EM 2008: A machine!?

I saw an interesting conversation on U.Hall that cried out for me to comment on. Since, I hate getting involved in U.hall threads and seeing how I have not made a post on here in some time, I will kill two birds with one stone :)


Without using any names,

Originally Posted by some random person A I was going to make a sarcastic comment, but honestly i just feel sad that you seem to view EMs as artifact dispensers. They are much more valuable than any stupid named sash they hand out. this is how rare collectors view EMs, believe me... apparently you are a role player so have fun being a noob doing that (posted by random person B)

To give it bit more of a context, person B was initially complaining about not receiving one of those "Greetings sashes" by the new EMs. He expressed his disbelief that it was handled in such a manner that not everyone who wanted a sash got one and it created new rares.

Before I give my opinion on above, I would like to state that the person B is inherently conflicting himself. On one hand, he is stating that the EM program should not create any rares and then, few posts later he is claiming that rare collectors only look at EMs as some sort of a rare machine... and him being one, it is a reasonable point of view to posses. The two statements, put together, make absolutely no sense to me. Only thing I get out of it is that person B wanted the sashes to be rares but him to also have received one. Well, as they say - you cannot have your cake and eat it too.

Now regarding the tall claim that, "rare collectors view EM's merely as rare dispensers."

Is that so? I am not going to make any claims or speak for other collectors. But, I most certainly do not view EMs, Seers, whatever as mere rare creating machines. This should be fairly obvious from my posts over the past year...

Whether I am being jealous of Japanese shards or expressing my views on what I would like to see in the new EM program, I most certainly have never shared this point of view.

So, to person B - please do not make claims on behalf of me or other collectors. I realize that one may say stupid things in the heat of the discussion, especially on U.hall... but this was just distasteful.

Japanese Shards Tree Building Project - II

I would like to wish a Happy New Year to all the readers of UO Musings (even the whiners from U.Hall) - My New Years Eve was a grand fun, even though there were some close calls with the fireworks!

To kick off the new year, I bring to you a very special report!

As some of you might recall, I had mentioned about stumbling into a strange event named "Tree Building Project" on Hokuto few weeks ago. While checking up on the progress of that event, I stumbled into what initially seemed to be yet another one of those excellent markets that they organize on all Japanese shards. However, this did not quite feel the same way as the previous markets that I have been to. For starters, there were no signature tent shops.

I arrived in front of a giant gate with scores of people on top of it (and a horse!),




As I moved further in, I saw people enjoying knife throwing,



I decided to test my skills at throwing knives too,




I had a very lucky streak of 7 throws, and before I knew it I was transported to the top of the gate. Apparently, it acts not only as a gate but also as a podium,



I was curious about where all of the cows were coming from till I saw this statue. As Peil explains in his post on stratics, this is some sort of Year of Cow in Japan and hence, the cow statue!



Further exploration, got me to a statue of a squirrel. Double clicking the squirrel revealed a pleasant surprise,



This is what the female character reward looks like,



Enjoy! Gates are available from New Haven and Luna on all Japanese shards. I will accept one of your rewards as a tip if you wish :)

Please, I do request that you respect the culture of the shard and not act immaturely. One more request, if you are going to use my screen shots on another blog, please do link back :)