Starting afresh

What do I do when the going gets tough?

I freak out and start over from scratch.

Rather than trying to make new friends and find a new faction for Meirizhu and Siloam, I just made a new character: Idumea the Blademaster, a cliche feisty redhead.

I've been enjoying playing as Idumea so far. Already made a couple of friends. Joined a faction, which died the next day.

I had expected people to shorten the name, but I wasn't expecting meadea, which is what one guy calls me. It's kind of adorable, though.

By no means am I going to retire Meiri and Sil. I'm too attached to them. But they're probably going to be on the bench for a little while.

Extreme Makeover: Armor Edition!

Ok, ok, so today's title is super corny, but deal with it. Gosh, now I feel like even more of a nerd than I did when I realized I was designing clothes for my Perfect World character.

I'm sorry, but the people who designed the women's armor in Perfect World were definitely men. Bra, miniskirt, and stiletto-heeled hooker boots are not sensible battle attire.

The boots probably bother me more than anything else, mostly because I hate running in heels so much that I project my own pain onto the sprites.

My alternate character, Siloam, can probably get away with the heels. Since she's a cleric, she spends most of her time hovering benevolently over the field of battle dispensing healing spells. Meirizhu, however, is an archer, and archers do a lot of running away from werewolves.

So I took the heels off the boots, covered up most of the vital organs with metal or leather, and gave her pants. I won't try to fool myself or anyone else into thinking that this new armor is 100% practical, but I think it makes a little more sense.

The color scheme is still up for debate. I have six prepared at the moment. You can find all six here if you're interested. The one shown here is my favorite, but I'd like to hear any suggestions.

Siloam's next. She's going to get a pretty new robe.

Hello, and goodbye again.

I am submitting this from the Chester County Public Library. When it comes to Perfect World, I'm still afk. And I think I'm obsessed, because I still think about it all the time... ah, well.

If you miss me, you can visit my DeviantART site... not that it's been updated too recently, thanks to the filter here, but it has some of my writings and scribblings.

I know I miss you guys!

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!