runescape - a blog.

fluidity sucks, sometimes.

2008-05-11T20:57:00.004+07:00

strangely enough, i expected things to just stay still. if life's supposed to be like running water, time and tide and all those cliched overused metaphors, i guess it's almost reasonable to assume runescape's going to be one of those things that's not like that. as if, i can leave it alone for a few weeks, months, and every time i log in out of habit in those times in between, i'll just pick up the loose ends and play on. an attitude that extends to this blog.

except there isn't really anything like that, is there, that stands still for you. it's like going back to a book and realising you wouldn't have finished reading it now, but you did then, and for that you're grateful.

except every time i'm about to blog about something trivial while doing something repetitive, i realise there's so much i need to catch up with. f2p last year seemed so starved of updates in comparison. unless it's just about the amount of time spent playing. there's this sense that there's no point saying anything unless you know enough, especially since i'm not used to not knowing about anything f2p. after all, there's precious little to know. there's things like summoning, which has nothing to do with me but which i simply would like to have some idea of. and little little changes, in lieu of everything else - a stronghold of something else, some gnome setup cum advertising gimmick, perhaps. ge database, new combat minigame. oh yeah, and the new graphics.

all things i don't actually know anything about. pfft. and i do find i can't actually be bothered to find out. it builds up into this massive backlog reminiscent of secondary school two-subject-credits maths, massive by my standards, anyhow, so i can't actually really be bothered with runescape. much. it doesn't help that it's not easy to throw away something i've put so much time into, even if it's only pixels. i can't seem to make a clear cut decision, because 'i quit' implies i wasted the past two years or so, and not quitting seems hypocritical. lacks closure, and fading out of existence is cowardly and annoying.

real life helps a lot. mainly because real life is slightly screwed. slightly in context of everything else. today's mother's day, today's the global day of prayer. there was a cyclone in myanmar. another term's ending. everything seems massively out of context, and none more so than rs.

it would be nice if rs could sit still and just be a game. simple game. brainless, not time consuming. not fluid. except (most) simple games don't have blogs written about them, or articles, or sites dedicated to their dissection. ergo i wouldn't be surprised if this is my last post, even though i didn't plan for it to be, but like i said, lack of closure annoys me, and i need a pseudo last post for peace of mind, if nothing else. the way i didn't mean for the last february post to be left hanging so long, but it just, y'know, did.

anyway, all i meant to say, before this turned into a rambling mess, was that it's irritatingly ironic that fluidity, the one thing i needed to keep me tied to the game this time last year, is the one thing that's pushing me away from it now. lack of fluidity (in f2p at least) pushed me to start this blog, to convince myself that there's something more to a game than changeability, that boredom's a conquerable enemy, and i'm bigger than monotony.

turns out - turns out i'm my own worst enemy. so thanks for dropping by, and for everything else past, because it being past doesn't wish it out of existence. and i'd also like to apologise for unfufilled expectations, up to and including unkept promises, unfinished sentences.

this seems easy, too easy. almost like it isn't fair, because real life issues never could be this easily... disposed of. (and i just now realised maybe fluidity isn't the most apt of words, but what they hey, last few sentences.) but then, in all it's ambiguity, that's what fluidity essentially is, hein?

a-llusionary.

2008-02-02T23:47:00.001+07:00

in today's news, i have worked out a strategy, slightly belated though it may be. henceforth my (new) skiller shall carry for a weapon a bow that is the definition of non-confrontational. a curved stick makes for a bloody useless weapon if "there is no ammo [left] in your quiver." i get offers of arrows from kind donors and not so kind 'the noob is economically ignorant' wannabe merchants, but that by far beats accidentally clicking on barbarians and farmer fred's rams for a one way, express trip to lumby, the castle of.

i am ignoring my main.

said skiller has also commenced the morbid task of part time bone collecting, which has proved to be a surprisingly profitable enterprise. market rates are at a high of 77gp, and with minimal initial capital (a subject that needs burying, a random player's cb xp), all contributed by various generous investors, even a causal run yields 100% profit. after scounting locations, the research assistants would like to report that the goblins in front of the al kharid toll gate, the cow field just north of there, and lumby courtyard on a busy world are prime sites for activities. the only observed downside is that of contributors not receiving due dividends, but unless you're a goblin, chicken or a cow, the company shall endeavour not to pick up and sell your bones. the upper management concludes that this is a time-consuming but surefire money making method for the impoverished skiller, and therefore has decided to discontinue bone collecting for the indefinite future.

dogbert says dance like it hurts, love like you need money, work when people are watching.

i haven't seen non sequitur in the longest time.

shove off, saradomin - when runescape meets religion. rl religion.

2008-02-01T22:22:00.000+07:00

don't actually come across this very often, but still. it's so messy.

an erstwhile nameless player makes his way through the packed lumby courtyard of a world just full enough that you'd need to refresh the page a few times at least before you got in. he walks up the steps, stops, and starts speaking. above the din of the gathered crowd, you hear "Jesus loves you!" he manages a few more lines unmolested. then he starts damning people to hell.

and that's where the trouble starts.

he's attracted a few 'you're so right's and about thrice that number of dissentors. every comment's pure flame bait, and for some reason people can't just ignore him and go on with their account selling and cybering. as they perhaps would an ad bot. then again, he's a mid leveled account with enough typos to be a real person. the difference is he just ploughs on, regardless of any and every legitimate debateable point people throw at him. he's not an ad bot, but he might as well be one, but because he isn't one, people can't just leave him alone and treat him like one, like a little blip on the radar you annihilate by clicking 'add ignore'.

it's not strictly muteable, it's almost reportable, but there isn't exactly a rule of the thumb for this sorta thing, no? it'd be intolerant if there was. so forget the report bit, for now.

joining in the fray isn't absolutely out of the question, but how dyou join in without being perceived as taking a side by the overly sensitive?

in the end, pm seems the best option. results in a short conversation, briefer explanation, abrupt logging out, and relocation to a considerably less populated lumby where he actually has what almost resembles a theological discussion with the only spectator. i got lucky.

but even so, it's volatile, and it's messy. so so messy.

i'm not against religious discussions, it's a topic you just have to broach if you've got a friend who can make intelligent conversation, but preaching's another thing altogether. in a way, i've no idea why he does it. was all about intimidation, threatening people with 'if you don't listen to me you'll go to hell' over and over. and i just got this sense, it's all he knew to say. either he's a child who hasn't a clear enough grasp of what he wants/ought to do, or he's got too poor a grasp of the language to know how to say anything more.

not that the exclamation marks and random capital letters helped any. or the name either. watching u *number* doesn't exactly inspire trust, or confidence.

and it's sweet of him to believe so strongly in what he does, but it's simply a flawed way of going about it. intimidation usually spawns defiance, forcing opinions and judgment on people isn't the same as persuading and debating with them. acting as if the other party doesn't exist by having what's in essence a one-sided conversation's just going to annoy. going to do more harm than good.

further complicated by the fact that i agree with him. more or less, on the salient points. salient points that nonetheless aren't half the picture, aren't telling it all. discussion goes round in circles, but because we're christian too, there's this pervading element of guilt. as if you're silencing something that matters.

not exactly the best of situations to be in.

there was this point raised about religion not belonging in runescape. about real life, the problems of real life not belonging in a game. not an argument that really works, considering that religion's a lifestyle, and for some of us, runescape isn't so much a game as a medium for communication, such controversy being a defensive measure against that 'i can't remember what happened eight minutes ago' syndrome. even if it isn't, it does seem pretty stupid to compartmentalise your life that way.

so religion crops up often enough, and when it does, i'm-a-guthix-worshipper type humour seems to be more of a cop out. is why i'm more wary about using it, but more to the point, i don't actually care for any of the rs gods. or demigods. or in between entities.

on an almost related note, i don't know why, but i always had this impression that christianity's a more common religion in western countries. uk, usa, europe, generally. as if all the catholic/protestant conflicts and declaration of independance automatically renders christianity the majority religion. then i go into a game that seems to have an even smaller percentage of christians than statistics say about real life. puts you vaguely off balance.

but then again, that's what arguments do.

leading up to quitting.

2008-01-22T20:51:00.000+07:00

hmm. haven't blogged in the longest time, or it seems that way. somehow i didn't quite expect runescape to change very much. not that i expected the game to remain stagnant while i was away, but (and especially after the wildy fiasco and all) i honestly didn't see what was coming.

and by that i don't mean summoning.

then again, i've transferred all that incoherent stuff to the previous post, so this is more... real. more solid, in case you find reading posts like my previous one nauseating and downright infuriating. grasping for straws you know you don't have. i know i would. hence the editing.

in short. i quit. i've resigned modship, and i won't in all likelihood be playing rs very much in the future. distant or otherwise.

take note? i'm only doing and saying it now because of recent developments. emphasis on the recent developments. or what you shall read would've remained there, not even articulated as thoughts.

looking back it's as if everything these past few months lead up to quitting. this post is for telling it as it is, putting down my thoughts as of november last year, before events responded to in the previous post. saying things you will likely understand, instead of be flummoxed by. so this mayn't seem reason enough to you, but when viewed in the context of aforementioned developments, to me, it is.

i accidentally trained mage on my skiller and raised the combat level i was so dedicated to keeping. i reached 777 total level on my main, a nice milestone of a number, by my standards. (academic) results weren't catastrophically bad, but still worse than they've ever been since secondary school.

plus i've been trying to keep off rs during weekdays for the last few months. and failing miserably at it.

i wouldn't have been able to quit if i'd tried. and that thought existed, but i wouldn't have considered just not playing if i hadn't been persuaded in a way only jagex could. and since they took the first step, i've been thinking.

if i want to go to grad school, i'll need a scholarship. i won't survive (and won't be allowed to stay) on a more or less minor scholarship like the one i'm on now. which i'm not actually in danger of losing, but it's not as if i wouldn't like to do marginally better. and while rs isn't exactly dragging me down, it's not helping much either.

so jagex offers a way out that leaves hardly any chance of me ever coming back to rs again once i've decided to leave it alone. y'see, f2p's an intensely boring place, and i didn't and don't become a member for fear of being even more addicted than i already am, which is already scaring me. i don't define myself as a mod, but that's the only thing that keeps me playing. i would be enormously relieved and a bit less stressed if i were not, but i would've quit sometime in april last year if i hadn't been modded.

conclusion: the best way to ensure i stay away is to be voluntarily demodded.

nothing new, that theory. but i've been running away from that action for almost half a year. as i write this, i'm trying to convince myself.

it's as if, you pour one to four years of your life into something, for me there was english, track, writing, skating, fanfic, and in a really different way, runescape. only lasting loves/obsessions - God, my religion. then in a sense, english, learning it, speaking it, getting to the point when i'm completely comfortable thinking and functioning in the language; and skating, because it's one of those things i can honestly say i'm passionate about.

other side, it's really sad when you put so much into something, and find you don't actually actively like it anymore, but you're just stuck with it. like track. and in a way, runescape. at the start it was addiction-stuck. then there's the queue mentality, after a while i didn't think about levels because past a point, consciously deciding to level in f2p is suicide, but i didn't want to let go. still don't wanna.

but i think, have been thinking i need to, and now i find i can. it's almost liberating.

this blog still lives for the time being, and i was thinking of letting it die when it does. because i may in name have said i quit, but it'll take longer to pull away, especially from my new skiller (complete waste). and i'll be blogging for some time yet. in the meantime, toodles. a two day break isn't long enough for two plane flights. happy lunar new year.

just for me to sort things out.

2008-01-22T15:50:00.000+07:00

EDIT:

i logged in last week to find myself with one foot out of the door, and apparently put there by jagex. following a conversation i'm very glad i had when i did, i decided to move the other foot, too.

road to hell is paved with good intentions, that lead to things like overkill. and purely accidental betrayal of trust.

end of story.

- because i'm sorry, really i am, but i'm lousy with euphermisms, and i make for a sucky diplomat, and that's the best way i can say things.

quote of the week. "always tell the truth. that way you don't have to remember what you said."

impromtu post. (yes that's what it is.)

2007-12-11T19:15:00.000+07:00

I wasn't actually going to post. Up till yesterday I hadn't thought there was time, nor a point. Last post details the result of that theory.

I don't know to what extent having only 42k people online right now isn't so much a result of dissatisfied players quitting as the absence of bots.

I'd plastered a big fat WRONG on RWT even before stopping to think why. It's that glaringly obvious. There isn't any need to wonder whether the answer might possibly be counter intuitive, it's one of those conclusions that comes so naturally, so rightly that a different, correct answer just doesn't exist. If you're a sentient human being, I'd thought, you'd realise that, or at least the reasons why I do.

That's why the players who tell me "Jagex is jealous of the real world traders because they earn more than they do" simply blow my mind. To let this go without talking about RWT, much as a waste of words it is, seems impossible. It's wrong because it cheapens the game. It undermines the time and effort of countless players. It's cheating, pure and simple, being textbook exploitation of an unfair, undeserved advantage. More than that though, not only is the act of buying wrong, along with intentions on both sides, the goods are tainted. They were attained by unfair means, by people majority of which have the sole intention of material gain, and a pragmatic worldview that places value on money, items, and leaves space for nothing else.

By supporting RWT, you're agreeing that you're one of those people. You're renouncing the concept of "morals" and "ideals". I believe I've made my opinions clear.

Onto the recent slew of updates. In all honesty this is exactly what's been begged for for months by some of the only players who've ever given me any reason to respect them: drastic (underline drastic) action that rids Glienor of the material flotsam of the real world. It didn't quite take the form we expected, but hey, any improvement's a good improvement, right?

Right. Especially when it incites comments, mere observations of which are as follows:

Jagex is considerate enough to time their updates for non peak, meaning I always seem to catch the updates right as they come out. Meaning I had a shot at Bounty Hunter before the clans swarmed in. Thought it was too good a chance to be missed, but my main just happens to be cb 61, and in the 55-100 med level crater, didn't hardly stand a chance anyway. And when you're aggro'd within 30 seconds, whether it's by a rogue or a legitimate hunter, you learn to go in empty handed and let them kill you for the xp. By the time I worked up the courage to go in to actually fight, my default-clothes-clothed main found herself at the bottom of a five person pileup. (Why they don't allow robes is beyond me. What, mage in your birthday suit?) I forgot Protect Items and lost the fire staff of great sentimental value. Spent the next ten minutes searching for the killers, with the vague idea that I'd awkwardly offer them 20k for it, until I figured they'd just write me off as some crackpot loon, and that I was indeed acting like some crackpot loon.

But seeing as I'm both "1 of he noobs that don't like the wildy and always die" and "the kind who are an so called lvl 3 skiller", I just shrugged and went back to the chaos dwarves, getting caught by some revenants I didn't even bother to catch a glimpse of in return, them hitting 15s on me and all.

Still, Bounty Hunter has to have some toggling multi combat on/off element. Then clan wars can transport itself over there with the money aspect intact. Speaking of the money aspect, perhaps pking was an excellent moneymaking opportunity. I wouldn't know, I never went there. I always did find the thought of death duels for the sake of money barbaric and mercenary in the extreme. Philistines.

Well, at best you could see the 3k cap as an attempt at reeducation. If you're into fighting for the sake and beauty (wtf?) of it, there's still dueling, there's still Bounty Hunting, Clan Wars, so on. As for the wilderness, while the revenants pose a deadly enough threat, it's simply not deadly enough. They need to be more widespread, perhaps level-specific, more common, to be dangerous. If the wilderness is to live up to it's name, it's got to be more dangerous than that. I'm grateful dishonourable pkers're a no show, isolated as they are in that little pen of theirs, but it's still too easy.

Grand Exchange, it's been out so long it's old news, all I've got to say's the same as anyone else. Too fixed, too inflexible, I've managed to earn 150k on my skiller while getting rid of junk, but even being desperate to get rid of things and selling them at the lowest prices, it's still hard to find a buyer. That aside, it's a feature I can get used to. Not that I don't appreciate the trading, but at least now I can trade...

Saving the best for last, unbalanced trades. I've yet to find anyone who actually agrees with this little beauty, that's a little bit more logically than emotionally sound, but not by that much. Only argument for it, it reinstates that idea of self-sufficiency. Not that I'm not more or less for self-sufficiency (die begging die), but gifts are just ... gifts. Sort of not seeing the forest for the trees, suppressing that spirit of generosity and putting a damper on Christmas cheer, all for the sake of ridding the game of nasty cheating... I can see where they're coming from, but all I see is it puts you at a loss, somewhere, in that game of human relations.

The money I've got saved fluctuates between 450k and 570k, but I'm going to have to make that change. There's so much giving that needs to be done, a particular instance of which is a cause for incense as much as anything else, but that's for later. I mean, money you can earn, and to think, scrambling to give away gifts one last time... that's vaguely pathetic. Why force us to be that way?

Sometimes, especially times like this, it feels like the only people who're half decent who actually play this game are friends who happen to be offline, oh, maybe because they don't agree with the new updates. At times like this a return to newbness on my skiller invites regular reminders of the humanity of runescapers I don't even happen to know. I get offers of 10k from someone on their way to triple digits, offers of 2k from an almost mid-leveled player who obviously can't afford it, and is in that awkward stage of bothering even to give a reason for their kindness (you don't have any numbers in your name), offers that I try to gush over before turning down, and reciprocating via my main. It's what makes the world go round. What, does Jagex think they're the exception to even that?

At this point, I'm almost glad to be away. I appreciate talking as much as the next person, but too much of this, in particular, it's not exactly a blessing. Players are alternately scandalised and victorious when I agree with them on choice points. Whatever they might think, mods don't sell their individuality and opinions to Jagex for the crown, and it's not as if the changes aren't about to anger mods less than anyone else. But somehow, it just seems plain wrong not to say something else, somehow. Something that softens the blow, something that gives Jagex a little more than the credit they're due.

Sometimes I just lose words in a normal conversation, I know what I mean, but I can't say it that way. I've learnt to listen in on conversations, that's one great thing about clan chat. That way I've got the politically correct answers phrased in an acceptable way on hand if I need them. Yet when I hear mods and experienced, mature, intelligent players lash out at Jagex, it seems almost like a betrayal. Of sorts. There's such a thing as loyalty, and even if something went a little wrong, somewhere, it's not as if they meant ill, so cut them some slack, and stand behind them when they need someone to. I don't know if it's too much to expect, but I feel as though I owe it to those I know personally, if not Jagex, to defend them more than I otherwise would have. Criticism is one thing, but abuse takes it into a whole new ballpark.

That said, Jagex does owe players an explanation. A long list of FAQs, written in the right tone, phrased half professionally, half genuinely. It's not that they aren't capable of it, I know that for a fact, but I don't understand why they won't just do it. It's like town criers. Players are trying to decide, to figure things out, and for those just puzzled, they need something, preferably official, to push them over, or at least get them off others' backs.

Crap's being deflected off onto the plates of mods who really had nothing to do with game development. When we also don't entirely agree with what's been done, it's hard not to react. My point about mods also lashing out wasn't to say that they should be hypocritical, and show a small measure of support for Jagex, whatever they choose to do. It's all about self control. Much as the think they want to, hearing a mod agree with and rant alongside them is the last thing these kids need. They're kids who don't want to listen to reason. It's about remaining professional, not detached, but in control.

I let myself go the last post, being completely sick of reigning everything in ingame. As a buffer I've got my imitation of a sounding board down, but the calming presence bit still needs work. I'm not yet able to let it come naturally, not to be disgusted by people and not let it show because that's not what they need to know, not yet. But I'm trying, and besides some mods many quietly watch, the examples I look to are certain Jagex curators. That's how I know the company can't be all bad. They've got some terrific employees. They've also got some players that continually disgust me, and reach greater heights with that pursuit every so often. Players that I'm embarrassed of.

For all intents and purposes, anyhow, it's a game. It's not as if people can't adapt (think, response to f2p team capes: "selling member cape 1k!"), accept it, or choose to have membershps terminated if they don't believe Jagex delivered. As for the future of RWT, everyone seems to assume it'll go away. It appears gold farmers're making a new proposition - let us hack your account for a price. You can trust us because we've delivered in the past, haven't we? Almost sad that they haven't given up, but that seems like it'll receive considerably less takers, and anyway, it's another problem for another day.

But whatever the consequences, I do believe the intentions were pure, because the corporation not withstanding, I know the people, I know they're good people, devoted, moral, diligent people. Good people. Whether it proves to be a mistake or no, what matters is they tried. They exceeded expectations that've sunk progressively over this past year, and that I can admire, can finally, finally respect.

On a totally related note, since I couldn't be bothered to fit this in snugly, it's off to China for a week and a half, then home just in time for Christmas. I'll be back next year, or near the end of this, if I manage to find a computer. Merry Christmas y'all, and like the song says, have a Happy New Year, updates and all. Can't be that hard to live with, right? (Wait, on second thoughts, you'd better not answer...)

Litany of Complaints.

2007-12-11T01:05:00.000+07:00

I am completely and utterly pissed off. Oh, not with Jagex. With the immature ungrateful little buggers who choose to flood me with their incessant whining. If it's one thing I absolutely cannot stand, it's whingeing. Yes I am about to embark on a short rant. Allow me this luxury and I'll be coherently reasonable in the next post.

If you define yourself as

1. a merchant
2. a pker

Congragulations, you belong to the two groups of people I often cannot stand to fraternise with. Nonetheless, I am human enough to understand that 1. you are pissed. 2. you aren't overly fond of Jagex at the moment. But quite, quite frankly, I do not give a damn about the complaints about the updates apart from praising Jagex for ridding the game of bots, real world trading and general unpleasantness and cheating AND giving f2p capes AND bank space AND the duel arena. In short I had absolutely nothing to complain about, and I especially do not want to give a damn about it solely on your behalf.

I don't for one second believe Jagex will "change it back" just for you morally destitute excuses for players and you know what? That thought gladdens me. Furthermore I have no intention at all of "telling Jagex" that they "suck" seeing as they, well, don't. I am also not an extension of Jagex and while I feel for them, with all the abuse they're getting, abusing me isn't going to do a thing, thank you very much. In fact I would be fully ecstatic if you would just quit already, "FOREVER".

So piss. Off.

one small little thing,

2007-11-13T23:03:00.000+07:00

i'd never really given the assist system much more than a cursory dismissal.

okay, so now my skiller gets to enchant ammys. (never quite got round to asking, conversation usually started/ended with a 'lol noob'.) okay, so ammy of [whatever] isn't actually worth much of anything, now.

okay, so that's one more thing i have to toggle 'off' next i log in.

okay, so some people simply will not read announcements or understand the the word request; meaning there's a new problem to deal with since, yeah, the level 3 banking in lumby must need help, never mind that i've got no notion of what constitutes 'skiller', much less that a puny level 3 could've ever had stats better than mine. okay, so people always didn't/acted-as-if they-didn't-so-it doesn't-make-any-difference read the announcements which is a Fact Of Life so accept it or It crushes you.

beyond all that, no, the poor assist system got the aforementioned cursory dismissal.

now, well well well the assist system still gets the aforementioned previously reiterated cursory dismissal. just, the one small thing that people shouting 'Request Me'exclamationmarkoneoneone decide some time to move over to world 16's air altar with 'free assist 3/4/7/8x'. i seem to play on the wrong side of the world from most people, placing world 16 at 452pax at the time of visitation; and i can't remember how i wanted to end this sentence, blogger's SAVE NOW not actually helping much if there isn't any internet connection.

runecrafting's the one skill i persistently find exceedingly difficult to train, a Fact of which i ignore rather than find myself resigned to. on the rare occassion that i do runecraft, a rewrite of that tired script is called for. when did 'open 2k'/'open 125 airs and ess' become 'open 3 laws and ess' become 'free assist...' etc. stuck so far to 'open 125 airs and ess' though, and i'm tempted for a moment to become one of the fluid majority, not a bad thing at all, really, and adopt that new form of blatant self-advertising.

rc just happens to be closer to 33 to 44...

and i do 'open 125 airs' stead of 100 to, as is apparent, stay ahead of the crafters with similarly lousy levels or of the opposing mentality with 25 airs royalties. meaning i do alternating 'open 2k' and 'open 125 airs and ess' runs of 1k rune ess, using the airs not sold from the 2k run to bring the airs dispensed next time round up to 125. seems faintly unethical to be offering 125 when the person next to you's at 100, but level 3 skillers in an f2p jungle need a competitive advantage, if you know what i mean.

...rendering me unable to take part in their innovative little 'free assist', stick in the mud up your as the sayings go.

fringe benefit's that i don't feel so guilty about 'open 1k and ess', with thrice the number of trade offers. being one of three voices shouting that refrain does things for you. strange things i wouldn't know about.

i go back at the dawn of when the sun's blistering the other side of the earth, and am rather thankful to find proportions epically reversed. i'd be drowned out in all that din, but it's nice to see the world's still normal when the sun's shining and my crafting's done for this day, at any rate.

on a completely related note, i'm not xactly supposed to be posting right now. distractions *glares* goodbye until early december.

forget the economics

2007-11-11T14:39:00.000+07:00

it's not as if it hasn't be calculated, reexamined, dissected, analysed. multiple times. and before i forget, by 'it' i mean the grand exchange.

if it's as they say, and it isn't going to need no talking, well then [insert appropriate expression of jubilation]

what more's there to say of such an admirable tool that's to reintegrate erstwhile business illiterate people back into that world of trade? (y'know. commerce, it's such a... foreign word...)

come to think of it, i don't quite know who i mean by people. only encountered two other people who remotely thought this a problem, and even then, it's not a problem. it's an... inconvenience.

anyhow, if it renders me able to trade without having to stand in a bank shouting, and promptly scrambling to click 'off private', then scrambling to switch it to 'friends private', then scrambling again to click 'hide public' before regretting it all and retreating to a basement/second floor to switch everything back to 'on' and talk, or sort out pms that seem worth answering, all the while berating my own stupidity. the perils of f2p.

(of course, by the next time i venture out a-trading, i'd have forgotten that last episode, and y'know what they say about history.)

biiig incentive to become a member, but i persuade myself i'd almost rather shut up and wish the rest of the world would do the same. ohyes i am such a people person.

i think the meanest thing they could do right now is take away the talking bit of the trade but make grand exchange members. touch wood. otherwise i could always just wallow in my unwillingness to do business, gleefully stumbling on people selling/buying things that correspond to my own interests as often as the grand exchange allows it.

back to economics.

*blank*

whoo. is it quite so possible to die from financial shortsightedness?

ramblings inspired by halloween.

2007-10-26T19:23:00.000+07:00

holiday events relieve the drudgery of an otherwise quest-bereft f2p. which is really sweet of them, considering.

after a while though, they get boring enough, too. till i almost dread repeating it on my mage pure, and wonder if it's even worth the effort. so call me an ingrate, you wouldn't be too far off. after all, wouldn't i just be going along with the more vocal forumers in the domain of rants?

it seems it's probably the general holidayish feel to it, though. it's like early birthdays, when there were presents to look forward to (as opposed to, say, money). all the expectation's built up, and i wonder if that isn't why they release these events early. regardless of how much better it is, it always falls short of those expectations of a holiday event. i don't suppose the poll and news of preparation helped much in that respect, either. if you raise awareness so expectations find their way up there too, it's hard to build as high, yourself. even if you do break a record or two along the way.

the consolation's that by the next holiday event, the initial positivity outshines that nagging sense of boredom that by the actual holiday day it peters off to. that, after all, is the fuel for expectations - that previous events were ultimately successes in themselves, as this will be.

maybe it's just me, but the easter you-are-a-rabbit hopping game kinda got me, the first time round. as a rule, i like mazes. a wish of mine's to visit (and be allowed to get lost in) one of those garden mazes they advertise when they advertise europe (with the price in fine print, of course). the easter event implied the player required something more than the mental capacity to walk and breathe at the same time. it's rather annoying that this halloween one patently does not. (and you still have people screaming away, where do i put the last testament???) i mean, it's a holiday event. fun doesn't imply brainless.

then sometimes i wonder how jagex comes up with these things. aside from conforming the intricacies of the idea to the various festivities, it would stand to reason that there's a sort of general template to draw from. not that it betrays a lack of creativity, just presence of mind, the way teacher's testimonials ostensibly do.

on to the components, anyhow.

1. mazes. (invisible spiders, rabbit! though that's stretching it...
2. give things out/ collect things. (dispense eggs to npcs, other players, defeat the strange tree...)
3. put things together. (bauble-painting, marionette-making...)
4. shoot things. (gublinch, freaky toys...)

only common factors i've managed to source, so far. maybe they aren't that boring, after all, not when taken as the whole concept of holiday events. just repetitive.

and fun. let's not forget fun. second floor. the slide was really cute. the springboard was so-so. the green slime was faintly disgusting. blah blah blah. it was okay, that bit, better than okay. then come the pitfall traps... i just couldn't see them, the first two times around. got it the third time, then complacently got caught by the trap just a square next to the door...

yes, it was fun. all in all i can't find fault worth mentioning with it, or with most holiday events, generally. but there's still the thing called overkill. so upstairs was fun, so upstairs got repetitive fast.

better overkill than not at all, anyway. happy holiday(s) y'all, if you have any.

rain.

2007-10-09T14:55:00.000+07:00

something amazing happened. it's what prompted me to blog in the middle of the week, anyway.

it was raining, and i decided to just make a run for it, without an umbrella. i was running late, but i don't suppose that'd be much of an excuse.

so i prayed the rain wouldn't drench me too much, and started out.

then of all things, a car horned, and stopped, and someone passed me an umbrella. a stanger gave me an umbrella.

was completely nonplussed. dumbstruck. whatever you call it.

it was just amazing, amazing, amazing.

so i got drenched a few seconds more before taking it all in, and said thank you so many times over. i don't think they heard me.

i'd heard two cars horn just before that, but i hadn't stopped. i'd just crossed one of those small roads, and was under the impression they'd been rebuking me for not looking before i walked. one car turned, and that's why i'd thought what i'd thought, after all.

i'd like to think, they were trying to do exactly the same thing. it's an amazing world.

God's given me amazing friends. and He's blessed me with amazing people to share this world with.

i'd prayed that i wouldn't get sick, or get too wet, but i hadn't prayed for an umbrella. it just never came to mind.

God is good.

and while i waited at the bus stop, i hadn't taken a bus in rainy weather in a long enough time that i didn't think to stand back. when the first truck drove into a puddle that had water splashing halfway over the entire length of that sheltered area, i wasn't so much feeling anything but being stunned. then i realised, it was more than twice as many cars that purposely avoided the puddle made by the road sinking in a little just at the bus stop. they'd slow down, deliberately, or even drive in the middle of two lanes, just so they wouldn't get people wet.

and it's times like these when i just have to stop, and wonder at how amazing God is, how amazing life is.

the bots strike back.

2007-10-09T11:13:00.000+07:00

the trees are alive -
with the sight of white dots...

musicals don't quite go with sci fi movies. hmm.

anyway. the title says it all. it's almost scary. more bots are massing around lumby, swarming aroundthat pond next to farmer fred's with willows round it. the theory's that it's an army of them, out for vengeance as a response to the shop update. i mean, well, that's heartening, the shop update rocks, in a nicer way of putting it, but...

a little too many bots to handle, if i do say so myself.

of course, there's reporting done in about as many droves, though by slightly less a number of people. just, well. brings up the whole macro issue again too. i just found this post on vaskor's blog, about real world trading. only just came across it, but the links really are interesting. in their differences.

most of all this, from runehead. there's the claim that it isn't "immoral". i almost was convinced myself. it's kinda pathetic that i'm not more able to keep to the same view. but i finally did, and it is immoral. in more plain langauge, it's stealing. it's not a service that's being sold, it's property of jagex being stolen in that what's exchanged for it is real world money.

it's immoral in that you're going behind the backs of other players to gain an underserved advantage for yourself. like backstabbing, of the worst order, because you're doing it to every single person you come across who does not, also, real world trade, and because it's children backstabbing, or being backstabbers, who also, simply, don't understand.

then there's this other link, also from vaskor. (whom i owe alot to, thank you. i'd tried before to find runescape blogs worth a visit to, and hadn't previously found any at all. just logs, and blogs chock full of quoted updates, nothing else. i knew blogs existed, i just never could find them. must've been walking about with my eyes closed. i hadn't even realised tip it had a news section. of sorts.)

http://www.chinesegoldfarmers.com/

it explains the perspective most of the spoilt children and brats i come across never look to. while it doesn't make real world trading any less wrong, it does do something more. i'd touched on this earlier, but the people i knew didn't at all have this much to lose.

anyway. there was this one sentence that struck me.

They think that the game world should be a level playing field, that it should
be a magical circle free of the corruption of the real world.

precisely. i think the whole world should be like that, and in as many places as it is possible - whyever not?

i don't like the idea of pragmatism, even though i'm more pragmatic than i'd like. it just seems so... crass. like living to eat. like being obsessed over money yourself just because money's a major driving force behind many other people, when it shouldn't be. it's just crass. i can't quite find another word for it.

and well. that's all i have to say.

i suppose it's all old news to you, and those others expressed it so well i don't feel a need to. i just write because it's how i think. it's how i go about thinking, not an expression of my views per se. i don't write about what i think, because i don't know what i think till i write it.

and that's what it seems a blog's for. yep.

updates, goals, updates on goals.

2007-10-06T23:50:00.000+07:00

before i properly leave this and rs for the rest of this week (i've decided to shorten it to a week. i suck at planning and goals and executing what i do plan, so it's back to shortening it all. besides, i wouldn't have time to do anything rs-related this week even if i wanted to, so no danger there. i suck. i know. it's my long term goal to do something about it.) one last post about something rs-related seems to be in order. to make posts topically more proportionate and all.

updates. i don't know how jagex manages to keep that steady stream of updates going, but whatever the case, they're doing a damn good job of it. (right on schedule, too, or at least it comes out looking right on schedule. *cues the sheepish look*)

as for october's, the shop issue. nice that they got rid of the rune and arrow buying bots, but things do seem a little too gp-consuming for comfort. 4 gp for a spool of thread. 310 gp for a death rune. we'll see then. i'll wait for prices to settle before i properly comment. i'll probably end up buying straight of the shelves though. i don't buy much at all, period, so when i do, it's a 'money? what about it?' thing.

another problem with the shops though - the endless supply of willow logs, oak logs, normal logs. till they reach yew-worthy stages, the general store would be the main source of bot income. it's the assumption players don't buy willows which has the players down at lumby general store, next to those bots selling a continuous stream of willows, buying their pants of and promptly... burning their pants off? that sounds wrong...

a continuous stream of selling and buying, with the selling by far outdistancing the buying. which probably isn't so much at all, but looking at the sheer number of willows in there... isn't there some sort of rule against selling too much?

i'm starting to sound and feel like an ingrate. off with that. good riddance days of welcoming being booted from the game for 'system update in 1:04' just because you know the bots'll be booted, too, and think (or hope) that they'll take a longer time coming in. meaning there's time to go about restocking the shops, for bots to lose that bit of money that could've let someone else astray, and for those few seconds, find f2p, overall, a much more pleasant place. (ie going to a yew tree doesn't have you thinking, 'domain of the bots'.)

(oh wait. contradition. come back, days of welcoming being booted from the game for 'system update in 1:04'!)

regarding edgeville's graphically enhanced coat of paint, that's the way to go. make it so the last sight of those pkers pk'ed against their best intentions is something that'll bear looking at as one kneels over. literally. bearing in mind that i'm saying this as someone who hasn't stepped close enough to inhale the fumes of aforesaid new paint on aforesaid edgeville.

and halloween? anniversary of my first holiday event. beyond that, the seventh month by the lunar calendar ended not so long ago, and anything remotely halloween-like mainly's confined to the expat communities. so reading that was more of 'halloween? *delayed reaction* ohh, halloween'.

update on my goals for rs: an investigation into the ways of ending a conversation as quickly as possible.

preferably in a one word, non-offensive, non-illicit, neutral, monosyllabic response that kills the conversation deader than lag would. (if lag does at all. i don't know how people manage to ramble, and ramble, and ramble, without me even trying to get a word in edgeways. seeing as a word would be 'if you please, stop spamming my private chat with a one-sided conversation' i suppose they're grateful. unless they just want someone to listen, in which case, go ahead. i love being a sounding board. *said without any sarcasm, seriously.* i'd rather listen about you than talk about me.)

necessary for my survival if i am to persist in keeping private chat 'on'. which i will, or not log in at all in the attempt.

update on gameplay-related goal: not to get bored with the game by going off it for long stretches that by the time i do log on, all boredom's dissipated.

yay. a post of doable goals. i hope.

recovery questions.

2007-10-05T17:47:00.000+07:00

setting recovery questions is ever so fun.

i don't see how it's possible to be hacked if you didn't set a password too obvious, or let an erstwhile friend too near. i suppose keyloggers play their own part, but keyloggers seem to be scapegoats more than anything else. conclusion: it's unlikely that recovery questions'll be your downfall.

but it's still good fun, anyway.

try setting recovery questions cryptic, cute, coldly logical, and downright weird. don't know about you, but it's not as easy as i'd have thought. think of it as an art. set recovery questions you'd be proud of.

i've yet to fulfil those criteria, by my own standards.

it's like macro names, kinda. random letters on some, but names like men jiu (alcohol you drink when you're sad. that it's nicely, reasonably specific is what makes the word endearing) on others. doesn't make any much difference, but if you have to do it, it's the latter you'd aim for. beauty for the sake of it. like i read in a book somewhere once, rather a long time ago. it's the same reason why you learn about paint dripping into the eyes of michelangelo as he painted the roof of the sistine chapel, and suchlike related things. you just do it because you can.

i don't dare risk it on my mod account, but for my skiller and inactive pure, the questions are solvable, yet unsolvably so. if you'd just be logical, you'd be able to solve them all. and get ahold of my account, but i'm assuming those secondary defences of 'password', 'previous password', 'time you last logged in' and such would deter you enough.

not that 'what was your mother's maiden name?' and so on aren't difficult to bypass, but it's plain boring. boringness isn't a thing you've got to have written all over your account, if you don't want it to.

i'm still working on it, myself. there's classic questions, 'how much land does a man need?', 'chicken or egg?' and so on. or questions related to your character's name. 'why isn't it/aren't there summer/s?' questions about questions. 'how many?' there's questions so in-your-face, so logical, so it-all-makes-so-much-sense!, but patently unsolvable, like 'state the answer of recovery question 1'.

so yeah. give it a shot. questions that make any prospective hacker (if there ever even might be one, but let's imagine there will be for the sake of feeling useful) go hunh? and ditch your account for something perhaps, less ridiculous.

a filler. from between week to week.

2007-10-05T16:32:00.000+07:00

uh huh. lasted all of a week. and what a week.

at least the primary sixes are sitting tight in their exam rooms by now. just one more set of exams to go...

from what i gather majority of parents here are insanely achievement oriented. insanely. if their precious in-their-eyes-precocious nine year olds don't score in the realm of band 1, or (horror of horrors) drop a further 5.5 marks to below 80...

well, they'll whip the cane out, and for good measure get rid of the ineffective person who claims to be giving tuition to their kids once a week.

i read a book. apparently caning's the culture. wacky people. (oh no, i should say, traditional...) i have concluded. i am blessed. not to have parents like that. or the parents who gleefully impart their disciplinary secrets. "don't use canes, canes leave a mark. use rubber bands."

what is freaking wrong with you?

in any case. i'd have had to be going, anyway, by the end of the year. it's bad enough that the primary school year overlaps into our first semester. i wonder if i should tell them that, or let them politely ask me to get lost first. maybe i'll let them refine that art of office politicking.

but enough people are decent enough themselves. as are the kids, all three of them (i know, small basis for comparison, but that doesn't make it any less real), that i don't know how i'm going to be decent to them in saying 'i quit'. if the action itself doesn't already count that impossible.

i don't know. i don't know. (so i know i don't know. is that supposed to make me feel any better?)

i don't type in capital letters because that makes it feel too formal for me to be honest.

the kids aren't all bad. infact they aren't bad at all. and it's not as if i don't wish for them to be happy, or do well. i'm just not in a position to achieve either next year. so that leaves till the end of this.

i'm awaiting eviction in the case of the primary sixes. it's just science and mother tongue, if i'm not wrong, that's left. and i do hope they get all the a*s they want or need. as for the aforementioned primary three kid, well. just a little while more, before the exams come a-caling. here's to practice papers i'll have to churn out if i don't find good enough assessment books in time. and to hoping.

i'm sorry.

2007-10-05T15:57:00.000+07:00

a few things i've got to say, seeing as i suppose i have offended my fair share of people, or at the very least, not been very charitable in the expression of opinions. something i sincerely regret, believe it or not.

1. economics does drive much of the world (more of the world than it should, imo). i still don't feel it should, and think it's entirely possible for it not to, but fact is, it does.

2. advice sites and fan sites in general should be recognised by jagex for the simple reason that the effort put into them is just not at all proportional to the appreciation received.

3. sudoku is more complicated than it would otherwise seem. meaning that while i wouldn't try it a second time myself, there's more reason for others who like that sort of thing to solve it than previously supposed.

4. public transport is reliable enough, and of high enough quality to merit whatever we pay for it. yes. people (like me) just complain too much.

5. fan fiction isn't complete crap. although alot of it is, and i haven't yet come across enough that don't put me off before i've ploughed through the promised first page, it isn't complete crap.

i'm sorry. i've since been provided with quite nice perspectives on things, and while my core opinions still stand, there are some things i've believed wrong.

(too mild a word, but) dislikes.

2007-09-27T17:46:00.000+07:00

while playing rs i come across enough people who fall into the category of 'annoying and insufferable', two words (like surreal, for example) that i've found too much cause to use recently.

i never did find cause to hate them, though. i don't usually hate people. it doesn't quite seem possible.

only things i've actually ended up hating are ideas. subjects. disciplines. that sorta thing. (yes this is another rant, so you might like to bail now before the smoke gets thicker...)

in no particular order, these would be the things i despise, sometimes, some of them most times. (i'm not about to argue the usefulness of a subject, that's been drilled into me enough times. i may intellectually know it's useful, and has a point, but that doesn't mean i don't have the freedom to hate it.)

chemistry. particularly, atomic theory.

physics. why must you say precisely why this thing happens this way? it just is this way.

basically, branches of science dedicated to explaining the obvious, or predicting what doesn't need predicting.

locations aside, much of physical geography.

philosophy. i enjoy philo well enough, but when religion explains it all, and religion can't be brought in for religious purposes, all the theories and imperatives those poor guys spent years sweating over seem nothing more than glorified posturing. it's at those times that i don't think much of it, but it's more useful a tool than i could ever have imagined when faced with friends, people, who don't think much of religion, at all.

too many aspects of trigonometry.

statistics. accountancy. i don't know how accountants survive. even with excel those little numbers're enough to drive you over the edge.

basically, mathematical proofs that set out to prove the obvious, or topics (think, congruence, symmetry etc) that require you to prove the obvious.

scales. if they're meant to be important, why am i only forced to learn them the first time i take an exam? if i'd known that, i'd have told them they needn't have bothered. for a sheet of paper (fine, two sheets), it doesn't hardly seem worth it.

my mother tongue. (to go into specifics might entail being sued. it's possible. believe it or not.)

to those people who call "everybody's mother tongue" the most beautiful language because it's the language of their most treasured memories and innermost thoughts; amid answers like gaelic, french, chinese, greogrian, farsi, german...
you obviously haven't been forced to learn this language. it also stopped being the language of my innermost thoughts a long time ago.

to those who'd call me derrogatory names for a pro-western non-westerner...
i've got news for you. being anti-my-mother-tongue ≠ being anti-asian ≠ being pro-western.
heck, even anti-asian ≠ pro-western.
i'm fine with every other asian culture, i'm fine just about every other culture, and every other language. besides english and that bit of german, all the other languages/bits of languages that i know are asian. i'd sooner learn korean and farsi (beautiful script) than another western langauge. don't you dare generalise to the point that you'd pin that on me.

to those people who'll look scandalised at that revelation, and start spitting in outrage...
i learnt to read, speak, and write the language before i could make the conscious decision to condescend to learn it. i would have condescended to learn it anyway, not least of all so those as inflexible and wont to judge a person by their culture as you would shut up. after all, it's people like you who simply cannot be less blind who drive me to despise this language in the first place. so bugger off.

bearing in mind, again, that this is my considerably flawed opinion, incomplete in the sense that i dropped most (sadly not yet all) of these subjects as soon as i was able. and though i may know why i shouldn't have, and should not when i do get the chance, i'm not about to argue for the opposition. i also don't think much of those arguments at all.

bearing in mind, also, that i wouldn't have hated those things if they hadn't been forced on me. so let them exist, but don't force me to have any unnecessary, overt contact with them.

that's just superficial though, isn't it?

what would count as something i'd genuinely hate is evil.

hate's an ugly word. i was wondering whether it'd be right to hate evil, i googled it, and came across this. it's strange, really. the general message is hate isn't necessarily a bad thing. it's a matter of what you hate. that to hate someone that's gone beyond anything remotely decent or human; that would be the type of hate that ends wars.

i don't know.

it makes sense, and in a way, it doesn't. i'll stick by proverbs 8:13. "to fear the Lord is to hate evil".

and in the meanwhile, i'll try to figure it out.

mistaken identity.

2007-09-23T16:20:00.000+07:00

i've had my skiller mistaken for a macro more times than i'd care to count.

i've tried...

1. talking excessively. actually starting conversations, believe it or not. i tend to keep to myself when playing, and since may, virtually never say a thing unless i've been talked to in a manner i can't ignore. that's why it's a nightmare when i start playing on my main, but forget that i'm playing on my main and not on my skiller...

2. starting off by raising stats no macro would ever raise. namely, the most boring, useless stats that i don't even actively train on my main (not that i actively train anything, really...) because i simply don't see the point of it. namely, firemaking and rcing. i got firemaking up to the hiscores sooner than i did any of the other skills. after that came runecrafting. hardly any bots seriously rc on f2p servers, after all, if it's nature runes they're after.

3. dressing tastefully. not that macros don't ever do that, but i tried dressing something radically different from the usual combinations.

4. showing off items a level 3 character shouldn't have. not showing off in the explicit sense of the word, seeing as i can't quite afford that many items. not wearing items worthy of of much attention, like trimmed robes or rares. wearing items that are quietly expensive, rather. common items that you wouldn't give a second thought to, but items that just don't belong on a level 3, as most would think. exemplified by coloured gloves, holy symbol/power ammy (prefer the holy symbol), fire staff...

5. not following a set routine. using lumby tele sometimes when mining near the lumby swamps, but walking to draynor other times. not following a set pattern when banking, or mining at certain rocks. changing clothes between bank runs. and so on.

i've tried all that, and still i get that "macro!", "macro?", "macro or friend?"...

well. at least that's a start...

live from world 139

2007-09-23T14:35:00.000+07:00

edit: sigh. i take a cue from keywords. you get onto world 139 by clicking "deutsch" in the language sidebar. and if you speak german, you'll know where to go from there.

another foray into the german servers, another macro encounter.

weirdly enough, on a german server, i end up speaking chinese. it's surreal. i'm overusing that word, i might as well get used to the reality of it.

usually most of my proper conversations on world 139 start with "sprechen sie english?" to which most people answer to the affirmative. they're met with an altered enough rendition that the censor won't react to of "that's great. mind if we converse in english then? my german sucks."

it sucks enough that it takes two tries to secure the mysterious box's dematerialisation, but not enough that i get ko'ed by the sandwich lady.

this guy in question, anyway, looks like almost every other crafting guild macroer you'll meet. level 8, in default clothes, a chinese name that means 'i'm not civilised'.

the difference is he actually speaks. another player's trying to sell something, i gather, and is more persistant about it than most. to his german the borg returns answers in the range of fundamentals like "yes", "what?", and culminating in "nonononono". to which the player unceremoniously departs.

seems too fun an opportunity to pass.

me, out of characterly: sprechen sie deutsch?
macro: what?
me: do you speak german?
macro: *insults collectively specific areas of my mother's anatomy in chinese* (if it wasn't for this i might've seriously doubted his macro-ness. was only on my skiller account, after all.)
me: ni shi hua ren ma? (are you chinese?)
macro: *says 'what the-' in chinese. this i actually had to google to find out it's meaning. last count, i've learnt 2 new insults and 1 new vulgarity...*

after that we have a pleasant conversation during which he breaks the personal details rule several times over. it's interspersed with basic english when i can't quite get what he's trying to say. after the more genial inquiries "ni duo da? (how old are you?), "ni shi na de ren? (what's your nationality)", "ni shi nan de ma? (are you a guy?), i find he's from zhejiang.

i don't know why he bothered, and come to think of it, (beyond mining being the only skill he's maxed out and him being online whatever time i log in) i wouldn't otherwise have had much cause to think of him as anything more than another person, that as anything more than a mundane conversation.

in the meantime, i might as well properly figure out what "qq" is (a "lian xi fang fa (means of communication/interaction)" he tells me), or even start an account on what seems to be china's equivalent of msn. all the better to take him up on that offer the next time he asks.

maybe even exchange views about macroing, if not actively persuade him otherwise; or at the very least, make a new friend.

a friend i'm sure will prove more scintillating than the level 29 player who came up to me that same day, putting 14k up in the trade window, declining, and after he'd had his fill of boasting what he obviously thought was his comparative wealth, inserted that choice uncensored four-letter insult. i mean, fine, insult me, but at least try to do it in style.

just, an annoyance.

2007-09-20T21:30:00.000+07:00

there aren't very many things i explicitly love. there aren't very many things i hate either. confronted with most things, i register apathy.

not altogether the best of attitudes, or ways of life, but i've become quite good at convincing people i'm passionate about things i don't quite give much of a damn about.

one thing i am passionate about is figure skating. it's not that i don't love it, but sometimes everything gets so annoying. the one rink i go to has a monopoly, charges exorbitant prices, far as i'm concerned, and all in all burns a hole in my pocket. not even counting lessons, mind you. that whole quandary again, i know i'm meant to save money, i know i need money for other things, i know it's obscene to spend this much on something that's just, recreation.

it's just annoying. and it annoys me that it does.

end rant, such as it is.

accounting.

2007-09-19T16:44:00.000+07:00

was looking through my bank account (something that took all of 30 seconds), and while it's not quite the best load of stuff you ever will see (more likely to take the prize in the opposite category, actually), it's got it's own fair share of sentimentality.

how it's organised, and such. how do you organise your banked items? every screenshot of a bank account i see doesn't seem in the least bit messy. after this one incident, there came this period when i got somewhat neurotic about my bank account. neurotic because i'd insist on spending five minutes clicking and clicking and clicking, in the days when i hadn't yet discovered the purpose of the insert button (not so long ago, really. something like two months. whoops.) and in moving something from place 30 to place 1, would have to go through all that 30 to 29. 29 to 28. 28 to...

habit never quite died. or perhaps it's just been tidy enough ever since that first sweep, thorough as it was. enough talking, anyway. on to the screenshot. the cut, pasted, edited, circled, low-quality screenshot.

sheesh. the quality's worse than i thought. but then again, i've only got this much space in my thumbdrive.

the bank account's become more of a closet, really. i just can't bear to throw those random event clothes out. zombie outfit was my first, by far. camo and leaderhosen took their time in coming, and it does seem such a pity, really. especially since i've traded them for default clothes, seeing as any hat makes you look bald, instead.

the screenshot's there, and there's organisation explained. the insert's things i carry on my person pretty much all the time. out of necessity more than anything. sentimental things (they're pixels, but sentiment kinda defies logic too, doesn't it?) you just don't bring everywhere with you.

on properly to sentimental things; they're the ones ringed in red. (the swap button too, yes. countless wasted clicks...) story behind every item, you might say, but the sentimental things have longer stories than most... (don't worry, i'm not about the go into all that. would bore me almost as much as it'll bore you.)

the earth staff - my first staff. (replaced by the fire staff/skull sceptre, but whatever.)
toy horise - from the days of 'ooh there's a toy horsie. wonder what it does...' and '150gp?? no thanks.' and 'w00t 150 gp to splurge... what shall i splurge it on...'
tiara mould - my first tiara mould. a tiara mould costs 100gp?? *eyes bug out* now i just have to bank this... *clutches tiara mould tight and shuffles off to the nearest bank. walking in the wrong direction, of course.*
chisel - my first chisel. wub.

things circled white would be things made and bought to be given away. a mith axe for anyone who genuinely needs help (those who genuinely need help usually appreciate a mith axe, anyway. to the rest, really, what makes you think i can afford anything else?)

a power ammy's a gift that's not too tacky, like the mith axe, and not exactly amazingly expensive, either. sure, it cuts you back 8k or so (never was a good enough merchant to find people selling it for any less) but it's worth it. in that the people are worth it. no, everyone's worth more than that. um. the encouragement (hopefully) it gives the person is worth it. or. i don't know what i'm saying, it's just worth it. the first example that comes to mind... it was varrock main bank, a crowded enough world. i wasn't about to open my mouth. but everyone else was intent on all that flashing, so...

player a: i was hacked i need free stuff.
player a: i was hacked i need free stuff.
player a: i was hacked gimme free stuff.
player b: i was hacked too, but you don't see me going around begging.

maybe it doesn't seem altogether spectacular a thing, but it was, to me. people just let it go on, around them, and it just fades into something like background noise. that attitude just seemed encouraging, somehow. even though the phrasing might've been a little antagonistic.

that's what power ammys are for.

i don't know if it makes a difference, but that brings me to events like today's. sometimes these things that touch you, they happen when you least expect it.

i've already ranted my share in an earlier post (so much earlier that it's slightly strange, reading it now), but now that i've progressed onto addy, it just gets worse. there're so few addy rocks around that some people just can't seem to bear to avoid competing for ores. (that's just the downside though. world hopping's more successful than ever with these ores.) usually i just leave it be, not least of all because my smithing's lagging a good 11 levels behind mining, and i only mine addy for the joy of it. (like wow, i mined addy? wow. kinda feeling.)

today's no different. there are two addy rocks that've timely respawned. a guy in full sara takes one, i take the other. he's done with it, and he moves on to my rock. as i shove off i tell myself i should've been desentised to this long ago, and head towards the mining guild.

i start mining the two rocks nearest the door. by this time, i've focused on the article response i'm meant to be doing, and that little incident has, as all of them are wont to do, become a non-issue.

until the blue text of "free add yon the grounf" interrupts those lines of black. he's standing right outside the door.

i take some time to figure out what he did say. and

i don't know what to say. i don't say anything.

he logs.

i add him to my friends list, and he's commenced world hopping. i still don't know what to say.

i wonder if it would be right to pm him. tell him thank you, thank you kindly.

by the time i've decided, he really has logged.

i don't pick the addy up, but thank you. thank you kindly.

the week ahead.

2007-09-16T21:30:00.001+07:00

one last post before i try to keep away from this blog for a week.

try being the operative word.

you would've thought i'd have learnt by now that writing something off the top of your in response to anything at all gets you nothing but trouble, and the need for a longer, more organised and well thought-out reply.

i haven't, but i'm about to. just a few minutes then i've got to leave. no time to reply coherently now, so it's exile to blogging off the top of my head again. back on topic.

the week ahead...

monday's the day you most feel like dying. dead tired because you slept at 2.24 sunday night kind of dying.
tuesday's the day of most stress. skipping-lunch-and-dinner-cos-you're-rushing kind of stress.
wednesday's the day of scary timetabling. insane timetabling. scarily insane. insanely scary.
thursday's the longest day. the day that's stretched like taffy that's already been stretched like taffy that's already been stretched like taffy across earlier weeks.
friday's the day of unexpected length and unpleasant surprises. friday's traditionally the day of exams and dental appointments, last sightings and lost books.

saturday's almost worse, but by saturday i'll probably be back to rant about it.

have a good week ahead, y'all.

a regular day on pm, 92 point 5.

2007-09-16T16:11:00.000+07:00

started playing again, after i got back last night, and because that just happens to be peak hour for america, on average i end up holding five conversations simultaneously. of course, none of them are friends. my real friends know by now when to leave well alone.

people are just so different. i don't believe it. i don't know what to believe. last night's five was a case in point.

(and this is excluding the normal, quite unanswerable pms like "!! guthix brings you balance!!", "wanna buy full zammy?", "u sed u wanted to be my gf!", "tell everyone to join zezima's chat!" etc.)

1. at fally bank, a guy's hankering after a single law rune. presumably for varrock tele or something, and i oblige. i give it to him free, and that part, maybe it was a mistake. "1 more. 1 more. 1 more." spams the chat screen. i leave the bank. he promptly 1-more'd me through pm. we discuss the merits of plain hard work, and the satisfaction it gives you.

once he's dealt with, i make the mistake of giving another guy mith ores. "more. weps and armour." he weps-and-armour's me via pm when i leave. i don't know where he got the idea that someone who hasn't consciously trained anything remotely melee-related for six months should be lugging mith and addy weapons and armour done to the mining pits. regardless. we discuss the merits of plain hard work, and the satisfaction it gives you.

it's vicious in its predictability.

2. a guy's been lobbying "f2p should get more quests and items!" again in fally. "follow me if you think f2p should get more quests and items!" it's not an extremely crowded world, all things considered, he doesn't attract very much attention, and thereafter resorts to (horror of horrors) pming innocent bystanders. we debate the fairness of jagex's decisions.

i don't see why people won't just play, and be grateful that they get so much for absolutely nothing. he's apparently been playing since rsc came out. it's rather futile, and we both realise it. we promptly move on to other things.

pking's hardly more edifying.

3. someone pms me from out of the blue (not that that's altogether unexpected) and asks what a whetstone is. i point out the search function, and promptly click search for him.

apparently it's a place where you sharpen rusty swords.

4. someone i'm positive has been hounding me ever since she discovered the fact of my existence strikes again. it's the same type of question every time. she starts off this time with "can u like, tell jagex to put me a mod!" as a prelude to whether it's "good" to help someone with a quest, whether it's "good" to report someone attempting to account trade, whether it's "good"... her definition of "good" being whether it'll get her mod status fast enough.

i'm still leery after the last encounter with the guy who initiated the let's toggle the pm settings! game. but this time i just can't help but tell her my views, incorporating all that about position, how to properly earn respect, right and wrong... she simmers. the moment i even mention "ignore list" she goes ballistic.

"ur mean! you're reported!!"

and to think, just the other day she was so surprised when i told her about the number of people who've reported me. was trying to say that reports don't mean a thing unless they're valid. i remind her of as much.

a silence, then she goes back to it again. "who r the people wit gold crowns?" only a matter of time before she gets back to the same form of asking.

i feel like screaming. (and if i did, one room over they'd be speculating tomorrow who presumably spent the night here.) i just log. it's easier to shoot yourself in the mouth than reason with people, it seems, sometimes.

i log in later to be faced with "yh do i always have to say hi y cant u do it]" i wonder if it's too cruel to tell her i delete her from my friends list everytime we're done conversing in hopes that we'll never have to again. initiate a conversation with her? is she crazy?

i stick with "i'm sorry, sometimes i need to clear my friends list when it gets too full, and..." then promptly initiate a conversation with her next i log in.

give me strength.

5. it seems someone really is listening. a person with a vaguely familiar username pms me. somehow we get onto the topic of family. we bond over standing around attracting randoms and talking about deaths of loved ones. he starts off, and in between i mention my friend.

we cover how unfair the world seems, how cruel things can be, grief, regret, time, meaning, religion, missing someone.

saying this almost seems like intruding on privacy. we talk about where we live.

it becomes a mundane conversation, and that's precisely what keeps me when faced with pms from the other four. it's coversations like these that remind me why i don't choose to keep private chat on friends.

four in five of every other person you talk to you won't particularly want to continue the conversation with, but that doesn't mean the latter kind of person doesn't exist.

warning: this takes too long to get to the point.

2007-09-16T09:22:00.001+07:00

EDIT: what i'm ranting about are help sites. to be precise, most of the content in "advice sites". more detailed explanation by mushroom queen in categories of fan sites. (thanks vaskor for the link!) perhaps that explains things somewhat, seeing as i suck at categorising and organising things, any things. nother paper just came back with a new batch of "unclear...", "disorganised points", "what do you mean here?", "unclear!", "more clarity needed"... grrr.

still thinking about help sites. help sites help people, that's a fact. it's whether they deserve that help or not that bothers me.

you could say, everyone deserves every kind of help they can get on their way down a common road. and it's the job of those who've gone before them to help pave the way. those that've gone before them are self-sacrificial, accessories ultimately to this common goal they're all looking towards.

by that logic, help sites are perfectly necessary.

it still seems that logic applies more to, say, great scientific discoveries, things that you spend a lifetime on, because you know it's worth the spending. if help's provided, it's provided not because you hope to reach the end, but because you hope to be part of that journey to reach the end.

if not the end, then a meaningful journey.

runescape's a part of the world. runescape's a model of the world, in as realistic a way as it is possible. it stands to reason that what applies in the real world applies there. and vice versa.

the fact remains that rs is not the real world. and to help you live you character's life in as great a way as it is possible - it's not exactly worth spending time on. but to save people time by giving them your own, regardless of the context...

it's a service. not that that makes it any more worthwhile.

it's not reasonable to expect people to start from the beginning all over again, without any knowledge of what's already known. it's not reasonable to force people to rediscover for themselves what others have, just because it's worth the discovering.

sometimes they say, life's a journey of self-discovery.

to play rs is a journey of discovering, by yourself.

and why is that?

because take that element of independence away, and you're left with little else.

in this sense, runescape's too small a model of the real world for help sites.

why help sites, then? is it purely alturistic motives? to help people. to share with people knowledge. to pool experience. so we all come out on top.

i went into this post with my belief that help sites were unnecessary very much shaken. midway through, i'm back to where i started. yet i deign to contradict myself, by doing exactly what i claim not to.

i'm trying to figure out why. why do such a thing?

to tell the world perhaps, how smart you are, that you've found out this certain thing about rs that no one else has (or that you think no one else has, and considering the small enough size of rs, usually isn't all that remarkable at all) and it just has to be shared. for credit's sake, or for the sake of the telling, or simply yeah, to help.

wtf.

never mind. on to the actual point of this post. i've set up shop in the barbarian outpost. pizza-making and blogging ftw. it's rather quiet, really, and rather amusing when people do pop in. on my level 3 skiller, i'm rather untouchable.

some people're beumused to the point of condescension.

"hello little girl... you shouldn't be here."

the conversation following is peppered with lmao's and lol's.

i end up dispensing pizzas to whoever comes round, and with that 2 levels per trip. a fair bit of fun, really. in the time it takes to respawn i play around with the print screen button.

water, fresh air, company... what more could you ask for?

chat channels.

2007-09-09T16:13:00.000+07:00

i don't have much use for clan chat, seeing as i haven't exactly yet found any clan i'm not leery enough of to join. which would be a clan not too big that i can't get to know every person, a clan who doesn't consider joining them marrying the lot of them, in that they can actually be civil about letting people leave, and a clan not about to turn on me the moment we reach the wildy for hate-related reasons.

so my only use for clan chat would be to talk with friends, because it's much easier to spend a few seconds creating a chat channel and thereafter merely typing '/' before each sentence, rather than going through that whole ordeal of needing to click on the names, and apologise with sorry wp everytime you mix up random names with the strange questions asked. both of which are varied and numerous enough to confuse.

then there're the channels hosted by jmods, for various purposes. i don't suppose this is confidential, since some channels are, after all, open to the public. those being the channels i'll mention. some of them are completely empty. freakily. some are full enough, but no one talks, and anyone who tries to start a conversation's met with silence. of the worded sort.

then zezima enters one of them. and boom. it wakes up. i don't know how, but some people somehow manage to find their way in, and there you go.

i realise i'm not saying half of what i wanted to say because i don't know if it's sayable. short post then.

other than those i'm specifically directed to, i just don't come across any others. i've been warned of channels that try to remain rule-free, by virtue of trying to remain genuine player- and mod-free. a pity about that one, i've been trying to search out those like it. with 'the channel you tried to join does not exist' results.

well that's it. enforced (hopefully) month-long hiatus from rs. i'll probably only last till next weekend.

procrastinating: blogically, topically...

2007-09-09T00:38:00.000+07:00

the spate of frequent blog posts ends in a day.

i'm a born procrastinator. revise that, i'm not being altogether fair. to parents and genes and such. i'm worse of a procrastinator than i should be, and ever should have been. was 11 last time i remember turning in all my work on time.

anyway. it's nearly 1am on a saturday night and i've got a paper due tuesday. a quiz on monday. an exam on tuesday. that doesn't count for much, but still matters because the teachers are great. plus the other loose ends you pick up and promise to amend but never get around to doing. i'm still trying to persuade myself to S-T-A-R-T ALREADY.

so much for that theory.

i'm going to ramble because the things i do want to blog about, i've got all the points, but it's going to end up a jumbled mess like my last post about macros. as in, i'll forget about it when i forget what i was going to say, and fall asleep with the laptop on, then wake up at the wrong time, go back to what i was doing, and add in the actual point of the whole rant in an edit.

that's what happens for all my exceptionally long and rambling posts. that doesn't matter so much as the fact that the same's true of the assignments i fall asleep doing.

point is, i've been planning to try, at least, to come up with something for rs haven. not as easy as it looks. i'm still trying to decide on what topic. and this time, i realise i'll have to organise it properly. and type it out in word, so those random capitalisations don't escape me. when i think about it though, which would be times like in the bus and such, i realise another thing. whatever i say just wouldn't quite fit.

i can't go out and give a sweeping statement like 'help sites do more harm than good' which was what i came up with in my last comment. 'down with stats' is what i would've said next, but that doesn't work either. it's not logical, i just like to think that way. not everything need be logical. but all that's another few posts for another few days.

trying to stay on track is ever so hard. please don't read this if you even got this far, it's not worth your time. that's why i blog. thoughts aren't worth the paper they're written on, but it seems worth the electricity. so i try not to think about the electricity.

whatever i end up saying, i don't blog for people to hear me. i blog because it's easier to type than write. because if i wasn't under the impression that people read this, i wouldn't have the self-control to do it. because i don't believe a diary's worth anything unless people're going to read it, and i want some stranger poking into my life as much as i want my friends and family digging a diary out. or a blog, for that matter.

BACK TO THE POINT. can't believe how easy it is to sidetrack. considered writing about why people play. as in, the it's an escape from reality, it builds up your people skills and tolerance level aspect of it. not the it's a browser based game and it's free aspect, which's been covered in other articles with excellent stats and info. the thing is, it becomes altogether too personal. i tried looking for the post i wrote about why i play, and it seems to have disappeared, but i ended up telling random people much more about myself than i should have.

people don't read personal, or people looking to read articles don't read personal.

when i email people or message them i end up looking one of three things. myself, whatever that is. a suck up. or a total asshole. i'd say arrogant asshole, but i suppose arrogant's incorporated into that word.

which doesn't suck as much as it feels like it should, but does pose a number of problems, because either way i don't give a damn. latter two categories fit under the first, after all.

i think i'm being too honest. or at least, saying what i shouldn't be saying. there are some things i wish i could say on rs. to people, that is. it's got nothing to do with the censor, i don't usually swear too much. this case being more unique than anything else. it's not so much the it isn't very nice to tarnish the name of all mods thing that gets to me either. it's the fact that i just can't tell people i don't want anything to do with them simply because it wouldn't be right to.

i almost hate my blog sometimes, because it's the only place i can be so brutally honest. everywhere i find myself, even if it's only in rs, i manage to convince myself not to. sometimes i fail, but it never comes out as bad as it does on my blogs.

then again, i should clear out of blogger NOW. and get to work. proper work, without blogger open on the side. or rs, either.

this is terrible.

oh, and ignore this post please.

modship vs politics. nother rant.

2007-09-07T12:02:00.000+07:00

I’m having a hell of a time trying to convince people that position isn’t everything.

Just royally pissed someone off. He seems to think that position and names rank more highly than being a decent human being who knows how to act in polite company. We play with toggling pm settings, a game of you log in, I log out. I ease into it, don't attempt to talk to him when he dares to stay with pm on. Finally I get a chance to apologise, seeing as that's what I have to do. I don't consider apologies bad things, I don't consider apologising beneath me. I won't not apologise because of my pride, not even when I'm not in the wrong.

I will not apologise, on the other hand, if I feel I'm in the right. "Not in the wrong" and "in the right" are two distinct things, mind you.

I apologise, and that clinches it. He apologises too. He feels compelled to. I admire him for being willing enough to disagree vehemently enough with me, it must've been difficult to overcome that initial compulsion not to.

I almost feel like telling them, you have a next to nill chance of becoming a mod unless you are a genuine person concerned enough about other people, rather than simply, other players, to help them for the sake of helping them, with the idea of becoming a mod least on your mind.

I'm sorry for bringing this up again, but I thought solid examples might've been in order. I also need to rant.

Don’ts.

Don’t go round intentionally playing Santa Claus. Giving away items is not going to help much, not if you’re going to be condescending, and not if you’re doing it for your own ends, just to clear some space in your bank. I have almost as much respect for this brand of players, who toot their horn doing this just waiting to be caught in the act as I do for people who beg.
Don’t condescend to people, no matter what your opinion of their maturity is.
Don’t gloat when you’ve killed someone in the wildy. Don’t even say “lol”. Schadenfreude isn’t going to get you anywhere at all.
Don’t discriminate against a player because of their level, their combat type, command of the English language, or anything at all. Never discriminate.
Never beg. Even if it’s only 5gp you need, never beg.

Now for do’s.

Give people advice and help.
Give items you want to give away to people who deserve it. Those won’t be the people asking for items, who patently do not deserve anything of that sort.
Most importantly, be completely genuine. That covers it all. You cannot hope to be a mod if everything you do is structured around your wish to be a mod. The idea of becoming a mod must be least on your mind. That, imho, would be ideal. Perhaps not the reality, but the ideal.

Realise this. Being a mod is not anything like politics.

In politics, how much you desire the position matters, somewhat. If the only way to change the world is through politics, I’d rather go out and find a new one. It’s good to hear some people’ve found other ways already. I’m not bureaucratic and fake enough to become a politician, nor do I have enough masks. It’s possible to tell yourself you’ll be different amongst people who act as you would never want to. It’s not possible to succeed if you don’t speak their language.

The language in the game would be cash, items, stats. The surest way to a player’s heart would be to give that person good items. That’s the language of rs. Not to use it would involve so much more work. In politics, it’s not possible to succeed if you don’t speak their language. I refuse to speak their language, just as I refuse to speak it in rs.

Argue that codeswitching is the key, and I’ll tell you this. Those are masks. To codeswitch is to change masks.

The other option is to let that become part of your character. That’s something I’ll try never to do.

That’s precisely why you cannot approach becoming a mod the way you would an election. That’s also why you can afford to be human, all the time.

That’s why you must.

encounters of the borg kind.

2007-09-06T23:54:00.000+07:00

edit: my oh my oh my. i just came across this post about chinese gold farmers, courtesy of vaskor (thank you so much. that's an amazing resource) and it does lend a whole deeper dimension to things. what i talked about further down is nothing compared to what those people in that post face. they've got so much more reason to macro, to real world trade than i would have, at home.

hmm. got two of them, really, if you'd like to put it that way.

a definition might be a good way to start off, even though i'm not quite competent as far as defining things go. a borg is for the most part a macro, but supervised by human beings. so it will respond sometimes to randoms or whatever comes its way, and will, as it follows, talk.

which it did. finally, i hear.

mind you, they really have a dirty mouth on them.

another definition, but not so much definition as putting things in context. in chinese culture, which i see enough of in the local chinese community, some things are particularly important. or more so than in, say, western culture, for example. what matters most, i guess, would be face. not losing face, and allowing another not to is what governs more actions that it should. then there's respect for your elders.

incorporate those two, first, into the big wide world of insults, and it'll stand to reason that insults aimed at your mother have a considerably wider scope, they'd even insult your ancestors. of course, there's never a shortage of lewd comments, either.

so to cut straight to the point. received insults from a borg the other day. i refrain from saying macro since no macro programmer's stupid enough to have a macro spouting this kind of language. there'd be a minor war in the way of foreign language insults over at the yews, and a gigantic backlash against, well, whoever falls into the right category. racial discrimination isn't dead. a fair share of it's directed at the chinese. (thanks alot jagex, for stating actual countries on your news update. next time remember not to mention that 'all macros are east asian, for example chinese and korean' = 'all east asian, for example, chinese and korean players are macros'.)

not that it's not unheard of, i've heard about things like this often enough that i've actually been wanting to come across a macro that was actually a borg, instead. let's just say there were things about female anatomy and fornication with respect to my ancestors.

besides tossing you a medley that would have itself called emotions (namely, urge to laugh at an inanimate object, suitable outrage, confusion resulting from too-quick elimation of what to say in response...), it does remind you - macros aren't just macros. they're run by human beings.

which brings me to my second encounter.

it's just a matter of time before the keywords "macro", "bot" and/or "autoer" come up in talk by any major body of water. willows and fish, after all, are about the most sought-after commodities, whether it's in the the bot or legitimate trade.

what's rare though, at least on f2p servers, is to find someone actually defending them. or rather, the people behind the bots. i've heard stories about failed green dragon bot pking trips because of mage pures or other players standing there guarding the borgs.

why, i realised at the back of my mind. it's like how to say the capital of indonesia in chinese. you don't consciously think about it, but when you need to dig it up, it's there. thing was, i never did need to dig that up. until that particular conversation.

that bots, real world trading, macroing, autoers - that all of that's baaad is common knowledge. it's like one a fundamental truth of the rs universe. you don't think about it because you don't need to.

what you don't think about is why. what you don't think about is the people.

i wonder what they think of us?

the argument goes like this. for all intents and purposes, the real world traders are just doing their jobs. they're just trying to make a living in some backwater of a less-developed country, and they're just making the most of opportunities they have. it's their livelihood. why is jagex taking it away from them?

that, in less words, was what was parroted off to me.

oh, and to clear things up. i am not trying to say that this is true. i am not saying that all macros are chinese, a large enough proportion are and i'm dealing with that fact. it's a fact, yes. i am not being racist. i am chinese. or i'm more than half chinese, anyway, and on my birth cert my race is chinese.

we rant on about them, we say we hate macros. we go around all self-righteous, criticising people we've never met and probably never will have cause to. it's rather pathetic, really. if you think about it, there are more important things to rant on about. what's going on in the rest of the world, for example. what's going on that could've led to the people who do macro do what they do. live doing what they do.

they have good cause to hate us, and i do suppose they do. mods, most of all.

ah suck.

perhaps they think, when they see the average player, going about their chosen tasks ignoring the macros, or standing there obviously reporting them, or prancing about showing off rares and equipment they know is worthless because they have plenty of - perhaps they despise us for trying to destroy their jobs. perhaps it goes deeper than that.

when they look at the average player, do they see only a rich white kid, a kid who funds them?

is it the way you feel when you give tuition, and get to see how other people live? is it the way you feel when you bus tables at a restauraunt and see, really, what kind of people keep you in school?

it's not so much hatred. you can't bring yourself to hate them. and you hate that feeling, too.

i'm not saying this is true, i'm just speculating. we were a colony once, and the white man's superiority thing still persists slightly. it manifests in cussing more than you normally would at caucasian drivers who cut into your lane. things like that. stereotypes persist. a caucasian will get a taxi faster than a local, because the driver assumes he tips more.

it's not tangible, but it doesn't make it any less real.

strangely enough though, you still can't hate people for things like that. you admire them, in a way you don't want to. you tell yourself you resent them, but you don't, really, and these things just never come to mind.

that's what it's like here. i don't think about all that when i talk to the random person on rs for the simple reason that it's not imaginable. i don't want to try either, and when i do, well, it's just another person. it's not that i can't be friends with any person i meet, i do and i can. when you get to know a person, you also know that person's human. no different from anyone else.

in real life it's not so easy, the first time you see the person you do see things you shouldn't. you assume things you shouldn't. the great thing about rs is that what you see is the person's character. the face doesn't matter, and when you do think about what you would have said had you met the person in real life instead, you'll realise it doesn't make a difference. you don't need to consciously stow away your stereotypes, which are terrible things. putting people on a pedestal never works very well, and with all the begging, scamming, cybering, and general nastiness that goes on in rs... give me macroing any day.

that's just my opinion, by the way. feel free to disagree. and again, bearing in mind how sensitive people are, i am not being racist.

seeing as this is how enough of us think here, i wonder if the people behind the macros think the same thing. whether that's at the back of their minds, the same way it is at the back of ours as you go about your life.

i sincerely hope not.

then again, the chinese are highly pragmatic. perhaps all the hate is about mods and maybe players, is purely economic.

it's a sad, sad day when money's the cause for hating.

but it's an even sadder day when it's about race, and perceived image most of all.

so let's not think anymore, and just hope.

edit: can't believe i forgot this. before you go all outraged on me, i'm not saying macroing is right. go on youtube and you'll see the number of videos uploaded about jmods. people stand there for hours playing and editing videos just so they can catch a glimpse of a golden crown.

i don't know whether to feel sorry for them or feel guilty.

whenever jmods come ingame, it's MOD hulme. MOD hohbien. MOD conor. MOD emilee. MOD simon c. MOD tobias. MOD tobes... i've seen conor and mat the most, and even then i can't just ignore that fact. even when they're joking around, that MOD doesn't go away. sometimes it's hard to imagine they could actually be real people.

real people with real jobs with real families and real lives.

you could say, jagex is their livelihood.

and macros are destroying that. macroing and real world trading is stealing. after all, it's jagex's resouces.

just because you choose to steal rather than to work a proper job doesn't make stealing right.

people who macro have a choice.

i cannot respect them for the simple fact that they cannot respect others enough to think about them. the jmods have homes to go to and whose upkeep their jobs pay for. real world traders are merely riding on what they did create.

i could be macroing now, y'know. i could have chosen to do that, or fall in with people who do that, rather than play the game.

there's always a choice.

when you choose to steal from people and take away what's rightfully theirs', as those who macro do... you can't try to shy away from the consequences.

forums author unconscious dishonesty.

2007-09-05T10:21:00.000+07:00

written in microsoft word. hence the proper punctuation...

I’ve figured out another reason why I blog. Posting on forums gives more publicity to your opinions than is imaginable. Your posts on forums though, are fair game. Forums hardly allow you enough credit in that the moment you introduce a new perspective or idea into the discussion, the next post, or a post another few posts down immediately plays on that original remark, the poster in effect taking the idea for their own. Introducing it into future topics, as well.

It may just be that I’m selfish, or not inclined to do that. I typically credit the author, poster, or site, or at the very least, if I can’t mention names, steer credit away from myself. By adding things like, ‘as has been mentioned multiple times earlier’, or ‘as others have pointed out’. It just doesn’t seem honest to do otherwise.

When I find that annoying, therefore, it’s not because I’m upset that credit hasn’t gone to me. I'm more of a silent visitor, I don't post very much because I tend to get carried away posting, as I do on my blog. Neither do i have ideas actually worth the taking, what I do is read and find myself re-reading the same originally unique points, posted by different people.

It just gets rather depressing because you realise – many people are not honest, and not inclined to be. It’s not quite as bad as not returning items to someone who died in front of you. It’s that it isn’t a conscious decision to take someone else’s thoughts for your own; it’s something that comes so naturally it’s not even thought about. That’s a terrible thing.

It’s when I come across this particular brand of dishonesty all the time on forums, just by reading threads and posts by others that I retreat into my blog for a week or so, and promptly head back for more disappointment during the weekend.

Why? Because otherwise, I wouldn’t be heard.

After all, it’s a fair price to pay for the pleasure of being heard. In the meantime, I’ll see it as that I managed to persuade someone to hold the same opinion as I. I’ll see it as a victory in being able to convince. A fair proportion of people taking the same courses as me are about as intent as I am on a graduate degree in law. I’d imagine most of them want to practice. I haven’t decided yet myself, which is rather a terrible thing, and terrible timing, but I’ll choose to view this, in the meantime, as practice for practice. In case I ever do need to convince anyone that way.

I’m only able to convince well, however, if I believe in what I’m saying. That’s exactly why I’m unsure about practicing law. How can you fight for what you don’t believe is true? How can you fight for what you don’t believe is right? How can you let someone who trusts you enough to pay you down by not putting in your best, at the same time?

But I digress.

I would, in any case, rather people practiced dishonesty by posting where I can see it, rather than anonymously reading my blog, and going away relaying again whatever I did say. Sometimes, I’m thankful that so little people actually read my blog. It’s occasionally frustrating, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

It would be plain stupid to inform every person I saw in effect plagarising of their inherent dishonesty. It would start a flame war. It would eventually have me banned from the forums.

Some battles are won, after all, by retreating.

undeserving mods.

2007-09-04T21:02:00.001+07:00

consider this a full series.

previous posts include why and how to be(come) a mod.

i just came across a forum topic about mods. there were screenshots and complaints, basically about mods who acted in a fully unmodly manner.

consider this akin in format to a public service message.

you can report mods for behaviour you deem not befitting a mod. in other words, if a mod's breaking a rule, or acting as s/he shouldn't, don't be afraid to report. (do bear in mind though, that there's such a thing as "misuse of customer support" so please don't just report mods in a fit of schadenfreude.)

if i acted in a way i shouldn't have, i would want to know. if i didn't deserve an honour jagex bestowed on me, i'd want jagex to know.

and i'd want to accept the consequences, as i'm sure most would.

so if it's richly deserved, consider it a favour you're doing.

(ranting on forums isn't going to help at all, just make matters worse for everyone else. but as always, people have their reasons.)

so my point in saying all this, was just to broadcast that fact, if this counts as a broadcast at all. frankly, it's immensely disappointing to here people say things like "what the hell is up with the latest runescape mods".

i wouldn't want to be the cause of anything like that, and i doubt anyone else would.

do bear in mind this, though. mods are human. mods are people. people with genuine emotions. people who make mistakes. people who have the capacity to anger, just as they have the capacity for kindness. for hope.

for every other emotion you yourself have.

expect that, if nothing else. expect from mods what you would expect from any other person. because really, why are should that make them any different? expect what you will, but please

don't expect perfection.

how d'you become a mod and all.

2007-09-04T19:55:00.001+07:00

please read my previous post first if you haven't.

or you might also want to read another rant about the same subject. (i know. it just bothers me, y'know. slightly different subject matter, anyhow.)

this is inspired by a fellow player mod steve. we are mutual strangers, but respect isn't a commodity necessarily bought by familiarity.

i had meant to cover this in my previous post, but for obvious reasons that wasn't possible. really it's only because my previous post seemed long enough to be a stand alone post as it was. here, anyway, is my take on the issue.

similarly, i cannot and will not disclose any information i should not. in other words, i'm not going to be telling you anything outside of what you'll be able to find in the knowledge base, anyway. so if you're looking to become a mod, please read my previous post . if you're back again after reading it, you're not going to find out anything you shouldn't. so if that's what you're here for, bail now.

the best advice i can give you is: you don't need to consciously want it. don't focus your entire gameplay and attitude on that want.

just be yourself. if you aren't genuinely like that, please don't try to fake it. you'll need to fake so much if you do become a mod, that way, and that's practically impossible. sometimes i need to be less genuine than i feel, but i do it, and did it, not because i wanted to be a mod, but because i'd have done it anyway. in doing that, i was being myself. i'd have done it because i'd have know, and i know, it was the right thing to do. do what you would have done anyway. that's a part of being yourself.

i'll look at this issue from my perspective because it's the best, if not only way i'll be able. this is what i did and what i believe. it'll probably not work for you, we're all different, but it's always worth knowing.

it's not all about being rule-conscious, but about doing what's right. sticking by the rules helps though. i did not go all out ananlysing the rules, i read them once through, and skimmed through those i knew enough of. thereafter, i went about doing what i thought was right. or, to be precise, what is right according to my religion, which would be Christianity. it's for this reason that i don't like philosophy. religion pretty much explains it all. on the other hand, just common sense morality might work. in that i don't mean logic, i mean conscience.

it's a hard thing to describe, that concept just floating there. what's right. so reading through the rules, and seeing if they align with what you believe helps too. if they do, then more's the better. if they don't, tough luck. you'll have to stick it, it's jagex's game. for my part, i pretty much agreed with every rule. what i didn't agree with was what should be against the rules that was not, and that didn't make much of a difference. i just acted as i would have, anyhow.

it's about how you act. ingame behaviour. reports matter (only) to some extent. how you act, after all, who you are, and how you go about doing things are reflected in what you report. going crazy with the report button might work, but please understand it isn't all there is to being a mod. of course, do report rulebreaking as you see it.

i guess that's all.

steve mentioned something about tests, of a sort. i've been wracking my brains, and some things do come to mind. on the other hand, these are everyday things. it's something that's just done, all the time, and that's why i don't think it matters, at all.

what matters, ultimately, is not whether you become a mod. it's whether you do what is expected of a mod, and more.

it's how you go about your life. how you live it.

that, after all, is what really counts.

why do you want to be a mod?

2007-09-04T16:43:00.000+07:00

that's arguably the most important question of all.

i meet people everyday, and all they ask is "how do you become a mod?" or "is this against the rules?"

i give them the answers, but if they probe further, all i have to say is why.

why do you think it's against the rules?

why do you want to become a mod?

that usually shuts them up. otherwise, i've so far only received two valid responses (imo "the crown is cool" doesn't apply).

that leaves "i deserve it." or "i want to make rs a better place."

i further probe the former till the arrogant little twit realises the answers he has that are true are answers he cannot give me. those who fit into this category typically don't even think about the latter reply. as to the latter, my next question, then, goes back to how.

that shuts them up too, eventually.

how do temporary mutes make rs a better place? why can't you make rs a better place anyway, or do you think that's only the responsibility of mods? how do you think...

writing all this down makes it seem like a job interview, or even a test. but that isn't my intention at all. all i want to do is let them know themselves. let them know why they want what they claim to want. let them judge, for themselves, of themselves.

writing all this down makes me seem cruel. excuses, excuses, you might say, but i say i have a right to them. i don't say all this to "shut them up", to shame them. right after, i move on to another topic. it's their choice if they want to continue talking, and i don't intentionally try to crush them, nor do i. i've become quite the expert at changing the subject now, and it's easy when the person you're talking to wants something mundane to converse about just so they can think, at the same time.

because all most people want is the perceived popularity and prestige that comes with what they want most of all, that little crown by the side of their name.

saddest of all, i think, might be a boy i met, who hasn't spoken three sentences to me since i declined his trade of an emerald ring and expressed my views in a way such as would soften the impact of my opinion on online dating. apparently that didn't work very well, and it's one of the things i've most regretted. it's also one of the things i'd probably do all over again.

my point, anyway, being what he told me. "i want to be a mod so people will listen to me."

i want so much to make people understand. if you have the potential to become a mod, or if you should be one, people will listen to you anyway. people will respect you precisely because you deserve their respect and attention as much, or more so than any mod's.

i've only met a few who don't want to be mods, and that's because they dread the attention, and the time they'll have to sacrifice combating said attention.

it's strange, really. i'm still trying to figure out the lure of it. is it like wanting to become a prefect in school? except many, many people didn't want prefectship, myself included. the desire to prove yourself, desire for popularity, that aside, is there anything left?

the "i want to make rs a better place" works. the problem is, how? by muting people? when it's less necessary i try not to mute because i want to change the person. i want to persuade the person not to, i want to hear what they have to say. sometimes i succeed, other times, i don't.

either way, i don't regret my decisions.

i go about playing in, you might say, the same way i always did. sometimes i remember that my account was modded, and i'm surprised all over again. then i forget it, let it retreat into the background.

before, i did want to be a mod. had you asked me, though, i'd have given you the second response. you'd have been able to shut me up, to make me think, because frankly, i wouldn't have known why.

now i do.

what did you think? i'm not about to tell you. that'll be too easy. it's personal, but aspects of it may well be universal, and not without cause.

what do you think?

think, because the answer's worth it.

more, moresly, monotonous.

2007-09-02T15:51:00.001+07:00

to be a librarian is to have the most boring job in the world, i'd wager. no offense to librarians, of course. it's nothing personal.

to catalogue, shelf read, wrap, process, stamp, watermark, label, repair, shelf books... i'd count it the most boring job not because it's repetitive, which it is, and which many jobs also happen to be, but because it's repetition of the intellectual sort. even if you stand around handing out fliers about hairdressing and tuition, your mind doesn't need to be on the action of your facial muscles and hands. but fliers happen to be the most unnecessary means of paper wastage that i know of, so it's off to the library for me.

when i did community work at the library i couldn't bear to stay for more than two hours. average was one and half. why is it that your stereotypical librarian is portrayed as an intellectual with horn-rimmed glasses? by now i wouldn't wonder if the job's frozen their minds.

in fact it's almost like rs.

you do it for the sake of doing it, what's great is you actually get to do worthwhile things on the side. like blogging. to purely play would constitute torture. people take the monotony out of it, yet sometimes you'd almost prefer monotony to human company. it's the human company that ensures you aren't operating now like a machine. there's the intellectual shackles of it.

there was a forum topic i came across, it went something like this. rs: a game or a test of patience?

neither would be my answer. monotony mixed in with the stench (fine, aroma) of humanity can't be labelled a game. but who ever said monotony couldn't be fun?

because strangely enough, that's what it seems to be.

the box noob.

2007-08-26T16:52:00.001+07:00

seems self-effacing's the thing of the day.

the box noob, anyway, is this bright spark (or brainchild of some bright spark, if you want to be picky about language) who was inspired by the brainchild of a couple of jmods', or that death to the dorgeshuun quest, to be exact. inspired to the point that he goes to the trouble of getting a new account and (you guessed it) starting said quest. in this bit he has to help this cave goblin zanik (don't ask) get into a watermill. for some reason the chosen mode of transportation (or smuggling if you're still on that picky streak) the goblin's in a box.

he goes on to go marvellously off track, by way of fally, to be specific. (jagex should charge him for abduction of the poor goblin, if nothing else.) and carrying that big quest box he goes round saying things like "please donate!" and "donate to free me from slavery!" (perhaps the goblin draws on all that gold heaped in the box with it for survival's sake) which is a step above "phr33 st00f pl0x!". just goes to show, a step takes you rather far, (now for the rumours) apparently he got a million gp from just one run (or one player, if you're more inclined towards the gossip mill than the water one). and apparently that's not a one-off occurrence.

gossip goes as gossip does. apparently (hypocrite that i am, i'm not that bad. last apparently,) he got enough for a santa. which to put things into perspective, costs roughly 20 million.

apparently, (and this is a good apparently, credit goes as credit should) some bright spark (the first one, by all accounts) got the box, and simply walked with it till he had a bunch of cat-imitators hounding him with "wuzzat" and suitable exclamations. he pretended to subscribe to the 'action over words' theory (or the 'silence = gold' one) and simply walked. and walked.

all the way into the wildy. (i'll leave you to reconstruct the outcome.)

so there's the box bit of the name explained. noob because he keeps his combat level at 3. presumably he's just another dime a dozen levelist, who also happens to be some bright spark in circles i haven't yet discovered exist.

if you're the type who doesn't have too firm a grasp of english, or if you're the type who's got a firm grasp of english, detests incoherence and lack of clarity, and is nonetheless patient enough to wade through all this, (or if you're the type who's plain normal,) you probably didn't understand all that.

so basically, the box noob goes about perpetuating a form of glorified begging. (not much better either, was that?) okay. he thinks up a new way of going about this age-old business of begging, and is enormously succesful at it. some people reward him for his creativity, some for the same reason you reward street performers. they interest you enough to make you stop in your tracks for a bit, and for what's worth, that bit of brain power deserves its bit of monetary return.

i haven't yet run into him, because i'm strictly f2p. i've got a low opinion of runescape beggars, but not because i discriminate against beggars, whether on runescape or in real life. some things that go on in real life are just unforseen. and sometimes there are customs that even encourage begging. that i understand.

on the other hand, runescape's a game. you attain things by clicking. by exercising one index finger, and maybe some muscles of the hand. everyone starts on more or less the same ground, and therefore there simply isn't any need to beg. that's why i cannot stand beggars, in runescape. or most other people i see, really. those are kids. most of them (note use of the word most, instad of all) should be middle or upper middle class pre-teens or adolescents coming from families with enough money that they can afford internet access. they do not need to beg. begging cannot be excused as a habit, as a bit of culture.

it is plain sloth.

add to that. beyond sloth, it's self-demeaning. with every request for money they are lowering their own self-esteem, their own self-respect, let alone any respect anyone else might have for them, seeing them as they are, begging. begging when they have the means to work something out themselves, for themselves.

screw the 'it's not against the rules' school of thought. (and make sure you get the whiny, butt-kissing voice right when you say it.) i don't care if it's not against the rules. what i'm about to say defies logic, but that doesn't make it any easier to believe. i don't see why i should conform to rules, or even laws, when they conflict with personal moral standards. of course, this school of thought is a potential disaster. allowing the system to subsist on this would have the game (let's not even talk about real life) infested with scammers, account traders, pass scammers...

i'm still not about to follow rules that i disagree with, or not condemn actions that are confined to within the perimeters of these rules. (come on, it's an online game.) that's why i'd like to work in some area relating to law. law's about making moral standards legal standards. and the latter is what matters.

the "dancing for money" people, on the other hand, seem largely to be having their own bit of fun. perhaps they do this in the fashion of street musicians, but they aren't rightly exhibiting any talent of sorts, nor doing anything exemplary. so while i respect them marginally more than i do those begging just because they can, they don't rank very much highly on this mental list i've accumulated.

the box noob is a case apart. the original box noob, i can respect. i would "donate" to him, if i could, for the sole reason that i would be paying him for his creativity. it's not unduly harmful, amd he provides a right bit of entertainment for us poor slobs without another new thought in our heads.

of course, you'll by default have the pitiful imitators (think, the box kid, skilla4life) or similar people trying to imitate him, or claim ownership of that idea on various forums. plagarism at its best and basest.

which, rumour has it, (i know. couldn't resist though) will have him quitting rs after a time.

i don't at all support that decision. if i went by that attitude, i'd long ago have given up modship, and given up rs altogether.

so, the box noob, if you're reading this... great job, that was. and go on, don't give it up. it's the world, and you might as well stand out even further from it.

training arson.

2007-08-23T20:29:00.000+07:00

the sleepy seaside village of rimmington - not the average arsonist's haunt. or so you might expect...

as of 20th august, the little town and its sparsely forested outskirts were plagued once again by a spat of fires that at the time of reporting, continue to persist.

due to the ready supply of viable fuel, rimmington has long been a popular spot for deforestation and arson in a manner that would almost resemble the slash and burn agricultural method if not for the climate and the meticulous care taken to obtain fuel preceding the attacks.

fires on this occasion were largely confined to the northeastern suburbs (as they are) of the town, which comprises mainly of wooden houses surrounding the communal well. fortunately, the fires died down of their own accord. the arsonist remains at large.

the product of perhaps a tad too much sun there.

basically, behind rimmington, the side facing the sea, that's a great place to train woodcutting and firemaking. no bank for miles, and no competition either. boring, but not so much with private chat. or clan chat either, for that matter. it's more convenient, holding a conversation.

rimmington's just so pretty. :D

clicking gets too repetitive after a time though, so beware. i found myself back in draynor before five levels...

blog traffic.

2007-08-21T21:52:00.000+07:00

sometimes i choose to be grateful, sometimes i'm a brat and an ingrate, and consciously so. this is one of the latter times, so you'd be ill-advised to continue reading.

how do i increase blog traffic?

i'm not even going to say 'post your ideas'. the blog's that dead. i daresay i'm the only person who actualy reads it. i mean well, that's encouraging...

i'm not the type to plaster VISIT MY BLOG all over my forum sig. not one for self-promotion, and not one for letting people i respect realise how unrespectable i am. which is also hypocritical, but then again, i've covered that already, so let it rest for now.

so posting? and hoping someone passing will see the "blogs updated at 9.53pm - runescape - a blog" and click on the link? even i don't do that.

i don't want people to get here because they've googled "minisinoo", or even "player mod list". i don't want people to come here hoping to find out "what a skull sceptre does". i'd like for people to come here seeking to know what i think. isn't that rather arrogant though? wanting an audience for my rants? because that's what all of them are. i write because i want to, because i'd rather let strangers read these thoughts than tell them to my friends.

but then again, nobody gives a damn, and rightly so.

and that's a blessing in itself.

ps. the person with the gall to google player mod list seeking to find one... i can't identify precisely what's wrong with you. there's too much wrong, i'd wager. i don't understand people like you. i don't know if i ever will. conscience is common grace, given to us by God. i know you have it. and trying to hack a mod's account does not consitute using it.

people i meet in rs everyday... some of them just give 'scum of the earth' a new meaning. and those are just kids, i shudder to think what they'll be like when they grow up. i do hope you are not one of them.

themed worlds.

2007-08-15T18:39:00.000+07:00

a simple update, maybe, but in good faith.

personally, i appreciate it more than clan chat.

conspiracy theorist in training...

2007-08-13T17:56:00.000+07:00

following the recent slew of updates, i have come to certain conclusions.

1. the ceo of one of the ad companies has a kid hooked on rs, and he's paranoid, as all ceos are, so he wouldn't trust his bank account with jagex. he's been throwing obscene amounts of money at jagex towers, and by total coincidence paul and andrew, whom he golfs with, have realised the error of their ways and have henceforth stopped discriminating against f2p, as far as updates go.

2. one of these major updates was planned for june or july. and just kept getting pushed back, and back... my bet's clan chat. i mean, it's a little too early in the month for updates, isn't it?

3. the management needs to examine that tea fountain. someone's been spiking it with coffee, or one of those energy drinks people get sent to the er with hypertension for.

i'll be back with more insanity later. classes to go. >.<

clan chat.

2007-08-12T14:00:00.000+07:00

i don't know what to think of it, really.

1. it's a breeding ground for scams, cybering, rule-breaking... so what, go ahead and fester cos there's a 'report abuse' function?

my point (and many others') being that there's absolutely no one around or even able to moderate the chat channels.

2. useful practice for would-be eavesdroppers. such as me. i've learnt 'dropping eaves' ranks much more highly in the pasttime department than 'making a complete fool of myself and by association ruining the reputation of mods in general'.

or you could always term it 'ninja' if you'd go out of your way not to associate yourself with any lower form of espoinage.

3. networking. or social interactions. tbh i don't find listening in much fun at all. in the only chat channel i regularly seek out, i don't know half the people and have too low of an opinion of the other half for it to matter.

4. yeah. it's intended purpose. organising. i've never been in a clan, have been highly advised not to, and don't intend to anyway. so i can't judge how effective it really is in the clan department. the only time i've actually seen it in action, it was posted in response to flaming and abuse made via the channel...

so all in all. apathy's the word. i don't care much for it, and try as i might, i can't actually bring myself to.

there's so many other things more complicated, more important going on in real life. i want to blog about that, not about some irc for preteens.

so bear with me? i'm going to blog about rl right after this. i'd rather appear as a real person to you, and i know this is more important to me right now than anything else rs related, and blogging about clan chat, of all things, isn't going to make it dissapear, isn't even going to make me forget. and come to think of it, i don't want to forget. i shouldn't forget, i should remember.

and be glad.

purpose.

2007-08-05T15:18:00.000+07:00

let's get some things straight... (skip this if you haven't actually read any posts yet. if you're bored or offended, come back here.)

my blog's basically a loong personal rant.
i don't see the point of posting area guides or skill guides because i frankly don't have the patience and don't think people deserve to be spoonfed info like that. in any case, tipit, sal's and runehq are good fan sites.
i don't really post accomplishments because the pixels don't actually matter very much to me. it's just pixels...
i don't post screenshots because i haven't yet got the hang of it, do not want to run the risk of anyone finding out i play, and don't rightly have any thing worth taking a screenshot of.
i may sound cynical, but that's just me. don't take it personally.
you have permission to hate me. i won't be seeking your permission before i try to turn you around.
that said, i will not change my opinion for you unless i realise there actually is something flawed or immoral in my logic, or in the opinion expressed per se.

conclusion: i am bitchy, pushy, selfish, irritating and irritable. i know. especially on blogs. i know. i'm trying to change that, really i am. consider this an attempt.

frequently answered questions.

2007-08-05T13:41:00.000+07:00

it's intrinsically annoying, those questions that i get near every time i log on and actually speak on rs. i do hope i haven't attracted any stalkers, because that'll blow my cover as an intrinsically unoriginal person.

anyway. here's my list of frequently answered questions. some of the answers i've heard spoken/suggested and promptly stole(muwahahaha). those i won't be posting. but those are seriously the best.

disclaimer: yes, i am a hypocrite, and two-faced. but i honestly can't say what i think. i'd like to call it self control. in the meantime, YES. i am working on my inner niceness.

plus. THESE ARE NOT OFFICIAL ANSWERS. these are just the answers i'd have given you, had you come up to me and asked. please don't go around saying "this mod said this on her blog and so there."

1. i need money.
(okay, so maybe i shouldn't label these questions but demands...)

me: don't we all.
then i'll say something about training smithing or wcing. and maybe give away a mith axe to those genuinely needing help. (strangely enough i've only had to give away, what, 5 axes?)

to the unpersuaded: i've never even had 600k before, y'know :) that isn't a lie, either. donate to me pl0x? where did that whole stereotype of mods being rich come from? total credit right now = 439k. bleh.

2. n00b.
is what usually follows... w00t! such a fun one. stolen responses here! :)

3. are you a member?
nope, never been. f2p ftw!

4. how do i become a mod?
when this follows after persistant flooding of public and private chat with things like "my friend told me you'd give me full sara and 100k", the unspoken response would be something along the lines of: seeing as you've been nothing but inhumanly obnoxious, unreasonable and immature so far why d'you think you have a chance higher than an ice cube in hell of becoming one?

i really need to get my people skills down...

what i do say: i could answer that, but the town crier'll have one up on me :) basically though, it's about *insert compacted points and personal anecdotes, if applicable*. for more info, perhaps you'd like to approach your friendly neighbourhood town crier...

5. do mods get free stuff?
what i'd like to say: do you get money for giving up your seat in a crowded bus? no, no and NO! for the last time already. mercenary (brat). GO AND READ THE KB.

what i do say: i wish :) or of course not!

6. so you're saying there isn't any point being a mod/being a mod is boring.
-.-' multiplied multiple times.

personal satisfaction in a job well done is one ;) and that's true, thankfully. it's more intangible, really. things don't need to be quantified all the time...

7. is 17k a fair price for full mith?
do i have price guide stamped in front of my name? i don't buy armour, i don't use melee weapons. for stuff like this, google it yourself. g-o-o-g-l-e.

i've no idea really. i don't deal in armour/weps... the price usually's entirely dependent on the seller though? of course, haggling's always an option :P

8. i need help with a quest.
*gives relevant help* but only if it's one of those amazingly obvious things. or things that actually warrant help like where do i find garlic? otherwise *gives hints* for things like pirate's treasure. *walks through an explanation* for things like dragon slayer.

i was, after all, under the impression that when you're spoonfed info about a quest, it does lose any bit of fun it had in the doing, to begin with.

for p2p quests: nice you're a member. i'm afraid i've never been one. sorry, i wouldn't know :)

9. what's the meaning of life?
another favourite one. except i don't get asked that too often, usually follows after i say something inane like don't worry about it. i like questions :D

that's a tough one. i could tell you, or i could make you figure it out yourself, which would take roughly 7.5 million years, or i could ignore you, because i might subscribe to the theory that if something as inexplicable as life and the meaning of the universe was explained, then it'll disappear and be replaced by something even more unexplainable... if that hasn't happened already, that is...

and that answer i got from wikipedia. by googling it the first time i was asked that :P

so here ends the first installment of frequently answered questions! do remember to tune in for more inanity and insanity as brought to you by yours truly.

arbitrage.

2007-07-25T19:47:00.000+07:00

arbitage: a fancy way of saying merchanting.

merchanting: a shorter way of saying buy cheap and sell high.

people make ridiculous amounts of money merchanting, and almost every good moneymaking guide i've come across mentions this, and mentions it as the best way to make money.

i don't dispute that, but frankly i just don't like it.

the macros're already destroying the yews, nats, deaths, chaos (chaoses? chaos?) etc markets. the way i see it, merchants simply buy from the bots and sell to players who tolerate their high prices simply because they want to do their part in buying from legitimate players, and legitimate players alone.

besides the bit that they're propelling that whole enterprise, there's also the issue of it being plain mercenary.

it's too businesslike for me, too calculating. i'm not too great at the whole marketing thing, and while i respect that merchants have their own skill (or at the very least, patience to spend equally ridiculous amounts of time on the game), i cannot bring myself to buy from a player knowing the price isn't a fair one, and that i will be playing on his ignorance of the market.

of course, if it's an experienced player just trying to get rid of stuff in a hurry, i've got nothing to say to that.

a while back, i read a post (in the rants forum, if i'm not wrong) about how runescape's economy's going to collapse just as rsc's did (or would have, i'm not too sure about the facts). it being early enough in the morning that i'd only have 4 hours of sleep before heading off to school, i just skimmed through the post. it seemed quite logical, really, and basically his argument was that there's too much money flooding the game, and to stop that, some solutions were to stop alching stuff, among the more prominent ones, and of course, to stop merchanting.

i'm trying to reconstruct the argument right now, kudos to the player who came up with this, i'll try to source for your name and the actual thread later.

with the influx of too much money, there's the risk of devaluing it. inflation, i believe it's termed. when money's worth decreases. the way it did during the war, when the foreign, military government simply printed their money as and when they needed it. prices more than doubled, for some products prices even increased a thousandfold.

just realised. it's off topic.

anyway. you could try arbitrage if you're looking to make quick money (quick in the sense that you won't be leveling any virtual skills) and if dealing so much with people doesn't bother you in the slightest.

i don't encourage it, but what the hell. i'm now fully convinced that persuading people to change their minds just isn't my thing.

edit: okay. i've been persuaded. TURN IT ALL AROUND. merchants sell their time. it's their time they're selling, so it's worth paying them. and they help the economy, like retailers do. and the RS ECONOMY IS NOT GOING TO CRASH. i'll post more some other time. it's all other people's points, and i'm all in agreement with them.

not again...

2007-07-15T19:08:00.000+07:00

whoopiededoo.

"there are currently 0 people playing!"

what i'm most afraid of is that it's something big. like that time there was an earthquake not quite that near here, i was all, why am i lagging so much? and felt so bad after, because it was the earthquake. the undersea cables'd been ... broken (i know that's not the right word) and all i could worry about was the slow internet connection. of all things. i was ashamed. i am ashamed.

in any case, i'm taking this as a sign that i should forget rs altogether and start work.

byebye.

july updates.

2007-07-04T18:44:00.000+07:00

three cheers and all that.

yes. finally the end's in sight. that whole "i was in the dungeon of a poh and got expelled and died outside and lost my phat and 10 mil" thing. i know it's true, most times, but there isn't anything i can do. if i do ever earn enough for a rare, i wouldn't splurge on that. it's kind of a waste. one small glitch like that and everything's gone...

so. programme that out and you'll have my thanks.

the door spammers. i can't say stop cos that just gives them the attention they want. i can't rightly do anything that'll work, really. always wondered why that was allowed.

kebabs. lol! hardly like the kebabs we get here, but that one's amusing enough... almost as much so as mod ash and the construction messages o.O talk about plain weird...

just a note.

2007-07-02T23:25:00.000+07:00

please stop asking me questions.

if they're meant to antagonise, i don't have the heart to humour you right now. you've hounded me out of playing on any character but my skiller for a weekend. i don't want to give in and put my private chat on friends, so please. piss off. or i'll just ignore you. see it as a test of patience, and you're the trial.

if they're game-related, search the knowledge base. if they're quest-related, google it. if you're self-confessedly too lazy to do any of that, you might want to consider getting off the game before you wear out your clicking finger.

if you've been hacked, or if your friend's been hacked, or if your mains been banned, or muted, or permanently muted; if you've, in short, been punished for things you say you didn't do, go. and. lodge. an. appeal. i don't know what happened, i don't know if you're guilty or not (notice i even have that little note of doubt there, because i'd like to suscribe to the innocent until proven guilty thing. fyi, it is not a good idea to push me out of that.) i do. not. know what happened. if you're guilty (which 97% of the time you would be) face up to it. if it's just a little misunderstanding, learn.

i'll be glad to help, but being an acessory to actions morally wrong isn't my thing.

if you need free stuff, go mining, wcing, fishing, air running. i can get 10k on my level 3 ch00b in 15 minutes air running. 15 minutes tops. more's the time i do not give handouts to beggars. i'm only that generous if you need or deserve it. i don't profess to judge you, either. i'd just like to motivate.

if the question's rule-related, and the knowledge base failed, by all means. ask away.

if you just need someone to talk to, why didn't you approach me on my skiller? why didn't you catch a random level 3?

if all you want, really, is a decent conversation, i'll usually be able to fake a mood acceptable, and really get into that by the time we're done. i don't mind just talking, but please don't start with inane questions.

thank you, so very much.

why.

2007-07-02T22:10:00.000+07:00

sometimes i wonder why i play runescape. then again, it's usually not so much me not knowing as me playing for such a long while without needing to know that i lose sight of it.

like this whole day, for example.

i've played for a good three hours, in toto. on my skiller, because it's fun just to talk without the weight of that hanging over (besides your head), your every word. (the wrecking the stereotype that all level 3s are macros and n00bs doesn't aid much in the get-off-this-account-and-rs-already! hype.) the fact that it's a rare monday public holiday also factors.

and after a while, it gets boring. sure. it gets pointless (though i dissuade myself with the justification for creating that account in the first place). and that's what i mean by losing sight.

then wham everything comes together.

i play rs for the same reason some people fantasise, or read books. it's a satisfactory enough escape from some things real. when i talk people can't see the anger seething just below the surface of each word, can't see the tears.

when i type happy, people think i'm happy, and then i become happy too.

or at the very least, calm.

i don't play rs for fun very much, anymore.

acessorising, 1 1/2

2007-06-23T23:06:00.000+07:00

ohh enough of psychoanalysis and criticism. i'm sorry if all that offended you, when i read it i know some of it's too harsh, i know i'm not saying what i should, or what i really do think, just what goes with my mood at that time, or what's just happened.

in any case. welcome back for (drumroll) ... acessorising episode II!

(superficiality to go with the dischantment, and superficiality to match.)

i've met someone who's totally fashion-conscious. which is rare, 'cos he's happens to be a guy. not that there's anything remotely wrong with that, it's just good to actually have some fashion advice.

anyway. been sworn not to reveal his trade secrets so i'll settle for the eccentric and ecletic, since that's what you got last time, anyway.

hm. come to think of it, not ecletic at all. never mind. when dressing to impress, i wear the princess blouse and skirt. power ammy. skull sceptre. red cape. coloured gloves. how boring. post isn't going quite the way i expected.

lessee. on my skiller, i dress in black. default clothes black. black long-sleved midriff baring top. black pants. black shoes. red cape. works with the red hair. cut into a bob. i'm still bored. can't remember what exactly it was i was planning to say here.

ahwell. there you have it. make it 1 and 1/2. hardly deserves II status.

be nice.

2007-06-23T22:12:00.000+07:00

"nice" isn't a good word. it wasn't meant to be, not in shakespeare's time, and i daresay not when it was thought up. neither now, wouldn't be too bad an idea either.

nice is a word you use to describe someone you don't know. it's a word for a stranger that can pass off as an acquaintance. it's a word you write on cards when you don't have any anecdotes to put down. it's a neutral word with positive connotations and a whole different implication underneath. "what's she like?"

"she's a nice girl."

nice what. nice how. nice she can suck up? nice she can act? nice she's so nondescript there isn't any nicer adjective to describe her.

i'm nice, people say.

people mean, i suck.

so most people don't get that meaning. so most people don't think. so most people are inane enough to take niceness as an acceptable (i'm not even saying commendable) exterior.

or maybe it's idealism. don't ask me.

never mind that i'm advocating niceness. "that wasn't very nice..." to initiate peace. "be nice? :)" as an answer to a stupid question.

i want to say to them. niceness isn't an attitude. isn't an action. isn't a mode you switch to just because you want the rewards for it. it's a way of life.

it's not niceness, per se. it's a side effect of goodness, of morality, of just being bloody human. so say my standard of what it is to be human isn't reasonable. to me, that's what it is. a lesser manifestation of all those things.

nice isn't buying an inventory full of newcomer maps, or making iron meds and distributing them. we've got a word for it here. that word's extra. it's called, condemming that person, and every other person who has the misfortune to meet them and dare to have a combat level higher than their own, by instilling in them the value that begging's right.

nice isn't dispensing useless advice to choobs of high-leveled players who aren't going to insult intelligence they think you have by telling you otherwise. read the knowledge base if you don't know anything. google it. what is wrong is your laziness, not anything about the game, not by far.

don't give me that crap called cynicism, because i'm not buying it. being realistic is one thing. faith is another all together. they can co-exist. they do. suck on th at.

finally...

2007-06-20T22:41:00.001+07:00

yes! the skull sceptre's finally complete. a fair few months of searching, and there it is.

no! what do i do next?

edit: okay okay. i'll take a cue from the keywords. a skull sceptre just looks nice. stats; nothing much to speak of, the only good thing about it beyond that whole cosmetic bit is the ability to teleport to barbarian village 5 times before it disintegrates. or vapourises. or whatever. haven't even used it to teleport before, don't know of anyone who has...

edit 2: saves a space in your inventory if you're in the wildy, rather than teleport runes, but why anyone should want to bring that thing into the wildy is beyond me...

a return to newbness.

2007-06-20T16:03:00.000+07:00

sometimes i forget how entirely restricting it is not to have mage high enough for every f2p teleport, laws, money (i'm talking even just 1k), or friends willing to associate with you and go on during times that coincide with your own.

i don't quite get the phrase n00b. i mean, i know it's insulting, and i take it to mean low-leveled, but i'm told the real meaning's something more than an insult to ability, but leaning more towards one of character. and that, i daresay i can't usually be faulted for ingame any longer. therein lies the justification for the title.

what really gets to me is how easy it is to level skills. i go from 1 mining to 21 in a day. i get smithing up by 15 levels the next. all through it i just gape...

that's the great thing about newbness. on to n00bness.

to put things into perspective, this is what i used to be like. (or, it could be entitled, you knowy you're a n00b when...)

you take 2 hours to complete tutorial island.
you head straight for draynor mansion after you die because of all the great respawns there. bucket, gloves, sheares...
you think al kharid's a members area when you find out about the 10gp toll payment. and you are therefore
so pleased with yourself because it seems as though you've gained acess to a members area by paying just 10gp...
you admire the level 3s dressed in default clothes who don't talk for their high woodcutting level.
you're so happy with yourself when you figure out there's a way to varrock via lumby and al kharid.
you think it's so smart of you to make use of the world map.
the concept of the wildy enthralls you.
even after you've died.

all true. eh. i'll come up with more later. but you get the idea...

i'll differentiate between that and this, because newbness is just plain restrictive. i want to change people's perceptions. i want to do that through my skiller, and show them that character has nothing to do with combat level. i know i've said that lots of times before. i know i'll say it again.

negativity you don't need.

2007-06-20T15:20:00.000+07:00

edit: before you continue reading. i save frustrations like these for my blog. mind you, i wouldn't dare lash out like that ingame. it's too compromising.

ingame,

i'm friggin lonely.

large proportion of my friends who still log on are away. the rest of the players on my friends list are, for the most part, egotistical suck ups i can't rightly stand to have a conversation with. i've had enough of false faces now to concentrate on training my skiller and blogging. (bear in mind, my skiller's only three days old, and has 28 mining, 16 smithing, 7 crafting and counting.)

it's not loneliness born of being ignored. it's the loneliness in logging in and being greeted with heys from three people who aren't even on your friends list, and whom you deleted from there long ago for reasons that you meant to be obvious to the both of you. (of course, the fact that they're only saying hey because that's how you greet people doesn't exactly do wonders either.)

in a particularly foul mood the other day, i simply ignored them. especially the guy who either can't count the appropriate number of exclamation or question marks necessary, or has an entirely too twitchy ring finger. of course i feel bad immediately afterwards, and reply the next i log in. i am just waiting for that person obnoxious enough to call me "friend" after making demands so unreasonable i was about to put him on ignore to ask why i don't respond. i'll reply sweetly "i'm sorry, it was kind of crowded back there, so i had to put my private chat on friends..."

if that isn't heavy-handed enough, i don't know what is.

perhaps the missive i blasted at the guy who happened to get (mistakenly, i'll admit) what was coming to a newer (more deserving too) annoyance might've done a better job. he'd been pestering me to add some guy, cooo[undetermined number of o's]ool xx, apparently a good friend of his. for some reason he refused (or simply lacked the capacity) to understand why i refused to add him. first off, someone with a name like that doesn't sound all too simulating a conversationalist. (not that i told him that much. i'm not that insensitive.) what i did tell him "you do realise even you aren't on my freinds list, i add you as and when you pm me. no offense, but if your friend has any questions, tell him to feel free to pm me, i'll do the same for him."

i cannot stand those people whom i soo feel like asking "do you need anything, or have i just been landed with another pest with a ego so hugely inflated i can't see past it to begin with?"

obvious lonliness isn't nearly so bad as knowing that everyone you're surrounded by has teeth.

about the forums. call THIS my personal rant(s).

2007-06-19T20:21:00.000+07:00

no, i haven't magically acquired a membership since last i've blogged. still. the forums are open to whomever it pleases to partake of (for the most part) adolescent inability to use proper english, or contain emotions into comprehensible words. (i'm partial to a lack of capitalisation. most words don't hardly seem to deserve it. and no, not poor grasp of the language. lack of situational awareness. sloth. as you might call said lack of capitalisation. i'm still trying to decide.)

jagex is a company. jagex is liable. jagex can be sued. officially.

officially, they forbid under-13s to play the game. but. regardless. the knowledge base's parent-friendly. the censor's kid-friendly. the whole game's structured, or has been restructured to meet the needs (or demands, if you're that conscious of how you name your spades) of a progressively younger player base.

a younger player base of which a substantial proportion lack the emotional maturity or moral direction to even interact socially without incident. factor in the adults who use this combination to their advantage with that (culturally-induced. i know, alright? my irritations aren't irrational) awfully pragmatic mindset of monetary gain, it gets...faintly sickening.

but enough of that. on to the point of this post.

i do believe jagex tries too hard to keep players cossetted and mollycoddled like some sort of warped online dictatorship of a intended-utopian dystopia.

only threads i frequent are those housed in the rants forum.

ignore what i said in that earlier post. the macro problem's beyond ridiculous. and jagex creates a stickie banning rants on that precise thing. although it gets faintly sickening listening (even to an outsider like me) to people repeat the same thing over and over again, the same rants about macros, covering your ears isn't going to help any. it's still there.

catering to a lazier player base lacking in drive isn't the answer either. home teleport my foot. popular rant topic, and not without cause. grating as it is to read though the posts of unreasonable, petty, spoiled ... people, the rants've more than their fair share of gems. well-thought out posts, not so much rants as justifiable questions. and question they should. home teleport nullifies the effect of the mom teleporting bots some place ruddy lousy software can't get those pixels out of. i would've been disgraced, ashamed to have to use home tele to find my way out of a mess. now it's just a matter of convenience my choob shouldn't have.

disproption. not jagex's fault. the compliments forum's full of people professing their love for "mods! forum mods, game mods, jagex mods, dual mods..." there's more than enough of that around, flattery isn't going to get you a thing, not from me, and not from any other self-respecting person mature enough to have been appointed fairly into that position. it just makes people nervours, and annoyed, because it's as if fishing for compliments, and when there's nothing commendable about the flatterer, it's hard to show more sincerity than was received to begin with. i can't quite put my finger on it, but that isn't the face of sincere gratitude. i don't like the idea of false flattery. so sue me.

whereras the rants forum. threads about the ineffectiveness of mods, or the system, simply aren't as well entertained or received. can't elaborate more here, it's just, that. dispropotionate.

and what're the forums without forum mods. to tell the truth, (as a game mod myself) i respect forum mods much more than the typical game mod. it takes so much more courage to act the way you should when all that's immortalised (fine, i'm exaggerating, but you get the picture) in words that remain even when you aren't around to take them back, or explain them. and when you talk, you're speaking to so many more people than can bear imagining at that moment of discourse, and it's so much more difficult to stand firm and defend your opinions, or be able to rightly justify them in an intelligent manner when you're being flamed.

then the life of it's so public. frankly i'm glad there isn't a list of game mods around like there is one on the forum mods. i'd be piss scared of being hacked. worse still, of people pming me ingame or something. it's a life almost less private than zezima's, and that's saying alot, and that's true, because the guy who maxed out the hiscores for a time appeals to the imagination, fufils a need for some sort of larger than life hero. while mods people don't mind so much treating like dirt because it's not like any claim was made of being that much better, if at all. which is also true.

and things suck, as things do. but more's the time i lose sight of how the things that suck don't outnumber (not by far) the things that don't. i haven't, right now. i do suppose that's what rants do.

keep ranting people. we'll all be waiting.

so many.

2007-06-18T00:01:00.000+07:00

so many people begging.

attitude shift, perhaps?

it's demeaning. diminishing your sense of self worth.

stop already.

home world.

2007-06-15T18:11:00.000+07:00

as in, the server you're partial to, depending mostly on geographical location and lengths of cables and such.

geographically, i do believe australia's the best bet. more often than not i'd be at 107. note use of the apostrophe d.

when i wasn't to familiar with the concept of world select though, i just hopped over to the most crowded world. great personal satisfaction in being surrounded by tons of white dots in varrock i suppose. you could well call that a phrase, it hardly lasted long at all.

mostly i frequent worlds with 1000+ people. it's the social bit that i like, but too much gets ... overwhelming. so axe the 107 idea.

now i mainly go wherever my mouse takes me. if world select had their way on which world was "best" for me, i'd be in the vicinity of 29 and 30.

the idea of servers as worlds is pretty cute.

the idea of home worlds even more so. some kind of loyalty, i guess. then again, to me it's just pixels, so it doesn't matter so much.

apparently it does to lots of people though. i choose worlds by number of players, mainly. other thing that factors in is the world number. world numbers with the number 7, numbers when the years were significant, numbers i just happen to take a fancy to. and on my friends list, all the worlds sound vaguely familiar. 91, 107, 109, 50, 30, 16...

helps me remember who they are, if nothing else.

only worlds i avoid're the dutch servers. can't understand what anyone's saying, and in random pms the person doesn't get me when i say i don't speak that language.

i appreciate the fact that jagex's a britan-based company. appreciate the german servers too, and the dutch, finnish, swedish worlds...

still. it's kind of weird that there aren't any asian servers. not that it's strictly necessary right now, but still...

dug up an old thread on the official forums, something to the effect of 'bring back the singapore servers!' if they did that'd almost definitely be the closest server to me. being the only asian one, after all. then i read the small print ("rule 5, paragraph 40, the asterix at the bottom...") "high cost of bandwidth... members' server..."

back to sqaure one.

bot names do have style, you know.

2007-06-15T13:33:00.000+07:00

before we start, let's clear up that little misconception that all macros are chinese in origin.

so, a large percentage of them are. but some others're just riding on the back of that prejudice.

i can speak chinese. it's the only subject i failed in school, and it's the only subject i ha- eh, dislike with unparalleled intensity. but yes, i can speak the language. and i know for a fact that a fair few of the macro namers don't.

by the way. macros = bots = getting a programme to practice a skill for you = afk training = cheating

yay! so let's start. post-translation, some of the names aren't too creative, some're obscene. some're just cute...

xiao yu. xiao means small, yu means fish. small fish woodcutting...

wc ren. kind of apt, ren means person.

mei hao. mei means beautiful. hao means good. put it together and into a sentence, it's a bit like wishing some one, phrase that comes to mind: mei hao de shen huo. de's a conjunction, so basically, have a good, prosperous life...

jun yi. (bear in mind, all these translations mayn't be strictly accurate. each word (i.e. mei) can have four different sounds (- and / and V and / in the opposite direction). each sound for each word here (i.e. mei with a V above it) can have lots of characters with that pronounciation, with lots of meanings... ) so jun could mean soldier. yi could mean one. yi could mean clothes. soldier person or soldier clothes... a macro's begging for the drill demon??

more entertaining than the random letters at any rate. bbvvv. dfskd.

you don't need to trust me.

2007-06-13T21:04:00.000+07:00

this is hope.

and this is what it's like to be humbled.

a guy goes "follow to win 10k", in the usual fashion. a low-leveled player, standing in the middle of lumby. not many pay him any mind, just two obviously inexperienced, and one slightly more savvy player. i tag along, hoping to catch him in the act.

"trade to win" isn't exactly incriminating. i wait. the first guy doesn't understand, he keeps asking questions. by now the third guy's left. he explains "trade. whoever's got the best items wins." after a few long rounds of deciding and stating who's leading, i trade him. i put up a power ammy, an addy pick. stuff i just happened to have in my inventory. apparently, after that, i'm leading...

it goes on. it's incredibly boring. the lure of more money than they've probably ever touched is what keeps them here.

he brushes off the second girl with "it's a tie. between..."

i trade him for the last time, apparently "you have to beat my items to win", which i do, only to decline the trade and talk about how trust games're such awful things.

so he obviously chooses the first guy, with whom i've been having a conversation about the evils of item scamming via pm the whole time. and over pm i get "he's for real."

it's excruciatingly embarrassing, and i do believe i made a larger fool of myself there than any other time in that capacity. still, it's too ever so heartening.

i explain myself, and apologise simply, "i'm sorry." he replies with "np" and i go on to talk about phrasing his alturistic intentions less suspiciously. he's patient, almost condescending in his monosyllabic placating, and i can't say i can blame him at all. either of them, really, the first guy takes a leaf out of his book and responds in pretty much the same manner "np", "same here lol", and after the demise of our awkwardly brief exchange, "you're nice." hey, he even uses "great", and "i can see why..." i apologise to him, too.

i refuse to wonder if he delivered only because i spoke too early. it'd do him no credit, it'll be like, crying sour grapes.

besides, i like to think that he just did it, out of the goodness of his heart.

like i said, that's hope.

routine.

2007-06-12T12:19:00.000+07:00

i'm so bored. the nature of my routine:

i mine say 200 iron, 450 coal, 30 mith and 20 gold.
i smelt it all in lumby.
i teleport over to varrock and smith it all into steel plates and mith swords.
i sell the plates and swords, world hopping once stock reaches 7 and 10, respectively.
i splurge half of the money on runes.
i go hunting stronghold of security creatures (graduated from catlepomb things to ankous) or ice giants in fally or moss giants in crandor. that's the only fun part.
i teleport over to fally and get the pick out again...

it's so boring!

i waste so much time in lumby, purposely talking if only to be swamped by pms. other than the social aspect of it all, there's no fun to the game anymore.

that's why modship's so welcome. it's the only thing that keeps me playing.

it's kind of pathetic.

the dark side...

2007-06-11T19:56:00.000+07:00

this is ridiculous.

i go fishing in karamja, and every other player is a bot. i count 11 of them. i don't get why they need to use chinese names. and frankly, i don't know what to do. every rune and every arrow shop i go to on vitually every world has a bot. in varrock, most crowded worlds have a bot, sometimes two, advertising real world trading sites. that's easier to deal with. they get muted. then a day later, they're at it again.

there's a level 3 player, obviously using an autotyper, selling 9k big bones.

why are people like this?

it's just, what's wrong with them?

it's so mercenary. more than that. it's plain selfish.

screw the 'it's only jaded adults' take. people spam the chat screen with "fire!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" in cyan:, white:, red: flash:, wave2... they're answered with "selling fire!" in direct propotion. all levels, even 60, routinely beg for food.

and that's karamja, not even lumby.

i've solved the mystery of macros being levels 4 and 5. it's mainly autoretaliate on randoms.

i've seen whole macro families with level 70+ woodcutting.

i don't get it. they boast 1 million membership, but after taking macroers out of the mix...

it's not just the macroing bit. there're soo many throwaway accounts, i wonder at how easy it is to make one.

a guy, standing just outside lumby bank. "i break rules! report me! i account trade and share accounts and encourage others to break rules and [gets cut off by lack of space] report me! [censor kicks in]" that i wasn't too bothered about. then "everyone here has no life! people who play runescape are all [heh. censor strikes again]. wanna [overtly sexual advances and insults]." i pm him. he ignores me. "jagex is [you get the picture]. mods become mods by sleeping with [insert name of founders/staff of choice]."

seriously. all i can say is -.-

well. on the bright side and all. at least that's just an extreme. enough nice players yet to nullify that. or so i'd like to hope.

i mean, it's that kind of hope that keeps me playing.

take offense.

2007-06-10T19:12:00.000+07:00

"offensive language" encompasses so much, really. i don't mind the swearing, or the spamming.

i mind the sexual advances.

the slightly misguided only serve to amuse. i've no idea where they get their ideas. "i need arrows."

i'm reeaally don't have time for this, so i go all non-committal. "i see."

player: do you have arrows?
me: no, i prefer to mage.
player: get me some arrows.
me: i'm sorry, i don't quite have the time for that.

*pause*

player: ha! reported.
me: okaay. what for?
player: offensive language.
me: lol?
player: you're not helping me. that's offensive!

me: -.-

then there's racism, against african americans and jews purely because they do to look, what, cool, good, in front of 'friends'. are they that desperate for friends that they'll settle for a lie?

and of course, the epitome of racism translated into action is all they have to provide direction for whatever it is they're trying to pull off. i don't know, most times it just doesn't seem like they mean it. they mean to be racist, but it's just the label on the act that they're looking for, not so much real prejudice behind the discrimination. as in, it's a game to them, and while it is, they think that's all there is too it.

i've seen racisim directed at chinese, not so often at all. and that's one of the few times it's really meant. the difference being that's kind of founded in the company-advocated war against macros. of course that never makes it right, never justifies it. and people usually agree with me when i use the word justify for other things, becuase they'd rather lie to save face in front of a girl, or a mod, than admit to themselves that what they've compromised is something as big as 'justice'.

not like that works any on people flaming. them i can deal with. i don't get angry, but i run out of witty comebacks way too soon for comfort.

and i hear their response, and i guess (since i can't really know, can i) and it's just, so ever so pitiful. it's just so belittling, what they're saying of themselves, how low they're showing themselves to go.

of course, i could hardly be the judge of all this. infact i could be so terribly disillusioned in my understanding of where, exactly, they're all coming from. so terribly disillusioned about everything.

i don't deny that possibility. i don't deny that a world view as limited as my own could make me come across as an idealistic, impressionable, uneducated...person, not deserving of attention, neither worthy of your time.

i don't deny that, really i don't. that's merely the world as i see it, coloured by perception, tainted by ignorance.

to what extent, is for you to say.

i write this in a public domain with some hope in mind. realise it, if you will.

forum (pro)pponents.

2007-06-04T22:45:00.000+07:00

it's interesting to see how people argue when either way, they've got everything to lose.

on one hand, the respect of their opponent, and of the wider community.

on another, their own honour, and their ability to live with themselves.

it's interesting because i admire their ability to realise that fact. acknowledging your vulnerability to loss is in itself commendable. factoring that in as part of your argument is in itself a strength.

hiding behind the view of the wider body and their perception of your character to nullify what you judge to be the first threat is, as i see it, cowardience.

how you choose to argue can ultimately be as decisive to your arguement itself.

just as awareness of audience is imperative.

it takes a big person to back down from an argument with dignity, not discarding for that moment views that stand up to closer, and ethical, examination.

then again, most of them from are.

and i respect them for that, among other things.

define me.

2007-05-31T19:04:00.000+07:00

i know. sort of the longest silence for as long as this blog's been up.

because it's been bugging me, whether i'm allowed to say this or not. scroll down, there's that post about stagnating. yes. i'm still stagnating, in that leveling my main, or even my pure doesn't have any meaning. but. something came up. something totally unexpected. but more on it later, i like to break things slowly.

if you already know, meaning this post comes out second for today, then that's probably how you'd define me.

define me.

of course, i'd prefer if you did that in the context of me as a person. and i know that's a tad difficult though, so why not start like this, define me as a player.

that's how every other player would start, anyway.

there's the clothes. i've mentioned that before, scroll down to last month.

and most of all, there's the combat level.

i can see why they chose combat over total, or something. it's an indication of how much danger i pose to you. and when the colours highlight it as the main thing to note, next to the white username, then it's difficult not to asses a person on the sole basis of that.

asses being a softer word for judge.

and judging's wrong, and not judging's difficult. and what's even more so, is not defining yourself, not allowing yourself to be defined by that.

it's easy enough to say. i worked at bringing my combat up to 40. after that, i didn't pay it much mind. but that's another story altogether.

still, the mentality's faintly disgusting. i hear people complaining about being called n00bs. i don't encounter that as often as i'd expected to. and frankly, i don't mind all that much, although others certainly do.

what i do mind is the whole emphasis on combat. it's practical. it makes sense like nothing else would. yet, it's like a regression to the caveman mentality of how well you fight being a reflection of you. the whole you. i mean, i have a name. or, at least, a username. no need to go "level 57".

i go into this determined to keep my combat level exactly where it is, well below 70, below 60 even, just to prove that it has nothing to do with my character, it has nothing to do with my experience, it has nothing to do with the person sitting here typing.

and i'll hear jaws drop when i open my mouth. to be exact, when i hit enter.

of course, i won't say it outright. but my presence screams it, almost. the whole combat thing?

stuff it.

(self)friend.

2007-05-28T20:18:00.000+07:00

i find warlock cute. as in, little kid cute. warlock from one of the too many groups boasting an affiliation to the x-men. the way he says things. or just the one phrase that sticks. self friend. (rahne.) weird, but cute.

so that shall be the title of this post. adding, so it isn't as boring as a title. i do suppose he meant, my friend.

that said, i don't quite know who my real friends are anymore. on runescape, that is.

when big things happen, i tend to measure time, and things past by it. before, and after. it's just that those things tend to be superficial, and i end up forgetting the true nature, if you will, of that big event, when i'm swamped with everything else cosmetic. i know i'm not making sense, i'm sorry.

i was freaked. now, i'm just tired.

most people on my friends list on rs just don't log in again, ever, as far as i know. with my friends on rs, i'll talk to them almost everyday. heck, i'll log in just to talk to them, sometimes, but after a few weeks, they'll just disappear, and don't seem to log in ever again.

and i'll miss them, and i drift till i find someone else to talk to.

now, i've got more than my fair share of "friends".

some people are curious, some people take me to be a sentient knowledge base/world clock/quest guide/price guide, some people flame me.

i can take that. i almost enjoy those situations, when i'm taunted, because i'm tested, i need to give a response that doesn't provoke, and is right. what i can't quite stand are the suck ups. one i know's been called that to his face, within my hearing. it's that obvious, even without pm.

it's like, they're acting, they're showing a face to me that isn't theirs, at all. and i don't quite know what to do about it. they ask, i say, be yourself.

in their answer it's just as obvious they have no intention of doing anything of that sort.

and i know i'm just as guilty, sometimes, of acting like a person i'm not. what's worse is, i can't fault them, they're doing nothing wrong, they're being great, really. like the world, real life. so hypocrisy goes on, hypocrites remain pretty much untouchable, and hypocrisy is just let alone, simply because it's valued above outright disrespect by those who matter.

so. my friends list finally reached its f2p limit.

i'm forced to indiscriminately delete the names that come after. and i don't quite understand why people i converse with just don't understand that being on someone's 'freinds list' makes you no more of a friend than the random stranger.

happenings and suchlike.

2007-05-20T19:33:00.000+07:00

this weekend, my eyes are open. (despite a cleaning agent trying to swell my eyes shut and asphyxiate me irl...)

so. back to lists.

why do people crowd around in front of lumby castle, trying their best to get themselves reported,
seeing as there are mods (a phenomena, i used to think, in itself) in lumby on virtually every crowded server,
probably doing something the majority of the population won't bother to, by taking advantage of them illegal transections etc, and requests for bf/gf(s),
which incidentally is "solicitation" and falls under "offensive language", rule one,
a fact of which many, i amongst them till before this weekend, are aparently blissfully unaware of.

so that's what i could fit into one sentence. on a side note, i've reinforced my realisation that when you're part of a group, the fact that you're part of that group appears to be all the general public sees, and it's on that group that they base their judgement of you.

which totally sucks.

and i'm majorly freaked right now, and keeping my mouth oh so tightly shut. oh forget that here comes a rock golem sheesh there goes prayer i'm pissed. and defeated. waaa. ohnever mind. up a crafting level yay! watch out golem (why golem golum gollum?) you haven't seen the last of me and all that cheesy/corny crap. ew sounds disgusting. cheese and corn.

never mind me. funny how tilting the screen just a wee bit can make the whole mine so much brighter.

wheras clicking sounds softer in the dark.

what's in a name, and all that.

2007-05-13T21:01:00.000+07:00

warping established quotes is fun. reading warped versions: even more so.

like shakespeare's "a rose by any other name still smells as sweet." or something similar.

to "a rose by any other name still has thornes."

(i don't rightly know who to credit that to. minisinoo might be a good bet, she writes really well. her plot ideas are good. best of all, she favours the same character i do. meaning that i can stand to read her work without becoming mildly aggrevated by the way she handles her characters. the way i do when i watch some movie adaptations. or read, say, chris claremont's stuff. he's brought the industry far, i'll give him that. but the character he chooses to throw all the limelight at: eech.)

off topic though. hence the parantheses.

when i created my main, the username was my main problem. i wouldn't stand to have numbers in it; numbers betrayed a lack of creativity. i didn't want to come up with a name completely new, that wouldn't leave any impressions.

so i researched (yes actually researched, but minimally) a name obscure enough not to have been used and obscure enough that someone who recognises it would necessarily have enough interest in the subject matter to interest me.

and that's also why, besides my main, i have only one other account i pay any amount of attention to. because i care about the name. and also because i'd prefer to attract similar people, which in a way is another matter altogether.

so that's one thing about names. then.

some pkers apparently craft complicated names in hopes that people won't easily be able to look their stats up.
otherwise, the name's a statement of intent. as skills go. or social interactions.
a statement of interest. outside of the game.
a statement of adulation. like some kind of tribute.
maybe even a real life name. somehow i never considered this. (edit: can't say this anymore. after a while, it just got rather tiring, and it seemed easiest to come up with a name at least resembling my own. it's too common for no one to have taken it. besides, i like my name. the switching of accounts in the meanwhile does help, i guess. aly isn't quite my real name, it's more a shadow of a shadow, something similar to my nickname. i just can't risk people i actually know coming across this blog, y'see.)

anyway. names i liked, for various resons. minus the numbers cos i can't remember them. i'll try to add to the list as i go.

lissabeth.
daytripper.
deirdrel.
arcque.

funny. that's about all i can think of. names don't really mean so much in the long run, i suppose. but for the here and now, if you're a total stranger and the name, aside from the avatar is all i have to judge you by, it does make some sort of difference. especially since these names you can choose for yourself.

stagnating.

2007-05-13T11:22:00.000+07:00

i've reached the plateau where leveling skills is just about totally meaningless. interesting skills that is. like most of the things you can do you can't do because you aren't a member. i suppose i should stop playing then. i don't play so much anymore as it is.

i'm blogging so much now, and playing, because the exams are over and i can't bear to start doing what needs doing next.

i've taken to being paranoid when mining. equipping myself with the best shield, boots, ammy and wep in my possession. the latter of which happens to be my pick, so none of these present much of an inconvenience.

all this because i don't want to experience the indignity of having to run from my friend the rock golem, whom/which i've been meeting particularly often lately i.e. almost every mining expedition. which isn't as long by half.

is there a difference between obsession and addiction? i don't believe i'm obsessed. i will consider admitting to myself that i'm addicted.

i know this game's addictive.

i know becoming a member would ensure i am more addicted that than i already am, assuming i am, which is bad enough.

so i suppose this whole problem of stagnating isn't too bad in the long run. i always knew i'll stop someday. the problem just lay in defining someday.

i do believe i'm one of the only people who isn't a member but still has a blog about runescape. i don't believe that's a problem. i'll continue to blog. it's fun. it's an outlet. it's a distraction.

on a sidenote. applauding runescape for banning members macroing. the real world trading thing, i'm not too sure. such a pity for some one who spent almost half a year of his life ingame to lose everything just like that. then again, maybe not. rids him of his addiction (there i go assuming it's a him). or at least gets him to do something about his life.

now the problem's just weaning myself off this without jagex having to do it for me.

because for them to have to do that, that's the ultimate low. that i can't even take control of myself.

accessorising.

2007-05-11T18:43:00.000+07:00

you should, actually, skip this shallowness.

i decided that my usual boring image was just boring. so i've put together an eclectic ensemble that would, very likely, turn every guy off.

not that that matters. (if pixels turn you on, you need some help...) usually i preferred to coordinate. boots and vamps as a constant.

mage hat, robe, ammy, fire staff, d fire shield, red cape, black skirt.
fire tiara, fire staff, red cape, power ammy, princess blouse, princess skirt.
mage robes, black skirt, red cape.

how normal, how boring.

today's a bit like going punk. basically being totally abnormal. mining outfit: earth tiara, red cape, def ammy, mage robes, camo bottoms, fighting boots.

nothing really special, just for me it seems downright weird. and i do suppose i won't actually see anyone else dressed like that :P

macroing.

2007-05-10T10:39:00.000+07:00

as for people macroing, there seem to be two main types.

people who go to great extents to show they are macroing. with numbers for names, having a combat level of 3, and wearing the basic outfit everyone gets before customising.

people who get mildly creative names, deliberately wear outfits from random events, and raise their combat level to something in the range of 5-10, and give the appearance of having a life outside of systematically mining, or hacking the trees to death.

maybe i should make it three. i hadn't noticed that much before, but there're the people who look every bit like those in category one, except they aren't macroing at all. just earning and earning and earning.

it's actually rather pitiful, when you think about it. not even pathetic, just pitiful.

karamjian musings.

2007-05-10T10:24:00.000+07:00

why is there so little demand for swordfish?

why is it that when there is only one uncooked lobbie in your inventory, it inevitably gets burnt?
why do moss giants have better drops than lessers on a day to day basis?

why do ice giants have a lower combat level than ice warriors?

why is the mining guild bereft of any rocks apart from coal and mithril?

why are people macroing so blatantly obvious about it?

why do people accord so much respect/care/attention in general to the sandwich lady?

other random events are so much more funner.

just today. (boringly).

2007-05-08T17:59:00.000+07:00

today. involved.

mining.
and more mining.
of coal, then iron, then coal, then mithril, then coal, then gold, then mithril, then iron...
entry into the mining guild! at last. so many coal rocks! a let down since there's no addy to speak of, but so. many. coal. rocks. so many that you don't even have to wait for respawn time. so many that i am able to formulate a hypothesis that members, upon venturing out into the real world, resort to lowdown undignified tactics because they aren't used to the real world. so many that there're 37, or so i've estimated.
smelting.
and more smelting. of steel and gold bars.
venturing out into the great unknown. with a colour, search-engine equipped, overview-possible map. i.e. going to the wildy to hunt chaos dwarves. and getting nothing but gp. then seeking to explore the lava maze anyway, only to find i've forgotten a knife. a lousy knife. now i do know i deserve to return to
smithing. steel plates, mainly. and one skirt, and one sword. and
making >45k! yay!
finding myself without a goal for the rest of the time. and promptly logging out to blog.

ohyes. record carried over from last time. in the meanwhile i've

met the rock golem and defeated it! ahahaha. picked up one coal, and savouring the feel of being the victor because more likely than not the next time we meet it'll be lvl 120. that was at the mithril rocks, in any case. and don't come to me for advice, (not that you would, anyway) because quite honestly it was something of a fluke. since f2p has such limited bank space; armour: princess blouse, princess skirt, leather vambraces, leather boots. ammy: power ammy! shield: black square. wep: addy pick. food: one apple pie. attack: everything, haphazardly. prayer: 0/37
cap'n hand. ~800gp. at the main coal rocks.
the mom, at the same coal rocks. mysterious box.
and unrelatedly, while high alching, the mom, en route the mime stage! my first time.

apparently i've developed a liking for lists. back to the real world now.

(italics too! [em] [/em] :D)

planned randomness.

2007-05-04T16:50:00.000+07:00

for lack of a membership, i'm still bored. so in an effort to train mage i resorted to mining and smithing to fund it all. i've been in and out of the fally dwarven mines lots recently, and seriously, those random events aren't that random after all. or maybe it's just coincidence? you judge.

the frog prince paid two visits to the mith rocks. where i happened to be part of the scenery. and frogs seem to pay more attention to scenery than most.
you know the three coal rocks a little way north of most else? the single one (next to the column); it's started smoking thrice already. i tried the explosion, it cost me 107gp. which isn't all that much, but such a waste. i wonder how they calculate.
and the same outcrop; the other two coal rocks. rock golems've attacked thrice as far as i've seen. gone for me personally, only once so far.

so there's the recurring ones so far. only few that seem predictable. and even then, not by much. the only time i've had evil bob take me as his slave was at al kharid. fishing. and fishing at lumbridge for the old man's maze. used to get gravedigger alot, but not much anymore. i don't think those have a pattern though.

anyway. for random events karamja seems busiest. almost everybody's been there. other than the obvious people. sandwich lady, mom, frogs, security guard. rick turpentine, cap'n hand, river trolls, that monster fish. anything goes.

random events are so fun, really. they take the monotony out of training. and i know i shouldn't play so much if i'm just doing it for training, like i'm doing know, mining and blogging simultaneously, but it seems such a waste.

and i know i'm just letting them trap me.

and really, what's so wrong with that?

sharing a rock.

2007-04-29T16:57:00.000+07:00

whatever. i shall blog on what concerns me at the current time. selfish, i know, i'm sorry, but live with it if you will.

for lack of a better thing to do i turned to mining for the satisfaction of gaining entry into a guild, hopefully, and that of seeing 20k credited to my bank account.

i don't understand why mining's so popular a skill, but never mind. it's not like i understand the liking for melee combat all that well either, nor the shape of the runescape economy, with all it's minuscule fluctuations.

what i do understand, carrying on from last post, is that there's a reason why it's mainly members who're the crafters, in air running. all that ate away at about a fifth of my savings, and all i've got from it's less than 2k airs. fine, that's not bad a haul, but still. less time wasted i suppose. i've resolved not regress to running again, partly because i've tasted what it's like to be a crafter, and partly because i've no intention to be the equivalent of someone's slave. then again, that's hypocritical, seeing as how i blatantly engage in similar exploitation.

anyway, back on track. i don't think so much of combat levels as an indicator of prowess, or of due respect. more on that later. but one example now. i don't know if those level 70+ started out as arrogant as they seem, but it's as if they consider it their right to act in a fully obnoxious manner.

which brings me to the sharing a rock thing. that wasn't what i intended as a title. i meant more of, there're three coal rocks, i take one, you take two. leastways, that assures both parties of profit, at a loss to yourself. i try to do that, but i'm not really the sacrificial kind, i'd rather switch worlds than stick to that agreement. which is why that usually falls through for me. nevertheless.

it'd be so much more enjoyable, mining, if fighting for rocks wasn't necessary. if people didn't need to resort to stealing ores, for want of better terminology. it's all very well, wanting to mine, fast, and get ores. but mining from the same rock as someone else, that's just. i don't know, there's no dignity in that, anymore. it's lowdown, and selfish.

i'd like to say i've never resorted to such tactics. but i have, actually. with everyone around you operating in such a manner it'll take strong willpower not to succumb. and so i have, sadly. i try not to be agressive in my failing. someone was there first, i don't mine from that rock. someone mines at my rock, i change rocks. but i'm mining from a rock, and someone comes to mine at my rock, and i've had it with running away, i pretend i didn't see them, and carry on.

i don't understand. sure, it's good, for you. but i just don't know, why people do things like that. it's so small a gesture, it doesn't really matter at all, but i still don't understand, so much. ahwell.

no one's going to change their mining pattern just because of this post. i doubt that anyone actually reads this, to begin with.

still. henceforth i shall carry on doing what i'm doing, which is avoiding all this by letting people who insist on mining at the same rock have the whole outcrop to themselve while i seek refuge in some other world. i shall carry on till i reach level 60, which shouldn't be long, whence i shall take refuge from the unpleasantness of the rest of the world, until the rest of the world finds a way in. in which case i'd probably've stopped playing altogether for a good bit.
even try saying something, and at the very least, you'll plant some seed in the mind of someone else. i don't usually vocalise things like this, and have so far only met one guy who did. a remarkable fellow. of the "you take two rocks, i take one" sort. talked a little, then i switched worlds. he did deserve it.

i don't understand why people make a game of competing for resources either. it's not that i want to be assured of gain, the entire competition's just more problematic than it is fun. it's almost like this controversy i read about, elsewhere. radio djs telling models to compete to see who can strip down to their underwear fastest. they got crap for that. lots of it. and richly deserved crap, at that.

so what i'm trying to say is, please don't mine from the same rock someone else's mining from, give in, or politely attempt to assert yourself. never mind that it doesn't seem to do much, it's good enough that you're doing it.

that's what i'm trying to say.

what i am saying is, go ahead, since the people who aren't doing what you're doing aren't going to stop you, anyway.

the failure of the written language.

how highly illogical.

thanks to all you people who do initiate this whole dividing the rocks thing. thanks, i do know you exist.

therefore i shall try to be an idealist in a world where the ideals are, well, blurry. forgetting that life's more complicated than that. that there's blue and red and yellow and all the colours in between, not just black and white. and the world would be oh so boring without them.

mage.

2007-04-28T07:49:00.000+07:00

of the combat skills. that's my preference.

it's effective at lower levels, for pking. except i didn't use it, at lower levels for pking. yet. of course you get slaughtered by rangers, mostly, but that's only if you're a pure. and then again, why attack rangers when it's full rune you want?

you don't actually need much, as equipment, and as far as f2p's concerned. which also sucks. but more on that another time. it follows that you don't lose much if you die either.

out of combat context. i mage because i can't stand to stick with anything else.

melee, in a word, is boring. just brute force, no grace, no finesse. of course, this all's only my opinion kay? and that does make for cheapness.

but cheap as i am, i'd still rather mage. also because melee's so much more popular. take a look at the stats. 50 mage gets you there, but for melee you need more than that to break top million.

ranging. i tried it, for a mage/range hybrid. it flopped. i couldn't stand to buy arrows, and insisted on salvaging them. too problematic, animal magnetism's so useful. i should go member one month to get my range up. and fletch. it's mainly because fletching's members that i don't range so much. and then again, throwing fire and making things implode (sort of)'s way cooler than shooting arrows. once again, f2p arrows, that is. crossbow bolts sound interesting, the enchanted ones.

yes. so what i like's the interestingness of it all. like smelting without a furnace, alchemy, blasts, bolts, enchantment. the unpredictability. and if you're a member, all the spellbooks. ancient magiks, lunar spellbook.

it's expensive, sure, but soo diverse.

any pker i make, whatever my intentions, more or less ends up a mage.

disclaimer.

2007-04-27T22:13:00.000+07:00

yes, this is a blog about runescape. but.

i am not a member.
i will not have the resources nor the willingness nor the opportunity to become one in the forseeable future.
i do not claim to be an expert about anything much to do with runescape.
i have never played runescape classic, that's before my time.
my views are my own. if you don't like them, that's a seperate issue.

blogging brings out the worst in us. blogging is the tragedy of people who'd like to have some thoughts kept outside of their heads too, for weird reasons.