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| Saturday, October 31st, 2009 | | 4:53 pm |
| | Friday, September 4th, 2009 | | 10:42 am |
Those who will not learn from the past...
After quitting Champions Online in disgust I've been reading reviews of Bill Roper's previous project, the failed MMO Hellgate London. I'd never played it or even heard much about it when it was open, but I've been hearing Champions Online compared to it. Most of the reviewers agree that Hellgate London was a game with some interesting ideas and a lot of promise. The problems which ultimately killed it sound very familiar to CO players. These include: Failure at world-building. The world of Hellgate London was a joke, literally. No attempt was made to give the world any depth, or to give any of the characters any personality or verisimilitude. Dialog was made from in-jokes, pop culture references, and frequent breaking of the fourth wall for cheap laughs. Immersion was impossible, and the players had no reason to develop any interest or connection with the world. Champions Online has exactly the same problem. If the developers don't take the game world seriously, how can the players? Uninteresting and inaccurate scenery Hellgate London was set in London, but the actual game world had very little resemblance to the real city. This would have been acceptable if the developers had made their city interesting and epic on its own, but the actual game scenery was an uninteresting mess. A few real London landmarks were thrown in, but were poorly and incompletely represented. Champions Online is no different. The two starting zones, White Sands and Canada, are both uninteresting, confusing mazes of repetitive scenery, and both look almost nothing like their real-world counterparts. The game's main zone - Millennium City - has the excuse of being a fictional city, but the layout and surrounding geography completely fail to match the alleged real-world site. Combined with the terrible dialog and writing, this kills any world-feel the game might have. Opaque and confusing combat and crafting The combat system in Hellgate London was according to reviews confusing and opaque. The crafting system had some interesting ideas, but was completely undocumented. Champions Online is having much the same problems, with powers whose actual effects are only vaguely defined and lots of trial and error needed to determine which power combinations actually work well. With a marginally functional respec system, it's easy to end up with an unrecoverably gimped character after guessing wrong when picking a power. Terrible social/chat tools One reviewer said that Hellgate London had one of the worst chat interfaces he'd ever seen, annoying and useless. Finding and playing with friends was difficult and badly supported. Champions Online, again, has the same problem. A chat box with a fixed 7 line length and a barely functional scroll bar, and no tools for creating additional chat boxes or tabs or filtering the chat channels. It is also difficult to find your friends or determine which of the hundreds of server shards they're on. Unresolved stability issues Hellgate London was buggy and unreliable, even beyond the normal flakiness we've been conditioned to accepts from newly opened MMORPGs. It continued to be buggy and unreliable until it was closed down. Champions Online's opening day was a complete mess, with an unreliable patcher that kept most people from being able to play, and continues to be unreliable and intermittently down. A lot of what I've heard about both games comes down to a lack of respect for the game and the players, and a lack of appreciation (and in some cases, outright contempt) for what keeps people in a MMORPG long-term: friends who play with you, and investment in the world. Both games are shoddily put together, with little care for quality control or craftsmanship. If the developer doesn't respect the players and doesn't take the game seriously, why should I reward him by paying to play it? | | Monday, August 31st, 2009 | | 8:02 pm |
So I've been playing Fallen Earth lately...
I started playing Fallen Earth about a week ago, right around the end of Champions Online's open beta. I only lasted a few days on CO before becoming fed up with it. I think it was after I decided I'd rather clean the dishwasher than play CO that my wife suggested that I try Fallen Earth. She's actually been suggesting I look at it for years. Hadn't sounded interesting enough to me, mostly because after having seen Auto Assault and Tabula Rasa I was expecting yet another MMO that was nothing more than new paint on the same old stale gameplay. Well, I was wrong. ( Read more... ) | | Wednesday, August 19th, 2009 | | 10:56 am |
GenCon!
This year's GenCon was possibly the best one I've had so far. Three solid days of gaming events (nearly all of which were very fun), some good acquisitions and previews of games in the dealer's room, hanging out with some old friends and possibly making some new ones. I was able to spend some time showing off the robot, although not as much as I've have liked to. Even the drive out and back wasn't bad - the weather was mostly nice, the traffic was unusually light, and music and good company made the trip easy. ( Read more... )The one regret I have over GenCon is the large amount of my limited vacation days it takes up. I'd almost consider flying out next year, but driving still has enough pluses to make it worst spending the two additional days traveling. There are half a dozen other conventions I'd like to go to as well, but so far I only have the money and time for one non-local con. | | Tuesday, August 18th, 2009 | | 7:01 pm |
Back from the convention.
Just arrived and am unpacking. As usual, the last five miles have worst traffic than the entire rest of the trip. Welcome to NJ. Fun fact: The air conditioning on the Honda Fit when run for five hours straight in hot, humid weather will ice up and stop working. The only way to get it to work again is to turn it off and let the ice blocking the heat exchanger melt. Will post more detailed report when not so tired. | | Sunday, August 16th, 2009 | | 7:13 pm |
An odd question arose over dinner...
Does middle-earth have coal? Coal implies millions of years of geology, forests being covered by rock and transformed by time and heat. Arda was created only a few tens of thousands of years ago, far too little time for coal deposits or any other kind of interesting geology to develop. Which is why you don't see strata in Moria. I don't recall any mention of coal in the books. When Saruman decided to equip his army, he had to chop down a forest to burn, and getting fresh wood to burn hot enough to make steel isn't easy. On the other hand, a world created ex nihilo by the gods can have whatever kind of minerals in it they want, and if they wanted it to have coal veins it would. When my wife finds coal in LOTRO, she mines it out of magically self-regenerating ore nodes sticking out of the ground. I don't recall those from the books either. | | Sunday, July 19th, 2009 | | 5:22 pm |
Drew versus the kitchen sink
This weekend, being my last free weekend before GenCon, I decided to finally tackle replacing our old and leaky kitchen faucet (one of the few original furnishings left in the condo) with the fancy Consumer Report's best-buy model my wife picked out months ago. What seemed in concept like such a simple task beforehand became a weekend-consuming job, eventually including: *Determining that, in order to shut off the water supply to the existing faucet I will need to disconnect and remove the disposal. Digging through the file cabinet where we keep the product manuals for the disposal manual. Reviewing that, and then removing the disposal, then finally disconnecting the feed lines. *Removing the cabinet door to give me more room. *Reaching under the sink, stretching my arm around behind it, and groping around for the bottom of the faucet. Finding what felt like a threaded base with a large hex nut anchoring it to the sink. Trying unsuccessfully to loosen with my fingers. *Borrowing my wife's flashlight and hand mirror. Carefully arranging them so that I can see the base of the faucet. Indeed, a large hex nut seems to be holding it in place. *Reaching in with the channel-lock pliers to try and loosen it. Determining that it will be impossible to get a solid grip, let alone turn the nut, from outside. *Taking another look at the old faucet. Noticing the plate on top of the knob can be pried off to reveal a screw head. Happily deciding I don't need to unscrew the nut under the faucet to remove it after all. Spending a while disassembling the complex puzzle of the faucet and valve mechanism. *Realizing that disassembling the faucet gained me nothing, as the faucet base is still bolted to the sink by that one hex nut. *Asking my wife to find an old ratty blanket due to be thrown out that she won't mind being ruined. Arranging said blanket to cover the bottom edge of the cabinet opening to make crawling under the sink less horribly uncomfortable. *Crawling under the sink. Discovered that through a difficult and uncomfortable series of contortions, sucking in my gut and holding my breath, that I can actually manage to fit my entire torso under the sink, in a position where I can see the base of the faucet and get both my hands on it, with some room to work. Also with water and bits of dust and grout falling in my face as I tried to work. *Working through channel-lock pliers, vice-grips, and adjustable wrench in failed attempts to get that nut to move. *Noticing, while I was down there, the dozen T-nuts that hold the sink in place. Considering simply removing the sink before noticing the grouting which also holds the sink in place. *Driving to the hardware store with the idea of getting some kind of crescent wrench or basin wrench or something. Finding the one guy there who seemed to be knowledgeable about plumbing. He advised me to remove the sink, and then break or cut apart the old faucet. *Climbing back under the sink and unscrewing all dozen T-nuts. Verifying the sink will not budge as the grout is quite solid. *Using a chisel, hammer, and putty knife to break the grout seal and finally removing the sink. *Determining that even with a solid grip on the hex nut and the significant physical strength of my wife assisting, the nut would not budge. *The two of us driving over to a friend's hose to see if he had any appropriate tools for breaking free a nut that size. He did not. Hanging out a while, going to dinner and ice cream, and discussing strategies to free the stuck nut. *Returning home, realizing that it is now ten in the evening and the next steps in the process are quite noisy. Drenching nut in WD-40 to soak overnight, then going to bed. *The next morning, attempting to break nut free with channel-locks, chisels and hammering, without success. Deciding enough is enough, grabbing Dremel tool and cutting the damn thing off. Finally removing the old faucet. *Taking wife out to IHOP for breakfast because the kitchen is still a disaster area. *Cleaning off several decade's worth of rust and grime from around mounting holes on sink. Also chiseling away as much of the old grout as possible, wire-brushing any parts of the sink that looked corroded, and while I was at it cleaning the counter surface around and behind where the sink had been. *Installing the new faucet in the sink. (The easiest part of the whole process) *Placing the sink back into the countertop. Realizing that the existing feed lines are too short and have the wrong fasteners anyway. Driving back out to the hardware store to buy fancy new steel braided feed lines. *Removing sink, applying new grout to sink edge and placing it back in the countertop. Twisting and folding myself back under the sink and fastening all twelve T-nuts back down. Wiping off excess grout. *Hooking up feed lines. Turning water back on. Re-installing heavy and cumbersome disposal. Reattaching cabinet door. Testing faucet, verifying with relief that I guessed right on which pipe was hot and which was cold. *Putting away tools, returning flashlight and mirror to wife, sweeping up broken grout and other trash, taking trash out to bin, and otherwise restoring the kitchen to usable condition. Started the job noon on Saturday, and finished late Sunday afternoon. Exhausted, but accomplished and glad to have the job done. Harder than I expected, but I had set the entire weekend aside to do this if needed. | | Saturday, July 11th, 2009 | | 6:30 pm |
Results of the fossil hunting expedition
Five shark teeth (likely one porbeagle shark and four crow shark) Two vertebrae (one small bony fish and one shark or ray vertebrae) Two small and very fragile fossil bivalves (apparently Choristothyris) A large number of fossil squid pens (most are probably Belemnitella americana) A rock with a shell impression (likely Choristothyris again) A rock with a pebbled impression, possibly from something's skin. A piece of petrified wood. A roughly cylindrical rock with a suspiciously regular concentric hole which I think might be a piece of fossil bone. A few roughly conical objects with clearly defined surface layers - possibly parts of fossilized teeth? A few other unusually shaped rocks that might be bone fragments, or just funny-looking rocks. A few funny-looking rocks. | | Friday, June 26th, 2009 | | 2:16 pm |
Fossil hunting, and a strange revelation.
I have been invited on a fossil hunting hike a few weeks from now, a day trip to a local park to explore some of New Jersey's rich marine fossil deposits. The trip promises to be an entertaining afternoon division. The discussion about the trip with my wife beforehand may have been more revealing than anything I'll find on the trip. My wife will not be going on the trip. Lack of interest in paleontology and expectation of mosquitoes and other insects are her entirely understandable stated reasons, but more than that I think she simply does not share my desire for exploration and learning. Her comment on my desire to go on the expedition, as well as many other things I've wanted to do, is that I wouldn't want to if I'd explored and experienced more while I was in college. I didn't think about it much when she said it, but on it seems she and I have very different views on life. I don't believe that there is a point in life where you should stop exploring, experiencing, and learning. To me the point of life is to learn and experience all that you can during the short time you have to live, and to encourage and enrich the lives of others while you do so. To me reaching a point where I no longer want to learn or experience new things and am simply satisfied to sit back and be comfortable with stasis is essentially equivalent to being dead. I simply don't agree with the notion that once you reach a certain age you should lose interest in new experiences and adventures. This doesn't mean that I advise being childish and irresponsible with life, or that I don't appreciate the work my wife has put into planning for our retirement. But when my wife states that I only want to go on this trip because I didn't explore enough in college, it makes me think that she really doesn't understand me. Seeking new experiences and exploring the world isn't some phase I'm going to grow out of. It's who I am and how I choose to spend my life. | | Thursday, June 11th, 2009 | | 9:10 pm |
It lives.
I have tamed the bees of the ether and taught the funnel to do as I command. It livesStill, there are many tricks it must be taught, and much detailing and dressing to do. I may teach myself leatherworking soon. | | Thursday, May 28th, 2009 | | 10:48 am |
| | Monday, November 24th, 2008 | | 11:54 am |
A piece of death, a piece of power.
A week after Halloween, I attended a Samhain rit with a local grove. The theme of the rit was on dreams and death, and at the end everyone was given a reminder of the theme. In this case the reminder was a small uranium-glass marble, described by the hosts as "a piece of death". ( Read more... ) | | Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 | | 2:15 pm |
Recycled Meme
First five people to respond get a nifty hand-made thingie. It could be any kind of thingie. Feel free to post this in your own journal, or not. | | Wednesday, November 12th, 2008 | | 7:52 pm |
Robots....
After watching WALL-E for the dozenth or so time, my wife asks me, "You can't build EVE, can you?". Sorry. Even other than the artificial intelligence and death ray arm cannon, she floats on magical force fields. And the parts of her body aren't actually connected. Maybe if I had room-temperature superconductors to work with. "How about WALL-E?" Well, WALL-E is at least mechanically plausible. All his parts fit together physically, and you could conceivably build an unpowered, poseable WALL-E model matching the movie. He does have an awful lot of moving parts for a mobile trash compactor, but I guess when you've got the near-magic technology and massive resources of Buy-N-Large, and a culture of pointless over-consumption, you design trash compactors with dozens of degrees of freedom. The main problem with building WALL-E (other than the artificial intelligence and implausibly effective solar panels) is the complete lack of any space to put functional parts, motors and batteries and such. His inside is hollow - filled with his arms, head, and tracks when he's folded up, and used as a trash compactor when he's working. Even the wonderfully jointed arms and hands and clever tracks don't have any provision for motors or actuators or such. There are some functional WALL-E models out there as toys or promotional media, but they haven't a fraction of the function of the one in the movie. I could build MO. Not too many moving parts, lots of interior space for batteries and motors and such, and spherical wheel balance drive isn't hard to do with modern processors and solid-state accelerometers. I could probably even add a functional floor-cleaning mop function. But nobody cares about poor MO. | | Monday, November 10th, 2008 | | 9:03 am |
Chocolate and Samhain: My weekend
I had a busy, tiring, yet deeply enjoyable weekend. Saturday - got up at 6 AM, an hour earlier than I usually get up for work. Grabbed breakfast and coffee on the road, and headed over to aiskon and yduras's place. We took the early train into the city (got to ride on one of those new double-deckers!), then the subway to a station closer to Pier 94. We walked down to Pier 94, arrived before the show started, and then got into the already fairly long line. There was some confusion - there were two different events going on at the place, and both people with tickets and those who needed to buy them were put in a single line, split into two groups, and then made to stand around until the organizers figured out who needed to go where. There was grumbling and complaining. Eventually we made it to the proper line, and discovered that they were only taking cash and checks, not credit cards. Fortunately yduras's was able to cover for me until I could get to a suitable ATM. The chocolate show itself. Pretty damn cool, at least if you like chocolate. Chocolate bars, chocolate ganache, truffles, toffees, hot chocolate and chocolate teas. Chocolate-themed vacations, chocolate skin cream. Also bulk chocolate, chocolate processing machines, and molds for candy makers. There was even the chocolate fashion show - not terribly practical clothing apparently partly or wholly made from chocolate. I sampled, I gathered pamphlets and catalogs for later holiday gift selection. I pocketed wrapped samples, and purchased half a dozen different exotic chocolate bars, and some chocolate skin lotion for my wife. yduras's and I were tired out early, so we waited on comfy white cushions while aiskon shopped and chatted. By the time we were all ready to go, it was pouring outside. Rather than walk we took a taxi to Grand Central Station. New york traffic being what it was, it would have almost been faster to walk - but at least we were dry. We had lunch and visited the Grand Central marketplace, then took a subway back to the path station, then a train back to Rahway. After returning home and appeasing my wife with an offering of hot soup and exotic chocolates, it was time to head off to the GOG Samhain rit. I briefly panicked when on reviewing my emails I realized that I never actually got directions to the rit. I'd been there before and knew where it was, roughly, but I didn't have the address or directions. A call to coyotegrrrl cleared that up, and I was off. Samhain was satisfying. I'm still not sure just what exactly it is I'm really getting out of the rits. As an atheist and a skeptic, I can't actually believe in the literal truth of any of the spiritual or supernatural aspects of it. On the other hand, I can enjoy the process and the feeling of community, enjoy hanging out with strange and interesting people, and even appreciate the gods and beliefs in terms of archetypes and ideas. While a few years ago I would have scoffed at the idea that I'd ever be enjoying attending pagan rituals, I'm actually enjoying myself and glad I joined. | | Sunday, November 9th, 2008 | | 9:53 pm |
Wow.
"We are no longer a Christian nation ... we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, and a Buddhist nation, and a Hindu nation, and a nation of non-believers" Obama on secularismWow. A president who realizes that those who are not Christian are also a valued part of this country. One who acknowledges atheists as equal to the religious. How cool is that? I'm still trying to come to grips with our new president-elect. We seem to have somehow managed to elect someone who is both a decent human being and competent at the job, and who publicly acknowledges that our laws and our country aren't actually based on the Bible after all. (Oh, and he's also black.) I'm not even excited or overjoyed so much as baffled - part of my brain is simply rejecting this situation as being totally contrary to the political process I've come to expect. It's as if I got up in the morning to learn that PZ Meyers had been chosen as the next Pope, or that someone had discovered an easily reproducible and completely safe form of fusion power, or something equally wonderful yet utterly improbable. And after the last few decades of American politics, seeing a politician who doesn't immediately assume that all laws and morality are Christian in basis and that Atheists should even be considered actual people, let alone good citizens, is that amazing and unexpected. I'm used to politicians being universally corrupt and evil. (Living in NJ may have something to do with that). My best hopes for a president is to do as little as possible, as most decisive acts I've seen by presidents have only made things worse in the long run. So I'm still describing my opinion on Obama as cautiously optimistic, and resisting the urge to get excited and hopeful. Yet I have to admit this is the coolest election result I've seen in my whole life, and the best I've felt about the future of our country. I'm going to have to get used to this strange, alien feeling of actually liking the President. | | Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 | | 12:11 pm |
A new day
For the first time I can remember, I actually feel pretty good about the results of an election. Instead of feeling I've voted for the least unpleasant of two options, I'm actually somewhat optimistic about Obama. I also feel physically better, seem to have shaken off some of the malaise of the last few weeks. I started taking some of Laurie's magnesium pills this week, which might be helping there. | | Monday, October 27th, 2008 | | 11:08 am |
Upcoming weekend plans
Halloween: Nothing planned. Laurie bought candy, so I'll probably be needed for door-answering duty, even though we get few if any tick-or-treaters at the condo. Most likely we'll be left with a pile of candy that I really shouldn't eat. This weekend is the Sugarloaf Crafts Festival. We'll probably be doing that Saturday afternoon. Laurie has coupons. Our favorite toffee vendor should be there again. Sunday we may be going up to see her father, so I can fix his lamp. Next weekend we will be traveling into NY for the 11th Annual Chocolate Show. We're planning on taking the train in from the New Brunswick train station. Anyone else going want to coordinate on this? That evening I've been invited to the Grove of the Other Gods Samhain ritual, although I'm not sure I'll be back in time to attend it. | | Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008 | | 8:25 am |
Stupidest doomsday plot ever: A petty rant.
Normally I wouldn't complain about the plausibility of an episode of Sarah Jane Adventures. It's a cute kids show, and a spin-off of Doctor Who, which never bothered to even try to make scientific sense. But the doomsday plot of the villain of the second season opener The Last Sontaran was so deeply implausible in half a dozen different ways, it broke my suspension of disbelief beyond repair and took me completely out of the episode. ( Cut for spoilers ) | | Monday, October 20th, 2008 | | 6:56 pm |
Ascend a Tourist next, she said...
So I did. Truth is there's not so much difference in the classes. Tourists start out with crap equipment, but that only matters for the early game. Once you manage to find a few pieces of armor and a decent weapon you'll barely know you're playing one of the weaker classes. And the Tourist makes up for it your quest artifact: the Platinum Yendorian Express Card. Which, when invoked by a Tourist, can act as a blessed Charging spell, and never runs out. Having essentially unlimited uses of Wands of Death and Teleportation makes the endgame much easier. |
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