Newletter, May 25, 2001

Newsletter

MAGGIE THE JACKCAT'S IRREGULAR AC NEWS
May 25, 2001 Edition
Brought to you by Maggie the Jackcat of Thistledown
Web Site: www.thejackcat.com/AC
Email: Maggie@thejackcat.com or jackcat@spacestar.net

CONTENTS:

* 2nd Annual AC Player Luncheon!
* AC Skins
* AC Sites in the News
* Maggie the Jackcat's Kick-Ass Fabulous Site News

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2ND ANNUAL AC PLAYER LUNCHEON!
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It's that time of year again! Allen Grey, formerly of the Crossroads Gaming Network, has been busy organizing the 2nd Annual Asheron's Call Player Gathering. This year's event will take place on July 14th at the Four Points Sheraton Conference Center in Norwood, MA. A few items on the tentative schedule of eventsinclude:

**AC Producer Nik "Azeraphel" Davidson as Master of Ceremonies
**Opening Address by Turbine CEO Jeff Anderson
**Featured Speaker Ken Troop on "Designing Asheron's Call"
**Turbine Q&A
**"Whose Drudge is it Anyways" improvisational comedy contest led by Nik Davidson

If you're on the fence about going and need someone to give you that gentle nudge to persuade you that traveling all the way to Boston to spend your summer vacation with a buncha folks you've never met to talk about a computer game is a fabulously fun idea, well, consider this your nudge! Last year was an absolute blast!! Really, seeing Jesse do a Mite impersonation during the "Whose Drudge it is Anyways" competition was worth the price of the airfare alone! ;-) I'm looking forward to seeing old friends again, and meeting many new ones!

For information on Registration & Accommodations (and to see pictures from last year), visit the ACPL web site:
http://home.mn.rr.com/stinemans/index.html

If you'd like to read my write-up of last year's event, you can find it here:
http://www.thejackcat.com/AC/Home/ACPL.htm

Note: Salmoneus has helped to arrange a discounted rate at the Courtyard by Marriot for a Room Rate of $99 a night, Thursday through Sunday (12th-15th). You MUST reserve your room by June 12th and be sure to tell them you are part of the ACPL room block. See the ACPL site for details. Thanks Salmoneus!

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AC SKINS
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My last newsletter featured some of the new 3rd party add-ons for AC that have become popular. This month we have AC Skins! You may have seen screenshots on various fan sites that look, well, different from your own user interface (UI): a mysterious purpley-black background, one entirely in shades of grey. A "skin" is a way to change the appearance of a site, a program, AC's UI, without changing the content or functionality in any way.

Installing an AC Skin is not for the faint at heart. Make sure you scan for viruses before downloading anything to your own computer. And make SURE you back up your portal.dat file before attempting this. As always, use at your own risk! Damien Sarin of the Aerlinthe Report fame and creator of the Olthoi Horde skin gives these quick and easy instructions for backing up this important file:

Create a new folder inside your Asherons Call directory and call it "backup". Next, COPY your 'portal.dat' file into the 'backup' directory.

That's it. Quick and easy.

So if you find you do not like the new skin, simply copy the portal.dat from your 'backup' directory back into your Ashetrons Call directory. It will overwrite the skinned one. And your game will be back to normal.

You can visit the following sites for more information:

Asheron's Call "Skins" by Optim Shi
http://www.fortunecity.com/silverstone/pump/35/ac/skins.html
Lu Chung's Skins Site
http://www.webfellow.net/robert/ac/acskins.html
Skins from The Pale White Horse
http://hosted.barrysworld.net/thehorse/skins.shtml
WormSlayer's AC UI Replacement
http://wormslayer.nerdnet.com/

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AC SITES IN THE NEWS
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Dizz's Diary of Dereth
http://www.worldzone.net/games/dizzarian/
Heard references to a battlemage (BM) on the boards but just not sure what one is? Check out Dizz's Diary of Dereth. This site will tell you everything you need to know about being a battlemage. There's a great starter guide with template suggestions, armor recommendations and leveling spots. You'll find a good resource center with links to great essays and spell information. Best of all, in addition to Dizzarian's own tales of adventure, you'll also find the journals of several other BMs. It's a treasure trove of useful information!

NeenerNeener.net
http://www.neenerneener.net/default.asp
Kwip's site, NeenerNeener.net, first came to my attention when I received some fan mail. The writer raved about my Jackcat site and said it was his very very favorite! That is, he added, right after NeenerNeener.net. ;-) With such a recommendation, I had to check it out for myself! Since then, I've become a regular, enjoying Kwip's offbeat brand of humor and boundless energy. His Ninja story alone made me a fan for life! Recently Kwip unveiled version 2.0 of NeenerNeener.net -- now with 50% more chum! For a hilarious look at the world of Dereth, be sure to stop by and check it out!

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MAGGIE THE JACKCAT'S KICK-ASS FABULOUS SITE NEWS!
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The new section, Ned Cleversun's Sermons, Essays & Tips, started off with a bang. His very first tip about organizing spell components generated numerous letters of gratitude. I thought I'd lure people in slowly with a series of helpful tips before hitting them with an essay of Ned's controversial hunting views! Coming soon! ;-)

Visitors to Maggie the Jackcat's Kick-Ass Fabulous AC Web Site continue to increase steadily each month. Currently, the site averages around 7,000 unique visitors a day and receives approximately 3/4 of a million page views per month. The days after patch day tend to get a huge spike in visitors, so I've been putting more effort into the patch pages. Of course that means that I've devoted less energy to some of the other areas of the site. It's been ages since I've given serious attention to The Runway. Since The Runway has always been one of the most popular sections of the site, I'll be trying to get back to updating it on a more regular basis. After all, fashion is just as important as bloodshed and mayhem!

Once again, I'd like to say thank you to all my visitors and contributors. I'm unable to thank everyone personally for the letters and screenshots and data you send in, but I sincerely appreciate it and will continue to try my best to get the info up on the site as quickly as possible.

See you in the game!

- Maggie the Jackcat
Thistledown

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Copyright 2001 by Maggie the Jackcat. All rights reserved. No part of this material may be used or reproduced or stored in a database or retrieval system without prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.