Charity Donation Thingie

Extra Life | Play Games. Heal Kids. – DonorDrive®.

 

That is my donor link.  On November 2nd I’m gonna be playing Mech Warrior Online for 24hrs straight to benefit my local Children’s Miracle Network Hospital, the IWK Health foundation.

Please help support me in this worthy cause by clicking the link and tossing a donation my way.

 

ALL money donated through that link goes directly to the IWK Hospital in Halifax Nova Scotia.  I think this hospital also serves Maine, as well.

Anyway, here.

Finn’s Wake: Policing Our Own in the Geek Nation

THIS THIS THIS ONE MILLION TIMES THIS THIS

Finn’s Wake: Policing Our Own in the Geek Nation.

Who Doesn’t Like A Little Gratuitous Nudity To Go With Their Violence Toward Women?

Who Doesn’t Like A Little Gratuitous Nudity To Go With Their Violence Toward Women?

 

I’m a gamer,  I did not notice this before.. Perspective!

My game, My Life, Mechwarrior Online.

For the past let’s say, two months or so, I have been playing one of the best games ever, Mechwarrior Online.  It isn’t City of Heroes.  Nothing will ever come close to that game.  But the thing is, MWO is NOT run by NCSoft, but by Infinite Games Publishing.  So…that is a point in it’s favour right off the bat.  Now, I never really was into the whole Battletech universe.  Big Stompy mechs, were cool, I liked the concept, but I never really got *into* it back in the late 90’s early 2000’s or so.  (earlier if you’re into the tabletop game, but that required friends, mine were into the Marvel Universe so we played that as the pen and paper/tabletop)

My main mech chassis right now is the Centurion.

This was a bit different though.  My husband was totally into Battletech, and Mechwarrior before we got married, and when Mechwarrior Online got announced, he was extremely happy.  We’re a couple that games together.  Most women are like “UGH my husband games ALL THE TIME and I HATE IT because he never spends time with ME ME ME ME ME”.  I’m not like that.  I actively try to get interested in what my husband is interested in and try to connect with him at that level.

Thing is,  MWO, is Player vs Player (aka PVP)  I’ve had some *very* bad experiences in PVP arenas in the past.  Mostly because, I’m not the greatest gamer in the world.  There I said it. I’m not l33t, I’m not uber.  I play to have FUN.  I don’t take it seriously.  Anyway,  I was very hesitant to get involved in MWO mostly due to the PVP aspect.  League of Legends, Call of Duty, all have their share of prepubescent dickheads that shout endless amounts of abuse at you through their mic over teamspeak…will MechWarrior’s community be any different?

It is.  Especially if you get in with a great gaming company that can teach you the ropes.  I got in with the company my husband got into during closed beta.  The Black Widow Company. Aka Bravo Whiskey Charlie.  They don’t just do MWO,  They’re pretty well entrenched in Planetside2, and have been running their own Real Life paintball company as well.  They’re also gearing up for Star Citizen when it gets released.  So if any of those games appeal to you, and you want a great close knit corps, head on over and tell them MeltedSnowgirl sent you in your application post on the forums.

Designed by *and used with the permission of*

 Miki Rei of http://the-bwc.com

Now, from a game play perspective.  MWO has a decent learning curve. Luckily for you, there’s an offline training area where you can go stomp and blow up dummies to your hearts content while you get used to the mech controls.  This game has joystick/Throttle/Rudder support.  Don’t worry about that, it’s how my husband plays.  Me I’m a mouse and keyboard gal and enjoy it that way. (that and I don’t have enough room on my desk for a full joystick setup..too much crud..I need to clean ugh).  The controls, once you get used to them, are pretty easy to deal with.  *I* would recommend turning off throttle decay so you can move around easier during combat.  Arm Lock, there are differing opinions on that, I’ll just tell you it has improved my ability to target.

Story-wise,  they haven’t brought in community warfare just yet.  They plan on that this summer.  So all the Major Houses and Merc Corps WILL BE blowing each other up eventually.  Might even be ladders and real tourneys, who knows.  I don’t, but it would be cool.

As for mech releases, they go with the timeline.  There is no Clan-tech in game yet.  There will be, don’t worry.  I’m still waiting on my Pink Urbanmech. *sigh*  I like my waddling trashcan with legs.  Giant pink R2-D2 with jump jets and boom sticks.

Designed by *and used with the permission of* 

Miki Rei of http://the-bwc.com

I have so much fun in this game, mostly when I run drops with The BWC.  If I run solo as a PUG it’s pretty frustrating, but running with the company,  we have fun, camaraderie, and more co-ordination over teamspeak, so we do more winning than losing.  It’s a team game, being part of an established team makes it WAY better.

Designed by *and used with the permission of* 

Miki Rei of http://the-bwc.com

Oh and MWO is Free To Play.  Yup. Download it and go.  You need to run trial mechs until you can afford enough in game currency to get your first mech.  You get a cadet bonus for the first 25 matches you’re in so it adds up quick.  You CAN spend real money on Mech Cash… Two types of currency in game, Cbills, that’s the stuff you earn through normal play, and Mech Cash, that’s bought with real money.  You can buy Hero Mechs with MC, which boosts your Cbill earnings by %30.

I  can go on and on about this game.  This entry is almost tl;dr as it is.  I’ll leave you with these  links.

Click here for Mechwarrior Online. Download and rules and all the rest of the stuff you need to know is here.

Once you’ve downloaded and decided you actually enjoy the game:

Head on over to TheBWC and post an application. MeltedSnowgirl is your recruiter.

Online web based Mech Builder.

The Secret World Review

Hey all, I know it’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything. I’ve been playing The Secret World, and Mech Warrior Online, since City of Heroes went down.

I’ll post what I think about TSW.  It’s a great game.  The story is epic and far reaching, and very well written.  This isn’t a game that you want to power through though, I feel like it’s something that you should take your time and savour.  There are puzzles however, some of which are pretty damn hard.  Like so hard to the point that you want to punch your monitor.  Luckily there are guides out there to help you out.  I’ll post a link to such a guide down the page.

Back to the review.  The Secret World lends itself well to both solo play, and team play.  The environment is very well done, there are a huge variety of quests, from action, where you just shoot or slash things, sabotage, where you have to sneak through, and then the investigation missions,  those are really awesome, and also pit your wits against the game.  (sometimes you need help with these)

Combat, can be sketchy.  I love the active dodge, but the repetitive 1-2-1-2-3-4 combination gets kinda old after a while.

Build wise, you don’t NEED an alt.  You can literally use everything in the game. Just need to build up your skill wheel.  They use AP and SP to build skills up.  Rather intuitive.

Dungeons are challenging, as well.

The only problem I have with this game is it’s gear based like most MMO’s  (except COH)  So when you get through the story, you get to the end of game gear grind again.

FunCom does release regular content updates as well, so you’re not totally lost without new stories for too terribly long, so if you’re not into the grind then you don’t have to.

The best thing is, It has NO subscription.  You buy the box, and that’s it.  Kinda like Guildwars.  (but not NCsoft)  Sure it’s “Ermahgerd EA lol”  (especially after that SimCity fiasco)  but Funcom is a good studio to support IMO.

So yeah if you are playing TSW,  and need a little boost, you can click on this link Click here for a guide on The Secret World, walkthrough and PVP strats and more.

So yeah!  It’s really not that bad of a game.  I enjoy it tremendously.  You can find me as LacusMortius over on Leviathan server.

Good bye old friend

Last night was the very last night of City of Heroes.  I missed the grand finale because I needed to be up today to get my daughter to her Lego Robot competition.  As always, my friends were disappointed, but, understanding, when I couldn’t show up for something.  That was the most awesome thing about this community.  If you couldn’t make something due to life, they understood and didn’t guilt you.  They might have joshed around with you a bit, but they did understand.

I’m going to miss the game.  I didn’t play much after the Extra Life thing, and I know that. I do regret it, but I just couldn’t bring myself to visit my dying friend.  I said my goodbyes last night in my own way.  I hate goodbyes.  I hate repeats.

I have faith that whatever Titan Network has planned as a spiritual successor, will be absolutely beautiful, or, if Disney does manage to pry the IP out of NCsoft’s cold greedy soulless hands, then I hope my characters will be restored.  If not, I have them committed to memory.

Kahlan Raynes.  My Elec/Kinetic Corruptor.  Married in game to my husband’s Mercs/FF MM Alpha-One/Alec Raynes.

Gabriella Di Inferno  My Mace/Elec brute.  The Rikti Destroying Machine.  Jawbreaker looks like she’s smashing nads since she’s tiny.

Sharp Pointy Stik.  My Arch/TA Corr.  Ran an All TA ITF spearheaded by her, and we won.

o.0  My bane.

I didn’t screenie all of them..I should have but I guess I didn’t. One other stupid thing I guess..wishful thinking? I dunno.  I was just really attached to Kahlan though

Oh Rogue Ivy, my plant/thorn Dom.  My flagship Villain.

Terrana Nightside, my Emp-Psi defender…another flagship homage since both my flagship toons were on my husbands account.

Sybil Nightside, my first ever 50, when I shared my husbands account.

The role call is long…and sad…all those “lives” snuffed out with a careless flick of a switch.

The "Gamer" or "Video Game" Stigma

You know, The more I think about it, the more I realize that, Extra Life is a way for non-athletes, those of us with physical limitations who can’t run marathons, or triathalons, to raise money for a very good cause.

 Just because we aren’t running our butts off in a physical means, doesn’t mean we aren’t pushing ourselves to the limits of our endurance for the cause, to raise money and awareness for the cause we are passionate in. We are Gamers, We are Heroes, we are members of society. We game, it’s what we do well. Just like marathon runners. So, when someone approaches you with an Extra Life link, it’s legit. It’s a legitimate way to raise money for Children’s Hospitals across North America. If you have questions about it, email your local Children’s Miracle Network hospital directly and ask them.

At around 6am I was literally TREMBLING From exhaustion. I mean I was pushing my limits as a human being to keep a commitment to my donors. 

I tried to be a hero for the local kids. I hope I made a difference in my own way.

Anyway this is how I logged off at the end of my 24hr City of Heroes run.  We had a Milliyun Tiny Pepsimen March earlier in the evening to honour one of our most iconic players on the server, Pepsiman.  His incredible sense of humour, wit, and silliness is one the things that makes Guardian such a great place to be.  I rolled there because it was at the top of the list,  I stayed there because of the friendly people.

I do hope this game gets saved.  I really enjoyed my 24hr stint of madness for Extra Life Charities.  I hope I can run with the same people again next year.  NCsoft, please sell the IP…This community does things like this regularly. If you split us up…you divide the good we can do together.

All together for Extra Life, we raised  Over $8500 !!!!! For the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals!  That is PHENOMENAL considering how small our community is compared to that of Reddit.  That’s quite a bit of change.  

So destroying our world, also divides the amount of good we can do. 😦  Please…please if you haven’t yet,  go over to  The Titan Network  and get involved in one of the many “Calls To Action” TonyV, and the rest of the community, has going on.

Thank you.

Livestream NOW

Playing City of Heroes for 24hrs to benefit the IWK Grace foundation, my local Children’s Miracle Network Hospital.

I’m livestreaming HERE:

YES HERE!! CLICK IT

You can sponsor me here:

SPONSOR MEH!!!!!

So there you go.  Proof that I”m doing this.

Thanks!

DROP IT BOY!

Do you know what the difference is between NCSoft and This:?

I’ll answer.  The dog will give you the bone if you tell it to, enough times.  If you leave it alone, the dog will probably find a nice secluded spot in your yard, and bury it.  

As a community we need to keep telling the dog (NCsoftcore) to drop the bone, (CoH’s IP) So we can do what we want with it…

I’m just sick of NCsoft sitting there growling at us as we tell it to drop the bone.   They don’t need it, they don’t want it anymore, but they refuse to let it go so they’ll go off and bury it in the yard if you don’t grab it, but it must be done in such a way that it becomes their idea so they don’t bite you.

So frustrating.  There have been offers for the IP.  NCsoft is refusing to let it go.  “Tried all the options” is an outright lie.  Stop lying to us.  NCsoft drop the bone.  DROP IT NOW.  Give us the bone and we’ll give you this awesome cookie.  Cookie (millions of dollars) or bone?  Let another owner run with it now.  stop being greedy bastards.

*giggles evilly*

You know, I have absolutely zero knowledge about the stock market, but even I know that this is bad

Going down NCsoft?

You would think that closing City of Heroes was a good business move the way they keep spinning this “realignment of company focus” , but it’s sort of obvious now, that they have wound up shooting themselves in the foot.

First: They kill off a profitable and family friendly game and community.

Second: They make said community who role play as heroes and villains in their chosen MMO slightly perturbed. We vocalize our upset.  That’s understandable

Third:  They release this pile of steaming horse manure. expecting us to be like

Well NCsoft,  now you realize that it’s not working.  What you are doing, is not working.  We will not shut up.  We will not surrender.  We will not stop calling you out on your heifer dust.  DUDE! You forged Garriot’s resignation letter when he was out in space! Like COME ON.  You really think after murdering  5 MMO’s we would trust you with more of our money? 

Think again.  I’m sort of glad I’m watching your stock holders bail like rats out of a sinking ship.  I wouldn’t blame them.