“Have you ever thought about how weird it is that when we’re upset, our eyes leak? What kind of sense does that make?” ~ JTL

I’m not usually a person inclined to make a shipwreck of my soul on a blog post, but my world is suddenly a lonelier place and words have always been my best companions and only real outlet in these times.

Today I lost a friend. Actually days ago I lost a friend, but I just found out thirty minutes ago. A real and wonderful friend. A giving, kind, intelligent, loving person who was incredibly dear to me. Yes, he had flaws, being human and all. But he was incredibly smart, talented, full of humor, and even if he hadn’t been all those things, he was someone that has been in my life for more than seven years and I don’t have to sing his praises to defend how much it hurts that he is no longer here.

He’s not the first “online friend” I’ve lost, but right now his loss feels the hardest to bear. It’s so pitifully surreal to get a phone call from a stranger telling you someone you love is gone. There is that awkwardness, knowing they are a family member, knowing they are somewhat uncomfortable and confused when you burst into tears. That bizarre way you have to apologize when you remember the person giving you the horrible news is also dealing with their own loss. I knew all about her, his sister. I could ask after her husband and girls, ask her to please give my deepest condolences to her parents — I know about all of them. For the past several years I picked out their Christmas and birthday presents.

All she could say to me was “we found your name on his list of those we should contact.”

I feel sick.

The last real emails we exchanged were “Happy New Year” things with little links and jokes and “have you seen this” stuff between, but I could (and likely will) crawl back through thousands of messages — the modern catalog of a friendship. I can still read his websites. I can still see his twitters. I can browse his Amazon wishlist. I can still google any number of forum posts. I can still listen to his voicemail message. But I can no longer pick up the phone and tell him to turn it to channel X real quick and tell me who that guy in that show is, or ask him to walk me through installing program Z, or explain to me the historical importance of technology thingys or remind me who did that horrible dance song back in the ’80 that went “uh-buh-ha-buh” or just talk. His echos are all over the web, but there will be no new content. No updates. No sly, eye-rolling sarcasm. There will be no more litanies about magical Mormon underpants or demonstrations of how he can rattle off exponential tables of 2 into what seems like infinity. There will be no more of those things because there is no more him. And that feels devastatingly unfair; a childishly selfish part of me just wants to keep screaming it’s unfair. It’s unfair. It’s unfair. It’s unfair to him, to me, to everyone that knew him. To everyone that won’t get to know him.

And I’m resisting the urge to call back his emotionally devastated sister and ask what’s going to happen to his cats that he loved insanely — as only the way we thirtysomethings without children can love our pets.

I’m reminded that he suffered from many things over the course of his life. The burden of his flesh was something that plagued him and the slings and arrows of others on that score probably measured for more than anything in regards to his battles with depression, social anxiety and painful shyness. It’s undoubtedly what led to the loneliness that none of his long-distance friends could comfort him through. I knew, as others knew, that he was struggling, but I also knew my options to help were limited beyond expressing my affection for his friendship and listening when he needed to talk. No one else can ever really crawl inside the pain that belongs to another and make it better. Would that we had those magic wands.

I don’t blame him. I don’t blame myself. He lost the war against his own demons and the world is and will always be less without him in it. But I hate it. I hate that all I can offer in the wake of his loss is a lousy blog post, but I don’t get to be in charge of things like national days of mourning.

His response to that would have been “why aren’t we working on that.”

I will miss you profoundly, my dear friend.

“French is the language that turns dirt into romance.” ~ Stephen King

So, I’m just going to admit this — whenever I see a new line that is trying to be all trendy and French, I inwardly cringe. My first thought isn’t that it’s a French designer, but that someone else is trying to be all hip and just learned how to pronounce “couture” from watching Project Runway reruns. So when a friend linked me the very yummy Anglaise cocktail dress and I went to check out AlaFolie, I took a deep breath and decided to deal.

To be honest, I’m not sure what the brand actually is. The store is listed in search as “AlaFolie.” The graphics are “alafolie” with all those cute little European accents. The stuff you open is “A la Folie” or alafolie or some variation (which means everything in your inventory from the place might not be in order — such fun). The designer behind the store, pixivor Allen, has English and French in her profile, so I’m going to lend the benefit of the doubt here. And, for those of you keeping track at home, “A la Folie” means to love madly, or inspire passionate love. I’m going to refer to the line as AlaFolie because that seems to be the variation they use most often.

Don’t panic when you first see the store. Yes, it looks a little like it was built by newbs, but the open-air layout makes it very shop-friendly. Their organization could use a little work, but for the most part it’s a good (ie: not confusing) layout that is easy to move/fly around in. While some of the gowns and dresses in the store can hit the L$1k+ range, most of the items fall in the L$500 – L$750 area, with separates closer to L$200 – L$300. the items I selected were very reasonable — including the one I bought by accident, but we’ll get to that in a moment.

First up, let’s look at Anglaise.

This is a delightful little cocktail dress that has the happy distinction of not being like the other 100030343033034 cocktail dresses in your inventory. In addition to the lovely eyelet lace texturing (yeah, I’m a hippie throwback girl, I’m a sucker for eyelet lace) you have a somewhat unique approach to prims. The skirt is a series of layers upon layers made up of 4 attachments that are around 50 prims each. This gives the skirt a unique movement that is full of energy without suffering from feather duster disease. Obviously it has the standard problems that come with transparencies, but its much less obvious than I’ve seen on some. The bodice attachments of lace ruffles and the fabric rose are all one object that fits onto the chest. It’s 74 prims without resizing scripts and is no-copy. Yeah, I cried, too. That’s the only big complaint I have. You will be able to pass this off to alts or resell, but with so many prims that need resizing to your avatar, making it mod/no copy filled me with dread. Still, after a few minutes of careful tinkering I got to a happy place with it.

The system base elements of the dress are disappointing only because they could have been nummy.

I understand the designer is selling a dress and not singles, but it feels like a missed opportunity when you see things like this. This could so easily have been a cute cami/briefs set, but the choppy unfinished middle thwarts that. Even the pettipants that meet the top don’t quite match up in texture so you couldn’t really use it as prissy boudoir fodder. Still, none of this matters for the dress itself; so long as that’s all your after, these texture layers do their jobs dutifully. Also, it’s worth noting that all the clothing I purchased from AlaFolie is locked on one layer only. The chemise are on top layers, no jacket or undershirt layers, the pants are pants only, etc. If you’re used to swapping about for various things, your options will be limited here.

Now, because I’m a sucker for separates, I also saw and pounced on two separates in the store:

Ain’t it sweet? You’ll notice the eyelet lace skirt is much the same as the Anglaise dress, except in this case there’s these poofy waist prims that are supposed to mimic (I believe) layers of lace wrapped around each other. I don’t think it’s the exact effect they were going after, but I like it. The ivory lace top I picked to go with it is shamelessly romantic and feminine. Like with the dress, it’s the detail in the texturing that wins you over completely.

Again, my only complaint as a consumer is with the system layers:

As you can see, the lace top could be used by itself for a delicate shrug, but it’s only on the shirt layer, so that limits your options. And the pettipants would be absolutely darling on their own — IF THEY ONLY HAD A FINISHED WAIST. It really frustrates me that designers don’t finish off their system layers like this. It’s like prefab builders who don’t texture everything. Still, again, as the price of separates go, these are reasonable and I can accept not being able to mix and match with them. Had I paid a higher premium for these pieces only to find this kind of shoddy work on the bottom layers, though, I’d be disappointed.

Oh, fyi, the top and skirt are not side-by-side in the store, so you’ll have to poke about for them.

Finally, I have to chuckle because the last item I bought from AlaFolie I didn’t intend to buy at all.

Now, I have way too many brown sandals in my inventory to purchase another pair, especially a pair that is as meh as these, but I was clicking wildly and I did something I haven’t done in a long time, I clicked a purchase button just out of habit. These aren’t terrible sandals, but they’re a little too rough for my taste and the texturing on the sculpties is unsophisticated. The prims that make up the soles are also sloppier than I’d expect to see in a quality designer. Not a bad effort for a designer that’s only offering a few shoe selections, but certainly not worth heading out for on their own.

Overall, I have to say that AlaFolie gets an B on what I purchased. The overall effect is straight-As, but the system layers and options are a hard C. I was happy to pay L$400 for the dress and L$200 for the separates, but I’m not sure I’d be willing to plunk down L$1k or more for a formal without getting more information than the display cut-outs offer. As such, two dresses I might have otherwise purchased (L$1000 and L$1500) I ended up passing on.

Where/What/How Much

Dress: (alafolie)Anglaise rouge, L$400
Top: ” A la Folie” chemisier volants dentelles ivoir, L$200
Skirt: “A la Folie”BOLERO” rose clair jupe, L$200
Shoes: “alafolie” SANDALES BROWN, L$400
AlaFolie

http://slurl.com/secondlife/AlaFolie/136/146/38

“Ugh I hate Thunder Bluff! You can’t find a good burger anywhere.” ~ Blood Elf Female

My chronic boredom with WOW and the bitter disappointment that was Aion has led me to ponder exactly what *I* want from an MMORPG and how that measures up against what the market can offer.

(Disclaimer: Much of this is WOW-centric. It’s not my fault they currently define the market.)

What I want:
1. RP. First and foremost, I want to RP. Although many MMORPGS claim to offer RP, I’ve never realized it in the same way online as I did in my teens sitting around a table with a bunch of friends fondling geometrical dice, calculating ThAC0s and arguing over how much the light of the torches in the tunnels would affect my drow fighter/priest’s vision. In theory, online play should get rid of all the stupid calculation stuff and just let us RP, but RP is little and far between.
2. Pee Vee Pee. I want to pew pew against other *thinking* beings in a way that isn’t held hostage by who has the better gear, who can hack macros better or who has the OP class this week. I don’t mind a little bit of luck, but it shouldn’t be the deciding factor. Real PVP should be mentally challenging as well as battle strategic. I want Warsong Gulch meets Risk meets Stratego. I want to stand the same chance going up against the worst player in the game as I do going up against the best. I want a pvp system that doesn’t reward losers who sit in BGs all day or OP classes with one-two-three-dead macros more than players with actual gaming skills. I don’t want to have to respec for 1-on-1 and group pvp. I want anyone that afks in a BG to get a 2 hour no-more-bg-for-you debuff. I want a pvp system in the same game as the rest of the content I want to play everything else in (Sorry, Warhammer you just suck so much for EVERYTHING else).
3. PvE on My Own Terms. If I’m in the mood to pve I don’t want to spend all my time getting griefed and annoyed by every thirteen year old asshat that just jerked off to the latest 4chan uploads. I want to have the freedom to play the game I’m paying for the way I want to play it without being shuffled off to the Hello Kitty Island Adventure servers. I want a fuck-off mode that tells campers to go find something else to do with their time. I want non-combat NPCs to be alive when I need them to be alive. I don’t mind competing for mobs, but I don’t want to be at the mercy of stupid farmers when I need mobs for mats and quests. I want any character that kills a character 10 levels below theirs to get a “stupid chicken” buff that turns them into a level 1 critter and doesn’t wear off for an hour. I don’t care if you’re on a pvp server, killing lowbies is lame.
4. No. Fucking. Grinding. Yes, I know that technically questing is grinding, but I need that illusion to maintain my false sense of achievement. So I’d rather have quests disguised as grinding rather than just mindless “kill 100 boars” grinding.
5. Original Approaches to Questing. While I’m at it, I want quests that aren’t always the same variations on the same things or thinly veiled grinding in the guise of lore.
6. Minimize Mini-Games. I picked my character and class for a reason, stop taking away all my skills and abilities in favor of a new set of stupid buttons that don’t interest me. I’m glad you got that Atari emulator running and all, but that doesn’t mean you need to inflict your retrofix onto my gameplay.
7. Interesting Crafting. Skill up, farm mats. Skill up, farm mats. Skill up, farm mats, wait for cooldowns. There has got to be a better way to build this mousetrap. I actually *like* crafting when the game isn’t making me hate it.
8. Privacy. I don’t want that creepy guy from that last pug to know when I’m signing on, but I also don’t want to ignore him because he’s in that guild with those other people I sometimes group with and that leads to uncomfortable situations. I want to control my own privacy in any social format; appear offline when I want. How is this not basic?
9. To See Content. Your designers just spent a year and a half on the latest dungeon so that 1% of the game population can see it. Does that sound logical to you? Allow passive modes for dungeons and high-end content so that guilds can bring non-combat observers to educate the newbies, or even just so I can go in and have a look without 40 other screaming idiots.
10. Non-Guild Progression Options. Would it kill you to have non-dungeon progression that would allow us to get access to high-level gear without guilds, banging our heads in the same BGs over and over and over, or farming until our eyes bleed? Make it challenging. Make it something we have to work for. Just don’t make it boring and stupid. Oh, and if you’re worried that gear is the only reason anyone will run dungeons…well maybe you should THINK ABOUT THAT.
11. Avatar Customization. Aion got this right. I want dozes of sliders and vanity options. I want to dye my robes to match my shoes.
12. Priests That Don’t Scream “Please Rape Me.” Okay, I’m going to be specific. This is about the priest class in WOW more than anything else. I want a healing class that isn’t useless in 1-on-1 pvp. I don’t want to choose between being a target or being effective. I don’t want to be a watered down warlock or a very pretty corpse. Let me heal effectively and by all means make it challenging, but then give me tools to protect my ass and don’t take them away a week later. Make it so that coming after the priest is at least KIND OF a challenge. Druids shapeshift. Pallys stun IN PLATE. One fear every 30 seconds and shields that disappear after 1 high-level hit aren’t cutting it. I don’t want to have to rely on other people for my dps or my defense — especially when other healing classes are just as healing effective with better dps/defense tools. Have you TRIED to kill a restro druid? WTF.

Realistically:
1. This is likely something game developers cannot influence, although they could put some effort into creating formats that encourage and/or allow this for those of us who want it. Navigating through strangers who are too creepy or too mental or too bad at RP is an individual issue that no amount of game filters can help with. I can also see the challenges this presents for communities that mingle adults and teen populations.
2. This just shouldn’t be that hard. Do this already.
3. See above.
4. Skill up ur cre8iviT dudz.
5. See above.
6. Just cut this crap out entirely.
7. I don’t see why this isn’t a reasonable expectation.
8 – 11. See above.
12. See above, only louder. WHY is this a dream that never comes true?

“The only legitimate use of a computer is to play games.” ~ Eugene Jarvis

A friend passes along The 100 Cupcakes Game.

My score was 90/100, but I think I should get credit for two of the ones I technically missed and two others I would have gotten if I’d seen other cupcakes before them. So, honestly, I think I should have a 94. Yes, I was just this annoying with teachers in high school.

I would also like to note that #14 was my favorite video game of all time as a kid.

Semi-Spoilers after the jump.
(more…)

“Among my most prized possessions are the words that I have never spoken” ~ Orson Rega Card

Kitty is experiencing a loss of inventory issue that really highlights some of the reasons it’s so hard to pitch Second Life as a professional medium. Anyone who has ever tried to explain Second Life to someone in a business sense runs into a barrage of issues, and some of them are so fundamental to those who deal in data-as-commodity that it becomes embarrassing to fess up to the elements were Linden Labs drops the ball.

Let’s face it, maintaining customer data is the most basic of all online responsibilities between platform and user base. Web hosts, gaming, social platforms — all of these know that maintaining the integrity of their customer data is their bread and butter. They have procedures for recovering losses and the big players generally have backup systems for their backup systems.

When I had an inventory loss issue over a year ago, I had to make three separate customer service contacts before I was given the information that re-established my inventory. Three. And the procedure itself is simply idiotic (clear cache on SL and system, go to a low-activity/lag Linden sim, wait X minutes for your inventory to load and see if your items are magically restored). Really? That’s the procedure? I do the SL hokey pokey and I turn myself about?

Now, try explaining this in a board room, or in a phone conference. Try pitching the idea to advertisers or potential investors that virtual goods have value, just like real-world goods. Then try explaining that when those goods disappear the consumer has no real recourse beyond crossing their fingers and following some silly procedures. Then do the math on why corporations cannot deal with the Linden Labs model.

The really sad thing? This is not just a fail on LL’s part, it’s also a missed opportunity.

Pssst — hey, Linden Lab. Want to increase the number of paid accounts overnight? Offer paid accounts the ability to back-up their inventories once a week and give them one free “restore inventory from most recent back-up” per year. After that charge them $X per back-up. Sure, it’s something you should be offering in the first place, but your user base has so little faith in you and so little trust in your ability to maintain our data that most of us would probably pay extra just to have some assurance that you’ve got a baseline motivation to provide the illusion of security. You could CHARGE US EXTRA for it.