I’ve been thinking a lot about privacy and freedom, and about change vs the expected maintenance of the status quo, and how my friends are violating my freedom by not playing the games I want when I want them to. Once upon a time, I would have posted a long meandering think on my linked-to-my-name publicly-accessible blog. But with my thoughts going down for posterity like that, maybe I should think more first.

This is a social grace I’ve absorbed through cultural osmosis: while I COULD tell all my friends the full names of all my other friends, it’s not appropriate behavior. Referring to a non-mutual personal acquaintance by their full name as a part of a casual non-business conversation reeks somehow of showing off. It just isn’t done, at least if you’re not a rude gossip.

An interesting thing about the choices Facebook and its followers have made about privacy is they’re promoting the idea that friends are to individuals what profitability is to a corporation. The more you have, the better, and sacrificing every other grace is worth it if, in the end, you win.

(As a comment on somebody else’s post:) As someone who HAS invested time and effort [in World of Warcraft], I have to say I am not personally het up about their recent announcement. I’m guessing most people around 25 and under simply won’t care either.

If you read this via Facebook already, uh… Hi! I just realized this may still double spam you. Oh well! Bathtime for baby!

Now Robin is ripping something open. I wonder what?

But Aion has wings, and at least a token effort to explain the meta-game mechanics (for example, why you don’t die permanently in these things). And it has the typical NCsoft art team, especially for character artists. And while I’m not (by default) a fan of ‘grimdark-PvP-there is only WAR’ I am (by default) a fan of wings.

Yes, it’s shallow and petty. I don’t even care. It’s not like I’m picking a charity to donate my life savings to.

Anyhow, I tried out the open beta last night, and I discovered things have changed in the MMO world, or maybe just in me.

Back a lifetime ago, it seemed like common knowledge that you couldn’t really play two MMOs. Even before I tried out Aion, I knew that was untrue, because WoW makes it easy to play multiple games, especially if you’ve made it to the casual raiding scene. Raids pay for themselves these days, and dailies are quick and easy if you need to make up the shortfall. Thank you, Blizzard, for letting me enjoy group story content with my small collection of friends for only a few hours a week!

But what I discovered running around Aion was that most of the game mechanics weren’t new either.  They sometimes looked a bit different, but it felt like they’d picked up a whole bunch of ideas that worked from other games and stitched them together with their own vision. Quest markers. A hotlinked character/monster glossary. Character stores bound to the avatar. Socketed gear. There were a few things that seemed new to me (like power shards increasing combat ability) but they may have come from a game I haven’t played.

And this felt like the right thing to have done. It feels like MMOs have iterated through enough generations that they’re no longer trying to be new and clever just to be new and clever. They’re content using what’s been shown to work well, and there have been enough iterations of ‘new and clever’ to produce a solid set of ‘works well’. Which is good, because MMORPG audiences aren’t just elitist jerks and goons and hobbyist game designers anymore. They’re people like me, who say, “Ooh! Wings!”, and enjoy the comfort of being able to navigate any Safeway, anywhere.

There. That’s my ‘too long for a Facebook status’ thought after a late night poking at Aion. I’m sure I’ll have more on the game itself other than the NCsoft-obvious-facts (gorgeous, can’t swim, click-to-attack) in a day or a week or a month (the open beta ends in a couple of days; it launches in a couple of weeks).

ETA: One thing new to me that I think I like is that ‘race’ is totally a cosmetic choice. The character creation options include sliders that allow you to make elves or goblins or halflings or Cloud Strife. Whatever suits your taste.

On the other hand, getting up at 7:15 every morning and writing at the same time as some other people scattered around the globe means I get at least a thousand words a day written (which is a lot better than my thousand words a week before). Which means I can calculate out that I should be finished by October 1st or possibly earlier.

I’m trying not to dwell on how late in the year October 1st seems. But I would like to finish a novel in less than a year from start to finish someday. This one, I started when Robin was about six months old…

Anyhow, I’m happy with how well I’m doing, even if I need to start going to bed even earlier, probably at the exact same time Robin does. Hopefully the writing doesn’t suck.

Perhaps there’ll be a post about the 2 year old later. But there’s a youtube video while you wait, if you haven’t seen it on Facebook already. It has a bit of sound, but it’s pretty quiet. Cathy took it on her camera.

If I were to design something for Robin, it would feature lots of stars and flowers. So now I’m imagining a sort of magical setting in the night sky, with characters who take care of stars and have gardens and horses and dogs and cats and giant trucks. Sort of Rainbow Brite/Pixie Hollow/Monster Truck.

I suppose Care Bears comes close, except for too plushie, no horses or giant trucks, and apparently nearly dead as a franchise except for at Hot Topic.

Yeah. I wish that sort of thing made me feel good. Instead I feel… overwhelmed. Like there’s no possible way I can succeed.

I assembled the recycling box I purchased from Greendisk, and I threw my old mouse into it. And I thought ‘this is a raindrop in the sea of clutter and junk filling this house’.

Then again, I’ve been extra-tired and crummy-feeling the last few days, so maybe I’ll be in a more positive mood later this week?

It’s a crutch, in a way; I have much less motivation to walk-as-exercise if I can’t track how much I’m walking. But this summer, I’ve been walking more than ever. It’s still not 10,000 steps a day, not everyday. But I’m getting closer.

This is what I’ve observed.

• On a day where all I do is sit on my butt in front of a computer, I manage about 2,000 steps.
• On a day where I go to the grocery store or do a lot of chores, I manage about 4,000 steps.
• On a day when I make an effort to go outside and walk, I average about 6-7,000 steps. Lately I’ve been walking laps around our cul-de-sac or back yard while Robin plays, which works better for me motivationally than, say, walking to the park– because then I become focused on the goal rather than the process and thus want to get the process out of the way.
• On days where I do walking as entertainment– mall or warehouse shopping, or going to the zoo or similar, I record 11k-14k. This usually happens at least once a week.
• I’ve managed to work my way up from a goal of averaging 4k a day at the beginning of the year to averaging 6k a day.
• I feel really lazy making this post! Various websites documenting the 10k steps recommendation make it sound so easy.