Last night I was chatting to yet another one of my friends who plays WoW… The discussion went along the lines of So, how have you been? Ok, I guess… So what’s been keeping you busy… WoW…

Kinda seems that I have alot of friends who play alot of online games… Now I can’t really talk, I spend an awful lot of time doing SCA related things… But the topic of discussion made me think about the marketing behind WoW. The company obviously want to encourage it’s use, however don’t want to make their setup/ongoing costs to be high. By providing a fee per month, they are instilling the idea that to get the most out of their fee, players need to play as often in that time as possible, the more they play, the cheaper the gaming experience, and the more addicted the player becomes.

So what’s one alternative? Pay per minute? You buy a card with a bulk amount of minutes playing time, this time doesn’t run out, you can just add it to an account, and that account can be accessed whenever the gamer wants to spend some time playing… Why would the gaming companies not be using this option? Maybe because a pay by the minute option only gives those with the money to buy minutes in huge bulk lots the option of saving money? Maybe because it gives people a reason to actually spend time elsewhere, as they don’t feel they have to play each month to get their money’s worth? Maybe because it may lead to players realising that there is a life out there other than the game? Maybe because if players realised that life exists outside of the box, then there may be less players in the game for others to interact with?

In my opinion, it benefits the company much more to continue the way they current do and sucking the souls out of people, rather than provide a fun means of escape when an escape is needed. There’s no real answer here… Nor is there really a complaint, but just a differant way of looking at it, maybe a more human way?

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Originally uploaded by lurextoga.

Border War on the weekend was a fantastic weekend away, and well worth the 14 hours of driving to get there and back.  I met some wonderful people while I was there, and whilst I couldn’t quite make it onto the War Field due to an unfortunate incident with a strong drink called Bearbait the night before the War, I did manage to fight in the Light tourney on the Sunday Morning.

The Light tourney is something that I might try and get Drakkar interested in and it involves alot of things that Drakkar would find fun, but mostly involves shooting at someone else.  It really tests the participants dodging skills as well as their ability to think quickly and advance on the enemy quickly.  I’m excited about the prospect of encouraging if not the rest of Rowany into starting our own semi-regular tournements, at least getting Drakkar involved as a warm up to War Practice.

took some photo’s for us all to enjoy. :)

It always amases me how much joy I get out of the SCA… This evening I dug out the cheap calico out of my materials bag, a borrowed sewing machine, and got stuck into playing with making a tunic. Surprizingly without a pattern, and without a clue, I still ended up with something resembling exactly what I had in mind. It’s still not finished, needs heming and working out the neck… but WOW.. What fun. Now to try it on my expensive linen. ;)

I also managed to finish off my Monks Robes ready for dying, once thats done I may put lining in the sleeves to cover up the seam. Then I need to work out a Mantle for it. Ooo what fun.

Some time this week I also need to make 10 cotton drill messanger belt pouches to be sent away for embroidering. It’s all coming together… though I’m still kinda wondering why I wanted to to the Web Press thing. ;) It’ll be fun. :) But I was kinda hoping to relax and enjoy my first full festival.

Before we start, I have to make sure you are all aware that what is being explained below was a chosen path, not stumbled into through idiocy. I knew what I was getting into beforehand, and I knew it would cost me. I was willing to pay the price for research.

You ever seen those “Get a free laptop!” banner ads? The ones where they promise you a nice laptop to the value of $1200 or something? Every wondered what it was all about? Yesterday, I had yet another one of them wiggle it’s arse in front of me, and knowing full well what they require, I dove in anyway, because I actually want to see if a laptop actually turns up on my doorstep.

For those of you that don’t know what they involve, here’s a breif summary… Firstly they tempt you with you must choose 1 of these FREE offers, which are completely free, however require that you give out your email address for more spam lists. Then they display 10 sponsors, which in various stages, they require you to sign up for, first with 2… then another 2, and finally the last 6… Some of these are free trials… Most cost money… averaging out at the $20US, so that’s about $200US that you need to spend to qualify. Then they hit you with the kicker…

You need to convince 2 suckers that they should do the same thing, that they too should sign up for all of these wonderful sponsors offers… Here’s the rub… You are then at the mercy of either your friends, or some random sucker who comes across your referal link SOMEWHERE on the net… So yes friends… My emails and anything I do that I can get away with it will have one of these referal links… Do I actually think anyone will try for a laptop of their own? No… However the idea of spending the money is to find out how long it might take. :) All I need is two… ;)

Click here if you are tempted… But please make sure you know what you are up for if you are concidering taking the time and money to try for it.

For someone who has been through SES and RFS training, and done a number of First Aid courses, I can be pretty damn stupid when I have my mind on another task…

The Rowany IKAC Shoot at Homebush was last Sunday… It was a bit of an ordinary affair, with mainly only Drakkar and one other turning up, so an actual IKAC shoot was not run (Half of Drakkar only turned up for the practice, and weren’t really interested in IKAC), so with the concensus of all attending, general archery goodness was had by all. But I digress…

With my mind on the other task, and the fact that the day was overcast on and off, I neglicted to think of Sunscreen… Stupid stupid me… And the lesson is still being taught to me today…. I woke up this morning and noticed blisters… Stupid stupid me! Ahhh well, the pain I must endure, to teach me to “Wear Sunscreen” Hope I learn this lesson… Stupid stupid me.

As a partial tradein for my old car, I managed to get a hold of an Original Mac Mini… I have never played with Macs in great detail, so it’s a bit of a toy at the moment.

Eventually it’s probably going to be installed in my van as an entertainment PC, but at the moment I am playing with OSX. This post is coming from a desktop widget… Which is a cool and easy way to post to LJ.

I need a specific solution… something that doesn’t have to be too neat and easy, but if it isn’t, it’s well documented.

So whats the task I have in mind? I need to be able to control a computer remotely with a configurable set of remote buttons on a Touch Screen PDA.

My original thinking on this problem went along the lines of utilising a Webserver on the remote PC and accessing a series of small webpages that clicking the buttons would run scripts on the server machine that would do specific tasks, or run specific programs. I guess this is still possible, however in somecases I would need to provide feedback from those application to the PDA. I’m sure some of thise would be possible… I just need a push in the right direction.

Can anyone help with that push? Or even another solution entirely?

Last weekend it was Elbows by Adam, this weekend I’m hoping to knock out a set of Pouldrons so I no longer get nice big bruised arms. So when I got home tonight, I dug out the pre-cutout blanks that Adam gave me last week… and belted out one side. And while the dishing isn’t as deep as I would like it, they certainly turned out alot better than I thought.

Tomorrow… I shall get my dishing block from my folks place, and possibly even buy a larger hammer. I’m tempted to try dishing out the shoulder of the pouldron I have already done, though it will then probably require alot more work to get it back into shape. Hopefully before War Practice on the 11th, I shall have a full set, ready to do battle. I may even post pics tomorrow to show you all what I have done so far.

Hope everyone else’s Festival projects are going well. :)

Some of you may remember the original Ebay Debate article, botu a purchase I made that went horribly bad.

Seems PayPal came to the party returning me all but $25 USD. So Yippee! Maybe it’s not ALL bad. ;) Now to start looking for more Microdrives… ;)

The IKAC shoot for Rowany is all planned and ready to go… Though I have had very little notification from archers willing to participate. I realise that things are gong to be slow starting off, and I can only hope that the Management of On Target aren’t too annoyed that we only have a few people turn up. But I guess with Canterbury fair on this week, things are bound to be slow.

Been doing some more work on the Rowany website yesterday and today. Finishing up adding all the activities out of the Festival booklet.

Also added some details for Canterbury Fair as the NZ website seems to be down, and some people were having difficulty working out how to get there. Hope it’s helpful to some, but not much of an issue if it isn’t.

Mordenvale have contacted me about helping them possibly set up a CMS for their website. It should work really well, though probably alot of work initially. Looking forward to helping out on that project. :)

In other news, asked me to set up a website for him to run a mercenary thing from… Thats all been set up, just needs him to get online and start entering stuff. Once he’s done that, I’ll start pointing people to the site. It should be a fun concept, though I hope people take it as such and not too seriously.

Anyway, Thats enough for my Website Update… Next… Archery. ;)

Am I stupid? Do I like punishment? Do I like pushing myself into things that interest me in an effort to help the SCA? Hmmm, I guess the answer to all three would be; Yes.

Sveinn inn kyrri Grimsson is now working for the Lochac College of Heralds… I’m now Ordinance Pursuivant, which sounds cool… yet another title to add to my growing list of titles… Speaking of which…

It has been commented on by others that I have been collecting titles of late… This is true… Why? Because I can… Any underhanded reason for it? Well, as you ask, yes, there is kind of. Titles mean very little to me, but they can be fun to play with. This is a game after all, and games are for playing, for entertainment… It amuses me to aquire fun little titles, the most fun ones are those that mean nothing and that I give to myself… So who am I?

I am Lord Sveinn inn kyrri Grimsson, Rowany Master of Webs, Ordinance Pursuivant, 42nd Winged Monkey of Fitz, Canon Lacky, Collector of meaningless titles and Drakkar novice. And I am proud of who I am. ;)