Tuesday 6 August 2002

Pic of the day: Walking on air ... the sun rises over Balmora city, Morrowind, chasing the morning fog as a lone windwalker watches high over the rooftops. What more do you need?

Play Morrowind - save money!

As you may guess from the screenshots last month, I have been playing Morrowind quite a bit. The time for this comes mainly from two other activities: Writing fantasy novels, and playing Dark Age of Camelot.

For most of my life I have created fiction for my own enjoyment, and very rarely shared it with others, though this has happened too. For the last decade or so this has mainly been in the form of fantasy novels (magic, unusual creatures in parallel worlds) rather than science fiction (impossible technology, unusual creatures on other planets). Since this spring my hand and arm have hurt to much to continue writing the way I did. Now I have speech recognition software, but for some reason I find it harder to dictate fiction than fact. This is so much more surprising since I spent most of my childhood telling fictional stories to myself aloud. I think part of it is the sad fact that I have to correct some words in each sentence. Activating my analytical circuits every few seconds doesn't exactly promote a creative mode.

I am sorry to say that I am not convinced my hand and arm will ever heal again. I may have worn them too hard for several years. And I can't let them rest even now, not all of the time. Still, I am symptom-free most of the time. This is a good thing. It is only when I write a couple paragraphs or play a mouse intensive game (usually strategy games) that my hand begins to hurt again. So we will just have to wait and see about my fiction writing. Luckily there are few others than myself that miss it. (And I guess I am writing my own fantasy novel in Morrowind, of sorts.)

***

The other hobby that has shrunk to give room for Morrowind, is more of a direct competitor: Dark Age of Camelot, the massive multiplayer online RPG. It's quite good, and is steadily improved. New features are added every few weeks, and game balance is tweaked almost as often. An expansion pack is in the works, but I (for one) am far from missing it. DAoC has many of the same features as Morrowind, but there are also differences. I am reluctant to give up one or the other of them, but Morrowind has clearly made a dent in my online playing.

This is not a bad thing. Remember, I live in Norway. Like most European nations, we have to pay for each minute we stay online. At least those of us who are unable to get ADSL connection or some competing broadband service. Living this far out on the fringes of suburbia, there is little hope of broadband for years to come; the collapse in telecoms globally won't help either. I don't really need broadband; I don't download movies or music files from Napster clones. A normal dial-up connection is quite fast enough for me. It is the pricing I don't like. But now that I play more Morrowind, I spend less time online. I expect this to have a visible impact on my phone bill, starting this quarter.

Come to think of it, I can recommend Morrowind if you have any expensive hobbies. Morrowind is likely to cut them down to size; it is a rather absorbing game. And Morrowind isn't all that expensive, given how long it lasts. (Provided you already have the latest hardware, of course. Morrowind is a rather demanding piece of software; I don't recommend trying to play it on the computer less than two years old, preferably one year or less...)

***

Playing Morrowind is not the only way I save money these days. There's also a less amusing way. For many years now I have used to share a small part of my income with a poor student or two. This tradition has come to an end. The last of my student friends is earning her own money now, and is rather proud of it too. I loved shopping with my friends; now that time is over. I don't need much myself – except a new computer or two each year, of course...

I have plenty of poor students as online friends; most of my friends list on LiveJournal seems to be college students. But shopping with them is not easily arranged. I managed to convince one to put up a wedding registry or wish list on Amazon.com. As a result of this, Amazon is now daily tempting me with nifty practical household items. Evidently their artificial intelligence is unable to imagine that I don't want the same things for myself and am not going to continue buying wedding gifts. Well, unless more of you marry, and quickly!

Actually you don't need to marry or undergo other painful rituals. If you are a poor college student – or even high school student, I guess – and a friend of mine, a subtle pointer to your Amazon wish list could be enough to provoke a small gift. It's quite a bit of time since they only sold books, you know. And we don't know how long they're going to stay in business.

As long as we have food and clothes and Morrowind, we should be satisfied, right?