Thursday, July 2, 2009

Might as well do the update now, because I don't know when I might get the chance for the foreseeable...

I usually do a weekly update come about Saturday or Sunday, but -- between the July 4 weekend and a lot of other shit -- I decided to do it now.

31 WHM, and going to try to increase that as applicable.

Finally got 65 DNC.

Sunday Dynamis: Ice -- last one before our leader takes three runs off for the holiday and for his classes. Killed 11 NM's (about our running average) and got 1 AF drop. Blech.

Wednesday Dynamis: Tried to low-man a Jeuno. Ouch. Funny story: Free lotted a MNK AF for myself, and checked to make sure I had the space. I had one space left in my inventory.

Just before that, I win a 1-Byne which ran on the same drop. Congratulations to Teraphim, the owner of a new MNK AF.

Eek.

====

And it's been that kind of week RL too. My friend's surgery physically appeared to go decently.

Trying to get my friend through the next 1-6 weeks (it'll take 6 to heal the tendons -- but the right hand is completely splinted and mummified until we see the surgeon again in 1-2 weeks) without the functional use of her right hand (not even to type) is going to be the hard part.

So my playtime will be continued to be reduced.

My roommate works on Internet projects. Frankly, about the only real "joy" my friend gets due to a great loss in her life about a year ago.

It's all these goddamned frustrations that she has to deal with (griefers on the Net, shitheads outside, California deteriorating so she doesn't know when the riots might start, my court date on Tuesday versus an agent provocateur piece-of-shit excuse for a cop in this town, etc. and so forth and so on) which make her not want to wake up again.

As I keep telling her, it's the same stuff I talk about here. The same frustrations, anger, etc. and so forth.

The problem is, it's easy for doctors to say all this stuff about doing things one-handed and the like. The only problem is that one has to go through with it.

(FWIW, I just typed that last sentence one-handed. Good luck to my friend on it.)

I love my friend as a friend, and will help her as required - and a lot more will be required. The problem being: How much more does she have to put up with?

So, if you try to party with me, and I'm even more adamant about "(I'm sorry.) (I'm playing solo right now.)", please understand.

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Various odds and sods from the TTTO:

-- An interview came across with the designers of the two Ultimate Monsters in the game: Pandemonium Warden and Absolute Virtue. (Several posts on the subject.) And they basically DID originally intend for PW to be a multiple-alliance fight and that some would be able to go back to town and change up as conditions permit.

If I'm a legal entity looking to limit the play on MMO's on the basis of negligent conduct on the part of their creators, I'd take a look at this. As I said during the controversy on the 18-hour PW attempt, it's too fucking long.

Of course, should this be surprising, coming from a country where there is an actual name for the addiction to MMORPG's, and, additionally, occasional stories about people dying at their computer because they just - can't - get - away.

This degree of irresponsible behavior will finish Square-Enix, if it's not addressed.

And then, of course, their testing appears to assume maxed-out equipment, including relics and mythics... *rolls eyes*

--

Does FFXI promote healthy or harmful competition? (http://katarzynafromcerberus.blogspot.com/2009/07/does-ffxi-promote-healthy-or-harmful.html)

Do I really need to answer that question??

Really??

I mean, the absolute requirement of a bot to do much of the ultra-level stuff is addressed in the article.

The fact is that Square-Enix needs to demand the same things it says it demands:

-- No bots or third-party software, which my roommate clearly agrees with me is infrastructurally disrupting the game.

-- Their own words asking that we not forget our jobs, school, friends, family, etc. (See above on PW/AV.)

-- Some degree of cooperation between groups of people. (By this, I am talking the likes of small groups ninjaring Dynamis (or individuals ninjaring lots) for amusement and "profit".)

--

More on these and others another time, as more ideas permit. I've got a roommate recovering from surgery to look after, at least as much as she'll let me.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Glad to know I got the attention of the famous Dark Renegade. All I was merely doing was pointing out the hypocrisy of SE when they say "We want people to cooperate" when their methods of making us do just that are actually a detriment to the community as a whole.

Starcade said...

Katarzyna: I read other blogs too. :)

My point, though, goes back to the assertion that, since Square-Enix owns all the gear, characters, etc., they have full say over who gets what and under what circumstances.

It is my opinion (which you are free to disagree with) that Square-Enix does not have that high opinion of much of the non-Japanese playerbase, considering many of them botters and Windower players and cheaters and the like.

Unknown said...

Personally, from what I've seen and read, I don't think SE has high regards for anyone, Japanese or "foreign" as they like to call us. It takes them forever to get on the ball with something, and it affects ALL players.

The only reason why Japanese players aren't prevalent within the "Windower community" is because console play is still very high in Japan. Judging just from the way the NA ad EU communities interact and play, if PC gaming was as big in Japan as it were here, I'd imagine there would be a bigger Windower fan base in Japan. The Windower forums now have their own Japanese forum on the website, so there is a demand for it, albeit not as high.

While you may not agree, I do use Windower, for the simple fact of windowing the game. Nothing more, nothing less. The official "windowed mode" is such a RAM hog, it's not even funny. Even at 2.5 gigabytes of RAM, I would lag horribly. And it's ok if you disagree. If SE wanted to ban me because I use Windower, I could take my ban and go find something else to do with my time. I know I'm breaking the ToS, I know the potential consequences, but I'm not gonna cry about it if SE all of a sudden decides to crack down on Windower users.

Starcade said...

I understand that, Katarzyna, but only to a certain extent.

I truly believe that there is strong resentment, especially from the Japanese end of the FFXI/FFXIV people, to what the Americans are trying to do to the game.

If they could see that the players were trying to play the game rather than game the system, I think a lot of the desired changes would have been done a lot quicker.

As it is, I think that's a lot of the reason they gave up on FFXI.

As for Windower in Japan, I think there would be _some_ more Windower players in Japan under your scenario, but I think there would still be cultural resentment of such shortcuts.