The Challenge Helps

With all of the time I have been spending on Tumblr lately, I have found myself getting deeper and deeper into the Dragon Age fandom (and to a lesser extent the Mass Effect fandom). That has included finding and reading a lot of really fun fan fiction.

This in turn has led to me wanting to write more fan fiction.

I have been kind of dithering over this, mulling over ideas and trying to decide where (or if) to start. Earlier this week I finally got the kick in the pants that I guess I have been waiting for. A group on LiveJournal has decided to host a "big bang" for Mass Effect. Basically it is a drive to inspire new fiction and art within the fandom. Intrigued by the concept, I looked up the information on it.

For fic writers the minimum story length is 8,000 words, and we will have until September 25 to write it (with a few checkpoints and hopefully a beta-read along the way). I saw that word count and actually scoffed. Two months for 8,000 words? Dude.

Meanwhile, about two weeks after sign-ups end, authors are required to submit a short summary of their story for the artists. The artists will then choose one that sounds interesting to draw an illustration or companion piece for.

Then, at the end of all of that, all of the stories will be posted along with their companion art for all of the fans to share and enjoy.

I had never heard of a big bang before this, but oh my goodness it just sounds fun. While telling my husband about it I even came up with a story idea, yay! So I went ahead and signed up to do this and I am really kind of excited. As crazy as I get in November doing Nanowrimo, that challenge to hit a certain word count every day was an amazing motivator, and I love the sense of accomplishment I get from hitting my numbers. Also, I think this will be a good warm up for November as well.

As you can imagine, there is a lot of crossover with Mass Effect and Dragon Age fans, and after hearing about the Mass Effect big bang, there is now one in the works for Dragon Age too for later in the summer. This is excellent news to me.

I need to write more, and this is a good way to do that while adding a little bit of fun.

To sign up for the big bang I had to create a LiveJournal account of course (I actually had one until earlier this year that I signed up for ages ago and never ever did anything with so it got deleted--but this is okay because it gives me a fresh start this way). So I did that.

I figure no use letting it go to waste. I'll be rounding up all of my old written fan fiction (mostly Stargate Atlantis) and posting it on my LJ account, and that will be the home to anything new I write, which will most likely be Dragon Age and Mass Effect. I've put the link up over there on the right in case anyone ever has any interest in checking it out, though I know it's not everyone's cup of tea.

So, there you go. Challenge issued, challenge accepted. Let the plotting begin!

New Collection

So I have been spending quite a lot of time on Tumblr of late because it is pretty much like crack to fandoms. I mean, it's awesome, but when I look at my Dashboard some days I have no idea how I ended up with such a random assortment of blogs that I am following on that site.

Originally I made an account so I could lurk a bit on a bunch of the Dragon Age sites and submit to Dragon Age Confessions from time to time. I tried to get a thing going doing a random funny photo a day of my daughter's My Little Pony toys, but that tapered out pretty quickly because I just kind of lost the motivation. But then someone sent me an anonymous ask (asks are really one of niftiest bits about Tumblr in my opinion) requesting "more yarn please." Probably because my account name over there is YarnAndTeaIsAllINeed (made on a random whim when I signed up because I was drinking tea and looking at a skein of yarn). But it was a nice little kick in the pants and so I have been trying every day to post at least something yarn or tea related--usually  a picture of yarn from my stash, new acquisition, finished projects, and teacups and teapots.

That has somehow led to me garnering a small handful of followers on the site, which is weird but also nice. So I am trying to spread the love and actually be part of the community over there. When people ask questions I try to chime in if I have anything to say on the subject. It's been kind of interesting watching it develop.

One thing I have started to really notice is the prevalence of animated GIFs in posts. Sometimes because they are funny, sometimes to express a reaction to whatever the post is about, that kind of thing. I know that GIFs have been around forever, but this is the first time I have really paid that much attention to them, because this is the first forum on which I find myself where they are actually a type of communication in and of themselves.

So, I have started collecting GIFs as a random little side effect of joining Tumblr. I thought I'd share with you a few of my favorites that I have come across so far.

(Note that I am not in any way claiming credit for these, they were just found and enjoyed on the internet. The two pony GIFs came from My Little Brony.)

Anyhoo, happy Friday, y'all.

Now I just need to figure out how to make some of these on my own.

Play ALL The Games!

You might have noticed from the little list of my activities on the sidebar that I have suddenly started playing three different video games at once. I think my husband has been rubbing off on me. At any time he's got at least two different games going and he'll play a bit here and there when the mood strikes him, switching between games according to his whims (or depending on which one of us has dibs on using Steam, since we share an account). Normally, I start up a game and I play it through to the end, then I start a new game.

Lately I have been trying to hold off on getting too invested in anything because I am getting underway with writing the second draft of my novel. This is my first attempt at writing a second draft, however, and I am finding that it is a different animal entirely from the first draft. This time around, it is not the full-out writing frenzy that I go through in November. Most of the words and ideas are there already. It is just a matter of rearranging them, cleaning them up, adding a bit here and there, and so on. At least, that is how it is going for this specific project. I can think about other stories I've written and imagine how those would be their own beasts as well.

Anyhoo. My point is, abstaining from video games while working on my second draft has turned out to be not nearly as necessary as it was for the first. But at the same time, I also don't want to get so deep into a game that I get too wrapped up in the story and start slacking on what I am supposed to be doing. Keeping up that detachment has turned out to be pretty easy, as it happens, because I've been feeling the pull to replay a few different games of late. So I figured why not just get them all going at once. That way I can do a few missions here in one game and a few missions there in another, whatever feels like the best distraction/break for the moment.

Here's a glimpse of what I've got going on.

Dragon Age II:

My Ebon Hawke (yes, I went there) arrives in Kirkwall with her mother, brother Carter, and Aveline.

Her most current appearance. I figured she needed a new hairdo after a year in Kirkwall.

Dragon Age: Origins:

Finally decided to try the Dalish origin. Here's my Warden Farris Mahariel (on the right) with the oft-mentioned in DAII Tamlen.

Farris giving us a lovely example of the lack of expressions shown by PCs in DA:O while being lectured at by Marethari.

Mass Effect 3:

My Jordana Shepard import from my first play-through of ME and ME2. I tweaked her hair color and makeup a bit.

Here's a shot of her in game, looking pale as all get out. Gotta love how different they look from the character creator to the screen, don't you?

I'm pretty early in all three games still, Hawke is about halfway through Act I doing recruitment missions, my Warden just got to Ostagar and is about to start preparation for the joining ritual, and my Shepard is getting ready to go to Palaven. That gives me three pretty different flavors to choose from when I am in the mood to play. It's kind of nice, although I wonder how long I will be able to keep up juggling them. We'll see, I guess. I feel like it's actually kind of appropriate that I am playing all three of these games while I work on the rewrite, since I found a lot of inspiration from them in regards to secondary characters and place names and such.

As far as progress on the second draft goes, I have read through it and made my notes. Now I am doing a little bit of logistical world-building that likely won't actually appear on the pages but will make the things I need to add in a bit easier for me. After that I just need to outline the major changes for the draft by chapter and then it is time to jump in. My plan/goal is to get the world-building and outline done this week and then two chapters a week after that. Once I've got three or four chapters stockpiled, I'll start posting the new versions here, a chapter a week, on Thursdays.

Yay! I am excited to share this with you guys! After reading it again, I am really proud of what I've got. I still don't know where this story came from, but man, I am happy it dropped in. Hopefully you will enjoy it as well!

Fanfic Friday (Because Why Not?)

Howdy folks! Happy Friday! So, it turns out that the story I posted yesterday wasn't the only thing I ended up writing this week. I also managed to write a sort piece of fan fiction. I seem to have been getting back into that a little bit lately. I haven't written any in years, but this past week I finally had a story that I just had to get out of my head.

It combines my two biggest obsessions: Stargate Atlantis and Dragon Age. Thematically it contains some elements similar to "Above the Clouds," but it is definitely a different type of story. To me, the Eluvian mirrors in Dragon Age have always triggered thoughts of the Quantum Mirrors from Stargate. I also have always thought that Alistair would get along well in Atlantis. So I decided to take those two elements and put them together and see what happened. I am pretty happy with the result. I even went ahead and submitted it to Wraithbait (although I had completely forgotten that you have to put in html tags for anything like italics or, you know, line breaks when submitting a story there--that was fun, let me tell you). If I get any sort of positive feedback on the story, I might write some more adventures in this universe.

Spoilers disclaimer: MAJOR spoilers for the end of Dragon Age: Origins and hints of characters and events from DAO: Awakening. No real spoilers for Stargate Atlantis, provided you are aware of who is actually in the city as of season five.

Other disclaimer: Please note that Alistair and all things Dragon Age belong to Bioware and EA, while all things Stargate belong to MGM. Just the idea for the story is mine.

I hope you enjoy!

Finding Home

Alistair paused to wipe the sweat from his eyes. Despite the chill of the vicious winds this high in the mountains the exertion of the climb was getting to him. This pass had clearly been carved out by Chasind with a sadistic streak. Or a very disoriented dragon, he thought, smirking to himself. Really it barely qualified as a pass at all, but it was the only known way through this stretch of the Frostback Mountains, and he would complete his assignment or die trying. Looks like the dying part of that is getting more and more likely though. He winced as a new blast of frigid air swept through the range, almost knocking him off of the narrow ledge. Alistair pressed himself against the wall of rock that the ledge followed and steadied himself with a few deep breaths as he waited for the wind to die down again.

He continued to make his way through the treacherous pass once nature seemed to have calmed back down. Not for the first time, he allowed himself to wonder what his life would be like now if he had accepted the crown of Ferelden after the archdemon had been slain. I wouldn't be trekking out here in the middle of nowhere, that's for sure, he thought to himself. He still firmly believed that letting Anora remain queen had been the right thing to do, but he had grown convinced that she didn't accept that he believed it. Every time he had call to go to court she could not even stand to be around him, and he knew better than to think it was his resemblance to Cailan. No, his very existence was a threat to her rule and so he made her uncomfortable. As a result, she had somehow managed to convince the new Warden Commander to relegate him to all of the tasks that required extensive (and dangerous) travel throughout the damned country.

Such line of thought twisted a double-edged blade right into his heart, however. Alistair had no quarrel with the Orlesians, nor with the new Commander that the Wardens in Orlais had sent to help rebuild the order after the Blight. But every time he saw the man it was a reminder of the woman who should be Commander of the Grey Wardens in Ferelden. The love of Alistair's life, his brave and fiery elven mage, the hero who sacrificed herself to kill the archdemon. All because Alistair had refused to swallow his pride, his honor, to grant her one simple request. He had meant to take the final blow himself, of course, but a hurlock, an alpha, had distracted him just long enough for her to strike the dragon first, and with one final spell the Blight was over and she was gone. Thinking of Cailan was no better. Ever since Anora had admitted that Alistair's half-brother had been fully aware of his existence, he couldn't help but wonder why the man had never acknowledged him once they had met, at least in private. He couldn't help but wonder if Cailan had lived, perhaps they might have eventually come to be true brothers to each other after all.... Then again, maybe Cailan would have been just as bad as Goldanna, wanting nothing to do with Alistair unless it was of benefit to her.

So here he was, all alone in the mountains, risking his neck to find some elven artifact that the Commander had heard rumors existed. Always alone, even among the other Wardens. None of the faces in Amaranthine were familiar to him these days, save that of Oghren, and the dwarf had his own concerns to deal with. At least out here in the wilds it was less awkward. Alistair tried to shake his depressing ruminations and focused instead on the land around him. By the time the sun had begun to fall from its zenith he realized that the land was leveling out. Shortly after that, it began to descend. He had crossed through the pass and was on his way down into a basin between this range and the next. It appeared to be heavily wooded, which he hoped meant it was his destination. At the very least, he should be able to find a good place to make camp for the evening.

As he entered the woods he increased his guard. Likely there would be predators he would need to watch out for, but also, if what he sought was here, then there should be signs of a previous civilization. Even in the shade of the trees, the woods were practically cozy after the winds he had endured in the pass. Alistair soaked up the warmth gratefully as he searched, ever an eye out for signs of his quarry, a likely spot to rest for the evening, or even potential dinner.

He almost missed it, the first sign that he was in the right place. He was resting in a small clearing and thinking it would be a good place to stop for the day when a nearby stone caught his eye. Its shape was just a little bit too regular, the moss covering it seeming to follow too decorative a pattern, as if it was filling in crevices that had been put there intentionally. He moved across the clearing and examined the stone, unsurprised to realize that it was part of some larger structure--a paving stone, perhaps, or part of a building. His weariness forgotten, Alistair searched the area for more stones and after a short time found one, and then another, each embedded in the ground. He stepped back and looked at the area in front of him carefully, and after a few moments he could see that the trees in this part of the woods ran a little bit straighter, and there seemed to be two parallel lines of them, evenly spaced. A road had run through here once upon a time, long long ago.

Alistair followed the remnants of the road for two hours before he found the ruins. There wasn't very much left to be found, truth be told. But he could see where the foundation had been, and it took little for him to imagine the building that once stood here, centuries ago, when the elves were in their height of power. It hadn't been a very large building, probably just a way-station for travelers coming through the mountains, he guessed. The ruins in and of themselves were an incredible find, and he knew he would have to carefully mark them on his map before he returned. Likely other Wardens, or maybe even the Dalish, would want to come here to study them. But he had not been sent to find the ruins, he had been sent to find something in the ruins, and he feared his luck had just run out. There were no traces of the artifact for which he searched. Still, night was falling and he was tired. He would make camp here and get some rest. Maybe in the morning he would be better able to examine the area.

He expected a restless night but perhaps some trace of the magic of the ancient elves still lingered in the ruins. No predators came anywhere near Alistair and he slept far more soundly than he had since joining the Wardens. Even when he didn't hear the darkspawn in his dreams, he remained plagued by nightmares, or even worse, memories of the few happy moments he and his love had spent together before her death. This night, however, he did not dream at all.

When he wakes the next day he sets to work combing over every bit of the ruins. His diligence is rewarded when he discovers that a flat round stone tablet set into the ground near the back of what had once been the building moves to reveal an underground room. He can make out the first few rungs of a ladder, as well as an unlit torch hanging on the stone-lined wall. He climbs down far enough to retrieve the torch and brings it aboveground so he can light it, then carefully makes his way down into the cavern. He looks around in awe, sensing from the stale feel to the air that no one has been down here in a very long time. Perhaps not since the fall of Arlathan. Alistair walks to the center of the room, illuminating as much of it as possible with the torch. It is not much smaller than the ruins indicate the building above once was. Probably it was used for storage. A glint catches his eye and he turns to find the source. There, tucked carefully in a corner and draped with a sheet of cloth that looks as if it would crumble at his very touch, is an object that can only be what he was sent here to find.

Alistair glances around and notices that there are more torches lining the walls. He lights the one nearest the artifact and replaces the torch in his hands back in its bracket. Then he carefully approaches the object and brushes aside the cloth. He registers a moment of surprise when it doesn't disintegrate, but then he is distracted by the object itself. An Eluvian. The mirror is slightly larger than he is and set in an extremely ornate stone framework. The stone has been carved to quite realistically mimic living trees. It is breathtakingly beautiful. The mirror itself does not give a reflection but instead shows a grey smoky haze. Alistair can practically feel the magic radiating from it.

He has done his duty and located the Eluvian. Even better, it is already secured in a very safe location, and he knows that once he leaves it will not be disturbed again until he tells his Commander where it can be found. He knows he should cover the mirror up with the cloth once more, extinguish the torches, return to the surface, mark his map and return home.

But he doesn't.

Instead, he reaches out a tentative hand and lightly grazes the surface of the Eluvian with his fingertips. A soft warm tingle spreads throughout his body, starting where he touched the mirror and working quickly into the very heart of him. He feels a stirring deep inside, in the part of him that was once used by the Templars to dispel and deny magic. Only this time he does not deny it, this time he accepts it wholeheartedly. His eyes reflect the light of the elven script set into the frame as the words begin to glow. Without any further thought Alistair places both palms flat against the mirror. For the briefest of moments the haze clears and he sees the reflection of a room similar to the one in which he stands. Then he is jerked forward and all he knows is the blinding sensation of pain consuming his entire body.

He doesn't know how long he lies on the floor before consciousness returns to him, but when he comes to he realizes he is not alone. He can hear a heated argument--one side of it at least--from nearby as he groggily sits up and tries to blink his vision clear. He feels as if he has just been rammed by an ogre, then picked up and slammed into the ground repeatedly by said beast. Every muscle and bone in his body aches. He takes a few deep breaths, trying to steady himself, wondering if he is about to have to defend himself from the intruders. As he tries to get a grip on the situation some of the conversation catches his attention.

"Look, I don't know where he came from, alright? Why do you always look at me for an explanation, huh?" There is a mumbled response to the question but Alistair can't make it out. The speaker he can hear continues in a very fast, very irritated tirade, "Look, just because I know more than, well, everyone else, doesn't mean I know everything there is to know, okay? One minute I was studying the device and then he was just falling through it. He almost landed on me. Have you seen him?! He's wearing a full suit of medieval armor! Can you imagine the kind of damage that would have done to my delicate structure?"

Alistair has to resist the urge to chuckle. The speaker certainly doesn't sound very delicate. He frowns as what the man said sinks in. Why are the intruders trying to determine where he came from? They showed up after he had...after he had touched the mirror. The conversation outside continues but Alistair has stopped listening. He takes a good look at his surroundings. When he woke up he had just assumed that he was in the underground room in the ruins. But now that he looks around he sees that he is not. It is very similar, but the surfaces are not lined with rock, instead they are a smooth uniform material, like stone but not. The torches are gone, replaced by glowing orbs affixed to the walls. Instead of a few fragile shelves, the room contains a series of strange devices the like of which Alistair has never seen. They appear similar to desks but they are not made of wood, or any material he is familiar with. One directly in front of him is covered with blinking lights and glass panels that are covered in some sort of glowing script. The ladder is gone, instead there is a doorway in the far wall of the room, open to reveal daylight streaming in. Not underground then. The others must be standing just outside the door.

Gingerly he stands and turns around, finding a mirror, but not the one that he discovered in the ruins. This one is roughly the same shape and size, but its frame is wholly different. It is made of a similar material to the desks in the room, and it lacks the decorative carvings of the Eluvian that clearly brought him to this strange place. He vaguely remembers Duncan mentioning once that scholars believed Eluvians to be ancient portals, used by the elves to transport themselves across Thedas. Apparently the scholars were right. As he examines this other mirror he becomes aware of the voices from outside getting louder.

Alistair turns just in time to see two men enter through the doorway. They are both looking at something one is holding and he realizes it is a tablet that resembles another panel like those on the desk, covered in glowing script. As they cross the threshold the man without the tablet looks up and tenses as he sees Alistair standing in front of the mirror. Alistair senses instantly that this man is a soldier, despite his lack of armor, and a dangerous one at that. He tries to look as non-threatening as possible. The other man does not notice, however, and keeps on walking. He begins to speak and Alistair identifies him as the angry man who thinks he knows everything. He doesn't look delicate at all, Alistair notes.

"Look, even if it is a Quantum Mirror, and I have to admit, from the evidence, that is looking more likely, we can't really do anything with that information now. Whatever our friend did to get here burned it out. I mean, completely. Used up all of the juice. I mean, yes, I was running a diagnostic at the time, and I guess that could have contributed somewhat, but even if it did--"

"Rodney," the soldier says cutting off his companion's rant. He says it very softly and Alistair knows he was right to call this one dangerous.

"What?" The one called Rodney asks in an exasperated tone. He finally stops walking and looks up from the tablet in his hands, his blue eyes going wide as he sees Alistair, just a few feet away. The other man's hand drops to an object strapped to his thigh. Alistair doesn't recognize it, but he'd be willing to bet his last silver it is a weapon. Very slowly he raises his hands in the air, palms up, trying to indicate he means no threat to these people. Rodney lets out a strangled yelp and jumps back about a foot. The sound brings two more people into the room, a wild looking young man only a few years older than Alistair and a beautiful woman that he realizes is just as dangerous as the soldier. Both are brandishing weapons like the one the soldier wears.

"Um, hello." Alistair says after a tense moment of silence. When no one says anything in reply he adds, "I'm Alistair. I seem to have gotten a bit lost. Maybe one of you could, um, tell me where I am?" The wild man and the woman keep their weapons trained on him but they glance at the soldier as if waiting for the command. He's the one in charge, then. Alistair is relieved to see that he has not yet drawn his weapon. The man stares at him closely, clearly trying to assess the level of threat he represents to their group.

"At ease," he says in that same quiet tone after a few moments. The other two drop their weapons and Rodney relaxes visibly, though not completely. He tilts his head and then gestures to himself, saying "Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard. This is Doctor Rodney McKay, Teyla Emmagan, Ronon Dex." He gestures to Rodney, the woman, and the wild man. "As for where you are, well, it's more or less the same place you were, just..." he runs a hand through his hair as he trails off and Rodney pipes up to finish his sentence.

"...just in a different reality. Well, most likely. I'll need to go over some data to know for sure." Alistair frowns at this answer. A different reality?

"You mean, like in the Fade?" he asks, trying to make some sense of what he's been told. That would explain a lot. The Fade is known to contain strange, often inaccurate reflections of real places.

"Hmm, maybe, maybe," Rodney answers, looking down at his pad. "Depends on what you think this 'Fade' is, but...hmm." He wanders over to one of the desks and begins tapping his fingers against what turn out to be buttons of some sort. The soldier, Sheppard, shakes his head and looks at his companion with a sort of resigned bemusement.

"You'll have to forgive Doctor McKay," Teyla says quietly, moving to stand next to him. Her voice is calm and reassuring, although he can see that she is visibly trying to restrain herself from rolling her eyes. "He tends to get...absorbed in his work. Perhaps it would help if you tell us of how you came to be here?" Alistair starts to protest that he doesn't know but she stops him to clarify. "I mean, what do you remember before you woke up here?"

So Alistair tells them of finding the ruins and the Eluvian, explaining that he was looking for it and what his people knew of the artifact. He doesn't tell them everything, there are many details they don't really need, but he tells them more than he would under normal circumstances. He finds himself trusting them almost immediately for some reason. Rodney occasionally jumps in to the conversation to ask him about the elves or the Eluvian or what he means by "magic," about which he clearly feels dubious. Alistair can't imagine why, given the lighting in the room and the objects that Rodney manipulates with such ease. Those seem to reek of magic to him. But perhaps they call it something else here. After a while he tires of standing in the middle of the room and moves to lean against one of the desks. As he does the lights on its surface begin to glow and he can feel the whole of it hum with a soft vibration. That tingle he felt when he first touched the mirror returns. Rodney looks up in surprise when the desk lights up and then glances questioningly at Sheppard.

"I hadn't initialized that one yet."

"Not me," Sheppard answers.

"Huh," Rodney says, giving Alistair a hard look of his own. "Well that's interesting." As no explanation is forthcoming Alistair doesn't give it any further thought. The room falls silent save for Rodney muttering to himself, but it is a companionable silence and Alistair finds he rather enjoys it. After a while Rodney slams his tablet down on a flat surface and huffs in frustration, rubbing his eyes.

"Rodney?" Teyla asks tentatively. "What have you found?"

"Nothing," he answers tersely. "That's the problem. There's not a damn thing in here about how to activate the mirror or how to dial the right reality. We already know there's no remote, we went over the place three times looking for it before Astaire here showed up--"

"Alistair," he interrupts, wondering how the man could have forgotten his name already.

"Whatever," Rodney huffs, "the point is, we didn't find a remote, and there's no reference to one that I can find anyway. I mean, maybe if I could download the whole database and go through it in my lab with a team of scientists we could figure out how to get it to work. But there's still the problem of powering the damn thing."

"Wait a minute," Sheppard says, frowning. "Back up. What do you mean 'how to dial the right reality?' Nobody's touched it since Alistair came through. Shouldn't it still be set on the correct channel or whatever? I say we go grab a naquadah generator and hook it up to the mirror. This thing can't require that much power, can it?"

"Oh, by all means John, do my job for me, please. Yeesh. Are you kidding me? Just hook it up to a naquadah generator? Seriously?"

"Rodney," Sheppard says with a warning tone, "you're avoiding the question. Why do you need to know how to find Alistair's reality again?"

"Oh, um, well. Remember that diagnostic I said I was running? Well, it might have triggered something that cycled the different realities this thing is connected to and, well, it seems to have kept going for a few minutes after he came through."

"Rodney..." Sheppard says.

"Look, we were all caught off guard when he showed up!" He jerks his thumb at Alistair, who isn't even trying to make sense of their words. He furrows his brow as the gist of the conversation begins to become clear though. "Our scans showed this planet to be completely uninhabited, and we know no one has come through the gate since we arrived!"

"So we download the database and take it back with us," Ronon speaks up. Alistair jumps. It is the first time he has heard the man speak since he arrived. "You have your people go through it and figure out how to turn it on and get it to the right channel, then we come back, hook up a generator, and Alistair can go home."

"Um, no." Rodney answers, chagrined.

"Why not?" Sheppard asks.

"For one thing, I don't have nearly enough memory to copy the whole database right now. For another, there are almost an infinite number of realities that thing could be hooked up to, and it's not like they're listed in any sort of order. Also, the naquadah generator isn't going to work. In fact, it's probably the worst possible thing we can do because, well, according to the diagnostic, it is broken. Really broken. Any attempt to bypass it and provide an alternate energy source is more than likely going to cause the whole thing to blow up." The room falls into silence once more as everyone digests this new information.

"So I'm stuck here." Alistair says at last. He is surprised to find that he isn't upset at this revelation.

"Um, yes?" Rodney says tentatively. Alistair walks over to the mirror and reaches up to touch it. "What are you doing?!" Rodney cries.

"All I had to do was touch the other one," Alistair answers. But he knows even before he makes contact with the mirror that there will be no reaction to his touch this time.

"Well, yes, clearly the mirror in your reality is working just fine." Rodney sounds a little testy now. "The problem is that you need this one to be working in order to get back, and well," he falters, "it isn't."

"Alright then." Alistair says. "So, what now?" There is another long moment of silence and he can't bring himself to turn around and face them. After a few moments, Sheppard is the one to break the silence.

"Now, you come and stay with us."

"Really?" Rodney asks in surprise as Alistair turns at last. Sheppard's face is serious, and a bit sad. Alistair suspects he feels a little bit responsible for their current predicament. Teyla is nodding in approval, however, and Ronon is giving him an assessing look. Alistair meets Ronon's gaze and after another moment the young man nods just once and looks back to Sheppard. Alistair looks at Rodney who glances at the desk that lit up at Alistair's touch and then shrugs and says to Sheppard. "Might not be a bad idea." He gives a little bit of a chuckle and adds, "Woolsey is gonna love this."

They gather up their belongings and Alistair follows the group out of the building and along an overgrown path. There are no woods, but the mountains could be identical to those he came through at the start of this strange journey. Before they get to the pass that would lead back to Ferelden (or whatever stands in its place on this side of the mirror) they come upon a large ring standing up against the mountain face. In front of it is a small podium of some sort that Rodney walks up to. He presses a sequence of buttons and there is a rumbling from the ring. Alistair jumps backwards as there is a loud "whoosh" sound and a jet of something resembling water shoots out horizontally from the center of the ring before settling back and leaving what looks like a standing pool shimmering across its surface. It is beautiful. Teyla places a reassuring hand on his arm and promises him this will not hurt, although it might feel a bit strange his first time through. He sees Sheppard talking to thin air and hears him identify himself and say something about clearance and a visitor. After a few seconds Sheppard nods and gestures toward the ring and one by one, they step through.

This sensation is no less strange than his journey through the mirror, but much more pleasant at least, and when he emerges he is still standing and fully conscious. A fact he is quickly glad of as he looks around and finds himself inside a gleaming building bustling with people and more objects like those in the room and Rodney's tablet. A feeling of belonging, a sense of home, unlike anything Alistair has ever felt in his life washes over him. He looks at Sheppard and sees that the other man is watching him take it all in with an open grin.

"Welcome to Atlantis Alistair," he says.

Oh Dear

Well, I saw The Hunger Games yesterday. It was fantastic. Of course. A good story, well written, well acted, with some very immersive cinematography. It was just over two hours of pure escape, and it was a lovely way to spend my afternoon (though the story itself of course dealt with some less than lovely topics).

There were some definite deviations from the book, but I didn't have any problems with them. I like the way they got around how much of the book is Katniss internally thinking about how things are playing to the audience and the game-makers. I thought that worked really well, and was not at all surprised at the end to see that the author, Suzanne Collins, had a screenwriting and executive producer credit on the film. I am glad she got consulted and was given final approval on those changes. The other changes mostly served to keep the narrative streamlined, I felt, and though I was sad at one character getting totally left out, I understood why it was done that way.

There were several moments when I teared up or was just outright crying. They did an amazing job of conveying the emotional impact of that story. Even though I knew pretty much what was coming the whole time, the second that Katniss volunteered to take Prim's place in the games, my heart leaped into my throat. It was crazy.

This movie is insane good. Even if you haven't read the book, I think you would still enjoy it quite a bit. Then you would go out and buy or borrow the books. Because, damn.

I had really intended to hold off on reading the next two books in the series until after I had finished some other stuff. I really did. But the ending of the movie, and some hints at what the fallout for the characters to come might be left me craving for more.

I started Catching Fire yesterday. I had a really hard time putting it down last night. I about cried when I finished my designated "last" chapter for the evening, because all I wanted to do was turn the page to find out what happened next. I've played Dragon Age for a sum total of I think thirty minutes since I've gotten back from my trip. Suzanne Collins has created a world and characters that just suck you in and keep you immersed from start to finish. Even now I am  itching to get back to the book.

Man, I love when a book does that to me.

Have a great weekend folks. Hopefully you've got a book that you are enjoying as much as I am this series!

May the odds be ever in your favor.

Take Earth Back

Well, the Mass Effect 3 demo dropped this week, and I have to say, I had a pretty darn good time playing it!

Spoilers ahead for the first two games and anything seen in the demo.

Up front, let's get the few things I didn't like out of the way first: 

I always forget how different the animation style for Mass Effect is from my other Bioware games. It's not bad mind you, it's just different. It feels choppier somehow, rougher around the edges. It completely fits in with the feel of the franchise, but it always takes me a bit of time to get used to it. 

Where is my map????? Okay, this might (fingers crossed) just be a demo issue. Maybe. There was no map at all my screen, not even the semi-annoying little circle at the bottom that at least let me know the position of nearby enemies. Now, the menu screen has a "Map" option, but it wasn't functional for the demo. Granted, maps always annoy me in the ME games. I am not going to lie and pretend that they don't. But not having some sort of directional guide and not being able to pull up a full screen map to figure out where the heck I am or where the heck I am going was a tad frustrating. Now, you can use the "V" key to get a brief little indicator to point you towards your objective, and thankfully that was one of the first little (very quick) hints to pop up on the screen. I utilized that key quite a lot, let me tell you. Still, it would have been nice to have that little enemy indicator as well, especially since....

The camera just felt all out of whack to me. I am trying to remember if it is always like this in ME games, and I think it might be. I hope so, because that means it is something I got used to and got over pretty quickly. Still. Wow. Basically, you are just looking over Shepard's shoulder the whole time. It's not first person (thank goodness), but you can't really look around too much. Very limited perspective and no zoom that I could tell. 

Lastly, they have way pared down the way to access combat moves. It's always been a little minimal, but in the past when you scroll down your mouse (which is your camera control and your targeting control) over one of the UI parts of the screen, you get a pointer back and can click on your various skills/moves or change weapons, use medpacs and whatnot. As far as I could tell, that wasn't there at all. Your mouse looks you around, and you use it to point and shoot. You've got your spacebar to interact with objects that can be interacted with once you get close enough, and to use a special shot or biotic ability you have to use the number key that it is assigned to in the bar at the top of the screen. Now, that ability bar has always been there, with shortcut keys in place, but it was optional before and I never really used it much, preferring to use my mouse to select an ability from the area with my health and party status. If that option is gone for good, it is going to take some serious adjusting for me when the game rolls around (and some quick memorization, because of course many of the keys are different from previous games). 

Also, in previous games there was a way to pause in combat and order your companions to do certain things and line up a set of moves to perform a more controlled coordinated attack. I am pretty sure that we will have that ability once the game drops, because I recall the "giving your squad orders" feature being quite heavily advertised every time the game was presented at conventions and whatnot. But I will be darned if I could figure out how to do that in the demo.

Still, a lot of this is just more of the same for how ME plays, which I think stems from its creators trying to walk the line between a first-person shooter experience and a full-out role-playing game. It will either go away in the full version of the game (the demo is always going to be a stripped down version), or I will get used to it. I am not really worried about any of that. Seriously, if those are the only problems I end up having with the game, well, that would be nice. 

Now, with all of that out of the way, on to the good!

Squee!

The demo takes you through the opening sequence of the game, which is mostly cut-scenes with a few quick starter movement and combat sequences. After that, you get a second mission from later in the game that is a bit harder, but your character has leveled up and you can allocate points to the abilities you prefer for yourself and your two squad mates (Liara and Garrus, in this case). Then you get a chance to get really down and dirty and see how the combat works and how to best use your newly obtained skills. 

There are a few new faces right off the bat and a bunch of old friends. Not gonna lie, my heart melted a little when Kaidan popped up. Now, if you've played the first game, you know it's an either/or situation on whether you get Ashley or Kaidan, but the demo set-up gives you a chance to pick which one of them died at Virmire, so that was nice. From what I saw in the demo, I actually have to say they have done a good job at making this game accessible to people who haven't played the first two without sacrificing the wonderful story experience for those of us who have.

You still get the character customization option (along with a few presets to choose from if that's not your cup of tea). It's still not to the level of some of Bioware's other games *cough*DragonAge*cough* but at least they have added in a few more decent hairstyles/colors. Of course, that is countered with the option of having a freaking bouffant available as a hairstyle option for FemShep. I almost fell out of my chair, ya'll. What the heck is up with that? What military officer in the twenty-second century would wear a bouffant? I mean, really, what? Sigh. Also, FemShep's eyelashes are still just...too much. And there's no way to alter them. But in the grand scheme of things, not really a big deal. Like I said, there are some fun new options. I mean, I'll be playing with a pre-created character when the full game hits, but they do give you the option to tweak (or heck, totally change) your character's appearance even when starting from a saved game. So I am glad to know I can at least update her hairstyle and makeup. Hey, I have my girly moments.

Issues with figuring out how to use my skills and abilities aside, actually getting to see them in action was a lot of fun. I also really enjoyed getting to see some of my old (and older) teammates interacting with each other and with me. Story-wise I am really intrigued to see where this chapter will take us. From the demo we learn two interesting factors. The Alliance (Earth's space force) has reinstated Shepard in the wake of her being absolutely right about the Reapers, and Cerberus (with whom Shepard was loosely, if unwillingly, allied during the second game) is back on the side of the bad guys once more. Also, they have no compunction about getting in Shepard's way or attacking her and her crew. I will be very curious to see which of the companions from game two are back to actively help (or even hinder) Shepard this go-around. Especially after my husband pointed out how there is a large likelihood that in many people's playthroughs, most or all of their crew got killed during the second installment's endgame. That's got to be a bear for the writers to sort out and balance to make sure that no one misses out on too much content just because they couldn't keep a particular crew member alive. Still, it would suck immensely for all of those wonderful characters to just be gone. We shall have to see.

One other really cool bit from the demo? Female Krogan. Yup. The second mission you play in the demo is to rescue/escort one from the Salarian homeworld (while under attack from Cerberus). I mean, mostly she's stuck in a life-support pod while you are trying to get her off the planet, but we did get to meet her briefly once the day was saved, and she was awesome. I really really hope she has a goodly part to play in the plot, because I love her already.

One interesting new bit I noticed was the option for type of gameplay between action, role play, and story. I chose role play because that was the "traditional" Mass Effect experience. But from the descriptions it sounds like action focuses more on the actual combat and just kind of runs you through the story on rails without you needing to worry about trying to influence the outcome with your choices, no dialog options, for example. Story, on the other hand is all about that part of the experience, minimizing the combat, with battles not so much affecting how the story unfolds. Role play seems to be the middle of the road between these two paths. I think it is a definite example of how the fan base of this game is a bit wider because it does draw in the fans of shooters and the fans of RPGs but doesn't really fit squarely in either category. After I've done a playthrough in the role play style, it might be fun to try one out in story. 

I do wish that we could have gotten a glimpse inside the Normandy during the demo, mostly to reassure myself they didn't mess with it too much from game two. Normandy 2.0 is my favorite spaceship pretty much in the history of ever, even edging out Serenity, which is pretty spiffy. I will be heartbroken if they've gone and screwed it up.

I didn't mess with the new multi-player feature at all, so I can't really speak to that. But as I have no intention of utilizing it in the full game either, well, yeah. I mean, bully for you if you've been looking forward to that. Some of the comments I've seen online seem to suggest it is pretty well done. Not my cup of tea though.

All in all though, playing the demo just made me super jazzed for Mass Effect 3. I will probably play it through a couple more times, try out the different classes and whatnot, as well as to get a feel for the playing style once more. If you have any interest in checking out the game come March 6, I highly urge you to give the demo a try. It is available for XBox 360, Playstation 3, and PC for free (though I know with PC you will need to have or set up a (free) account with Origin, I would guess there might be similar requirements for the other platforms as well). You can download it by clicking right here. Even with all of the time I spent messing around in the character generator, it only took me about an hour to play, and I think it gives you a good feel for the franchise and the forthcoming game whether you've got any history with Mass Effect or not.

The Grand Experiment

I know I have been a little bit quiet about Star Wars The Old Republic (SWTOR) of late. I have been playing it for just over a month now, and it has been something of a roller coaster of an experience. Overall, I have to say that I actually really dig the game itself, and I am very curious about how the story will play out.

But. 

I have come to realize I am not in it for the long haul. SWTOR is my first experience with a massively multiplayer online game (MMO). Even though I tried to ignore that quiet little voice in the back of my mind as I followed the game's development and then tried the beta and then started the game proper, I have always known that there was a chance I just wouldn't turn out to be an MMO kind of girl. I think I thought if I hoped hard enough, I would be able to enjoy that aspect of the game, or that I would be pleasantly surprised to discover I really actually enjoyed it. Sadly, I don't.

As I said, I really do dig this game. If it was a single-player game it would have skyrocketed right up to my top three favorite games of all time, beating out Mass Effect to take its place with Dragon Age and Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy. The gameplay is pretty solid. Some of my initial concerns from the beta quickly started to make sense once I got the hang of how all of the pieces fit together. The story is amazing, the voice cast is incredible, and the setting is, of course, perfectly Star Wars. Hell, I even actually enjoy the space combat missions. That came as an incredible surprise, let me tell you. I normally loathe the driving/flying portions I am forced to endure in any RPG. 

My ship, the Defender, is pretty snazzy too. Not quite the Normandy but no small shakes.

I think it is safe to say that everything I don't like about this game can directly be attributed to it being an MMO. Now, if I had a regular guild of people I know, in real life, who had a gaming schedule that coincided with mine, that I could go through the game with together? I might not dislike the multiplayer aspect so much. Then again, it might still drive me nuts, there's no telling. In an matter, I don't have such a group. More often than not if I want to do a heroic area quest (I have already given up on flashpoints), I have to send out a message in general chat to see if anyone is up for joining me. This is, quite literally, a crapshoot. Occasionally, I'll find myself in a group that turns out to be a lot of fun, we work well together and get a little bit of nice chat in the process. Usually, I end up with a disjointed group of people and for some reason we can't seem to coordinate our attacks. Sometimes we try to remedy this using chat and can't because they keep using traditional MMO shortcut speak and I have no idea what they are saying to me. Bleah. It is also not uncommon that I'll be ready to do a heroic area and there are no biters at all. I find it incredibly frustrating.

But the heroics are optional, more or less, and I could get by without dealing with that. Yesterday I looked at my quest list, and the closest quest to my position was a heroic. I thought about sending out a message to see if anyone was up for it, thought about it some more, and then just removed the quest from my list. I instantly felt better about the game. I can't avoid other players completely though. I can't even tell you how many times I've arrived in an area to do a solo quest and three other people got there right before I did, meaning my objective enemy or item is already dead/used and I have to stand around waiting for respawns. Sometimes I'll be in the middle of fighting an enemy blocking my objective, and another player will just run up, use the objective, and run off. Or players will stand around in the middle of an area I need to be doing something in, totally in my way. So there's that. Occasionally it works out to my advantage, in that someone will be trying to tackle the same boss I need to get and will see me and invite me to group with them, and then we both have an easier fight. But that is pretty rare, most of the people are either jerks or just oblivious to everyone else. 

Also, this game just feels like work to me a lot of the time. I now completely understand the term "grinding." There is so much to do, and there are so many quests, that I also don't really feel like I have the luxury of just exploring the worlds. I keep fearing I will fall behind. I mean, right now I am level 32 and I have only received two of my five companions (one of which is a droid and as cool as he is, he isn't much in the way of a conversationalist), and I haven't even finished Act One of the game. Also, I looked up my one potential love interest, and he has a seventies porn 'stache. Not cool. I get that it has to be a broader story and that it is designed to be played for, well, years, not weeks. But that just makes it feel like a never ending slog when I stop to think about it. When a game doesn't feel like fun anymore, I don't really see the point in continuing to play it.

So, my hope that I would end up loving this game despite (maybe even because of) the fact that it is an MMO has turned out to be in vain. This makes me a bit sad, I'll admit. Like I said, I am really curious about the endgame and the outcome of the story. I don't think I'm gonna get to find out how that plays out. I'm going to continue playing this game (on the days when it feels like fun and not work) for at least another month. The demo for Mass Effect 3 drops on Valentine's Day, and I am going to take a break to play that. Then, I will either renew my account for one more month and get as far as I can before ME3's March 6 release date, or I am going to cancel it then and finish my two active Dragon Age games while I wait for my new game to release. But until then I am going to get as far as I can in the story and try to forget that there are other players unless I really feel like doing a heroic area or unless my friend is online and on the same planet as me. (Though, by "forgetting" the other players, I do not mean to say that I will be a discourteous player.)

Now let me say for the record: this is not meant to be a complaint-fest. I do think SWTOR is a really awesome game. Also, from what I can tell, it is a really awesome MMO. The complaints I have seen about that aspect of it (largely in comparison to World of Warcraft) are almost all about things that Bioware has flat out said that they are working on addressing/fixing/updating in future game patches. It's just that I, personally, am, as it turns out, really not cut out to play an MMO. It doesn't fit my gaming style or my life right now. Maybe one day that will change. I am not sure I could bring myself to cancel my account if it meant deleting my character entirely, which thankfully it doesn't.

To end on a positive note, here are some of the things about the game I have found amusing of late:

Nar Shaddaa seems to have an abundance of TARDISes. Tell me that's not a Timelord transportation device, I dare you.
Someone at Bioware must be a fan of the Doctor, is all I'm saying.

That's my companion Kira and her wonderfully ridiculous hat that she picked up on Tatooine. I love this hat. I am never
letting her take it off. EVER. 

Alderaan has flying fish (upper right-hand corner) all over the place. This one is wearing a saddle, suggesting that on
Alderaan, people ride their flying fish. How is that not awesome?

Despite a lot of griping I have seen on various places in the internet, I also do not feel that this game tramples all over the canon of either of the Knights of the Old Republic games. I have really been digging the random references to the other game that I have come across. I feel like, yeah, it's been a few hundred years, and stuff has changed, but that doesn't mean that the events of the other games didn't happen.

Also, there is a whole set of gear called Mabari. Mabaris are the breed of hounds from Dragon Age. Picking up some Mabari loot never ceases to make me smile (even if I have yet to find any I can/would wear). 

So it's not all bad. It really isn't. It's just not me. 

Sigh.

Bonus Post! Star Wars: The Old Republic Early Access

As an incentive to pre-order the game, Bioware decided to offer early access to anyone who did. The early access start time was determined by when you registered your pre-order code on the SWTOR site. The first announcement about when early access would begin had it starting tomorrow, but someone at Bioware decided to push it up and it actually started yesterday. Given that I had Amazon set to alert me as soon as the game was available to order, and that I also have been paying close attention to the game's website and Facebook page, well, you know I ordered this game about the second it was available. Also, I registered my pre-order code as soon as I got my order confirmation email.

So it is no surprise that yesterday I was in one of the very first waves granted early game access. Even though I am in the middle of a playthrough of Dragon Age II, I scrapped all of my other gaming plans yesterday to fire up SWTOR as soon as I could. I might have even gone ahead and created my character (yeah, they didn't let us keep our beta characters, it's okay though, I had already decided to start over) and played through all of the opening cut scenes in the morning while my daughter watched Sesame Street.

My new character, Skirata.

I have a confession to make. After I wrote up my post about the beta weekend, I had a brief exchange with a friend that almost made me cancel my pre-order then and there. A lot of the factors related to this being an MMO are still making me hesitant about the game. I had a lot of soul-searching debates with myself, but in the end, I realized I am just too excited to try this thing out to give up before it even gets started. At the very least, I want to experience the story at least once. Also, it is good for me to try new things and to put myself a little bit outside of my comfort level, dagnabit.

So, I fired up the game yesterday and I have to say, I am feeling much much better about it already. Many of my complaints from the beta seem to be non-issues anymore. Part of this is that I was expecting them or have gotten used to them, part of this is stuff that was changed between then and now.

I have already made it to level seven and am doing much better financially in-game, and with keeping my equipment repaired and my character leveled, than I was the last time around. Knowing I can afford to level up and that my weapon and armor won't go kaput before a boss fight makes playing a lot more enjoyable. I do still find the battle engine pretty clumsy but that might just be my own personal preferences getting in the way there.

I still suspect I might only play through once--I have no real desire to play any of the other classes. I want to be a Jedi Knight Sentinel because I want to be a Jedi and I want to have two lightsabers. I think those things are pretty self-explanatory, really. Although, it did occur to me last night, that the game allows for your light side character to go dark. If it also allows for your dark side character to go light, that sure might be a fun way to play...

Also, I am not gonna cease to be amused by this particular side quest, ever:

Why yes, that quest title is "Flesh Eating Baby" and there is in fact a Flesh Raider Baby in my backpack.

Anyhoo, all of this is just to say that I am actually really having more fun with this game already than I had expected, which is a huge relief. I have also been leaving the general chat window open so that I can follow along with the player conversations and get a feel for the people on my server for when I do need to find a group and my buddy isn't available.

I did decide not to do the extra blog about the game though, but I will of course likely blog about it oodles over here.

There's still time to pre-order the game if you're interested, or it comes out next Tuesday if you feel like braving your local video game shop. I've got my server and character name up over there on the side of the page for anyone who is playing and wants to look me up!

My SWTOR Beta Experience

So, among the many distractions I faced during my November writing were not one but two open beta weekends for the forthcoming MMORPG Star Wars The Old Republic (SWTOR). The game launches on December 20, with early access being granted to anyone who pre-ordered it. To stress test their servers and try to find any last minute glitches or bugs, Bioware opened up their beta testing to everyone who had signed up to be a beta tester for two different weekends last month. They also gave out a bunch of codes for people who hadn't signed up already to be able to get in.

If you have been paying attention to this blog over the last year or so, it should be quite obvious to you that of course I had signed up to be a beta tester as soon as I learned that was an option. Then I sat on my thumbs for a year and a half kind of sad that I was never invited. Then I got my first invite at the start of November. After that initial rush of "hell yes!!" faded, I started cursing the bejeezus out of Bioware because, well, you know, November is kind of a no-video game month for me. BUT. I have a wonderful husband and he helped to make it work for me to participate in both weekends by keeping an eye on the kiddo so I could play during times I wouldn't normally be on the computer (so as to not detract from my designated writing time). As of this past weekend's beta, Bioware also lifted the non-disclosure part of the beta policy, which means I am free to share with you my thoughts on the game so far! Yay!

Meet Vakarian (named for Mass Effect's Garrus), Jedi Knight.

I have to say, there were certainly some frustrating moments, just getting into the game (stress test on the servers, yo) and then with the actual gameplay.

All servers full all the time. There was much waiting in queues. Let's hope that isn't normal.

Here is my laundry-list of complaints after two weekends of playing:

• Cool down periods on items and abilities. Okay, I do expect there to be some cool down period after using an item before you can use another like item, or before you can use an ability again after using it once. That being said, the cool down period on med packs (which is how you heal yourself in battle) is way too long. It just is, especially considering that the only med packs I ever tried to use were crazy low-level anyway. The other thing I didn't particularly care for is that if you use any ability or item at all, every item and ability becomes unavailable for you to use for several seconds. That is NOT COOL. 
• Your equipment takes on damage over time. This means you either have to find/buy something to replace it with, or you have to pay to repair it (which really isn't that cheap). I understand that this may be a nice little touch for those players who really crave a challenge. This is not the kind of thing that enhances my personal gaming experience, however. Especially when loot is so scarce in this game to start with, and the credits don't really flow for a Jedi who follows the code. It took me forever to realize that I even could repair my items, so I was prepared to get really pissed off about the fact that I would have to be constantly switching out my gear (which doesn't do good things for your inventory if you always have to have replacements on hand). I would love to see more loot in the final release of the game. That would mitigate this annoyance a lot.
• Leveling up your character is completely unsatisfying. When you get enough experience to gain a level, you do get a nifty little fanfare and a flashing neon display around your character, yay, hooray. But you can't click on your character as soon as you are out of combat and choose your new skills and attributes. Nope. Your attributes (strength, dexterity, etc.) as far as I can tell are automatically leveled up for you based on your class and specialization. You get a few automatic passive skills with each new level, but to get a new active skill (such as a new lightsaber attack or force ability) you have stop what you're doing, go find a "trainer" and actually pay him credits so you can have that new ability that you freaking earned with your experience. DO NOT LIKE. Grrr. Once you hit level ten and choose your class specialization (for a Jedi knight you become either a Sentinel or a Guardian), you get a skill tree and with each level you get to pick a new ability from the tree.
  

Skill Tree for the Jedi Sentinel

• Everything is just so darn expensive. Points two and three really all add up to this. Every time I started to save up enough credits to stock up on med packs, I had to use them all to purchase new skills, or vice versa. My poor Vakarian was always freaking broke. I can't imagine that the Jedi Order really wants to send their people out into the galaxy unable to actually afford to be able to do their jobs, but there you have it. I find myself wondering if Bioware has some scheme in mind where you can pay real world money for in-game credits. It would explain a lot.

All of that being said, please don't mistake me, this game is AWESOME from what I have seen of it so far. I made my way up to level ten through the Jedi Knight origin story (or prologue). I got one companion (my droid, T7) and made it to Coruscant before the test ended. For the most part I had a blast playing it. Yes, there were a few times early on when I was so frustrated I contemplated canceling my pre-order of the game altogether and just firing up Dragon Age again, but those moments were fleeting. I fully acknowledge my noob status at MMOs. I know a big chunk of my frustration can easily be attributed to the overwhelming feelings of starting an entirely new game for the first time and figuring out just what the heck is going on. I suspect a lot of the other frustration can be chalked up to my unfamiliarity with online gaming (as well as my hermity nature). 

The graphics in the game are absolutely GORGEOUS. It is the Star Wars universe come to life in an amazingly beautiful way. See for yourself.

Lovely day for a hike in the mountains, don't you think?

I had to harvest meat from these guys to feed a baby Flesh Eater. Note the quest title in the upper right corner.

Pretty Jedi Temple is pretty.

The Jedi definitely have style when it comes to buildings.

The light fixture's a bit over the top, but it sure is nice to look at.

I really felt like these glowing mushrooms should have been lootable.

Squee! Assembling my lightsaber!

Another day, another temple.

T7 likes to ride the banister. He's crazy like that.

Coruscant.

You know, I bet if a dude equipped that same vest, it would reach his belt. Just saying.

The story is also pretty darn engaging from what I got to play of it. I guess it helps that I have been reading all of the comics for the game's back story, and I am also familiar with the events of the two Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic games, which set the table for this one. But the game gives you plenty of opportunity to delve into the rich mythology of the universe. The codex entries are very detailed and interesting. 

Interesting and informative.

You also get the typical Star Wars scroll-screen setting up each "chapter" of your story. It updates as your game progresses.

I am not sure if this is a game I will play multiple times. I might play it through once and keep my character on hand for when new expansion packs come out, and leave it at that. Who knows? I might get absolutely sucked into the whole MMO experience. It's always possible. Though at the moment it just really reminds me that even my geekiest of friends are not the same kind of geeky I am--I only have one friend who is also planning to play this game. He lives in St. Louis and keeps a very different schedule than I do, we couldn't ever manage to meet up in-game to play together during the beta weekends. So I am definitely very nervous about the "social" aspect of this game. But here's hoping I end up pleasantly surprised by that. (Hey, if any of you are playing and want to meet up in-game, let me know!)

All in all, at the end of two beta weekends, I am really excited for this game to come out and to get to play it through. I think that, as much fun as the character creator is, if my beta character is still available to me when the game launches, I will probably continue her story. But if not, I can start over and play through Tython again. At least I will be a little bit better prepared to play through that area. 

Once the game does officially start, I will launch a new blog to run concurrent with my playthrough called Jedi's Journal. There's not much there at the moment, but please feel free to bookmark the site if you're interested. My plan with that blog will be to write a short form entry each day I play (or maybe after each major story quest is completed) from my character's point of view. Her perspective on the events of the game and the people that she will come across in her journey. It should be a fun experiment, and I'll remind you about it when I start posting there. I will still talk about the game on this blog, but that will be my thoughts on the game play or its effect on my life (or lack thereof) in general, I think. 

Eighteen days and counting, folks. Is anyone else as excited about this as I am?