Nearly a Year

For the few old friends who I think (might) still read this: where else can I write about second life? Or for that matter, talk about it? Even my students think it's silly (bunch of WOW and COD addicts).

The long and short of it is as soon as school started last August, not long after my last post, I got very busy in rl. I was not in world at all. At all. I actually do not think I have seen my "mom" or "father" in Ghost since I was born. Mom sent me a note card of the birth! Nearly a year ago! This means I missed breastfeeding entirely. Tsk :)

I got a hold of her in world just a few days ago, the first time we had talked in months and months, in IM, and I found out she had split from my dad. Well, for second life, they were together awfully long. She does not really come into Ghost much these days. As I said, I have not met my father, only had a few good IM's; I like him, he actually reminds me of me. And if I thought the turnover in the Cities was extensive (it is) the outlaw camps seem worse. I have been in world a little this week (spring break between grading) and find all new faces in Ghost, a new sim (not unusual). That is fine, everyone has been cool, but here is the really hard part:

The fighting technologies, at least in the GE sims, have changed a shitload. I knew about "blocking;" mom (so funny to call her that; our friendship came from knowing an alt of hers) told me I had to learn that last summer, and I practiced just a little. But for me, blocking is new. When I left Sais last summer (and how much of that was over the bondmaid drama....good question) it was illegal in Sais. It is probably everywhere now, but I have to play with my fingers on totally different keys. Not the arrow keys, the freaking letter keys that I NEVER learned to move my avie around on. And then, you block with C. What the hell?

Now, I fought a guy who smoked me tonight without blocking at all, but then I was trying to block and moving like a dope, and I would have liked to have done that again without either of us blocking. But it would not matter. Blocks are all over Gor. You have to learn them.

And then this shocker: in the old days (like since forever) your bow fired automatically. You held down the mouse button, and worked on the timing and tracking (and I was never very good at bow anyway, but I got by fine). The arrows auto fired. Get this: not anymore. You have to aim and fire every single time. Every time. It's hard to explain how different that is. It was explained as, less chance to shoot your friends (not really I think) or the target changes direction (maybe) but I think the real issue is fps, frames per second. Arrows lag up those sims awfully. Less arrows flying around, less lag.

Now this may seem like the looniest, geekiest post I have ever put up here. Reading my last one, it at least had some thought! But the bottom line to all this is that while Tele has been good with melee (sword/spear) for years, really pretty good, and good enough with bow to get by (and in laggy raids, get close enough and it's all blade...the arrows hang suspended in air) he now SUCKS. I mean, a few Ghost guys who did not know me at all wanted to spar tonight in the sim. Of course. You always do that with new guys and I count as new (and the GE sims are pretty much all about sparring/raiding). So, I got my butt handed to me worse, with BOTH blade and bow, than I have since I was a noob on the sands in Torvaldsland with Brutis. We're talking, what, four or five years ago? And in that sim, you did not have to fight. In Ghost, you have to fight all the time. I mean, I might as well have been blindfolded with my feet tied together.

Oh, and I have a new laptop, different key placements. I did attach an external mouse.

What to make of all this? In a very rare three or so spare hours tonight, everyone in the house asleep, when I could just play online alone I had a lot of fun. The guys who were beating me to pieces were all very cool about it. I was trying just to not climb mountains with my back turned, etc., moving with the letter keys, while I got the crap beat out of me. One did say I had good spirit, which meant a lot.

But do I really want to learn all this over? I so do not have the time in rl. I could find a BTB City where blocks are illegal and autofire allowed, maybe, but like I said below, I've met too many, dozens and dozens, of female avatars in GE Gor who kick smoking ass in combat. I still find that fun as hell. And the non BTB sims are just more relaxed, more about silly fun. It's not even like I could go Blue Caste or something. Be a non combatant role player (would I even like that) cause in the GE sims, everybody fights. Nobody actually seems to hang around and run things unless there is a raid.

In short, this really may be the end of a personal era.

And Caledon is still lovely, were I to go there, but my friends have moved on. I am so out of tune with their stuff, and I hear the balls, etc., have all stopped (not that I made a lot of those, but a few). God, I remember the gowns, remember the dance cards, remember dancing outside in falling snow.

***
Real life has been very, very real the last couple of years, and it's about to get more real. All this is good. I'm in better physical health than when I gamed in sl every week (uh, every day sometimes). My career is moving in interesting directions. Good things at home. All the shit life is really all about. I know most of my sl friends know that. Many of them are not online much anymore either.

Anyhow, this was not a rant, it was a whine. A freaking whine. I cannot combat rp in Gor anymore without starting from the bottom and the skill set is larger than it used to be. I ran into an old timer tonight (actually, we capped him in our sim after he took down four of our people, including me) and before I let him go (why not) we chatted about the old days. He remembered the Berserker system! I mean, that's old school. That was Tharkis in Tland. He knew the system and had never heard of Tharkis. I remember learning on the Laura sword. Truth is, it was a pretty simple skill set compared to what it takes now. The technologies have evolved and there is no cool game controller to help. I do hear there are kicked up mouses that help. Maybe that is a thought.

Well, it's late, I'm sleepy, and I miss my old friends, a lot. I think a few of them may still see this...eventually. Those of you who showed character stand out the most to me, some in Caledon, some in Gor. But God I miss Vid, and H, and the Duchess, and Sera, and there are more than I can remember this late at night. Dia. I know I'm missing many. The days of the werewolf in Caledon. The days when Fina was the white city. There are simply people, like all those I listed, that I would give my house keys too (my rl house) and say, here, hang out for a week while I'm gone.

I got let down by a lot of people too, which is part of being around people I guess. And sl maybe makes it worse. But I have so many great memories. I really don't know if I'll make many more or not. Right now, I think I'll go peek back into the grid before I sleep!

Much love.

Oh, and I forgot. I "freed" the girl I collared after just a few weeks. The one from last summer. It was best for both of us. I am not sure I ever said that up here. I wish her the best wherever she is. She had pluck.

Tel