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…
Author: Isey
Nodding Wistfully : Diku
A thankful nod to this article over at Qblog from Mr. Dr. Bartle. While I started my MMO adventures in EQ beta, I still didn’t understand where the holy trinity actually came from.  I’ve always disliked it, writing my own musings on how silly it all is, and the challenges of getting people to adopt something…
What I Don’t Get About the Gaming Industry
“As you know, seasonal roll-offs that follow game launches are common and vital to maintaining a healthy business” – EA Spokesperson Jeff Brown Why is it that this statement seems only true for the gaming industry? I’m probably missing a few other industries that do this so nonchalantly in tone. It seems impossible to maintain…
Steam Sale Stings! (also – my Baseball Game is now a RPG)
I picked up MLB 2k10 from 2k sports over the weekend. I enjoyed 2k9, and the $20 price tag is a nice entry level. Today I check out steam, and that same title is now on sale for $1.99. 90% off! While that is indeed impressive, now my valued purchase makes me feel like I…
Welcome To Our Preferred Customer Program
My son decided he wanted to be a Skeleton this year for Hallowe’en – a far cry from his normal big budget movie choices (Batman, Spiderman, Bumblebee) and wow, is it ever hard to find a basic skeleton costume these days. I ordered on online and had it priority shipped. It arrived in a day,…
On Relationships
Not interpersonal human relationships, as that is better served by the professionals. Not MMO player relationships (guilds, etc) as that is still managed between human beings. In Fallout: New Vegas, I am asked to manage relationships in game via two formats – Karma, and Reputation with various groups. Karma is interesting – if you do…
Conventions
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…
Vindictus-ed
I have spent a couple days in the Vindictus open beta. I don’t really do ‘reviews’ but wanted to share some bullet points about the experience. My initial impression is MMO-lite meets Team Fortress 2, but that is meant as a compliment. 1) Currently there are only 2 character classes, a Fiona (sword and board)…
I Love People’s Creativity
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.
Minecrafting
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…
GAMMOP – Thou Shall Not Covet Thy Mobs Gear
MMO’s have generally accepted principles much like accounting. Rules and systems that have been adopted over the years. I recently signed up to try the Age of Conan Trial (haven’t played it since I dismissed the game as ‘not for me’ in beta). I’ll most likely discuss how things have changed there in another piece,…
Secure Online Starcraft 2
Starcraft 2 cost a reported 100 million to make. Not far into the release, Blizzard bans 5000 players for cheating. I know, I know. The 1337 hackers are always ahead of programmers. Curious though, out of a 100 million development budget, I wonder how much was budgeted to make a game difficult to hack/cheat? Especially…
Can We Teach A New Dog Old Tricks?
Blizzard seems intent on taking a new direction in Cataclysm – making the game more challenging. I’m very curious if the follow through, and if they do – even more curious if they stick with it. The basis of the change, without going into too much detail, is making CC required in instances again as…
time = money / money = pizza [therefore] time = pizza
Callan hits an interesting point in the comment section over at Tesh’s musings about the value of his time. I am in Tesh’s camp here, where my discretionary budget is at an all time high, and my time budget is at an all time low. Gamers often judge the value of a game based on how…
Star Wars The Old Republic : Hopes and Dreams
I have writers block. I have 7 drafts written on various topics but am having a hard time piecing them together. Some of them are related, and I think, can I combine them? Do they make sense? I have lost my groove, and working to find it. My time off blogging was spent playing 3…
Here’s Your Answer, Tesh!
I suppose the Global Agenda ‘strike while the iron is hot’ promo is, uh, striking while the iron is hot. Last chance for APB refugees and other Shooter/MMO fans to receive discount Dear Shooter/MMO Fans: Recently, I wrote an open letter to APB Refugees and other fans of the Shooter/MMO genre. In that letter, we offered…
The Body is Still Warm…
Received this in my inbox today. An Open Letter to Shooter/MMO Fans from Hi-Rez Studios Dear Shooter/MMO Fans: The last few years have been rough for many fans of the Shooter/MMO genre. Several innovative game titles with great communities have folded as they sought to bring together those of us who enjoy the fast-action, intense…
iPhone Game Fun: Flight Control
This little doozy is addicting. The premise – land like colored planes on like colored landing strips while managing the flight space so none of them hit each other. The twists – easily identifiable planes (of the same color as well) fly at different speeds. The hook – you can’t win. It goes by total…
I has Returned
Miss me? I’m sorry I left! I had a whirlwind year where both the effort and joy of blogging had to take a backseat. It has been a very interesting year. I became a CEO (complete with the 90+ hour work weeks) I almost lost, then managed to salvage, my marriage I had a 6…
Chrome
No, not this – but this. Google released it’s beta of a web browser yesterday. It is, as reported, very minimalist. Page load times are very fast, and whether you love or hate google, it is definitely worth downloading to give it a shot. So far, everything I have tried with it has worked just…
Corrosion
My 3 year old son is in his “why?” phase. I knew this day would come, and have spent the past three years preparing for it. I refuse to give in and tell him “because I said so”, or “stop saying that”, and have mentally prepared myself for when he goes off on the “why?”…
Comparing Apples to Starfish
With Warhammer:Age of Reckoning just around the corner gaming boards accross the world have been flooded with impressions and bold predictions, on how WAR will fail, or WAR will kill WoW. I have beta tested this game for a while, and while I will spare you the 1000th review -Â I will state that I have…
Reality Doesn’t Bite
My relationship with the Battlefield series started backwards. I was stuck in MMO land for a long time until a WoW guildmate introduced me to Battlefield 2142. The pace was fun, it was a nice change, and I quickly renewed my love for FPS’s with the title. After spending a year or so in 2142,…
I Has Blog
We are all Experts! (notice the clever use of capitalization for emphasis). Surely we all are, are we not? We have blogs and a voice to share our “expert” (notice clever use of quotations) knowledge and profound experiences! I have always been interested in blogging yet never really motivated. I scour message boards and blogs…