Kingdom Quest end

As mentioned on my Homeless in Long Beach blog, manger raised rent $65.00 meaning I have to move. Meaning time to stop playing Facebook games. Can not say why I kept playing KQ. All the neighbors who invited me to play quit playing it early on. I did what I swore I would not do, went to game app page and added a few new friends.

One lady was nice, fun. She quit playing within a week or so. A few more did likewise. I keep them as friends to have neighbors to visit. As with Gourmet Ranch, KQ has a trade store. Players can put ingredients or product in their Trade to be purchased by neighbors.

Most neighbors trade nothing. One neighbor grabs every item I put in Trade. She sells the items she buys in her Trade. Got annoying. I was trying to help new, low level neighbors get product or to fill stalls, but that one never gave anyone else a chance to buy from my Trade.

Anyway I usually grew trees where I left Junipero berries and Flax growing. Since nothing wilts or dies, might as well leave plots filled. I liked growing this combination because I thought they were pretty together. Usually had them alternating side by side, not in rows like this.

If I ever locate the other KQ screen shots I may/may not publish them at that time. As of now I quit KQ cold turkey. "It won't hurt to cook something..." I would tell self at night. But when I went into game in AM, seeing all those empty stalls, would waver, "Just fill the stalls..." My last few days with KQ, I did manage not to harvest crops, just use existing inventory to make dishes or materials. Yet even on that I would waver and "Okay, just mine the tin, iron, cooper; milk the cows, collect the eggs, harvest the other cows for leather.

Cold turkey only way to do it for me. Even though I announced "No more gifts," my few neighbors go right on sending them. I guess I will need to send them all a personal Facebook message. Could remove the game, but might have some free time before moving so....

Kingdom Quest overview

I know that I took a screen shot of a new neighbor's Kingdom but can not locate it. I was quite advanced when I took this one.

KQ starts with a tutorial. Have to perform a series of tasks, then with basics learned, on your own. Almost. There are Quests to be done. Not as annoying as most quest games, no constant flashing arrows to remind one that they need doing. Still annoyed with arrow, I would check each quest after loading the game, arrow goes away.

There is a method to Playdom developers madness. Each quest helps with earning money and moving up levels. Moving up levels is important. Very few plots to grow stuff at the start, earn more as one advances.

There are also Castle Plots. Stalls to sell created dishes go on Castle Plots as do tables, chairs for customers and the workers who create the dishes.

I soon discovered there are two different types of customers. Upper left photo castle entrance brings in buyers for materials. Middle entrance by the pink roofed tower go to tables to sit and dine.

I worked to fill the top entrance stalls filled with materials. The rest of the stalls were for meals.

Did not find info in Help section about wilt or spoil times. A friend later told me that there are none, but at first I would try to test it, leaving a 5 minute meal or material for 1/2 hour, hour, overnight. A simple thing that game developers usually forget to include when creating Help pages. Players need to know if when they need to come back to harvest crops, serve dishes.

Early on players get a dragon egg. They need to get neighbors help to hatch the dragon; then to feed it milk. Then it goes to sleep. Been sleeping ever since, ticking me off because I used game cash to buy milk. Plus the awake dragon was cute. I was also ticked when I learned there is a pretty gold or nice green dragon. I got stuck with my least favorite color ~ a red dragon.

Early on I saw Brother's castle change. I thought, at first, we would be creating materials to fix up our castles same way. Nothing came of that yet.

Thus it seems the game consists of leveling up to get more castle plots or crop plots, more workers to accomplish more, more stalls that will be impossible to fill. Or keep filled with goods that is. I have filled mine many times over.

Then there are the Quests. Characters walk around blabbing to be heard: New Quest Available. Or Quest Available. Duh, working on it, leave me alone. Later game added the Quest icons, meaning there were two ways to view current quests. I was able to finish mine quickly. Also leveled up quickly when I was not trying to do so; just trying to fill a stall with 7,000 Onion Broth or 2,000 servings of Gooseberry Tea.

Many days I questioned my sanity for continuing to play this game, yet play it I did. I had goal to reach level 50, then relax. No longer recall why 50 ~ probably level needed to reach to get more castle plots which I sorely needed. Or wanted. Every 4 levels a player gets either another worker or another stall. I think it is 4 levels. Have many more stalls, workers than available castle plots.

Yet the game was somehow relaxing, soothing, as I dealt with neighbor's noise, insomnia, reading a novel as I played.

Kingdom Quest

As near as I can determine I did not write about Kingdom Quest yet, although I could have sworn that I did. Old, unimproved Blogger format, would take seconds to know for sure. C'est la vie.

Bored, I decided to give Kingdom Quest a try. A few of my game friends had invited me to play. They drifted away from the game rather quickly, but I stuck around. My kind of Facebook game. Plant, harvest in 3 or 5 minutes; cook meals, 5 minutes. Downside: only 25 servings per dish cooked. That means stuff sells from the stalls faster than being able to fill them.

Early on, I made 1,000 Onion Broth. In addition to whatever (likely Eel Custards, Gooseberry Tea). Next morning, all gone. Made 2,000 which worked ~ the other stuff was gone, but the Onion Broth still had servings left to sell. I must be a bit off mentally to do that. I cringe thinking about how many times I had to click those stoves to start dishes cooking, serve, clean them to make 2,000 Onion Broth. Plus needing to grow 2,000 onions.

Yet I would sit here late in the evening, click, click, clicking away. Obsessed. While I was playing the game, I was also reading a book. "Just one more round," I would tell myself, but found it hard to stop ~ just a few more. At one point I worked my way up to 7,000+ Onion Broth, and almost as much Eel Custards, Gooseberry Tea. That satisfied me; kept the waitresses moving earning game coins.

Later the developers, Playdom Inc, same creators of Gourmet Ranch, changed servings to 50 which was helpful. Yet people did not stick around after trying the game. Only someone with my mental handicap would  actually do all that clicking, stay in the game for an hour or more to load up those counters.

One neighbor does not care. His stalls are usually all empty save for one. Once in a while he has stuff on another stall. I kept telling self that is what I needed to do; forget about keeping wait staff busy, just cook 1, 4, or 8 hour stuff (when the longer cook times became available.) Yet once loading the game in the morning, Yikes all the stuff gone, I could not stop self from trying to put something on all my stalls.

Why I banned Zynga

I seldom last at Quest or Mission games very long. Many, many, many moons ago I quit all Zynga games, blocking them all. I would give a new game a try, mainly at insistence of KW or feeling sorry for other Facebook game friends ~ know how these games have neighbor requirements  or need neighbors to gift X item in order to advance, so...

...but no one pestered me about FV2 (except KW, which is part of a different story, likely never to be told.)

I was enjoying the diversion playing FV2; was able to fill most orders, quickly finish most quests. Game is already boring and annoying.

I can not feed any adult chicken to do this because once chickens grow to adults they soon become Prized Chickens; feeding prized chickens does not count towards feeding chickens. Only way to do this quest is to buy baby chicks. Baby chicks require two milk bottles to grow. A baby chick will likely have 5 feedings before it grows to adult stage, but...

...I am close to maximum allowed animals. I can increase allowed animals by buying a water trough. Of course, that requires parts, and if I ask neighbors for those parts, then can not ask them parts to finish other quests.

I solved the problem by selling some prized chickens, but that does not solve the lack of milk bottle issue ~ I really need more rabbits or another lamb for fur. They require more milk bottles. It is an endless trial playing this game. No fun at all.

12th Day of Christmas

Facebook Status update. Do not know who wrote it or where he meme originated.

On the 12th Day of Christmas my Facebook gave to me, 12 skanks I'm blocking, 11 friends just watching, 10 boring topics, 9 busted barbies, 8 friends complaining, 7 stalkers stalking, 6 party invites, Fiiiiiiiiiiiiive Drama Queeeensssss, 4 game requests, 3 photo tags, 2 friends-a-pokin & a freak who won't stop inboxing meeee!

Walk Like a Man

The world isn't coming to an end. At least not today, December 12, 2012 as end of Mayan calendar doomsday prophets have been proclaiming with dire warnings to be prepared. Then again, today is not over and yesterday was actually today, depending upon time of day at any given time, in many parts of the world.

Have not worked on my eulogy list of songs in quite some time. I loathe Google's new hard to use, ugly Blogger, and vowed I was through here, but here I am again.

Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons' tune, Walk Like a Man was a long time favorite of mine. Whenever life got me down, I would play it over and over again on the 45RPM record, or via a Four Seasons 331/3 album, then, later, on cassette tapes ~ specifically on a mix tape of I Will Survive tunes.

Have not listened to it in a good long time, yet the last of the first stanza lyric has been playing over in my mind for several days. Mainly, I suspect, due to Facebook friends mentioning the Mayan calendar ending.

Oh, how you tried to cut me down to size

Tellin' dirty lies to my friends

But my own father said "Give her up, don't bother

The world isn't comin' to an end

I did some reading this year about the Mayan calendar and also reports from astrologers who asserted no meteor or other heavenly object was speeding towards the earth at such speed it meant earth's impeding doom. But, whatever, if the earth were to flip on its axis, or otherwise be destroyed, not a darn thing I can do about it, so might as well go on with life as usual. 

KW

Do not know if KW was telling lies to our mutual Facebook friends. Normally I would not name names ~ oh, I have done so in the past, learning a good lesson about potentially smearing the name of an innocent person due to sharing a name with person I was blogging about ~ such as my friend, Jane Doe, and Jane Doe whom I have never met.

Read somewhere: If you are mad at X are Y and Z the first persons to hear about it. That is, we need to take our discontent to the person causing it. If we think spouse is cheating, confront him, do not tell your best friends about it. If our loved ones said or did something that hurt us, tell them, not the co-worker or local bartender.

Once upon a time, KW sent me a Facebook message about some perceived insult. She did not like J's comment on a game post. Personally I thought KW was overreacting, taking the comment in the wrong manner. I did not know how to reply. I introduced KW to J; she knows J is a good Facebook game friend.

Have always hated that ~ friends that do not like my other friends, talking 'bout the other behind their backs. I mean, if KW knows J is a friend of mine, I am not the person to gossip to about her. KW and I even had some forgotten FB or Farm Town chat about it.

I tend towards being bluntly honest, yet I also long for peace. Did not want to get into a message argument with KW by defending J. Considered writing J a message telling her what KW said. Yikes, what is this grade school! No thank you. I forget how I replied; probably suggested that maybe she misunderstood the comment by J.

The whole thing made me uncomfortable. A dog that will bring a bone will carry one. I wondered what KW was telling J about me behind my back. Especially since J had been such a great FB game friend until soon after I introduced her to KW. Maybe I will get back to that some other time; today is about cleaning up Notepad documents.

The Letter

Actually the letter is two Facebook messages.


November 8, 2012
Hi.
what happened?
did I do something wrong? please tell me if I did. I'm very confused right now.
we have been friends for so long and I thought real friends........so will leave it at that until I hear back from you.
Kat x

Message 2:
I now have an idea of why you did what you did.
doesn't really matter either way.
I do find in funny that you were upset that Jeanette took you off her friends list while you had not been showing any activity on your account for a while and you think it's just fine to delete me and not say anything.
I hope you have a nice rest of your life.
Please be a big enough person to take yourself off of Ada's and my Farm Town accounts. thank you.

Message 3:
well I have to say that you have taught me a great lesson about facebook.
That even though you might have spent the last years talking to someone on Holidays and sharing life's ups and downs that it doesn't mean you were really ever friends.
Game friends are just that. game friends. that when you are done with them or are upset that they are ahead of you on a neighbor bar you just hit delete. then they go away. as they are and never were really friends you do not have to even say why. Facebook is great that way. fast and easy. unfriend. I'm thinking they should not call it a friend request though as people that you talk to for years can just delete you for no reason.

To say that you have made me cry for over 24 hours or that you have made me never trust another person I have or will ever meet on Facebook is giving you a lot of power. That is how much your friendship meant to me. guess it was pretty 1 sided. I will learn that lesson well from now on.

I hope you find happiness in your world and someday I hope I do also.
but I do have to thank you for waking me up to what is real and what is not. for that I owe you.

My Reply

I sat on my hands forcing self not to reply to the three Facebook messages from KW. I wrote the following e-mail, but my last sentence reminded me why I was not going to reply to her.

(Did I say Dear Kat, or Hi Kat, if so did not copy it when moving e-mail message to Notepad document.)


I understand why you think that, but not logical.

As I move DD* images to a folder, I am as ashamed of myself for all the time I have wasted on silly FB games as I am of the amount of money I have spent on cigarettes. And the images are only a fraction of the number of FB games I have played ~ minimum 1/2 of them we have been neighbors  If your accusation was true, why then, I would have removed you a long time ago. Wood Witch too if memory serves me ~ that wine game ~ I try to picture the neighbor bar in my head ~ so not at all sure ~ almost positive both of you passed me on the neighbor bar, even though I had played it for a long time before either of you had.

Sometimes in life we get caught between a rock and a hard place;  it is easier to walk away from a toxic, co-dependent 'relationship' then try to explain it.  I do, however, take full responsibility ~ I forgot ~ again ~ to let my yes mean yes and my no mean no.

"What you see in others, exists in you."

Human nature, I suppose, to project our shortcomings or flaws onto others, rather than take a look in the mirror; fragile egos shatter easily; strong egos may have a hard time seeing themselves as they really are.

And, Missy, you really should not trust people you meet on the Internet, especially people who play Facebook games. I would not have enough neighbors if I did not overlook their lack of scruples and morals. Shameful!

They violate Facebook's Terms of Services, getting three or more accounts. Which in turn violates most FB game's Terms of Services by having more than one account. Then they get in fights at now defunct game discussion pages or on forums, announcing they are violating the TOS or accusing their neighbor of getting an account for their cat! I even mentioned to some of these ladies that maybe it was not a good idea to announce to strangers that they have more than one account. Some angry with the neighbor were vengeful or vindictive enough to report them to Facebook, PlayDemic, Slashkey and so on.

I have had 'friends' copy/paste a personal message from one of their friends to share it with me, betraying their friend's confidece and violating a right to privacy. Actually I have offline friends like that too. Makes it hard to write sincerely or be close to people who one can not confide in. And when a person is not trustworthy in one area....

"I never tell a secret if I want to keep it hid, except to someone who will do much better than I did."  I have a lifetime's worth of other people's secrets kept safe in my heart. Problem with that is once they confide, they can become leery that I would betray their trust ~ putting a strain on the relationship.

Most gamers do not read Javascript yet will jeopardize their friend's computers and FB account by using whatever bot they can find. Long, long debates on that at forums ~ even when other gamers copy/paste exact developer words ~ about use of machines ~ Zygna expressly forbids players from using them to move bonus wall posts or collect bonuses ~ those that use them refuse to admit they are cheats. Some of the bots are more honest ~ Cheat Engines ~ a big violation of game's TOS ~ manipulating experience points and coins.

Not only do they find cheats, such as getting free dollar items or gifts from non-neighbors, they share the info on how to get something by violating TOS or just plain lack of scruples with neighbors. Some have had the audacity to post links to cheat sites on my own wall!  Might give my other safe, honest game friends, like my former good buddy Wood Witch, the wrong idea about their own safetly if I keep friends that would do that.

What is wrong with people that they are so obsessed with the games they are willing to cheat rather than just enjoy playing and achieving naturally. Some are so addicted and obsessed they neglect their spouses and children ~ the child dies in the bathtub or they cry when spouse is ready to divorce them.

I do understand addictions ~ back in the day I was afraid to try pot because "I have an addictive personality," I would tell people who tried to entice me. And even when I did not have my own computer an Interenet addict. Did have my FB game addiction under control ~ then neighbor resumes his violation of House Rules & Regulations ~ thump, thump, thump ~ up to 5AM ~ inability to concentrate on reading or other 'net endeavors ~ routine disrupted, unable to think clearly, too many daytime naps ~ ah, but "Excuses are the leaning posts of fools."

Believe what you want, Missy, life is too short for fussing and fighting; I am not going to be drawn into an argument with you.

Peace
MA

TOS is Terms of Service
FB is Facebook
DD is Dreamhouse Designer