I Can Has Action Team?

2012-01-28T16:54:00.001-08:00

We got Enron into the guild, about 2 minutes after Eric logged out! Pretty cool game - I'm on some other planet, but still need to do ALL the flashpoints from the first place, so hopefully we can hit some of those this week.

2012-01-28T14:55:00.001-08:00

Got my Star Wars spaceship, whaaatup

Chrynin

2012-01-28T08:53:00.001-08:00

2012-01-27T22:27:00.000-08:00

thanks for the congrats ryan, glad to hear things are going awesome for you in maui. ill def hit you up when we are. over there, you can turn us on to some cool places to grub.

im writing this on my phone and theyve made some changes to blogger where now i cant do exclamation points for some reason, so sorry if i sound less than exclamationy.

2012-01-26T15:47:00.000-08:00

My vote would be for B... if I were going. Boo. Have fun, guys! And congrats, Rude! You will be honeymooning on the island where I live, which is cool. Hit me up when you guys are here! ate-oh-ate, for-for-six, too-won-for-seven

I hope everything is well with everyone. I come back to Cali occasionally, but I am there for such a short period of time, it is impossible to get together with everyone while I am there.

Quick update: Life here is pretty sweet. This is the third year I have lived here, and I am still finding it totally enjoyable. For crying out loud, I went surfing this morning before work and didn't have to wear a wetsuit, and the waves were big and glassy. I get to teach a pretty select group of students (I don't have to deal with special education or English as a second language paperwork and meetings), at a great school. I live 12 minutes from school and 11 minutes from the beach, but at the same time, where I live is vast open spaces of pastureland, so I never feel claustrophobic or island fever. I live with my girlfriend and we have a cat named Boris. I am very happy.

I do, however, miss my family and friends in California. Hopefully I can see, or talk to, you guys soon. I really don't have time or the means to play games with you guys, and with the time difference, I am not sure it can work out, but we'll see.

Shaka! (nobody ever says that)

And then there were two...

2012-01-26T10:39:00.000-08:00

A has been taken that weekend, which leaves us with B or C - which one? Need the info to reserve!

B http://www.beachsiderentals.com/content/vacation-detail.php?ID=10006

C http://www.beachsiderentals.com/content/vacation-detail.php?ID=10011

Listening to The Giant Bombcast

2012-01-26T07:08:00.000-08:00

As I always do while commuting (until I run out of them, in which case I simply weep in the car) and they received an email where the the question was posed "when did you feel like you were playing on or with something from The Future". His example was that he was sick on the couch and rather than getting up to swap game disks on his 360, he simply downloaded a new game with 3 clicks of a button and was playing in minutes. His example seemed less like the The Future to me since it sort of has been that way for some time, but it got me thinking. Here is my list of The Future/paradigm shift moments while playing video games, in no particular order:

1) Intellivision - WTF games IN MY HOUSE? And that baseball guy looks like he is actually running?!?!

2) Super Mario Bros. on the NES - WTF I don't have to go to the liquor store to play this game in a stand-up cabinet, I can play it in my pajamas?!? It's the same exact game!?!

3) Dragon's Lair - WTF, I'm a character in a cartoon movie and I'm (poorly) controlling the movie?!?!

4) Doom over Null Modem at UCLA - WTF, we are in JP's room playing against Mike in his room UPSTAIRS, OVER THE PHONE?!?!

5) Doom - Looking at a demo of Doom at one of the Strategicons = WTF, 3D in a game?!?!?!

6) Virtual Fighter, cabinet - WTF, that guy looks like a real guy when he punches that other guy!

7) Neverwinter Nights on AOL - WTF, I'm at Paul's house and we are playing a Gold Box game with Jon in his house? At the same time and using a chat window to talk to each other?!?!?!

8) Tekken on Playstation - WTF, this game looks like the most amazing thing ever (and will inspire me to break shit, but that is not relevant to this list) and it's in my house?!?!

9) Myst - WTF, this game looks like the most amazing thing ever! Is that a VIDEO playing IN THE GAME?!?!?!

10) Duke Nukem - WTF, I can use this in game monitor to control the in game security cameras and watch my networked opponent somewhere else in the game and then remotely detonate a mine I had placed in front of the camera when he runs by it and watch him blow up?!?!?!

2012-01-26T00:10:00.001-08:00

enron: Not really sure on Boobla - I won't be able to really decide till a few weeks before that month when we work on our work schedule - I'll try to go if possible, but this year is pretty uncertain.

2012-01-25T19:16:00.000-08:00

OMG Enron, that was disgusting! Hahaha. My gorge rose a couple times while watching it.

Bonjour... BOOM!

2012-01-25T16:55:00.000-08:00

So, if you look at the fine map/satellite image of option C, the distance from rocky beach to the sandy state beach for Frisbee love is about ~800', so not too far, but maybe a spontaneity minimzer. As a plus, there appears to be a large mobile home park around that distance away too. So Yee Haa.

eLzar: I think the best plan is then for us to go down together. I'll work a short day at work, CalTrans it down and meet you in SJ @ 2:30pm on Thursday.

Pump: Well, let's see how Blackheart weighs in on Koobla.

r00d: Are you thinking BooblaCon is in the future this year. I know that starts to get close to your wedding date.

jr0n: Gross. Did you try making a candle? Check this bad boy out... Comedy gold at 0:37-1:08.

D>M>

2012-01-25T08:07:00.000-08:00

I can come Thur at anytime!

All of the Above

2012-01-25T07:02:00.001-08:00

I sent some email to the rental lady asking about the availability of all 3 - waiting to hear back. They are all the same price, so I think that it just comes down to a) which is available, b) which Rudy wants, c) which the Action Team wants.

I think C actually has the least amount of non-floor sleeping options.

'A' has 6 beds, 2 'day beds' in the sun room, and looks to be the most remote (a good thing), but not a great looking Frisbee beach.

'B' has 3 beds and 4 bunk beds (yikes), but looks to be close to the northern neighbor.

'C' has 4 beds, and the best Frisbee beach.

-----------------------------

18 miles southeast of Cayucos is SLO, and they have a Costco - so if Enron meets me in SJ on Thursday ~2:30, we can drive to SLO, and hit Costco on the way in to town.

--------------------------------

Peeps so far:

Norcal:

- Eric: driving to CabinCon Thursday 2:30, shopping at Costco in SLO before arrival
- Enron: possibly taking train to SJ Thursday, will drive with Eric.
- Jon: driving town Friday
- Mike: TBD

SoCal:

- Rudy: TBD
- Denis: TBD
- Peter: TBD
- Johnny: TBD
- DaveDefeat: KIA

2012-01-25T04:14:00.000-08:00

I'm really starting to like A and B over C... but honestly, they all look like they'd be awesome and barring some freak storm, we'd have immediate access to prime frisbee/boomerang action (I got one of those crazy triangular soft boomerangs - works awesome but it's also like super scary and violent) - Bummer no D. Defeat but sounds like enough of us will be able to have a pre-con thur night which would rock. I already told my coworker about the wedding, so the seed is planted for "need this weekend off".

2012-01-25T00:34:00.000-08:00

I'm all in for the Cons.

KublaCon - Depending if Blacqueheart is going, maybe Thurs night arrival at the earliest.

CabinCon - All the houses look good. I defer to better judgements than mine. All I need is a spot to sleep and two daily hours of bathroom time. I may be able to pull off Thurs afternoon at the earliest. I'm open to any carpooling arrangements as well.

2012-01-24T22:34:00.001-08:00

That's a lot of wax! Do you not use q-tips or anything? Or is that some next-level wax shit?

Just because

2012-01-24T22:16:00.000-08:00

I've been having some ear pain lately. Was worried it might be infected so I went to the doctor. She thinks it's just fluid in my sinuses and I got some spray for my nose and some sudafed. Anyway that's not the point. The point is that she couldn't initially see inside my ear canal due to all the wax so she had a nurse clean it out. The nurse blasted the shit out of my ear canal with some serious water pressure and then pulled out, in three chunks, a tube of earwax that was half an inch thick, and two inches long!

Barrrrrf!

2012-01-24T21:48:00.000-08:00

I will definitely be a Thursday attendee for Kooky-Con! That's my regular day off - the only thing I need to request is that Saturday night off, and I'm sure if I plead "bachelor party" I'll get it. Kubla, I'm not so sure if I'll be able to swing it this year. If I did, I'd probably only be able to fly up for a Thur-Sat trip, but I won't really know till closer to the event.

Welcome back Johnny! Yikes man, you went MIA! Glad to hear you're still in business and doing okay - email me your mailing address when you get a chance!

All the beach houses were too-awesome-to-be-true, so whichever we end up getting I'm sure will be rad. What if that town is another Salton Sea - super methed-out! That's why we've never heard about it...

2012-01-24T17:44:00.001-08:00

I think I was the only one with Kubla problems this year? I think this year my attendance will be a bit limited. I might just be in for a day visit -- I'll see though.

As for CabinCon, I am probably a Friday night arrival since I can't take Thursday off to ride in the MGU, and will need the car Friday to pick up the kid from day care before I can drive down. Note: I will also drop the kid off at home before driving down. I am pretty sure this event will have raw language. I may be able to work something out to drive down earlier in the day on Friday though, I'll see what I can do!

WHAT

2012-01-24T17:38:00.001-08:00

is your favorite color?

2012-01-24T17:37:00.001-08:00

Tools are Cools yo.

WHAT

2012-01-24T17:36:00.001-08:00

IS

YOUR

CHARACTERS

NAME

,

YOU

TOOL

Bits of Bits

2012-01-24T17:33:00.000-08:00

eLzar is on it like a Bonnet. I just asked for time off (Thursday and Friday)... approved! I'm in it to win it.

eLzar, you are heading down the afternoon of Thursday I believe. What is the intention of the rest of you punks. Obviously, I am vehicularly challenged, so I need to plan accordingly. Plus, I would like to be involved in the grocery shopping. That way I can make more delicious bits.

I spoke with DaveDefeat and it looks like he is out for both CayuKon 2012 and probably BooblaCon 2012. He has some expenses coming up that are restricting his cash flow. Speaking of BooblaCon, what is everyone's opinion on it this year? I am willing, but I know that it may be a tough sale for some of you jArks. Please let me know what your estimated intentions are so I can plan accordingly.

I think either option A or C for the CayuKon 2012 house look good. I think A is better for layout and sleeping quarters, plus it is a tad more interesting in the ocean view department. That's just two cents. E is awesome, but us poor blokes are not like to afford those snazzy diggs.

SWTOR goes okay for me. Still struggling in combat with the key bindings and third person mouse interface. It's especially problematic when I get cornered and jammed in a scrum by those brutish Gundaks. I hit level 11 last night and will hopefully be plopped on Coruscant after I tie up the last couple of loose ends on Ord Mantell. Yay me.

D>M>

2012-01-24T17:13:00.000-08:00

Yo guys, sorry, i haven't checked anything for a long time including my gmail account. Will check the email and get back to you rudez.

Been trying to figure out importing./exporting Red wine to China ---- Yes another crazy schem-atic. But anyways, cool, that's what i'm up to lately...

overz n outz, still here though. Not in the philippines!

Johnny

Already on it

2012-01-24T06:36:00.001-08:00

:)

Sending emails, gettin paperworx, should have some more info soon, yo.

2012-01-24T03:52:00.000-08:00

Regarding sick Beach Rentals for CayuKon 2012: "Nightly rates apply only in winter season (three night minimum); during the Summer Season ( 5/27/11 to 9/06/11 ) rentals are on weekly basis only; Friday to Friday or Saturday to Saturday or Sunday to Sunday. "'

Which means we won't have to be grabbing a spot for an entire week because we'll still be in "winter" - that's fucking awesome! Let's get an awesome beach side spot! (And then sit in a dark house playing Settlers of Caanan) Where the heck is Johnny? Emailed him a few times with no replizzle.

2012-01-24T02:06:00.000-08:00

Games Stuff: I am probably gonna have to try out playing a Jedi soon because I was working through some shitty grindy quest area today and a Jedi just flew into my area and rocked those dudes. It looked so awesome. Then there I am, pew pewing, all stiff and awkward. I might just need to figure out my class more, but damn, those Jedi look fun.

Have you guys played the Mass Effect games? This is basically Mass Effect with MMO combat instead of semi-shooter/rpg combat. I like it because of that, but it's also so funny how every Bioware game is SO similar! The smuggler storyline I hear is the sillier of the classes, so it's totally like a bunch of Mass Effect side missions. I hope the Bioware uncomfortable sex-scenes make it into this.

2012-01-24T01:03:00.000-08:00

I will be there! I'll try to go to sleep a little earlier in the morning because lately I'm just waking up for work around 9pm - but tomorrow is also my Friday, so I don't really care if I'm a little tired. Fun times.

Hope everyone wants to/can to go to Cayuco-con! Someone pick up Risk Legacy and we'll create the game over the weekend.

Let's do this!

2012-01-23T22:24:00.000-08:00

Tuesday night, eight o' clock, let's meet up online and take an hour or two to build characters!

Beforehand, check out the shared doc "Earthdawn Campaign Intro." It's got some background on your home that is pretty darn well written if I do say so myself.

There is also an editable pdf character sheet you can download. The weird thing about it is I can edit and save it using Preview but not with Reader. So, if you've got a pdf-viewing alternative to Reader, that would be thuper!

Peter "Blackheart" is also playing, but he can't make tomorrow night so I guess he's on his own.

Balls!

2012-01-23T13:56:00.000-08:00

Yeah but I'm tired of all the nut sweat.

2012-01-23T13:51:00.001-08:00

You play with no underwear?

2012-01-23T13:18:00.000-08:00

I vote we take it to the limit! Whatever that means.

This is looking to be a good year for bromance/camaraderie in general since we got the CabinCon, we have a crew together for GenCon, we have the MMO thing and (hopefully?) the online tabletop thing. Hooray for friendship! We should schedule an end of year drunken ManCon in the Embassy Suites near where I live for good measure. The BART tracks go right by the windows.

Aeryk - are you going to stick with your Guardian? If so I will probably switch over to my Jedi Knight and tank. I think I'm getting a little tired of the Commando playstyle.

2012-01-23T11:31:00.000-08:00

C is probably my "affordable" favorite, but D and E are pretty insane. Not sure what constiutes the cutoff for winter/summer because I think the summer deals are you have to rent for the entire week while winter is 3 nights. I'll bring lots of 2-player games because it looks like it's Rudy/Eric-in-big-beach-mansion-Con... *hey buddy, want a little foood?*

There were some other spots I scoped out from a different site I'll dig up tonight - pretty good prices - not as pimp as these though.

Cayucos CabinCon II

2012-01-23T09:17:00.000-08:00

Dope:

A http://www.beachsiderentals.com/content/vacation-detail.php?ID=10003

B http://www.beachsiderentals.com/content/vacation-detail.php?ID=10006

C http://www.beachsiderentals.com/content/vacation-detail.php?ID=10011

D http://www.cayucosvacationrentals.com/single/974pacific.htm

E (probably not priced right, but OMG) http://www.cayucosvacationrentals.com/single/magnificent.htm

Thoughts?

MORESWTORLUV

2012-01-23T08:30:00.000-08:00

I'm liking it more and more as I play, which is not necessarily a good thing for my already sleep-starved ass.

Just took a Jedi Consular to level 10, and went the Sage route to be healbot and the journey was a blast! The starting zone (Tythos?) is totally different from Ord Mandell (my Trooper) and the story was totally different (of course) and it was a lot of fun. And man, my companion is AWESOME. He's basically a tank and does a pretty good job of holding threat and even pulling adds off of me when they split! He frees me up to just throw attack powers and not fear for getting smacked around too much.

I like the Sage abilities so far, which is only ONE specific to the Sage at level 10 - the healing power. However, the other powers I have help with crowd control - I can stun for 4 seconds, levitate and take a mob out of action for 8 seconds, I can slow movement for 5 seconds and I can AOE 'splode which sends mobs back 10 meters (I think) and stun them for 3 seconds. So, imma healing and crowd controlling sort of healer.

And the thrill of finally crafting my lightsaber? I felt like I was 8 years old again.

Good times!

2012-01-22T13:32:00.000-08:00

I was so pressed for time, in the end I'm kinda glad you flushed those dudes out the airlock. At the end, I was SO tempted to make the choice of killing/leaving that lady, but I gave in to my Little Goody Two-Shoes instincts.

2012-01-22T10:51:00.001-08:00

Yeah! I was a little disappointed in my character as well. I was curious to see what would happen, but also hoped one of you other guys would win the roll to speak... sorry engineers! :) Rude - when we did that flashpoint before of course we picked the choice that let the engineers live, and we had to do a small side-quest that probably took 10 minutes to accomplish what we did immediately by flushing the airlock. So there really are consequences to that choice: pretty cool.

SWTOR: Guildz

2012-01-22T08:32:00.000-08:00

Almost right after you logged off Rudy I ran to my trainer in the spaceport to level up and right next to him was the guildmaster - totally only need 4 people total in a party to start the guild! If nothing else, we should set a time for us to all log on for 1 minute, then I'll fireup the guild (I think I have enough spacebucks) and then PROFIT!

The flashpoint was TOTALLY FUN! I really like the dialog tree aspect and that we each roll to see who actually gets to speak on what part. Yeah, I was totally mortified when given the option to re-route some power in the ship to save all the engineering staff, or blow them out of the airlock to save time, jr0n chose to blow them out into the freezing comforts of deep space. Mortified! I really did feel a sense of loss afterward, particularly when the game brought it up later as a painful reminder of "our" decision! Watch yo back when Bahn-mi (jr0n) is 'healing' your party :)

Get your WASD practice on, Enron, there is too much fun to be had!

And put your WoW account on hold for the month Myke, get in on this!

2012-01-22T01:48:00.000-08:00

I was looking it up, and you only need 4 dudes to make a guild in Star Wars. You have to be in a full party and talk to some dude and it's 5k space bux. I don't know where he's at (somewhere near the Senate tower says ye olde intranet) but it should be doable! Comeon, we gotta run this shit into the ground before the 1st month is up!

2012-01-22T00:43:00.000-08:00

Played the first Star Wars dungeon with Eric and Jon tonight and that was way too much fun. Sucked that it ran a little long for the time I had (got to work on time in the end), but it never felt like it was dragging or anything. I think the best part of it is the peanut gallery aspect since you can make fun of the awkward dialog and silly glitches that are ALWAYS present in every Bioware game for some reason. Also, since it rolls to see who's dialog choice happens, of course Jon won one of the major decisions and totally killed a bunch of innocent dudes for NO GOOD REASON! I was so shocked and hurt. Fun times.

2012-01-21T08:32:00.000-08:00

Picked up SWTOR and played a bunch yesterday. Fun stuff, they polished it up from the Beta. Made a smuggler/scoundrel up to level 11 and then had to stop due to bleeding eye syndrome. I'm on the same server, name is Dolf. I send most of you in game mails.

I can understand how the control scheme might be killing you enron - its been around for ages, but if you havent played a bunch of games like that, it's probably gonna feel very off.

PRO-TIP: num-lock key makes your guy auto-move forward until you hit it again or one of the wasd keys. So for long runs/travel, just hit numlock and then steer with the mouse and right mouse button. (This worked in WoW too)

Pro Tipage

2012-01-19T19:55:00.000-08:00

I forget my name. Its not one of my typical monikers. I will let you know as soon as I log in next.

Re: Pro Tip I: I have used the right click mouse pointer combo, to some success. I'm still experimenting with that one, hoping I can get used to it. I'm still spastic that way. I have not tried the right/left click and point yet. I'll give that a whirl.

Re: Pro Tip II: Yeah, the frenetic came when I got myself surrounded by 5-6 AI plus AI robot and proceeded to get my ass handed to me on several occasions. In trying to run out of the combat, I get off key, and frenetic ensues as I try to survive. More my panic + key binding than the combat itself was frenetic.

Re: Pro Tip III: I though it might be the Windows key the first two times, but the next one I didn't even have my hand on the keyboard, only my mouse. Besides I moved the commands over to the right side of the keyboard. This one is the most perplexing issues. Will research.

D>M>

What's your name, little boy?

2012-01-19T17:34:00.000-08:00

Tell us your character name (and class) and we can help!

If any of us MMO vets are on I'm sure everyone would be willing to help out with pro tipz, interface issues, key bindings, etc.

I should be on tonight and am itching to get these flashpoints and group heroics off my quest log! I even have a 4 person recommended heroics - c'mon Action Team, everyone log on at once so I don't have to group with any strangers! Although, so far, everyone I have met seems pretty nice.

I dinged 15 today, btw. Leveling is totally like old school WoW, in so far as it seems to be much slower than current WoW. Seems weird.

PRO TIP: Have you tried using your mouse for all movement and facing, while using your Q/E buttons for sidestepping? If you hold both mouse buttons down you will move forward and as you move the mouse, your direction will follow the mouse. I most often use both mouse buttons, Q/E for sidestepping, and S for backing up. (I think. It has become such second nature to me, I question my ability to describe it here...)

PRO TIP II: MOST combat in MMO's shouldn't be as frenetic as you describe (PvP aside). Most combats in MMO's are about the rotation of abilities, targeting bad guys, and figuring out which abilities have synergy with one another, etc. MOST of the time you can just stand there and press the attack buttons, not the movement buttons.

PRO TIP III: You might be hitting the Windows key during your button-mashing which will drop you to the desktop. It is in the worst place possible for playing a WASD game, ever.

SWATORBUST

2012-01-19T17:00:00.000-08:00

Okay, I have played SWTOR for several hours over the past few days and I am not going to lie, I am more than a little frustrated. I am really trying to get over the hump, but struggle with the typical MMORPG 3rd person issue that really presents a problem for me... Movement and limitations to mouse/key binding combinations.

I am an odd duck when it comes to key bindings. I can not use WASD to save my life. I end up all over the keys, especially at stressful combat points, and lose my place a lot. Hence the reason I still type with my eyes regularly on the keyboard. Well, most of the time that is fine and the key bindings can be adjusted to work with my style, but with SWTOR moving the mouse moves the camera POV, not the character's orientation. Using the keys ends up being a button mashing horror show and usually ends with me side stepping for 100 yards, trying to crab out of combat, while being pelt with laser blast, totally disoriented. I will try again tonight or tomorrow and being optimistic. I hope I didn't burn $75 needlessly.

Also, SWTOR really likes to dump me to my desktop periodically while the game is still running. This usually ends badly with me shot dead while waiting for the 3D engine to reinitialize the scene. I have never had this issue before in other games and I haven't figured out if their is a fix. Maybe it is a bug that EA hasn't sussed out yet...

The final straw last night was when I tried to chat with eLzar. I could look him up, add him as a friend, type a whisper, only to find, I cannot send the comment. Why? Well and don't seem to work in the chat window. Maybe I'm dumb. I'll have to look for solutions on that as well.

D>M>

2012-01-19T14:15:00.000-08:00

I didn't play Tuesday, was rocking' some tabletop action. I was on last night from like 9-10, so it sounds like we all played, just not simultaneously.

Earthdawn! Character creation Tuesday at eight or so. Be there if you kaer!*

* A kaer is an underground shelter people have hidden in for the 400 years of the Scourge**

** The Scourge was the period when the magic level rose to dangerously high levels, allowing the Horrors*** to lay waste to the Earth.

*** The Horrors are monsters from the depths of Astral Soace who prey on the fear, hatred, or flesh of Namegivers****.

**** Sentient beings are called Namegivers because they have the ability to name places, things, and other living things, increasing their magical potential.

See, Earthdawn jokes can be funny!

2012-01-19T13:44:00.000-08:00

Ha ha! For a second I thought it was a map of a dungeon in SWTOR.

I've been logging in kinda late. As in around midnight. Been playing way too late. Come the weekend, I'll be logged in the whole day... err, I mean I should be on normal people time.

SWTOR is dead, long live SWTOR

2012-01-19T07:57:00.000-08:00

Where is everybody? I haven't seen any of my "friends" log in in some time... or they just created new characters and switched servers on me....

I just dinged 14 and finally see some abilities that speak to my tanking-ness, FYI. Patience, Theride-san.

And here is a network diagram that was sent to me at work when I asked my 'technical contact' in a group I HAVE to work with for detailed information regarding their VPN configuration:

This is one of the most awe inspiring pieces of garbage I have ever set my eyes on. And no, this is not a joke, and no Wylie didn't actually draw this. The dude who sent me this is the worst ever. Ever. EVER. All he does is make things more difficult for the world and filibuster meetings that are urgent and require his teams action.

My favorite part is the red dot. It serves no function at all, but there it is.

Shoot me.

2012-01-18T14:06:00.000-08:00

More SWTOR to drive everyone else off the blog.

I got that WoW crackhead twitch with this game as soon as I found out I could craft lightsabers aaaand everyone gets a spaceship. It's basically a flying house/bank/instance. There's even talk of implementing guild capital ships (star destroyers!). I still don't know what I'm doing. Did level up past the newbie area and chose the Jedi shadow (thief?). Did it mostly to get the double lightsaber.

Of course the day I found out about this, their servers are down for an update. Talk about kicking a junkie in the face.

Wiz-War

2012-01-18T09:50:00.000-08:00

I have very fond memories of Wiz-War, because it the first game Aeryk explained to me at the first con we attended with those class of '93 dudes. I remember sitting in the hotel room and Aeryk showing me the Democratic Monster . I think id probably rather bust out that copy han buy the new one - love the crappy but charming art.

2012-01-18T09:18:00.000-08:00

Ya, I'll probably buy it this week and get to play it Friday! I heard that there's a big patch due this week or "very soon" that should address some of the apparent early problems, but who knows. I think when I was a smuggler I had some kind of "threat" power, but I don't remember what my role was even supposed to be. Oh, I think it was a threat reduction skill actually, so that felt very WoW, but when playing Solo, not point in losing threat. ANYWAYS, ya, I'll probably buy it for Friday.

The rules are out for the new Wiz War! I don't remember if it was Jon/Paul that was always pushing it, or JP era group, but I remember the little box and that it was random but fun. New one looks cool - don't think I'll buy it, but would definitely jump at the chance to try it out. Does anyone remember og-wiz war? Is it basically the same, sans the nicer components?

SWTOR: A Non-Comprehensive Review Up to Level 13

2012-01-18T08:15:00.001-08:00

Not even a review, really, just some points of interest. And really, who is the intended audience here? Enron and Ryan will never play it, Mike and Johnny will never read it, and everyone else is already dabbling in it!

- The dialog trees are a mixed bag. I like that they add to the interest of the quests, and makes for more of a 'buy-in' to the quests (something that WoW lacks after playing it for 8 years...), but it has already become occasionally tiresome. At least in WoW I can read the quests fairly quickly and get moving, in SWTOR I 'have' to sit through it all, even if the dialog is boring. Sure I can space bar through it, but then I would be missing a lot of the story. I like having options of things to say, and I like feeling like I am driving some of the quests through my conversation decisions, and I particularly liked the feel of the dialog in the single instance jon and I ran - it really felt like we were a part of the story and it was fun to watch unfold.

- The world looks pretty nice and there are some touches that I appreciate. In the starting world there is a gigantic downed spaceship that is part of the horizon line that is no part of the story, but it's cool to see that it's there. Coruscant feels like a nice blend of Star Wars and Blade Runner and I am enjoying looking around the stuff that frames the levels, rather than the stuff I am actually walking through. (if that makes any sense. the stuff that is in the distance makes the place look way cooler than the corridors that I am running down).

- As much as I hated the first three SW movies, I really did like to see how the history shaped the look and world of epIV-VI, how republic troopers evolved to stormtroopers as governments rose and fell, etc. Its neat to see it happening through the quests and whatnot in SWTOR too. The republic trying to keep itself together, insurrectionists, separatists, and intrigue pulling it apart and watching how it tries to hold on tighter and lose sight of it's way while being mindful of the sith empire and it's influence, etc.

- The game of course misses the polish (not Polish) mark when compared to WoW. WoW is fluid and makes more sense in a lot of ways where SWTOR just doesn't, yet. I know its new, and I'm a n00b, but WoW just feels better all around.

- The roles are a little less well defined, ie DPS/HEALZ/TANKZ all seem to be blended. Again, I'm a n00b, but as a 'tank' I thought there would be more abilities to reflect that role, yet nothing I have in my repertoire mentions anything about 'holding threat' - everything I do just shoots stuff for DPS. Maybe that will evolve, or maybe Troopers are just not supposed to be tanks - leave that to the Jedi? Also, Jon's healer has 1 healing ability. Maybe that's all you need in SWTOR?

- I like the companions role as both an additional role/skillset/class to your own and as the primary means for crafting stuff. I also like trying to earn his respect though dialog options that I KNOW he will like.

- The light/dark side points I thought were sort of obvious decisions in the dialog trees, and began to think they were kind of lame until one quest actually made me wish I had chosen the dark points option because it was actually 'the right thing to do'. I was acting on behalf of a group that was called "the True Republic" or something, and had to steal some documents that implicated a senator in something. I got caught with my hand in the kitty, and the senator's lackey told me that he would be willing to swap some junk documents with the ones I was stealing to protect the Republic (and the senators actions, which were explained to me as the necessary evil). Because I'm a Trooper Republic fanboi, I agreed. Later, when I turned in the papers I think I could have admitted to what I did, and still implicate the senator (which was the Dark Side choice) or pass the papers off as authentic (Light Side). Seemed there was an actual dilemma in which option to choose! I chose the Light side, and was pissed with my choice (lost rep with my companion as well) and then REALLY wanted to go back and make the Dark Side choice, points be damned, but it was too late.

Anyway, enough about that - play it!

2012-01-18T07:23:00.000-08:00

Yeah. Wedding planning is rough. You will definitely have a new appreciation for other people's weddings after this. Good luck man! And feel free to contact any of us old hands if you need help (who will then refer you to our wives).

Yep, we'll make another stop in LA next month. We're going to try and leave the kid with the grandparents and sneak off to Disneyland or something. Since she still won't take a bottle, not sure how likely that plan is to actually occur, but it's a nice thought!

2012-01-18T01:00:00.000-08:00

Might pick up the Tek Warz MMO this weekend and join you guys for some fun. Video games cost too much money (compared to board games) g-dammit. Never realized how time consuming wedding planning is, holy balls. It just never ends, does it? I would be so down to elope if we hadn't already paid deposits.

You gonna be in town Feb Jorn? I saw another e-vite to meet the baby! We met the baby at our Earthdawn game! The Eric/Aaron duel screen setup was pretty hilarious, and how whenever eric would speak, I'd see Aarons face real big, hahah. That was fun.

2012-01-16T21:52:00.000-08:00

Since even in WoW I didn't pay attention to my skills and their proper use, I don't think I'm qualified to offer any insight.

There is a viseral feeling about swinging a lightsaber though. Granted, I'm still in the newb area so all I get is a jedi whiffle bat. I'm just button mashing right now. But I think I like running up and hitting things. Made a smuggler, but the finding cover and shooting hasn't grabbed me yet.

I was curious, so I made a sith imperial agent. I honestly don't think I can play that faction. You have to be a dick aaaaall the time if you want to raise your dark side points. I don't think I have it in me.

2012-01-16T10:31:00.001-08:00

You can press spacebar to skip through dialogue, so once you've done a mission, you can skip that shit quick.

I think I'm in sort of a paladin role -- so some fighting, some healing. Definitely should be focusing on the healing more in the boss fight. The rest of the time, I'm probably better off serving up mortar fine and assault cannon salvos (in this flashpoint at least).

I'll probably be on most nights since the wife is usually feeding the baby from like, 9 PM - midnight.

Need to hook up my other keyboard to this computer -- this wireless one has these teeny chiclet keys, impossible to use the function keys efficiently.

Pro tip -- turn shadows off in your graphic settings if you haven't already! It increased my fps IMMENSELY.

Not the WoWing kind of tank

2012-01-16T09:40:00.001-08:00

I'm supposedly the tanking kind of trooper, though without any threat meter, it's tough to know if I was tanking correctly? Not to mention I am totally unsure about the cycle of abilities I should be using (sounds like the same for the, er, healer I was running with) means that I didn't seem to be holding threat and I died in the instance pretty quickly.

I THINK that if it is designed similarly to WoW, then Jon should be healing me exclusively, with some healz for our AI companions that do DPS, and I should be trying to a) keep the boss' attention b) keep the bosses DPS and armor reduced so that our DPS can hurt it.

I think we can take that jerk down next time, yo.

Also, the instance is interesting insofar as it has LOTS of dialog but I can see it getting old if you run it more than twice. I'm sure there is some skip dialog method for later runs when you have already been through 2+ times. Unless, there is no loot or reason to run it more than once?

Jon made the comment last night about being out of his comfort zone, and I totally agree with him! I have NO IDEA what most of my own abilities do, let alone what anyone else can do, what the hell crafting is about, what the hell training for specialized mission types is about, or where anything is in the world! It's fun learning it all again but when I get PvP'd, imma totally get pwned.

Go get the physical copy from best bey and then you only need the patch!

Also, somewhere in the blog is the name of our server, it starts with an A and the second word is Pall (I think) and we are on an RP-PVP server (for some reason :) ) - when/if you join right click your general tab, create a custom chat channel, and name it 'actionteam' - it seems to essentially work like a guild chat and we don't need to be in the same zone to use it.

Do it!

Looking forward to joining the Imperials sometime and just being an absolute heartless dick.

2012-01-16T08:59:00.000-08:00

My main's a Trooper/Commando (the healing kind of trooper{), Aeryk's a Trooper/Vanguard (the hurting kind of trooper), Pumpkin I believe is planning to be the more hurtful sort of Jedi Consular. I also have a Jedi Knight who's almost level 10 and I fired up a Smuggler as well so I have some flexibility. I like the Smuggler so far... I made the fattest possible Twi'lek, so it's always amusing to see him roll into cover.

2012-01-16T08:47:00.000-08:00

What classes did E and D pick? When I did that beta weekend I was a Smuggler. Hans Olo.

2012-01-16T08:37:00.001-08:00

Ya, Aeryk and Denis joined. They can comment on whether they like it or not, but Eric and I did an instance last night! It was very straightforward, but fun. (It was a 2-player instance.) The only problem was that we got smoked twice by the final boss. Logging in later I realized that I... uh... might have... forgotten... a little bit... to equip the badass weapon I received upon hitting 10th level. So my damage contribution may not have been so good. Sorry bro!

games

2012-01-16T03:03:00.000-08:00

So, what's the word on Star Wars MMO!? I heard Eric had gotten it right as I was logging off, so any first impressions? Did Dennis follow suit?

A new game I picked up recently and played is the Summoner Wars: Master Set. It's a 2-player game (or 4 if you've got another battle mat), tactical combat using cards instead of minis. The rules are very simple and the combat is basic as can be (d6 for every attack level with 1-2 miss, 3-6 hit) but the crazy variety is in all the different factions and characters. The set I got came with 6 different decks/factions and I think there are 5 or 6 more from various other releases. Every card has rules and conditions that allow you to break the "basic rules" of the game, so it's really fun. Games are like 20-30 minutes long, and so far the different factions feel pretty balanced - I totally don't "get" them all yet, but it's really fun to try different combinations in battle. I'll bring it around next time.

Also picked up PitchCar Mini (and a couple expansions), mostly for when my nieces and nephew visit but also for conventions or whatever. It's fun and way smaller than the full size version. Fun flicky racing! Impulse buying online at 3am is the worst disease ever :(

So, back to Star Wars, I almost bought it yesterday after hearing that Eric got it, but the hard $60 price and super long download I'm anticipating stalled me - what's the word, bird?

2012-01-15T10:11:00.000-08:00

I read the Nethermancer's ritual and it sounded like something that happened in one of our games. The caster goes into the nether and talks to his spirit familiar or something. I kind of remember that only because I think the group was being obnoxious about it and giving Mike or whoever it was a hard time!

Tuesdays are fine for me and maybe even better than Wednesdays because at least for the next few months, my days off are spent taking care of wedding/fiancee duties. Tuesdays are my Fridays and I'll have the whole day to sleep and can play until around 11pm. But, anyday can honestly work, so whatevers clever for the masses.

2012-01-15T09:45:00.001-08:00

Thanks! I had a good time running it too. There was definitely a lot of "infodumping" because both the system, and the setting, are a little complex at first. But, I think it's one of those games/settings that pays off the more you put into it.

With the steps, the step number is approximately the average of the dice that you roll at that step. (Well, it's higher, but dice being able to explode pushes it up.) So it basically means as you rank up, your rolls improve in a consistent way.

I was wondering if the dice roller didn't just slow things down since we had to work between multiple windows. Probably would be easier just to roll real dice and call it out. We can track initiative on the battle mat too. Also having stuff printed out/written down will obviously save lots of time as well.

I forgot that you work Tuesdays. What about Wednesday nights for everyone? I'm hoping to do short sessions twice a month or so (say, on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of the month).

(Also, I was thinking about what you said about Myke being a Nethermancer and that sounds plausible -- they have a spell called Experience Death that sounds a little bit like what you remembered.)

2012-01-15T01:39:00.000-08:00

Earthdawn was fun! Thanks for running it Jon. Cool to see a big AT turn out for some weird future-tech roleplaying. I liked the system pretty well even though I don't understand some of it. Exploding dice are neat, but the "steps" system felt a little complicated. With a handy chart, it's very easy to see what you need to roll, but I wondered WHY I was rolling these particular dice for this step or the other. I'm sure there must be some master equation behind it all, but it felt a bit random. I'll go through the books and see if it's ever explained. Great setting! I look forward to further adventures in the Earthdawn universe.

2012-01-12T15:38:00.000-08:00

Don't you have an iMac? Those usually have webcams built in.

Edit: That's how the ghost of Steve Jobs watches you wash your balls.

Edit2: Pick a character!

2012-01-12T14:27:00.000-08:00

i did a mud run once and it was a lot of fun. i guess they vary in awesomeness by quite a bit, so its always worth looking into review of that orgs previous mud runs. ya, some can suck and have lame obstacles and not enough water, but others are awesome and are a total blast. i think the one i did was kind of middle ground but i liked it. make sure u got an insane outfit cuz thats the funnest part.

thus concludes my review of dnd 5th editions.

webcams are almost free nowadays enron, go to any store usa and get one

2012-01-12T13:45:00.000-08:00

Knee jerk reaction is: holy shit eLzar has been sipping the Cthulaid too much lately. On second thought though, this could be the perfect excuse to get in shape. Let's say my interest is piqued.

D>M>

Mudrun

2012-01-12T08:18:00.000-08:00

http://survivormudrun.com/locations/locations_nor_cal.htm#

I am so out of shape, and yet soooo down to "train" for this. Seriously. Who's in?

2012-01-11T21:02:00.000-08:00

Yes, perhaps my point was a little over the top. Democracy is great, just it sometimes gets a little sideways.

2012-01-11T18:45:00.001-08:00

I'm mostly with you on that Enron (except I like democracy). Basically the kind of people who yell loudly on Internet forums are not your real audience and are not worth listening to.

But, hopefully they have a decent community manager who knows this stuff. If they do this might turn out OK.

RIP 5e.

Zombo eNron

2012-01-11T17:05:00.001-08:00

You know, I tend to agree on the 4th ed points made. While fun with the introduction of flavored powers, but they eventually become a bit of a ball and chain and do nothing to quicken the pace of DnD's notoriously monotonous combat. 4th ed had good ideas, but dragged too much 2nd and 3rd Ed baggage in plus its own.

5th ed sounds like a mess waiting to happen. Community input is great and all, but if you don't have a strong management team to understand the impacts of every additive of subtractive changes, and veto when necessary, then this will only mire the works by adding more and more incoherent crap. Lets face it, populace opinions can often do more harm than good, since in the end, many are born from inexperience, mindless agendas and straight stupidity. Look at our congress: Put in by popular vote, left to their own devices... Profit! Oh wait :(

Earthdawn: I'm in FTW. Fuck Yeah! Also, I still lack a Web Cam. Dork, I know. Your momma I say.

D>M>

Fared Jogel, FTW

2012-01-11T07:21:00.000-08:00

I know not this Jared Fogel you speak of.

4th Ed: While they tried to make all sorts of cool powers for the PC's to use and feel effective, important, and interesting through every encounter, they forgot that the D20 was still in effect and there are a lot of numbers on that bad boy that will STILL take the PC out of the game and make them ineffective. I like the idea of gettin' something at every level, and I think the modular encounter creation system was cool, but in the end it felt like a lot more overhead for effectively the same result as with 3rd/2nd/1st/D&D. Maybe the powers added more panache to the combats as they had flavor text built right in to the description, but it still became more of the same after a while, I guess. The loot system sort of bugged me too.

5th Ed: I don't know, I think crowdsourcing might work out. Not to say that a bunch of grumpy neckbeards are better suited to create the next D&D system, but I think listening to the fans, and following the trends could make for an interesting product. The fear is that by using fan metrics to drive design decisions, you might end up with a lowest common denominator game that doesn't offend, but doesn't really excite. OR, fresh, non-corporate perspectives might really help the design and the million monkeys might find a way to create something unique.

MMO's have won the day so does D&D offer a similar experience to try and speak to a wider audience, or does it go deeper into RPGs and satisfy their niche market as best they can? Since D&D is a component of a publicly traded company, my thoughts are it will try and emulate MMO's again (like 4th edition) and release another product of middling value.

Trail of Cthulhu/Earthdawn/Space RPG game FTW x2!

2012-01-11T01:28:00.000-08:00

I never realized Jon and El-ron had exp with 4th ed! That's pretty cool. I only have limited play time with it from the few Encounters sessions I attended, but I can understand your complaints. I think as far as exploration not being emphasized, I figure that's something that a DM would handle more than the ruleset. You're right that the game is really built around those encounters/set-pieces, but they made encounters-on-the-fly very easy to whip up, so I bet a fun DM could have made stuff feel a bit more organic and open-worldy. Worldy!

My fear of a fan-based D&D 5th Ed is that it'll be the 2nd coming of Pathfinder which is pretty unappealing to me. Mind you, I've never actually PLAYED Pathfinder, but glimpses into that weird fanatical d20 sub culture are such a turn off, I hope the fans involvement is more PR than anything else.
Drrzzzzt&D.

2012-01-10T23:36:00.000-08:00

Ah, Jared Fogel. There is a merchant out there waiting with your custom-made wardrobe. All with matching handbags.

I could never get attached to 4th ed. Got the books, read through them. I got the impression they put too much emphasis on combat and character balance and dropped many rpg skills.

RIP 4e

2012-01-10T19:47:00.000-08:00

Yeah, that didn't last long. I'm actually looking forward to a new edition. I was pretty excited about 4th ed at first but I got really burned out on it. Me and Enron played quite a bit of it with the game group. (Speaking of Enron, where is that guy? You playing Earthdawn or what, dude?)

What I liked:
- Amazing ease of use for creating encounters. Just an incredible system.
- Wizards that don't suck at level 1.
- Classes get fun stuff at every level.
- Skill check system had some really good potential, although the actual implementation was fail.

What I didn't like:
- Too many mechanics that are obviously just mechanics with no explanation for how they work in the context of the game world, breaking immersion. Ie, why does every town sell magic items? How is it that each PC can heal themselves? (This is actually something they lifted from Earthdawn, but in Earthdawn it makes sense because everybody knows magic.) Why exactly can a fighter use a given power only once per day?
- Really stupid player races.
- Really awful setting background. Just lazy and generic.
- Long, loooong combats. In one of our recent sessions we fought 12 zombies and I think it took about 2.5 hours.
- Too much whiff factor. The way the DCs are set up, and using a d20 as your main resolution mechanic, you're very likely to have runs of absolute shit luck. Getting a miss and fucking up your daily power was incredibly frustrating and all too common. There was one painful session where I missed every combat roll and did absolutely nothing. In fact, since encounters were built around number of players, I actually hurt the party just by showing up that day. It was like a Jared Fogel performance minus the sweet grappling.
- All the emphasis was on set piece encounters and not on actual exploration.

2012-01-10T05:00:00.000-08:00

D&D Next: That's gonna be bad. "We want the fans to make the rules" ... /puke

I got a bunch of 4th Ed stuff that was luckily on sale but DAMN, what a waste :( I better join a weird group quick to get some use of those books.

D&D EXXXXTREME in 3D! Now with a dungeon finder queue!

2012-01-09T13:32:00.000-08:00

Jorn - Curse your silken tongue and internet ramblings. The amount of money I dropped on those Earthdawn books almost match my mini purchase binges. Feel so dirty... The worst part is that I'm actually functionally illiterate.

Wizards of the Coast just announced they are working on a new edition of D&D. Meh.

Back to Earthdawn. I get dibs on the t'skrang Swordmaster; Inigo Ssstoya. He's looking for the six-fingered windling who killed his father.

OMG WTF

2012-01-07T23:39:00.000-08:00

This old commercial is gloriously moronic.

And then there were two!

2012-01-07T13:20:00.001-08:00

Nice! Well, hopefully we can pick up another AT member or three. Pump - yes, we'll use Google Hangout for chat, the battlemat will be a Google Doc, we'll use the diceroller I posted the other day and we should be good to go.

I bought... many books from that sale. I think my orgiastic Christmas money spending spree is finally at an end. :) I already had about half of the 3rd ed books, so I picked up the adventure books I didn't have already (for our campaign!) and I didn't have most of the location books either. The pdfs are on sale at drivethrurpg so I picked up the player's handbook from there as well. All I skipped were the Cathay books. I haven't been too impressed in the past by how they handle places outside of Barsaive, and those don't look like exceptions.

I've always really liked the cover art showing Parlainth, and was tempting to pick up a print because I'm trying to liven up the apartment a bit, but Jeebus, $65 is outrageous. Maybe next year.

Pump - I haven't had any queueing so far. The only waiting I had to do was the 12 hours or so it took to download the game. :) I'm on an RP-PVP server, Ajantha Tull or something I think, playing lightside. Let me know if you join the magic and we can team up! I leveled a Trooper to level 10, which is the point where you get a companion, pick up your subclass/talents, start getting crafting skills, and I think get a ship soon. It's a little bit of overload so I may go back and play one of the other classes' origin stories and see how they play.

They just fixed a bug that was pretty awesome. Anytime you were in combat, no matter whether you were fighting the mightiest boss or the wimpiest separatist, if you used the /dance command you suddenly became immune to injury. Dance your way to victory!

2012-01-07T12:31:00.000-08:00

I'm down for some E-D next Saturday, count me in! Also thinking about Star Warps, but also want to make sure things have chillaxed enough so I'm not wasting none of my first month.

Bought a Kinect! I don't know why, but I'm super into Dance Central 2, so it's already justified itself. Interesting technology.

Books!

2012-01-07T02:46:00.000-08:00

Doh! Like waving crack in front of an addict. I already have the Gamemaster and Player Guides. I got those through Lulu (for extra full price) a while back. It still says 3rd ed, so I assume the Mongoose versions are the same. Butttt, I sees more bookzesss. My Presscioussss.

The 14th sounds like a plan, I shall endeavour to attend. Is this through the Google thingie?

The Star Wars game did pique my interest. Have the server waits settled down? I was thinking of maybe checking it out. Gonna make a gimped protocol droid character. I am RPG2. I am conversant in one languages.

Paging all Pumpkins

2012-01-06T19:06:00.000-08:00

Earthdawn book sale over at the Mongoose website! Everything's basically half off. Jeez, now that I'm looking at it I'm tempted to buy more books.

2012-01-05T18:22:00.001-08:00

Fair enough! Yeah I wonder if this one will go F2P. I kind of think it won't for a while, I think the license is probably big enough that it and WoW will be the two subscription holdouts, for another year or two at least. It is stupid that you have to pay for the software and the sub fee, though.

Anyway, hasn't Blizzard been suffering a DDOS attack for over a year? That's what my twitter feed says.

But anyway who gives an eff about any MMO when we could be playing

MOTHA FUCKING EARTHDAWN, YO???

Let's do this. I built a battlemap in Google Docs that will totally be suitable, so no need for messing around with OpenRPG/MapTools etc. Also found a sweet community dice roller here, so I think we're good to go.

How does a week from Saturday (1/14) sound to people? Say, 2:00? I'm thinking of just running one "Prologue" fight, with some pre-gens, to kick the tires a bit before forcing everyone to roll up guys, and to test out this battlemat nonsense. Then we can make characters (I picked up the pdf of the player's guide) and start a real campaign!

Blue Harvest

2012-01-05T07:24:00.001-08:00

Star Wars not gonna happen for me, yo.

If I had another 24 hours in the day, I would heck of fire that bad boy up, but I just don't have the time anymore. :(

I am fairly committed to WoW, insofar as there is still SO MUCH for me to see and do in that game, not to mention I really like almost everything about it, I will be reserving my limited game time to the much maligned WoW.

Maybe when Star Wars goes free to play in 6 months I'll give it a go ;)

2012-01-04T17:13:00.000-08:00

PVP's the only way to go! I'm on an rp-PVP server, playing a Republic trooper. Pew, pew, laz0rs! Only level 6 right now but I imagine I'll hit 10 sometime this week. Then I'll be seeing the "real" game since I think that's when you start hitting up the main hub zones.

Oh, not using Origin. Steam is one thing but I'm not interested in installing EA's crapware.

2012-01-04T10:10:00.000-08:00

Did you pick a PVP server, because that's like the only way I'd play. Glad you like it! Do you have to login through Origin? If so, I'll friend you on there so you can see when I'm playing Battlefield! But for reals, I might get MMMotor if you think it's fun times. What level you at and what class/side?

The Star Wars MMO is really fun.

2012-01-03T22:24:00.000-08:00

Super fun. Super-duper fun! I really think you guys would like it.

They looked at what is awesome about WoW, appropriated that, looked at what is not so awesome, made that better, and then updated the graphics. The main improvement being how quest dialogues are fully voiced, with dialogue options. It's kind of a big deal because it really makes you feel like your character is part of the story. It feels like a single-player game within the MMO. Now I don't think the dialogue choices matter THAT much besides giving you lightside/darkside points, but it's still neat to be able to have that little bit of control over what your character does/says.

Other little neat things: when you talk to a quest-giver, it's private. You don't run into that WoW thing where you see an NPC saying to some random, "Hooray Smoxakahk420! You saved Dalaran from the pegasus!" Then you turn in the quest and he says "Hooray Frudo! You saved Dalaran from the pegasus!" They use instances a lot in little ways that work for the story.

Combat is fun! It's a nice change of pace to be getting into firefights instead of melees. (I'm not a Jedi though, presumably they go around lightsabering shit left and right.). Shooting everything with blasters and grenades is awesome! Things blow up nice. Combat is fast paced and super fun (a successful ported from WoW). I've only run into a couple of serious challenges so far, but I've learned to start using all my tools.

That said I haven't been off-planet, or done any multiplayer stuff yet (although it's supposed to be pretty solid). So I dunno if the awesome holds up past the starting planets but so far I gotta say, this is nice.

Only thing I don't like: they got a little lazy with the player races and they are all basically human-sized, human-shaped (easier to do the armor etc. that way). Feels a little weird not to be able to be a Greedo or an Admiral Ackbar. I mean come on, Hammerhead was my favorite action figure, I would totally be an Ithorian.

2012-01-02T12:28:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

I spent my New Years weekend laid the fuck out with a horrible stomach virus I picked up from my visiting nephew. It affected him a lot worse, little guy. He was in bed for like 4 days miserable watching his sisters and us play and have fun. Then when he got better I got sick and it took me out for about 3 days. SUCKED.

Now I'm better, but goddamn, what a waste of a bunch of days off. I couldn't even play Stone Age. Set it up and got like 2 rounds in and then felt all dizzy and exhausted. That's not even a complicated game!

I'm still ready for a gift exchange! I hope somebody wants Quarriors, haha cuz I got you covered! ;) (If not I'll find a use for it)

Our tentative wedding date is looking like June 3rd! We're still working out the details (we've got ALL the details to work out, really). Hopefully you'll all be able to make it to SoCal that weekend - once we get our stuff ironed out I'll reach out to you all individually. We're gonna go to Maui for our Honeymoon. It'll be my first trip to Hawaii, so I'm pretty excited. I'll have to visit Ryan if that's the island he lives on.

Damn You, Temptress Internet

2012-01-01T13:53:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year everyone! Hope it's filled with teabagging, Dirty Sanchezes and whatever all else you deviants enjoy. Alligator Fuckhouse, anyone?

Some decent stuff on Steam today -- Skyrim for $40. The new Deus Ex, which is supposed to be outstanding, is $16.99. Gonna hold off on it for now because I don't have time right now, but that game is definitely in my future. Man the first Deus Ex was good.

I did go a bit old-school and picked up a few older games from GOG.com for $2-3 each: the Ultima 7 collection, Might and Magic 7 (I didn't even know they made this many games in the series, but I read the reviews and this one's supposed to be quite good), and The Last Express, an really interesting adventure game I missed out on at the time.

For those who like their games old-school, yet completely free, this looks pretty cool. These guys created updated versions of Space Quest 2 and King's Quest 3. Free to download! Tons of unfair ways to perish!

Speaking of which, Dragon's Lair II is total bullshit. Even with the option on to tell you what to do at each move: total bullshit.

Enron, Rude and I didn't do our board game gift exchange yet (decided to make it a New Year's Gift Exchange). So if anyone wants to jump on in there, holler! Maybe someone who sold Agricola before could get it again. ;)

DO NOT READ

2011-12-31T09:10:00.001-08:00

If you hate WoW.

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The guild totally did two nights of dungeon runs! We maxed out our weekly guild XP from doing instances and I think everyone went up like 8 levels over the two nights.

Peter, Denis, Me, and Chris (old pal from work) ran Ragefire, Deadmines, Shadowfang, and Wailing Caverns and I think had a lot of fun doing it. Got lots of kewl items, lots of kewl achievements, and at one point only randomly ran Shadowfang 3 times in a row. :\

Blizzard has redone many of the low level dungeons and updated them so they are more challenging and make more of an interesting go of it.

Ether way, good times were had and looking forward to some more!

Myke, gotta get back from Texas so you can get in on this, yo :)

2011-12-27T18:33:00.001-08:00

I would play A&A OR Diplo over email! Real time seems damn near impossible with this crew, so I think email would be some hot shit.

2011-12-27T16:13:00.000-08:00

I played axis and allies online a few times a couple of years back. It was definitely quick and the graphics were quite impressive considering it's an online java game. I'd be down if others are (highly doubtful due to a strong resistance to MB games). And thankfully, it's not one of those PBEGTFOM javas. It's actually real time. I just don't think it'll ever happen though!

Viva La Resistaaaance! -Agent Lee

40k RTS

2011-12-27T14:52:00.000-08:00

All right guys, time for a shameful admission, I'm kinda intrigued by 40k. BUT, the last thing I need to do is buy more frickin' miniatures. I see the Dawn of War II complete pack is on sale for $20 on Steam. Seems like a good way to get my fill of Dreadnoughts n' shit without wasting a bunch of scrilla. Is anyone else interested? I will totally pull the trigger!

PBeM

2011-12-27T12:03:00.000-08:00

I will totally play by email if we play Diplomacy. It's the game that play by mail was practically invented for!

C'mon Aeryk, you know you want to unleash your inner bastard.

No, no no, Fa La La La La!

2011-12-27T09:16:00.000-08:00

Rugs, that is great about the AFLAC shop. I am sure it feels lovely to be back in the saddle working again. Funemployment is great for about two to three weeks and then just starts to way down on the sad glands.

I think eLzar had pushed a little on play by mail a few years back, but I don't know that it ever took off. Might be worth looking into.

Happy holidays everyone. Hope everything has gone well so far. After a few days off in LA, I am back at work today. Yippie.

D>M>

FAH RAH RAH RAH RAAAAAHHHH

2011-12-26T14:34:00.000-08:00

Hai Guyz!

Real life has been kickin' my ass lately.. come back for a look see and Rood man done got hitched up! Good for you mang! Just know your lady friend is now going to be eight shades of crazy while she plans her perfect day, lol.

I'm in full swing with my new jerb.. opening my own AFLAC shop! Been in training the last few weeks and getting up to speed. It's all kind of a blur, lol.

Regarding Christmas, the family elected to go non traditional this year. So I decided to try and recreate one of my favorite specialty rolls from our favorite Japanese restaurant! What could go wrong, right? Haha..

Making the rice red and green didn't go quite as planned, lol. But the flavor was still outstanding. I remain a little shocked that it came out so well, it was really, really good!

The rolls were filled with tempura shrimp and teriyaki chicken with avacado. Outside with bonito flakes and sweet sauce.

Dee-lish!

Elrock, haven't forgotten about WoW.. just haven't had time for much gaming at all mang. Hoping later this week maybe? Meh, I know you're running out of time, sorry. We'll have to figure out some time though, for sure.

What do the rest of you jerks think about doing some games-by-mail stuff? Ever looked at that website? Axis and Allies! Whenever it's your turn you can log in and take your turn on the website, then check back as other people go through their turns. Only takes a few minutes to process your turn, too. It's pretty fun! I did it a while back with a different group of guys. Wonder what else is on there we could screw around with. It solves the whole "I'm too busy to play games" issue. Don't have to worry about conflicting schedules, etc.

Ok, welp.. off to get a haircut then it's time to go schmooze business! :)

2011-12-26T01:48:00.000-08:00

'Twas merely a jest. I don't want to get it until I've got a solid month to play it, so maybe after the holidays settle things down.

I got the Galaxy Trucker expansion! Which is cool, I was starting to feel like it was getting a bit easy. Adds lots of different things to the game, excited to try it out.

Hope everyone had a good one!

2011-12-26T01:29:00.000-08:00

Did you end up getting Old Republic Jono? Any thoughts? You made a comment that the level up sound was the light saber woosh, but maybe that was in jest.

What did Wylie get for xmas? Howd the rest of you do? I got clothes n shit, LIKE THE LAST 35 YEARS, arrrgh!

2011-12-25T14:46:00.001-08:00

2011-12-25T13:01:00.001-08:00

happy x, yo

Merry Christmas, jerks

2011-12-25T08:01:00.001-08:00

2011-12-25T00:33:00.000-08:00

Hey, I'm old school. 60 is the one and true level cap! I remember us dueling in front of iron forge, Paladin vs Druid - so much fun! I'd get so mad when you'd bubble, hahah. And also use potions! I'd still beat you but COMEON!