Well, this has taken longer than I was hoping or planning on to get done. But I have only myself to blame, since I started it 3 different times (besides this one) and kept writing about things I didn’t want to say. I am hoping this time I have narrowed things down enough that I won’t be starting this again and saying I had tried 4 times.

As I mentioned in my last post about Kickstarter, I have never started a project on any crowd sourcing site. I have only backed projects, mostly on Kickstarter. The numbers since that post have changed somewhat. I have now backed 35 projects in 2013, and overall have received 65 complete rewards, 6 partial rewards, and have 35 rewards that are past due. And have backed 20 unsuccessful projects. I’m always disappointed when that number increases.

While I don’t know what it is like to actually create and run a Kickstarter project, I have tons of experience with what does and doesn’t appeal to backers. At least backers like me, other people obviously have other tastes. So let’s take a look at them.

Videos

Kickstarter has lots of numbers about the videos that appear at the top of most project pages and how they can affect a project’s success or failure. I’m not going to argue with them, they have actual data while I am stuck with anecdotal information. And it is my own anecdotes at that.

I almost never look at the video. Partially it is the method I am using to access the site. My phone is small and I am on the go, while my home computer is really old and doesn’t play videos well. So I have probably looked at less than a third of the videos on projects I have backed. And many of them were after backing.

The most important thing about the video is make it good. Kickstarter has good advice in their school about videos. Use it. There have been a few videos that if I had watched them before giving the money, I wouldn’t have pledged. And there was one that was so bad and disjointed, I figured they couldn’t pull off the project and cancelled my pledge. A bad video is much worse than no video.

Rewards

More! More!

This can be really difficult, depending on what your project is. If you are creating a record or a book, offering a digital download for $15 or $20, and a physical reward for a bit more, is pretty easy. But after that, the ability to have lots of tiers of rewards can be tempting. You want to have lots of options, to pull in lots of pledges. You want to give your supporters what they want, because they are helping you succeed in something very important to you. But it is very easy to have too much of a good thing.

The Order of the Stick Reprint Drive was wildly successful. And Rich Burlew (@RichBurlew) added many levels of rewards throughout the project. His supporters kept asking for more, he wanted to reward the immense level of support he was receiving, and keep it going as much as possible. There was a downside to that however. Over 15 months after the end of the Kickstarter, he is still working on fulfilling rewards. With months of work to go before the end. (To be fair, he was slowed drastically by an injury to his drawing hand. But while that added months to the time it has taken him to work on the rewards, it is most likely that he would still not be finished with them, just due to the sheer amount of work involved.)

The Ogre Designer’s Edition project by Steve Jackson Games (@SJGames) had the same sort of mission creep. And so they ended up with a game costing $100, in a 25 pound box. With a launch date almost a year after the scheduled delivery of November 2012. (And it looks beautiful and I can hardly wait for my copy.)

And both projects had tons of stretch goals, which added to their workloads and the size of the projects. It is hard to argue with their success as projects. But the downside is the very long time it has taken them to get rewards to their backers. Their backers are mostly fans, who are more than willing to wait to get what they have been promised, so it is not a large problem.

But it can be. I’ve seen several instances of backers wanting their money back because of a long wait for the promised rewards. They backed because they were interested in a particular reward, not to support someone they were already a fan of. Not getting that reward in a reasonable amount of time (or even an unreasonable amount for some projects) soured them on the whole project.

Less!

On the other extreme there is the Planet Money T-Shirt project. One reward. No stretch goals.  And in the end, they did not have enough rewards. They did not offer enough sizes of the T-shirt, and only had 2 colors. Some of their backers were evidently quite upset about not being able to get what they wanted (I am one of the people who can’t get a shirt in my size, so my niece will be getting a very late birthday present.)

They could have made more people happy with a wider offering, but their project was not really about producing t-shirts. It was about creating stories for their radio show/podcast. And in that, they have been extremely successful. Which has made most of their backers happy, even if they couldn’t get a shirt out of it.

And one of these…

What appears to me to be a growing trend with Kickstarter projects is the adding on of extras. This isn’t new by any means, both the Order of the Stick and Ogre Designer offered add ons. And it is understandable, since it allows the project runners to give their supporters exactly what is wanted, and make more money for the project.

Leaving aside the added work this can make for the project creator, I have found one problem with this trend. It can add huge amounts of complexity to the backing process. It was easy to start with, I found the reward tier that included the reward I wanted and went through the process of backing it.

Now, I have to do that, then look at the various add ons, figure out if any of them are already included in the level I have chosen, then decide if I want to get them and add that money to my pledge. And then I need to let the project runner know what I have chosen, in what ever manner they have decided is best (comment on an update, email, message through Kickstarter, or a third party that is helping with fulfillment), and then hope that all the communications went correctly and they are able to fulfill things correctly.

“UNDER THE SMOGBERRY TREES: The True Story of Dr. Demento” basically just offered all of their rewards as add ons. They created a couple of charts to let backers know exactly how much to add to their pledges to get extras. It worked for them, at least as far as making their goal and keeping their backers happy. How well it will work when it comes time for actually putting together the rewards and sending them out will have to wait.

Personally, the extra complexity is unwelcome, even when it allows me the chance to get something that I want. You really need to balance what you offer as an add on with keeping it easy for people to back you and get what they want. Not an easy needle to thread. And speaking of complexity.

I get what?

It is fun to give the various reward tiers their own names that fit the theme of the project. Goblins: Alternate Realities does just that. If you are familiar with the webcomic the game is based on, the names of the tiers mean something to you. Something else they do is very clearly tell you what is included in the tier, by telling you what earlier tiers are included in it plus what is specific to that tier.

This means that you have to look at each of the earlier tiers in order to figure out exactly what you are getting. But it is easier for the creator than having to relist everything over and over again in each tier. And it helps the backer because everything is spelled out.

One of the problems with lots of add ons and stretch goals is the confusion that can occur about who gets what at which reward tier. This can result in backers not backing what they want, extra time spent by creators and backers both trying to get it all clear, and increased mistakes when sending out rewards.

What’s Going On

Prior Planning Prevents…

Confusion. Chaos. Failure. Unhappy backers. It can never be said enough, because people seem to have a hard time hearing it, you need to plan ahead for your Kickstarter project. I have seen people announce during their project that they forgot to add in shipping costs, so could everyone increase their pledge by $5 or $10? And others that didn’t realize how high shipping could be and ended up losing money instead of making it.

Marian Call (@mariancall) had a very successful project and wrote a blog post about it, including stuff about planning and costing out rewards. She has also said that when she is finished with rewards (almost there) she will be writing more, which is something that you should be on the look out for if you want to so a project. She obviously worked hard and planned as thoroughly as she could, which didn’t eliminate problems during the project, but did help minimize them. And made it easier to deal with them when they happened.

Read the Kickstarter FAQ and the Kickstarter School sections on the website. The information is basic, but is a great starting place. You can also look at the Geeklist How to change a Kickstarter from a Fail to a Win on Board Game Geek. It is focused on game Kickstarters, but it has plenty of basic information good for any project.

Let Me Know

Kickstarter includes a couple of different ways to talk to your backers. Besides the front page, you can send out updates, private or public, or messages, and you can use the Comments page. And you have access to the email addresses of the backers. Use these things to keep people informed.

During a project you want to let backers or prospective backers who have starred your project know about goals that have been set or met. Or about new developments in the project, like a new artist or getting featured in a story on the web someplace. And you especially want to keep them fired up and publicizing the project, to get more backers.

You don’t want to spam them too much, because irritating people is a poor way to get them to give you money. But during the actual run of the project, especially right at the start and the end, most backers will be more forgiving because they want to see goals met, whether the funding goal or stretch goals.

After the end of the project, and the money has been taken, it is even more important to keep communications open with your backers. You don’t want to keep up multiple updates a day, or probably even a week, but you also don’t want to stop talking to them at all.

Even if the update is just “Nothing has been happening, we are waiting to hear back from the printer.” it lets the people who have believed in you know that they haven’t been forgotten. When things are happening, and you have photos or news to share, it is even better. They can see that their rewards are coming, and progress is being made.

And when you have to tell them that the rewards are going to be late (you may not have to do this, but in my experience, the odds are you will, especially if your project is very successful) they will take it better if you are up front about being late and why you will be late. Letting your backers hang with no information is the worst thing you can do.

Only slightly better than that is constantly contacting your backers after the project is over and rewards are delivered. Tell them thanks for everything, then leave them alone. If you do another project, whether a sequel to the first or something new, then you could do an update to the first project to let them know.  But don’t do like one creator did. Every time the sent an update to the second project, they sent it to the first one also. Apparently they thought it might generate interest in people who had backed the first project but not the second. What it really did was irritate everyone that had already backed both projects, since they got every update twice.

And finally

Well that was more wandering than I was hoping. But better than the other attempts, at least I stayed on Kickstarter this time. With luck some of what I wrote will be useful to someone. One last tip. After planning everything out, looking at how long planning and production will be, taking into account shipping times, customs delays, mistakes at the printers and finding a new one, so you know just how far out to set your delivery date, double it. Maybe you won’t be late that way.

Lots of noise around the interwebs these days about crowdsourcing, especially in the subcategory of crowdfunding. It isn’t exactly a new thing, in fact it is an extremely old (For American values of old anyway.) way of getting things done. Barn raisings are an age old form of crowdsourcing, that is still practiced today. The only thing that has really changed is what is being worked on and the number of people that can contribute.

Kickstarter is of course the big name in crowdfunding, with literally millions of dollars being pledged there daily. They are not the only game in town by any means. IndieGoGo is probably their best known competitor, with two big differences: Allowing projects from all over the world (Kickstarter is US and UK only) and the option of flexible funding (The creator can elect to take any funds raised even if the goal is not met, rather than Kickstarter’s all or nothing approach.) There is also RocketHub, which also has flexible funding and worldwide access. And I have heard of several other sites that are more specialized, focusing on science projects or non-profits, but I have not directly experienced
any of them yet.

My first encounter with Kickstarter was in July of 2011, following a link from Twitter to a project for a system to hold an SLR camera safely, out of the way, but easily accessible, the Capture Camera Clip System, by Peak Design. It turned out to be a very nice system, and I am certainly glad I got it, but other things were happening in my life at the time, so I didn’t spend any more time on Kickstarter, so it faded from my awareness.

Until January of 2012 anyway. That is when I found out about the Order of the Stick kickstarter Reprint Drive that was attempting to raise enough money to get the dead tree editions of The Order of the Stick web comic back in print. (Side note: If you are into RPGs, especially D&D, and you haven’t been reading The Order of the Stick, then stop reading this and go start at the beginning. This will still be here when you are done in a couple of days.) I had been wanting the paper collections, but they were out of print, so I was having to wait. I quickly jumped on the chance to get all four of the main books (I already had the prequels) more cheaply than I could have through a store. Plus the other odds and ends that got added as stretch goals. It was a very successful project, the only comics project to raise over $1 million dollars as I write this.

And then I was hooked. It seemed like every time I turned around, there was another neat project being mentioned on Twitter, or on a forum I was reading, or in a news article. Pretty soon I had pledges out on a lot of projects. and I knew of a few coming up that I was determined to pledge to. And I was having a hard time keeping track of what I had pledged to whom, and what rewards I was supposed to get when. So I started an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of them all. I like playing around with it, adding things to determine various percentages and totals. All of these numbers are as of this writing. They will change.

• Total projects backed                161
• Kickstart Projects backed         155
• Unsuccessful Projects backed    19
• Rewards received                        58
• Past Due rewards                        30
• # of 2012 project pledges           133
• # of 2013 projects pledges           27

I have backed 5 projects on IndieGoGo (all in 2012) and 1 on RocketHub (2013). Neither of those sites appeals to me the way Kickstarter does. Possible the interface or maybe the flexible funding. It is purely a personal reaction, I don’t think there is anything wrong with either site, or the projects on them, and I am certain there are plenty of people that feel just the opposite of what I do. I have more information then this of course. Average pledge amount per project, total pledged, projects backed in each category, etc.

While I knew I was backing a lot of projects, I didn’t realize quite how unusual I was. According to Kickstarter’s data for 2012, out of over 2.2 million backers last year, only 452 backed 100 projects or more. I guess that is one way to make it into the 0.1%.

Looking at all of these projects, plus the ones that I didn’t back, has lead me to form some opinions about what does and doesn’t work for successful Kickstarter projects. I have even been asked just that by a Kickstarter creator. But that will have to wait for my next post, because this one is already a bit long, and I will probably be quite long-winded. But don’t worry, I won’t wait as long before the next post as I did since my last one.

As I have mentioned before here, I am a fan of singer/songwriter Marian Call (@mariancall). I first reviewed two of her albums back in March of 2009. They were the only ones she had out at the time, and they really stuck with me. Then I reviewed Something Fierce, her third album, in February of this year. (Ignore the first few paragraphs, do down, read about and stream the album.) And not long after, I finally got to see her in concert over a couple of days in Atlanta, GA. I also got to see her sing in Cleveland, OH, on August 26, backed by Seth Boyer (@sethboyer), with some help from a young group named Lumpia (@LumpiaBand). (I am going to get a review of the concert and some pictures up eventually. I hope.)

Ms. Call has had an incredibly busy year. Besides her full tour schedule around North America, mostly driving everywhere, she set up and ran a very successful Kickstarter campaign, with a second website that is still in use for promoting the re-release of her Something Fierce album. Fans can go to the Adventure Quest website and find a daily quest to complete leading up to the album’s release on November 13. It is a bit late in the game, but you can still participate, as long as you get everything done by the 13th.

Some of the quests are not too difficult, like the first one at The Insomnia Radio Network, or the second at either If My Thought-Dreams Could Be Seen, Anansi’s Web, or Whedonopolis. Then there are some real challenges, at least for me, like using ? for commenting on the Album Premiere page at American Songwriter. But even if you don’t want to give the quest a try, you should check out Something Fierce. As time has passed, my opinion of it has only grown.

Obviously I am not trying to be consistent on how often I write here. Not because of a lack of things to say. On the contrary, I think of a lot I feel like writing here. But I generally do that while working, and they tend to frown on writing a blog while driving an 18 wheeler. Pure prejudice really. Plenty of people write their blogs while working, but me, not allowed. Such is life.

So I think of things to write, but remembering them when I have stopped moving and unloading and loading and doing paperwork, with the occasional meal and sleep thrown in, has not worked out too well. And when I do remember what I was thinking about, I am not always ready to write that particular entry at that particular time. It isn’t like I am a professional, getting paid and needing to meet a deadline. Even my most popular posts get maybe a couple of dozen hits before disappearing, so I am really doing this for myself.

For this one, the nerd in the title is me, as if you couldn’t guess. I have been one all my life, not by choice, but by whatever combination of genetics and environment brings it on. In some ways a typical one, poor eyesight, constantly reading, especially SF and Fantasy, extremely poor social skills, if you could call them social at all. In other ways, not so much. Ran track, varsity cross country, varsity wrestler. But it was a small school, we all had to wear more than one hat, and you couldn’t expect someone on the basketball team to take the nerd role, they were all cool.

I realize that these days being a nerd or geek is kind of cool. There is an entire culture of geekery and such that has grown up and together from the IT/tech sector, SF Fandom, and mundanes feeling free to embrace their true interests. This is good, a thriving subculture is a way for people to fit in and find their path in life, and the more the merrier. But none of this was true growing up when and where I did. It is probably not true even now where I am, although the isolation is mitigated greatly by the existence of the web and social media.

Which brings in the other part of the title of this ramble through my mind. The only social media I really use is Twitter. I don’t have a Facebook account, mostly because of their really lousy privacy policies and other terms of service they have messed with, but also partly because it is not really fun to have 10 friend requests in a year, 2 of them from people you have never heard of. And I hated their interface. It did not mesh well with the way my mind tries to handle information.

Now Twitter, that I understand. It is like 10 million (Probably an underestimate.) conversations going on at once, most mundane, some extremely interesting. The hard part of course is finding the ones that interest you, while being open to the mundane one that can turn interesting.

So finding interesting people to follow is paramount. Even most of what they talk about will be fairly mundane, but if they are involved in things that you like, the very ordinary parts of their jobs or daily lives will be of immense interest to you. As a reader, having an exchange on creativity with Kate Elliott (@KateElliottSFF) or reading about Keith R.A. DeCandido’s (@KRADeC) progress on his latest work, is hugely interesting, even as it is very mundane for them.

The same sort of thing goes for the comic book writers, the webcomic writers, the TV writers, the singers, the comedians, etc. So I follow quite a few people, all of them talking about the mundane and the vital, at different times, to different people, and I (along with everyone else on Twitter) can follow along or even, if I am bold enough, interject my own opinion.

That is where the problem lies. Media I can understand. But social and old school nerds do not mix so well, at least in my case. I have improved over the years, made it all the way up to being only mostly socially incompetent even. But progress has its ups and downs, and I am afraid I am currently on a downward leg. And recent events in my life have had me questioning things I thought I knew about social interactions even more. So I have actually been stopping and thinking about some of the stuff I start to tweet, and not doing so at times. But I have apparently not been doing very well.

I received a reply from someone, irritated about something I had done 9 days before. I didn’t really know the person, and a 9 day wait before complaining would have raised my eyebrow. But I would have normally just apologized and tried to remember to avoided doing it again to that person. I am not on Twitter, or any other site for that matter, to annoy people. At least not on purpose. But this was a bit different. Not 15 minutes before, I had received a DM from someone I like and respect a great deal, complaining about almost the same thing. So I was obviously screwing up.

Avoiding the specific thing I was doing is easy enough. But it is causing some issues for me anyway. I see others doing pretty much the same thing constantly, and that is just in the 600 or so people I am following. So I am missing some rules of Twitter etiquette, which I am trying to figure out without much success.

Still, just avoid the one action, things will be fine. Unless I am missing some other rules that will annoy someone else. More and more I find myself thinking, “Should I really reply to that?” or “Maybe I shouldn’t retweet this.” or “That joke might upset them.”  Now instead of deleting 1 in every 10 tweet, I am starting many fewer and deleting probably 75% of those I do start without sending them. And even a couple after I did send them.

So on this huge platform, with tens of millions of users, and billions of tweets, I find myself in the same boat I was decades ago in a small rural high school. There are rules for interacting and I don’t know those rules. I try to understand them, but they are varied, flexible, nuanced, and hard to decipher. So I sit and watch from the sidelines, wanting to join in but knowing if I do, I will get things wrong and most likely upset someone I like. And it would be someone I like, because the only people I follow I don’t like are a couple of politicians that represent me in Congress. (Yes, I admit, I do try to irritate them on purpose, but that is only fair, they irritate me constantly with their lies and hypocrisy.)

And all of this is on a service I have been using for years, and understand fairly well. Facebook? Google+? I haven’t a clue as to how to begin. Pinterest? Nope, not until I figure out the stuff that is easy.

The internet and the web have given nerds and geeks lots of new ways to connect with their fellows, opening up the world to many. But I am afraid it has also give a lot of us more places to look bewildered and stand to the side looking on. Wanting badly to connect with the obvious like-minded souls that are out there, but not understanding how.

So something else has occurred in my life to write about. I got to do something I haven’t done in quite a long while, visit a new place and explore for a while. The place obviously is Atlanta, GA. I not only got to go there, I had 48 hours to look around and see what was there. That might not sound like much, but for a truck driver, it is a lot. There have been many times I didn’t get that much time at my home for a weekend.

The weekend was both wonderful, and not so wonderful, well actually parts were outright bad. But I can say, only one of the bad parts was the fault of anything actually associated with Atlanta, and I could have avoided that if I had planned better.

Making Plans

The reason I was in Atlanta was to see Marian Call (@mariancall), whose music was the subject of my last post, in concert. She had 2 concerts scheduled for this weekend, a house concert on Friday night and a larger one on Saturday. I asked my dispatcher if it would be possible to get home on Friday, so I could drive down and see the Saturday concert, then drive back on Sunday to head out on the road again Monday morning. 600 miles one way may seem far to see one concert, but it is not my longest trip. I once flew to Maui to see Jimmy Buffett for one concert. And I like Ms. Call’s music much more than I like Jimmy’s. (I’m never going to be a true Parrothead. I’ll go with being a Zombie Cheerleader instead.) It would only leave me a few hours to see the city, but it would be a start. A couple of days later, I mentioned there was a Friday concert also, which would be great to see. My dispatcher said she would see what she could do, since it depended on what loads there were that week, which she wouldn’t know until that week.

So I did the RSVP for both concerts and waited to see what would happen. It is like that a lot for drivers, you are at the mercy of the customers for things like days off, including holidays off. You are also at the mercy of things like mechanical breakdowns and the weather. So I know idea if I would make either of the concerts. Until Wednesday morning of last week. I received a load on my Qualcomm (In-truck computer for anyone not familiar with it.) which didn’t get me home in time to drive down for either concert. Instead, I ended up in Atlanta late on Thursday night, and didn’t have to head back to Ohio until Sunday. So I could see both concerts and part of the city. (Why yes, I do owe my dispatcher big time. She was very considerate and helpful.)

House Concert

So Friday morning I was free to start exploring Atlanta. Theoretically anyway. The reality took much longer. I had to rent a car, get my stuff out of my truck, and get checked into a hotel, all of which took much more time than it should have. The biggest problem was the car. I needed to get from the company facility to the airport, which made me dependent on others for that part of the plan. I couldn’t empty my truck until I had somewhere to put my stuff. So I didn’t get to the airport until after 1:00 PM. Which meant I didn’t get to my hotel until almost 3:00. That basically left me enough time to unpack some stuff, get a shower and cleaned up, and head to the concert.

House concerts are small, intimate concerts, quite often set literally in someone’s home. Ms. Call does a better job explaining it then I ever could. I knew what they were, having followed her career for 3 years, but I had never experienced one. (This is part of why 600 miles for a concert was not a big deal. 3 years of not getting to see your favorite singer in concert, even when she had played close to your home a couple of times? Frustrating.)

Having now experienced one, I can say it is a wonderful experience. Ms. Call and her accompanist, Scott Barkan (@scottbarkan) (A very talented singer/songwriter in his own right. Check him out.) mingled and talked to the guests before, during, and after the show. The hosts had a nice supply of food and drink laid out, with several bottles of wine disappearing during the evening, and there were interesting people as guests, including Jonathan Strickland (@JonStrickland), a podcaster/writer from HowStuffWorks.

Marian and Scott have our attention.

Now a quick side note of explanation. I have brain damage. (Yes, there are plenty of folks that would confirm that without needing MRIs.) It affects my balance. When I first had the problem, I basically had to relearn how to walk. Unfortunately, that takes a lot more brainpower in your 40s then it did at 1. So when I am in a new situation, or meeting lots of new people, or am very tired and/or stressed, my ability to speak is disrupted, usually with a form of aphasia. How badly depends on how many of those things are present. With my family, I have slight hesitations that are barely noticeable. Friday night, I could barely get my name out.

It is easy to see why I had a problem. I didn’t have just one of the things that could make my speech worse. I had all of them present. Brand new place, with almost 20 people I didn’t know, tired from a week driving, stress from both the hassles of getting things done that day and meeting my favorite singer, who I like and admire as a person, and who happens to be a beautiful woman. I am probably lucky I was able to speak as well as I could. But at the time all I felt was embarrassment and frustration about it. The music was great, but I couldn’t talk to anyone.The one saving grace to it was the problem only affects my ability to talk. I can still sing, and was able to join in on the audience participation and sing the rest of the songs to myself. I have had this for 6 years now. Mostly it is a very slight annoyance, trying to find a word. Occasionally it is very frustrating when I am tired or stressed. Friday night was the first time it felt like a handicap. And it makes me very thankful that it is usually minor and something I can joke about.

Exploring Atlanta

So Saturday, I had an entire day to explore Atlanta. But I had not had time to do my usual checking of things to do and see while on a trip. So I relied on Twitter. One of the people coming to the Saturday Marian Call concert was flying in from LA (I’m not the only one that thinks Ms. Call is worth traveling to see.) and mentioned the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta. (She also does things with puppets and was meeting like-minded people in Atlanta.) So I went to check it out. It turns out, a large part of the Center is the various shows that are running there. I got there at an awkward time for seeing any of them, so settled for just looking at the museum exhibits. The majority of the exhibits had to do with Jim Henson, the creator of the Muppets and so much more. They basically went through and traced his career, showing how had advanced the arts of puppetry far beyond where they had been before his time. Without seeing the shows or doing the workshops in the center, it can take on the air of a memorial to Jim Henson and his life’s work. But if ever a man deserved that, he does and it was well worth the time and money to see.

Next, some poor planning on my part resulted in the only sour note from my sightseeing. I wanted to check out the Georgia Aquarium and the Coke Museum. They have a combined ticket that is a bit cheaper than paying for them individually, but I had decided not to buy one online since I didn’t know what time I would be at their location. Big mistake, don’t ever do that if you actually want to see much.

On arriving I saw signs saying the combined ticket could be purchased at the box office of either building, so I got in the line for the Coke Museum, which were much shorter than the Aquarium. But when I got to the window, I was told that those signs are liars, the combined ticket was only sold at the Aquarium box office. So it was over to the even longer line than before at the Aquarium. Where after almost 40 minutes, I had just reached the actual section that was enclosed in tape to start weaving you back and forth. At that point I bailed. I was frustrated and had reached a saturation point of being surrounded by people.

KAWS Companion welcoming High Museum visitors.

So I looked on my phone and found the High Museum of Art not too far away. Once I got there, I paid a very reasonable entry fee, read their rules on photographing exhibits (which resulted in my not taking any photos, since I could not show them online) and starting wandering.

I searched out the Folk Art section first, which had a wide variety of exhibits using all kinds of materials. There was an exhibit on Howard Finster, who I remember reading about years ago. He created some interesting and in some ways beautiful art in his quest to save people for the Lord.

There were some fascinating pieces in the Modern Art collection, with a couple of works by Gerhard Richter using glass that were really interesting to me. The 7 panes piece seemed to be commenting on how ephemeral we are as we pass through this world. The reflections getting dimmer on each pane as you look through them.

The Picasso to Warhol exhibit was nice. The big names on each end pulled people in to see some lesser known artwork that most people never heard of. Some of it was interesting, most of it was not to my taste. Still good to get the chance to explore new things.

The KAWS: DOWN TIME exhibition told me one thing for certain. The KAWS artist is strange. Very good, fascinating to look at, and kind of neat. But definitely strange.

Civic Center Concert

At that point it was time to drive back to my hotel, so I could get ready and then drive all the way to the other end of the city for my second Marian Call concert experience. It was kind of early, but I planned on grabbing a bite to eat on the way to the concert so wanted to leave early. Which was very fortunate on my part.

Getting to the Doraville Civic Center from my hotel called for me to drive up I285 for the entire length of Atlanta. Unfortunately, the highway department decide that Saturday night was an excellent time for closing 2 lanes of I285 for construction. (I can see their point. Considering the back up doing it on a weekend cause, I can’t imagine what would happen during weekday traffic.) Which meant that less than 5 miles from the concert, I was moving about 5 miles an hour, with 45 minutes to get there. After grabbing an exit and exploring some of the Atlanta suburbs (Thank goodness for GPS) I made it to the concert with 15 minutes to spare. But without getting to eat or stop at an ATM.

Special Guests

The feeling of the concert was very different from the house concert. It felt more formal because of the stage/audience setup. More like a concert at a club setting rather than someone singing at a party, which the house concert felt like. (Not too much, just a bit more separation between the artist and audience, at least at the beginning.) The music was again wonderful, and the chorus line of puppets that showed up made a very fun addition to a couple of songs.

It’s Shark Week!

For the first time this weekend, I heard a Marian Call song I didn’t know the words to. But since it was only about the fourth time they had performed it, and it isn’t available online, I didn’t feel bad. But now I want to sing “Shark Week, its Shark Week” like a pirate all the time.

Keeping us in time.

Scott had a slight mishap at one point, with one of his strings breaking during a song. He ripped it off and finished the song, then had to go to the side to replace it quickly. This led to Ms. Call starting some audience participation, keeping the tune to Jayne going while she sang it, until Scott jumped back in near the end and tore into the music so hard I was afraid he would break another string.

Near the end of the concert, during a cover of a Jimmy Hendrix song, I had my worst time of the weekend. My speech problem is caused by my brain having to work too hard to process information. After a long day, not enough food, and the fun I was having, my brain decided it needed a rest. So I got too dizzy to stand. This happened occasionally when I pressed too hard to keep going, but it has been years since the last time. There was a seat available, so I was able to avoid falling, but then I did something stupid, because I didn’t want to embarrass myself more. I didn’t tell anyone I needed help to my car. I sat there in the way, until most people had left and I had recovered enough to get to my coat, then started working my way to my car.

Unfortunately, my car was at the bottom of a stairway and sloping path, and the first step was enough to convince me I was not able to get there yet. So I sat there, while everyone packed up and left, probably thinking I was really weird to be sitting out in the cold like that. But I wasn’t, well, I am but not that weird. I was just too embarrassed about something I had no control over to ask for the help I needed. Which I guess makes me human. I finally made it back to my car a little after 11:00 PM, then sat until I could drive safely.

Updated: The host of Ms. Call and Mr. Barkan for her stay in Atlanta was in on a surprise for the second song of the concert. He had his video camera ready for “Good Morning Moon” with a guest chorus.

Possibly some of my favorite concert footage EVER. “Good Morning Moon” the way it’s meant to be. RT @phlebas: ow.ly/9AsLS

— mariancall (@mariancall) March 11, 2012

All Done

Now it is time to get the car back to Avis and my stuff back to my truck, then back on the road. My weekend in Atlanta had some really great experiences, and some really bad ones. The bad ones I can only blame on myself. The great ones, I have to credit to Ms. Call and Mr. Barkan. They are both very talented musicians, and I hope I can arrange to see them perform again in the future. Their music, individually and together is worth the effort to hear.Maybe then I will be able to talk to them, as well as socially impaired nerd can anyway. And I recommend attending any house concerts you get the chance to. Assuming you are able to speak, they are great ways to meet people and especially the artist.

Overall, I would do it again in a heartbeat, even the bad stuff. Well, I hope I would be smart enough to ask for help. And I hope that is a lesson I remember if I need it in the future.

Updated

March 13, 2012 – I added a picture from the first concert and the wonderful video phlebas shot of “Good Morning Moon.”

March 15, 2012 – Added some pictures from the Doraville concert and the High Museum of Art.

Wow, almost 2 1/2 years since I posted anything here. Makes me wonder why I have kept the back-end stuff all up to date. But if I hadn’t I would have had to do it all when I decided to write this. Not that many folks will see it, but a few of you might.

And what is it that is motivating me to once again take a chance on making a fool of myself by trying to string together words coherently? Music. Some of the best music I have heard. Ever.

My favorite music is Country. I was raised on it, from Tammy Wynette, to Jim Ed Brown, to Johnny Cash, and the Statler Brothers. Some folks I know raised on the same kind of music from the same period can’t stand anything that is called country today. I can certainly understand that, Sugarland is not much like Hank, Sr. But then, Bocephus isn’t much like Hank, Sr. either.

Personally, I decided somewhere along the line that what genre music is supposed to be didn’t matter much to me. If I liked it, it was good. And if I didn’t like it, well someone else probably did, so more power to them, enjoy.

My music purchases still run mostly to country, but my phone has albums from Gloria Estefan, Bonnie Raitt, Ok Go, Huey Lewis and the News, Sheryl Crow, the Eagles, and  Santana. Plus a few albums of Scottish bagpipes and as soon as I get a bigger microSD card, my album of organ fugues by Bach. My tastes could be called a bit eclectic.

Then there is the reason for this long rambling post. Her name is Marian Call (@mariancall on Twitter, worth following without the music). She is an independent singer/songwriter, living in Alaska. And taking her inspiration for her songs from her life, her likes, and where she is. And she is a self-confessed geek, although confession sounds like it is something to be ashamed of, when in reality she is proud of it. I reviewed her first two albums, Vanilla and got to fly, almost 3 years ago. Since her new album came out in October, it was quite a wait for her fans. But it was well worth it.

Something Fierce is a double CD, with 19 tracks on it. (Oh look. There it is to the right, you can check it out while you read. Isn’t that handy?) They cover a range of styles, topics and moods, showing that Ms. Call has improved on the very strong skills she was exhibiting in her first efforts. The songs are filled with puns, some obvious, others less so, and there are layers of meaning and feeling in almost every song. So much so, that trying to explain them can be an exercise in frustration. You just need to experience them. Now for a few of my favorite things.

Good Morning Moon is a light, upbeat, happy song, with an explanation of orbital mechanics in it. And by upbeat, I mean if you use it for an alarm, by the second verse you will be smiling, no matter how much of a non-morning person you are. And I say this as someone who hates mornings unless I am watching the sun rise before going to bed.

Temporal Dominoes is a commissioned song. Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer (@BadAstronomer on Twitter, follow him.) paid for the song with cookies. All I can say is, he must be one heck of a baker. I have to confess, I am still not sure what the song is about. Something to do with shifting paradigms, Europeans, and flying fish. Although they are not mentioned, I keep getting an impression of quantum physics and CERN, but I am not certain how they tie in with riding a train from Oxford to Cardiff. I don’t really like this song for the subject matter, however intriguing it is. I am much more excited by the singing. Ms. Call’s voice is fantastic on all of the songs on the album, but the way she sings this one, with the tempo changes and the sheer fun it seems she is having make this a favorite for me.

Highway Five is a bit of a love song for the road Ms. Call has traveled along the west coast all of her life. Her love for those travels, for the people and places she has met and hopes yet to meet, flows out of the song. And personally, it does a good job of expressing the desire to find out what is around the next corner, down that side street, experience something new.

All New (Heart Shut Tight) is a failed love song. Or at least, of a failed attempt at maybe love. Almost everyone has experienced the doubt and fear of trying to open up a new relationship. And of the pain that comes when you find out the other person is not interested. This song evokes that pain, but that is not what the song is really about. It is about having the courage to try, healing and learning from the pain of failure, and coming back to try again. It is a song of hope and perseverance.

Anchorage is by far my favorite song on the album. It is a very personal song for Ms. Call, and that comes through in the words and the singing. It deals with fear and uncertainty, with searching for your place, and finding it. It starts off hesitant, almost tentative, but by the end, it is solid and firm. It does not end on a triumphant note, but on a sure and certain one. Which is appropriate, triumphs can fade and be forgotten, but a solid foundation will last.

These are my five favorites off of the album. But I like every song, which I can’t say about any other album I can think of, even the various greatest hits compilations I own. Some have a strong emotional connection, while others are all about the music for me. You can see that both kinds make my top five, with both Good Morning Moon and Temporal Dominoes doing so despite my having a stronger emotional connection to songs that didn’t make it. But then, the music is so strong, it made me like one song in spite of the unpleasant emotions and memories it evokes. (None of the 5 I talked about above.) I don’t think you can ask more of any songwriter or singer than to move you beyond your own feelings, so you can accept what they are offering on its own merits.

There is much more, far too much to cover in one post. And frankly, so much that I am still finding new things after months of listening to the album. If you like good music, you should get it and start finding what it has for you in it. Because it has something, whether the haunting lullaby of Aurora Borealis that so perfectly captures the dancing Northern Lights, or the fun of I Wish I Was A Real Alaskan Girl, or the frustrations abounding in Dear Mister Darcy.

So head over to the Marian Call Music website, or check it out above. You can stream Something Fierce  for free and listen as much as you want. Or even better, you can buy it, in either CD or digital format, and support a worthy artist. It is available through her site on Amazon, CDBaby, and iTunes. Best way to buy it is right there (Or here through the widget, and no, that is not an affiliate link) through bandcamp. They give the most back to the artist, which is where we want the money to go.

While I have not been writing many posts here, I have been keeping up with the behind the scenes maintenance stuff. Keeping WordPress updated, dealing with spam buildup, updating plugins, dealing with spam buildup, updating themes, dealing with spam buildup, figuring out how to run PHP5 on this blog, and finally, dealing with spam buildup.

Spam, Spam, Spam & More Spam

As hard is it is to believe, most of the time I spent on behind the scenes stuff was dealing with spam. Akismet does a great job filtering it, with only a few pieces getting into the actual comments section, but on occasion, some real comments get sucked into the spam section. Since I get so few real comments here, I hate to just delete those, but that means at least looking at all of the spam that was sorted out.

This doesn’t sound too bad, but if I did not do it for a week, I could easily end up with a couple of hundred messages to look through. There were times I was getting 60+ spam a day in the spam section. Doing searches of obvious spam terms, like certain drug names, and doing a mass delete of the results made it somewhat easier, but still time consuming and not at all fun. (One of the things they do not tell you about when sharing “The Joys of Blog Writing”.) So I finally decided to check out the plugins and see what was available to cut down my numbers.

I was not looking for a spam filter. Akismet does a fine job at that. I wanted something that would catch a known spam IP address and prevent it from even reaching Akismet. I had faith that WordPress plugin writers would have something to address the issue. And my faith was rewarded in the best way. I not only found what I was looking for, I was lead to something greater than I knew existed.

Blocking IPs

Clicking on the spam link on Add New under Plugins will get you a lot of results. A lot of it is probably quite useful, like the various CAPTCHA plugins for comments and contact forms. But I was looking for something that could filter based on IP addresses and preferably was fairly automatic. Fortunately, one of the first plugins I noticed was AVH First Defense Against Spam which mentioned that it used 2 outside services for checking IPs. That was much more appealing than the ones that required my building my own blacklist or having to manually update a provided blacklist.

The installation from the WordPress site worked fine, which is always nice, and it added a separate menu under the regular dashboard menu. The new menu includes an Overview, General Options, 3rd Party Options, and a FAQ page.

The Overview page is not very useful at first. It provides information about stopped spam and some of the settings you use. The place to start is the General Options, which has 5 windows that require some kind of decisions from you.

Most of the settings are easy to understand. Do you or don’t you want to receive and email from the plugin when it runs its daily cron jobs? If you don’t know or care what that means, leave it unchecked and ignore it. Use IP caching or not? If you have a high traffic site, probably a good idea, but again, a simple check in the box to make it happen or not. Do you want to receive an email if a comment fails the security checks? If you want to see it in action, check the box, if you want to set it & forget it, leave it empty.

The two most important parts of the General Options are the Blacklist and the Whitelist. One of the reasons I picked this plugin was the use of outside sources that didn’t require me to set up a local blacklist. And the use of both of these lists is entirely optional. You don’t want to mess with them, uncheck 2 boxes and ignore them. I personally would recommend at least using the Whitelist, to list various search engine IP addresses, but it is not really necessary. I do not know of any search engines that have been blocked from my site by the plugin.

The 3rd Party Options page is where the really important stuff needs to be decided. Under the Stop Forum Spam window, you need to check the top box. That is the minimum requirement for using the plugin successfully. If you don’t want to bother with anything else, check that box, set the number in the email threshold under it to -1, save the settings and move on to other stuff.

What I would recommend, even if you do not want to get any emails from the plugin, is to go a bit farther. One of the options in that window is using an API key from the Stop Forum Spam website. This requires signing up at the website, but that is painless and quick. And doing so give you a way to pay back and improve the service.

When you have an API key, an option is added to anything on the Spam section of your comments. (Yes, you will still get some spam. None of the plugins I looked at say anything about stopping all spam, most say they will not do so. C’est la vie.) You are able to Report & Delete the message with one click. That is, report the IP address to the Stop Forum Spam database, so that it will show up when others check there. I have also been adding the IP to my local blacklist, so I never have to worry about it showing up again. That is not necessary, but since the local blacklist is checked before the Stop Forum Spam database, it saves me an API call on a known spammer.

The other side of the 3rd Party Options page is for dealing with Project Honeypot and their blacklist. In order to use the information from Project Honeypot, you need to join their site and get an API. This is also pretty painless and quick, and they do have a different blacklist, so it works well with the Stop Forum Spam to catch spammers. One of the things that I like about the information you can get from Project Honeypot is it includes things like whether or not an IP address is from a search engine bot. This allows you to easily add them into the Whitelist, making sure they do not get blocked from your site and decreasing the number of API calls you make.

Final Words

This is a very nice plugin. It scales easily with user knowledge and desires, allowing you to control everything in the set up, from emails to what databases to check.  You can set it and forget it, or be more proactive with the black and white lists. No matter how active you want to be dealing with spam, this is a good plugin to use. And just to give an idea about its value, according to the Overview page, as of this writing, 2302 spam stopped in the month of October.

It has been over a month since my post about the upcoming move of Issue 16: Power Spectrum to the live servers. And just short of a month since the actual release. I thought I would talk about how things look at this point, since the Issue was very large and anticipated by so many players.

Very Pretty Colors

A lot of people complain about not being able to get the names they want anymore on City of Heroes, because all the good ones are taken. I have never really had this problem, for a variety of reasons, but partly because I like to use colors in various ways. The problem of course, with naming someone Purple Charge (Elec/Eng blaster) or Lightning Red (El/El scrapper) (I never said they were great names. ) was the inability to make the powers fit the name.

That is no longer a problem. As I have been working my way through my alt list I have been updating their costumes and power sets to better fit the various characters. Purple Charge now has purple lightning bolts and Lightning Red has red effects from her attacks and shields.

But they are not the only beneficiaries of the new customization. My SS tanks and MA scrappers use a variety of the different animations, depending on exactly which costume they are in and how I feel the differences fit the characters. Some of my Dark Armor scrappers still disappear when they turn on Cloak of Darkness, others don’t. For a character like Lady Flames, a Fire/Rad controller, while I could put the powers together in the game and her backstory, they did not look like they went together. Now her flame control powers have the same look as her radiation powers, which doesn’t affect game play in the least, but does affect my enjoyment in playing her.

Not all of my characters need to use power customization by any means. Chilly Death, an Ice/Ice blaster is perfectly fine using regular colors on his powers. The same is true of Fire of Gamab (Fire/Fire tank) and a lot of other characters. But when you come up with a concept for a character, it is really nice to be able to make the powers fit it so well. I was in fact surprised at how much of a difference it made in my enjoyment of a couple of characters. (I wasn’t surprised at how much it improved my enjoyment of my Spines/DA scrapper. The original look didn’t really fit her origin and are ugly besides. The metal spike though, look great and do fit her backstory. What a difference some graphics make.)

Other Changes

What I have done with the Super Side Kicking has been okay. I do not team very often, and it was a surprise the first time I joined and got the pop up asking if I wanted to change my level. Since it was in the middle of fighting a Paladin build in KR, it was almost a fatal surprise. But once I accepted and was level 49, things got much easier. It is possible to remove the popup in the Options window, I just haven’t bothered on any of my characters since I mostly solo.

The ability to change challenge levels is very nice. On my low level defenders, sticking it at -1 to level makes things much easier until I can get a few more levels on them. Of course, when you outlevel a mission and are suddenly fighting greens, it can be kind of strange. And it does lower your XP intake, but I at least have found the speed trade off worth it.

I have not messed with increasing the levels and number of heroes settings yet. One of the unfortunate things that came with I16 was a bug for the Invincibility power. It kept playing the start up sound over and over again whenever there was an enemy NPC in range. For every NPC in range. I didn’t think it would be too bad, until I actually played my main, an Inv/SS tank. It did not take long at all until I had a bad headache, so he has been sidelined until it was fixed. Which was yesterday, but I was busy last night so did not get into the game at all. When I finish the MA arc I was playing with him, I will ramp things up and see how much he can take in some Radio missions.

Not Nice

Besides the already mentioned Invincibility bug, there were a few others added into the game with I16. Unfortunately, this is a fact of life when dealing with large programs with lots of intacting parts. That doesn’t make them less annoying, but unlike some people on the COH forums, it does allow me to give the Devs a break when it happens. They play the game too and I sincerely doubt they enjoy the bugs any more than the regular players do.

The biggest one for me is a spawning issue in the Mission Architect system. When custom critters and standard mobs are in the same group, they do not spawn correctly. The regular spawns do not show up at all most of the time, and when they do, the level ranges will be badly messed up. Having grey mobs 20 levels below the character level show up in a mission takes a lot of enjoyment out of it, and can mess up the story if they contradict something the writer has put in.

There were also some bugs in the way Mastermind pets would follow through doors. It is a great feature, but when you zone and are suddenly surrounded by a bunch of bots that follow you around but don’t obey your instructions, the results can range from annoying to deadly. That has not been fixed yet, although they did get the Protector bots to properly buff again.

Final Words

Issue 16 was almost completely a Quality Of Life issue. They did not add in any new zones, or revamp any existing ones. They did not add in any Task or Strike Forces, new contacts, or new missions. I know that there are people that are upset when an issue comes out without adding in new content. Some have been complaining since Issue 13, because the only official new content has been the Reichmann arcs in I15. I can understand that point of view, although I think many of them are being a bit silly about not caring for the stuff in the MA system. There are some very good stories, both canon and non-canon, in the MA, and it is not that hard to find them.

For those people, Issue 16 was just a waste of time and resources. But personally, I found it has enhanced my enjoyment of the game. I knew I would like power customization, but I did not realize how much it would add to the characters I create and the fun I have playing them. That by itself makes I16 a huge success in my book. Because that is why I play the game, to have fun.

With the pre-release download and the warning on the forums about an upcoming freespec (Free power respecification for all characters, for those who don’t speak the COH dialect of English.) it looks like Issue 16: Power Spectrum is just about ready to hit the live servers.  It hit Open Beta on the Test server on August 26, so this is about right in the usual schedule. Having played with it for a little while in Closed Beta and more so in Open, I can say it is a lot of fun.

I spent most of my time either checking out the new colorization and/or animation choices or a couple of the new powersets that were moved around. I also spent a little bit of time looking at the new difficulty system that was added, but not that much.

Pretty Colors

The color customization system is very nice. There are some limitations to it, especially with Dark Melee or other powers like it, because of the way colors are done in the game engine. And some options were blocked because the Devs did not like the way they looked. But the variety that is available is almost overwhelming.

On most powersets, you have a choice between a dark palette and a light palette of colors. You pick 2 colors for each power and can either have those colors automatically shared by all the powers in the set, all powers in both sets, or set each power individually. And you can change the colors for each costume slot, is you want to have different power colors to match a different costume theme.

The new animations are also pretty nice. Not all the powers in Martial Arts and Super Strength have new choices, but the ones that do look good. I was never that bothered with the continuous kicking in MA, but it is nice to be able to add a few punches in.  I have a few quibbles about a couple of SS animations, the ground punch for Footstomp and the new Knock Out Blow animation. The ground punch feels fast and the KO Blow feels like it is taking too long. But those are both because they have to match the times for the original animations, so there is not really a lot that BAB can do about them. And the new KO Blow really looks great if you have a Shield on your arm.

New Powers

Well, sort of. For I15, there was a lot of complaining on the forum about no new powerset proliferation. Well, this time there is plenty going on. Every AT gets at least one new powerset, with several getting two. (Master Minds just can’t get a break on proliferation. Always stuck at getting a new secondary.)

I was in at the end of the Closed Beta, so I did not get to play any of the new sets at a high level, and I only checked out a couple of them. I don’t enjoy playing on Red side that much (Mostly at low levels because of having to do the mayhem missions over and over again for new contacts.) so I looked at a couple of the new possibilities for heroes. And I played them without using my Veteran award attacks. They make low levels extremely easy and I wanted to see what it was like with just the new stuff.

I found the Electric Melee/Electric Armor on a Scrapper to be a lot of fun. Nice protection with great attacks made for a fun romp through the low levels. I especially like the Jacob’s Ladder cone attack. It was very easy to get 2 or even 3 mobs in the area of effect, which is not always true for the melee cone attacks.

I also started up a Traps/Assault Rifle defender to see how that worked out. I did not enjoy it as much as the scrapper, but it was still a lot of fun. And it is a very versatile combination. A primarily teaming defender can pick up the Traps powersets and do very well at helping the team, while a soloer can pick up the AR attacks and go to town on the mobs. And with the ability to have two builds, you can do both builds and suit your powers to your mood.

I really enjoyed both characters as I was playing them, and have already decided that both powerset combos will make it to live when I16 gets there. And I will start up some new alts for most of the other sets also I am sure. Such is the curse of altitis.

Other good stuff

Some other things are showing up in I16 that have been pretty much overshadowed by the color customization and new powersets. This is a shame because they are pretty major changes that have been wanted for quite a while.

First up, there is the change to the Difficulty setting for mission running. Instead of just having 5 levels of difficulty, you can fine tune your adventures. Running an Inv/SS level 50 tank that likes to take on all comers? You can set your difficulty to think you are on an 8 man team, mobs spawning at 2 levels above you, with bosses showing up. (Yeah, been there done that. It rocks being able to jump into huge spawns without worrying about the squishies on a team.) If you are running an Empath defender with lousy attacks, set it to a 1 man team, with the mobs spawning 1 level below you, and no bosses ever show up. Yes, -1 level. A huge help to characters that have problems soloing.

Aside from those settings, you can also control if AVs show up, so if you are one of the folks that like soloing them, you can make it happen with out needing to pad a mission. And that brings up one of the nicest parts of the new system. It should pretty much stop requests for padding teams so someone can farm them for an 8 man team. Farmers can just set their difficulty to what they can handle and have at it all they want. This is good for everyone involved.

Second big change is one that was not announced prior to beta. There are some major changes in the requirements for various badges. As in, you will be able to get the epic level badges without overnight farming of damage, healing, etc. A lot of the defeat and gladiator badge numbers were also lowered, making those much easier to get.

Some badgers are not happy about this, saying “I got Empath when it was hard! Everyone should have to!” Well, you didn’t get it by playing the game. You got it by setting up a heal farm then walking away from your computer for 8 or 10 hours. I have no problem with someone doing that if they want the badge, but they really don’t have a leg to stand on when it comes to the requirements being lowered. It sounds too much like “I got mine! Screw everyone else!”

I already have the Exalted badge (What can I say, I’m a tank, I don’t run when it hits the fan. I stand there so the squishies can run. And ship raids really help for this badge.) but the fact that a lot of others will be able to get it more easily doesn’t bother me. I do admit, it does give me a leg up on reaching Immortal (Wish they would fix it so the Accolade hp counted.) and Jailed (You know how hard it is for an Inv tank to get mezzed without farming? And I will be lucky if I get the Imprisoned badge.) As for Empath? Still a tank. Healing is not my forte.

They are also looking at easing some of the Super Group badge requirements, but I am not certain those will make it to live with the rest of I16. I have not seen anything on the forums about them and my Test SG does not have any.

Not so good stuff

There have also been some changes that are not for the better. Most of these have to do with the Mission Architect system and experience earned. The Devs are really serious about stopping people from exploiting things in the MA and making it a place for people to tell stories. I certainly applaud this, being one of the people that like telling stories there. But while some of the changes make sense, others are not as well thought out.

The change that makes sense deals with custom groups. In order to get xp for mobs in a custom group, the group has to have at least one mob at each level of power, minion, Lt., and Boss. This prevents people from creating boss only groups and farming them. This may cause some problems for MA authors, but overall it is a decent change.

Another change was making the Freakshow villains worth less experience. A lot less. They went from being worth 1.2 times normal xp to being worth .8 normal xp. This raised a huge stir on the forums, for good reason. While the Freaks are not hard enough to merit being worth 20% more than normal mobs, they are also not easy enough that they should be cut down to less xp then normal mobs, especially in the 20s when players first start encountering them. They can be a challenge at that point.

This was obviously done because farmers would create farms with Freaks and mow them down using powers the Freaks are weak against. This can happen with almost any mob, but the Freaks being worth more xp made them a favorite for it. Thus the xp nerf.

Fortunately, the Devs heard the outcry and determined that yes, they had overreacted a tad. They changed it so that early Freaks give .95 normal xp, with the high level ones still at .8 normal. This is a much better solution, and has quieted things down a lot.

The changes for custom critters in the MA have also been eased a bit. The original set up for using the Custom setting for selecting powers was just horrible. This was pointed out repeatedly, and was also open to exploitation (oops!), and was changed so that as long as the Standard powers are used, the mobs will be worth Standard xp.

But that brings up the biggest problem with the current build. Standard/standard settings for powers in the MA will only give 75% of the normal xp for non-custom mobs. This is despite the fact that even on Standard settings, custom mobs are much more difficult than regular mobs. Creating custom critters that do not overwhelm players is one of the hardest things to do in the MA, especially for low level arcs. If anything, Standard mobs should be at 100%, with Hard mobs at 110% and Extreme someplace higher.

The Devs have said they will keep working at getting the settings right, but they need to set something now or delay I16 another month to get it right. Since that would push back Going Rogue, we will have to take what we have and try to make the best of it. And at least they got rid of the really bad system.

Final Words

Looking at this, I see I missed several other changes that are coming in I16, like the new exemplar/sidekick system, removal of most hazard zone limits, and some real improvements and fixes in the MA system. But I am already about twice as long as I like on these posts, so they will have to wait.

Overall, this is a really great update coming from the Devs at City of Heroes. They have put a lot of work into it and it really shows. When compared with the really good stuff coming in it, the problems I listed are really not that important. Because when I think about all the stuff I have tried and liked, and think about the stuff I haven’t tried yet, my reaction is  still “Oooo, shiny!”

So I was reading news again today. It was fairly depressing, which is not too unusual unfortunately. But I saw this article on the Huffington Post and was inspired to write one of my periodical letters to the White House. I know the President never actually sees anything I write, but I figure someone adds up the numbers of supporters and/or commenters about various things, so I can at least make my opinion known.

Then I thought, well, I can also let my opinion be known other places, so here is my latest missive to the man in the Oval Office.

I see in the news today that Press Secretary Gibbs said that it looks like Senator Enzi has given up on bipartisan healthcare reform and walked away from the table. I believe this statement is incorrect. In order to give up on something, you first have to want it to happen. It has been apparent since July that very few Republicans in office have any desire for healthcare reform to happen, especially in a bipartisan manner, so they can hardly give up on that now.

Gibbs also says, “”It looks like Republicans are stepping away from seeking a bipartisan solution. It is bad for this town but it’s worse for this country.” Again, this in not correct. While it would be better for everyone in Congress to work together to make the best bill possible, that is not what has been happening. They have been using the cover of bipartisanship to do their best to delay and stop any kind of reform from happening. If that cover is finally wearing thin and falling away, then that is very good for the country. Now you just need to corral the cats (i.e. Congressional Democrats and moderate Republicans like the 2 ladies from Maine) and pass a bill that really is good for the country.

A single-payer system like Canada’s may be out of reach, but the HELP committee’s bill looks pretty solid to a layman, and is at least a good starting point. Republican’s want to force the responsibility for reform on the Democrats? Well they did that 40 years ago with Medicare and that seems to be pretty popular these days. I say the Democrats should say thank you and get on with passing it.