I’m outie 5000 yo

(don’t ask where the title came from, I really have no idea)

I’m going to be out of town for work for the rest of this week, and the weekend, so I won’t be making any posts. Instead, feel free to visit any of these amazing writers and their particular posts:

• Rivs tells you what it means to be l33t
• Syp spells out the reality of the “Barrens Chat Syndrome”
• Syncaine finally places his bet on the table with Tobold. I’m betting with Syn, just F.Y.I.
• Youngblood talks about the more mature Mickey we’re seeing with hints of the new Kingdom Hearts game.
• Keen starts his adventure in Aion. Will it last?
• Suzina at Kill Ten Rats digs into the EULA of SW:TOR and shows that micro-transactions might be a part of it’s pricing model.
• Pitrelli is itching to play a worgen. I say, screw the wait, soon werewolves will be in Champions!
• Slurms (everyones favorite party-slug) relates a guildies PvP story in Aion. It actually sounded fun. I’m still not playing it.
• Frank, the ever-positive-one, talks about Bioware opening beta sign-ups for TOR, and advices realistic expectations when/if you go in. (p.s. more hawt asian girl videos plz!)
• Ysharros figures out which level of hell she belongs in. Where do you get put? (I mostly fall in V, I rage at my bubbles).
• Werit talks with Carrie Gouskos of WAR. All these bloggers, being all industrious and asking for interviews and stuff. I should get off my ass.
• Bootae talks about WARs 1.3.2 patch (holy shit, I completely missed it! I fail at life).
• Grimnir covers the recent WAR crafting dev’s blog post.
• Sweet, sweet Dwarf art at Portraits of WAR.

All right, peace out boys and girls. I’ll be popping ceiling tiles and sweating way more than I want to.

Long Weekend

So, I had Friday and Today off from work. Sadly, I didn’t get to just lounge away my days, playing video games. No, I actually had to do stuff. Friday, my wife and I went to this huge, high-end, used-baby-stuff sale. High-chairs, swings, strollers, changing tables, all that crap, and all held to a strict quality control for second-hand stuff. When we walked into the building, I was the only drop of testosterone in a sea of estrogen. I felt incredibly out-of-place. Eventually though, the baby-buying extravaganza ended. We walked out with some great deals (got this Baby-Einstein play-walker-thing for half of new, and it still had the tags on it and the instruction manual), but it still wasn’t what I had hoped to do with my day off.

Project GenderBender: My own experience

If you haven’t been paying attention to Rivs’ site, you should be. He’s a fun writer to read with a very conversational tone. He’s upfront and direct, without getting bogged down too frequently in the minutia of gaming, and his oft-irrevrant attitude blended with a general good-natured superiority complex makes him a pleasure to read. Lately, he has been experimenting with one particular project in his current main MMO, WoW. He’s been playing a female character, and trying to behave in game as if he was a female. Not the internet’s overly sexed, hyper-accentuated, wanton-lust queen idea of a female, but an honest to god female. Until recently, he hadn’t any real blips on his radar of sexual behavioral inequality, which I think speaks as much to the lack of population early on in the game as it does to the quality of the typical male gamer. However, his posts made me think of my typical past having played female characters, and on incident sticks out in my mind.

*Slapping forearm*

Going back to EQ2 might have been a foolish decision for me, and not because the game is bad. Everquest 2 is probably the MMO that I played the longest for one stretch of time over any other game. It’s the MMO that I connect the most with in terms of gaming history. I spent a lot (and I mean a LOT) of time in that game, and loved 99% of it. The problem I’m seeing is that diving back into the game, I’m remembering how deep the game is, and how entrenched I can get into it, and I really do like to touch the bottom of the pond.

Lego Universe is still out there

This is a great read for how a game company views the creation and maintenance of an MMO. It’s a good read if you’re interested in the industry at all for that matter.

I’m nothing if not consistant

Post 1.

Post 2.

I obviously went out, found two different images of the same drawing, and used it on two seperate occasions 5 months apart. Serious blogger shame here. Where’s my QC!

Gives this woman some love

She’s trying to get a job. Even if it is with the WoW team, she’s trying to get in the industry, something I’d like to do myself once I finish school. I think all of us know where she’s coming from in some way shape or form, and hope she gets what she seeks. At the very least we have to admire the dedication.

Edit: Ahem, I believe the author is a female… *twiddles thumbs and whistles innocently*

Whose responsible this???

Oh christ (look for Brickhousebunny21 in the comments).

Or, read this.

And to cap it off, a whole blog of images dedicated to this particular meme.

Hilarious

From the patch notes for Champions:

• Minimines – Drastically nerfed. This should not shock anyone.

That’s just funny.

Squeeeee

Two hour Heroes season premier last night. It was great. I loved it. Also, season premier of House last night. I DVR’d it. I love the fact that the shows I watch are smartly sandwiched into different “season” slots. Though, with BSG over and done, one end is lop-sidedly light. Burn Notice stands all alone in the summer slot. I’m now down to five shows that I watch through the entire year. Burn Notice, Eureka, 24, Heroes, and House. They’re usually staggered enough that they don’t interfere with each other, and since I got the DVR it has made watching tv such a pleasure. I really didn’t believe how great a tool it would be for my leisure time. I imagine I’ll appreciate it even more once the kid arrives.

Oh, and I played some EQ2 last night. It was great, like putting on a comfortable pair of pants. I at first betrayed my SK over to Paladin (from his quasi-betrayed state in Haven), and realized that was a terrible, terrible mistake. Even though I played him as a paladin for the first 50 levels or so, the SK really is more for me and my playstyle. So I instantly betrayed back. Yes, I spent almost my entire night getting right back to where I started. Still, it felt good, and the game looks amazing. I can’t get over how good the game still looks. Back when I originally played, my computer couldn’t handle the graphics, now it can, and it’s brilliant. I’m already starting to tear through forums and trying to find out best gear progression to look forward too, and I’ve started working on my loam gathering to make adept 3’s of all my spells, so that I can THEN start using the researcher to get me the master versions of them.

Yes, EQ2 is a deep game. Very, very deep. It’s a great contrast to the fun, fast-paced, instant gratification of Champions.

Still missing my PvP though. My fingers are twitching for some face smashing, brain pounding, blood-letting goodness.

/sigh

Can’t have it all I guess.

Edit: Dear Lord above, you can tell it was early when I wrote this, typos abounded, hopefully all corrected now.