Cav's Place

Since MMORPGs have recently been brought back to my attention and I usually tend to have some sort of plan for a game running through my mind, I went back to trying to find a solution for one of my pet peeves, namely that you can’t play such a game (mostly) by yourself. Sure, many would be quick to point out that they’re not supposed to be played like that and that the whole point is to be in groups, but I deal with gaming just like I deal with the vast majority of other things as well, which is to say that I do it alone or not at all. And since I’m the one thinking about this issue now, it means I’ll try to figure out a solution for this, so people who desire a similar style of playing would find a place for themselves in such games as well, if they’d care to try playing them.
The nice part is that my solution would add another layer of complexity, allowing for far more interesting quests, dungeons and game events. It would also add actual heroes, since currently all those characters who need each other’s help in order to accomplish anything meaningful are reduced to nothing but common soldiers. The bad part is that it would require quite a bit of additional work from game developers and players alike, as such characters would need to be approached quite differently and would require a lot of time and effort to develop successfully. But they’re only meant for a certain kind of players after all, and I imagine the feeling of accomplishment would be quite powerful when you’d finally manage to get it right.

What makes regular character classes require groups is the fact that they’re far too specialized and don’t really have “survival” skills, by which I mean the skills that’d allow them to make it through lengthy battles, whether against one very strong foe or multiple weaker ones. That means that solitary classes should have a greater variety of skills and also a separate skill set which’d make them capable of making it through such long battles by themselves. To even things out, such classes would gain access to powerful skills much later than regular classes, plus that those “survival” skills could perhaps be gained in a more difficult and time-consuming manner, such as through quests. That’d mean that such characters would become extremely powerful at very high levels, but that it’d take a lot of time and effort to get them there and that any strength they might have earlier than that would depend on the player’s ability to effectively combine all their different skills and not on raw power.
I went through various options and eventually settled on one which’d double the level cap for such classes and also offer them that separate skill set I mentioned above, but make it so they could only advance through it by doing quests, with some of those quests giving them the choice of what to train next and others training a certain ability directly, therefore forcing them to be very careful when choosing what quests to accept. That’d mean they’d eventually have much higher stats than regular characters and also a double number of regular skills plus yet another, separate, skill set. The downside would be that they’d also gain access to skills at twice the level that regular classes gain access to them, so they’d advance slowly and constantly need to make full use of all their different skills, including the “survival” ones, because they’d be fighting enemies that have more raw power than they do.
Still, if you also add all the equipment that their much higher level would eventually allow them to use, you’ll realize that such characters would be truly formidable and therefore need to be kept out of groups, because otherwise you’d just end up with groups formed entirely of these characters and everyone would forget all about the regular classes. My solution for that problem is to make them truly be solitary characters, eventually completely unable to join others. They could be able to join very small groups early on, then only be able to join one other character, then only one other character that’s also of a solitary class (to prevent pairings which would combine a regular character’s raw power and a solitary character’s “survival” skills) and eventually, as I said, they’d end up being unable to join others at all. On top of that, while they’re still able to join others, there could be a timer which would have a certain amount added to it at the start of each day and tick down whenever such a character is in a group. Once that timer reaches zero, the solitary character would start suffering severe penalties, which would get worse and worse until eventually they’d automatically leave the group.
Another level of both interest and difficulty could be added by having such characters start the game in remote areas and requiring them to wander all over to receive their quests, and even giving quests to themselves at times by having entries appear in the quest log as if the characters are reminding themselves of things that they have to do or musing about what they could attempt. It’d make perfect sense to keep such characters in remote areas more often than not and rarely send them to cities or other “populated” areas.

The added complexity would come from the fact that such characters would be the actual heroes and therefore, on top of their own specific quests, there’d be tasks tailored specifically for them inside dungeons. That’d mean that both regular and solitary characters would be required for raids, instances, runs or whatever other name such games use for such activities. The regular characters would form a group and fight the regular enemies while advancing through the area, while the solitary characters would carry out specific tasks by themselves, everything needing to be coordinated properly for success to be possible. An “association” system would need to be used in order to allow a solitary character to take part in the same quest a group takes part in, without actually being in the group.
For example, let’s assume one potential group quest requires the capture of a general. That general is inside a fortress that can receive reinforcements from two nearby villages. The fortress is also defended by some ancient force, such as a monster or spirits, that only answers to the general. To complete this quest, you’d need a group of regular characters and three solitary characters, specifically a ranger, a sorcerer and an assassin. The ranger and the sorcerer would need to make their way through the forest, the ranger finding and moving certain markings to ensure that the sorcerer won’t run into patrols on the way back, in order to reach the entrance of the tunnel used by the guards from one village to reach the fortress. Upon reaching it, the sorcerer would remove the magic lock placed on it, allow the ranger in, lock it again in a different way so the reinforcements won’t be able to get in behind the ranger and then get back to the group. At the same time, the assassin would have to sneak to the gate and, either by treachery or by climbing the walls, get inside the towers placed on either side and kill the guards. Then he’d need to keep going further, killing any guards on the way and reaching the exit of the tunnel the ranger’s in before the ranger would reach that point so there won’t be any guards who could trap and kill the ranger as soon as he’d come out. After that location would be secure, the assassin would have to get back to the gate and open it, allowing the group and the sorcerer to storm inside. As soon as they’d be in, he’d get out and place as many traps as possible before the reinforcements from the second village would get close, then he’d need to get back in, close and hold the gate against them until the group would capture the general. On the other side of the fortress, the ranger would have a similar task, holding off the reinforcements from the first village as they’d attempt to climb the treacherous slope, seeing as they couldn’t use the tunnel anymore. Inside the fortress, the sorcerer would make his way down some ancient tunnel or find some way to draw the ancient force to him, constantly keeping it occupied. This would allow the group to advance inside the fortress, battling the soldiers and other lesser creatures currently stationed there, until they’d reach and capture the general, commanding him to order the ancient force to back off and let the players take him away.

There is a “bread fair” nearby this weekend. It was advertised as a place where you’ll see traditional types of bread and pastries and watch demonstrations of traditional methods of baking. So I thought I might as well have a look around, out of curiosity. Thought I might even buy something, but of course there was no chance of me managing that, especially since the area was really crowded. It also turned out to be quite different from what I expected, but my mind drifted off after a while anyway…
What really sent my mind to where it always means to go is that there were a few stands of pottery and other traditional kitchen utensils and two of decorations. That reminded me of the pottery fair Andra dragged me to early on, while I was visiting her, and I realized that the Andra I used to know back then would have liked this, would have dragged me around to see everything, would have bought things to keep us supplied for three weeks and very likely a couple of pottery items and decorations as well, and then would have kept asking me what I wanted until I’d have said something just so we could get back home and that could have resulted in an item or two that I’d treasure afterwards, like the dog statuette and the tiny cup she bought for me back then.

After I got back, I had a little talk with someone about Aion and, after carrying that over into another conversation and finding myself saying that I don’t even know anyone with the same preferences and approach when it comes to gaming who’s also willing to talk to me without me having to struggle to get a few words out of them, I realized that the Andra I got to know when we last talked, nearly two years ago, would have probably been at least somewhat interested in that and we could have exchanged some opinions about it. Also reminded myself of how long it’s been since I last heard anything from or even of her…

And, most of all, I’m realizing all too well that four years ago, just about now, she was leaving…

You might have noticed that another little image showed up on the right. I’m talking about the one advertising Blog Action Day 2009. For the other two that you currently see there I first wrote a post and then added the image, but this time I added the image right after I got the message from them and forgot to post.
Blog Action Day explains itself as “an annual event that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day on their own blogs with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance.” This year’s issue, as you can see, is climate change and it marks a trend I’m quite pleased with, considering that the first issue, in 2007, was the environment. I wrote a post with that occasion and I certainly plan to write one now as well, despite the fact that the issue of climate change itself isn’t one that I particularly try to fight for, seeing as its an effect of all the damage we cause to the environment and therefore it’ll keep getting worse if we keep harming the Earth but it’ll solve itself if we stop harming and start fixing the damage already done.
In case anyone who happens to be reading this has a blog, is interested in environmental issues and has solutions for this problem, or even simply thinks that they can point out its severity, I’d strongly encourage you join your voice to ours and write a post about climate change on October 15th. Thank you.

I’m not talking about the figurative sense, about being that terrified, as that has certainly happened plenty of times before, but about basically shitting water. (Yes, this post will be quite graphic.) I haven’t had significant stomach problems in several years and actually don’t think I ever had any that were this bad. The fact that I think it was some sort of virus and not something caused by food makes it even more peculiar.
I’m thinking it was a virus because the symptoms were pretty much identical but dad started on Friday, me on Monday and the creature on Tuesday. We also couldn’t come up with any one thing that all three of us ate shortly before the onset, so it doesn’t seem like it could be explained like that. Dad was blaming it on some bacon he had at work and I was initially blaming it on some grapes that I saw Saturday in the kitchen and only decided to eat on Monday because something about them seemed suspicious to me. After initially being told that the creature ate some of those grapes too and she had no problems but then hearing that she started having the same problems the following day, I thought I had it quite well figured out, but then it started seeming quite unlikely for two different food items to produce identical symptoms to different people around the same time. So, after also considering the possibility of some sort of bacteria making a home for itself in the fridge, on the kitchen table or on the dishwashing sponge, I came to the conclusion that the most likely explanation is that dad contacted some sort of virus from work or somewhere else and then passed it on to the rest of us, probably affecting the creature later than me, despite the fact that I didn’t exactly have any contact with him and she did, due to the other pills she’s taking or perhaps simply due to a slower metabolism on her part.

My stomach didn’t give me any reason for concern when I woke up on Monday. A little later, after going to the bathroom, I passed through the kitchen, washed those grapes a little, took them to my room and ate them. That made me have to rush to the bathroom right away, but nothing peculiar happened there so it didn’t draw my attention. However, shortly afterwards I started feeling a little sick. Initially assumed I was just tired, since I had slept only about five hours, so I went back to bed. But that didn’t help at all.
As soon as I woke up again, I had to struggle not to throw up. Thought it’d pass, but it just seemed to be getting worse and I felt like I had to go to the bathroom again too. So I did that and it didn’t look good anymore, but I still thought my body’d find a way to solve it in no more than a few hours.
Obviously, it didn’t, as I was feeling worse and worse. I had that general feeling that you usually get when you have a fever, as if your flesh means to come off you, hurting all over and getting quite dizzy. And felt like throwing up more and more, so after having to go to the bathroom a third time and more or less shitting water, I forced myself to throw up. The result was a pile of completely undigested grapes, so I was certain that I knew what caused it, since they were like that after being in my stomach for over ten hours at the time. Still, I only threw up a little at that time, then went back to my room and just tried to rest, hoping it was enough.
It obviously wasn’t… So, about 30 minutes later, I went back to try again and didn’t stop until I thought I had pretty much everything out. There sure seemed to be many more of them coming out than they were when they went in, but I couldn’t see anything other than the grapes in there. Anyway, dad eventually heard me, came to ask what’s going on and then started asking whether I wanted him to make me a tea and suggesting pills I could take, starting with what he was taking at the time. I refused everything, said I’ll handle it and went back to my room for a few minutes.
Came out at 2 AM, he offered me some of the tea he made for himself, I refused and said again that I’ll handle it myself, then went back to the bathroom, sat on the toilet and meant to let everything out, occasionally pressing on my stomach and guts in an attempt to push everything down and out faster. That was a lot of water, but little else, so I eventually got up and went back to the kitchen. By that time my body was more or less in shock and I felt so cold I was almost paralyzed, which I took to mean that I did indeed manage to let everything out and my body no longer had any reserves left to generate the energy required to maintain its temperature. That meant I required some food, so I made myself a little toast and that just allowed me to make some tea as well, shivering vigorously. Then went back to my room and tried to wait it out, trying once again to let everything out just before I eventually went to bed at my regular hour, which resulted once again in quite a lot of water and not much else.

That night wasn’t nice at all due to the high fever. Considering how tired I felt, I assumed I’d fall asleep immediately, but instead I didn’t sleep at all. I think I blacked out a few times, but I don’t think you can consider that to be sleep.
At first I just got myself completely under the blanket, closed my eyes and enjoyed the colorful images I was seeing. Then I had to get my head back out because that air was making me feel like throwing up again. The nausea passed, but now I was freezing, so I tried to get my blood flowing again. Rubbing my arms and legs didn’t seem to help, so I thought jerking off would. Didn’t go all the way of course, haven’t in a very long time, and getting a decent erection was quite impossible, but it did make me feel much warmer. Trying to sleep was still hopeless, however.
Eventually I guess I started to hallucinate even worse, because I was convinced that I was covered by an immense blanket and that various parts of it were representing different parts of the problem that I had to solve before I could feel better, so I started to work on them. Some time later I realized that wasn’t real, but I thought it was a decent way to get my body to work on solving the problem, so I sort of wrapped myself in that idea, meaning to obtain a sense of being able to get to all parts of the problem and solve it.
I did end up feeling a little better after a while and eventually got up, realizing it’d be pointless to keep trying to sleep.

Tuesday meant more or less drinking the tea I had made for myself the previous night and trying to wait it out, while also realizing that I had no digestion at all since the tea I was drinking was basically coming out the other end unaltered. It can’t hurt to clean up a little on the inside, though. I didn’t need to go to the bathroom if I didn’t want to, however, which I took as a good sign. The annoying part was that, despite having a lot of gas, I couldn’t allow myself to fart because the fart wouldn’t have come out alone, something I learned for sure when I decided to try while taking a shower and then had to clean the bathtub…
I guess the fever was still there when I woke up since I was feeling quite high and laughing to myself for no reason. That was much better than how it made me feel the previous evening and night, at least. But, after another unsuccessful attempt at sleeping, in the afternoon, the fever did seem to go away once I actually did manage to sleep a little, in the evening. Other symptoms followed suit at about the same time, leaving me just with the lack of digestion, which resulted in gas and shitting water (or tea, actually), and the general weakness and tiredness caused by the lack of food and sleep.
Dad kept trying to make me take pills and I kept telling him I won’t do that unless it’s an emergency, and this doesn’t appear to be one so I still have confidence in my body’s ability to sort it out. He bought some for the creature as well, which were different from what he was taking because a different doctor prescribed them, though they had the same purpose, so now he had even more things to suggest. He was quite annoying, both with this and with the fact that he kept asking how I was feeling when I kept telling him that I can handle it well enough on my own. Interesting how, if something does actually scare me or I just need to see a doctor or do some other such thing, he just tells me to tell him if I want to see a doctor and he’ll make the appointment, and when the time comes he just knocks on my door and expects me to come out by myself after I’ve been pacing around the room for at least the past hour, trying not to shit myself out of fear, but now if I kept telling him I could handle it well enough on my own he was pestering me all the time!
Anyway, there was a moment that struck me as a little funny, when the creature called me over to talk as I was coming out of the bathroom and, among other things, mentioned that she couldn’t hold anything down despite trying to eat just the kind of things you should eat when your stomach is upset. Excuse me, but since there’s no digestion at all, what did you expect would happen after eating solid food, no matter what it was? What’s your stomach supposed to do with it? Can it for later?
Later, at my usual time, I went to make some more tea and try eating what was left of that vegetable “soup” (with all vegetables taken out) that was made for my dad when he started having these problems. It was obvious that trying anything solid would have been a bad idea, despite apparently getting lucky with those few pieces of toast I had eaten the night before, so I had to make do with that. Also changed my strategy regarding the tea, putting no less than eight different things in it and trying to focus on stimulating digestion, since I was pretty certain that everything that needed to be taken out of my body was already out.
That seemed to work surprisingly well, since I actually had to piss before going to bed that night, for the first time in a day and a half. I had pissed a little during that time too, but I never actually had to and it was obvious that my body was using reserves and none of the tea I was drinking was being absorbed.

Then, as of Wednesday, things were going really well. Went to shit again after waking up, but I haven’t since then. That could potentially be a problem, but right now I don’t think there’s much that should be coming out, seeing as I certainly seem to have a functional digestive system again and I bet it’s trying to make the most out of everything I happen to eat, discarding as little as possible. That means the tea is working well, so I kept making and drinking the same one. Went back to a little solid food Wednesday night as well, and then again last night, so I plan to start getting back to normal now. If all goes well, I should really be back to normal on Monday.
Even went out yesterday and wandered around for some two and a half hours. I’m feeling it today since I’m completely drained, but I’ll recover. Even thinking of going out again tomorrow since I think it could be interesting to have a look at something that’s taking place nearby.

The good part about this, other than the fact that it cleaned me up a little on the inside, is that it seems to have made dad think about eating healthier, “at least for a little while”. Sad that it took something like this, but let’s see what will happen, since he’s the one doing the shopping…
The very bad part is that it made him throw away pretty much everything that was in the fridge when he woke up on Tuesday and realized we were all having stomach problems when he knew quite well that there wasn’t any single thing that all of us had eaten just at that time. That’s completely unacceptable, seeing as that food comes from somewhere and throwing it away means wasting resources that are already depleting, not to mention that other people or stray animals could have used it well enough, especially since I’m quite certain that the food itself had nothing to do with this! Wondering what he’ll do next…
“That does seem to be the rule, doesn’t it? Analyze the problem, choose whichever strategy makes least sense and then do it.”

Today is OneWebDay and, while having such days doesn’t exactly help anyone, I think the cause itself is a worthy one. If you think the same, you may at least want to sign the pledge. Computers and the Internet are here to stay and the future of our society relies on them, so everyone should have access to and know how to use them.

Public libraries are a great start when they organize courses and allow people to access the Internet from public computers. After all, public libraries are meant to facilitate access to information, not only to books. For a long time, books were the main method of spreading information, but as of some 15 years ago that’s no longer the case and libraries really should start reflecting that everywhere.
Sure, having access from such a place is not the same as having it from home, but it’s far better than nothing. Also, the courses that such institutions could offer would be a great help to those who don’t have much of a chance to learn otherwise, and perhaps even more so for the elderly. Just having access to this great wealth of information and these tools won’t help you if you don’t know what to do with them.

Old computers shouldn’t be thrown away. Whenever possible, they shouldn’t be sold either. Instead, they should be given away, even when certain components have already failed. This is especially true in the case of desktops, because it’s quite easy to take them apart and reuse whatever components are still functional in order to build others. Laptops are a poor choice when it comes to this anyway, since they tend to be more expensive, less powerful and less reliable.
If you do decide to give your old computer away, keep in mind that donating it to a public library or other project that would use it in order to give multiple people the chance to access computers and the Internet is more effective than donating it to a single individual or family. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t donate it directly to another person if that’s what you want to do, it’ll be of great help either way. We should strive to help each other and if your trash could bring someone else joy why not make sure that it happens?

Then there’s the issue of providing Internet access to the people who could barely afford to buy a weak computer for themselves, or just received an old one from someone else, or even to public libraries and other similar institutions. In this race for higher connection speeds, companies tend to forget about those who just want a cheap option, even if it’d be pretty slow. Granted that there usually are decent options for reasonable prices in large cities, but when you can barely make ends meet you are looking for something that’s as cheap as possible.
But people who don’t live in large cities, or live in large cities from poor countries, may not even have those options open to them. They’re often stuck with poor services or even none at all, so that’s where governments should intervene. Some incentives for companies who spread their coverage to such areas could help quite a lot, though more direct interventions, such as supplying the connections to the institutions that offer public computers or even setting up a basic infrastructure and offering services more or less at cost to home users, could help even more.

Network neutrality is another key issue, of course, as large corporations desire more and more control over their customers and society as a whole. On a competitive market, a company that discriminates against a certain kind of content wouldn’t last, because its customers would quickly move on to their competitors, but some companies tend to come to agreements in order to discriminate against the same types of content or, as I said before, people from certain places have few or no options to choose from. So governments need to once again step in, pass and enforce laws that wouldn’t allow operators to discriminate against any kind of content, making sure that people enjoy the same quality of service regardless of what they use their connection for.
I could have started with this issue, but it’s not OneWebDay’s focus. Still, it has the potential to affect everyone, whether they are just starting to use the Internet or they have been using it for a long time, so it is very important. While the other problems I mentioned above tend, for the most part, to be things that grassroots efforts could noticeably alleviate, this is a matter of large corporations and governments, so it could be a tough battle…