Wednesday

Guild Wars

Kirin is my warrior in Guild Wars. She brings in a slow but steady flow of income hunting Griffins outside Augury Rock. She's mostly decked out in Ascension armour, a cute skimpy gladiator outfit with an Ascalon helm.

Teller Of Tales is my monk. He's a real cash earner, making the occasional trip down into the Underworld.

Slithice is a Ranger with an identity crisis. She's not sure who she's supposed to be or what she's supposed to be doing. She's got a nice fancy bow which Teller bought for her, but she's unsure if he's the right one.

Seeker is the newest character in this collection. She's got a good cold stare and is as haughty as the next mesmer you can find : at the moment she's unhappy with her clothes. There are far more expensive ones out there : Teller has offered to buy her some better ones but he doesn't realise that it's beyond even his extensive budget.

Hit and Run.

Well I narrowly escaped my own death today. In Melbourne there are 3 possible exits from a tram : since the trams run down the middle of the roads, you exit off the tram onto the road and then make your way to the sidewalk. Anyway the tram stops : I get off the front exit and another guy gets off the middle exit : a car speeds past and hits the guy who got off the middle exit, throwing him back against the tram while his backpack goes flying and ends up across the road.

I guess it can happen to anyone. The driver of the car drove off : but the tram driver got the license number and rang into the police immediately. The injured passenger was surprisingly okay (he won't die or anything) but I'm sure he's pretty badly injured his leg : considering that part of the car bumper came off it's a lucky escape for anyone.

Thursday

Apologies

I am a dreadful excuse for a blogger and will very likely continue to be one.

Basically it's because I spend my days telling the world about what I do.... and when I come home the LAST thing I want to do is to continue staring at a screen and telling the world what I do.

Boo.

But anyways, here's a conversation that will NEVER be published in the paper. ^_^

Editor: They've declared it a state of "darurat jerebu" (lit translation - 'haze emergency')

Me: What does THAT mean?

Colleague & MCA political writer: It means they've got soldiers marching through the streets with guns shooting anyone who's out without a respitory mask...

Me: for the sake of their health!

*everyone falls about laughing*

Editor: Oi you! Don't spread your communist philosphy here! Too much haze and MCA ah?

*everyone laughs harder*

Editor: *brandishes ruler* Go work! Geez...I think I've sent you guys out into the haze too often, CLEARLY brain cells have died from suffocation...

Monday

More Guild Wars

Guild Wars game post again.

There is this "profession" in Guild Wars called Running, where a Runner takes a group of players into his party and brings them to another town. Once you've visited a town once it appears on your map and you can instantly travel to that town any time you want, so reaching a town is important. Why players sometimes need a Runner - the route to that zone may be very dangerous, and fighting your way there bit by bit with a team can take a long time and success is often slim. Especially if you don't know the way, or indeed the safe way through a zone.

Runners usually try to charge for services : it takes a lot of experience to run a route, and it also takes highly expensive equipment and skills if you want to succeed. Here is where the payment method fails : without there being a counterparty or escrow fund, either party has an incentive to cheat the other. If the clients pay before the run, the runner can just take off with the money without providing the service. If the clients pay after the run, the clients can just walk away without paying the runner. If there is split payment / payment halfway there is still incentive for either side to cheat.

A new trend has emerged which I have taken to following : runners like me who offer to run people to locations for free, and simply accept donations upon arrival. It is a trust system : doubtless the runners earn less, but also a surprising number of players are willing to pay full market price for the run at arrival. And I guess it is a game after all : and runners should enjoy running for its own sake.