My Turn

(Edit: Orignal post 3:30pm)

I intend to keep this brief, but I may ramble. Forgive me.

Or don't.

I'm a pretty honest person. I don't like lying. I don't like liars. I'm not good at faking things. Oh, I can do it, but not for long, and often not well. I also am a rather empathetic person. (Empathy: Not just for Defenders.) So, I don't like to hurt people's feelings, and I'm really good at understanding other points of view. I believe in having and showing compassion. Sometimes, naively, I expect the same things from other people. Oddly, though, this adds up to something that might seem contrary on the surface. I don't take crap from people. Push me once or twice, and I'll ignore it or excuse it. Push me three times, and I'm going to push back, and twice as hard. And trust me, my mouth has never written a check that the rest of me is incapable or unwilling to cash, to borrow one of The Family's more colorful phrases. (Yes, I have spent some time on the docks in Striga lately.) This is why I tend to avoid confrontation. It may take awhile, but once I lose it, I lose it A LOT.

So, what's this little self-discovery trip about? Well, like I've said before, it's impossible not to put some of yourself into a character you devote so much time and energy creating and, more importantly, playing and acting. Fyre has some of those qualities that I just described. Maybe not in the same order, or not in the same amount, but they're certainly there.

That's the only thing I can attribute in-character to Fyre's previous repeated forgiveness and overlooking of Masonry's actions.

Yep, that ended awhile ago. Now, I didn't think so, but apparently I was too subtle in my and Fyre's avoidance of Masonry. I thought refusing to team with that character was hint enough. Apparently not. Through blog post, and later through an off-line message, I got a request for Fyre to be a part of an RP STF. An STF that was, mechanically, certain to be a failure. I'm not an overachiever or a control freak, but starting something that's doomed to failure before the start... well, it's not something I would normally do. And teaming Fyre with Masonry, again, is something I have been strenuously avoiding. But, because of friendship with and respect for Masonry's player, I put that aside and did as asked and brought Fyre on with the intention of participating in said doomed STF.

Now, had I known that I and my character was wanted for a filler, I have other characters I could have brought. Had I known that I was setting my character to be attacked, I wouldn't have went. Had that attacking come from Masonry, I could have dealt. After all, that makes perfect sense. Had I known that I was setting myself up to be dog-piled by an entire group of people who subscribed to Masonry's revisionist history, I certainly would not have participated. And that last is what happened. Fyre was very quiet during that initial attack-- and I say "attack" because that's exactly what it was-- because her player was shocked speechless. As close as I came to quitting right there, I didn't, because I knew that that STF wouldn't have gotten very far with five players, three of which were tanks. Again, friendship and respect kept me from removing my character from a situation which she surely would have left. I tried my best to salvage the mechanical portion of the task force, both by lending my characters best abilities and my own experiences with the STF.

I don't, and will not attempt to, justify my characters hatred-- yes, let's not soft sell it: hatred-- of someone who has repeatedly tried to kill her and people she cares about, either by setting it up or doing it himself. I could post chat-logs, quotes from blogs, whatever you want. I'm not going to bother, though. I don't think it's necessary. If you want to read some of those things, the blog archive is there. If you'd like chat logs, I have the files. Masonry is a murderer several times over, under the influence of drugs, nictus, black magic (or whatever exactly that is), and himself, both in the heat of the moment and by cold calculation. He is exactly the type of person our heroes spend their entire careers fighting. He's had so many chances to redeem himself that I have, honestly, lost count. And yet, my character has been cast in the role of villain by now two groups of people with whom she and I have had little to no interaction.

We're not our characters. Very true. And yet, being set-up to be (to use Fyre's words), a punching bag by a group of characters and/or people you do or don't know is not fun. So, yes, I did take it personally yesterday, and I left feeling very angry, on my and Fyre's behalf, and somewhat hurt on mine.

I have half a mind that this is not entirely appropriate for a blog post. However, the invitation and discussions occurred on blogs, so I don't feel this is entirely out of place.

In-character, Fyre will not be teaming with Masonry ever again, as she and I previously intended. Yes, Masonry and Frost both have come to have the same intentions, now, and their players have posted so on their blogs. And I truly believe I would have been much happier had I stuck with my own previously reached intentions. But, even with the most heartfelt requests otherwise, I will not go back on my resolution again.

Out of character, this is not meant to hurt anyone's feelings or make anyone angry. However, it if it does, I will not apologize. Not for the least reason that I myself spent most of the day angry, and probably just a bit hurt. I posted because the explanation will, hopefully, make me feel better about it, and, in the best possible outcome, avoid such a situation again. Please, don't ever put me in such a situation again. To sum it up somewhat mildly, it was unpleasant.

Feel free to post any public comments, questions, concerns or flames (I know just what do with those, should they they occur) here. Private ones can be sent in-game in tells, or e-mailed.

Edit(6:22pm):

Over it.

Hey, lolcats.

PuG Entertainment

Contrary to what has been stated elsewhere, I don't think every pick-up team is terrible. I have been on a LOT of PuGs. There have been a few that have astounded me with how quickly purple-conning mobs simply evaporated. Some have been entertaining in other ways, like the interaction between players. And, yes, some have been absolutely terrible. The worst for me was one on Freedumb on Mercy Isle. I quit the team before we even got into the mission.

Thanks to the forums, I've found a way to make even the bad PuGs entertaining.

Credit to some guy I never heard of before on the forums for Bad Team Bingo.
Yes, I have a card printed out, on my desk, and ready to go.

I12: Cimerora and the Midnight Club Pictures

These pictures are most definitely spoilers for I12, specifically Cimerora, the Midnight Club, and the Imperious Task Force. If you don't want to know, don't look any further.

This is one of the first things you'll see of the new maps, in the arc that grants you access to the Midnight Club. The hero side arc is slightly longer than the villain side, but, without giving more away, let's just say that it's worth it.

Inside of the missions from the intro Midnighter arc. This room is worth exploring.

Inside the Midnight Club. The tiny woman in the chair is a store that sells various level SOs.

A line of Centurions in Cimerora

One of the streets in Cimerora.

A view of Cimerora from one of the cliffs.

Yep, that's a Minotaur. They con as Elite Bosses. You'll see quite a few in the Imperious Task Force.

One of the giant robots from the Imperious Task Force.

5th Column robots from the Imperious Task Force.

Nictus Romulus from the Imperious Task Force

Inside the fort, up the looong road, you finally get to the courtyard and find Romulus and his troops.

Fyre in costume in the cave the Midnighters use to access Cimerora.

The female version of the Roman costume that unlocks from the Imperious Task Force, with Fyre playing model.

Open Beta

There's an hour yet, I know.
But there are videos and info all over the forums already.
This is what I want. Also, switch around the drop-downs, and you can check out the other VEAT powers.

Fifty Again

At what point does hitting 50 get boring? How many 50s do you have to have before it's just not a remarkable thing? Does it ever happen?

Lorelei Laughlin (Illusion/Radiation Controller) hit 50 on Thursday, May 1. I made her to play with the sets, and to play a controller I didn't hate. No RP in mind at all, so character-wise, there's not a whole lot to say about her. It took over a year and a half to get her to 50, because I just wasn't that interested. I think she was the original Derick Darklight's(Vagz's Warshade) duo partner, maybe? The name came from a Las Vegas guidebook that sat on my desk for awhile. That's about the only interesting thing about her.

So, like I said to several people, now I never have to play a controller again!

Oh, wait...

Ellianne Sylvanie hit level 27 before she met the chopping block a few months ago. She was an archery/energy blaster. A few weeks ago, I brought her back to check out the changes to archery that came with I11. They weren't bad. But one of the reasons I brought her back was to partner with Derick Darklight, whose last duo partner Hex Raven (dark/dark scrapper) got deleted in a fit of hating the dark scrapper power sets. (Do we see a pattern here? Poor Derick and his partners. Note, Idaho was also a common teammate.) But a blaster and a Warshade don't duo well. But a controller and a Warshade might. So, Elli's a grav/kin controller this time around. Let's see how long that lasts. She's level 12 at the moment, and my goal is to get her as close to Derick's 18 as I can. Today. Only today. Why?

Open Beta for I12 starts tomorrow. As of now, I'm patched and copied. (And I just saw that the original Elli still exists on Test.) I'm hoping that they're going to *surprise* add more costume parts, but I just don't see that happening. Other than that, I'm interested in the new zone, psi-blasters, and maybe a fire/fire scrapper.

Maybe a fire/fire scrapper. But, I don't see anything dulling my fondness of dual blades/willpower. Especially Willpower. I spent a lot of time on an Invulnerable scrapper (Cassandra Noir, MA/Invul, level 47). If I would have played Willpower first, I would have never, ever looked at Invulnerability. Of course, that's neglecting the fact that Cass was created pre-ED. Jez is definitely my favorite at the moment, powers-wise and character-wise. We just finished a Malta arc last night, and possibly for the first time ever, Malta didn't suck. There may have been a couple of small rough patches, but nothing major. Malta, as a subject, falls firmly into Jez's area of expertise. Surely a relief for her, after the Carnie's and BC's... entire existence. Not to say that Jez and BC are having problems. They're getting along quite well. With the Malta, though, Jez may have been a bit more serious that she was becoming previously. Malta, and that type of work, is something she's familiar with, and easily recognizable as "work," so CIA-Jez came out more than adventurous-Jez. But she still didn't close herself off as much as she might have. That's some sort of progress.

Lolcat Wednesday

I was going through my picture files, looking for a new desktop background, and I realized I have a LOT of lolcat pictures. I went on a binge a few weeks back. Humor is good. So, here's a few, just because.

VEAT Preview Movie, Take II

The site that was hosting the video decided afterwards that it doesn't host game trailers, so it was only up for a few hours. So, not my fault!
But, there's the link, for now:

Issue 12 VEAT Preview

Oh, and I found this one, too!