Sun Aug 27 22:49:20 2006

At 5 o'clock AM, Day of the Moon, 21st of the Month of the Sun
on the Theran calendar Alenysi perished, never to return.

Had a few interactions, seemed like a cool char. Best of luck and see you in the fields

Of course I did, thank you for those icicles. I was amassing what I considered a great set(though, my standards for that is probably fairly low)...but then nep made me sacrifice it all when I heroimmed(yes I know, it was required).

From what I remembered, I liked Aundar. Thanks for the other pieces of gear you spared me. Good luck with whatever you do next.

-Alenysi

I know very few folks will probably care, but since I'll probably not have a pbf, here is my last description for those who never seen it:

Here stands a tall, slender, well-toned nymph with very feminine curves. This nymph has a bright, radiant smile as she observes the natural surroundings around her, but frowns slightly at the ugliness and darkness she catches sight of. Her skin tone is a naturally tan, as it would seem, and unlike many others who spend day after day in the sun, she has no wrinkles or flaws playing about her skin. She has warm, beautiful light blue eyes, the color of a clear, beautiful sky. Looking closer, you see a hint of gold playing about her pupils. Her eyes dart around and about, absorbing all her surroundings. These vividly warm eyes give hint to a kinder side of this half-elf, and they show off a wisdom that surpasses those of normal mortals.

Beautiful, lustrous silver hair is one of her most obvious features, for it is not a common color anywhere in the mortal realm. The very long, flowing hair drapes down her body to cover areas that most men would be curious seeing, but even then sometimes, in her frolicking movements, one can catch glimpses of her heavenly body. Twigs and leaves can be seen in the hair that flows down to her knees. This makes it obvious she spends much time in the woods, but despite such, it does not detract from her beauty. Pointy ears peek out from beneath the hair, giving hint to her elven parentage.

This athletic-looking, sure-footed nymph moves in a quick, yet nonchalant manner, although it is almost obvious she knows where she is going, but just wants to see the sights and wonders on the way there. You can sense that she has plenty of time to celebrate and drink in the wonders of life, despite any hard times she may have seen, though it is hard to tell if she ever had any, for her skin is free from any scars or flaws. In fact, the only flaw you can see from this beautiful creature is perhaps the mud and dirt that play about her skin, but even so, this seems to make her all that more attractive and doesn’t detract from her beauty in the least bit.

Do you remember the time that you and that elf dagger spec killed the Herald outer to get inside to talk to Olin, because he was talking to people? I believe that was during the Jagad quest stuff, and specifically I think it was during the whitecloaks with kinetic shield subquest.

I was Kevmorn at the time, and was never able to take you seriously after that incident. You might not even remember it, but if you do, could you tell me what the hell you were thinking?

Killing the outer of a cabal to talk to a imm-controlled mob inside just doesn't, under any circumstances, make sense to me.

-Kevmorn

"New payment options w/ Iron Realms"

I vaguely remember the situation. I think my character was being a bully at the time. Yes it had to do with the quest, but even if I got in there with no immortal-controlled mob it was the right thing to do, at least in her eyes.

If I remember correctly, the sole purpose of getting in there was to find out where the "hellspawn" was...or at least what Alenysi thought it was. Perhaps she was being rash, but any good person can. Her role was situated so that if I need to do for the greater good, as she saw it...she would do it. Preventing "creepies and hellspawn" from spreading was a good reason. She was fairly rabid about taking down anything from Jagad. Also, if I remember correctly, there were people inside, having problems with hell spawn(this could have been another time, its fuzzy). If that was the case, she was probably also trying to get in to protect good folk. And if you were outside with her, she roleplayed with the guard and pleaded with him to let him in, but since she doesnt have much respect for guards(see above, outlander)...her patience was thin.

Also, Alenysi thought she was booted out for an unfair reason(or none actually). I am fairly sure the only outer she wouldn't take down to prevent creepies would be the fortresses. I know it was probably a bit extreme, but the role called for it, and it was rather foolish endeavor. That guard was mean You can take it as you will, but roleplaying is doing exactly what your character would do. She would have done it, and thus I did it.

And I figured it was something of that nature. I don't know that I would role play that way, but it does make sense.

-Larcat

"New payment options w/ Iron Realms"

Well, basically once your god tells you to take down those "creepies and hellspawn" in any way you can...you can see where that would go, especially if your character is a serve your immortal first, everything else second.

-Alenysi

Hey there! I just wanted to give my thanks and appreciation for your time and voice in helping with Outlander and imm-stuff in general. I will miss seeing your face around the watercooler. Email me if you get the itch to talk or bitch. Good luck.

innis@carrionfields.com

Thank you for your kind words, there. I did not think I made much of a difference in Outlander, but hopefully what I did there was satisfactory. Thank you for taking the time to go through my area. I appreciated your comments, efforts and so forth. Unfortunately, it was all for naught, and for that I apologize.

Good luck with Innis and things, and I may shoot you an e-mail. If you want to get to it first, well I think you can :>

nt

Was excited when you immed and was hoping I'd see you rise up in there. Any reasons for the delete that can be shared? Hopefully you'll still be in the fields!!

Josh

It is neither the time or place to discuss the entire story. Lets just say its been a very long and bumpy ride and leave it at that. I am sure there will be some rumours, believe the ones you want.

-Alenysi

I enjoyed our brief talks, especially the other day when I had a chance to poke at you a bit.. A shame to see you go.. you had atleast a presence about and that was enough for me.. Hope all works out and good luck on whatever endeavors to come.
Jhesar

I do apologize I wasn't as talkative as I should be when I was an immortal. I tend to be distracted by other matters, some of which may or may not have been important. But I do appreciate your kind words, regardless. Thank you. From what I say when I did pay attention, you seem to be a capable Harbinger. Good luck with him, and with whatever else you do in the future.

I suppose I could say that it was not the work of being an imm that scared me off, as I was quite willing to do that. I spent near 700 hours(if not more) as an immortal and did what I could. It had to do with more personal issues, which would not be right to bring up in such a fluid and explosive medium.

-Alenysi

>I suppose I could say that it was not the work of being an imm
>that scared me off, as I was quite willing to do that. I
>spent near 700 hours(if not more) as an immortal and did what
>I could.

I respectfully disagree, up to a point. What follows is largely constructive advice for the future and something to think about for any player with an interest in imming.

In most respects, you were a great newbie imm. I can't and wouldn't deny that. You logged a lot of hours. You did the less glamorous tasks like description room helping and newbie channel question answering without complaint. You took on the area project you were asked to do, and turned out an area first draft very quickly. You often asked how else you could help out. All of that was great and I could point to a lot of it as "what to do as a new imm" for future generations.

However, while all of that is good, it's not the sum total of the job. Part of any group effort, and especially part of being the low person on the totem pole of any group effort, is being able to take direction/criticism. It's great to be able to submit an area or other project quickly, but it's also necessary to take feedback on the project and use it to make the final result something amazing. People like Ysaloerye, Eshval, Lyristeon, Thrak, and Qaledus (all of whom are much nicer and more patient than I am, for the record) took the time to look at your work and to offer you polite suggestions on how to improve it, which, as far as I can tell, you largely either argued with or ignored.

Dealing with criticism/feedback on something you put your heart into is hard, I know. It isn't anything I didn't go through as a new imm (except in my case, I had ShaidarHaran swearing at me and spam-slaying me, in contrast to today's more hugfull approach); it isn't anything everyone doesn't go through as a new imm. But it's part of the work, and it's a part you have to be willing to do.

Yes, different reviewers will have some different ideas of how to improve something. No one would blame you from taking one idea there and not another. However, your area can't have lots of non-subjective mistakes still (spelling/grammar, for example) when you say it's ready for a final review. It just can't. That's not being willing to do the work.

You had a lot of energy and promise, and I'm hoping that someday you'll realize the things you could've done better and why, and take another crack at it. Until then, best of luck with everything going on in your life.

I did take everyones changes to heart. I am stubborn, up to a point, but I do know I am not the most knowing. But at a certain point, the area is no longer mine. This isn't the issue, though, as I would have infinite patience had it just been an area to deal with.

Secondly, in terms of true grammar issues, I did change them. All of them. If a sentence was worded awkardly, that was different, but in terms of the english language I tried my very best not to butcher it. I know my grammar isn't immaculate, but I am sure its passable.

Lastly, I, myself, never said it was done for final review. I was told repeatedly and often by several folks that they were willing to pass it on. These same folks(not to mean any disrespect) were the same ones that said my area was good or great or at the very least just fine. Once the last area walkthrough was started though, I got a very blatant...this area is crap vibe. Perhaps it was. I do not know what makes a good area. But no matter how you cut it, 700 hours is working. I put more effort in imming then I have in all 12 years of my public education(and what I have completed in my college work), including any academic events I participated in.

I did not want to make this a public argument, and in the future if you wish to disagree with me, please send it in a polite e-mail, or let it go.

Do not believe for a moment that the area walkthrough was the main issue, because it is not, and I do ask of you to not make it more of an issue, or pretend that is why I left. Otherwise you will be lying to others and yourself.

-Alenysi

>I did not want to make this a public argument, and in the
>future if you wish to disagree with me, please send it in a
>polite e-mail, or let it go.

1) I don't have your e-mail, sorry.

2) I think it's instructive for would-be future imms to know what to expect.

It's not like I haven't provided my opinion in the past when you've deleted (admittedly less serious) characters. You've always been initially stubborn about it, but ultimately, did a lot better with each succeeding character.

I'm hoping that this is no different.

>Do not believe for a moment that the area walkthrough was the
>main issue, because it is not, and I do ask of you to not make
>it more of an issue, or pretend that is why I left.

Of course not; it's just an example of a wider issue, which is the whole response-to-criticism/suggestions thing. I would humbly suggest that this is a major root cause of any other issues.

In any case, I still take e-mail at nepenthe@carrionfields.com if there's anything additional you'd like to take offline.

When I immed I gave my email to everyone. Now whether or not you use it...its your choice.

The reasons of my leaving are my own, but I'll will say outright that my departure has nothing to do with the inability to take critism, whether or not you believe it. Take that as you will, it will not change the matter of the fact. I do not wish to cause any more drama.

-Alenysi

I probably did have your e-mail at one point, but I didn't save it, sorry.

>The reasons of my leaving are my own, but I'll will say
>outright that my departure has nothing to do with the
>inability to take critism, whether or not you believe it.

Do they in any way involve intrapersonal conflicts with anyone on staff? If so, see the above for why you had them.

I did take everyones changes to heart. I am stubborn, up to a point, but I do know I am not the most knowing. But at a certain point, the area is no longer mine. This isn't the issue, though, as I would have infinite patience had it just been an area to deal with.

Secondly, in terms of true grammar issues, I did change them. All of them. If a sentence was worded awkardly, that was different, but in terms of the english language I tried my very best not to butcher it. I know my grammar isn't immaculate, but I am sure its passable.

Everyone's area project undergoes substantial revision. As a heroimm, I was a first-time area writer. I sought out and got input from Leika, Arvam, Mayesha, Stellyx, Savraeth, Bria, Uller, and probably several other people (this was 5+ years ago, apologies to anyone omitted) before I wanted my area sent up to Pico for the final checklist. I got feedback about the custom code required from Nepenthe and Sebeok. I scrapped many NPCs, descriptions, and objects and replaced them entirely as a part of incorporating this feedback. The process is much more than fixing grammar issues, which are generally an afterthought in the broader review process.

Most of the feedback given to me wasn't in terms of spelling/grammar-- I had spellchecked the draft, and I have a technical writing background which tends to keep my sentences coherent. It concerned style, perspective, and game mechanics. This is the most important past of the review process, yet you bristled the most at changes suggested along these lines.

None of that feedback made the area less "mine". In contrast, I was more proud of the Lab's first public draft then I was of the first private draft, because the advice I got from more experienced writers with differing specialties made the area better.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

Really who do you need to vete the creative side of an area besides Kastellyn!

:p

"New payment options w/ Iron Realms"

I'll begin by saying that if I could lock Kastellyn in his deathcopter with a laptop and 7,000 bags of Cheetos and force him to write areas 24/7, I would. My only complaint about Loch Grynmear is that it should be located out all four gates of Galadon so newbies would always run into it.

Lately, it's rare an area gets fully greenlit before 6-10 people have gone over it with varying degrees of fine-toothed combs. I quietly try to organize things so that people with different interests and specialties hit the area, because we all pick up on things that the others miss.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

My only complaint about Loch Grynmear is that it should be located out all four gates of Galadon so newbies would always run into it.

Then you could make some easy-to find quest(in Academy?) to give something to someone in Loch Grynmear so that newbies would actually go there.

I think the Weald is even better than the Loch. I can justify that if you want.

Always been curious about it.
Can person with a non-fluent enlish language become imm?
And if he can, how far he can go in imm-hierarchy?

I just don't see how a person could complete the duties assigned to a heroimm without being fluent in english. This by no means disqualifies ESL people who are fluent in english. Even being good with english, it is amazing the number of errors that come up writing an area that is well 100 pages of text. I am by no means the decider in such things, but I just don't see how it would be possible, knowing how difficult writing an area can be, even being fluent in English.

Actually, we have discussed ESL imms before and set up a slightly different protocol depending on how fluent they are. We have had imms in the past whose first language was not english. Generally, a heroimm is required to write an area, but maybe instead we would have an ESL heroimm come up with some lowbie skills, items, or quests that would have the same amount of work needed but would be a little less taxing on the actual language skills.

If you have enough language ability to read the text in the game, and understand it. You probably have enough ability to write an area. You might need extra assistance as far as grammar and readability, but if you are willing to put forth an effort, your effort will be rewarded with help returned.

Nothing is impossible.

Corr

Corrlaan followers are NICE. With a capital NICE!