Efficiency in MMORPGs

I read over Tobold’s latest about World of Microtransactions, and how we got there.  There’s been new ideas brewing in my head lately about his and other bloggers ideas on RMT.

The more I read the more little contradictory messages pop up in between the lines on the subject of RMTs business model.  More specifically how it effects the players experience or value.

I agree with the last paragraph in Tobold’s post, but the rest of it doesn’t really cater to me.  I noticed it’s based on assumptions.  Assumptions like many others have, which I think lends itself to some validity.  Enough people seem to be concerned about some issues. That’s valid enough for me.

You can read it for yourselves but I wanted to comment on some particulars.  He talks about how we get to having a slew of facebook games and reward systems that are opposite traditional board games in how you spend your time.

You have to remember that even if these MMORPG players are or are becoming the majority(I don’t know), they aren’t all players.  Casual games, like facebook games account for the largest market within the video game industry and make much more money than any other sector.  Because people play them.

But assuming how the majority(and I don’t know if they really are the majority) play MMORPGs and then taking that scenario into specific areas of MMORPG game play can muddy the waters.

What I’m saying is that Tobold has a good post, but it still stays within confines of an arbitrary argument.

I myself have tried to spell out to people how there’s too much real life that enters in effecting peoples time spent in a game and how they choose to play it.  But there’s a rub there.  How you choose to play it.

Look at it from the stand point of “How can I derive fun”.  In real life I don’t go looking for something that will give me fun.  Even if you say, “You go to the mall to have fun.”  It is really a form of you seeking out that fun.  You don’t go to an arcade because the arcade gives you fun.  You go to the arcade because you are likely to take a lot of fun from that place.

What’s this have to do with efficiency?  Well if you play an MMORPG and are trying to be efficient by leveling fast and by taking the best quests and all that jazz, then maybe that’s part of how you have fun.  Efficiency comes into play for me sometimes.  I like doing things the best possible way.  It gives me a sense of satisfaction.  But efficiency does not equal fun in itself.

If you try to stay efficient because you have fun and/or try to compete in a PvP setting that’s fine too, but PvP is a minority group when it comes to MMORPGs.  Look at how many PvE servers there are compared to PvP servers, and how many casual games exist.

I also agree with a bit of Tobold’s paragraph on time spent and rewards:

The influence of time spent on rewards and thus social status in MMORPGs has led to a curious reversal of how people regard time spent: In other forms of entertainment the time spent in the entertainment activity is a gain, in a MMORPG time spent is often considered a loss, a cost. If you paid $15 for a movie ticket, you’d be seriously annoyed if the movie lasted only 5 minutes, because you counted on having paid for something like 90 minutes of entertainment. In MMORPGs, if it would take 90 minutes of killing monsters to do a quest and get a reward instead of just 5 minutes, you’d complain about “the grind”. Any time spent in a MMORPG in an activity that doesn’t give a reward is considered pointless, and any addition of a reward even as silly as an “achievement” to a previously pointless activity will make players pursue it.

But knowing what Tobold mentions previously, we see that this paragraph is more of a description about a pre-existing minority of MMORPG players than anything else.

Then we go back to my comment on how all this is still stuck into an arbitrary argument.  Where does the fun really fit into all this?  It doesn’t.  Fun transcends all of this.

Just like Tobold eluded to, people wanting rewards to be motivated or how they feel about a reward after 90 minutes of “grinding”.  Does that feel like grinding for a majority of players?  and are all rewards created equal?  Even if the rewards were intended to provide some sort of game balance, or more correctly, to be a reward without creating imbalance.  There are titles you can earn in Runes of Magic that do nothing, yet I like some of the rewards more than others simply because of what they say.  Water Purifier that anyone can get at level 5 was kind of neat to me, while Order of the Dark Glory Temp at a much higher level was less “valuable” to me.

It’s still a lot of semantics within this arbitrary argument.

The last paragraph where I agree with him, is on how I think the majority of players feel about different business models, not on the fun they are deriving from a game.  Basically What tedious content?, where?, and why and who is it tedious for?  The minority?

I don’t think we should oust the minority.  I prefer playing on PvP servers, it’s like getting more options.

In the end, I think it’s a great post, but I think it continues to feed misconception.

It’s fun to hypothesize, philosophize, and analyze, but don’t buy into or start selling short what a game has been since before tiddly winks.  For a person to have fun.  Arbitrary arguments like these, in my opinion(:Alik wink) seem to too easily overpower a persons thoughts, and then they use it as a sounding board or jumping off point for improving MMORPGs.  It’s faulty because these aren’t really the sources for that.  That’s been proven by looking at the success of casual games and the success of both RMT and reasonably priced subscription models.

• Crafting is not the greatest in Runes of Magic, but I get a huge rush, sense of fulfillment, and fun when I’ve gathered for hours and made some nice gold(and it’s not derived from comparing it to how much someone else is making, but it could be).
• I’ve stood in the city square for hours having chatted then logged off, and went away happy and having had fun.
• Any argument, or debate about the current state or future states of F2P are fun to discuss, but I’ve never let it cause me to have more or less fun.  I make fun:)

The Artistic Side of Things

It’s time to venture into some less aggressive waters.  So let’s leave RMT and any other gaming conflicts aside….for now.

For lack of a better word, I’m always tickled when I see artistic MMORPG related offerings from game communities.  WoW of course has everything from food inspired dishes to dolls and papercrafts.

I love seeing someone who made a neat looking Murloc tree ornament or someone who painted a scene from their favorite MMO in oil paints.

It always energizes me a bit.  That communal spirit rises up out of me wanting to join in the camaraderie of shared fandom.  It’s a very powerful feeling for me, and one I really wish would start to trickle into the Runes of Magic community.  There has been some great RoM fanart, and the game has a healthy base of addon programmers, so it may just take a bit more time and perhaps a bit more growth in numbers of players.

I think I’m going to devote some spare time toward hunting up a nice collection of MMORPG inspired “fanart”.

When I take screenshots in RoM, I tend to like scenic vistas.  I always try to fit in a nice view of a lake or entire town.  But looking at some recent screenshots on MMOvoices reminded me that there are some great opportunities to take capture very emotional scenes.

I’m sorry I didn’t have much of a point to this post.  But I did want to drop a line to readers and also to add a thank you to all the very creative players out there.  Keep up the great work!

If you know about any great sites showing different mediums of art(crafts, paper, paint, legos, costumes, screenshots, etc…) please let me know.

Musings On The Future of Runes of Magic’s World-size

Part of the good and bad about RMT(Real Money Transaction) games is they tend to be free-to-play but small.  I certainly would love to see some of the F2P games have much larger game worlds but RMT lends itself to much smaller companies and employee base.  It’s part of how the business makes money.

Runes of Magic has some 11-12 zones.  I’m guessing from memory.  It doesn’t matter because the difference in size compared to say WoW is so vast that me being accurate isn’t all that important for this post.

Granted the new zone Aotulia Voclano is double the size of most of the other zones, it still all adds up to the entire world of Taborea fitting into maybe less than 4 zones from WoW(out of what? around 100 zones).

So far RoM is successful and registrations continue to rise.  It is hard to be accurate on this point as well.  I believe they are looking at individual website registrations.  So even if some of those people effectively stop playing for good, they may still be registered and count toward the overall number.

I digress.  The game has been out for roughly a year and they’ve released the zones Ravenfell, Weeping Coast, Savage Lands, and Aotulia Vocano.  Kudos for them.  If they keep up with their announcements of new major content expansions every 4 months, the game could start to get pretty large.

There’s a rumor(I can’t confirm) that the devs told Closed Beta players that their initial plans were to have 80 zones by 2 years.  Based on their progress and lack of any other similar communication since then makes it unlikely to happen.  What is likely though, is that this game very well could get large-As large as a triple-A MMORPG.

We’ve already had hints through various interviews with Frogster and Runewaker staff members that they’re planning on other races(dwarves were actually name dropped by staff).  RunesDB.com and Buffed.com have many items and characters that show through data mining that aren’t implemented yet.  The world lore hints at another whole continent. And many features show that they can grow much larger in size.

If they can keep up with the speed and size of the updates they’ve already proven to be able to implement, I will be a very happy player.

I don’t know how long I will be playing RoM, but it’s been a year and I still enjoy it.  It’s going to be very interesting and exciting to see how large and how fast the world grows.

“RMT vs. Subscription” Is A Dirty Word!

How’s come everytime I see a post arguing some point about RMT, it makes me feel unclean.  It’s like entering an old port-a-potty that’s been used but never cleaned.

The problem is it blurs the very fine line between being legitimate concerns and just being a shallow fanboy civil war.

Some tip offs to me is how explicit people try to be, and throw in a ton of opinions based on some conjecture that a more legitimate(?) site made.

a lot of it is based on personal taste. Some want to add a set number on value, so they can compare it. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s like the people who obsess over console game ratings, then when one site rates it significantly lower than most sites, they jump all over that site with flames. Even though the point is just to give you an idea if you’d like it or not. When most of the information is really coming from the player not the review they read, because who else knows what they like and how much they like it better than the player?  Yet they bash that lone reviewer who gave a bad review while the others made a game shine. I think it’s because they need to have validation to say they should like it, instead of actually seeing if they like it by playing it.

I sometimes wonder who these “proponents” of one side-vs.-the other side are arguing against: Others or themselves. Because they want to try to legitimize a reason to like it through arbitrary made up value markers instead of just sitting down, playing it and saying “Hey, I like this”.

You want to argue over a pet panda for 10 bucks or a riding mount that costs ten bucks, then expand that to fit into an already deluded vision of this RMT vs. Sub argument.

You know some will say “That cat isn’t worth 4 bucks but the panda, I’d pay 20 for it”. Some will change their minds down the road. There’s too many feelings and variables of life to consider.

On a side note: I am a bit distraught about this RMT vs. Sub thing. I mean it basically started for a stupid reason and kept going(In my opinion).

This whole thing is just opinions.  It’s all opinions.  Remember everyone has opinions.  But every once in awhile we find a cause to latch onto and join a side and for what reason?  PS3 or Wii? Join a side.  PSP or DS? Pick a side.

Many people against RMT, I believe are ones who actually find value in paying, that’s why they don’t like it.  They “believe” they have to pay to have fun.

People want to create a microcosm so they can compare RMT vs. Sub but the real truth is, money you spend on clothes and mountain dew and posters, and internet, and a slew of things is just as legitimate reasons to consider as anything else. You are spending money for your enjoyment of it.

This isn’t something new. Most things in life have been done before, maybe just behind a slightly different mask. The US deals with capitalism. That’s what this is a part of, just like when the PS3 and Wii first came out.

I don’t find anything overly offensive about talking about it, but 99% of every argument I saw on RMT vs. Sub contained a persons feelings or opinions which destroy it right then and there. You can’t eat your cake and have it too. If you want to argue some universal value, then you’re going to have to separate that from your unique personal feelings and opinions, even if some share them with you.

I play Runes of Magic, I love the game, I’ve come to appreciate certain subtleties in it that boost my enjoyment of it over WoW and some other games. I still like WoW, but I’d rather plop 10 bucks on a mount in Runes of Magic right now, than on a pet in WoW. But maybe after some time goes by and I have more money again, I’ll go back to WoW and say “Well it wasn’t worth it to me back then because I was deriving my fun in different ways, but now it’s worth it”.

This huge comment isn’t to say I don’t have my own opinions on how some games or companies handle RMT. I do. For instance, I used to play Shaiya and really liked it. However I thought that the fact that a game based so heavily around mass PvP maps only sold temporary strength boosters in cash shop was a bit, well unfair. It’s a very clear line in that game that shows you if you want to win in PvP, you’ll need to buy those items. But even then I bet some people feel differently, and I can’t argue it. Maybe some go into the PvP maps at certain times, or have learned a little finesse, and get by, raise their rank, and win rewards just fine? I think it’s possible.

Most of my arguments against RMT stay limited within the world of one game at a time. I like to compare the prices of RMT not to other games cash shops, but to the games themselves and the fun I can get out of them.

You like to argue other points? that’s fine, but you too easily cross that blurry thin line into an area that assumes I share opinions or get the same value out of something as others.

You’re allowed to have different opinions but you’re not allowed to speak for the rest of us.

So if you want to talk to me about it, that’s fine, just try to base it on opinions that I share, and we’ll have a terrific discussion:P

To bring this (possibly) never ending rant to some sort of finish, I just want to note some things that I and some of my best friends enjoy in different MMORPG’s.

• I like the joy of hunting down vanity pets in WoW, my friends would just laugh and make fun of me.
• I think paying $10 bucks for a mount in Runes of Magic is worth it for the speed you get.  I can get places a lot faster, and I can get stuff done sooner once I’m at those places.  I don’t like paying more than $1 for a box of Mac ‘N Cheese(okay so I strayed a bit).
• I think $15/month for a MMORPG is fine.  In my opinion, the cost you really pay to play these games isn’t in money LOL.
• My one friend wanted to do nothing but questing, while another wanted nothing but raiding.  Any patches that interfered had one griping while the other one couldn’t care less.
• I have two friends that became two of the best characters on their server, in RoM, without spending a single real cent.  They both had tons of fun, and I think they probably had a little more fun knowing they tromped people who were dumping money into the game;)
• I don’t subscibe to the RMT debate at all.  I currently haven’t payed in a year of playing RoM, but I may because my game time is significantly shorter now than it was when I started.
• I think RoM has one of the best(if not the best) balance between game play and cash shop.   I can buy diamonds in game to spend in cash shop, and I can do it while having fun.  I can gather for about 30 minutes and have enough mats to buy a diamond, plus my gathering skill gets raised, and I can relax as opposed to a raid or boss, and talk to people too.  The cash shop does not sell anything that cannot be obtained in-game except the permanent mounts and some house furniture, which you can still obtain diamonds for in-game.  But the cash shop only sells items that speed up your game play time.  50% gained EXP for an hour-potions, etc…   The subtle difference I like is that other games do let you buy cash shop items with in-game money, but it’s usually very heavily waited.  Shaiya takes a very very long time to earn money through fighting(like months), while one little potion from cash shop will cost you MILLIONS.  In RoM I could earn enough diamonds through the auction house within a day or two(depending on how long I play) to buy a potion, or a chair, etc…

In the end, this is just my opinions, so like it or leave it, but I care not for ones who want to sit there and flatly tell me why RMT is bad.

Whew, okay I’m done ranting.  Sorry, in the real end, I guess my inner fanboy wanted to come out and bare his tiny little teeth.

World of Warcraft Cash Shop pets: My Two Cents

Nobody else seemed to be using the cheesy title pun, so I will.

As for the issue…

Good for them.  The pets look nice, and ten bucks is, well ten bucks.

Will I buy one? No.  I like the panda, but I already have my cute little polar bear from the winter event, and that fulfills my cute bear needs.

P.S.

I wonder what the Common Sense Gamer has to say about this (elbows him in ribs and snickers).

NaNoWriMo Novel 2: “Mobly and Abernacky in The Seductive Dark Pearl”

Small shiney like badges should be.

“Where’d you get this?” Abernacky asked, flipping the badge over in his hand.

“I found it in the stomach of a beetle.”

Mobly raised his eyebrow.

“I was out gathering beetle legs for that old wizard in Varanas East Wing. Who knows what he does with them, but he pays good and it’s not hard work. Anyway I whacked on of those beetles and saw something shiny. I didn’t really like digging through beetle guts but I figure it was a risk worth taking.”

Abernacky saw a name inscribed on the back. “August? As in the House of August?”

“That’s what I think. How it wound up in a beetles stomach is a mystery I can live without, but I’m sure anyone from the House of August would be gracious to have it back.”

“You mean a ‘reward’” Abernacky sneared.

“Well, yes, but only if they offer. We don’t have to extort them.”

“What do you mean we?” Abernacky’s eyes narrowed. “Why do you need me?”

“Well I didn’t plan on using you, I wanted to include you. The truth is, I know who the badge belongs to. It’s Phil August.”

“So?”

“So” Mobly continued to plead “Phil is a bit, well eccentric.” “He wants a few small favors. Some I can do and some I can’t, at least not without possibly costing me more than it would be worth it for any reward. If it were too of us, we’d quickly complete any tasks he asked of us, and split the reward.”

“That don’t make any sense” Abernacky grunted in disbelief.

“Look this armor is expensive. All my equipment is, and it’s already in need of repair. Any fights we’d get into would just make things worse for me, and I am a bit low on funds at the moment. Even splitting the reward would be worth more for me in the long run.”

Abernacky just stood there, his impatience and suspicion fuming like a minotaur.

“Look, don’t you want to at least get out of town for a spell. Look at it like a paid vacation. You might even like it.”

Truth was Abernacky did want to escape a little. He’d grown up in Logar, and even though the people were always nice to him, and he liked his life, he also had a yearning to find out who he was.

He had been raised by the whole town. Story was that someone just left him at the Mayor’s door. They took him in and cared for him, even when he was considered an outsider by all the other young ones. He had a peculiar tendency to seek out dark places and fashion his own little fort where he’d spend most of his time. He never really enjoyed swimming or playing kickball out in the street like the other kids.

It was after he started to reach adult hood that physical differences started to show. The townspeople were to bound by their own etiquette to say anything, but he knew what they all thought. He was rough around the edges. He was never impolite, having always been grateful for being given food and a bed, but it was a difference of thought, like the difference between city folk and country folk. The differences didn’t stop there. He was short, really short, and hair seemed to grow out of him at an alarming pace, all thick and course.

He knew this was his home, but it wasn’t his homeland. The desire to learn about himself never went away, it grew in him more and more everyday, like a sickly sweet weed that was prickly all over.

Abernacky stayed in Logar despite this, because it was familiar, he knew how to live hear. He was comfortable, and didn’t want to change that, even if it meant finding out who he was. He knew part of it was lying to himself, but the rationalizing of it was always enough to keep him rooted in Logar.

Yet, no one had ever really gave him a means to safely travel where his fear was quelled enough. He knew it wasn’t far to Varanas, and if he got into trouble, Logar would help him out. He wouldn’t except that though. They had done more than enough for a single person. He wouldn’t throw unexpected trouble or cost on any of them. Not after he started living in his own home, and making his own way.

“Well, what do you think?” Mobly interrupted his thoughts.

Abernacky looked toward Logar, as if he could see the town through Sevaida Woods, fingering the badge.

“I reckon there’s no reason why not to go.”

Mobly beamed “It’s settled then, we’ll head to Varanas, I know where Phil usually is during the day.”

“Hold on, let’s get one thing straight. Anything fishy that costs me, comes out of yer pocket….or hide.” Abernacky’s eyes fixed on Mobly’s in a dead stare.”

“Of course, but there won’t be need of it, All will be fine. When can you leave?”

I just have to get these spider venom samples to the doc, and clean this armor.

“Fine, I’ll come with you.” Mobly said.

Abernacky knew he was going to tag along whether he liked it or not, so he didn’t say anything.

Abernacky wiped his axe in the grass and started heading for Town, Mobly in tow.

“What’s the doctor doing with spider venom sample anyway?” Mobly asked, a bit curious and wanting to talk why they walked.

“Who knows, prolly somethin’ to do with the old Dead Tree Cave. People been sayin’ there’s strange noises not to mention all these nasty spiders that seem to be multiplying daily.”

“Well it’s really not surprising. A lot of weird stuff is happening all over. Some say evil is coming back full-force.”

“What d’ya mean?”

“Take the Howling Mountains for instance. The Barrows with their strange rock formations. It’s said that those used to be worshiping grounds for all manner of evil creatures a long time ago.”

Mobly told him the story of the Howling Mountains. How lesser demonds and wild horde used to perform rituals which gave the areas its name. Later the Eye of Wisdom and Varanas Council sent waves of troops and wizards in eventually cleansing the area and making it habitable for people.

Win a New Graphics Card From Runes of Magic

Not only is Runes of Magic a great game, but to date they’ve held several contests with great prizes.

If you still haven’t heard of RoM or have yet to make that decision to try it, now is a great time.

RoM is giving away:

1st Prize: Leadtek Winfast GeForce GTX 275 graphics card (Product Info)

2nd – 3rd Prize: a RoM T-Shirt and a RoM Mug

4th – 10th Prize: a RoM T-Shirt

Entry is raffle style and is easy to enter.  Sign up for the game and get started.  Then enter the contest by following the link on the main page or just click here.

Contest ends November 20th.

NaNoWriMo Novel 1: “Mobly and Abernacky in The Seductive Dark Pearl”

I’m about 5 days behind, but I decided to go for it.  I’m not submitting it or anything until I find out more about the legalese as this is a Runes of Magic “story”.  Even if it does star two characters that I created, the rest was created by Runewaker.

The large double handed axe flew in an arc through air heavy with fragrances of Mountain Poplar and Rosemary with the occasional faint sour rotten stench of aged dead things. The midday light punching holes down through lush tall treetops, bursting with multiple hues of green, glinted off the broad razor sharp edge. Its surface was polished to a luster and only recently marred by splotches of dark green that clung to intricately carved patterns like thick wet tree sap. No faded colors, rust or corrosion of any kind revealed the weapon’s true age. The axe flew effortlessly toward the ground, now picking up speed helped by gravity. There was no familiar “thwak” of metal against wood but a wet crunch like a horse chomping a carrot. The small creature’s eight black skinny legs snapped straight from involuntary muscle spasms as its bulbous abdomen split as easily as a watermelon. The spiders life left its small hairy body in a gurgled hiss but not without exacting one last act of revenge by squirting some of its blood and guts across Abernacky Anvilslayer’s chest armor.

Abernacky relaxed his body, exiting his fighting stance to stand casually. His axe hung loosely at his right side as he fixated on his chest. A disgusted half-grunt half-moan came from somewhere beneath his fiery red beard. He removed a glass vial hiding behind his belt, popped the cork stopper, scraped some of the green ooze into the vial while flicking off bits of meat, re corked the vial and returned it to his belt without ever looking away from his pristine armor, taunted by the smears that he almost thought formed the shape of a sarcastic toothless smile with two deformed meaty eyes. After a few heartbeats a reluctant sigh followed the grunt only satisfied by the thought he could at least wipe the smile off that sarcastic face after he returned home. The rhythmic sounds Abernacky’s axe made continued and could be heard echoing throughout the forest.

***

Mobly sauntered into the small town of Logar. It was a small quaint town that nestled in the northern end of the Howling Mountains. Part of the mountain range bordered to the West, and a well worn trail lead East eventually turning into the golden hues of Silversprings where the sprawling city of Varanas lay. Gently rolling hills and glades lay around Logar with some mines and caves that attract would be adventurers. Mobly inhaled air filled with wild flowers while slowing his gate to match the slowed pace of life around him. Life here hadn’t stopped but it was more peaceful as if time didn’t matter so much. As he entered the main route that cut through the middle of town, he took in all the wonderful smells. That particular scent of yeast, flour, and heat from an oven mingled with vegetables, fish,, and meat wafting from a simmering pot made its way past his nose as he passed the merchants. Mobly smiled as his mouth watered. Steam and hot steel rose up to overtake the fresh food as he made his way further along past the tiny blacksmiths corner. Although there was all the amenities and more in Varanas, he loved how crisp and fresh the smells were here in Logar. The town wasn’t walled in and crowded like Varanas which always holds in all smells, even the less enjoyable ones that can only be caused by the proximity of too many people. Here the country air swept those fouler smells away, not giving them time to accumulate while allowing the ovens, smithy, and all the other daily smells to be fresh and new as if it was the first loaf of bread baked, the first pot of stew boiled, or the first bar of glowing red metal plunged into a barrel of cool water.

The knight knew people here would recognize him to be an out of towner, but here among the cleaner air and waters in the Howling Mountains he felt less embarrassed by the slight streak of vanity that ran in his blood. Mobly didn’t care if people thought he was showing off, He was glad he took a bath and cleaned his armor before making the trip.

As mush as he enjoyed slowing his life down, he hadn’t simply come to Logar for a vacation. After a few minutes of scanning the crowds, and watching people pass him in the street, he walked up to a local merchant who wasn’t currently busy catering to any costumers. The merchant politely obliged his question by pointing up the road that led north out of town and into a small forest glen.

Mobly stood, arms crossed, smirk across his face as he watched the scene in front of him play out. Most people would probably find humor in watching a small boy with a large chestnut beard trying to wield an axe bigger than his torso. One would also hope to be smart enough to look just a little closer and realize with what precision and shear strength and agility this figure wielded the weapon. If any one was still curious, which most were, they would take a few steps closer to see the hard lines of age around his eyes, dark skinned muscles sweating under the strain of age. If anyone after that was still overcome with curiosity, possibly slightly blinded by greed to rob a preoccupied figure, wearing what looked like valuable armor and who knows what else in his bag, they’d be in for a big surprise.

“What brings ya here Mobly? Ain’t the end of the month yet.” Abernacky growled in a low monotonous tone just before his axe split another spider in two.

“No ‘Hello, good to see you old friend?” Mobly said with a wry smirk on his face.

“Yer old, I’ll give ya that, but as for bein’ my friend, I don’t mix up business ventures with friendship, and fer good to see ya, that’s yet ta be true.” Abernacky took one last swing before turning his attention to the knight.

The green ooze covering Abernacky leapt out to at least two of Mobly’s senses. He immediately traded a smirk for a grimace, made a show of taking half a step backwards and crinkling his face up “What are you doing? I thought you hated letting your armor get dirty?” waving a hand in front of his nose.

“Don’t be so crass, this is just todays work. Ye can be sure it’ll get cleaned up before the days done. Besides, yer one ta talk. When’s the last time ya dirtied that new outfit yer wearin’?”

“So glad you noticed. Actually this is all on loan from a good friend of mine.”

“And here I thought yer friend remark was a silent plea. So you have friends afterall?” Abernacky asked not really caring.

“Who, Redorick? Actually he’s a pretty good friend. I used to do a bit of dungeon running with him back in the day” turning his head and poking his nose into the air haughtily, “but I admit it’s been quite awhile since I heard from him. What are you doing out here anyway, there’s got to be some…cleaner ways to make a living?”

“Not much real work is clean, outsid’a just buying an’ sellin’ at auction, and that’d take too much time away from my work.”

“Ahh yes, speaking of new armor, I haven’t seen you in that finery last month. I believe that is in part due to my ‘real’ work in getting you the resources you need from the Windmill Basement.” Mobly sarcastically punctuated, throwing a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the Logar Windmill sitting behind him.

“Yes, but ya’d get more work if ya honed yer skills a bit more and that could make you more gold than ya get now. Not many ’round these parts no ya do good work…of the work ya can do.” Abernacky shot back, taking a nibble at the bait Mobly was dangling in front of him. “And I told ya, I can pay ya at the end of the months. I aint got any gold to pay ya or loan ya, if that’s what yer after.”

Mobly was amused by their banter, although he’d be lying if it didn’t twinge a little “Firstly I am doing just fine thank you. I may not be the best knight in the business…”
“Best knight? Try for slightly above mediocre.” Abernacky chortled

Eyes narrowing a bit and rasing his tone, Mobly repeated “I may not be the best knight but I get by just fine, and secondly” He inhaled sharply before finishing “I’ve been working a lot more on my priest studies.”

Abernacky gave him a sideways glare, one eyebrow raised with a cloud of approval in his eyes “So then why are ya here, an’ why now? I know you didn’t just stroll in for a visit to say ‘Hello good to see ya ole friend’?”

The trap was sprung, with bait gone, Mobly pulled a shiny object from a pocket with a smile, handing it to Abernacky in hushed excitement “Because of this.”

It was small and shiny with carvings on it. Mobly handed it to Abernacky. It was a badge

Runes of Magic’s New Taiwan Girls..er Server(NSFW)

Tawain recently kicked off the opening of their RoM servers with a press conference.  It must have been quite a show.  I wonder if the attendees even knew what the conference was about, or if they showed up thinking they were going to see some belly dancing.

Runes of Magic Add-ons: Booty Loot All

This is my first post showing add-ons(I think).

Even though this add-on sits in the back seat, it’s one of my favorites.  I don’t know why Frogster hasn’t implemented this as a standard feature into Runes of Magic.  It’s invaluable.  As you can see in the picture, Booty Loot All simply adds a ‘Loot All’ button.  Yep, normally there’s nothing there.

Now some have said I could just turn on the loot all feature in the games settings.  It is really nice to have and makes things quick at times, but without it turned on your left to single-click.  With looting sometimes having many muliple items, it is great to have the option this add-on provides.  Now I can just click what I want and close it, or loot all.

While it’s not my no. 1 add-0n of choice(I’ll get to that another post), it is important for me.