I ♥ Jade Dynasty

I am really enjoying this game. I've discovered the forums too, where there are some very good, very comprehensive beginner guides to be found.

More than anything, I'm enjoying having some time off. I started a blog post over the weekend that I never got around to posting, but it was mainly a bitch session about how overworked and apathetic I was feeling. So you didn't miss anything there.

So this free time, such as it is, is pretty great right now. Next up - World of Warcraft. Must level warlock on World of Warcraft!

---

Oh yeah, speaking of which ... over the weekend we aired a story about a young man who committed a horrible crime and used World of Warcraft to do it. 21-year-old Trevor Lucas met a boy on WoW and asked him to send nude pictures of himself. When the boy refused Lucas showed up at the boy's house who lives in Wisconsin (Lucas lives in Massachusetts) and threatened his mom.

Let me say right now this is NOT typical behavior you encounter in World of Warcraft! I've been playing the game for 4 1/2 years - my husband and I have met many, many people from the north to the south, from east to west, and everywhere in-between. We have met people who are great, annoying, liars, cheaters, socially distant, social butterflies, you name it ... no doubt there are unscrupulous types out there. The gold spammers and account hackers are about the worst we've encountered. Players run the gamut - there are white collar professionals, moms and dads, college, high school, and grade school students, whole entire families playing World of Warcraft.

But at no time have we ever encountered men like Trevor Lucas. Shame on him for giving World of Warcraft the kind of bad name it truly doesn't deserve. The story we aired is below (although not in our format):



Dear reader, keep in mind, this type of thing has been going on since instant messaging was invented. Hell, since the internet was invented. It's obvious the mom was involved in her son's life and on-task when the stranger showed up at her door, and good for her. The mom is more indicative of the type of people you meet on World of Warcraft than Trevor Lucas is.

Remembering the Abolition of the TransAtlantic Slave Trade, and Rudolph Valentino

International Day For The Remembrance of The Slave Trade & Its Abolition
On the night of August 22, 1791 in Santo Domingo (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic) an uprising started a revolution, and that revolution helped paved the way to the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) designated today, August 23, as a day to remember a time when there was a way of life that no human being should ever endure, but also to promote tolerance and human rights.

Nowadays we are being asked to focus on our modern-day form of slavery: human trafficking. Human trafficking is going on right here in Florida. We have reported on trafficking rings getting busted up in Collier County for example, but it also happens elsewhere in the state. It's not unique to this area either nor is it confined here. Human trafficking is a bustling business, so to say slavery is 'dead' is inaccurate.

Remember that nobody has the right to take away another human being's freedom and rights by coercion, not for any reason, but especially not for exploitation. Slavery the way it happened in the transatlantic trade routes 200 years ago may be a tragic memory now, but slavery still exists, from the human trafficking taking advantage of non-English speakers from all over the world who are desperate to leave the extremely poor conditions of their homeland, to the spouse living with abuse inside a home with no witnesses. No type of slavery is acceptable, and it will take all of us working together to bring it all to an end.

---

Valentino Day
Rudolph Valentino scorched the big screen at the genesis of the movie industry's golden age, the silent era. Known as the "Latin lover" his sex appeal reached far and wide: women swooned for him causing men to emulate his style. He is best known for his work in The Sheik and The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

On this date in 1926, Rudolph Valentino died of complications from appendicitis and gastric ulcers. And when I say complications I do mean complications. I could hardly believe my eyes - the following is from the Wikipedia on Valentino:

On August 15, 1926, Valentino collapsed at the Hotel Ambassador in New York City, New York. He was hospitalized at the Polyclinic in New York and an examination showed him to be suffering from appendicitis and gastric ulcers which required an immediate operation. The operation was a success but Valentino's condition had become so aggravated by then that peritonitis set in and spread throughout his body. On August 18 his doctors gave an optimistic prognosis for Valentino and told the media that unless Valentino's condition changed for the worse there was no need for updates.^[68] However, on August 21 he was stricken with a severe pleuritis relapse that developed rapidly in his left lung due to the actor's weakened condition.^[68] The doctors realized that he was going to die, but decided to withhold the prognosis from the actor who believed that his condition would pass. During the early hours of August 23, Valentino was briefly conscious and chatted with his doctors about his future. He fell back into a coma and died a few hours later, at the age of 31.

I prefer to focus on the man's work and his Leo DiCaprio-like handsome looks. In fact, I wonder why DiCaprio hasn't portrayed him in a movie about his tragically short life yet? That's who I'd pick, and not just for the looks either.

---

And this concludes my NaBloPoMo challenge. Today is the 30th day I have posted to this blog, and I am just barely making the cut waiting until well after 10pm eastern time!

But I made it. Pardon me while I go break my arm patting myself on the back...

Be an Angel and Hug Your Boss on Ramadan

Wacky Holidays presents: Saturday, August 22, 2009!

Be An Angel Day - August 22

"Do one small act of service for someone."
"Be an Angel Day" got started in 1993 by Rev. Jayne Howard Feldman. Today we shift the focus off ourselves in order to do something nice for someone else. In other words, "be an angel ... be a blessing in someone's life". Because although doing something for yourself can be rewarding, it just doesn't measure up to the rewards you'll enjoy when you give of yourself to help someone else out. Or just spend today meditating on angels and get inspired by what they do in order to plan something for another day.
For some more ideas and inspiration, click here.

---

Ramadan

Today marks the beginning of the Islamic holiday of Ramadan. I remember the first time I ever heard of Ramadan: I was in high school and one of my teachers, Mrs. Jabarin, was talking about how she and her family were observing it. One of my classmates, Deena, she also practiced Islam and was observing the holiday. Ramadan consists of the strict discipline of fasting and refraining from excessive indulgence or "ill-natured" behavior. It is also the time to pray more fervently, ask for forgiveness of sins, and just generally spend more time than usual meditating on how to be a better person overall. Ramadan was the month in which the first verses of the Qur'an were revealed to the prophet Muhammad. Ramadan begins at sundown.

Since I am not Muslim I can't offer any more insight on this holiday, but I encourage open-minded education on anything.

---

Hug Your Boss Day

Okay, I'm going to be real honest here. I can't think of one boss I've ever had that made me compelled to hug them. Personally, I think that's inappropriate. Perhaps that's because I'm American? That may very well be, as this seems to be a holiday with it's roots in Great Britain. Either way the website built around this holiday made me giggle, and it also gave me food for thought: perhaps I should seek out the kind of boss I'd like to hug???
Don't get me wrong - I like my boss. In the television news industry he is difficult to beat. I have also worked quite hard to get on his good side; I was inspired by the people he's hired as my co-workers and supervisors.

I think of plenty of people as being 'great', but it doesn't make me want to hug them. Maybe it's just me.

---

Hope you enjoyed today's serving of Wacky Holidays! Tune in tomorrow for a whole new set of 'em! You don't want to miss it - they're gonna be good ones!

Two more days!

This is very exciting! I only need to post today and tomorrow and then I can say I met the NaBloPoMo challenge of writing for 30 days straight! Ever since Saturday July 25, 2009 I've made a blog post (sometimes two) every day.

That's pretty awesome. I think instead of taking time off from writing I'm going to see how much longer I can keep it up beyond the 30 days.

I reserve the right to change my mind.

---

By the way, I'm not counting this as a blog post today, stay tuned for today's Wacky Holidays!

In the meantime you could ponder one of this month's monthly observances, like What Will Be Your Legacy Month...

Jade Dynasty - A Review

Glenn recently discovered a new, free, MMORPG game to play called, Jade Dynasty, courtesy of the folks at Perfect World Entertainment. The romantic-sounding name alone intrigued me, so I watched over his shoulder while he played. The graphical elements caught my eye immediately: they are absolutely gorgeous, particularly the character selection screen and the loading screens.

I found gameplay easy to get into:

• Tutorials abound; the game goes a long way in helping the player navigate the game and progress your levels.

• The interface looks and works very similarly to World of Warcraft.

• The storyline reads well; there are very, very few grammatical errors and it's at least mildly compelling if not completely original.
• Knowing how, who, and where to pick up and turn in quests is very clearly delineated. Not without bugs, mind you, but even World of Warcraft has the occasional bugged quest and/or mob.
• The game has pets - I have a 'Woody Pig' who blows bubbles out of his nose when he's sitting idly by. And one of his attacks when he's engaged in battle? He turns around and farts at the mob he's fighting. It's hilarious! So the game developers have a sense of humor. There are other pets, like a tree called a 'Dryadling' and a rock called 'Stonus Protector'.
• You gain experience points while 'meditating', but only if you're in a major city. Meditating is the restive state that restores your health points ('HP') and spirit points ('SP'). It's a very small amount of XP, but believe me, it adds up after awhile. I gained a whole entire level in my 30's that way, over the course of one sleep period. It looks cool too: you pop a bubble around you and gaze deeply into what looks like a crystal ball. It's actually an orb of energy called your 'chi'.
  
  

For as great as those features are however, there is one major feature that sets Jade Dynasty apart from all the other MMORPGs that I've played: 'auto-routing' and 'Invigorate'. With auto-routing you click on a mob or NPC's name in your quest log (the name will be highlighted of course) and your toon automatically starts running toward the mob/NPC.

Invigorate, on the other hand, is truly the crème de la crème of gaming: you can set up your character to grind on it's own, like what most gamers know as a 'bot'. In Jade Dynasty it's built right into the gameplay! You set the parameters - which attacks go off at which time, etc. - and then with the click of a button your character does the rest. You can sit back and watch, go make dinner, go to sleep, whatever!

There are, necessarily, a few details about the game that make it less than user-friendly, but I did not find them to be off-putting. For example, the crafting, from what I hear, is a pain in the a**. I was encouraged not to pick it up, at least not in the early levels. Crafting is not impossible, but better to do if you plan to run solo. If you belong to a clan or alliance who has a member already crafting then there's no need, as it is burdensome. There also doesn't seem to be much else to do other than questing, crafting, and grinding. For example there are no instances or dungeons, that we've found anyway. The game does contain a PvP element, but I haven't tried it and I don't know too much about it.

The camera and movement controls are slightly different than World of Warcraft and City of Heroes/Villains, but didn't take me long to get accustomed to after a couple hours' worth of playtime.

Also, you will draw aggro from mobs rather randomly. For example, you'll run past mobs everywhere you go in the game not including the major cities. No matter what level they are you probably won't draw aggro from them, except for the random mob here and there. There's just no way to tell. Now if another player comes along and engages them they'll get off of you, but you likely won't have any problems with that aspect of the game.

One nifty feature of this game, if you're into this sort of thing: male and female characters can get married. Unfortunately, it does not provide for same-sex marriages that I've noticed. The quest text is pretty gender-specific. For example, the male character has to be the party leader and has to initiate the quests. But one very cool thing the characters can do: the male character can actually carry the female character in his arms!

Okay, gender inequality aside, that's just cool. Give these games a few years, I'm sure the political bent will come around eventually.

One last thought, and this can be taken as either a negative or a positive, depending on how you look at it: the way the company makes money off the game is by selling 'zen' for real-world dollars. The zen is converted into gold which you spend in the game. This is what compensates for the lack of monthly fee. It is certainly possible to play the game and enjoy all the features without ever spending a cent. But if you intend to reach the level cap of 150 you should plan on investing real money on some zen.

For this gamer, the positives of Jade Dynasty far outweigh the negatives. The game itself is so beautiful, the music mesmerizes me, I'm enjoying the storyline, and for the most part both the storyline and leveling progression make sense. It's not World of Warcraft; no way. But it is definitely a worthy alternative.