i hear the voices when I'm dreaming

So I got my warrior to 80, which is max level, so it was time to upgrade equipment. I knew I wanted vigil armor for her, so that left weapons. I generally do sword/axe, and when I found Lord Taeres's Shadow I knew I had to have it. 33g on the trading post, but SO PRETTY *_* Then I got Phoenix Reborn for an axe -- the flamey bits are animated.

Then, naturally, I had to dye my armor to match the weapons. Because fashion is very important.

It's not perfect -- I want a brighter pink that matches the sword better, and possibly a yellower gold to match the flame of the axe -- and I have half as much gold as I did before, but. Happy isa is happy!

( pics )

*purrs*

One of the minigames in GW2 right now is Southsun Survival; for those that were around the game for last Halloween, it's similar to the one minigame. For everyone else: Think Hunger Games, except that after you die you can run around setting traps for the survivors. (And yes, the traps can sometimes be enough to kill.)

I played it just for lulz ... okay, and the achievements, but whatever. I tend to suck at minigames, but I play anyway. Taking my strategy from HG, I ran immediately away from the central pile, scavenging food as I went. I had no weapons, no traps, but enough food to last me. (There is a hunger mechanism that drains health -- slowly at first, then more quickly as it goes on -- and the rations fill your health meter to full each time you consume one.)

This? Turned out to be a viable strategy.

I found a decent hiding place, and just sat there, eating rations when my health got low, and even though I had very few points, I ended up the last one alive.

I ... am vastly amused.

(ETA: It was pretty much luck, not a reliable method of winning, but still.)

(because I know y'all care so very much /grin/)

Teal deer version: gamings are not really happening much, and partly that's due to (probably depression-related) lack of interest, but mainly due to not having a setup that works.

Here's the thing: with zero mobility, I don't have a lot of options for where to put my hands. Which means that if the mouse is in reach of (either) hand, that hand can't reach the keyboard. Additionally, the keyboard I had been using, a Kinesis Freestyle (I think?) split, stopped responding when my computer had its latest set of shenanigans, which means that I'm stuck with a standard keyboard.

I'd had the KF set up with one half of the keyboard where my left hand could reach, and the other half up out of direct reach so that the mouse was usable with my right. This was not perfect -- a lot of games tend to expect, y'know, full keyboard access -- but it worked. WASD movement, 1-6 for skills, other left side of keyboard keys used for other functions (which I tried to standardize over all my games so b would always be inventory, c opened the character info pane, r toggled walk/run, t targeted nearest foe, etc.), and mouse control over the rest of the stuff.

(It also worked for regular use, not just gaming. If I wanted to type, I could use a stick to reach the right half of keyboard keys without moving anything, or for serious e.g. nano typing I could move the mouse aside and have both hands touch typing.)

But with a straight keyboard, I've lost a lot of that. The only way to make a mouse usable for me involves having the keyboard at a weird angle so that my left hand sort of reaches (but everything is skewed badly, so my touch typing instincts are thrown off, and if I accidentally hit capslock instead of shift that's why), or else I just move myself over relative to everything so that I use the mouse exclusively with my left hand, typing via either dictation (which sucks) or an on-screen keyboard (which also sucks).

These options, in case you can't tell, all suck.

Right now I am typing via left hand and stick, with the mouse out of reach so that the keyboard is straight. This is giving me a halfway decent WPM for typing. (38, which is slower than I used to be but at least workable) The on-screen keyboard gives me about three WPM. five if I'm lucky. And is so totally not workable for gaming, for obvious reasons.

I need to get a replacement for the KF; I'm just hesitating because Expense. (I am also tempted to get a gaming keyboard, which would take some getting used to but would give me possibly better options ... but hello Expense. Also Needless.) And I kind of want a gaming mouse, but I have no clue if I would be actually able to use it. (In a literal sense. My current mouse is a vertical one, and I hold it weirdly, but I was able to try it via my sister before getting it so I knew I could use it.)

And really Expense is a silly reason to hesitate, because it's not all that much and it gives better flexibility and actual access to what I want to do, but I think part of the thing is that I've gotten restricted too much to play video games even with the right equipment, and that makes me all sad and anxious.

...but anyway, that's that. Sigh.

Game-specific updates, mainly for my own benefit:

( Read more... )

So this weekend's BWE for Guild Wars 2 let us play with the other two races, Asura and Sylvari.

I like both of them waaaay more than I thought I would.

( natter + plans )