"Keep me hangin' on the telephone"

I have no idea what it is about Spain and its citizen’s endemic lethargy that means anything even slightly bureaucratic is turned in to a mammoth journey in to the unknown maze of Spanish administration. Let me explain. Currently we have no internet. None whatsoever, nada. It’s one of things you really don’t realise how dependant you are upon it until it is taken away. And that is how I am seeing it. It has been taken away from me by incompetent fools. Seems harsh? Read this first, then comment.

Of course when you have no net, the first thing you do is quickly check everything is OK your end and your cat hasn’t chewed through the cable. So you check. Nothing is out of the ordinary, no viruses, firewall working OK and not blocking, and so on. Of course the next step is to call your service provider to find out what is going on. Now in the UK, service generally from callcentre helplines etc is pretty good. Yes the systems that provide services such as these have a lot of problems and sometimes there are problems. Nothing like in Spain though, wow.

One thing I would like to point out is that it is thought by some that if you are in a foreign country you should speak their language. I agree. I have basic Spanish (as I work in Gibraltar all day long I speak mainly English) but my wifes Spanish is much better due to her being at home and having to do the day to day operations in Spain, and as such, has picked up the language well. My 9 year old is completely fluent. Even so, when calling to speak about technical stuff, it’s difficult even though we do make the effort to try and speak/learn Spanish. Because of this, we always opt to speak to the English speaking staff there for ease of resolving the problem.

So, here is how the conversation went when Ema rang them.

Dial 1004, Moviestar/Telefonica helpline for customers.

Ema: “Hola, habla usted Ingles?”

M/T: “No” – tone symbolising being transferred.

Ema: “Hello, do you speak English?”

M/T: “Yes. What is your name and phone number”

Ema: [provides details]

M/T: “What can we do for you?”

Ema: “This is about the third time I have rang. Our internet has been broken for over three days now”

M/T “I’ll transfer you to the technical department”

Ema: “Wait, they don’t speak Englsih. I’ve tried before”

M/T: “Oh. OK, but I can’t help with an internet issue”

Ema: “But cxan you talk to the technical department for me and explain our problem?”

M/T: “Sorry. No.”

Ema: “You can’t speak to them or won’t?”

M/T: “We’re not allowed”

Ema: “So your internal departments are not allowed to speak to each other?”

M/T “Yes, we are”

Ema; [exasperation] “Then can you please speak to them for me?”

M/T: “I can’t do that”

Ema: “What is your name?”

M/T: “Why?”

Ema: “Because I am the customer and I am asking”

M/T: “David Davies [made up name!]

Ema: “Can I speak to your supervisor please”

M/T: “No, sorry”

Ema: “Why?”

M/T: “He's not allowed to talk to customers”

Ema: “So the supervisor of the customer help centre is not allowed to speak to customers?”

M/T: “That’s right”

Ema: “So what’s their name then?”

M/T: “I can’t tell you that”

Ema [severe exasperation]”Erm, why can you not tell me?”

M/T: “You’ll have to ask him yourself”

Ema; “So I can speak to him then?” [are we getting somewhere here?]

M/T: “No, you can’t”

Ema; “Then how the hell can I ask his name? What’s his name?”

M/T: “I can’t tell you”

Ema: “This is a joke”

Voltaan in background overhearing conversation: “Babe? Are you sure that’s Telefonica? Are you sure you’ve not called The Secret Service?”.

Ema: “Nope, I rang the shite service”

M/T: hangs up.

So, that’s how our conversations have been going with our ISP. Fun huh? It’s now been five days and one of our fluent Spanish friends has been in touch with them and we are supposed to be having a technician round today. They’ll call us when they are on their way round. It’s nearly 4pm and no sign of them yet and they haven’t called either. Our frustration continues.

As a little light hearted fun, the Spanish themselves have made the below video about their bureaucracy. It's absolutely spot on. I think it's really great. At least the Spanish have a great sense of humour about themselves. Just as an fyi, I LOVE the Spanish, I LOVE living here, you just have to get used to some damn frustrating administration.

 

Be well.

A Bugged Life

So, the last few days have seen Merecraft and I soldier on through the Swords of Destiny Timeline. We are actually getting somewhere. It’s really nice being able to duo zones, especially when they start to pose a challenge. Mistmoore Castle has certainly been providing us with that with Volt mentoring down. Taking just a party of two through there is only a challenge because there are just so many damn Vampires (it seems there’s so many they have bled over into naff teeny TV shows) and the Vamps respawn so quickly too. Add in to that most of the updates required us to dodge the Epic x2 Vikomt mob continuously and it really was a lot of fun.

I don’t think I have laughed so much playing EQ2 for along time like I did a couple of nights ago. Merecraft just couldn’t seem to stay alive.  It really was down to many reasons, his amazing ability to stand near doorways, healing whilst I tank and of course aggroing all the mobs in the room too. Then there was the fact that I was sluggish too. Quite a few times Mere would shout over voice “Got mobs on me” and by the time my lazy clicks had got round to targeting and taunting, he was invariably dead.

It wasn’t all our fault though!  Recently and I don’t know if anyone else has been experiencing this, there have been some pretty weird bugs in game. The thorn in our side last night was aggro. There was definitely something up with that.  At one point Mere had a mob on him and this time I was quick enough to get in there. But could I get the mob off of Mere? Nope. That was really weird. Really really weird. You see, Volt has no trouble grabbing mobs of trigger happy end game dps’rs hacking out crazy damage and the reason for this is the many tools bruisers have for insta grabbing aggro. Used correctly they rarely fail, apart from last night. For some reason at times they just loved Merecraft. We checked buffs, he monitored where he was standing and at times there was no reason whatsoever that the mob would run to him unless the mobs are using the advanced AI and selecting to target the healer in the group I guess. Or, it may have just been a buggy night.

A few nights ago I experienced another weird bug. I was in Velious knocking out some of the solo quests, which is an achievement in itself seeing as I immensely dislike the expansion. Blame boredom for that one.  Anyhow, thankfully for me very shortly after I had started questing there Merecraft logged in. I was by the Ring Public Quest event area.  As I was porting to Merecraft to join him in Steamfont for a jaunt in to the Court of Innovation to grab an SoD update, a guy 'Greatslasher' was camping right next to me.  Anyhow, as I arrived in Steamfont, I looked down and there was one of the cute little Winter Wolf doggy pets that follows you around. Cute as a button.  It’s tag said its name ‘Ghost’ and below that he was 'Greatslasher's Companion'.

It was really strange.  As I ran off to catch Mere up, the little doggy followed me, and kept following me for about thirty minutes, through zone ins and battles.  I have no idea what sort of weird bug meant this little fellow was following me around and not its master. I did check to see if the guy had logged back in but he wasn’t around. Mebbe his doggy didn’t want to stop playing just yet and attached itself to me for more adventures. Anyhow, it is probably one of the weirdest bugs I have ever experienced in the game. Kinda fun though.

'Ghost', Greatslasher's Companion (AoV Guildhall Entrance)

Greatslasher's Companion, hitching a ride with Voltaan 
(Steamfont Druid Ring)

 
I was playing EQ2 again last night as Ema helped her Dad at Kareoke, and the bugguyness seemed to have disappeared. We had a great night in Castle Mistmoore again, duo'd some epic x4's (which was fun!)  as we had finished the last part of the Swords of Destiny earlier and were looking to try and duo the x4 contested Mayong Mistmoore! Sadly, he de-popped just as we got to outside his room in the Castle but at least we got the Legendary versions of our Soulfires.  Plenty of time to go kill Mayong and grab the Fabled version. Also, later Mere got his Rain Caller from completing the Casualties of the Fay heritage quest. Grats! 

On to a completely different note, it looks like EQ2 may be getting a new character class as Dave Georgeson, EQ2 Executive producer let slip recently whilst talking to Massively.  So that will be 25 classes available. I'm not so sure about this myself. The classes as they stand are a little messed up still since they seem to buff/nerf them regulalrly and I can't help but try to imagine what gap they will fill.  Of course the EQ2 forums are alive with the 'I DO so hope it's the Beastlord' crew. problem with this is that in EQ1, the Beastlord really unsettled the level playing field and even though i don't play EQ1 anymore, I do hear that the Beastlord is still unbalanced after all this time.  I think if it is the Beastlord that we have coming our way that those expecting a carbon copy of the EQ1 Beastlord will be sorely dissapointed. The devs would be stupid to make them as OP'd as they initially were and to some extent still are in EQ1. personally, I think it may be the Beastlord that we have on our radars, but I honestly think it will be a huge jump away from what some may expect.

Another question this raises, is, will the class be the opposite of an already existing class? The reason this is poignant is that we could have level 90 'new class' toons running around within hours of it's release if betrayal and subsequent class change is allowed, as long as the class is an 'opposite' to another. That's a pretty steep learning curve by anyones book. I'm hoping the new class will only be available from level 1 and no betrayal will make it possible for you to get a level 90 straight away almost. I guess we'll just have to see.

In other EQ2 news, it looks like the dev crew are currently looking at mount development. If you check this you'll see that they are developing mounts that might not fly but kind of get you there slowly. This is how the layout is looking from that link. 1-29 : Walking and Ground mounts (horses, wargs, rhinos, etc.), 30-59 : Now also able to use Leapers!, 60-84 : Now also able to use Gliders!, 85+ : Able to use everything, including Fliers! Leapers are mounts that can leap great distances and change direction mid-leap, gliders can do the same, but at the apex of the leap they can extend wings then glide for a considerable distance. Check out the piccies borrowed from the above link to the EQ2 news pages.

Leaper!

Leaper & Glider (Wind Komodo)

But wait, theres more! For those of you who spend what seems like hours every time you create a new toon deliberating and agonisingly reviewing and discounting name after name for your toon, like me, then help is soon at hand. Finally, SmokeJumper is getting round to reviewing old used, but abandoned names. Don't worry you'll get plenty of chance and warning to log in with your toons that you haven't played for a while to make sure their names aren't stolen. I think this is great news. There are lots of cool names out there but they simply can't be used because they are there, unused on a level 4 Paladin sat in the Queens Colony for the last 5 years. Going to have to make sure I have some character slots free to reserve a couple of names, methinks. Good times.

Be well.

The Way that People Respond to Summer Madness

Well summer is here (apart from the horrendous storms we had last week) and it’s time for me to start thinking what I will do with my evenings and weekends that doesn’t involve being a hermit and sitting in front of a monitor. Well, at least until it gets dark anyhow. So what to do? Typically when the summer hits my playing hours drop quite considerably. I’m not so sure that will happen this time round though, as already I have drastically reduced my hours online since Emarald stopped playing MMOs. I can forsee lazy evenings on the terrace writing my book, probably drinking a bit too much wine, BBQs and drinks with friends.

When I was thinking about this I started to think about how you actually notice when different seasons come around when playing an MMO. It is felt a lot more keenly if you normally have an active guild, especially if that is a raid guild with a set raid force. Every year during the summer months the Inquisition and the Fraternity both used to take summer raiding breaks as there simply wasn’t enough of our raid force present to do anything of note. Then as always there would be the normal attrition rate and some would not return meaning the raid force would have to go recruiting again and if it was a key class, usually wait before full on raiding started again.

It’s a reminder that the people we play with have lives outside of the game and that got me to thinking also. Unless you really know someone well online and discuss your real life with them, you are simply another, albeit probably friendly, toon in the game to them. Yes you may be a friend in game, but think about how many folks you play with, then have a think about how much you know about their lives in real life. It’s kinda weird now I think about it. Knowing so many people on terms that I would state as ‘knowing them well’ but then realising that really is only in game. There is so much more behind the facade with each and every person in an MMO and that is one of the things that makes them so great.

Of course, it’s also easy to forget as well as remember and we have evidence of this pretty much constantly in chat channel 1-9 and on websites such a EQ2 Flames. The ferocity with which some people attack each other in game is pretty primal at times. I think it’s probably part personality and part forgetting there is a real person on the receiving end and part bravery by protection of anonymity. Whichever it is, or even if it is an amalgamation of all of them, it’s still a ‘brain out’ moment.

I used to read EQ2 Flames. It started with using the website as a tool as the class discussion pages are simply awesome with the huge amount of help you get on how to play your toon well. But then it kind of bled in to checking out the other forums and of course the cruelly named ‘Rate a Retard’ forum. I’m actually quite surprised my abhorrence for such bullying didn’t kick in immediately and I initially enjoyed the tit for tat back and forth wrangling. Yes there were some posts that were always bang out of order and as the threads continued (in to hundreds of pages) the attacks seemed to get worse. Some of the posts are like a car crash. You really do not want to look but just can’t help it. I have banned myself from those forums now aside from the class specific ones as I no longer wish to witness such bashings and it really does serve no positive purpose.

It’s a real example though of over the internet how peoples true inner being comes in to play without the worry or social stigma of being an arsehole affecting them. About the only folks who get away with acting like that in real life are politicians, the rest of us try to be nice for the most part as we actually like having friends. I think online it’s also easier to coerce those who would perhaps normally sit on the fence to join in with such antics. It doesn’t seem such of a mountain of conscience to climb when the person you are about to bully isn’t standing in front of you.

I’ve seen it myself. One particular person, who I didn’t really have a soft spot for, left our guild after a long ongoing dispute about how we raid. Now although I didn’t like that particular person too much I didn’t take part in the months of bashing and nasty tells/discussions behind the scenes that took place after they left the guild then promptly started stealing some of the ‘on the fence’ members to join their new raid force, obviously depleting ours. Yes, there were some underhand actions on both sides and it really did go on for a long time. I couldn’t help but thinking as some of my guildies were waxing lyrical to me about how they ‘need’ to be punished for breaking up our guild, that I must have missed the meeting where two wrongs make a right. I just don’t allow that stuff to sit well with me. Just because someone else is being an idiot does not mean I or indeed others should allow their brains to dribble out their ears and become bereft of reason and compassion. Have at it, let them get on it with it, but for goodness sake, do not get involved in a negative manner. I know it’s only a game, but sometimes Homo Sapiens ability to be frickin’ evil disgusts me to the core. I’m no angel, do not think that I am, but I have my own morals and I stick to them and one of the biggest is to ‘only do to others as you would have done to yourself’. Bullying in an online game because it seems OK as you are not face to face with the person falls in this category. Of course it does.

So, where do we stand so far in the post? Well, we’ve had my summer plans, consideration of population in game during holiday seasons and a rant about how I dislike others who use MMOs and the Net in general to be a complete spanner. I think that just about covers my crazy rambling mind for today. Summer summer summer time, in the summer time....

Be well.

Slowly, slowly, catchy blog

I'm slowly getting round to spending some more time back on my blog. It's taking some time to get on top of things at work though, so apologies for the slow rate the posts are coming at you.

This weekend was a nice easy one. It’s been extremely hot and sunny all through and it was nice to spend the first full weekend with such good weather. Friday saw my mother return home after a weeks visit. Always nice to see her, but as every with any visitor, it’s nice to get our house back. Friday evening was spent having lots of fun in EQ2 running Merecraft though The Estate of Unrest for the very first time (more on that later). Saturday and Sunday were lazy days full of cold beers, take away food, slurp TV, a few beers down the Chiringhito whilst helping the kids catch crabs in the rock pools at the beach and of course EQ2.

We also had friends over for a party on Saturday night which was a huge amount of fun. The evening saw lot’s relaxing and socialising. The kids were all gathered there too and they had a load of fun playing and adding some pretty heavy duty volume to the proceedings. The highlight of the night though was when my wifey began running through our garden sprinkler system with her mate at 2am getting soaking wet as they just HAD to see if they could still do cartwheels on the grass. Monday was another day off as it was a Public Holiday and sadly that day was filled with all the chores we missed from having such a relaxed and job free weekend. Oh well, it was definitely worth it. Great fun all round.

So gaming. EQ2. The longest session I had this weekend was on Friday night. Wifey had gone out drinking with her mates so I had a quiet house and no interruptions which was the perfect setup. When I logged in I hooked up with my Bro and we decided we would head to the Estate of Unrest. We are still gathering the statues for the Knights in the Round quest (part of the Swords of Destiny questline) and I know there is one in Unrest to gather and that my Bro had never completed the zone in EQ2 before. I was pretty tempted to not tell my Bro the secrets of the zone and to let him find out the clues and puzzles as we moved though. I quickly thought it through though, remembered that when we first did the zone from scratch without any spoilers it took eight hours and re-evaluated. I would walk him through it but get him to do all of the collecting and clicking so if he ever needs to go there again he’ll know the zone. As it happens we wouldn’t have had the time (obviously) to do that and after about 10 minutes we were joined by three other guildies, Egoacia, Lusarien and Prop, so that also put pay to that idea as I am sure they wouldn’t want to be dragged round at such a slow rate.

I love the Estate of Unrest zone. Along with Nektropos Castle it is one of my favourite ‘Castle’ zones. The story line is very cool too if you take the time to research it. It’s amazing how similar in layout it is to the old EQ zone. Obviously the EQ2 one is bigger and better looking, but essentially the developers have been faithful to the original design. It’s also one of the zones that has held some good luck for me. I met the guild leader of Inquisition, the raiding guild I was a part of for a few years on an Unrest run through. It was a last minute thing and they needed dps, so both me and wifey went along to join them. Me on my Assassin, Shahlai and my wifey was on her Necromancer, Kruelah. We obviously did OK because at the end of the zone we were asked to join their raid force by Beafcake and Littlebyte the guild leaders. A couple of years of happy end game raiding followed from that little encounter in there. I also met another guild I would become involved in during an Unrest run. This was The Fellowship of the Dragon, a roleplay guild who I ended up having a lot of interaction with following that run through. All in all, a great zone for me, Unrest.

Merecraft and I have been cracking on with the Knights in the Round statuette collections too. I’m pretty sure we can’t have too many to go now. I hope we finish the questline soon as I am looking forward to organising an MMiS raid so we can go kill Mayong for the final update. We also have the Claymore line to finish for him and I know he’s working hard on some HQs, one of which is casualties of the War of the Fae. I love that HQ. Great fun indeed, apart from getting molested in the Faydark zones by rabid werewolves all the time. The epic x2 end encounter was a lot of fun back in the day. Looking forward to helping Mere with that part.

Right-o, time for more work (does it ever end!!).

Be well.

Living the Hectic Life

When I moved to Southern Spain, the idea was for a more relaxing lifestyle and a more family focussed standard of living. More time for the family, more time for hobbies. However, there is always a spanner in the works and nothing ever goes how you wish it to. The first big thing is money. My family still need money to live and as such I still have to work. That leads nicely in to the second issue and the fact I am kind of a victim of my own success and now hold a position where I have the money I need, but once again due to the demands of that position I am now once again lacking in time available to spend time with my family and follow my hobbies. Of course, family get first dibs, so ‘other’ stuff has to take a back seat. Hence the tardiness in keeping my blog up to date recently. Don’t get me wrong. I am eternally grateful and aware that I am lucky enough to have full employment during these tumultuous days, I certainly will not moan about that.

So, time has been spent away from the computer recently. The time I do have spare is easy to fill as summer is starting with longer nights and fantastic weather. BBQs have been rather prevalent these last few weeks and gatherings of friends in gardens with kids running round causing chaos, is how I have been spending my time. Oh, I nearly forgot, apart from a brief work trip overseas. I headed to Malta for five days recently with work for a conference and had some work to do at a new office we have opened up over there. It was my first visit to Malta and was a pretty cool trip. I was very busy with work, but did manage to go out and enjoy some of the nightlife and see a bit of Valletta and Sliema. It’s a wonderfully handsome place with history bleeding from every stone. Walking around Valletta is an experience in itself being an intact Baroque city. The architecture is stunning and the whole place has a medieval feel to it. It certainly was a busy trip, but a fun one too. I can certainly see why Malta has a fair few movies filmed there. I’m keeping my fingers crossed and hoping to coincide my next visit whilst filming for series 2 of Game of Thrones is going on over there. One of the guys in our office is regularly an extra when Hollywood drops by and I made him promise that if I manage to get there when it is being filmed that he’ll hook me up with his agent. That would be awesome fun.

I have been spending a little bit of time on EQ2, but most certainly not the level of time I committed to the game before the ‘hack’ incident. I’ve pretty much only been popping on when my brother is about and we’ve been hitting the Kingdom of Sky questlines. We’re currently still battling through the Claymore line. I’d forgotten how long the quests can be and how much running about there is, especially in The Palace of the Awakened. It seems like we are up and down in there more than I remember. That’s not too big an issue though, especially when the zone is so much fun. One thing I have noticed though is that it seems very popular with power levellers and adventurers alike, even still. It kind of reminds me of Sanctum 2.0 in that respect. A couple of times we had to wait around for mobs to spawn as someone had been through and obliterated everything. It wasn’t an issue and not a moaning point as we had plenty of other stuff to do whilst waiting. I can’t really comment on that anyhow seeing as Volt usually does the same. Well, Merecraft will testify on my behalf here I’m sure. I do try and feign death mobs off if we don’t need them as I think it’s a bit cruel to just empty a place out, especially when you are sharing the zone with others.

Aside from the Claymore, we started last night on the arduous trek to find all of the little statues of Knights of the Knights in the Round quest (part of the Swords of Destiny timeline). For those who haven’t done the Swords of destiny questline it was released as part of a game update from what I recall and tracks your quest to get your hands on a rather tasty weapon (Well, back then they were). About half way through the questline you pick up the quest Knights in the Round and you have to head off all round Norrath to find these little statuettes of the Knights. It’s a little like that quest To Speak as a Dragon, where you have to go and collect 26 runes, except there is fifty statuettes to gather and they are not just in the old world, but spread all over the place and in some circumstances in places where you have to complete an instance first before you can get to them. It’s not difficult, just time consuming. Having said it’s not difficult, there were a couple of worrying moments as I ran around Qeynos getting those updates. Thankfully Mere did some scouting for me and I managed to avoid all but one of the epic guards and with the one that caught me I managed to Feign Death before he mushed me. We’ve gathered five or six so far, so not many to go. Gulp.

I still have my aversion to anything Velious (apart from my lovely flying mount) and haven’t been there in an age. I just have no enthusiasm to go there. If Mere ends up playing the game that long and goes, I will go with him as it will be fun learning with another person I’m sure, but solo? Nah, not my cup of tea at the moment.

Wifey and I borrowed a friend’s X-Box Kinect the other day and have been having some fun on that too. I especially like the adventures game (not sure of real title seeing as I just ripped it out of the box without really looking). I enjoy it a load, but man it does knacker you out some. I found sometimes it’s a bit noisy too, especially when I get to play is past kiddies bed time. Daddy jumping round like a hobbled elephant is not conducive to child sleep apparently. Oh well. It’s a great package, but to be honest even though we have the Kinect, I am spending most of my time on it playing the latest Burnout using the paddle. Not a bad console, but I do prefer the PS3 for racing games. Just seems slicker is all. I think the controller is easier to use also.

Right-o. Time for some more work. I hope to see you sooner rather than later.

Be well.

The Power Within comes Without

This is the next installment in the adventures of Merecraft and Udrath. You can find the one prior to this, penned by my Brother here called 'Into the Noose'.

THE POWER FROM WITHIN, COMES WITHOUT

Udrath was skirting the edges of the dull box they were stuck in closely examining the luclinite stonework for flaws. His expert mining skills searching for tiniest imperfection or minute hairline crack. After all, he was a Dwarf and if there was one thing he knew well is was stone. In the centre of the ‘cell’ it took Merecraft a brief moment to regain his composure and as he did so he raised his eyes to stare in to the blank uncaring stare of his daughters gaze and he felt sorrow. With almost a whisper he spoke, “Why? Why would you do this Viota? I trusted you, Udrath trusted you”.

“That’s what made it so easy you fool. I’ve always thought that those who are generally of a good nature always err on the side of trust. It’s quite poetic really if you think about it father. The daughter you knew nothing about suddenly comes in to your extraordinary life and instead of joy, she brings pain and suffering. Much like you abandoned and ruined my mother’s life. Irony, it’s interesting. Perhaps your decisions in life are coming back to haunt you.”

“That’s not how it was Viota, and you know it.” Merecraft shot back, his mind a maelstrom of thoughts about his daughter, her mother and unsurprisingly of their current predicament. Turning away from the Lady Bovich he walked across to Udrath.

“Anything?” he asked of the Dwarf. Udrath stood, his knees creaking with age and turned to his oldest friend, his solemn look saying all that needed to be said. Merecraft placed his hand on Uddys shoulder and closed his eyes trying to force some semblance of calm. He would not be defeated by Dhrak. Not now, not after all this time, after all the borne hardships. Mostly though, he would not allow his closest friend to be drawn in to this fight and have such an ending. His thoughts turned to Udrath and almost immediately the illness that Udrath had that would soon see his end of days. Dammit he thought, if only he had not trusted the poisonous Viota. Now his friend would at least have a painless death and not the searing agony Udrath had been expecting. No! I will not let this be, his thoughts continued. Not like this. You got him in to this Merecraft Oakenheart. You’ll find a way out. He wasn’t sure who he was convincing, but there was nothing else to do. Merecraft moved to the corner of the cell and sat down his back against the wall. Closing his eyes, he let his mind wander free in search of an answer.

*****

Killzum Brakkarg, Warg Wrestler stood sentry. Not the sharpest tool in the box several hours had passed since he had seen the Dwarf, the skinny Human and the Magicker before he started to realise something was wrong. They had not yet come out of the mansion. They had said they would not be long. Several more minutes passed before Killzum came to the conclusion he should do something. But what? Looking at the ornate doorway in to the building and in absence of anything else to do or an imagination to come up with a different plan, Killzum moved to the door and raised his huge plate clad boot and in one motion obliterated the portal into kindling. Drawing his two long serrated hip knives in place of his usual weapon, the massive two handed broad sword strapped to his back he moved in to the dim foyer, stepping over the disintegrated door. All was silent within. Not that this mattered to Killzum. He was not a creature of stealth. In fact Killzum Brakkarg was quite the opposite.

Bellowing at the top of his voice, the walls shook with the thunderous sound as he called out his challenge cry. At first there was no response, then his eyes caught movement on the stairs in the room to his right. Striding directly through the rounded doorway to the room to investigate, Killzum was met by a quick moving shadow that dropped down on to him as he passed underneath the doorframe. Without breaking a stride he sheathed one of his blades and reached up over his shoulder with a gauntleted fist grabbing his assailant, a small war goblin who was promptly trying to poke a needle knife down the gap in his neck guard. Trying to disarm the slippery little creature would have been futile, so Killzum simply pulled the Goblin closer in to his armour and then with a sickening popping sound impaled the creatures face on one of his long shoulder spikes. Leaving the Goblins corpse to dangle, its life blood dribbling down his breastplate in a gruesome display of laziness, Killzum drew his sheathed blade again and continued to the shadowy stairwell. Meeting no further resistance he broached the top of the stairs and entered the room. It was empty. Shaking his head, Killzum moved on continuing his search. In a short time due to his lack of subtlety he had swiftly searched the whole mansion and disappointingly still only had one Goblin trophy to brag of. There was no sign of the comrades he had arrived with. Completely confused now, Killzum removed his helm and sat heavily on a bench in the reception hall trying to muster some sort of plan. Emitting a low grumble he began to rub his brow. This would not be easy and thinking usually made his head hurt and even worse his stomach grumble with a terrible hunger. This would not be easy at all.

*****

Udrath sat in silence absently toying with his axe, its butterfly shaped shining blades resting on the ground of the cell . Out of the corner his eye he could see Mere meditating, obviously off somewhere trying to find an answer to their current dilemma. Across the other side of the room sat Viota, looking almost smug but lost in deep thought. He knew the lass was wild sometimes, indeed crazy even, but never in a hundred years did he think she would stoop to the low levels she had. By Brell! What is the world coming too? he thought. Maybe she’s hurting too considering the mess her life has become. He was not concerned overly about his own plight. Udrath knew he was dying and nothing could be done about that. If he were here alone he would spend his remaining time draining the cask attached to his pack and slipping in to a peaceful sleep. But Merecraft was here and that lad needed him now, not his melancholy or his illness.

He tried to put his mind to the problem at hand. Udrath knew he wasn’t considered by many as a cerebral person but the fact of the matter was, when he wasn’t out crushing skulls he spent a good deal of his time nowadays scouring old tomes, indulging in many subjects that interested him. It was a way to fill the time and not think about Megan. As usual as soon as his thoughts touched upon her his chest constricted in emotional pain and he felt unbidden tears start to form in his eyes. Damn how I miss you Megan, he mused thumping the hard floor of the cell. If only you were here now, you always knew just the right piece of advice to give my sweet, you were my rock.... then it struck him like an Ogres backhand. A conversation many hundreds of years ago. The right advice. He cast his mind back, picturing it as if it were yesterday trying to recall each and every detail, making sure he got it right.

*****

Merecraft came out of his meditation, gently willing himself back to consciousness. Opening his eyes he saw Udrath sitting in a similar manner to himself, his eyes red and his head deeply bowed, eyes closed. Looking across to his daughter he cleared his throat and stood, approaching her.

“It really wasn’t like that you know. With your mother I mean. We were happy for a time, then...then life just happened. I planned nothing but love and care for her you know.” He paused swamping painful memories with his force of will and said in a quieter, almost whispering tone, “I need you to believe me Viota. I would never have hurt her intentionally. Nor would I hurt you, despite what you have done.”

“And what have I ‘done’ father? What exactly is it that I have done to you? Abandoned you with child? Never even checking to see if you were still alive or well or needed money? No. The things you have done to me and my mother are a constant pain and to see you righteously correcting the worlds wrongs with your stupid sidekick seems almost pathetic now. You needed teaching a lesson ‘Father’ and it’s rather delightful that your daughter is here to make you learn.”

“By killing me? By killing Uddy? What has he ever done to you? You like him, you know you do. And to throw away his life on a selfish revenge laden whim is nothing short of sick Viota and you know it. How do you plan on escaping yourself anyhow?”

“Well, that’s not something I had even considered. You have no idea the pain your emergence has caused me. The memories, the stabbing sharp painful memories it has raised from the dead. I just want them to end.” She finished and looked directly in to Merecrafts eyes this time with no blank uncaring stare but instead with a deep sadness there. “I am prepared for them to end.”

Merecraft was horrified. Not only was his brother in arms in a huge mess because of him, now his daughter wished to throw away her own life because of the unintentional pain he had caused her and her mother. This was a black day, a day to be forgotten. The sad thing was, it would be forgotten and forgotten soon if they could not work out a way to get themselves out of there.

At that moment Uddy burst upright from his sitting position and exclaimed loudly “I’ve got it Mere! I’ve bloody well got it lad!” Mere and Viota looked at the bouncing Dwarf like he was crazy sporting a huge grin just about visible beneath his huge beard that was swaying rhythmically.

Merecraft raised his eyebrows and looked quizzically at Uddy. “What exactly do you have my friend? You know how to get out of here?” he asked.

“I know how to get out of here. Yes!. But more laddy, a damn sight more. I know how to kill that damned Shadowknight!” he whooped and did a small jig grinning madly all the time.

Patiently Merecraft nodded his head then waited a few moments. “So? The answer is?” he offered to the still dancing Dwarf.

Uddy stopped his prancing and his face took on a more serious look. “OK, this is how it goes laddy.” Then he turned and looked at Viota. “Cast a spell lass” he ordered. Viota looked at him like he was insane. “I’ve already told you Udrath. Magic will not work here.” she stated.

“Aye lass, but humour an old man. Now if you please.” He said, indicating with his hand he was still expecting the spell he had asked for. Shaking her head Viota slowly went through a quick spell, she knew it would not work as soon as she started. As she said the words she felt no building of power, nothing. The spell failed. Udrath seemed delighted and smiling turned towards Merecraft. “Now you lad”. Merecraft inwardly sighed. There would be no telling the Dwarf, the easiest way to would be to show him magic would not work here. So, Merecraft chose a simple one and began his prayers. To his complete shock a loaf of bread appeared in his hands. “Wha...” he exclaimed. Viota looked completely in shock and Udrath had taken on a more serious demeanour. “Right, now use one to get us out of here lad.” Merecraft did not hesitate and summoning his prayers once more, they all disappeared to reappear in the foyer of the mansion once more and were greeted by a startling sight to behold.

Killzum was sat cross legged on the floor, surrounded by three pig carcasses and a cows head, his distended stomach straining against his tunic, his discarded breastplate laid off to the side and animal fat dribbling down his chin. As they appeared he looked up at them and watched them staring at him in disbelief. “Wut?” he responded to the stares. “Meez wuz dooun sumz finkinz!”.

*****

A short time later the four were sat in Irontoes in North Qeynos. Killzum was again testing his amazing stamina by devouring several mugs of broth and at least four tankards of ale. Viota was sat off to the side, quiet and in thought.

Merecraft looked across to Udrath who was nursing a firewater short, having hardly touched it. “I have to ask Uddy. How did you know?” The Dwarf raised his gaze to look at his most dear companion, his face full of sorrow. “Megan told me laddy.” He said simply. Merecraft did not point out the obvious but waited. He knew Udrath would tell him in his own time.

Minutes passed then Udrath drained his glass in one and wiping his beard looked again at Mere. “A long time ago my friend we had new recruits for me to train at Stormguard Hall. One of the lads, my, he was a feisty character, had strength and girth worthy of the finest Dwarvern Warrior. But skill, he had none. During standard drills he would drop his axe, trip his units left guard and be an all round burden on everyone else. But I knew there was more. If I could just get him to train! Well, I posed the question to Megan. She always knew what to do. Ye know what she told me? Aye, ye don’t of course, but I’ll tell ye laddy. She told me to take him under my wing. To give him special training, not just normal drills with all the other lads. When I asked her why, all she said was, ‘Some have power within and use that, others have power but must gain it from without. It is you where that must come from. You must teach him that power’ and that Mere is how I knew.”

Merecraft sat and thought for a moment, eventually his eyes widening and slamming his fist down on the table in delight. “Uddy, you’re a rare one! You knew that Viotas power being a Magicker came from within and was summoned, but mine comes from prayer, from the Blessed Tunare. A power from the outside. When I cast a spell, I don’t really cast a spell. I pray for Tunare to deliver the power for me. The spell came from Tunares magic, from outside the cage!” Shaking his head in disbelief and laughing, slowly his mirth faded and he placed his hand over Uddys, resting on the tavern table. Looking in to his friends eyes, Merecraft said softly “I miss her too my friend. There was never a finer woman”.

*****

Be well!

Spending most our lives livin' in a Hacker's Paradise

I guess you already know that I haven’t been playing EQ2 recently. Or come to think of it, any SoE game. Playing my Playstation3 hasn’t been an issue as I have never hooked up to the net on it. So, what to think/say about the SoE/Sony hack fun recently? I’m not so sure I can say anything that hasn’t already been said, especially on sites like EQ2Flames where they have covered the sensible logical analytical approach to understanding the issue to plain old abuse of others whilst they try and understand the issue. I do know I am missing playing the game and that surprised me. Quite a bit actually. So, I got to thinking about why I miss it so much and it obviously isn’t my need to play in the Velious expansion as I dislike it and won’t be heading there again unless forced. Even if I wanted to, I am so far behind my guildies in respect of equipment/adornments/faction armour etc that the slog to catch up would be arduous indeed. I spoke to my nine year old daughter about this subject the other night when I found her crying in bed because she hasn’t been able to log in to Free Realms since the hack. She told me she missed seeing her friends and simply exploring. “No other game I like lets me wander round another world exploring”, oh, she also added “and Bin Weevils is rubbish”.

Part of it is obviously addiction. It’s what we are used to doing with our time and when that is taken away not through a choice of our own, it smarts a bit. You actually can physically miss and for want of a better word ‘ache’ for what you are missing. I haven’t quite got to that stage with EQ2, I simply miss playing, especially meetin up with my Bro. I haven’t been spending my time yearning to play and have found other stuff to do quite easily. It would just be nice to go smash a few mobs with Merecraft again.

So, anything else to say about the SoE thing? I guess one thing I would like to say is I’m getting a little fed up of the moaners. I am fed up of them moaning that SoE is crap, they should have done more, etc etc. Yeah, Sony dropped the ball. They should have had better protection in place. But, the real offenders? Those logging in and placing their personal details on a server thousands of miles away under trust. Trusting that they won’t accidentally send your info to a marketing company, trusting they won’t get hacked, trusting they don’t piss off the one client who has already developed a string of deadly computer viruses, trusting they treat their staff well so one particularly clever but pissed off employee does not ruin or steal everything. I guess the point I am trying to make is that when you put your data on the internet, wherever it may be, Ebay, Amazon, Easyjet, Financial Times registration, it really matters not. Anywhere you have placed your information on the net is a vulnerability.

Yes, Sony should have had better security in place, but even if they did, would this have stopped the attack? Maybe, maybe not. Our subs every month state on our behalf that we think Sony should at least tried and had those measures in place, but they did not. When you have folks who can hack in to the Pentagon (this place gets over 100 malicious attacks a day) or the Space Program of course there are going to be those with the know how to hack pretty much anywhere they choose. We really know too little about it to comment on that, but if someone wanted to do what has happened to Sony, I’m pretty sure they would have done so without too much trouble with or without the new security. We don’t even know why. If it was a simple crime, hacking for credit and personal info then it could have been anyone. If it was a revenge attack it’s likely to be an employee or customer of theirs. If it was a simple crime, maybe the enhanced security would have meant they moved on to our neighbours instead (just like the effect the alarm box has on your house), but if it was a planned, ordered or a revenge attack then nothing, not even new security would have helped. Revenge will have been obtained somehow no matter the security.

Whatever the reasons, whatever the ‘what ifs’, I personally believe this is unavoidable if you operate on the net. At some point your information IS going to get stolen. It may have already been stolen and just be sitting there unused. When the 7/7 attacks took place in the UK, MI5 raided all current suspects they were trailing. One property they searched had a filing cabinet in it with over 37,000 credit card details there including supporting documentation ready for use. The offenders had used just a couple of them to purchase camping equipment. The information had been gained from phishing. Look at the picture below.

This is just a random one I pulled off the net, but I have a hundred other examples much much worse than this one in my work folder. Some forums even have the cards, how long they have been stolen, the credit limits, types of card, advice on which cash points to use, batches of thousands of cards each split in to type, and so so much more. The point I am trying to make here is that your info’s on the net, get ready to cancel your cards at some point. It’s that simple. You should also stay on top of your credit rating. It is so easy to steal some ones identity then start to build up a wealth of debt with it and the actual person never even knows until they try to get a loan or mortgage.

Check out the below video from one of my heroes in my industry, native New Yorker Jeffrey Robinson. It really hammers the point home about how folks are willing to put information out there that they would not be happy to tell someone in the street. Interesting stuff.

Anyhow, what’s done is done and currently I’m hoping that EQ2 is not going to be offline for too long. I miss hanging with my Bro, flying my griffon, completing old questlines.

Be well.