T w e n t y S i d e d

So Infinity Nikki was finally released on Steam. It’s still not available on the Steam Deck; the limiting factor being the Anti-Cheat Expert implementation. The team responsible for bringing the title to Steam expressed interest in bridging the ACE requirement so the game will run on Steam Deck and as a result, most Linux installs (Valve has done this for other titles). However that may never happen at this point. A significant update to the game a couple of weeks ago has caused quite a bit of consternation among long-time players. Obviously I haven’t talked to every single person, but Steam reviews have dropped from near-perfect not long ago to “Mixed.” Essentially, before the Steam release, the reviews were from people who obtained the game in some other way and were talking about how great it was. The Steam version released with the new update from what I’ve read. You can see negative review after negative review now, all complaining about the update. The best I can put together is that the 1.5 update added co-op play, which seems simple enough. But for some reason also nixed the original story, introduction, and tutorial. I’ve read reviews of people complaining that the co-op play update makes the new content completely different from the original release. This, according to many, ruins the original “cozy” and casual feel to the game. If this trend continues, further development on Steam will likely cease, as will any upcoming content. In the U.S. anyway; I have no idea how people in China feel. (Allegedly the term “boycott” has been banned in-game and on social media accounts, but I don’t know if that’s English-only or for all languages. The word “girlcott” has been substituted, according to Wikipedia.) I also want to be clear that *I* haven’t played the game, so this is only reporting on what other people are saying, and how they are responding through official channels. I don’t completely agree with the idea that “online isn’t real,” but I DO agree that you hear about complaints at a much greater rate than you hear about satisfaction, so if this concerns you…the game is free. You can play it or not. Unless you’re on Linux.

Yesterday was Mother’s Day in the United States, for those who celebrate. I was raised in a fairly traditional and conservative Christian church that provided a white…carnation, I think…for all males to wear if their mother was living, and a red one if their mother was not. I didn’t realize how conservative this church was at the time, of course…it was a small community and that word described *ALL* the churches. I also didn’t realize how macabre this tradition was, or why the flower was reserved for “men” to wear and not women. I can kind of wrap my head around the idea, I guess. This was originally meant to be a tradition for those identified as male to honor females, but it really ended up being the exception that proved the rule. Nobody ever considered just how odd an idea it was. To me, anyway. I’m not particularly sentimental but I can see how someone more attuned to those emotions could identify more with such a tradition.

I finished Cardolan, the second region of the new beginning area in Lord of the Rings Online this past week. This now connects me to the original story-line in the Lone-Lands (that’s where Weathertop is, the place where Frodo got stabbed in the first movie if that is your primary familiarity with the lore.) The story of the new area has been about the fall of this Southern part of the former kingdom of Arnor. All of Arnor was defeated by the Witch King of Angmar while Sauron was recovering from his defeat at the hands of Elves and Men in the Last Alliance (the story told in the preamble of the The Lord of the Rings movies where Elendil chopped off Sauron’s finger and the One Ring.) As Lord of the Rings Online spends much more time expounding on the Witch King rather than explicitly re-telling the story of the books (or the movies) this fits naturally into the already-existing story. I need to grab a few levels in the Lone-Lands, from 29 to 32, before continuing the Epic Quest line. As the next part of the story doesn’t actually pick up until we’re meant to head to Rivendell (as far as I understand, anyway) that shouldn’t be a problem. You can see on the map that the Lone-Lands are directly North of Cardolan, but you can also reach Bree to the Northwest (another place you can level; there are numerous quests available in Bree). You can actually reach The Shire directly on the West side of the map, but those will mostly be low-level quests. As that’s the original starting area for Hobbits, this is understandable. Bree is actually where “Men” originally started, but not in Bree directly; there are actually three towns behind Bree that are *loaded* with quests that get you to Bree at about the same level as Hobbits.

LOTRO gives you the ability to do a lot of customization on names and titles. Here is a good example. A dwarf name Dimgut. He is a Bookworm. “Dimgut. Bookwork.”

I will be out of town all week, but should be back by next Saturday. I’m not expecting any disruption in schedules, but I guess we will find out. We will be in a National Park that suffered a lot of fire damage not that long ago; they haven’t had hardly any rain since the showers they got that helped end the fire, they are scared to death everything is too dry and another fire is about to start, and National Park services including fire monitoring and control has been cut recently. I am surprised how few people can put that all together and not realize it’s a problem. But I guess that’s just the way things are now.

While watching someone decorate some cookies (on YouTube), they mentioned edible ink pens. I was amazed. But I shouldn’t have been. Edible ink has been around for a bit; it’s how they do the “put a photograph on a cake” thing that probably everyone has seen by now. Even in our small rural community the supermarkets can do it.

In a similar vein, I fixed the sun visors in two cars this past week. And by “fixed” I mean realizing one wasn’t actually broken and just needed to be re-inserted, and finding a new screw that fit for the other one. It is very interesting how our perception of events can adversely affect our view. Because two visors on two different cars broke on the same day I assigned more serious implications to the behavior. In the end neither was a significant issue and the original failures were almost certainly meaningless coincidences.

I’m stopping there this week. I *really* need to vacuum the Living Room floor before losing another week. Dust hasn’t been as much of a problem the past few weeks, but we let the dogs in during the day…and they’re shedding. The carpet is a mess.

See you next week!

Paige Francis He/him