I'm not entirely sure if this fits the criteria for "General Discussion" so feel free to move this to Off-Topic or some other board if you deem it necessary, Fungineers.

WARNING! WALL OF TEXT AHEAD! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Greetings, dear Amians. It has been a while, hasn't it? I am Claimh Solais, the player behind such characters as "Arcen Solais", "Nerca", "Vardan Borias", "Rhadamanthus" and a few others. Doubtless not many of you remember me. We can blame my extremely craptastic GMT +02:00 EU timezone for that. But for those selected few who do remember me: what you are about to read is a short description of what has happened to me in these past seven months. I've also included a few things I feel need to be said.

On the 1st day of April, 2013, I woke up o an odd pain behind/above the eyes. At first, I didn't think much of it, but as days went by and the pain kept getting worse, the decision was made to visit a doctor. He couldn't find anything noteworthy. Soon it became clear that this pain is caused by strong light: the brighter the sunlight/monitor/screen/lightbulb, the faster my eyes would start hurting.

This is why you haven't seen me in Amia. I simply had to stop visiting. Cutting down on the amount of computer use, TV use and reading were also part of the slew of decisions that had to be made. So... guess what? Seven months have passed, glasses have been bought, many doctors have been consulted (including specialists), an MRI has been taken... yet nothing has been found. I can barely even use computers or TVs these days. I miss them a lot, because there's a bunch of great games and movies I'd like to check out. HOWEVER, there's this one thing that I seem to miss even more than all the other sources of electronic entertainment combined: Amia. And that got me thinking.

Let's face something: it's true that Amia isn't always what we want it to be. Remember those times when you logged in with your level 30 character, only to wander around the isle, looking for someone to interact with? And logging out after about 30 minutes of doing absolutely nothing of value with the said character just because your timezone isn't optimal? Or those boss hunting sessions that didn't yield anything noteworthy (because of that 5% chance of getting a chance at the epic loot lottery) that you felt forced to do because the server's endgame content essentially boiled down to a player driven PvP arms race? (This has apparently changed with the advent of actually challenging static content such as the Phane; hence the past tense.) Or hearing about how your friend managed to get a whopping 5 Dream Coins in a single day, while you struggled for years to obtain that same sum of these seemingly elusive marks of excellent RP?

I saw my fair share of some of these problems. Some problems were more frequent than others. Some only became an issue after Nerca's (my main character's) faction of choice, the Slavers, was disbanded for reasons that need not be discussed here. But to get back on track... let's face it: Amia isn't always what we want it to be. Amia has its flaws.

But even as I wrote about these flaws, I could not help but think fondly of the time I spent in Amia. Now... why is that? Perhaps we should thank the players of Viz'aun, Haan, Cecilia, Mathas and the others for that? No, not just them. Flawed or not, this server is one of the most hospitable online roleplaying environments I've had the pleasure of playing in, period. How often have you encountered a carefully balanced fantasy world where players must remain IC at almost all times (party grindfests aside)? Arelith does this too, but that server feels a tad bit too strict with its implementation.

So, it's not sure if I'll ever be able to play here again, due to this eye thing, but regardless of that, I want to keep this place rolling, so I'll be donating a set amount of money to the server each month to make sure that at least you folks can enjoy what I no longer can.

Hackums, Bella, Hades, Jimbono, everyone else. All of Amia.

Thank you.

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Inactive as of November 28, 2013

Have you tried one of those screens that clip onto your monitor and make it super opaque? I know a principal at my old high school had one, so they can't be that expensive. That may help with your eyes.

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I'm done. Goodbye.

Can't say I have. However, from what I've heard, people who use those clip-on thingies (and get help from them) never have problems with TV screens or reading. I suppose there's no harm in trying one, but I've my doubts about this plan's effectiveness.

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Inactive as of November 28, 2013

Good luck with the sudden light sensitivity... you're not a porphyriac are you? Make sure you tell us if your poop goes purple.

Also wouldn't sunglasses do the job as well as a UV screen clippy?

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Jys'zyne Do'larn

Man, this account is over 10 years old. Where do I get my old man beard?

That sounds awful, but very mysterious, do you remember doing ANYTHING at all different before you developed the photosensitivity? Like starting or stopping -any- kinds of medicine or drugs or going for a long hike in the wilderness (lyme disease has strange effects and hard to detect)? Did you ever, ever mix any alcohol with medicine?

Don't give up and keep seeing well-educated, well-recommended doctors to help you! Some people go through years of different diagnosis before even discovering their problem.

I agree with you, Amia might have its problems but who cares, it's still one of the best servers still out there

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I don't think it's just light sensitivity. Otherwise reading in a dimly lit room wouldn't affect the eyes, would it? Sunglasses didn't seem to do much, either. Luckily, my symptoms don't seem to have much to do with porphyria.


Well... I've no memory of doing anything drastically different. I was at the peak of my health before this happened, and I still am, if you disregard this eye thing. Also, like I already pointed out, this feels different from mere light sensitivity: it's like the eyes are getting irritated much faster than they normally do. (Computer screens, TV screens and reading all irritate the eyes, but the amount is normally so small that it doesn't cause any drastic eye symptoms)

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Inactive as of November 28, 2013