Spookinesses

Yes; the post title means multiple instances of spookiness. I am sure it is a word, I mean once it is added to the user dictionary it is official, right? Moving on: things have been pretty uneventful Meeroos wise for me lately. I am sort of waiting with baited breath for the impending advent of Chapter 2. There is now a deadline associated with the release, but it is not firm. Catherine says: "We hope to make our October 31 release date but that remains to be seen." in THIS answers post. I would not count on that being the date of release, these things tend to run behind. If anybody can pull it off in time it is Team Meeroos. I will be updating my public Meeroos events Google calendar with the thirty first (31st) as the launch date and crossing my fingers.

Chapter 2 looks like it is going to bring some interesting changes, in the answer post linked above Catherine also says: "The Expansion is a whole new editions of the game, everything is new, new content, new Meeroos, new personalities, and new angles to the game." I am very interested in what new personalities might mean. Will they be compatible with current personalities? What will their unique animations be? Will I ever manage to catch up on my Personality Profiles if they keep adding more? Regard will also be undergoing some changes: "There are pretty strong changes coming to Regard and the way it behaves and what it rewards." To me that implies that regard may be gained for things other than petting, perhaps just being in the presence of your Meeroos will generate Regard. I have thought, since I started my involvement with breedable pets, that there should be a reward for spending time with your creatures. Simple avatar presence may not be enough however as people would use bots to keep their avatar present all the time. There has to be some method to ensure the player is there and not automated, how that might be accomplished is beyond me.

One thing I have been undertaking is creating a more focused breeding program. Because I am lazy I have not been participating in the secondary marketplace for Meeroo sales, as such I have had a limited budget for berries. I look at it as a good thing, I have reduced the number of breeding Meeroos I keep to about twenty (20) and am keeping a close eye on them. I love how when I have fewer Meeroos I can remember all their names, and when I get the new-nest offlines I now know exactly who the parents are and what I might be expecting from them. Before I had so many I would have to check the spreadsheet or log in to find out who the parents were, what their traits are and then I could decide if I was thrilled or disappointed with the Nest. I do have far fewer Nests being produced now, but they are more in line with what I am trying to do breeding wise. As I wrote in an earlier post I have also switched to Short-Cycle breeding and am spending more time evaluating pairs and switching partners around in the hopes of getting more traits from them. It has not been long enough for me to judge the results yet, but it will soon be time to swap a few Meeroos around; dare I hold out hope for an ever elusive Snowpaw?

Malevay Studios has outdone itself again with the Halloween content they have created. The concept of "costumes" for Meeroos is genius, I do not know why nobody else has ever though of it. Brilliant discoveries always seem easy after someone else figures them out I guess. The way the outfits work is this: You buy the costume for L$350 and you can then paint it on to any Meeroo you own. It works on both normal and MeePet Meeroos. The costumes are limited edition, only available until November first (1st). That means you have the chance to turn any Meeroo into a limited edition one. While all of the costumes are well done, in my opinion the monster and ghost costumes are exceptional. I suggest the ghost for un-traited Meeroos since you can not see most of the Meeroo anyway because, you know; its a ghost. The monster is absolutely adorable in very short tail. I still have a few of my very first Meeroos, ones I persuaded to forgo the wild for the time being in exchange for unlimited honey. They are only special to me, their value is sentimental. What could be better to lift their spirits than a fancy new spooky outfit? They get to chill out with the breeding Meeroos in style. I bet the others are jealous*.

If for some reason you change your mind and wish to revert your costumed Meeroo back to its original coat you can do so with a bar of soap, also available at the Meeroos store. The soap is currently on sale for L$50 but looks like it will eventually be priced at L$350. I do not know why anybody would want to remove the costumes but the choice is there.

As if the costumes were not enough there are also new Meeroo Homes to choose from. My favourites are the scary stump of infinite fright and the spooky green gourd. Also the pumpkin. Really I like them all. Do not forget that there will be new Homes arriving with Chapter 2 as well, although from what I understand the current ones will work fine for Chapter 2 Meeroos. Perhaps I am a bit unusual (perhaps??) but I like the Halloween "look" pretty much all year round. Some things are a bit over the top, even for me, like candy-corn in May. In this case I will have no problem finding permanent locations for my haunted Homes or my mysterious Meeroos. There was some mention of games being available before Halloween where an additional costume will be one of the prizes. I am no good at games, but you never know; I might get lucky.

* I have already gotten at least two (2) IMs from my breeding Meeroos, one of the older ones, claiming that the MeePets getting costumes is unfair and threatening to halt Nest creation until everyone gets a costume. I explained the impracticality of that but it went over like a broken pipe. They might be unionising...

The Trouble With Honey

I am a little concerned about MeePets, here is why: apparently they will still need to eat. As per Catherine's blog post: "It [the MeePet] will need to eat honey to thrive, and honey will be made available from the main stores for free." What this means is that a MeePet can not be kept in Inventory. Nor will it be easy to gift them to people who might want a pet without any hassle. They would still need to go to the store periodically to pick up food and keep the Meeroo rezzed almost all the time. Which brings me to the Prims issue: if they have to be rezzed to eat they are going to be using Prims and Home Stump slots as well. I was really hoping for a Meeroo I could wear; all of the time. A little fellow I could pop on my shoulder and just leave there but Meeroos do not eat when attached.

There is some hope however, the FAQ on the WW of Meeroos site says: "...this will mean that you no longer have to buy them food, and they will not starve or run away to the wild." [Emphasis added by me] I would be interested in some clarification on this point: can a MeePet starve, or not? According to the FAQ: No, they can not starve. Then why the requirement for Honey? Unless the eating of Honey is purely aesthetic and is optional. It might be nice for them to have their own food bowl they could nibble on from time to time, but it seems like a lot of work if they do not have to eat. If they are required to eat then I have to assume they could also starve, which is contradicted by the FAQ. Hence my, now abject, confusion.

I feel that for the MeePet option to be viable for any but my very best, most special, Meeroos it would have to allow them to be kept indefinitely. When Open Beta ended and everyone was waiting for their "Real" Meeroos I used the term "ForeverRoos" to mean the ones we would get to keep as long as we wished. For the MeePet option to validate the term ForeverRoos there has to be a guarantee that they will never be lost. Once the procedure is performed, in this case once the Honey Dipper has been used, they should have no further breedable-like requirements. For all intents and purposes they should act like a non-breedable, non-eating, pet. The resultant Meeroo should be able to stay in Inventory forever if need be and should not require anything else to  continue existing when rezzed. i.e. It must not require food, although optional food would be cool. If the MeePet option is implemented in a way that they still require feeding then it will not be of much use to me. I would very much like to keep quite a few of my current brood, but I have neither the Prims nor the Home Stumps to do so if they need to be rezzed like ordinary Meeroos.

I understand that the Honey will be free. There will be no charges for keeping a MeePet which is great. But if it can not go into Inventory, or onto my shoulder, then I am going to have a difficult time justifying the L$1,500 cost for the Honey Dipper. However if they genuinely can not starve and will never run away, then consider it justified and I'll be saving up to MeePet all of my favourites. We will all find out how it works soon enough, but if anyone who knows from Team Meeroos would like to comment in advance of release please leave a comment here or contact me InWorld.

[EDIT: As you can see from Tiger's comment below, this is now a non-issue, please have a look at my follow-up post HERE explaining how it really works.]

There are No Non-Starters

I found out recently that the term "non-starter" does not apply to Meeroos. With the exception of special Meeroos, like the Clover Open Beta gift Meeroo, you can get any Meeroo from a Nest bought from the Official Meeroos store. It only applies to released genetics of course but it means any Meeroo you can breed you also stand a chance, however small, of getting directly from the store.

I get the feeling some people are not pleased about it. I think many of us, myself included, have fallen into a trap of thinking that breedable pets have to be implemented in specific ways and have to do, or not do, certain things. Meeroos are challenging a lot of those assumptions. The sixty (60) day breeding period instead of a set number of offspring per Meeroo is very different, and it took a lot of us off guard. In practice I have not encountered any problems with it so far. While I was not enchanted with the idea at first; I accept now that it has pluses and minuses, and the pros are starting to outweigh the cons. More on that in another post. My point is: Malevay Studios is trying a different, new type, of breedable. There are going to be new concepts and they can be scary at first. Without change nothing would ever improve. Will having all traits available in starter Nests be an improvement? I think it could be.

Having the full genetic pool available in starter Nests provides a sort of pressure release valve for the secondary marketplace. Since all genetics are in the store there is always the chance of buying enough Nests to get one close enough. However that is probably impractical, especially if it is a rare Meeroo and you are on a limited budget. What it does mean is that anybody could get one, no matter how rare. Not only mega-breeders are selling uncommon Meeroos. People who started yesterday have the chance to birth a Koi Meeroo, right now.  Maybe they want to sell it, maybe without a monopoly on the market, they do not mind offering their Meeroo for a reasonable price. I am sure that some of the avatars who receive amazing second generation Meeroos will. If it works like I hope it does the open-genetics approach should moderate the extreme high end of the market.

I love that anybody has the same chance when they take the stroll [TP] over to one of the Meeroos stores to buy a Nest. If you have a hundred (100) Meeroos or none, when you buy that Nest it could be anything. It is like a classic mystery box that can contain any aspect of the game, in this case any type of Meeroo. Sure the players with more Meeroos can gain an advantage through breeding, that is part of the game as well. Through breeding you can create the exact Meeroo you want, over time, with a lot of effort (and fun!) At the store you can roll the dice and see what you get. Maybe something ordinary, maybe something amazing. For me it means, when I am out pricing Nests, I will balance the prices for known genetics against taking the risk on unknown genetics in the store.

I understand that for some people the open-genetics model is less than desirable. Especially for those who believe they need to protect their breeding lines. To them I would say: the rare breeds are going to be rare until, if possible, breeders establish genetic lines that consistently produce them. Then they will not be so rare anymore. A few people getting ultra-rare Meeroos from the store is not going to sway that balance much. Maybe not even enough to dampen exorbitant prices, as I hope it does. If you have, or are establishing, breeding lines now; they are still a worthwhile investment. The best way to somewhat predictably produce uncommon trait Meeroos is through breeding. Buying a Nest from the store is a random chance, nothing you could build a reliable business model on. Every now-and-then though, someone, maybe someone very new or someone about to loose heart, will coax a miracle Meeroo from a starter Nest. In my view that can only be good for Meeroos and for the community at large.

Release the Fear

I am terrified of the RELEASE button on the Meeroos HUD. I know I am not the only one. My partner scarlett feels the same way, I'm not sure which of us is worse. I admit, I have had nightmares about that RELEASE button accidentally sending a wonderful little Meeroo off into the wild, possibly forever. I know in time I will get used to it,  will even have to use it. Right now though it serves no purpose; for what reason would I ask any of my most precious Second Life companions to leave? I would be heartbroken if I lost even one (1).

I know my fear is unfounded. It is very difficult to release a Meeroo by accident. Once you touch the button you then have to type "RELEASE" in open chat. It does have to be in all-capitals: "Release" and "release" will not work. I tested it during Open Beta. Where I think Meeroos are being released unintentionally is when people misunderstand the HUD and mistakenly believe that releasing Meeroos is a way to get them out of their nest. I can not imagine what it must be like, to be into these little guys as much as I am, and realize that you have lost a Meeroo as a result of your own misunderstanding. I might even cry. So the RELEASE button is a bit scary, it can do scary things, but it is not remotely likely to be triggered by mistake.

If you have had a nightmare, or two, about that infernal RELEASE button leave a comment and let me know about it. I know I am not the only crazy one out there, right... Hello? *chirp* Ha, knew my Meeroos would save me!

Meeroos Gone!

Oh man! It looks like every Meeroo on the Grid for Open Beta has wandered away! Don't worry, nothing is wrong. Well, not too wrong. As Catherine writes on their Blog: "...we left on our "Beta End!" switch that told the database to set Meeroos to the wild beginning today. Many people coming online today will find that their Meeroos have all returned to the wild with their families." She goes on to be very candid and forthcoming with this explanation and apology: "I'll be completely honest with you, this was our mistake. Please note, it was NOT our intention for it to happen this way, and we deeply apologize for the suddenness of it. We understand how shocking and confusing it was for many of you Meeroo Parents. Although our intention was to have them vanish to the wild, we wanted to provide you adequate time to say your good-byes and prepare for the inevitable." So it was just an accident.

I have to admit I was a bit worried when I got the offlines! I understand, these things happen, no big deal. It's Open Beta and we have known we were going to loose these little guys eventually. It is a bit jarring; which it is obvious Team Meeroos understands from the blog post. There is also an indicator of just how quickly endearing these Meeroos can be: I miss them already. I don't like that they are gone, and I want them back. How can they not be an amazing breedable if I feel this level of loss knowing they will be replaced on Monday? And yes, they will be replaced on Monday, May 2nd 2011, with updated versions!

I've read through the changes they are making for Mondays release, and it looks good. Some of the most mentioned topics I saw on the Forums are in there, including my personal favourite:

>> Meeroos petting distance increased! No more having to chase!

and the rest:

>> The Seasons displaying ---- has been being removed and replaced with text better indicating a Meeroo's status. 

>> Breeding time has been shortened once again. They'll be mature at 5 days old, and will have entered their first season by 7 days old.

>> Fix for Fellowship set Meeroos who are hopping around stumps set to fellowship stumps belonging to another member. "Home hoppers" as i like to call them!

>> No more spam! Every time a region would restart all the Meeroos would IM or email their offline owner to say they're going for a wander! We've reduced how often Meeroos contact a user.

I don't see any info about changing anything appearance related, so I would expect everything to look pretty much the same after the Monday release. I am pleased about that as I think everything looks amazing as it is. I am in the "big fan of the HUD" camp, so I hope it hangs around in something similar to its current form for awhile.

Fellowships and Regard will NOT be reset on Monday. So you will still be in your current Fellowship and your Regard will also remain intact. In fact it appears that you can continue to answer Oracle questions during this time and accumulate extra Regard while the Meeroos are away.

So, panic over. Everything is all right with Meeroo kind, well except that nobody has any Meeroos. It is going to be a long wait until Monday. I'll try to keep busy, maybe a little scripting, update my Meeroo finder a bit so it'll sort the list alphabetically [Don't fret, it will always be free]. Maybe read a book or two. But I'll make time, and perhaps some of you will do the same, to say a belated good bye to: Smeego, Minni, Lope, Blonk, Jimp and the single un-named Meeroo. I wish you well in the wild. Come visit home some time.