LFG

[zhai]

The other Homeless Moon folk have wildly outstripped me in posting lately, so I am going for the TKO this evening and catching up on some things I've been meaning to post here. Apologies to those on my LJ who will get it all at once.

Jay Lake's recent post on writer ages reminded me of something I was discussing with pantlessjohnny at last ReaderCon, and later

Comments

[haikujaguar]

Interestingly, like a guild populated with people with radically different notions of commitment and available time, my writer peer group, which I joined up with a decade ago, has imploded: some of the writers got picked up by World First end-game raiding guilds, some of them got distracted into PVP, some of them dabbled in tons of alts and never really maxed out a single character... and none of us can really talk together anymore about the shared writing experience.

Part of it is the players, I'm sure. But I think the game is rigged. The developers are really only making a game for the hardcore 5 or 6% and don't care about the quality of the players who can't go hardcore. ;)

[zhai]

I just want to say that your facility with the RPG lingo as applied to the writing experience completely made my evening. ;)

Yes, definitely the big trouble with this is that some people are going to adhere to the unspoken agreement of a guild and only level up when they get together with the group, and others are going to get caught up in meatspace, and that one guy is going to play all night and show up on a giant cat. So there is movement between guilds and they come into being and collapse frequently over time. One of the other things I appreciated about Odyssey is that I think it rather uniquely managed to bring together people who were entering the same phase and so had the potential to be a really long-lasting guild as opposed to something temporary, reacting to drama from another guild, or just a group of friends that gets together on the weekends occasionally

[devilwrites]

figuring out what character class our fellow 05 Odyssey graduates belonged to

Do I want to know where, or if, I fit into this? :)

Wow, that is a stellar line up. I'm very jealous I can't go back!

And interesting post. What you say makes a lot of sense too, definitely something I can relate to. :)

[zhai]

Ha! You know, when I posted that, I thought, "You know, Shara's going to want to know what she is." ;)

I have no idea, honestly. We didn't get that far. I think you'd be a good bard, though. Not all games have a bard class, but the ones that do are cooler, and I think it does fill in a place in the character class spread.

[devilwrites]

Ha! You know, when I posted that, I thought, "You know, Shara's going to want to know what she is." ;)

You know me well. :)

Cute layout, btw. Did you just change it, or did I miss it from yesterday?

[zhai]

I changed it a bit ago -- shortly after the fires. Felt like I needed a breath of fresh air. ;)

[brennye]

Awww.. I got a shout out. :) However you've far outstripped me, and you did a long time ago. You're a 40-50 level and I'm still trying to break that 20.

I like the metaphor a lot. A whole lot. Probably doesn't surprise you one bit that after sampling the different types, I like hunters the most, my night elf most especially.

[zhai]

I think a lot of these things are flexible, and you can apply a general metaphor, but for instance I'm not sure I could say definitively that I'm that far ahead of you. But Odyssey is the thing that made the difference in that instance, being kind of just the decision point that I was going to push hard to keep the tools sharp.

You know, I don't think I ever pictured you playing WoW, so it didn't occur to me to match you to a character class. But no, it doesn't surprise me that you like hunters. What's funny is that I'm a hunter addict, too. What all did you play when you were sampling?

[brennye]

You write ten million times as much as I do, you have your own columns, and you're being published. Yep, you're ahead. :) And for the record, I am contemplating Odyssey again. I've been slacking off though. No excuses, I have.

I tend to do the PvE variation, other than the pair I have set up with Milisa. So it's definitely the game vs. interaction for me at the moment. Could change though. And I remember you trying to get me interested in this years back when you first started playing. I finally gave in to peer pressure. *mock wail* I'm so weak!

Lessee.. I have a gnome mage, level 5, a tauren shaman, a tauren hunter, both around 9. A level 12 troll hunter, a Dranai paladin, also level 5, and my night elf hunter who just hit 18. Those are the ones still around. :) I dabbled a warrior and a warlock for a few levels, deleted them. I know there's still a couple other types I haven't actually played, but they haven't interested me when I looked at the description. I am tempted at a Forsaken though. I'm also tempted at a human

[zhai]

NE Hunter was the furthest I've leveled a character on WoW -- I'll probably outstrip her with the draenei hunter just because the only real reason I stopped playing the NE was that she's on a server that the people I was playing with abandoned. :P

If you try out a Forsaken, let me know if you want to hop over to Earthen Ring. Forsaken and Orc are the only two races I haven't tried and I've been curious.

[maggiedr]

I really need to know why Michael is obviously a druid. Although he's an elf, for sure. I had you pegged as an elf too, although I never thought to try to assign classes or professions. I'd assume you would be attracted to rogue classes, let me know if I'm wrong.

I nearly always play large races: Barbarian in EQ, and Tauren in WoW. In fact, I played a druid to level 70 in WoW.

There was a time when I could have fallen into a discussion about guilds, females, sociability withing mmorpgs, and gone on for hours. In fact, I did used to do that, so I think I'm currently posted out on the subject. I wish I'd known you about 4 years ago! Not that I'd ever join an elf guild. Sorry, that just isn't me. :)

[zhai]

Mike? The guy who has a mossy skull as his avatar and goes into conniption fits if he has to spend more than five minutes in a mall instead of out among trees? He's about as druid as it gets

[maggiedr]

Ok, I would have said hunter second for you. As cool as I think pet classes are, I nearly always find controlling the pet and my character to be too challenging. Otherwise, I'd likely pursue that more

[anguirel]

Having my own Tauren Druid, I'd have to say you apparently aren't Feral if you don't think a Druid has both Speed and Stealth. ;p Outside in my PvP armor, I can move faster than standard walking speed (107%, I think) while stealthed in Cat form. And I can add Dash or a few other speed bonuses on top of that. And Travel Form (161% with armor bonus) is just a quick shift away... or Epic Flight Form (416% with Trinket) in Outlands.

Of course, I'm back to hybrid Balance/Resto now, so I don't do that as much, but that's the main attraction to me of the Druid class. I don't need to level a new character when I want a new play style, just respec.

[jeffhowell]

Like Shara I was also wondering what character I'd be ...

Re: main post, lots of great stuff Erin. Thanks for sharing it all, and of course helping to lead the Homeless Moon blog, which I imagine will be like a borg cube taking over the writing world.

Regarding RPGs ... I was very inspired by the Ultima series. I consider its virtue system to be a very well thought out and feasible model. I think if a video game can get people thinking about morality and ethics, present choices, let them experience goood or evil (currently playing Manhunt on Wii) it's all good. And as writers we need experiences. Often the artists role in society is being an outside observer providing commentary. So virtual experiences would let a writer interact with people, while also keeping mainstream society distant enough to allow them to comment on it without becoming it.

I very much agree with your comments about the Odyssey writing community. It has helped me feel less alone and strange. It is great to know so many rising stars.

[zhai]

I think cleric is what comes to mind for you, Jeff. How's that suit you?

Ultima was a great series. Richard Garriott has a new game out that I've been mildly curious about (Tabula Rasa), but I'm not a huge FPS fan so don't know what I think about that integration. Ultimately so long as there is cool swag and the world is pretty I'd probably be content, though.

There are a few games that let you do pretty much just what you're talking about, beyond the mainstream ones... one of the ones that made the news recently is a crackhouse simulator actually intended for use in rehab, to give people perspective on the experience.

Thanks for the comment, and glad you liked the post!