The first lesson at hand is one I learned recently – never sleep with your sister – nothing good will come of it.   Just as nothing good will come of trying to help a sibling (me) who feels so claustrophobic that she feels trapped in her own shoes if she must tie them (I wear sandals – even in winter).   I also have autophobia (no I am not afraid of Chevys) so bad that I can never answer questions that begin with “If you were stranded on a desert island…” because I feint at the thought before the sentence is finished. So it is that partially in tribute to the band Three Dog Night, but mostly because I can’t sleep without it, each night the guard dog sleeps at the end of my bed when he is not making is rounds.

And so it is on a recent trip to Georgia I learned not to sleep with my sister unless the proper precautions are taken first: Even if she is trying to assist with my autophobia by substituting herself for the guard dog (who wasn’t allowed on the plane) by renting a hotel room with a king sized bed.  Germs, I learned, have no trouble crossing the gulf of a king sized bed shared in a hotel room  Our family physician puts it down to other environmental irritants causing my bronchial tubes to inflame and my voice to sound like Tom Waits but I know different. In the mean time our adoring fans (and few abhhoring  detractors) will have to wait to hear my dulcet tones.

Never Assume that someone is leading just because you are following.

This lesson has got me lost more than a few times and almost killed once. In the late 1970s some friends and I were in London for a theater tour.  You can no longer simpy say “70s” for fear someone will mistake it for the year 2070.  This, of course, being a side effect of the “Y2K” scare where most employers thought civiliation as we know it would collapse once the numbers  in the year column required four digits.

So it was that four friends where walking down the street in an era long before the invention of the I-phone when punch cards ran computers and dinosaurs ruled the earth. Instead of each person texting someone else we were all talking to each other – something that proved nearly as hazerdous.   Just ahead of us was someone who looked as if he stepped right out of the movie Mary Poppins. My then as yet to be developed mind assumed that the individual was as indigenous to the area as all the cars  which I assumed were on “the wrong side of the street.”  Little did I know at the time that this probably meant he was a tourist such as myself.

So it was that I followed the individual as he stepped into the street not six inches in front of me he was swept off his feet as he was struck by a speeding London Cab.

It took a moment to recover from the shock of what could have been a near death experience. I ran down the street where I told a policeman that a man had just been run down by a car at the intersection. To this day I don’t understand his reaction. He simply said…

“Is that right?”

…and kept on walking.

This, as it so happens, is the exact same reaction I got from a South Korean Policeman at an intersection in Itaewon a decade later when I tried to enlist HIS aid.  As I was walking back to Yongsan Military Reservation when I happened to look down an alley and saw one Korean Gentleman opening up the proverbial can of “whup-ass” on another.  The second gentlemen in this case lay slumped at the bottom of the alley.  I ran down the street to enlist the aid of a policeman. When I reported the Incident I received the same reaction.  He followed this up with “I am sorry I am very busy” and kept pacing around his police car.

If all of the incidents above are somehow related I think it is to say that someone, somewhere is watching over me (and I am sure it isn’t George Gershwin).

See you online,

Julie Whitefeather

It was not a nasty dirty wet hole filled with ends of worms and a bad smell.  Nor was it a dry, bare sandy hole with nothing in it.   It was a wormhole and that meant danger.

livin la vida…agujero de gusano

Even though it is most often thought of in Eve Online as “living in a wormhole” this is a bit of a misnomer – It is more a matter of living in wormhole space.  The “space” in this case is an entire solar system cut off from the rest of the virtual universe.  The only way in or out is through ever shifting worm holes.   It is perfectly possible to get caught on the “wrong” side of the wormhole (the side you didn’t want to be on in the first place, which ever that may be).   Wormholes come and go (every 24 hours in fact) but there is always at least one wormhole leading out to high security space.  The trick, of course, is finding the wormhole – not an easy task to start with, and an impossible one without the proper equipment.  Do pilots ever get stuck in wormhole space with no way out? Sure…But only of their own doing.  More than one neophyte pilot (and even some experienced ones) has had the wormhole slam shut behind them suddenly realizing they had no way to scan down the exit.  Imagine how the pilot of the 1.7 million isk freighter must have felt, that our executive officer found abandoned in a worm hole!

What you don’t know will most definitely hurt you…

The first time I lived in wormhole space for any length of time I was sure the sleeper drones would come screaming across the solar system to attack me.  This, of course, never happened.  I was also certain that a covert-ops/Force Recon ship would drop out of nowhere – and it did, but just not on me.  At the time I was off gallivanting about high security space on a shopping trip.  It was then that some enterprising covert-ops pilot demonstrated that wormholes are like tracer rounds: They work both ways.  Two of our pilots (one quite experienced) where mining away in wormhole space.  As bidden by both the wormhole director and common sense they both paid close attention to the directional scanner (sort of like radar).  A force recon ship appeared “out of nowhere” (something they do best) and dropped a cynosaural field on the unsuspecting miner (think of this field as a giant bubble of clear syrup that prevents you from moving through it at anything but a crawl) followed quickly by some combat ships. A few moments later the miners ships where little more than a debris field in space.

Terminal Boredom

It is quite possible to die from terminal boredom in wormhole space.

Once the mystery was off the wormhole, I found myself sitting in the highly fortified large player owned station asking myself “What do you do in wormhole space?” There is always managing your mining and manufacturing colonies on the planets (something which generally takes all of 20 minutes).  Quite often there are combat sites. The trick to these is knowing what is hazardous to your health and what spells out certain death.  A “forgotten perimeter gateway” can easily be tackled with a battle cruiser and a bit of talent and will net you some nice profit.   On the other hand the denizens of a “Fortification Frontier Stronghold” will test the same pilot’s ability to turn her ship around and beat a hasty retreat before the sleeper drones hand her ass to her (after wearing it around as a hat for a while of course). But there are times when your only choices are mining and mining – not bad if you happened to like mining.

There is a famous scene a movie called “Marty” starring Ernest Borgnine .  The movie contains a famous scene with Ernest Borgnine and Joe Mantell  wage the eternal debate of bored individuals in has become known as the “what do you want to do tonight?” scene.

Like the scene in Marty, there came a time in wormhole space when there was quite simply nothing to do.  No combat sites, no asteroid fields, all of the planetary interaction and invention is set and nothing else to do. It was at this point when one of our pilots died of terminal boredom.  Absent one of the Wormhole Directors to “open up” the static exit (after all it was his own personal billions of isk that had created the place) there was no way out.  Like  a pair of slavering dogs another woman and I beleaguered the lack of ability to “go shopping” in high security space.    The solution one pilot took was the same way out when you are trapped in a wormhole-self-destruct his spaceship – death by terminal boredom.

Alternate Lifestyles…

So the gild is off the lily and the mystery is off wormhole space.  The piece de résistance was when a lone covert ops pilot in a scanning ship, not realizing he had already been scanned down, sat “cloaked” (invisible) just outside the range of the station’s guns claiming to have an army of 50 non-existent stealth bombers.  My mining alt now makes wormhole space her home while my main character has rejoined the majority of her corporation/alliance firmly entrenched in the relative safety of high security space.

See you online,

Julie Whitefeather

Welcome to Show 128!

This time out we spend the first half of the show talking about all the news of the day (subjects listed below)…all the news that tickles our fancy and we have pretty ticklish fancies.  In the second half of the show we welcome guest Mord Fiddle from Fiddler’s Edge.  Last week we introduced you to something new – Gangstagrass.  Now we through in something old and great…John Lee Hooker. Go out there and listen to some of his later work and you will see him playing with the greats like Clapton, and the Rolling Stones all taking a back seat to the great man on stage.  John Lee Hooker is one of those musicians who “did it first.”

Julie and Fran

1^{st half of show:}

Through the wormhole

On again, off again with Microsoft and Ubisoft

Garbage by any other name would smell as much

The second most unlikely influential person in the world

The worst company in America (again)

Anti-Gravity Brassieres

The Better Side of Social Media

Free to Play Apocalypse

Jonesing for Wow

2nd half of the Show – Guest: Mord Fiddler of Fiddler’s Edge

(Super) Capitol offense

Nul Sec by invitation Only

Mining in your “skiffies”

Paying to be the Target

In space no one can hear you yawn

Articles Discussed:

^{http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/04/adam-always-online-orth-no-longer-employed-at-microsoft}

^{http://www.gamepolitics.com/2013/04/09/report-next-xbox-wont-be-backwards-compatible-xbox-360-game-discs}

^{http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/123283-Ubisoft-CEO-Thinks-Gamers-Are-Ready-For-Always-On-Console}

^{http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/ingame/minecraft-creator-second-most-influential-person-world-says-time-vote-1C9324739}

^{http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2013/04/05/ea-responds-to-worst-company-in-america-contest-we-can-do-better/}

^{http://kotaku.com/game-developers-really-need-to-stop-letting-teenage-boy-472724616}

^{http://io9.com/why-the-boston-marathon-bomb-gives-us-hope-for-the-futu-473037383}

^{http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/123267-Mythic-Co-Founder-Says-Free-to-Play-Apocalypse-Coming}

^{http://fiddlersedge.blogspot.com/2013/03/nullsec-is-worth-saving.html}

(With apologies to Van Morrison)

It’s a marvelous nights for some mining,

With the stars all around in my eyes

A fabulous night to mine asteroids

‘Neath the cover of Caldari Skies

All the ore in the hold that is falling 

And the coffee that’s sipped sweet and slow

And Saturday night is still calling

As the lasers still hum soft and low

And all the nights magic seems to whisper and hush 

And all the ‘roids in the hold leaves my wallet so flush

Chorus: 

 Can I just have just one more asteroid dance with you, my love

Can I just make some more isk with you, my love

When I left CCP had just laid off 20% of their staff world-wide. Their relationship with players had become as strained as Boy George opening for an Anita Bryant concert – and the corporation I once belonged to decided the solution to a year-long war dec was simply “waiting it out” (it didn’t work). I returned to find the founder of Hulkageddon permabanned, CCP pouring love in the direction of miners – All topped with a newly formed corporation whose combat pilots destroyed a billion isk in ships the last time anyone even breathed with words “War Dec” (and who can blame them).

What a difference a day makes…and a couple of years.

The time was I could log on in the evening, make my way out to a not-so-crowded asteroid field in a very much out of the way system and STILL find the asteroid fields stripped bare. Many are the times I would find myself floating in empty space in my exhumer wondering where all the asteroids went. The time was Eve Online seemed to have more ‘bots mining ore than it had players. I returned to find that CCP had declared war on those same bots (Updates to Team Security and the ongoing war on botting, CCP Stillman, March 15, 2013) It seems the rule at CCP is currently “Two strikes and you’re out”.

When I returned I flew out to those same asteroid fields at the same time of day, only to find them filled with happy miners enjoying themselves – and not a bot among them.  Looking around I found myself checking the http address to make sure I had logged in to the same game.

I also found some interesting change to the ships that are used to play the spaceways…

The Hulk that used to be the king of the asteroid fields now has not been relegated to the status of “an eggshell in space.”   To be sure, it still takes first place in production but now only finds its way into heavily guarded corporate mining operations.  It has been replaced by the new leader in solo mining, the much maligned Mackinaw which once was only seen in Ice Fields.  But what of the skiff? What of that small vessel with only place for one strip mining module?  Once used only for mining Mercoxit it now has taken on a new role. This little ship is now the behemoth that its bigger brothers and sisters which it could be.  It may be small but it now fits a BIG role.  I was delighted to find that the skiff now has the same defense of a battleship!

And that sound you hear?

Why that is the sound of those miners who fly a skiff laughing as the slowly saunter out of the asteroid fields once in habited by gankers.

Feel the love.

You can listen to the show here or on Itunes.

You can listen to the interviews with all of the candidates on the Crossing Zebra’s website here.
This is the Eve Online CSM8 (counsel of stellar management) election special. The elections are taking place right now! Time for you who play Eve Online to get out there and vote! If you are a high sec industrialist tell those nul sec thugs what they can do with it! If you are a nul sec player get out there and tell CCP you want to drag the high sec industrialists out to low sec space kicking and screaming! If you don’t play Eve Online give a listen to the show so you can have a few laughs and find out a bit about the game.
See you online,
Julie and Fran

There is an old adage that says you never know what you have until it’s gone.  But sometimes a product is so good, so incredibly useful, that you DO know what you have before it’s gone.  We have been using gmail since there was a gmail in 2004.  Before that we paid for an email service and have since cancelled it.  But as incredibly useful as it is, for someone who finds themselves having to keep up with news feeds on a regular basis, Google Reader is…and soon was…incredible useful.  It worked seamlessly with Google, it organized mountains of news feeds (our count here at No Prisoners, No Mercy long ago passed 100).  There was no firewall so high, nor so broad, nor so deep that Google Reader could not still keep the user abreast of the news, constantly informed at a moments notice or a few moments break.

Word on the internet highway is that Google Reader has been subplanted by social media such as Facebook and Twitter.

Twitter?  Really?

How can a one sentence Tweet take the place of an in depth article by Arstechnica, Game Politics, or Kotaku?  And Facebook?  Would this be the same Facebook that makes a home for wayward cows waiting to be clicked?  Social media may let us know what our friends are having for dinner, when a meeting is going to be held or the servers are back up but that is about as far as it goes.  In order to be informed we needed a way to be able to sort through mountains of media using a virtual thumb index that let us have easy access to the BIG PICTURE.  Google reader provided that and here is the kicker…did so transparently.

Does this mean we will stop doing No Prisoners, No Mercy and fade like so many others? Nope. (O.K. we thought about it for a few seconds). What will we do instead?

Frankly we have no idea.

Like so many others we find we have three months until we find ourselves between a rock and a hard place.

See you online…just not in Google Reader.

The No Prisoners, No Mercy Team

You can listen to it here on Virginworlds.com, or here, or on Itunes

O.K. it’s been out a day or two but we have spent the time since digging out of a good old fashioned midwestern blizzards.  Snow in the midwest are like teachers in university…there is alot of PHD’s…Pile it higher and Deeper as grandma used to say.

This time out we talk to Chris Dodson about a new mmo (or the sequal of an established mmo if you prefer): Planetside 2.  Chris proves to Fran and I that there is more to Planetside 2 than just an action packed first person shooter – and we have never laughed so hard.

As usual we try to introduce our listeners to some new music they may not have heard before by way of some musical segues/short clips.  We searched the internet and found two groups from Ireland called GMC (no not the automobile company), Scary Eire, and the Rubberbandits.  We are especially fond of GMC who is a musician and producer from Cork Ireland.  GMC’s song “home” had us listening to it over and over again.  Here is hoping he hits it big in America as well.

See you online,

Julie Whitefeather and Fran Kosac

Welcome to Show 124!

This time out we welcome Slunker from 2Lazy2bOtaku back to the show.  Slunker, Fran and I talk about the following subject (below). You can listen to the show  on www.virginworlds.com here or on Itunes.

Welcome to Show 124!

This time out Slunker from 2 Lazy 2 be Otaku, Fran and I talk about the following subjects:

1. Imitation is the sincerest of form of flattery – Japanese artists, American artists,  fans and fair use.

2. The Hobbit, Tolkien, Peter Jackson, and Hollywood

3. Steambox vs. consoles

4. Elderscrolls on and offline, diversity of classes, and why we keep playing  mmos

See you online!

Julie and Fran

This is Skyrim isn’t it?

Teenager:  Hey you. Ya you.

Maya:  Yes?

Teenager: You’re a vault hunter aren’t you?

Maya: Well yes I am. Why?

Teenager: I used to be a vault hunter like you, until I took a bullet to the knee.

(long pause)

Maya: …um….

Teenager:  Isn’t this Skyrim?

Maya:  No this is Borderlands 2 and you are in Sanctuary.

Teenager: Oh Crud. I’m supposed to be portraying a Whiterun guard in Skyrim today. Steam sent me to the wrong place again.

It was like a Wreck It Ralph  moment. There I was, playing Maya in Borderlands 2, walking through Sanctuary. On a lark I decided to talk to one of the citizens there.  The first thing the teenager says is “I used to be a vault hunter like you…”  Everyone who has ever played Skyrim has heard a similar complain by Whiterun guard make the same complain. Always complaining about having to taken an arrow to the knee…always.

This is one of my favorite “Easter Egg” moments in games.  Like the time the vendor in the Eastern Plaguelands in World of Warcraft told me he should have taken the red pill instead of the blue pill.  Or the time in Everquest II where a small hobbit…er….halfling on a dock has me search for his friend named Fritz on an island full of fairies and promptly complains “They killed Fritz. They’ve killed Fritz! They’ve killed Fritz! Those lousy stinking yellow fairies!”

See you online,

Julie Whitefeather