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Hikikomori

the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare defines hikikomori as individuals who refuse to leave their parents’ house, and isolate themselves away from society in their homes for a period exceeding six months.

It’s an interesting entry, worth reading if you haven’t. But what I love is the list of related links:

  • Solitude
  • Hermit
  • Loneliness
  • Loner
  • MMORPG
  • Quarter life crisis
  • Reclusiveness

: Zubon

PvMP at the Minimum Level

Don’t do that. Do not even step into the Moors unless you are level 45 or higher. 50 and well-equipped is strong. 50 is normal. 47-49 is training: at least 90% effective, as far as the red team is concerned. 44-46 is bait: weak targets, easy kills, not significant threats. 40-43 is insulting: red players will go out of their way to kill you.

Seriously, creeps eat freeps below level 45. Even a new creep does not have bad odds with a five-level advantage. The voice chat channel notices every 40-43 in the zone. We target you first because you do not belong there. “There’s that Hunter again. Welcome to the Moors!”

More amusingly, you frequently see lower-level freeps soloing in the Moors, trying to complete the assorted PvE quests. Idiots. If the creeps catch you trying to ride to Hoarhallow, they will call in friends just for the fun of encircling you, then they will wait for you to rez and try to come back. Most freeps stop after the second or third death, but easy infamy is always accepted. If you are hunting wolves, you may notice a Blackarrow setting you on fire. If you hide in Hoarhallow or Elf Camp, the creeps can survive the NPCs for long enough to catch you.

It is always worth the time and effort to prey on the weak.

: Zubon

Wizard101 Mini-review

What do you get when you mix ToonTown Online, Pokemon, Harry Potter, and a Trading Card Game? Wizard101.

I’ve been playing around in the beta for a few days now and I thought I’d share my first impressions.

Note: This game is targeted mainly at the pre-teen age group, but I strongly suspect there will be plenty of adults playing.

Character creation has two paths. You may answer questions about yourself and have a school of magic suggested, or you can skip that and just choose a school. There are seven schools of magic (technically six and one more that is a little of each school). The schools are: Fire, Ice, Myth, Storm, Life, Death, and Balance. The school you choose is where you will focus your “training” but you can still pick up skills from other schools. You build a deck with various cards (or “spells”) you earn during training or as rewards.

Continue reading Wizard101 Mini-review

Please Balance Based on That

Last time, I suggested that The Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢: Shadows of Angmarâ„¢ PvMP should not balance based on the idea that the creeps will eventually (and then forever) be high rank, since it will take most people years and years to hit rank 9. I failed to note that freeps gets their comparable abilities, and more of them, in weeks rather than years.

But you notice that the high-rank stuff is not all that much better than the low-rank stuff. +2% chance to crit is nice, but it is far from epic. An ability you can use every five minutes or only below 10% health can be interestingly powerful, but it is not a major part of your arsenal.

So we look at the freep PvMP armor and equipment. Don’t get me wrong, this stuff is pretty nice. Not all of it is as nice as level 45 quest rewards, which is kind of an issue, but it is not all trash. Many “ideal” equipment builds include a few pieces. But you again need to be rank 9 or higher to use all of it. Even when freeps get 1000 reknown per hour, level 60 equipment will be available before 100 freeps in the entire game hit rank 9. Rank 9 requires a longer grind than getting all of WoW’s raid dungeons on farm status. Affording the items requires a separate grind in the dungeon that is available only when your team is winning in PvMP (same for getting the high-rank creep stuff). That is a lot of effort for a piece that you might stick on a cosmetic armor slot.

: Zubon

GamerDNA

When did they ruin GuildCafe? I made a GuildCafe page a while ago, but when I went to my new guild’s site there to try to connect to it, I could not edit my The Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢: Shadows of Angmarâ„¢ status. Going in to edit my games only lets me see the first six, with no option to reach the rest, and I cannot even delete and re-add the game.

Why don’t we make a lousy version of MySpace, intentionally focus it on a limited audience, then change the name and bork the tools so it is even less useful?

I shouldn’t blog after midnight.

: Zubon

Lazy Fellowship

Frodo, Aragorn, and the rest have been standing around Rivendell for a year. No big hurry on that Ring thing, eh? Boromir is the only one who seems to be impatient with the waiting. The test server notes mention that your next epic side quest will be to help the fellowship get ready to head to Moria. Maybe we can get more hides for blankets and feathers to fluff their pillows. There are no farms within two zones, and Elrond must running low on that magic bread. I bet they will still be standing around Rivendell when the servers shut down.

Some people.

: Zubon