| Skyrimjob

I will say this about the game.. hand to hand combat is insanely graphic. Not safe for kiddos, no.

One big kudos I'll give Bethesda is that they incorporated a lot of the gameplay mechanic improvements the mod community made to Oblivion.

My biggest bitch is about the UI and menu interface which absolutely BLOWS. It's a direct port from the console and it makes the baby Jesus cry.

Agricola is awesome! Finally played a few games this week and we both had a blast. First game was kind of hell to get through and we made a grip of mistakes, but after that it all clicked and was really fun. You totally care about your strange little farm :) We were playing the "family" version minus occupations and minor improvements, but I think we're good to go with the full version next time. Gonna buy a pack of better animeeples n shit cuz those fucking blocks don't cut it. Poor WoW. I played for like 2 days on a free server and had a TEENY bit of fun, but it's day has just passed. Star Wars MMO was pretty cool and I may pick it up if anyone else does, but the reality of the sitch is that it's still the same kind of game as WoW and I think I'm not into those time sinks anymore. But, we'll see!

I'm not much of a fan of the mobile version of the site. It's harder to read the blog. Responses longer than a few sentences get truncated and you have to open each one by one by going to separate "Pages". Fortunately, there is a "full Site" link at the bottom. Maybe there is more to it that I haven't figure out yet. I'm tired and delusional so maybe I'm out-and-out wrong. You be the judge.

I will not be partaking in any potential WOW fest. Same boat as fArt, sans Skyrim addiction. Not a hater. Just not a player.

Wedding photos should be in my greasy hands in the next few days. Yay!

I haven't done any Xmas shopping yet. Ugggg...

Also, I'm on my third boot drive for the year :( Second one just took a shit this past weekend. I am quickly losing faith in SSDs. They are supposed to have great reliability. Well maybe it is just OCZ's fine manufacturing that is leading to drive corruption to the point of bricking them.

D>M>

Wow, the blog is all fancy on my phone all a sudden! Something you did EJ? If so, nice!

I think I'm probably done with WoW for the nonce. It's just one too many extra time sinks and is a little too familiar now... although I could be tempted by something different down the road. Maybe the star wars game or guild wars 2?

I also keep thinking about picking up Skyrim... then I remember I also got excited about Daggerfall, Morrowwind and Oblivion and bought each only to not really like them. Unfortunately. I want to love them!

OK but Debbie Downer mode off. I think once the baby's past this current growth spurt (aka eat and cry all the time phase) I'll be able to at least do something online. I would still really like to get a real RPG together and, unless Aeryk wants to get ToC going, I think Hackmaster Basic might be that game! I'm pretty deep into the rules now and I think the rules are "similar yet different" enough compared with old AD&D to be easy enough to get into but new enough to be fun. Halfway to second level or bust!

| Haters Gonna Hate

Here's the plan:

1) Get WoW

2) Start characters on a PvP server.

3) See how the gameplay changes when 1) there are PvP fools runnin' 'round killin' y'all, 2) we actually get into an instance dungeon (which wasn't allowed, I don't think, with your free to play account) and get to see a much larger component of the game i.e. party dynamics, puzzle-y boss fights, etc.

4) Have fun!

5) ...

6) Profit!

I have heard only amazing things about Skyrim, only amazing, fantastic, redonkulous things about Skyrim but it is a) 60 bones, and b) non-mmoat approved (massively multiplayer online action team).

I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of how awesome Skyrim is.

:D

But seriously... WOW. It's amazing. /punny



I dunno why I couldn't get addicted to WoW. I actually tried to get sucked in, lol. The social part of it was kind of cool, but the gameplay itself just wasn't all that fun, in my worthless opinion.

| WoW Haters

Here's your chance to prove how much you hate WoW by NOT taking advantage of their holiday sale!

WoW + Burning Crusade Expansion: $5

Wrath of the Lich King: $10

Cataclysm: $20

Blah blah, there is still a monthly fee, but for these prices it's worth it to pick it up and then the Action Team Guild will ride again (for the free month of play, anyway) and we can do the dream (for the free month, anyway) of running instance dungeons together again! For some of us, for the first time!

Video-Gamey Week! Won't be around for any long stretches of time this week, but I'll probably be able to get a little video game face time here and there if anyone wants to play some Steam games or what have you. Just noticed today's deal is/was Dungeon Defenders for $3.75 - hear its pretty fun. Action/Tower Defense 4-player co-op jam with a fun art style. Gonna grab it before the 10am switch to whatever tomorrow's game is. http://store.steampowered.com/app/65800/ I also have had Magick for like a year now and never played it if anyone wants to try to play this week. Or even

I'm gonna order it right now! I only remember seeing it a little at the con when Dennis was teaching you guys, but it was super late at night and I was super burnt. I think I was overwhelmed by the cards, but with a few more games under my belt, it doesn't sound that crazy at all. It's about $40 on the 'zon (just invented that nickname for Amazon) instead of closer to $70 in stores, so I'll go for it. Awesome you guys are gonna make it down! I wasn't sure with the new baby being born. I'll totally try to meetup with you guys at least one of the days, and time forbidding, get some gaming in!

Thanks for the offer! I'll be around at Xmas this year, so hopefully I'll see you, either at the Christmas Eve thing (would be rad if you and your lady could make it), and/or we should have an Action Team board game day.

Agricola is really good. My wife and I play it quite a bit. The designer did a great job picking a universal theme (building a farm, raising a family) and then integrating the mechanics into that theme. Unlike a lot of Euros it doesn't feel abstract at all. It also scales well for the number of players. If it weren't on the pricey side I would just say go ahead and buy it, but as it is you should try and borrow a copy and give it a shot. I'll bring it down at Xmas if nothing else.

Basically how the game goes is you start with two people in your family and a small house on an empty plot of land. Each family member can take one action per turn. Actions are things like plowing land, planting crops, building fences for pastures, harvesting lumber, adding onto your house, etc. Each action can only be taken once per round so there is competition when both players need to do the same thing. At the start of the game, you've only got two family members and about seven actions available so your choices are not that hard. However, as the game goes more action types are revealed and you can get more family members, so your decisions become more complex. There are a lot of things to do to build a successful (high-scoring) farm. You also have to produce enough food to feed your family or suffer big point penalties (in addition to feeling a little guilty). So it's one of those games where you have a ton of things you want to do, and not a lot of actions to do it with.

The difference between family/regular is that in the regular rules, everyone gets a bunch of cards that add abilities or let you break rules in certain ways. They're a lot of fun, but it can be a lot to take in on top of the other mechanics, so in the family version you just don't use those cards. The cool thing about the cards is that you get a TON, and only use a very small percentage of some, so it adds a lot of replay value.

It's on the long side (usually takes us 2-3 hours to get through) but it doesn't feel long.