I feel much better now

It has been a long while, so here is a badly done unboxing video of Miskatonic Horror

So tired

The good jobs just doesn't last long enough. I'm so tired of a really long commutes for poor pay to work with unpleasant people. More blog posting will hopefully come with the next job.

Wow, I need to support this game company

I'm really encouraged by how many in the gaming community are coming together to support Japan and the Japanese in its crisis. Square-Enix is giving 100 million yen to support the recovery effort in Japan, in addition to shutting down its massive reveneue generating online game servers in Japan for Final Fantasy 11 and 14. I just can't picture very many american or european companies shutting down their ability to make money for the greater good of the country. Nexon is also donating millions to the cause of japanese relief.

But the most impressive to me was NCSoft who is donating 500 million yen, about 1 months revenue to them to aid with the Japanese recovery. More importantly, NCsoft is a Korean company and Korea and Japan do not have a friendly history towards each other. Many older Japanese and Koreans still bear major grudges towards each other. Japan occupied Korea prior to WW1 and held onto it until the end of WW2. So for NCSoft to send a huge some of money of say their thoughts and prayers are with them is a huge deal.

Way to go NCSoft, guess I'm definitely going to have to buy Guild Wars 2 and give it a try. Because that is the type of company I want to support.

I'm glad someone said it...

From Game Politics:

Minecraft Creator: Piracy Isn't Theft

Minecraft creator Markus 'Notch' Persson told attendees of the GDC Indie Games Summit that the notion of piracy as being theft is incorrect.

"Piracy is not theft," said Persson during the session. "If you steal a car, the original is lost. If you copy a game, there are simply more of them in the world. There is no such thing as a 'lost sale.' Is a bad review a lost sale? What about a missed ship date?"

Persson suggested to attendees that many developers see pirates not as "inherently evil, but as potential customers." Persson also took on comments made by Nintendo’s Satoru Iwata, saying that his criticism of small and rampant mobile and social games excludes the fact that games such as Minecraft are more of a service than a one-time purchase. Persson said that games such as his creation and Angry Birds are constantly adding updates and new content and that both have incredible sales numbers.

"Treat game development as a service," he said. "Make a game last longer than a week. You can't pirate an online account."

It is amazing how well it works for business when you treat your customers better than than the pirates. One of the reasons I believe piracy is so rampant, is that there are often more rewards for being a pirate than an honest customer with many companies. That DRM (Digital Rights Management software) which can destroy your computer is no risk on a pirated version, which is only all the more reason to pirate what they put the DRM on!

I would hope this attitude would catch on, but I've worked too long in the corporate world. Power corrupts, and it is as true in the business world as it appears to be in the political one.

PAX is good for families

So I haven't posted in... way too long. I'm surprised I still have loyal readers who keep coming back to check! I keep changing jobsand throwing my life into disarray, which takes precedence over blogging for me.

Anyways a while back I read Scott Jennings rant on Penny Arcade and PAX.

Scott Jennings:

But the problem is PAX. PAX, or Penny Arcade Expo, has fairly quickly become the primary go-to convention for gamer culture – what everyone who tried to sneak into E3 thought E3 was supposed to be. Lots of lan parties, game demos, 2nd tier science fiction actors, and Jonathan Coulton concerts. Geek nirvana, essentially. And game companies have embraced PAX because of that critical mass of success.

Basically "the problem" is he doesn't think people should support PAX because the people behind PAX are also the people behind Penny Arcade. Like maybe we shouldn't support whatever company he works for because of his opinions on his blog? Penny Arcade is an adult and often offensive webcomic. It is my third favorite webcomic and I can firmly say it is third because as much as it sometimes makes me laugh it can not infrequently gross me out and much more frequently offend me. Not as badly as "Saturday Night Live" has a penchant for grossing me out and offending me (i.e. Ambigously Gay Duo), but still all the same Penny Arcade does. So should I boycott every Dan Akroyd movie because he was one of the creative minds behind SNL?

Maybe Scott Jennings would like to denounce Child's Play too? The charity which raises millions of dollars to help out hospitalized children all around the world on behalf of gamers, typically the youngest generation who are normally less likely to be involved with charity?

Here is my take. You don't want to support evil, but Penny Arcade is in no way evil and it is the free expression of a couple of artists which you don't have to follow if you don't want to. PAX and Child's play are entirely separate entities. There is no good reason not to support them if you feel like it.

So just because I go to PAX every year and take my two daughters, doesn't mean any of us are supporting over endowed wolves or sex offending fruit juicers. It does mean we support gaming and having fun!

Christmas games!

I didn't get a lot for Christmas, and I'm glad a lot of it was useful stuff. However, my kids got a few board games I'm really excited about. Particularly we've been enjoying "Settlers of Catan"! I've been enjoying it with my 4 year old and 5 year old. They seem to get the grasp of it fairly well, though higher level strategy is still beyond them at this point.

Still playing DDO with friends and climbing the Starcraft 2 league rankings. Starcraft 2 is getting tougher as it seems the more casual players are quitting or getting better. So come on newbs, join in and let us win some!

My Sinuses have been flocked

I've spent the last week sick and feeling a bit like the recent CAD comic like about making terrain:

Finally, J-I-T (Just in Time)

So, this morning I was having another horrible, awful day that is typical of my days at work now. Called into my Boss' office so he could yell at me, someone had called him and yelled at him accusing me of something and he wasn't interested in hearing anything about it from me. I don't want to go into details of all the petty politicing, rumormongering, lies, and backstabbing which go on at this place. It has the worst office politics by far of all the places I've worked at.

I was fed up and hit the "I don't give a care anymore" breaking point because I knew my superiors didn't care about my performance so much as just trying to forge paperwork to pass an audit next week... which they're almost certain to fail... again.

Well to make this quick after all this and being in a foul mood all through the afternoon I called home this evening. A recruiter had contacted me in my email and was trying to reach me to make me a job offer at a place I'd really like to work at. So this hell job is over and my whole family can go back to living a less stressful and more normal life.

I've been smiling all evening ^_^

Do you read CAD?

Ctrl-Alt-Del, I love it

Playing a little

So what I've been up to... not much in the ways of miniatures games lately unfortunately unless you count a couple games of Descent. I've taken up playing 'Vanilla' Descent with my daughters who love the game. Donations to the VOR kickstarter is one of the top two items on my Christmas wishlist this year (the other not being gaming related).

Got in another game of Arkham Horror with a new board game group. Might get some more games worth writing about in the next month, but we'll see. If I succeed in replacing the lame job I have now, then I should be able to play board games a lot more.

I've been playing a little bit of the free-to-play DDO and LOTRO with friends and family. I love that these games are free now and they've certainly breathed new life into them.

But mostly what I've been playing when I have the chance is Starcraft 2. The number of cheaters in the game is annoying (like people who are obviously working together in a FFA). It is still a lot of fun however and it reminds me a ton of my old college days playing original Starcraft and Brood War when they came out. Ah, for the misspent days of my college youth!

But the sad thing is, there is nothing coming out this christmas season that I look forward to. Is there anything that you are looking forward to?

VOR Kickstarter???

From Mike Nielsen


VOR 2.0 Kickstarter project

Say What??? EA's empty bluster

If you're a MMO fan and enjoy closely following the industry like I do, then you had to get a laugh out of this one:

"Speaking at London Games Conference earlier in the week Cousins (EA-Easy executive) said that the company's rivals are "resting on their laurels" when it comes to investing in the future of video games."

Really? Other companies are resting on their laurels compared to EA? Because as what I see whenever I go to a store selling PC games is that most of the market is MMOs, and pretty much none of that thriving market is EA. If by "resting on their laurels" he means not buying up successful and productive software shops to turn them into unproductive rubbish bins I'd have to agree. But with what EA has done to the Sims Online, Origins Studios, Earth & Beyond, and most recently the disaster which is Mythic Entertainment....

EA is talking a hilarious amount of smack. It is like the nerdy preppy kid in college telling the all-star athletes that he is going to single-handedly kick all their butts at basketball.

I mean sure, maybe Bioware I can understand because they have a good track record. But when you tell me EA is making a Star Wars MMO I expect it to turn out like this:

Because if any game company knows how to rest on its imperial laurels while its little game studios struggle and die, it has to be EA (Sorry to Mythic Entertainment)

Starcraft 2 finally

So a quick note on my earlier blog about Starcraft 2. I finally broke down and got it, and I'm very glad that I did. First and foremost because it finally has a good ending to the story from Starcraft: Brood War which just wasn't quite the story ender I wanted. Now I'm sure the next expansion will be something of a cliff-hanger, but the ending point for the campaign in Starcraft 2 was very satisfactory.

If you're an old Starcraft fan you should get it for no other reason than that. The gameplay feels like old fashioned Starcraft with some new gimmicks. Not a lot to say there, but it is still worthwhile.

Home from a long day of work

and look what I got in the mail!

Your daily dose of Drama

Need to read some really dramatic flare ups about EA, Mythic, WAR, or simply just want to see verbal sparks fly and flames erupt? Here you go, go read "EALouse"!