Weekly Newsletter 01_14_08: There Can Be Only One

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Updated Fri, Jan 02, 2009 by Dalmarus

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There Can Be Only One

January 14th, 2008 - By Dalmarus

This week, I have good news and bad news for everyone. Since I'm a "rip the Band-Aid off" kind of guy, we'll go with the bad news first. Machail, our high-level guide guru, has decided it's time to take the reigns as a Site Lead himself. No, that does not mean we're having another peeps war to see who keeps the reigns of the Vanguard site. Aside from the fact that I've banned peeps from this site for all eternity, Machail is actually leaving the Vanguard team rather than staging a coup.

That brings me to the good news. Please give Machail a huge round of applause for being chosen as the Site Lead for Ten Ton Hammer's "soon to be live" Age of Conan site! Machail has been a great Community Manager here and really deserves the position. I'm glad he got it. He's pretty happy I imagine too... at least until I start pestering him with questions about high level dungeons I haven't made it to yet! Congratulations, Machail!

So where does that leave you, the reader of our great site? Pretty much in the same spot you were before. There will be some minor changes to the weekly format around here, but not a lot. You'll still be stuck reading my ramblings on Mondays. We'll still have our weekly poll on Friday. The middle of the week is where things will be changing. I'll continue to post Monster Projects, but they will be more sporadic than they have been in the past as I shift my focus to working on quest guides for the site.

Now that we're up to speed with what's going on around here, let's get back to my normal rambles - No booing allowed!

I hate to jump to a completely different topic (I will anyway), but since this thought has been bugging me all week, I have to talk about it...

Who Says Temporary Glitches Can't Be Cool?

I'm worried I might be getting sucked into the crafting sphere.

There - I said it.

While that statement may not mean much to most people, those that know me understand that I simply do not craft. I might dabble for a few levels (translation = 2 to 3 tops) and then I'm done. While my measly little level 16 blacksmith isn't anything compared to some of the fine crafters in the game, this is a major milestone for me.

The thing that bothers me the most about this admission though, is that while I think I enjoy crafting, I spend an inordinate amount of time cursing the gaming gods when that Grade A armor piece gets knocked down to a Grade B at the last second and I'm almost out of points. Now I have to suffer with a B item just to complete it. Frustration like that should not translate into enjoyment.

Or how about when you hit that unlucky streak of doing an armor upgrade and get the "very high" penalty on action costs? So high in fact, that now you can't finish the item. So along with not having an upgrade, the piece you were originally using is also gone... along with that rare resource you just used. If you ever run into her, feel free to ask my wife about the string of tirades that came spewing forth when that one happened, haha.

Yet for all the cursing and sometimes bad luck I've had with crafting, I still like it. I still find myself working on it while I watch the regional chat for people to help out or for that favorite dungeon to come scrolling down the screen.

There's a certain satisfaction in creating your own armor for a character, and trying to make the best you can. I enjoy it, but I'm still trying to figure out exactly why.

What do you think?