Duo Diametrical

"[We are a duocracy...I have to address lucidity with 'Mister' while you are on a first name basis]" -- Paraphased from "The Tick" TV Series.

I've been finding myself running about with duo's quite a bit lately. I've sorted through my images and found a few. I often think about what makes these things fun or interesting... or at least necessary.

At one point, I was free to work when a friend Zuri asked for my help to obtain two spells from these half women half snake hussies of the swamps. Can't think of any other name for the creatures that kept tearing off all my armor.. most annoying move since "Doom". The two of us were able to hold our own on these things except for the fact that we had a hard time making the creatures use the spells we wanted. It seems as if you need to make them "break" their weapon first before they'll use this special one; yet another fun little tweak. But in the end, I gained a small amount of xp and .. a Corsair's Test.

Yet more time than ever, I've spent time with Raka, my fellowship NPC. Which is funny, considering how long it has been since she leveled in spite of all the time I have been xp'ing by duoing with her. She's like a mediocre white mage; she doesn't have erase and has no sense of MP conservation, but she does cast cure in time and debuffs when she gets around to it. But even still, I was able to advance on Samurai very fast with her assistance taking on Even Matches to Tough's along the way. It has worked quite well, but it is very obvious that she hasn't recieved the same amount of xp that I have for the same monsters. But whenever I have time, or I am seeking for a party, I will often rely upon Raka to kill time. She doesn't say much, and I have no idea where she bought that hat and tunic, but she is reliable.


Another time I was running about was to help out my friend Littlekitty with obtaining "Strange Biomatter" for the gorget quest. (Personally I thought of "Arbies" first time I heard of that quest, but they want these Organs off these fish).



All I can say is.. I hate sea. We wondered about and fought these sharks when we could find them. At one point I spotted one of those UFO's in the air that scared me to no end (I mean really.. big thing there, then not there, then there again.. like someone jumping out and yelling "BOO"). During this time, I found out that these one winged monsters not only link, but they have a tendancy to reraise themselves after you've killed them. But after a couple days of farming we were able to get the neccessary organs (save one from the UFO) for my friend.




I can't really say it simply why I dislike sea. My mind is a chaotic mess on a good day, and I by reflex try to make sense or pattern out of what I am seeing. However, by its nature, sea is a very chaotic place and does not lend itself to patterns...and just leaves me unsettled and with a headache. Thats about the time a shark comes out of no where to eat me. I dunno, its going to take a lot of conviencing to make me change my mind.




The last of my duo's has been with my strange little friend, Lady. I know Dragoons aren't by natured actually duoing, but its always nice to think of it that way, at least for me. I can imagine in real life having a cat that would come along when I called... has.. a new life every 12 min...and does her best to help me. (Can you tell I wish I had a cat? I wish I did.. ) But I spent some time in the Grotto just killing very strong mobs. Much like when I duo'd with Raka, for some reason I can kill quite easily with a dragon pet as well. I even found a NM and grabbed that wand. I made it to level 21 after some time and put her away again for some time, but I really think I will revisit Dragoon again.




I think its obvious that playing parties isn't the only way to do things in this game. And for the most part, it can be the most fun to have a friend to rely on and more importantly have fun with. lol.. anyone wanna duo?

Chasing Yarn

“There's no excuse to be bored. Sad, yes. Angry, yes. Depressed, yes. Crazy, yes. But there's no excuse for boredom, ever.” --Viggo Mortensen

“If you're bored with life - you don't get up every morning with a burning desire to do things - you don't have enough goals.” --Lou Holtz

“When I get real bored, I like to drive downtown and get a great parking spot, then sit in my car and count how many people ask me if I'm leaving.” --Stephen Wright

I have often marveled at the ability of felines to enjoy the simple pleasure of hunting inoquious things like feathers and yarn. Even in stress-filled times, such as at animal shelters (I volenteer sometimes) I could wave a feather on the end of a long piece of string and have the rapt attention of 10 some odd very unhappy cats ready to play.

I think this is what I do in the game an awful lot. Chasing Yarn.. I do not accept "nobody will invite.." or "you cannot do this..." I simply find something to do and do it.

When I decided to level Samurai, I decided to take my NPC (Raka) out and see what I could accomplish. It was amazing to me how I could take on Decient Challenges, Even Matches and even Toughs with just myself and my companion. It was funny enough that I got more xp on those trips than I did on my parties in the dunes or in Qufim Island.

So whats my idea for keeping from being board?

Friends: I'm always chatting with my friends.. just ask them.. they're always getting barraged by me. Good friends are always a gem, and often have things they want to do.

Goals: Make goals for yourself, no matter what it might be. I never thought I could ever save up enough gil to buy a scorpion harness, but I set my goal and worked at it. In the mean time, I had plenty to do and never was at a loss for things to do.

Help: Find people who might need things to be done. Not only will you help someone else have more fun at the game, it will give you something more to do.

Meyaouing: I don't know why, but I always feel better for just meyaouing. Constantly.

Go. There are lots of yarn to chase.

Vere, Cui Bono, Felidae?

For some reason, Arizona is the land of the retired people. The end result being that preditors from all over the world come descending upon Arizona to beg, borrow, steal or otherwise obscond from these said retired people ever dollar and cent they may have saved up. Pyramid, Ponzi, Boiler Room scheems galore. It was an eppidemic for a while, and still goes on today. But the end result of many of the scams that were run was the government created a public education effort to make sure people could see what was happening before it was too late. I remember a really interesting television show that explained in a dramatic way when three groups of people combined several different scams into one huge seemingly legal system that trapped thousands of people when it actually happened in real life.

So why am I thinking about this idea again? Has Amway started selling gil now? No...not that I know of... Its about my title I'm reusing. "Really, who benfits, cat?" I have yet again question about what people are thinking about when they design their rules for end game events.

Now, don't get me wrong. This time around, I have seperated with kindness and appreciation. I have no real ill will towards anyone, and I hope they have none towards me. And I did nothing wrong nor do I leave them with anything that would cause anyone a grudge.

This is what I propose as an argument; an intellectual excercise based upon what I know and what I hope to be valid evidence toward that argument. And I hope it is taken to be as much.

Previously, I stated the argument that people act and do things based upon their own goals. For the most part, people need incentive to continue to act in a certain manner. This is a standard for business management as much as it is for natural human nature. But I believe that what I forgot mention was the fact that not every "incentive" are create equally.

Lets look at an idea for a shell created to obtain specific gear. They gather every week to work through time, monster and strategy to obtain the chance for said gear. Attendance for each week, and commitment in lost experience points and consumables becomes the measure of each person's individual commitment. Yet as time moves on, people who obtain gear and complete their goals no longer decide they have a reason to remain and leave. Suddenly there is a void of manpower. They seek to fill this void, but with the caveat for each new person: you cannot obtain gear until the first group obtains their gear. Yet, after time, once these "firsts" obtain gear, they too decide they no longer have a reason to keep working and decide to leave. Again the manpower void, and the cycle continues.

Much like a pyramid scheme. The early joiners are the ones who obtain the benefits of the group. The success is determined upon gaining more "new" people with promises of future rewards that may or may not come.

I am a firm believer in the fact that work should equal reward. Yet just like the idea that a person will work a single job for years without ever the hope of a raise in pay is something that MUST be taken into account. The efforts that things like dynamis and sky takes to complete is heavy and week after week of no rewards--not even a small 1 or 2 thousand gil items--makes the effort worthless. If there is no difference between no or little effort and full and complete effort, then where is the incentive to do either?

I believe there is a happy solution somewhere, but I just know that I couldn't find it where I was at the time. I will continue to seek and maybe I will eventually find it.

Again, I repeat the words of Shakespeare: "If it do come to pass that any man turn ass, leaving his wealth and ease, a stubborn will to please, Ducdame, ducdame, ducdame: Here shall he see gross fools as he, an if he will come to me. "

Vicious Enemies

All true warriors have a sixth sense, a sort of tingling in the back of the mind that triggers the impulse to be ready for a fight. Muscles tense, hands clench and senses sharpen. All from the presence of an enemy.

I sensed my foe near by. My instincts took hold.

Raka and I were camped by a small river, near the tall grass. I quickly fell to the ground, pull her down with me, as quietly as I could. I motioned for silence as clearly as I could to the look of confusion and pain Raka gave me. Slowly and quietly, I crawled to the edge of the water where I knew without seeing that my deadly target would be found. The water about it splashed and moved, oblivious to the end that I had planned for it. Forsaking my weapons least it get away, I tensed my muscles and leaped from where I crouched, and landed right on target and began my fight.

I quickly had my victim within my grasp as I tried to throddle the creature with my bare hands, only to have it slip out and fall back to the river attempting to escape. In its exuberance to flee, it managed to slap at my legs causing me to loose my balance. I fell to the water with a grand splash, and was quickly taken up by the current down the river.

I struggled against the water, as I looked for my prey. Although fast in the water, my reflexes were faster, and I reached out and grabbed it again, holding it in a crushing grip against my body. Before I realized what had happened, or if I knew if my foe was finally vanquished, I was thrust into open air once again as I flew out from a waterfall, and landed in a great fountain.

I worked my way to the bank of the waterfal, still cradeling my prize, as Raka came running down to meet me. My armor and every inch of me was soaked to the bone, but I was happy. The look of concern on her face quickly gave way to exaspiration.

"What?" I said, perfectly innocent. "Do you know how hard it is to find freshwater tuna?" I held out the finally limp fish, and grinned with delight. "This one had a lotta fight in it, donchya think?"

Raka gave a derisive snort, and she walked briskly back to camp. I shrugged and hummed a tune while I thought of my new dinner plans.

Cost of Courtesy

I sent the club a wire stating, Please accept my resignation. I don't want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member.
--Groucho Marx

A thought has crept into mind about dealing with people in Final Fantasy. There is no doubt that there is a requirement to deal with people, at least if you want to get very far in a reasonable amount of time. Yet what is the cost of such a thing? How much are you willing to deal with in order to progress, for the sake of progressing.

I thought about the good experience parties I have joined, and what made up the good ones and what made up the bad ones. There were always exceptions to the rule, but a common theme came about. The good parties were started by people who were polite and showed they had a plan. They would send tells before hand with information about the party and where they were going and so forth. Last night, one such tell informed me that I had to decline because I would have been in a place with mobs too high for me--for some reason people are doing this a lot lately--and I found out by asking questions first. And whats more is.. good parties worked together.

Then I think of bad parties... and yes, I have known quite a few. Bad parties seem to start off with either a blind invite--oh I hate blind invites--and a person who acts as if they are doing me a favor by condescending to invite me to their little grouping. More often than not, these people tend to be short tempered know-it-alls who will criticize everything I or others did in the party. And of course, the most common thread of all is that bad parties were populated by people who never knew the meaning of the word "courtesy."

So what is the cost of demanding such things as.. common courtesy.. when I seek out experience parties. For the most part it would seem, I miss out on many groups. Yet, when it comes down to it, I ended up in one party that degraded so fast that a dragoon was made tank, and 80 xp every five minutes was considered good. So maybe I am not missing out so much as it may seem.

I know for my part, that while I am seeking for a party, I am never doing nothing. I have discovered to my utter delight that using my beloved NPC, I could take on some even match to weak tough monsters solo, and earn more xp in the same time than many of the "bad" parties I had spoken about.

Maybe the cost is too high for some; but the coin of my realm remains as always good maners and common courtesy.