Tesh often waxes poetic about forms of Zen grinding, and I found it recently in Minecraft. I realized in game I am not a fancy builder – but hey, can I strip mine with the best of them! When a much needed work break opportunity appears, I make 12 stone pickaxes (saving the iron ore for…
I forgot how much I love the sandbox. It even took me a while to adjust my playstyle expectations – big, random generated world that I can do whatever I want with. Sadly, I have lost the ability to post pics to my own blog (help, Joe!) – so I can’t share the sheer awesomeness…
Fortnite is quickly becoming my new Landmark. Awesome ideas, terribly implemented, confused development group, Early Access Flop… In fact, does Daybreak own them already? To recap quickly – Fortnite is an artful blend of a building game (Minecraft / Landmark), Survival zombie game (7D2D, H1Z1, L4D2), and card collecting PVE Co-Op game. There is a…
Here is a 10 minute gameplay video (non-narrated) from Fortnite. You can watch it without sound and it gives a pretty good idea how hectic things can get when the husks attack. This part is right after we triggered an event – we had built a base and are protecting weather satellite data. The good…
I always get sucked into these things. Early access. And I have yet to be disappointed. The big one – Â Landmark – the complete failure of a game that is now vaporware (along with the hopes and dreams of Everquest fans). I played the hell out of that game.. was it a game? That… interface.…
I know, I should stop. Landmark is what Landmark is, and no amount of wishing for private servers with complete autonomy (paid for, of course) and entire worlds that can be changed, explored, and molded will change that. Oh the adventures to be had. The game is what the game is and I should just accept…
Like my dear Landmarkian friend ( Landmarker? Other guy who plays?) Bhagpuss, I went back to Landmark now that it is a “real” game, completed and everything. Â For a quick recap on how I felt about Landmark: it was an awesome time killer. I was an early tester of Minecraft and Landmark could be the…
I normally don’t do these posts, but it was a very good year and I feel like sharing. I am going away to Europe for Christmas for two weeks and as I tie up my professional and family life here in Canada before next week there probably won’t be a lot of blogging or gaming…
I just read an amazing book and while I am saving that for another entire post one part stuck out to me. That part was in regards to the explanation behind how, and what rate, new technologies spread throughout societies. That explanation is called the “Diffusion of Innovations” and was written back in 1962. It was…
My son is visiting Grandma – it’s a 10 day trip in the summer. Grandma and Grandpa have a farm and he gets to do all sorts of things that he doesn’t get to here at home. They also have a lot of acreage and I learned last year he was able to drive a Gator…
I have been travelling for work the past couple of weeks (and doing so until this weekend) so I haven’t been working on my masterpiece (*cough cough*) in EQN:Landmark. And I am missing the game. My travel PC is a Microsoft Surface Pro 2 and as I have mentioned in the recent past, I love…
This video is about a month old, but worth watching. Gives you a good backdrop to Minecraft SOE style. (And I say that in a very, very nice way). The tools are that easy to use. How this turns into a game besides Minecraft+ and what they do with the expected amazing community creations is…
I think MMO nostalgia makes us funny people. Just yesterday I was thinking about EQ and the amazing times had there with people I still consider ‘amazing’. Hell, I even went to my first ever guild message boards (circa 1999) after a 3 year hiatus to go say “hi” and see who was still kicking around…
Going to a new blogging style. The exciting ‘when I can/feel like it’. When I blogged regularly I blogged pretty hard, 3+ posts a week, keeping on top of current events and all the “excitement”. I took an extended break once, and in the same breadth kept lurking and reading my favorites without posting. I…
Interesting thread over on the Project Reality forums about putting together a Minecraft Tournament. The PR community is a war inspired bunch, their hobby being tactical shooter games. A lot of the forum members are members of the military as well (although not exclusively) and in the Politics sub forum there is a lot of…
This title stems from educators wanting to remove kids from an ‘F’, or ‘Failing’ grade. No more failing – just deferred success! Clearly the change in terminology will make kids all become hugely successful. This Epic Defer is part of a longer list of deferrments by public offcials who manage powerful unionized employees (the same unions that…
One of the best blog articles I have read recently was at Elder Gamer regarding genre conventions in our beloved MMO’s. It hits on a lot of interesting and valid points, and is a great read. I find it interesting that a lot of the ‘outside of the box’ MMO design discussions (from the armchair…
A couple of really creative Minecraft ‘work’ (edit – errors with embedding. Sorry for the ugly linking.) I can see my house Beam me up, Scotty A working 16 bit computer. Really. I need to up my standards. I was happy just tunneling.
I am impressed you actually clicked this. Whether you really want to know about the person behind the blog, looking for someone new to stalk (which is entirely acceptable), or trying to build a psychological profile for some class study due to my ramblings, I will get to the stuff you are looking for. As…
