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Grouping Manners or Common Sense? (Aion)

The concept of MMOs is one with which I’ve been familiar for quite some time. I’ve tried a few over the years but never had one win me over like Aion has. That said, I will admit that even though I’ve learned quite a bit about the MMO culture over the years, I was quite unaware of many nuances that you don’t really pick up on unless you really sit down and PLAY. For instance, grouping and manners — or a general lack thereof by many players I’ve encountered. Granted, most of those I grouped with in the closed beta events were better mannered than some I’ve run across since Aion’s release, I think overall it’s because no one really says anything to those who cross these unwritten/unspoken boundaries.

To me, most of these seem pretty common sense and are of course my own opinion, but I am always open to hear the views of other players!

Leaders: Lay down the ground rules before you begin

I’d have to say without a doubt that one of the best groups I’ve been in is one where the group leader laid down the ground rules before beginning the instance. He made clear what the group’s goals were, asked where everyone was on which quests (or who needed what, etc.), and stated what the loot distribution method would be.

You would think everyone would be that clear, but I think many group leaders just “wing it” or make it up as they go, and/or assume that everyone is on the same page. This is not always the case and a good leader should be clear, IMO.

Players: Don’t roll on it if you can’t use it

This isn’t practiced by everyone, but personally I consider it bad manners to roll on an item that you can’t use. If there is someone in your group that can use it, hit Pass. He/She should be the one to roll on it.

That said, if no one in the group can use the item, then I say “greed it” — let the whole group roll because whoever gets it is going to sell it. I’m not opposed to making a profit in-game, but courtesy should come first.

Leaders: Mark your targets

It should go without saying that this should apply where necessary. It should also go without saying that as a leader of a group, you should be clear on the attack strategy and make your plans known, but this isn’t always the case. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve grouped with people for an instance and be yelled at for hitting the wrong mob.

Leaders, if you plan on implementing some means of CC, make sure everyone knows which targets to hit, which to root or sleep (CC), and if needed, the priority of targets.

I’m a Ranger. I have limited CC. Well, actually, I have only one: the Sleep Arrow. Some mobs resist it, but when it works it’s great. The drawback is that it has a cooldown time of 3 minutes. A good leader should take this into account and plan attacks accordingly, whether by waiting until I can CC again, or if another player is able to do so, have them take the next one.

Players: You, too, can res

Most groups, if not all, have a healer. Healers are good, mmmkay? Healers can save your skin if you are caught off-guard by a nasty mob, they can heal you or even res you if said mob BAFs and snuffs you out. I love healers. Buffs and heals rule.

But what if your healer gets zapped?

Here is where I think other classes should take a little extra effort to help them out: stock up on res stones. You can get them from any General Goods Merchant (after you’ve ascended of course). I never go anywhere without them. Granted, you can’t res yourself with one, but if your healer gets wiped out, you can come to his/her rescue with one of those handy things. Plus, if your healer is busy attending to another matter (say, healing your tank who’s keeping the boss turned around away from the rest of the group so everyone isn’t wiped out!), you can lend a hand if another group member has fallen and needs to be brought back to the land of the living.

Leaders: Take frequent mana breaks

This is a personal pet-peeve of mine. Granted, I am not a healer, so I am not as dependent as they are, but many of my self-buffs and “special” skills take a lot of MP. When I run out, I’m reduced to very few attack options.

Leaders, please, keep an eye on your group members’ levels and take breaks where/when convenient. Your heals/DPS people will thank you for it.

You: Have other ideas?

Leave a note in the comments form below and let me know what you think!

This so reminds me of Hobie

I can remember playing Descent and Doom years ago and she would lay on top of my monitor trying to “catch” things on the screen.

Soaked and sunburned, and zombies, and Aion

Wow, what a weekend. Right now I’m sitting here waiting out the remaining two hours until the Aion Head Start event. I figured this would be a good time as any to post a few things.

Jess, Teresa and I spent yesterday in T’town. We went down there to watch the Tide take on North Texas. Jim was originally supposed to go with us, but he was kind enough to stay home to get our house ready to show to some prospective buyers. (Which, funny enough, he neglected to tell me about until Friday night when I got home and was already mad as a hornet for having spent 2 hours in traffic!)

We picked Teresa up in McCalla and headed down I-59. It rained the entire time. Once we reached Tuscaloosa, finding a parking spot was pretty tricky. The university has taken over some parking lots that were once public to reserve for Tide Pride members. We got lucky and parked by some friends in nearby apartments.

Hooray for friends!

It rained and rained and RAINED. Even though all three of us were wearing ponchos, we were still soaked to the bone. We walked all over the quad, visited various shop tents and after watching the Million Dollar Band do their usual pre-game routine, slowly made our way to Bryant-Denny stadium. It was at this point that it FINALLY quit raining. With the exception of a few drops here or there, the weather was pretty nice for the rest of the day! We made our way into the stadium and up to our seats and tried our best to dry out. About halfway into the game, the sun made its grand entrance.

Of course, the sunscreen I had put on yesterday morning before leaving the house had washed off … so I’m a little sunburned. This is the first game I’ve ever attended where I’ve been soaked and sunburned in the same day! LOL!

It was all a great day of fun though. The Tide looked really good. The halftime show was great. The MDB played a tribute to Motown. IMO the best part was the finale … they played ‘Thriller’ by Michael Jackson. All of the color guard and dance teams put on some raggedy clothes and danced as zombies like in the original video. It was awesome!!

The Tide won 53-7, so pretty early in the second half a lot of people were leaving. The traffic going home was light compared to every other Bama game I’ve ever attended. We made it home long before dinner time and I happily napped as soon as I could get my tired and weary bones through the door and into the bed.

Today Jess left us to spend the next few days with her mother. She didn’t want to go (not that I blame her) but I tried to assure her that she wouldn’t miss much of the Aion head start and we’d see her again later this week. Our deal is that as long as her grades are up, she can play Aion. So far, that’s proving to be a GREAT motivator as far as school goes!

And speaking of Aion, I was able to get things sorted out with GoGamer. Our Aion packs arrived Friday afternoon. Jim and I ordered the Collector’s Edition, Jessie got the regular (and hers came in a very NICE tin!). Here’s a few pics I snapped that night after opening my box:

Incidentally, if you have also ordered the CE, you will want to read this article by The Aion Guy: How To Receive Your Aion Pre-Order Items!

What are your mood lifters?

On days where I bring my lunch to work, I usually sit at my desk and read my feeds. With all the things going on, I’ve found that most days I want stuff to keep me in good mood — or if I’m in a particularly bad one, to enhance my mood.

A couple days back, GeekSugar posted 10 Sites That Will Instantly Lift Your Mood. While the entries were pretty neat (I particularly enjoyed FML but it’s not really mood-lifting IMO), but honestly none of those I would visit when I was in need of a serious dose of smiles and gigglies.

These are my mood lifters, in no particular order:

• I Can Has Cheezburger? – LOLcats and LOLanimals own. ‘Nuff said.
• I Has a Hotdog! – Sister site to the ICHC, featuring LOLdogs of course. More awesomeness.
• Cute Overload – Introduced to this by my pal DocJeff, this never ceases to make me smile.
• ZooBorns – Announcements of baby zoo animals born all over the world. Entertaining and usually very educational. Dual-awesomeness.
• Cute Animals Channel on Today’s Big Thing – A daily feeding of furry funny video.
• Cukiság – A Hungarian cute animals site. Even though I usually don’t understand any of the text, the photos are cool.
• FurryTalk – A good site, with a mix of LOLpics, jokes, and inspirational animal stories.

I could name a few others, but these are the ones I hit every day. They’re good for a quick smile, and likely help keep me sane.

So what sites are your mood lifters?

To-Do List helps me keep it together

I’m a “list person”. I like lists. Especially “To Do” lists. I like outlining my goals and enjoy the sense of accomplishment I feel when I get to cross those items off. So naturally, I’ve been looking for a “list” type app for my iPhone.

I had spent several weeks looking for just the right application. I wanted something simple with the ability to export lists, and to have the ability to set recurring tasks. Jim had run across one and emailed me a recommendation: Concrete Software’s To-Do List.

It has quickly become another iPhone app that I can’t live without. Not only can I use the recurring tasks feature to keep track of monthly, quarterly, and yearly bills and other recurring costs, I also use it for checklists for side projects, things I need to do at home, and more …

At the time of this post, To-Do List costs $2.99. If you’re a “list person” like me, you may find this a handy app to add to your GTD arsenal.

Dreams are cruel

It’s been a while since I’ve posted “personal stuff”. There are a myriad of reasons, the biggest being that I work for a company that has a huge online presence — including blogging and social networking. Being at UAB, I was always selective with what I shared, but I’ve found that I have to be even more so now.

That … and I tend to go “anti-blog” when there’s a lot of family drama and other things going on.

I had a dream earlier this week that UAB called me and wanted me to come back. The details of the dream are very faint to me now, but I distinctly remember waking up and feeling very down. That feeling has pretty much stuck with me all week. I can’t shake it, and what’s worse, I don’t yet fully understand why it’s bothering me so much.

I once told someone that I didn’t know that I wanted to be a web designer until I was hired there. Sure, there were things that I didn’t like about it. Higher management didn’t think much of my department. The pay wasn’t that great, but the benefits were awesome. It was close to home, and I had a very flexible schedule.

What I loved most about the job: I got to create things. Sure, it wasn’t as often as I’d like, and the majority of what I created I couldn’t show off to anyone … but for me it was just a great feeling being a part of the team. I felt appreciated. My opinion mattered. I loved my coworkers — they’re great people. Some of my “customers” I could have done without, but there were several that I just adored and loved working with.

And before I knew it … all that was gone.

Sure, I like where I am now. The people are nice. The facilities are nice. The pay is great. The benefits are less than UAB’s, but nobody’s perfect. But I miss the creative stuff.

I think that’s what’s eating me up, and I can’t yet let go of it. I mean let’s face it, with the way the economy is right now and the local government’s current financial state being in the toilet, there’s no way I’m going to be hired back. And to be totally honest, I just can’t go back to work under the current administration. My department is full of great people, but the people in charge all the way up the hierarchy don’t appreciate them, and sure as hell didn’t think much of me.

Or, that’s the impression they ALWAYS gave me! Several people have tried to convince me otherwise. It’s hard to listen when their actions tell me something totally different!!

I recently heard from a friend who’s still there, and I’ve been replaced — well, sort of. My actual position still no longer exists, but my duties have been taken over by someone. She was brought in during last year’s “merger” and took over most of my workload when I was laid off. I unwittingly trained my replacement. Thanks to me, she’s got some SharePoint and HTML experience, so she was naturally selected to pick up my stuff.

I don’t think that’s what she wants, but I definitely get the impression that she feels she can’t do anything else there and is just doing what she’s told so she can keep her job. Not that I blame her. She’s a good friend of mine, I love her dearly, and I can’t bring myself to be mad at her. It’s not her fault that I was let go, but I still can’t help feeling like shit when I think about how easily I was replaced.

Thinking about it now, I guess that’s why I’ve been trying like mad to stay preoccupied with new obsessions. They’re distractions to keep me from thinking about how unhappy and useless I feel. If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s probably my own for not keeping my options open during my time at UAB. I was so happy to finally be there, that I shied away from any new possibilities because I felt loyal to my employer and refused to hear any offers from anywhere else.

That’s something that keeps biting me in the ass: being loyal to my employer. You’d think I’d have learned by now …

Aion beta weekend: My thoughts

The final Aion closed beta weekend has now come and gone. I have had a TON of fun playing the last couple of months and absolutely CANNOT wait until the headstart! (those who’ve pre-ordered get to play a few days prior to game release, isn’t that cool?!)

Jim, Jess, and I played all weekend. Yesterday was Jessie’s birthday (my baby is now 12!!), so of course we let her stay up late all weekend so she could play with us a little more. She absolutely loves this game, and it has surprised me how well she’s taken to this MMO.

Such a smart little geekling. That’s my girl!

A funny moment: I was questing with a group in the Tursin Outpost last night and just had to announce, “My baby just got her Ascension quest! w00t!!”

Go ahead, laugh, it’s ok.

So, about the classes

When I signed out of my account last night, I was about halfway through Level 22 (Ranger). I had created a couple of other characters, but stayed with my main character, Minae, for the majority of the beta events. I know that by the time the headstart gets here, my account (along with those of all the other beta players) will be wiped out, and I will have to start over. I really liked my Ranger and think that for the time being, I will go that way again.

Jessie started out as a Ranger, but started over as a Sorcerer for this weekend. Overall, she found it an easier character to play and leveled much quicker. Jim, on the other hand, started as a Sorcerer and switched to Gladiator. Both of them had an easy time finding groups when it came to questing. Me, not so much. As with all MMOs, tanks and healers are going to be the most sought-after characters when it comes to grouping (whether for quests, PVE, PVP, etc.). No biggie for me, though. For now I’ll stick with my Ranger.

Note: For more info on classes and sub-classes in Aion, check the Aion website and Aion Armory (Aionsource).

Random acts of kindness

Most everyone I have run across while playing Aion have been great. There were many times when a passing healer would buff me or res me. In turn, I would res others when grouping or just the random player that I’d come across using the Elemental Stone of Resurrection (found in Verteron Citadel BTW!).

Personally, I love that! That’s an element of the game that I enjoy — the whole “community feel” aspect. Others helping others, and so on. Though not all players share my enthusiasm. You will occasionally get the one sour puss who, instead of politely saying thanks, will respond with, “No thanks, I can do this myself!” or a similar rude response.

‘To each his own’ I say. Me, I’m all about buffs and rezes!

I hate the seller spam

A part of me wishes that NCSoft hadn’t added a ‘private store’ option. Personally, I think this falls under the “Just Because You Can Doesn’t Mean You Should” category. One of the things I hated about playing Aion is flying or teleporting into a place and being bombarded with a thousand “Green Items for Sales!”, “Shop here now!”, and other similar seller spam messages.

I mean, come on … people, please, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, use the trade brokers!

In my opinion, NCSoft should setup a designated area specifically for those who want to open a private store. Or, give users the option of blocking said messages.

I will sometimes change channels just to clear up all the message spam!

Resources (link love!!)

Even though this game hasn’t been released in the US or UK yet, already there is a quickly-growing community of Aion fan and resource sites. Here are a few that I use fairly regularly:

• Aion PowerWiki – Found on the official Aion site, this is a recent addition to the site and they’ve been making an effort to add a lot of helpful info to it.
• AionSource – This site has a TON of helpful information on it. Whenever I have a question that I can’t find the answer to anywhere else, I check their forums!
• AionArmory – Owned by AionSource, this is a very handy repository of quests, NPCs, places, items, etc.
• Aionic Thoughts – I ran across this blog a few months back while researching the game. It’s updated frequently and usually has some pretty nice features posted.
• The Aion Guy – Found via Twitter, posts videos and other neat things to his blog.
• Aion Ladies – This is a new LJ community, for women (and well-behaved men) who play Aion.

Free free to share your fave links in the comments form below!

Updated WordPress Theme: Black Hat

This update contains several fixes and enhancements.

Details

Black Hat is a dark minimalist theme based on Adrian Diaconescu’s Corporate Sandbox, which is of course based on the Sandbox framework. It is has been built specifically with WordPress 2.7 in mind, but is also backwards compatible for version 2.6. (Sorry, I will no longer be supporting version 2.5 or older.)

Stickers icons courtesy of DryIcons. Favicon by Brian Brasher.

Features

Theme option for changing sidebar location – Pretty self-explanatory, there’s a theme option so that the sidebar can easily be moved from left to right and back again from within the WordPress admin panel. The sidebar can also be removed altogether using this option.

Sitemap template – If desired, you can create a sitemap for your blog by simply using this template.

Links page template – If desired, you can create a links page by simply using this template.

Printer-friendly stylesheet – Something I think a lot of users don’t think about until someone tries to print a post. Personally, I think all blogs should have these!

Admin & Login links – Many WordPress-savvy users don’t need a link to get to the Admin panel, but it’s nice for those of us who can’t remember the exact URL for it!

Favicon & “web clip” icon – Something else I think a lot of users don’t think about. Personally, I hope all my users replace these files with their own. A favicon helps your blog stand out, IMO. Web clip icons are used by iPhone and iPod touch users when adding a bookmark to the Home Screen.

Visual sticky post indicator – With the introduction of sticky posts in WordPress 2.7, I’ve noticed that it’s hard to tell if a post is sticky or not. I like visual aids, and this is one.

Easy to implement Feedburner links – By default, Black Hat features a feed icon linked to the blog’s RSS feed. This can be changed to a Feedburner RSS feed by simply updating the Theme Options page. Additionally, you can also add the Feedburner email subscription link for your feed.

Default and conditional feed options – By default, Black Hat includes the coding for the following feed types: RDF/RSS 1.0, RSS .92, RSS 2.0, Atom 0.3. The RSS feed for all comments for your blog is also included. (note: these are overwritten if using the Feedburner option instead)

Conditional feeds: If viewing a single post, the comment feed for that post is available. If viewing a category, the feed for all posts in that category is available. If viewing a tag, the feed for all posts with that tag is available.

Additional/SEO meta tags – When developing my themes, I take the liberty of adding many commonly used meta tags. Most of the information is automatically filled in via various WordPress commands and can easily be modified by the user.

Twitter integration – In the post footer (when you click on a post, not viewing the index or archive page), there is a “Share on Twitter” link. You can also display your latest Tweet in the sidebar by updating the Theme Options with your Twitter username.

Related Posts feature – This function looks at the tags for a post and finds all posts matching those tags. If no tags are specified for a post, this function will not show up. This function can be disabled via the Theme Options.

Customized default avatar (Gravatar) to match theme design – Black Hat includes an avatar to match the theme style. To use, you would simply login to the WordPress Admin panel and set the custom avatar as default.

More detailed information on these and other features can be found in the theme’s readme file!

Fixes

• Comments displaying improperly (or not at all)

• Related Posts function now matches all tags, not just the first one listed.
  • If a tag has been used only once, it is not included in the search.
  • If only one tag is used, and it has only been used once, Related Posts function will not show.

• Comments and trackbacks now separated.
  • If both trackbacks and comments exists, comments count corrected.

• Favicon corrected for backend (WP Admin).

• Navigation links added to post single view.

Availability

Demo | Download

Taking Humpdays a step further

I’ve been working my way down my various “to do” lists for this site and finally finished something I had meant to do a while back: create separate feed and email subscription options for the Humpday Hilarities. Fueled by Feedburner, it took a little re-coding to get things arranged the way I wanted them, but now everything seems to be in order.

From now on, anyone who wishes to subscribe only to the Humpday Hilarities can do so via RSS or Email. Of course, I welcome everyone to hang around the whole feeds, but understand completely for those who don’t.

All Humpday Hilarities posts (as well as the corresponding tags and category) will display the following invitation:

Did you know you can get these weekly funnies sent directly to your email? Click here and fill out the email subscription link. Mailing frequency is once per week, with the rare exception of extra funnies posted for special occasions.

Your email address will never sold or given out to anyone!

Please let me know if any part of the site looks funny or acts up. And of course, submissions are always welcome. (Read: send me your funnies!)

I like Safari, but …

For a while, I’ve been following the progress of Mozilla’s mobile browser project, codenamed Fennec. As the Mozilla team’s efforts push the project forward, I can’t help but hope that one day soon it will be available on the iPhone. Of course, this will mean that Apple will have to actually APPROVE the app for inclusion in the App Store.

As of this post, Apple has yet to approve any major 3rd party web browser application for the iPhone (meaning not based on Safari). That’s one of the few things where Helio had them beat. When the Opera “mini” browser was released, Helio embraced it. And how could they not? Let’s face it, the Helio native browser was sluggish and seriously lacking in many features where as Opera was sleek, fast, and surely had it beat. Heck, you could even manage your bookmarks online from the Opera website and easily synchronize with the browser on your device.

I would LOVE to see that kind of capability on my iPhone!

I had hoped that by now, Fennec would be far enough along that Helio users could use it. But since Jim and I have jumped aboard the Apple ship, my hopes are now that Fennec could one day soon be made available for iPhone users.

Please, Apple? Please???

Don’t get me wrong, I like Safari … but I’m a Mozilla fangirl through and through!

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