Category: Gaming

Crab Beacons and Capital Panic

The war room aboard the Kinetic Regret was abuzz—not with alarms or enemy fleets, but with what Gobbins could only describe as logistical existential dread. Half the holo-displays showed ship inventories. The other half showed spreadsheets that might’ve once been ships.

Gobbins, coffee already at maximum bitterness, stood at the center of the storm, projecting a calm that was roughly 70% practiced and 30% resignation.

“Alright,” he began, addressing the growing knot of crew, FCs, and random sig members who had wandered in looking for answers or possibly leftover rations. “Here’s the smartest move right now: start selling your excess assets. Slowly if you have to. Doesn’t matter if we’re staging now, next week, or next war—you’ve got too much junk in too many places.”

He paused, letting that settle in. No one argued. They all knew.

“Also, if you want Pankrab to cover your crab beacon, stick to the systems Dyno listed. If you crab somewhere dumb, you die somewhere dumb. That’s policy.”

From the side, Comms Officer Laski raised a hand without lifting his head from the holomap. “I might be brainfarting, but I saw an announcement about Malpais and then a list of systems that stretched into Etherium Reach. Are we talking about two different staging zones, or did I accidentally divide by regional borders again?”

Gobbins didn’t look up. “Ask Pankrab. I don’t know what they settled on. I’m not your regional crab life coach.”

Lieutenant TS13 chimed in next, typing with one hand while dragging a hauler fit from some forgotten war into an export queue. “Thanks for the heads-up, sir. I’m moving the leftovers from R1O to MJ- to get everything centralized. Selling off the doctrines we don’t use, the ships I don’t fly, and the excess hulls I don’t personally need. Idea is to be lighter, more agile. Like… logistics yoga.”

“Good,” Gobbins muttered. “If only the rest of the fleet knew the ancient practice of dealing with their hangars.”

A quiet moment passed, then Shan Sint leaned forward with a smile that made everyone nervous.

“Since no one’s asking,” Shan said, “is there anything we can do to help? Like, to help you, Captain. Do you need anything? Ideas? Money? Love? Understanding? Pizza?”

Gobbins blinked. “…I mean, if people need help moving stuff with Ship Maintenance Bays, offer that. There’s a lot of help available already, probably more than anyone’s actually using. Beyond that—defend cynos. It makes life easier. Cynos make the world go round.”

From engineering, Vilkko Okanata piped up, eyes half-buried in a local channel argument.

“Captain, there’s talk of the market module in MJ- being taken out. Any truth to that?”

Gobbins grimaced. “The Keepstar itself might be unanchored. If that happens, the market goes with it.”

Vilkko looked up. “Right, but I’m hearing that the module itself is being shut down. Not a maybe. A full ‘this-is-happening’ situation. Not even tied to the station unanchoring. One of the NBIs said it’s definitely going offline. Is that confirmed?”

Gobbins stared at the ceiling like the answer might be up there. It wasn’t.

“I’ll get back to you,” he said at last. “Until then, don’t treat MJ- like your personal vault. It might be a trade hub today, and a salvage site tomorrow.”

At the back of the room, Gallente Citizen 4586793463 silently jotted something down in their notepad, never speaking, never looking up.

“Great,” Gobbins said, running a hand through his hair. “We’re in a warzone, half the fleet’s hoarding Maelstroms like they’re rare NFTs, and no one knows if the station they’re in will exist next week. Logistics is a go.”

He downed the rest of his coffee and muttered, “God help us if someone actually asks about asset safety.”

Gold is Only as Good as The Good it can Do

I don’t know who this player is, but they were having a bad day and were trying to get enough gold for a token so they could continue to play. I don’t always have the means / extra spoons to help out those around me in the way that they need, but in Warcraft I do, so I decided to send them 150k so they could get their token. I don’t think they expected me to actually do it. They had no idea who I was (I’m brand new to the server, I don’t even have a guild at the moment) and they were not asking me directly, but just commenting on trade chat.

It made their day, which in turn made my day. I like helping out where I can, and doing this in Warcraft is one of the very small ways I can help. I asked them to pay it forward in the future when someone else was having a bad day. I wrote them an in character note from my gnome merchant, and left the conversation at that.

Doing these small little random acts of kindness really puts me in a better frame of mind when the world is very dark and doesn’t seem like a good place. There IS goodness. I am a part of that. Even if it’s just in a video game, it’s going to be something that person remembers. Plus now they can keep playing, and honestly I can’t think of any better break from the real world than to go play in Azeroth.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

Auremai – Introduction

Most folks don’t expect much when they first meet me. I suppose I’m easy to overlook – just a gnome with a satchel too big for her shoulders, boots too dusty for a lady, and a cart full of trinkets I swear have stories of their own.

My name’s Auremai. Merchant by trade, monk by discipline, and – though I’m a little bashful about it – an avid writer of romantic tales with happy endings and at least two comedic misunderstandings per chapter. There’s just something about a good love story that warms the heart, don’t you think?

I’ve spent the better part of the last decade trundling my way across Azeroth—from the rolling green hills of Elwynn to the misty coasts of Zandalar—with a cart full of curious wares and a heart full of stories. If you’ve ever bought a self-heating teapot in Stormwind or a ring that hums when you’re near your soulmate (questionable results), there’s a good chance it came from me.

Though I could settle down—I’ve the gold for it, Light knows—I’d rather use my coin to help those who need it. A warm meal in Westfall, bandages in Redridge, a school roof in Dun Morogh. I don’t make a show of it. Just a little envelope left behind, or a coin purse slipped into a pocket. Gold’s only as good as the good it can do.

When the world settles down and the campfire crackles low, I like to write. Rom-coms, mostly—set in places like Dalaran or Booty Bay, full of flustered apprentices, mysterious rogues, and misunderstandings that always resolve with a kiss and a laugh. I write under a pen name, of course. Can’t have heroes recognizing me from Love in the Shadow of the Spire while I’m bartering silk in Boralus.

Truth be told, I’m still looking for my own story. Maybe it’s waiting down the next road, over the next hill. Or maybe it’s already started, and I just haven’t reached the twist yet.

Either way, I’ll get there. One step, one sale, one story at a time.

The E8-4 Situation

The command deck of the Kinetic Regret hummed with low-level panic, as it always did before a major move. Captain Gobbins stood at the head of the briefing table, one hand on a steaming cup of Deathwish Quafe, the other gesturing vaguely toward the holo-map. Systems blinked and pinged behind him—none of them helpfully.

“Alright, folks,” he said, trying to sound calm, authoritative, and slightly less bitter than he felt. “I’ve got some news you’ll love. We’re moving. Again.”

A chorus of groans rippled through the crew. Someone dropped a datapad. Someone else just swore softly into a ration pouch.

Gobbins took a long sip from his mug and continued.

“Our new home is E8-4. Yes, E8-4. No, I don’t care that you just memorized the jump routes from MJ-5. That system is now dead to us. Forget MJ-5 ever existed unless you enjoy nostalgia and painful travel.”

He brought up a flashing icon on the map. “E8-4 is perfectly located to project fleets into the southern gates of our glorious, chaos-ridden territory. Which means—surprise!—we’re now a lot closer to the trouble.”

He pointed his mug dramatically. “Everything goes. Everything. From G-Q to E8-4. Subcaps, capitals, titans, your weird little loot cans, your awful decorator keepstars—pack it up. Set your deathclones to E8-4. If you forget and wake up in G-Q after a welp, that’s on you.”

Lieutenant Keleios Shizaru raised a hand. “Sir, what about Pankrab?”

Gobbins didn’t miss a beat. “Staged in E8-4. Standing fleet, too. So yes, you’ll be dying much closer to home now. Efficiency!”

He flicked to a new screen. “Seeders, move your junk. Market tax is now 0% to make it marginally less painful. No excuses. You want to restage a doctrine fit for 200 ISK less, now’s your moment.”

“Captain,” someone mumbled from the back, “what about the O-V Keepstar?”

Gobbins sighed. “Ah, yes. Some of our less-than-essential real estate is going away. For example, that charming yet utterly indefensible Keepstar in O-V? Unanchoring. Say your goodbyes. If you’ve got ancient, shameful assets still rotting there from the last war, please extract them and move them to 9P4 at least. Or don’t, and let them be someone else’s loot pinata. I’m not your mom.”

There was an awkward pause.

Then Gobbins finished, voice steady, a little smug. “Also, for those asking—yes, we’re in direct bridge and cyno range from G-Q. Just bridge, wait out fatigue, rinse, repeat. Use Ship Maintenance Bays for the small stuff. Logistics has made it very clear that if you complain about hauling frigs, they will turn this ship around and no one gets to go to E8-4.”

He shut off the holo-map with a flourish. “Questions?”

Silence.

Then from engineering: “Do we get a moving day pizza?”

Gobbins grinned. “You get a moving day. You want pizza, bridge it in yourself.”

Let’s Talk about the Single Button Assistant (spoiler alert, I LOVE it)

Blizzard recently implemented a controversial mechanic to World of Warcraft, where you can attack & cast abilities with a rotation by pressing only one button – but your global cooldown of abilities will be 25% slower thus you’re going to lose some DPS. For example, after looking at some parses, it was a 7% loss in dps on my hunter who uses GSE, an addon that does almost exactly this but also requires a lot of maintenance.

I LOVE this feature. I absolutely love it. This allows people who have disabilities to play. This allows people who are reluctant to try new classes because they don’t know how to play them, a chance to jump right in. Are people going to be rushing M+ with these? Probably, but since they do less dps, it’s going to be painful. Those who are interested in the min/max side of the game won’t use this feature, because it will be a downgrade.

More people in the game is a good thing. More accessibility, also good. Less barriers to playing new classes, amazing.

Don’t like it? DON’T USE IT. No one has to, it’s completely optional. Whether or not someone else is using it has absolutely zero impact on my gameplay – unless I’m doing a high level M+ and in that case I would expect them to be able to keep up with the group no matter what system they’re using, and if they CAN’T keep up in competitive gameplay then I might have an issue.

World questing? Looking for raid? Timewalking? Fantastic.

Does this mean I’ve wiggled my way back into Warcraft?

Well, yes and no. I’ve recently started playing on my EU account – the account that does NOT have all the mounts, pets, or other fun things that my main account has. Why? It has been something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time. The time zones are more to my play style, and I have a lot of EU friends. I also gifted the account some game time and the shop sold auction house mount some time ago. While I can’t share bnet balance or gold between EU/NA, I can gift items to the account (has to be a completely separate bnet account). Of course it does make me miss everything I have on my main account so there’s no telling if I’ll actually stick with it (spoiler alert, I won’t) but it has been a lot of fun returning and it feels like a comfortable time to be back. I’m also excited about the future with player housing and all of that good stuff. I’ll just have to take it day by day, and see how things go.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!