Hey everyone, sorry I haven’t been on in a while. As I predicted, holidays did get busy. Unfortunately, that wiill not make my blogging life here any easier even now that they’re over. After a long and strenuous Senior year in college, which ened with a few bad grades(-_-), I’m now on the path of finding a full-time job. That means I’ll be stuck at home for a while, long or short. In any case, my net life will be direly limited while I’m at home searching, so my recent onslaught of writing that came before the holidays will be tapered by a drought. Billions of apologies to you all who enjoy my writing, and know that once I get a solid net source up and running, I’ll be back on my feet like I was before.

In the meantime, I do have some blog time before I take off for work, and I’ll have some more time tonight and possibly some of tomorrow before things get tough again. So, let’s see how well I do with this one.

Alright, first on the char subs, I want to say thanks again to the overwhelming response I got from people. It was really hard to decide who would get some spots, which is good, of course. Counting from a grand total of seven, I got some very interesting characters to read about, so good job to all of you. However, as I’ve thought about the future of this story, I realize that my original idea of six winners would be a bit too much to think about, so I’m cutting the winners’ circle down to four. To make up for this, I’ve decided that even those who don’t get a winning spot will get a compensation spot or two in the story. In short, everyone wins, just some more than others.

And without further ado, here are the winners:

4th place goes to: ShiningWings, for his submission of Takira. *gives you a donut*
3rd place goes to: TheReplaced, for his submission of Avarius.*gives you a can of mountain dew*
2nd place goes to: Fenrir, for his submission of Lemmington. *gives you a twelve-pack of the dew*
And the 1st prize winner is…….AzNxKnife, for his submission of Imaskari!!! *24-pack of dew and a plate of donuts*

Everyone else’ll get a cameo or few here and there. Congrats to all of you and thanks for your help.

What else….ah, yes, I finally LEVELED! BOOYAH! Oh, it felt sooooo good to do that after having to wait for the fricking college to let out before I could. Overall it was grinding, though I did a couple quests in Zipang. One thing I will say about grinding is that trashing all those water goblins for hours upon hours made me question my decision to max assaulter BEFORE BoT. However, I still leveled anyway, and I still usually get around 5% an hour, so it’s okay. Plus, I can finally wear those pirate clothes I’ve been saving. Heh, I’m a pirate. ARRRR!^^

Alongside that, though, I have a rant. Yea, I know. “Tninja has a RANT?! Wow, that’s new!” Well, it is new, as I haven’t ranted in a while, but I just have to spill this outta me after what happened last night/this morning during my training. I was whacking goblins when I get a whisper from my guild leader Ngoc, only her char isn’t Ngoc. My amazement at this was quelled by the fact that her original account was under suspension ’till the 22nd. “Uh-oh, I asked, what happened?” The charge is thus:

She got kicked for ksing a hacker.

I repear: SHE got KICKED for KSing a HACKER. Note the last word, HACKER, specifically a vac hacker.

*sigh* Wow, thanks, GMs! Thanks for that! -_-

I mean, come ON! Yes, ksing is a bad thing, but against a vaccer? If I were there, I’d’ve been her cheerleader!

My point: yes, ksing is a bad thing, especially excessive, and no, kicking a player for it isn’t too harsh. However, I draw the line when it comes to stealing from players who twist the game to their will by making the monsters come to THEM. Ksing is griefing, but vaccing is miles beyond that; it’s lazy, inconsiderate, and an inconcieveable act of arrogance, as though you were shouting to the game itself that you’re too good to walk.

Now let me tell you something. Anyone who’s against my opinion can argue about it all they want(though I don’t tolerate flamers), but I honestly don’t see what the problem with ksing vaccers is. I mean, let’s look at it this way. Vaccers rely on their trickery, their “magic,” and their manipulation of the game system to make hunting easy for them, and sometimes harder for others. They’re putting themselves at an unfair advantage by pulling whatever monsterrs they want into one spot, getting easy training out of it and getting all the loot to themselves. So I personally find nothing wrong with someone who is willing to WALK and PORT around to earn their monsters go over and cut a hole in the vaccers training, to show them just how unfair their ways are.

Anyway, that’s all I got for now, better go to work. Might have a new blog up tonight, we’ll see. Until then, happy mapling!