I’m extremely torn.  Personally, I thought the little event yesterday was a success.  A lot of people came out, some very crucial decisions have been made ICly, and it seemed like a lot of fun was had by those who were there.  (A huge thanks to those of you who got up hours early or stayed up hours late just to be able to attend!)  Feedback was, for the most part, positive.  However, it seems a few of you are insisting on stirring up trouble with those of us who are enjoying the game.

Why?  What do you get out of ruining everyone else’s fun by snide comments in your titles, by bitchy tells, or refusing to log in until an event ‘you hate’ is over entirely?    If you don’t want to log in, fine.  Don’t log in. But don’t you dare start trying to stir up the rest of the players who are having fun through OOCly ruining their efforts or ours. I’m soft.  Yes.  I love the pbase and would do just about anything for y’all, including staying up WAY past my bedtime on a regular basis to ensure that the game runs smoothly, but here’s your warning:  If you deliberately cause strife and attempt to ruin things OOCly for other people, you won’t be playing for long.

We all know that the actions we take ICly have an effect on our characters.  Sometimes we don’t like the results… but everything that’s being done in these plots is building up to something big, something potentially fantastic for everyone.  We know what we’re doing.  We work hard to keep you on your toes.  Would you truly rather go back to sitting in taverns day in, day out, with nothing to do but gossip and bitch at each other?

That said, thanks again to all of you who came out last night and had fun.  I did too.

Another mini-event this weekend.  Let me know the best days/times for you all.

I’ve been busy getting things done, but it’s been ages since I’ve actually reported any of it.

Crafting has, unfortunately, taken a back seat for the time being, as I’m inundated by work and planning things within the game.  It’ll be back on track as soon as I possibly can.

However, I’ve done a few things here and there.

1)  The ball – as you saw posted on the forums, (I hope).  If not, here’s the log of part of that little event.

2)  I cleaned up, moved around, and organized the Watch forums.  If you’re a player of a watchman, hopefully you’ll find them simpler to use and find information on, now.  If you don’t play a watchman… you don’t get to read them.  Hah!

3)  I’m currently working on a mini-event to bring the events of the ball into focus.  Hopefully you guys can be there tonight.  If not, logs will be posted and you can, of course, find out ICly from the people who do attend.  If all goes well tonight, expect more of them, quite regularly, in the future.

Me being who I am, I’ve popped in to DI to deal with a few things despite saying I needed time off.  However… as the title says, nothing’s changed.  If anything, things have gotten more chaotic.

I’m teaching fifth grade this year and so I have to plan and write an entire new curriculum.  It’s not easy.  It’s also my sixth year teaching and the fourth new curriculum I’ve had to write.  It’s getting tiresome and I’m frustrated and tired.

Not to mention my daughter’s at the age of after school dance and homework and everything else she wants to do, and it’s eating up my spare time.

On top of all that, this weekend my mother broke her foot, so I’ve been spending my nights over here and driving nearly an hour to and from work each day (that’s on top of starting at 7 and leaving at 4:30 anyway).

I’m really beat.  And so for now I will be stepping away from DI as a whole, until things change.  I’ll hold on to my hobbies as they are, and chances are really good that I’ll still check in from time to time to say hi and see what’s up and maybe even play  I love you guys after all.

I wouldn’t have done everything I have if I didn’t.

I’m sorry to those of you waiting on things, but I believe I have wrapped up or passed on what needed to be wrapped up or passed on.  Alazair has taken over the last few custom item projects for me.

I need time off.  Time out.  To take a break.

I’m fried and frazzled, stressed and feeling really bleh.

It’s a bad time of year for me on top of a multitude of issues both on DI and off and I trust you’ll understand that my absence over the next few weeks is absolutely needed.

For those of you who know my PC account, if I am around I’m asking you very seriously, please do not ask me about staff things unless it is an absolute emergency.

Thank you.
TL

It’s always been my nature to try to help players by keeping them out of situations that look suspicious on an OOC level.  Does that mean I think you’re cheating?  No.  It means I don’t want to see you getting reprimanded for something that could well appear as if you were.

I’m tired of being the bad guy in situations where a staff member has to get  involved.  I’m tired of people pointing fingers and saying I’m playing favorites or acting certain ways because I don’t like you, and then turning around and trying to sweet talk me when you want something from me.

I’m very tired of those of you who know who my PCs are, assuming that IC things are happening based on whether or not I do/don’t like you/your chars on an OOC or IC level.  It’s ridiculous.  It’s petty.  It’s childish.  We’re all here to have fun… why ruin it with bickering and drama?  I hardly even want to play this game any more, due to all of it.

You are, of course, entitled to whatever opinions of me you’d like to have, but I’d like to suggest that friendly warnings be taken in that vein and hey, if they’re misguided, fine.  Good, even.  I hope they are.  I hope I’m wrong.  I’m staff, I’m not omniscient.

As staff here, I volunteer my time to help make this place more fun for you and surprise surprise, I get nothing in return but the satisfaction of seeing my work enjoyed by the players.   Try to keep that in mind, would you?

With the help of three of our four new builders (Gemini is busy building Tarkas! <3) I’ve put a lot of time and effort into revamping crafts over the last few weeks.  I do hope that carpenters, tailors, dyers, alchemists, jewelcrafters, cobblers, chandlers, and potters enjoy their new crafts.

Yes, I’m aware the last three are still under serious construction, as you should be.  Feel free to submit ideas, or suggestions where you see fit, though constructive criticism is much appreciated over tells or osays in the vein of ‘this sucks, I can’t make any money!’

But really as I say that I realize that this post is a complaint, too.  It’s a complaint I’ve made before, many many times over.

It is NOT IC for a character to take on all of the crafts in the game, or even a significant chunk of them.  Truthfully, if you’ve more than three crafts and three gathering skills (six total), I do hope you can ICly explain the hows and whys of your character having learned them and no, people, one does not just ‘learn to make excellent tools at a forge on their own’ when they were raised to be a tailor.  I’m sorry.  It doesn’t work.

So many of our pbase has gone ooc with this.  You’re pissy with a player who’s character refuses to buy from you, so you’ve decided to just make what they sell, so you can refuse to buy from them too.  Or you just ‘don’t like to depend on others.’  That’s NOT okay.  It doesn’t work that way in RL, it doesn’t work that way in DI.

I asked nicely before.  I’m asking again and this time I’m not being so nice.

Stop.  Now.  Please.

Find a player with the craft, if all you really need farming for is to get butter, and stop making baskets on the side just to ’see how it works’ and then throw it in your shop to sell.  It’s blatant.

If you just need copper shavings to make copperas water, then find a smith to shave an ingot down for you.  Don’t take up mining and smithing as well to do it for yourself.

Every craft is calculated to make a profit, even if you buy some of your components from other players.  Every craft is deliberately designed to require other crafts.  It’s made that way to give everyone something to do, and a way to make money.   That doesn’ mean you, by yourself, need to know how to skin, weave cloth, make dyes, dye cloth, sew clothes, fashion leather, and cobble shoes to make a perfect outfit.  Buy the skins from someone else.  Spend a little on dyed cloth! (I dropped prices, too!).  Visit a cobbler.

Please.  A little common sense, or you’ll soon find nobody buying from anybody, and *gasps* nobody making any real money.

Always brings with it a hell of responsibilities I forget about til it’s approaching.

Well, I may be a bit more absent for the next two weeks.  If you really need me though, please feel free to email.

1. This week ends the kids’ reign of terror at school and so I have finals to grade and dunk tanks to be soaked in.  Whee!
2. Then, next week is all about packing up, putting things in storage, cleaning the classrooms and the school and getting grades settled.
3.  And last but not least, I have to resit the dumb teaching exams on June 6th.  Arizona has really botched things for their teachers… *sighs*

So between playing, studying, and finding summer fun things for my soon-to-be first grader, it’s going to be a busy couple of weeks.

Among other things.

Farmers will notice a few new assemblies leading up to cheese making.  Tada!

Let’s see.  What else has happened the last few days?  I know I said I’d try blogging regularly, but really… it’s not happening, is it?

• Cooking’s had a few more updates.
• Brewers ought to find they can make the finished products now.  Bottles, cups, tankards, etc filled to the brim with the delightful results of their work.  Yay.
• A few items have been added to carpentry as well.

Today was Mother’s Day.

My 5th one.  It still amazes me.  It really does.  When the kiddo is sleeping and being angelic, anyway.  Right now, she’s anything but.  I swear, I’ve spent the last 90 minutes trying to get a hyper monkey with bright purple hair to stop dancing around and babbling about all the My Little Ponies she looks like now, for long enough to fall asleep.

Finally successful.

I should probably add that, yes I’m crazy, but this time the purple hair is for good reason.  It’s Crazy Hair day in kindergarden tomorrow.

Oh and by the way, if you’re looking for something amusing to glance over, try:

http://bannable-offenses.blogspot.com/

It has to be one of the funnier blogs I’ve ever read and I don’t even play… in fact I’ve never played FFXI.  Still, if you get the idea of MMOs you may find it good for a laugh or two.

Well, as good as.  I just need to gather a little information on the tools for armour crafting and weapon smithing, and then the wiki page on crafts will be entirely complete.

That’s a load off my mind.  Hope it’s somewhat helpful!

http://www.dark-isles.net/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=Harvesting is also up and ready to go.