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Human Verification
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Aethelwald
PostPosted: Fri Sep 07, 2012 5:31 am    Post subject:

Thanks to Willowing - who tracked me down moments after I escaped to the fall sunshine from the First Hall of Moria (the whole "head into the light" thing) I'm now a proud member of your clan...kin....merry band.

And thanks to Frawd I managed to experience my first puzzle instance, dying only once to some massive spikes for which there was no puzzle answer other than not to stand in a certain place at a certain moment.

Haven't experienced the music portion of the game yet, apart from running into some guy near Weathertop weeks ago playing the William Tell Overture on what appeared to be a Lute....or maybe it was a Mandolin....not sure....was pretty new to the game and simply astonished at what I was witnessing. So, yes, I am curious and eager to take a break from the usual, I came, I saw, I killed things routine of game play.

And, yes, house tours. Ran a few myself in Ultima Online where the houses are EXTREMELY customizable. Mine here, though, sits largely undecorated. Thus I'm eager to attend this event too.

Just happy to be here....yes, I know - that's what folks on the soon to be losing team say, but I don't mean it that way in this case ;)
Taenzel
PostPosted: Fri Sep 07, 2012 4:02 am    Post subject:

Aethelwald wrote:
Before this becomes a novel length tome - tome in the literary sense I mean - I'll conclude by saying I'm looking for a merry band of adventurers who don't take themselves too seriously and know that being good at a GAME is of minor importance compared to enjoying the company of others they otherwise would never have met.

So let's meet up and chat.


If you are interested and have time you could come to our band practice session this Saturday. It starts at 12 pm EST. After that we will have a lil event to celebrate the 2nd anniversary of our server and we will be visiting in-game homes of members and choose a winner for the best home. So I think you could meet a few of us there already.
Aethelwald
PostPosted: Thu Sep 06, 2012 5:37 pm    Post subject:

Whew!! I'd been wondering if it was something I'd said in the application....perhaps I hadn't dressed appropriately when I filled it out....

*is relieved*

I've been frustrated...you see I thought the purpose of an online game was to meet and enjoy the company of people far from the single physical locale we must occupy in the analog world - or as someone years ago rather crudely referred to it, "meat-space" as opposed to cyberspace I suppose.

What I'm finding is an overwhelming number of classic Richard Bartle's Achiever types. Everyone intensely focused on raising their level number, filling chat with bewildering acronyms and odd fractions like 4/6 in that global looking for fellowship channel. Oh and lots and lots of so called kinships that are happy to add you but totally ignore you when it's time to do something both multiplayer and game-like in nature.

Their forums are dead. Their Vent servers abandoned. Massively single player. Adventuring alone with the dubious comfort of other people doing likewise somewhat connected to the same game world. Kin mates dashing into the same area, packed with all manner of dangers, declining offers to form fellowships to share the peril.

Yet this is, far and away, the most captivating digital world I've encountered....strange.

I don't buy the whole, "kids these days....gamers these days.....fall of western civilization" stuff when I discuss matters with folks in the game. Rather I blame the game design. I interviewed at Turbine years ago, when they were struggling to finally release Ashron's Call. Brilliant tech. Poor sense of people....people of the customer sort.

Seems to me that you have to strive over-mightily to make multiplayer gaming happen in this splendidly engineered world. Kin leadership pretty much have to be old school dungeon masters constantly. Grouping and adventuring is not organic. You, as a person in that splendid world, are meant to follow the script, build your characters, but ignore the limitless messages telling you that your being there is of no consequence. Heck, you can't even throw anything on the ground, even in the most desolate, out of the way places. There aren't even collection boxes in banks for weapons or articles of gear you no longer need that a newer player could really, really use.

Before this becomes a novel length tome - tome in the literary sense I mean - I'll conclude by saying I'm looking for a merry band of adventurers who don't take themselves too seriously and know that being good at a GAME is of minor importance compared to enjoying the company of others they otherwise would never have met.

So let's meet up and chat. Since the release of The Island of Kesmai in 1982 people have relished exactly the ethos and experience of fellowship aided by communications technology in an alternate world game setting. Certainly that can happen here as well.

With the warmest of regards,

Aethelwald.
Rosalie Rumble
PostPosted: Thu Sep 06, 2012 4:22 pm    Post subject:

Hello, Aethelwald! I rather enjoyed your application and am quite sure you'd be a great fit here. We only delayed approving it because we wanted to speak to you in game first to make sure that we're the kin you're looking for. I did add you to my list, but my playtime has been very limited this week and some of our other officers are out of town right now as well. I hope that one of our group can get in touch with you soon.

I will say that we haven't had as many scheduled group instances of late, though I am hoping that will pick up again soon with the release of the new expansion. Most of our instance & fellowship activity is impromptu and bolstered by people found on GLFF, but we do keep a number of activities going that are centered around the, well, fluffier side of things I guess you could say. We have a kin band and do host weekly and monthly events for the server, including one major event coming up next Saturday.

I guess it comes down to what type of interaction you're looking for. Again, I do hope that we'll have more of the actual fellowship quests and instances on the calendar soon. But if you are looking for social interaction that goes beyond just the game quests, I can't think of a better place to find it than here with Second Breakfast.

I hope we'll have the chance to meet with you very soon.

Cheers,
Rosalie
Aethelwald
PostPosted: Wed Sep 05, 2012 8:42 pm    Post subject: You Folks Recruiting?

Hello!

I filled out the rather detailed application to join this bunch, albeit at the beginning of a holiday weekend here in the States. Waiting to hear back.

What's been bedeviling me about this game is how difficult it has been to find the multiplayer game tucked inside. There's one in there. I could swear I saw it. And it can't just be for people at level 75 or so - the so-called End Gamers....sort of like the end times you hear about from...well...best not go there.

Never has an online game made it more incumbent on players to act as defacto DMs on a consistent basis to realize what the founders of this medium intended: an environment where people are interacting more with each other than with whatever game framework developers managed to cobble together.

Need to take a break after *that* sentence. Pardon me....

[muzak version of Springsteen's Born to Run]

It appears that this merry band manages to win its battle against the egocentric surface game on a regular basis to deliver a community experience. True?. If this is what you're about I'd like to be a contributing, participating part of it.
 
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