Shout outs, thank yous, and going afk

Well, guys, it's been a good run.

But now my Writing for the Web class has come to an end, and so I'm no longer required by the injunction of my professor to maintain this blog.

I've gained a lot experience points, learned some new skills, and leveled up a few times. And here are some people I'd like to thank for that:

• My class and professor, for sticking with me whether they wanted to or not and giving great constructive criticism.
• Rod, Kristei, and Tokada, for all the random comments. You guys rock.
• My faction, for their patience and humor. *Salutes King, bows to Ling, pokes Kit and Teh, and shakes Thug's hand... err, paw*
  
• Ero, for introducing me to sharks.
• Tamar, for taking me seriously.
• All those idiots in world chat who brighten my day.
• and lastly, you, anyone who has ever read this blog. Especially those of you who leave comments. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

This is not the end!

I have decided that I love blogging way too much to give it up just because I'm no longer getting a grade on it. So I'll keep playing Perfect World and keep updating this blog as often as I can!

Unfortunately, I'm going to be spending the next 3 months sojourning in the Land of Dial-Up Internet, with brief visits to the Wireless Embassy whenever I can. So I can't guarantee regular posts.

But I can guarantee that I will never forget you guys . . . so please don't forget me!

World chat. Lulz.

Tonight was frustrating for a variety of reasons, but world chat, at least, did not fail to amuse.

Darn me for being nice!

I was stood up twice this evening.

The first was a bossy little 14-year-old prima donna Blademaster. I was playing as Siloam and understandably having some difficulty fighting alone, so I squadded with her, since we were both after ghouls. Then she asked if I would stay and help her with wolfkins and quillhogs.

Because I am a nice person, I said yes. Because I am a nice person, I also let her have some of my mana potions--which, by the way, are far more important to me as a cleric than to her as a bm. I only had 16. I split them with her.

Mana potions aren't expensive, so giving them away isn't a big deal. However, it is customary, in polite circles, to make some sort of offering in return, just as a gesture of thanks. A few soft furs, for example, or a couple of dull claws. This girl gave nothing. Nor did she offer to buy me some when we got back to town.

And, of course, I was too nice to ask her to.

She also had the nerve to bitch at me when I ran out of mana and couldn't heal her constantly.

She was a bm. Her name involved the word "tanker." She should not have needed continuous healing spells.

Long story short, for some reason I agreed that we would stay together for our next quests. I went, picked up the quests, sold my furs, bought some replacement potions, and sat outside the city gates to wait for her.

After about 20 minutes: "Sorry, I have to go!" she said. Leaving me to do all my quests by myself.

Enter a gallant archer who also needed help. We got along quite well. He was sturdy and dealt good damage. He complimented me on my healing abilities. Quests were a breeze. Being in a squad with him was so pleasant I agreed to help him on quests I had no need for.

When it came time for the next round of quests, we stuck together. Or, at least, we planned to. Until he had to sign off suddenly. After I had waited for him at the spawn point for about 20 minutes.

And, speaking of marriage...

I have a sneaking suspicion that two members of my faction are thinking about tying the knot. They should. They work really well together.

This prospect makes me want to go "SQUEEEEEEEEEEE!" with cute girlish delight.

Also make dirty jokes about "grinding." Faction chat was a mess of it last night, and I found it highly entertaining.

Here's another weird thing about marriage in PWI: many players have more than one character. So you could conceivably have two characters... or more... married to different people. I don't think my brain could handle doing that.

Mawwiage.

I realized today that I have neglected to mention one of the weirdest things about Perfect World:

You can get married.

Yes, you can pay some gold for a wedding pack and visit an NPC called the Eldest Matchmaker and get hitched to your sweetie... or whoever answers your world chat message proclaiming "RICH SEXXY BM LOOKIN 4 HOT WIFE W/ BIG BOOBS!! PM ME!!!!1"

Benefits of being married are, as I see it, threefold:

• As a wedding gift, you receive a bunch of items. That do something. I'm not sure what.
• When you grind with your spouse (oh, the puns!), you get extra experience from the enemies you kill.
• From that day forward a sign floats above your head, over your name and your faction's name: "So-and-so's Wife/Husband." Because you can never have too much text hat.
  

Then, of course, there's also the system announcement that proclaims to the entire server that the two of you are now husband and wife. This is usually followed by a cascade of world chat and private messages, from other players you may or may not know, congratulating you.

It seems there are two main attitudes toward marriage.

Some people take it really really seriously. They tell each other in world chat--which, by the way, costs money--how they will love them forever. This is kind of creepy... but I have to fight the urge to also call it sweet.

Then there are other people who forget they're married, cuddling and smooching other players. Adultery, I say! Disgusting! This can cause some drama in world chat... some calling of names, some character assassination, etc.

Luckily, it is possible to divorce your cheating spouse! Yes, for 2 million coins you can annul a marriage.

I will never forget this message I saw in world chat one day: "WANT TO SELL MY CLOTHES SO I CAN DIVORCE WIFE. PM ME."

Then, later, "WIFE FOR SALE, 2 MIL."

I have mixed feelings about the whole idea of marriage in a game.

On the one hand, it's just silly. I mean, it's a game. Let's not be obsessive here. There's something a little creepy about "marrying" someone you've probably never met in person--even if it's not a true marriage, it's a facsimile thereof.

On the other hand... I'm tempted. Marriage is just cute. Every time I see characters holding each other, some part of me goes, "Awwwwwwww!" And it would be nice to have someone to rely on for help killing things and questing.

I would never consider marrying some random player. It would have to be someone I had spent a lot of time talking to, someone near my level, someone I already did a lot of grinding (*snicker, snicker*) with. And I don't have anybody like that right now.

Kind of like in real life.

Funny how that works.

Character farming feels weird.

It's such a weird feeling, playing as someone else's character. Kind of like sleeping in someone else's room. I still haven't gotten used to leveling up Kristei and Rod's characters for them.

It's especially weird playing as Rodneye, for two reasons.

The first is just that I'm not used to playing as a dude. I got out of the habit a long time ago. I feel a strange urge to put a disclaimer on all my chats: I'm actually a chick!

The second is that I used to go questing and grinding playing as Liulen or Meirizhu, in a squad with Rod playing as Rodneye.

It's a whole new perspective.

Slingshots

They're just too awesome.

Everybody else has one!

I don't need one. I don't particularly want one. I don't even know what they're good for.

But everybody else has a genie, and I feel left out.

What is a genie, you ask? I'm not sure, myself. I only know that it's a small, cute, colorful little thing that circles around your character and sucks your experience points.

The addition of genies seems to be the extent of the long-awaited "expansion pack." Not to knock the fine folks who design Perfect World, because I obviously adore this game . . . but you pretty much already had genies, except they were called angels and you had to buy them.

Genies are free, though; you just have to ask an NPC for them. So, of course, EVERYONE has a genie now. Even though nobody is really sure what they do. As a dear faction mate said in his lovely Engrish, "Not yet discover the beauty usefulness of it yet."

Well, I'm trying to wait until someone discovers the beauty usefulness of genies and tells me what it is. I don't like getting things that don't have a point, especially if they're going to suck my experience.



In the meantime, I'm going to just feel left out. Like in this picture. You can see Kay's purple genie hovering over her shoulder, and OrangeElf's green genie just behind him. And my cute flying thing, Nugget. Not really the same effect.

Apologies and excuses

I've wronged you, dear Readers, and I'm sorry. I haven't been posting for a while, but I have several reasons:

• I'm nearing the end of this quarter in school, so I have about a million things to read, write, and study for.
• I also have to pack up nearly all my earthly belongings for storage or transport home to Tennessee for the summer.
• I've been helping various friends with time-consuming projects, including dressing up as Pippi Longstocking.
• I've been feeling self-conscious about my blog. One of my classmates expressed dislike for the subject. She wasn't nasty about it, but I still feel like I'm back in high school being teased by the popular girls.
• And, finally, I'm lazy.

There is hope, though! It's looking like my friends Kristei and Tokada are going to start writing guest posts before too long. So, hopefully, even if I stay busy and can't update very often, there will still be updates.

Until then, here's a flat-color drawing I did of my characters, Meirizhu and Siloam. It was going to be my avatar for my faction's forum, but it didn't shrink well.

Best pet ever

I totally did not make up this name.

Falling down on the job

I'm sorry, guys. But I tried. I really did try to find something interesting to blog about, since it's been a few days since the last post.

(No ragging on my artwork. I did it in like 5 minutes)

Unfortunately nobody has done anything amusing, and I myself have been in a state of ennui for the past few days.

Managing Rodneye's and Kristei's characters is nowhere near as much fun as hanging out with them. My faction's been pretty quiet. I haven't made any new friends.

Worst of all, I've been feeling insecure! In an online game, with characters I designed myself specifically to be appealing and attractive! It's getting harder for me to forget what I am in real life, and harder to remember that I can be whatever I want in the game.

Whatever I want, that is, except confident.

It's not eavesdropping if it's common chat.

At least, that's my firm belief. So I didn't feel too guilty for screenshotting the following conversation between a cute female elf named Silveste and a lovestruck male elf named WeedInhaler:



"I hope you guys know I'm totally screenshotting this," I told them. And he called me a bitch and I flew away.

Welcome to the farm.

I recently agreed to log in with my friend Rod's account and do some work on his character, Rodneye, a Blademaster. Rod's computer is on the blink, but he doesn't want Rodneye to languish and pine and be left behind in levels before he can get it fixed. I'm happy to help out a friend, and it's kind of fun.

Then Rod's sister Kristei asked me to work on her Wizard character, appropriately named Kristei, and her new Venomancer, Somonia. I agreed to these, too, despite having 3 of my own characters.



"Careful, Rita," teased my ex, Al. "You might get caught up in the seedy business of experience farming."

It is a lot on my plate, along with school and a part-time job, but I'm enjoying it so far and taking it slow. I'm focusing on Rodneye and Somonia for now, since Kristei the Wizard is at a higher level than either of them.

I work with each of them once every couple of days, trying to raise them at least one level per session. I e-mail frequent progress reports to Kristei and Rod. It's kind of cool! I feel like I'm managing a team, or something.

I've played a Blademaster before, and they're pretty straightforward. But I was nervous about training a veno. Luckily my faction has a lot of high-level venos, and they've been very helpful about answering my questions.

This is a good opportunity for me to learn about the PROPER way to build a character—checking the forums and consulting higher levels, planning the allotment of growth points, deciding early what skills to get. With my characters, I've always just kind of messed around, learning from my mistakes with Liulen but otherwise playing it by ear. But I'd be pretty upset with myself if I messed up someone else's character.