Of MMOunts and Water Allergies, or "Hey, where'd your sheep go?"

So there the nugget was, doing Trade Runs in Forsaken World, while a faintly bemused nugget-boy watched from behind his book. The nugget-boy, you see, is not a gamer.

Forsaken World Trade Runs in a PvE server are extended run-around-a-lot quests you do to get rep, which you can then exchange for tradeable gold.

They are an incredibly mindless MMO version of a TradeWars style planet-hopping trading game, and go something like this:

1) Get Trade Run quest from Merchant NPC
2) Buy stuff from Merchant NPC
3) Open map, click on map location of next merchant NPC, let computer autorun your toon
4) Read a book, go afk and make a sammich, watch a movie in the other window, or - in this particular nuggety case - fall over on your side like a beached whale, and stare rather blankly at nothing
5) Repeat until you've gotten the maximum amount of currency allowed in that run
6) Hand in to Merchant NPC
7) Do it all again

Showing incredible restraint, nugget-boy managed to wait until the third or fourth instance of nugget falling over on her side, and lying beside her laptop like a blankly staring beached whale before asking, 'Umm... what are you doing?'

Nugget: I'm waiting for it to autorun to the next trading post. By itself. I did mention a bot could play this game.

Nugget-boy: I... see...

Continuing with business, Nugget falls over a-la beached whale a couple more times, only this time, nug-toon is dismounted because she decided to ride into a silly body of water.

Now, as all we MMO players know, MMOunts are generally highly allergic to water. There is absolutely nothing surprising about a large sheep vanishing upon contact with a small body of water.

Except if you don't play MMOs.

"Hey," quoth nugget-boy, "Where did your sheep go?"

Nugget: Uhhh *thinks furiously about how to explain what, on a fresh look, seems like utter insanity*

Nugget: *DING!* It's allergic to water!

Nugget-boy: O.O But where did it GO?

Nugget: It uh - it hid in my bag!

At this point, hysterical giggles are starting to bubble up from beneath the batter, but the nugget bravely manages to suppress them.

Nugget-boy: Your sheep fits in your bag?

Nugget: Uh, yes. It's allergic to water so it jumps in my...heh bag... and once I'm on dry land I just... haha... take it out again because you know it really fits so well in my... heeheehahahHOHOHOHO!

By this point, I've infected Nugget-boy with teh giggles, and we're both laughing hysterically at the ludicrousness of the whole thing.

Maybe this is why MMO-wise at least, this is usually done in the company of other fellow MMO-folk, or alone.

Still... Nothing like a fresh pair of eyes to inspire a healthy dose of absurdigiggles, woot!

Forsaken World - Names Have Magical Powerz!

Forsaken World's priest class is a sad example of how dev confusion with class roles, and naming classes 'priest', 'cleric', 'non-ninja monk', 'medic' (or any other name players tend to automagically associate with healers if they've a) played any of this sort of genre at all, or b) played D&D), influences class perception.

Or more specifically, it's a negative example of how to handle a class that has three talent paths or specs, with one of them focused on healing, and the other two being no-holds-barred DPS of DOOM!

Because that's what priests in FW are. Two of the trees are flat out damage dealers, one more PvP focused, one more PvE focused. They are not inferior to other damage dealers in any way (once high level enough and people get their skills blah blah), and they do, in fact, have the highest Damage Per Hit (DPH) of all the classes, if not the highest DPS.

If FW priests don't spec for healing, they are NOT healers. They heal for about as much as an even-levelled potion.

And yet the LFG tool classes them as healers, no matter what. Main healers, to boot.

Silly devs are silly!

This is where I conclude that the problem is the word 'healer', and how people (including designers) define healers. What they've done is put a Franciscan, a Templar, and a Dominican together and said, 'Wut! They're all priests!' Well yes, but they're not all healers. And that's the problem with the LFG system, and player perception once they see a word that they associate with 'HAELZ!'

The LFG does this with vampires as well, classifying them as healers, but here's where an odd thing happens. And here's where player perception straitjacketing class roles due to poor naming really comes to the fore.

You see, vampires, exactly like priests, have one healing spec and two damage ones. The healing spec is a main healing spec. It is on par with a priest main healing spec. It is, without any argument, a main healer.

The other two specs are damage dealers, very competent ones - again with a PvP and PvE emphasis.

Yet no one in instances EXPECTS vampires to be specced into the healing tree.

LFG with only vamp for heals, and the vamp isn't heal-specced:
Ugh! Crazy system! It really needs fixing. Sorry guys. Yeah understood, it's cool.

LFG with only priest for heals, and the priest isn't heal-specced:
WTF U MEAN UR NOT HAELZ PRIEST! U SUK! U BETTER HAEL ME ANYWAY! *group fails* WTF! U SUK! SUK PREST!

... and so on -_-

Most amusingly, the ONLY class where all three specs are some kind of party support with low to average DPS, and high to average party support is the bard. Which the system classifies as 'support healer only'. Go figure.

So all those ancient superstitions about Namez having POWWAH? >.> They're right.

Facebook wants you to 'like' things ... but it's complicated | Mariam Cook

Facebook will never embrace 'shades of grey' because it has this ethos of exuberance that says everyone you meet is a friend and everything is worth liking, if only to differing degrees. Don't underestimate this, it creates an environment that feels safe, especially to advertisers. this benefits Facebook in their quest to get people to share their lives as publicly as possible, which they may not do if they feel even subconsciously that there is a risk of negative response.
via guardian.co.uk

Article is interesting, but commentary is more so. It's personally very alien to this nugget *why* people "like" things on Facebook without incentive.

On the other hand, the nugget has 4 'friends' (or was that 5), and likes only things that work requires her to like. In fact, the only thing the nugget has "liked" of her own free will is Forsaken World - precisely because they incentivise it.

The marketer in me loves the comments section though, it's a great look into the brains of the masses I am supposedly brainwashing!