Tuesday, April 28, 2015
The Winterfell Ferry...
I do not know how I was lucky enough to get a plot in Winterfell, right on the Sanctuary River. If that is not poetry and serendipity, I do not know what is.
Last night I googled our little continent and saw a reference to the Winterfell ferry. I had not heard of it. There was a link to one of the docks. My first Caledon home years ago was where the old Caledon ferry landed at the Cay. Now, riding that was grand! But though I have explored Wintefell some, there is much I have not seen of the continent, most of it really, and I was totally unprepared for twenty or so minutes on its waters.
If you have not ridden the ferry, you must. For one thing, it's not a ferry like I see in the States. It's a gondola that drives itself. The dragon rides and the canoes in Borderlands, great stuff. But turn your graphics card up and sit in the ferry boat and enjoy. Early on I sailed through the hull of an anchored tall ship; otherwise, all was perfect: the sights and sounds, the stone bridges overhead, the swooping birds...it is hard to describe. And it goes right past my house, down the Sanctuary River!
I would think that if world leaders would take that trip together once a week, we'd have less war :)
I look forward to more adventures in the gorgeous new landscape. Sincere thanks to Princess Selena and whoever vouched for me (well, politician that I am, I did drop Loch Avie's name). I am very glad to be here!
Tele
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
And Again, Back to the Grid
It is spring break, and the last three days, for the first time in years, I've been bouncing around second life. My second night in I ran into my dear sl sister, Kalia, and last time I was in, last fall maybe, I got a new skin and shape with her and her partner putting my new bod together like Doctors Frankenstein. I was, finally, ReTele'd and at no cost. Last night, a friend and fashion expert of hers took me shopping and I got good hair, good clothes (although contemporary "earth" clothes) and look better than I ever have. My prior skin was a free gift from Tharkis in early 07, and I wore it proudly for years. Now, as K's friend said, "welcome to 2015."
There have been other times in the last five years I've peeked in world and seen no one I know, wandered without any contact. But the last two nights have been good. I chatted with Viderian from Caledon, one of my oldest and most trusted friends, saw Kalia, and even IM'd my GE Gor father, whom I plan to meet soon (the fact that I have no updated Gorean clothes and that I can hardly use my new weapons is slowing me down a bit; I will have to work my weapons issues in to the rp; I'm thinking, my arms are powerfully but temporarily weakened by an injection forced on me by forest girls, etc.)
What are my impressions after being away so long?
For one, my laptop, state of the art five years ago, is not all it should be, especially for combat. But my gosh, SL looks amazing. The avs, the clothes, the builds, the water, the sky, everything. It is so kicked up. And mesh, WOW. That was a brilliant invention. Maybe the biggest change I've seen in SL since Dec. 06 when I created my avatar.Since windlight anyway.
I am hoping to truly come back (when I have time). I want a house, someplace, and don't know where. That will depend on my rp. Caledon seems very different, but I've only been there a little. It still looks incredible, better than ever. GE Gor is all over the place, with guys I knew from the hardcore BTB days now active in GE. I have one friend living in a wonderful little historical sim, early 1400's England. Another is off doing Viking rp, and I must visit. The complexity and intricacy of the builds, of the rp, has expanded as far as I can tell in multiple directions.
I just realized I'm writing this whole thing OOC. I am out of practice!
See you in world :)
Much love as always.
There have been other times in the last five years I've peeked in world and seen no one I know, wandered without any contact. But the last two nights have been good. I chatted with Viderian from Caledon, one of my oldest and most trusted friends, saw Kalia, and even IM'd my GE Gor father, whom I plan to meet soon (the fact that I have no updated Gorean clothes and that I can hardly use my new weapons is slowing me down a bit; I will have to work my weapons issues in to the rp; I'm thinking, my arms are powerfully but temporarily weakened by an injection forced on me by forest girls, etc.)
What are my impressions after being away so long?
For one, my laptop, state of the art five years ago, is not all it should be, especially for combat. But my gosh, SL looks amazing. The avs, the clothes, the builds, the water, the sky, everything. It is so kicked up. And mesh, WOW. That was a brilliant invention. Maybe the biggest change I've seen in SL since Dec. 06 when I created my avatar.Since windlight anyway.
I am hoping to truly come back (when I have time). I want a house, someplace, and don't know where. That will depend on my rp. Caledon seems very different, but I've only been there a little. It still looks incredible, better than ever. GE Gor is all over the place, with guys I knew from the hardcore BTB days now active in GE. I have one friend living in a wonderful little historical sim, early 1400's England. Another is off doing Viking rp, and I must visit. The complexity and intricacy of the builds, of the rp, has expanded as far as I can tell in multiple directions.
I just realized I'm writing this whole thing OOC. I am out of practice!
See you in world :)
Much love as always.
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Rest in Peace, Edward Mayo...and Odysseus and Tele in Ithaca
Up late, unable to sleep while out of town, I went back in world, first time in a very long time, since the night I was at the Baron's, and chatted with a few old friends. It turns out one of my old comrades in arms has passed rl. Months ago. A shock, that.
Edward was a good guy, never a moment of crazy shit. And in all that Gorean rp, there was plenty of craziness, a few friends who proved to be other than I imagined (then again, we're all avatars role playing) but Ed. from my Zamora days mostly, was one of the good ones. Others treated me fair at all times over the years, like Jake and Bohica (even if we disagreed, which was rare, they both were very professional), but Ed was just plain cool. My heart goes out to whomever he left behind, and may he have found a life more real than what we call RL now.
That's it. It took me a half hour to remember how to log into this blog. My rl is busier than it has EVER been, exciting and positive for the most part, but very consuming.
On another note: I have parked my avi in my SL father's sim, the one I have never met. It says something, to come into SL more than six years ago and name my avi Telemachus, one who seeks the father. I saw myself as beginning a long adventure, one that would have many facets, and I hence thought of myself as "young" with much ahead. I surely had adventures: more diverse and vivid than I could have dreamed, and made a number of solid friends, a very few of those have bled into my rl virtual world, via "social media," and I think that is wonderful.
But I spent most of my time in sl working hard, trying to help. That may sound ridiculous, but it is true. I treated guard duty on the gate at Fina or Sais like a real job, hah. And so when I left the BTB Gor and came to Ghost (pluses and minuses with such a change) I was happy to accept a friend's offer of motherhood...a chance to sort of be a kid (though full grown); and Odo, my SL father...based on the IM interactions I have had with him and on what many have said, is an amazing man. I am hanging around in the tavern at his sim hoping to catch him; it is one step closer. I think I must have been born, oh, two years ago? But I have never met him face to face or rp'd. It will be fun, I am sure. It is too bad I like the time/skill to be active there. Still, he and I will meet. I have simply not been in world and so it has never happened. When we do end up in world at the same time, he will be busy as hell I know.
And who knows...maybe he will mentor me in a new way and I'll start the pew pew (shoot em up) of the old days...I don't know. Maybe he'll grant me asylum and I can just lay around and drink in the tavern. In the GE sims, I doubt it thought. You fight or nothing. Again, hard to do without a gaming machine...even the right mouse and keyboard, as I think my laptop might run the codes fast enough...not sure anymore. I made a friend there named Ret who gave me updated skin, clothes, etc., and it took two hours just to get dressed...all the mesh, clicking "Add," whatever, it was freaking hilarious. I think I drew a crowd as I played uber noob. I STILL don't look like an updated version of old Tele. Ret gave me nice stuff, and I am grateful, but I look like Clark Kent in a freaking quilted coat. I need to find someone I can pay to ReTele me. It would be worth a lot. Probably my SL sister, when I think of it...though I don't know if she has the time. And I owe her 150 L for eyes, I remember. But I need new skin, hair, clothes, shape....but still look like somewhat the same person.
Well, it is past my bedtime. When I heard about Ed, I had to say something. And I hope to meet my SL father sometime in the next few weeks/months. As always, my love to all the rest. Even though they don't read this blog...hah.
Tele
Edward was a good guy, never a moment of crazy shit. And in all that Gorean rp, there was plenty of craziness, a few friends who proved to be other than I imagined (then again, we're all avatars role playing) but Ed. from my Zamora days mostly, was one of the good ones. Others treated me fair at all times over the years, like Jake and Bohica (even if we disagreed, which was rare, they both were very professional), but Ed was just plain cool. My heart goes out to whomever he left behind, and may he have found a life more real than what we call RL now.
That's it. It took me a half hour to remember how to log into this blog. My rl is busier than it has EVER been, exciting and positive for the most part, but very consuming.
On another note: I have parked my avi in my SL father's sim, the one I have never met. It says something, to come into SL more than six years ago and name my avi Telemachus, one who seeks the father. I saw myself as beginning a long adventure, one that would have many facets, and I hence thought of myself as "young" with much ahead. I surely had adventures: more diverse and vivid than I could have dreamed, and made a number of solid friends, a very few of those have bled into my rl virtual world, via "social media," and I think that is wonderful.
But I spent most of my time in sl working hard, trying to help. That may sound ridiculous, but it is true. I treated guard duty on the gate at Fina or Sais like a real job, hah. And so when I left the BTB Gor and came to Ghost (pluses and minuses with such a change) I was happy to accept a friend's offer of motherhood...a chance to sort of be a kid (though full grown); and Odo, my SL father...based on the IM interactions I have had with him and on what many have said, is an amazing man. I am hanging around in the tavern at his sim hoping to catch him; it is one step closer. I think I must have been born, oh, two years ago? But I have never met him face to face or rp'd. It will be fun, I am sure. It is too bad I like the time/skill to be active there. Still, he and I will meet. I have simply not been in world and so it has never happened. When we do end up in world at the same time, he will be busy as hell I know.
And who knows...maybe he will mentor me in a new way and I'll start the pew pew (shoot em up) of the old days...I don't know. Maybe he'll grant me asylum and I can just lay around and drink in the tavern. In the GE sims, I doubt it thought. You fight or nothing. Again, hard to do without a gaming machine...even the right mouse and keyboard, as I think my laptop might run the codes fast enough...not sure anymore. I made a friend there named Ret who gave me updated skin, clothes, etc., and it took two hours just to get dressed...all the mesh, clicking "Add," whatever, it was freaking hilarious. I think I drew a crowd as I played uber noob. I STILL don't look like an updated version of old Tele. Ret gave me nice stuff, and I am grateful, but I look like Clark Kent in a freaking quilted coat. I need to find someone I can pay to ReTele me. It would be worth a lot. Probably my SL sister, when I think of it...though I don't know if she has the time. And I owe her 150 L for eyes, I remember. But I need new skin, hair, clothes, shape....but still look like somewhat the same person.
Well, it is past my bedtime. When I heard about Ed, I had to say something. And I hope to meet my SL father sometime in the next few weeks/months. As always, my love to all the rest. Even though they don't read this blog...hah.
Tele
Friday, November 16, 2012
One for the Baron
My last post from months ago was about how combat systems have changed. I have given up, for now anyway, the idea that I will ever be good at that again. I do want to find, meet, and rp with my sl "dad," and that may involve a raid or two, but I'll keep my blade out and hope for lag like the old days if that happens.
I have been trying to go back in world time to time to visit. I have not been rezzing. And if the combat systems have developed, that is nothing compared to what has happened to the client. My god. It was worse than my first noob day. I am using Phoenix Firestorm which is at least something like the original client, but much is different.
Luckily, one of the times I was looking at myself as a puff of smoke and wondering what to do, my dear sl sister Kalia logged. She is a treasure. It turned out my hair (or something) was not rezzing....maybe it was outdated, and she gave me and entirely new "folder" whatever those are. Now, I am the current edition of noob, I think called Craig, something out of Snowcrash, but I can see myself. And she has agreed to fix me back into more of what I used to look like after another friend gave me an extreme makeover. The results were impressive, but it was not Tele.
And so, now that I have a corporis again, I went into world last night when I had a bit of free time (rare these days that I do). And I did not know anyone online, or the few I knew online were people I did not really know, in Gor or Caledon, save the Baron. Those from the Steamlands all know the Baron W.
And now a moment of history: when I first landed in SL more than five years ago, I was pointing and clicking on the open map at whim. That is how I found Torvaldsland. That is how I found Caledon. And when I first came to Victoria City, just a few days old, when Caledon was only 4 sims though already gorgeous, I met a girl there who was having her house built by a seven foot lizard; I think in the Moors but I am not sure. At least this is how I remember it. She had sparkles on her shoes which was quite innovative for the time (I apologize if I have told this story before; I cannot recall). I was entranced with the Moors immediately, with Vic City, and made a friend request which she rejected. I did not understand the friend thing yet; my first friend was, and remains, a woman I met on Orientation Island, someone who accepted my request right away. She was probably the only person I had tried to friend when the young Caledonian denied me. I did not understand her caution at the time. My intentions were certainly good.
It was an awkward start for me in the Realm of Roses. Later, when I was role playing in Caledon, living there, I asked about who she might have been and no one knew. I never saw her again. But even after her rejection, I kept landing in Vic City and flying around over houses, watching the sims develop. It was there that, flying over one particular house, I heard the words of a Scottish toast. I responded, and was invited in by a very friendly group: Hotspur, Lady Kate, someone else I forget, and Lady Eva before she had assumed her peerage. That group was so welcoming to me, so warm, that I never forgot it. The grid can be cold as hell when you know no one.
The rest is a story everyone who knows me knows: I lived in Gor, but kept visiting Caledon, and eventually a joint Caledon/Torvaldsland event led to me living in the Cay, serving the Duchess Loch Avie, all remarkable times.
And now back to last night (that was more than a moment of history I confess....Tele is five, very old for an av, and he wanders). The only name I knew on my fl who was online was the Baron W. He was at a poetry reading in Winterfell, and I asked if I could come. Of course, he said yes.
What a delightful group that was. I could not remember how to sit on a stool, how to move in and out of camera view...for a while I was actually trapped between the bar and a bar stool (not the first time....grins) and yet everyone was so very kind. I met, and saw, my first fae, or Petite. How superb her design! Even her supersized Tinkerbell AO...not remotely possible in the old days. The Baron and a member of his family demonstrated the new dance anims. He very kindly gave me landmarks for clothes (which I badly need once Kalia helps fix my face and shape) and landmarks to the many new sims which have sprung up since the old days. It was purely lovely. Oh, a cask of Skye whisky on the bar! Hah! I was home.
My sincere thanks to all who were at the poetry event last night and who let me, noobed out but still heavily armed and wearing a meter (which I was afraid to try and detach), attend; no one blinked an eye. Well, except for a very sweet mechanical girl, I believe the Baron called her a clockwork, who was not feeling well though I think it was not my presence that disturbed her. She said something very poetic about the wind injuring her.
I have taken hundreds of words to say what can be said with few: it is something indeed to come out of the cold night into a warm circle of persons, even avatarial persons.
I hope to be around a LITTLE bit. My RL is so consuming...I need a break time to time. And SL has less calories than single malt.
My love to all. Oh, I found the Duchess' new home with the Baron's help and am camped on the edge of her lawn. I left a note. I hope this is acceptable. I went to Cymru looking for Lord Vid; I miss him, and what a grand castle still, but all was empty.
Love to all. I hope to see my old friends in world time to time.
I have been trying to go back in world time to time to visit. I have not been rezzing. And if the combat systems have developed, that is nothing compared to what has happened to the client. My god. It was worse than my first noob day. I am using Phoenix Firestorm which is at least something like the original client, but much is different.
Luckily, one of the times I was looking at myself as a puff of smoke and wondering what to do, my dear sl sister Kalia logged. She is a treasure. It turned out my hair (or something) was not rezzing....maybe it was outdated, and she gave me and entirely new "folder" whatever those are. Now, I am the current edition of noob, I think called Craig, something out of Snowcrash, but I can see myself. And she has agreed to fix me back into more of what I used to look like after another friend gave me an extreme makeover. The results were impressive, but it was not Tele.
And so, now that I have a corporis again, I went into world last night when I had a bit of free time (rare these days that I do). And I did not know anyone online, or the few I knew online were people I did not really know, in Gor or Caledon, save the Baron. Those from the Steamlands all know the Baron W.
And now a moment of history: when I first landed in SL more than five years ago, I was pointing and clicking on the open map at whim. That is how I found Torvaldsland. That is how I found Caledon. And when I first came to Victoria City, just a few days old, when Caledon was only 4 sims though already gorgeous, I met a girl there who was having her house built by a seven foot lizard; I think in the Moors but I am not sure. At least this is how I remember it. She had sparkles on her shoes which was quite innovative for the time (I apologize if I have told this story before; I cannot recall). I was entranced with the Moors immediately, with Vic City, and made a friend request which she rejected. I did not understand the friend thing yet; my first friend was, and remains, a woman I met on Orientation Island, someone who accepted my request right away. She was probably the only person I had tried to friend when the young Caledonian denied me. I did not understand her caution at the time. My intentions were certainly good.
It was an awkward start for me in the Realm of Roses. Later, when I was role playing in Caledon, living there, I asked about who she might have been and no one knew. I never saw her again. But even after her rejection, I kept landing in Vic City and flying around over houses, watching the sims develop. It was there that, flying over one particular house, I heard the words of a Scottish toast. I responded, and was invited in by a very friendly group: Hotspur, Lady Kate, someone else I forget, and Lady Eva before she had assumed her peerage. That group was so welcoming to me, so warm, that I never forgot it. The grid can be cold as hell when you know no one.
The rest is a story everyone who knows me knows: I lived in Gor, but kept visiting Caledon, and eventually a joint Caledon/Torvaldsland event led to me living in the Cay, serving the Duchess Loch Avie, all remarkable times.
And now back to last night (that was more than a moment of history I confess....Tele is five, very old for an av, and he wanders). The only name I knew on my fl who was online was the Baron W. He was at a poetry reading in Winterfell, and I asked if I could come. Of course, he said yes.
What a delightful group that was. I could not remember how to sit on a stool, how to move in and out of camera view...for a while I was actually trapped between the bar and a bar stool (not the first time....grins) and yet everyone was so very kind. I met, and saw, my first fae, or Petite. How superb her design! Even her supersized Tinkerbell AO...not remotely possible in the old days. The Baron and a member of his family demonstrated the new dance anims. He very kindly gave me landmarks for clothes (which I badly need once Kalia helps fix my face and shape) and landmarks to the many new sims which have sprung up since the old days. It was purely lovely. Oh, a cask of Skye whisky on the bar! Hah! I was home.
My sincere thanks to all who were at the poetry event last night and who let me, noobed out but still heavily armed and wearing a meter (which I was afraid to try and detach), attend; no one blinked an eye. Well, except for a very sweet mechanical girl, I believe the Baron called her a clockwork, who was not feeling well though I think it was not my presence that disturbed her. She said something very poetic about the wind injuring her.
I have taken hundreds of words to say what can be said with few: it is something indeed to come out of the cold night into a warm circle of persons, even avatarial persons.
I hope to be around a LITTLE bit. My RL is so consuming...I need a break time to time. And SL has less calories than single malt.
My love to all. Oh, I found the Duchess' new home with the Baron's help and am camped on the edge of her lawn. I left a note. I hope this is acceptable. I went to Cymru looking for Lord Vid; I miss him, and what a grand castle still, but all was empty.
Love to all. I hope to see my old friends in world time to time.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
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
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
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Outlaw Life, (Yet More) Thoughts Gor
Tele resigned Sais, his former city, and went looking for what is called a GE, Gorean Evolved, or NON BTB Gor. A friend recommended an outlaw sim, I found a very old and good friend there in an alt, and for now it looks like that is my rp life. Tele used to hate, despise Outlaws; now he is beginning to see the wisdom in it.
For one thing, the GE sims raid all day long. Almost too much, really, but still: raids and rescues, back and forth, every day. I like the extra fun. Also, they seem less serious so far about all things Gorean. There are many women fighters, even the slaves can wield a frying pan or blow dart or slingshot whenever they feel like it. These sims are about equality and fun.
The group I joined, Ghost, is huge. The raids I've been on so far have been massacres, Ghost moving in with huge numbers and taking everyone down by the numbers. I don't know if they keep fighter ratios in GE, hope so, but so far it has been easy. This is good for me as my 3.5 year old vid card lags pretty good in those massive combats.
Now, a few thoughts on Gor to wrap up: maybe I am repeating myself.
***
I respect those who want "BTB" or "By the Book" Gor. But a few things must be said. The Gorean books are a blend of John Carter romanticism (big he men and lovely ladies in distress) and bdsm. I know women and men who enjoy the Gorean fantasies in the novels. This is fine. I liked John Carter when I was a teenager myself. But the books are meant to be enjoyed. The problem with sl Gor is it results in a repressive chauvinism in my opinion, or can. The fact that slaves have no rights in the novels turns on submissive (and I guess dom) readers; the fact that slave role players in sl Gor have no rights, or can have no rights, is simply ridiculous. The entire female gender, objects of desire and willing submission in the novels, are often subjugated in SL Gor and that marginalization is defended as "by the books."
When I first joined SL Gor (all about playing in the Arena in those days) I wondered to myself: I am a living Stanford Prison Experiment. Will I change how I act towards the "slaves" in the rp? For a long time, for years, I don't think I did. Recently, very recently, I believe I began to. Only a little, but a little is enough. I think of Mrs. Auld in Frederick Douglass' Narrative...
The fact is the fantasies of the novels cannot be directly transposed into SL or RL on a sim wide scale without issues. As someone long ago said to me: the books are not about real feelings. I agree. They are far from psychologically realistic (raped women, hauled off in conquest, do not beg for more sex, etc.) So moving that fantasy into a world full of ACTUAL PEOPLE role playing through avatars is bound to have some complications. For me, the GE sims, at least so far, seem to work much better, are much less rigid, less formal...simply outside Gorean "law." And I love all the Emma Peel looking ass kicking women.
I never ever though I'd go outlaw, but here I go. When I have time that is! My career will pick up again soon and I will have little time.
Oh, someone asked to be my mother today in the GE rp, make me one of her twins or triplets or something. She said I can begin as a grown up with the entire back story I already have...I said cool :) Kind of an honor to bring me into Ghost with that much connection.
Love to all. I would spend more time writing about Gor but I don't think it would change a bloody thing. In the meantime, I hope everyone engages in rp that they find fun, constructive, enjoyable, not distressing or demeaning.
Love to all. We an surely use it.
Tele
For one thing, the GE sims raid all day long. Almost too much, really, but still: raids and rescues, back and forth, every day. I like the extra fun. Also, they seem less serious so far about all things Gorean. There are many women fighters, even the slaves can wield a frying pan or blow dart or slingshot whenever they feel like it. These sims are about equality and fun.
The group I joined, Ghost, is huge. The raids I've been on so far have been massacres, Ghost moving in with huge numbers and taking everyone down by the numbers. I don't know if they keep fighter ratios in GE, hope so, but so far it has been easy. This is good for me as my 3.5 year old vid card lags pretty good in those massive combats.
Now, a few thoughts on Gor to wrap up: maybe I am repeating myself.
***
I respect those who want "BTB" or "By the Book" Gor. But a few things must be said. The Gorean books are a blend of John Carter romanticism (big he men and lovely ladies in distress) and bdsm. I know women and men who enjoy the Gorean fantasies in the novels. This is fine. I liked John Carter when I was a teenager myself. But the books are meant to be enjoyed. The problem with sl Gor is it results in a repressive chauvinism in my opinion, or can. The fact that slaves have no rights in the novels turns on submissive (and I guess dom) readers; the fact that slave role players in sl Gor have no rights, or can have no rights, is simply ridiculous. The entire female gender, objects of desire and willing submission in the novels, are often subjugated in SL Gor and that marginalization is defended as "by the books."
When I first joined SL Gor (all about playing in the Arena in those days) I wondered to myself: I am a living Stanford Prison Experiment. Will I change how I act towards the "slaves" in the rp? For a long time, for years, I don't think I did. Recently, very recently, I believe I began to. Only a little, but a little is enough. I think of Mrs. Auld in Frederick Douglass' Narrative...
The fact is the fantasies of the novels cannot be directly transposed into SL or RL on a sim wide scale without issues. As someone long ago said to me: the books are not about real feelings. I agree. They are far from psychologically realistic (raped women, hauled off in conquest, do not beg for more sex, etc.) So moving that fantasy into a world full of ACTUAL PEOPLE role playing through avatars is bound to have some complications. For me, the GE sims, at least so far, seem to work much better, are much less rigid, less formal...simply outside Gorean "law." And I love all the Emma Peel looking ass kicking women.
I never ever though I'd go outlaw, but here I go. When I have time that is! My career will pick up again soon and I will have little time.
Oh, someone asked to be my mother today in the GE rp, make me one of her twins or triplets or something. She said I can begin as a grown up with the entire back story I already have...I said cool :) Kind of an honor to bring me into Ghost with that much connection.
Love to all. I would spend more time writing about Gor but I don't think it would change a bloody thing. In the meantime, I hope everyone engages in rp that they find fun, constructive, enjoyable, not distressing or demeaning.
Love to all. We an surely use it.
Tele
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
There is Gor and then there is Gor...RANT
This blog, while open to anyone who knows my avatar's name, has always been written for an imaginary Caledonian audience. I was surprised to know the Duchess still reads it, and perhaps one or two others from the old days will stumble on it, but I find myself in the odd position of needing to share.
So I collared a girl. She was panther once, is half panther still, and carries a slingshot at all times. That sling is legal in my current city, but can only be used in very limited instances, like defending herself in the village during a raid, or defending me (which she did not do today when a mamba capped me at the docks, hah). Also, like some others, myself included, she has limits in her profile: no rape of any kind.
I had "owned" her about a week, had rp'd with her maybe once or twice in world, when I log in to a total mess. Some guy I don't know telling me my girl had been mouthy; she had to be punished. Yada yada. Then my girl shows up and tells me she has been raped with a whip handle. Yep. And she is white silk, meaning virgin (in her current rp). I found out the guy was a new citizen of my town; this complicated a lot.
I have no time to write this well, so fuckit.
Anyway, I asked the Magistrate what I could do: I could demand coin as payment for the damage to her. Now I've seen guys go off, overly so I thought, call other guys out when their girl was kicked once, or treated rudely, or slapped. In those cases, I get it. She is a slave in the rp. Sucks but this is cartoon rp. Not much you can do. But raping her without checking her limits first? And then some asshole who was with him demanded she be punished for mouthing off AFTER the rape. The rape happened so fast, one long paragraph, she did not have time to do anything.
Those who say one cannot have something done to them in SL they do not want done are wrong.
So, me, Mr. Protective, Protection being the CORE of my RP in world no matter where I am, I feel hamstrung by city law, by the rules of Gor, and I hardly know this girl. So I ask for the maximum "coin" (all rp only) and get it; I ask for an apology and seem to get it. But the fact is, this particular guy, and the city where I live now is "by the book." Meaning, rape happens to captives.
There are rules about that, and I have to admit I've talked to more than one "female" avatar (good luck with that one guys) who have told me they get off on the rape fantasy; they like that rp when it's done right. Okay, but there are plenty of people who rp in sl Gor who do not like it, who understand that the fantasies in the books, at least in the two quite marginal novels I read, depict both sides enjoying the forced sex; the women get turned on in spite of themselves, etc., or they care about the man. That is the bdsm piece of Gor. I do not find that appealing even in novel/fantasy, but some do....some seemingly pretty reasonable people do...
But apart from the rules, there are sadists roaming....those who are quite happy when just one side is enjoying the RP. And to you folks, let me say, FUCK YOU.
The guy was new to Gor; I tried to instruct him a bit, figured he made a mistake, explain things to him about the sophisticated nature of role play, about checking limits, about the nature of submission, etc. And then I am away another week and this happens:
My girl is fired on by a guard of the city for not stopping when she was told to stop (and maybe she mouthed off first, I don't know). Thing is, she fired back and downed the guy. Did I say she can smoke me with that slingshot when I have a bow? Yeah, that kind of girl. Now, in Gor, that can be cause for death. At the very least a severe whipping. She could be ejected from the village, etc. (No, it does not seem I picked an easy person for this kind of rp.) What happened was she was captured and caged, and then, according to her only, (the original Guy in Question denies he knew it was her when he said this, he pretty much denied remembering any of it) the guy who raped her said to the guy she capped..."make her your fucktoy...all you will have to do is pay the coin."
After the first rape I put it in her profile and mine: anyone who rapes this girl dies. A solemn oath which I mean to keep. So she informed the guy who was considering it, and he said, "that is too high a price." (I have no notecard of this btw). I confront the original rapist guy today, ask him, get mixed answers, make the mistake of getting pissed off in IM, OOC (oh, that cardinal sin in sl Gor, mixing ooc and ic, which is a good rule but in some ways silly, unrealistic, and sometimes used to justify some pretty asshole rp).
Now what?
Is this girl addicted to the drama? Maybe. One thing I do know is she is no slave at heart. She is all too ready to use that slingshot and down anyone she can. Well, maybe she is half slave. And you know what, I think that is fucking great. Funny. Her skill to apply as she wills when she needs to defend herself or her friends. But oh man, it does not go well in by the book Gor, not when the girl is a slave.
Is the guy who raped her demented and sick? Yep, I'm pretty sure. Funny thing is he thinks he is this cool enlightened karmic guy. I have not seen that in his rp at all.
And the hardest part of it all: I don't think I can continue in the village where I live or in any "by the book" sim. I have lived in others and never saw the kind of sexual coercion I see in my current village. And I don't mean between Master and slave, when people know each other and know what they are doing; I mean with the captives. Mostly I work with a lot of honorable and good people, but things get rougher here than anyplace else I've been in sl Gor and that roughness is tolerated.
And man, I am just there for the combat. For the defense of the city. For the brotherhood. For the Honor. For the bonding with Men. It is the total truth. I don't need or desire the dom/sub sex thing they do in the sims (though it's funny how many guys in sl Gor are actually chaste as I am; a lot more than I used to believe do not cyber). I just like the weapons and the warfare and the incredible excitement that brings. Try standing on a wall with arrows coming up so hard they are almost a solid sheet, holding a naked blade, waiting for the first guy to come up on the grapple line...that is what I do for a living in sl Gor.
I have to go. I have a real life too. Is all this drama even worth the energy? My rl takes enough. Four years I had no drama, saw friend after friend leave Gor because of drama, most of the guys I was close to are gone or retired from active rp. I never had an issue. Till now. Get a girl, get drama...
Sighs. Love to all.
Tele
So I collared a girl. She was panther once, is half panther still, and carries a slingshot at all times. That sling is legal in my current city, but can only be used in very limited instances, like defending herself in the village during a raid, or defending me (which she did not do today when a mamba capped me at the docks, hah). Also, like some others, myself included, she has limits in her profile: no rape of any kind.
I had "owned" her about a week, had rp'd with her maybe once or twice in world, when I log in to a total mess. Some guy I don't know telling me my girl had been mouthy; she had to be punished. Yada yada. Then my girl shows up and tells me she has been raped with a whip handle. Yep. And she is white silk, meaning virgin (in her current rp). I found out the guy was a new citizen of my town; this complicated a lot.
I have no time to write this well, so fuckit.
Anyway, I asked the Magistrate what I could do: I could demand coin as payment for the damage to her. Now I've seen guys go off, overly so I thought, call other guys out when their girl was kicked once, or treated rudely, or slapped. In those cases, I get it. She is a slave in the rp. Sucks but this is cartoon rp. Not much you can do. But raping her without checking her limits first? And then some asshole who was with him demanded she be punished for mouthing off AFTER the rape. The rape happened so fast, one long paragraph, she did not have time to do anything.
Those who say one cannot have something done to them in SL they do not want done are wrong.
So, me, Mr. Protective, Protection being the CORE of my RP in world no matter where I am, I feel hamstrung by city law, by the rules of Gor, and I hardly know this girl. So I ask for the maximum "coin" (all rp only) and get it; I ask for an apology and seem to get it. But the fact is, this particular guy, and the city where I live now is "by the book." Meaning, rape happens to captives.
There are rules about that, and I have to admit I've talked to more than one "female" avatar (good luck with that one guys) who have told me they get off on the rape fantasy; they like that rp when it's done right. Okay, but there are plenty of people who rp in sl Gor who do not like it, who understand that the fantasies in the books, at least in the two quite marginal novels I read, depict both sides enjoying the forced sex; the women get turned on in spite of themselves, etc., or they care about the man. That is the bdsm piece of Gor. I do not find that appealing even in novel/fantasy, but some do....some seemingly pretty reasonable people do...
But apart from the rules, there are sadists roaming....those who are quite happy when just one side is enjoying the RP. And to you folks, let me say, FUCK YOU.
The guy was new to Gor; I tried to instruct him a bit, figured he made a mistake, explain things to him about the sophisticated nature of role play, about checking limits, about the nature of submission, etc. And then I am away another week and this happens:
My girl is fired on by a guard of the city for not stopping when she was told to stop (and maybe she mouthed off first, I don't know). Thing is, she fired back and downed the guy. Did I say she can smoke me with that slingshot when I have a bow? Yeah, that kind of girl. Now, in Gor, that can be cause for death. At the very least a severe whipping. She could be ejected from the village, etc. (No, it does not seem I picked an easy person for this kind of rp.) What happened was she was captured and caged, and then, according to her only, (the original Guy in Question denies he knew it was her when he said this, he pretty much denied remembering any of it) the guy who raped her said to the guy she capped..."make her your fucktoy...all you will have to do is pay the coin."
After the first rape I put it in her profile and mine: anyone who rapes this girl dies. A solemn oath which I mean to keep. So she informed the guy who was considering it, and he said, "that is too high a price." (I have no notecard of this btw). I confront the original rapist guy today, ask him, get mixed answers, make the mistake of getting pissed off in IM, OOC (oh, that cardinal sin in sl Gor, mixing ooc and ic, which is a good rule but in some ways silly, unrealistic, and sometimes used to justify some pretty asshole rp).
Now what?
Is this girl addicted to the drama? Maybe. One thing I do know is she is no slave at heart. She is all too ready to use that slingshot and down anyone she can. Well, maybe she is half slave. And you know what, I think that is fucking great. Funny. Her skill to apply as she wills when she needs to defend herself or her friends. But oh man, it does not go well in by the book Gor, not when the girl is a slave.
Is the guy who raped her demented and sick? Yep, I'm pretty sure. Funny thing is he thinks he is this cool enlightened karmic guy. I have not seen that in his rp at all.
And the hardest part of it all: I don't think I can continue in the village where I live or in any "by the book" sim. I have lived in others and never saw the kind of sexual coercion I see in my current village. And I don't mean between Master and slave, when people know each other and know what they are doing; I mean with the captives. Mostly I work with a lot of honorable and good people, but things get rougher here than anyplace else I've been in sl Gor and that roughness is tolerated.
And man, I am just there for the combat. For the defense of the city. For the brotherhood. For the Honor. For the bonding with Men. It is the total truth. I don't need or desire the dom/sub sex thing they do in the sims (though it's funny how many guys in sl Gor are actually chaste as I am; a lot more than I used to believe do not cyber). I just like the weapons and the warfare and the incredible excitement that brings. Try standing on a wall with arrows coming up so hard they are almost a solid sheet, holding a naked blade, waiting for the first guy to come up on the grapple line...that is what I do for a living in sl Gor.
I have to go. I have a real life too. Is all this drama even worth the energy? My rl takes enough. Four years I had no drama, saw friend after friend leave Gor because of drama, most of the guys I was close to are gone or retired from active rp. I never had an issue. Till now. Get a girl, get drama...
Sighs. Love to all.
Tele
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