Kagami

A few days ago, I read a NWN story on the game Kagami. NWN calls it a Japanese horror game, so while I was intrigued, no WAY was I going alone. No. WAY. I am probably one of the biggest ‘fraidy cats in the world. So I mentioned it to the family to see if they wanted to go, and of course they did since we love exploring new areas.

We had 2 thoughts about it going in. 1 – That it would be super scary. And 2 – it would be very anime in nature. Since that’s what we thought, some of us dressed up for the outing.

This reminds me of 2008 me so much. *laughs* Just updated 2008 me.

The anticipation of being scared made us scream a lot. The story was pretty decent, with cutaway scenes and being moved around with the HUD. But… it wasn’t really scary. It also wasn’t very anime either, but I still enjoyed my costume. It took us about 3 hours to complete the 2 parts of the game, and there were a lot of frustrated groans because we didn’t always understand the next step to take, but it was a nice thing to do with the family.

Also, my great-niece Sophie found her new dad. Now to get Bella to agree to marry him. *snickers*

He kept standing around me, so I had to take a picture. I’m not that super small. He was just really big.

All in all, I’d say if you don’t have much else to do with your SLife, head on out to Kagami to play. Be sure you keep your scripts low or you can’t get the HUD! It’s only open until August 31st, so less than a couple of weeks left to play.

It’s All About The Corn!

If you’re interested in adopting, and adopting a more dedicated child, you have to ask yourself how much you’ll be able to do with them. Even in SL, kids get restless! My kids, bless their hearts, have been pretty understanding about my computer issues but I know there have been nights where they were totally bored just standing around with me, even if they said they weren’t.

Luckily, that’s not a problem now! Abby and I went shopping at a few stores earlier and she said that now I’m not acting like a tired out mom who doesn’t want to do anything. *laughs* Nope! I did have to relog once after doing her pics since I had been really working the computer, but honestly, I was only a little bit laggy. I think it was more out of habit than anything else.

Tonight, the Zanzibar clan headed out to The Corn Field! If you’re a long time reader of my blog, you’ll remember that in 2008 when I first heard about The Corn Field [which I said was new, but I was wrong], I so badly wanted to go! Then in 2009, they opened the place up so people could come take pics and stuff like that. Well, it’s back! But it’s totally different this time! It’s a GAME.

First you start out at a portal place [much like in the Linden Realms game] and walk on through. After you say yes that they can put attachments on you [say yes!], you’re outfitted with a HUD, a basket, and a good plank of whackin’ wood. Why whackin’ wood? Because there are MONSTERS!! It’s supposed to be the souls of griefers past! *laughs* And there’s some thing that Aldwyn called Mr. Potato Head that’s got a candle on top of its head. But you don’t have time to stare because your mission is… to collect corn!

Yes. See. Along with whackin’ monsters, you have to collect corn in your basket! The more corn you collect, the better it is because you turn them in for Cornbucks, and Cornbucks can be turned in for better armor and weapons, or just some prizes. You’d think it would be easy, but it’s not really! If you get hit by a monster a couple of times, you’re sent to a graveyard and you lose all your corn! Not your coins, but your corn! I was trying to run to the barn to turn in my corn after I maxed out at 20 pieces of corn and right before I got there, a monster beat me and I lost all my corn! Plus, being that you’re in a corn field, it’s awfully easy to get lost. But it was so much fun!! And I didn’t crash once!

The girls definitely had a great time and are eager to go back. I want to go back to get more corn!

Oh, and it’s kinda cool for pics out there, too. You know, if you’re into that kind of thing. I just wouldn’t advise standing around for long, though, unless you like being eaten by monsters.

You can see more about The Corn Field here:

Day 131 – Nom nom nom!

I was preparing for another quiet evening in SL. I thought maybe I’d do some inventory cleaning…or some shopping to clutter up my inventory more. But Lolita mentioned that they were going to go play Pacman Munchman, so to heck with inventory cleaning!! I put some clothes on [I wasn’t NAKED. I was just in my trampy dress from yesterday and I knew this would be a family friendly event] and went on over.

It was really fun!! You wear a HUD and when it’s your turn, you just run run run through the game “eating” pellets and avoiding ghosts! I was surprised that I was actually good at this, but I always have been amazing at walking in SL. It’s one of my few skills! :-p

It’s been a pretty good weekend, even without my husband, but I sure can’t wait to see him again!! ♥

Day 128 – You and I’ll Be Safe and Sound

I always enjoy getting together with friends in SL when it’s not a just a party setting. I don’t really just “hang out” with others very often. Probably because I’m kind of a bad conversationalist. At least, I’m a bad conversationalist with people that I am not around much. If you asked Aldwyn, he’d probably tell you that I chatter on about absolutely nothing most of the time. :-p

But, tonight I did go and hang out for a while at the Oleanders’ place. We played Connect Four! It was super fun, even if I’m pretty spectacularly bad at it.

After the game was over, and after I told Lolita and Takeo that I was just going to wander over to their house and look in their fridge from now on, I headed on home. And much to my surprise, everyone came home when I did!

The living room still isn’t completely done, so don’t look at it too hard.

Ulaa had to leave us to go do other stuff, so Aldwyn and I headed to Maitreya because there’s new stuff there. I hadn’t planned on buying the new dress, but the darn demo got me and we decided I needed it. And boots. Because, you know… new. :-p I probably won’t blog the look just because everyone and their mom will do it, but it is super cute.

Of course, the best part of the day is ending it safe and sound in his arms. 🙂

Day 68 – Insert Coin Arcade

Many many years ago, someone introduced me to the Insert Coin Arcade over at Flotsam Beach. If you’ve ever done the 7 Seas Fishing, I’m sure you’ve been over to Flotsam, but you might not have made your way into the arcade. It’s incredibly cute, although old at this point, and done in kind of an 80s style. And yes, there are games you can play, such as Whack A Mole!

But the FUN thing about the arcade is that you can get a band of tickets to wear around your arm. And as you play games [Whack A Mole and Skee Ball are my favorites!], you can earn tickets, much like we used to do back in the day. Do kids still play games for tickets these days? Are there even arcades?? I don’t have kids, so I don’t know things.

Now if you’re good, you can save up 100 tickets and get yourself a free game machine to take home. But I’m impatient and I always want to spend my tickets on cheap junk right away.

Maybe one day I’ll save up more than 10 tickets at a time. It would be fun to win a whole game machine. That would have been my DREAM as a kid!! Of course, I could just buy one [Whack A Mole is only $250L] but what’s the fun in that? The games are $1L for each play, and I think I spent about $12L out there today. But it was a really fun way to spend half an hour. I bet it would be a great place for those of you who have family in SL to go and take the kids, or if you want to do a high school date night with your honey. I know I’ll be going back at some point. 🙂

I was a fashionista, then I took an arrow in the knee

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Aldwyn was an awesome hubby and got me Skyrim for my gift because he knew I’d been wanting to try it out! Well, that and he couldn’t be around last night or today really, and he wanted to shut me up. I’m pretty sure it’s a little of both.

Now let me preface this by saying that I am NOT a gamer. Seriously am not. Dragon Age is my real game of choice and that’s mostly because I’ve played through so many times, I can enjoy it because I know what to do. I like playing by myself, using cheat codes, and always winning in the end. Plus the story is fantastic and I love Alistair. I did Rift for a time, but I sucked hard at it because I couldn’t cheat and because I don’t really dig playing with other people all the time. I did like the game, but it’s dreadfully hard to solo as you progress and games, for me, are really more of a solo thing because I play games to escape.

So here is my little character. She’s a Nord, because that seemed to be the best looking out of all the females to me.

I mean, really. Like I was going to be a reptile or a cat or whatever? Even the elves aren’t cute! I will always want a PRETTY character. But I think the Nords are warriors anyway, which is good for me because I don’t get into magic and junk like that. I just want to kill stuff and look pretty doing it.

The controls have been the hardest thing in the world for me to get used to. In Dragon Age, when I use the WASD keys, A & D turn me and the camera around. It’s a lot like SL in some ways. But in Skyrim, I’m having to use the mouse a LOT to look around and it’s highly annoying. I’m getting used to it, but it hasn’t been easy.

Also not easy? The fact that if I steal something, people come after me!! I’m just trying to stock up on supplies, folks!

Hmm…should I take this coin purse or leave it?

But the funniest thing to me was when I stole a horse. I would have BOUGHT it but it was 1000 gold and I didn’t have that. So what choice did I have but to steal?

I got on that horse and ran for my LIFE. But since you can’t fight and be on the horse at the same time, when I got off the horse to kill something, the damn thing wandered off. No loyalty!!!

At least my character is pretty.

And MEAN. I can slash people down like nothing else!

I killed some bandits and they had a horse, so I got to steal the horse! Riding high now, y’all!

Well, until we jumped and I miscalculated how high the wall was.

Sure is hard to keep a horse in this game.

A game to play!

I’ve been a premium member in SL since 2008. Most people would say it’s worthless, but I’ve never really thought so. I like my little stipend, my Linden house has come in handy on occasion, and on the rare times I’ve needed support, my tickets have been answered super fast. When they came out with the premium sandboxes and the free furniture for premium members, that was even better! And now there’s a little game in the works for the premiums! I think it’s pretty much in the alpha stages right now, but it’s kind of fun!

You’re fitted with a HUD when you go in, and then it tells you what to do. Basically all I did was run around collecting crystals and trying to avoid rock monsters.

Oh yes. Rock monsters.

You have to RUN from the rock monsters! If the rock monsters kick you around too much, you get sent back to a “safe” point. Same if you fall in the toxic water or get hit with fireballs! And if you detach your HUD during the game, you get sent home. But you don’t lose any of your crystals because when you come back, your HUD reattaches itself.

Now I don’t want for ALL of SL to be like a game. I really don’t. I like the way it is – a community of people, a place to shop, a place to be creative and loud when you want to be and quiet when you want to be. But I DO like the idea of little fun game places to go into in SL. When I was a teen, I used to like to go play laser tag and it was really fun to run around, getting immersed in the game. This kind of feels like that to me. A game to play in my world where I can be immersed in it for a little bit and then teleport back home easily.

Now if I can just find more blue and green crystals….

Edit: I forgot to put a SLurl & Hamlet yelled at me. Go right here if you’re a premium account. If it lands you up top where the gift is, follow the green beam down and walk through the crystal looking portal thing. Then your adventure begins!!

I’m still not a gamer

So yes, I crumbled. After playing Rift’s beta with my friends, I ended up buying it. I kinda love it right now. I know that I probably won’t love it forever. It’s not Second Life, after all. But right now, I enjoy playing it. One day I will grow bored of leveling up and doing quests, or time will just keep me from being there enough to warrant paying monthly for it. But for right now…

My main character is named Kaianna [pronounced KY-ahna, not Kay-anna], which is the name I used in a few other minor games I played years ago. She’s a Kelari rogue on the Defiant side, with Bard abilities. [And a couple of others I’ve forgotten.] I think she’s pretty good.

Yesterday’s “Head Start” for everyone who preordered was pretty crazy. The powers that be had to add in more servers because they were so incredibly slammed when the doors opened. I was sitting there waiting for the shards [servers] to unlock, so I got in really quickly, but there were people in the queues waiting for HOURS to get in. They just didn’t anticipate all the people who were going to come in. They probably should have known. I mean, didn’t they look and see how many had preordered?

Not being familiar with this type of game, it never occurred to me that people would have to wait to get in. In my SL-mind, I had to break it down to it being like sim limits. Only so many people to a server, just like only so many people to a sim. But gosh, was it ever nuts.

That was at the first mailbox, which allowed those who got the collector’s editions to get mounts and pets. You couldn’t even SEE the people to talk to, there were so many motherfriggin’ turtles.

The good part about there being so many people was that if you needed to just straight run to another area, there was a good chance people would be fighting off things that would normally try to kill you. The bad part was that most of the quests have you looking to kill monsters and stuff, and with so many people basically on your level and doing the same quests at the same time, you often had to wait for things to respawn and then try to get the first hit in. But it was good for big mob thingies like this.

Ulaa, bless her heart, stayed on Skype with me all day while we played, and she helped me out tons because I am such a noob at this sort of thing. She even got me into a guild and gave me money towards getting a mount. Yay for sugar mommas! :-p Later, when Aldwyn was able to get online, I went to a new character and helped him out since he is also a noob. [Sorry honey, you are!]

Today, since I had some time to myself, I decided to see what the Guardian side was like. So I picked a new server with a low population and started a new character.

This is Karianna, Kaianna’s Guardian twin. Although she’s an Elf, and Kai is a Kelari, they basically look the same to me. I dunno. LOL

Karianna is an Elf warrior, and I kinda love her. She’s totally strong, which is fitting since basically she’s a tank. But she has some elemental power too, so she has ranged fire attacks, which are totally helpful since she’s on her own.

Of course, being alone seemed like a bad idea when I needed to get up that hill. LOL!

The Guardian side is pretty nice because it’s not as overcrowded as the Defiant side, plus the people [at least today] seemed a little bit older. The quests are a little different, even at one point giving you a horse to ride for a bit, and the whole thing is pretty enjoyable.

So that’s my Rift update for now. 🙂

Trying Rift

I managed to get myself invited to the Rift beta weekend. I love beta testing, beta events, beta viewers, etc. Even if I don’t actually KNOW what it is, I sign up for many beta things because I like to see what’s up.

Now let me preface this by saying that I don’t consider myself a gamer. I got into Dragon Age, big time, because of the story. I love The Sims because I like the whole micromanaging aspect. I’m still nuts about Second Life because it’s not a game, I can shop, and be beautiful there. But games like World of Warcraft or Everquest never never interested me. Partially because I like games where I can use a god mode or a money cheat, and partially because I don’t usually enjoy playing games with other people unless it’s like a board game or Wii game.

Rift is my first bigger type MMO. I was huge in Legend of the Green Dragon for a couple of years, helped run servers, coded modules, all that nerdy stuff. But that was browser based with no avatars and it didn’t require much thinking. Within 5 minutes of Rift, I realized that this was going to take some work.

My main character right now is a warrior Elf. I chose the Elf purely because she was smaller and prettier than the other classes, although I’m pretty much not down with her purple skin. I tried, though.

I’ve been playing off and on this afternoon. When I get irritated, I log out. I’m logging out pretty much every 10 minutes. I’m unsure what weapons are really best for my elf. I don’t know why people have pets and I don’t. I’m following quests without any idea as to what I’m doing. I’m trying not to read chat because it’s just exceedingly annoying. I think some people have been helping me out, but I’m not actually sure.

Is it pretty? I guess so. It’s a little dark for my tastes. I like bright scenes where I can see stuff. I can’t really take a look around at the scenery because there’s freakin’ things coming to kill me all the time. I move around easily enough, although I have seen people complaining that Rift’s lag is much worse than World of Warcraft. All I have to say about that?

Honey, I’m from Second Life. If I can walk, it’s all good.

Day 320 – The Search For Clues

One of my great loves in SL has got to be beta testing. I really just love it so much! So when Aldwyn was asked to do a runthrough of Ryker’s new Halloween game, and asked me if I wanted to do it too, I JUMPED at the chance!

The game is pretty cool and if you enjoy hunts & solving things, you’ll enjoy it. A ton of work has been put into it and it definitely shows. We had a great time running all over and finding clues. Al pooped out on me near the end and said we’d finish tomorrow. I decided that wasn’t good enough and I found the remaining clues, caught the killer, and finished anyway. Don’t tell him!

Oh. He reads my blog. Oops.

The only complaint I had was that I thought there were too many clues to find. But this could be just because I hate hunting for anything for too long, and the clues are definitely NOT in your face. You will spend some time out there, but if you have to do it in sections, the detective’s HUD you wear keeps track of all the clues you’ve found and all the witnesses you’ve talked to. I crashed a few times and it never reset on me, so yay for that! I would not suggest going at it alone, although you could. It’s much more fun if you grab someone to go with you, or even a group. I would also suggest using Skype to chat while you hunt for clues because you will be ALL over the place and it’s much easier if you can just talk. You could use SL voice, of course, but if you crash, then it’s such a pain to get back into a voice conference with more than 1 other person.

I’m so tired, I don’t know if I’ll make it to the bedroom. But I suppose I should try.