It sure is hot

One of the things I looked forward to when moving back to Seattle was the more moderate climate. Doesn't feel like it right now though I know things are a lot worse in the interior of the state.

Speaking of heat, I wonder if anyone at EA is ever going to feel it?

EA and their Dante's Inferno publicity stunds are a Penny Arcade punchline now. I'm almost eager for them not to repent, they're a sponsor of PAX and if they pull this kind of stunt there they'll be invoking unholy retribution. The kind that would just put a smile on my face.

I've been working a lot on terrain lately and I intend to do a terrain segment showing off what I've built and how I've done it. Here is a prelude of what is to come.



Speaking of excitement, all you VOR fans are going to start getting excited next week I'm informed. I'm sworn to secrecy but I think monday will be a good day to be camping the bioplazm forums. Meanwhile I've been working on my Golem, trying to figure out what detail colors I'm going to be using for my Pounders.

The Inevitable Fallout of EA & "Sin to Win"

How is it that EA manages to stay in business? They're just one EA-Fail after another, such that they just got the before linked twitter site dedicated to their constantly occurring failures.

So well now they've issued an apology... sort of... on the obscure twitter service twitpic:

We understand there's a lot of debate right now around our "Sin to Win" promotion at Comic-Con and wanted to clarify a few things. We created this promotion as part of our marketing efforts around the circle of Lust (one of the nine sins/circles of Hell). Each month we will be focusing on a new Circle of Hell. This month is Lust. Costumed reps are a tradition at Comic-Con. In the spirit of both the Circle of Lust and Comic-Con, we are encouraging attendees to Tweet photos of themselves with any of the costumed reps at Comic-Con here, find us on Facebook or via e-mail. "Commit acts of lust" is simply a tongue-in-cheek way to say take pictures with costumed reps. Also, a "Night of Lust" means only that the winner will receive a chaperoned VIP night on the town with the Dante's Inferno reps, all expenses paid, as well as other prizes.

We apologize for any confusion and offense that resulted from our choice of wording, and want to assure you that we take your concerns and sentiments seriously. We'll continue to follow your comments and please let us know if you have any other thoughts or concerns. Keep watching as the event unfolds and we hope you'll agree that it was all done in the spirit of the good natured fun of Comic-Con.

There is a lot of debate? Yeah, about whether the people at EA are stupid or just sexist misogynists. They take the concerns so seriously they're not even willing to give the apology the same attention they gave the contest. The good news is that apparently not even the lowliest comic-con attendee can match EA's level of low... because nobody sent in any entries for the contest. Wow! EA thought we were confused but the reality is everybody thought you were just stupidly misogynistic to participate. Plus the marketing morons advertising yourself like a game of Evony is not a way to impress hardcore gamers into playing your game.

So at least EA sticks to its guns. In the EA manuscript their customers are pirates, they're stupid, and they just don't understand these disgustingly stupid mysogynist contests they produce... they will never admit to making mistakes, being outright wrong, or making bad management decisions.

Maybe instead of laying off competent people at your studio acquisitions, you should be laying off the managers at EA. Instead of merging and firing the heads of successful studios like Mythic and Bioware, maybe you should be asking what it would take for them to replace the incompetent managers at the parent company with a long, long history of being unethical screwups.

Maybe pigs will fly and I'll get rich writing a blog.

Terrain: Plaster - Hirst Arts

So when it comes to making terrain to play with out of plaster, Hirst Arts is the first and last website you should go to. Bruce Hirst is the primary artist selling plaster molds for terrain making, most places selling plaster molds or plaster terrain are doing what they can to copy from him. Go direct to his videos page and you can see exactly how it is done along with some other extra helpful stuff. His videos cover how to use plaster molds, how to use resin in them, how to paint, painting lava, and best of all how to make water features.

The basics are you buy a mold, poor wet plaster into it and let dry, then you have super detailed building blocks for making a sturdy building of whatever you like.

In addition to the buildings you can make with blocks from his mold (My buildings are pictured to the right), he also has a wealth of information on how to do other terrain effects and general hobby advice. Whether you are looking for sculpting techniques,
creative tabletop monsters, creating realistic water fountains,
making colored windows, dead trees, tips for painting futuristic models and a lot of other tips and tricks then Bruce Hirst's site is the one to visit. I have to give an extra special notice though to his river sections, they're just amazing and create the most realistic water you could ever want to play on.

For the Anima Tactics players I have to recommend all the Gothic molds Hirst has for evoking the setting really well. Shard or other sci-fi game players could do really well with the Schematic Mold which I have my building pictures of above and to the right. Though I'm eager to see a Neo-Soviet player make good use of the Pipe Molds and create an impressive Soviet chemical factory.





























Have I convinced you to have a look at his website yet?

This just about concludes the series I had intended on tabltop terrain. If you got anything else I should add, a different series idea, or whatever please leave a comment.

Bad News for Bioware fans

I've got a few friends who are really looking forward to the Knights of "The Old Republic" MMO from Bioware. I warned them not to get their hopes up too high since EA is now in charge.

Sure enough, EA has put Paul Bennett in charge of Creative Director for Bioware-Mythic. Yes, coming over from the greatly successful MMO studios of EA (what MMO didn't they sink?) and coming on board for the slowly sinking ship that is WAR (recently laying off massively in their QA and customer service departments as per my prior blog entry) is now in charge of Creative development. Because when you're a big egotistical manager for a hugely egotistical corporation like EA or SOE you always take your failed managers and promote them on to your new great endeavors.

Head for the link to read more of this creative vision that he is bringing or enforcing on Bioware.

Paul Bennett: The concept of there being MMOs is probably dead. There are just games. There's online games, and very soon there will just be games. They will all be online anyway. I don't think there's an MMO any more. I think there's online games and there's online revenue, and they're sort of going to combine.

Tip of the Hat to Broken Toys

Update note: I guess the working title of the new MMO is simply "The Old Republic" and the 'Knights of' is not part of it.

Yet another reason to boycott EA

Lets see...

They exploit their workers (underpaid and revolving doors)
They push garbage on the market (i.e. "Deer Hunter")
They take the lead in dead MMO titles
They punish their customers with hostile DRM that does nothing to stop piracy
They've used DRM that can damage a legit customer's computer
Acquire companies and their employees through hostile takeovers
What customer service? ... or Quality Assurance?
Have weird policies regarding homosexuality for their games
Mocking religious groups at large conventions for advertising
Shipped illegal weapons as a publicity stunt
Want to forcefully educate you about homophobia in their games

and now....

and now we have EA's "Sin to Win" contest as yet another reason.

So go to Comic-Con, get pictures of yourself sexually harassing a booth babe and EA will reward you? Note that nowhere in the flyer does it say ANYTHING about EA booth babe's so if you think it is just their employees and they're prepared... think again. Even if it was EA employees I think it would be (or is?) fodder for a sexual harassment lawsuit. However, they've opened themselves up to a lawsuit from any girl working as a booth babe for any company at Comic-Con.

Wish I could get some of the lawsuit money EA is going to have to dish out for this publicity stunt.

With companies like these, it starts to feel difficult NOT to endorse piracy for those who feel the need to play their games. I think EA is trying to make Walmart start to look ethical.

Ramblings on Game Industry

Time for another intermission from the terrain fest.

Brad McQuaid has another new blog entry on how Sigil failed with its Vanguard MMO launch. I'm glad he has noticed that the MMO industry is WAY too caught up in its developer's egos. I think it is standard in most U.S. corporations for the managers and execs to have super bloated egos but in the MMO industry it seems to filter right on down to the Janitor as well. I won't name names but having worked at 3 different .com websites that covered the MMO industry... I interviewed and and met a number of developers who just couldn't get over themselves. As a QA professional I've ground into many people many times that "The customer isn't always right, but you give them what they want anyways because they pay for your sorry ass to to have a job". Like having a paycheck? Make sure your customer is happy.

Of course I believe it would help if the MMO industry and a lot of other game companies put a lot more resources into Quality Assurance. A lot of failures (including WotC's Dreamblade which I was a contractor for) just didn't test their stuff enough before throwing it out to customers.

Another BIG problem with game developers is that not enough of them play their own game. A lot of the already mentioned egotistical MMO developers were horrible for it. They had this great theoretical expertise about game development... but they didn't play their game and didn't see problems which would be obvious to someone who did for a couple minutes. If you can't enjoy the game you're making, then you're working on the wrong project or maybe in the wrong industry.

Though maybe I shouldn't talk too much. I'm still unemployed and looking for work. At least my housing issues are settled for now with the landlord deciding he didn't want to go to court and settling for letting us stay in our place. Which is why I can enjoy my unemployment a little less stressfully and put out some new articles soon on terrain making.

Terrain: Sculpting materials

In general it is a bad idea to make an entire terrain project out of these materials, but they can really help you get exactly what you want. The obvious idea is that you use them to make your terrain project look the exact way you want. The reason not to use them for the entire project is that they're rarely sturdy enough nor economical enough.

Sculpting materials that I've seen used a lot are:

• Green Stuff
• Brown Stuff
• Clay
• Polymer clay
• Paper Mache

I won't include foam for the same reasons I won't include wood or metal. People who use blue or pink foam a lot insist it is a sculpting material. It isn't. You can sculpt them by taking parts of the substance away, not by shifting its mass into a different shape. Besides I've already covered them in an earlier blog post.

Green stuff and Brown stuff are both forms of Kneadatite sculpting materials usually used by miniatures modelers. Some people because they're familiar with it use it on a large scale for terrain projects as well. This stuff is expensive though, don't waste it like that! Also, these materials are designed for being very finely sculptable... not for supporting heavy weights. Your finely sculpted terrain project may deform when heavy weight is placed upon it. But if you want to do something small with a lot of detail, like sculpt a miniature flower for the terrain scene you could use this just like you would with sculpting miniatures.



Brown stuff is very similar to green stuff with slightly different properties. Advanced sculptors use it in conjunction with green stuff when sculpting models. Most importantly all forms of Kneadatite are mildly toxic! Always wash your hands before touching your eyes, eating, or handling babies.

Clays and polymer clays. The big difference is that clays harden by drying out and polymer clays are designed to harden by baking. How much time do you need to complete your sculpting project? While these are used a fair amount, I recommend only using them on a limited basis because when they harden they also shrink and deform small amounts. On the plus side they can be fairly cheap (especially compared to green stuff!) and are very sturdy for storing or playing on.

Easily my favorite and most recommended is paper mache or Papier Mache for my french speaking wife. Basically made from paper and glue. It is cheap, sturdy, and doesn't deform while it hardens. The trick is not letting it deform while it is still wet! But you can add a lot of things to paper mache to make it harder initially. The same things you add to your mache can also be used to change the texture. Right now I've been experimenting with adding different kinds of sand to the mix because they give a different texture. Once dry it takes paint readily, after all it is made from paper and glue right?

Here is an example of how you can use it and the size of projects that can be made from it:

Terrain Projects: basing

The most important skill for making terrain is having a good eye for finding stuff to use. But the most important part of your actual terran making is selecting a good base. The base is very important to the playability, but most importantly it is the main determiner of durability.

Without a good foundation the terrain project is not going to be durable for play, storage, and transport. On Metal or Resin terrain pieces you might get away with not having a base, but for everything else it is just about essential.

Here is a video which shows off some wood based terrain and the natural rocks and things it can support. In general (but not always, varies on type) wood is sturdy at thinner proportions than foam and gives support to heavier structures but it isn't as sculptable.



All good bases I've worked from have either been metal, wood, or foam. Avoid the temptation to use plasticard or cardboard. They're sturdy but they also warp too easily. Good metal bases are hard to come by unless you have friends in a metal shop as they can often get you scrap material that is perfect for it. If you're not a professional metalworker, stay away from making your own!

That leaves Wood and various types of foam. There are a lot of ups and downs to both and even more when the varieties of wood and foam are taken into account. My preference is for wood because I have more of the tools to work with wood and I like to avoid the toxic gasses that are produced when heating foam. This is really a preference thing and the majority of tabletop I know of is made from foam.

This plus some good air circulation is what you need for scupting foam properly:

Let me stress it again, don't work with heated foam in a closed off room. It isn't good for you or anyone else who has to breath vaporized foam.

Aside: Here is the second part in case you want the link

If you don't have the tools and the materials already for more advanced foam or wood work then you're mostly going to be buying flats. You can go to a home supply store (i.e. Home Depot) and buy large boards of foamboard (foam with plastic on the sides) or your local craft store (i.e. Michael's) is likely to have a good selection of wood flats (mostly Balsa wood, but also some others). A good hobby knife or box cutter is usually enough for these to get the correctly proportioned base you want and need.



As a general rule of thumb when putting things on your base start with the largest things first. Doesn't matter if you're building ruins, basing figures, or wilderness scenes. Full buildings and fortresses, then trees and boulders, then smaller plants and rubble, etc. It is easiest to work form largest detail to smallest.



P.S. Here is a series of 5 youtube videos on making a set of foam hills by Blue Table Painting.

EA at it again

For those few of you who aren't here exclusively for articles about miniatures gaming here comes something else courtesy of Electronic Arts.

Sigh, EA can you ever do something to NOT make me hate your organization more? Can I stop boycotting you, so I can re-boycott you? You're always finding all kinds of ways to show you have no respect for your customers. Seriously, what is the point of a single player game if you have to be online to play it anyways? News flash, people buying single player games and not MMOs or online shooters are likely to want to play offline. Maybe on a laptop on an airplane?

Now the next thing that bothers me is this:

Electronic Arts will play host to a panel on homophobia in videogame culture organized by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation this Saturday<...>

Topics will include "how to provide safe spaces for LGBT people online, how to ensure the best policies are in place to prevent virtual attacks against LGBT people and how to educate the users of online communities about the effects of homophobia."

Emphasis in bold is mine, I don't care about the rest. I'm of the opinion that most people playing games want some time away from the issues of the real world. Pick a political hot button issue and people want away from it. I really don't want my games trying to educate me about homo-anything. Most popular games are a variant of "kill things and take their stuff", where does sexuality have anything to do with it? We aren't talking obscure japanese hentai games here. In any guild I've been in leadership for this rule has always existed: We don't talk about politics, religion, or sexuality in guild chat. People have strong opinions about those subjects and talking about it in guild chat tends to break an otherwise fun guild based around roleplay, raiding, or PvP. In WoW I was particularly vicious about guild kicking and /ignoring anyone who used gay pejoratives and I would lurk around on alts to enforce it with new recruits. I'm not promoting the behavior, I just don't think anybody trying to have fun wants EA or anyone else to have a homesexuality debate shoved down their throat.

But given EA's media circus at E3, maybe it isn't homophobia they should worry about but maybe religious phobia's?

But they don't want my respect and I don't want to support their disreputable activities by buying their games.

Quality Terrain from Random Stuff

If you're going to build your own terrain then the first skill I recommend developing is a good eye. There are lots of things all around you that can be used to make great terrain projects. If you look in my boxes of standard terrain making materials you'll find a lot of things that I just picked up.

Sticks of the right proportion can be used to make great trees or tree stumps. Tiny gravel scales to become large rocks and small rocks can be used as boulders. Got Cotton? String it out and use it as fog on your battlefield. Collect some lichens and use them as alien plants. Terrainaholic on youtube has a lot of videos where he just uses stuff he has laying around or finds on car trips.



Why do those pieces of bark work so well as rocks? Shape and texture, that is what you're really looking for. If you're in the miniature wargaming hobby then you shouldn't be afraid of painting things and a lot of stuff that doesn't work initially works well after you put a coat of paint on it. Sometimes the gravel rocks you find might not be the right color for frozen tundra glacier rocks... so why not paint them? It might seem odd to paint rocks the color you want, but it can work really really well.

One of my favorite tricks that I use for basing figures and making terrain is gathering my own Talus. People can pay $10 for a little plastic store container of talus material that isn't as good as what you can find in your concrete driveway or parking lot. Where the concrete pavement has cracked you'll find small bits of sandy and rocky material that can be sorted for all kinds of diferent sizes of Talus. Water Glue it on, and if you don't like the color paint over it.

Sometimes a little bit of cutting or assembly will get something of the right size and texture to a good piece of terrain. Here is another video from Youtube channel "Wargamepainting" that makes excellent "dead trees".



Work on it and share with everyone what you've found that is easily available and works to make great terrain or figure conversions.

Terrain: Metal, Plastic, and Resin. Mostly Resin.

So when it comes to Resin, Plastic and Metal terrain... don't try making it at home.

Cutting, Welding, Molding, etc with metal is a dangerous procedure you need expensive proper equipment & training for. If you're not a professional don't even think about it. If you are a professional you don't need tips from my blog.

Plastic is less dangerous but a whole lot more difficult & expensive.

Resin is also expensive, but I can see some reasonable exceptions. Hirst Arts makes some rubber molds that are good for use with resin making kits. These are small parts that could also just be made with Plaster. Resin doesn't break as easily as plaster does when it is thinned out because it is more flexible. If you start casting plaster you can learn a little bit about it, but in general leave Resin casting to the professionals.

The Miniature Building Authority makes pre-painted Resin buildings that can be played with immediately. I've only recently found their store and haven't seen any of their product yet in person. Armorcast makes a variety of materials from Resin and Metal and I can strongly recommend their products that I've tried so far.


As you can see in the video though their resin and metal products almost always come unpainted. This is a plus or a minus depending on how you want to see it. A lot of quick parts like you might buy at a toy store are very poorly painted and you can do just as well even if you're half-blind painting your own. You also have the opportunity to paint them the way you want them to look.

So what would you do with them if you were to buy one from a place like Armorcast? Well you'd want to paint it so it isn't one solid color without detail.

(Optional Step) If you're going to paint it in high detail I recommend you clean it first. Small impurities and oils are attracted to resin and can easily be cleaned off with a little dish soap and an old toothbrush to get into those nooks and crannies. Let it dry for 24 hours. Now this is the critical part is to not handle it with your bare hands as you'll get those oils you just cleaned off back onto it. Handle it with plastic gloves and prime it and don't touch it with bare hands until you have a coat of paint on it. Skin oils will stick to a good paint primer as well so remember to only handle parts that have a coat of paint on it. For an ever better practice try not handle it at all until it has its finishing coat on it.

As a general rule of thumb I don't use my high pigment paints for miniatures on my terrain pieces. It is simply a waste of expensive paint for something that doesn't show the detail. If you're working on a large terrain piece with moderate detail then use some cheap craft store paints. My preferred brands for terrain are Americana and Folk Art because they have a good pigment count for the cost. When I'm doing high detail on exquisite terrain pieces like Armorcast I'll go ahead and hit it with my minis paints to make those fine details really noticable and crisp.

This is a good video showing of a painted Armorcast trench set.


Some of you are very daunted by anything that needs painting because you don't feel you can paint. But I've seen people legally blind who can paint well with a couple simple techniques. Any kid can learn how to put paint on a brush and stroke it across a surface. The only two techniques you need to make that look awesome are wet brushing and dry brushing. Wet brushing is simply using a clean, but extra wet brush with your paint to allow it run to or pool in recesses naturally. You can use a dry brush or carefully use a corner of paper towel to clean up excess moisture. Getting some good practice at just those two techniques is enough to make any painting project look awesome.

Same as with your miniatures resin (Not Foam!) painted Terrain is best protected with a finishing coat of Matte or Gloss. These can be sprayed or brushed on depending on your preference. If you're not a fan of a lot Object Source Lighting (OSL) or Non-Metal Metal (NMM) then you'll want to use a low glow Matte or High Gloss to get the proper amount of shine and reflectance on your terrain. High Gloss really gives crystal and some metals that proper gleam they should have. Just bear in mind that gloss does not photograph well at all. So the more gloss it has will make it photograph worse even if it looks that much more awesome on your tabletop. So do you want it to look better in photos or on the playing table?

Below is Armorcast's showcase of painted terrain pieces which may hopefully help to inspire you.

Terrain basics

So you want to use something that fits the scene for tabletop games than books and random objects found around the house? Then it is time for some appropriately scaled terrain. Whether you're making it or buying it, how is the terrain made?

Well the very first question is: What is it made from?

This is what you will typically find it made from:

• Resin, Plastic and Metal (Advanced, don't think of making these at home)
  
• Wood (Good for basing large terrain pieces, I stay away from carving or woodburning)
  
• Foam (Gets good detail and cheap, but has its downsides)
  
• Plaster (Very customizable in detail, very modular and sturdy. Also has its downsides)
  
• Sculpting Materials (Lots of materials, various ups and downs to them)
  
• Any random stuff you find (Thisis a very essential skill to enhance anything you work on)
  

Each one in no particular order will get its own blog entry so you know the ups and downs of it.

Enjoy and Game-On!

Wargaming Terrain Intro

I've decided to start a series of blogs about creating wargaming terrain. For those of us who love the hobby and with the current economic depression this is easily one of the best times to do it. If you are laidoff you want to have fun but don't have the money to spend on your hobby. If you're employed it is a good time to strike some great deals on products you want. Also, it really helps turn the economy around the more we pass our dollars back and forth.

So to start if you do have the money I strongly recommend tabletop terrain products from the following companies:

• Hirst Arts - Hirst sells rubber molds that allow you to plaster cast blocks to build your own plaster terrain. Cast, Assemble, Paint and Play.
  
• Armorcast - Resin cast model terrain. Paint it and play with it.
• DwarvenForge - Modular terrain pieces that come pre-painted. Arrange on your table and play.
• Bluetablepainting - Made to order terrain. Arrange and play.
  
• Miniatures Unlimited - Ebay or Made to order terrain. Put it down and play.
• Miniature Building Authority - Resin cast buildings that are pre-painted. Put it down and play.
  

Making the table look interesting and seeing your models in the proper setting is half the fun!

Mechwarrior relaunch confirmed

For Battletech's 25th anniversary Piranha Games and Smith & Tinker revealed that they are indeed working on a new relaunch of the popular Mechwarrior franchise as revealed on IGN. In addition it was announced that Mechwarrior 4 with all its expansion packs is being released for free at Battletech.com by Mektek studios.

Now if only they could hurry up and save Shadowrun and relaunch it back to something more like third edition. A restored Shadowrun and a relaunched VOR would make me a very very happy gamer indeed.

Starcraft 2 Intro Cinematic

How in the world did I miss this last summer?



Hopefully Blizzard has more than a pushback announcement at this year's Blizzcon.

Watch Out

If you remember the 80s like I do. Everyone was working on a "Rubik Cube"... like, 'Way'.

Well according to Times Online, Professor Rubik has now created a "Rubik Sphere" called the Rubik 360 and I expect it to be even more challening, addicting, and frustrating than the cube. I always had so much trouble getting the last face together correctly.

Now that I have kids though, it might be fun to throw the ball to them. I hope it could keep them occupied for years.

MMO Post-Mortem

Speaking of MMOs I quit, here is one I never started because the launch was so awful: Vanguard

Brad McQuaid the designer of Vanguard and chief guy at Sigil Games now has a blog and is starting a series where he analyzes the mistakes they made.

I'm born with UNPARALLELED GAMING TALENT!

I read this craigslist ad courtesy of broken toys.

Starcraft lessons from authentic Korean

Hi, my name is ByunTae from South Korea. I have been playing Starcraft since 1998 and I was born and raised in Korea. I'm 100% full blooded Korean, meaning I have been gifted with unparalleled talent to master any video game, particularly, Starcraft: Brood War. I'm also experienced in Counter-Strike, I am able to perform bunny hops, my best score on a public 32 player game was 171-2 with 170 kill streak. I'm offering my expertise in Starcraft to be taught to non-Koreans that wishes to have the skill of a Korean player. I have advised and coached many professional gamers such as Lee Jae Dong, Park Myung Soo, Ma Jae Yoon, and more. Boxer and I were great friends until he started using my dropships to gain his fame. I started training other players to be on par with Boxer and eventually surpassing Boxer. He is no longer the best player thanks to my contribution to rest of the players. I did not compete in pro gaming because the KTF did not agree with my seven figure contract demand.

The blizzard community never ceases to amaze me.

Summer Funemployed or Unemployed?

I know friends and family are having discussions about whether I'm playing away the summer or working away the summer. Some of both, though I'm mostly parenting away the summer.

3 Kids, looking for work, fighting off eviction on account of discrimination against families. Ugh.

So there has been a lot of discussion about the housing issue this week. Back and forth through a middle man. Initially the owner refused mediation, now that they're realizing it could mean a government lawsuit... they're throwing peanuts at us. Basically it comes down to this, he violated state law but it is technically in the contract that he can evict tenants for having kids (change in occupancy). But it would come down to a jury trial, so I'd have to hope there were some good government lawyers on our side... not something I really want to risk my family's future on. But I probably won't have a choice because the $850 they're offering us to move won't pay for it. That will pay for a deposit on a new apartment in Seattle if we're lucky and they don't ask for last month's rent in addition. My unemployment covers our bills with $0 left over for discretionary spending so anything that comes up forces us to find creative solutions or go begging for help. Few places are even willing to take people on unemployment unless they cough up a bigger deposit up front.

Hopefully a new job position goes my way soon and all this will become trivial but I've not been able to overcome the odds in the last 4 months so far.

So what have I been playing? I've not been doing the two betas as much and I'm not playing any MMOs at the moment. Hopefully that will change soon as the betas for both games are changing phases. I plan on applying for another beta tomorrow (paid) for another table top board game in development locally.

Speaking of games in development for all you VOR fans. I can assure you that Skuzz is hard at work and trying to get something exciting out before Gencon. No details because things can always fall apart but I think the potential hype factor is rather nice on this one. In my opinion at least as good as Skuzz coming out of hiding and announcing development on Vor 2.0

Might make up for the slow summer release of PC games. Not a bad thing considering I couldn't buy any anyways. Nintendo on the other hand



any idea how long I've been waiting for a real sword fighting emulator? Ever since my last day of fencing class senior year in college.

Someone hire me already so I can do my part for the economy!