Webcasts and Leaderboards

I had the pleasure of showing Jaedrian of PUG TV around the Norrathian Research Library, Kelethin Branch. I had contacted him a few days ago, expressing interest in allowing the program to tour some of the homes I've built.

It took the Library several months to enter the Hall of Fame.
It was never the top of either category.

Surprisingly, people have apparently been requesting the Library. Considering how poorly it has done on the Leaderboard, people requesting it on a fledgeling webcast show was unexpected.

Speaking of the Leaderboard, I still dislike the fact that there are ratings at all. When the Leaderboard was first announced, Zhadowsee and I had a very interesting conversation about decorators and the Leaderboard. We observed that most individuals seemed to be against the idea. He thought that people who managed to overcome their dislike and posted their homes, and whose homes entered the Hall of Fame would change their tune. For the most part, he was right. People's opinions of the Leaderboard seemed to be directly affected by their homes' positions on said boards. It seems rare that people hold fast to their opinions, despite the position of their home on the board.

Then there's me. When the Leaderboard consisted of a five star voting system, I would not post houses there. No, I lied. I posted the Mazemansion for a Nights of the Dead competition. People used the Leaderboard to easily travel to the Mazemansion. The ratings it received were inconsequential. However, I did not post any houses with the intent of obtaining votes. Several people approached me about posting my houses on the Leaderboard for easy travel. I declined. Once the Leaderboard switched to the "like" system, I became more willing to post homes for exposure and travel, but I still disliked the concept of the Hall of Fame and the Leaderboard in general.

Amazingly, yes, I still don't like the Leaderboard.

I now have three homes in the Hall of Fame. One of those homes has been at the top of the Hall of Fame since it was inducted over a month ago. How do I feel about the Leaderboard? I still don't like it. Yes, it's not as hurtful with the "like" system. People aren't running around being half-star bandits, downrating other people's homes so that their own home is pushed up higher on the board. However, it still fosters competition in a previously competition-free environment. I'm not much of one for competition anyway. I don't like competing, and I feel that there are better ways to show off one's skills than to compete against other people. But that's neither here nor there. I've drifted off topic!

What I was saying before I distracted myself is that the Norrathian Research Library has done poorly on the Leaderboard, leading me to believe not many people were interested in it. Whether this is because word of the Library never spread, so no one visited to "like" it, or people visiting didn't "like" it, I don't know. And that's a good thing--I can't be upset that people didn't "like" it if I don't know whether they visited or not, unlike with the old system. But the Norrathian Research Library was requested more than once for PUG TV.

I stopped in last night to watch the live webcast of the Norrathian Design Wars. After that webcast ended, Jaedrian contacted me in-game, asking if I'd be willing to do the tour of one of my homes now. Specifically, he asked about the Library. From watching previous webcasts, I figured he would walk around and look at things, talking about what he saw. He would ask me the occasional question, which I would answer. Easy enough, right?

Wrong! I was told that since I'd seen his webcasts before and sort of knew what to expect, he was going to let me run the show.

Now, I have a terror of public speaking. It is a terror so bad, I almost lost my lunch every time I had to speak in front of the class in school. And he wanted me to talk! Well, I really couldn't say no at that point, so I decided to give it a go. I'd pretend I was just talking to this guy I was giving a tour to, and I wouldn't think, would not think about the fact that he was broadcasting it live, and people might actually be watching! I didn't entirely manage to convince myself, but I calmed myself down enough that I managed to talk almost normally.

They're on their second year of dates.

It didn't help that I was apparently lagging--watching the webcast after he posted it, I noticed that there were long pauses after he finished speaking and before I finished speaking. When I was actually doing the webcast with him, from my end, I spoke as soon as he stopped speaking. There were no long, awkward, first date pauses. Oh well!

I repeated myself over and over again. I stuttered. I wound up going off on tangents and never answering the questions he posed to me. At one point, I even called Norrath Azeroth! I haven't played World of Warcraft in over two years. Why in the world did I call it Azeroth?! That one still has me baffled.

And let's not get me started on how much I hate my voice. I detest my voice. Detest. I sound like a little girl choking on a bubble. Ugh!

There were so many things I wished I'd said in that interview. To begin with, I didn't really talk about the front room as much as I wanted to. It's the only room in the house that is actually inside the house. I built everything else myself.

The front room was intended to be a hidden valley high up in the cliffs above Kelethin. The idea behind the Library is that it isn't actually in Kelethin, just nearby. When I created the front room, the first month of grottos had just happened. We didn't know if the grottos would ever come back. We didn't know they would occur monthly. We didn't know they would be adding new tiles. I bought a couple of sky tiles, some foliage, and a bunch of grassy tiles for another project. By the time I got to the Library, I'd run out of grassy tiles, which meant some inventive work to cover the walls and floor of the acorn house.

And stone paving tiles didn't exist! I had to use the layout editor to flip stone hearths onto their fronts to use as the paved road.

If you look up at the ceiling while standing in front of the Library doors, I tried to use tiles to create an optical illusion of a tower rising into the sky. I didn't really succeed, but I tried.

I did mention that the valley room of the Library has existed since its first version. The only thing that's changed with it has been the doors. Blazewolf's "Temple of Na'Evrah" had those gorgeous sumac doors. I had to steal them.

First floor of the Library.

The counter in the first room of the Library tower is based off of the library where I used to spend my summers as a kid. I loved that counter, because it meant I was about to have a backpack full of books to read all week!

I didn't mention anything about the display in the center--that's my guestbook! People send me mail, and I update the guestbook with whatever they tell me they want to add to it. Now that they've made it so that you can send a mail from anywhere, I think I'm going to go back to encouraging people to sign the guestbook.

The Library is something that I envision as a lore source in-game. I'd like for people who need lore ICly to be able to go to the Library and look things up. I'd like for people to be able to hold classes on the 9th floor. I'd like to be able to zone into the Library and find people sitting around, chatting about this or that bit of lore. Will it happen? Probably not. But I can dream!

If I add seating up here, this'll be a nice place to relax and chat.

Maybe next time (and there probably will be another Jazabelle Does PUG TV time) I'll actually manage to say what I want to during the tour. We'll see!

Oh, you wanted to actually watch the tour? Here you go.

The Norrathian Research Library, Version 2

The original post was posted on the Norrathian Homeshow forums on December 3, 2010.

Ahh, so you came here to see a hint of what the Norrathian Research Library is all about, eh? If that's the case, I should begin at the beginning!

(Fair warning. When I talk, I talk a LOT. Feel free to ignore the big blocks of text, and instead scroll through to find the pictures scattered throughout )

The entrance of the Library, located at Aerie Kolmas in Kelethin, under Library. (If you take the world bell to Greater Faydark, there's a teleporter right near the globe you appear at. Take the teleporter to the Far Residential Aerie, right-click the Aerie Kolmas door, and type in Library) 

How the Norrathian Research Library -- or the Library for short -- came to be is a long and sordid tale. It involves angst, romance, daring rescues, and distressing damsels! Or is that damsels in distress? Either way, the short of the matter was, "I ran out of room in my house for books, since I insist on collecting every single book that comes my way. With the encouragement of Rakuno and Aurelis, I decided to build myself a Library. But not just any Library. I had just discovered the joys of the layout editor, and had stumbled upon the circle feature. With a little bit of fiddling with some erudite bookcases, I realized I could make a tower if I broke out!"

The original tower was a sort of flexing of untested muscles. I thought to myself, "No one's done a tower yet that I know of. I mean, I've seen places that claim to be "A Wizard's Tower" or whatnot, but never actually seen a tower with multiple stories. I'll steal Aurelis' cataloging system, and make a floor for each set of books!" Eventually I settled on 8 floors (Six for books, the bottom floor entryway, and a mid-point lounge.) I stumbled around a bit with the editor and came up with something I was pleased with, but not particularly proud of.

However, people kept praising the tower (likely because it's the only one of it's kind. Won't more of you please build towers so that I don't feel all alone in my ivory tower? ) To be honest, while I was flattered by the praise, it started to annoy me. I didn't feel the tower was worthy of praise. My house was so much more difficult to build, and yet people seemed to like the tower better. Plus, the ramps running around the interior of the tower -- while easy to navigate -- really cut into the useable room on each floor.

In addition, the tower felt incredibly dark with only the stained glass windows to make it feel less cave-like. And while I love the stained glass windows, they just aren't a substitute for the real thing.
So I decided to rebuild it. This time, with planning and diagrams and calculations to make sure I did it right.

*Ahem* To be honest, my diagram consisted of a vertical rectangle divided in eight. With a sloppily drawn 9th floor added when I said to Rakuno, "Oh, I'm debating adding a 9th floor, kind of an observatory maybe. Entirely walled in glass. But that seems like it'd be a lot of extra work." And Rakuno, that level-headed, intelligent man that he is, said to me, "Dooooooo eeeeeeeeet! You know you want to!" *siiiiiiiiiigh*

And my calculations... well. I let the layout editor do those for me. Most of the time. Aside from using the default calculator Windows comes with to occasionally figure out how high I needed to make the next floor.
And my planning. My planning consisted of me saying, "This time, I'll do it right!" 

***

So of course, the first thing all Libraries need (aside from the entry doors. You saw those above. They're exactly the same as the original, it's the one thing I didn't change. Well that, and the dimensions and shape of the rooms.) is a front lobby.

One thing about my original tower versus this one was I always wanted to put in a donor wall. A lot of people (Okay, maybe only about four) donated to the construction of the first tower. However, because of the ramps running along the inside walls, I didn't have room for it in the old tower. So I built one (and made sure it was promenently displayed) for this tower even before I started shelving books.

A closer view of the donor wall. The plaque I'm mousing over (which is the top plaque on the lefthand side -- the very first plaque) is for those people who wish to donate to the Library, but do not wish to be acknowledged in-character as it would be out of character for said person to donate to a Library. Or those individuals who wish to remain completely anonymous, but that I wish to thank publicly by letting people know that something was donated to the tower. So far, we've only had someone wish to remain anonymous ICly.

Here's a sample of what clicking on a plaque brings up:

I'm really not sure what I've done to deserve Sensqui's lavish kindness, but he keeps bringing me little gifts. At this rate, he's going to fill a book and need a second before the month is out...

Oh yes, and all those plaques on the wall? All but seven of them read "A blank plaque not yet engraved by Jazabelle."  I haven't had that many people donate to the library. Yet. I'm sure in a few years' time, with me constantly badgering people for things, I'll have to shrink the plaques down to make room. But not yet. 

I lied above. I also kept the exact same layout for the library desk and directory. In fact, it's so similar, I might even have saved that section with new-from-diff, dragged it over with the layout editor, and rotated it around the center of the tower to fit against it's new home! But of course, I didn't really do that. I'm just so good at rebuilding stuff, you think it looks exactly the same! In fact, if you counted pixels, I bet you'd find that everything is exactly the same distance from each other as they were before. (Because I'm lazy, I love that counter setup -- it looks like the library where I used to spend my summers as a kid -- and the layout editor makes it so easy to move things around, I did indeed drag it over with new-from-diff)

No, this is not the same exact screenshot. This time, instead of mousing over one of the Library Catalog "plaques," I'm mousing over the painting on the left. Amazing how it's an image of a tower-y thing.... and can it be that it says "Map" on that tooltip? What happens when we click the "map?"

Ahh! We get a really very badly done ASCII image of a tower.... with words telling us what each floor contains! How....neat?

Turn to look to the right of the directory, and you'll see a giant floor-to-ceiling window. Through that window, you'll see two unlikely lovers.

I truly blame the entire Homeshow channel for those two. Really. It's all your fault, Antonia_Bayle.Homeshow! Because you could not help me figure out a way to get Antonia and Lucan out there, and because you all started suggesting amusing things since I couldn't think of a female to use... these two hooked up while we weren't looking! (Yes, I know I could have used mannequins with the Lucan and Antonia masks. I did not like how they looked. Besides, the dryad keeps kissing the treant. Much more amusing!)

I tried to make it feel like you're in the cliffs above Kelethin. After all, you go through such a pretty little valley to get to the Library, and it doesn't make sense for something like that to be up in the trees. I know I didn't manage completely, but I tried.

The visible tooltip says it all. I've moved the sale of my fairy tales from my home to the Library. It just made more sense to me. Plus, this way the Library will (hopefully) get traffic from people coming to buy books. Who will then wander around, and tell their friends about this Library in (mostly) neutral territory that's easily accessable, and that has books on the shelves that you can actually read! Who will then tell their friends, who will tell their friends, who will actually stop by to read books sometimes. Maybe.

I found a use for the male and female mannequins I had intended to use as Antonia and Lucan! Meet Jazatwo and Jazifshewereaman! She's a librarian, busily shelving more copies of the Fairy Tales. He's a guard, posted to ensure none of the books wander down from the upper floors. This is not a lending Library, after all. Study to your heart's content, but do not try to walk off with any books, or he'll unsheath his scythe at you! ....or at least stand there and look stiffly.....not really intimidating.

The second use for the two mannequins is to scare the ever lovin' ....smelly stuff... out of me every single time I see them. I am not used to them being there, and I keep going, "WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE LURKING IN MY LIBRARY?!" If I ever get real visitors, I just may accidentally try and maul them out of startlement.

Moving right along! I'm not going to post images of every single floor of the Library. That's just too many, and aside from some decor changes, it doesn't really change that much on each floor, aside from the contents of the shelves. Suffice to say, I tried to decorate each floor according to what the book subject was. Rare Tomes has a rare statue and a tapestry made from a rare, Mythoi has Frostfell decorations -- yes, Frostfell falls into the "mythoi" category in my mind! -- and an Erollisi bow statue, Notables and Mortals has a Firiona Vie statue, etc. I'd like to put up a Venril Sathir painting, but I do not have access to one currently so!

This is Lands and Beasts. I thought it appropriate to stick a globe in the center of the floor for Lands and Beasts. Lands and Beasts also happens to be my third floor.

The sign telling you what floor you're on and what subject that floor holds. This is the catalog for the floor, divided up into the North bookcase, East bookcase, and South bookcase. Each bookcase is then divided up into shelves (five shelves per case). Hopefully that makes it easier to find the book you're hunting for.
Remember! Books are first divided by subject, then by bookcase, then by shelf. Finding the book on the shelf is up to you... (Although if you actually look carefully at the shelves, the books are pretty easy to find. First off, most of them highlight when you mouse over them. Only the oldest of them do not, and I'll be replacing the older versions with newer versions as I get them. The older versions will then be moved to Rare Tomes. Which currently has no books on the shelves, because every single "Rare Tome" I have is a duplicate of another book that's already on the shelf, and I was too lazy to put them up.)

As I said, I added a 9th floor to my tower. A few of you may remember that my 8th floor on the old tower had a lovely (I thought) glass roof. I decided I would one-up myself.

Welcome to the 9th floor Observatory.

Here is my lovely glass roof, transported all the way over to it's new home on my new tower!

And to give you an idea of the scale of the 9th floor room...

Jazabelle is small for a half elf, but still. To be honest, I myself did not realize how tall the ceiling was until I took this screenshot.

Now, some of you may be wondering "What about this 10th floor you were babbling about in Homeshow?" A very big thank you to Nef for offering to donate tiles for it. I am holding off on building the 10th floor until I can decide how I would like to configure the 9th and 10th floors, and what exactly I want to have on them. As someone else said to me, "You have all the floors you need, why would you build more? What would you put on it?" Plus, I started to work on building it, then realized it would actually take quite a bit of work to build it higher since I've put all these finishing touches in. And I need a break after cataloging, rearranging, and shelving all of my books. Not that I have even a drop in the bucket when compared with some of the others like Aurelis, Barx, and Maurna, but still. Over 200 books is nothing to sneeze at shelving.

And just because they make me giggle... a view from the second floor of the two lovers.

And a closeup that no one but a trustee will see, since it's outside the window, right by the lovers. I just had to show off my wicker picnic hamper. It's not really a basket. Hamper really is the best word. Thanks much to Toade for the two sides of the hamper handle! I'll get those dividers to you soon, I swear!

Awwww, she's leaning in for a kiss!

Thank you sooooo much for bearing with my incessant chatter. I hope you enjoyed the screenshot tour, and I do hope you'll come visit, if only to see the rest of the floors! (As Gracey says, "One of the neatest things about a tower is how the view out the window changes level by level.")

If you're all reeeeeeeeeally good boys and girls (and only if you're actually interested) I'll take a screenshot of the tower from outside and post it, just so you can see how tall and ugly it truly is. 

Alright! My ego is all huge and bloated from praising myself now, so I'm going to end this post before it segues into my entire life's story from the moment of my birth or something.

The Norrathian Research Library, Version 1

The original post was posted on the Norrathian Homeshow forums on August 31, 2010.

This was my second flexing of editor muscles. This home features the first domed glass ceiling--the one that started it all! (At least in my case.)

I've been meaning to post this for a while now, but between redoing my house six or eight times and a recent commission I was working on (in addition to going out of town and catching a horrible cold) I haven't found the time.

The majority of the tower is very similar, as it's mostly a place to house the books I've been collecting. My collection may not be the largest around, but I can guarantee that it's very well loved. I even went so far as to build a tower for it, after all!

There aren't many complex items built in the tower, aside from the tower itself. But I do like it. It only took about four days to make, so it's allowed to be a little sparse!

The Norrathian Research Library, Kelethin Branch is housed in Aerie Kolmas (the Far Residential Aerie) under Library on the Antonia Bayle server. Pay a visit -- it looks much better in person.

I have not actually finished putting the books on the shelves, but the structure itself is finished (aside from the restrooms).

If you feel like donating/selling/contacting me about getting some neat items into the library, feel free! I can always use a few more items.

Also, I'm collecting books! Have some old books you don't want any more? Especially books that aren't obtainable any longer? I will purchase them! I'm no Aurelis, but I'm working on becoming an Aurelis acolyte. Boooooooooks.

Do you write books? I reserve the top floor of my eight story tower for player-written books. Lemme know, and I will purchase them from you, or provide notebooks for you to paste them in.

Many many many thanks to Aurelis for her encouragment, input, and catalog system. Just as many thanks to Rakuno for putting up with random giant carpentry and faction item orders at all hours of the day and night, and for doing them as fast as an impatient Ayr'Dal used to instant gratification could wish!

Exiting Kelethin, entering the little valley where the library is housed.


Path through the forest to the front doors of the library.


Looking up through the trees to the sky above

First floor -- entryway, catalog, map, and front desk





Second floor -- Rare Tomes


Third floor -- Lands and Beasts



Fourth floor -- Chronicles, Cultures, and Hobbies



For those of you who don't know, Jazabelle always has a skeleton of some sort in her house. She started life as a necromancer, and it's left a lasting impression, even though she's an illusionist now.

Rakuno (on one of his many trips to purchase faction items) stopped by and picked up this skeleton for me as a surprise. Please note, this skeleton is a model only! No Norrathians were harmed in the obtaining of said skeleton. I swear. Honest.

The donor is anonymous, because it was one of Rakuno's other characters who picked it up, and as far as in-character actions go, said character would not donate an item to a library. Anonymous it is!

Fifth floor -- Parlor


Seowyth was giving away several items in Homeshow one day. I pounced on one of them, and was generously given several other items in addition! Thank you for the piano, Seowyth. It fits the parlor perfectly!


The restrooms are not finished. I became bored partway through. I'll finish them one day... maybe. As they're not important to the rest of the library, I haven't bothered!

Sixth floor -- Mythoi

Aurelis, Rakuno, and I had an amusing debate about mythos, mythoi, and mythoses. Mythos is singular, everyone! Mythoi and mythoses are plural. I prefer how mythoi looks, although I don't speak Greek, so I have no idea if that's the appropriate plural to use in this situation. Anyone know?


Seventh floor -- Notables and Mortals


Eighth floor -- Books by Adventurers



The books on this shelf are my fairy tale series. I promise, I'll get around to writing another fairy tale soon!

This book is probably the most important book in my collection. Anyone interested in book hunting should definitely pick up a copy, or poke Aurelis if there are no more for sale on Antonia Bayle. I have no idea if she's selling them on The Bazaar or not!