CavernSense

I haven’t written in here for a very long time.  Had lots to say and nothing that seemed, well, shareable.  But a lot has happened since the first Guild of Healers’ Gathering in our forum chatroom.  Along with the lovely music LC played, we also had a rather nice conversation.  Didn’t keep a chatlog (didn’t need a chatlog to remember the uplifting nature of the gathering), but we did make a decision that looks like it is going to motivate the Guild to “get going.” That motivator was, of course, that we wanted to be with (and help) people.

Seems we finally had a way to do what we’d been trying to do without the Cavern.  It was sad (no Cavern) and exciting (other MMO’s) at the same time, but we rectified the situation by deciding to send out an Outreach team to explore options for other gatherings.  That made me feel better, anyway, because I can see the Guild Retreat as temporary or as a branch of the guild until we have a space in the cavern when it finally reopens.  At that I stopped feeling guilty.

And, once I stopped worrying about feeling guilty, I started digging in and moving dirt around in our new SL space.  Now that was fun.  Planting flowers, trees, moving rocks, cutting the streambed…. these things I always enjoy.  Looks not half bad, either.

The Healers’ Silk Road event is tomorrow.   I think we are ready.  I expect CCN will cover it, too (lol, since I’m still on that team).  If nothing else, it will be an interesting experiment.  And, knowing several members of the crowd who are coming, it will be great fun as well.

Interesting and fun?  Now that makes good CavernSense.

I had another look at the discussion on the MOUL forum about User Created Content that Calam started. I won’t use his words, but I’ll point you to the thread so you can read it yourself. Ahvree has been asking for pre-made building blocks that new players (unfamiliar with age-building) can move, place, cover with images (textures), rotate, stack… you get the picture. I agree with her and mzsv that the moveable blocks probably aren’t in the cards for now (and won’t be in the ages, either) And then Ahvree, in a voice that seems familiar somehow, says that it is common sense for builders to devote energy to other builders in telling the story and building new ages first, before spending time on boring building blocks (like legos). Then she says something interesting: “Common sense doesn’t sound like an exciting advertising campaign for a game that could appeal to hundreds and not tens.”

“But Cavernsense does” I said to myself, and then outloud on the forum.

Then I heard the voices in the ethers…  “Huh?”

Yeah, I agree, what in the heck is CavernSense? Hmmm, don’t know really, except that explorers use it all the time when they help each other. Can’t point to it except I can see it everywhere in the community. Maybe I should use apophatic language here and say what it is not.

Cuz that I can say a bit about.

Let’s see…

Cavernsense is not cheese. It gets better with age, but It’s never stinky.

Cavernsense is not light. You can’t see it but its presence makes everything seem brighter.

Cavernsense is not a hammer. You can use it constantly and never pound anything down.

Cavernsense is not a burden. If you get tired of it you can always toss it aside.

Cavernsense is not currency. You can keep it all to yourself and still give it away.

Not much, but that’s a start. Later I’ll try to define what it is. Might need some help on that though.

Well known by now is the news on June 30, 2008 that Cyan received the rights to MOUL from GameTap.

Huzzah!

Good thing I hadn’t completely unpacked my linking books and sparklies —- What? I wasn’t supposed to work those loose and transport them to the surface with me? Oh… my bad.

Since then we’ve heard that Cyan is planning to give explorers the tools to build ages, import them into the cavern, and perhaps add bits and pieces to our Relto. I’m glad to hear this. Since I’ve been at Kaneva I’ve become rather attached to moving blocks around and texturing them. I’m still not versed in Blender, but just working with 3D objects and textures has already taught me quite a bit. The Medieval Village is coming along well; the Professor plans to document the site sometime this fall. She’s asked me to collaborate with her on that — what fun!

There seems to be some consternation regarding the free distribution of the tools from Cyan. I’ve been taking some time to read the posts at the Guild of Writers. The Writers seem to disagree a bit about the degree to which they should be involved in any type of control over the tools distribution. Of course, Cyan will make the decision, but I think it is good that the Writers are concerned with the nature of their role in the re-restoration.  It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. There are quite a number of very talented people there — I’m hoping that if/when the Guild of Healers is fully restored we can collaborate with a team of Writers to build a Healer’s Age. Of course, that’s assuming that Cyan would allow us to do that. I wish I was better versed so I could ask some of my questions without sounding like an idiot. For now, though, since I would sound like an idiot, I will keep reading. When I find more time I’ll go back to learning Blender.

The Messengers are to be the source of information from Cyan to the Community and from Community Groups to the Community. I am glad to see things coming together there. I would like to remain involved in that as well — “ha ha,” RL whispers in my ear, “you think you’ll have time for anything?” Well, I am making progress on the dissertation, and it will someday be finished. When that time comes, then I’ll see. This summer is the big push to get as much done as possible, so I hope to be more free this fall.

Yesterday I finally felt like I’d completed all the “heavy lifting” for the dissertation. My theories, arguments, and evidence is sorted and the arguments I wish to make are in sentences on paper (so to speak). Now that they are in place, I don’t have to concentrate quite as hard on what it is I am trying to say. Hence, a blog post today. Kind of makes sense, I think. Chores first, reward with play. Right now I’m off to read more forum threads. Today I will spend some time at the Maintainers’ forum. They, too, have significant involvement with the reopening of the Cavern. I’m interested to see what it all means for a normal explorer like me. And there’s more to it, of course. The Maintainers will be an important part of the Healers’ Guild, especially in the story….

Oops. That will have to wait for a bit. No sense getting ahead of myself. Besides, I have to load up those sparklies and get them back into the Cavern before anyone notices they are gone.

~Ghaelen

I posted this on MOUL Flooding in the Midwest then it occurred to me I have a blog I’ve not been using.

>>The storms and heavy rains over the last few weeks have caused rivers and streams across Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan to swell to record levels. Eastern Iowa and Western Wisconsin and Illinois are particularly hard hit, as most rivers flow toward the Mississippi, which is also reaching flood stage. Cities such as Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Davenport, and numerous small towns are experiencing floods in the streets. Many can now only get around in boats.

This is on the heels of several weeks of devastating tornadoes (one wiped out a whole town, and part of another). It gets more amazing every day, in a most unpleasant way. I have not experience more than basement flooding (thank goodness) but I watch neighboring towns struggle with rising rivers during yet another round of storms.

It is not a rapid catastrophe that makes big news, but a slow, steady destruction by a very powerful and moving force. It is really quite terrible. Farmers who have finally gotten their crops planted are now watching their new plantings drown under several feet of water. The University of Iowa is in danger of losing an art center, museum, and music building. Those who live along the rivers are watching the rivers submerge their homes. Since Iowa doesn’t normally make it into the national weather map, I thought a short update was in order. What does make the news is nothing like the real thing. Over half of the counties in Iowa have now been declared disaster areas (updated to 55 out of 99). The breadbasket of the country isn’t going to make much bread if this doesn’t end soon. <<

I’ve been watching the weather on the news, which has been on air all day. One large city (Cedar Rapids) has evacuated 8000 people from their homes. Downtown Cedar Rapids is under about two feet of water. So many little towns are devastated. Iowa City is evacuating people along the Iowa River. Des Moines, Davenport, and a multitude of small towns along about a dozen rivers are evacuating and homes are going under.

We’re getting close to meeting the criteria for the 500 year flood. And it is still raining. It is really too amazing to explain well enough for anyone to really understand.

A tidbit about the flood, with pics. There are many of them on YouTube already, but the music in this one seems appropriate.
Cedar Rapids in the Flood of 2009

Well, I do believe the upgrading, updating, re-baiting, and rearranging is almost done. I moved the CavernScents story to its new home, and when it it properly skinned and dressed I’ll ask if it can be added it to UruBlogs. Even after the Cavern has closed I find myself investigating… oh, there I go again. That’s a story of a different character and I have to stop criss-crossing the criss-crossable boundaries. “Obey, Ghaelen. Walk over there and talk about that.”

I am just grateful to the blog divinities that I didn’t break this blog as I stumbled around trying to move the installation from Fantastico to Simple Scripts. It worked. Huzzah! I do like the export function in WordPress. That helps a lot.

The Cavern closed on April 9 as several groups of people around the cavern celebrated or mourned or comforted each other or gazed out onto the lake or into the myst in quiet solitude. Near the end we suddenly received a message that the cavern would be closing. That was quite a shock. It was at that moment when we all realized we wouldn’t see each other again, nor explore, nor laugh or dance together. Tears issued in abundance for a while.

Suddenly I couldn’t communicate with anyone. They were there, but they weren’t “there” any longer. I thought of the death of a loved one, whose body remained while the soul/spirit left it. Everyone just stood there, motionless, as the Beam from the Great Zero continued to pass through the Pub. It seemed emptied of life.

I finally left. The next day I tried to return (just had to, I guess). The gateway was closed. I tried a different route, one I hadn’t used in a few months. That one worked, but things were different. There was no communicate with others through my KI, nor could I tell if anyone else was in the cavern. Links to new areas were gone, too. I realized I was back to being there alone, or once again out of time/space phase with anyone else who might be there. With a sense of sadness I recognized the cavern I knew before I knew others might also be there.

I wonder if this is part of what the bahro can do — change KI frequencies or even the magnetic frequencies of the ages so we can’t see each other. Maybe the books were still there but now I can’t see them. But then, why would they do that? It doesn’t make sense to me right now.

Anyway, it’s a lonely place again. That much I do know.

Oh my gosh, the closing of the Cavern is coming…..

There are some beautiful tributes to our community. They all make me cry. I’ll update this post as each one comes out.

“Don’t Give up, Uru.” Project Video by Marten, Tweek, and Erik: A Music Video to “Don’t Give up”

“Remember MOUL,” by Leighana: Music Video

A Memorial Video by Libera: “Remembering”

The Cavern Choir has had their final concert. There are links to a beautiful video by Veralun in several formats on the MOUL forum from the Under the Roots Party.

I’ll add more as I become aware of them.

…………………….

~Must get more tissues. I do believe I will cleanse my entire body of toxins during my shedding of tears for MOUL.

Last Thursday, April 3, GreyDragon posted that Cyan wanted to keep us all together on a common server and give us tools with which to care for the Cavern. They are just waiting for Game Tap to decide whether they will release the rights.

What a wonderful surprise. My spirits lifted over the course of a few hours, and my whole life/goals seemed clearer again. Isn’t that something?  I’ve seen that some people don’t believe it will happen, and others wait with baited breath.  Some will never know because they left long ago.  Such is life I guess.  But I’m happy.

So here is the post I should have posted a couple days ago when I ended up doing the WordPress upgrade. I’m still laughing about that. Check29cents

I finally said to myself.  Get up, get up.  Live again.

Have to accept that MOUL is ending.  Maybe in… 10 days now?… something else will begin that is related to the Cavern IN the cavern.  Maybe there will be some semblance of a cavern.

………

But not today.

I’ve been checking out other virtual worlds.  Have actually spent quite a lot of time in one called Kaneva.  It is connected with Turner in a media — hollywood — ‘be a teen rock star or movie star’ sort of way and is REALLY targeting groupies and wannabees like crazy.  Half the people that post on the forum or in the age write abbreviated words and I rarely see a complete sentence.  Argh!

The upside is… they have nice, private areas we can build in and easy-to-use building tools. A huge green field I can build on.  Nice.  We can upload music and videos and play music in our own homes or community hangout’s they have pretty good vegitation, and I’m not too bad with textures for my structures.  I’m developing a pretty neat Guild of Healer’s Groves for our group to congregate, should we get a large enough group.  I also really like the way the web page, blog, messaging, and design tools integrate with the three-D environment.  As good as There, but the graphics are tons better.

It is free and we can earn points to buy materials to build.  They have pretty nice furniture, too.  But…. the clothes are all about hip, sexy (but keep it family friendly — ummmmm), and cool dude and dudette.  I don’t get to look anywhere near my age.

Well, it’s not Uru, and there’s not much CavernSense there yet.  But there are some Uru-ites there now, so I feel less isolated than I did last week.  We’ll see how it goes when I have the first gathering.

Wandering around, have things to do but can’t seem to do them.

Looking for something, don’t know what.

Is this grief? I’m not very familiar with that feeling, so I don’t know. All I know is I wander around, into the cavern, back to the surface, around here, there, looking…

I really need to do some things. I really need to figure out what to do next.

My friend Lord Chaos can’t get into the cavern anymore; his computer crashed and isn’t booting up. At the last, he’s not here? Not at all, nowhere? I can’t compute in my own mind — haven’t got enough RAM. I just sit and wonder — what to do now?

I really need to do some things.  I have a lot to do.

Breathe.  Create a space around the content of my mind.  Make room for who I am and accept this is what I need to be doing right now.

Right now.

Maybe it’s time I post to that thread.

………………….

Can’t believe a game could have such an impact on my psyche — won’t believe it. That’s probably why it does.