November 2009

Palace of Ferzhul – Video!

stargrace November 30, 2009 2 Comments

Yesterday I was lucky enough to get invited to a Palace of Ferzhul run – one of the most difficult TSO instances there is (group instances at least). This zone is used in Chapter 8 for the TSO chapter quests, and drops some incredible loot. I had a blast tagging along even though I was VERY under geared and died 6 times. We went to the instance with one templar, a shadowknight, swashbuckler, ranger, coercer, and myself as the troubador. One healer in that zone is quite a feat. A huge congratulations to Pennie for keeping us (mostly) alive.

My troubador also managed to score two pieces of fabled gear. One was the caster bracelet (has a matching melee one that makes the set quite nice) and a piece of fabled forearms. Not to mention a lot of achievements and aa for entering the zone for the first time. Hopefully everyone else had a good time too, even if I was quite under geared, hehe. Hope everyone enjoys the video! I must say, I am REALLY impressed with the quality of Game Cam. The files are TINY compared to fraps (about 100MB per minute and a half of filming) and the quality is amazing. Only down side is that there are a few games that it doesn’t work with (ie: Vanguard) so I’ll be attempting to get fraps working once more specifically for that purpose. Of course that means messing with the registry files (again) and I’m putting it off for as long as I can.

Gaming

Book of the Day

stargrace November 29, 2009 No Comments

(( Each weekend I try to post at least one book from my Norrathian Museum for others to read. So far the collection includes 150 player written books, and you can find it on the Antonia Bayle server under the name of Ellithia, in the North Freeport mage tower.))

Zorgin’s Guide to Being a Nuisance Volume 1 – by Zorgin

This is a comprehensive list of brief tips to being an absolute pain in everyone’s ass.

#1~ Teach your friend’s children to curse.

#2~ if you know someone who wears full plate, get a high-powered magnet. Let hilarity ensue.

#3~ Paint “Ridin’ Dirty” on the side of their mount.

#4~ Say a friend’s name sensually over and over again through Guild Communications.

#5~ Shout, “Party at ~Soandso’s~ house!” Insist the party take place. Do not clean up afterwards.

#6~ Fill their home with random pets. Make sure they all have eaten beans beforehand.

#7~ Eat all their food. Insist they were sleepwalking and did it themselves.

#8~ Talk like a Ratonga for no reason. If you are a Ratonga, resist your lisp and speak like a scholar for a day. When questioned, revert back immediately and barrage them with insults.

#9~ Spend the day walking on your hands. When questioned, slap them.

#10~ Fill your friend’s adventuring flask with Laxatives.

#11~ Line your friend’s armor with itching powder. Insist pixies are responsible.

#12~ Matter of fact, insist pixies are responsible for -everything-.

#13~ end every sentence with the word “Penguin”.

#14~ Insist you teach everyone the Harpy language, Screechsong.

#15~ Shove people off of Kelethin.

#16~ Shove people into the pits of Neriak.

#17~ Shove people into the Executioner’s Pit in Freeport.

#18~ Shove people into the Qeynos Moat.

#19~ Shove people off the top platform of Gorowyn. Help them back up by telling them to use every wrong lift.

#20~ Try to speak Tik-Tok.

#21~ Go to a public gathering. When spoken to, shriek “SPIDERS” at the top of your lungs and punch the person speaking to you in the nose.

#22~ Pester your friend while out adventuring to come by your place afterwards for a drink. when you finally get there, announce you’re out of things to drink.

#23~ If you have a ranger friend, remove all the tips from his arrows. Scatter them around his bedroom floor that night, and in the morning, listen for the screams.

#24~ Go to a less-wealthy Guild’s guildhall. Ask them for obscure amenities, and when they tell you they don’t have them, act all haughty and say, “well, OUR guild hall has it…”

#25~ Go to another guild’s hall, shriek at the top of your lungs, then take a portal anywhere. Repeat every day at the same time.

Gaming

A Full House in Sims 3

stargrace November 28, 2009 No Comments

Sims 3 has been my ‘game of choice’ this week before deadlines hit me hard for work and I’ll barely have time to do anything else, and I’ve had a blast playing. It started out simple enough. I created one Sim and started working on her career. When she was established in that, I started getting her out and involved with the community and meeting other Sims. She eventually fell in love and (thanks to the fertility goal) had twins, two baby girls.

Things started to get complicated after that, and it was actually the first time in any of my sims adventures that I controlled a whole household instead of just one sim. Much like others out there, I enjoyed making the decisions so much in day-to-day activities that I decided it would just be easier to control one sim and let them do their thing, instead of actually raising a family.

Having four sims to control was actually turning out to be a LOT of fun. I do allow them to have a mind of their own and so from time to time they do their own thing, but the majority of the time I’d say it’s still me who’s controlling what they’re doing. Watching sims interact with one another has been especially fun – and I have to say the way children are handled in the game are amazing. The sim children develop traits from both the mother and father, as well as appearance qualities. If you don’t raise them ‘properly’ and give them the qualities they need in life (like walking, talking, and potty training) they can develop bad traits. One of the sim babies had a particularly horrific upbringing, so she developed the evil trait, and takes sinister baths and cackles randomly. The other sim child had an ok upbringing and she turned into a vegetarian. I forgot this, and called the family to a meal of hotdogs. Woops. That poor sim spent more time in the bathroom getting sick then my mother sim did when she was pregnant with the twins.

Even the pregnancy of a sim is involved. You have a choice of giving birth at a hospital or at home. You watch your sims body change, watch them get morning sickness. They get a few days off work and you watch their back cramp in pain. Nothing like the real thing of course, but it’s fun to see just how detailed everything is.

When the twins were just newborn sims things were really complicated. Especially since all they did (literally) was eat, sleep, cry, and poop. As they’ve ‘grown up’ and developed a personality and traits it’s slowed down some what, and it’s a comfortable pace for a game (for me in any case). I couldn’t see myself having any more then two at a time though, it just gets too complicated with the decisions and choices that have to be made. As the sim children grow the quality of their homework will determine any other negative or positive traits that they’ll inherit. I can take a look at my family tree, and I like watching it grow. Eventually my two adult sims will grow old (and eventually die) while their two girls will carry on the line.

Another aspect I love to sims is how open it is with the ‘family’ concept. It doesn’t matter if you’re gay, live with 5 women or any other combination of sims. You may not be able to get pregnant from your sim partner but you CAN always choose the ‘adopt’ choice from the list of services available. The game really is all about choice, and that’s fantastic.

You’ll have to excuse my messy house in the picture above, heh. Still teaching the sim kids how to clean up after themselves. Oh. Be careful with the ‘tinker’ ability, too. It’s been known to kill the president.

Gaming

Favorite EQ2 Features

stargrace November 27, 2009 8 Comments

Syp from Bio Break recently asked for EQ2 players to help him out by naming a few EQ2 features that people felt were ‘better’ then WoW. There were a huge amount of fantastic answers, and I decided I would show people my favorites via video, for a greater understanding of what those features are.

It’s still only my 2nd video where I talk, and I’m still learning, but it didn’t turn out too bad this time around.

Enjoy, and a thanks to Syp for posting his article!

Gaming Real Life

2009 Gamers Secret Santa

stargrace November 27, 2009 1 Comment

I’ve been pondering this idea for a while now, and I’ve decided it’s time. I’m going to host a “Gamer Secret Santa” – I have no idea if this idea will take off or not, but we’ll see. I’m hoping it will be a huge success.

What it is: Those who want to participate, are more then welcome to. You can be a gamer, blogger, a member of the game industry, whatever. As long as games are some how a part of your life. I will take names / addresses, and assign everyone a ‘secret’ person to buy a small less then $20 gift for, as well as give them the address required. Send out your gift and wait for one to head your way, and that’s it. Ok, let me explain it a bit better.

What is “Secret Santa?” here’s the definition!

How:

1. Send your full name and mailing address to me at stargrace@mmoquests.com, make sure it comes from a valid email address. If you happen to run a fansite or a blog, please mention which blog you write for. If you’re just a gamer mention that too. It doesn’t matter who you are or how involved in the gaming community you are, anyone can participate.

2. On December 7th I will email you back with someone else’ address.

3. The price limit is $20, don’t spend any more then that. Be creative, make something, have it be unique to your culture or your life, if you need suggestions then please don’t hesitate to let me know. Try to keep in mind that we’re all gamers, no matter where we come from.

4. Keep your person a secret! Don’t tell anyone who else you have. If you DO happen to run a fansite or blog, then when you receive your gift write about it and let everyone know.

5. If you have any other questions, don’t hesitate to let me know below in comments, or email me.

Details: I understand that you may not be comfortable with me or one other person having your mailing address, so if you’re not please don’t feel pressured to participate. The idea is to share with one another and realize what a fantastic community we have, not make you feel on edge that you’re going to potentially run into issues.

If you’d like to participate but simply can not afford to no matter what, send me an email and let me know, I will do my best to help you out. I want anyone who’s interested to be able to participate in this event. I think some times we forget that these people we all talk to online are not just random pixels, but are actual people on the other end of those computers.

Please keep in mind that only myself, and ONE other person will have your address. It won’t become a mailing list or anything like that. If you’re only comfortable with me having it and no one else then let me know, and I’ll have your gift sent to me and then I’ll send it out to you. Anything to make sure people are comfortable and still able to participate.

YOU HAVE UNTIL DECEMBER 6th TO EMAIL ME YOUR ADDRESS – please take your time to think about whether or not this is something you really want to do. If it is, get me your address by December 6th so that I can give people some time to get their shopping done. If it’s a little late (the gift, not the address) that’s alright.

If you don’t celebrate christmas but still want to participate that’s alright too! This isn’t a religious thing, I just want to try it out and see how it works this year. There are some amazing gamers I have met from all over the world, and I think that we have a lot to share with one another.

I think that’s about it. If you can think of something I’ve missed then please let me know and I’ll do my best to answer it. If this is a completely horrible idea don’t feel shy to let me know. I just wanted to share some of the christmas joy that’s going to be flying around before too long and figured this would be a fantastic idea for people to experience it with one another.

Palace of Ferzhul – Video!

Book of the Day

A Full House in Sims 3

Favorite EQ2 Features

2009 Gamers Secret Santa

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