Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Thoughts of the Ending of Relationships

(not personal, you can all stop freaking out.)

Firstly, it take two to tango. If a relationship ends, very very rarely is one person a candidate for sainthood, and the other Satan incarnate. Sympathy for the ending relationship should be extended to both sides. Nor should outsiders assume that the 'Dumpee' is the wronged party, and the 'Dumper' acting harshly or irrationally. Conversely, don't assume that Dumper is fleeing a horibble relationship, and Dumpee is an ogre.

There is no way for the timing and delivery on ending a relationship to be anything but sucky. Having seen prolonged endings, and sudden-seeming cutoffs, I couldn't say one is better than the other. Once someone decides the relationship isn't right for them, how long do they have to stick around? Is it better to get it over with, or keep going knowing in your heart it's not working? Is one deception, and the other harsh, or is one compassionate, and the other honest?

The decision for someone to stay in a relationship with you is not yours. You can work on the relationship, you can ask for counseling or marriage therapy... and you can manipulate, you can guilt trip, you can change in ways you think will hold on to them, but when it comes down to them deciding to leave, you don't get a choice. You can not like their choice all you want, but you can't force them to stay.

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Rehersal: Sucking the Life out of Uru Live

We all know there is a Rehearsal Server for Uru Live. Said Rehearsal is for large crowds of people do final bug testing on the upcoming content for Live. No big secret, that's what test servers are for.

And, like most test servers, people participating are NDAd six was to Sunday. The first rule of Rehearsal Club, is you will not talk about Rehearsal Club.

Rehearsal was the first chance people had to glimpse Uru Live, so of course all the die hards who'd been clinging to Uru since the death of Prologue jumped at the chance. And they continue to recruit for beta testers for Rehersal.

So, what can we extrapolate from this information?

1) There is a place where Uru Live new content is available to a large portion of the player base, weeks in advance of release.

2) People on Rehearsal are not allowed to talk about the content they see, but they are expected to work through it.

This implies that a unnumbered segment of the player base is ACTIVELY PLAYING NEW CONTENT weeks in advance. We can guess that not only are they seeing new and shiny things, but that they are exploring, solving puzzles, and speculating on what they find, all in an enclosed, isolated space, and they *can't talk about it to the rest of the player base*

That means that when content hits Live, there's a large segment of the player base that is ALREADY DONE with the new content, and is already waiting for the next thing.

And, given the pre-live recruitment, we can infer that many of the Rehearsal population is the REALLY BIG FANS, who used to be publicly seen speculating and solving puzzles, and now are keeping their mouths shut.

No WONDER things are slow in Live! If the real sparks of the community are off Exploring on Rehearsal, and just twiddle their thumbs and be social in Live, their Explorer energy and enthusiasm is wasted on Live. Instead of OMG CHECK IT OUT all over the forums when content hits, people are ho-humming, in part because they've already BTDT.

And I'd be willing to bet money that there are people who spend more time in Rehearsal than they do in Live. I'd even be willing to be that there are people who never come into Live at all anymore.

How is that good for Live? The rationale is that GameTap gets their money and numbers either way, but what does it do for the dynamic of the cavern? When a portion of the community, likely some of the most active members, are restrained, restricted and in some cases not even around, how does that make things look to new people?

The solutions range from the extreme: Boot everyone off of Rehearsal, and only recruit from outside the fan base; to the complicated; Make people earn Rehearsal access through time in Live; to the theoretically possible: Make at least two Rehearsal teams, A and B, and alternate their access.

But really, something needs to change. Beta testing is a needed, vital step. But in this case, it really looks as if that step is coming at the expense of the final product.

Monday, October 22, 2007

Never mind. the rabble seems to have cleared out in favor of complete asshats.
I'm rabble rousing, and by god the rabble need roused! So of course those that are horrified by the idea that Uru is worth working at are up in arms.

There's a portion of the people out there who see their only connection to Uru as the monthly fee they pay. And for that monthly fee, they get Stuff, and that's that.

Fine enough, until they start being the ones complaining about Uru's flaws. And yes, Uru has flaws. And we know some of those flaws are significantly tied in to paid staffing... and paid staffing is tied into GameTap seeing good numbers...

We all see the cycle. So those of us who (as I said while rousing) see Uru as symbiotic, and not parasitic, do things to bring in more people.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Aaaannnnd, go!

The forum I've been working my butt off for finally went live. This is an actual honest to god forum with about 500 members.

All of which I'm having to hand sort into usergroups because the forum mod for invite codes into usegroups refused to work. Gerrrr.

Numerous other projects, including a complete rearrangement of the house, are in the works. Decants to finish, presents to make, Uru stuff to pour over, etc.

The Featherheads are throwing seeds at me. Dorky birds.

Monday, October 15, 2007

OMG TEH NAKED!!!

In yet another bit of evidence that people are REALLY STUPID when it comes to the unclothed human body, I present this:
Single Complaint Likely Means No More Free Naked Lunch
by Darklady

GREENVILLE, MN -- At the Black Frog Restaurant, the customers know that
“Naked Lunch” refers to more than just the ground breaking and mind
bending William S. Burroughs novel of the same name.

At least it used to.

Alas for those who enjoy the food, fun, and atmosphere of the Black
Frog, it appears that one diner was left with a bad taste in his or her
mouth; bad enough that they complained to the legal authorities.

It doesn’t appear to have been the food that so offended the unknown
person as it was what some clients of the eatery went through in order
to receive it free of cost.

At issue is the restaurant’s famous, and now infamous, “Skinny Dip.”
While the sliced prime rib on a baguette is fairly traditional, the way
that hungry and budget conscious eaters were able to have it served for
free was not.

Docked in Moosehead Lake, the Black Frog Restaurant is perfectly
situated for those with a love of water. In the case of the Skinny Dip,
evening diners keen for its savory goodness but in search of a thrill
and a bargain were – until recently – welcome to peel of their clothing
and jump into the lake’s chill waters.

According to Turner, who found out about the single complaint when he
attempted to renew his liquor license, if he’s formally asked to stop
allowing his clients to have their bit of naked fun, then there won’t be
any more free Skinny Dips served in exchange.

While not the biggest seller on the menu, restaurant owner Leigh Turner
told the press that they served “two or three a week” during the three
years that the offer was available. No one was ever exposed to any
frontal nudity and towels were always available for the damp and daring.

“Most everybody applauded,” Turner assures.

Nonetheless, John Simko, the Town Manager for the area, apparently was
contacted by the single person to have visited the Black Frog and not
approved. Because of this, Simko has suggested that Police Chief Scott
MacMaster have words with Turner about the sandwich deal. If that
happens, it’ll be a fat chance that nobody will be earning a free Skinny
Dip.

Darklady is Editor at YNOT and has more than a decade of experience
covering the adult entertainment industry, internet technology, and
alternative sexuality beats online, in print, and via traditional and
web radio.


That's right, folks. No more free sammitch for jumping bare into glacial melt water, because someone got offended at the sight of a nekkid tush. Probably the same person who obsessively watches war reports on Fox to see all the dead Iraqis, cause that's so much less offensive.