Burned for life

I'd always wanted to have a camp at the virtual Burning Man Festival, certainly after I learned of the Metaharpers and their camp, but all the way along. The festival idea is not a new one for me, most people know Idle Rogue's live music stages are designed to emulate outdoor festival stages. I have a long history of outdoor concerts and bike runs in my real life, to me it's the Australian Way.

In real life there's a good chance I'd avoid the Burning Man Festival. I don't actually care much for the heat, and it sure looks hot out there. Interestingly, the virtual festival coincided with local heatwaves and fires, so I didn't really escape by going virtual; but I enjoy that juxtaposition of the two environments, it makes the immersion more savoury.

Make no mistake, it is expensive to go to Burn 2. The parcel we procured through the generous donations of Idle Rogue supporters cost 12000 linden dollars - $48USD. For that we got a 1024m² parcel with 468 prims for roughly six weeks. The event itself runs for a week, and it runs on the same principles as the rl festival. There are no tips or other income. So that $48 bucks is spent for love.

But oh, Burn! How I loved you!

chry goes feral

The Idle Rogue community has been in a kind of recess, for one reason and another. The downsize meant we had to fore go the housing and the new resident program. The community has been languishing anyway while I licked my wounds by falling in love with another game. It's my belief that successful venues consist of a nucleus around which a wider community are loosely gathered. Those things are still very much part of Idle Rogue, and we wouldn't be who we are without Chewie, Jess, Di and Shippy. But some faces are gone, the flavour has changed, and we are in a form of stasis.

For me, the Burn2 project was a return, of sorts, to Second Life. I have spent more time there over the past month than I have for a long time, indeed, since The Big Ruckus of 2012. And it was good! It was fun!

Shippy's glorious Observation Tower, our home away from home on the playa

I talked to strangers, and watched them fashion beautiful things purely for the enjoyment of passersby. I learned their stories, I listened to them wax about their Burn experiences, their philosophical ideals, the ethics they have developed and how those are shaped by the Burn and by Second Life. I saw passion, I saw real joy, I saw kindness and spiritual generosity. I watched people transformed by their engagement with this virtual environment. I heard people cry at the Temple Burn, I saw them entranced as the man burned.

And then there was my team, Guerilla Burlesque, who grabbed hold of my vision and ran like bandits with it. They made beautiful, thought-provoking performance art and gave it to everyone who was interested to come and watch. They, also, met and engaged strangers, made people welcome and gave them memories. They were generous with their time and thoughtful with their energy. They were endearing, curious and made me full with love and pride.

Dance like everyone is watching

All of it, every bit of it, was the enchanting human at humanity's best. My humble thanks go, in no particular order (well except for first and last, who are first and first), to Thea Dee, GMetal, Meegan Danitz, GarGraVarr Rau, February Jinx, Cool Plasma, Jess Cauld, Gloriana Maertens, Azabella Alamar, Zahra Ethaniel, Huntress Cattaneo, Jordan Reyne, Maeve Branner, BabyPea von Phoenix, Knowledge Tomorrow, Biebi, Aubreya Joszpe, Deb Heron, Chewie Quixote, Tukso Okey, Padula Bing, Pol Arida, Jenna Dirvall, Darkshore, Mulder Watts, Leroy Horton, Mercutio Evanier, Diawa Bellic, Buttermilk Panacek, Eifachfilm Vacirca, Trinity Hunghi, and most especially, forever and always, Shippy.

Building Artje Orestes

Tarnished Coast server has a new forum site, which triggered a round of "introduce yourself" posts. I really love my character, Artje Orestes,  and I think that's largely because I built her myself. This is one of the very cool features about Guild Wars 2, and one that Second Lifers will "get" immediately: you can start customising your character before you even get into the game, and from the very first level, you can shape your "build".

Choices for my first character, Myf, were very much shaped by forum and blog information sourced by Shippy. I'd started Guild Wars as a warrior, but found, when I took on Monk as my secondary profession, that I really enjoyed healing and support play. I thought a Guardian character in GW2 would suit me very well, and I enjoy playing Myf, but it's Artje who has stolen my heart.

At For The Toast, I introduced her thus:

I've since tried to look up the name online, but without much luck. Cute Baby Names think it means "he who reigns as an eagle", though they don't say who told them that. I like it though, it works.

Hunting for the meaning of the name Artje, I found this:

What's in a name? Plenty, if you ask at the Kabalarian site,
though it must be noted they will tell me even more if I buy their report

Way too many ticks on that list >.<

Artje is a Ranger, she fights with a longbow, a pair of matching axes and a pet (currently a raven, because they can fly up to the top of ramparts and attack enemy there). As she levelled, I bought her armour, often transmuting it to get a certain combination of looks and stats. She currently wears a combination of the Magitech armour skins (for the looks) with exotic armour stats (for the 

kickassery).

Her armour is upgraded with a full set of the Superior Runes of Mercy, to increase healing capabilities, and her trinkets are chosen to maximise toughness, because she gets splattered a lot - although I am finding as my movement gets a little more dextrous, I get killed a little less. Some days are diamonds, some days are Artje-shaped smears on the ground. 

I am happy with her armour, but am still upgrading to ascended trinkets, which are mostly chosen to maximise healing and toughness and power when I can get it.

Her traits and skills were chosen to help her move fast across The Mists, revive allies when she can, and hit hard when she has to, and are calculated by Guildhead in the graphic to the right. Her trait lines focus on Marksmanship, Skirmishing, Wilderness Survival and Beast Mastery, because that was the combination I came up with to play the way I like to play. For example, I wanted my pet to be able to revive me (take some of the load off Ship :-D), so I took a little from the offensive traits to have that.

Artje primarily uses Entangle and Barrage to finish an argument, which means she can get on top of keep and tower hassles fast, and often (though not always) assist in the field. The trick is to get her where she can do damage fast, because it's very easy for her to get killed on the way.

 One Of Us Is The Killer - The Dillinger Escape Plan

she moves abstract just like a shadow dancing on the edge
like a storm cloud passing overhead
effortless and free
as the hours rush by
through her I can sense the end of time
there's no way this can forever shine
make the sun not rise
in the air we tried to be
but you shot your arrow through me
now one of us must die
but the killer won't survive
she moves abstract just like a shadow dancing on the edge
like a storm cloud passing overhead
hypnotizing me
as the hours rush by
through her I can sense the end of time
stretch into eternity divine
and the sun won't rise
in the air we tried to be
but you shot your arrow through me
now one of us must die
and the killer won't survive