Holy crap, what is Turbine thinking? LoTRO's next free content patch will include a new race, the fowl-people?
WTF!?
Supersize your chicken? Crush your foes into 6, 12, or 20 pieces? I mean, aren't those Chicken McNugget sizes? Play a new instrument, drumstick? Buy a hen house? Stage a coop? Will the madness never end?
About the only thing I see here of substance, that I actually like and look forward to, is the new PvMP rank: Colonel. My toon is a cook, so I'm also looking forward to the new recipe, One-shot Cook Recipe: Yourself!
The rest is just absurd!
On a completely unrelated topic, tomorrow is Tuesday, April 1st.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Tom vs. Bruce: Armor Class 2
Tom and Bruce duke it out once more, this time within the MMO game world of Asheron's Call 2. I know squat about this game, but Tom made me lawl when he wrote this:
He's the one who got me into Dark Age of Camelot before I kicked the habit. And now he's gotten me involved in AC2 (am I the only one who sees that acronym and assumes it means I'm wearing plate mail in the old AD&D rule set?).
He's the one who got me into Dark Age of Camelot before I kicked the habit. And now he's gotten me involved in AC2 (am I the only one who sees that acronym and assumes it means I'm wearing plate mail in the old AD&D rule set?).
So That's Why They're Gold Farmers
The WoW general forums contain an epic thread about favorite guild names. I only got to page four before I got bored, but some of my favorites were --ME FARM OR FAMILY DIE--, --WoW Balanced as Fox News--, --I'd Mana Tap That--, and a personal favorite, --STDs are BoP--.
All winners.
All winners.
The PUG Remains the Same
That’s one of my favorite Led Zeppelin songs, on one of my favorite albums, the most excellent Houses of the Holy. The album cover is whack though. The heroin must have been flowing wide and open when they picked that out.
If you don’t play a MMO, PUG stands for Pick Up Group. You PUG when you can’t find a friend or two to help you run a 5-woman or complete an elite quest. It basically involves using the game’s group finding system to track down other people that need to do the same thing you do.
People you don’t know. The root of every PUG evil known to MMO kind.
Most games’ group finding interface suck (including WoW’s and LoTRO’s), so most everyone ignores them in favor of spamming the trade, OOC, or general channel looking for unsuspecting vict--, err, people to help. A precious few use the more appropriate LFG or LFF channel (Looking for Group and Looking for Fellowship, respectively.) But really, it wouldn’t matter if a game’s group interface worked better; a PUG inherently begins life as a turd.
As we all know, you can’t polish a turd.
For a long time, I’ve labored under the assumption that since LoTRO has about 8 million fewer people playing it than WoW, it must attract a more discriminating, perhaps more mature crowd. My first clue this was not the case occurred to me last week when a toon ran by with kinship membership to The Hogs of War (Actually, come to think of it, I really like that name. Maybe I’m just jealous I didn’t think of it first).
Well, I’m here to clarify that Lord of the Rings Online's playing audience is no better than World of Warcraft's. And as far as PUGs are concerned, they stink as bad in LoTRO as they do in WoW. Take last night’s adventure. I finally get done grinding wolves for medium leather pelts (woot, master apprentice tailor!) and set my sights on some fellowship quests in the Lone Lands. This dwarf dude needs me to collect 24 axes from some Dourhand dwarves. What makes this a fellowship endeavor is the fact that most of these Dourhands are elite mobs and come in packs of three to four. They’re ornery as all get out too and don’t part willingly with their axes.
Porting to Ost Guruth, I barely step outside the ruined city when LLF blinks: “LFM Dwarf’s Duty and Sever the Hand. PST.” I’ve already done Sever the Hand, but I PM Jabber telling him I’m in for Dwarf’s Duty.
And this is where PUGs begin to suck.
Most people think that PUGs suck because they can’t get the instance finished or the quest done. And sometimes that is the case. But this PUG sucks because it can’t ever get started. The third dude that joins is still in Bree. He says he’s on his way, but ten minutes later I check the world map and he’s still in Bree. You can’t even read the Lone Lands LFF channel in Bree, so he must of read Jabber’s ad, accepted the invite, and then promptly hearthed to Bree. It takes him another fifteen minutes to finally make it to the Lone Lands.
The fourth and fifth dudes that join promptly ask, “What we workin’ on?” I scroll my chat log up to verify, and yup, sure enough, Jabber did clearly type in the LFF channel “Dwarf’s Duty.”
My god, who joins groups randomly? Without knowing why they’re joining?
These two specimens realize neither one actually has Dwarf’s Duty. They haven’t even done the prerequisite quest, fetching a Dourhand banner. Since toons aren’t exactly beating down our door, we wait while they get that quest done. #3 is still in Bree, so what does it matter.
A half hour goes by and we finally marshal forces and sally forth. We bump into a 28 champion along the way who offers to help and quickly massacre a whole mess of dwarves and collect our 24 axes. At 24/24 axes, #5 wastes no time in leaving the fellowship and hearthing without a word of thanks or adieu. We’re still smack dab in the middle of the Dourhand ruin. I guess he figured we could fight our way out without him.
Which we do. With about 50 million Dourhands chasing us. I felt like Indiana Jones, fleeing the natives for the river and the floating plane. But instead of bamboo darts, I’ve got steel axes sticking out of my ass. We turn the quest in and the remaining five of us agree to tackle the pinnacle of the quest chain, slaying the Dourhand leader. We run back to the Dourhand ruins.
Remember #3? He’s the guy that joined the fellowship than proceeded to do some window shopping in Bree. Well, we no sooner arrive at the ruins when he says in fellowship chat, “Oh, my armor just arrived in mail. Brb.” Yup, he proceeded to run all the way back to Ost Guruth to pick up his parcels. Fifteen minutes later, we plow into more dwarves, kill the leader, and complete the chain. Upon the fellowship arriving safely in town, I leave the group after saying a friendly goodbye I didn’t mean.
Across MMOs, no matter their popularity or pedigree, the PUG remains the same.
If you don’t play a MMO, PUG stands for Pick Up Group. You PUG when you can’t find a friend or two to help you run a 5-woman or complete an elite quest. It basically involves using the game’s group finding system to track down other people that need to do the same thing you do.
People you don’t know. The root of every PUG evil known to MMO kind.
Most games’ group finding interface suck (including WoW’s and LoTRO’s), so most everyone ignores them in favor of spamming the trade, OOC, or general channel looking for unsuspecting vict--, err, people to help. A precious few use the more appropriate LFG or LFF channel (Looking for Group and Looking for Fellowship, respectively.) But really, it wouldn’t matter if a game’s group interface worked better; a PUG inherently begins life as a turd.
As we all know, you can’t polish a turd.
For a long time, I’ve labored under the assumption that since LoTRO has about 8 million fewer people playing it than WoW, it must attract a more discriminating, perhaps more mature crowd. My first clue this was not the case occurred to me last week when a toon ran by with kinship membership to The Hogs of War (Actually, come to think of it, I really like that name. Maybe I’m just jealous I didn’t think of it first).
Well, I’m here to clarify that Lord of the Rings Online's playing audience is no better than World of Warcraft's. And as far as PUGs are concerned, they stink as bad in LoTRO as they do in WoW. Take last night’s adventure. I finally get done grinding wolves for medium leather pelts (woot, master apprentice tailor!) and set my sights on some fellowship quests in the Lone Lands. This dwarf dude needs me to collect 24 axes from some Dourhand dwarves. What makes this a fellowship endeavor is the fact that most of these Dourhands are elite mobs and come in packs of three to four. They’re ornery as all get out too and don’t part willingly with their axes.
Porting to Ost Guruth, I barely step outside the ruined city when LLF blinks: “LFM Dwarf’s Duty and Sever the Hand. PST.” I’ve already done Sever the Hand, but I PM Jabber telling him I’m in for Dwarf’s Duty.
And this is where PUGs begin to suck.
Most people think that PUGs suck because they can’t get the instance finished or the quest done. And sometimes that is the case. But this PUG sucks because it can’t ever get started. The third dude that joins is still in Bree. He says he’s on his way, but ten minutes later I check the world map and he’s still in Bree. You can’t even read the Lone Lands LFF channel in Bree, so he must of read Jabber’s ad, accepted the invite, and then promptly hearthed to Bree. It takes him another fifteen minutes to finally make it to the Lone Lands.
The fourth and fifth dudes that join promptly ask, “What we workin’ on?” I scroll my chat log up to verify, and yup, sure enough, Jabber did clearly type in the LFF channel “Dwarf’s Duty.”
My god, who joins groups randomly? Without knowing why they’re joining?
These two specimens realize neither one actually has Dwarf’s Duty. They haven’t even done the prerequisite quest, fetching a Dourhand banner. Since toons aren’t exactly beating down our door, we wait while they get that quest done. #3 is still in Bree, so what does it matter.
A half hour goes by and we finally marshal forces and sally forth. We bump into a 28 champion along the way who offers to help and quickly massacre a whole mess of dwarves and collect our 24 axes. At 24/24 axes, #5 wastes no time in leaving the fellowship and hearthing without a word of thanks or adieu. We’re still smack dab in the middle of the Dourhand ruin. I guess he figured we could fight our way out without him.
Which we do. With about 50 million Dourhands chasing us. I felt like Indiana Jones, fleeing the natives for the river and the floating plane. But instead of bamboo darts, I’ve got steel axes sticking out of my ass. We turn the quest in and the remaining five of us agree to tackle the pinnacle of the quest chain, slaying the Dourhand leader. We run back to the Dourhand ruins.
Remember #3? He’s the guy that joined the fellowship than proceeded to do some window shopping in Bree. Well, we no sooner arrive at the ruins when he says in fellowship chat, “Oh, my armor just arrived in mail. Brb.” Yup, he proceeded to run all the way back to Ost Guruth to pick up his parcels. Fifteen minutes later, we plow into more dwarves, kill the leader, and complete the chain. Upon the fellowship arriving safely in town, I leave the group after saying a friendly goodbye I didn’t mean.
Across MMOs, no matter their popularity or pedigree, the PUG remains the same.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Better Late Than Never?
Just a mere year and a half after most of the WoW community got theirs, Emanee finally scored this:
What's that you say? About time? Nice job, loser? Yeah, I got one of those too . . . like a decade ago?
Actually, I have to agree with all those sentiments. I can console myself by riding the second coolest mount in the game. The first, the PvP raptor, will soon be mine as well.
Emanee is also nearly done grinding honor for that trinket. Just 1.7k left. Not bad for a week's worth.
What's that you say? About time? Nice job, loser? Yeah, I got one of those too . . . like a decade ago?
Actually, I have to agree with all those sentiments. I can console myself by riding the second coolest mount in the game. The first, the PvP raptor, will soon be mine as well.
Emanee is also nearly done grinding honor for that trinket. Just 1.7k left. Not bad for a week's worth.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
PC Piracy Part II
Bill Harris posted the second part of his article about piracy in PC gaming. It's a great read and he makes a convincing arguement that game developers need to change their game plan if they're going to stem the tide of content theft.
If someone came up with the one idea that fixed this, they'd be a billionaire.
If someone came up with the one idea that fixed this, they'd be a billionaire.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Jethro! I’m Gonna Whup Yoo IfinYa Don’t Stop Botherin’ Me.
In Lord of the Rings Online, guilds are called kinships. Peeps invariably shorten that to “kin” which is great because the abbreviated version reminds me of straw-in-mouth hillbillies sitting on their porches picking their banjos in Tennessee. Or hunting ‘gators in the bayous of Louisiana. Or having carnal knowledge of their “kin” in Arkansas.
The other night I logged into LotRO. A good chunk of my kin was knee-deep in the Rift, a raid instance; I’m picturing LotRO’s version of WoW’s Molten Core. The cool thing about the Rift is that its end-boss is a Balrog. That’s tiiiiiigggght.
It just so happens I logged in right when Rockclaw (the name has been changed to protect the clueless), a kin member in good standing, was asking if there was a Rift spot open. The members in the instance quickly responded that the raid was full.
Not five minutes went by when Rockclaw typed in kin chat, “Looking for opening in Rift.”
He was greeted with a chorus of crickets.
Undeterred, a minute later he wrote, “Are we going to run Rift again tonight.”
Response? None. It’s now painfully obvious that this guy is pissing people off. No one is answering him.
Time passed and Rockclaw logged off. He logged back in ten minutes later and declared, “Sorry, had to log off for a sec.” I guess he thought people cared. Not long after, he asked, “Is there an opening in Rift yet?”
More crickets. Windfury must have felt sorry for him because he wrote, “I pm’d them 4 u and they said there isn’t an opening.”
By this time, I’m peeing myself at this spectacle. It’s a social train wreck in the making but I can’t peel my eyes from the carnage. I stare at the screen without blinking waiting for someone to lower the boom and /gkick the poor slob. At one point it occurs to me that I should pm Rockclaw and advise him to relax before he pisses people off further. I don't though, mostly because I'm not paying enough attention in-game and I've managed to aggro an entire den of hungry wolves all at once (Using my lute as a club, I successfully bludgeon the puppies to death, but not before they tear a massive chunk out of my ass).
Kin chat goes quite for a time. Theed logs off. Rockclaw quickly chimes in: “Was Theed in Rift? Is there an opening now?”
Rockclaw doesn’t get a response. He’s got balls of steel though because he immediately follows up with, “Is the Balrog dead yet?”
Gordon actually responds at this point, surprisingly polite, “We’re still on the first boss.”
Wifezilla jars me from the Jerry Springer freak show. Unfortunately, it’s time to cuddle and watch Mad About You. Disappointed I didn’t get to see the axe fall, I reluctantly log off. I feel quite confident that Rockclaw won’t see the inside of the Rift with my kin anytime soon. Which is as tragic as it is avoidable. Being the reasonable, normal people they are, if he had just relaxed, he would have eventually been able to run it. Maybe not right then and there, but one day certainly. I’m not sure why he was so annoyingly persistent, but the very fact that he kept asking tells me he likely has no clue the bridge he was lighting on fire. It made for some good entertainment though.
I talked to Gordon the next day and he told me they eventually relented and let Rocklaw into the raid. He said they immediately and catastrophically wiped and ended up stopping for the night.
I sensed Gordon smiling through chat.
The other night I logged into LotRO. A good chunk of my kin was knee-deep in the Rift, a raid instance; I’m picturing LotRO’s version of WoW’s Molten Core. The cool thing about the Rift is that its end-boss is a Balrog. That’s tiiiiiigggght.
It just so happens I logged in right when Rockclaw (the name has been changed to protect the clueless), a kin member in good standing, was asking if there was a Rift spot open. The members in the instance quickly responded that the raid was full.
Not five minutes went by when Rockclaw typed in kin chat, “Looking for opening in Rift.”
He was greeted with a chorus of crickets.
Undeterred, a minute later he wrote, “Are we going to run Rift again tonight.”
Response? None. It’s now painfully obvious that this guy is pissing people off. No one is answering him.
Time passed and Rockclaw logged off. He logged back in ten minutes later and declared, “Sorry, had to log off for a sec.” I guess he thought people cared. Not long after, he asked, “Is there an opening in Rift yet?”
More crickets. Windfury must have felt sorry for him because he wrote, “I pm’d them 4 u and they said there isn’t an opening.”
By this time, I’m peeing myself at this spectacle. It’s a social train wreck in the making but I can’t peel my eyes from the carnage. I stare at the screen without blinking waiting for someone to lower the boom and /gkick the poor slob. At one point it occurs to me that I should pm Rockclaw and advise him to relax before he pisses people off further. I don't though, mostly because I'm not paying enough attention in-game and I've managed to aggro an entire den of hungry wolves all at once (Using my lute as a club, I successfully bludgeon the puppies to death, but not before they tear a massive chunk out of my ass).
Kin chat goes quite for a time. Theed logs off. Rockclaw quickly chimes in: “Was Theed in Rift? Is there an opening now?”
Rockclaw doesn’t get a response. He’s got balls of steel though because he immediately follows up with, “Is the Balrog dead yet?”
Gordon actually responds at this point, surprisingly polite, “We’re still on the first boss.”
Wifezilla jars me from the Jerry Springer freak show. Unfortunately, it’s time to cuddle and watch Mad About You. Disappointed I didn’t get to see the axe fall, I reluctantly log off. I feel quite confident that Rockclaw won’t see the inside of the Rift with my kin anytime soon. Which is as tragic as it is avoidable. Being the reasonable, normal people they are, if he had just relaxed, he would have eventually been able to run it. Maybe not right then and there, but one day certainly. I’m not sure why he was so annoyingly persistent, but the very fact that he kept asking tells me he likely has no clue the bridge he was lighting on fire. It made for some good entertainment though.
I talked to Gordon the next day and he told me they eventually relented and let Rocklaw into the raid. He said they immediately and catastrophically wiped and ended up stopping for the night.
I sensed Gordon smiling through chat.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Like Locusts on a Corn Field
Blizzard released patch 2.4 Fury of the Sunwell today. My download went off without a hitch. For once.
After logging in and making my way to the center of Shitrat, I spied a new quest giver. He prompted me to visit Silvermoon City and take the flight path there to the new island. I took the gate to Silvermoon City, jumped on the flight path, and prepared myself for new adventures.
Once I made it past the ocean and over land, I was greeted with the sight of swarming player characters crawling over each other to get to quest givers and spawning mobs. In some places, I couldn't even see mother earth, only gobs of players spreading out over the terrain like black ink spilling out onto virgin paper. Their sheer numbers threatened to pile vertically, effectively blotting out the sun. Which would give me the opportunity to fight in the shade.
The scene reminded me immediately of beta testing for the game, when countless players would fill the starter zone and patiently wait for extinct spawning mobs. The moment a hapless boar or wolf or kobold made an appearance, ten players would gank them into oblivion. To the dismay of PETA, I'm sure.
Needless to say, I turned in the starting quest and hearthed back to Shitrat. The Isle will be still be there weeks from now. I'll enjoy its bounty when it feels less like Disneyland and more like a game. In the meantime, it's back to PvP. That is, once I get my UI fixed again.
Ah, patch day.
After logging in and making my way to the center of Shitrat, I spied a new quest giver. He prompted me to visit Silvermoon City and take the flight path there to the new island. I took the gate to Silvermoon City, jumped on the flight path, and prepared myself for new adventures.
Once I made it past the ocean and over land, I was greeted with the sight of swarming player characters crawling over each other to get to quest givers and spawning mobs. In some places, I couldn't even see mother earth, only gobs of players spreading out over the terrain like black ink spilling out onto virgin paper. Their sheer numbers threatened to pile vertically, effectively blotting out the sun. Which would give me the opportunity to fight in the shade.
The scene reminded me immediately of beta testing for the game, when countless players would fill the starter zone and patiently wait for extinct spawning mobs. The moment a hapless boar or wolf or kobold made an appearance, ten players would gank them into oblivion. To the dismay of PETA, I'm sure.
Needless to say, I turned in the starting quest and hearthed back to Shitrat. The Isle will be still be there weeks from now. I'll enjoy its bounty when it feels less like Disneyland and more like a game. In the meantime, it's back to PvP. That is, once I get my UI fixed again.
Ah, patch day.
Bill Harris Writes about Piracy in PC Gaming
I’ve been reading Bill Harris’ blog, DubiousQuality, for years now. He focuses mostly on consoles, but he’s also on the cutting edge of independent game development for the PC. In fact, Games for Windows mentioned him and his site when they featured Armageddon Empire a few months back (It might have been Dwarf Fortress, I forget). I actually modeled this blog on Bill’s, so as you can see, I’m a fan.
Today, Bill posted a great article about piracy in PC gaming. Click on the link above and read it. I’m usually in total agreement with Bill and his take on the gaming industry, but not today. I even felt motivated to write to him. The following is the text of that email:
Hey Bill, great post on PC piracy today.
I have to say, I really see Michael Fitch’s point about pirates not counting. I can see why his development team coded the security features in Titan Quest the way they did. If I were making a PC game, I’d do the same thing.
Why? Because I don’t see many pirates getting on the Titan Quest boards praising the game for being so good. People tend to bitch and complain on the forums because they have a problem. If things are going swell, they’re usually busy playing the game, not posting about how much fun they’re having or how awesome the game is. Or writing, “I cracked this game, but it’s so awesome and uber, I recommend you run out and buy it.” How about when their cracked version doesn’t work? They howl loudest and longest on the boards, of course never admitting their copy of the game is stolen.
I see PC game piracy as a line in the sand. If it’s crossed, then it’s on like Donkey Kong. If developers start factoring pirates into the larger scheme of their marketing campaign, they’re gambling they’re going to get some kind of word-of-mouth payoff from a group of people that are, in effect, stealing. And that’s assuming they can swallow their indignation and try to “work” with an anonymous group of thieves. I don’t think it’s idiotic that some game developers would rather not make a game at all then make one and have it rampantly stolen so blatantly and being powerless to stop it.
Short-term, it would make sense to try and minimize piracy by treating them as part of your user base. But long-term, I think the economics of it make that deal-with-the-devil untenable, unappetizing, and totally contrary to the entrepreneurial spirit of the average game developer.
Regards,
James
Wherever you stand on piracy issue, it's clear that it's contributing to the economic downfall of the PC gaming industry as a whole. I can't tell you how pissed I'm going to be when I have to play Mario Kart instead of WoW.
Today, Bill posted a great article about piracy in PC gaming. Click on the link above and read it. I’m usually in total agreement with Bill and his take on the gaming industry, but not today. I even felt motivated to write to him. The following is the text of that email:
Hey Bill, great post on PC piracy today.
I have to say, I really see Michael Fitch’s point about pirates not counting. I can see why his development team coded the security features in Titan Quest the way they did. If I were making a PC game, I’d do the same thing.
Why? Because I don’t see many pirates getting on the Titan Quest boards praising the game for being so good. People tend to bitch and complain on the forums because they have a problem. If things are going swell, they’re usually busy playing the game, not posting about how much fun they’re having or how awesome the game is. Or writing, “I cracked this game, but it’s so awesome and uber, I recommend you run out and buy it.” How about when their cracked version doesn’t work? They howl loudest and longest on the boards, of course never admitting their copy of the game is stolen.
I see PC game piracy as a line in the sand. If it’s crossed, then it’s on like Donkey Kong. If developers start factoring pirates into the larger scheme of their marketing campaign, they’re gambling they’re going to get some kind of word-of-mouth payoff from a group of people that are, in effect, stealing. And that’s assuming they can swallow their indignation and try to “work” with an anonymous group of thieves. I don’t think it’s idiotic that some game developers would rather not make a game at all then make one and have it rampantly stolen so blatantly and being powerless to stop it.
Short-term, it would make sense to try and minimize piracy by treating them as part of your user base. But long-term, I think the economics of it make that deal-with-the-devil untenable, unappetizing, and totally contrary to the entrepreneurial spirit of the average game developer.
Regards,
James
Wherever you stand on piracy issue, it's clear that it's contributing to the economic downfall of the PC gaming industry as a whole. I can't tell you how pissed I'm going to be when I have to play Mario Kart instead of WoW.
MGD, Meet PvP
Don’t ask me why Archimonde, a PvE raid boss requires that raiders have in their possession a PvP trinket. I like peanut butter in my chocolate. Can’t say the same about PvP in my raiding. Nevertheless, raiders need that 2 minute trinket if they hope to beat Archie. This week’s Requiem sign-up board stated that if you didn’t have it, you wouldn’t be guaranteed a spot.
Emanee has the 5 minute trinket, but not the new-and-improved 2 minute one.
Some weeks back, Requiem made a similar call-to-arms for Rage Winterchill and the 5 minute trinket. I accidentally stumbled upon some guild PvP action, so getting the 6k reputation for the trinket turned out to be easy and fun. A pre-made, vent coordinated guild PvP session is hard to beat, especially when the peeps involved are used to raiding with each other. We racked win after win in AB. I don’t recall losing a single match. In fact, “losing” meant not zerging the Alliance stables fast enough.
Winning is fun.
I’m sure management requested everyone grind out their 2 minutes trinket weeks ago. I missed the memo. So now I find myself needing to grind 16k reputation in a week’s time. I’ve managed 5k in the past two days, but it’s been inefficient. After winning the daily, I switch to AV because the sessions tend to be quick and I want to get that frost wolf mount. Out of nine AV sessions I attended, Horde won three and lost six. For some reason, Horde struggles with AV. I can waltz into an AB or EotS and almost always win the very first session. But not AV. Inevitably upon logging in, someone says in PvP chat, “Can we PLEASE win this time?”
Losing is not fun.
I’m not sure why Horde sucks in AV. Is the map too big? In AB and EotS, the maps are fairly small. It’s easy to move from flag to flag in reaction to alliance zergs. But AV is a long, stretched out map. If a resurrection point is lost, it can take minutes to ride back to the action. But I don’t think it’s the map size because if it were, Alliance would struggle too, and they don’t.
So it comes down to strategy. My last few sessions of AV yesterday, a toon begged people to skip Bal and ride straight to AS. The one time everyone listened, we killed Van and won. The many, many times we lost, people fragmented. We never made a good push on AS and Van went virtually untouched. Alliance coordinates and focuses while Horde dithers and wanders.
After the fourth consecutive AV loss yesterday, I changed personal strategies and popped a frosty MGD. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Horde went on to win that session. Apparently, WoW PvP has driven me to drink. As long as I don’t ride my mount head-on into someone else, I should be ok.
Any designated PvP’ers out there?
Emanee has the 5 minute trinket, but not the new-and-improved 2 minute one.
Some weeks back, Requiem made a similar call-to-arms for Rage Winterchill and the 5 minute trinket. I accidentally stumbled upon some guild PvP action, so getting the 6k reputation for the trinket turned out to be easy and fun. A pre-made, vent coordinated guild PvP session is hard to beat, especially when the peeps involved are used to raiding with each other. We racked win after win in AB. I don’t recall losing a single match. In fact, “losing” meant not zerging the Alliance stables fast enough.
Winning is fun.
I’m sure management requested everyone grind out their 2 minutes trinket weeks ago. I missed the memo. So now I find myself needing to grind 16k reputation in a week’s time. I’ve managed 5k in the past two days, but it’s been inefficient. After winning the daily, I switch to AV because the sessions tend to be quick and I want to get that frost wolf mount. Out of nine AV sessions I attended, Horde won three and lost six. For some reason, Horde struggles with AV. I can waltz into an AB or EotS and almost always win the very first session. But not AV. Inevitably upon logging in, someone says in PvP chat, “Can we PLEASE win this time?”
Losing is not fun.
I’m not sure why Horde sucks in AV. Is the map too big? In AB and EotS, the maps are fairly small. It’s easy to move from flag to flag in reaction to alliance zergs. But AV is a long, stretched out map. If a resurrection point is lost, it can take minutes to ride back to the action. But I don’t think it’s the map size because if it were, Alliance would struggle too, and they don’t.
So it comes down to strategy. My last few sessions of AV yesterday, a toon begged people to skip Bal and ride straight to AS. The one time everyone listened, we killed Van and won. The many, many times we lost, people fragmented. We never made a good push on AS and Van went virtually untouched. Alliance coordinates and focuses while Horde dithers and wanders.
After the fourth consecutive AV loss yesterday, I changed personal strategies and popped a frosty MGD. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Horde went on to win that session. Apparently, WoW PvP has driven me to drink. As long as I don’t ride my mount head-on into someone else, I should be ok.
Any designated PvP’ers out there?
Monday, March 24, 2008
Fish Tales
We bought Hallie a pet fish last week. He's a blue betta, also known as the Siamese fighting fish. She's been begging to get a pet for months now, so Wifezilla and I finally caved and went with something that's hardy and easy to care for. I know Hallie would much rather have a puppy, but her mother is allergic to anything with hair. I think it's the dander that sets her immune system off. Most of the time, she develops really bad congestion, resembling that of a head cold. She can also break out into hives too. I asked Hallie is she would like to trade her Mommy in for a cute, cuddly puppy and she immediately agreed. Without hesitation, Wifezilla agreed too. I'm going to have to keep my eyes open for Wifezilla bolting from the house leaving a dog in her dust.
Hallie wanted to name the fish Karen or Brittany, but I refused. Never mind that he's a guy fish, I can't abide pets with people names. Wifezilla stepped in and came up with Indigo, which I don't mind because now I call him Indy after my favorite archaeologist. He's a pretty funny fish actually. We bought a ruined temple that rests in the middle of his one gallon tank and he hides inside it to sleep. I went to check in on him this morning and couldn't find him. The top is covered, so I was perplexed until I reached in and lifted the ruin. He floated out from the bottom, groggy and none too pleased.
I was surprised to learn that betta males only fight to the death in fish tanks because there isn't any place for the loser to escape. Normally, the two alphas duke it out until one chickens out and runs. The victor lets him escape. But in the confined space of a fish tank, it's a cage match to the death. Indy looks to be quite the scrapper. I'm thinking about taking a page out of Michael Vick's book and setting up an underground fish fighting league. I could make some serious scratch and Hallie could learn a valuable lesson about survival of the fittest.
Hallie wanted to name the fish Karen or Brittany, but I refused. Never mind that he's a guy fish, I can't abide pets with people names. Wifezilla stepped in and came up with Indigo, which I don't mind because now I call him Indy after my favorite archaeologist. He's a pretty funny fish actually. We bought a ruined temple that rests in the middle of his one gallon tank and he hides inside it to sleep. I went to check in on him this morning and couldn't find him. The top is covered, so I was perplexed until I reached in and lifted the ruin. He floated out from the bottom, groggy and none too pleased.
I was surprised to learn that betta males only fight to the death in fish tanks because there isn't any place for the loser to escape. Normally, the two alphas duke it out until one chickens out and runs. The victor lets him escape. But in the confined space of a fish tank, it's a cage match to the death. Indy looks to be quite the scrapper. I'm thinking about taking a page out of Michael Vick's book and setting up an underground fish fighting league. I could make some serious scratch and Hallie could learn a valuable lesson about survival of the fittest.
Retraction and Then Some Breaking News
Though Furious Cognition strives for the very highest journalistic standard, it does occasionally stoop for the sensational at the cost of the accurate. Sometimes the temptation of selling copy or increasing hits veers us from the path of truth and justice and onto the bumpy road of tabloid fiction.
The other day I wrote that Requiem’s Nail had an effeminate lisp that was causing him to mispronounce Archimonde. This is untrue. In fact Nail has a deep booming voice. When you hear him on vent, you’ll think a cross between the bass rumbling of Barry White and the brooding intensity of John McEnroe.
The party involved has been disciplined for the slander. Furious Cognition regrets the error.
In related news, Furious Cognition has just learned that Nail has a fetish for gnomes dressed up in animal costumes, in particular bunny suits. The lead came from Houston area costume stores reporting abnormally brisk sales of size 6 rabbit suits this past Easter week. Though not technically a furry because he only likes the costumes on gnomes, Furious Cognition is actively researching the label this peculiar fetish falls into.
More news to come as events unfold. $10,000 for the first picture.
The other day I wrote that Requiem’s Nail had an effeminate lisp that was causing him to mispronounce Archimonde. This is untrue. In fact Nail has a deep booming voice. When you hear him on vent, you’ll think a cross between the bass rumbling of Barry White and the brooding intensity of John McEnroe.
The party involved has been disciplined for the slander. Furious Cognition regrets the error.
In related news, Furious Cognition has just learned that Nail has a fetish for gnomes dressed up in animal costumes, in particular bunny suits. The lead came from Houston area costume stores reporting abnormally brisk sales of size 6 rabbit suits this past Easter week. Though not technically a furry because he only likes the costumes on gnomes, Furious Cognition is actively researching the label this peculiar fetish falls into.
More news to come as events unfold. $10,000 for the first picture.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
ARK-i-mond
Take note of the pronunciation. Nail, Requiem's guild leader, kept pronouncing it "ARCH-i-mond" in vent the other night, forcing me to nickname the boss "Archie."
Which is not good. Nor dignified. Not very menacing either.
It could be Nail is pronouncing Archimonde's correctly, but his slight effeminate lisp is making it so I hear Arch(ie) instead. I was thinking about calling him on it, but he's been a bit trigger happy with the rank demotions lately, especially since he's developed a new favorite rank, "Quiet Time."
Who says you can't raid and have fun at the same time.
It's not every day you waltz up to Archimonde as he's in the middle of sucking the life out of the World Tree. A Requiem diplomatic entourage attempted to strike up a friendly conversation with him the other night as he was busy committing foliage genocide. I think I speak for all of Requiem when I say we're no tree huggers. I mean, it's no business of ours if he wants to harness the power of the World Tree to end life on Azeroth as Emanee knows it. But out of no where he attacked us! Didn't even pause to listen to what we were saying! I mean, I was like, "Yo yo yo, Archie, nice green power stream you got coming out of that tree. Looks like you're kickin' 'round 200k btu's there. How ar-- Argggghhhhh!"
That "Arggggghhhh" would be from Archie assailing me with trailing molten fire, air bursts, and (my personal favorite) the Grip of the Legion, a five minute debuff that ticks for 2.5k damage every two seconds.
Once we figured out that Archimonde wasn't interested in chatting with us, Requiem got down to the business of kicking ass and writing "Archimonde" on a piece of paper later. As much as it sucks to wipe over and over, it's a necessary first step in eventually taking him down. The fight resembles Vashj in that every raid member has to stay alive through the entire fight. Even one death can set off a chain reaction of mayhem and carnage that inevitably wipes the raid. In between heavily lisped ARCH-i-mond's, Nail commented that some guilds don't even dps Archimonde at first. Instead, they focus on everyone staying alive for the first five or six minutes of the fight. After they've mastered that, they move on to authentic attempts. Like many Burning Crusade boss fights, Archimonde is a nightmare for shadow priests. Everyone is constantly on the move, dodging molten fire trails and recovering from air burst that hurtle a raider high in the sky, to their death if they don't time the use of their Tears of the Goddess correctly. I tried to follow my established spell cycle, but that went to hell pretty fast. 500 dps FTL!
Earlier that night, Emanee scored the best belt in the game for shadow priests, Anetheron's Noose. I consider this my first Mount Hyjal loot, since that ice cream cone I recently obtained fell off trash and doesn't count. It's crazy to think that Requiem is harvesting the very best loot in the game right now.
Even better than scoring phat lootz is rounding a hill, peering down into a plush valley, and seeing Archimonde being naughty to a tree. Requiem's going to defeat Archie, save that mamby-pampy Sequoia, or die trying. Or get really pissed off trying.
Whichever comes first.
Which is not good. Nor dignified. Not very menacing either.
It could be Nail is pronouncing Archimonde's correctly, but his slight effeminate lisp is making it so I hear Arch(ie) instead. I was thinking about calling him on it, but he's been a bit trigger happy with the rank demotions lately, especially since he's developed a new favorite rank, "Quiet Time."
Who says you can't raid and have fun at the same time.
It's not every day you waltz up to Archimonde as he's in the middle of sucking the life out of the World Tree. A Requiem diplomatic entourage attempted to strike up a friendly conversation with him the other night as he was busy committing foliage genocide. I think I speak for all of Requiem when I say we're no tree huggers. I mean, it's no business of ours if he wants to harness the power of the World Tree to end life on Azeroth as Emanee knows it. But out of no where he attacked us! Didn't even pause to listen to what we were saying! I mean, I was like, "Yo yo yo, Archie, nice green power stream you got coming out of that tree. Looks like you're kickin' 'round 200k btu's there. How ar-- Argggghhhhh!"
That "Arggggghhhh" would be from Archie assailing me with trailing molten fire, air bursts, and (my personal favorite) the Grip of the Legion, a five minute debuff that ticks for 2.5k damage every two seconds.
Once we figured out that Archimonde wasn't interested in chatting with us, Requiem got down to the business of kicking ass and writing "Archimonde" on a piece of paper later. As much as it sucks to wipe over and over, it's a necessary first step in eventually taking him down. The fight resembles Vashj in that every raid member has to stay alive through the entire fight. Even one death can set off a chain reaction of mayhem and carnage that inevitably wipes the raid. In between heavily lisped ARCH-i-mond's, Nail commented that some guilds don't even dps Archimonde at first. Instead, they focus on everyone staying alive for the first five or six minutes of the fight. After they've mastered that, they move on to authentic attempts. Like many Burning Crusade boss fights, Archimonde is a nightmare for shadow priests. Everyone is constantly on the move, dodging molten fire trails and recovering from air burst that hurtle a raider high in the sky, to their death if they don't time the use of their Tears of the Goddess correctly. I tried to follow my established spell cycle, but that went to hell pretty fast. 500 dps FTL!
Earlier that night, Emanee scored the best belt in the game for shadow priests, Anetheron's Noose. I consider this my first Mount Hyjal loot, since that ice cream cone I recently obtained fell off trash and doesn't count. It's crazy to think that Requiem is harvesting the very best loot in the game right now.
Even better than scoring phat lootz is rounding a hill, peering down into a plush valley, and seeing Archimonde being naughty to a tree. Requiem's going to defeat Archie, save that mamby-pampy Sequoia, or die trying. Or get really pissed off trying.
Whichever comes first.
Friday, March 21, 2008
I, Plumber
If you're keeping score at home, the count is currently homeowner 1, artificial geyser 0.
As I mentioned a few weeks back, that nasty leak I thought my neighbor and I fixed returned with a vengeance. Strangely though, it leaked as the ambient temperature rose and fell. The higher the temp, the slower the leak. At times it stopped completely.
My neighbor did install a coupling with a rubber valve inside of it. My theory is that colder temperatures contracted something in the valve, maybe the rubber part, and in turn opened a floodgate. As the temperature rose, the part expanded and the leak slowed or stopped altogether.
Well, as convenient as it is that summer is approaching along with nice, hot juicy temperatures, I steeled myself to once again dig a hole and fix the leak.
This time though, no fancy schmancy valve screw-in parts. Just two bare-bones couplings and a little creative bending to get them to fit into place.
So yeah, I did that this morning. About twenty minutes to dig the hole (again). Another twenty to visit Lowe's. And another final twenty to turn off the main line, cut the bad section out, and install the new. It's holding just fine so far, but then again so did the other fix for a couple of months. I was so confident though, I filled the hole back up.
Updated score: homeowner 2, artificial geyser 1.
As I mentioned a few weeks back, that nasty leak I thought my neighbor and I fixed returned with a vengeance. Strangely though, it leaked as the ambient temperature rose and fell. The higher the temp, the slower the leak. At times it stopped completely.
My neighbor did install a coupling with a rubber valve inside of it. My theory is that colder temperatures contracted something in the valve, maybe the rubber part, and in turn opened a floodgate. As the temperature rose, the part expanded and the leak slowed or stopped altogether.
Well, as convenient as it is that summer is approaching along with nice, hot juicy temperatures, I steeled myself to once again dig a hole and fix the leak.
This time though, no fancy schmancy valve screw-in parts. Just two bare-bones couplings and a little creative bending to get them to fit into place.
So yeah, I did that this morning. About twenty minutes to dig the hole (again). Another twenty to visit Lowe's. And another final twenty to turn off the main line, cut the bad section out, and install the new. It's holding just fine so far, but then again so did the other fix for a couple of months. I was so confident though, I filled the hole back up.
Updated score: homeowner 2, artificial geyser 1.
Fury of the Sunwell, Update 2.4 Set to Unleash Soon
Blizzard posted details about their upcoming update, 2.4, set to release in the coming weeks. They also included a really bitchin' trailer that outlines the history of the blood elves and their version of crack, the Sunwell. Watch for the waif belfs, but stay for the mantastic Kael'thas (He narrates and seems surprisingly displeased with his good pal Illidan). I highly recommend skipping the streaming version for the downloaded HD version.
I think this marks the first update Blizzard has done that introduces a new zone that isn't completely devoted to raiding. That's good stuff. I'm most excited that tier level gear will now drop in three sets, up from the current two. I think there was a time when such bosses only dropped one. Such injustice.
Emanee is still running around with two pieces of tier 4 and it's starting to cramp her style, so this is welcome news. Now instead of seeing just two sets of pally, rogue, shaman tier gear drop, I get to witness three.
Oh the humanity.
I think this marks the first update Blizzard has done that introduces a new zone that isn't completely devoted to raiding. That's good stuff. I'm most excited that tier level gear will now drop in three sets, up from the current two. I think there was a time when such bosses only dropped one. Such injustice.
Emanee is still running around with two pieces of tier 4 and it's starting to cramp her style, so this is welcome news. Now instead of seeing just two sets of pally, rogue, shaman tier gear drop, I get to witness three.
Oh the humanity.
Unlock the Mines of Moria
Turbine has a fun and innovative marketing campaign for its upcoming expansion Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria. Visit http://www.unlocktheminesofmoria.com/, register, and unlock your first deed and get access to a teaser trailer of the expansion. The site promises more games at the end of the month to unlock more deeds and get a glimpse into what's coming this fall.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Boost Your Prose Strength Tycho
I love the dudes at Penny Arcade. I've got their site bookmarked and I faithfully revisit it Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The comic strip is awesome, though I view it as more icing on the cake compared to the wacky antics of their blog.
Still, Tycho occasionally yarns a string of prose that I can't for the life of me decipher. Most of the time, he comes in loud and clear. But other times, he's like a digital signal producing artifacts in my HD episode of Lost.
Take today's blog entry from Tycho, the very first paragraph:
We find ourselves at Continuity's dark door again, apologies all 'round, but when Gabe's exterminator rescheduled the comic essentially appeared out of thin air. Let me assure you on behalf of Penny Arcade and the global brands we represent (beneath the umbrella firms "Brazen" and "UltraLith Consumer Lures") that we will observe our creative impulses more keenly in the future. The problem is that continuity, in its dormant state, looks like inspiration.
The paragraph refers to their comic which in turn pokes fun of their exterminator (who allegedly confuses rats with babies and takes pride in the number of days that a baby hasn't been, err, exterminated. Sorry, but I lawl'd).
But the paragraph as a whole? I think Tycho is giving a tongue-in-cheek apology for the edginess of their latest animated effort, but I can't be completely certain because his play with syntax and synonyms borders on the brink of complete and total communication loss. That last sentence especially boggles the mind. I've read it over five times and I'm still not sure what he's trying to say.
I know it's his writing style and almost all the time it works beautifully. Every so often though, I leave the site wondering what the %$*& he meant.
It occurs to me that the problem may lie wholly with this reader and that Tycho comes in loud and clear to everyone all the time. If that's the case, would someone please email me and explain what the hell he's talking about today?
Mkay thanks.
Still, Tycho occasionally yarns a string of prose that I can't for the life of me decipher. Most of the time, he comes in loud and clear. But other times, he's like a digital signal producing artifacts in my HD episode of Lost.
Take today's blog entry from Tycho, the very first paragraph:
We find ourselves at Continuity's dark door again, apologies all 'round, but when Gabe's exterminator rescheduled the comic essentially appeared out of thin air. Let me assure you on behalf of Penny Arcade and the global brands we represent (beneath the umbrella firms "Brazen" and "UltraLith Consumer Lures") that we will observe our creative impulses more keenly in the future. The problem is that continuity, in its dormant state, looks like inspiration.
The paragraph refers to their comic which in turn pokes fun of their exterminator (who allegedly confuses rats with babies and takes pride in the number of days that a baby hasn't been, err, exterminated. Sorry, but I lawl'd).
But the paragraph as a whole? I think Tycho is giving a tongue-in-cheek apology for the edginess of their latest animated effort, but I can't be completely certain because his play with syntax and synonyms borders on the brink of complete and total communication loss. That last sentence especially boggles the mind. I've read it over five times and I'm still not sure what he's trying to say.
I know it's his writing style and almost all the time it works beautifully. Every so often though, I leave the site wondering what the %$*& he meant.
It occurs to me that the problem may lie wholly with this reader and that Tycho comes in loud and clear to everyone all the time. If that's the case, would someone please email me and explain what the hell he's talking about today?
Mkay thanks.
Boost Your Signal Strength AT&T
Well, I checked other HD channels and didn't see any evidence of the "artifacts" that I observed watching Lost last night. Experts don't agree about digital signal loss and its connection with HD picture quality. Some say, you either get the signal or you don't; any image quality issues you experience can't be from a weak digital signal. Others disagree, maintaining that signal strength can indeed affect your picture quality. I'm not sure what camp I'm in, though I see merit in the "you either get the signal or you don't" faction.
Nevertheless, Lost looked like crap last night. I had never seen such a lousy HD picture on my set before that. In addition, I noticed it immediately. Couple that experience with the fact that I couldn't get three or four other HD channels to replicate the artifacts, and I come away with the preliminary conclusion that either AT&T sent a weak digital signal for that particular episode or ABC somehow messed something up.
Nevertheless, Lost looked like crap last night. I had never seen such a lousy HD picture on my set before that. In addition, I noticed it immediately. Couple that experience with the fact that I couldn't get three or four other HD channels to replicate the artifacts, and I come away with the preliminary conclusion that either AT&T sent a weak digital signal for that particular episode or ABC somehow messed something up.
Hellgate: London Update 1.2
Yesterday Flagship Studios released update 1.2 for Hellgate: London. The patch includes a number of fixes and class balances, most notably a big nerf bat for the marksman. It also includes a mail network system which FFS claims forms the foundation for a future auction house. I haven't had time to test out the update, but hope to squeeze it in sometime this week.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
TV Fixed But Now Pixelates
The Best Buy dude was supposed to replace my TV's analog and digital boards today. But after spending twenty minutes tearing his van apart, he walked into my house with only a digital replacement board.
This pissed me off for a number of reasons. First, it's been more than three weeks since I reported to Best Buy the malfunctioning state of my TV. Three weeks seems to me an extraordinary amount of time to fix a TV. Secondly, Best Buy called me last week, confirmed that both boards had shipped, and rescheduled my appointment for the installation. But the Best Buy dude only had the one board, which he claims he got just today. He couldn't explain where the analog board was, though he seemed to realize he was supposed to have it. Showing up (for a second time I might add) with only half the parts was not just half-assed, it also signaled the likelihood that I'd need a third appointment
At any rate, he popped the digital board in. I supervised. I was curious to see what the TV's guts looked like. I wasn't surprised to see its internal make-up closely resembles that of my PC. I'm not sure why a HD TV splits its circuit board into two, analog and digital, while a PC motherboard handles both. I'm sure there's a technical reason for it. The digital board resides in a metal frame and sits on top of the analog board which is also attached to an even larger metal frame. A tiny heat sink fan is connected to the digital board, its vent hanging out when the entire unit is set in place. A monitor cable, surprisingly similar in size and shape to its PC counterpart, attaches from the side. The middle section of the TV seems to have another layer of circuit boards and the far right side holds the single lamp that lights everything up.
Though he or his company bungled the shipping of the analog board, the Best Buy dude did install the digital board quickly and expertly. He never paused or scratched his head or sighed with resigned desperation. I could tell he knew his way around this stuff and he had everything done in ten minutes.
And now the TV works like it did out of the box. Cycling with the remote's Source key no longer triggers epileptic seizures. It turns out the digital board was the sole culprit and the original analog board is working just fine. As for losing the replacement analog board, no harm, no foul.
I do seem to have a new problem however. At least I think it's a new problem. It's so obvious to me at the moment, I can't imagine that I've been watching the TV like this and not noticed it before. In the HD vernacular, they're called "artifacts." While watching the latest Lost episode, I noticed that when there is a dramatic contrast between light and dark, the dark area bordering the light area pixelates. The image quality reminds me of the early days of PC gaming, cut scenes done in VGA graphics at a low resolution. It's a strange phenomenon because it's so dramatic and obvious, I just know that it's new. The digital board reset all my settings, so I might be able to fix it by playing with the color options.
If not, I'll be seeing the Best Buy dude again soon.
This pissed me off for a number of reasons. First, it's been more than three weeks since I reported to Best Buy the malfunctioning state of my TV. Three weeks seems to me an extraordinary amount of time to fix a TV. Secondly, Best Buy called me last week, confirmed that both boards had shipped, and rescheduled my appointment for the installation. But the Best Buy dude only had the one board, which he claims he got just today. He couldn't explain where the analog board was, though he seemed to realize he was supposed to have it. Showing up (for a second time I might add) with only half the parts was not just half-assed, it also signaled the likelihood that I'd need a third appointment
At any rate, he popped the digital board in. I supervised. I was curious to see what the TV's guts looked like. I wasn't surprised to see its internal make-up closely resembles that of my PC. I'm not sure why a HD TV splits its circuit board into two, analog and digital, while a PC motherboard handles both. I'm sure there's a technical reason for it. The digital board resides in a metal frame and sits on top of the analog board which is also attached to an even larger metal frame. A tiny heat sink fan is connected to the digital board, its vent hanging out when the entire unit is set in place. A monitor cable, surprisingly similar in size and shape to its PC counterpart, attaches from the side. The middle section of the TV seems to have another layer of circuit boards and the far right side holds the single lamp that lights everything up.
Though he or his company bungled the shipping of the analog board, the Best Buy dude did install the digital board quickly and expertly. He never paused or scratched his head or sighed with resigned desperation. I could tell he knew his way around this stuff and he had everything done in ten minutes.
And now the TV works like it did out of the box. Cycling with the remote's Source key no longer triggers epileptic seizures. It turns out the digital board was the sole culprit and the original analog board is working just fine. As for losing the replacement analog board, no harm, no foul.
I do seem to have a new problem however. At least I think it's a new problem. It's so obvious to me at the moment, I can't imagine that I've been watching the TV like this and not noticed it before. In the HD vernacular, they're called "artifacts." While watching the latest Lost episode, I noticed that when there is a dramatic contrast between light and dark, the dark area bordering the light area pixelates. The image quality reminds me of the early days of PC gaming, cut scenes done in VGA graphics at a low resolution. It's a strange phenomenon because it's so dramatic and obvious, I just know that it's new. The digital board reset all my settings, so I might be able to fix it by playing with the color options.
If not, I'll be seeing the Best Buy dude again soon.
Windows Vista SP1
I think this went live today, so if you run Vista and don't have the automatic update selected, make your way to Control Panel, System & Mainteance and select Check for Updates. The update weighs in at 125 mb, but I couldn't tell you what it fixes.
Monday, March 17, 2008
DirectX Update
If you've got Vista, you might want to check out this website and update your version of DirectX. I'll be curious to see how LoTRO and Hellgate: London run after installing this.
Turbine Announces Expansion to LoTRO
I just mentioned the prospect of exploring the Mines of Moria in Turbines outstanding MMO, Lord of the Rings Online, and lo and behold, an announcement last Friday. The expansion is officially named Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria, and is set for release the fall of this year. As the name implies, players will get to explore the Mines of Moria, level their characters to 60, and experiment with two new character classes. Most intriguing is this bullet, quoted directly from Turbine:
Forge Legendary Items - The Mines of Moria will introduce Turbine's new item advancement system to The Lord of the Rings Online. Players will be able to forge weapons and class-related equipment and evolve them to build a legacy the likes of Bilbo's Sting and Gandalf's Glamdring. These legendary weapons will level-up along with the player, allowing customization by advancing the item's virtues, adding runic legacies, modifying its titles and forming fables.
Leveling weapons? Weapon titles? Fables? Sign me up!
Forge Legendary Items - The Mines of Moria will introduce Turbine's new item advancement system to The Lord of the Rings Online. Players will be able to forge weapons and class-related equipment and evolve them to build a legacy the likes of Bilbo's Sting and Gandalf's Glamdring. These legendary weapons will level-up along with the player, allowing customization by advancing the item's virtues, adding runic legacies, modifying its titles and forming fables.
Leveling weapons? Weapon titles? Fables? Sign me up!
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Watching a good movie was a painful reminder that I had recently viewed a bad one.
I'm not sure if it's because Harry and company look like young twenty-somethings trying to play fifteen-year olds. Or maybe it's trying to adhere too closely to the text of the book (which is excellent by the way. Starting with Prisoner, the Harry Potter series loses its baby fat and becomes as appealing to adults as it does to kids). Or maybe it's just one too many Harry Potter movies in too concentrated an amount of time. Whatever the reason I can't quite pinpoint, I couldn't get through the first half-hour of this movie. I was so completely bored and disinterested in this movie version of a book I really liked, I wasted no time in getting it out for the next day's mail.
A big problem I have with these newer movies is the casting of Dumbledore. I just can't stand that new guy they got to replace the outstanding Richard Harris. Every time he pops up, I'm jolted out of the movie. I realize that Ian McKellen is over-exposed and so likely can't be tapped for that role. But surely there is someone else out there that can play that role without me having to bitch every time they emerge on-screen.
Another danger: Radcliffe, Watson, and Grint are getting too old. I know they've been pumping these movies out as fast as they can, but for crying out loud, I thought Ron was going to hit his head on the ceiling in Harry's room. They've got two more movies to make and I'm not sure how they're going to hide Harry's 5 o'clock shadow before the final movie is done. Harry and company remind me of the Beverly Hills 90210 cast, a bunch of of thirty-year olds parading around as characters half-their age.
All of this is a real tragedy because these last few books are the best in the series. To see them reduced to sleep-inducing versions of their literary counterparts is a poor way to wrap up the Harry Potter series for good.
I'm not sure if it's because Harry and company look like young twenty-somethings trying to play fifteen-year olds. Or maybe it's trying to adhere too closely to the text of the book (which is excellent by the way. Starting with Prisoner, the Harry Potter series loses its baby fat and becomes as appealing to adults as it does to kids). Or maybe it's just one too many Harry Potter movies in too concentrated an amount of time. Whatever the reason I can't quite pinpoint, I couldn't get through the first half-hour of this movie. I was so completely bored and disinterested in this movie version of a book I really liked, I wasted no time in getting it out for the next day's mail.
A big problem I have with these newer movies is the casting of Dumbledore. I just can't stand that new guy they got to replace the outstanding Richard Harris. Every time he pops up, I'm jolted out of the movie. I realize that Ian McKellen is over-exposed and so likely can't be tapped for that role. But surely there is someone else out there that can play that role without me having to bitch every time they emerge on-screen.
Another danger: Radcliffe, Watson, and Grint are getting too old. I know they've been pumping these movies out as fast as they can, but for crying out loud, I thought Ron was going to hit his head on the ceiling in Harry's room. They've got two more movies to make and I'm not sure how they're going to hide Harry's 5 o'clock shadow before the final movie is done. Harry and company remind me of the Beverly Hills 90210 cast, a bunch of of thirty-year olds parading around as characters half-their age.
All of this is a real tragedy because these last few books are the best in the series. To see them reduced to sleep-inducing versions of their literary counterparts is a poor way to wrap up the Harry Potter series for good.
30 Days of Night
What happens when a clutch of vampires descends on the isolated town of Barrow, Alaska just as it's about to plunge into 30 straight days of night? It's a question I never thought to ask, but 30 Days of Night manages to answer it in a very entertaining manner.
I'm not going to even hint about parts of the movie. Instead, I'll only comment that the movie is well-written, the pacing superb, the visuals stunning, and the ending satisfying. I used to get Josh Harnett confused with Chris O'Donnell; I chalked them both up as light-weight pretty-boys who could find no better work than chick flicks. I think the first movie I ever saw Harnett in was Pearl Harbor, a steaming pile of a movie that solidified my impression of him as nothing more than a pretty-boy. When Harnett teamed up with Harrison Ford for the miserable Hollywood Homicide, I thought his career over (Ford's career has been over for years, he just doesn't realize it yet).
But then Harnett made a bit appearance in one of my all-time favorite movies, Sin City, as a suave, ruthless assassin. I saw him in Black Dahlia, which wasn't a particularly noteworthy movie yet further impressed upon me that Harnett seemed to be pushing for edgier roles. After 30 Days of Night, I won't be confusing Harnett with O'Donnell anymore because he's fantastic in the role of the beleaguered sheriff trying to fend off thirsty, man-eating suckers of blood. He comes off as legitimately freaked out when he begins to realize the truth behind the strange events and (seemingly) random vandalism surrounding the town as the sun sets for a solid 30 days. Later, he shifts that panic into determined resignation. Even though I could see where the movie was headed, I enjoyed where his determination ultimately brought him.
By the way, the movie is based on the graphic novel of the same name. Steve Niles wrote that comic series, but he also wrote the movie's screenplay. I'm sure that had much to do with the movie's excellent pacing, dialogue, and plot development.
I'm not going to even hint about parts of the movie. Instead, I'll only comment that the movie is well-written, the pacing superb, the visuals stunning, and the ending satisfying. I used to get Josh Harnett confused with Chris O'Donnell; I chalked them both up as light-weight pretty-boys who could find no better work than chick flicks. I think the first movie I ever saw Harnett in was Pearl Harbor, a steaming pile of a movie that solidified my impression of him as nothing more than a pretty-boy. When Harnett teamed up with Harrison Ford for the miserable Hollywood Homicide, I thought his career over (Ford's career has been over for years, he just doesn't realize it yet).
But then Harnett made a bit appearance in one of my all-time favorite movies, Sin City, as a suave, ruthless assassin. I saw him in Black Dahlia, which wasn't a particularly noteworthy movie yet further impressed upon me that Harnett seemed to be pushing for edgier roles. After 30 Days of Night, I won't be confusing Harnett with O'Donnell anymore because he's fantastic in the role of the beleaguered sheriff trying to fend off thirsty, man-eating suckers of blood. He comes off as legitimately freaked out when he begins to realize the truth behind the strange events and (seemingly) random vandalism surrounding the town as the sun sets for a solid 30 days. Later, he shifts that panic into determined resignation. Even though I could see where the movie was headed, I enjoyed where his determination ultimately brought him.
By the way, the movie is based on the graphic novel of the same name. Steve Niles wrote that comic series, but he also wrote the movie's screenplay. I'm sure that had much to do with the movie's excellent pacing, dialogue, and plot development.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Quill Kill
I broke up a fight this morning.
I was pumping gas this morning--$3.20 a gallon gas freaking kills--when I heard a ruckus erupt two pumps away. Two dudes were going at it, seemingly over a piece of food. I mean, bad enough to fight in the middle of a gas station, but even worse to fight over a piece of food. They did seem a bit ruffled and streetwise; I suspect they were homeless and I guess when you've hit rock bottom, even scraps of food are worth fighting over. I didn't see their cars nearby so I assume they floated by haphazardly.
My truck was only half-way fueled, so I spectated. At first, the two combatants were evenly matched. They traded blows at an equal pace and took turns overpowering the other onto the ground. But quickly, one started totally cranking on the other. He pinned the other down, reigning blow after blow upon his head and torso. The loser could do nothing but roll into a ball in a vein attempt to shield himself.
Now, up to this point, I had been enjoying the surreal spectacle of a spontaneous street fight interrupting my normally pedestrian refueling ritual. But when the fight turned lopsided, everyone's fun was over. It's one thing if they both beat the crap out of each other, but its ugly to see one just completely jack the other. I saw no first blood drawn, but the escalating violence hinted the flow of red ichor as inevitable. I was on the brink of intervening.
The fuel pump jolted my thoughts, signaling the end of refueling.
Dammit! $50! That's like a premium new PC release!
Ignoring my pain at the pump, I left the nozzle lodged in the side of my truck and took a few steps towards the combatants. I didn't want to have to get in the middle of the fight, so I hoped my mere proximity would snap them out of their melee rage long enough to end the fight. At first, they took no notice of me. At least, the dominate one didn't. The dude getting jacked probably had no concept of his immediate surroundings due to the sound pummeling he was receiving. I took another careful step forward. Keeping one foot slightly forward, I centered my gravity in case things got physical for me. At this point, the jacker finally paused, taking a moment to glance my way. His victim twitched and then twisted, trying to get free at which time the jacker resumed hitting him. My sense of justice crystallized. Resolving to bring the fight to an end, I strode purposefully towards the two.
And then they flew away.
I was pumping gas this morning--$3.20 a gallon gas freaking kills--when I heard a ruckus erupt two pumps away. Two dudes were going at it, seemingly over a piece of food. I mean, bad enough to fight in the middle of a gas station, but even worse to fight over a piece of food. They did seem a bit ruffled and streetwise; I suspect they were homeless and I guess when you've hit rock bottom, even scraps of food are worth fighting over. I didn't see their cars nearby so I assume they floated by haphazardly.
My truck was only half-way fueled, so I spectated. At first, the two combatants were evenly matched. They traded blows at an equal pace and took turns overpowering the other onto the ground. But quickly, one started totally cranking on the other. He pinned the other down, reigning blow after blow upon his head and torso. The loser could do nothing but roll into a ball in a vein attempt to shield himself.
Now, up to this point, I had been enjoying the surreal spectacle of a spontaneous street fight interrupting my normally pedestrian refueling ritual. But when the fight turned lopsided, everyone's fun was over. It's one thing if they both beat the crap out of each other, but its ugly to see one just completely jack the other. I saw no first blood drawn, but the escalating violence hinted the flow of red ichor as inevitable. I was on the brink of intervening.
The fuel pump jolted my thoughts, signaling the end of refueling.
Dammit! $50! That's like a premium new PC release!
Ignoring my pain at the pump, I left the nozzle lodged in the side of my truck and took a few steps towards the combatants. I didn't want to have to get in the middle of the fight, so I hoped my mere proximity would snap them out of their melee rage long enough to end the fight. At first, they took no notice of me. At least, the dominate one didn't. The dude getting jacked probably had no concept of his immediate surroundings due to the sound pummeling he was receiving. I took another careful step forward. Keeping one foot slightly forward, I centered my gravity in case things got physical for me. At this point, the jacker finally paused, taking a moment to glance my way. His victim twitched and then twisted, trying to get free at which time the jacker resumed hitting him. My sense of justice crystallized. Resolving to bring the fight to an end, I strode purposefully towards the two.
And then they flew away.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
I Now Pronounce You Man and MMO
You may now kiss Gollum. Or Void Reaver. Or a gnome. Whatever you happen to be into.
Unlike FORMER Governor Eliot Spitzer, I’m a one-woman man. I can guarantee that if I had $80k worth of discretionary income, I wouldn’t be spending it on high-price hos. I think I’d pick up a tricked-out Mercedes instead. And maybe a gaming rig powerful enough to generate its very own electric bill. I saw a picture of the specific call-girl that brought Spitzer down and I didn’t see $4k value in two hours with her. Now, Kate Beckinsale maybe . . .
But I’m finding out that I’m not a one-MMO man. I started playing Lord of the Rings Online again after a three month hiatus and have been having a blast. That game has the same polish as WoW. And it tweaks things just enough to make it a different experience. Not to mention, the lore and game world. I mean, it’s Tolkien for crying out loud. Everything else is derivative sludge that poses as the original. Yes, even WoW.
One thing that LoTRO does better than WoW is talents. In WoW, starting at level 10 and each level after that, you earn a talent point. You open up your character screen and spend it. Boom, done. It doesn’t go down like that in LoTRO. Instead, you have to earn “Deeds” to garner character traits. I haven’t counted, but I think there are more than fifteen different character traits alone. Sure, these deeds are massive grind fests. But some are site exploration based as well, so there ends up being a nice mix. A character also has racial and class traits to earn as well. Racial traits are typically “kill 50 goblins,” but the class traits are earned by using your different abilities. If you neglect a specific class skill, you’ll never get to use its superior trait variation. It’s an extra layer of complexity to WoW’s talent system that I think is an improvement, mainly because you have to hit the pavement and earn them.
The traits have a huge impact on your character. For instance, my minstrel comes to the table with light armor. I can’t wear anything heavier than that. But, I completed a unique minstrel quest that gave me the medium armor trait (along with a suweeeet-ass one-handed mace). If I want, I can use one of my rare class slots for that medium armor trait. But since I also have a class trait that doubles the damage of my Herald Strike, I have to make a careful choice: dps, healing, or armor. Champions are in the same boat at later levels. They can wield normal shields, but not heavy. Later, they can earn a class trait that grants them the ability to also heft a heavy shield. But the trade-off comes in replacing a trait that grants increased AOE damage or a decrease in power consumption for certain class skills.
I also totally dig LoTRO titles. I think there might be close to a hundred all total. Maybe more. Right now, my minstrel runs around with the title “Honorary Shirrif” for doing a butt-load of quests in the Shire. Before I became an Honorary Shirriff, I was also a “Pie-Runner” and “Shire Brew-Master.” And “Post-Runner” too. None of this has any effect on actual gameplay, but its one of those small, fun details that adds depth and context to the game.
Now, until I actually raid in LoTRO, WoW is my raiding game of choice. Right now, I’m enjoying the raiding of WoW, the gameplay of LoTRO. For a long time, I told myself I can only focus on one MMO at a time. And for a time, I think that was true. But lately, I just can’t bring myself to level another WoW toon. I’ve seen all that stuff ad nauseam. There’s a bunch of 5-woman heroic stuff I need to run with Emanee for badges, but it’s hard to get motivated to get it done. Most heroic instances take a minimum of an hour and that’s if you’re hitting a good stride and not wiping. They take longer if you’re nubbing it up. That’s a huge time investment. And for what return? Five badges? And that’s if it’s the daily heroic. You might only get three or four if it’s not.
But when you’re leveling a toon, like I am in LoTRO, you can get a crap-load done in an hour’s time. I had to kill 100 Dourhand Dwarves for a new racial trait the other night. I thought it was going to take me hours to get it done. Forty-five short (and fun) minutes later, I had that deed knocked out.
And I have to be honest; the eye-candy of LoTRO helps bring me back for more. The game is absolutely beautiful in DX10 on just the “high” graphic setting. The Shire, the Old Forest, Weathertop, all these unique places are worth the price of admission alone. For instance, when you step into the Old Forest, the ambient lighting darkens and the trees press in. And until you get your bearings inside, it isn’t a question of if you get lost, but when. The people behind the development of LoTRO are at the top of their game right now. And there’s tons more of Middle-earth to develop, the Mines of Moria and Mordor to name just two famous places.
So for the moment, I’m officially married to WoW. But I’m cheating on her. Thank god LoTRO is as cheap as a penny-ho; no plunking down $4k here for two hours of fun. As long as no one tells WoW about my infidelity, I should be fine.
Just remember, bros before hos.
Unlike FORMER Governor Eliot Spitzer, I’m a one-woman man. I can guarantee that if I had $80k worth of discretionary income, I wouldn’t be spending it on high-price hos. I think I’d pick up a tricked-out Mercedes instead. And maybe a gaming rig powerful enough to generate its very own electric bill. I saw a picture of the specific call-girl that brought Spitzer down and I didn’t see $4k value in two hours with her. Now, Kate Beckinsale maybe . . .
But I’m finding out that I’m not a one-MMO man. I started playing Lord of the Rings Online again after a three month hiatus and have been having a blast. That game has the same polish as WoW. And it tweaks things just enough to make it a different experience. Not to mention, the lore and game world. I mean, it’s Tolkien for crying out loud. Everything else is derivative sludge that poses as the original. Yes, even WoW.
One thing that LoTRO does better than WoW is talents. In WoW, starting at level 10 and each level after that, you earn a talent point. You open up your character screen and spend it. Boom, done. It doesn’t go down like that in LoTRO. Instead, you have to earn “Deeds” to garner character traits. I haven’t counted, but I think there are more than fifteen different character traits alone. Sure, these deeds are massive grind fests. But some are site exploration based as well, so there ends up being a nice mix. A character also has racial and class traits to earn as well. Racial traits are typically “kill 50 goblins,” but the class traits are earned by using your different abilities. If you neglect a specific class skill, you’ll never get to use its superior trait variation. It’s an extra layer of complexity to WoW’s talent system that I think is an improvement, mainly because you have to hit the pavement and earn them.
The traits have a huge impact on your character. For instance, my minstrel comes to the table with light armor. I can’t wear anything heavier than that. But, I completed a unique minstrel quest that gave me the medium armor trait (along with a suweeeet-ass one-handed mace). If I want, I can use one of my rare class slots for that medium armor trait. But since I also have a class trait that doubles the damage of my Herald Strike, I have to make a careful choice: dps, healing, or armor. Champions are in the same boat at later levels. They can wield normal shields, but not heavy. Later, they can earn a class trait that grants them the ability to also heft a heavy shield. But the trade-off comes in replacing a trait that grants increased AOE damage or a decrease in power consumption for certain class skills.
I also totally dig LoTRO titles. I think there might be close to a hundred all total. Maybe more. Right now, my minstrel runs around with the title “Honorary Shirrif” for doing a butt-load of quests in the Shire. Before I became an Honorary Shirriff, I was also a “Pie-Runner” and “Shire Brew-Master.” And “Post-Runner” too. None of this has any effect on actual gameplay, but its one of those small, fun details that adds depth and context to the game.
Now, until I actually raid in LoTRO, WoW is my raiding game of choice. Right now, I’m enjoying the raiding of WoW, the gameplay of LoTRO. For a long time, I told myself I can only focus on one MMO at a time. And for a time, I think that was true. But lately, I just can’t bring myself to level another WoW toon. I’ve seen all that stuff ad nauseam. There’s a bunch of 5-woman heroic stuff I need to run with Emanee for badges, but it’s hard to get motivated to get it done. Most heroic instances take a minimum of an hour and that’s if you’re hitting a good stride and not wiping. They take longer if you’re nubbing it up. That’s a huge time investment. And for what return? Five badges? And that’s if it’s the daily heroic. You might only get three or four if it’s not.
But when you’re leveling a toon, like I am in LoTRO, you can get a crap-load done in an hour’s time. I had to kill 100 Dourhand Dwarves for a new racial trait the other night. I thought it was going to take me hours to get it done. Forty-five short (and fun) minutes later, I had that deed knocked out.
And I have to be honest; the eye-candy of LoTRO helps bring me back for more. The game is absolutely beautiful in DX10 on just the “high” graphic setting. The Shire, the Old Forest, Weathertop, all these unique places are worth the price of admission alone. For instance, when you step into the Old Forest, the ambient lighting darkens and the trees press in. And until you get your bearings inside, it isn’t a question of if you get lost, but when. The people behind the development of LoTRO are at the top of their game right now. And there’s tons more of Middle-earth to develop, the Mines of Moria and Mordor to name just two famous places.
So for the moment, I’m officially married to WoW. But I’m cheating on her. Thank god LoTRO is as cheap as a penny-ho; no plunking down $4k here for two hours of fun. As long as no one tells WoW about my infidelity, I should be fine.
Just remember, bros before hos.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
GiantBomb.com
Remember Jeff Gerstmann? He was the dude that panned Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. Eidos, the company that gave birth to K&L balked at his journalistic integrity and pulled their entire ad budget from Gamespot, the site for which Jeff wrote. This prompted Gamespot to also balk at journalistic integrity, and as a result, Jeff was forced out.
I still think Gamespot a pack of douche bags for handling the whole thing the way they did. I still don't buy that Jeff left for reasons unrelated to that whole sordid advertising affair. Gamespot did wrong: they know it, I know it, the squirrel currently scrambling up the tree in my backyard knows it.
But while Gamespot likely continues to reap the harvest of being a corporate mouthpiece, Mr. Gerstmann has moved on. To a brand new site. It's called GiantBomb.com. It's pretty much a blog about gaming at the moment, but Jeff recently stated on X-Play that he will expand the site to include game reviews and an insider's look into the gaming industry. In other words, he plans on continuing what he did for Gamespot, but without having to worry about selling out when he calls a spade a spade.
I'm looking forward to visiting his site often and wish him the best of luck in this new endeavor.
I still think Gamespot a pack of douche bags for handling the whole thing the way they did. I still don't buy that Jeff left for reasons unrelated to that whole sordid advertising affair. Gamespot did wrong: they know it, I know it, the squirrel currently scrambling up the tree in my backyard knows it.
But while Gamespot likely continues to reap the harvest of being a corporate mouthpiece, Mr. Gerstmann has moved on. To a brand new site. It's called GiantBomb.com. It's pretty much a blog about gaming at the moment, but Jeff recently stated on X-Play that he will expand the site to include game reviews and an insider's look into the gaming industry. In other words, he plans on continuing what he did for Gamespot, but without having to worry about selling out when he calls a spade a spade.
I'm looking forward to visiting his site often and wish him the best of luck in this new endeavor.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Breaking Boards
My TV is still busted, but I figured out a way to get it limping along again. Actually, for the limited amount of time he spent looking at the TV, the Best Buy dude accidently helped me understand what the problem is.
He said the TV has two boards, a digital and an analog. I assume they’re the TV version of a computer’s motherboard. If they are, they pretty much run the whole shebang. Based on the problems my TV has been experiencing, he said it has to be the failure of one or both of those boards.
Well, I noticed the day he visited that the TV worked perfectly for him at first. It wasn’t until I hit the remote’s “Source” button to change components that the TV began to freeze and reset. At first I thought this was a random occurrence, but it turned out to be a completely predictable phenomenon. The TV only froze when I cycled past the analog TV setting. If I avoid that component setting and stick to just a cable, DVD, or HD-DVD setting, the TV works fine.
Long story short, the TV’s analog board is kaput. I still haven’t been contacted on when he’s going to come out and replace it, but at least we can watch TV and movies again. And not a moment to soon. I think more book reading and spending quality time with my family was going to kill me.
He said the TV has two boards, a digital and an analog. I assume they’re the TV version of a computer’s motherboard. If they are, they pretty much run the whole shebang. Based on the problems my TV has been experiencing, he said it has to be the failure of one or both of those boards.
Well, I noticed the day he visited that the TV worked perfectly for him at first. It wasn’t until I hit the remote’s “Source” button to change components that the TV began to freeze and reset. At first I thought this was a random occurrence, but it turned out to be a completely predictable phenomenon. The TV only froze when I cycled past the analog TV setting. If I avoid that component setting and stick to just a cable, DVD, or HD-DVD setting, the TV works fine.
Long story short, the TV’s analog board is kaput. I still haven’t been contacted on when he’s going to come out and replace it, but at least we can watch TV and movies again. And not a moment to soon. I think more book reading and spending quality time with my family was going to kill me.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Tabula Rasa - Initial Impressions
I was home with a sick Hallie today, so I went ahead and installed Tabula Rasa a week ahead of schedule.
Graphically, I put the game somewhere between World of Warcraft and Lord of the Rings Online. LoTRO is the best looking MMO I've ever played, hands down. TR doesn't have the polished look of LoTRO, but it's engine and basic look are a notch above that of WoW. Stylistically, WoW is a better looking game than TR, though I put LoTRO above both once again. I do only have TR running on the "high" setting. There are three settings above that: "very high," ultra high," and "maximum." I tried "very high" and noticed a hit in fps, so I brought it back down to "high." LoTRO, on the other hand, not only runs in DX10, but does so with spectacular shadow and lighting effects. And my computer runs it on the "high" setting, third to the top. The skins look pretty cool, though I haven't gotten any real tiiiight armor or guns yet. I gave my guy green hair though. I'm not sure why. I had buyer's hair remorse almost immediately.
Gameplay, TR feels like a first-person shooter. You have to aim your gun (or blows, I haven't done any melee yet) and click your mouse each time you want to fire. Holding down the mouse button fires the gun repeatedly. Even though you do have to aim and mash your mouse button like you are playing Call of Duty 4 or Half-Life 2, the game still calculates crit damage and other behind-the-scenes stats, so in that way, it's very much in keeping with other MMOs. According to the game's storyline, the humans on this planet are refugees from Earth, forced to flee an alien invasion of their native planet. But these are humans that have evolved somehow, capable of harnessing "Logos," alien knowledge that grants special powers. During the training intro of the game, I learned the Lightning Logo. With my gun keyed to the left mouse button, Lightning to the right, I alternated between the two offensive capabilities with surprising success. TR often gives a squad-play field. At a certain intersection, not far from the starting base, a patrol of Bane often land and give battle to a guard station. Every time I go through this intersection, I lend a helping hand to the unnumbered defenders. It's like this throughout the countryside as well. You'll be jogging down the road and then suddenly a transport ship will beam two or three Bane in front of you and you'll have to either run or gun them down. It's a nice departure from the usual trash mob far roaming the countryside.
Toting guns is a refreshing change from the standard bows and swords of WoW and LoTRO. I quickly blew through ammo so I learned to use my lightning attack to soften up mobs before opening fire. You automatically pause to reload while in combat, but you can also hit "r." The weapon vendor has a variety of ammo types to sell, the more expensive causing more damage or enhanced effects. I'm still packing around a standard rifle, but I have picked up both a laser and EMP rifle that I'm too low level to use quite yet.
Everyone starts out as a lowly grunt, but when you hit level five, you have the option of choosing one of two branches: soldier or specialist. To be honest, I didn't even take the time to check out the specs for a specialist since the soldier skill tree offered machine gun training and some cool armor skills. Glancing at future tree branches, it seems that both soldier and specialist split into three sub-classes each, though I'm not sure what they're called yet. I don't even know what the level cap is, though I'm sure its 50 or 60.
The quest system is straight from WoW, EQ2, and LoTRO. Talk to a quest giver, kill boars and collect eight gene samples. There are some quests that force a moral decision. For instance, I was given the task of fetching a "coward," an alien who had left the fight as a conscientious objector. When I talked to his father, he asked me to spare the boy. So, I had the choice of letting the kid go or bringing him back. I chose the latter, being the rat bastard I am. But these quests are rare among the standard fare of killing a certain number and type of mobs or visiting a specific location on a map.
I do, however, love the setting. Sci-fi is underrepresented in the MMO market. I felt flashes of Star Wars: Galaxies while I was playing, especially when I past by the cloning facility. As I understand it, cloning lets you create a duplicate of your current character, only completely unspecced. In other words, you can redo everything about your character without changing your original. It's a great idea and fits well in a sci-fi world.
Overall, I like the game so far. It's not going to dethrone WoW or anything. But nor should it. It's a completely different setting even if the gameplay is of the same genre. I don't see myself renewing the game beyond the 30 days I get for the initial purchase, but I envision firing it back up in the summer when I have a bit more time to explore it. By then I'll likely be sporting a dual 8800 GT system, so the game might look good and play well under its highest setting. Actually playing the game confirmed many of the reviews I had read of Tabula Rasa: refreshing sci-fi setting, but nothing all that new for a MMO.
I'm sure as I play more I'll have additional thoughts and comments.
Graphically, I put the game somewhere between World of Warcraft and Lord of the Rings Online. LoTRO is the best looking MMO I've ever played, hands down. TR doesn't have the polished look of LoTRO, but it's engine and basic look are a notch above that of WoW. Stylistically, WoW is a better looking game than TR, though I put LoTRO above both once again. I do only have TR running on the "high" setting. There are three settings above that: "very high," ultra high," and "maximum." I tried "very high" and noticed a hit in fps, so I brought it back down to "high." LoTRO, on the other hand, not only runs in DX10, but does so with spectacular shadow and lighting effects. And my computer runs it on the "high" setting, third to the top. The skins look pretty cool, though I haven't gotten any real tiiiight armor or guns yet. I gave my guy green hair though. I'm not sure why. I had buyer's hair remorse almost immediately.
Gameplay, TR feels like a first-person shooter. You have to aim your gun (or blows, I haven't done any melee yet) and click your mouse each time you want to fire. Holding down the mouse button fires the gun repeatedly. Even though you do have to aim and mash your mouse button like you are playing Call of Duty 4 or Half-Life 2, the game still calculates crit damage and other behind-the-scenes stats, so in that way, it's very much in keeping with other MMOs. According to the game's storyline, the humans on this planet are refugees from Earth, forced to flee an alien invasion of their native planet. But these are humans that have evolved somehow, capable of harnessing "Logos," alien knowledge that grants special powers. During the training intro of the game, I learned the Lightning Logo. With my gun keyed to the left mouse button, Lightning to the right, I alternated between the two offensive capabilities with surprising success. TR often gives a squad-play field. At a certain intersection, not far from the starting base, a patrol of Bane often land and give battle to a guard station. Every time I go through this intersection, I lend a helping hand to the unnumbered defenders. It's like this throughout the countryside as well. You'll be jogging down the road and then suddenly a transport ship will beam two or three Bane in front of you and you'll have to either run or gun them down. It's a nice departure from the usual trash mob far roaming the countryside.
Toting guns is a refreshing change from the standard bows and swords of WoW and LoTRO. I quickly blew through ammo so I learned to use my lightning attack to soften up mobs before opening fire. You automatically pause to reload while in combat, but you can also hit "r." The weapon vendor has a variety of ammo types to sell, the more expensive causing more damage or enhanced effects. I'm still packing around a standard rifle, but I have picked up both a laser and EMP rifle that I'm too low level to use quite yet.
Everyone starts out as a lowly grunt, but when you hit level five, you have the option of choosing one of two branches: soldier or specialist. To be honest, I didn't even take the time to check out the specs for a specialist since the soldier skill tree offered machine gun training and some cool armor skills. Glancing at future tree branches, it seems that both soldier and specialist split into three sub-classes each, though I'm not sure what they're called yet. I don't even know what the level cap is, though I'm sure its 50 or 60.
The quest system is straight from WoW, EQ2, and LoTRO. Talk to a quest giver, kill boars and collect eight gene samples. There are some quests that force a moral decision. For instance, I was given the task of fetching a "coward," an alien who had left the fight as a conscientious objector. When I talked to his father, he asked me to spare the boy. So, I had the choice of letting the kid go or bringing him back. I chose the latter, being the rat bastard I am. But these quests are rare among the standard fare of killing a certain number and type of mobs or visiting a specific location on a map.
I do, however, love the setting. Sci-fi is underrepresented in the MMO market. I felt flashes of Star Wars: Galaxies while I was playing, especially when I past by the cloning facility. As I understand it, cloning lets you create a duplicate of your current character, only completely unspecced. In other words, you can redo everything about your character without changing your original. It's a great idea and fits well in a sci-fi world.
Overall, I like the game so far. It's not going to dethrone WoW or anything. But nor should it. It's a completely different setting even if the gameplay is of the same genre. I don't see myself renewing the game beyond the 30 days I get for the initial purchase, but I envision firing it back up in the summer when I have a bit more time to explore it. By then I'll likely be sporting a dual 8800 GT system, so the game might look good and play well under its highest setting. Actually playing the game confirmed many of the reviews I had read of Tabula Rasa: refreshing sci-fi setting, but nothing all that new for a MMO.
I'm sure as I play more I'll have additional thoughts and comments.
World Without End at an End
I finally finished World Without End this weekend. No TV has done wonders for my recreational reading.
Overall, I enjoyed the book. It's been awhile since I've read Pillars of the Earth, but from what I remember, World isn't quite as good as its predecessor. Where Pillars combined court intrigue, Machiavellian politics, and cathedral building, World focused more on medieval economics and the plague. The plot was good but I found the characters too idealized. The good guys were really good and the bad really bad with little nuance between the extremes. Gwenda was probably the greyest character in the book and she was a secondary character at best. I also thought the ending felt a bit rushed. The book weighs in at 1,000 pages, and yet I couldn't shake the feeling that Follett hit page 999 and said to himself, "Holy crap, I need to wrap this baby up in the next five pages." Still, I do recommend the book to fans of historical fiction.
My father-in-law left Hornet's Flight here from last Christmas, so I'll read that next. I probably shouldn't read back-to-back Follett books, but I'm a sucker for WWII fiction.
Overall, I enjoyed the book. It's been awhile since I've read Pillars of the Earth, but from what I remember, World isn't quite as good as its predecessor. Where Pillars combined court intrigue, Machiavellian politics, and cathedral building, World focused more on medieval economics and the plague. The plot was good but I found the characters too idealized. The good guys were really good and the bad really bad with little nuance between the extremes. Gwenda was probably the greyest character in the book and she was a secondary character at best. I also thought the ending felt a bit rushed. The book weighs in at 1,000 pages, and yet I couldn't shake the feeling that Follett hit page 999 and said to himself, "Holy crap, I need to wrap this baby up in the next five pages." Still, I do recommend the book to fans of historical fiction.
My father-in-law left Hornet's Flight here from last Christmas, so I'll read that next. I probably shouldn't read back-to-back Follett books, but I'm a sucker for WWII fiction.
TV Repair = Rocket Science
I just knew it was going down like this.
I knew the Best Buy tech was going to show up without ANY parts to fix my TV. And sure enough, that's exactly what he did. After I repeated what I had reported over the phone and he actually witnessed it for himself, he proclaimed it was either the TV's digital or analog board. I asked him if it could be anything else. He said, no, that when the image freezes in color, it's not the lamp. The only other thing it can be is the two boards that run the TV. That, coupled with the remote control functions not working, all equaled bad boards.
My next question was, why didn't they listen to my report on the phone, assume it's either the lamp or the boards, and bring those freaking parts with them when they're scheduled to "fix" my TV? He had no good answer for that.
So, TV still broken. Parts to be ordered Monday morning.
Arrival time for parts? Unknown.
Scheduled time for repair? Largely in doubt, though realistically at least another week away.
My fuse? Short.
I knew the Best Buy tech was going to show up without ANY parts to fix my TV. And sure enough, that's exactly what he did. After I repeated what I had reported over the phone and he actually witnessed it for himself, he proclaimed it was either the TV's digital or analog board. I asked him if it could be anything else. He said, no, that when the image freezes in color, it's not the lamp. The only other thing it can be is the two boards that run the TV. That, coupled with the remote control functions not working, all equaled bad boards.
My next question was, why didn't they listen to my report on the phone, assume it's either the lamp or the boards, and bring those freaking parts with them when they're scheduled to "fix" my TV? He had no good answer for that.
So, TV still broken. Parts to be ordered Monday morning.
Arrival time for parts? Unknown.
Scheduled time for repair? Largely in doubt, though realistically at least another week away.
My fuse? Short.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
I AM Conan the Librarian
Sensei: James, what is best in life?
Me: To fine your patrons, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the illiterate.
I've been interviewing for various high school library positions in my district since late January. The first was to open a brand new library, set to open for the first time this August. I didn't get that position, but after I found out which of my peers did, well, let's just say I would have chosen that person over me too.
But that wasn't the only opening available. My district is growing so quickly, it's actually launching two high schools simultaneously this August. That's almost completely unheard of. A veteran librarian is opening that other new school, which created an opening at her current school.
I interviewed for that position last week and found out today that I got it.
So as you can plainly see, I AM Conan the Librarian.
Now, what to do about that Thulsa Doom . . .
Me: To fine your patrons, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the illiterate.
I've been interviewing for various high school library positions in my district since late January. The first was to open a brand new library, set to open for the first time this August. I didn't get that position, but after I found out which of my peers did, well, let's just say I would have chosen that person over me too.
But that wasn't the only opening available. My district is growing so quickly, it's actually launching two high schools simultaneously this August. That's almost completely unheard of. A veteran librarian is opening that other new school, which created an opening at her current school.
I interviewed for that position last week and found out today that I got it.
So as you can plainly see, I AM Conan the Librarian.
Now, what to do about that Thulsa Doom . . .
The Mystery of Making a Difference
Every morning, my principal recruits two kids to help him do announcements. They generally help with the morning pledges, but they first introduce themselves. This morning, however, my principal deviated from the routine and asked the two boys, 2nd graders, what they wanted to be when they grew up.
The first little boy responded with an excellent, if not predictable, choice: policeman. The second little tike said, "librarian."
A librarian!
I actually broke out laughing when he said it! Not from derision or maliciousness, but genuine surprise and . . . joy I guess.
Afterwards, my principal told me in all the years he's taught and administrated, he's never had a student respond with that answer. Somewhere along the line, I made an impression on this little guy. I don't know how or in what way; I don't remember talking to him at all this past year. You get so wrapped up in the day-to-day details of the job, it's easy to lose sight of why you're there in the first place.
Today Josh gave me a welcome, unexpected reminder.
The first little boy responded with an excellent, if not predictable, choice: policeman. The second little tike said, "librarian."
A librarian!
I actually broke out laughing when he said it! Not from derision or maliciousness, but genuine surprise and . . . joy I guess.
Afterwards, my principal told me in all the years he's taught and administrated, he's never had a student respond with that answer. Somewhere along the line, I made an impression on this little guy. I don't know how or in what way; I don't remember talking to him at all this past year. You get so wrapped up in the day-to-day details of the job, it's easy to lose sight of why you're there in the first place.
Today Josh gave me a welcome, unexpected reminder.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Tycho's Tribute to Gygax
I seem to be going to the Penny Arcade well a lot these last few days, but Tycho has an outstanding post on the passing Gary Gygax. I echo everything he says in that post, most especially the controversy associated with the game and the relish I took in rebelling and playing it anyway.
Thanks god my parents were cool and never once David Hassle-hoffed me about it.
The day's strip honors him as well.
Thanks god my parents were cool and never once David Hassle-hoffed me about it.
The day's strip honors him as well.
Gary Gygax Dead at 69
I heard of his death this morning and felt like I got hit with a shovel. I've been reading Gygax's work since I was eight. If I had to list my most important authors, he'd be top ten. Sure, he wrote rulebooks, not novels. But I can't count the hours I used to comb over the Player's Handbook or the DMG. I'm saddened to learn of his passing.
Thanks Gary for countless hours of fun and a childhood full of great memories and great friends. You will be missed.
Thanks Gary for countless hours of fun and a childhood full of great memories and great friends. You will be missed.
TAKS: To Annihilate Kids Swiftly
Mkay, it actually stands for Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, but it actually accomplishes my version.
My school, indeed the entire state of Texas, is currently inflicting this behemoth on its hapless children. The Texas state legislature doesn't realize that kids aren't meant to take a test for seven solid hours. Jeez, neither are adults for that matter.
Of course, they would know that if any of them had bothered stepping into a school in the last ten years. What I'd really like is for one of these legislatures to teach 4th grade for a year, administer the test, get their results, and THEN go back to Austin to support the current version of TAKS.
I imagine it's loads of fun passing random laws and edicts, but a bit more troublesome to analyze the results you get. I know these kinds of standardized tests are here to stay, but the management and administration of these things are approaching the level of national security secrets.
And we've got two more days of this in April.
My school, indeed the entire state of Texas, is currently inflicting this behemoth on its hapless children. The Texas state legislature doesn't realize that kids aren't meant to take a test for seven solid hours. Jeez, neither are adults for that matter.
Of course, they would know that if any of them had bothered stepping into a school in the last ten years. What I'd really like is for one of these legislatures to teach 4th grade for a year, administer the test, get their results, and THEN go back to Austin to support the current version of TAKS.
I imagine it's loads of fun passing random laws and edicts, but a bit more troublesome to analyze the results you get. I know these kinds of standardized tests are here to stay, but the management and administration of these things are approaching the level of national security secrets.
And we've got two more days of this in April.
Just Like the Ice Cream Scene in Witness
Emanee got the Hammer of Judgement last week in Mount Hyjal. Some anonymous gargoyle dropped it. Which I find amusing because it took me forever to get the Amanie Punisher to drop off Captain Tweety Bird in ZA.
The issue at hand is that the Hammer has almost twenty more spell damage then the Amani, but it looks like a spinning strawberry ice cream cone. I immediately petitioned Requiem Management to keep using my Amani.
They promptly told me to piss off.
I’ve complained about this before, but Blizzard needs to start spreading the wealth with cool-looking raid gear. While ‘locks by far have the coolest looking stuff, most cloth wearers go woefully underdressed. And shadow priests largely forgotten. I mean, how hard would it be to make a shadow-damage one-handed mace that had a screaming face on the end and maybe some black tendrils oozing out of it. I've got two abilities with the word "vampire" in them, dammit, give me a weapon that revels in that. Now that would be a weapon worthy of Emanee. Instead, I have to run around Mount Hyjal, threatening to dollop mobs’ noses with a pink frozen treat.
Get on it Blizz.
***Edit: Added Weapon Links***
The issue at hand is that the Hammer has almost twenty more spell damage then the Amani, but it looks like a spinning strawberry ice cream cone. I immediately petitioned Requiem Management to keep using my Amani.
They promptly told me to piss off.
I’ve complained about this before, but Blizzard needs to start spreading the wealth with cool-looking raid gear. While ‘locks by far have the coolest looking stuff, most cloth wearers go woefully underdressed. And shadow priests largely forgotten. I mean, how hard would it be to make a shadow-damage one-handed mace that had a screaming face on the end and maybe some black tendrils oozing out of it. I've got two abilities with the word "vampire" in them, dammit, give me a weapon that revels in that. Now that would be a weapon worthy of Emanee. Instead, I have to run around Mount Hyjal, threatening to dollop mobs’ noses with a pink frozen treat.
Get on it Blizz.
***Edit: Added Weapon Links***
Monday, March 3, 2008
Auchenai Crypts? On Farm?
I don't mean to condescend, but it will come off like that anyway. In today's Penny Arcade post, Gabe talks about his renewed interest in WoW and how they've set aside their former pvp ways in favor of tackling Outland 5-woman content.
And that they've got Auchenai Crypts on "farm" now.
I guess I've never heard anyone refer to a 5-woman in terms of farmed status. I always thought that was reserved for the 10 and 25-woman content.
So it was all I could do to not smirk when I read that. I grew even more smug considering that Requiem is knee-deep in Mount Hyjal and Black Temple. We run most 5-woman content on heroic, in less than an hour, and all for the sole purpose of hoarding badges for particular phat lootz scaled to compete with the stuff you find in MT and BT. 5-womans are like the warming up you do before your big work out. There was a time when they were hard. But those days are long gone.
And so are the days when I didn't come off as an elitist prick. My God, what have I become?
And that they've got Auchenai Crypts on "farm" now.
I guess I've never heard anyone refer to a 5-woman in terms of farmed status. I always thought that was reserved for the 10 and 25-woman content.
So it was all I could do to not smirk when I read that. I grew even more smug considering that Requiem is knee-deep in Mount Hyjal and Black Temple. We run most 5-woman content on heroic, in less than an hour, and all for the sole purpose of hoarding badges for particular phat lootz scaled to compete with the stuff you find in MT and BT. 5-womans are like the warming up you do before your big work out. There was a time when they were hard. But those days are long gone.
And so are the days when I didn't come off as an elitist prick. My God, what have I become?
No TV for a Week
Yup, that's right. I can't watch TV until this Saturday.
At the earliest.
Yesterday, I went to turn on my 50" HD TV and lo and behold, it wouldn't power on. This occasionally happens, but unplugging it essentially reboots it, a technique that almost always works. Until yesterday.
After I plugged it back in, the TV did power up but froze on a random image. It then proceeded to reset every minute or so, a twenty to thirty second pause where the screen went black until it regained the signal. In addition, it didn't respond to Source remote control commands and didn't power off either.
So, it's majorly messed up.
Thankfully, I have an extended Best Buy warranty. I don't usually buy warranties since they almost always turn out to be a waste of money. But HD technology is new enough that I doubted my TV's long-term reliability. So, the earliest Best Buy can send a technician out is Saturday. And if he can't fix it on the spot, we could be going even longer without TV.
Perish the thought.
At the earliest.
Yesterday, I went to turn on my 50" HD TV and lo and behold, it wouldn't power on. This occasionally happens, but unplugging it essentially reboots it, a technique that almost always works. Until yesterday.
After I plugged it back in, the TV did power up but froze on a random image. It then proceeded to reset every minute or so, a twenty to thirty second pause where the screen went black until it regained the signal. In addition, it didn't respond to Source remote control commands and didn't power off either.
So, it's majorly messed up.
Thankfully, I have an extended Best Buy warranty. I don't usually buy warranties since they almost always turn out to be a waste of money. But HD technology is new enough that I doubted my TV's long-term reliability. So, the earliest Best Buy can send a technician out is Saturday. And if he can't fix it on the spot, we could be going even longer without TV.
Perish the thought.
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