Spacetime Studios - Blogs - Zaltiar

NEW: Random Act of Kindness (AOK)

Zaltiar — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 04:20:16 GMT

Hey there bloggers/forumers!

I have recently started a "random acts of kindness" thread on the off topic thread. I know it has been done before, but this will be something entirely different. This will be a community driven 'system' where people will be able to nominate others for AOK recognition rewards (intangible rewards, discussed in previous PM).
Since there are a lot of in game individuals who go out their way to help others without asking for anything in return and don't get recognized, this would be a great way to put their names out in the community.
This will not be a "premium" group, anyone can be nominated for recognition on the thread!
I've read a few threads this like around other online forums and thought it would be a good idea if we had one here.

The thread is located here
If you guys have the time, please go and take a look at it, :eagerness:

Cheers,
Zalt

Sunday Mornings with Zalt: Rich Bird, Poor Bird

Zaltiar — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 17:08:17 GMT

Sunday Mornings with Zaltiar: The Rat Race

I was reading this book called "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki. Some of you may know/read it, or might have never heard of it. The story mainly revolves around the author and his journey of learning the value of money in his quest to 'get rich'. For me it was not so much a story, rather it was a crash course in learning the why's and how's for really understanding how $ worked. Doing a business major in accounting, it got me re-thinking the concept of "money". I picked it up a few days ago and only read half of it, but I learnt so much, where else I would have never learnt.
If you haven't read it yet, I definately recommend it!
It got me thinking so much, I decided to write a little about it and confuse all of you. Apologies in advance.

To me, it fell into context with every situation. How people who work for money and people who made money work for them differed. While the ones who work for money constantly struggle to retain their wealth in fear of losing it, a few that are financially literate manage to look at things at a wider perspective and really understand the "illusion" of money and how to maintain their wealth. I don't know how much that would make sense if you haven't read the book (I'm just really bad at recycling and retelling things I have read :/)

Just to illustrate let's say in PL/SL, (for the financially educated please dont whack me on the head if I get the comparisons or concepts wrong, heh, feel free to correct me, I would gladly appreciate it!) the ones who work for money would be you, me and anyone playing the game trying to stack up money as we level up for better gear. While we may get more money as we level patting ourselves on the back, the items get more expensive. We make a million, then spend half on new content end game gear. Thus, we constantly try to farm like zombies to get a few pinks to make a few bucks over, and over, and over, etc. Probably, by the time we are happy with the amount we have in our stash, the new content is just around the corner and we wind up spending 50-60% on it (like me :/)

On the other hand, the ones who make money work for them know how this all works. They're not so as interested in getting the latest gear and know a good deal on the cs when they see one. Yep, they're the 'stuck up' cs merchants who sit in balefort/B* all day. They know what the players want and need.They buy all their assets (in game gear and whatnot) low and sell them high, then they use their profits to buy more assets and so on.
While we are rich one moment then spend it all on gear, they are getting richer by the day. Now, put that into rl situations if you can. lol

Yep, most of us probably know this already but I just got to thinking again once I read that book.
Thank you for allowing me to confuse you, you are now free to go on about yourselves :)
Kthxbaiii!

Any thoughts/opinions on the book?

Sunday Mornings with Zalt: A recession in SL?

Zaltiar — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 23:05:12 GMT

Hear ye! Hear ye! Prices are falling in sl!
As an avid mercher, I have seen many items prices fall to their all time lows. I try to keep an eye on how the prices fluctuate, but it seems these days they are only going down. For example, when Electro Razers used to go for 55-65k at their lowest, now hardly anyone buys them even at 40-45k. Novas have gone from 160-70k to 100k (since they are still popular among people). Its not just the voleria items, looking at the different vanities, most have fallen by quite a large amount.
It seems no body wants to spend their money (darn selfish hooligans!), or does the problem lie elsewhere? For an economy to work, there has to be some form of constant flow of money coming in for it to go back out from sales whatnot. With the decrease in population of players in SL, there are less runs=less items=less sales/liquidation. With the amount of 'gaining money' decreasing, there is less people who buy items and more people trying to sell items. Since there's now a surplus in unsold items, they try to sell them for lower prices, making a loss.
All the merchants in SL who have sold their items and made millions, don't want to spend their money because they know they wont be making a profit (they should pay taxes for us poor men in sl!) <- all you less wealthy people are yelling hell yeah! Just think about it, they pay taxes, u reap the benefits, awesomesauce. I'm kidding of course, just a thought, but that would kill the merchers, more incentive not to merch.
But of course, there's always a recession in sl after a campaign has been out for sometime, people get bored, play less, or like me stick to pvp. That leads me to another thought, what if you gained some form of money in pvp? It can be real credits/kill or maybe even just 'pvp currency' and with these you were able to buy special items/vans made specifically for pvp :9. Sorry for going off topic a bit.

I have a list of ideas that could help improve the current situation of sl (*cough* new campaign. boom, recession gone) but I'll leave that for another day. What are your thoughts on this subject? How can we/devs improve the economy?

Cheers,
Zalt.

Sunday Mornings with Zalt: Sun, sand, sea, and the darn blood suckers.

Zaltiar — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 00:48:39 GMT

Ahh..holidays, nothing like one without relaxing on the beach with the sun and the calm waves of the beach in summer (yes its summer in Australia ). Then there's the darn mozzies (or what you might call "mosquitoes"). Those darn little buggers come at you in hordes, attacking you in every little open patch of skin they can find on you.

I'm currently on holidays in this place called Cairns, its located near the equator, so its summer all year round. Its a fabulous place, until now, I've been scuba diving and snorkelling in the great barrier reef, forest hiking in one of the oldest rainforest in the world. I'll post up some pics of my underwater shots when I get back home, the underwater life is absolutely stunning.

Two things that annoy me most during my stay in my resort are the darn blood sucking mozzies and....the fact that there is no wifi meaning I have to get on sl using my 3g, whichever has terrible lag, oh and did I mention the fee of roaming data ;_;.

I went hiking in the 'Daintree' rainforest yesterday and I got bit 10 times in the first 5 minutes I got out of the car. Crazy? Nope, I realized when I got back home, my socks were bloody, the cause? Two little bloodsucking leeches draining my blood. :/.

Fear not, I am currently on my way back and will be home with my blazing fast wifi and will be back in my A-Game in sl pvp > ill see you there!

I haz bug in pvp? :0

Zaltiar — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 23:44:33 GMT

So recently I got accused of using 'bugs' in sl pvp. Person kicked me out of the room with the reason 'no bugs'. Lol, I tried to explain why there are no bugs in sts's games but apparently he can 'see' them. He probably got a little ticked off because i killed him a few times in pvp :/. Lol, at first i found tthis funny, then he started threatening me saying he would post everywhere on forums that I use bugs. Lmao, so I told him to ahead, man I'm not that good at pvp that ppl have to accuse me of using bugs....there's heaps load better out there and I've fought with them. As far as I know, from older forum topics and what not, all sts games are server based and do not have any 'bugs' or 'hacks' whatsoever. -_-, I might just record a video of me doing some sl pvp just to prove this guy wrong.
Well if any threads pop out stating I am hackzorz, don't be taken aback. I would never tarnish my reputation by using any bugs/whatnot. I'm just appalled someone would actually accuse and threaten me.
/endrant

Talking about pvp, what are your guys thoughts on it? Which class is best at sl pvp atm?
For me, it would be a tie between commandos (baised cause I use one my self >_>) and ops. I've seen a lot of ops who know how to use their skills pretty well,... lurch is one hella annoying skill eh. If only graviton well worked in pvp. Now that would be awesomesauce.
Cheers!

Like a Bawss t-shirts in ma mail!

Zaltiar — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 01:16:32 GMT

Got my two t-shirts in the mail today...about 10 minutes ago actually. Thank god I was still at home when the mail-man came. A huge thank-you to the devs! :eagerness:
I've been too busy with uni exams this month, brrr. But that don't stop me from pvp-ing. *shifty-eyes*
I'll be more active on the forums after that haha. Who knows, I might do more art and open up my dusty signature cafe. K, I should stop procrastinating.
Cheers!

oh here's a picture of my pl goodies. The package came with an extra pin, goes well with ma tank t-shirt. chyeh.

And whats this new..blog? man, I've become too out-dated on the forums.