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The Animal Rescue Center is seeing much good fortune these days, thanks to the hiring of a volunteer media coordinator, who has gone a long way to increase the number of adoptions at the no-kill shelter, officials there said.
Jerri Howard, ARC director, said the numbers are up since Tina Hager came on board in December with great qualifications, better ideas and a familiarity of the industry's software for animal shelters.
"She gets our name out there with different media outlets. WINK has come out here, we do the Fox Morning Blend every month, articles in the local papers to let people know we have fundraisers coming," Howard said.
Hager said 28 pets were adopted in April, many of them cats. But where the numbers will be in coming months can be hard to predict.
"It ebbs and flows. It depends on when people want pets. In March we didn't see much action at all," Hager said.
Hager has also gotten the word out about pets with special needs and trying to do what they can to save what they can, Howard said, adding that even after working years at ARC, many people still come and say they didn't know they existed.
Hager said those who want to adopt should go the shelter route, since they are less expensive and not from so-called "pet mills."
"There are enough unwanted pets and we have so many great pets in the shelter," Hager said. "These aren't bad animals, they're just victims of a bad circumstance and their owner had to surrender it, which is better than to let it go on the street."
The added help should come in handy as summer comes and the shelter becomes less busy due to vacations and the stormy weather.
ARC got a taste last summer when severe flooding caused it to close for a time. Only though the generosity of others' time and money was it able to reopen.
"If we get the flooding we had last year, we're absolutely going to get that out. We had a lot of people donate money to have French drains put into the alleyways in the dog villages to give the water a place to go," Howard said. "We were so thankful from the response we got."
As far as those who surrender their pets, Hager said they are full, with about 400 cats and between 60 and 65 dogs.
Howard said she is juggling things around to try to accommodate more, especially for the special needs animals, which they pretty much take in automatically.
Of course, the need of using the Lee County TNR (tarp-neuter-release) program becomes a crucial as ever to reduce the pet population, especially among cats.
Thankfully, ARC, Lee County Animal Services and the Gulf Coast Humane Society have joined forces. There will be a national event coming at the end of the month that the county earned funds for.
"It's great that we can work together instead of against each other to achieve our goals," Howard said.
For adoption information, contact ARC through the Contact Us tab on their website or call the shelter at 731-3535 Wednesday through Sunday (except major holidays) between noon and 4 p.m. To see the shelter's 'featured" dogs and cats visit animalrefugecenter.com/search-for-pets/
To make a donation, animalrefugecenter.com/donate/make-a-donation/


text:
Items where Author is "Atta, M."
|Up a level
Group by: Item Type | No Grouping
Jump to: Journal article
Number of items: 1.
Journal article
Atta, M., Crook, David, Shafique, F., Johnston, D.G. and Godsland, I.F. (2008) Procoagulant activities of plasma factor VIIc and factor Xc are positively and independently associated with concentrations of the high-density lipoprotein apolipoprotein, apo A-II Thrombosis and Haemostasis , 100 (3). pp. 391-396. ISSN 0340-6245

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Oral Hygiene market in Malaysia will register marginally higher growth in value terms during 2015-2020 compared to 2010-2015. The Toothpaste category has the highest volume share and is also the leading value category in 2015. Flexible Packaging is the most commonly used packaging material while Screw Top is the most commonly used closure type.
Key Findings
- The Oral Hygiene market in Malaysia registered a CAGR of 4.5% during 2010-2015.
- Hypermarkets and Supermarkets is the leading distribution channel in Malaysia's Cosmetics and Toiletries market.
- The use of Tube as container types is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 2.5% during 2015-2020.
- Colgate and Oral -B are the leading brands in the Toothbrushes and Replacement Heads category.
Canadean's Consumer and Market Insights report on the Oral Hygiene market in Malaysia provides insights on high growth categories to target, trends in the usage of packaging materials, types and closures category level distribution data and brands market shares.
What else is contained?
- Market data: Overall market value and volume data with growth analysis for 2010-2020
- Category coverage: Value and growth analysis for Breath Fresheners (non-confectionery), Dental Floss, Denture Care, Mouthwash, Toothbrushes and Replacement Heads and Toothpaste with inputs on individual segment share within each category and the change in their market share forecast for 2015-2020
- Leading players: Market share of brands and private labels, including private label growth analysis from 2012-2015
- Distribution data: Percentage of sales within each category through distribution channels such as Hypermarkets and Supermarkets, Health and Beauty Stores, Convenience Stores, and others in 2015
- Packaging data: consumption breakdown for packaging materials and containers in each category, in terms of percentage share of number of units sold. Packaging material data for Rigid Plastics, Flexible Packaging, Rigid Metals and others; container data for: Tube, Blister Pack, Bottle and others
Reasons To Buy
- Identify high potential categories and explore further market opportunities based on detailed value and volume analysis
- Existing and new players can analyze key distribution channels to identify and evaluate trends and opportunities
- Gain an understanding of the total competitive landscape based on detailed brand share analysis to plan effective market positioning
- Report Scope
Country Context
- Macroeconomic indicators -Population and age structure, GDP and Consumer Price Index
Market Overview
- Value and volume analysis for Malaysia's Oral Hygiene market
- Historic and forecast consumption in Malaysia's Oral Hygiene market
- Degree of trade up/down in Malaysia's Oral Hygiene market
- Volume analysis by category
- Historic and forecast value analysis by category
- Winners and losers by category with change in market share
- Average category level pricing
- Segment share in a category (value terms) and change in market share
Retail Landscape and Key Distribution Channels
- Leading retailers in Malaysia's Cosmetics and Toiletries market
- Leading distribution channels (value terms) in Malaysia's Oral Hygiene market
- Leading distribution channels (value terms) by category
- Oral Hygiene market by type of packaging material/container (in volume terms)
- Oral Hygiene market by type of packaging closure/outer (in volume terms)
- Oral Hygiene market by type of packaging, forecast (in volume terms)
Brand and Private Label Share
- Penetration of private label by category in Malaysia's Oral Hygiene market
- Private Label growth (in value terms) compared to brands
- Market share of leading brands (in value terms) by category
- Country context
- Category value and volume data
- Sector Overview
- Segment data
- Packaging data
- Category definitions
- Segment definitions
- Channel definitions
- Methodology
- About Canadean
Table 1: Market value analysis in MYR and US$, 2010-2020
Table 2: Market volume growth analysis, 2010-2020
Table 3: Exchange rate fluctuations: US$ to MYR
Table 4: Average prices (MYR and US$) by category, 2015
Table 5: Segment level analysis by category, 2015
Table 6: Leading retailers
Table 7: Leading brands by category, 2015
Figure 1: Macro economic analysis: GDP per capita, Population, CPI (2010-2015), Age Profile (2015)
Figure 2: Consumers purchase behavior -Trading up/down, 2015
Figure 3: Market volume share analysis by category, 2015
Figure 4: Growth analysis by category, 2010-2020
Figure 5: Change in market share by category, 2015-2020
Figure 6: Leading distribution channels, overall Cosmetics and Toiletries market, 2011-2014
Figure 7: Leading distribution channels by category, 2015
Figure 8: Packaging analysis -key packaging material, type, closure and outer, 2015
Figure 9: Growth in key packaging material, type, closure and outer, 2015-2020
Figure 10: Private Label penetration by categories, 2015
Figure 11: Private Label and brand share growth, 2012-2015
Figure 12: Brand share by categories, 2015
Church and Dwight Co. Inc.
The Procter and Gamble Company
Jordan As
Colgate-Palmolive Gmbh
Orkla ASA
Glaxosmithkline Plc
Johnson and Johnson Gmbh
Hawley and Hazel (Bvi) Co. Ltd
Wipro Unza Holdings Ltd.
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text:
ATLANTA — Brandon Crawford clubbed a pair of homers and drove in three runs to help the San Francisco Giants secure their first three-game sweep of the Braves in Atlanta in over 25 years with a 4-1 win Sunday at Turner Field.
ATLANTA — Brandon Crawford clubbed a pair of homers and drove in three runs to help the San Francisco Giants secure their first three-game sweep of the Braves in Atlanta in over 25 years with a 4-1 win Sunday at Turner Field.
Crawford's solo shot in the fourth snapped a 1-1 tie, while his two-run blast in the eighth added some insurance for the Giants, who scored all but one of their nine runs in the series via home runs.
Despite going 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position Sunday and 0-for-13 with RISP in the series, San Francisco completed its first sweep in Atlanta since taking three straight from June 27-29, 1988.
"Obviously a sweep anywhere on the road is good," Crawford said. "To make the long trip out here and take three wins, it feels great."
Starter Madison Bumgarner (3-3) did his part in extending San Francisco's win streak to five games, as the 24-year-old left-hander fanned nine while giving up just an unearned run on three hits over six frames.
With Bumgarner finished after 95 pitches, Juan Gutierrez, Javier Lopez and Jean Machi combined to keep the Braves off the board over the next two frames before Santiago Casilla spun a 1-2-3 ninth to nail down his first save of the season.
Alex Wood (2-5) went five innings in the start for Atlanta and allowed two runs on seven hits and a walk with seven strikeouts to absorb the loss.
Chris Johnson collected two of Atlanta's four hits while Jason Heyward drove in the lone run for the Braves, who have lost a season-high six straight games.
"We just can't get anything going really," Johnson said of his team's offensive struggles. "It's frustrating because our pitchers are doing a great job of giving us an opportunity. Our offense is not taking advantage of it."
The Giants grabbed an early edge in the opening frame, and for the first and only time in the series, they didn't require the use of a long ball.
Hunter Pence scorched a one-out double and then moved to third on Wood's wild pitch before crossing the plate on Buster Posey's groundout to first.
Atlanta answered in the third after Ramiro Pena ripped a one-out single and Wood followed with a sacrifice bunt. Bumgarner sprang off the mound to field it, but his throw to first sailed, allowing Pena to race to third while Wood reached first safely.
Heyward then smacked a sacrifice fly to center to plate Pena and tie the game.
The Giants got back to their homer-hitting ways in the fourth when Crawford crushed a two-out, two-strike blast into the first row in right field to give the visitors a 2-1 lead.
Atlanta left the potential tying run on third in the fifth and then again in the sixth before Crawford provided his team with some insurance runs in the eighth.
After Brandon Hicks worked a one-out walk, Crawford launched a 2-1 fastball into the seats in right to give the Giants a three-run cushion.
Game Notes: The Giants have homered in 11 straight games, their longest such streak since homering in 14 in a row in 2002 … Bumgarner snapped a personal three-game losing streak … San Francisco improved to 15-1 this season when scoring first … The Giants swept the Braves for the first time ever at Turner Field … Atlanta has lost six straight games for the first time since an eight-game slide from May 21-28, 2012.


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He's got his point of view:
He dislikes George Michael, and wishes Will Young "would go back in the closet. He is a common or garden homosexual, he is NOT a queer."ADDED: Are George's opinions offensive? I think it's just fine for him to have a bohemian outlook and to cast all conventional persons outside of his preferred group. But do gay people have a special obligation to unconventional? The answer should be no, and I don't see that he's saying yes. But, then, I've always liked Boy George and naturally tend to construe his remarks in a positive light.
George has very distinct ideas about whether people are the proper kind of gay. George Michael is the wrong kind, according to George, for being caught in a California loo and thus enforcing the reputation that gays are "rampant". He remains furious that Elton John performed with homophobic Eminem in 2002 at the MTV awards.


text:
Don't even think of posting the direct line phone numbers to the DPS Director or anyone else within DPS. If the number isn't available on the DPS website, then don't post it! I cannot imagine what the OP thought that would accomplish, nor do I care. Don't bother responding with some lame justification, or self-serving excuse. I've explained on more than one occasion why we are experiencing delays and what is being done to catch up. If you don't believe it, then fine.
I just deleted over 40 posts that had the Director's direct line number, most of which included the number as a quote from the OP.
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(If you are purchasing as a gift for someone else, it couldn't be easier! Click 'apply' button below, sign in with your account, choose 'membership for someone else' and enter details as instructed! If you are having any issues, you can always call the box office on 0207 439 0747 option 3).
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April 30, 2009
Complete Release in PDF Format
The Schedule
Friday, May 1 at 7:00 p.m.
Saturday, May 2 at 6:00 p.m.
Sunday, May 3 at 1:00 p.m.
UC Santa Barbara (23-15, 6-6) at No. 5 Cal State Fullerton (29-12, 9-6) at CSUF's Goodwin Field
Series record vs. the Titans - (34-86)
2008 season record vs. the Titans - (1-2)
Saturday's game broadcast live on KCSB 91.9 FM
Games available online through Gametracker
Streaming video available through bigwest.tv
Coming Up
UCSB heads south to face No. 5 Cal State Fullerton this weekend at Goodwin Field. The last time the Gauchos played at Fullerton in 2007, they won the series, two games to one.
Hey Joe
It has been five years since the Gauchos have had a pitcher open a season 6-0 as Joe Gardner has done this year. The junior is tied for fourth in the Big West in victories while his 3.51 ERA is seventh in the conference. Gardner's 60 strikeouts are second in the Big West after the Fremont, Calif. native tossed his first career complete game last Friday vs. Cal Poly while striking out eight. Opponents are hitting just .260 off Gardner, which is 10th in the Big West, while his 66.2 innings pitched are tied for seventh in the conference. UCSB is also 9-1 in games in which Gardner starts. The last UCSB pitcher to start a season 6-0 was Michael Martin, who did it in 2004. Martin is second all-time in victories at UCSB.
Run, Gump, Run
Although senior Brian Gump had his 14-game hitting streak snapped last Sunday, he has still recorded at least one hit in 22 of his past 24 starts after going 3-for-4 on Tuesday and is second on the team with his .343 batting average. During his 14-game streak, Gump hit .400 (24-for-60) with 18 runs scored. Currently the Westminster, Calif. native is third in the Big West with 45 runs scored and the Gauchos are 18-6 in games in which he scores a run. Gump's 19 stolen bases are third in the Big West. In his 36 starts this season, Gump has failed to reach base just once, although he tallied an RBI with a sac fly in that contest.
How They Rank
This season UCSB is 4-4 against ranked teams. On Feb. 24 the Gauchos defeated then-No. 9 ranked UCLA, 7-6, before splitting a pair of two-game series with then-No. 25 UC Riverside and then-No. 21 San Diego State. Last weekend, UCSB won one game of a three-game series vs. No. 12 Cal Poly. Last season UCSB was 4-10 against ranked teams.
Captain E.O.
First baseman Eric Oliver has recorded an RBI in five of his last six games and has tallied 21 RBI in his past 18 games. His team-leading 38 RBI are fourth in the Big West and the senior has recorded at least one hit in 16 of his past 20 games, including six straight. In those 20 games, Oliver is hitting .358 (29-for-81) with 18 runs scored. Only four times this season - in 38 games - has Oliver either failed to reach base, score a run or have an RBI. The Irvine, Calif. native is also one of the toughest to strike out in the nation. His 21.0 at-bats per strikeout ranks 11th in the country.
V for Valaika
During his current nine-game hitting streak, Matt Valaika is 13-for-35 (.371) with eight RBI, two doubles, two home runs and a game-winning, walk-off single. The junior is third on the team with his .321 batting average while his 33 RBI are tied for second. His 10 multi-RBI games leads the team.
Annie, Get Your Gunnar
Gunnar Terhune has recorded at least one hit in 22 of his past 26 games - including eight straight. Since taking over as the team's leadoff hitter, Terhune is batting .314 (22-for-70) with 12 runs scored, nine RBI and five stolen bases in 17 games.
Sunday, Bloody Sunday
After opening the season 5-1 on Sundays, the Gauchos have not won on the Holy Day in their past five Sunday games, getting outscored 45-24. UCSB's most successful day of the week is Friday where they are 6-2. A rundown of the other days: 1-1 on Monday; 2-3 on Tuesday; 2-0 on Wednesday; 1-0 on Thursday; and 6-4 on Saturday.
RPI Report
In the latest RPI report, Santa Barbara's Ratings Percentage Index - through April 26 - is 77.
Monster Mashers
UCSB's .304 batting average is fifth in the Big West while the Gauchos' .481 slugging percentage is second. UCSB's 142 extra-base hits are second in the conference to Cal Poly's 146 with the Gauchos leading in triples (14), second in home runs (40) and fourth in doubles (88).
What a Relief
In four relief appearances spanning the past two weeks, junior Mike Ford has been stellar. In 8.1 relief innings, the Scottsdale, Ariz. native has allowed just three hits while striking out four. The four relief appearances ties his career-high, also done during his freshman season in 2007.
Sugar Shane
Even though he's the Gauchos' returning RBI leader from the 2008 team, senior Shane Carlson recorded a career-high five RBI last Wednesday vs. Bakersfield (as did teammate Ryan Cavan). Last week Carlson raised his average 29 points by going 7-for-15 with six runs and seven RBI. Carlson is currently riding a six-game hitting streak.
Get The Door, It's DeAlba
John DeAlba has hits in 13 of his past 15 games, hitting .318 (14-for-44) with 10 RBI in that span. DeAlba is hitting .314 this season, fifth on the team.
Score First = Win
It seems like a simple formula that when you score first, you win. When UCSB scores in the first inning, they are 11-4. When the Gauchos score first in any game, they are 15-3.
Run Amok
UCSB's 294 runs are fourth in the Big West and the team is averaging 7.8 runs per game, good for 59th in the nation.
Probable Starting Lineup
Batting No. Name Pos. Yr. 2009 Notes
1. 5 Gunnar Terhune LF Jr. 12 runs scored in past 17 games
2. 16 Brian Gump CF Sr. Hit in 22 of past 24 starts
3. 21 Eric Oliver 1B Sr. Has hits in 16 of past 20 games
4. 4 Ryan Cavan 3B Jr. Team-high .357 avg., .456 OBP
5. 8 Matt Valaika 2B Jr. Riding a 9-game hitting streak
6. 7 John DeAlba RF Sr. Hit in 13 of his past 15 games
7. 26 Marty Mullins C Jr. Thrown out 16 of 33 would-be base stealers
8. 22 Shane Carlson SS Sr. 5 HR are second on the team
9. 9 Steve Cook DH Sr. 4-14 (.286) in past 5 starts
Probable Starting Pitchers
Friday 18 Joe Gardner RHP Jr. Gauchos are 9-1 in his starts
Saturday 11 Mario Hollands LHP So. 9 ER in past two starts - 11.2 innings
Sunday 12 Mike Ford RHP Jr. Slated to make first start since 4/11
The Bob Brontsema File
The 2009 season marks the 28th year of Head Coach Bob Brontsema's involvement with the UC Santa Barbara baseball program. With two years as a player, 10 as an assistant coach and now entering his 16th season at the helm, Brontsema has been involved in 830 Gaucho victories, far more than anyone in UCSB baseball history. In fact, he has participated in over 60 percent of all UCSB victories in school history. Entering this year, Brontsema ranks second in career wins, third in overall career winning percentage and third in career conference winning percentage. He also holds the record for most Division I wins in school history. His 16 years as Gaucho head coach give him the second longest tenure in UCSB baseball history, behind Dave Gorrie with 18 years. The dean of Big West coaches, he currently ranks first in Big West career wins amongst active Big West coaches and No. 1 in overall wins. In career conference wins, only five individuals throughout the history of the Big West surpass Brontsema.
BE Great
Earlier this year UCSB Athletics unveiled the BE Great initiative. BE Great is dedicated to maximizing leadership ability, strong on-campus interaction, and general welfare for all 450 student-athletes and Intercollegiate Athletics staff at UC Santa Barbara. BE Great also focuses on personal and career development, diversity, and social awareness, along with ensuring academic success. UCSB has a 92% student-athlete graduation rate.
The Gaucho Way
As a championship-caliber program, UCSB Athletics recognizes the responsibility that goes with it. This simply means all student-athletes, staff, and fans will behave with a champion's approach, creating a safe environment at games and events. All of those who attend, compete, or work at Gaucho events are caretakers of the passionate, exciting, and great experience UCSB is known for. This is "The Gaucho Way."


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Chris Karlsen is the author of Journey in Time, a time-travel romance that transports heroine Shakira back to the 14th Century. I love time-travel romances, so I invited Chris to the virtual offices to discuss her new book.
[Manga Maniac Café] Describe yourself in 140 characters or less.
[Chris Karlsen] Retired detective, history, book & animal lover, traveler, enjoys dry, acerbic humor-think Black Adder, wants answers to what it?, likes Johnnie Walker Black scotch.[Manga Maniac Café] Can you tell us a little about your book, Journey in Time?
[Chris Karlsen] Shakira Constantine is a successful London attorney who offers to represent Alex Lancaster, the best friend of Shakira's best friend's husband. Alex is more interested in a personal relationship and invites her to his country cottage for the weekend. While horseback riding they're caught is a strange lightning storm, which triggers a time portal. The storm passes and they find themselves in the 14th century.
Alex reveals to Shakira a shocking and strong connection to the past. He is also mistaken for Baron Guiscard, a baron who died at the Battle of Poitiers. If he and Shakira can't find a way back to the modern world, Alex will be forced to sail to France and fight at Poitiers, where he will die. They both realize that history cannot be changed, and history doesn't care which man it takes. The idea of possibly being left alone in the medieval world terrifies Shakira.
Journey in Time is about a couple falling in love in spite of the very dangerous and frightening situation they find themselves in.[Manga Maniac Café] How did you come up with the concept and the characters for the story?
[Chris Karlsen] Time-travel has always fascinated me. So often, when people talk about going either forward or back in time, they tend to assign a certain romance to the idea. I wanted to have the romance but give the characters in a realistic environment with the problems that involves. The characters are the friends of my hero and heroine in my first book, "Heroes Live Forever." I knew when I was writing "Heroes Live Forever," that I wanted to give Shakira and Alex their own story.[Manga Maniac Café] What was the most challenging aspect of writing the book?
[Chris Karlsen] For me the most challenging aspect is letting the characters show emotion in a way that is true to them, true to the moment, but not overwrought. I personally dislike hyperbole and scenes where a character's response is over-the-top. Because of that, I have to be careful not to keep too tight a rein on my character's actions and emotions.
[Manga Maniac Café] What three things would Shakira miss the most while trapped in the 14th century?
[Chris Karlsen] This is an easy one. I know what I'd miss and I let Shakira miss them too. First-indoor, flush toilets. Second-running water. Third-toothpaste.
[Manga Maniac Café] What are your greatest creative influences?
[Chris Karlsen] My creative influences are mentioned in my 140 character bio. I want answers to what if questions. I love to travel. I've gone places that I instantly imagined the lives of people who lived there in the past. I mentally create a world. I use those places as creative influences. I also travel to places that a major historical event has occurred (the Trojan War for instance). I will walk the ruins of a place, like Troy, and ask, what if the war didn't happen the way we believe. Then, I'll use that premise to create a story around.
[Manga Maniac Café] What three things do you need in order to write?
[Chris Karlsen] I need my research material handy to write. I am constantly referring to it. I need something to drink on my desk, like coffee or water or raspberry soda. I need a game plan for writing that particular day. I need to have in my mind an idea of where I am taking the characters or what I am doing to them. My plan might change as I write but I need a direction to start.
[Manga Maniac Café] If you had to pick one book that turned you on to reading, which would it be?
[Chris Karlsen] The one book that made me an avid reader was "Les Miserables," by Victor Hugo. The characterization, the setting, the richness of the story hooked me. When I closed the book, I remember thinking what a great writer, what a great story.
[Manga Maniac Café] What do you like to do when you aren't writing?
[Chris Karlsen] When I'm not writing, I read, take belly dance lessons, and started yoga. I love to travel and do when our schedule allows.
Thank you for allowing me this opportunity to be interviewed.
[Manga Maniac Café] Thank you!
You can learn more about Chris by visiting her website and by following her on Facebook
You can order a digital copy of Journey in Time by clicking the widget below:
Journey in Time By Chris Karlsen
London attorney, Shakira Constantine, finally agrees to spend the day with her handsome client, Alex Lancaster. While riding in the countryside, the couple finds themselves caught in a time warp and transported back to the 14th Century, and an England preparing for war. Everyone believes Alex is the Baron Guy Guiscard…a baron who died in the upcoming battle.
If they can't find a way to return to the 21st Century, Alex will have to sail with the army to certain death. Shakira will be left alone to survive in the alien and terrifying medieval world.
"Alex, what is going on?" she asked in a frenzied whisper.
"Shh." After they mounted, Alex sidled over, so close their boots touched. "We're riding into a very perilous situation. I'll explain everything when we're alone. Your life, my life," he stressed, "depends on you being quiet until then."
Confused it took Shakira a few seconds before she nodded yes.
"Remember what I told you," he warned and trotted ahead to chat with the knight he called Simon.


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We're The Millers (US - DVD R1 | BD RA)
Warner Bros. will be releasing Jennifer Aniston's road trip comedy next month...
Starring: Jennifer Aniston
Released: 19th November 2013
Further Details:
Warner Bros. sent along news today for Rawson Marshall Thurber's
We're the Millers. There aren't any A/V specs yet, but there are a selection of extras and some Blu-ray cover art.
The Blu-ray Combo Pack (Blu-ray/DVD/UV Copy) and the 2-Disc DVD Combo Pack (DVD/UV Copy) will contain the following special features:
- Extended Cut of the Film
- Miller's Unleashed – Outtakes Overload
- Stories from the Road:
- Extreme Aniston
- The Miller Makeovers[*Road Trippin' with the Millers
- Don't Suck Venom
- Getting Out of Sticky Situation
- I Am Pablo Chacon
- Rollin' in the RV
- Livin' It Up with Brad
- When Paranoia Sets In
- Deleted Scenes
- Gags & More Outtakes
Quote: David Burke (Jason Sudeikis) is a small-time pot dealer whose clientele includes chefs and soccer moms, but no kids – after all, he has his scruples. So what could go wrong? Plenty. Preferring to keep a low profile for obvious reasons, he learns the hard way that no good deed goes unpunished when he tries to help out some local teens and winds up getting jumped by a trio of gutter punks. Stealing his stash and his cash, they leave him in major debt to his supplier, Brad (Ed Helms). In order to wipe the slate clean – and maintain a clean bill of health – David must now become a big-time drug smuggler by bringing Brad's latest shipment to the U.S. from Mexico. Twisting the arms of his neighbors, cynical stripper Rose (Jennifer Aniston), wannabe customer Kenny (Will Poulter), and the tatted-and-pierced streetwise teen Casey (Emma Roberts), he devises a foolproof plan. One fake wife, two pretend kids and a huge, shiny RV later, the 'Millers' are headed south of the border for a Fourth of July weekend that is sure to end with a bang.
News by Gabriel Powers
Person Member Join Date: October 2012 Location: United States Posts: 175
Oh joy.
iconoclast Member Join Date: November 2006 Location: United States Posts: 264
This was pretty good, but too damned uninspired for its own good. The cast definitely does there best and helps sell it but the movie as a whole could have been better. Or maybe not with this premise.
horrorfan25 Member Join Date: November 2007 Location: United States Posts: 1,080
For someone that sides with the critics for nearly every movie, I have to say they were DEAD wrong about this one. I honestly cannot see why this wasn't ripe. The characters, the jokes, it was all there and the whole ride was fun. Predictability? Stretches in belief? Sure. But what critically acclaimed comedy doesn't have those elements?
liono86 Member Join Date: June 2006 Location: United States Posts: 258
Totally agree horror fan. Glad to see that this had great ticket sales.
djblack1313 Member Join Date: April 2006 Location: United States Posts: 529
VERY fun, enjoyable movie. it even made me somewhat like Emma Roberts who i normally do not enjoy watching in movies. i'm not dreading seeing her in upcoming American Horror Story!
EthanRunt Member Join Date: March 2009 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 265
Only the other month I interviewed the director, and he basically said there'd be no extended cut. WB clearly has other ideas.
Pinkerton Member Join Date: March 2004 Location: United States Posts: 11
I wish they'd of used the theater poster art instead with the descriptive words next to each person. Drug dealer, Stripper, Virgin, Runaway. Was WB worried about offending anyone? The whole movie was offensively hilarious.
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I'm goin skinny dippin
I went skinny dipping once. A lobster egg swam right up my urethra. Pretty strange for a backyard kiddie pool. And my neighbor's kids.
Is this Johnny Knoxville?
Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 4 Beta
Pfft, that ain't nothing, wait till fsquared posts his video of himself fat dipping.
thatd be a real ice breaker
Last edited by Jungle Shift Jet; 07-07-2013 at 12:15 PM.
Oh no...don't you bait and switch me. I came in for a skinny dippin thread, not a "hat" thread.
although that would mean more "skinny dippin"
what to do
It's important to keep your hat on when you skinny-dip in the green algae in china.
Skinny dipping? A man of your...girth?


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Andre Villas-Boas will consider all the options available to him this summer before making a decision on whether or not he is interested in becoming the next Liverpool manager.
The former Chelsea boss has reportedly been outlined as one of the leading candidates to replace Kenny Dalglish on Merseyside, following the sacking of the latter last week.
According to the Daily Mail, Villas-Boas will be interviewed by Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group this week as they put wheels in motion to bring Dalglish's successor to Anfield.
The 34-year-old, however, is in no rush to accept a position until he is completely satisfied with any potential offer.
"I'm still choosing the right project and that decision will take the necessary time," Villas-Boas said, according to the Daily Mail.
Along with Villas-Boas, Wigan's Roberto Martinez and former England manager Fabio Capello have also been linked with the vacant Liverpool position.
Ajax boss Frank de Boer confirmed on Monday that he had rejected the opportunity to speak to the Reds, while Swansea's Brendan Rodgers did the same last week.
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Wanting an assessment about her newest clothing creation, Sofia went to her companion. She appeared amazing in her outfit with her wonderful shape. After a lusty strip tease, she moved her rear end to her buddy's pleasure. She afterward got on the bed and began to take pleasure in herself. At last her companion took control and shagged her firm slit constantly.
May, 2013
The group had been cruising to the beach when they noticed Emily Benjamins on the side of the road. She had been stretching out and offering a peep together with her tiny shorts. Once the lads approached her as fitness experts, she was really prepared to take pointers. This did not take very long before she opened her legs and got a number of dirty thoughts. Jmac was in snatch heaven and worked her in each and every position possible.
See Emily Benjamins and More Sexy South American Porno on 8thStreet Latinas
Each and every dude like to get a good body massage once in awhile, right? This Asian woman named Ms. Ka Lee has great blowjob and hand talent. This girl brings her customer back into her massage room and does not waste any time having him get naked and massaging body oil all over his frame. Lee received the okay to proceed with her naughty massage and she hoped on the massaging table. As soon as she jumped up she began licking his dick until she had it totally hard. Lee moves her wet Asian twat down on that hard dick and began fucking it like a true pro. If you liked this post, then watch this film and much more at HAPPY TUGS.
See Many More Young Asians Executing Erotic Rub Downs
On her way to the beach front, Ms. Lola Larue was along with her buddy. He was waiting even though she kept on teasing him with her large delicious booty. Inevitably, they did not go to the ocean front and lubricated up her lovely butt. She became horny and sucked that schlong with her round rumpbootay up. He stroked her pussy while her awesome ass moved around.
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Pretty tiny Taylor Luxx has a extremely kinky side. She might look sweet and naive but don't assume it. All things considered, she brought inside a grown up man for getting banged. He had some bad sucking from Ms. Luxx. Nonetheless thumping her sweet vagina made up for this.
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Lilly Love emerged with her fine-looking friend, Stacey Foxxx. They were each appearing very sexy in tiny bikinis. It was not long until they removed their large juggs. They sucked one anothers lovely pussies. After that Jmac screwed their very large titties and took turns working each of them.
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Planning to bang and be covered in cum, Nikki Chase went to the Cumfiesta. Jmac gave her lovely body a quick browse and promptly okayed. She rebounded her butt about throughout a strip show and began messing around with her poonani. Right after caressing cock she got on the top and exercised her pussy.


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Manny has borrowed the Skeleckian Shrinkanator 3002, an invention with the power to shrink anything down to a very small size. When Marcus and Jessica accidentally get shrunk, The Electric Company has to get the Shrinkinator back from Manny to get them back to normal size! This becomes even more difficult when Manny shrinks himself and is nowhere to be found.
Visit the Website: http://pbskids.org/electriccompany/
Episode #306 / Length: 28 minutes


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aisa, I agree with you about XHNSL. If it wasn't for QZY's character and performance in that show, I wouldn't have enjoyed it nearly as much as I did.
I haven't seen any of QZY's other works yet, but Jenny_shiny has watched him in "Xin Nu Fu Ma". She gives a lot of details (including spoilers) about it in some posts on page 3 of this thread, so you might want to check those out.


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PREP NOTEBOOK: Bears improve to 4-1 in CVAC
The Bunker Hill softball team improved to 4-1 in conference play with a 12-2 mercy rule road victory against the Lady Warriors.
Anna Williams pitched five innings, allowing two runs and striking out two for Bunker Hill.
Olivia Fulbright led the Lady Bears offensively with a three-hit game, including three RBIs.
Williams also had two hits, including a solo home run.
East Burke 5, Maiden 0
The Lady Cavaliers picked up the road victory against the Lady Blue Devils in Maiden on Monday.
East Burke's Chassidy Cline threw a one-hit shutout, while Taylor Burkhalter went 2-for-4 from the plate.
Prep soccer
East Burke 2, Maiden 0
Maiden surrendered two goals to East Burke, including one each in the first and second half, as the Lady Cavaliers earned the CVAC victory on Monday.
Kara Frogge scored in the 20th minute for East Burke (4-5-1, 2-1-0) to put the Lady Cavaliers up 1-0 at the half.
Struggling to gain possession in the second half, Maiden (0-5-1, 0-3-1) gave up its second goal of the contest — a netter by Lauren Arney at the 46th minute.
West Caldwell 6, Bunker Hill 1
Starting three freshmen, the Lady Bears fell to 1-10-0 overall and 0-3-0 in conference play with a loss to the Lady Warriors.
Wilbelis Rojas pocketed her 11th goal of the season for Bunker Hill, while Alondra Cruz made five saves in goal.
Prep baseball
St. Stephens 9, Hickory 6
The Indians (8-2, 4-1) scored six runs in the first on their way to a conference victory against the Red Tornadoes (7-3, 2-3) on the diamond Monday.
Luke Barton drove in three RBIs for St. Stephens, while Zach Bumgarner and Dillion Spencer each drove in a pair of RBIs.
Gavin Huffman led Hickory offensively with four RBIs on a grand slam in the fifth inning.
Colton Allison picked up the victory on the mound for St. Stephens, while Ryan Garlow suffered the loss for Hickory.
Bandys 6, South Iredell 0
Hunter Harvey tossed a no-hitter, striking out 13 batters leading the Trojans to a bounce-back victory against the Vikings on Monday.
Bandys led 1-0 the entire game until a five-run seventh inning blew open the game.
Holden Pender led the Trojans on offense with two RBIs.
Bunker Hill 5, West Caldwell 2
The Bears picked up their second conference victory behind a complete game performance from Seth Brotherton on the mound.
Brotherton struck out five West Caldwell batters and allowed eight hits.
On offense, Colton Chapman and Oliver Reitzel each had two hits to lead Bunker Hill.
Prep golf
Hickory wins again
The Red Tornadoes golf team notched its second conference victory of the season, edging Hibriten by 12 strokes.
South Caldwell and Alexander Central tied for third place, one shit behind the Panthers.
Fred T. Foard was fourth, while St. Stephens finished in fifth.
For the second match in a row, Alexander Central's Alex Rhyne earned medalist honors, firing a round of 72.
Hickory's Roland Morris and South Caldwell's Tyler Whitesell finished in a tie for second, both shooting rounds of 73.
After two conference matches, Hickory leads the standings by 16 over Alexander Central and Hibriten. St. Stephens is in fourth place, 33 strokes behind Hickory. Fred T. Foard is eight strokes behind the Indians with a combined score of 648.
Red Devils win second-straight match
Newton-Conover won its second-straight Catawba Valley 2A golf match on Monday at Lenoir Country Club.
The Red Devils shot a combined team score of 161, finishing two shots ahead of second-place Maiden.
Bunker Hill finished in sixth with a 191, one stroke behind fifth-place Draughn, while Bandys ended the day with a combined 231 and a seventh-place finish.
Maiden's Thomas Lilly, who shot a nine-hole round of 36, earned individual medalist for the first time in conference play.
A pair of Newton-Conover golfers trailed Lilly, including runner-up Lee Mitchell (37) and third-place finisher Alex Hefner (38).
N-C's Hayden Bandy also finished eighth to pace the Red Devils' in their match victory.
Maiden's Deric Huffman had his best finish of the season in fifth place, firing a 40 in his nine holes.
Through two conference matches, Newton-Conover leads Maiden by 10 overall strokes, while South Iredell and East Burke are tied for third place.
Bunker Hill is in sole possession of fifth place, while Bandys is in seventh.
The next match for all of the county's golf teams is the Catawba County golf championships on Thursday at Catawba Country Club.
Prep tennis
Bunker Hill 7, Challenger 2
Michael Elmore (C) def. Stefan Gettys 8-3; Kris Trihemasava (BH) def. Brandon Williams 8-2; Jairo Betancourt (C) def Braxton Williams 8-3; Garrett Williams (BH) def. Russell Emerson 8-0; Nicholas Lee (BH) def. Jordan Punch 8-3; David Chang (BH) def. Daniel Rodriguez-Padilla 8-0.
Gettys-Trihemasava (BH) def. Elmore-Williams 8-6; B. Williams-G. Williams (BH) def. Betancourt-Emerson 8-3; N. Lee -Sai Vang (BH) def. Punch-Fidel Bazaldua 8-5.
Newton-Conover 7, Bandys 2
Ryan Lampe (N-C) d Aaron Darden 6-1, 6-3; John Tate (N-C) def. Zach Sigmon 6-0, 6-1; Tyler Barrymore (N-C) def. Ben Young 6-1, 6-1; Jesse Gill (N-C) def. Andrew Beard 6-0, 6-2; Harris Warlick (B) def. Shivam Desai 3-6, 6-3, 10-5; Peden Warlick (B) def. Dan Avis 6-0, 6-4.
Lampe-Tate (N-C) def. Sigmon-Young 10-2; Barrymore-Gill (N-C) def. Darden-Cole Wagner 10-5; Desai-Avis (N-C) def. Warlick-Warlick 8-5
Anthony Dehart (N-C) def. Cole Wagner 8-1; David Dominguez (N-C) def. Evan Bingham 8-4


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Ferebe Conchar
Ferebe Conchar
I danced my whole entire life. I danced for fun. A career in dance was not an option for me. While doing the baby thing, I found yoga and I started teaching yoga. I taught yoga with pleasureable movements flowing with the breaths. I loved it, my students loved it. Then I discovered NIA! It combines my love of dance, the happiness and joy from moving my body with healing intentions, and I absolutely love sharing it and teaching it to others. I am now a Nia Instructor, Yoga Instructor, and a Mom of teenagers. I am the happiest I have ever been.
My Locations
Body Balance Center of Pottersville
40 Pottersville Road, Pottersville, NJ, US
|view this location
Cancer Support Community of Central New Jersey
3 Crossroads, Bedminster, NJ, US
|view this location


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Top Honors
Robertson School students showing patriotism
Three Robertson School sixth graders won awards for essays entered in contests concerning patriotism. Shelby Brooks (left) won first place, a certificate and a $200 savings bond for her essay entered in the Tri-City Elks contest that addressed, "Why I'm proud to pledge to the American flag." Anthony Vann (right), who won second place in the same contest, received a certificate and a $100 savings bond. Entered in a separate contest sponsored by the Daughters of the American Revolution, Courtney Cote won $25 and first place for an essay that had the entries imagine they were in the War of 1812, then create a character and describe their influence on the war. Cote was the only winner from the area.
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Go-Kart started in 1993 or 1994 – when exactly, we can't really remember. When Greg Ross realized that you didn't need to be rich, famous, or even smart to run a record label, he cashed in his bar mitvah bonds and put out his first 7" EP. Since then we have released over 100 records that run the gamut from brutal hardcore to snotty punk to sugar coated pop music. Inconsistent? Definitely. The staff of Go-Kart pays no attention to the fleeting trends. We release music that we like from people we like.
The Lunachicks, Anti-Flag, Buzzcocks, GBH, and Weston have each called Go-Kart their home at some point in their careers, as have lesser-known (but no less amazing) bands such as Toxic Narcotic, Two Man Advantage, The Meatmen, The Amazombies, and dozens more.
Our sampler, the low-budget Go-Kart vs. The Corporate Giant series, is widely sought after by punk rock fans worldwide, and will see it's fourth incarnation sometime in 2005. In addition to all of this, Go-Kart can take the credit for being the very first label to release a commercially sold compilation of MP3s known as the Go-Kart MP300 Raceway, featuring 2 CDs filled with 300 songs from 150 punk, pop, hardcore, and rock bands ranging from the famous to the obscure!
For years, Go-Kart has been the most prolific and recognizable punk rock label in New York City, and even had it's own punk record store in Manhattan's infamous lower east side for a few years during the 1990s. Today, we continue the fine tradition of ignoring what's popular, and slowly going broke in the process. At the very least, life at Go-Kart is never boring, and it's always filled with great music from some of the most creative bands in the world today!
So that is basically the extremely shortened and somehow distorted story of our big brother Go-Kart Records US.
The newly born European division, Go-Kart Records Europe, is run by German individuals (my name is Fritz, what's yours?) who have a long-lasting history in the local and international punk-scene - be it by running and writing for fanzines or just having a grip on how this pseudo business works. Our horizon regarding music certainly is not limited to the sometimes dusty world of punk/hardcore in 2006. Therefore we strife to work with European artists we like and admire for what they are doing and that is basically why we gave us the title "The No-Category Label".
So how come we are around now? Well, the idea of a European label was born in New York City back in 2002/2003 while working for Go-Kart in Brooklyn. We had to experience a lot of problems directly dealing with our European Distributions. The time shift was one of a series of problems which made it hard for us to properly communicate with Europe. When it was time to move back to Germany, we arrived with the ideas in our heads to start division to help support US releases in Europe to properly market them as well as release valuable European bands on our own. There's no doubt we will stick to our ideals and release stuff we like – no matter how not trendy that might be.
So make sure you pay attention, well that is if you want to hear some great music. There is no middle of the road here, you will either love or hate each band on Go-Kart – but to us that's what a label should be. If you want the cookie cutter fluff that others churn out, then you may want to look elsewhere. It has been said many times in many ways - Go-Kart may not be the biggest label in the world – but we are one of the best :)


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The following text is the result of my work on this quest. I would like you to give me any advice and opinion you consider suitable.
Please, note this review is aimed at people who are not really into VCOnline, so I have tried to be as descriptive as I could. In addition, I am Spanish, not a native english speaker, so my grammar, spelling and vocabulary might be full of mistakes I'd like to correct.
Voyage Century Online BETA Review
By CdrCherel.
This review features the free to play Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game "Voyage Century Online" (VCOnline from now on) in it's beta stage. Impressions showed here reflect the opinion of the author of this review and are not in any way absolute assumptions and may vary as the game approach it's release date.
Voyage Century Online claims to be the first nautical MMORPG of the market. It comes to us as a port from the original Asian version, which has been already running for some time.
What we get is a free to play MMOG which steps away the typical scheme seen in most Asian free to play Massive Multiplayer Online Games. Instead of focusing only in grinding in a fantasy setting, it introduces new features which were never seen before among the other games of this kind. It includes sea battles, a crafting system which is indeed vital to all players, the ability to play the game without having to kill one single mob if you don't want to by playing the merchant or crafting role, and a realistic setting that sets it apart from most current MMORPGs
As the graphics are the first thing that we appreciate when we play a game, we can say the graphics for VCOnline are pretty good at land. There are free to play MMORPGs with better graphics out there, that is for sure. However, the graphics for VCOnline work fine. Animations are good, and the textures are beautiful. 3d Models tend to be pretty too. However, some lighting effects and models look more detailed in other, more recent free to play games, mainly because of the freedom that their fantasy setting grants to their art direction. VCOnline, as works much closer to a historical setting, has its graphics at the service of a great gameplay, while still looking good and reflecting very different graphic schemes for the many different cultures showcased.
When sailing in battle, storms or near a dock, the camera approaches the ship and the game graphics look great indeed, and awe inspiring thanks to light reflections and great ship and water modeling. Dawn and Dusk are memorable moments too. Unfortunately, the fact that lightning changes from total light to evening, to night without any soft transition hurts immersion.
When sailing in high seas, the camera will go higher in the sky, and you will be left in a living, breathing world map, with graphics looking a bit cartoon-like, as everything is scaled to be easy to tell what is it. If we had to find a similar graphic style to compare this screen to any other game, it would be the sailing screens of "Sid Meier's Pirates!" It doesn't look that good, but it works fine, and the other two graphic sets (close sailing and land gameplay) do show us all the good graphics we might want to see.
This is in fact a great decision, as it ensures the game will work on slower machines without any problems, which is something most current MMORPGs with better graphics, can't say. An option for better graphics if you can handle them, or slightly more polygons in player models would be welcome. Currently, however, the graphics are already good (just not "best") and have attracted many players to give this game a try.
The sound of the game starts in a nearly mute status and you have to raise its volume in the menu if you want to listen to the songs. The music woks well, as you will find it good at the beginning, and it will sound appealing. After some time, you just won't realize it is sounding and adding another degree to the gaming experience. The only complain music can cause is in storms and similar events, where music looping is too evident because of the song's ending don't fading into the beginning of the music track. Experiencing a storm is visually great, however, in this case the music hurts the overall experience.
The game has no voiceovers, but sound effects are solid – both battle effects and sailing effects. It feels great to hear your boat creak when you enter a close sailing scene and approach a peaceful city after a long trip.
The world of VCOnline is supposed to reflect the real world in the discovery ages. This means you can travel though whole continents, from city to city purchasing goods, robbing merchants, or discovering new animals and treasures. In order to capture this feeling, the game features 40 cities all over the world. Each city has a different architecture and layout, reflecting it's culture. Obviously, as this is a game about discovery, you will have to find them before you can see them in your map.
The Overall world screen, or High seas screen, is the screen you will see while traveling between cities or exploring. You can travel through a pretty good cartoon-like reproduction or the real geography while avoiding storms that could sink your boat, finding drifters that will grant you items and silver –these drifters are often contested, as they are a pretty big gift for any player- and avoiding pirates. Time passes fast when traveling in this screen. Going from
Each of these 40 cities in game is divided in 3 parts: the port, the suburbs and the city itself. The port and city are where tavern, church, and most Non Playable Characters are located, while the suburbs are a place where you will find the usual mobs and places to gather raw materials. These areas are all different in each city, can be connected in different ways and vary the area you can find NPCs.
The port is the area you will enter after approaching the city in close sailing mode –having to do this is a nice touch, as it works as a tie between the cartoon-like graphics of the world map an the 3rd person view of your character.
It is a big area which only serves the purpose of allowing you to get to the city and/or suburbs, and have some sailing-related NPCs. However, lately this area has experienced the highest booth density of all areas, because of being the only area of a city which will be visited for sure by incoming players.
Player characters detect collision when trying to go through a NPC. This means you can't step through a NPC, such a guard, or an enemy, and this makes NPC enemies' ambushes harder as it won't be easy for you to retreat. It also ensures no one will set a stall over a NPC so when you click on it, you get into the stall instead of the NPC dialog box, which is too common in other MMOGs. In addition, there is a certain radius around stalls where no other booth can be set, avoiding these stall masses we are used to see in most MMOGs.
There is no collision detection among playable characters, however, so crowded zones won't hurt your pathing. This feels strange, as there is no visual distinction between a player model and a NPC model, but you get used to it in a very short time.
Cities are used as a background for some very important NPCs, as the guild manager, the skill tutor, bank clerks, warehouse managers and many people in charge of giving quests to the players. Depending on the city, some NPCs are located in the port instead of the city itself, but this area never experiences a lack of activity.
Suburbs is where most of the land grinding and collecting activities take part. This zone tends to be the biggest of all three areas, and reflects the exterior of the city. Most low level suburbs include several different mobs in the shape of wild animals –which can be non-aggressive and tend to be the easy mobs of the area- and human mobs like "depressed poets" or "evil alchemists" who are much tougher.
Some of these suburb areas also feature special "dungeon-like" environments such as the pyramids. If you get to these zones, you will fight even tougher enemies as mithical monsters. These can be gorgeous giant creatures, which really look amazing. This way, the game introduces some fantasy into the setting without ruining the main experience. Regular mobs are everyday beings. Dungeon mobs are based in the legends of the zones you are visiting. This way of introducing a certain degree of imagination to the game is great, and reflects the thought of the era, as monsters and miraculous beings were supposed to exist in strange places no one ventured into.
Each suburbs feature planting areas, mining areas and timber felling areas. Some of the resource spots in high level cities will not be available for you to use if you are under a certain level in a certain skill, and will give you resources of some levels only, depending on the city. The areas where you can plant, cut trees and mine are easy to find, and tend to have several people on them all the time. This makes it easier for people to adapt to new cities.
All areas in a city seem alive. While most used NPCs do not move, guards and some named NPCs are always walking around, and go to bed at night. Furthermore, many players can be seen walking around in starter cities. Higher level cities, however, lack of player population at this moment. We think it is a matter of time for people to be changing their main area of operations to these zones which currently lack of player life.
In addition, it must be noted that cities have a very different feel to each other, which is emphasized between cities which do not share the same cultural background. The different costumes aof NPCs and music helps to enhance the distinct architectonic styles you can find.
The distribution of buildings and passages in the city optimize the real size of the zone, which is not that big as it feels like. A glance to the extended map will confirm the city is relatively small (we have to remember that there are 40 different cities with 3 areas each to visit). It won't look like that when you are walking through it, however, which is a great addition for immersion. In total, the size of land you can visit in 3rd person view in VCOnline may be about the same size than most MMORPG we can play, although the fact that it is so fragmented in tiny areas may make it look smaller overall, as we look into the maps. The real fact, however, is this game does not feel small at all when playing through it due to the great design of these areas.
One drawback of this fragmentation is loading screens. Although they are fast, this game has you changing areas so often that you'll see yourself leaving your mouse for some seconds because of hitting a loading screen far too frequently. However, the high seas map has almost no loading screens, so you can travel through the world without worries. In addition, the loading screens are fast enough to not to be a real annoyance.
Interface is a very important part of a game in MMORPGs. VCOnline works with standard point&click movement and selection, with a certain camera freedom. All actions besides movement are activated via your 9 shortcut bars, in a conventional way. All buttons are located in a screen that will fill up as you get new abilities (like compounding metals to turn your ore into iron) for you to drag them into your shortcut bars, where you can click on them or press the suitable hotkey. In the screen that shows all buttons –the Instruction Panel- you have buttons classified by tabs and what kind of function do they serve. The existence of this menu gathering all your buttons is great, as it encourages you to experiment, and keeps abilities classified and helps you not to mess them up in your user bars, but keep them in a certain, logical order.
You can find there some buttons to trigger many gestures for your character to do which, unfortunately, do not work if your character has something on its hands, reducing its usefulness drastically.
The screen information includes the standard status bars (for your character or your ship, depending on you being sailing or not) compass/minimap, and buttons to open every interface menu. These menus are pretty well organized and grouped, so you wouldn't have to keep many different buttons near your cursor, and submenus are easy to understand and navigate. The overall interface is in fact instinctive, although the existence of the Instruction Panel might be hard to figure out to new players when trying to do a task like turning logs into timber for the first time.
The map is useful, and shows a view from above of the whole zone, unfortunately revealing its real size. It really useful, however, as you can look at it for certain NPCs or players, as they appear in the extended map as colored dots showing their name when hovering with your cursor. Issuing movement orders works in the map too, allowing you to travel long distances with a single click, in city or even the high seas screen –be careful with storms and pirates if you decide to do so- If your ship or character crashes with something solid, it will just stop. The ability to issue movement orders for your character using the map is especially great when sailing in high seas, as the zooming out distance in this screen mode is too restrictive (It can be understood as a way to deliver the player the feeling of uncertainty of sea travel, as issuing orders with this zoom level based on compass/minimap estimations will never take you straight to your destiny)
The only complaint with the camera we have found is centered in the high seas screen. After sailing out from a battle or a storm, the camera will have changed its position, not going back to the location of the camera before entering the event, and this may make issuing movement orders confusing because of visual references being lost.
Dialog boxes are fine, although lack of the boat-like skin you can see in the standard interface, and this is a pity as the overall mood is hurt. Translation needs lots of work, but it has been greatly improved since alpha.
The inventory screen is one of the most used interface screen in MMOs, and we can say it has been implemented in a great way. First of all, we have the standard paperdoll-like equipping interface, and then the bagpack in the shape of several tags that divide your inventory in equipment, quest and crafting articles, and standard items. This is a great way to have your inventory organized. In addition, you have 3 character properties tags, showing your characters basic attributes, skill levels, and reputation/noble titles earned. It is a solid interface for items and stats, as you can divide stacking items with a single click. It has a little problem, however. When switching items by selecting item A and clicking in an inventory slot occupied by item B, you will have in your hand item B, and the first item will be placed in this last slot. However the icon in your hand will not change to reflect you are holding a different article.
Finally, the Chat area works fine, and is divided in a series of sub channels, including a general channel, which will show all channels content, a city chat channel, a public information channel mainly used for traders, a guild chat channel, a private channel and a team (party) channel. People usually complain about game fonts being too small to be read in a comfortable way, and it may difficult to read indeed. Text is complemented by a considerable amount of smilies you can use if you want to. It is not common to see them being used, but it is a cool option available to players.
Your avatar in this game is a captain of a ship and can be customized in character creation. You do have a decent amount of early customization possible: You can change his/her face, hair color and choose its gender and culture –this means your new character might start from Athens or Alexander, and have different starting clothes-
No other initial customization can be made and you will depend on clothing and other equipment to distinguish yourself from other player characters. This is not bad, but the fact there is not a really big number of faces makes too easy for you to find a player with your same face you chose. In addition, the hair colors are rather similar, so they do not make you look special. We are not asking for hair colors not fitting on the game theme, but more intense red tones would be appreciated, for example.
Luckily, being able to get suits from so many different cultures will guarantee you won't be running into clones of yourself the whole time. In short, players look all different, but you will soon be recognizing faces. Anyway, there is still much more room for customization in VCOnline than in most "one character per class" or "a preset of 4 characters for you to choose from MMOs".
As another feature that can increase customization, it has been stated that there will be a player housing system in the future.
In addition, according to your reputation and skills, you can apply for a noble title, and/or a title based in your skills, which will be displayed near your name. (which can be seen by pressing the Alt Key). You can also change your home city to any of the 40 cities in the game, and its flag will be shown besides your name too. It Is a good detail, and influences some actions –like applying for noble titles- that can be only done in your home city, so fortunately it is not just a cosmetic change. In addition, each culture has their own titles.
Your character does not have any traditional stats like "Charisma", "Wisdom" or "Strength". These have been eliminated and values like max HP depend on certain skills such as bare-hand fighting (which, surprisingly, gets experience when fighting with a weapon. It is not a real issue, but developers might have to consider a name change for this skill or a change on it's leveling system in order to get it to make sense). The elimination of these traditional attributes does not hurt gameplay in any way, as other skills fulfill their function, but it means you lost a chance to customize even more your character. Having skills depending on stats, and these stats leveling up as skills are used would be a great system to implement within the current skill system.
In addition, your ship can be customized to some extent when you are in game. First, you can "upgrade" it (rebuild it) into one of 3 kinds of ship per level. Sails can be painted with several motifs –which might be considered ugly to a certain extent- and the hull can be dyed into several colors. Dyes and canvas are needed to paint your ship. Furthermore, your guild or home city logo will appear on your sails.
Only two characters per account are allowed in each server. This is a way of ensuring no one can master all skills with their characters, but some people will consider this number too restrictive.
As we spoke about skills, it is suitable to explain the skill system in VCOnline.
In this game, there is a different set of skills for your character and your ship.
Concerning your character, there are 17 skills, which feature weapon skills, naval skills, collection skills and Trade or crafting skills. As there is no class system in this game, every player character can learn whatever skill you want to. This is done by talking to the skill tutor and buying the skill. He will give you the "basic training" you need to start using this skill, so now the skill-related actions are available for your character in the Instruction Panel to be dragged into one of the shortcut bars.
There is no overall level in this game, but only skill levels. Each skill levels up as you use them, so the more you mine and smelt metal, the higher your mining skill level will be. This can remind you to games like Ultima Online, where a similar system was used. It fits the realism philosophy this game says to have as a distinct treat.
Each 4 times a skill reaches a new level, you get a Special Point. Special Points are used to buy a special subskill at the Skill tutor. More Special Points can be spent at the skill tutor (along with some money) to upgrade subskills to the next level. These subskills are scarce –not more than 4 per skill, which can be found to be too low for weapon skills, for instance- and they can be of two types: Player activated (mainly for weapon and sea faring skills) and passive skills.
The player activated skills for weapons are good, but too scarce, when we compare this game to other free to play MMOs focused in grinding, which feature a much bigger amount of moves and special attacks.
We understand this game is not only about killing mobs, and it features tons of content and gameplay styles these other games do not offer. However, the lack of a biggest amount of movements and special attacks makes grinding in this game look too simple in comparison.
As opposed to you, your ship has 3 main skills. Each of these improve certain attributes of your boat, such as turning rate or capacity, and serve as prerequisites for upgrading your ship and ship equipment. They also gain new levels as long as they are used. General ship upgrading is called rebuilding, and increases the stats of your ship by a big amount, updating its looks too, so you don't need to buy a bigger ship, and abandon your current one. Processed materials have to be provided for the upgrade, which is something some people disagree with. Getting these, however, is not hard when playing in a guild or having spare money.
By having separate stats for ships and players, a ship is worth money or not on it's own, and can be sold for a price not only based on it's overall level and class. In addition, ship can be upgraded into 3 different paths. One focused in fighting, another in sailor capacity and speed, and another in cargo space. This way, any player can find a ship that is suitable for them.
As we said, the game allows every character to learn all skills. However, you can only get 7 skills to go past level 31. These are phase 2 skills, and you can choose what skill to unlock at the skill tutor when it reaches lvl31, allowing it to reach lvl100. 7 skills is a number big enough for having decent military and crafting/trading abilities, allowing for a mixed character or specialized ones. This limit ensures no one will get all skills leveled to the max level and people will still need teamplay.
The game features a mixture between a player driven economy and a standard NPC MMORPG economy. Most standard items, like weapons and suits can be bought from NPCs, as well as tools for collecting and crafting. Crafted items, however, tend to have better stats (hp bonus for weapons, for instance). In addition, raw materials can not be purchased from NPCs, so people have to buy them from collectors or collect them by themselves –which involves killing mobs to get wool, for instance, or using planting, mining and lumberjacking skills- This means it is real people who sets the prices of this market, like it happens in real life.
As the motif of this game is Realism, it is a very suitable system, although risky, as prices for new items are high, and need time for people to get the needed skills and start producing them in order to drop because of a drop in the demand. This has caused some complaints in the non crafters/collectors, who have found some prices to be abusive. The players in the game need time to adjust prices to demand, as seen in real markets, and low level items will drop their prices by a huge amount. However, High level raw materials no one has will still have abusive prices, But being a top player in a game should not be easy, and the people capable of providing these goods will have devoted a whole skill (usually more) they had to raise to this high level which is only useful for crafting/collecting, not battling, exploring or trading.
VCOnline allows us to play very different roles. For instance, we can go and fight as a warrior, buccaneer or pirate captain. As the seas are very populated with NPCs and playable characters, a pirate captain will never lack a prey to hunt. Open Seas are, in fact, a free PVP zone where every player is supposed to be able to attack and loot other players. The suburbs in the cities -where mining, planting and lumberjacking spots are located, in addition to enemy mobs- are also a PVP free zone. Currently, there seems to have a level restriction no one has passed yet, so we assume that either PVP has not been yet implemented or it will only take place between high level characters. This will add difficulty to the game for non warriors, and will increase the sense of community and fun by having groups of people hunting revenge at someone –rewards for hide and seek can be posted in tavern, too- so we consider it another risky touch that will add to the overall fun of the game.
Battling takes place either on land or seas. Land fighting with swords, axes, falchions or guns is pretty similar to any other Asian MMOGs. You click on your target and tell your player to attack, triggering a skill occasionally. As we said before, the lack of a bigger amount of battle skills hurts this part of gameplay, which is, however, solid enough to be fun.
Using special skills will consume part of your stamina, which is recovered over time, and has a better rate of recovering if you are sitting, like in most MMOGs. This game, however, allows you the possibility to have your stamina refilled by a priest –in exchange for some silver- or sit inside the tavern of the city, where stamina is recovered even faster.
Sea battle features your ship against a number of enemy boats. The main weapon of your ship is a certain amount of cannons with different kinds of ammunition for different targets, such as sailors, sails, hull or the whole ship. In addition, you can purchase mines of various types, or grappling hooks. Furthermore, there are some player triggered skills used for sea battle only, such as ramming. Your ship can be equipped with different shields, that will protect it from certain kinds of damage, or protect certain parts of your ship like sailors, sails or hull. Sea battles are fun, and pretty chaotic when facing a whole army. When a sea battle starts, a battlefield is created an anyone can join and take part of the battle, which is great for receiving help, or just having fun with other players. This also brought killstealing and lootstealing issues, wich upset many players. If PVP comes into play, this fact might turn into a great reason to start PVP battles. At the moment however, PVP is not available, and lootstealing becomes a real problem.
Grappling is a whole world by itself. You can use several kinds of grappling items, such as Greek fire, which delivers damage over time, and Tracers, which increase your cannon damage to the target for a certain amount of time. You can also equip a smoke grapple or slow the speed your enemies with another kind of grappling item.
In addition, you can also use Grappling to board an enemy ship. There, some of the sailors of each boat and their captains will face each other face to face. The strength of your sailors depends on your skills and number of sailors of your ship –so it is recommended to kill all the sailors you can with the proper ammunition in your cannons before grappling or being grappled- In short, sea fighting is a deep system which makes up for the simplicity of land fighting, entertaining players who like to see their enemies sunk in flames.
If you attack a ship which is not a pirate one, but belongs to a certain country, or if you shoot a guard in a city, you will be hunted by this city. They will use everything they've got to take you down, so while looting NPC merchant ships might give you lots of money, it is hard to keep yourself alive in lower levels. This means people wanting to play the pirate role might have to wait until late game to be competent at their job. This way, the only player pirates you will encounter are really something people will fear, which is great, as cities can handle lower level pirates.
When captured by a city, the player will have to spend 2 real time hours in jail. These hours do not count unless you are logged into the game so it might be boring for some people, but you are forced to experience the punishment you deserved. The 2 hours period can be shortened by certain means, such as gaming with the prison guard –playing Mastermind, in fact- or hunting rats. Descriptions and instructions, however, are not very useful, and knowing how to play with the guard might be too difficult. The lack of better translations and explanations is one of the weak spots of this game.
In order to do quests, you must join one (or more) alliances. Quests from the Warrior Alliance usually involve both hunting mobs on land for items and pirates in the seas, while exploration quests will send you to do certain discoveries, trading quests will make you buy and sell certain goods, and crafting missions will ask you to deliver some crafted items or raw/processed materials. In addition, there are some quests that will make you deliver some letter to a certain NPC, or do something beyond the "kill ten rats" scheme, which is great. There are not too many missions, but their number is enough for players to keep interest in the game. In addition, by belonging to a guild you gain access to guild quests, whose success benefits your guild. However, the mistakes in translation, and mistakes in NPC/item naming make quests hard to follow. As previously mentioned, the language barrier is one of the main problem this game suffers from, even thought translation has been vastly improved since Alpha.
Warriors tend to develop high level warrior ships. These are armed with a huge amount of cannons and have a lot of hull and sail hitpoints. It is a deadly enemy in a sea battle, but lacks of cargo space and speed.
As a merchant, you will experience the pleasures of traveling between cities in trade runs. The life of a trader involves buying merchandise of a certain level within the limits of the trader, and selling them in another city. During travels, you will have to face pirates, however.
Trading is a relatively low source of money in the early game, as you get nearly no profits for your trade runs. However, merchant quests pay really well, and will get you the experience needed for trading with bigger amounts of higher level merchandise. Some quests are supposed to have a time limit. It doesn't seem to work, but could add an interesting twist to standard quests.
The game has a dynamic demand system for merchant's goods. In the public tab of your chat interface, you will be notified of which goods are in high demand in each city, and selling there these goods will give you additional profit. These demanded supplies change after several minutes, so to maximize your income you have to be keen to your chat screen and have a bit of luck. This way, no one can take profit of a good market setting for too long, and the activity is more interesting, as the price of trade goods changes over time.
Trade runs can be boring, but very profitable when they are part of a quest. Most players, even if they do not plan on playing a merchant role, do some merchant quests to get money and increase the structure attribute of their ships.
Merchant ships are rather slow, and have good hitpoint values. Their number of cannons is minimal and they do not carry many sailors either, but have a great cargo bay capable of fitting much more items than any other ship class. This way, trading ships are often , considered good ships, as other classes find their cargo bay insufficient.
Ships will sail slower when overloaded, just as your character does. This means it might not be profitable to fill your ship with cargo to trade in some circumstances, and you may prefer a lower amount of merchandise per trade run in exchange for more travel speed. As you will get attacked by explorer class pirate ships and yours have the lowest amount of cannons of all ship classes, you may consider purchasing mines, or using Greek fire as your grappling tool. These pirates are nothing but an annoyance. However, you might be attacked four times during certain trade runs, so you might got tired of entering in easy battles too often. This is for low level traders. As your ship upgrades, your enemies will be tougher.
You can have some security against pirates when sailing during daylight. Most direct routes are very populated by NPC traders and patrols who will attack incoming pirates, so your attacker might be intercepted. It is good to sail through these routes to minimize the pirate danger, but seas are totally different at night, as patrols are much more scarce.
The trader job is rather relaxed, and may be boring for some people and you might want to experience more action. But it is great that VCOnline allows us to do this job as an alternative to killing mobs and pirates, without having to stop anywhere. The merchant job was created for people to be always running around.
Exploring is another possible full time activity in Voyage Century. You can travel near shores in order to make discoveries which will grant you reputation and money.
The day of the explorer is about looking for discovery sites or quests. As you sail near land, you might get sparkles near a zone. This means there might be something to be found in this spot. You should then toggle on the exploration state to send a certain number of sailors to explore, and wait for it to be found. You might get provisions while waiting, more sailors, or lose sailors and ship hitpoints. In fact, losing sailors is really common, and some times it is not worth the discovery.
After you make a discovery, you get a logbook you can authentificate. In addition to sea traveling to discover new zones, you can discover animals, ruins and other items in suburbs, but you must be the first one to see them in the server to get the logbook. After authentificating your discovery –there are authentification NPCs in most cities, named after great explorers or scientists- you will get reputation points and some silver coins as a reward. Discoveries are one of the fastest ways to get reputation up.
Exploration quests tend to consist on sailing to a place where certain discoveries can be found, authentificating them, and getting back to the adventurer alliance master. Some times, you will be given the coordinates you can find the discovery. Some times, you won't. In addition, the fact that some discoveries do not match word per word the description in the quest makes it more confusing because of these translation mistakes.
For this tasks, an exploration ship is suitable. These ships are the fastest ship available, and can carry lots of sailors –you will need them for exploration tasks- You can have a decent amount of sailors, but a weak hull HP and low cargo hold. This means a explorer ship can be a great ship for grappling and boarding the enemy if commanded by a skilled land warrior.
You can also gather treasure map pieces in VCOnline. As it is a very popular storyline of books and movies based on this era, hidden treasure search is implemented in this game. You can get map pieces in your loot, and you will need to reunite a certain amount of pieces before being able to read a map. This is great, since it manages to keep you interested in your next loot instead of just feeling lucky because of receiving a whole map after killing a pirate.
In order to be able to read your map, you will have to authentificate the map by paying a lot of silver to an NPC, which guarantees looking for a treasure is a true event, not just something you do as soon as you get all map pieces. This way, treasure hunting feels right in this game.
In addition, most treasures will be far, far away. It is common to find them in Asia, which may feel strange. Anyway, hunting a treasure involves you sailing into an epic travel towards a land far, far away, which can be difficult for you to handle.
After finding the buried treasure, you will have two options. You can keep the item and use it, since these tend to have interesting stats. Or you can go and authentificate it for your country. This means you will get a decent reward, in money and reputation, but you will have to give the item to your country, thereby loosing it. It is an interesting decision adding complexity to this game.
Crafting also exists in VCOnline, and it is a very important part of gameplay indeed. Crafting starts with picking up raw and transformed materials. Some of these can be obtained by killing animals like goats, and others need from a special skill such as planting, mining or timber felling.
Planting consists on getting seeds from plants growing randomly in cities suburbs, planting these in the appropriate zones, and waiting for crops to mature, which happens in about 20 real life minutes you can use to do something else. You have to plant seeds one at a time, so it is time consuming. In addition, the fact that planting zones are limited means you might have no space to plant your own seeds. This is an issue that may cause problems.
Mining and timber felling work the same way. First, you have to find a tree or rock you can harvest from. Then, equip your tool and start mining. After the order is issued, your character will keep hitting the rock or tree until his SP bar is empty, allowing you to use this time to chat, or have a drink from the fridge. This way, you don't have to be clicking in the rock every four seconds, but you have to check your character every 5-8 minutes.
Obviously, your character can carry only a certain amount of weight. When overloaded, it will cease to run and start walking. This is something to be avoided in some places were wild animals wander near resource collection spots, as you will not be able to run to safety and crafters do not use to be great at fighting.
In addition, ore and logs have to be transformed into the materials used for crafting activities. You need a certain skill level to do this, and will consume SP and report you experience. You will get a single unit of metal or timber per every 3 units of ore or logs. This way, you are getting material at the rate the game wants you to get it, but you are getting the "failed to collect" message many times less. Furthermore it causes the skill requirement for getting high level ore not depending on the skill level needed for transforming this raw material, as the first one is based on Special Skill level and the latter one depends on raw skill level.
High level material is a great item to sell, as raw and transformed materials are not sold by any NPC and highly demanded. This means a high level collector can make good money from selling materials to other players, ensuring crafting skills are important, and players devoted to this are welcome in guilds.
After you get the materials, it is when proper crafting comes into play. Crafters can be shipbuilders, alchemists, tailors and blacksmiths. All these professions work alike, however. You buy recipes or get them as loot or quest rewards. Then your character memorizes them, and you can create the item you need if you have enough material to do it. Crafted items tend to have better properties than regular items and some of these are not sold in NPC shops, so they are easily sold too. This makes crafters important in this game, and not just second class characters. Everyone needs crafters' products to do basic things, like upgrading your ship. It is a welcome change in comparison with all other free to play Asian MMORPGs.
It is strange for players to devote to a single job in VCOnline. As there is no class system, everyone can do whatever their skill levels allow them to do. This means it is not strange for a explorer to do some merchant quests to make more money, or military quests to improve his fighting skills. This makes the game funnier, as some jobs may be boring for some people. You can just change your job and rebuild your ship. Or you can give a try to other activity as a way to add fun in your live as merchant, continuing with your trade runs after this pause. Many people devoted to a single "job" will get bored easily. Being able to do whatever you wants adds fun to the overall experience, as you are not restricted to play a single role decided in the beginning of the game, when you knew nothing about it. There have been some games which went towards delaying the moment to decide your class, but this system is the one which provides players with more freedom.
As this game is still in Beta, it is not suitable to go deep into the bugs you can experience. They are far too common, unfortunately, but none is a gamebreaking bug. You will see people with missing leg animations when they run, for some seconds, face "forcewalls" when walking into some areas so you have to find the right place to go through... these kind of bugs are not rare to find. However, fixing is underway.
But, After all, it is Community what makes or breaks an online game. The community of VCOnline has proven to be both very helpful and critic. As this game is still in open beta, community is still formed by totally different players, some of which will not continue playing the game.
One of the things that have caused more complains are events. This game seems to exceed previsions about player population, and some people think events have not been as big as announced.
Player support when experiencing game problems has been working great. You can ask for ingame Game Master help or chat with Support about whatever VCOnline question you have. It is not guaranteed you will get an answer different from "ask other players" by asking to Support, though. Lately, the Earthquake in China caused problems in GM communication, which arose a good ammount of complains.
This game beta opened with 2 servers, and is supposed to open a third server 13 days after the beta opening.
Given that VCOnline encourages teamplay far beyond any other free MMORPG out there, this game supports parties up to 5 players. Belonging to a party –called "Teams" in VCOnline- will grant the player combat bonuses, so being part of a party is great for everyone. In addition, it may increase your speed when sailing or give you other benefits when you are within a certain radius of your team leader.
Of course, this game allows you to choose people to add to your friend list, as usual in MMOGs. You will be notified when these people log in and log out.
In addition to the usual chat tabs for guild mates, whole city, standard chat, public chat, private chat and team chat, VCOnline features an in-game mailing system which allow you to actually buy paper at the tailor, and write letters to your friends. They can then write you back if they have paper, and storage your letter in their inventory. The fact that you actually need to buy paper to do this, being able to store letters as an item in your inventory and the fact that the interface of messages resembles so much a piece of paper of this era is a really nice touch.
Guilds are a really big part of this game. To create a guild, you need a rather big amount of silver, and no less than four friends. This way, the game avoids "one player" guilds which are an annoyance in most MMOs. Being part of a guild allows you to access the guild hall, which is a guild members only area, and take part in all guild related activities, including guild quests, guild battles and guild controlled cities. Guilds have ranks for members, and departments to divide players in groups. In addition to guild politics, which involve relations with other guilds such as being hostile or allied. Hostile guilds can be attacked, and huge battles such as city blockades have been already fought between several guilds.
In addition, guilds are supposed to be given control of cities after taking them o in competitions celebrated after some periods of time. It would give guilds benefits and the ability to make decisions like not allowing an enemy to go into the city, and the guild would be responsible of the defense of the city. It could be taken by siege by any rival guild.
Cities founded by guilds has also been announced as a future feature.
Guild quests are available from NPCs in the Guild Hall. These tasks are similar to standard quests, but will report nothing to you, in order to improve certain important stats for your guild. It is an interesting part of belonging to a guild, but risky as you can be attacked by anyone freely when performing a guild quest. There are many ways to contribute aside guild quests, which can be of several different kinds indeed. Guild control panels and guild screens available for all guild members are very complete, informative and easy to use.
Being part of a guild grants you some other benefits, like NPC ore smelting or weapon upgrading.
In short, we can say VCOnline is a breathe of fresh air to the free to play MMORPG market. There is still room for improvement, but the overall product is pretty solid and much better than many other free MMOs. If you are looking for something beyond standard Asian MMORPGs, you should give this game a try. It involves some very good design decisions, delivering some lessons both free to play and pay to play MMORPGs could learn from.
VCOnline is still far from perfect, and won't appeal to some players, but it is both an enjoyable game and a step forward in complexity and innovation for free to play MMORPGs.


text:
Asheville police have charged a Hendersonville man with involuntary manslaughter in connection with a December car crash that killed his toddler daughter and injured two others.
Asheville police have charged a Hendersonville man with involuntary manslaughter in connection with a December car crash that killed his toddler daughter and injured two.
Police also charged David Nathan Jones of Hendersonville with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to inflict serious injury, hit and run, and driving with a revoked license, said Lt. Dave Romick with the Asheville Police Department. Jones was arrested on the charges Monday.
On Dec. 12, authorities said Jones was traveling east on Hilliard Road in Asheville at a high rate of speed and driving erratically when he sideswiped a vehicle, ran off the road and onto an embankment, Asheville police said. His car went airborne, flying 150 feet and crashing into a parking lot, where it struck two more cars and two people.
Jones' 3-year-old daughter, who was a passenger in his car, died the next day. Jones also was injured.
Since the accident, police have been investigating the case, and about three weeks ago presented their evidence to the District Attorney's Office for review, Romick said.
Police filed the charges four months after the crash because investigators were conducting follow-up interviews, collecting medical evidence and waiting for Jones' medical condition to improve, Romick said.
A few weeks after the wreck, Connie Sargent of Hendersonville said her son suffered a grand mal seizure at the time of the accident, and that Jones has a history of seizures.
Jones' first appearance in court was Tuesday and his case was continued until May 14. He is being held at the Buncombe County jail in lieu of a $50,000 secured bond.


text: Baby Genius recently launched two apps featuring characters Frankie and Tempo. Parents can download MyPal Frankie and MyPal Tempo for iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad for free. The MyPal Tempo musical game is a "Simon Says"-style game that teaches memory skills through music. With MyPal Frankie, Frankie will repeat anything the child says. Kids can play with Frankie and make her giggle, wiggle, or eat an apple. Videos can be recorded and saved or shared.