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October 30, 2000 - Every Little Tangent

I have to say that it is nothing short of absolutely enjoyable to scour an AC site that is so full of very useful content AND has personality to boot. You're like, the only one! I visit often to gather info and invariably end up distracted by every little tangent on the page. I'd stop by and say 'hey', but unfortunately I'm scraping through my hellish existence in Darktide. (Of course I love it...) Thanks again!

From the bottom of the barrel,

-Kaitlin
 Darktide

Hi Kaitlin -

I must admit, I love letters like yours! ;-) Thank you very much for taking the time to write. I'm glad you like the site!

- Maggie the Jackcat

October 30, 2000 - I Love Your Site

I  LOVE YOUR SITE. Just thought you should know.

Fozzman
Leafcull
Level 18 Adventurer

Thanks, Fozzman! :)

- Maggie the Jackcat

October 30, 2000 - My Favorite Site

Hello Maggie I'd just like to say that your site is wonderful and that I come back and check every day for and update. Well about two times a day ;). Your site is my favorite site on the web.

Thanks,

Statix
Frostfell
Level  27 Archer/UA


Hi Statix -

Thanks for the compliments on the site! I'm really glad you like it. I'll try to update more often. :)

- Maggie the Jackcat

Hi, I really like your website. I was wondering if you play on Frostfell and what your character's name is and if you can help me level. Please respond to me A.S.A.P. I'm in Qualaba'r.

gromnie ripper
Frostfell
Level 19

Hi gromnie ripper -

Thanks for the compliments on the site. Sorry I can't help you. I normally play on Thistledown and I'm not really much of a power-leveler. You should do what I do and get a vassal who plays all the time! I think Ned Cleversun took me from level 31 to level 32 without me even being in the game! He is so buff.

- Maggie the Jackcat

Hello again, 

Since no one in the game will answer this, I'm asking you.  What is the order of strength in metal: i.e. is gold better than brass, silver etc.  You get what I mean.  Thanks.

Imone
Solclaim
Beginner, well level 6 now

Hi Imone -

Congrats on level 6! To answer your question, the type of metal a piece of armor or weapon is made from makes no difference at all. The only thing it may affect is the value. A brass sword with 4-16 damage is better than a gold sword with 5-10 damage.

- Maggie the Jackcat

October 30, 2000 - Ore for Impious Staff

Hiya, Maggie!

I just wanted to inform you that the wheelbarrow is gone from the Arwic Mines, so the only chance to get the iron ore are now the Colier Mines.

Take care,

Li!

Li Gong
Frostfell
Level 36 / UA Enchanter

Hi Li -

Thanks for passing the info on. I'll try to get the quest page updated asap! 

- Maggie the Jackcat

October 25, 2000 - Plateau Village Tailor

I believe that your coordinates given for the Plateau Village dress are incorrect.  :(  I went to 42.2N, 43.4W, but all that was there was a bunch of banderlings!  I asked them if one of them was a tailor, but they just threw stuff at me instead.  I really like the look of that dress, and I'd love to add it to my collection!

Faldari of Solclaim

I found the Plateau Village tailor!  His coords are 40.6N, 41.6W.  His name is Ka Ku-To.  He's in one of the windmills, but you have to be on your toes. There were lots of Flares, Bandy Raiders and Captains, Hunter Shreths, and a Frag on very fast respawns.  The dress is worth it though!

Faldari of Solclaim

Hi Faldari of Solclaim -

Thanks for the correction. I've updated the Tailors page with the info. I appreciate you passing it on to me!

- Maggie the Jackcat

October 25, 2000 - Dress Debate Wrap-Up

As a final comment on the Dress (for now!), I'd like to thank Turbine for addressing the concerns raised by the AC Community. And I'd also like to thank everyone who wrote to me with your opinion. The letters I received were great - thoughtful, hilarious, insightful, combative. I'm only sorry I couldn't publish them all! 

In case you think you're missing out, I'll try to quickly summarize the basic themes. I'll focus on the "for the dresses" letters as a matter of balance, since it's been suggested that I have focused too much attention on the opinions of those who weren't so keen on them (that would be, um, *my* opinions! :). Here goes:

• People during the Renaissance exposed their boobies all the time.

• It's just a dress, for god's sake get over it!

• It's just a game, for god's sake get over it!

• It's just pixels on a screen, for god's sake get over it!

• During the Renaissance, women wore low cut dresses every day.

• The dresses are historically accurate because during the Renaissance, it was normal for women to show their breasts.

• I'm a guy who role plays a girl and she would never wear that dress in public, although I will role play situations where it's appropriate.

• I'm a guy who thought no self-respecting woman would ever wear that dress, but my girlfriend loves it!

• Most of the women are played by men, so of course the boobies were included. Men like to look at breasts!

• I think the dress looks trashy too, but I've got NO problem with it!

• When do us boys get some fancy clothes too?

• The dress looks very much like dresses worn during the Renaissance which were designed to expose the breasts.

• I think the dress is fine, but my wife doesn't, so of course she's right!

• If you go to a Renaissance Faire, you will see women wearing dresses like this, and worse, all over the place!

• If you watch MTV, you will see women wearing dresses like this, and worse, all over the place!

• If you watch the Oscars, you will see women wearing dresses like this, and worse, all over the place!

• UO is worse.

• EQ is much worse.

As a final wrap-up, here's a copy of the news post someone put up at CoD:

-----------(clip)---------

October 22, 2000 - Hostile Climate

Hi Maggie,

I just wanted to drop off a message of support for you regarding "The Dress." My personal opinion is that I don't like the dress and no avatar of mine will ever wear it. I'm willing to let that just be my personal opinion, but apparently that opinion is not allowed to pass unmocked by the CoD community.

I have grown tired of being vilified for not liking the dress, so I've avoided posting about it after the first dev board thread. Nonetheless, I wanted to reassure you that not all female AC players besides yourself are like those samples on the Discussions board.

My current position is not even asking asking for removal of the dress. Some women want the cartoon images of themselves to look like that, I suppose. I personally like to think that we've come a long way since the Renaissance, when sewage was thrown into the street. But I digress. 

The facts that:
A.) Turbine either "sexied up" or "made formalwear for" (depending on who's arguing) ONLY the female avatar;
B.) there is no room for female players to express dissatisfaction with this "sexiness" or "formalwear" without being ridiculed, thought hostile, or accused of having certain nasty characteristics in real life;
C.) that the group of people that agitated for this change congratulate themselves at every opportunity for what they see as their support of femininity and engage in such logical fallacies as referring to themselves as a "majority" when they have no statistical grounds to speak from disturb me.

Basically, then, I have not so much a problem with what I see as Turbine's oversight as to keeping the gender content balanced--it would be lovely if they could just tell us that that's what it was--as I do with the truly disheartening responses of the fansite communities of Asheron's Call players. I have rarely seen so much anti-woman and misinformed drivel permitted in a public forum. While my playing of AC is not at stake here, I do know that CoD will be seeing less of me for at least a while after all this, as I am made rather ill.

That's my side of beef. I'm not even sure anymore how closely it aligns with yours, but I figured that you would give it a fairer shake than the sharks currently circling in posting-land.

With all best wishes,
Kate 

Hi Kate -

You letter certainly sums up the worst of this discussion. When I initially expressed my disappointment over the dress on the Dev Board, I was pretty satisfied with the discussion overall, and thought that Sean and I had come to an understanding that our positions weren't far apart. I had registered my opinion, because I thought it needed to be said, and that was that. I thought Turbine needed to know that if they continued to add content that sexualized the women only, they were going to lose customers like me.

Then after the discussion had died down a bit I was attacked with a sarcastic response in a way that I thought was a little bit of "piling on" and totally unnecessary. It's pretty much been that way since, with over-the-top responses and posts directed at me and others that are, well, irrational and uncalled for.

I'm pretty comfortable swimming amongst the sharks, and extremely comfortable being the lone dissenting voice in a crowd of jackals. My initial days on the Internet were spent arguing in political forums. ;-) However, I realize that many people are not. I certainly agree that the current climate on the boards is so hostile, that anyone agreeing with a position remotely associated with mine -- that adding the dress perhaps showed some poor judgment -- is instantly labeled as being "silly," "emotional," "ridiculous," etc. Most offensive of all is that the whole brou-ha-ha is "over nothing."

It is not over nothing, as the 25+ pages of posts on Lum, numerous board discussions and the dozens of thoughtful intelligent letters I have received should show. That Turbine cannot even acknowledge that there is a real issue here is a bigger disappointment than the dress could ever be. 

It's a sad statement when complaints over a silly hat get more credence, are treated with more respect, and are taken more seriously than legitimate concerns over gender issues online. I've always liked to think of Maggie the Jackcat's Kick-Ass Fabulous AC Web Site as a charming oasis, amidst the insanity often found elsewhere on the Internet. I'm proud to publish your letter, and proud that you were comfortable enough to send your letter to me. 

- Maggie the Jackcat

Hi Julian -

Nowhere, ever, have I said that the dresses are "bad" or "wrong." I have never said, nor has anyone else, as far as I know, that I wanted them removed from the game. I have said that I dislike them, and I gave specific concrete reasons why. I have also said that I thought adding them showed poor judgment, that I was disappointed in their addition, and that I thought they looked trashy. If you, or others, think they do not look trashy, I certainly can't argue with that. Opinions of taste can never be wrong, no matter what some of those folks on Lum are saying. If your fiancé wants to wear low cut dresses, more power to her. I've been known to expose my own tits a time or two myself. ;-)

- Maggie the Jackcat

P.S. Sex does sell. My boobie page sent my web stats off the charts, getting over 2500 more visitors than any other day, ever.

October 22, 2000 - I Want a 70s Pimp Hat with a Large Red Feather

Hmmm... what to say... the dresses are fine, a bit of cleavage instead of the olive tank top. It is unfortunate that this game gets reprimanded for adding a dress to accentuate female characteristics, when the same game gives males no undershirts and instead that chiseled chest to show off. As for the codpieces movement, those can be added with the thongs if they ever do, though at that point I would be forced to cancel my subscription, as we both know the guys would be wearing both! lol! 

I think the chest hair was added to attempt to keep the guys from wearing it, but even I have one next to my Grey Dryreach one (level 36 male Aluvian Blademaster). Personally, I'm in for the equal treatment and desire some fancy duds for the men, so that half the male population of Dereth are not crossdressing. Crossdressing is fine by me, but it's a little silly when everyone is doing it! I want a white suit and a 70s pimp hat with a large red feather sticking out. C'mon Turbine!

-dreamlord (every server but mainly ff)

PS: Keep up the good work on the site; it's my favorite for ac info!

Hi dreamlord -

As soon as men can be arrested for indecent exposure for exposing their pecs in public, then I will consider that to be a valid argument. :) But I'll publish your letter, in hopes that someone from Turbine will see it and you'll get your feathered hat soon! Apparently they are taking requests!

- Maggie the Jackcat

P.S. Thanks for the compliments on the site! 

October 22, 2000 - How Do I Take Screenshots?

I was wondering if you could tell me how to capture a screen shot of my character.  Thanks for your help.

Soul Calibur
Solclaim


Hi Soul Calibur -
Sure. Taking screenshots is easy. There's already a key mapped to the function. It's your astericks key on your numberpad. Each time you press it, a screenshot will automatically be saved on your hard drive in .bmp format. If you take a bunch of screenshots, they will automatically be numbered for you in order. 

To retrieve your screenshots, you need to open your Windows Explorer and find your Asheron's Call folder on your hard drive. That's the folder that was created when you installed the game. More than likely, it will be on your C: drive under Program Files\Microsoft Games. If it's not there, you can use the Find function under Tools to search for it. When you've located the Asheron's Call folder, open it up and you should see your screenshots right there. They will be numbered like this: ACscrn1.bmp, ACscrn2.bmp, etc.

Graphics saved in .bmp format are large files! If you take a lot of screen shots, they will start to eat up space on your hard drive. To make them more manageable, and to make them more suitable for posting on the web or emailing to your friends (or sending to CoD as Fan Pic of the day!!) you should convert the files into .jpg format.

To convert your pictures to .jpg, you'll need a graphics editing program. You can download any number of free ones from Download.com. A popular one is Irfan View. You can get it here.
[Insert legal disclaimers here!!]

Using Irfan View as an example, open up one of your screenshots in your editing program. To convert to a .jpg, choose "Save As" under the File menu. Make sure the the .jpg extension is selected, THEN (important part) click on your Options Tab to select quality. You'll see some sort of slider bar with 100% being best quality/large file size. The higher the quality, the larger the file size. Personally, I prefer better quality and slightly larger file size than lesser quality/smaller file size. In general, I wouldn't suggest going lower than 70% or higher than 95% when selecting quality, but it's a matter of preference.

Click Save and you're done! You have a nice .jpg file suitable for emailing or posting on the web! Don't forget to delete the original .bmps from your hard drive to conserve space.

- Maggie the Jackcat

October 11, 2000 - Pumpkin Pie Recipe

Pumpkin Pie Recipe

Use Whittling Knife on Strange Stick to create Cinnimon Bark
Use Mortar and Pedstle on Cinnimon Bark to create Jar of Cinnimon
Use Bag of Flour on Water to create Dough
Use Baking Pan on Pumpkin to create Cooked Pumpkin
Use Cooked Pumpkin on Milk to create Liquid Pumpkin
Use Liquid Pumpkin on Honey to create Sweetened Pumpkin Liquid
Use Sweetened Pumpkin Liquid on Jar of Cinnamon to create Spiced Pumpkin Liquid
Use Spiced Pumpkin Liquid on Egg to create Pumpkin Pie Filling
Use Pumpkin Pie Filling on Dough to create Pumpkin Pie

WOOT! =)

Bortin
Frostfell
Jack of all Trades

Hi Bortin -
Thanks for sending the recipe in. I can't wait to try it! Lynx from Solclaim sent me the recipe for Pumpkin Soup as well, discovered by Luna Sky:

"Bake the pumpkin in a baking pan, resulting in cooked pumpkin.  Add milk to the cooked pumpkin to get pumpkin liquid.  A little honey sweetens it.  A dash of cinnamon finishes your preparation.  Now boil it in your cooking pot to make a delicious pumpkin soup!"

Yummy. I'm getting hungry! 

- Maggie the Jackcat

Wasabi San

Hi Wasabi San -
I'm glad you like the site! The animated gif of me jumping on the bed is just a series of screenshots edited to identical size and animated in a gif animator program. I use Ulead's gif animator. It's a little time consuming, but they're fun. I actually made that one during beta. I had this very ambitious idea of doing animations for all the emotes, eventually, but never got further than the snow angel!

- Maggie the Jackcat