Vermin in LON (Not really, guys)

Courtesy of my guildmate, Mies the Ratonga Assassin :

(PS – this is just a gag, not a real LON card or anything)

Thanks for sharing Mies!

SOE Lays Off 41

Hope no one on the EQ2 staff was affected!

PS SOE … laying people off on Friday ?  SHITTY.

But times are tough and we all do what we need to do, don’t we?

From Rothgar, RE: Research Assistants Not Giving Up Work!

It seems that some research assistants have become too attached to their research and are refusing to give up their work to the people commissioning it!

Rothgar responds to the issue with the following:

… it looks like we’ve found the problem.

If you experienced this problem, please go ahead and make a petition.  We have logs that will verify completion of the research and Customer Service should reimburse the upgrade.

We will hotfix this bug asap.  In the meantime, if you’re researching a spell you might want to hold off on claiming it to avoid having to go through the petition process.

We’ll take care of this as quickly as possible and we apologize for the inconvenience.

http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?start=40&topic_id=455186&#5076266

Rothgar

And there you have it!

An Extrmely Annoying Bug

THIS IS ANNOYING.

I’d venture to say almost game breaking for me, and that’s the first time in 5 years that I’ve used that term.  But as someone who switches frequently and often from one alt to another, it is just about too much.

Please fix.

k thanks.

Hero: A Review

(Note: I’ve had the pleasure of exchanging emails with Mr. Moore and he is as real a person as they come.  All the better to write this deserving review.)

btw, he has a website at:
http://perrymoorestories.com

_____________________________________________

Hero by Perry Moore

(reviewed by the ratwarlock)

When you think “The Chronicles of Narnia” – Perry Moore may not be the first person to mind.  Most likely, the first thing to mind are Disney, Walden Media, and C.S. Lewis, himself — not exactly hand-in-hand with homosexual superheroes.

Perry Moore, though, is one of the executive producers for the Chronicles of Naria film franchise and he’s also an openly gay man who happens to have written a book about a rather untouched subject.

Before I review “Hero” here’s a brief rundown on gay superhero history.  What’s that?  Oh, that’s right!  THERE ISN’T ANY!  I can count on one hand, the number of less-than-prominent gay characters in comic books.  Midnighter and Apollo, of the Authority (published by WildStorm originally in the late 90’s) are probably two of the best known, and non-stereotyped efforts.  Northstar from Alpha Flight and various X-Men spin-off series (most notably in Ultimate X-Men) published by Marvel.  Colossus, only in the spin-off Ultimate X-Men time line (Marvel, again).  More recently, Rictor and Shatterstar, of X-Factor and various other X-Men spin-off titles.

There have been others, but “gay superheroes” as role models — or even icons in the shallow sense — are few and far between.

And that is what makes Mr. Moore’s book unique, as well as entertaining.

He manages to address a number of hard-to-handle topics, while still keeping the book light enough to finish in a day, funny enough to keep readers comfortable, and downright charming enough to wile away even the critic who might enjoy Wharton and Cheever in their spare time.  You shouldn’t go into Hero expecting a deep masterpiece of drama and angst — it is written for the teen-aged and young-adult audience, of course, not the Evelyn Waugh literati — but you might find yourself, as I did, pleasantly surprised at the way Moore handles some rather gray subjects.  Among them: illness and cancer, homophobia, sexual exploration, death and bereavement, parent-child relationships, divorce, and all of the usual things that teenagers find themselves going through, on top of that physical desires not the least of them).  Not to mention that whole issue of being a superhero with powers.  And being gay.

Moore’s superhero world is not far from what we see in comics and movies.  Superheroes are known, they live right alongside “normal” un-powered humans.  Here, however, you don’t find any hatred towards them.  They aren’t mutants like the X-Men, or vigilantes like Batman, or incognito operators like Superman and Spiderman.  They are open and well-known.  Moore’s hero groups are more like the Watchmen — very real people, with families, and real life issues that encroach upon their would-be dayjobs.

Enter in the main character, a young man named Thom, and his father, Hal.  Hal is the sort of tough-minded, lower-middle class father.  You might have seen him in a steel mill in some town in Pennsylvania.  He’s a sort of every-man, hard-working, nose-to-the-grindstone type.  Except that he used to be a superhero, himself, and unfortunately, most of the people in his city blame him for the near-destruction of earth.  No small weight to carry around.  At the same time, his son Thom is coming to grips with two things: being a superhero, and being gay.

It’s an interesting parallel — how do you “come out” as a superhero?  It’s intersting in that Thom’s predicament not only deals with the obvious coming-out in terms of sexuality, but also, of this admittance to being a superhero to a father who has wholeheartedly rejected the idea.

This is the crux of the emotional thrust in Moore’s book, and it’s both delightfully humorous, and poignantly honest, in its address.

There is also plenty of action in Moore’s book, and an assortment of interesting and pleasingly odd characters.  A “superhero” who makes people physically sick, an old crone who can see the future and smokes way too many cigarettes, a girl who wears a colostomy bag.  These aren’t your typical superheroes!  In Thom, though, Moore manages to succeed at creating a believable young adult superhero — who just happens to be gay, as well.

The messages of his book are many, and the title “Hero” is certainly apt.  Thom’s struggles will resonate with many readers, gay or not, young and old – there are many heroes in the story, but the most heroic moments here don’t involve superpowers at all.

And there you have it !

Introducing Clan Tusk

If any of you would like to join a brand new guild, with an emphasis on casual gameplay, old-school quest and dungeon crawling groups, crafting, light roleplaying, and above all — quality, skilled, friendly players — and help grow it from the ground up, I would be happy to have you join!

You can speak to any of the leaders for an invite:

Krushin
Littletusk
Grimtusk
Moravan
Gurgi

OR

Fill out the application at the website.

As you can see, it is themed – evil-aligned only, and within that, only ogres, trolls, lizards, and rats!  Other races may occassionally be invited but it is rare, and they’d need a good reason (a Teir Dal who abhors Neriak and wants to create chaos, for instance).

The theme is a loose mercenary-tribe bonded by slave roots and led by ogres.  They have busted out of the oppression that was Neriak and are now ready to take on the rest of Norrath!  (Or at least … find their place in it.)

It is literally Level 1 – so when I say “ground up” I mean it!  But I’d like it to be something special so I am posting it to my friends and acquaintances, first, before moving into the other areas.

It’s open to players of all levels, all playstyles, and all RL ages.