A Fistful of GP

I took a look back at some of my past blog entries over the year. It’s nice to be able to do that, and is kind of the reason why I have this blog. Two things stood out to me as I tried to see if I posted a screen shot of my hiscores at the beginning of 2010 (I didn’t). The first is that I got 85 Slayer in December. I just now got 86 Slayer recently. I don’t slay as much as I should.

The other, I was a lot more excited about the game then. Most of the posts took on a “Oh awesome! Look at what I just did!” kind of vibe. Sort of in the way Full of Pie writes her blog. I don’t know if its just that I’m super busy with real life & work or I’m just in a rut or what. I log on to chat with friends, but I don’t really want to do anything. I end up bankstanding. I’ll do maybe 10-30 mins of something then get bored and bank stand before doing something else. It’s not that I’m sick of the game, I just don’t feel motivated. Before anyone says to quit or not play, it’s the talking with friends that I really enjoy. The game has sort of taken a background to a social thing I guess. Everything comes and goes and is cyclical. In a few months I’ll be playing happier than ever again.

We got screwed on the Jagex Cup. Timbo claims we didn’t post the signup on the last week, we claim we did. Doesn’t really matter what we say, all the posts are hidden anyways (not sure for what reason though). The mining week I didn’t mind, but fishing & cooking followed by fishing again was annoying. Putting in so many hours on two skills where I don’t need to level isn’t a lot of fun. It’s fun in the name of competition and trying to help your team, but in the end where your work isn’t even counted, it lets the wind out of your sails a bit. So many teams had 0xp/hr with nothing counting, and we don’t even get credit for competing each week while getting all the required sessions in… blah.

Jagex’s stance of refusal to work with players has really ruined something that has potential. I don’t understand why they can’t just be open to players about what’s going on. Timbo was constantly late releasing information with no explanation whatsoever. Also when he stated the detailed information release date, and it came out about 5 days after that, he just claims “well I wasn’t in the office.” Listen, we get that, but we also put a lot of time into these things. A “I’m getting the detailed information together, but it looks like its going to take a bit. I’ll get to it as soon as I can” would be much better instead of giving us a timeline to rely on, then to break. The lack of even clearly defining the rules is a bit absurd. They’d really have to directly address a lot of issues before I think I’ll participate in it again.

I know some fellow bloggers out there make some money off of your sites. Some probably a decent amount, others maybe just a few bucks. I never have because I feel like it would change the content of this site. If money started being a motivator, it’d be like work. I’m pretty happy with that choice today. The city of brotherly love, where I reside has decided that everyone who makes money from blogging, needs to buy a $300 business permit in order to operate. So the guy that made say $11 dollars last year from advertising revenue on his site about say, where to find a good steak in the city has just been handed a bill. This isn’t something they are instating going forward, as if “if you’re going to make money you need to do this” which would let you reassess if you want to do it or not. This is an invoice, if you’ve made money with it in the past, now you have to pay. I’m sure I wouldn’t have made close to $300 with this site to cover the ridiculous cost of a business permit. I will say, if you ever wanted to find out a way to make freelance writers really pissed, really quick – this is the way to go.

The second XP weekend has been announced. I spent a ridiculous amount of planning for the last one and was rewarded pretty well for all the effort. What are my plans for this one? Nothing. I’m going on vacation to the other side of the country for a friend’s wedding. I’m a little relieved to be honest. I have a nice stack of herbs sitting in my bank leftover from when I got my Herblore up to 90. (I was originally holding off on leveling, but it was killing me just seeing them sit there) I’ll wait a few more days and sell them and some other Summoning seconds I have stored for a nice profit. I’ll plant my highest level tree seeds before because I’m sure I can log on for 10 mins to do the circus and tree run real quick. That will only take like 10 minutes. It’s nice not having to stress about it though. I’d probably just use the time doing Agility or Runecrafting or Hunting anyway. Working on the skills that are my lowest and really require no prepping.