Terramere

For those who care

2006-07-18T13:54:00.000-07:00

I'm currently playing a Troll Priest on Garona. Trolls have an interesting look. Some sort of lovechild of Gonzo the Muppet and an elephant. I only realized this after, and now wish I had made it named Gonzo (just add the Westfall quested chicken and I'd be set). Mine has MASSIVE tusks, which means when I use the "dressing room" function to check out the look on rogue masks, it looks like I've hung a kleenex on my nose.

Fashion. Oh yes.

I do have amazing hair though.

West Nile is scary...

2006-07-06T12:39:00.000-07:00

Especially if you're outside as much as I am lately. However, this is perhaps the funniest picture ever associated with the disease I've ever seen. One man with a gun, one with a flyswatter.

"Come out with your wings up! We have you surrounded!"

The Meaning of Six O'Clock

2006-07-06T11:41:00.000-07:00

Personal reflection:

In the book I'm reading, Thud by Terry Pratchett, the main character Sam Vimes makes a statement at one point that his new 14-month old son is more important than anything else to him. So much so, that this constantly working (in all the other books of the series) police commander MUST be home at 6pm to read to the son. So much so that at the end, it becomes his reason for being. I know this because I've readthe book before and know how it ends, but I like re-reading.

Pratchett's books are normally very humorous, with small side tones of morality where he lets the real world slip in. They are brilliant works. This one is a lot more heavy with the life-lessons than normal, but it doesn't bother me - I'm much like that, especially now that I've evicted the monkey.

When I leave work these days, I go home to my wife and kids. While I'd prefer to relax, more times than not, I'm soon outside playing catch with my son. To him, that is the meaning of six o'clock, the time I get home. My wife tells me both kids constantly want to know when I'm coming home. Yesterday I was too tired to play catch so he worked on his hitting. He's was still happy though - Dad was there to watch. 'Cause six o'clock is time for me and him. My daughter constantly will ask questions throughout the day of me, which I love, trying to answer questions and learn things. She moves through my life like quicksilver, in and out so fast I can't keep up. They just grow up too fast.

For the handful of former raid-game friends who read this, perhaps you'll understand now why I stopped. I used to rush home and bask in the LCD glow. Not as much as others, but far too often. I just can't do that again. I hope you understand.

Flexing the Muse

2006-06-26T12:13:00.000-07:00

A long time ago, when stuff (best left at that) was different, I used to write. A good bit. I really enjoyed it, and given time I could write a good story. I'm no top level writer, this I know, and my stories often get bogged down in complex plots that I have trouble writing myself out of. But hey, at least I try, right? Many years ago I even became a published poet at one point. Don't go Googling me though, because I already have and it's not there. It's entirely possible that the book is in your public library though.

Anyhoo, I feel inclined to write again, although what about is a mystery. Writing about my Everquest characters might seem out of place. That said, they had a solid background, which makes writing easy. I was well known on my server, and that's something I'm proud of still. My writing could then take my well-known self and blend it into the given world, and people could enjoy it. My Warcraft characters don't inspire the same mystique to me, and having characters cross over from one universe to the other is an old, tired plot I don't care to explore. I shall really have to give it some thought.

mySpace

2006-06-22T07:56:00.000-07:00

mySpace is a very scary thing

I'm off to build the ivory tower to lock my kids in now...

Shameless Self Promotion

2006-06-11T01:00:00.000-07:00

Just a bit of self-apple-shining if you will, but wanted to say that I've been invited to join Ethic's group over at Kill Ten Rats. He has an interesting site with a great selection of writers who talk about various parts of gaming. I've enjoyed reading his site for the past year, and I'm honored to be able to join his team. Look for my stuff under Oz.

As long as I'm posting funny stuff...

2006-05-31T19:55:00.000-07:00

No matter how many times I see this, I still laugh. I'd do many nearly-illegal things to have a copy of the video on my PC. Backstreet (Chinese) Boys

Oh, and this website has the most amazing hand puppets ever. Press the "GB" button for english. Watch the videos..you'll forget you're watching nothing but 2 hands.. Lejo

Super Mario Live

2006-05-31T18:38:00.000-07:00

After all those things that shouldn't exist, here's one that should have happened long ago...

College Talent Show Does Mario

And, from the same talented guy who's name is apparently really Mario, Xylophone Mario

/salute

Stuff that just shouldn't exist

2006-05-31T12:07:00.000-07:00

Surfing around the web, found some things that are just so...bizaare...you can only wonder what the marketing department was smoking that day. And hope for the sake of the world that it killed them.

The Star Trek The Next Generation/X-Men Crossover. And it's been re-released thanks to X3. Completely serious. I wonder if Patrick Stewart is foolish enough to ask for a royalty on either or both sides...

A few completely bizarre comics books I was told about-

The Punisher Meets Archie No, seriously. Assumably Judge Dread was booked.

Superman Meets He-Man You can write your own joke here.

Superman Vs Muhammed Ali Sting like a kyptonite bee!

And really, the winner of all of these for me, from the same location, Superman Meets The Quix Bunny Because nothing thwarts Lex Luthor quicker than powdered chocolatey goodness!

This has nothing to do with gaming...

2006-05-30T07:55:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend managed to finally get everything nailed down for my Family's First Vacation (tm) to Disneyworld, or Land, or whichever the Florida one is called. I have no idea what kind of cheese we are feeding the world's most famous rodent, but he eats a damn lot of it for all the cash I had to pay. Don't believe the hype about "family of 4 can have a Disney vacation for $1500!!" cause it's complete bull cookies. That will get you a spot at the cheapest Disney hotel (which is one I wanted, for the record, and is still quite nice), but very limited tickets and is only for 4 nights. We're going to spend a week there, and I severely doubt we'll see everything. The cheapo hotels on-site are all booked up, so we'll be staying at the southwest resort, which, of course, is the one I'd least like to stay at. See, when you have a Mexican home, it's not much of a getaway, is it? Still, looks freaking gorgeous, and the massive pool on site means I don't have to pay yet another $40 per person to get extremely limited access to Disney's water park.

Looking forward to this vacation. This will be the first vacation I've ever gone with my family on, and my first vacation ever. With the jobs I've had over the years, with many people under me needing constant supervision, I've never been able to take much more than a weekend off. A week and a half out of touch will be quite nice. My family has been to Mexico a few times, Atlanta once, and I think someplace else, all paid for but not enjoyed by me. We'll probably drive each other batty =)

Oh ya..updates...

2006-05-25T08:28:00.000-07:00

So, since I haven't updated in a while, I should do so. Rumor has it, this is a good thing. Unfortunately, updating is near the bottom of my list of stuff to do, as I've lost most of my free time lately.

Biggest thing recently was getting our home's bathroom remodeled. Very much a good thing to have someone else do, as I hear stories of do-it-yourselfers taking 6 weeks to do this. The guy finished ours in 4 and a half days, although they had estimated 3. If he would have listened better to me, he would have known better. My kids when they were much younger used to splash in the tub, and all that water running over ate away at the floor a bit. This isn't terribly unusual. My house is older though, and the cheap flooring the previous owner had put in only hastened decay. The builder had to replace the entire floor - something he definately hadn't planned for. Right now though, it looks fabulous. All tiled up and the walls a more normal shade of white compared to the previous color. I can only compare it to baby poo, like my mother did when she first saw it. Now the room needs to be redecorated, but that's a nice little project that should keep the female family members happy for some time.

Also officially quit my raiding guild in Everquest. Much as I expected, there was little reaction. I've quit before, usually in disgust, anger, or to try something new, and come back. I'm fairly certain they are out of carrots this time though. I've done pretty much all you can do in the game and out, and I doubt there's some fantastic new thing I really need to see. I've no interest in spending weeks of RL time to get a pixelated upgrade that lets me slay other pixels 3 seconds faster. Something I've felt for some time, but finally came to a head with other issues that the guild had going on. I will sorely miss my casual friends, as they always welcomed me to their groups, even when I acted uber. I know I did, and I can only apologize. After all these years in game and out though, I'm sure they understand.

Playing WoW when I can as it continues to be interesting. The game isn't nearly as immersive as others I have played, and has obvious time sinks, but I'm still enjoying the quick playstyle. It's very similar to CoH in the game speed, with a much more active economy and players. For obvious reasons, I avoid the lore when I can. Welp, back to work, and I shall try to find some interesting articles to post.

Uber or Ubah?

2006-04-26T20:40:00.000-07:00

Great article I read yesterday about the difference between normal played characters' gear in WoW (World of Warcraft) and a "raid level" player. The points they mention about time sinks are 100% true. I've got to find the article. As a person coming off of being in a high-level grind guild in EQ (Everquest), it's all about time sinks. We'd spend 4+ hours a night for 1-3 pieces of gear. And depending on what target it was, it may only be marginally to substantial) difference in stats. However, if you sit down and think about it, the stats were mostly immaterial since we were all over the caps. I think I calculated my intelligence to be ~520, with a 400 something cap. If I replaced an item with 17 intelligence with one with 25, what have I gained? Nada. Sure, chances are that I will pick up a few resists, and maybe 50 hp, but what does that really matter these days? In EQ, when I was playing actively, the monsters hit for 1400. If I have 1000 hp or 1050 hp, I'm still dead. EQ suffers dearly from out of control stat inflation.

Going further about that is how outdated the game gets when it supposedly expands. Each expansion instantly outdates the previous content. Let me explain further. When Omens of War was introduced, it added levels 66-70 to EQ. Now, something I should say is that OoW, despite, or in many people's eyes because of, the delay in release, was regarded as one of the fullest "done" expansions in a while, likely since Velious. I remember hearing the news it would be delayed and being happy. Not just because I wanted more time to explore previous content, but since that meant it would come out with some polish. Some of my earlier friends in EQ were on the closed, top secret beta team who handled Kunark. They tell great stories, none of which I can relate due to NDAs and the like. But one thing they recall is despite a slightly rocky release (not enough product was a silly, and critical issue to have happen), the expansion was almost completely done. Yes, the final zone was undergoing final testing still, but it did exist. These days, the EQ expansion is shipped with the final zone locked behind numerous time sinks that basically gives the folks time to decide what the end zone will have. It's not the devs' faults - that really needs to be stressed - it's the suits and the marketing folks. In my many year run with EQ, I got to work with a lot of internal folks in different respects. I saw those devs as humans, and talked to them about normal stuff, not game stuff, like pizza. 20 hour work days before an expansion to try and make it presentable, and then long long days after to fix the bugs they couldn't before release.

What the suits want is a shiny box (or digital download with splash page!) to give to the masses. Fix the final zone later, they say. Balance? Bah, we'll fix it later. Let the sheeple buy the product so I can buy a new Porshe! Now the expansions are on a 6 month release cycle, with people working on the new one before the old one is even released. And after release, trying to madly fix all the bugs/holes/misc that come up. Testing is much less, and with EQ's new open beta policy, which is basically a marketing bit, they don't get quality testing done. 95% of the people in Beta are there for one of two things: 1: Reward they can use on their real characters, or 2: L33t inside infos so their guild can kill the Giant Lint Ball of Doom first and thus get fame on their webpage. That's too much noise for a normal person to sift through. A fantastic example of this anyone can see is the recent Test Server chat with the devs held a month or so ago. In this, a few devs showed up in PoK, and invited, a week earlier, anyone to come. The purpose was to try and find help for the ailing, population challenged server. Of course, Test isn't the only server struggling, but leave that where it may be. During the chat, which had people from every walk of gaming life, there were incessant people wandering over begging. These folks were only out for themselves, and figured they would use this opportunity to get something. Were they there to test, or help contribute to the situation? Nope, they just wanted the GM to bump them to 70.

Ah, well that's a bit off course from talking about expansions, eh? Ah well, they are other facts that should be addressed. Anyhoo, so OoW was released to much fan faire, and people began grinding. Except if you weren't in OoW, you gained exp only very very slowly. As you leveled up, and perhaps got some new toys from the expansion, your old gear became worth less and less. Why should you go to Time for 4 hours when you could get something superior as a group or possibly solo? But as new people join the game, they miss that learning period, those growing pains we suffered. They become impatient that it takes hours to finish a level. For the record, it took me 29 hours to get 60th, and I was non-stop killing at one of the best solo grind spots in the game. Every minute a mob dropped, yet I still took that long. Spoiled kids :) But the game has changed. It moves faster in some points, and in raids, which is pretty much all there is to do at 70, it goes much slower. And old raid content is now group content, or solo content. You didn't expand the game, you just redirected my focus. This isn't an Expansion, this is a Distraction.

Toontown

2006-04-26T20:39:00.000-07:00

A year ago when I first came upon this game, I searched for info on it. There is a dearth of information on it, and I'm not really sure why. A lot of fellow older gamers I know have played it, but perhaps they are too embarrassed to admit they ran around with Mickey and his crew. Uncool, perhaps. As we've been playing as a family for a year or so now, I'll give a bit of a review about the game, and some things you might want to know.

First of all, the game has recently entered into a partnership with Sony. Why should this matter you say? Well, Sony runs the famous MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) Everquest. For some reason, they felt little ol' Toontown needed some EQ lovin', and have dressed up the game a bit with EQ-esque things. One thing long time Toontown people saw disappear are District populations. A Toontown District is a game world. It has everything in it to play the game, sans players. What you used to see was a number next to district, updated constantly, which said how many people were in each area. This was good if you were playing late at night, say, and wanted to go building hopping (more on that later). Since you need a group for that, you'd go where people were. Now, instead of numbers, we have vague words of "quiet", "busy", and so on. What this means is instead of you playing on Loonytown with 90 people, you are in a "quiet" area. The reason this was done is assumably the same reason it was done on EQ - to hide subscriber numbers. Why this was done on Toontown, which is often only played for a few months, is unknown, but it makes it difficult to find Districts at night that are not overpopulated or barren. A population of a few hundred would be great for building hopping, but 500 would be too many. Now, they are both the same.

That apart, the game is VERY child safe. I played it first, on the 3 day free trial and then via a one month half price trial, and tried to be rude. Not to anyone, but just in general. It's impossible to say anything more mean than "You Stink!", which could possibly upset a small child, but probably wouldn't. In order to do actual text chat, you have to be "Secret Friends" with someone, which requires an out-of-game exchange of codes. Since there's no way to private message or email in game, or exchange such info, Secret Friends are usually trusted friends, family, or for the older folks, someone you met on a message board. Furthermore, if the account is designated as a child, and there is no reason not to do this when setting up a child's account, they cannot enter Secret Friend info without a second parental password. This is incase little Billy gets smart and finds a SF code on a forum somewhere. You won't have to worry about him cybering someone without your password. Disney is there to help you protect your kids, I love it. In the little battles you have, which pits the cartoon characters against evil robots, their weapons are very cartoony. Be it a squirting flower, stepping on a rake, or the dropping piano, it's all no more violent than anything Cartoon Network is showing, and probably a lot less. Even the most paranoid parent shouldn't think that their son or daughter will be out to get the neighbors after a quick game.

Which brings me to another point - protect your kids online. If you aren't familiar with the internet, you probably shouldn't let them surf around all willy nilly. I've constantly told my inlaws, who think that the internet is some quasi-magical thing, that their kids do not need to be online. Could they benefit from it? Perhaps, but it would be much better for them to come over and do it at my house, where I can supervise them. If they really need to look something up, I provided a nice electronic dictionary and a copy of Encyclopedia Britannica for their use. If you don't know what your kids are doing, they will take advantage of you. Ok, public service message over.

Toontown has progression based quests, given by people in town. The learning curve on the game is very minor, and anyone should be able to pick it up. There is no forced progression if you don't want to do it. You can, if you like, simply sit and fish all day long. Fishing in the game is quite fun. They have a bingo fishing contest every Wednesday that I used to attend to relax (don't ask, it's a visual thing).

Test rest of the game is covered in the tutorial, or you will come upon it in the first 3 minutes of playing. On a safety scale, I'd rate this game pretty high if you want a nice safe place for your kids to play online. The cost of the subscription is somewhat high - $9.95 a month - and if you cancel your account, your Toon is gone after one month. This is the main reason a lot of people play for a few months, and then leave. While some people create multiple characters, there is no replay value besides novelty. Every player follows the same linear quest series in the background, with flavor quests around them for variety. After a few months, you've probably played everything. The customer service, reached out of game, is friendly, but somewhat slow. Depending on your issue it can take a day to a week for a response. And should you every attempt to collect on a Refer-A-Toon prize, best of luck. I'm still waiting after 9 months. The website says 2-3 weeks, but the email I got after the 3rd week said 4-6, and I've supposedly had 2 more mailed out to me. Call it intuition, but I think Sony is involved here too ;)

Woo! First post!

2006-04-26T20:27:00.000-07:00

The obligatory forum reference, no?

Welcome to my place. I'm trying to set up a set of links to be interesting to the reader - mostly gaming ones but a few other points of novelty to keep you busy. What I hope to cover here are the thoughts of a casual gamer lost in the hardcore gamer world. It's an amazing place to visit, but I've decided that it's not where I want to live. Plus the rent is really nasty and you can't get a decent Chicken Fried Rice anywhere...