, they have just the right balance of machismo and sensitivity. And it's always nicer to have someone to go questing with. Someone to take some of your hits. Someone to wail over your dead body if you're killed by an aggressive mongoose, then commit suicide so you can both rendezvous at the respawn point. Yes, I have done that, and I'm not alone, either.

Questing and running around with these PWI guys reminds me of living in Minnesota many years ago, when my best friends were the neighbor boys. They had at their disposal several acres of farm, a four-wheeler, and a healthy taste for adventure. Whether we were catching frogs, falling off hay bales, or simply chasing each other with sticks, we had fun.

So I guess, as it turns out, one of the reasons I play PWI is to relive the halcyon days of youth. Only this time it's cactopods, fortress walls, and swords instead of frogs, hay bales and sticks.

"Blue_Wind wants to carry you. Accept?"

Here's a little event that happened a while ago, but it's relevant to the way I'm feeling right now.

It was probably only the first or second day that I'd been playing as Meirizhu. At any rate, I was at a low level. I was hanging out in Plume, the lovely city of the elves, when I received a notice:

“Blue_Wind wants to carry you. Do you accept? Yes/No”

I'd never gotten a notice like this. Duurrrrrrr, I wonder what that means, I thought, and pressed “yes.”

Next thing I knew I was in the arms of a handsome young archer, my booted feet dangling.

“Hi,” Blue Wind whispered.

So this is what it means to be carried, I thought. Why didn't I guess? I found out later that carrying someone or being carried fills up your chi gauge, which allows you to execute special techniques. Therefore it's not uncommon for male characters to ask random female passersby for “a chi spark,” though usually they have other motives that are less pragmatic.

I don't know about chi sparks at the time, so I didn't know if that's what Blue Wind was after, but he quite gallantly asked if I needed help with any quests.

I thought about my current quarry, cactopods, which usually died after two hits, and rolled my eyes. Chauvinist pig.

“No, I'm all right,” is what I actually said. And then, I went on: “Thank you, though. Quite chivalrous.” And I politely asked him to set me down.

At the time, I was slightly miffed. The nerve of him, scooping me up and then patronizing me! But later on I began to melt. It was still less than a week since my boyfriend of a year and a half had dumped me, and I was stressing out about school, too, considering switching majors. I felt overwhelmed and very, very alone. I think some part of me actually wanted someone to drop out of the sky, pick me up, and offer to help me with anything I needed.

And that's kind of what I want right now.