Relationships are transient things. I've moved a lot, so few people know this fact better than I do. Even your strongest friendships can fall by the wayside when you don't see each other every day.

This is true in online games, too.

How many people in the world play their games at the same time on the same server every day consistently for an extended period of time? Probably a few. But not most of us.

It's rare that I can make and keep a true online friend. I'm amazed that I still keep in touch with Rod and Kristei, since we haven't played Perfect World together in months.

But you have to get used to the fact that you might meet the most amazing person one day and then never speak to them again. One of you might quit playing or switch characters, or you might just never be on at the same time. Or you might talk to them for a few weeks and then find you have nothing more to say and wander away.

Wow, what a depressing post. Here. Let me make it better:

This is not a post.

I would love to post. I really would. I'd love to tell you all about why I now hate Wizard 101.

But it's finals week. You ain't getting nothing for a while, now.

My new distraction from productivity...

...is Wizard 101.

It's quite possibly the cutest game ever that still has enjoyable gameplay. (Except for maybe Fur Fighters on the Dreamcast. That was Halo with fuzzy animals.)

And, like all my favorite games, it's free.

However, the chat system is super annoying. For one thing, many of the players are under 13 and can only use canned chat. Everyone older than that may use general chat, but the filters are severe and edit out anything not recognized by the system's dictionary, including many common emotes and abbreviations.

In some ways, this is a good thing. It eliminates profanity and encourages proper spelling (HOORAY!) in one fell swoop. Since the game promotes itself as family-friendly, the heavy filters and restrictions make perfect sense. And players 18 and up can choose to enable Open Chat, which is strictly monitored but not filtered. However, you can't enable Open Chat unless you pay to subscribe to the game. And damned if I'm going to spend money just to be able to say damn.

You can't really evaluate Wizard 101 on the same terms as Dungeons and Dragons Online, which is always full of lively dispute about stats, rolls, classes and saves. And you can't even compare it to the awkward sexual tension that often characterizes common chat in Perfect World.

Let's just say I don't play Wizard 101 for the scintillating conversation or social interaction. I play it because it's fun, cute, and totally addictive.

I enter the forum fray. Also, I have another assignment.

I feel a little more legit as a gamer now that I've started posting in forums on The Escapist.

The number of replies to my first thread was really exciting! So far it has more than 1600 views and more than 100 replies. (And I promise no more than a dozen or so views were me sitting and hitting refresh every ten seconds.) That's really nothing to write home about, in comparison to some of the other threads, but it's still cool.

What wondrous, insightful topic did I unfurl before the masses? "Who are the strongest and weakest female video game characters of all time?"

By strength, I don't only mean ass-kicking abilities; I also mean depth of character and relevance to the storyline. By weakness, I mean shallowness, passivity, and existing for little more than eye-candy.

I asked for the opinions of fellow gamers because I'm writing a proposal for a book about female video game characters. (As of right now, I'm not going to actually write the book, just the assigned proposal. But I'm having to do so much research I might as well go ahead and write the thing.)

And now, I invite you, dear readers, to answer the same question. Strongest and weakest? Best and worst? Awesomest and most useless?

IRL

I felt like an elf today.

Note little gray fluffball Artemis. My animal companion.

Jade Dynasty, revisited

I've been playing Jade Dynasty again. I feel different about it this time around--better--probably because I don't have the pressure of writing that review paper.

It's a great game for relaxation, and I can switch back and forth between it and homework pretty easily. I think they've added a few new music tracks, so it's not as monotonous to listen to.

I think that right now my only serious issue with the game is the player interaction. I mean, the lack thereof. Nobody talks. Ever. Not even in world chat, which in Perfect World is full of trashtalk, confessions of love, and references to nerd culture. Players in Jade Dynasty only use it to sell things. And common chat is always totally dead, even on the weekends.

I think there are a few reasons. For one thing, there are too many realms... there are only 2 servers, but each server is divided into about a dozen different realms, self-contained replicas of the same world. You might call them different instances. You can move between them, and world chat reaches all of them, but you only actually see the other players that are in your realm.

I really miss randomly bumping into people and striking up conversations with them. I've only actually had discourse with 2 players in the whole time I've been playing. (And they haven't been on since.)

I'm lonely.

I'm a noob. A sad noob.

Today is the first day I've ever felt like a total loser while playing an online game.

I've been trying out Dungeons and Dragons Online, and it's been fun, even though it's very different than the games I'm used to. Combat is more difficult and requires more concentration; skills, stats, and leveling up are all WAY more complicated, and the community is... Dungeons and Dragons guys.

This means the chat window is packed full of debate about whether it's better to be a ranger/rogue or a rogue/ranger, etc., and most of it goes straight over my head.

It's possible to do most quests alone, but you can go back with a party and do it on a higher difficulty for more experience and loot. When someone asks you to join a party, it's most likely because they want to do some hardcore experience grinding. That's what these guys tonight were after when they recruited my level 2 paladin, Hausse Heiathan.

I had trouble finding the dungeons. I couldn't figure out how to make my heal kit work, so I couldn't resurrect a guy who had died. I misread my character sheet. About the only thing I could be counted on to do was to flail my sword around wildly and apologize for messing up.

While we were doing one quest on the hardest difficulty possible, 3 of us died and Schmoopy got disconnected. Xade, or whatever his name was, kept shouting for someone to take his soul stone to the resurrection shrine.

Death is so confusing in DDO. I still don't really understand how it works. Apparently when you die your body lies on the ground, a soul stone hovers above this body, and you also turn into a ghost, which can run around for a limited distance.

I ran with my ghost to the resurrection shrine, came back to life, and re-entered the fray.

Oh, guess what? If you leave the room where the boss is, you automatically fail the quest.

"Damn it, Hausse!" said Xade.

I couldn't handle it. I left the squad. Then I signed off. Then I started writing this pathetic blog post about how hurt my feelings are. I can't shake the feeling that people would cut me more slack if I used my female character instead of manly Hausse.

I think I'll go back to playing pretty Asian games where everyone is nice.